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THE
WORKS
OF THE
RIGHT REVEREND
WILLIAM WARBURTON, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER.
A NEW EDITION,
IN TWELVE VOLUMES.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
A DISCOURSE BY WAY OF GENERAL PREFACE-,
CONTAINING
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS, AND CHARACTER
OF THE AUTHOR;
BY RIC HA RD HURD, D.D.
LORD BISHOP OF WORCESTER
VOLUME THE TENTH.
Printed by Luke Hansard Sons, near Lincoln s-Lm Fields,
POR T. CADELL AND W. DAVIES, IN THE STRAND,
1811,
CONTENTS
OF
VOL. X.
SERMONS AND DISCOURSES ON VARIOUS
SUBJECTS AND OCCASIONS.
DEDICATION to Lady MANSFIELD - - p. xv.
SERMON XVIII.
Preached at Lincoln s-Inn Chapel, on the first public
Fast-day after the Calamity of Lisbon, 1755.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVENTS THE INSTRUMENTS
OF GOD S MORAL GOVERNMENT.
Luke xiii. i . 2, $c.
There were present, at that season, some that told
him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering, said unto them, Suppose ye
that these Galileans were sinners above all the
Galileans, because they suffered such things ?
I tell you, nay : but, except ye repent, ye shall all
,; likewise perish.
A 3 Or
vi CONTENTS OF TENTH VOLUME.
Or those eighteen upon whom the Tcwer of Siloam
fell, and slew them, think ye that they were
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ?
I tell you, nay : but, except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish. - - - - r - - - p. i.
SERMON XIX.
Preached before the Right Honourable the House
of Lords, January 30, 1760.
Isaiah xix. 13, 14.
The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes
of Noph are deceived , they have also seduced
Egypt The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit
in the midst thereof. - - - - - p. 17
SERMON XX.
Preached before the Incorporated Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
on Friday, Feb. 21, 1766.
Revelation of St. John, x. 11.
And he said unto me, Thou must propliesy again,
before many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and kings. --------- p. 39
POSTSCRIPT
P-59
CO XT EN TS OF TENTH VOLUME. Vll
SERMON XXL
ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY.
Prov. xxvi. 4, 5.
Answer not a fool according to his folly*, lest thou
also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to
.his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit, p. 61
*
SERMON XXII.
Preached before the King, in Lent, 1761.
Prov. xiv. 9.
pools make a mock at sin. - - - - - p. 79
SERMON XXIIL
Preached before the King, in Lent, 1 765.
i Cor. ix. 24.
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all,
but one rccciveih the prize ? So run that ye may
-obtain. ---------- p. o/i
SERMON XXI V.
SALVATION BY FAITH ALOXE.
Matt. xxii. 12.
And he said unto him, Friend, how earnest thou
in hither, not haying a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then the king said to his
servants. Bind him hand and foot, and take him
away. ~ - - - ~- p. 101
A 4
VlJl CONTENTS OF TENTH VOLUME,
SERMON XXV.
THE BENEFITS OF HERESY.
i Cor. xi. 19.
There must be also heresies amongst you, that they
which are approved may be made manifest
amongst you, w ---p. 113
SERMON XXVI.
Preached at Bristol, Nov. 29, 1759;
being the Day appointed for a Public Thanksgiving
for Victories obtained by the British Anns.
Ezekiel xxxvi. 22.
For thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for
your sakes, O House of Israel, but for my holy
names sake. , - - p. j 3 1
SERMON XXVIL
THE FALL OF SATAN.
Matt. iv. 24.
they brought unto him all sick people that
were taken with divers diseases and torments, and
those which were possessed with devils, and those
Which were lurMc; and he foaled them. p. 139
1
CONTENTS OF TENTH VOLUME.
DISC. XXVIII.
THE RISE OF ANTICHRIST.
2 Pet 1. l6 21.
JVe have not followed cunningly -devised fables,
when we made known unto you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eve-witnesses of his majesty.
for he received fronf God the Father honour and
glory, when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent Glory, This is my beloved Son, in
whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from Heaven we heard,
when we were with him in the Holy J\ fount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; where-
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a tight
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn,
and the day-star arise in your hearts :
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the serif*
ture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost, - - - - p. 1 65
DISC. XXIX.
ON THE RESURRECTION.
i Cor. xv. i 7.
If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ; ye arc.
yet in your sins. - - - - - - - p. 207
CONTENTS OF TENTH VOLUME,
TWO CHARITY SERMONS PUBLISHED BT
THE AUTHOR. - And,
THREE SERMONS ON DIFFERENT SUB
JECTS, first printed in 1788.
SERMON XXX.
Preached before the Governors of the Small-Pox
Hospital, 1 755 ; and published at their request.
Psalm xli. J, 2, 3.
Blessed Is he that consider eth the poor The Lord
will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing:
Thou wilt mike all his bed in his sickness, p. 239
SERMON XXXI.
Preached before the Governors of the London Hos
pital, i 767 ; and published at their request.
i Con xiii. 1 3.
reatest of these is charity. - - p. 251
SERMON XXXII.
Preached before the King, at Kensington,
October 27, 1754.
CHRIST S LEGACY OF PEACE TO HIS DISCIPLES.
Gospel of St. John, xiv. 27.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you :
not as the world g weth, give I unto you, p. 267
CONTENTS OF TENTH VOLUME. Xi
SERMON XXXIII.
Preached at Lincoln s-Inn, November 11, 1759.
INIQUITY THE CAUSE OF UNBELIEF.
Matt. xxiv. 1 2.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many
shall wax cold. -------p. 277
SERMON XXXIV.
Preached before the King, March 12, 1769.
TRUE CHRISTIANS THE SALT OF THE EARTH,
Matt v. 13.
Ye are the salt of the earth : But if the salt have,
lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?- It
is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast
out, and to be trodden underfoot. - - p. 289
A DISCOURSE
CONCERNING THE NATURE AND END OF THE
SACRAMENT OF THE LORD S SUPPER.
p. 301.
DIRECTIONS FOR THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY.
P- 355-
S .E R M O N S
AND
DISCOURSES
Off
VARIOUS SUBJECTS
AND
OCCASIONS,
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE LADY MANSFIELD,
MADAM,
You ought not to think strange of an address of
this kind from a Churchman, to the Grand-daughter
of that great Magistrate, who, while he held the
Seals for the King and Constitution, besides the
most exemplary attention to the proper business oi
his Office, was elegantly ambitious to give the last
polish to his Country, by a patronage of Learning
and Science. Into this equal passion, he resolved
all his private satisfactions. He took early into his
notice, and continued long in his protection, every
great Name in Letters and Religion, from CUD-
WORTH, who died in the reign of Charles the
Second, to PRIDEAUX, who lived under George the
First. It was the care and culture of an Age : and
in spite of a dissolute, abandoned Court, he made
the reign of Charles the Second to be, what it is
now likely to be always esteemed, OUR GOLDEN
AGE OF LITERATURE.
Tbi
XT DEDICATION.
The glory of bearing this relation to $Q faithful a
Guardian of the human Faculties in their non-age,
Providence, in reward of your virtues, hath doubled,
in a still nearer relation to One, who, in las high
Station, may with the same justice be esteemed the
great support of Civil Liberty; and is now engaged
in the like generous task for the very BEING of a
free Community, which the other so successfully
accomplished for that chief Ornament of it, LITE
RATURE and SCIENCE.
But the honours you derive from others, you pre
serve untarnished, by the splendor of those you have
acquired for yourself, in the course of a sober and
enlightened Piety ; which makes you an example to
the best of year Sex, as the patriotic Virtues of
your illustrious Consort will make him, lo the wisest
of his.
I have the honour to be,
MADAM,
Your LADYSHIP S
biiged and faithful Servant,
W. GLOUCESTER-
Dec. -24, i75e e .
SERMON XVIII.
Preached at Lincoln s-Inn Chapel t on thejirst public Fast-
day after the Calamity of Lisbon, 1755.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVENTS THE INSTRU
MENTS OF GOD S MORAL GOVERNMENT.
LUKE xiii. i, 2, &c.
THERE WERE PRESENT, AT THAT SEASON, SOME
THAT TOLD HIM OF THE GALILEANS, WHOSE
BLOOD PILATE HAD MINGLED WITH THEIR
SACRIFICES.
AND JESUS ANSWERING, SAID UNTO THEM, SUP
POSE YE THAT THESE GALILEANS WERE SIN
NERS ABOVE ALL THE GALILEANS, BECAUSE
THEY SUFFERED SUCH THINGS?
I TELL YOU, NAY : BUT, EXCEPT YE REPENT,
YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH.
OR THOSE EIGHTEEN UPON WHOM THE TOWER
OF SILOAM FELL, AND SLEW THEM, THINK YE
THAT THEY WERE SINNERS ABOVE ALL MEN
THAT DWELT IN JERUSALEM?
I TELL YOU, NAY: BUT, EXCEPT YE REPENT,
YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH.
HPHIS solemn reproof hath been commonly un-
*- derstood, and often quoted, as a condemna
tion of the opinion which ascribes " the general
VOL. X. B calamities
3 SERMON XVIII.
calamities effected by natural or civil causes, to
God s displeasure against sin ;" but surely with little
reason ; for that opinion is founded in the very
essence of Religion. What the text condemns is the
superstitious abuse of it, which uncharitably con
cludes, that " the sufferers in a general calamity are
greater sinners than other men."
That this was the case, I shall endeavour to shew
from the character of the speaker from the state
and circumstances of the hearers and from the very
words of the text itself.
i . He who goeth about to instruct others in the
knowledge of God, whether commissioned from Hea
ven or prompted by his own Charity, must needs
conceive that the moral Governor of the universe,
whose essential character it is, not to leave himself
without a witness, doth frequently employ the phy
sical and civil operations of our system, to support
and reform the moral. For such a Governor will
manifest his dominion in whatever world he is pleased
to station and exercise his accountable and proba
tionary creatures. In man s state and condition here,
natural and civil events are the proper instruments of
moral government. The teacher therefore of. Reli
gion, or of a moral Governor, will be naturally led to
inculcate this truth, that general calamities, though
events merely physical or civil, were (amongst other
ends) ordained by the Author of all nature to serve
for the scourge of moral disorders. For to suppose,
that physical or civil events, whether friendly or ad
verse, such as peace or war, fertility or dearth, health
or
SERMON XVIII. 3
or pestilence, are the proper instruments of reward
and punishment, and yet, that God doth not so em
ploy them, but will rather have recourse to what we
call miraculous operations, is an unwarranted and
indeed disrespectful notion of divine Wisdom ; as im
plying a kind of incapacity in the Almighty to fit the
natural to the moral system in such a manner as to
make the former a ready instrument for the regu
lation of the latter.
2. If, from the character of the speaker, we turn
to the state and condition of the hearers, we shall see
further reason to acquiesce in this conclusion. The
Jews, of all people upon earth, were best justified in
ascribing national calamities to the anger of offended
Heaven. They were of a Race long accustomed to
receive rewards and punishments through the instru
mentality of Nature ; and of a Religion which more
solemnly and exactly dispensed them ; for the most
part indeed, they were miraculously enforced ; yet
frequently too, administered in the common order
and course of Nature : so that such a people, whose
sacred books bore testimony in every page to the pu
nishment of crimes by pestilence, by famine, and the
sword, could never hesitate a moment to conclude,
that the calamities of the wicked Galileans were a
mark of God s displeasure against sin.
3. Lastly, the very words of the reproof [ except
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish], evidently im
ply, that amongst the many ends effected in the ad
ministration of Nature, this was one, to express God s
displeasure at human iniquities, in order to bring
men to REPENTANCE except ye REPENT, ye shall
B 2 all
4 SERMON XVIII.
ail likewise perish : that is, perish for the same cause
(jour sins), and by the same instrument (the Roman
power). In which it appears, that our blessed Lord
alluded to his own prediction, of the exterminating
vengeance impending over the whole Nation by the
arms of Vespasian.
But now, if the belief of a moral end, in these
general calamities, be a principle of Religion, proper
to be inculcated, to support the reverence due to
the moral Governor of the world; What was it, you
will ask, that could deserve so solemn and so severe
a reproof as our Lord s words are confessed to con
vey, on this occasion?
The answer is easy. It was that detestable su
perstition, which so often accompanies, and so fatally
infects, this generous principle of Religion ; the super
stition of ascribing public calamities, not to God s
displeasure against sin in general, but to his ven
geance on the persons of the unhappy sufferers;
who. for some fancy or other, this Superstition con
cludes to be greater sinners than other men.
This deserved all the severity of our Lord s cen
sure, as it implied gross ignorance in the nature of
the punishment; and betrayed a malignity of heart
which defeated the very end of the dispensation.
i. When Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed
by a fire from Heaven, and the idolatrous inha
bitants of Canaan extirpated by the command of
God, who furnished the instruments, which he em
ployed, with extraordinary powers for their destruc*
tion, the people of God were authorized to con-
S E R M O N XVIII. 5
elude, that those nations were sinners above all other
men ; and, consequently, that their punishment was
inflicted for their own immeasurable iniquities, as
well as for a warning and example to the rest of
mankind. But when God, by the admirable direc
tion of his general providence, so adjusts the cir
cumstances of the natural and moral systems, as to
make the events in the former to serve for the regu
lation of the latter, we must, in all reason, conceive
that such events are principally designed as alarms
and warnings to a careless inattentive world ; and
that their moral purpose was rather general example
than particular vengeance : for the attaining of which
end, it is sufficient for us to believe, that those who
suffer are sinners deserving punishment; not that
they are greater sinners than those who have es
caped ; possibly much less, as the preservation of
these was necessary for the carrying on some other
great and inscrutable design of Providence, in the
more general government of the moral world.
From all this, it appears, that though, indeed, we
be allowed, on the soberest principles of reason,
to consider such unhappy sufferers as the criminal
object of an offended Master; yet are we by no
means authorized on any principles, either of reason
or religion, to conclude that they are more criminal
than others,
2. This leads me to another reason of the severity
of our Lord s reproof ; the extreme uncharitableness
of this wicked superstition : For when once we begin
to estimate the degree of demerit by the frequency
B 3 or
6 SERMON XVIII.
or severity of the punishment, and the degree of
God s disfavour in proportion to the demerit, these
our distressed brethren will be no longer the object
of our pity, but of our scorn and aversion, as the
abandoned and the outcasts of Heaven. And when
superstition is once got into this train, so frequent
and general are the calamities of human life, that
Christian communities, from a brotherhood of love,
would soon degenerate into a desperatecrew of mis
creants, each rejoicing in the pains, and triumphing
in the miseries, of others.
3. A third reason of the severity of the reproof is,
That this superstition has a direct tendency to de
feat the very end of the chastisement. It is inflicted
to rouse, to wake, and to alarm a drowsy, inatten
tive world ; to beget, in those who have escaped,
humility and circumspection ; which, by a timely re
pentance, may avert the vengeance hovering round
them. But when men, by this wretched error, are
become so debauched as to fancy, that the unhappy,
on whom the evil falls, are sinners above all others,
they no longer consider the punishment as a warning
of some approaching mischief, but as a passed ven
geance, in which themselves are but remotely con
cerned, and have therefore no need to scrutinize their
own conduct, or disturb their quiet with self-appre-
hensioris. Thus the gracious purpose of Heaven being
defeated, and the hand of Mercy stretched out in vain,
an exterminating vengeance follows, and the dreadful
scene closes in a final destruction.
This was the case of these very men to whom the
*5 reproof
SERMON XVIII. 7
reproof of Jesus was addressed. They were far gone
in the superstition here condemned. They had long
considered general disasters in this absurd and im
pious light : and the suffering Galileans supported
them in the satisfaction they took in their own ways.
Exemplary warnings became lost upon them ; and
every fresh gleam of divine mercy only served to
ripen them into the speedy objects of his justice.
Things were now at a crisis ; and the last warning-
o o
voice from Heaven was given in the case of the Ga
lileans, suffering by that very scourge, the Roman
power, which stood ready at the door to drive and
sweep away their very name and nation. And now
the gracious Saviour of the world exerts this last
effort of his goodness towards them, in an explanation
of the nature of these punishments : He shews that
their principal purpose was for their admonition and
amendment, to awake them to repentance, and an
abhorrence of their ways ; which if neglected or de
layed, they too should perish, and in a more general
desolation.
But the day of grace was past : they were deaf
to Reason, to Nature, and to Religion. Their doom
was now pronounced ; and that instrument of God s
vengeance, the Imperial eagie> scenting the carcass*
from afar, came down with an exterminating wing
on this devoted Nation, already more than half de
stroyed by its intestine vices and corruptions.
The contemplation of this aw-ful judgment is at
this time so peculiarly useful to Us, that 1 almost
scruple to call you away from an attention to it,
* Matt. xxiv. 28.
B 4 though
8 SERMON XVIII.
though it be to set before you a view of the wonders
of Divine Providence, which this PRINCIPLE pre
sents and opens to us.
For what I proposed, after explaining my text,
was to shew, that the doctrine of it, which ascribes
THE GENERAL CALAMITIES, ARISING FROM NA
TURAL CAUSES, TO GOD S DISPLEASURE AGAINST
SIN, displays his glory in the fairest colours, and es
tablishes man s peace and happiness on the most
solid foundations.
And, secondly, that the present fashionable opi
nion, THAT NATURAL EVENTS PROCEED NOT FROM
A MORAL RULER, AND HAVE NO RELATION TO
MORAL GOVERNMENT, is the source of perpetual
disquiets and alarms to the abandoned and forlorn
inhabitants of the earth.
i . First then, we may observe, that the applica
tion of natural events to moral government, in the
common course of Providence (a disposition of things
to be distinguished from that whereby God, in the
constitution of universal nature, hath annexed hap
piness to virtue and to vice, distress and misery)
connects the character of Lord and Governor of the
intellectual world, with that of Creator and Preserver
of the material : A consideration of great use, as for
other religious purposes respecting God s glory, so
particularly for this, that it redresses the old Mani-
chean impiety, so derogatory to it, which makes an
evil Principle a sharer with him in the direction of the
Universe : For the constant undisturbed course of the
natural system, when compared with the disorders of
tht
SERMON XVIII. 9
the moral, first gave birth to that monstrous imagi
nation. Now this doctrine, of the PRE-ESTABLISHED
HARMONY, the direction of natural events to moral
government, obviates all irreligious suspicions ; and
not only satisfies us that there is but one Governor
of both systems, but that both systems are conducted
by one scheme of Providence.
To form the constitution of Nature in such a man
ner that, without controlling or suspending its laws,
it should continue through a long succession of ages
to produce its physical revolutions, as they best con
tribute to the preservation and order of its own sys
tem, just at those precise periods of time when their
effects, whether salutary or hurtful to man, may serve
as instruments for the government of the moral world;
e. g. that a foreign enemy, amidst our intestine broils,
should desolate all the flourishing .works of rural in
dustry ; that warring elements, in the stated order of
natural government, should depopulate and tear in
pieces a high-viced city, just in those very moments
when moral government required a warning and ex
ample to be held out to a careless world, is giving us
the noblest as well as most astonishing idea of God s
GOODNESS and JUSTICE.
Had the government of the moral system generally
required the control and alteration of natural laws
in that sensible effect wirch we call a miracle * 3 it
* We can see but two necessary occasions of this ex
traordinary dispensation; ^the one, to attest and support
the truth of a new Religion coming from God; the other,
to administer a Theocratic government. These are occa
sions worthy the divine Wisdom, and necessary in the
of things.
might
10 SERMON XVIII.
might have argued defect of wisdom. Had the govern
ment of the natural system required the operation of
such laws as would be always disturbing and deieat-
ing the sanctions of the moral, it might have argued
defect of power. But where the stated laws of Physics,
while they are promoting their own purpose, are, at
the same time, so contrived as to support, invigorate,
and enforce the sanctions of Religion, this, I say,
must needs give us the noblest, as well as most asto
nishing idea, of God s WISDOM and POWER.
Nor do the glories of this Dispensation afford less
consolation and comfort of security to the truly pious
man. For when it is understood, that the course of
nature was, by the laws imposed upon it from the
foundations of the world, so contrived as to co
operate with the laws of moral government, such
an one, on the appearance of any of these public
warnings to awake the nations from their lethargy
of vice, will never be terrified and distracted with
the vain apprehensions of an undistinguishing deso
lation, which is out of his power to avoid ; as being
well assured, from the nature of the judgment, that
a sincere purpose of amending the public manners
will he able to avert the approaching vengeance.
Nor let men so rationally instructed in the ways
of God suffer their well-placed confidence to be
shaken by this plausible sophistry, " That it is
utterly unphilqsophical to suppose that a present and
instantaneous change in our conduct can stop or
avert a natural event, established by a strong con
nected series of causes, which have kept operating
ever since the foundations of the world." We can
tell
SERMON XVIII. n
tell these pretending reasoners that our religious
confidence is not derived from so absurd a principle,
a principle erected on the narrow and unfaithful
ground of superstition. Our conclusions are drawn
from the most reasonable conceptions that man can
entertain of his Creator and Lord : Who, when he
made the world (in which all time was as an instant
before him), the free determinations of the human
Will, and the necessary effects of Laws physical,
were so fitted and accommodated to one another,
that a sincere repentance in the moral world should
be sure to avert an impending desolation in the
natural; not by any present alteration or suspension
of its established Laws, but by originally adjusting
all their operations to all the foreseen circumstances
of moral agency : So as to make Matter and Motion
(besides their other purposes) to serve for the regula
tion of the Understanding and Will. We should blush,
let me tell them, to be thought so uninstructed in the
nature of Prayer as to fancy it can work any temporary
change in the dispositions of the Deity, who is the
same yesterday, t o-day, and for ever : Yet we are not
ashamed to maintain, that God, in the chain of causes
and effects, which not only sustains each system, but
connects them all with one another, hath so wonder
fully contrived, that the temporary endeavours of
pious men shall procure good and avert evil, by
means of that PRE-ESTABLISHED HARMONY which
he hath willed to exist between moral actions and
natural events.
Thus we see, these two essential doctrines of Re
ligion, " God s JUDGMENTS in physical and civil
events,"
)2 SERMON XVIII.
events," and u the efficacy of the good man s
PRAYER," stand equally on one and the same
Principle, the belief of that original connexion be
tween the natural and moral World.
And here let me expostulate with those unhappy
men, who, from a confessed truth that these more
general desolations proceed entirely from natural
causes, have too confidently concluded that they
cannot be esteemed the warnings of a moral Go
vernor: and therefore, after having been most alarmed
by them while they were impending, have been
the first to ridicule their own imbecility; which had
led them, before they were aware, to the very brink
of repentance. An instance of this unmanly conduct
we saw amongst ourselves, when Heaven, in mercy,
not long since shook a guilty land. A repetition of
the stroke so alarmed and terrified its inhabitants,
that, in their fright, they seemed in haste to give a
specimen of their contrition and reformation. But
a third shock not coming at the expected interval
as that between the first and second, the rash project
of amending their manners vanished like a morning
mist; and they returned with equal speed to their
accustomed follies and dissipations. And to what
was all this owing but to a double blunder, unbe
coming a nation of Philosophers ? They had first
entertained a false idea of these Warnings, as if
they were phenomena out of nature, prodigious and
miraculous ; and when they came to understand
that they were only the effects of physical causes,
they then, by as shameful an ignorance, concluded
that they had nothing in them formidable or threa
tening
SERMON XVIII. 13
tening to an impenitent World. Whereas a mo
derate share of NATURAL THEOLOGY would have
taught them, that though these warnings hy disasters
were indeed the operations of the physical system,
yet they were providentially connected with the
moral, and pre-ordained to support its sanctions.
But where was the worrier that that which began in
Superstition should end in Irreligion ? for, by a
strange and monstrous kind of conception, extremes,
in the moral world, are always begetting their
opposite*.
2 But now, in the last place, let us take a view*
of the state and situation of those men, who suppose
that God does not uphold the World as the moral
Ruler of it, but as the physical Dispenser only ; and
it is certain, that those, who deny these natural dis
asters to be connected with the moral system, can
have no other idea of God s Government.
Such men, amidst all these dreadful warnings of
alarming Nature, will find their condition to be
most disconsolate and forlorn; their Principles hav
ing bereft them of those hopes which are ever
springing in the breast of the religious man ; who is
taught botli by Reason and Revelation to conclude,
that these etlccts of God s displeasure against sin
may be averted by sincere repentance. For though
the irreligious Naturalist acknowledges a Governor
of the universe, yet, as he supposes this Governor
to direct all things by his natural attributes ofpozcer
and wisdom, and not by his moral, of goodness and
justice, his acknowledgment of a God affords him
14 SERMON XVIII.
no more security against his fears than if there were
no God at all ; and that the universe lay entirely at
the mercy of Chance or Destiny ; because a mere
physical Director having no respect to the system
of Rationals, their preservation or destruction will
not be dependent on their behaviour, but on the
purposes of the physical system ; the support of
which (for aught this Philosopher can tell) may re
quire the destruction of Mankind, instead of their
preservation : and the very next shock of the dis
ordered Globe work those necessary changes in
Matter and Motion which may conclude in the ruin
and annihilation of its inhabitants.
Thus the hapless Unbeliever, while disordered
Nature is sounding in his ears, hath no where to
fly for refuge from his terrors : he sees himself in a
fatherless and abandoned World, exposed to all tha
rage of deaf and unrelenting Elements : He may
find, indeed, support and comfort in Religion ; but
it is below the dignity of his Philosophic character
to seek it along with the superstitious herd : it being
unworthy a man of Science to suppose, that the
system of Nature was created, and is conducted, to
serve any other Purposes than its own ; or that the
SUBLIME PRINCIPLE OF ATTRACTION" Was im-
pressed upon Matter to bring about any other
revolutions than of those vast bodies which are the
objects of his learned contemplation,
In a word, every rational reflexion serves to es
tablish the religious Principle of my text, as here
explained.
It is shewn to be agreeable to Reason and to Re
ligion, under the present constitution of things.
It
SERMON XVIIL 15
It is shewn to tend most to the glory of God, and
to the peace and happiness of Man.
It is shewn that that vain philosophy, which dis
cards tliis Principle from its creed, dishonours Pro
vidence, and most distresses Human life.
What have we then to do, but to regulate our
practice, and repose our confidence, on a Principle
so well established. A sincere, a speedy, and a per
fect reformation will not fail to avert the anger
of the Lord, now gone out against the sinful in
habitants of the Earth. I mean, a reformation of
the general manners, w here each of us, in our several
stations, must concur to heal the breaches made
in our excellent Constitution by our party-follies ;
to oppose the enormous progress of avarice and
corruption; to check the wasting rage for pleasure
and amusement ; to shake off those unmanly luxuries
crept into domestic life, some for the gratification
of our appetites, but more, for the display of our
vanities.
When we have done this, we have done our part
And then these terrors of the Lord will cease ; or
they will become harmless and even salutary to us.
We shall, if it be our lot to meet that great day
of his coming, foretold by our sacred Oracles, not
only stand, with the man of morals, serene and fear
less amidst the crash of falling worlds, but, with the
religious man, become partaker of the glories of the
Lamb, rise triumphant over them in those happier
regions of perpetual stability and peace.
SERMON XIX.
Preached before the Right Honourable the House of Lords,
January 30, 1760.
ISAIAH xix. 13 14.
THE PRINCES OF ZOAN ARE BECOME FOOLS, THE
PRINCES OF NOPH ARE DECEIVED; THEY HAVE
ALSO SEDUCED EGYPT THE LORD HATH MIN
GLED A PERVERSE SPIRIT IN THE MIDST
THEREOF.
Prophet is here foretelling the disgraces
-*- and calamities which God was then about to
bring upon a sinful People, at that time the most
renowned for the wisdom of their civil Policy.
The Counsel of the wise Counsellors of Pharaoh is
become brutish, saith the Prophet : for the JUDG
MENT was attended with all those circumstances of
savage brutality, which most disgrace Civil Wis
dom : / will set (says GOD) the Egyptians against
the Egyptians ; and they shall Jight every one
against his Brother, and every one against his
Neighbour ; City against City, and Kingdom against
Kingdom. How great a resemblance this denunci-
X, C ation
i8 SERMON XIX.
ation of divine vengeance bears to the history of
the grand Rebellion,, every man, who is not an utter
stranger to the most disgraceful epoch of our history,
will readily perceive ; when Brothers of the same
House, and Neighbours of the same City, hos-
tilely separated into opposed Camps ; when the In
habitants of adjoining Counties divided, in mutual
enmity, under their respective Leaders ; and when
the two Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland re
nounced the protection of their common Sovereign,
and insulted and invaded his imperial crown. For
when a breach is once made in a well-framed Con
stitution, perfected by the wisdom, and regulated on
the experience of ancient Policy, the confusion
which follows it is always more outrageous, and
frequently more incurable, than disorders arising
in the looser and less perfect Forms of Govern
ment.
The miseries foretold in this Prophecy are repre
sented as inflicted by the avenging hand of GOD.
Behold, the Lord rideth upon a swift cloud, and
shall come into Egypt The Lord shall smite Egypt.
The mercy which followed is equally represented as
the work of his all-gracious hand He shall SMITE
anduEAL it*.
And thus the total destruction of our Constitution,
and the sudden and surprising recovery of it, when
things were most desperate, have been ever consi
dered, by serious men, as a manifest indication of
the hand of GOD, which first in justice smites, and
then with equal mercy, heals and restores.
* Vex. 22.
Indeed,
SERMON XIX. 19
Indeed, all who believe the moral government of
GOD, how much soever they may differ concerning
his mode of administering it among Particulars, and
how obscure soever his ways may appear in the
tracts of private life, yet concur to acknowledge and
to revere his visible interposition in the revolutions
of States and Empires.
In the early years of this returning solemnity,
while men s thoughts and expressions were under
the influence of recent passions; the whole of the
celebration might not, perhaps, so well answer the
ends of a public humiliation : when Characters on
the one hand intemperately painted, and Compari
sons^ on the other, impiously invented, turned an
act of Worship into a day of Contention. But
these were the unruly workings of a storm just then
subsided. Time, which so generally corrupts other
religious Rites, hath given a sobriety and a purity
to the returning celebrations of This.
And as Providence is commonly seen, even in its
most uncommon Operations, to work by second
Causes, the sagacity and prudence of those who
have of late supplied this Place, have been more
usefully employed in investigating and collecting
these Causes : From whence, more salutary lessons
may be gathered, for the use of civil life, than are
to be met with in any History of public revolutions,
where mere human agency is supposed to have dene
most.
James the 1st received the crown of England,
with the seeming advantage, bnt indeed with the
real inconvenience of succeeding to a line of impe-
c 2 nous
so SERMON XIX.
rious Monarchs, who, by a concurrence of various
accidents, had been enabled to make bold incroach-
ments on the liberty of the Subject, and the old
genius of the Constitution. These incroachments
had been almost sanctified by .Ihe regal glories of
the last of that haughty race. But James, instead
of providing against the impending mischiefs of so
critical a situation, when a new interest then rising
called loudly to set the balance even, took advan
tage of the Crown s over- weight to advance those-
occasional acts of intemperate Prerogative into a re
gulated System of arbntary power.
# In these Mysteries of State he took early care to
initiate his Son : who received them when he came
to the succession, with much more good faith than
they were delivered to him by his Father ; and (as
on that account it happened) with more fatal conse
quences to himself. For, what was only Policy in
James, became Religion in the Martyr Charles :
and King-craft is made of much more ductile stuff
than Church-bigotry ; at least it knows when to
yield and Vhen to act inflexibly; whereas the Po
licy which is not cf this world, nor, I am afraid of
the other, is apt to do both, unskilfully and per
versely. Thus James favoured the Hierarchy, as it
was a buttress to the Crown, Charles revered it as
the Ordinance of Heaven : The Son therefore, to
preserve the Order itself, fatally consented to ex
clude the Bishops from their seat in Parliament :
but the Father would have avoided this error, and
stopped the ruin in its first movement, si-ice Bishops
out of Parliament, he knew, could be of little ser
vice
SERMON XIX. 21
vice to his Prerogative. And, on the same principle,
we may conclude, that, had he found them already
out of Parliament, he would never have risked his
Crown for their preservation. Yet this, the virtu
ous Son resolved to do ; and he stood the des
perate hazard with the greatest complaisancy of
Conscience.
If the civil rights of the People had for a long
time been ill understood, or little regarded, the
wonder was the less that the rights of Religion had
been so grossly violated. These Princes held that
all were to conform to the Religion of the State ;
and that, for every man to worship GOD in his
own way, the Father thought was a factious, and
the Son, an impious invasion of the Supremacy.
Least of all shall we think it strange that, amidst
these errors in Government, neither of these Princes
attended to that large accession of property and
power, which was silently, but rapidly, devolving
on the People. So that by the time Charles was
most intent to push forward his Father s despotic
System, the People were become rich by a long com
mercial peace : and therefore less disposed to bear,
and more able to repel, what they deemed to be
oppression.
Under these circumstances, for fourteen years
together, they modestly and constitutionally prose
cuted the Claim of their Rights, in the Courts of
Justice and in the Courts of Legislature. They
sought redress by Law, but the fountain of Justice,
by running through the Palace, was become cor
rupted. They sought redress in Parliament, which
c 3 was
22 SERMON XIX.
was often obtained ; but as often violated or evaded
as it was obtained ; till, at length, the very door
of redress was shut against them, and a long remis
sion of Parliament deprived them of the last sup
port of the miserable, the very hope : of being re
lieved. For the ill-advised Sovereign chose to
reign without Parliaments ; poor and needy, in the
style of a Cappadocian Monarch,
Mancipns locuples, egens <ris
rather than be the opulent Head of a free and a
free-giving People.
The Treasury having been long exhausted, and
thus kept unreplenished, all men foresaw that on
the least commotion, whether at home or abroad, a
Parliament would be forced upon the Court. And
the Country Party, as it was called, did not neg
lect to accelerate this remedy, by taking advan
tage of the indiscretions of a great Churchman,
to kindle and inflame the liturgic heats in Scot
land.
But as what was then called PURITANISM (which,
in the subsequent confusions, split into many Sects
of various denominations) was so intimately con
nected with this quarrel, and did so largely contri
bute to the confusions it produced, it may not be
improper just to recount its origine and progress;
the claims it made, and the treatment it received.
In the early times of Reformation, unhappy scru
ples arose amongst the Clergy concerning the Go
vernment of the national Church. But these cap*
tious men understood so little of religious rights,
that
SERMON XIX. 23
that they had no sooner formed a Party, than they
thought themselves obliged in conscience to over
throw the established Hierarchy ; and to erect what
they called, the DISCIPLINE, in its place. Their
first attack was by remonstrances to Parliament : and
when that failed, by entering into criminal cabals,
to extort, what, they found, would not be readily
given up to them. But this factious Spirit, meeting
with the able and vigorous administration of Eliza
beth, was timely suppressed ; and the very attempt
to disturb so popular a Government brought upon
them a general Odium. And here, in passing, it
may not be amiss to observe, that while these Eng
lish PURITANS, who embraced the abominable
opinion of Calvin concerning Predestination, were
struggling with the State for an Establishment, the
Dutch REMONSTRANTS, who were raised, at the
same time, by Providence to free the Church of
Christ from the impiety of this Doctrine, never con
tended for more than a Toleration.
Hitherto the fault lav entirely on their side; who,
in a seditious way, aimed at more than was their
due. But they paid dearly for their folly ; for, in
this unsuccessful struggle, they lost, as is commonly
the case in party- quarrels, what they had the best
pretence to demand. For when their Enthusiasm,
as a new Sect, was reasonably abated, and their
factious temper, as an old one, had been vigo
rously opposed ; they seemed well content to ac
cept what they had at first wantonly rejected. But,
they now met with an exasperated Government (too
ready to return their insults), wkich ; instead of
c 4 complying
24 SERMON XIX.
complying with this more sober request, enacted a
number of penal statutes, to compel their confor
mity to the established Worship.
When James succeeded to the Crown of England
?~> *
he came South with much prejudice against these
Disciplinarians ; from whose Brethren in the North
he had undergone the most scandalous indignities ;
so that he was sufficiently indisposed to remit or
soften the rigour of these penal Laws. His Son
detested the Puritans, as they were the declared
enemies of his Favourite Prelacy ; and therefore,
throughout the former p?rt of his reign, treated
them with such seventy, (the Laws having made
their er> : ! ^s their judges, or, at least, their judges
were become their enemies) that many of them aban
doned their native Country for new settlements in
America.
Men s civil and religious rights being thus equally
trampled on, it is natural to believe, that, when the
Country-interest first made head against the Court,
the Patriots and the Puritans would meet half-way,
to act in concert against oppressive Authority : Their
GRIEVANCES for violated rights, and, what is more,
their PRINCIPLES in favour of the doctrine of re
sistance, being precisely the same.
And now, Religion and Liberty become the
united cry, the fatal Scene began to open. The dis
turbances in Scotland forced the King back upon
Parliaments. The first he called was ready to re
store the Constitution, and preserve the rights of
the Crown, when he unskilfully dissolved it. The
24 next,
SERMON XIX. 1 5
next, into whose hands he fell, never remitted of
their remorseless vengeance till they had destroyed
the King, the Constitution, and Themselves.
It unfortunately happened, that the Sovereign s
frequent breach of faith had mat s the Patriots so
diffident of his Word, that they would find no ground
on which to begin a reformation, but that vvh reon,
if ever tciey became factious, they might erect a Ty
ranny of their own: I mean that fatal, unconstitu
tional Law, which irnpowered the Parliament to sit
till it should be pleased to dissolve itself.
When this point was secured, tiiey began indeed
as if they had no other intention than to reform those
gross enormities of Prerogative, which had well nigh
overturned our free Constitution, and rendered it
despotic. And in this generous labour the greatest
and wisest in those two august assemblies heartily
concurred : All they who afterwards became the tem
porary Guard and most shining Ornament of that
unhappy Monarch s military Court. And what was
ineffectual to the safety of their Master ; they
gained for themselves that lasting glory in there-
cords of History, which disinterested Virtue only
can procure.
The King had now made ample satisfaction for
all his former miscarriages : And our free State was
fully vindicated, in a regular and parliamentary way.
The two Houses had now obtained all the security
for the enjoyment of their recovered rights, which
the nature of the Constitution would afford ; and
were, therefore, in all reason, now to perform their
promises,
*6 SERMON XIX.
promises, of " making the King, as soon as he
should be pleased to give them this security, the
greatest and most glorious Monarch of his time"
But the King made his concessions with so ill a
grace, that they only served to remind the Public of
his former breaches of faith, and to revive their dif
fidence in the royal Word.
This supplied the Demagogues of the House with
a shew of necessity for somefurther security against
the King s return to his old mode of Government
But all, which, by the nature of the Constitution,
could be given, had been given already. Yet this
would not induce these men to desist : they held it
pardonable if they themselves made one breach in
the Constitution, when it was to prevent the Crown
from ever making more ; and therefore, with great
confidence in their Cause, they demanded the
MILITIA.
When Charles, who, till now, kept granting all
they required, had got them at this advantage, the
making breaches in the Constitution (the very thing
which gave them all their credit against him), he
suddenly stopt short. He found himself in a con
dition to divide the People with them ; and, what
was more to his reputation, to draw the wiser and
worthier part of the Parliament along with him.
An appeal was now made to the Sword, and a war
immediately ensued.
At this sad period, when Patriotism had dege
nerated into Faction, the King for once acted ably,
and seized the lucky opportunity of putting his Par
liament in the wrong.
And
SERMON XIX. 27
And in the wrong they surely were. Yet, in the
majority of those who demanded this unconstitutional
security, there was not any formed design against
the Monarchy, it was rather an ill-timed provision
and overcare for their own safety *.
/
I suppose it to be a truth unquestioned in Politics,
" That the UTMOST SECURITY which a Consti
tution can give for the observance of a public regu
lation, is a GOOD SECURITY." The indemnity of
Particulars, the private safety of Those who extorted
these royal concessions, is another matter. The
Patriots plainly understood they had mortally of
fended a vindictive King ; for though the Martyr
could forgive, yet the Monarch was of a different
temper ; and that, sooner or later, they or their fa
milies might fall a sacrifice to his resentments : For
well they knew, that, although the People would
be still likely enough to interpose in behalf of Pa-
triotism against the violation of Parliamentary Esta
blishments ; yet there were small hopes that they
would ever be brought to move in Court quarrels,
on the private complaints of the Patriots.
This was Policy, indeed ; but a Policy disclaimed
by Public Virtue. For when the question is re
duced to this, Whose interest is to take place ; that
of the Public, or of Particulars ? the true Patriot
will not hesitate in his choice. But the False did
here, what is the essential of his Policy to do, he
* One who perhaps had this formed design speaks the
very sense of those who had it not, in these words if a
war of this nature must be determined by treaty, &c,
Ludlow, fol. eel, p, 52 at the top.
covered
2 8 SERMON XIX.
covered his own interest under that of the Public :
and being well persuaded that himself was in danger,
he endeavoured to persuade others, that the Con
stitution was so likewise. And he was but too suc
cessful in the imposition.
This may seem strange ; for nothing is more pla
cable than a provoked People, when they have
brought their Governors to reason. But we must
remember, the Patriots had a powerful Ally in this
quarrel ; who having yet received no satisfaction at
all, were well disposed, and at the same time well
able, by the nature of their Profession, to keep up
the rage and apprehensions of the People. This
neglect of their so trusty Coadjutors may, at first
sight, appear still more strange ; That they, who had
united in a common quarrel ; whose several rights
had been alike invaded ; who had laboured under
equal saflbrings; and who, from their first con
federacy, had served the CAUSE with equal zeal and
success ; that of these confederated Parties, the One
should have gained every thing which Patriots could
desire, and the Other only (which, but to the ma
lice of a Puritan, could be no satisfaction at all) the
exclusion of the Bishops from their seat in Parlia
ment. For what less could be expected, when the
Patriots had procured the abolition of illegal and
tyrannic Courts ; a Declaration of the People s
Rights ; and a triennial Parliament ; than that the
Puritans should recover, what the law of nature
itself had given them, a full Toleration for their
Discipline and mode of worship ? But so little was
this part of natural law understood, that it is very
probable,
SERMON XIX. 29
probable, had a Toleration been demanded by the
Patriots, the King and his Divines would have
broken with the Parliament on that Point, just as
they afterwards did, on the abolition of Episcopacy.
It is very certain, that had the King offered a To
leration to the Puritans, they would have rejected
it on the very same principle : For it was an axiom
in the Theology of both, THAT TO CONNIVE AT
ERROR WAS TO PARTAKE IN THE GUILT OF IT.
Hence the King was naturally inclined to perse
cute Sectaries ; and the Puritans to overturn Esta
blishments. Now, things being in this train, when
the Patriots, anxious for themselves, as before for
the Public, insisted on further security for the royal
concessions, they found an easy way of bringing
the Puritans (who as yet had gained nothing) into
their measures ; which was, by making one of their
unconstitutional securities to be, the ABOLITION
of EPISCOPACY.
But the sword was already drawn ; and not in
behalf of the CONSTITUTION on either side; for
the King, who now professed to defend it, still
mistook his own Administration for it ; and the Par
liament, which levied war on a point unconstitu
tional, was soon governed by m?n who professed
to overthrow it; so that the sword \vas not likely to
be sheathed, till Tyranny on the one hand, or
Anarchy on the other, had introduced a new species
of slaughter in place of the old ; and Judicial
murders had succeeded to the Military.
It is true, that in the course of this mutual car
nage, each Party, in its turn, offered and accepted
proposals
30 SERMON XIX.
proposals for peace. But this was not from any real
desire or hope of obtaining it, but to cajole the Peo
ple to whom that side would have been extreme
odious, which had appeared averse to laying down
their arms. However, partly through the experienced
calamities of war, and partly from men s better
knowledge of one another, by means of those reci
procal messages for peace, the better sort of Cour
tiers grew more averse to despotic rule, and the ho-
nester Patriots more disgusted with popular devices ;
\vhich might have produced some good effect, had
not these dawnings of returning sense and sobriety
been suddenly overcast by the unexpected appear
ance of a New Party, rising out of the ferment of
the SELF-DENYING ORDINANCE; A swarm of
armed Enthusiasts, who out-witted the Patriots,
out-prayed the Puritans, and out-fought the Ca
valiers ; and, with the most rapid progress, over
turned and desolated all before them, in their ex
treme haste to set up the fifth monarchy of King
Jesus.
Thus fell the unhappy King in a popular storm ;
raised, indeed, by himself; but inflamed by his
enemies, even after he had corrected the disorder
of those unruly Elements which gave it birth, and
were now ready, as he saw too late, to bear down
all things in their course.
The King had many Virtues, but all, of so un
sociable a complexion as to do him neither service
nor credit.
His Religion, in which he was sincerely zealous,
was over-run with Scruples : and the simplicity, if
not
SERMON XIX. 31
not the Purity, of his Morals, was debased by
Casuistry.
His natural affections (a rare virtue in that hi^h
station) were so excessive as to render him a slave
to all his Kin : and his social, so moderate as only
to enable him to lament, not to preserve his friends
and servants.
His Knowledge was extensive, though not exact :
and his Courage clear, though not keen : yet his
Modesty far surpassing his magnanimity, his Know
ledge only made him obnoxious to the doubts of his
more ignorant Ministers : and his Courage, to the
irresolution of his less adventurous Generals.
In a word, his Princely qualities were neither
great enough nor bad enough to succeed in that
mosf difficult of all attempts, the enslaving a free
and jealous People.
The full conviction of this truth made LAUD
(who was not so despicable a Politician as we com
monly suppose him) upon seeing his Coadjutor,
STRAFFORD, led out to slaughter, lament his fate in
these emphatic and indignant words, He served a
Prince who knew not how to be, nor to be made
Great*.
The execrable Parricide which followed, cannot,
indeed, in strictness of speech, be charged upon
the Patriots and Puritans ; who, when it was too
late, did all in their power to prevent it : However,
without changing the nature of things, they cannot
be totally acquitted of that horrid impiety ; since
their rejecting, from selfish and perverse motives,
* History of his owa Life and Troubles, p, 178.
the
32 SERMON XIX.
the full reparation the King had made to the Public;
because he would not agree to an unconstitutional
security for THEMSELVES, was the unavoidable oc
casion of all the mischiefs that ensued. For though
no man shall be made to answer for the evils which,
through human perversity, arise from the faithful
discharge of his duty : yet no casuistry will acquit
him, even of the undesigned mischiefs which spring
naturally from his unjust pursuits*.
These confusions kept increasing, under different
Forms, each more ridiculous or more horrid than
the other, till this miserable Nation, now become
the scorn and opprobrium of the whole Earth, at
length grew tired, rather than ashamed, of its re
peated follies. In this temper they hastily recalled
the Heir of the Monarchy : And as the cause of all
their miseries had been the insisting on unreason
able conditions from the Crown, they did like men
driven out of one extreme, who never take breath
till they have plunged themselves into another, they
* Col. Axtel, one of the Regicides, said at the Gal-
lows,-" I must truly tell you that before these late wars,
" it pleased the Lord to call me by his grace, through the
work of the MINISTRY ; and afterwards keeping a day
of humiliation in fasting and prayer with MR. SAMUEL
ASH, MR. LOVE, MR. WOODCOCK, and other Mi-
NISTERS in Laurence Lane, they did so clearly state
the cause of the Parliament, that I was fully convinced in
" my own conscience of the justness of the war, and there-
" upon engaged in the Parliament service, which (as I
"did and do" believe) was the CAUSE OF THE LORD ;
I ventured my life freely for it, and now DIE FOR IT."
State Tryals, vol. II. 3^ ed. p. 4*5*
strove
SERMON XIX. 33
strove to atone for their unjust demands upon rhe
virtuous Father by the most lavish concessions to
his flagitious Son; who succeeded to the Inheritance
with all those advantages of an undefined Preroga
tive, which an ambitious Prince could wish for the
foundation of an arbitrary System. A sad presage
to the Friends of Liberty, tiiat their generous la
bours were not yet at an end ! Indeed, within less
than half a century, the old family-projects, taken up
again by the two last princes of this line, revived the
public quarrel. But it was conducted under hap
pier Auspices, not by the assistance of SECTARIES,
but by the NATIONAL CHURCH : and concluded
in the final establishment of a free Constitution.
And now, to reflect a little on this melancholy
Story. Never did Piety and Politics, in their friendly
association for the public service, project any thing
more useful to Church and State, than the institu
tion of this annual Solemnity ; which serves to keep
awake an awful sense of Providence, to create an ab
horrence of licentiousness, and to cherish a generous
but sober affection for Liberty.
Nor was there ever any period in the English Story
so fruitful of important Lessons for the use of civil
Life as that which, with so much shame, we now
commemorate ; and which, but for this use, the wis
dom of Government would, I conceive, have, long
ago, buried in oblivion.
Of the various instructions, which both PATRIOTS
and MINISTER? may gather from these crimes and
Vor. X, D follies
34 S E R M O N XIX,
follies of our Forefathers, I shall beg leave
just to mention two or three of the most im
portant.
I. The PATRIOT may learn, from the immediate
cause of the War, that when, at any time, his brave
and successful struggles for his Country have re
stored again the disordered balance of power in a
free Community, he may learn, I say, to be con
tent with that Security for the enjoyment of his
labours which the nature of the Constitution affords ;
and not think of demanding such branches of the
Prerogative in hostage, which, if given, would destroy
that very balance, for the preservation of which, he
pretends to require them. On this rock the Patriots-
of that time ran ; which cast them, stript of their
popularity, on the unfaithful and abandoned ground
of their Adversaries : for what material difference
is there between acting UNCONSTITUTIONALLY for
the sake of monarchic power, and acting thus for
the sake of popular ? And whenever the Patrons of
liberty shall give this advantage to the Enemies of
it, as much of that popularity which the first lose,
the other will gain ; and so, the contest becoming
more equal, Force alone must decide : which can
not but end in the ruin of the Constitution, after
it is become a principle with both, to alter and
unsettle it.
II. The PATRIOT may learn from the SELF-
DENYING ORDINANCE, to beware of all innovations
eot strictly constitutional, how right soever they
may appear to the friends of Justice, or equal to
the
SERMON XIX. 35
the friends of Liberty. And could any thing be
more specious than that fair distribution of power
and profit, in what was called the NEW MODEL ?
The members of the two Houses had ingrossed to
themselves all the posts and s offices in the Military.
This raised suspicions amongst their people, that
men who got so greatly by the war would never be
Very forward to pat an end to it. Hereupon the
Parliament, in a fit of affected generosity, passed an
Ordinance, which separated the interests of the two
bodies, by not permitting a Member of either House
to receive a Commission in the Army. But what
was the effect of this separation ? A deluge of in
dependent Republicans broke at once into that
Camp, which was formed, or pretended to be formed,
for the defence of King and Parliament. Such was
the sad issue of an UNCONSTITUTIONAL INDE
PENDENCE arising from the new model ! And all
this was, to avoid the imaginary danger of a depen
dence strictly constitutional : that is, a dependence
of the parts on one another ; a dependence as ne
cessary for the regular motions of the civil machine
of free Government, as any the like subordinate
combinations in physical or artificial bodies.
I. Again, MINISTERS OF STATE may learn, from
the faults of Charles s administration, not to dispense
with the royal Word for the sake of some present
convenience ; which (besides the public mischiefs
that attend the violation of a thing so sacred) is in
deed the cancelling THEIR OWN best security. When
the King s ablest servant had, in the great wants of
D a the
3& SERMON XIX.
the Treasury, encouraged his Master to break his
faith, so often pledged to his Parliament, never more
to exert any of those branches of baleful Preroga
tive, which they had so often fulminated ; he little
suspected that he was opening the way to his own
ruin, by habituating his royal Master to think slightly
of his promises, ia the number of \vhich was pro
tection to himself. And when he understood the
whole severity of his fate, which this policy had
brought upon him, it was with no good grace that
he exclaimed, Put not your trust in Princes, far
there is no FAITH in them.
II Another lesson MINISTERS OF STATE may
learn from the transactions of those times, of no less
importance to their Master s interest, and their own
honour, which is, never in their Sovereign s distresses
to throw their own miscarriages upon Him, and to
turn all his graces upon themselves. A faithful
servant to his Prince (arid such a one the two
Charles s had) will procure friends for his Master ;
and provide for himself only through his Master s
favour : sueh a Servant will give honest Counsels ;
yet if others be followed, he will excuse, with all his
wit and authority, the share his Master had in pro
moting them. But it was the hard fate of the
Martyr Charles to be commonly served by Minis
ters so ungenerous, that they were the first to decry
unsuccessful Counsels though given by themselves,
and to throw them upon the obstinacy, the bigotry,
and the uxorious folly of the Sovereign. A baseness of
conduct which contributed as much to make the King
odious
SERMON XIX. 37
odious to the Public, as all the intrigues of the Long
Parliament. It is no wonder that these unfaithful
Servants took the advantage of his misfortunes to
press him for dignities and places of trust and power,
at a time when such things afforded little benefit to
themselves, yet were of infinite disservice to their
Master. For these ill-timed honours exasperated
the personal enmities of the Leaders in Parliament
against these Ministers, and indisposed them to any
terms of accommodation with the King : For they
had reasonably laid their account to share with the
Courtiers, in the Sovereign s good graces, whenever
\i Peace should be brought about : but now they
^vere made desperate, by finding that the King had
nothing left to give.
In the last place, I would observe, that this strug
gle between King and Parliament, before each side
dew to Arms, will serve to confirm a general truth
of much importance to all Parties, That, in civil
contentions, the OPPOSITION (to use a modern
term) is much apter to degenerate into faction, than
a MINISTRY to run into despotic measures. For
the very attempt to decry an Administration, will,
by degrees, render it sage ; but the application of ,
ministerial power against an Opposition, makes Oppo
sition popular at once ; and popularity presently
runs into licence. Thus, in fact, it happened here.
Before either side had taken the field, the Kind s
Administration was grown public-spirited, and the
Parliament was become a Faction.
To conclude all, Let no lover of his Country be too
ready to take scandal at the contentions to which
JD 3 free
3 8 SERMON XIX.
free States are so obnoxious. Civil commotions
have the same use, in the moral world, that stormy
and tempestuous seasons have in the physical. In
the stagnation of a continued calm, the best sys
tem sickens and decays ; but these periodic agita
tions stifle corruption in the seed, give new vigour
to the languid Constitution, and enable the vital
Principles of it to perform their destined operations.
It is true, indeed, when a storm is let loose upon
either System, it ravages and destroys what it was
meant to support and actuate. The System of Na-
ture has the Providence of God to curb the blind
violence of stubborn matter, which else, in the im
petuosity of its course, would soon reduce itself to
its former Chaos. The Political System has nothing
but the Providence of Government to sustain it
against its own fury, from falling into Anarchy,
But the Providence of Government is weak and
bounded; and needeth all the assistance of good
subjects to strengthen its hands, and enforce obedi
ence to its insulted Authority. It was the rejection
of this salutary duty in some, and the careless dis
charge of it in others, which, at the fatal period we
tiow commemorate, was the last cause of all the
desolation that ensued.
SERMON XX,
Preached before the Incorporated Society for the propa
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts ; on Friday ,
February 2j ; 1766.
REVELATION of St. JOHN, chap, x. ver. 11.
AND HE SAID UNTO ME, TKOU MUST PROPHESY
AGAIN, BEFORE MANY PEOPLES, AND NA
TIONS, AND TONGUES, AND KINGS.
Q, O and teach all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost, was the great Commission intrusted by
our Divine Master to his Disciples. And we know
how faithfully they discharged their trust ; these
latter ages of extended Commerce having disco
vered the most evident marks and traces of their
footsteps, in every Region, how remote soever, of
the then known World.
But there was a NEW WORLD to be disclosed,
another Hemisphere to be explored ; though re
served for those daring Adventurers who in these
later times have pierced through the trackless
waste of the great Atlantic Ocean.
D 4 And
40 SERMON XX.
And for this Orphaned World the Holy Spirit
made the like charitable provision. Where the fu
ture fortunes of the Church, from its humble Cradle
to its inthronization in glory, are foretold to St.
John, in a regwlar series of Prophetic visions, enig
matically represented, the Apostle sees a mighty
angel descend from Heaven ; a rainbow surrounding
his head-, his face like the Sun, and his feet as pil
lars of fire *. In this so graphical a description of
the Son of God, clothed in all the pomp and majesty
of his Father, the attitude is most observable ; His
RIGHT FOOT WAS ON THE SEA, and hlS Itjt OH the
Earth -J-: An altitude expressive of his ready Pro
vidence addressed, in the fulness of time, to unveil
this NEW WORLD so long concealed in the bosom of
the Deep ; and pointing out to his Church the reli
gious use that was to be made of this discovery. For
the angel having sworn (which denotes the revelation
to be a matter of high importance) and intimated
(by the words, there shall be time no longer) that the
consideration of time is not to be taken in J, the
Subject being of a distant period ; he addresses him
self to St. John, who here represents the Church, in
the words of my text Thou must prophesy AGAi>7
before many peoples, and nations, and tongues,
and Kixgs. As much as to say, " The Church
hath been faithful to her great Trust, in all things
\vhi jh have been hitherto in her power to discharge.
But a time will come, when this mighty labour, so
* Rev. chap x. ver. i. t Ver. 2.
on o vjj craw ETI. ver. 6.
success-
SERMON XX. 41
successfully undergone, in the conversion of the
Old World, is to be repeated in the New. For the
Church mustPiiopHESY AGAIN, or preach the Gos-
for the second time to many new-discovered People
and Nations." To prophesy, signifying here what it
does in many other places of the New Testament; to
preach the glad tidings of the Gospel.
Hence it appears, that to preach the Gospel to
the new World when discovered, is not a mere
act of simple Charity, but a work of indispensable
duty.
The providential Discovery was at length made ;
and though, in itself, replete with all the seeds of tem
poral and spiritual Blessings, yet was it the im
mediate occasion of the most infernal mischiefs.
For as in the old World the Devil stept in to inter
cept, the first fruits of Creation due to the all-
bounteous Author, so was it, in the new : While,
under the mask of Religion, if ever Popery might
be said to wear that mask, the Evil One excited his
Agents to desolate this late-discovered Continent,
by the butchery and sacrifice of millions ; and all,
for having more gold than they knew bow to use,
and more land than they knew how to cultivate.
But while these Dogs of Hell were crying havock,
and the Inhabitants of the new World on the brink
of extirpation, God raised up his chosen Instruments
in the old to restore Christianity to its health and
purity, then labouring in its last pangs under popish
tyranny and superstition. For the Gospel, long se
questered and shut up, was of necessity to be known
again before it could be preached AGAIN. The
REFQU-
42 SERMON XX.
REFORMATION OF RELIGION once more opened
this living Source. And then it was that the Sense
of my Text became apparent ; and that the Church
first addressed itself to this undertaking.
Nor was this the only benefit. The Church of
Rome itself, in order to support its shaken usurpa
tion, was obliged in this, as in other palliations of
its abuses, to vie with us in the discharge of this
second Mission, in which our venerable Corporation
has borne so large a Share.
I am but little acquainted with the history of
its pious Establishment ; but I reasonably suppose
it to have been founded in obedience to this SECOND
CALL: and, consequently, that the peculiar objects
of its exalted Charity were the barbarous Ameri
cans, so long kept hid in the Shadow of Death.
I, Our Colonies, indeed, opened the Door to this
spiritual Enterprize ; and were, in reason, to be paid
for their pains with some portion of the heavenly
Manna ; not so much for relief of their own wants,
as for the wants of their Posterity. Our Colonies
were formed and first peopled by religious and con->
scientious men ; who, made uneasy at home by
their intolerant Brethren, left the Old World, to em
joy, in peace, that first and chief prerogative of Man,
the free worship of God according to his own Con
science : At one time PURITANS driven over by the
Episcopal Church; at another, CHURCHMEN forced
thither by the Presbyterian Faction ; just as the re
volutions of State threw the civil power into one or
the other hand. For it must be remembered (though
to
SERMON XX. 43
to the opprobrium of humanity) that, of all the errors
of that Antichristian Church from which the GOS
PELLERS were, with derision, expelled, this most
abominable of all, PERSECUTION FOR OPINIONS,
stuck the fastest; and after having tarnished the
splendor of almost every Protestant Community in
its turn, was the latest, and with most difficulty,
shaken off.
Now, amongst the general JVants of new Colo
nies, composed of such kind of -Men, RELIGION is
rarely one. Of this our Colonists carried over an
ample Cargo ; sufficient for themselves and their
Posterity : and might therefore have been safely left
to live upon their own Stock.
So that had this been all, our important Mission
had not stopped at the Door, but only taken ad
vantage of its opening, to address ourselves directly
to the Gentiles.
But though the zeal of the first Colonists (re
kindled by this violent remove to the other Hemi
sphere) kept Religion alive and active, yet their Po
verty disabled them from supplying fuel to the vital
flame; I mean, provision for A PREACHING MINIS
TRY. Insomuch, that, without the kindly assistance
of their Mother-Country, this new Christian Com
monwealth had been, as the Roman historian ex
presses it of the imperial City in its Cradle, Res
unius JEtatis. Against this danger, a timely aid was
to be provided. And the Founders of our Society
not being Fanatics, would not intrust the care to
Fanatics : a People always ready, yet never fitted
for orje of these spiritual Enterprizes ; indeed, so for
ward
44 SERMON XX.
forward as to go out upon a second call, naked and
pennyless like those holy men, who, with the large
viaticum of Miracles, went out upon the first. It
was thought fit therefore to assign a decent mainte
nance for these late labourers in the Lord s Vine
yard ; who, having stood all the day idle, were called,
at the last hour, to their work. To this the Charter
of Incorporation alludes ; where, speaking of the
purpose of the Society to appoint Missionaries to
the Colonies, it adds which, by reason of their po
verty r , are destitute and unprovided of a MAIXTE-
XAXCEybr Ministers, and the public worship of
Gcd.
This purpose hath been hitherto soberly pursued,:
our Missionaries to America having carefully avoid
ed the Conduct of those of Rome, into the Levant ;
whose principal design hath hitherto been to reduce
the distressed Churches of Greece and Asia to a
submission to the Papal Tyranny.
Notwithstanding this sage and decent conduct,
certain of the Colonies, where the Established
Church is Presbyterian, and still in its antient
spirit of PURITY, have taken offence at our Mis
sion exercised in their quarters, though only for
the service of the dispersed Members of the Epis
copal Church, residing amongst them.
Such a behaviour in a People, where wealth and
Civil Faction have, as usual, inflamed religious zeal,
is enough to remind us of that crisis, when the Dis
ciples of Jesus are directed to shake off the dust of
their feet for a testimony against them.
Nor would such a Secession lead us from the
proper
S E R M O N XX. 45
proper business of the SOCIETY. For though a
Mission to the Colonies was first in the execution,
yet, as appears from what hath been said, it was
only secondary in the original Scheme.
Here, then, we might well leave these contentious
People to themselves, did not a miserable circum
stance still call for our rejected Chanty : I mean,
the spreading GENTILISM in the Colonies them
selves. Not a brutal ignorance of God, as amongst
the savage Natives; but a blasphemous contempt
of his holy dispensations, amongst our Philosophic
Colonists. The Origine of which folly was, how
ever, no more than this
The rich product of the Plantations soon sup
plied the Colonists with all the conveniencics of life.
And men are no sooner at their ease, than they arc
ready addressed to pleasure. So that the second
Venture of our Colonists was for the hwuries of
social life : amongst which, the Commodity called
FREE-THINKING was carefully consigned to them,
as that which would give a relish and seasoning to
all the rest. For in this close union of Sense and
Reason in our Nature, the Man is at unrest, tii!
each part be properly accommodated. While the
body is content with a temperate enjoyment of its
appropriated Good, the mind finds its pleasure in
the pursuit of Knowledge, and in the practice of
Virtue. But when the body plunges into the lux
ury of Sense, the mind will extravagate through ail
the regions of a viciated Imagination. And these
corporeal and intellectual Vices supporting one
another,
4 6 SERMON XX.
another, ttie ravages they make of Humanity arei
not to be controlled.
Thus it came to pass, that the very People, whose
Fathers were driven for conscience-sake into the waste
and howling Wilderness, is now as ready to laugh at
that BIBLE, the most precious relick of their ruined
Fortunes, as at their Ruffs and Collar-bands.
Against this outrageous Folly (the sure prognostic
of a falling State) the dearest Charity requires us
to oppose all our spiritual endeavours, before we go
on upon the great Duty to which we are summoned
in my text.
II. This brings me to that point, which I next
proposed to consider, Our Mission to the Gentiles.
And here, in entering on the subject, it may not be
unuscful to observe the advantages which Popery
hath over the Reformed, in training up their La
bourers to this Harvest. For we should be unjust
to ROME not to acknowledge its zeal to be equal
to that of other Churches, in displaying the Chris
tian Banner throughout the habitable world.
.To see their advantages in a true light, we should
consider what are the proper qualifications of one
of these Soldiers of Christ What he is disposed
to do, and what he is ready to suffer, in this religious
warfare, amongst Heathens, whether civilized or
barbarous He must have an ardent zeal and un
wearied diligence ; Appetites subdued to all the dis^
tresses of want, and a All ad superior to all the ter-*
rors of mortality.
rsow, tiiese qualities and habits, their several
Orders
SERMON XX. 47
Orders of Religious (from whence their Missionaries
are taken) very early labour to inculcate. One quality
is more deeply implanted by this Order, another by
that ; and the most necessary and essential are form
ed in all : thus all the monastic Institutions kindle
and keep alive that exalted charity which ends in a
Self-sacrifice for the salvation of our Brother.
The JESUFTES subdue the Will by the severe dis
cipline of blind obedience : to stand wherever they
are placed, and to run wherever they are called. The
CARTHUSIANS subdue the appetites by a tedious
course of bodily labours and mortifying abstinences :
and the Order called THE CONGREGATION OF ST.
PAUL, subdues the whole man : For, in a sense as
peculiar to them as to their holy Patron, they die
daily, the observance of their whole rule consisting
in one continued meditation on the King of Terrors.
Nor is this all. The several Orders, like Work
men who travel separately on the various parts of
the same Machine, each of them to be disposed
by the Master-Artist, in its proper place and to
its destined use ; the Orders, I say, send their
Subjects, thus prepared, to the College DE PRO
PAGANDA FIDE, to receive their last finishing
by instruction in the Languages, the Manners and
the Customs of the barbarous Nations, to whose
conversion they are appointed and addressed. And,
indeed, without so long and regular a preparation,
it is net in Nature, whatever Grace may effect, for
any man chearfully, and, at the same time, soberly
to undergo all the accumulated distresses, ever ready
to overtake a faithful Missionary.
For
48 SERMON XX.
For want of these advantages, a Protestant So
ciety, like ours, hath been too frequently obliged to
take up with subjects^ from amongst men of ruined
fortunes ; such, whose impotency of mind have shewn
them unable to bear either Poverty or Riches. Or
else from amongst heated Zealots, totally unqua
lified for every sober and important work.
And, indeed, when we consider the greatness of
our wants in this kind, we should be tempted to wish
for a COLLEGE, destined for the supplial of a suf
ficient number of able Missionaries in constant
succession, brought up, from their early youth, in
such a discipline as may be judged best fitted
for such a service. And here it may not be im
pertinent to observe, that should the Governors of
that famous UNIVERSITY, to which a munificent
Benefactor hath bequeathed a large estate for the
erection of a NEW COLLEGE, be at a loss to exe
cute his intention in such a manner as may give
new vigour to the decayed Spirit of Learning and
Religion, they may find in a COLLEGE DE PROPA
GANDA FIDE, an establishment which would in
terfere with no other, and would give additional
sanctity to all the rest.
Having premised thus much, I come more di
rectly to Our Mission to the Gentiles ; considered
in obedience to the Command, to Prophesy AGAIN
btfore many peoples and nations ; that is to say,
Barbarians bond and free. These latter, the Abori
gines of the Country, Savages without Law or
Religion, are the principal Objects of our Charity.
Their temporal, as well as spiritual conditions calls
loudly
SERMON XX. 4g
loudly for our assistance ; and more especially as civil
izing will be found a necessary step to conversion.
The benevolent Spirit of Antiquity, which set
their Heroes and Lawgivers on reforming the savage
manners of their barbarous Neighbours, and com
municating to them the blessings of CIVIL LIFE, as
divine as it appears, hath been yet outdone in the
Charity of these later times, which sends Mission
aries amongst the wild inhabitants of the new World,
with the greater blessing of the Gospel. But the
constant ill success of this glorious Undertaking,
hath been a long time matter of grief to all good
men. Something therefore must needs be much
ajniss, to defeat a purpose which Grace and Nature
conspire to advance. And, if we search carefully
into it, we shall find it to be this, the preaching of
it to savage and brutal Men. For the GOSPEL,
plain and simple as it is, and fitted in its nature for
what it was ordained to effect, requires an intellect
something above that of a Savage to apprehend.
Nor is it at all to the dishonour of our holy Faith, that
such a one must be taught a previous Lesson ; and
first of all instructed in the emollient arts of life.
And it is not one of the least benefits of SOCIETY,
that, at the time it teaches us to improve every bo
dily accommodation, it enlarges and enlightens the
understanding by the activity which the mind exer
cises in improving those accommodations.
For want of this previous culture, it hath hap
pened, that when, by the unwearied labour of the
Missionary, numbers of these Savages have been
baptized into the Faith, such Converts have never
VOL. X, E long
50 S E R M O N XX.
long preserved, nor were they able to propagate
among their Tribes, the Christianity they had been
taught ; but successive Missions have found, the
to *
work was ever to begin a-new.
From whence we conclude, that they set out at the
wrong end ; for, to make the Gospel understood,
much more to propagate and establish it, these Barr
barians should have been first taught the civil arts
of life. And, indeed, to civilize a barbarous People
is, in itself, a work of such exalted charity, that to
find it neglected, when a further and far nobler end
than the arts of life may be procured by it, is matter
of infinite astonishment.
We justly censure the Popish Missionaries for
their ill-directed zeal in propagating a C&mmcn-
iitious Gospel, for pure and genuine Christianity.
But then we must be so fair to confess that, in the
preparatory part of their Mission, their conduct and
address have been so humane and rational, as to
be well worthy of our imitation. Nor need this give
scandal to any good Protestant, Our great Master
himself hath recommended to the Children of light
the Example of the Children of this World, because,
says he, these are wiser in their generation-, that is,
they are more skilful than the Children of light, in
ADAPTING MEANS TO ENDS.
This learned Audience easily understands that,
by the Children of this World, I mean the JE-
SUITES: they are emphatically so. Now these men,
have, both in South and North America, success
fully practised the method I here presume to re
commend : which is, first of all, to CIVILIZE the
subjects
SERMON XX. 51
subjects of our Mission. The steps they took to effect
this great purpose were no less judicious than the
project itself was noble and benevolent. They began
with teaching the Savages the Art of AGRICULTURE;
of all the civil arts, the most essential, as it soonest
reduces men from a roving wandering life into settled
^- O
habitations, the first great bond of the Social State.
The Provinces of Paraguay and the Island of Call"
fornia do, for this blessing, proclaim them the Bene
factors of Mankind : And had they but taught the
ETERNAL G os PEL in its purity, at the time they
taught the transitory arts of life in their integrity,
they would have deserved all the praise, and much
of the Power they aspired to.
But in all this affair, the awful Justice of Provi
dence on the Instruments is no less conspicuous
than his Blessing on the Work ; which, when consi
dered together, will afford an useful warning to
Mankind.
This SOCIETY OF JESUS, as is too well known,
had, from their very first establishment, in direct op
position to the professed end of their institution, and
in defiance of the sacred name they had assumed, im-
merged themselves in the worst part of civil intrigues ;
which they carried on in so flagitious a manner, that
there is hardly a Court in Christendom (into most
of which they had insinuated themselves) where
they have not left manifest traces of their Antichris-
tian Politics, in seditions and assassinations, sanc
tified and supported on the two main pillars of their
system, relaxed Morals and Papal Omnipotency.
At length, after having rioted in these disorder?
2 for
52 SERMON XX.
for a century and an half, they conceived, either out
of humanity or avarice, the noble project of civil
izing the inland Inhabitants of South America;
whom the Spaniards and Portuguese, on the East
and West, had, by their diabolic treatment, ren
dered, so outrageous against their Persecutors, that
the fiercest beasts of prey were a more desirable
neighbourhood.
In this condition the Missionary Jesuites found
these persecuted Indians: and, for the ease and
safety (as they pretended) of the Christian Colonies
on each side, they set upon the desperate project of
taming them to humanity : which at length indeed
they effected ; though with infinite labour and pro
digious slaughter of the brethren of the Order.
However, the attempt succeeded : and the Je
suites, out of these wild and rabid tribes, founded
so equal and powerful a Republic, as by their vir
tues to disgrace -the neighbouring Colonies, and by
their Policy to give umbrage to the two Catholic
Monarchs, to whom those Colonies belong.
For the FATHERS, now Fathers indeed, and worthy
of their name, the Fathers of a People, seeing the
morals of the surrounding Colonies incurably corrupt,
could find no other effectual means of securing the
infant virtue of their new establishments from the
contagion of Spanish and Portuguese manners, than
by a total exclusion of all comm erce and commu
nication between them.
This served for a pretence to the two monarchs
(whose sovereignty over Paraguay the Fathers ac
knowledged) to take to themselves the fruits of that
Sovereignty,
SERMON XX. 53
Sovereignty, now become a morsel delicious enough
to excite a regal appetite.
They therefore entered into a kind of Partition-
Treaty to share Paraguay between them ; a Treaty
which is likely to end in the ruin of this long-envied
and detested Order : Indignant Providence seeming
to have decreed, as a lesson to mankind, that while,
for the sake of Humanity, this glorious work should
be preserved, that yet for the sake of divine Justice,
these unworthy instruments, who with impunity had
so long wantoned in civil mischief, and confounded
and insulted all things sacred and profane, should at
length fall by their first virtuous project.
But we, who have GOD and the Monarch on our
side, have nothing of this to fear. On the contrary,
we have every thing to encourage us in this arduous
task ; which is now rendered more promising and
easy, by the large dominions lately acceded to the
British empire in America. Our entrance into the
heart of these barbarous Nations being now no longer
interrupted and traversed by the frauds, the false
insinuations, and the malicious Tales of our Euro
pean Rivals.
The spiritual benefits .arising from the labour of
civilizing are many and substantial. At present, the
Savages, (who have sense enough to see that the
Europeans keep many things from them of high im
portance to their wellare) observing in us, while
busied only in our Gospel Mission, a total dis
regard to their temporal interests, are difficultly
brought to think, that the spiritual matters, pressed
upon them, are of much importance either to them-
E selves
54 SERMON XX.
selves or their Teachers. But when they have been
first of all so sensibly obliged by us as to be re
deemed from the miseries of a brutal life, and set
at ease by the security, and made happy by the ac-
cojnmodations of Society, they will naturally give a
grateful and serious attention to their Benefactors,
instructing them in sublimer truths, and directing
them to still more substantial happiness. In a
word, From merciless enemies, ever addressed to
ravage and desolate the borders of our Colonies, we
shall make them our cordial Friends, ready to em
brace peace ; a peace, not forced upon them by the
terror of our arms, or feigned by them through the
allurements of treacherous Presents, but immovably
established by gratitude and love, and further sup
ported by the mutual advantages of HONEST COM
MERCE.
But, alas ! we are yet far from this glorious Term
of our labours. The hinderances have been many
Partly from the qualities of the Missionaries, and in.
part from the ravenous pursuits of our Colonists.
Of the Missionaries, some have been over-heated
with that Fanaticism which disposes men to an utter
contempt of worldly things : so that, instead of
teaching the Savages the benefits of social life, and
recommending civil manners to their roving Tribes,
they are much rather inclined to throw aside their
own, and accommodate themselves with the dried
skins and parched corn of the Natives. Others of
a cooler turn and lower form of Superstition, took
it into their heads, that the Vices of improved life
(as they may be now gathered in their full bloom,
23 amongst
SERMON XX. 55
amongst the Colonists) would more indispose the
Americans to the precepts of the Gospel, than their
present state of brutality incapacitate them from ap
prehending the doctrines of it : and therefore, on the
whole, thought it best to keep their Converts shut
out from the advantages of so dangerous a society.
But, without question, the obstinate perseverance
in this fatal measure is chiefly owing to the false
and inhumane policy of the Colonists, A policy
common to them all, which makes them despise and
set at nought even the horrors of a Savage War> for
the sake of an unequal Traffic between the improved
and unimproved gifts of all- bounteous Nature.
From t he Free, I come now (the last point
I propose to consider) to the Barbarians in bonds.
By these I mean the vast multitudes stolen yearly
from the opposite Continent, and sacrificed by the
Colonists to their great Idol, the GOD OF GATX.
" But what then ? (say these zealous Worshippers
of Mammon) it is our own Property we offer up."
What ! Property in your Brethren, as in herds of
Cattle? your Brethren both by Nature and Grace,
Creatures endowed with all our Faculties, possessing
all our qualities but that of colour? Does not this
equally shock the feelings of humanity, and the
dictates of common sense ? But, alas ! what is there
in the infinite abuses of Society which does not
shock them !
In excuse of this violation of all things civil and
sacred (for Nature created Man free, and Grace
invites him to assert his freedom), it hath been pre
tended, That " though, indeed, these miserable Out-
TL 4 casts
56 SERMON XX.
casts of the Race of Adam be torn from their homes
and native Wilds by force and fraud, yet this vio
lation of the rights of humanity improves their con
dition and renders them less unhappy." But who
are You, Mho pretend to judge of another man s
happiness f that State, which each man, under the
instinctive guidance of his Creator, forms for him
self; and not one Man for another? To know what
constitutes mine or your Happiness, is the sole pre
rogative of Him who made us, and cast us in so
various and different Moulds. Did these your
Slaves ever complain to you of their unhappiness
amidst their native woods and desarls ? or, rather,
let me ask, did they ever cease complaining of their
condition under you, their Lordly Masters ? where
they see, indeed, the accommodations of Civil life ;
but, the more to embitter their miseries, see them all
pass by to others, themselves unbenefited by them.
Be so gracious then, ye petty Tyrants over human
freedom, to let your Slaves judge for themselves,
what it is which makes their own happiness* And
then see whether they do not rather place it in the
Return to their own Country, than in the con
templation of your Grandeur, of which, their dis
tresses make so large a part. A Return so pas
sionately longed for, that, despairing of happiness
amidst the Chains of their cruel taskmasters, they
console themselves in the fancy that their future
state will be a return to their own country ; where
the equal Lord of all things will recompense their
sufferings here. And I do not find, their haughty
Masters have yet concerned themselves to invade
this
SERMON XJC. 57
this last refuge of the miserable. The less hardy of
them indeed wait for this consolation till overwearied
Nature sets them free; but more resolved tempers
have recourse even to self-violence, to force a spee
dier passage.
But it may be still urged, " that although what is
called human happiness be of so fantastic a nature,
that each man creates it for himself, yet human
misery is more substantial and uniform through
out all the tribes of Men. Now, from the
worst of real miseries, the savage Africans (say
their more savage Masters) are entirely secured by
these forced emigrations ; such as the being per
petually hunted down, like beasts of prey or profit,
by their more fierce and powerful Neighbours. In
truth, a, blessed change ! from the being hunted to
the being caught. But who are they that have set
on foot this general HUNTING ? Are they not these
very civilized violators of humanity, themselves? who
tempt the weak appetites, and provoke the wild
passions of the fiercer Savages to prey upon the
rest. However, in favour of an established enormity
it is fit that all that can be urged should be enforced!
Something, I own, indeed not much, may be saicl
in favour of this traffic. The TRADING IN MEN
was the staple Commodity of the most early times :
for, as the Poet observes,
Proud Nimrod first the bloody chase be^an,
A mighty Hunter, and his prey was MAN.
But, to bring this nice consideration home to our
selves. We of this Corporation, by the ceaseless
change
58 SERMON XX.
change of Property, are become the innocent par
takers of the fruits of so iniquitous a traffic ; a very
worthy benefactor having bequeathed unto us in
trust, for the Propagation of the Gospel, A PLAN
TATION STOCKED WITH SLAVES. An odd Legacy
to the promulgators of the Law of Liberty ! But
intended, perhaps, as a kind of compensation for
these violations of it. And, if so, I am certain it
will fully answer the pious intention of the Donor.
God, out of this Evil (according to the gracious way
of his Providence) having made us the honoured
Instruments of producing Good.
The cruelty of certain PLANTERS, with respect to
the temporal accommodations of these poor wretches,
and the irreligious negligence of others with regard
to their spiritual, is become a general Scandal.
Now this singular Donation will enable us to re
dress both the inhumanity and impiety of this con
duct within the limits of our own Property. But
this is the least part of the advantages we shall reap
from it. What is of infinite more importance is the
EXAMPLE we shall be enabled to hold out to the
Colonies at large; an Example to invite or shame
all tyrannous Masters into a more compassionate
treatment of their fellow -creatures by Nature and
their Brethren by Grace.
It would be impiety to suspect that the Society
\vill not persevere in making this use of so fortunate
a circumstance ; since their duty more particularly
exacts it, and their means of all kinds enable them
to do it with effect,
To
SERMON XX. 59
To conclude, From what hath been said may be
Been how faithfully this incorporated Society have
laboured to discharge their Trust.
1 have ventured to hint at what appears to me
the best means of perfecting the Work, by setting
before you (though far unable to do it to advantage)
the new encouragements we have to Prophesy
AGAIN before many Peoples y and Nations, and
Tongues, and Kings,
POSTSCRIPT.
SINCE the printing this, a pamphlet has been pub
lished, intitled, A brief Narrative of the Indian
Charity-School in Connecticut, New-England; in
which is a Letter from the Indians of Onohoquage
to the Directors of this Chanty; curious enough,
pn many accounts, to be here transcribed.
Utsage, July 31, 1765.
BRETHREN,
WE were informed by our Messenger that we sent
to you last Spring (Gwedelkes, or Peter Jgwiron-
dongwas), that you would not only assist us by send
ing us Ministers to teach us Christianity, but also
that you would assist us in setting up Husbandry,
by sending a Number of white People to live with
us ; who, when come, should build us Mills, teach us
Husbandry, and furnish us with Tools for Hus
bandry, <r,
We
60 POSCRIPT TO SERMON XX.
We greatly rejoiced at Bearing of it, and expected
them this Spring, but are disappointed ; at which
we are very sorry : But we hope that we may yet
receive them, and should much rejoice in it, should
you send them to us.
We would have you understand, Brethren, that
we have no Thoughts of selling our Land to any
that come to live among us. For if we should sell
a little Land to any, by and by they would want
to buy a little more, and so our Land would go by
Inches, till we should have none to live upon. Yet
as those that come to instruct us must live, we have
no Objections against their improving as much Land
as they please ; yet- the Land shall remain ours.
We have, Brethren, never petitioned to you yet
for any to assist us, but only those that come with
GOD S News (L e. the Gospel) ; yet, as you have
offered to assist us likewise in teaching us Husbandry,
./
we greatly rejoice in it, AND THINK THAT THEY
SHOULD GO TOGETHER, the one as well as the other,
and that we want Instruction in both. Brethren, we
send our kindest Love to you, and remain your
Brethren.
Isaac Dakaycmnscre.
Adam Waoonwanoron.
SERMON XXL
ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS
FOLLY.
PROV. xxvi. ver. 4, 5.
ANSWER NOT A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLT,
LEST THOU ALSO BE LIKE UNTO HIM. ANSWER
A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY, LEST HE BE
WISE IN HIS OWN CONCEIT.
THE contempt of Religion soon followed the
abuse of it : and the abuse of this sacred In
stitution is almost coeval with the thing itself: fov
that corruption of heart, whose disorder Religion
was ordained to cure, hath been ever struggling
against its remedy.
I. In the days of Solomon, when Wisdom was at
its height, Folly, as we learn from many passages of
that regal Sage, kept equal paces with it. Hence
it was, that, after exhibiting many lively paintings
of the irreligious Scorner, he subjoined directions to
the generous Advocate of Piety and Virtue, how
best to repress their insolence and vanity. ANSWER
NOT a Fool, (soys he) according^ to his Jolly > lest
thou
62 SERMON XXI.
thou also be like unto him. ANSWER a Fool ac>
cording to his folly, kst he be wise in his own
conceit.
Short isolated sentences were the mode in which
ancient Wisdom delighted to convey its precepts, for
the regulation of life and manners. But when this
natural mode of instruction had lost the grace ot
novelty, and a studied refinement had new coloured
the candid simplicity of ancient converse, these in
structive Sages found it necessary to give their moral
maxims the seasoning and poignancy of Paradoxes.
In these lively and not useless sports of fancy, the
Son of David, we are told, greatly excelled. We find
them to abound in the writings which bear his name :
and we meet with frequent allusions to them, in . all
the parts of Sacred Writ, under the names of Riddles,
Parables, and Dark-sayings.
Now of all the examples of this species of in
struction, there is none fuller of moral wisdom than
this Paradox of my Text, or which in the happiness
of the expression hath so artfully conveyed the Key
for opening the treasures of it. But as a dark con
ceit and a dull one have a great proximity in modern
Wit ; and a nice difference is not distinguished from
a contradiction in modern reasoning ; this Paradox
of the Sage hath been mistaken by his Critics for an
absurdity of some of his Transcribers, who forgot
the negative in the latter member of the sentence ;
and so is to be set right : and at an easier expense,
than unfolding dark sentences of old, namely, ex
changing them, for clearer, of a modern texture;
which TIMS may make ancient readings-, and which
a careful
SERMON XXI. 63
a careful collation of its blunders may hereafter
make the true *.
II. But they who choose to receive Scripture in
its antique Garb, will perhaps venture with me, to
try
* So again, Prov. xviii. 12. Whoso Jindeth a Wif*
(says the Wise man) Jindeth a good thing , and obtaineth
favour of the Lord. But so bold an assertion hath re
volted the more experienced Critics. They presume that
Solomon expressed himself according to those venerable
MSS. which read Whoso Jindeth A GOOD WIPE Jindeth
A GOOD THING; and obtaineth favour of the Lord. And
this out of regard to the truth of things. But Solomon
sure was never sent into the world to make this discovery.
It was a fitter exploit for the old Hermit of Prague, the
Poet speaks of, who although he never saw pen and ink,
yet by mere dint of penetration discovered, that what
ever is, is. And had these Critics reflected (which would
have required but little more reach of thought) that the
Wise man was here only characterizing the divine Ordi
nance of Marriage itself, as instituted by God in Para
dise, on this great Principle that it was not GOOD for
man to be alone, their doubts concerning the integrity of
the text had been easily relieved: Solomon s asser
tion being simply this, " That whoever endeavours to
" conform himself to the order of Providence, in sup-
" porting this Institution, endeavours to obtain a good
" thing." It is not the Woman, whether good or bad,
that hath here this appellation : but the Wife figuratively,
too, employed for the holy Institution of Marriage itself.
And to this sense the concluding words might have led
them and obtaineth favour of the Lord. For why doth
he who Jindeth a wife, obtain God s favour? Surely
because he hath complied with, and promoted, the Ordi
nance
64 SERMON XXI.
try whether the seeming contradiction in the common
text cannot be fairly unriddled without any other aid
than of the words themselves in which the dark say Ing
is conveyed.
Had the Folly of these Fools been only of one
condition or denomination, the advice to answer,
and not to answer, had indeed been repugnant to
itself ; but as thejblly, by the Wise Man s own ac
count of it, is seen to have been of different kinds,
in some of which, to answer might offend the dig
nity of Truth ; and, in others, not to answer, might
hurt its interests; To answer, and not to answer, is a
consistent, and may, for aught these Critics know,
be a very wise direction.
Had the advice been given simply and without
circumstance, to answer the Fool, and not to answer
him, a Critic who held the Sacred Text in reverence,
would satisfy himself in supposing, that the different
directions referred to the doing a thing in and out
of season. But \\hen, to the general advice about
answering, this circumstance is added, according to
his folly, that interpretation is excluded ; and a dif
ficulty indeed arises; a difficulty, which hath made
those, who have no reverence for the text, accuse
it of absurdity and contradiction.
But now, to each direction, reasons are subjoined,
tvhy
nance of God. The Fool indeed may say, according to
his folly, that " it is here insinuated, A good wife is such a
tarity that a successful search after her must be ascribed
to the special favour of God." But if he does say so, he
deserves no answer, were it only for supposing that Solo
mon was here trifling in the modern Tein of trivial
satire,
SERMON XXI. 6$
why a Fool should, and why he should ?iot, be an
swered: reasons, which, when scttogeth ran ! com
pared, are, at first sight, sufficient to make the Critic
suspect that all the contradiction Iks in his own
in cumbered ideas,
1. The reason given why a Fool should not be
answered according to his folly, is lest he [the An
swerer] be like unto him.
2. The reason given why the Fool should~bc an
swered according to his felly , is lest he [the FoolJ be
wise in his own conceit.
The cause assigned of not answering therefore,
forcibly insinuates that the Defender of Religion
should not imitate the Insulter of it in his modes of
disputation ; which may be comprised in sophistry,
bujfoonry, and scurrility. For what could so much
assimilate the Answerer to his Idiot- Adversary as
the putting on his Fool s coat, in order to captivate
and confound the Rabble ?
The cause assigned of answering, plainly intimates,
that the Sage should address himself to confute the
Fool upon the Fool s own Principles, by shewing,
that they lead to conclusions very wide from the im
pieties he would deduce from them. And if any
thing can prevent the Fool from being wise in his
atcn conceit, it must be the dishonour and the ridi
cule of having his own Principles turned against
him ; while they are shewn to make for the very
contrary purpose to that for which he had employed
them.
The high Wisdom conveyed in the two precepts
Vox. X. F of
66 SERMON XXI.
of this unravelled Paradox will be best understood
by explaining the mischiefs avoided and the advan
tages arising from the observance of each of them.
III. We are not to answer a fool according to his
folly, lest we also be like unto him. This is the rea
son given ; and a good one it is ; sufficient to make
any sober man decline a contest, where even Vic
tory would bring dishonour with it Now if our
answer be of such a nature that we also (though with
contrary intentions) do injury to Truth, we become
like unto him in the essential part of his Character.
And surely Truth is never more insulted, nor its
Advocates more debased, than when they employ the
foolish arts of Sophistry, Buffbonry and Scurrility,
in its defence.
I. To use fallacious and inconclusive arguments
in support of Truth, a trick that hath been too often
practised, is doing it infinite discredit.
It tends to make men suspicious that the pre
tended Truth is falsehood, when it finds support in
the common arts of Impostors. The most favour
able, and perhaps fairest inference which will be
made is, that the Truth is defended, not for its own
sake, but for the sake of the Defender. Hence we
become less attentive to the issue, and more jealous
of the good faith of the Reasoner. Hence our re
verence for the Cause is lessened, and our prejudices
against the Advocate increased. It tends to bring
the two parties of Wisdom and Folly on a level,
when they stand on the same unfaithful and fallacious
, : ground,
SERMON XXI. 67
ground. It tends to erase the distinction between
true andy#/y, and at length makes all terminate in
that most inveterate speeies of folly, Pyrronic doubt
and uncertainty.
2. To employ Btiffbonry in this service is vio
lating the Dignity of Truth, which can enforce its
influence amongst men no longer than while the
sanctity of its Character is kept safe from insult.
Buffbcmry deprives Truth of the only thing she
wants, in order to come off triumphant ; I mean, a
fair hearing. To examine, men must be serious :
and to judge, they must be attentive to the argument.
Buffbonry gives a levity to the mind, which makes
it seek entertainment, where it should find only in
struction. But let this poor bastard-talent be taken
at its utmost value, the practice of it will still raise a
suspicion that the Advocate of Religion hath his
Cause little at heart, while, in the very heat of this
important Controversy, he can allow himself to be
amused and diverted by buffoonry, tins spurious
Counterfeit of Wit ; since in matters which are un
derstood to concern us most, we are wont to appear,
as well as to be, most in earnest : And this scandal
given by the Advocate will always bring prejudice
on the Cause.
3. Again, PERSONAL ABUSE, that favourite colour
which strikes most in the Fool s, as well as in the
Knave s, Rhetoric, is carefully to be avoided. For
nothing can make the Answerer so much resemble
the Fool he is confuting, as a want of Candour and
Chanty ; which this mode of anzivering so openly
F 2 betrays,
68 SERMON XXI.
betrays. Whatever pretence the Fool makes to
Candour to Charity he makes none. His very at
tempt is an avowed violation of it. He would de
prive the World of what he himself confesses to be
most useful to Society ; and most pleasing to the
natural sentiments of man ; I mean Religion. He
would break down this Barrier against Vice ; and
rob us of this best consolation against the evils of
human life. And in such a service he follows but
his nature and his office, when he vilifies and ca
lumniates all who set themselves to oppose his im
pious attempts.
One mi iht wonder that the Wise man, who gives
this caution to the Friends of Religion, could suppose
that they should stand in need of it. But he well
knew of what stuff we are all made ; that the ir
regular passions frequently operate alike, whether
in pursuit of truth or falsehood ; and that the arms
fabricated and naturally employed in defence of
error, are unnaturally taken up, to skirmish in a
better cause.
For as all men strive to be on the laughing side,
so all affect Wit to support themselves in it. Now
Wit being the portion but of one in a million, every
pretender to Wit mistakes JSuffoonry for it, or
hopes at least that his Reader will mistake it.
A well-urged argument is, perhaps, as rare an
effort as a well-turned piece of wit, and makes an
Adversary, against whom it is pointed, as much out
of humour. So thi.t such a one \\ill be apt to
supply his want of sense v.ith his abundance of
scurrility ; which is the same succedaneum to good
Argument
SERMON XXI. 69
Argument that Buffbonry is to true Wit ; and will
serve the user, who appeals to the taste of a preju
diced Cabal, full as well.
These are the various modes of answering which
are to be avoided, lest the Advocate of Religion
become like the vain Caviller, whom he addresses
himself to confute.
But, under the reason here given for not answer
ing, there is another insinuated We are not to
answer the Fool, lest we should be like to him in
Character. This is the reason given. The reason
insinuated is lest we should be like to him in the
issue of his Inquiries. What that is, Solomon tells
us in this same Book of Proverbs THE SCORNEH
SEEKETH WISDOM AND FINDETH IT NOT*. For
Scorner is the name here given to the Fool, with
reference to his arts of controversy, carried on by so
phistry, buffoonry, and scurrility, anatomized above;
all of them the mark? of scorn and insolence. Now
if this be true, that the Scorner s search after wis
dom is vain and fruitless, we have here another
reason why we should not imitate his practice ; or,
in other words, why we should not answer the Fool
according to his folly.
That no other issue of his search is to be expected,
I shall now shew you.
The Fool, turned Scorner, places the perfection
of Wisdom rather in laughing at what is wrong than
in pursuing what is right : and, of all the seeker*
after Truth, is, both by his disposition and his
method of inquiry, least likely to find it,
* Chap. xiv. 6.
*3 i. PRIDE
70 SERMON XXI.
i. PRIDE and VANITY are the foundation of the
Scorner s Character ; they consist in a presump
tuous conceit of superior knowledge ; Pride disposes
him to receive homage from himself; Vanity > to
demand it from others. But, of all the Passions,
these most effectually keep hid from us that imbe
cility and incurable ignorance of our Nature, which,
in our search after truth, ought always to be present
to us, both to excite our industry, and to awaken
our caution. For without industry we can make
but small advances ; and without caution we. shall
be perpetually deviating from the right track.
As the Scorners opinion of his own abilities is
so ill founded, his Vanity will always be seeking
homage from others, for those excellencies which
his Pride has created in himself : to gratify which,
is the only thing he aims at in the display of his
self-imputed wit. And though true wit and true
zvisdcm were meant for each other s aid, yet this
spurious Conceit, which the Scorner so much cul
tivates and indulges, serving only to raise ill-timed
rnirth, or to gratify the malignity of his depraved
temper, drives Wisdom from so polluted a quarter.
This species of Vanity brings on a levity of mind ;
which, in its first stages, corrupts the Judgment in
our estimate of the importance of Truth : and, as it
grows habitual, occasions a total indifference to its
interests. Indeed, nothing so enervates and effemi
nates the Reason as the immoderate indulgence of
Ridicule ; for as the Wise man observes, in another
place of this book : the end of this mirth is heavi-?
wess : that is, it sets in DULNESS,
Now >
SERMON XXL 7l
Now, this indifference to Truth and Falsehood
shews itself, first of all, in a malignant pleasure the
Scorner takes in embarrassing and perplexing every
subject he pretends to handle and examine. Nor
is this the worst. His indifference concludes, at
length, in a total Scepticism. For when once a man
can bring himself to be indifferent to Objects so im
portant as those of good and evil, the labour required
in discriminating their natures will so offend his easy
delicacy, that he will gladly take refuge in a set of
Principles which shorten his search, and persuade
him that the inquiry is in vain; that truth and false
hood, are Chimeras ; or that if they have a real ex
istence, yet, the light in which they are objected
to our contemplation is so obscure, and the human
Intellect so dull by Nature and so narrowed by In
stitution, that we perpetually mistake them for one
another, in the indistinct and cloudy light in which
they are presented to us.
2, The Scorner & method of inquiry is another
cause of his never finding IVkdom. Pie begins with
detecting and exposing Error. And, indeed, In
quirers of more sobriety often find it necessary to
do the same ; because these errors often lie in their
way ; obstruct their search, and retard their progress.
But then, this method leading the Detector into a
large field for the display of his pleasantry ; and for the
exercise of his wit, if he has any ; the Scorner grows
so enamoured of Buffwmry> that here he stays, and
spends all his time in this trifling amusement, when
his business was only to stop till he had cleared tiie
F 4 road,
72 S E R M O N XXI.
road, that he might proceed with fresh vigour in
his search. So that this, which, at best, is bat the
first step to Wisdom, the Scorner makes the last.
But it is not only the pleasure he takes in laugh
ing at folly and error, hut his aversion for those
regions of severe Truth where Wisdom resides, which
keeps him so self-satisfied in these jovial vanities.
Besides, were he never so much disposed to push
on his search to the very Throne of Wisdom, his
Talents, and the habitual use to which he puts them,
would render his inquiry fruitless and ineffectual.
To see and to expose the ABUSE OF THINGS, by
which scorn is ingendered, requires little more than
a quick sertse of what is wrong, and a lively imagi
nation to expose it : but, to penetrate to their REAL
NATURE, demands strength and application of mind,
rarely found, where the exercise of a. lively fancy
hath been long indulged. True Wisdom consisting
in the knowledge of the use of things, -just as idle wit
subsists in laughing at their abuses.
Thus we see, why the Scorner affects to seek
Wisdom ; and how it happens that he never finds it.
All which considered, the wise man advises us,
not to answer a fool according to his folly, lest we
also be like unto him.
IV. But then, lest the Fool should be wise in his
own conceit, we are, at the same time, bid to give him
an Amwcr. Now, how this can be done in the man
ner here directed, namely, according to his folly,
and yet, the Answerer not become like unto him, but,
on the contrary, able thertby, to produce the effect
here
SERMON XXI. 73
here intimated (viz. the cure of the Fool s vain con
ceit of his superior V. isdom), is a difficulty indeed ;
a difficulty worthy the Advocate of Truth to un
dertake.
And, a Master of his Subject may hope to over
come this difficulty by contriving to contuie the Fool
on his own Principles, by shewing that they lead to
a Conclusion very destructive of those free conse
quences he has laboured to deduce from them.
To give an instance or two. A capital objection
to what we call REVELATION, is the innumerable
pretensions to it by Impostors in all ages : Every
Founder of the National Religion assuming a divine
o o
Mission, supported by Prodigies and Wonders. Yet
this favourite Principle of Infidelity may he fairly
turned upon the Objectors themselves.
1. For first, the abundance of these pretended
Revelations strongly eviiices the need which men
were conscious they had of the extraordinary direc
tion of Heaven, to aid the feeble glimmering of na
tural light, and to support those capital and general
Truths which are so obscurely and imperfectly dis
covered by it. For the craft of one of these Impos
tors is always directed to take advantage of the com
mon turn of the People. He is too well acquainted
with human nature to think of giving it a new bias.
His skill consists in applying what he finds most
prevailing in it, to the aid of his Politics.
2. Secondly, True Revelation is essentially dis^
tinguished from all the Species of the false, by this
circumstance, that the false have all of them subor
dinate
74 S E R M O N XXL
dinette Deities for the object of their Worship ; and
consequently all have the complaisance to acknow
ledge the truth of one another s pretensions. Whereas
true Revelation claiming its origin from the first
Cause of all things, the Creator and Governor of the
Universe, condemns, by necessary consequence, all
the national Religions of Paganism, as Impostures.
2. Another instance and then enough \\ill be
said to explain my meaning on this head. The
Christian Dispensation is accused of falsehood for
its abounding in MYSTERIES. These Fools sup
pose, that " if God hath indeed revealed himself to
Mankind, every thing contained in his Dispensation
must be plain and evident." But, in this judgment,
they seem only to provide for their own infirmities,
without any regard to the honour of their Maker.
They forget that, though the Receivers be Men, yet
the Giver is the Lord. And that, therefore, though
the fundamental Doctrines of such a Dispensation
should be adapted to the weakness and narrowness
of the human Capacity, yet the Creator and Go
vernor of all things should mark the Religion for his
own, by such sublime traits, which, at the time that
they express the shining features of the Divinity, hum
ble the vain arrogance*of human Reason ; the perfect
comprehension of these transcendent Truths, not
essential to the profession of our Faith here, being
reserved for our reward hereafter.
Nor is this Principle or Objection of Solomon s
Fool less subject to retortion than the other.
To the pretended Friend of Natural Religion, the
Believing Answerer would say, " You % with
affright
SERMON XXL 75
affright from Revelation at the sight of its Mysteries,
yet these Mysteries meet you again in Natural
Religion, in which you have taken refuge. For
Freewill reconciled to Prescience is as inexplicable
a Mystery as any our holy Religion holds out to us,
to exercise the submission of our Reason, and keep
it in due subordination to Faith. And the force of it
holds as strongly against you, as any Gospel Mys
tery against a Believer : since if you be, indeed, a
friend or Follower of Natural Religion, you must
confess, that man is free, since without freedom he
could not be accountable ; you must confess that
God foresees, since without the prescience of the
actions of free-agents he could not be omniscient.
As for the Fool who hides his Atheistic Natu
ralism under the cover of Natural Religion, the
Believer easily retorts his objection to Mysteries,
from the State of the Material World, where only,
the Fool seeks, and expects to find, real Knowledge,
let he must confess all that concerns MATTER to
be an explicable Mystery. I pass its creation out
of nothing; because I am in doubt whether the Na
turalist holds or rejects this Truth, and will only
urge him with its divisibility, its expansion and con
traction, its inert force, and all those incompre-r
hensible qualities which the Newtonian Philosophy
hath revealed.
With the same force as in these two instances,
may all the Fool s Principles be returned upon him.
And sure if any thing can dissipate the vain vision
of being wise in his own conceit, it must be the sense
pf such a dishonour. For what can be more hu
miliating
76 SERMON XXI.
miliating than to have his own Principles shewn to
be destructive of his Conclusions? What more
mortifying than to have those Principles, in whose
invention he so much gloried, or in whose use he so
much confided, fairly turned, by the unerring rules
of good Logic, to the credit of the Religion he was
attempting to overthrow ? Nor is the Partisan of
Falsehood more humbled than the Cause of Truth
is advanced by thus answering a Fool according to
his Folly : For that victory, where our Opposite is
made to contribute to his own overthrow, is always
held, in common estimation, to be most complete :
That System being reasonably judged despicable,
whose most plausible support draws after it the
ruin of what it was raised to uphold.
On the whole, It is thus (as the Wise man directs)
that this forward Fool is to be treated ; whether it
be by SILENCE or CONFUTATION.
V. That his Folly is to be repressed according to
the dictates of true Wisdom, the nature of the thing
sufficiently instructs us. There was no need of a
particular direction to enforce the expediency and
necessity of such a conduct.
But then, it sometimes happens that the interests
of Truth may require that lie should be answered
even according to his folly : And, as in discharge
of our duty here the execution is very liable to
abuse, it was fit and proper to obviate the danger.
This, we may observe, the Sacred Writer hath done;
and with much art, and elegance of address.
It may iadeed be said, " Why this practised ob
liquity
SERMON XXL 77
liquity in defence of Truth ? Is not the purity of
her nature rather defiled, than her real interests
advanced, by this indirection? And doth not Wisdom
seem to say, that it best suits her dignity to repress
Tolly by those Anns only which Wisdom herself
hath fabricated and tempered : that Truth, by the
information of her own light, points out the straight
road to her abode ; and forbids us to wriggle into
her presence through blind by-paths, and the cloudy
. medium of falsehood ?"
But they who talk thus magnificently, do not
sufficiently reflect on the ccndit on of our weak-
sighted nature, w hich can ill bear the bright and un
shaded light of Truth : Nor do they seem to see
the beauty of that contrivance in the Order of things,
whereby Folly ^ by thus administering to her own
defeat, is made to bring us back again into the
ways of Wisdom, from which she had seduced and
misled us.
The REDEEMER of the world, in condescension
to the infirmities of those whom he came to save,
hath taken this very advantage which this established
order of things afforded him. For, more effectually
to silence those Tools who rose up against him, he
answered them according to their folly, that is,
he demonstrated to them the truth and reason
ableness of the Gospel on their own ideas, of the
nature and end of the LAW ; ideas formed on Rab
binical Traditions, and the reveries of Greek Phi
losophers; and urged by them in discredit, of his
Mission and his Office. The pure and unabated
splendor of Tru .h, ushered in, in all the solemn
State
yg SERMON XXL
State of Wisdom, would have only increased their
judicial blindness. To bear this effusion of light
undazzled, they had need of the instant aid of that
SPIRIT OF TRUTH which was not yet come, but
only promised to be sent.
Indeed, when this sacred Guide, who was to lead
men into all truth, came down from above, and
while he continued, in an extraordinary manner, to
enlighten the Understandings of the Faithful, there
was no occasion for this enforced Ministry of Folly
to contribute to her own overthrow : And there
fore, the first Ministers of the Gospel proceeded to
the Establishment of Truth in a direct line, and on
the solid principles of Wisdom only. Yet now
again, in the ordinary effusions of the Holy Spirit,
this direction of Solomon will be as useful as ever
to the interests of Virtue and Religion ANSWER A
FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FoLLY, LEST HE BE
WISE IN HIS OWN CONCEIT.
SERMON XXII.
Preached before the King, in Lent, 1761.
PROVERBS, Chap. xiv. ver. 9.
FOOLS MAKE A MOCK AT SIX.
THIS strange impiety, the Wise man fairly marks
as the utmost ex cess of Folly: For, having just
before told us, that Fools despise wisdom^ and that
they hate knowledge, he completes their character,
by observing, that they make a mock at Sin.
By the terrnj^o/, in common life, we understand
one whom the powers of Reason have forsaken ; but
Religion gives it to that still more unhappy Being,
who forsakes Reason , to that miserable Man who,
rejecting the Guide which God and Nature have ap
pointed for his direction, suffers himself to he misled
by various Impostors, who have ridiculously usurped
her name and office.
The Young are generally borne away by the Pas*
sions and Affections; the Old are mostly drawn aside
by Habit and Custom ; and ail ages, both Young and
Old, groan under the slavery of FASHION ; \\hich
yet,
80 S E R M O N XXIL
yet, with all its airs of superior importance, at last
resolves itself into a servile compliance with the
caprices of others. ,
The Passions and Affections make the. fiercest
attack upon human Virtue ; but Reason being then
upon its guard, in its full vigour, and unimpaired by
those prejudices, which a long commerce with the
World hath made us to contract, if men yield to the
sudden violence of the Appetites, they have suffered
themselves to be betrayed by indolence, cowardice,
a false selfishness, or from some cause w-hich true
Wisdom disavows and condemns.
As the Passions overpower and trample upon
Reason; so Habit, by gen tie and insensible degrees,
throws it into a kind of Lethargy, which makes it
insensible of right and wrong. But whenever it does
so, it is by our own fault, a shameful neglect in not
calling upon Reason to try and examine our habits,
by the test she offers ; which would presently shew
us, what is permitted, and what is to be condemned.
The last and most impudent Impostor of all, is what
men call FASHION, which imperiously enjoins sub
mission to the Fancies of others. And this Dominion
over fools is far more extensive than the other two.
Our love of pleasure makes us confederate with the
Passions, against Reason ; our lore of ease inclines us
to fall in with habit against Reason ; but it is Vanity
alone which draws us to follow the FASHION, against
her : And Vanity having a more general, as well as
more lasting sway, over the human heart, than either
appetite or custom, it follows, that more are misled
by the fashion^ which Others give us, than either by
the
SERMON XXII. 81
the passions, which Nature gave us, or by the habits,
which we give ourselves.
Let us see then the sentiments of each of these
slaves of folly, with regard to this mortal enemy of
our Nature, SIN.
1. The man who is borne away from reason and
virtue by the violence of his Appetites, has often,
during that tempestuous Season, a true sense of
his condition ; and is ready to confess or to com
plain, in the words of St. Paul The good, which I
would, that I do not ; but the evil, which I would
not, that I do. Such a one will be so far from
mocking, or being disposed to make himself merry
with the idea of Sin, that he will look on it with
horror, from the mischiefs which he sees it ready to
produce ; and on himself with resentment and con
tempt, for the baseness of his subjection to it : So
that, while this unequal struggle continues between
his Passions and his Reason, he will have very little
disposition to preposterous mirth.
2. But when once the criminal gratification or
his passions is grown into a Habit, the abhorrence
of sin is at an end. He looks upon it, in its daily
temptations, with the same unconcern that he re
ceives the services of a deformed Domestic ; who, at
first perhaps, was never seen without dislike or hor
ror, which a familiar converse has long since worn
out. But still, mere use and habit will never carry
the pliant perversity of our Nature much further : It
will never bring us to make a jest of our Misery, or
to try if we can laugh Sin out of its nature ; and,
VOL. X. G while
82 SERMON XXII.
-while its dreadful effects still object themselves to
our senses and experience, to ridicule it as an
empty Pl.antom, conjured up between the Nurse
and the Priest.
3. No. To arrive at this perfection in Folly, \ve
must have made the opinion of other men the standard
of our manners ; or, in plainer words, we must have
become the FOOLS OF FASHION.
Now, in the polite World, Vice is entertained very
differently from the reception it finds amongst Little
People : who sin, and are ashamed, and so turn
Hypocrites to men ; who sin, and are absolved,
and so turn Hypocrites to God : While the part
of the Man of Fashion is to sin bravely : to regard
the natural bashfulness attending the breach of God s
commandments, as the ill-bred shame of the Rustic;
and repentance, as a kind of poltronery, in which
bis honour and reputation suffer. So that when
ever a serious remonstrance is made to one of these,
of the iniquity of his ways, this Fool of Fashion
makes a mock at Sin, as deriving its fanciful ex
istence from nothing but the sly contrivances of our
Civil and our Spiritual Governors.
But as, in the numerous tribe of polite Vices,
there are still some higher in the fashion than others,
and therefore capable of a livelier defence, and de
serving of a stronger ridicule on the Reprover ; a cur
sory view of .them will be sufficient to shew in which
quarter the folly lies; whether under the mask
of formal wisdom, where these Gentlemen direct us
to seek it, or in the barefaced pleasantry of their
own darling ridicule.
SERMON XXII. 83
The violation of God s holy name by profane
swearing ; the abuse of his blessings by a beastly in
temperance ; and the pollution of his sacred Image
(in which we were created) by vague Lust ; are the
three Sins, which the polite world are most disposed
to make a mock of.
Yet if we be to judge of them by their causes
and effects (on which Reason teaches us to esti
mate moral matters) we must conclude, that no^
thing can be more offensive to God, more abusive
of our own Nature, or more injurious to our fellow-
creatures.
God hath vouchsafed unto us the use of his
Sacred Name, to convey our praises and suppli
cations to the Throne of Grace ; and, on solemn
and public occasions, to add a sanction to Truth
and Right. But, in the horrid practice of profane
swearing, men employ this ever-sacred Name for
the garniture of their vanity ; to give importance to
their pride ; or to add terror to their brutal passions,
their rage, their hate, or their revenge. They call
upon God to uiiness, and, in effect, dare him to
punish, all their silly, lewd, and lyinor conversation ;
all that their self-importance, their interest, or their
malice, can provoke them to invent, and then, to
impose upon their companions. Cnn we now con
ceive a greater insult on the violated majesty of
Heaven than this diabolic intemperance of speech ?
surely none, unless it be to hear these Sons of per
dition mock and ridicule the Reprover of their blas
phemies.
Luxury or, Infemperance is another of these
G 2 fashionable
84 SERMON XXII.
fashionable vices, which the Polite rather make the
matter of their reputation than their shame. It con
sists in turning the blessings of Providence to abuse;
and the sustentation of nature to its destruction ;
whereby our very eating and drinking become cri
minal. But fashion sways throughout. The in
temperance of our Fathers went one way ; the in
temperance of their Sons goes another. But it is
of small moment which of these brutalities, whether
gluttony or the bottle, deprives us of our reason and
our health. Either of them is sure to do it ; for the
certain issue of both is a legion of follies, and an
hospital of diseases. Yet so small account does
the polite Debauche make of these two noblest gifts
of God and Nature, TRUTH and HEALTH, that he
is ready to throw them both away for the vain and
frivolous reputation of a well-spread Table, or a
social Cup : For, Truth, the greatest of intellectual
goods, is the produce of undisturbed reason ; and
Health, the greatest of the corporeal, is the blooming
fruit of temperance : and yet, we can be content to
be deprived of both, for the sordid pleasure of a
riotous, unmeaning jollity. And, when Religion
calls that a Sin, which we miscall urbanity and
social life, we are ready to mock at the Gospel-
morals, as an institution impolite and rustic, and a
foe to the elegancies of life.
The fashionable Man as loudly proclaims his
folly, when he treats the reproof of Incontinence or
vague Lust with levity and contempt. This Sin,
whether it be the robbery of innocence, or the
keeping the miserable object of his Luxury enslaved
to
SERMON XXII. 85
to impurity and vice, is (amongst other mischiefs)
the most atrocious injury to our fellow-creatures.
The dearest treasure of life is Innocence. With
this, all the benefits of Fortune receive a double
lustre ; and with this, we are enabled to bear the
worst of her disgraces : for innocence softens the
rigours of the seasons; relieves the distresses of
poverty; and makes even languor smile upon the
bed of sickness. How cruel, then, is that Spoiler
who robs the weak and easily-deluded virgin of this
greatest blessing and ornament of life. It is a
cruelty that sums up all the injuries he can do his
neighbour in one. It violates the person ; it blasts
the reputation; and brings on inevitable distress
and penury.
But this Sin rarely stops at the mere destruction
of Innocence : it generally completes its progress,
by keeping the unhappy victim of its Luxury chained
down to vice and misery, in a continued state of
prostitution ; preventing, by the basest contrivances,
Religion, Reputation, and even common Prudence,
from having any force to draw them back again,
from their ruinous condition, into the paths of vir
tue and repentance. Yet this is the Sin which the
Fool makes his pastime ; the subject of his mockery;
nay even of his boast and triumph.
But the most insolent species of these profane
Mockers is still behind. For there are of these,
who, not content to mock in the common mode of
folly, love to heighten their buffoonery by the mask
of philosophic gravity ; and, in the wantonness of
change, feel their idle humour best gratified, when
e 3 they
86 SERMON XXII.
they act the voluptuousness of Clodius under the
stoical countenance of Cato.
In this temper, they shove the Teacher from his
Chair ; and teil us that musty Moralists mistake their
office ; that the blessings of Providence were given
us to use, and not to cast away; that they were given
us to enjoy, and not to quarrel with ; that the mea
sure of their use should be regulated by the APPE
TITES ; as the appetites only have the art of making
that use an enjoyment : And, for Pedant REASON-
to assume the office of judging between good and
evil, because it is intrusted to decide between right
and wrong, is as if the Taste should pretend to judge
between straight and crooked, because it can dis
tinguish between sweet and bitter. Each Faculty
(say they) hath its several department ; and with that,
all, but Reason, are content. This Usurper inter
feres in every circumstance, and claims the vUiole
government of civil life. Hence the rights of Nature
are no less violated in the use of Persons than of
Things, by this assuming Judge and Director ; who,
in confederacy with her spurious issue, LAW, hath
contrived to make more than mutual consent neces
sary for the possession of the fust and general blessing
bestowed on man in Paradise. Where neither the
Parent Reason, nor her stern Progeny, the Laws, will
commiserate discordancy of temper, or distress of
circumstances ; but, with relentless rigour, combine to
fasten that fatal yoke, which these victims of their cruel
policy mustsubmit to wear, till as merciless a Deliverer
sets them free. Again (say they) how absurd is it for
Reason to control the Appetites at all, even in the
general
SERMON XXII. 87
general pursuit of pleasure ? PLEASURE their pecu
liar object, their native department ; for which, all
their functions are so properly contrived, and for
which all their sensations are so admirably fitted.
Reason has no feelings, and therefore should have
no jurisdiction in the measme of the enjoyment.
This is the language of the more refined Mockers,
tricked up in the prostituted gaib of Science.
One might answer these fools according to their
folly ; one might tell them (though to tell them would
only make them mock the more) " That this envied
Station of imperial Reason is no usurpation : that this
authority was given her, to secure Humanity in its na
tive dignity : that \hsAppetiles mistake their use ; they
were not given to regulate the enjoyment of good,
but to excite us in the pursuit of it : for, one spe
cies of good tending to the preservation of the Indi
vidual, and another, to the continuance of the Kind,
were we not sensually swayed, as well as rationally
directed. Inclination would be frequently too slow
to answer the temperate calls of nature : therefore
has all-wise Providence implanted in its heedless
creature, Man, this instinctive impulse of the sen
sual Appetites. Within these limits tbey may fairly
act; but should go no further. They have the ofiice
of Monitor, but not of Judge. This last requires
a discernment which blind Appetite hath not ; who
knows no mean nor measure ; can form no ideas
of the present, from the past or future ; a provision-
ary faculty necessary to prevent the abuse of good,
and its conversion into evil : And this being in the
district of Reason only, it follows, that she, and *he
G 4 alone,
88 SERMON XXII.
alone, was placed by the Author of Nature as a Curb
and Guide to impotent and blind Instinct. And
in our use of good, should Reason be silent till the
Appetites call to take away, abstinence would then
come too late ; for sensuality demands much more
than the body can dispose of, or properly distribute,
for the functions of life and health. Nor is it at all
strange, when the Appetites prove thus headstrong,
that Reason should call in Law to her assistance ;
not the Confederate of her usurpation, but the right
ful Associate of her Office, to support her just au
thority, and to correct what she alone was unable to
restrain. And if, in so important a circumstance
as connubial relation, they have made the tye thus
strong, it was done with the highest moral fitness, as
it best tended to promote and to improve the benefits
of domestic and civil life. Discordancy of temper
would never try to reform its own perversities, while
so licentious a relief was still at hand. And what
stronger spur to industry, in the distresses of fortune,
than the various Charities of conjugal relation ?
which, when impaired and weakened, by an easy
separation, carry away with them all that manly vir
tue by which both States and private Houses are
supported.
As to pleasiire in general, the only idea which the
Appetites can form of it, are the different degrees,
with which the several kinds strike upon the Senses.
But admitting the Appetites could go further, and
comprehend both its nature and effects, yet still the
biibery of those pleasing sensations would so much
bias the inclination as to corrupt all integrity of
24 judgment
SERMON XXII. 89
judgment. Now, in the indulgence of pleasure,
many nice and distant respects are to be taken in ;
which no faculty but Reason can investigate and col
lect ; or when collected, can set together and com
pare, in order to assign to each its just weight and
moment. What faculty but Reason can discern the
various effects, which the use of pleasure hath upon
the mind and body ; or the consequences of it to
those with whom we stand related by domestic, civil,
or religious connexions ? Whether, according to this
or that degree of it, it doth not enervate the body,
obstruct the agency of the mind, impoverish our Fa
milies, debauch the Public, or violate the duties of
Religion ? All these are necessary considerations ;
for on these, HAPPIN ESS, that is real pleasure, essen
tially depends. Now reason only being capable of-
forming a true judgment in these matters, we con
clude, that she, and not the Appetites, is the proper
Director in the pursuit of Pleasure.
Thus have I here adventured to expose the egre
gious folly, and to unmask the extreme corruption
of heart, which can assume the Buffoon or the Phi
losopher indifferently, to laugh at misery and death,
and make a mockery both of La\v and Religion. For
the Sins, which the fashionable Person commits with
so much ease, and confesses with so much gaiety,
the Laws bqth of God and man have been caretul
to forbid, and vigilant to punish ; as actions destruc*
tive of our present, as well as future happiness, ilovv
both may resent it, these impious Triilers would do
well to consider. For there is so much seditious
go SERMON XXII.
insolence with respect to the Civil Magistrate in
making a mock at Sin, that he will probably think
the fittest place for them is Bedlam ; and so much
impiety towards God, that if the place reser ed for
reprobate Spirits will admit of any other Guests,
they must ne-eds be such as those who most resem
ble them in their Conditions, such as make a jest of
Sin and Misery, and a mockery both of God and
Man.
SERMON XXIII.
Preached before the King, in Lent, 1765.
1 COR. ix. 24.
/
KNOW YE NOT THAT THEY WHICH RUN IN A RACE
KUN ALL, BUT ONE RECEIVETH THE PRIZE?
SO RUN THAT YE MAY OBTAIN.
~^HE Apostle, proposing to shew to his Converts
-*- of Corinth the advantages which they, who
contend for a heavenly prize, have over those who
aspire no higher than an earthly one, illustrates his
Argument by a similitude taken from their so ce
lebrated Olympic Games ; which contains a reasoning
to this effect
" Worldly attainments (says he) are like the Con
tentions in your Olympic Games-, where, though the
Athletes be man)?, and the struggle great, yet the
prizes are extremely few, and the Success very un
certain ; for that every Adventurer hath an Adver
sary in every other; who all strive to cross, to
retard, to circumvent him in his Course. On the
contrary, they, who aspire to that immortal crown,
which Religion holds, out, as the reward of Faith and
Charity,
92 SERMON XXIII.
Charity, are all sure to win, and be victorious ; the
rewards being many, as coming from the all-boun
teous hand of our heavenly Father j and the assist
ance great, as afforded by the kind encouragement
of our Christian Brethren running the same race
with us. Therefore (says the Apostle) do you Co
rinthians put in for this Prize, which no accidents of
time or fortune, nor any thing but your own fault,
can hinder you from obtaining : and throw behind
you all worldly ambition for that agonistic glory,
where you have so small chance of coming off either
with honour or advantage/
This the Apostle urges as one motive for pre
ferring heavenly pursuits to earthly. In the words
which follow my text, he enforces another And
every man (saith he) who sir wet h for Mastery is
TEMPERATE in all things : Now They do it to obtain
a corruptible Crown, but JVe, an incorruptible.
For this purpose, adds he, I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection. As much as to say, Cf The
pursuit of a heavenly Crown hath not only these
advantages of certainty above that aspired to, at the
Olympic Games, but they are without any peculiar
drawback, since the preparation for the spiritual
prize is not more severe than the preparation for the
earthly." Jf I (says he) a follower of Christ, keep
under my body, and bring it into subjection ; the
Olympic Racer observes as strict a Discipline he is
temperate in all things.
Such is the force of the Apostle s fine persua
sive, to induce the followers of Christ, to prefer the
pursuit of spiritual things to things temporal.
AH,
SERMON XXIII. 93
All, therefore, I shall have to do, will be only to
draw out and develop the reasoning of my text,
in such a manner as to impress the force of it on
the mind of every serious Hearer. Let us there
fore attend to these two important Truths
1st, That Worldly advantages, when they come
to be so considerable as to deserve the name of a
prize, are of the most uncertain and difficult attain
ment. And,
Ilndly, That the immense rewards, which Re
ligion holds out to its faithful Servants, are within
the reach of every one : where, every honest and
sincere Aspirant to the prize is sure not to be dis
appointed : for, as in the Words following my text
the Christian Racer runs not as uncertainly ; he
so fights, not as one that beateth the air.
And here let me observe, that the Apostle turned
the fairest side outwards, in this representation of
worldly pursuits, when he .compared them to the
contentions in the Olympic Games : for in those
Games superior Skill and Address bade fairest for
the highest prize : but in the world at large the
prospect is much less favourable.
Wisdom and Industry, the qualities designed both
by Providence and by Nature, to procure, for the
WORTHY, the fruits of their honest labours, are
so crossed and traversed by what the Ignorant
call Chance, in the disposition of human affairs,
that Folly, and random Starts, often get to the goal
before them, and snatch away the prize from them.
Wiuie Solomon, the wise, considered; but in spe
culation
94 SERMON XXIII.
dilation only, the natural connexion there is be
tween merit and success, he was ready to conclude,
that the Rewards ot Providence constantly attended
the Efforts of Wisdom and Virtue : But when he
turned his Contemplations outward, and observed
what was doing amongst Men, he gave a very dif
ferent account of these matters; / returned (that is,
from speculation, and an ideal World), and then I
saw under the Sun (that is, in practice and in the
affairs of men) that the race is not to the Swift, nor
the battle to the Strong ; nor yet bread to the Wise ;
nor yet riches to men of Understanding ; nor yet
favour to men of Skill : But time and chance hap-
peneth to them all.
However, let us take this matter at the best, and
throw sucii untoward circumstances aside : Let us
suppose, Wisdom and Industry to be as necessary
and as successful, in affairs at large, as Diet and
Exercise to an Olympic Racer ; and then see, what
the Man of the World is to struggle with ; what
opposition he is to encounter ; and how many ways
his fairest endeavours are likely to be defeated.
In private Stations, the deserving Candidate for
the World s favour is eternally crossed by those
two capital enemies of Merit, IGNORANCE and
ENVY. It is hard to say, whose malignancy is most
baleful. For if Ignorame be less active, its ill"
influence operates soonest. Rising merit requires
early protection and support. Ignorance is the
Winter of the moral World ; which fixes the finer
and gentler Spirits in a torpid inactivity ; and either
destroys, or greatly retards, th& earliest -and most
vigorous
SERMON XXIIf. 95
vigorous productions of the human mind. And "
those natures of a mere hardy texture, which can
struggle through its inclemencies, scarce ever attain
to half their growth or maturity : While those, who,
by a rare felicity in their early culture, escape the
severity of this frost of Ignorance, no sooner begin
to rise high in the view of men, than they are as
saulted from the quarter opposite, from the Do^-star
rage of Envy.
Nor are the Deserving to expect better treatment
from the patronage of their Judges; from those
whose condition enables them, or whose stations
intrust them to confer these Rewards. They are
often ignorant; and as often corrupt. And even-
such of them who have good intentions, are com
monly of so narrow minds and contracted views,
as never to seek, or never to reach, a merit become
eminent; but content themselves with giving that to
Mediocrity, which is due only to superior Talents :
while the Corrupt are even vigilant to suppress
merit, as a tiling troublesome to them, both in their
natural dispositions and civil pursuits.
If we turn from private to public life, we shall
find, that the ambitious Adventurer has still more
formidable Dangers to encounter. Here, every man
has every other leagued against him; and all ranged
under the banners of those leading passions, Malice
and Selfishness. Malice will leave no means of
calumny and slander untried or unemployed, to
arrest him in his course : and Selfishness will secretly
put in practice every art of fraud and hypocrisy, to
divert and draw him from the goal,
Such
96 SERMON XXIII.
Such is the common issue of human affairs : And
hence hath arisen, in every age and place, that
uniform complaint of defeated virtue, and of merit
neglected ; of integrity vainly struggling with cor
ruption, and of wisdom succumbing under the
bauble of folly.
Now St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, a Peo
ple well versed 111 the knowledge and ways of men ;
taught, by long experience, the instability and va
nity of human grandeur, wearied out by disastrous
tugs with Fortune, and their attention now strongly
drawn, by the opening view of better things; St
Paul, I say, takes advantage of this favourable si
tuation, to turn their passions from human objects,
so unsuccessfully pursued, towards heavenly, where
their well-meant endeavours would always bring
them off more than Conquerors.
And here, my argument leads me to shew, that,
in the pursuit of spiritual acquirements, all things
are as promising and easy, as they are discouraging
and difficult in the disastrous projects of worldly
Ambition. Instead of anxiety, toil, labour, oppo
sition, oppression, and final disappointment; all
Here is peace and pleasure ; joy in believing, divine
assistance in obtaining, and full security in pos
sessing. For,
1st, A struggle for celestial Honours has the ad
vantage of the worldly, in this, that All win the
prize who have the noble ambition to contend for it.
In the worldly Race below, all run (says the Apostle)
but one receweth theprizs; And (says history and
experience)
SERMON XXIII. 97
experience) THAT ONE is, generally, the most worth
less of the contenders.
2dly, In pursuit of worldly matters (as hath been
observed) all our concurrents are our enemies, and
do all they can to hinder and divert us in our course.
In the pursuit of spiritual things, all our concur
rents are our friends are our coadjutors. The
only strife amongst good men, in the race to Hea
ven, is, who shall lend the best assistance to his
labouring brother : The slow is helped forward ; the
weak is supported; the backward reproved; the de^
spending encouraged ; and the fallen raised up.
3dly, The third advantage which the Aspirant
to divine felicity has over the vain seeker after
earthly honours, is the proper qualification of the
Adventurers. In worldly pursuits, when all other
impediments are away, there is need of great and
uncommon abilities, either of mind or body ; such
as health, courage, activity, industry, vigilance, and
a capacity of knowledge and eloquence. In spiritual
concerns, our success depends solely on ourselves ;
in meaning well, and acting honestly. This sup
ports our confidence, and secures us from all irre
solute anxiety ; the bane of life, which clogs our
endeavours, im bitters our sweetest prospects, and
frequently defeats our best-laid schemes of hap
piness.
4thly, The last difference, so infinitely to the
Advantage of religious pursuits, which I shall beg
Jeave to enforce, is in the stability of the things
aimed at. Could the successful aspirant after
* Vox, X, U earthly
9 S SERMON XXIII.
earthly things secure to himself the possession of
the prize he has obtained, for any reasonable time ;
or spend, what is called, a Life in the enjoyment
of it; some little might be said in his excuse
nothing, indeed, to justify the wisdom of his choice;
yet something, however, to excuse the folly of his
prevention. But, alas ! the case is much other
wise. His glory shrinks like a shadow from his
gripe, even while he is attending to the acclama
tions of his triumph. Either the time, em
ployed in the pursuit, hath drawn out life to its
dregs ; or the fatigues, attendant on the contest,
have broken and destroyed the basis of his Frame and
Constitution; so that the Garland, woven to cele
brate his Victory, serves only to ornament his
Herse. Or, if haply he succeed while in the full
vigour of life, he is then often to undergo a second
struggle, as hazardous, and generally more toilsome,
than the first to preserve from the Envious what
he had fairly won from his Emulators.
But he who runs the race which Religion sets be
fore us, is subject to none of these reverses of fate
or fortune. All is peace, and joy in believing here
below; and hereafter the sure possession of an eternal
Crown of Glory.
Since then it is so clearly seen on which side the
advantage lies, let us act like Men ; like such who
know how to form a reasonable Choice ; and make
our greatest interest our principal concern.
But then, in this spiritual Adventure, let us cany
with us our worldly prudence : Let us not so run
(to use the Apostle s expression) as one that beatetk
the
SERMON XXIII. 99
the air. Let us not give ear either to the delusions
of Bigotry, or Fanaticism. Let us not deceive our
selves, with the fancy that we may, on the one
hand, obtain the prize, by the observance of idle and
superstitious Ceremonies; or, on the ether, by the
delusive feelings, or ecstatic visions of Enthusiasm :
but let us, as the same "divine Guide directs us, so
run that ice may obtain : that is, advance steadily
in that sober Course, which the Gospel has marked
out to us of repentance towards God, and Faith in
our Lord Jem$ Christ ; under the guidance, and
with the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
M
.;;;,; :.; SERMON xxiv, ; ? i
SALVATION BY FAITH ALQNE.
MATT. chap. xxii. ver. 12.
AND HE SAID UNTO HIM, FRIEND, HOW CABIEST
THOU IN HITHER, NOT HAVING A WEDDING-
GARMENT? AND HE WAS SPEECHLESS. THEN"
THE KING SAID TO HIS SERVANTS, BIND HIM
HAND AND FOOTj AND TAKE HIM AWAY.
IN this Parable of the marriage -feast of the King s
Son, a select company was first bidden ; and
they refusing the invitation, every wanderer that
occurred was indiscriminately entertained. The Pa
rable was told by our blessed Master, to shadow
out the nature and fortune, of his Gospel ; first
offered to the chosen people of God, the Jews ; and,
on their rejection of it, laid open to the acceptance
of the Gentiles of every denomination. So far con
cerning the general fortune of the Gospel.
But in that part of it from whence the words of
my text are taken, its peculiar nature is, in a very
lively manner, set before us. The bidding to a mar
riage-feast is a free and gracious favour ; and that
" 3 Guest
102 SERMON XXIV.
Guest was deemed unworthy of it who did notcoine
in such a habit as was the customary mark of his re
ceiving the honour done him, with reverence and
gratitude. The Wedding Garment was the symbolum
which admitted him to the Feast : to be found with
out it was an evidence of his being an Intruder ; and
justly subjected him to the resentment of the Lord
and Founder of the entertainment. For in ancient
times it was the custom for him who was bidden to
a marriage, to come in a robe of ceremony, so
fashioned and adorned as to be expressive of the
Characters and Circumstances of the wedded Pair,
by which it became a badge denoting the relation he
bore unto them.
Now, this Marriage was the Marriage of Christ
with his Church : and the Feast to which the Elect
were invited, was life find immortality. So that if
we consider the state and condition of things, the
Wedding Garment will appear to mean nothing but
FAITH in Christ the Saviour ; this sacred badge
being peculiarly characteristic of the nature and
genius of the Gospel. So that the worthy bidden
Guest was he who was clothed upon (as the Apostle
expresses it) icith Christ Jesus.
In its more general turn, the Parable was fitted
to represent every age of the Church. Some who
were bidden would not come ; and some who ac
cepted the invitation would come irreverently and
profanely ; would be so far from complying with the
terms of the invitation, as insolently to affix to it
different terms of their own.
But no Age hath so well exemplified the disobe
dience
SERMON XXIV. 103
ilience and insult, held forth in the Parable, as that in
which we live. Most of those who are bidden now,
slight the invitation ; and many of those who con
descend to come, dishonour the Feast Uy rejecting
the condition on which they are to be received,
FAITH IN THE MESSIAH, the Wedding Garment of
the Church of Christ.
We read, in the text, that when he, who came
without the appropriated Robe, was reproved for his
neglect, he was speechless. But the Ministers of the
Gospel must not expect to have our irreligious Con
victs at this advantage. They are ready addressed
to reason with us, and shew that " the crime we lay
lay so much stress upon, is at worst only the re
jection of a new-fashioned Garb ; that though they
be without their Robe of ceremony, yet their Heart
is right ; they honour the Lord of the feast, and re
verence his Son ; they so square their life, as" to be
worthy of God s favour and friendship : and for the
rest, they are sure, he will never quarrel with them
for a punctilio." In a word (to speak out of the
terms of the Parable) the new-fangled modern Chris
tian is sure, he says, that " the man who observes
the moral Lau\ shall, without any more ado, be en
titled to the favour of Iris Makec, and consequently,
to all the benefits of Christ s Gospel : for howfoith
In Jesus CBXI justify him, or be the very tiling which
shall entitle him to eternal life, he cannot compre
hend : that it may be of use as a viaticum here, he
will not deny, since Jesus has more clearly explained
the nature and rectified the practice of the moral
Zflsr, and so is his best Instructor in its righteous-
K 4
104 SE11MON XXIV.
mss; but how this Faith should be the only Intro
ducer to God s presence hereafter, while the moral
wan, laden deep with good works, is kept without
credat Jud&us ApeUa" Such is the confident talk of
the PHILOSOPHERS of our time. Yet justification by
faith alone is the constant language of the Gospel.
And to shew that it is not the Language of Fa
naticism, I shall endeavour to evince the reason
ableness of the Christian doctrine of JUSTIFICA
TION E Y FAim, and of the necessity of FAITH to
obtain the promises of the Gospel. By which the
egregious folly of expecting to obtain them on any
other condition will amply appear.
Let us then, in compliance with the false notions
of these men, suppose that a strict and uniform obe
dience to the moral Law will entitle us to erer-
lasting life; and the rather, because St, Paul, in his
reasoning with the Jews, seems to concede (though
by way of argument ad homines) that had they ob
served a strict and uniform obedience to the Law,
it would have given life; and righteousness, as he
expresses it, had been of the Law : but that, failing
in this, they were brought into a state of death ;
from which they could be redeemed only by faith
in Jesus.
Now, were this strictly true, what would the race
of Adam be the better for so vain a title ? For who
of us, except him who was the Son of God as well
as of Adam, ever preserved his integrity inviolate,
and did not frequently deviate from moral rec
titude ? though he might as often recover himself,
and by repentance and amendment put in again
SERMON XXIV. 105
for God s mercy and favour; yet still man had irre
vocably forfeited all claim to eternal life, even though
eternal life had, indeed, been attendant on strict uni
form obedience.
Nor let any one imagine, from what he thinks
he can collect of the light of Nature, concern
ing God s readiness to pardon a returning sinner,
and to receive him into his favour, that this grace
consists in a restoration to eternal life. Such a fancy
is founded in a mistaken notion that eternal life is
the debt or wages, or covenanted reward, of our sin
cere and careful endeavours to obey the moral Law
of God. The light of Nature gives us a very different
view of things. It sets before us the infinite dispa
rity between our imperfect obedience, in this momen
tary state, and the reward of eternal life in a better.
If we will believe the Apostle, it teaches this, and
this only, that God is a rewarder of them who dili
gently seek him ; and that the good moral mem who
misses of his reward here, will find it hereafter : that
the reward, indeed, will be abundant ; for though we
be unprofitable Servants, yet is he a most bountiful
Master. But abundant and eternal belong to differ
ent systems.
This Truth, so clearly deduced from natural Rea
son, Revelation supports and confirms. Eternal life
in this Dispensation never being so much as once
represented in Holy Scripture as the constitutional
reward of the virtuous man s practice, but always as
the free gift of God.
The consequence of which truth is, that if this free
gift were offered on Condition (and that it was, all
sides
106 SERMON XXIV.
sides are agreed), the Condition must be of a thing
different from that virtuous life which hath God s
favour naturally annexed to it.
Accordingly we find, that the condition \vas, in
fact, different. "When life and immortality was first
offered to Adam, the condition was the observance
of a positive command, not to cat of the forbidden
fruit : and when, after the forfeiture of this free
Inheritance by the first man s disobedience, we
were restored to life by the death and sufferings
of Christ, the condition was another positive com-
m%nd,foith in the Messiah. And here the goodness
and compassion of the Godhead to miserable man
are most eminent. Eternal life was, as we say,
first given on the observance of a positive command,
a command to do or to forbear doing ; and therefore
was almost as soon forfeited as it was bestowed.
And we may reasonably conclude, from the weak
ness and perversity of human nature, that as often
as it was bestowed on the same condition, it would
be as often forfeited. To secure, therefore, so pre
cious a gift to the forfeited Offspring of Adam (for
a condition was not annexed, to tantalize our hopes,
but to exercise our obedience) God hath finally
revealed the condition of eternal life, to be some
thing to be believed, instead of something to be ob
served. From henceforth the gift was no longer pre
carious, but secure i nd certain. So much order, rea
son, and beauty, are to be found in the various Dis
pensations of Religion !
And here let me observe, that the not distin
guishing between the Rewards objected to the en*
couragement
SERMON XXIV. 107
couragement of obedience by natural, and t-iose by
revealed Religion, hath been the sole cause of those
dark and endless Debates concerning Justification
by Faith : For while one Party explained away
this fundamental Principle of the Gospel, the Other
supported it by arguments which debase human Rea
son, and dishonour the divine Attributes. In the
mean time, this distinction alone (equally founded
in Reason and Revelation, and confounded between
folly and sophistry) would have relieved the labour
ing cause of Truth from all the absurdities and im
pieties employed in its defence. But, how the Doc
trine of Salvation by FAITH ALONE, can consist
with the other, of the necessity of good works to ob-
tain the favour of God y and how that which hath a
condition annexed, and a price paid, can be called a
FREE GIFT, will be shewn at large in another place.
It sufficeth at present, that the Key to this Mystery
is here intrusted to your keeping;
And now, to apply this Scripture-Doctrine of
Eternal life by Faith, to the consideration of all who
call themselves Christians.
I will presume, that the aim of all such is to obtain
the Gospel-rewards : for, though, in the fashionable
language of the mere moral Christian, tliey ask no
more than the favour of God, yet they consider this
favour as only another name for eternal life. But
this moral Christian must have a very high opinion
of the perfection of his Morals, if he can imagine
that, because natural Religion tells him, it will
entitle him to God s favour, that therefore it will en
title
*68 SERMON XXIV.
title him to eternal life ; a free gift, which Revelatioil
brings to light, and offers on a different condition*
namely. Faith in the Messiah. Such a fancy is in
deed attempting the Kingdom of heaven by force.
But it is not that force which Scripture recom-
jneuds^ of faith and prayer, but the profane vio
lence of human presumption. And of what is mi
serable man so vain ? The morality of his actions.
Yet are these, for the most part, little better than
his more shining frailties. And an ancient Father,
if he considered them in the concrete rather than the
abstract, did not calumniate, when he called them
splendida peccata.
Let a man examine the Condition of his Morals,
and he will find such bias of appetite, such heat of
passion, and such obliquity of self-interest, as cannot
but stain and sully all the purity of Virtue. Or if it
escape this pollution, yet the silent influences of
Habit and Constitution so mix themselves with the
true motive to moral practice (the sense of duty)
that he will find its intrinsic value greatly alloyed.
If he consider the Qualification of his Morals, he will
generally find them pushed too far, or else stop
ping short of the point of perfection. If he consider
the Uniformity of his Morals, he will find them re
ceiving perpetual interruption, from negligence and
inattention, from secular cares and pursuits, from
strong appetites, and from stronger temptations :
and if, after this, he will still persist in thinking such
Morals deserving of an eternal reward, he will give
us, in his Modesty > a still stronger evidence of the
futility of human Virtue,
But
SERMON XXIV, 109
But he will say, * It is not so much human merit,
as the mercies of God (which Natural Religion
teaches to be infinite, those mercies which Divines
call the uncovenantcd) whereon he relies for the at
tainment of eternal life"
It is certain, that God s goodness and mercy are
infinite : and had we only these to bring into the
account, we might perhaps be left to conclude, that
when God thinks fit to reward, he rewards in pro
portion to them, that is, Infinitely^ ou at least so
abundantly, as to surpass all human conception,
But we reckon too fast, and, in our estimate, forget,
that though his goodness and mercy be infinite, his
Wisdom and his Justice are so likewise : And what
abatement the consideration of these latter attributes
may make in the rewards due to human Virtue, we
have seen already. Nay, though his Justice might
not exact a severe balance on the account, yet his
Wisdom might. It may (for aught natural Reason
hath discovered to the contrary) be necessary to
the moral Government of the Universe, that the
most severe example should be made of man wil
fully wicked. And nothing can clear up this dark
and doubtful prospect, and set the overwearied mind
at rest, but REVELATION ; Which, by teaching the
atonement of Christ once offered on the Cross, shews
us that God s Justice, from which we had reason to
expect such dreadful abatements in the rewards
due to human virtue, is appeased and disarmed ; and
by proposing eternal life through faith, satisfies us
(that his Wisdom, in the government of the Universe,
$oes not require the severest punishment for Sin.
Vet
no SERMON XXIV.
Yet our modern Masters of reason think it a high
point of philosophic wisdom, rather to rely on the
uncovcnanted mercies of God, which Natural Reli
gion so obscurely holds out to us, than on those
covenanted mercies which the Revealed hath so
openly and clearly laid before us.
But now, these men perhaps may say, " We rest
perfectly satisfied with the Reward, whatever it may
prove, which Natural Religion tells us we shall re
ceive at the hand of God, for our sincere endeavours
to deserve his favour and protection."
But, I am afraid, this false modesty will be found
as absurd as it is impious ; and that those who will
not labour for the whole reward, which Revelation
offers, will lose even that which Natural Religion
may encourage them to seek.
Those without the Church of Christ may be dis
tinguished and divided into such who have never
been sufficiently informed of the saving name of
Jesus ; and such who, on a sufficient proposal of it
to their acceptance, have thought fit to reject it
How those will be dealt with who lie bound in
invincible ignorance, the grace and benignity of our
holy Religion does more than intimate. It expressly
teaches, that the merits of Christ s death and passion
have a retrospect to all times and ages since Adam,
on whose trespass this Redemption rises. It was
for the whole Race of mankind that Christ died.
So, it seems most equitable, that those, whom his
name never reached, should have the same right to
the benefits of his death, by their morals, that those
who believe in him have by their Faith,
A*
SERMON XXIV. in
As this best suits the gracious nature of an uni
versal Religion, so it seems necessary that, for the
support of its dignity, those who, after a sufficient
invitation to accept the terms of salvation by Jesus,
have, by the misguidance of their passions, wilfully
and knowingly rejected it, should, together with that,
lose all their claim to what Natural Religion (the
foundation on which Revelation stands) had encou
raged them to expect.
Our Moralists then, if indeed they aspire to the
favour of God, are reduced to this distress, either
to call in FAITH to procure for them eternal life ;
or else, if they will admit no Associate to their
Morality, to rest contented with what the disin-
tere sted pursuit of Virtue can afford them. All
that we can do further for them is to pray to God
to direct them in their choice.
SERMON XXV,
THE BENEFITS OF HERESY,
i COR. xi. 19. ljf
THERE MUST BE ALSO HERESIES AMONGST YOU,
THAT THEY WHICH ARE APPROVED MAY BE
MADE MANIFEST AMONGST YOU.
IN this observation, the Apostle hints at one con
dition of the moral World, inseparable, as it is
at present constituted, from its existence, a mixture
of truth and falsehood, analogous to things salutary
and noxious in the Natural. But, in both Worlds,
the GOOD produced by this mixture is so eminent as
fully to support the trite observation, that Evil was
suffered for the sake of a greater good. Yet was
God so far from constituting evil in the moral world
for the sake of that good which it occasioned, that
the whole of this Ordinance was good : out of which
the folly and perversity of Man produced evil. If it
be asked, how God came to suffer this perversion ?
The answer is, the subject viv& free- agency, which
was not to be controlled. All that, according to*our
ideas, could be done ? without impinging upon it, was
VOL. X, I done,
T i-4 SERMON XXV.
done, by God s turning the natural tendency of evil
to the production of new good. So that God and
Man have been perpetually at strife ; the One to
produce good out of evil ; the other, to produce
evil out of good.
The greatest good ever vouchafed ungrateful Man
was Salvation by the Gospel of Jesus. Yet was he
no sooner possessed of this blessing than he abused
it, by the production of Heresies and false Opinions.
Out of which evil, God again, according to his gra
cious way of working, produced new good ; a spe
cies of which is here mentioned in my text, the ma
nifestation of the approved. There must be Heresies
amongst you, that they which are approved may be
made manifest amongst you.
I shall therefore consider these two particulars,
Who are meant by the approved ; and what is the
nature and end of their manifestation.
I. The false Opinions obtruded on the Church of
Christ, and taught as articles of Faith, which the
Apostle calls Heresies, made their fortune amongst
the People, either by flattering the levity of their
minds, or by soothing the corruption of their hearts.
They either pretended to clear up mysteries, to re
solve difficulties, and by new lights, to lead us further
into Truth ; or else to allow of practices, to v v hi c h
the written Law of the Gospel, and the received dis
cipline of the Church, gave no indulgence. In a
word, to be wise above what is written, and to be
set at large from what is commanded.
Now the Teachers of such Doctrines would not
fail
SERMON XXV. 115
fail of willing Hearers. All the vain and the vicious ;
the lovers of novelty and the lovers of pleasure ; all
who prided themselves in thinking with the Few ; or
had degraded themselves by acting with the Many.
All such would he easily caught in these well-baited
traps of Heresy,
The only security from these snares was MO
DESTY or VIRTUE. The modest man would remain
pure from the itch of novelty, and an over-eager
appetite for those sublime Doctrines which the an
cient Heretics pretended to have received in trust
for the use of their followers : And the virtuous man
would become prejudiced against all Practices which
opened a door to libertinism and concupiscence.
All these would be naturally led to make com
parisons between the rank Doctrines of their new
Teachers, and the simplicity, the clearness, the ra
tionality, and the purity, of what was delivered in
the Gospel. And the parallel w : ould end in a more
full conviction of the Truth, and a warmer adhe
rence to its interests. To These, the Apostle gives
the name of the APPROVED.
II. But the great good here hinted at, as arising
from the evil of Heresies, is that the Approved may
be made MANIFEST: Of which manifestation we
are now to consider the nature and the end,
i. Its nature is seen, first, in a constant and
public adherence to the doctrines of the Catholic
Church ; in affording no countenance to the dis
turbers of its peace, either by neglecting the public
offices of the established worship, or by frequenting
I 2 the
n 6 SERMON XXV.
the assemblies of Separatists : and, ot the same time,
in shewing (if they be able) the reasonableness and
defending the truth of the orthodox opinions, and
in laying open the sophistry and absurdity of here
tical novelties.
2. Secondly, It is seen in the exercise of the most
perfect Charity to the persons of Heretics : em
ploying only brotherly persuasion, enforced by manly
reasoning, to draw them from their errors, and bring
them back to the sheepfold of Christ. And when
these prove ineffectual, then to leave them to the
righteous judgment of God ; neither employing co
ercive power ourselves, nor willingly suffering it to
be employed by others. In a word to use, for
their reduction, no severity but that of Reason, and
no force but that of Prayer.
The benefit to the Church, in this manifestation,
respects both the approved themselves, and also
their Christian Brethren of the same Community.
i . The profession of our Faith is represented in
Scripture as a warfare with the World ; and that
the life and immortality brought to light by the
Gospel is the reward of our Victory in this Contest.
It was fit therefore that so great a gift should be
earned by some proportionate labour and hazard.
Hence every age of the Church hath had its trials :
At one time, Persecutions ; at another, Heresies
and Schisms ; and at another, a general Defection
from the Faith. All for the accomplishment of the
wise ends of Providence : many of them inscrutable
to
v SERMON XXV. 117
to us : of some, Reason directs us to form probable
conjectures ; and of some again we have a full
knowledge, from Revelation : Of this last sort is
the truth recorded in my text, that there must be.
Heresies, that they which are approved may be
made manifest.
Amongst the various conflicting evils of the
Church, this of Heresies was one of the first. And
its use to the Approved consists in its being a severe
and salutary trial of their FAITH and VIRTUE.
The mind of man is naturally delighted with
Novelties : and if the Novelties be such as do not
directly oppose, but pretend only to explain ai.d
rectify his received opinions, he will be tempted to
regard them with a favourable eye.
A pretence to sublimer knowledge, which is ever
the boast of Heresy, will strongly incline Humanity,
naturally vain, and aspiring to things beyond its
reach, to listen to these seducers.
Doctrines which flatter the corruption of the heart,
and humour the perversity of the will, as heretical
doctrines always do, will be apt to gain a ready
entrance into the unfortified and unguarded Mind.
But they are not only our Vices but our Virtues
likewise which expose men to the delusions of
Heresy.
Humility, or a low opinion of ourselves, disposes
us to give ear to all such who, with the confidence
of authority, offer to teach us things important, and,
till now, unknown to us : And Modesty, sure at
tendant on humility, is apt to interpret that con
fidence into a mark of certainty of knowledge.
I 3 Charity
ii8 SERMON XXV.
Charity will not suffer us to suspect that those
who cast aside all temporal consideration for them
selves, can have any other view than the interests of
truth : And Christian Simplicity, the offspring of
Charity, leads us to conclude, that when such men
suffer all kind of evil for the support of their Opi
nions, nothing less than the power of truth can sup
port them in such a conflict.
In a word, the love of Virtue itself inclines us
much in favour of men who, as Heretics frequently
do, lead a life of temperance, chastity, justice, and
beneficence.
When, therefore, botli our worst and our best
qualities equally conspire to betray us into heretical
opinions, it must be a more than ordinary fortitude
in Faith, and sobriety in Virtue, which can preserve
us safe from these delusions, and bring us off, as the
Apostle says, approved.
And as, in the course of this trial, the faith of the
approved must needs be rectified and established,
and their virtue purified and perfected, the good
produced by it makes sufficient amends to God s
Church for the ill permitted in these tares of heresy
thus sown by the Eril one.
But still, this is not the whole good produced in
thus manifesting the approved through heresies.
Another, and indeed the principal, is the useful EX
AMPLE oftheapp-roved, to the Church or Congrega
tion of the faithful ; the gross body of which have nei
ther understandings nor hearts of sufficient strength
to detect, or defend themselves from, the arts of
cunning and industrious seduce ss, such as the Leaders
SERMON XXV. 119
in Heresy generally are. Or if, haply, they have been
taught to keep out of their snares, they are too apt to
run into the opposite extreme, violating all the rules
of justice in their treatment of these Disturbers of
the Church s peace.
Now the EXAMPLE of the approved is of great
use to the body of the Faithful in both these re
spects ; to fortify their reason against delusion ; and,
when that is done, to restrain their passions against
the deluders.
The strongest argument with the People for the
truth of their religious Opinions, is the seeing them
maintained and supported by men, whose learning,
parts, and piety, they hold in reverence. This is a
species of moral evidence most flattering to the ca
pacity of the Vulgar ; such of the Vulgar, I mean,
whose natural modesty, or conscience of their own
-weakness, is not quite effaced by the heat and
fumes of Enthusiasm. An argument founded in the
eternal nature of things, and formed on the rules of
severe logic, is, in their gross conceptions, a slippery
support to their Faith; and, in comparison of an
argument which rises on a great name and a spe
cious authority, very cloudy and evanid.
The influence, therefore, which the example of
great and good men has on the minds of the People,
is exceeding powerful.
Nor is the CONDUCT of the approved towards He
retics and Schismatics less serviceable to the Church
of Christ Moderation is not the lot of the People,
They approve and execrate ; they love and hate
with violence : and when once they have condemned
I 4 the
120 SERMON XXV.
the innovation, which they are readily induced to
do, on observing it to be condemned by those
they most esteem and venerate, they are easily
led to oppose the Innovators with a violence which
both natural equity and the genius of Christianity
forbid. Now r;ere again the Example of the Ap
proved is of sovereign efficacy to teach them cha
rity and moderation. And this Example is so pow
erful, that there is no instance to be found of a per
secuting spirit which hath long continued, or arrived
to any height, but where the men in most credit for
their stations, abilities, and dazzling virtues, have
encouraged and led it on. And whenever such have,
by their conduct, been seen to disapprove of violent
measures, the folly and rage of the People have pre
sently subsided.
Thus amply rewarded are the Approved of my
text, for all they undergo in this trial, by the benefit
they procure to the Public in their EXAMPLE. And
thus is the evil of heresies, by the gracious disposi
tion of things, turned to good, and heresy, by a con
trary exertion, made to produce those two capital
Gospel-virtues, FAITH AND CHARITY. So admi
rable a vindication of God s general Providence does
the sense of my text contain there must be here-
sies amongst you, that they which are approved may
be made manifest amongst you*
SERMON XXVI.
Preached at Bristol, November igth, 1759, being the day
appointed for a Public Thanksgiving for Victories ob
tained by the British Arms.
EzEKIEL XXXvi. 22,
FOR THUS SA1TH THE LORD GOD, I DO NOT THIS
FOR YOUR SAKES, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL, BUT
FOR MY HOLY NAME S SAKE.
GOD, by his Prophet, having here foretold the
unmerited blessings which he had in store for
the House oj Israel ; lest this wretched People should
become vain in their imaginations, and fancy that
these mercies were reserved for them, as the pecu
liar Favourites of Heaven, thought fit to mortify their
folly in the words of my text I do not this for your
sakes, O House of Israel, but for my holy name s sake.
As much as to say, " Be careful not to mistake the
purpose of these promised blessings, as if they were
the reward of your Virtues; for, by your repeated
Crimes you have long since forfeited all claim to my
special
122 SERMON XXVI.
special protection : nor yet mistake them for the effects
of any partial fondness which your vanity may make
you presume I have for you. I employ you only as
the Instruments (and this is an honour you little
deserve) for carrying on the grand system of my
moral government ; which requiring that some one
Nation should be set apart for the Repository of
the knowledge of the true God, I have, in honour of
my faithful Servant, your Father Abraham, chosen
you for the Ministers of this sacred Trust,"
To this purpose does the Divine Majesty of Hea
ven speak to his chosen People in the words of my
text. Arid as all Scripture is written for our instruc
tion, to whom the ends of the world are come, let
us conceive that, to the same purpose, he now speaks
to us on this joyful occasion ; which the piety of Go
vernment has thought fit to sanctify, by the appoint
ment of a public thanksgiving for the late great mer
cies bestowed upon this Nation, in a seasonable
Plenty and civil harmony at home ; and in the un
paralleled successes of the British Arms abroad.
The nature of these domestic blessings, after having
been for some time alarmed with a suspension of
them, in penurious Harvests and divided Councils,
is best understood by the happy difference in our feel
ings. As to the high importance of our successes
abroad against the Common Disturber of the peace
of Europe this is a matter to be left to the Poli
tician. On this occasion, I presume, I shall dis
charge my duty better, in attempting to explain to
you those dispositions and sentiments of piety with
which you should possess yourselves, to make this
grateful
SERMON XXVI. 123
grateful offering acceptable to your gracious Pro
tector.
If therefore you be more ready to HEAR, than to
give the sacrifice of Fools, you should consider, Far
whose sake, Treason tells you, these great blessings
have been conferred upon you : for, on this you are
to regulate the testimony of your gratitude. Now
Reason will never direct you to conclude, that they
were given for your sakes, unless there be a greater
portion of sobriety, virtue, and religion amongst
yourselves, than is to be found in the rest of the
Christian world. Now if this rare series of good
fortune hath not quite intoxicated you (as good for
tune is too apt to do), a slight view of the moral con
dition of these Kingdoms would soon cure you of
all such vain imaginations. For where is the holy
Faith in Jesus more openly despised by the Great,
or more vilely ridiculed by the little People, than
in this our Island ? A love of the Public is now
laughed at, as the Chimera of the young and unex
perienced : a general Corruption, under the name of
Prudence, walks barefaced ; and as general a pur
suit of Pleasure, miscalled Happiness, bears down
before it all the relations and charities of civil and
domestic life. Christian candour, therefore, will not
be offended, if, on this view of things, I address you,
my Countrymen, and Brethren, in the words of the
Prophet Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this
for your sakes, but for my holy name s sake.
If we turn from the merits of the Contenders
to the merits of the Cause, neither Party, I am
afraid, will have reason to expect any very distin
guished
124 SERMON \XVL
guished interposition of Providence in their favour.
Let us estimate the original claim of European Na
tions to American possessions, on the severe Prin
ciples of Natural and Civil Laws ; and then lay
our hand on our heart, and ask it seriously, Whether
the unadjusted claims of the contending nations to
desarts of their own making, in the new world, be
such a quarrel, as that in w^hich the Creator of all
men, the equal Father of the human race, is likely,
in any extraordinary manner, to interfere ? Let us
do this, and we shall hardly have an answer much
to the satisfaction of our vanity.
We should, therefore, seek for a cause of these
uncommon mercies, more worthy the Majesty of
Heaven. And we should seek for it somewhere in
the course of God s general Providence, in the moral
government of the world. And if there we find it,
we shall soon see, that the blessings bestowed were
not for our sakes, but for his holy name s sake.
God, for the great ends of his universal provi
dence, inscrutable to us, was pleased to station his
favoured creature Man in a world abounding with
natural and moral evil.
But this gracious God, whose mercies are over
all his works, hath, as a curb and check to these
evils, which it is man s duty, as well as interest, to
oppose ; and his merit as well as happiness to sub
due; instituted two capital ordinances, CIVIL GO
VERNMENT and RELIGION : Supports as necessary
for the Moral World, as the SUN and MOON for
the Natural : the One, to sustain and cheer us in
this vale of miseries ; the Other, to direct our be
nighted
SERMON XXVI. 1*5
flighted footsteps towards the happier regions of
light and immortality.
We may be certain, therefore, that the same Pro
vidence, which keeps the celestial orbs in their
courses, will be ever watchful that these two MORAL
LIGHTS suffer no extinction or irretrievable decay.
For as neither Comets above, nor Ignis fatui below,
can supply the use of those Luminaries, so neither
can despotic rule or wild fanaticism supply the use
of these.
Yet as the moral world, for very obvious reasons,
is infinitely more subject to disorder than the na
tural, it may sometimes happen that these moral
lights shall surfer such dreadful eclipses, and have
their splendor so polluted and impaired, as to shine
purely no where, and brightly only in some small
obscure corner of the Globe. Thus, for instance,
the blessing of Civil Liberty, the source of all human
happiness, was, for many ages, totally extinct ; and
the knowledge of the Deity himself, the fountain-
head of Truth, w^, for as many more, confined
within the narrow limits of the )and of Israel.
Now this being the precarious condition of the
moral world in general, let us see what may be the
actual state of CIVIL GOVERNMENT and RELIGION
at present on the earth.
As to the former ; if we look round us, from the
nearest to the remotest Continent, we shall no where
find a Society founded on the true Principles of Civil
Liberty. Either the nature of its Convention hath
been so ill conceived (as in the East) that the
absolute despotic Form hath been mistaken for the
immediate
126 SERMON XXVI.
immediate Institution of Heaven; and, consequently,
every species of free Government, for essential Li
cence and Impiety: or else, where the rights of
mankind have been better understood (as in the
JVest\ where the three legitimate Forms, the Mo-
n^rchic, the Aristocratic, and the Popular, have been
truly discriminated, yet men seeing that civil freedom
was naturally confined, to these three Forms, er
roneously concluded, that each of them separately,
and unmLred with the other two, was able to sustain
all the rights and advantages of it : not considering
that, while they operate singly, they are but the
same Tyranny in a different shape : For while each
Form exists alone, the whole Sovereignty resides in
a part only of the Community, which subjects the
rest to despotic rule.
But true and lasting Liberty results from the skilful
combination of the three Forms with one another ;
where each of the Orders, which governs absolutely
in each Form, hath its due share of the Sovereign
Power, and no more. Here all impotency of rule is
eternally excluded ; for no man, or body of men,
can exercise Tyranny over itself.
A Government, thus truly free, is like one of
those sovereign Medicines, so much spoken of, where
each of the various ingredients of which it is com
posed, does, together with its virtues, contain such
noxious qualities, that, if used simply and alone,
might occasion great disorders, but when skilfully
intermixed with the rest, the whole hath corrected
the noxious qualities and exalted the salutary vir
tues of each part.
Whenever
SERMON XXVI. 127
Whenever such a well-composed Society becomes"
despotic, it must be by the silent dissolution of its
complex Form; a* when one Order usurping on the
rest, hath gotten the whole of the Sovereignty to itself.
With so happy a Constitution of Government
hath it pleased Divine Providence to bless this
Island ; the honoured Repository of sacred Freedom,
at a time when almost all the other civilized Na
tions have betrayed their trust, and delivered up
civil Liberty, the most precious gift of Nature, for
a prey to their fellow-creatures.
Now the preservation of this sacred Ordinance
being no less necessary to the temporal welfare of
man, than the knowledge of the true God is to his spi
ritual, we must conclude, that the same gracious Pro
vidence would be now no less watchful for the pre
servation of the British Nation, than it was of old,
for the Jewish : yet still speaking the same language
to both / do not this for your sakes, but for my
holy name s sake.
If we turn from Government to RELIGION, we
shall have the same reason to adore the gracious
Majesty of Heaven still working for his holy name s
sake, that is, for the general good of mankind. For
though it would be vanity to boast, in this case as
in the other, that true Religion, like civil Liberty,
is to be found only in Great Britain, when we, be
hold the Protestant Faith, professed in the purity
of the Gospel, in so many of our kindred Churches
on the Continent, yet this we cannot but declare,
and should always acknowledge with the utmost
gratitude, that the CHURCH OF ENGLAND, by
means
123 SERMON XXVI.
means of the mighty power of its Imperial
is become the Fortress and Bulwark of the Pro
testant profession throughout the world ; and there
fore, we may be assured, the object of God s pe
culiar regard ; whose special Providence works chiefly
for general ends.
In the course of this quarrel, it hath been some
times said, that the present combustion in Europe
\vas to be regarded in the light of a RELIGIOUS
WAR, against a Confederacy animated by Romish
Superstition and Tyranny : and sometimes again,
that it broke out and was carried on only for the
discussion of our civil Interests. But in whatever
shifting lights it may suit the ends of Politicians to
present it, the Lord of Hosts himself, by so visibly
Jightmg our battles, hath fully decided the question,
and in the midst of victory hath declared it to be
indeed a RELIGIOUS WAR : for human prei&mption
itself will never venture to account for such distin
guished mercies to a sinful nation any otherwise, than
by considering Great Britain in the light, as of the
sole remaining Trustee of Civil Freedom, so of the
great Bulwark of Gospel Truth.
Let us, therefore, on this day of Triumph, and
perhaps more suitably on this day than any other,
humble ourselves before the Sovereign Majesty of
Heaven, confess our total unworthiness of these
distinguished mercies, and echo back again to the
Throne of Grace those awful words which once pro
ceeded from it " We confess, O Almighty Father,
that the great things which thou hast done for us, were
not done for our sakes, but for thy holy name s sake."
Nor
SERMON XXVI. 129
Nor will this consideration abate, but, on the
contrary, increase our Gratitude and Joy.
Our Gratitude, for the honour done us, in being
made the Instruments, in the hand of God, for sup
porting and carrying on the great System of his
moral Government.
Our Joy, in the most enlarged exercise of Chris
tian Chanty; while we consider Great Britain as
become, by God s special appointment, the common
Benefactor of Mankind.
But these sentiments are not suitably expressed
by the mere explosions of our mouth, in solemn
praises easily discharged : they are to be manifested
in the service of our lives, which now becomes doubly
due; a service regulated on the nature and end of
the Blessings bestowed : for, without the knowledge
of these blessings, our praises may be presumption,
and our service but a busy impertinence.
To assist you, therefore, my Brethren, in youi;
good purposes, I have kept you thus long, in ex
plaining what I take to be the true nature and design
of the blessings we now commemorate. If we be
made sensible that they were bestowed for the sake
of this Repository of Civil Liberty, this Bulwark of
the Christian Faith, we shall easily understand what
returns we ought to make for then).
If Civil Liberty, the source of all worldly Good,
be so precious in the sight of God, and yet its in*
fluence, in the revolutions of state, so contracted,
and its very existence so precarious, How great
should be our care, with whom the small remains of
VOL. X. K
i 3 o SERMON XXVI.
it are now intrusted, that we ourselves contribute
nothing to the further diminution of it !
By what hath been already observed to you, it is
manifest that this glorious fortress of British Liberty
can never be taken by storm ; however liable it may
be to the silent decays of Time, and to the secret
undermine of wicked men.
To provide therefore against these mischiefs, we
should discountenance and oppose ourselves to PUB
LIC CORRUPTION of every kind, whether it affect
the Liberty of the Subject, or the Prerogative of the
Crown. Both sorts are now grown so numerous
and excessive, that the limits of this Discourse will
only permit me just to mention a capital instance
of each.
Amongst those which affect the liberty of the
Subject, is that profligate venality now become uni-*
versal in the choice of our Representatives to Par
liament; and against which, no Laws human or
divine, hath yet been able to put a check.
Let us once then, for a trial at least, encourage a
careful choice of able and honest men ; and support
our choice only by honourable and legal methods.
But if this fail, and it be found a task too difficult to
draw a mercenary People all at once from habitual
Prostitution, let us, however, in mere compassion to
humanity (the honour of Religion set aside) employ
all our interests, in our several stations, to remove
the cause, though the guiltless cause, of that pesti
lential PERJURY, which rages through the Nation
on every return of a new Parliament. Reflect, my
Brethren,
SERMON XXVI. 131
Brethren, on the dreadful contrast between a general
Thanksgiving and a general Election. A whole
People, one year devoting themselves to God ; and
the next to the Mammon of unrighteousness.
The species of corruption which most affects the
rights and dues of the Crown, and consequently the
operations of Government, may be summed up in
partial entries, collusive evasions, and that more
daring contempt of Law and Justice, a contraband
Traffic. And here, while you are rendering to God
the things that are God s (and what is more justly
his than gratitude for mercies received ?) let me press
it on your Consciences, to render to Cctsar the thing*
that are Casar s.
When you have done this, another duty will re
main for your gratitude to discharge ; and that is,
to join together in support of a virtuous and upright
administration, whenever we shall be blessed with it ;
and till then, to avoid taking party, or fomenting the
discords amongst the self-interested Great, bv fol-
3 /
lowing factious men or factious measures.
These are the slight outlines of that duty we owe
pur Country ; and which we should now think of pay
ing, in discharge of that immense debt of gratitude
we owe to our heavenly Protector, too large indeed
to be all lavished on this one Object, how ennobled
soever by the late uncommon mercies of Provi
dence.
Another, still more intimate, will claim its share ;
I mean, our NATIONAL CHURCH, established in the
purity of the Gospel; and now become the common
Fortress of the Faith.
K 2 Nothing
132 S E R M O N XXVI.
Nothing but sad experience would suffer us to
conceive that a Church of this importance, honoured
by its friends, and dreaded by its enemies abroad,
should be insulted by Infidels, disturbed and disho
noured by Fanatics > and weakened by the separa*
tion of our too scrupulous Brethren, at home.
Our care and concern therefore for its interests
will be best seen by our conduct towards all these
sort of men.
The first and most insolent enemy of all godliness
is the modern UNBELIEVER, who now rears his
head and walks openly abroad, under the more cre
ditable appellation of Freethinker. He professes
himself to be the bane of our hopes, in that only
solid consolation of humanity, the prospect cf futu
rity. Him therefore, and his notions, we should
avoid, as the sickness that destroyeth in the noon*
day ; but think no more of applying to the Magis-
strate to curb his insolence, while his only weapon
is his wit, than we would solicit a civil edict against
a pestilence.
The next enemy of our peace is the PAPIST. As
the Unbeliever would shut up all the avenues to
future felicity, so the Papist would shut up all but
one ; and have that in his ow r n keeping, impervious
to all who love truth, or have any reverence for com
mon sense. The Freethinker would cajole us into
misery and folly : the Papist would frighten us into
it. The chief support of the Pope s tyrannic power
was his usurped authority over Kings and Princes;
and the fatal instruments of his rage, were those
fanatic assassins still ready addressed to plunge^he
dagger
SERMON XXVI. 133
-dagger into the bosom of those whom he ha* anathe
matized ; so that the Legislature was necessitated to
interpose with what these murderers mi?cal san
guinary Laws-, the terror of which was not pointed
at them as false Believers, but as Traitors and Re
bels to their King and Country. And that it might
be seen, the necessity was not pretended but real ;
and the object of their resentment, bad Citizens,
and not mistaken Religionists, they have, from their
very first enacting, been chiefly held out in terror ;
and never put in force but where the Recusant con
vict was at the same time a convict Traitor. And
since the Bulls of Rome lost their power to frighten
the People, or to mischieve the Sovereign, these san
guinary Laws have slept so profoundly, that the far
greater part both of Protestants and Papists hardly
know that any such are in being.
And may they sleep! but let the Guardians of the
Law be still awake : for though Time, in its cease
less revolutions, hath removed this danger from our
Country, yet it hath brought in another; I mean the
strong attachment of this sect to a Popish Preten
der; whose absurd unnatural claim of governing a
free People against their wills, can never succeed
but by the destruction of those two capital Blessings,
Civil Liberty and pure Religion for whose sake (as
I. have shewn) an unmeriting People hath been taken
under the most distinguished protection of Heaven.
A right conduct towards these Disturbers of man
kind, a generous People will never be at a loss to
understand. While the Papist forbears to mix in
civil factions, and aims at nothing but the liberty of
K ,3 worshipping
i 3 4 SERMON XXVI.
worshipping God in his own way, Protestant Cha
rity will be always ready to connive at an indul
gence to him which he will allow to no sect be
side ; and which he will not so much as attempt
to deserve, by giving some reasonable security to the
Civil Magistrate for his Obedience. But whenever
we find the councils of Popery to tend to the dis
turbance of the State, either by enforcing the wicked
claims of a Romish usurpation, or the absurd pre
tensions of a servile Pensioner of a Romish Court,
then the duty of our great Trust requires us to awake
the terrors of the Law against them, till we bring
them back to the modest measures of a mere religious
sect. And we should be the more watchful, as we
are not ignorant of their devices ; especially that
stale trick of assuming every form of disguise ; in
different to them whether it be iiifidelity or fana
ticism, further than as the prevailing fashion directs
them to that which is the likeliest instrument of ge
neral mischief.
So far, my Brethren, with regard to these native
foes of our happy Constitution.
No less degree of prudence, but much greater of
lenity and indulgence, is to be practised towards those
who are indeed* or would be thought, its friends.
A new species of Fanaticism has of late arisen
within the bosom of the Church, and would fain be
thought to belong to it, now known by the fantastic
name of METHODISM. These men hold themselves
clear of all blame, because they teach only the Doc
trines of the established Church. What they say
may be true, for aught I know. But it should be
20 considered
SERMON XXVI. 135
considered by those whom this profession may de
lude, that the manner of teaching is often as injurious
to truth and peace as the matter of the Doctrine ;
when the heat of zeal raises piety to frenzy ; and the
leven of bigotry sinks reason into nonsense.
Now, whether such enthusiastic ideas, as a sudden
and violent new birth a divinity in our inward feel
ings and a miraculous co-operation of the Deity
with our outward labours Whether these, I say,
have not a strong tendency to dishonour and dis
credit the dignity and sobriety of the Faith, delivered
to the saints, We however, if they will not, shall do
well to consider.
In the mean time it is our duty, as, on the one
hand, to afford no encouragement to these irregu
larities, by being present in their assemblies, or giving
countenance to their Leaders; so on the other, to
forbear disturbing or vexing them, by taking advan
tage of any legal defects in their claim to the com
mon rights of Constitutional toleration.
But still we should keep a watchful eye over Fa
naticism ; for it is of the nature of all sects founded
in it, to be crouching and fawning to a Government
vigilant and strong ; but whenever it can be taken
at advantage, busied on other objects, whether di
verted by foreign Enemies, or weakened by domes
tic Factions, it is, I say, of the nature of such sects,
to push the tottering fabric of Government from its
basis, down that precipice on which it has been
driven by its other adversaries. We have a dreadful
illustration of this truth in the Fanatics of the last
age, who, on their first appearance, under the name
K 4 of
136 SERMON XXVI.
of Independents, breathed nothing but peace, and
full obedience to civil Power, though rising in pro
fessed opposition to the ecclesiastical. Yet public
discord no sooner began to rage, than they joined
with the most inveterate of the Factions, in the de
struction both of Church and State.
I use this example for the extreme aptness of the
comparison. For it is to be remembered, that when,
in the revolutions of State, the Regicides came to take
their tarn at the scaffold and the gallows, their Friends
took care to collect and publish their last spiritual
meditations. Now in these there appears so won-
derful a coincidence, both in the ideas and expres
sion, with the journals of our Methodists, concerning
beatific visions, divine illuminations, and inward fed-
ings, that did we not know that the language of Fana
ticism has, in ail ages, been as steady, constant, and
unchangeable, as much the same with itself, as the
language of reason ever was, one might suspect this
regicidal collection to be the spiritual breathings of an
enlightened Methodist.
Lastly, With regard to our Brethren the Protes*
tant sectaries of more ancient date, who from va
rious accidents have long dissented from the esta
blished worship, and are now secured in their na
tural Rights by the fundamental Laws of -the Con
stitution, we of the national Church should shew,
by all brotherly acts of love and kindness, that the
Toleration given them by the Laws does, in our sense,
add honour to the Gospel, as well as strength and
safety to a free Community. More especially should
these dispositions be manifested to that sounder,
and
S E R M O N XXVI. 137
and far more considerable part of the Separation,
the Presbyterian ; as well for that these did not
spring, like other of the wild sects, from Fanaticism,
as because they differ from us rather in the form
of Discipline, than in the more essential matters of
the Christian Faith. As therefore we both profess
to be under the same Shepherd, we should not, sure,
make one another uneasy because we lodge in dif
ferent folds ; seeing we both hold, that a time will
come when all shall hear his voice, and there shall
be onefold under one Shepherd.
But notv, when we have done all this, a harder
task will still remain, the discharge of that duty
which we owe to ourselves, as members of that
mystical Body, the Church of Christ At the Re
formation, we professed to regulate that part of it
to which we belong, on the purity, and to contain it
within the limits, of the GOSPEL. We should there
fore discourage, at least by our neglect, all mixture
of human Doctrines arising from the vanity of b jing
wise above what is written. We should confine
ourselves to Gospel-instruction, and be content with
what the sacred Word plainly teacheth. This
is the only sure barrier to all that bigotry, super
stition, and Fanaticism, which have deformed those
Sects and Churches, we have been necessitated to
drive from us, or from whence we have been dri
ven. The GOSPEL is our Pole-star, of which if we
once lose sight, we shall be soon swallowed up in
the boundless, unfathomable ocean of Opinion.
But then, as we should not add to the Gospel, we
should be equally careful not to take from it, by
- explaining
138 SERMON XXVI.
explaining away (as is the mode) those fundamental
Doctrines held out in almost every page, because
our line of Reason may be too short to fathom
them.
This is a short summary of the duties we owe,
and which, Gratitude, on this occasion, calls upon
us to pay, to our COUNTRY and our RELIGION,
the two great sources of human felicity ; and, on
that account, so wonderfully guarded, as we have
seen, by the wakeful eye of Providence.
This should stimulate us to Virtue with redoubled
vigour, and give a double horror to the turpitude of
Vice : for woe to the unhappy man, who despisetk
the riches of God s goodness ; or knoweth not that
this goodness leadeth him to repentance.
Happy, indeed, is the state of that favoured Peo
ple, whose return of gratitude for national blessings
is perseverance in their virtuous course.
This, it must be owned with sorrow, is far from
being our case. But let us not despond. A return
to forsaken Virtue is not without its Triumphs; and
our holy Religion informs us (what Reason would
not dare to intimate) that they are Triumphs of the
noblest kind / say unto you, that joy shall be in
Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than
over ninety and nine ju$t persons which need no
repentance. Amen.
SERMON XXVII.
THE FALL OF SATAN.
MATT. iv. 24.
AND THEY BROUGHT UNTO HIM ALL SICK PEOPLE
THAT WERE TAKEN WITH DIVERS DISEASES
AND TORMENTS, AND THOSE WHICH WERE POS
SESSED WITH DEVILS, AND THOSE WHICH WERE
LUNATIC; AND HE HEALED THEM.
~^HIS is a clear and exact account of the nature
-* of those disorders which found relief from the
salutary hand of Jesus.
But we have been told of late, that what is here
called, the being possessed with Devils, was indeed
no other than an atrabilare Lunacy, or one of those
occult distempers, for which Physicians could not
find a remedy, or what was harder still, a name ; and
therefore, in complaisance to the imbecility of their
Patients, agreed to deem it supernatural, or, if you
.please, the work of the Devil.
Of this superstitious fancy (they tell us) Jesus and
his Disciples took advantage, in order to impress a
religious horror on their followers.
This
140 S E II M O N XXVII.
This is boldly said ; and were it as well proved,
we should soon see how laudably these men had
employed their pains.
In the mean time, as the agency of Satan, re
corded in Scripture, is of high importance to illus
trate the truth of the Gospel in general, the matter
will be well worth a careful inquiry.
But here it may be proper to observe, that my
business, at present, is only with Believers. The
negative of the Proposition in question was first
started by a true Believer ; and has been ever
since supported, when it has bee^n supported with
sobriety, by men professing the Faith of Jesus. These,
as well as we, who adhere to the plain literal sense,
go upon one common principle, that the Gospel His
tory is true, and of divine inspiration. What is
sought for by both of us, is the true meaning of Be-
moniacs. Nay, we not only go upon one common
principle, but profess to pursue one common end,
namely, the support of the credibility of Gospel-
History. On which account, all that is here urged
in favour of the literal sense stands upon the ac
knowledged truth of Scripture.- In proving the
reality of the Gospel Demoniacs to Unbelievers, a
different sort of argumentation is to be employed.
But with professed Unbelievers we have, at pre
sent, nothing to do ; unless it be to bespeak their
attention to a theologic argument, alone sufficient
(amongst a thousand others) to impress upon them
a very striking sense of the beauty of this part of
God s moral Dispensation.
Now, to form a right judgment of the matter in
question,
SERMON XXVII. 141
question, Believers should first of all consider, what
part the Devil bore in the Economy of Grace.
In the history of the Fall, to which the writers of
the New Testament perpetually allude, Satan, or
,the Tempter, the Calumniator, or the Evil one, (for
by all these names he is designed in Sacred Scrip
ture) is represented as instigating the first Man to
disobedience; for which his punishment by the second
Adam, who restored man to his lost inheritance, is,
at the time of the fall, denounced in the terms of
bruising his head by the seed of the woman.
When, therefore, this restoration was procured by
the death of Christ, we may reasonably expect to
find that punishment on the Tempter, which was
predicted in the history of the Fall, recorded in the
history of the restoration. And so, indeed, we do ;
and on many notable occasions. When the Dis
ciples, whom Jesus had sent out, come back exulting
in the success of their Ministry, the effect of [Lose
supernatural powers with which he had intrusted
them, He receives them as Conquerors returning i n
triumph from their holy warfare./ beheld Satan
(says he) as light rang fall from Heaven*. A
strong and lively picture of the sudden precipitation
of that Prince of the Air, where he had so . lon;
held his Empire, and hung like a pestilential meteor
over the sons of men.
The rise of Christ s kingdom, therefore, and the
Jail of Satan s, being thus carried on together, it
would be strange, indeed, could we find in this
history no marks of the rage of his expiring Tyranny,
* Luke x. 18.
amidst
1 4 2 SERMON XXVII.
amidst all the salutary blessings of the rising Em
pire of Christ. But we see them in abundance.
We see this enemy of our salvation mad with
despair, invoking all the powers of Hell to his as
sistance, to blast that peace and good-will towards
men, proclaimed by Angels on the gracious birth-
nioht of the Son of God. For when he understood,
from his baffled attempts upon his Lord and Master*,
that the souls of men had escaped his dominion, he
turned the exercise of his cruelty on their bodies, in
the most humbling circumstances of pain and op
pression that could dishonour and disgrace huma
nity: permitted, no doubt, to range wider at this
critical season, than at any time before or since, in
order to manifest the Triumphs and Glories of his
Conqueror.
Had \l\vjirst Adam stood in the rectitude of his
Creation, he had been immortal ; and beyond the
reach of natural and moral evil. His fall to mor
tality brought both into the World. The office of
the second Adam was to restore us to that happy
state. Uut as the Immortality purchased for us by
the Son of God, was not, like that forfeited by
Adam, to commence in this world ; but is re
served for tin; reward of the next, both physical and
moral evil were to endure for a season. Yet, to
manifest that they were, indeed, to receive their
final doom fryin the REDEEMER, it was but fit that,
in the course of his Ministry, he should give a spe
cimen of his power over them. One part, therefore,
of his Godlike labours was taken up in curing all
* Luke, chap. iv.
kinds
SERMON XXVII. 143
kinds of natural diseases. But had he stopped here,
in the midst of his victories over physical evil, the
proof of his Dominion over both Worlds had re
mained defective : just as, at the conclusion of his
Ministry, the truth of the restoration to life mid im
mortality was made manifest by his own Resur
rection : without which there had been something
wanting to the full evidence of this important truth:
He was therefore to display his Sovereignty over
moral evil likewise. And this could not be clearly
evinced, as it was, over natural evil, but by a sen
sible victory over SATAN; through whose temp
tation, nwral evil was brought into the world ; and
by whose wiles and malice, it was sustained and in
creased. Hence it was, that, amongst his amazing
works of sanity and salvation, the CASTING OUT 01*
DEVILS is so much insisted on by the Historians of
his life and actions. For He had informed them
that this was one of the essential exploits in the
erection of his spiritual Kingdom. If (said he) /
cast out Devils by the Spirit of God, THEN the
Kingdom of God is come unto you *.
Thus, from the very genius of the GOSPEL, from
the nature and constitution of the system of GRACE,
it appears that this was a real ejection of the Evil
Spirit.
But, besides this, Jesus and his Disciples, in their
manner of working, and in their mode of recording
what they worked, did every thing which might best
display a real victory over Satan.
Let the Jews of that time, let the Diseased them-
* Matt. xii. 28.
selves,
144 SERMON XXVII.
selves, be as much mistaken as we can suppose
them to be, concerning diabolic possessions ; yet no
Believer will presume to say, that Jesus was mis
taken in his own case, when he acquainted his His
torians with the circumstance of his being led by the
Spirit into the Wilderness, and forty days templed
of the, Devil*. Whether any, or what part of
this transaction passed in Vision, is not material to
inquire ; since the reality of the agency is the same,
on either supposition; as depending, not on the
mode, of sensation, but on the certain knowledge of
the operation. For Jesus, with all his humility in
assuming our nature, was certainly not subject to
those infirmities of it, which arise from the delusions
of sense ; especially in a matter which so essentially
concerned his Ministry. If, therefore, there were
any mistake in this matter, it must be (I speak it
with horror) by the designed contrivance of Jesus
himself: and how inconsistent that was with the
character of him, who telis us, he was not only the
life, but the truth |, will be shewn hereafter more
at large.
So far then is clear, That the Evil Spirit was
neither absent nor inactive when the Evangelic Mis
sion was first opened.
In the TEMPTATION he was permitted to try
whether he could traverse the great work of human
Redemption. In the POSSESSION of the bodies of
men, he seems to have been, in part, forced upon
the employment; as the casting him out by divine
power gave glory to God, and bore testimony to the
* Luke iv. i, 2. t John xiv. 6.
ministry
SERMON XXVII. 145
ministry of Christ. Thus, in the case of the De*
maniac, in the country of the Gadarcnes. The
Devils oppressed by the mighty hand of JeSus, and
ready to be cast out, and sent into a place of tor
ment, confess the power of their Conqueror, and
proclaim him to be the PROMISED MESSIAH ; at a
time when he concealed his Character ; and was
not certainly known by it, even to his Disciples. If
it.be asked, Why they did it? The answer is easy
To embarrass and impede his Ministry. On this
account Jesus checks them, and commands them to
be silent. I confess, indeed, that had all the at
testation given by Jesus to real possessions > been
such as his answer to those who said he cast out
devils by Baalzebub " that then Baalzebub s king
dom being divided against itself, could not stand"
our conclusion for real Demoniacs would want much
of its force, for then he might reasonably be sup
posed to argue only ad homines, which a messenger
of God might do, though not strictly conformable
to the truth of things. But when a man commands
the Devils, whom he pretends to cast out> not to
discover him> the going such a length, if there were
no Devil in the case, is the adventure only of an
Impostor. Yet, from our not reflecting that this
enemy of mankind, whether he strove to impede,
or was forced to promote, the progress of the Gospel,
was equally in the hands of his Maker, have arisen
many of the late unweighed objections to the reality
of demoniacal possessions.
If we turn from Satan s wily temptation of
Jesus, to his cruel treatment of the Jews, we shall
X, L
146 SERMON XXVII.
find the same strong marks of real agency. Be it,
that both Jews and Gentiles were very supersti
tious on this head ; and, that they often mistook
natural disorders for demoniacal What follows,
but that, which we here find provided, against the
false conclusions deduced from it ? that is to say,
greater attention of the sacred Writers in marking
those cases of possession which Jesus relieved,
by some circumstance not equivocal ; and what
could never accompany an imaginary disorder.
Thus, in the adventure recorded by three of the
Evangelists * ; when Jesus had relieved the Demo
niac, and his Tormentors had obtained leave to
go into a herd of swine, What other reason can be
given (or indeed what better can be conceived)
of this extraordinary request, than that it was to
afford a certain mark of distinction between a
real and an imaginary possession ? Be it allowed,
that the wild creative power of human fancy is able
to raise up chimeras that shall affright its owner to
distraction : Yet still it must be owned, that Brutes
are endowed with no such dangerous faculty : And
therefore when we find great numbers of them, all
at once, stimulated to an instantaneous madness,
we must needs conclude, that the cause was some
superior Agent operating upon their frame.
So admirably hath our indulgent Master been
pleased to guard this important truth against the
most plausible evasions of self-conceited Men. The
strong impulse of a vitiated Imagination, pushed for
ward by Superstition., might be supposed capable,
* Matt, viir. Mark v. Luke viii.
without
SERMON XXVII. 147
without auy other agency, of producing these very
extraordinary appearances. To cut off all escape
from a forced confession of the mighty hand of
Heaven, here are two cases obtruded on the In
credulous ; one, of Satan s temptation of the Son of
God ; another, of his possession of brute animals ;
in neither of which, can the power of the Imagina
tion have any place. In the first, the divine Patient
was above its delusions ; in the other, the brute as
much below it.
If we now proceed, from the Facts which the
Evangelists have recorded, to the Expressions which
they have employed, we shall have further reason to
rest satisfied in the common interpretation.
My text says And they brought unto him all
sick people that were taken with divers diseases and
torments, AND THOSE WHICH WERE POSSESSED WITH
DEVILS, AND THOSE WHICH WERELUNATIC, aildhc
healed them. Here we see, that the disorder of those
who were said to be possessed with devils is precisely
distinguished, not only from natural diseases and tor
ments in general, but likewise from Lunacy in par
ticular; that very disorder which the Anti-dernonianist
is so desirous of confounding with supernatural agita
tions. Is it possible, therefore, to suppose, that a writer
of any meaning, should, at the very time he is dis
tinguishing between Lunacy and possession with De
vils, should, I say, confound them with one another ?
And yet this is what our Critics make him do ; in
compliance, they tell us, with an accustomed mode
of speech, Is it not plain, on the contrary, that
j 2 the
148 SERMON XXVII.
the sacred writer was the more intent to represent
them as two different disorders, because they had
many symptoms in common : a circumstance which
makes our critics as ready to confound them with
one another, as the Evangelists were careful to dis
tinguish them.
In a word, they who, after all these precautions
taken by the sacred Penmen, can think that Devils
and Demoniacs were used in Scripture only as terms
of accommodation to Jewish prejudices, may well
believe (as some of them tell us, they do) that the
terms, Redemption, Sacrifice, and Satisfaction, come
of no better a house than one of the common figures
of Speech.
My serious Readers will be now ready to ask,
What learned discoveries they are, which have en
couraged these men to innovate from the commonly
received opinion concerning the Gospel-Demoniacs ?
Hath any thing been found, in the Scripture-history
of them, either absurd in morals, or false in physics?
Nothing of either ; as may be seen by what hath
been just hinted, in the entrance on this discourse.
And yet, whatever the Discoveries are, these men
are none of the Discoverers. An excellent Divine
of the last age had in his extensive searches into
antiquity collected, that both Jews and Gentiles, at
and before the time of Christ, were overrun with
one common superstition, that Demons, and the
Souls of wicked men deceased, frequently seized
upon the bodies of the living, and tormented them
in various ways. Hence he too hastily, though with
18 his
SERMON XXVII. 149
his usual modesty, insinuated, that the Possessions
recorded in the Gospel, might be of that imaginary
sort; and no other than occult diseases , which,
being unmanageable by the Physician, were con
cluded to be supernatural : as if a good Physician
could deal with any thing but the Devil : that to
these unhappy wretches Jesus applied his salutary
hands ; and gave to their disorder the fashionable
name by which it was at that time distinguished.
Without doubt, this truly learned Divine went
the more easily into this bold opinion, as he had
observed it to be God s gracious method, in the
course of his revealed Dispensations, to take ad
vantage of men s habitual prejudices, to support his
truth, and keep his People attached to his Ordi
nances.
But here, the excellent person should have dis
tinguished (as his followers * were not likely to do
it for him) between Rites and Doctrines. They
were the Rites only of which God availed himself,
for the benefit of his servants, in order to combat or
to elude their fondness for Pagan usages. In mat
ters of Doctrine, the like compliance could not be
indulged to them without violating material Truths ;
and therefore Scripture affords us no example of
such a condescension. In things only pertaining to
Rites, we have indeed, numerous instances. Thus,
the use of linen garments, lighted lamps, lustrations,
and a multitude of other things in themselves indif
ferent, were brought from false Religions into the
true : and with high propriety and wisdom, where
* Dr. Sykes, Dr. Lardner, &c.
L 3 their
150 SERMON XXVII.
their new designation sanctified their use, and their
use contributed to the better establishment of the
Dispensation. On the other hand, to assert and
support a false and superstitious opinion (if such it
were) concerning diabolic possessions, was infecting
and contaminating the purity of the Christian Faith.
But if the admirable Author of this groundless
novelty did himself miss of so just and obvious a
distinction, we have the less reason to \vonder that
those of his followers, who aimed only at a name
by a faint reflection from the other s learning, should
not hit upon what their master had overlooked.
A late eminent Physician, who hath espoused this
system, acted a more decent and becoming -part.
He might pretend by virtue of his profession, and
still more by his skill in it, to a profounder insight
into Nature : and Theology being in another depart
ment, he was the less censurable if he did not see all
that this divine science opposed to his opinion ; an
opinion which might be said to descend to him by
inheritance from his great namesake *, and Relation :
Whose conciseness, strength, and modesty of rea
soning, he has so well followed, that to confute his
objections will be to overthrow the whole system of
the anti-demoniac party,
* Ut redeam autem ad dpemoniacos ; non mea est pro-
fecto, sed aliorum ante me pietate et doctrina praestan-
tium virorum sententia, quam hie propono. Et prox
imo quidem saeculo inter nostrates ctium JOSEPHUS
ME AD us, theologus rerum sacrarum cognitione, nulli
secundus, luculenta Dissertatione earn propugnavit,
Cum ex eadem ig tur ac ille familia sim oriundus, &c.
Prsef. in Med. Saci p. ix. Autliore Richardo Mead.
In
SERMON XXVII. 151
In his Medica Sacra> he hath a chapter de damo-
niacis ; in which he hath treated the Evangelic his
tory with all that reverence which becomes a serious
Believer and a true Scholar.
The first observation I shall make, on my entrance
on his Argument, is general, and will suit all who
have written on this side the question. It is this
They reason upon the case of Demoniacs, not as it
is recorded by the Evangelists, but as if described
only in a treatise of Medicine by Aretneus, Fernelius,
or any other of the Faculty; where it stands uncon
nected with all moral as well as religious ideas.
Whereas I have shewn at large that these demoniacal
possessions have an intimate relation to the doctrine
of Redemption ; and were therefore reasonably to be
expected at the promulgation of the Gospel. This
sets the matter on quite another footing ; and
that plausibility which the learned person s represen
tation gives to his arguments entirely disappears,
when we put the case as it really was.
i. This necessary caution, against so defective
and foreign a representation, being premised, I now
proceed to the reasoning itself which the learned Phy
sician employs to discredit the common opinion of
real possessions. His first argument rises from the
extent of the superstition concerning imaginary ones.
" It had not only infected the Mosaic Religion in
particular, but had overrun Paganism in general*."
" And
* - At non Judseis tantum, sed etaliis etiam gentibus
iu usu fuit insanos pro daemoniacis habere. p. 76.
L 4 A ChaU
152 SERMON XX VII.
" And as to the Jews, who were wont to ascribe
whatever there was of prodigious in nature to the
ministry of ANGELS, they were easily brought to
believe, that those dire diseases which infected the
mind and body equally, and whose causes were
unknown, could be no other than the work of the
Devil *."
Allow all this. Allow that the Jews, at the time
of Christ, were very superstitious, yet the learned
Doctor, in his turn, must allow that the in
spired Teachers of the Gospel were free from an
error which so fatally affected the Religion they
were intrusted to propagate, as Dcmonlanism did,
if it were an error. They, therefore, knowingly,
gave it countenance and support. But how that
will agree with their character and office, we shall
see, as we go along.
Our learned writer tells us further, " that the
Jews not only gave credit to .the works of the
Devil, but believed in the ministry of ANGELS like
wise." This seems to be one of those slips of
the pen to which Truth sometimes exposes those
who write most cautiously against her. For, the
Old
A Chaldseis quidera ad Phoenices, postea ad Egyptios
propagata, ad Graecos deinde, hinc ad Romanes, ali-
asque demum gentes temporis progressu Daemoniaca
ista Religio pervenit. P. 74.
* P. 74. Judsei autem, siquid miri faceret natura, ad
ANGELORUM supremi Dei min l $lrorwn operam referre
solitj, facile in animum sibi induceye poterant, ut diras
quasdam crederent aegritudines, qiise jnentem simul et
corpus IcBderent, et quarum causas cognoscere nequireat,
#p angeiorum malorum ivefytw* exoriri.
SERMON XXVIL 153
Old Testament, which the learned Doctor reve
rences equally with the new, bears ample testimony
to the real ministry of Angels; and with such cir
cumstances as will not admit a caviller to have
recourse to vision, figure, or accommodation : for if
the Angel who waylaid Balaam may be reduced
to a nocturnal Shadow, those whom Abraham enr
tertained in broad daylight were substantial Beings.
When, therefore, the learned person puts the mi
nistry of good and evil Angels on the same footing,
he must allow, if the reality of the former be proved,
that the reality of the latter follows of course.
As to the universality of the superstition, both
amongst Jews and Gentiles, I do not see how that,
in the least, alters the case. The Jews of this time,
by a more unrestrained commerce with the Gentiles,
had vitiated the purity of their holy Religion, by
many doctrines borrowed from the Pagan Philo
sophers. Thus they took (we will suppose) the
Doctrine of Demons from Plato ; and the Doc
trine of the pre~ existence and a future state from
Pythagoras. Nevertheless, it is certain, that both
demoniacal possessio?is and a future state were
equally supported by the acts and predication of
Jesus and his Disciples. And this let me observe
further, These two doctrines are equally woven (as
may appear from what hath been said above) into
the substance of the Christian Faith ; the doctrines
of the FALL and of the REDEMPTION being the two
cardinal hinges on which our holy Religion turns.
If therefore we can suppose Demonianism to be only
an old threadbare fable new dressed ; and offered
by
154 SERMON XXVII.
by way of accommodation to amuse the Followers
of the Gospel; I do not see what can hinder us
from supposing, with Synesius, the same of & future
state likewise. Both doctrines had the advantage
of old prejudice in their favour. Yet, if but one
were true (namely, that of a future state) and the
other of Demonianism only taught by way of accom
modation, it could proceed only from the difficulty
of erasing it from the popular belief. But so un
comfortable a doctrine is erased with very little
difficulty.
It may be said perhaps^ " that the two Doctrines,
which I put upon the same footing of credibility,
because the Gospel hath so put them, differ in this,
that a future state may be proved by natural
Reason, which a Demoniacal possession cannot." 1
What doth this Objection infer ? no more than this,
that a future state makes a part of Natural Religion,
and Demoniacal possessions a part only of the Re
vealed.
2. The ingenious Discourser brings another ar
gument against demoniacal possessions. Having col
lected together all the symptoms of this disorder
from Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he concludes thus
" All these are the symptoms of a natural dis
temper. They are more surprizing indeed than
those of other disorders, yet nothing supernatural*."
His learned Fellow-Collegiate, Dr. JOHN FREIND,
* Insanorum sunt hsec oinnia ; utrum vero a Daemo-
niis, an vi morbi provenerinl, disceptatur. Neque eniin
alius quisquam inter omnes, qui humanum genus infes-
tant, morbus, tarn naturae vim excedere videtur. P. 66.
treating
SERMON XXVII. 155
treating the same subject, after having given, from
yEtius and Oribasius, a description of the madness
called Lycanthropy, of which one of the most striking
symptoms was, to wander amongst the sepulchres of
the dead, adds, the Demoniac in the Scriptures, who
Was POSSESSED WITH A LIKE SORT OF MADNESS,
is represented as having his dwelling amongst the,
tombs *.
The DETERMINATION of these two learned Na
turalists is founded, we see, in this circumstance,
<c that the symptoms of a demoniacal possession arc
the same with those in some natural disorders."
Now if an evil Spirit were permitted to disturb
men s vital functions, whether in the solids, the
fluids, or in both, Have we any conception how
this could be done, without occasioning some or
other of the symptoms which accompany natural
diseases? A circumstance, therefore, which must
always attend Demoniacal possessions, if real, can
never, surely, be turned into an argument for the
falsehood of them.
Let me just observe, that one of the Evangelists
being a Physician, he is, by a very becoming par
tiality, preferred, by Dr. FREIND, to the rest, for
the purity and accuracy of his expression, when
there is occasion to speak of distempers, or the cure,
of them ; and that he Is more particular in reciting
all the miracles of our Saviour in relation to healing,
than the other Evangelists are-\. Yet St. Luke
speaks the very same language concerning Demo-
* History of Physic, Part I. p. 1821.
\ Ibid. p. 223225.
niacal
156 SERMON XXVII.
niacal possessions with the rest Now, if the Gos
pel Demoniacs were men only naturally diseased,
a- Physician, by his deeper inspection into Nature,
witji the advantage of inspiration to boot, was very
likely to have discovered it ; and, for the glory of
his art, as likely to have undeceived the super
stitious vulgar ; these benevolent Practitioners being
at all times ready to detect vulgar errors. Not to
insist, that St. Luke was swayed to this good work
by a stronger passion than the honour of his pro
fession as a Physician, it was by the love of truth,
as an Evangelist.
The learned author of the Medico, Sacra then
goes on to shew, what he before hinted at, that the
Demoniacs were affected with no symptoms but what
might arise from a diseased body; which he en
deavours to prove from the nature of maniacal
disorders *.
This Observation seems to have arisen from the
learned Writer s unwarily confounding Gospel De-*
monianism with the pretended possessions of these
later times. We Protestants urge the testimony of
the Gospel to prove the truth of Demoniacal pos
sessions : the Papists bring the testimony of their
Demoniacs to prove the truth of the Gospel, or
rather of their own Church. In the first case,
nothing is wanting to evince the reality of the fact,
but the declaration of the great Physician of our
souls : in the other, it is necessary to shew that the
symptoms accompanying \hz possession were SUPER-
* P. 66. Nihil profectc> hie sacrum, nihil, quod ex
male affecfca corporis sanitate oriri non possit, reperimus.
NATURAL;
SERMON XXVII. 157
NATURAL ; such as, speaking in unknown tongues,
revealing secrets, foretelling future events, and all
those extraordinary appearances which the Writers
on Demonology lay down for distinguishing true
from pretended possessions. So that it appears, this
objection hath no force against any but these Church
Demoniacs.
Having thus seen what these men have to urge
against our system of the Gospel ; let us now see
what we have to urge against theirs. Enough hath
been said to shew that this is no trifling or unim
portant question.
I shall therefore beg leave to lay before you, the
consequences which naturally follow the concession,
that Jesus and his Disciples did, in this, only ac
commodate themselves to the fanciful, and therefore
(as it concerned Religion) the superstitious opinions
of those times, in placing natural distempers in die
visionary class of supernatural, and calling real Lu
natics, Demoniacs.
UNBELIEVERS may think (and, by too many,
they will be supposed not to think amiss) that they
get great advantage over the Evidences of our Faith,
by this concession. While it is believed that evil
Demons were subject to the power of Christ from
the testimony of the Evangelists, who tell us that
he cast out Devils, and heated those possessed with
them, that plausible subterfuge against his miraculous
cures, which supposes the relief afforded to be the
effect of a STRONG IMAGINATION, is entirely cut
off. For, however the motion of the blood and
spirits
SERMON XXVIL
spirits might be accelerated by the agitations of a
mind thus unhinged ; the Devil would still keep
his hold, and be nowise affected by it. But when
once his agency is removed, as a groundless and
superstitious terror, these men will think themselves
not altogether unable to deal with the miraculous
cures of the Gospel on our own principles. They
will recount to us the astonishing effects of the Ima
gination in pregnant women, and in atrabilare and
melancholy subjects ; supported by cases recorded
in the writings of Physicians of the greatest au
thority and credit*. They will remind us of the
cures worked by Great rlv the Stroker, in the
memory of our Fathers ; and of those performed
at the Tomb of Abbe Paris, in our own. They will
tell us of a learned French Physician f, who was
so struck with this astonishing force of the human
Imagination, that he thought it capable of working
Miracles, or affecting things supernatural. Nay,
they will pretend to account for all this, by the me
chanism of the body, unaccountably subject to the
delusions of the mind, when unduly agitated either
by sensation or reflection. Nor has any one borne
a stronger testimony to these amazing delusions
than
* See Fienus de viribits Imaginations .
t Augerius Ferrerius. Of whom Thuanus says, Me-
dicinam professus, quam et felicissime et summo judicio
fecit Hist. Lib. LXXXIX.
J Quid mirabilius iis, quae in Graviditatibus non raro
contingere Tidemus ? Foemina in utero gestans, si forte
quid appetiverit, et frustra sit, interdum rei concupitse
figuram quandam, aut imilitudinem, in hac aut ilia cor-
poris
SERMON XX VII. 159
than the learned person whose objections to the
Gospel Demoniacs we have just now examined :
which may seem the more strange, as the testimony
is borne by one who, at the same time, expresses
his surprise that Divines should contend so -eagerly
for this triumph of Christ over Demons, as if some
thing were wanting to demonstrate his power, when
exercised only over natural diseases*. Without
doubt,
poris parte, foetui suo imprimit. Imo, quod majus est,
et prodigii instar, subita partis alicujus laesione perterrita
matre, ipsa ilia pars in infante noxam sentit, et nutriment!
defectu marcessit. Scio hujusmodi omnes historias a.
medicisnonnullis,quoniam,qui talia fieri possint, baud per-
cipiunt, in dubium vocari. At multa, quaj ipse vidi, ex-
empla mihi hac in re scrupulum omnem ademerunt. Tain
stupenda autem est facultatis imaginandi vis, ut non
minus falsae quam verae imagines afficiant, ubi mens iis
assidue sit addicta. Id enim in mulieribus, quae saga;
dicuntur, usu comperimus, quae consimili mentis errore
captac, cum Dacmonibus non tantum consuetudinem ha-
bere, sed et pacta cum iis se inivisse, saepe imaginantur;
idque animo adeo obstinato, ut etiam in judicium vocatae,
se facinorum quae nunquatn perpetraverint, reas con-
fiteantur, cum ob ea ipsa jam mortis supplicium subi-
turae sint. Proinde omnibus notum est, quam mirabi-
libus modis in melancholic is mens perturbatur, &c.
Pp. 70 72.
* P. vii. Pracf. Saepe quidem mirari soleo, cur fidei
nostrae Antistites Dacmonas in scenam producere tanto-
pere contendant, quo scilicet divinum Christi numen de
victis hisce infernis hostibus triumphos agat. An divi-
nam Christi virtutem gravissimorum morborum sana-
tiones, jussu illius momento temporis peractae, minus
patefaciunt; quam maloruiu Geaiorum ex hozninum cor-
poribus expulsiones ?
i6o SERMON XXVII.
doubt, Divines may contend for it on that principle,
without being laughed at. And I have written to
little purpose, if this discourse does not prove that
something would have been wanting to demonstrate,
if not the power, yet the assumed character of Jesus,
had it been exercised only over natural diseases. So
that it appeared to me that what they contended for
was highly useful ; to cut off a subterfuge to which
Unbelievers have had recourse, and which this
learned Physician s just account of the/0rce of the
Imagination contributes to support. How pertinent
the inference may be, which Unbelievers draw from
this force of the Imagination, it is not my purpose,
at present to inquire. The mischief to Religion is
not inconsiderable, that diseased Nature hath af
forded these PHILOSOPHERS a handle for any
inference at all.
But this is not the worst. There is an unavoid
able inference to be drawn from this anti-demoniac
system when proved, more fatal to the truth of the
Gospel than that other. It is an unquestioned fact,
that the Evangelic History of the Demoniacs hath
cyven occasion to the most scandalous frauds, and
sottish superstitions, throughout almost every age
of the Church ; the whole trade of Exorcisms,
accompanied with all the mummery of frantic and
fanatic agitations, having arisen from thence.
Now, were the Gospel Demoniacs really possessed,
the honour of Religion is safe ; and no more affected
by these ingrafted frauds and follies of the Church
of Rome, than is the Law of Moses by their Inqui
sitorial Murders, committed under cover of God s
penal
SERMON XXVII. 161
penal Statutes against Jewish Idolaters. If men will
turn the Truths of God to the support of their crimes
-and follies ; the sacred Oracles will receive no attaint
from such their malice and perversity.
But were the Possessions, recorded in the Gospel,
imaginary ; and D&noniacs only a name for the na
turally diseased ; and that yet, Jesus and his Apostles,
instead of rectifying the People s follies and super
stitions on this head, chose rather to inflame them,
i>y assuring certain of the distempered that they
were really possessed by evil Spirits over whom the
name of Christ had power and authority* : if this, I-
say, were the case, I should tremble for the conse
quence: for then would Jesus and his Disciples, who
were sent to propagate the TRUTH, appear to be an
swerable for all the mischief, which the ri vetting of this
superstition in the minds of men, produced in after-
ages : for there is not a clearer conclusion in moral
science, than that He, who commits a premeditated
fraud, is answerable for the evil which necessarily
or naturally proceedeth from it. So tittle did the
learned Physician, with whom we have to do, see
into the Casuistry of this question, when he took it
for granted, that our contending for the reality of
demoniacal possessions makes the Gospel, and us, its
Ministers who thus interpret it, answerable for all
the tricks of the Church of Rome, which rise upon
the avowal of itf.
On
* Matt. xvii. 15.
f Prajf. p. iv. Erroris patrocinlo non indiget veritas,
uti nee vultus Datura nitidus fucum requirit, Et certum
cst, opinionem istam, quae jam per multa saeculainvaluit,
VOL; X. M de
16* SERMON XXVII.
On the contrary, from what hath been here said,
it evidently appears, that the Opinion of the Accom-
modators (who suppose Jesus and his Disciples took
advantage of a favourable superstition), and not the
Opinion of those Divines who hold Gospel-Demo-
nianism to be real, is the very thing which brings
this opprobrium on the first Propagators of our holy
Faith.
Nor can that reason which is sometimes given for
permitting superstitious errors, (although this were,
which it is not, of the number of such as might be
suffered to hold their course) have any weight in
this case ; namely, tfie difficulty or danger in era
dicating them.
Danger there could be none, from the nature of
things. For, to remove the false terrors concerning
this Enemy of mankind, could never indispose men
to embrace their Saviour and Redeemer.
As little difficult had it been to eradicate so per
nicious an error, how deeply soever rooted, in the
popular superstition. For when they saw Jesus cure
all diseases with a word> and \\izpretended Demoniac
. as
de potentia ad corpora mentesque humanas vexancias
dsBmonibus adhuc permissa, variis astutorum hominum
praestigiis, cum maximo rei Christianas damno et appro-
brio ansam prajbuisse. Quis non merito irridet solennes
istus Romae pontificum ritus, quibus cxercitantur, ut
loqiii amant, Daemoniaci. Veriun istse praestigiaj, quan-
tumvis occuliset mentibus ignarae plebis illudant ; paulo
tamen sagaciores non modo offendunt, sed revera ipsis
nocent. Hi enim, dolo perspecto ; ad impietatem proni
ducuntur.
SERMON XXVIL 163
as easily as the rest, nothing could withstand the au
thority which informed them of their mistake ; and
assured them that this demoniamsm, like the resf,
was altogether a natural distemper. On the con
trary, many favourable prejudices would soon arise
on the side of so authentic an Instructor,
From the whole, therefore, of what hath been
here offered in favour of the obvious sense of my
Text, the attentive hearer will, I presume, be inclined
to acquiesce in the antient interpretation of this part
of the Gospel-History; and be ready to agree with
the first Disciples of Christ, in their pious exultation,
when they returned, from their Mission, with joy-
saying, Lord, through thy name, even the DEVILS
are subject unto us *.
* Luke x. 17.
DISCOURSE XXVIIL
THE RISE OF ANTICHRIST*
2 PETER i. 16 21*
%VE HAVE NOT FOLLOWED C UXX IN iGLY-DE VISED
FABLES, WHEN WE MADE KNOWN UNTO YOU
THE POWER AND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS
CHRIST, BUT WERE EYE-WITNESSES OF HIS
MAJESTY.
FOR HE RECEIVED FROM GOD THE FATHER HO*
NOUR AND GLORY, WHEN THERE CAME SUCH
A VOICE TO HIM FROM THE EXCELLENT GLORY,
THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM
WELL PLEASED.
AND THIS VOICE WHICH CAME FROM HEAVEN WE
HEARD, WHEN WE WERE WITH HIM IN THE
HOLY MOUNT.
WE HAVE ALSO A MORE SURE WORD OF PRO-
PHECY ; WHEREUNTO YE DO WELL THAT YE
TAKE HEED, AS UNTO A LIGHT THAT 5HINETH
IN A DARK PLACE, UNTIL THE DAY DAWN,
AND THE DAY*STAR ARISE IN YOUR HEAfcTS .*
KNOWING THIS FIRST, THAT NO PROPHECY Of
THE SCRIPTURE IS OF ANY PRIVATE INTER*
PRETATION.
M 3
1 56 DISC. XXVIIL
TOR THE PROPHECY CAME NOT IN OLD TIME BY
THE WILL OF MAN : BUT HOLY MEN OF GOD
SPAKE AS THEY WERE MOVED BY THE HOLY
GHOST.
THERE are few places in the New Testament
plainer than this ; as containing only matter
of admonition and instruction : and yet there are
none which have occasioned more contest, or greater
variety of interpretation *.
This hath been chiefly owing to a mistake held in
common concerning the Apostle s subject ; namely,
that he is here speaking of the personal Character of
Jesus; and consequently, that the MORE SURE WORD
OF PROPHECY, with which he strengthens his argu
ment, is the Prophecies of the Old Testament, esta
blishing that character : Whereas the subject, he is
upon, is very different, viz. the general truth of the
Gospel; and, consequently, the more sure word of
Prophecy is the Prophecies of the New Testament.
Such a mistake was necessarily productive of an
other ; For if the personal Character of Jesus were
the subject of the discourse, it would follow, that the
POWER AND COMING of our Lord is to be under
stood of his FIRST COMING ; and that the word of
Prophecy refers to a Prophecy already fulfilled.
But if here he be speaking of the SECOND COMING
of Jesus ; and that, consequently, the word of Pro
phecy refers to a long series of events to be fulfilled ;
this puts a fair end to a controversy, supported only
* See the writings of Bishop Sherlock and Dr. Mid-
dleton, and their respective followers, on this subject.
by
DISC. XXVIII* 167
by the absurd and embarrassed reasonings of the
Controversialists.
j. First then, it is to bo observed, that the Epistle
from whence the passage in question is taken, is a
farewell Epistle to the Churches : The writer know
ing (as he tells them *) that shortly he must put off
this his Tabernacle. Now the great topic of conso
lation urged by these departing Saints to the widowed
Churches, was the SECOND COMING of their Lord
and Master. And of this coming it is that St. Peter
speaks,- for we have not followed cunningly -devised
fables, when we made known unto you the POWER
AND COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ. He sub
joins the reason of his confidence in this SECOND
COMING, that he, and the rest of the Disciples, had
been eye-witnesses of the MAJESTY of the FIRST*
This appears still plainer, from the recapitulation,
in the concluding part of the Epistle, where he re
proves those Scoffers of the last days, who would
say, Where is the promise of his COMING ? for since
the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they
were f. For the primitive Christians had entertained
an Opinion J, that the SECOND COMING of their
Master was at hand. These Scoffers, therefore,
the Apostle confutes at large, from the fifth to the
thirteenth verse of this last Chapter .
If
* Chap. i. ver. 14. f Chap. iii. ver. 3, 4.
% See Div. Leg. Book VI. 6.
But not only the general subject of the Epistle, but
the expression used in the text, shews, that this power
and coming of our Lord Jews Christ is to be understood
W 4 of
i6S DISC. XXVIIL
If this account of the Epistle be true, then, by the
MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY must needs be
meant, not Prophecies of the Old Testament ful-
fdled ; but a long series of Prophecies to be fulfilled
undev the New, each in its order, and extending
through a course of many Ages. To these, the
Churches are bid to take heed } as to. a more sure
word ; which the Apostle compares unto a light that
shineth
of his SECOND COMING -for we have- not followed (say*
he) CUNN rxGLY-Dr.visED FABLES, when we made known
unto you the power and coming, Sec. Now a simple attcs-r
tation of a voice from Heaven at his FIRST COMING,.
could with no propriety of speech be called a cunningly-
devised fable. But let us suppose the Apostle to speak
of Christ s SECOND COMING, when, according to the
PROMISE, there was to be a new heaven, and a new earth,
wherein was to dwell righteousness, after the old had been
burnt up and destroyed by fervent heat * ; and then, if the
prediction of this awful scene were an invention, it was
truly characterized by a CUNNINGLY-DEVISED FABLE,
such as those in which Paganism abounded - r where, in.
their MYTH o LOG re stories, they speak of the Region*
ef departed heroes-, Sec.
. -- " Locos laetos Sc am-ecna vireta
" Fortunatorum nemorum sedesque beatas.
** Lagior hie campos tether & lumine vestit
** Pwpureo * solemque suum, sua sidera nor nut.
And to ascertain- his meaning, the Apostle uses a phrase,
by which only the mytfohgic theology of Paganism car*
be designed, not following or imitating the cunningly-
devised fables of the Greek sophists and mythologists f.
* Chap. iii. ver. 1-2, 13^ compared with the description i
chapters xxi and xxii of the Apocalypse.
MTQOIS
DISC. XX VII I. 1%
Mncth IN A DARK PLACE, until the day dawn, and
the day-star should arise in their hearts.
From Prophecy:, thus circumstanced, we see, it
could not be a Prophecy of the Old Testament ful
filled, such as that of Isaiah* ; which a late critic f
supposes to be the thing here meant ; but a Pro
phecy of the New, because this Prophecy was not a
light shining in a dark place, but in the day, and a
day far advanced ; yet the Apostle supposes the
darkness to prevail all round the light he speaks oi\
and the dawn to be at a great distance.
But then, on the other hand, neither could it be
a Prophecy of things altogether future, since such
Prophecies are totally dark and unintelligible : yet
this is a light, although a light shining in a dark
place.
But, if neither one nor the other, What is it then ?
To understand this, we must reflect upon the general-
subject of the farewell Epistle. It contains direc
tions for their practice, and consolations to their
Faith. Accordingly, having planned out the whole
edifice of Christian Faith and Morals in that famous
summary delivered in the fifth, sixth, and seventh
verses of this Chapter ; and recommended it by a
variety of exhortations and encouragements, he sup
ports himself in all he had said, by the noble con
sciousness of not hwmgfotlowed cunningly-devised
* Chap. xlii. ver. i. Behold my Servant whom I up
hold-, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth : I have put
my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the
Gentile*.
t Mr. MarklamL
fables*.
170 D I S C. XXVIII.
fables^ when, for their consolation, he had said so
much of the SECOND coming of their Lord and
Saviour; of which he could with the greater con
fidence speak, as he was an eye-witness of the mi
raculous circumstances which ushered in the FIRST,
when Jesus received from God the Father honour
and glory, in the voice from Heaven at his bap
tism * and on the mount j\ " But besides these
miracles attendant on his FIRST coming , which give
credit to the truth of what he said concerning his
SECOND, we hare (says he) a still further confir
mation, IN THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY."
Thus he proves invincibly, that nothing was
wanting to satisfy men in this important point. It
had all the evidence of MIRACLES and PROPHECY,
the two great supports of Revelation; and gra
ciously given to establish our faith in the Divine
Author of it
The ground of this extreme goodness is apparent.
In the first promulgation of a revealed Religion,
there is a necessity for the attestation of MIRACLES,
because nothing but the seal of that testimony can
assure us that it came from God. But when once
this end is served, Miracles are withdrawn from his
Church. It hath, from thenceforth, only the tra
ditional verification of the Evidence of a past Fact ;
Evidence, in its nature, much weaker than the ori
ginal Record ; of which the first Ages of the Church
were in possession.
Our gracious Lord, therefore, who never leaves
himself without a Witness, in the moral govern-
* Matt. iii. 17. f Chap. xvii. ver. 5.
ment
DISC. XXVIII. >7*
nient of the world, any more than in the physical,
hath been pleased to give to these latter ages, an
equivalent for the MIRACLES of the former, in an
evidence for the truth of Revelation as strong and
irresistible: I mean, PROPHECY ; by bestowing its
virtue upon his chosen Servants (such as St. PAUL
and St. JOHN). Who now more simply, now more
enigmatically, predicted the future fortunes of the
Church, throughout its several stages; which, as they
became accomplished and fulfilled, would, in the
strongest manner, confirm the Faithful of every age
in the belief of the divine original of the Gospel.
That this gracious indulgence to the well-being of
the Church was constant, and for the support of
Revelation in general, is seen more fully in the
Jewish Economy; where, though MIRACLES, by
reason of the peculiar Form of that Dispensation,
necessarily accompanied it through a course of many
ages, that is, during all the time the Jews were
under an extraordinary Providence ; yet as Mi
racles, together with that extraordinary Providence,
were to cease long bef re the dissolution of the
Theocracy, their holy Prophets, and DAXIEL more
circumstantially and minutely than the rest, foretold
the various fortune of that Republic, from his own
time to the end, in order to afford the later Jews,
as those Prophecies kept fulfilling, the c cares: evi
dence of the truth of their Religion. Such was the
gracious provision of Providence in support of re
vealed Religion
*
*,
St. Peter s
In a former part of these Discourses. I have treated
tf
172 DISC. XXVIII.
St. Peter s reasoning therefore stands thus, in this
important passage of his Epistle that you may be
assured (says he) we have, not followed cunningly-
devised fables, when we made known unto you the
power of our Lord at his second corning, it is well
known that we were eye-witnesses of the majesty
of his first coming, when a voice from Heaven con
firmed his mission and ministry. But this is not
the whole, we have a more sure word of Prophecy,
ivhich gives still further credit to what we taught
you concerning this matter. So you have the double
security of Miracles and Prophecies for this truth
in particular, which God had been pleased to give
for the Faith in general. Miracles, says he, was
not all, nor indeed the principal. We have A MORE
SURE. WORD OF PROPHECY. The term s more sure,
in the translation, are a little equivocal, and may
signify either an evidence which may be more sureli/
relied on, or an evidence which preserves its entire
force much longer ; and this latter is the sense of
the Original, p&otioTegov, more firm, constant, and
durable, which (as we have shewn) is the nature of
Prophecy fulfilled, when compared with the tra
ditional evidence of miracles. In these, we depend
on the good faith of others ; in those, we rely on our
own senses : For the Apostle s observation respects
not
of the necessity of the Evidence both of Miracles and
Prophecies in conjunction, for another purpose, namely,
the establishment of the MESSIAH-CHARACTER : Here,
I am upon the expediency of both separately, and in
different periods, for the support of REVEALED RELI-
CUON in general.
DISC. XXVIII. 173
not the evidence which he and his friends had of
the truth of the Gospel, from instant miracles; but
that evidence which rises on traditional, as it abides
in the Church. So that here is no comparison
between St. Peter s sensible knowledge of the miracle
in the mount in particular, and of the word of Pro
phecy in general. But just the contrary; between
the traditional evidence of miracles in general, and
of the prophecies of the future fortunes of the
Church in particular. This is the direct aim and
tendency of the Apostle s argument ; which some
Jate theological refinements and an ti theological pre
judices have concurred to render infinitely obscure
and intricate, though, in itself, as clear as it is
rational.
This being premised, we come directly to the
question What Prophecy it is, which the Apostle
calls a more sure Word a light shining in a dark
place, c. a Prophecy, which, though it were to
receive its full evidence in a future age, yet as then
beginning to operate, deserved the most serious at
tention of the faithful, in that wherein the Epistle
was written : whereunto (says he) ye do tcell that
you take /iced?
To which I answer The description can agree
with nothing but the predictions of St. Paul and
St. John, concerning ANTICHRIST : For those of
St. Paul (and probably the other * of St. John) had
been published before the writing of this Epistle;
for St. Peter recurring again, towards the con-
* See, concerning the Apocalypse, Sir I. Newton s
Observations on the Prophecies, Sec. p. 235 -246.
elusion
174 DISC. XXVIII.
elusion* of his Epistle, as the subject of it required,
to that more sure word of Prophecy mentioned in
the beginning, refers evidently to those parts of St.
Paul s writings, where the Prophecies in the Re-
relations concerning ANTICHRIST are summarily
abridged ; of which Peter gives this character As
also in all his Epistles, speaking in them of these
things : in which are some things hard to be under-
stood y which they that are unlearned and unstable
wrest, as they do all other Scriptures, unto their
own destruction f . In which words, we have the
truest picture of those indiscreet Interpreters, who
set up for Prophets, in explaining prophetic events
yet unaccomplished; instead of confining them
selves to the illustration of those Prophecies that
are already fulfilled.
Now this book of the Revelations, containing
Predictions darkly and enigmatically delivered, hath
yet such strong marks of the Divinity about it, as
may well justify St. Peter s character concerning it,
of a light shining in a dark place ; while his di*
rection to take heed to it, and to contemplate the
subject-matter of it, bespeaks his charitable attention
to the pastoral care. For several of the Prophecies
having already had their completion, even in those
early times, frequent attention to this light was use
ful, to confirm their Faith in the past, and to sup
port their Hopes in the future.
The principal subject of this famous Book relating
to one great Event The future fortunes of the
Church, under the usurpation of THE MAN OF
* Chap. iii. ver. 15. t Ver. 16.
DISC. XXVIII. 175
SIN, is elegantly called, by way of eminence, the
WORD OF PROPHECY. It began fulfilling even
before Peter wrote this Epistle ; for St. Paul,
speaking of the MAX OF SIN, to the Thessalonians,
says, the Mystery of iniquity doth air cadi/ work *,
It is therefore, with the greatest truth as well as
strength of Colouring, called A LIGHT SHINING IN
A DARK PLACE. Just so much was seen of the
busy mystery of iniquity, now beginning to work, as
was sufficient to fix men s attention, and to put them
on their guard against its delusions.
The Apostle too, for the further encouragement
of those whom he exhorts to give early attention to
this ray of light, adds, that a time would come when
the surrounding darkness should be dispersed, and
Day pour in upon the present obscurities in this
WORD OF PROPHECY : on which, in the mean time,
they were patiently to wait UNTIL THE DAY
DAWN, AND THE DAY-STAR SHOULD ARISE. ThlS
long wish d-for Day at length appeared, with RE
FORMATION on its wings : A Blessing, which re
deemed Reason and Religion from the harpy-claws
of Monkish Ignorance and Superstition. The re
storation of abused Science, which accompanied it,
is well described by the Day dawning ; as the de
fecation of polluted Religion is by the Day-star
rising in their hearts.
At this important yEra, the great Mystery of
Iniquity was clearly revealed ; Antichrist was fully
laid open and exposed ; and such Evidence given
fry Prophecy to the truth of the Christian Faith,
* Second Epistle, chap, ii, ver. 7.
as
i 7 6 DISC XXVIII.
as must, while Reason remains amongst men, strike
conviction on the hearts of an unprejudiced. For
what but the Spirit of God was sufficient to foretell
the Usurpation of an Antichristian Tyranny, which
was to arise many ages after, within the Church of
Christ itself; a species of blasphemous Dominion,
which the world had never seen before, and of which,
not the least conception could be formed either from
example, similitude, oV analogy. But the Apostle
foreseeing that when this flood of light should break
in upon a long-benighted world, the imagination
would be, now, as apt to extravagate, as before,
when it was bewildered amidst the surrounding dark
ness, He thought proper to add this important cau
tion Knowing this first, that no Prophecy of the
Scripture is of any private interpretation ; i. e.
" When you sit down to study the Apocalypse, let
it ever be under the guidance of this great Truth,
That it is not in the department of man to interpret
unfulfilled Prophecies, by pretending to fix the
natures and seasons of Events, clearly indeed pre
dicted, but obscurely described. For that the In
terpreter of Prophecy is not Man, but God ; who,
by bringing events to pass, affords to Man the only-
true interpretation."
That this is the meaning of the Apostle s words,
so long wrested to absurd and licentious purposes,
is evident from the reason he assigns of his caution
for the Prophecy came not in the old time by the
will of man : but holy men of God Spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost : i. e. " for Prophecy,
under the old Law, was not the effect of human
conceit,
DISC. XXVIII. 17?
conceit, but of divine influence." Therefore both the
prediction, and the interpretation, which is the ac
complishment of the prediction, are equally the word
and work of God, and become manifest in the course
of his Providence. Nor did the Prophets them
selves always understand the full or even the true
import of what they delivered, being only the Organs
of the Holy Spirit. Much less then can we suppose
the common Ministers of the word to be qualified
for the office of Interpreters of unfulfilled Prophe
cies. How necessary it was to give this caution,
appears from what he himself observes in this very
Epistle, of certain unlearned and unstable men, who
wrested those hard places in St. Paul, where the man
of sin is mentioned, to their own destruction*.
This dangerous ABUSE, which began so early, and
lasted so long, hath infected every age of the Church;
especially these LATTER TIMES; when the wonderful
accomplishment of several of the Prophecies con
cerning Antichrist, having set Divines upon a more
accurate study of the Apocalypse^ the men of warmer
imaginations, forgetting this apostolic caution, in
stead of confining their contemplations to the Pro
phecies already fulfilled, for the support of their
Faith, and the consolation of their Hopes, have
erected themselves into PROPHETS; and, taking the
work out of the hands of Providence, have dared to
predict of what is yet in the womb of Time, and
still remains in a dark place.
But how extravagant soever some Protestant In
terpreters have been, when they gave a loose to their
* Chap. iii. ver. 3, 4.
* OL P^ N Imaginations;
1 7 8 DISC. XXVIII.
Imaginations, yet the soberest of them have uni
versally concurred with the wildest, that this man of
sin, this Antichrist, could be no other than the man
who fills the PAPAL CHAIR : Whose usurpation in
Christ s Kingdom, and Tyranny over Conscience, by
intoxicating the Kings of the earth with the cup of
his enchantments, and Himself, with the blood of the
saints, so eminently distinguishes him from all other
unjust Powers, that the various Churches who broke
loose from his Enchantments, agreed in supporting
the vindication of their Liberty, on this common
Principle, that the POPE or CHURCH OF ROME
WAS THE VERY ANTICHRIST FORETOLD.
On this was the REFORMATION begun and
carried on: On this, was the great SEPARATION
from the Church of Rome conceived and perfected :
For, though Persecution for Opinion would acquit
those of schism, whom the Church of Rome had
driven from her Communion ; yet, on the principle
that She is Antichrist, they had not only a right, but
lay under the obligation of a command, to come out
of this spiritual Babylon *.
On this Principle (the common ground, as we say,
of Reformation) the several Protestant Churches,
how different soever in their various models, were all
erected: though, in course of time, some of the less
stable have slipped beside their foundation, and
now stand aslant from the common building. For
as the zeal of the Reformed kept abating, the Prin
ciple came to be deserted ; and at length laughed at
as the fancy of brain-sick visionaries.
* Rev. xviii, 4-
Therefore,
DtSC. XXVIIL
Therefore, before we proceed to the vindication
of this important Truth, it may be proper to in-
quire into the chief causes of so general a Deser*
tion I mean as it is now seen amongst ourselves.
IT. The first occasion of discredit began very
early. Some of the first Reformers, even in the days
of ELIZABETH, suffered themselves to entertain
scruples concerning the further use of whatever, iii
the Roman Ritual, had been abused to superstition.
These scruples were fostered by the Mosaic Law^
ill understood : in which, whatever had been abused
to Idolatry, was (as they conceived) condemned and
desecrated. Now the force of this analogy (such as
it had) arose from the Principle, tluit THE POPE
WAS ANTICHRIST, and the CHURCH OF ROME THE
SPIRITUAL BABYLON : from Avhence the People of
Christ being commanded to come out) as the Peo-
pie of God had been, from Egypt, it seemed con
gruous to reason that PAPAL and EGYPTIAN Rites
were equally abhorred by the God of purity.
I will not stay at present, as it is a matter fo
reign to the subject, to discriminate the natures
of the TWO DISPENSATIONS, by which the folly
of applying the Laws of One to the administration
of the Other, might be made apparent.
It is more to the purpose to observe, that these
scrupulous men (from thenceforth called PURI
TANS) by their obstinacy, which ended in a Sefa*
ration, soon grew very troublesome, and even for
midable to Government. And ANTICHRIST, and
the WHORE OF BABYLON, being now become the
2( 2 watchword.
iSo DISC. XXVIIL
watchword, as well on account of its bei ng the gene
ral ground of Reformation, as hecause they deemed
it the particular support of their Puritanism ; it is not
at all strange, that what, till now, had been a common
Principle, should, from henceforth, be considered
by the Established Church, in no other light than
the support of separation, and the badge of sepa
ratists. But, as a support, those who were most
attached to the national worship would be forward
to bring the Principle into discredit ; and as the
badge, they would be ashamed to have it appear
upon themselves.
The reign of JAMES the First gave another and ^
more decisive stroke tc the unfashionable doctrine
of Antichrist. He abhorred the PURITANS, against
whom Elizabeth was contented to be only on her
guard ; and he feared the PAPISTS, whom Elizabeth
set at defiance; so that to countenance the doctrine of
Antichrist, was, in his opinion, to give credit to the
Puritan, whom he hated, and to make the Papists
desperate, whom he feared. The Court-Divines,
therefore, sought his favour, by speaking slightly of
the doctrine; or by treating it with contempt. And
the greatest Divine * and Scholar of that age ruined
his fortune at Court by an immortal work in defence
of this common Principle. Nor does James s writing
a Paraphrase on the Revelations, before he was
twenty, to prove the Pope to be Antichrist, or the
cutting some lively jokes on the old Gentleman in
his more advanced age, at all shew that his senti
ments were different from those I have here given
* Mede.
to
DISC. XXVIH. 181
to him ; for the Paraphrase was apparently the
composition of his Puritan Governors ; and as for
his Jokes, he would at any time sacrifice a Friend
to their good reception.
But there was another cause of still more weight,
which, at this time, concurred to discredit the doc
trine of Antichrist : and that was the effects of the
persecutions which the Puritans, at that time, un
der went. For, religious Persecution hardens and
contracts the Will, and inflates and inflames the
Imagination ; so that the Puritans, supported under
their oppression, by stubbornness and enthusiasm,
soon began to fancy that they saw the evils they
suffered foretold in their favourite Prophecies con
cerning Antichrist ; which set them upon interpreting
the Apocalypse, not so much to illustrate, by the aid
of critical learning what was past, as to teach with
the air and spirit of Prophets, what was to come :
regardless of the sage information of the Apostle,
that the unfulfilled Prophecies are ml of private
interpretation. It will be easily believed, what wild
work this spirit must produce in minds thus agitated,
when brooding over so mysterious a Book : In*
which, amongst their other visionary discoveries, they
saw all that concerned their own cause and suffer
ings, together with the happy issue of them, in the
glorious triumphs of the Saints : And it will be as
easily conceived, what dishonour these extravagances
must bring upon the great PRINCIPLE itself. The
Court and Comic Poets, who are generally the
Pensioners or Creatures of the Great, soon took up
the subject; and having it at this advantage, turned
N 3 these
183 DISC. XXVIII.
these Prophecies and their Interpreters, into mockery
and ridicule. From thence the People catched the
infection ; and Antichrist and Fanaticism have been
ever since synonymous terms.
LAUD (who was bred up in College with an
aversion to the Puritans) when under CHARLES THE
FIRST he soon became all powerful, encouraged the
more rational principles of the Anninians ; of which
sect GROTIUS and EPISCOPIUS were the two main
Pillars. Now the moderation of the One, and a
visionary scheme of the Other, indisposed both
from pressing Popery with the victorious doctrine of
Antichrist. This, which added fresh discredit to it,
encouraged one Court-Divine * (afterwards an Arch
bishop) in an Act at Oxford, to deny publicly, that
the Pope was Antichrist ; while another of the same
fashionable party, though much more able and dis
creet t, ventured, in pure aversion to Fanaticism,
to adopt the System of GROTIUS on this head; a
System, to which Popery has been much indebted ;
and which GROTIUS seems to have invented for the
sake only of his darling Project, an Union between
the Catholic and Protestant Churches.
The Civil Wars, and the overthrow of the Con
stitution, soon followed, the glorious achievement of
a rabble of armed Fanatics ! whose Enthusiasm was
inflamed to its height, by their % second project, to
destroy Antichrist^ and erect the fifth Monarchy
of King Jesus. Indeed, these were no other than
the various spawn of the first persecuted Puritans.
So that when Monarchy was restored, and Church-
* Sheldon t Hammond.
nien
DISC. XXVIII. 183
men of greatest merit were, by a rare chance, become
most in repute at Court, the severity of their suffer
ings in the late confusions, and their aversion to the
fanatic spirit that occasioned those sufferings, enough
disposed them to follow the example of the old Court
Clergy, in discountenancing a Doctrine whose abuse
had so much contributed to aggravate the preceding
mischiefs.
The licentious practices and the Popish projects
of the Favourites and Ministers of CHARLES THE
SECOND further concurred to bring this GREAT PRO
TESTANT PRINCIPLE into discredit: Amongst these,
whatever concerned the sublimities of Religion, and
the mysterious ways of Providence ; whatever dis
graced the Church of Rome, or stigmatized her with
the brand of ANTICHRIST, was sure to be treated
with contempt and aversion.
The REVOLUTION, indeed, removed many of these
prejudices ; and, by the vindication of religious as
well as civil Liberty, abated the rancour of Sects and
Parties against one another. Nay, by the recent
terror and abhorrence of Popery, from which men
were but just recovered, it even produced contrary
prejudices, favourable to the cause of truth. So
that now one would have hoped, this capital Pro
phecy might at length have procured a fair and equi
table hearing. But, alas ! the remedy came too late :
The distemper was grown inveterate, and ANTI
CHRIST and BABYLON were still held to be the lan
guage of cant and enthusiasm. So that no eminence
of genius, no depth of Science, could secure the
W riters on this Prcfh.ecy from contempt. Of this
N 4 we
184 DISC. XXVIIL
we have lately had a portentous instance, respect-*
ing the most sublime mind * that ever was ;
and in whose amazing efforts this nation most
justly prides itself: who was no sooner known to
have commented on the REVELATIONS, than lie
was judged f to have fallen into dotage. And this
great Expositor, as great when he laid open the mys
teries of the Religious System, as when he unveiled
those of the Natural, was almost generally con
demned to neglect and oblivion .
III. Notwithstanding all these disadvantages, un
der which the man must labour who comes to the
defence of this SURE WORD OF PROPHECY, yet a
full sense of the importance of the case will be suf
ficient to encourage a Protestant Divine to make the
attempt : For, on the Prophecy concerning Anti
christ the Protestant Churches were founded ; and
by the APOCALYPSE in general are they impregnably
upheld.
The contempt, in which the Doctrine now lies,
hath kept in credit the miserable shifts the Church
of Rome hath employed to cure the deadly wound
which cannot be healed. For as that Community
hold the Apocalypse to be Canonical, they are
obliged to own, that the object of the Prophecy is
Antichrist, or the Man of sin-, and, what is more,
that it is in ROME itself where he domineers. For,
the place of his residence, the City on the seven
* NEWTON.
t By Voltaire and the French Philosophers ; a sect
sprung from our Freethinkers,
ftj/fc
DISC. XXVIII. 185
hills, is so plainly marked out, that it can be neither
mistaken nor denied.
This is hard upon them, as it lays them unde the
necessity of going back as high as the first PERSE
CUTING EMPERORS, that is, to the first Ages of the
Church, to seek for this Man of sin ; and in the circum
stances of the rage and impiety of those tyrants, and in
the state of the then suffering Church, to find out all
that relates to the Antichristian Power foretold.
The difference of opinion, therefore, between the
Romish and Protestant Churches, on this important
point, stands thus : The Romanists hold, that this
ANTICHRISTIAN POWER is a power of the CIVIL
kind ; the Reformed contend, that it is a power
ECCLESIASTICAL. While both concur to fix the
seat of this Power, whose nature is thus disputed,
in the CITY OF ROME.
This long Contest may therefore be well reduced
to a single question, a question which leads to a
decisive issue, -Is THIS ANTICHRISTIAN POWER
OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL, OR IS IT OF THE CIVIL
KIND ? If it be a civil power, the Church of Rome
gains her cause, and clears herself of the capital
charge of the Man of sin s sitting in the chair of
PETER, and usurping in the Kingdom of Christ. If
the power be ecclesiastical, the Protestant Churches
triumph, as being established on Prophecy, and
having their secession and separation justified* by
the command of the Holy Spirit.
To determine this decisive question, v>e shall
have no occasion to launch out into that wide
* Key. xviii. 4.
ocean
i8G DISC. XX VIII.
ocean of Literature, agitated by a thousand storms,
arising from every controversial quarter of this un
explored world of MYSTICAL PROPHECY, For, if
the Power foretold be of the civil kind, it can relate
only to the persecuting EMPERORS ; if it be a Power
ecclesiastic, it can relate only to persecuting POPES.
For it is agreed on all hands, that PERSECUTION is
the BADGE OF ANTICHRIST.
But before 1 proceed more directly to shew that
the Pope, and not the Emperor, is interested in the
actions and fortunes of this MAN OF SIN, it will
give additional force to the Evidence, if we reflect,
previously, on the distress to which, both matters of
fact and matters of right have reduced the Advo-
V o>
cates of the Papal Cause.
To evade the edge of these Prophecies, which
cut so deep into the vitals of the Church of Rome,
her Advocates did not want dexterity, when they
interpreted Antichrist to be a Power of the civil
kind. This took the burthen from off their shoulders,
by removing the whole Scene into an opposite
quarter ; a quarter fertile of plausible applications.
Their dexterity consisted in turning necessity into a
shew of choice. For the birth of Antichrist, his
acts and achievements, being confined to one parti
cular City; in order to find a Civil Power domi
neering in this City, and persecuting the Church of
Christ, they were obliged to force their way upwards,
to the first Ages of Christianity. But, how much
this makes their Cause to labour, we shall now en
deavour to evince.
j. First then, had Antichrist or the man of sir*
22 been
DISC. XXVIII. 187
been the persecuting Roman Emperors, the Chris
tians of that time must needs have seen and ac
knowledged his Character, in the working and the
accomplishment of the Prophecy : They, who were
Contemporaries, and, of coarse, perfectly well ac
quainted with every circumstance respecting the
Persecutors, and every circumstance attending the
Persecution, could not but see how all of them (if
such were the fact) quadrated with every part of
the Prediction ; and so have been fully convinced,
that the Man of sin was the Emperor of the world ,
as indeed he was not likely to be one in a much
lower Station. On the contrary, though PERSECU
TION be the family-badge of Antichrist, yet the
Christians of that time saw nothing in the imperial
edicts, or in their execution, that had any marked
resemblance to the desolations to be committed by
the man of sin. They saw nothing there even
to excite their attention, or to erect their minds
towards the Crimes or towards the Punishment of
the man of sin, so graphically described by the apos
tles Paul and John : nor indeed any other circum
stance in their then state of oppression, sufficient
to rescue the Apocalypse from a total neglect, save
in the doubts they entertained of its authenticity. So
that, if the Prophecy of Antichrist concerned the
early fortunes of the Christian Church, as our Ad
versaries pretend ; and that, yet, the Church, most
concerned, saw nothing of it, as was the case,;
Unbelievers will say, that no greater disgrace can
befal PIIOFHECY than what these two things, whe.n
laid together, will occasion.
? Again,
188 DISC. XXVIII.
2. Again, it is to be observed, that the Infor
mation c6ncerning Antichrist, or the Man of sin,
was not intrusted to St. John alone. It was com
municated to other of the Apostles ; perhaps to all,
for reasons we may easily collect ; certainly, to the
great Apostle of the Gentiles. Now St. Paul, in
his second Epistle to the Thessalonians, combating
a growing error then risen in the Church, " that the
SECOND COMING of our Lord was at hand," says,
Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day
shall not come, except there be a falling away first,
and that MAN OF SIN be FIRST revealed, the son of
Perdition * . This is no obscure intimation that the
reign of ANTICHRIST was at some considerable
distance. But the words which follow put the
matter out of doubt :- Remember ye not (says he)
that when I was with you, I told you these things ?
and now ye know, WHAT WITHIIOLDETH that HE
wight be revealed in his time. For the MYSTERY
OF INIQUITY doth already work: only HE, who rwv
letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way :
and then shall that WICKED ONE be revealed^.
By this, it appears, that the impediment, or let
to the revelation of Antichrist was something exter
nal. That spirit of Pride, persecution, and impiety,
which makes up the Character of the MAN OF SIN,
was already breeding and fostering in the Church ;
and were it not for an impediment without, which
would take some time to remove, his appearance
might have been soon expected. This impediment,
we, see, St. Paul scruples to lay open by Letter; at
* Chap. ii. ver. 3. t Ver. 5, 6, 7.
the
DISC. XXVIII. 189
the same time, he reminds them, that, in his Con
versations with them, he had explained the secret.
But surely, when his argument led him to it, he had
small cause to decline a repetition, unless he thought
it dangerous to be put in writing. Such a reserve
was not his wont. On other occasions of precept
and instruction, he inculcated what he would impress
upon their minds, by frequent remonstrances and
repetitions, in season and out of season. We must
conclude, therefore, that something of great im
portance occasioned his reserve. And if this let
to the appearance of Antichrist were the present
EXISTENCE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, W6 are not
to wonder he should scruple to commit so dan
gerous a secret to paper; lie who, on all occasions,
was so cautious not to give offence to the civil
Power. -And what would have been deemed so high
a crime of State against IMMORTAL ROME, as to
teach that her Dominion was to pass away ; and,
as an obstruction to the eternal Decrees of Pro
vidence, to give place to a Power still more tyran
nical and unjust ?
Now, as the Ppal usurpation arose out of the
Ruins of the Rowan Empire, and could have arisen,
naturally, by no other means, we have great reason
to believe, that the EXISTENCE of this EMPIRE was
the very let and impediment so obscurely intimated
by the prudent Apostle.
However, he tells us, that the secret had been
communicated to the Churches. And probably it
was one amongst the chief of those dangerous in
formations, which, we learn from the history of the
Primitive
190 DISC. XXVIII.
Primitive Church, were kept, with all care* from thg
knowledge of the Catechumens.
What then would such a communication to the
Church produce, but what it did produce, a general
Opinion, that the appearance of Antichrist was to be
in the latter times? The Apostle, we find, when he
combated the common error, that our Lord s second
coming was at hand, employs this general opinion con
cerning Antichrist, to shew how much they were mis
taken, by an argument to this purpose, " You ac
knowledge that Antichrist is to appear in the latter
times] now this Man of sin must be revealed before
the second coming ; consequently the second coming
must needs be far off."
The late appearance of Antichrist was a doctrine
so universally received in the primitive Church, that
it was like a proverbial saying amongst them > and
from thence St. John takes occasion to MORALIZE
on the Doctrine, and warn his followers against that
spirit which, in after-times, was to animate the Man
of sin. " Little children, * says he, " it is the last
" time: and ye have heard that Antichrist shall come :
* even now there are many Antichrists where*
" by ye know that it is the last time*." As much
as to say, We are fallen into the very dregs of time,
as appears from that Antichristian spirit which now
so much pollutes the Churches : for you know, it
is a common saying, that " Antichrist is to come in
those wretched days." The Apostle goes on to
employ the same allusion through the rest of the
Epistle He is ANTICHRIST that dcnicth the
* i John ii. 18.
Father
DISC. XXVIII. 191
Father and the Son *. Again This is that spirit of
ANTICHRIST, whereof ye have heard that it should
come ; and even now already is it in the world f.
And again Many deceivers re entered into the,
world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh. This is a deceiver and AN AN TICHRIST J.
Where, we see, the appellation, Antichrist 9 is em*
ployed to signify an enemy of God and godliness in
general, by the same figure of speech that Ellas was
designed in those times to signify a Prophet; and
Rachel, a Daughter of Israel ; and that, in these
times, Judas is used for a Traitor, and Nero for
a Tyrant. But as these converted terms necessarily
suppose, that they originally belonged to persons of
the like Characters, who had them in proper ; so
does the name Antichrist, transferred by St. John,
to certain of his impious Contemporaries, as ne
cessarily suppose, that there was one who should
arise in the latter times, to whom the title eminently
belonged, as marked out in the Prophecies by the
proper name of ANTICHRIST.
This was not amiss to observe, because the Ad
vocates of the See of Rome have laid hold of these
passages to shew, that ANTICHRIST was only a
generic term for every enemy of God and godliness
Whereas we Protestants insist, that it was the
Proper name of one Grand Impostor ; not one by
the individuality of Person, but by the identity of
Station, to be revealed in the latter Ages of the
Church ; and, after he had been foretold by name,
that was applied genetically, by the commonest
* Ver. 22. f Chap. iv. rcr. 3. % 2 Epist. ver. 7.
figure
192 DISC. XXVIII.
figure of speech, to all who had any semblance to
his Character. The only difference is, that Pro
phecy enabled the sacred Writers to use the generic
appellation, before the appearance of him who had
it for his patronymic; whereas, in the other cases,
the generic term must needs come after the Person
who first bore it for his own name.
From these places therefore of St. Paul and St.
John it necessarily follows, that the ANTICHRIST or
MAN OF SIN predicted by Both of them (his Person
and Fortunes, more fully by the latter ; his Mer
chandise and Traffic, more minutely by the former)
could not be the persecuting Emperors.
Another very persuasive argument, that the An-
ticbristian P v.er in question is the growth of these
latter times, is te mysterious dar kncss in which the
enigmatic prophecies in the Apocalypse concerning
ANTICHRIST lay involved for many ages. A light
indeed shining in a dark place, to the few sagacious
observers of every age, but surrounded with so thick
a darkness to all besides, that, despairing to penetrate
the gloom, they consigned the Apocalypse to a ge
neral neglect, not without much uncertainty and
doubt concerning its Author. But these latter times
have seen the clouds and darkness gradually fly off,
and the light grow stronger and brighter as the fate
of ANTICHRIST approaches. This seems to be a
sure evidence, that the grand Impostor is of these
times ; that he has advanced through several stages
of his Usurpation ; that two or three Ages ago his
power was at the height ; that he is now past his
meridian, and hasting to his decline ; and that some
future
DISC. XXVIII. 193
future Age, not very remote, will see his total de
struction ; and consequently the remaining obscu
rity of this famous book made manifest to all *.
A third
* A late Protestant Editor and Commentator of the
NEW TESTAMENT, in reverence perhaps to the memory
of Grotius, one of the brightest Ornaments of the Church
or Sect to which this Editor belongs, contends, as that
great man had done before him, that the CHURCH OF
ROME is NOT ANTICHRIST. We know what it was
that induced Grotius to maintain that system ; it was a
project of a comprehension long since out of credit, from
a sense of its visionary impracticable nature : what it was
that induced this learned man to revive it, a doctrine so
injurious to the Protestant Cause, unless a mistaken fond*
ness for that excellent Person s Memory, I confess myself
utterly at a loss to conceive.
However, he assures us, that the fanciful application
of Antichrist to the Church of Rome, was first made in
the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, by the FRAN
CISCAN MONKS: from whom he says the Reformed
Churches received it : and then adds But the thing will
hardly Jind credit with men of sense, that in a barbarous and
unlearned age, the true key to the Apocalypse should be in
trusted to these paltry Monks, destitute of letters and all
knowledge of Antiquity, and denied to the whole Christian
Church before, for Thirteen whole Centuries together f.
No white-washer of Popery could have done better.
In a HISTORY OF THINGS PAST, and recorded in the
learned languages, the languages of the times, the best
Scholar and most sagacious Critic without doubt bids
f JEgrfc tamcn apud cordatos iidem inveniet, seculo barbaro
et indocto veram ApocaH pseos clavem, per Integra tredecim
secula omnibus Christianis occultatain, a Monachis omrii lin-
guarum et antiquitatum cognitione destitutis, repertam fuisse.
Nov. Test. Graec. Amst. 1752. Tom. II. pp. 891, 892.
Vo L X. O fairest
194 DISC. XXVIII.
A third Objection* to this papal interpretation, may
be drawn from a Principle laid down in the entrance
on
fairest for the best Interpreter: and the earlier he is tu
the subject, the better chance he has of being in the
right.
But in a PROPHECY OF THINGS TO COME, foretold in
all its circumstances, common sense assures us, that he is
most likely to interpret best who lives latest, and comes
nearest to the time of the completion. For he who hath
seen one part already fulfilled, apart which gives light to
the remainder yet unfulfilled, will certainly be best able to
judge of the whole, and best understand to what object
it capitally relates.
The most exalted genius, with the exactest know
ledge of Antiquity, and skill in Languages, could not
enable the early Fathers of the Church to form any
tolerable judgment of a thing at that time almost totally
hidden in futurity ; especially if it were (as was the
case here) in a matter of w r hich the mind of man, for
want of the knowledge or experience of any thing similar,
could have no conception.
On the other hand, the profoundest ignorance, in
the want of all those accomplishments, could not hinder
the most stupid Monk from seeing what was before his
eyes, Antichrist in Pontificals, and the Man of Shi arrived
at his full stature. This extraordinary Personage he
might know, by the mere information of his sensa, was
the bloody tyrant foretold.
On other occasions indeed, for wise and general
purposes, it pleased Divine Providence to hide the great
mysteries of the Gospel/rowa the wise and prudent, and
to reveal them unto Babes. But in this, the same dispen
sation was necessary and unavoidable : And the FRAN
CISCANS, without a miracle, had the. honour of starting
ANTICHKlSt
DISC. XXVIII. 195
on this Discourse, viz. That Miracles and Pro
phecies are the two great pillars of revealed Religion ;
but
ANTICHRIST in his form, which, without a miracle, the
Origcns and the Ckrysostoms must hunt after in vain.
But the pleasantest part of the argument is behind. >
// (says the learned Critic) we believe the Franciscans
when they tell us, that the Pope is the Beast and the whore
of Babylon, we. must of NECESSITY believe them, when
they tell us, that they themselves are the only spiritual
Brethren, the true Church, and that the single mark of the
true Church is to live on alms, and to wear a strait and
short capuchine*. Commend me to a Reasoner like
this ; a Reasoner on necessity. What ! because that
which the Franciscans saw before their eyes, and we see
with ours, and so agree with them, that the Prophecy of
Paul and John concerning ANTICHRIST was fulfilled in
the POPE, therefore we must of necessity believe these
same Monks when they say they are the true Church,
though no Prophecy hath given us the marks either of
them or their pretended church, unless it be in the Frogs
that came out of the mouth of the BEAST. If you give
a man credit for what he can prove, we are obliged, it
seems, to give him credit for what he cannot.
The Commentators of the present age, as living so
much later than those Franciscans, have seen more
marks of the Beast, as he grew more enraged ; for then,
as the poet said of his fellow-beast the Tiger,
he swell* d with angry pride,
And called forth all his spots on every side
* Qui vero Franciscanis credit, Pontificem Romanam esse
belluam et meretricem Babylonicam, iisdem etiam credut
NECESSE EST solos fratres spirituales esse veram ecclesiam, et
unicum vcrae ecclesise characterem csse vivere pane mendicato,
*t gestare arctum brevemque cucullum. p. 89-2.
O 2 and
196 D I S C. XXVIII.
but raised in succession, each in its proper time and
place. From whence it may be collected, that the
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PROPHECIES belongs to the
latter times, just as the WORKING OF MIRACLES
does to the former : The use of Prophecies fulfilled
being to strengthen the evidence of our Faith, from
Miracles performed ; which a long intermission of
many ages may seem to have impaired. To suppose,,
therefore, that the accomplishment of these Prophe
cies happened, and is to be sought for, in the first
ages of the Church, tends to cross and defeat the
gracious purpose of the Founder; while it takes
away Prophecy from these /alter times, in which
it is wanted, and gives it to the former, which stood
in no need of it ; bestowing on some Ages a wasteful
abundance, and depriving others of a necessary
supply.
Thus, on the confession of our Adversaries, the
head-quarters of ANTICHRIST being fixed in Rome",
and,
and so have been able to give the most convincing proofs
that he is the Inhabitant of the Seven Hills ; and in this
the Protestant World has generally acquiesced. But doe&
the sober part of it believe, that therefore the wanri-
headed Interpreters of the Apocalypse have discovered (as
they pretend) the MARTYRS, SAINTS, and WITNESSES,
persecuted and despoiled by the SCARLET WHORE and
her infernal Abettors, in their own Friends and Parties
in Religion ? By no means. And why ? These In
terpreters prove, in the most incontestible manner, that
the CHURCH OF ROME is ANTICHRIST ; but we see they
only fancy they have discovered the Objects of his rage,
iri those who do honour to their Cause.
DISC. XXVIII. 197
and, on the conviction of our senses, his tyrannical
and usurped Power being exercised in these latter
times : We come more directly to the main question,
WHETHER ANTICHRIST BE A CIVIL POWER, OR
A SPIRITUAL ?
That it was a SPIRITUAL, we shall now evince,
by the following reasons :
i . In these latter times, there hath been no Civil
power in ROME, separate from an Ecclesiastical;
but an Ecclesiastical only, which hath drawn after
it a Civil. So that if ROME were the seat of AN
TICHRIST, and these latter times gave rise to his
Usurpation ; and that, in these latter times, there
was no such civil power in ROME, but this of An
tichrist ; the consequence will be, that ANTICHRIST
as such is a SPIRITUAL or Ecclesiastical, and not a
CIVIL power.
The thing which hath kept this controversy on a
creditable footing, is the TWO POWERS changing hands
as it were, and invading one another s provinces.
So that when we urge the Papists with Antichrist s
having the marks of a spiritual power, and therefore,
not the Imperial ; they reply, these marks may well
be seen in a Power confessedly Civil, since the E?n-
peror, like the Pope, was always Pontifex Maximus
here; and very often, a god, or a Saint at least,
hereafter.
When, on the other hand, they urge us with those
marks of Antichrist which bespeak him a civil
power ; we reply, that though the Popes essential
power be indeed of the spiritual kind, yet he rightly
O 3 wears
198 DISC. XXVIII.
wears these marks of a secular ; since such a power
he had annexed to his spiritual, (just as the Em
peror annexed a spiritual power to the civil) by
his investing himself with a civil Dominion, called
St. Peters Patrimony.
2. So far in confutation of the System framed by
Grotius, to facilitate the project of a visionary Com
prehension ; a system of real service to nothing but
the Papal Tyranny. It is true, that the evidence
here employed is only negative ; yet it comes with
a force, which no positive evidence can exceed. But
to leave no subterfuge for doubt, I shall close all
with the other species, the proof positive, taken
from the Apocalyptic Character of this famous Per
sonage.
3. POWER is male or female indifferently. Hence
the Power in question is sometimes said to be the
attribute of the MAN OF SIN; sometimes, of the
SCARLET WHORE. A corrupt Church may be found
either under a popular or monarchic government.
Under a popular, One name and one personage
would serve in enigmatic Prophecy, both for the
Governor and Governed ; because they are all re
ciprocally one and the other : and such a Church
might be comrnodiously represented by one single
Personage. But, under a monarchic or despotic
Government, the Acts and Monuments of such a
Church cannot be well represented but under Two ;
the Tyrannic Head and miserable Members, some
times suffering under, and sometimes, again, sharing
in, the Tyranny.
On
DISC, xxvnr. 199
On this account, there was a propriety and ele
gance in the occasional change of the Sex, by the
sacred Penmen. The POPE, as Usurper and Ty
rant in Chris f s Kingdom, is represented under the
male image of ANTICHRIST or the MAN OF SIN;
and the CHURCH OF HOME, whose cup of abomi
nations had debauched and intoxicated the world,
under the female mage of the SCARLET WHORE.
And as this affords us the clearest proof, that the
Antichristian Power in question is of the SPIRITUAL
and not of the civil kind, I shall pursue the Vision
in those famous Prophecies which presents the
Christian Church under a female form ; first, in its
celestial, native, purity ; and then, in its degenerate
and apostate state. For, of all the emblematic
Pictures in the Apocalyptic Visions, those two are
the least ambiguous.
In the xiith Chapter, a WOMAN comes from
Heaven, " clothed with the Sun, and the Moon
" under her feet, and upon her head a crown of
* twelve stars : And she being with child, cried,
travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered
f And behold a great RED DRAGON, having seven
" heads and ten horns, and SEVEN CROWNS upon his
" heads. And the Dragon stood before the Wo-
" man, which was ready to be delivered, for to
" devour her child as soon as it was born. And
" she brought forth a man child, who was to rule
f all nations with a rod of Iron; and the Child was
caught up unto God,, and to his throne. And
the Woman fled into the WILDERNESS, where
04 she
200 D I S C. XXVIII.
c she had a place prepared of God, that they should
" feed her there."
In the xviiith Chapter, an Angel says to John,
" Come hither, I will shew unto thee the judgment
" of the GREAT WHORE, that sitteth upon many
" Waters : with whom the Kings of the earth have
" committed fornication, and the Inhabiters of the
c earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
f fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit
" into the WILDERNESS : and I saw a WOMAN sit
16 upon a SCARLET-COLOURED BEAST full of names
" of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
" And the WOMAN was arrayed in purple and
" scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious
1 stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her
" hand, full of abominations and filthiness of for-
" nication, And upon her forehead was a name
" written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother
" of Harlots, and abominations of the earth. And
* e I saw the WOMAN drunken with the blood of the
" Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs of
<l Jesus : and when I saw her, I wondered with
" great admiration. And the Angel said unto me,
" W T herefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee
" the Mystery of the WOMAN, and of the beast
" that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and
" ten horns. And here is the mind which hath
" Wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains
" on which the WOMAN sitteth. These shall make
<c war with the Lamb ; and the Lamb shall over^
" come them,"
Though
DISC. XXVIII. 201
Though the two prophetic Visions, I have here
transcribed, be full of evidence concerning the for
tunes of ANTICHRIST, and the fate of the SCARLET
WHORE ; and that the POPE and See of ROME are
no other than the alias names of the Criminal ; yet
our point being only to shew, that the ANTI-
CHRISTIAN POWER in question is a SPIRITUAL and
not a civil Power, I have at present nothing to do
with its various ABOMINATIONS, here sketched out,
further than as some circumstances, concerning these
abominations, speak more fully to the general truth
we are upon.
The SAME WOMAN, who represents the Christian
Religion, we see appear in both the Prophetic Vi
sions ; pure and immaculate when first let clown
from Heaven; but defiled and contaminated by a
long commerce in the Wilderness of this world.
In her Virgin-state we see her armed in the ce-*
lestial panoply of FAITH and KNOWLEDGE; and,
(while in this state) like her Almighty Father, with
out variableness, or shadow of changing : expressed
by her being clothed with the sun, crowned with
twelve stars, and the moon under her feet. She is
in labour with her first-born, and pained to be de
livered; by which is admirably held out, the dangers
and difficulties our holy Religion struggled with,
in giving birth to the infant Church, whom the
Powers of this world stood ready to devour: strongly
expressed by the great red dragon who stood before
the woman ready to be delivered, for to devour her
chUd as soon as it was born. Whose purpose was
defeated by the extraordinary Providence of Heaven,
wakeful
DISC. XXVIII.
wakeful for its preservation : and her child, whose
future fortune, we are told, was to rule all nations
(when he had degenerated into a Tyrant) with a
rod of iron t as soon as brought forth, teas caught up
unto God, and to his throne.
The WOMAN fled into the WILDERNESS, and was
in safety there. I know no better reason for our
being informed of this circumstance, than that, when
the fortunes of the Church are resumed, as they are
in the xviith Chapter, we might know where to find
her; and, as she was so totally changed, to know her
likewise when we had found her. In this Chapter,
therefore, the Prophet is led into the WILDERNESS,
and introduced to her presence, sitting upon a
scarlet-coloured Beast, under the title of the GREAT
WHORE, and branded in the forehead, as was the
wont, in stigmatizing common Prostitutes. Indeed
her meretricious dress and equipage sufficiently shew
how much she was fallen from herjirst love. She
is, stript of all the ornaments which she brought
down with her from Heaven ; and instead of being
clothed, as at first she was, with the sun, and crowned
with twelve stars, she is now arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour, and decked with gold, and precious
stones, and pearls: that is, Religion had now ex
changed those divine gifts and graces, with which she
was first adorned by the Holy Spirit, for worldly
wealth and grandeur, to which she was arrived,
by coming to a good understanding with her old
enemy the Red Dragon, or CIVIL POWER : Of
whom having received the trappings of Sovereignty,
she soon after tore from him the Sovereignty itself
A revolution
DISC, XXVIII. 203
A revolution in her fortunes well expressed by her
MOUNTING and RIDING the SCARLET-COLOURED
BEAST, the same with the RED DRAGON; as ap
pears from the like number of heads and harm
bestowed upon the Monster under each denomi
nation. Nay, to mark this identity the stronger, the
CROWNS which were on the seven heads of the red
Dragon, while he was Sovereign, and a Persecutor
of the Virgin, are no longer found on the seven heads
of the scarlet-coloured Beast, now deprived of So
vereignty, and become subject to the Scarlet Whore:
Who having got the Beast, or degenerated Civil
Power, at this advantage, rides him at her pleasure ;
and, like another Circe, gives him of her Golden
Cap, full of the Wine of her abominations, andjilthi-
ness of FORNICATION, while she herself drinks
the BLOOD of the Saints. The Kings of the earth
(says the Prophet) commit fornication with
the Whore : i. c. in this impure mixture of the two
Powers, civil and spiritual both become polluted ;
the Civil uses Religion for an engine of State, to
support TYRANNY ; and the Spiritual gets invested
with the rights of the Magistrate, to enable her
tO PERSECUTE.
But if we attend to the Prophetic Language of
St. John, we shall see more clearly the beauty of
this representation. His language abounds in a
mixed phraseology, formed on the different natures
of the two Dispensations : And expressive of ideas
beonging, sometimes to the one, sometimes to the
pther system. Each of these sorts the Prophet em
ploys occasionally, as each best contributes to the
force
oo4 D I S C. XXVIII.
force and elegance of his discourse. So here, the
Cup of fornication alludes to the degeneracy of the
Jewish ; in which, the figurative name, for IDO
LATRY, was Fornication and Adultery. The blood
of the Saints alludes to the distressed condition of
the Christian ; and more plainly signifies PERSECU
TION for Opinion. These are the two great Re
proaches of all Religion, natural and revealed : and
each was the peculiar Pest, the one of Judaism, the
other of Christianity. For IDOLATRY violates the
very essence of the LAW, and PERSECUTION defeats
all the virtue of the Gospel. These two infernal
Tyrannies the Prophet represents as the Assessors
of the SCARLET WHORE, now become Sovereign of
the Earth.
But if we want to know the ingredients of this
iuchanted Cup, with which the Inhabiters of the
earth have been made drunk, St. Paul will tell us.
In his account of the side-board of the GREAT
WHORE, he tells us, that " In the latter times some
" shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to se-
" ducing spirits, and Doctrines of Devils ; speaking
" lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared
" with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and com-
** manding to abstain from meats, which God hath
" created to be received *." In which words the
Holy Spirit graphically describes, the Worship of
Saints the fabrication of false Miracles the in
vention of Purgatory \ and the mmm contrived for
escaping it monkish and clerical Celibacy Pagan
fasts and Jewish distinction of meats.
* i Tim. iv. i, et seq.
The
DISC. XXVIII. 205
The last excess of the Woman in purple and scar let
colour, after having intoxicated all others, is the
getting drunk, herself I saw the Woman (says the
Prophet) drunken with the blood of the Saints, and
with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus. In lie*
and hypocrisy the Whore began her reign ; and ia
PERSECUTION she filled up the measure of her
Tyranny. Nothing now remained, but the coming
vengeance of Heaven, when the TEN HORNS, or
the Civil Powers of Europe confederated, shall
hate the Whore, and make her desolate and naked,
and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire *
But this being an unfulfilled Prophecy, a matter yet
in the womb of Time, we make no further use of it,
than just, by quoting it, to cultivate and encourage
a disposition in the RULERS OF THE EARTH, to
facilitate the great work which Providence hath
ordained to bring to pass by their ministry.
To conclude, I presume I have now performed
what I undertook, (and it is all that is necessary
ibr the support of the Protestant cause) viz. to
prove, that ANTICHRIST and the SCARLET WHORE
are a SPIRITUAL Power; and therefore, no other
than the POPE and CHURCH OF ROME.
One of the soberest as well as soundest Reasoaers
of this reasoning Age, who, free from the enthusiasm
of party-zeal, carried with him to the study of Scrip
ture all the Philosophic light and precision, which
he had learnt of his Masters, LOCKE and NEWTON
(who themselves employed the richest of their stores
in the like sacred service) after having paid the closest
* Chap. xvii. ver. 16.
attention
206 DISC. XXVIII.
attention to the predictions of the Apocalypse*, hatli,
as the result of all, been bold enough to put the
truth of REVEALED RELIGION itself on the reality
of that prophetic Spirit which here foretells the de
solation of CHRIST S CHURCH AND KINGDOM
by Antichrist ; and the restoration of both to their
original PURITY and POWER. cc If, (says he) IN
" THE v AYS of St. Paul and St. John, there was
" any footstep of such a sort of power as this in the
" world ; or if there HAD BEEN any such power in the
" world; or if there WAS THEN any appearance of
" probability, that could make it enter into the heart
<c of man to imagine that there EVER COULD BE
" any such kind of power in the world, much less
" in the Temple or Church of God; and if there be
" not NOW such a power actually and conspicuously
" exercised in the world ; and if any picture of this
" power, DRAWN AFTER THE EVENT, Can HOW
" describe it more plainly and exactly than it was
" originally described in the word s of the Prophecy ;
; then may it, with some degree of plausibleness,
" be suggested, that the Prophecies are nothing
" more than enthusiastic Imaginations *."
* Evidence of Natural and Revealed Religion, by
Dr. S. CLAIRE, Rector of St. James s, Westminster,
p. 282.
DISCOURSE XXIX.
ON THE RESURRECTION,
i COR. xv. 17.
IF CHRIST BE NOT RAISED, YOUR FAITH IS VAIN ;
YE ARE YET Itf YOUR SINS.
THUS it is, the holy Apostle concludes, in order-
to complete the Proof of the Miracle of the
RESURRECTION, which he had supported just before,
from human testimony. " I delivered unto you
" (says he) Jirst of all that which I also received,
"how that Christ died that he rose again and
&i that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.
" After that he was seen of above five hundred
** Brethren at once : of whom the greater part
" remain unto this present ; but some are fallen
" asleep. After that he was seen of James ; then
*< of all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen
4t of me also, as of one born out of due time *."
Would we but give reasonable attention to Holy
Scripture, we should find, that it not only affords
* Ver, 3-8.
us
208 D I S C. XXIX.
us Truth) but likewise points out to us the true
way of forming arguments for its support. Of
which, these two passages of St. Paul, when laid
together, are a signal instance : Wherein he hath
intimated the two conditions requisite to entitle a
MIRACLK to the claim of our belief; and shewn
that this of the RESURRECTION hath those two con
ditions ; which we may expect to find in every
Miracle that God is pleased to work, and to recom
mend to our belief: that is to say, ist, That it be
of so high importance as to be even necessary to
Revelation, and to the religious Dispensation to
which it belongs. And, 2dly, That this abstract
importance and necessity be realized by human
testimony.
If common facts, actions within the verge of na
ture and human agency, come fully recommended
to us by the attestation of knowing and credible wit
nesses, nothing further is required to win the assent
of reasonable men. No one doubts that Augustus
Caesar taxed the Roman Empire, or that Herod
governed in Judea, because historians concur to
support these facts, and there is no improbability, in
the nature of things, to call them in question. But
in the case of miraculous events, the matter is
widely different. The arrest and control of the
laws of Nature, either mediately or immediately by
their Author, is a thing which uniform experience
hath rendered so extremely improbable, as to ba
lance, at least, the best civil testimony. And why ?
Actions within the verge of Nature and human
agency, carry their visible causes along with them, or
15 at
DISC. XXIX. 209
at least we require none, as knowing they are in-
trinsically there. But, in acts miraculous, the im
mediate efficient cause is extrinsical, and consequently
doubtful. And where men neither see nor perceive
a cause, they conclude there is none ; or, in other
words, that the report is false. So that when the
whole Evidence of a miraculous fact is comprised
in human testimony, and that fact contrary to
UNIFORM EXPERIENCE, the PHILOSOPHIC mind
will remain in doubt.
But though, in all Miracles, the efficient cause
be unknown ; yet, in those which Revelation recom
mends to our belief, the FINAL CAUSE always stands
apparent. And if that cause be found so important
as to make the Miracle necessary to the ends of the
Dispensation, we have all we can require to entitle
it to our assent.
I can therefore conceive THREE CASES, and but
three, in which a Miracle, offered to our considera
tion, can be thus happily circumstanced.
I. When it is worked as the CREDENTIAL of a
Messenger coming from God, with some general
Revelation to Man.
II. When it is worked, TO SECURE THE VERA
CITY of God s revealed Word, against an impious
Power employing its authority, with a declared or
professed purpose to convict the divine Declaration
of falsehood.
III. When the SUBJECT of the Miracle makes
so ESSENTIAL a Part in the economy of the revealed
VOL. X. P Dispensation,
210 DISC. XXIX.
Dispensation, as that without this miracle the whole
must fall to the ground.
Now, in all these Cases, where we discern a great,
an important, and a necessary purpose for an ex
traordinary interposition, an attestation to the truth
of a Miracle, by the same fulness of evidence which
is sufficient to establish a natural fact, is sufficient
to warrant our belief; who have the moral attribute*
of God to secure us from error. And here I pre
sume I have fairly given what Dr. Middleton and
his Adversaries called upon one another to give ;
and yet Both, in their turns, declined ; viz. a CRITE
RION, to enable men to distinguish (for all the pur
poses of religious belief) true Miracles from false or
doubtful. And no wonder they declined ; for both
Parties were in the Class of those of whom Seneca
speaks -Nesciunt NECESSARIA, quia SUPERVA-
e A N E A dediccrunt.
The confining our belief of Miracles within these
bounds, I apprehend, wipes away all the miserable
sophistry of our pretended PHILOSOPHERS, both at
home and abroad, against MIRACLES, from their
beingCONTRARYTOGENERAL EXPERIENCEIN THE
ORDINARY COURSE OF THINGS. At least the tniC
Philosopher thought it did, when he made that strict
inquisition into Truth, towards the conclusion of his
immortal Work. " Though the COMMON EXPERI-
" ENCE (says he) and the ORDINARY COURSE OF
" THINGS have justly a mighty influence on the minds
" of men, to make them give or refuse credit to any
ec thing proposed to their belief, yet there is ONE
CASE,
DISC. XXIX. 211
1 CASE, wherein the STRANGENESS of the facts
< lessens not the assent to a fair testimony given
" of it. For where such supernatural events are
fc SUITABLE TO ENDS AIMED AT BY HlM who
" has the power to change the course of Nature,
" there, under such circumstances, they may be the
f FITTER to procure belief, by how much the more
" they are BEYOND on CONTRARY to ORDINARY
" OBSERVATION. This is the proper case of Mi-
" RACLES, which, well attested, do not only find
" credit themselves, but give it also to other truths,
" which need such confirmation*"
Nor is the confining of the belief of Miracles
within these bounds of a SUFFICIENT CAUSE, less
beneficent to Revelation, than it is subversive of the
PHILOSOPHY in vogue.
i. It will afford a strong mark of distinction be
tween the Miracles claimed by the Revealed Reli
gions we call true, and those pretended to be worked
by the Deity, under Paganism ; for I will venture to
affirm, that none of those were supported by any
thing that looked like a sufficient cause. The most
illustrious of them, and which hath had the fortune
to gain credit with some Divines, was the eruption
at Delphi to defeat and punish the sacrilege of
Brennus : Now, in this case, there was so far from
being a sufficient cause for the interposition of the
Deity, that there were sufficient cattscswhy he should
not interpose ; such as rivetting men in their Ido
latry, by a visible protection of the most celebrated
LOCKE S Essay concerning Human Understanding,
Vol. II. Chap, of the Degrees of Assent, Sect. 13. p. 286.
r 2 of
1212 DISC. XXIX.
of all their Oracles ; and inflaming their Super
stitions, by persuading them that to dedicate immense
and useless wealth in their Temples, was a matter
pleasing to the Deity.
2. But principally, this restraint will give an im
mediate check to FRAUD and SUPERSTITION, in
their full career to enslave a believing World, by the
prodigies of ANTICHRIST, whose coming hath been
(as St. Paul foretold) after the working of Satan, with
power, and signs, and lying wonders *. How much
this check is wanted to our nature, may be seen by
that universal inbred infirmity of the human mind for
the MARVELLOUS. This hath filled all ages with
the monstrous births of Prodigies ; in part con
ceived from our ignorance of Physics ; in part from
a wanton and indulged imagination ; and in part
from the pride of self-importance. However, cer
tain it is, that Prodigies and Portents are the fa
vourite as well as natural Issue of the uncultivated,
the undisciplined Mind. And so great is the rage
for that pleasure which the contemplation of MON
STROUS THINGS affords, that when we are no longer
able, in a season more barren than ordinary, to de
lude ourselves in good earnest, the Mind takes a
wonderful delight in imposing on itself in jest. Hence
that exquisite pleasure, at present so fashionable to
indulge, in the tricks of LEGERDEMAIN; which,
if performed with more than ordinary dexterity, turns
us round again to our serious delusions ; and tempts
us to hope that the Juggler, who so deals with us f
may indeed deal with the Devil.
* 2 Thess. ii, 9.
But
DISC XXIX. 213
But should it so happen, that this Performer of
Wonders is less delighted with the honour of being
thought a Conjurer, than they are with the pleasure
of conferring it upon him, he has no way left, but
to make his spectators as wise as himself, by reveal
ing the secret resorts of his mystery. But from
that moment the pleasure is at an end.
Who can wonder then, that in their serious hours
they should be as delighted to find Miracles in the
works of Nature, and as thankless to be unde
ceived ?
- - - Pol me ocddistis, amid
. . cui sic extort a voh/ptas.
But when Religion is once of the Council, she
takes the Delusion into her own keeping. And the
natural passion tojind, meets with an equal, though
less natural, passion to supply the MARVELLOUS :
And while the Fabricator of false Miracles improves
simple Knavery into PIOUS ZEAL, the enchanting
pleasure of the delusion inflames natural folly into
ENTHUSIASM. And the two parties now acting in
Bodies *, and frequently changing hands, produce
all that mischief of superstition and fanaticism,
which, but for the dull pains of Legendary Writers,
we should hardly have conceived possible to be
effected.
For if men be so ready to invent a prodigy with
out any other motive than the honour of spreading
* Sane verissimum est, et tanqtiam secretum quoddam
naturae hominum animos, cum congregati sint, magis
quem soli sint, affectibus et impressionibus patere.
Bacon, Aug. Sc. L. 2. c. 3.
P 3 the
214 DISC. XXIX.
the wonder ; What must be their industry in the
Trade, when Religion hallows the Manufacture ?
And if, as hath been often seen, they not only find
the materials, but form them into shape ; that is,
forge the Miracle under their own ministry : then
their Persons become as holy as their Works : and
their zeal to propagate the wonder rises in proportion
to the interests of their own glory. If some be thus
forward to invent, there are others as ready to em-
brace a FALSE MIRACLE. It sometimes sooths them
in the errors, sometimes rivets them in the crimes, of
their Religion. Now it supports them against an
opposing Sect, and now again enables them to
triumph in their Own. In the mean time, all agree
ing that the Church once had this celestial Gift, and
none knowing how they came to lose it, each Society
of Religion concludes it to be still entailed upon
them.
Thus we see how every disorderly passion of the
human breast conspires to deform the fair face of
Nature, and cover it with prodigies and portents.
This, indeed, should make Divines cautious, but it
should not make PHILOSOPHERS vain. For, even
these great Personages know no more of nature than
they see ; and all they see, if not a miracle, is yet a
mystery. For (as the Poet sings) they
- - - steal to Nature s Closet, and from thence
Bring nought but UNDECIPHEII D CHARACTERS ;
Characters that will inform them no more of God s
natural, than they do of his moral, Government. In
the mean time, the DIVINE will be better instructed
.15 in
DISC. XXIX. 215
in Both, if he be so wise to confine the belief of
things supernatural within the bounds here pointed
out.
But before I proceed to a farther consideration
of them, it will be proper to explain a restraint to
which this general Proposition must submit.
We have said, that MIRACLES, circumstanced as
above, claim credit with every reasonable man. But
from thence, we are not to conclude, that all Mira
cles, not thus circumstapced, zrefahe.
But then, it may be asked, For what end or pur
pose were those worked, which have not the common
belief for their object ; a point seemingly essential to
the use of Miracles ; and without which, they appear
to have been worked in vain ?
The question is not impertinent, and will deserve
an answer ; which the following Case in ay possibly
afford.
Jesus having chosen his twelve disciples, and
given them power against unclean spirits, to cast
them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and all
manner of disease *, sends them forth to proclaim
the Gospel, under the following Commission " Go
" not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any
" City of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go
f< rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
" And as ye go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of
" Heaven is at hand. Heal the Sick, cleanse the
41 Lepers, raise the Dead, cast out Devils : freely
" ye have received, freely give. Ye shall be brought
* Matt. x. u
p 4 " before
216 D I S C. XXIX.
6 before Governors and Kings for my sake, for a
1 testimony^against them and the Gentiles. But
" when they deliver you up, take no thought how,
<c or what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak,
* but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in
In the execution of this work, the aid and as
sistance of two distinct species of Miracles is pro
mised : The curing their hearers of all diseases and
infirmities ; and the defence of themselves, by the
Spirit of ihe Father speaking in them. In the first,
the Disciples were Agents ; in the other, they were
only passive. The first, as Credentials of their
Mission, was objected to the belief of those con
cerned with their Message : The other was only of
the nature of a promise and instruction to themselves ;
with which, no others having to do, it was not ob
jected to their belief. From hence arose the dif
ference, and not from the Missionaries being active
in the one species of Miracles, and passive in the
Other. For though the passive Miracle here was
not thus objective, yet the like Miracle on the day
of Pentecost was. The reason in each case is obvi
ous : on the day of Pentecost, the Disciples spoke
with tongues ; which being a sensible Miracle, be
came their Credential : here, they only spoke with
discretion^ which they might do without a Miracle,
and was therefore confined to their own use.
In this case, then, we have a true Miracle not
objective to the belief of others : which yet, as we,
shall now see, was not worked in vain.
* From ver. 5th to 2oth inclusive,
The
DIS C. XXIX. 217
The Disciples, when sent out upon this Mission,
had a very imperfect idea of the Gospel ; and an
absurd conception of the office of the Messiah. For
the removal of their spiritual blindness, they were
to wait (so the economy of the Dispensation re
quired) till Jesus, on his ascension, should send
amongst them the Spirit of truth* who was to teach
them all things. In the mean time, they were
under the more immediate direction of their Master;
who, occasionally, corrected their mistakes, as cir
cumstances, in their attendance on him, made it
necessary.
Amongst their capital Prejudices were the fol
lowing That the Gospel of Jesus concerned only
the Jews, and the Orthodox Race of Abraham. In
this error they would be much confirmed on the
very opening of their Commission, which expressly
forbids them to address themselves either to the
Gentiles or the Samaritans *.
They were possessed with an Opinion, that the
Jewish ceremonial Law was perpetual ; as appears
from the story of Peter s Vision.
They had no conception that the reign of the
Messiah could be any other than a temporal Do
minion ; as appears by their addresses to their
Master for Preferment, and by their squabbles
amongst themselves for Superiority.
Overrun with these mistakes and errors, they were
not to be left to themselves, when first sent from
under the wing of their Master, who had enough to
do to prevent the mischiefs -\ arising irom them,
* Ver. 5, & f See Luke ix. 54 56.
even
218 D I S C. XXIX.
even while they were constantly attendant on his
person*
So "that these men appear to be very unfit In
struments to preach the Gospel : As indeed they
were ; ancl therefore, on the present occasion, not
employed in that service. For this their first Mis
sion was not to preach, but only to proclaim the
Gospel that the Kingdom of Heaven was at
hand*.
This was all they had to do. Yet having the
supernatural power of working Miracles, Credentials
which proved that what they had to say came from
God, and being, at the same time, vain and pre
sumptuous, the natural effect of their blindness, they
would be strongly tempted to exceed their Com
mission, when called before Kings and Magistrates ;
and, instead of proclaiming the approach of their
Master s Gospel, would be too ready to preach
their own. Such was the danger : The difficulty
of preventing it is apparent : Jesus, therefore, with
admirable provision, forbids them to think of any
studied defence in this critical juncture ; for that
they should be supernaturally supplied by the Spirit
of the Father speaking in them1[, with all that
was fit and proper to be said on the occasion.
But then, it may be further asked, " As this
Miracle was vrorked only for the use of the Mission,
and worked almost as soon as promised ; What
occasion for the previous intimation ; or for having
the intimation recorded ?" To this I answer,
ist, A promise made, not only set their minds at
* Ver. 7. t ^ r er. 20.
ease
DISC. XXIX. 219
ease concerning the consequences of their predi
cation ; and gave them full liberty to attend to the
principal part committed to their charge ; but the
prohibition accompanying it prevented their mixing
the folly of their own mistaken fancies with the in
spired Apology of the Holy Spirit.
2. The promise was recorded for an internal
mark of the divinity of our Religion : with which
marks the Holy Spirit hath, in great variety and
abundance, adorned and supported the Sacred Scrip
tures, the only Rule of Faith. And by thus re
cording, it is now, indeed, become (what it was not
at the time of working) the reasonable object of our
belief.
And now to proceed to our general subject, and
consider THE THREE CASES more at large.
I. First, " When a miracle is worked, as the
CREDENTIAL of a Messenger coming from God
with some general Revelation to Man, we may
safely give it credit, as such a Credential is not
below the occasion, but even necessary to accomplish
the purpose intended."
To understand the NECESSITY of this means to
so important an end, we must consider, That though,
indeed, the Miracle is to be estimated on the nature
of the Doctrines for whose confirmation it is worked ;
so that if the Doctrines be worthy of God, we may
be assured (as his goodness will not suffer us to be
unavoidably led into, and kept in error) that such a
supernatural work is the operation of his hands ;
and that, if unworthy of him, it is the delusion of
men
220 D I S C. XXIX.
men or other more malicious Agents : Though in
this view, I say, the nature of the uncommon ope
ration must be estimated on the nature of the
Doctrines ; yet the immediate original of the Doc
trines (though not the truth of them) can be only
known by the extraordinary work which doth, or
doth not, accompany the publication of them.
For it does not follow, in any case, that what is
simply worthy of God, comes therefore immediately,
and in an extraordinary way, from him : because we
know not to what heights of moral knowledge even
the unassisted understanding may arrive. Nor doth
our full experience, that all the Wisdom of Greece
and Rome comes infinitely short of the GOSPEL,
therefore prove, that the Gospel was sent imme
diately from -God. We can but ill guess what may
be produced by a studious Mind, assisted by a
vigorous temperament, and happy organization of
the body, when a variety of other aids, from the
natural climate, and the civil state of Liberty and
literature, concur.
The amazement into which Sir Isaac Newton s
Discoveries threw the learned World, as soon as it
was able to comprehend them, sufficiently shews what
little conception it had, that the natural faculties
of Man could rise so high, and spread so wide.
Indeed, when the divinity of the Gospel was
thought to be proved ; or, to speak more properly,
when it was taken for granted ; then, we accustomed
ourselves to form a conclusion, such as it was, from
the experience we had of its innate excellence^ that
this System could be only of divine Original.
Yet
DISC. XXIX. 221
Yet this, at best, is but what the Logicians call
an argument ad ignorant iam. Strictly speaking,
there is no ground of religious belief strong enough
to bear so great an interest, but that which rises
from MIRACLES, worked by the first Preachers of
a new Religion, in confirmation of their Mission.
Miracles, and Miracles alone, invincibly prove that
that Doctrine, which was seen to be worthy of God,
did indeed come immediately from Him. Such was
the sentiment of that great man *, whose words we
have quoted above, on another occasion " This
" (says he) is the proper case of Miracles, which,
" well attested, do not only find credit themselves,
" but give it also to other truths which NEED
" such confirmation"
It is true, that, to all this, it has been said, and,
because it could not be proved, it has been said again
and again, that we move in a vicious circle, when,
1. First, we prove the Miracle by the Doctrine :
2. And then again, the Doctrine by the Miracle.
And it is true, had I used the word DOCTRINE
in the same sense in both Propositions, I had cer
tainly committed this paralogism. Bat I have not
done so. The word, in the first Proposition, sig
nifies, a Doctrine agreeable to the truth of things,
and demonstrated to be so, by natural Reason. In
the second Proposition, the word is used to signify,
a Doctrine immediately, and in an extraordinary
manner, revealed by God. So that here is no vicious
return, and nothing proved : It is the gradual pro-
* Locke.
cession
222 DISC. XXIX.
cession of two truths, till the whole argument be
completed. They give, indeed, mutual assistance
to one another ; not by Either s taking back, when
its turn was served, what it had given ; but by Both s
continuing to urge what they continued to hold, for
their mutual support.
This Charge, therefore, against the integrity of
the Reasoning, is founded in a gross mistake.
A mistake which has encouraged the same un-
designing men to propagate another ; viz. that it is
not Miracles, but the Natures of the moral and
religious Doctrines, in which the true Proof of
their Divinity consists.
Into this absurd tenet, some (as we intimate) may
have been betrayed by themselves; but the far
greater part, I am persuaded, have designedly be
trayed others : while they themselves saw the de
structive consequences, and liked the Principles
the better for those consequences. For, aimina to
reduce CHRISTIANITY (which they professed to
believe) to a mere REPUBLICATION OF THE RE
LIGION OF NATURE ; this way of reasoning,
" The Doctrines taught are worthy of God, and
" therefore are of God," affords as good a foun
dation for the RBPUBLICATION of the Religion of
Nature, as it did for the first PROMULGATION
of it.
Now CHRISTIANITY may be (I ought rather to
say, is) understood in two senses ; either as a RE-
PUBLICATION of the Religion of Nature; or as
the REVELATION of a new Religion ingrafted upon
that of Nature.
Let
DISC. XXIX. 213
Let us see then how this argument stands, upon
either foundation.
1. CHRISTIANITY, a REPUBLICATION of the
Religion of Nature, is worthy of God ; and there
fore comes from him : i. e. is true, or agreeable to
the nature of things.
2. CHRISTIANITY, a REVELATION of a new
Religion, ingrafted upon that of Nature, is worthy
of God, and therefore comes from him ; i. e. is true,
or divine.
1. The conclusion of the first Argument, from
the worthiness of the Doctrine, that it is agreeable
to the nature of things, we see, holds ; and infers
,all that a REPUBLICATGR ought to infer from it;
and, for the credit of his understanding, I will pre
sume Jx> say, is all he would have interred from it :
For, if Christianity were only such a Republication,
it is reasonable to suppose, it was republished in
the same manner that it was at first published ; that is
to say, by innate impressions, and abstract prin
ciples.
2. The conclusion of the second Argument, from
the worthiness of the Doctrine, is impertinent and
false; for the DIVINITY of Christianity, which the
REVELATIONIST would have to be inferred from
it, is not inferred.
On the whole, therefore, we conclude, that the
only solid evidence that a Doctrine, worthy of God,
did immediately come from him in the manner
pretended, is, that the Messenger of the new Re
ligion had the CREDENTIAL of Miracles to produce.
And
224 D I S C. XXIX.
And here, in confirmation of all that hath been
said, let me observe, that Divine wisdom, on the
propagation of a new Religion, hath so strictly ap
propriated Miracles for the Credentials of a Mes
senger sent, that JOHN THE BAPTIST, the Precursor
of this Messenger, with tidings of his near approach,
worked no Miracles. Yet had Miracles been only
worked, according to a new-fangled notion, to make
the Multitude attentive, no one had more need of
Miracles than John the Baptist. But CHRYSOSTOM
seems to have understood Revelation better than
these modern Divines, when he supposes that even
Jesus himself worked no Miracle till after his Bap
tism; i. e. till the time that he addressed himself to his
Mission, and had need of his Credentials ; and such
a need it was, that he himself says of the unbelieving
Jews, If I had not done amongst them the works
which none other Man did, they had not had sin *.
II. " The second Case, in which a Miracle is so
circumstanced as to claim the belief of reasonable
men, is, when it is worked to defend and secure the
veracity of God s revealed word, against an impious
blasphemer of it, who employs all his power to dis
credit and defeat it."
This is an occasion as important, and even more
necessary, than that in the first Case. For though,
without the attestation of Miracles, the Religion said
to be intrusted to the first Teachers of it, can never
be clearly proved to be an extraordinary Revelation
from God, yet doth not that Want imply, in itself,
* John xv. 24.
the
DISC. XXIX. 225
the contrary. But in the Case in hand, the neglect-
ing to interpose miraculously^ when nothing but such
an interposition can secure the honour of the Predic
tion, destroys all pretensions to the trut^h of that
Revelation in which such Prediction is found.
Hence we conclude, that in this Case too, a Mi
racle, well attested by human authority, is one of the
most legitimate objects of belief.
Of this kind was the supernatural interposition
which defeated the malicious purpose of JULIAN TO
REBUILD THE TEMPLE AT JERUSALEM. Here
every thing concurs to make it a fit example of the
Credit due to a Miracle of the second Class. -
JESUS had foretold that the Jewish Temple should
never be rebuilt: JULIAN was determined to give
the lie to the Prediction. For this purpose, he ern-
ployed every means that the Master of the World
could put in use. Yet the design, after infinite pre
parations for the speedy accomplishment of it, was
suddenly defeated, without any change in the pur
pose of Julian, or in that of the Ministers he em
ployed. Of which no possible reason can be as
signed, but what the concurrent, and at that time
uncontradicted, evidence of Contemporaries and
Eye -witnesses of the best credit, both Pagans and
Christians, have given at large; namely, that when
Alypius, Julian s favourite M inister, a man active, able,
and determined, and bearing the same hate to the
Christian name with his Master, had, by the imperial
command, set .himself to the vigorous execution of the
work, in which he had all the assistance the Gover
nor of the Province could afford him, horrible balls
VOL. X. Q of
226 DISC, XXIX.
of fire breaking out near the foundations of the old
ruined Temple, did, with frequent and reiterated
attacks, soon render the place inaccessible to the
scorched and blasted workmen ; the victorious ele
ment continuing, as it were, resolutely bent to drive
them to a distance, as often as they approached to
renew their labour. So that Alypius, struggling in vain
against this obstinate resistance, was at length forced,
in very despair, to give over the Enterprise.
Now from this Miracle, worked by the Almighty
himself, for the most important end, no honest man,
without the highest unreasonableness, can withhold
his assent. But this matter has been discussed at
lar<*e*; and with such Evidence, that there would
be no hazard in staking the whole credit of Chris
tianity on its truth f .
III. " We come now to the third Case, where
the subject of a Miracle makes so essential a part
in the economy of the revealed Dispensation, a* to
give it its completion ; the want of which would
destroy the whole, and render it vain wdfruitless."
* See a Discourse concerning the Earthquake and
fiery Eruption which defeated Julian s attempt to rebuild
the Temple at Jerusalem ; in vol. viii. of this collection.
f I say this with the greater confidence, since, when
this book, by command of a very eminent Personage in
France, was directed to be translated into that language,
for the use of the dcspisers of Miracles, the PHILOSO
PHERS, as they are pleased to call themselves, these men
promised their disciples a speedy confutation of it as soon
as it should appear. It did soon appear: when their
silence shewed no kind of disposition in them to keep
their word.
This
DISC. XXIX. 227
This will be best illustrated in the Miracle of
the RESURRECTION : which, because it will return
us back to our text, and keep us there, will deserve
a more particular disquisition.
Jesus, as hath been explained elsewhere* had a
two-fold Character : the one, of a Messenger from
God simply, with the tidings of salvation : the other,
of a Messenger promised, under the title of the
Messiah. His credentials, under each of these Cha
racters, were MIRACLES. Those worked by him
in his life, as Credentials, referred to a divine
Messenger simply : that of the Resurrection, at his
death, respected his other Character, of Messiah, or
f divine Messenger promised. And the necessity of
this Miracle may be seen even from hence, that the
ancient Prophecies had foretold it.
They had said, on the one hand, that the Messiah
should be exposed to afflictions and distresses ; to
all the miseries of life ; and to a violent and un
timely death. On the other hand, they had said,
that the work should prosper in his hands ; that
he should triumph over all his enemies, and raise
and establish an everlasting Kingdom. The con
tradiction in these accounts, if the promised Reign
be understood as temporal, shews, it must be in
terpreted of a spiritual Kingdom in Heaven. But
this latter could not commence while Jesus lay
under the dominion of the Grave. He must of ne
cessity, therefore, be raised, by the power of the
Father, from the Sepulchre. And this is what
St. PETER means, when, speaking of the Messiah,
he says, Whom God hath raised up, having loosed
Q 2 the
228 DISC. XXIX.
the pains of death-, BECAUSE IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE
THAT HE SHOULD BE HOLDEX OF IT *.
Again, The very nature of the Christian Dis
pensation likewise required of necessity the Resur
rection of Jesus from the dead. Christianity is the
restoration of lapsed and forfeited Man, to life and
immortality, from the power and dominion of Death,
But the course of human nature continuing the same,
after this restoration, which it held before; and
Death still visibly existing, though it had lost its
sting, there seemed to be need of some sensible evi
dence, to evince the truth of this entire change of
the Order of things.
And this Restoration being procured at the price
of the death and sufferings of Christ, sacrificed on
the Cross ; when the price was paid, and paid thus
visibly i the nature of the compact demanded, that the
benefit should be as visibly possessed and enjoyed ;
and both one and the other openly exemplified in
the same Person. If the REDEEMER himself was
not seen to enjoy the fruits of the Redemption
procured, what HOPES had remained for the rest
of Mankind ? Would not the natural conclusion
have been, that the expedient of Redemption, by the
death and sacrifice of Jesus, had proved inef
fectual ? This is the conclusion which St. PAUL
himself makes, in my Text, IF CHRIST BE NOT
RAISED, YOUII FAITH is VAIN; YE ARE YET
ix YOUR sixs; so necessarily connected, in his
opinion, was this Miracle with the very essence of
the Christian Religion. But noiv (adds the
* Acts ii. 24,
Apostle)
DISC. XXIX. 229
Apostle) is Christ risen, and become the FIRST
FRUITS of them that slept ; i. e. His Resurrection
is the thing which both assured and sanctified all that
were to follow. For the Jewish first fruits, to
which the expression alludes, were of the nature,
and secured the plenty, of the approaching Harvest.
Having thus explained the several natures of the
THREE CASES, in which a Miracle will deserve the
credit of all reasonable men ; before I proceed fur
ther in the last, the proper subject of this Dis
course, let me make one general observation that
concerns them all. In il\Qjirst case, it is necessary
that God, the Author of every arrest of Nature in
its established course, should use the ministry of his
Messengers in that service, since Miracles are the
Credentials of their Mission. But in the other two
cases, it seems more agreeable to the dignity of their
several occasions, that the Miracles should proceed
immediately and directly from Himself, as we see
they did in the examples given of those of the se
cond and third class : the defeat of Julian, and the
Resurrection of Jesus, being both worked by his
Almighty Hand in Jerusalem itself.
But, to go on again with the Miracle of the Re
surrection, the necessity of which hath been fully
explained.
Now, in matters of Religion, as that which is
necessary in one view, is never without its uses and
e. vpediencies in another, permit me, in a few words, to
illustrate this truth, a truth of so much importance,
before I come to the necessity. The heathen World
had a general notion of another life. But the RE-
Q 3 SU ERECTION
230 D I S C. XXIX.
su ERECTION of this mortal Body never once en
tered into their imagination. It is true, some modern
writers have been misled to think otherwise, by an
imperfect view of the famous STOICAL RENOVA
TION : which, however, was so far from bearing any
likeness, or yielding any support, to the CHRISTIAN
RESURRECTION, that it is absolutely destructive of
it. The Sages of antiquity had discovered many
qualities in the human Soul, which inclined them to
conjecture that it might survive the Body. But
every property they knew of Matter led them to
conclude, that, at the separation of the two consti
tuent parts, the Body was finally dissolved into the
Elements out of which it rose. And that sect of
Philosophy, which most favoured and cultivated the
Doctrine of the immortality of the Soul^ considered
the Body only as its Prison, into which it was thrust,
by way of punishment, for its pre^existcnt crimes ;
and from which, when it had undergone its destined
penance, and purgation, it was to be finally delivered
and released. Nay, so little did the Doctrine of the
RESURRECTION OFTHE BODY enter into their most
improved conceptions, that when at Athens, the very
seat of Science, St. Paul preached Jesus and the
Resurrection, they took the second Enunciation to
be, like the first, a new Divinity, a certain goddess
called ANASTASIS*.
With
* This is CHRYSOSTOM S opinion of the matter. But
BEMTLEY tells us, that they too well understood the notion
of a resurrection, to think it a goddess. Which of the
two Doctor* was likely to be best acquainted with the
/ genius
DISC. XXIX. 231
With all these prejudices, so unfavourable to the
resurrection of the body, nothing less than the as
surance of the best-attested Miracle in confirmation
of it could have reconciled the Gentile World to the
credibility of so incredible a Doctrine. This may he
said with the greater confidence, since St. Paul him
self, on this occasion, appears to have been of the
same opinion. For when he had rectified their mis
take concerning Jesus and the Resurrection, and had
given them a precise account of the Doctrine of the
Gospel, in which he explained to them, that the re
surrection meant a resurrection of the dead*, he adds
whereof God hath given ASSURANCE, IN THAT HE
BATH RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD f-
Thus hath this capital Miracle, the seal of our
Redemption, all the evidence for its truth, which can
arise
genius and state of Paganism, when St. Paul preached at
Athens, must be left to the judgment of the Reader,
This at least is certain, that the reason the latter Doctor
<nves, why the Athenians could not mistake Anastaxis for
a goddess, became they too weft understood the notion of
it resurrection, is a very bad one, since they had no notion
of it at all, unless they mistook (which is very un
likely), as the learned Doctor seems to have clone, the
Stoical renovation for the Christian resurrection: or if
they did mistake it, so gross an error could never hinder
them from committing a less, the mistaking Jnastttsis
for a goddess. They were undoubtedly well acquainted
with many other moral entities (whatever was the case
here) ; yet that did not hinder them from turning these
entities into goddesses, whenever dire Superstition drove
or invited them to seek aid from new Divinities.
* Acts xvii. 32. t Vcr. 32,
Q4
232 D I S C. XXIX.
arise either from its necessity or its use. It was
proclaimed by the public decrees of the Father;
and accomplished to verify the Character of the Son,
and facilitate the progress of his Gospel. Causes
so important, that we can conceive none more wor
thy the care of the Lord of the Universe ; viz. than
that what had been promised should be fulfilled ;
and what was now preached, should be miraculously
confirmed.
After so strong internal evidence to prove it right
and fit to be done, all that was wanting to establish
it was the external, to prove it actually done. And
this St. Paul, as we have seen above, pours out with
a very liberal hand.
It hath been observed, that a Miracle, which
would claim credit with us, must, besides the evi
dence of human testimony, (which it hath in com
mon with natural facts) have a. strong internal evi
dence likewise, containing the use, expedience, and
necessity of the operation. But when once this in
ternal evidence is given, it has the advantage of a
natural fact, in the force wherewith the external con
cludes.
I will explain my meaning. When the Wit
nesses to a common fact vary, in unessential cir-
j *
cu instances, from one another, it is sometimes,
though pot always, a diminution to its credit. For
human testimony being that on which alone it stands,
whatever impeaches that, weakens the credibility of
the fact. But, in an act miraculous, the first ground
of its stability being its internal Evidence, when
human testimony hath realized that, such variety
takes
DISC. XXIX. 233
takes little from its credit, which stands upon those
two supports : the testimony that the thing was done,
resting on the strong foundation, that it was fit and
necessary to he done.
So far as to the difference which arises from the
nature of things. Another arises from the situa
tion of the Reporters. Witnesses to a miraculous
fact well understand that the ground of its credit
lies in the fitness and necessity of the thing. Such
Witnesses, therefore, when recording their own
knowledge, will be naturally more indifferent io.
arranging circumstances ; from the want of which,
a variation amongst several Witnesses to the same
fact often arises. While those who speak to a com
mon fact, knowing all its support consists in the
veracity of their evidence, will be more intent to
preserve their credit, by a studious attention to the
numeration and order of all its circumstances.
This will shew us the unnecessary pains which some
late Defenders of thin Miracle have taken, against
the attacks of Infidelity. Licentious Writers thought
they had discovered some discordances or contra
dictions in the evidence of the four Evangelists con
cerning it : Jesus (as they say) after his resurrec
tion appearing, by the testimony of this Evangelist,
at the same moment of time, to one person, and, by
the- testimony of that Evangelist, to another person :
an objection that might seem to have weight against
a fact standing only on the foot of a natural adven
ture, and having no reasons of necessity or conveni
ence to support the testimony.
Now these defenders of Religion took the case as
their
234 DISC. XXIX.
their Adversaries were pleased to give it to them ;
they confined themselves to inquire into the repre
sented fact, as if it had been one of a mere civil kind,
and supported only by external evidence, the tes
timony of witnesses.
No wonder such defences should be, as in rea
lity they have been, very unsatisfactory. Whereas,
had the Advocates of Religion first inquired into the
nature of the fact, and shewn, that one that is mira
culous, and has a claim to our credit, stands on a
wider and more complicated basis than mere human
testimony ; that this of the Resurrection in parti
cular is thus supported ; that it rises on the strong
foundation of Necessity ; that is to say, that it ful
filled the Jewish Prophecies, and completed the
Christian Dispensation ; had they done this, I say,
the difficulties springing from these minute differ
ences, in the sacred Historians, with regard to the
precise time and place of Jesus s several appearances
after his resurrection, would have vanished and dis
appeared ; and the dignity of the Evidence for the
Christian Faith would have been secured from the
dishonour of its being forced to stoop to the low and
trifling criticisms on words and phrases, often in
volved in dark and intricate nothings : then, I say,
these Defenders would have seen that St. Paul hath
chalked out a better and nobler, as well as shorter and
clearer Demonstration of this important truth ; who,
when he had said, in the words of my Text, If Christ
be not raised, your faith is wrin ; ye are yet in your
gins, adds, But now is Christ risen from the dead, and
become the first fruits of them that slept. And
having
DISC. XXIX. 235
having thus by internal evidence shewn the necessity
of fee Miracle, lie realizes the fact externally, by a
Clmid of witnesses, but given with becoming dignity,
in the gross, " He was seen of Cephas, then of the
" twelve. After that he was seen of above live him-
dred Brethren at once : of whom the greater part
" remain unto this present; but some are fallen
" asleep. After that he \vas seen of James 3 then
" of all the Apostles," &c.
T W O
CHARITY SERMONS;
PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR.
k
AND
THREE
SERMONS ON DIFFERENT SUBJECTS ;
FIP.ST PRINTED IN THE QUARTO EDITION
OF THE AUTHOR S WORKS, IN 1780.
SERMON XXX.
Preached before the Governors of the Small-pox Hospital)
271 1 755> and published at their request.
PSALM xli. i, 2, 3.
BLESSED is HE THAT CONSIDERETH THE POOR
THE LORD WILL STRENGTHEN HIM UPON"
THE BED OF LANGUISHING : THOU WILT MAKE
ALL HIS BED IN HIS SICKNESS.
WHEN the observance of God s commands^
under the Jewish Law, was rewarded with
temporal blessings, the sanctions of that Law were
so divinely adjusted, that the various duties, and the
various rewards annexed unto them, had a beautiful
analogy, and bore a fitting relation to one another.
Thus a zeal for the interests of their God and
King was rewarded with the possession of the pro
mised land : observance of the sabbatical rest, with
fertility and abundance : duty and obedience to
Parents, the immediate authors of our being, had
the promise of long lift: and pity and compassion
to the Poor is here said, in my text, to bring down
the extraordinary comfort and support of Heaven
in our bodily infirmities, finely expressed, by God s
making
240 SERMON XXX.
making all our bed in our sickness : And how proper
and adequate this reward is to the performance of
the duty, we may understand by considering, that
POVERTY is one continued languishing and sickness;
under which the heart becomes faint, the spirits
depressed, and the body in continual restlessness
which gives no intermission from anxiety and pain.
How then could the abundance of Divine Goodness
more fitly reward him whose bounty ministers kind
ness and -consolation to wretches languishing under
extreme poverty, than by easing and refreshing
their Comforter, when, by the general lot of hu
manity, he, in his turn, lies labouring under bodily
infirmities ?
Indeed both POVERTY and SICKNESS reduce
humanity to such a state, as serves to detect the
miserable debility of our nature, and the perfect
equality in wretchedness amongst all who partake
of it; which the accidental circumstances of fortune
in a few only disguise and varnish over for a time ;
and while health concurs with affluence to delude us
into an opinion that we are placed above the
common disasters of our species. But every fit of
sickness dispels this gaudy vapour, and lays bare
the helpless condition of humanity, when we are
least able to endure the sight.
So powerful an enforcement to charity and com
passion did the Law of Moses afford its followers !
Nor are we to suspect that the Gospel of Jesus is
less efficacious in its sanctions. For though that
extraordinary Providence which administered tem
poral blessings, in so large a measure, to the Jewish
people,
SERMON XX. 241
people, has been long since withdrawn ; yet we are
not to think that God, in his present disposition of
worldly matters, leaves himself without a witness :
or that his gracious Providence does not incessantly
interfere, though with less outward pomp, yet with
no less real efficacy, to reward the good and to
punish the wicked, even in this present life : For,
as the apostle Paul may well he understood, God
liness is profitable unto all things, having the promise
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.
And if any virtuous practice has a better claim than
other to the title of Godliness, it is charity and com
passion to the Poor ; in which we aim, though at
infinite distance, to imitate the Creator in our care
to ease and relieve the wants and distresses of his
creatures.
I shall therefore beg leave to enforce this duty
from the single consideration of my text, that charity
and beneficence to the Poor are the surest means of
alleviating the pains and miseries of a sick bed, by
procuring the hand of God to make all our bed in
our sickness : in which emphatic phrase the Psalmist
alludes to that miserable circumstance of a sick
bed, a perpetual restlessness, which makes us throw
our disquiet on the hardness of our bed or couch.
Of all the distressful calamities to which Man s
life is subject, SICKNESS is the most afflictive. All
the other disasters of humanity, such as captivity,
persecution, exile, slighted affection, calumny, and
slander, receive their sharpest stings from fashion,
habit, and the unruly passions : and we have gene
rally the cure, always the alleviation, within our-
VOL, X. R selves -
SERMON XX>v-
: constancy, patience, aijd the .exercise of
eas.Q- ? ni&y subdue tfyen?; and an avlful diversion
of the mh}f] tQ oilier objects easily evades Jjicjr more
yip}pnt attacks. But bodily infirmities, attended
>yjth pt) in and depression of spirts, are entirely out
of pur po,wer tp repress. They keep the mind
irremksjljly j;ie4 down fo a contemplation of its
nijseries, without respitp and without relief; while
every tormenting pang becomes the dreadful mo
nitor pf our Approaching dissolution. Wealth,
ppxyer, v\isdom ? and the attachment of those con
nected in interest; or friendship with us, may remove
qr alleviate tlic other calamities of life ; but SICK-
NSS remain^ deaf and inexorable to all these power
ful emollients. The Fever burns on ; the Stone
tears its way ; and the Hectic continues to sap and
undermine the fortress o,f life, regardless and in de
fiance of our friends, our patrons, and our phy
sicians. Torment, distress, and anxious dread pf
the event, exclude all comfort an.d consolation. NQ-
thkus but the Lord of Life himself can aid us in
this dread hour, nothing but his Spirit cu,n assist
%ud support its in tins, nighty conflict. Aud the
umu H ha.se ienient hand and symp ^hiziug heart ii^s
accustomed him to feel for thp lesse*; distresses oi
h.is ipllow-crcatures, is, by the unerring vvor-4 of
.Truth, assured that h ; e shall have this, assistance in
The Lord (s.ays my test) slutiil
i
a,ss.^tanc^ shall. b,e affoj. de^ him. bj
ways, and H> different ineasures.
Oftentimes the ha^l of Qod will effect a speedy
cure :
SERMON XXX. 243
cure : either by st> Sttxmgly supporting the mind, as
to lend its vigour to the body to throw off the ma
lignity of the distemper ; or by so powerfully en
lightening the physician, as to teach him to assist
Nature in the recovery of itself; or, lastly, by putting
some sovereign remedy in his way, whose specific
virtue was ordained, and without his aid, to conquer
the obstinacy of the distemper. The history of
mankind is full of instances where this extraordinary
relief hath been afforded : where the languor of the
mind has been fortified ; where the usual blindness
of the physician has been removed ; and where the
most unpromising remedies have afforded an instan
taneous cure.
And when, for the wise ends of Providence, whe
ther physical or moral, the chronical disorder be
comes incurable, or the malignant distemper proves
unconquerable, then will great comfort and consola
tion be afforded to the charitable man, upon his bed of
languishing ; the hand of God will administer balms
to his wounded spirit, and cordials to his weak and
languishing body. At this time it is that the good man
will most sensibly feel the comfort of that blessing
promised in my text, to have all his bed made in his
sickness.
But the strongest support the Spirit of God admi
nisters to such a one on his bed of languishing, is the
testimony of a good conscience, which comes divinely
impressed upon his mind in a lively review of his
past good deeds, with a still more animating prospect
of the approaching reward ; the prospect of those
eternal mansions just ready to open t6 him when
n 2 the
244 SERMON XXX.
the rage and malignity of perishable matter shall
have done its worst. Held up, and supported by
this assistance, the torment of present pain subsides,
and the terrors of approaching death recede before
him. And now it is not He, but the World and all
its miseries, which die away ; while the Saint is re
viving and springing up to life, and immortality. It
is not the King of terrors he now approaches, but
the Lord and Saviour of the world, who receives
him with that gracious acceptation of, Well done,
thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the
joys of thy Lord.
In conclusion, a greater excitement to our bounty,
a greater encouragement to our compassion, could
not possibly be afforded, than the reward here an
nexed to our duty.
SICKNESS is an evil to which every individual of
the human race is hourly exposed. All the other
disasters of time or fortune, men may flatter them
selves by their situations to escape. Wealth secures
them from want and penury ; Power, from insult or
oppression ; but no advantages of station can secure
them from sickness and disease. Nay, those very
advantages, by inducing evil habits, do but the more
contribute to hasten the mischief, and to render it
inveterate. What encouragement to our duty, there
fore, can equal that which promises relief in those
distresses, the most intolerable in themselves, to our
nature most obnoxious, and which no circumstanced
of fortune can either prevent or redress ?
Nor is the reward less adapted to the state and
conditioa
SERMON XXX. 245
condition of those to whom it is afforded. It is
addressed to the rich and powerful, to those who
are best able to relieve penury and distress. But
amongst those it is, that LUXURY, the parent of
Disease, makes its greatest ravages. So that if the
great were to choose their own reward, they could not
fix on any thing of more peculiar use or benefit to
themselves.
But if Providence so largely rewards the kind
relief of simple Poverty, How will the blessing be
accumulated on him who still more humanely seeks
out for the object of his benevolence from amongst
those who, together with their poverty, lie oppressed
under the additional load of sickness and disease !
Here he will be sure to find the mercy, not only
returned in kind, but returned in more abundant
measure ; and while he is so divinely intent to ease
the poor man s bed of languishing, he is preparing
for his own ; and decking it up to become, even when
pain and torment threaten most, a bed of ease and
rest unto him.
And the well-advised believer, who considers that
the Prophet annexes the blessing in my text, not so
much to the bounty of the hand, as to the deliberate
benevolence of he heart, blessed is he that ON-
SIDERETH the Poor will be very careful in seeking
out, and exploring the most proper Object of his
charity.
But was such a one to seek through the world for
this purpose, it would be hard to find a subject, in
all its circumstances, so eligible as the excellent
Establishment for the relief of distressful poverty,
R 3 which
246 S E R M O N XXX.
which I am now intrusted to recommend to your
protection.
For the objects it comprehends and is confined
to, are those \vho labour under one of the most
dangerous and afflictive maladies to \vhich. human
nature is exposed : not of such as are acquired by
our follies or our vices ; nor yet of such* as any
degree of care and circumspection can avoid. A mis
chief rising, not from \vithin, by humours let loose
by intemperance, which destroy the balance between
the fluids and solids ; nor yet from without, by the
contagion of unlawful commerce, which corrupts and
vitiates the whole frame ; but a kind of pestilence
that resides and reigns amongst us through the ma
lignity of infectious bodies or a corrupted atmo
sphere, or perhaps of both : and is what, in the
humble language of piety, we call the hand of God.
In a word, a calamity, where there is not one cir
cumstance to abate our compassion, and a thousand
to excite and to support it.
Such is the nature of the first, and as I suppose,
the original part oi this noble Chanty.
But to those generous minds who are more intent
upon public than private interests, and who think the
duty of universal benevolence better discharged by
beginning with generals, and descending to particu
lars, than by rising from particular to general <iood,
I would in a more especial manner recommend
the other part. For they are distinct ; and the kind
encourager of this Charity may direct his beneficenee
to either part, as he is most disposed.
The part I mean is that for INOCULATION : the
safety
safety and prodig-kms benefit of wnich has bete J
experienced and fuffy confirmed by crtrcful BpffflfeS-
tions of it on llbe Rich ; imd is now, by the gforrbtrs
humanity of this Establishment, extended to tlie
Po6r.
And as it rs I&FA^ CY and ! YOUTH, amongst
which this dire calamity makes its greatest Mvock,
the protecting tlifcse stages of life frohV fts ravages,-
fe the most essential service to t hc Public. For,
according to a fatuous say-feg of AiMirpiTty, The fan-
of Youth is to the State, what the loss tf Spring i$
to t&e Year ; the cutting off that flowery season whieh
prepares Nature, for the fruits and harvests that arc
to follow from it.
Indeed, if vrhat we are told of the original of
this happy invention he true, it is not so much hu
manity and crmrity, as gratitude and a debt, to-
put the Poor into- a capacity of enjoying this blessing.
for from tlie Poor, it scenis, the Rich first received 5
it : indeed from a people which may not improperly
be Called & Nation of Poor ; namely, the" Georgi
ans and -Circassians, the most miserable of erislav^d
Provinces; as lying in the frontier of two great des
potic Empires.
But those of you, my Brethren, of still more en
larged conceptions, who delight in rooting out SU
PERSTITION, as the bane not only of Religion, but
of Civil life likewise, will have here a noble occasion
to exercise the 1 generosity of your natures. For, by
what strange fate it f is I s know not ; but so it has
happened, that, at a time whtil Religion has lost
almost all its influence on the minds of the People,
R 4 3 et
248 SERMON XXX.
yet Superstition still keeps its hold ; and this most
beneficial practice is regarded with abhorrence by
them, as a kind of impiety, a tempting God, and
mistrusting his general Providence. Now the best
confutation of such monstrous absurdities, is the
success of the practice, in which (while twenty or
thirty die out of one hundred and fifty, who contract
the distemper in a natural way), only THREE *, out
of Six Hundred and Ninety-three which have been
inoculated since the erection of the Hospital, have
fallen under it.
Give me leave to add another circumstance, which
seems to be of weight to excite the attention of the
well-disposed : and that is, that as its funds consist
chiefly of annual and voluntary contributions, it will
always need the repeated assistance of the benevo
lent. And this circumstance, which awakes charity,
will serve to fix and determine the object of our
choice; for we may be reasonably well assured,
that while a public Charity remains in this condition,
it will be carefully and honestly administered ; that
which makes its existence precarious, securing its
well-being. The Governors of Hospitals, which so
subsist, being rather Stewards than Trustees to the
Public. And to what scandalous abuses of trust
largely endo\fed Hospitals, whether of new or old
foundation, have been exposed, is too well known to
* Of those THREE, one died by Worms, though he
was not suspected to be so disordered when inoculated ;
and another was apprehended to have first caught the
Pistempcr ia the Natural Way.
be
S EHMON XXX. 249
be further insisted on in this place, where the subject
is not concerning their reformation.
Indeed, it appears almost superfluous to urge this
consideration. For whoever easts his eve on the
/
list of illustrious and honourable Names in the go
vernment and direction of this CHARITY, will be
convinced, that there needs no other favourable cir
cumstance to preserve it under a prudent, diligent,
and faithful administration, than the nobleness and
generosity of their own respectable Characters.
Permit me, therefore, my Brethren, as I am di
rected by my office, and reminded by my text, to
charge you who are rich in this world, that you be
READY to give, and GLAD to distribute ; laying up
in store for yourselves a good foundation against the
time to come. Amen.
SERMON XXXI.
Preached by ore the Governors of the London Hospital, in
1767; and published at their Request.
i CORINTH, xiii. 13.
THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY,
I SHALL not, at present, stay to consider the
grounds and reasons of the preference here given
to CHARITY above all the other Christian Virtues.
Nor is such an inquiry needful, since the obvious
nature of Gharjfy, as it signifies UNIVERSAL BENE
VOLENCE, shews, that it must needs be at the head
of human Virtues - 9 Universal Benevolence, which
prefers the good of the Whole to any of its parts,
being of the essence, as it is the end, of all Virtue.
If I should venture to prelude \\hat I have to say
on this occasion, by observing, that Benevolence is
the characteristic Virtue of ENGLISHMEN, I might,
perhaps, be thought to flatter a People now fatally
overrun with Vice and Impiety.
But justice is due to all ; and may be paid with
honour as well to ourselves as to others ; as well to
our Friends as our Enemies. So that, with a fair
boast ;
SERMON XXXI.
boast, I may repeat it, " This sovereign Virtue is
native to us, and our own ; and the fantastic Follies,
ROW most in fashion, are of foreign growth, and
imported from abroad."
As soon as ever England had broken asunder the
chains of Ignorance and Superstition, our National
Benevolence began to shew itself, and kindle into
warmth. The objects most intimate and pressing,
naturally became, in the order they arose, the suc
cessive care of this sovereign Virtue.
Hence it was, that the interests of PURE RELI
GION, the thing most productive of human happiness,
first awakened, and continued to excite our whole
attention ; till we had thoroughly defecated the ce
lestial fountain of FAITH from the poisonous dregs
of ROME. This noble labour occupied English
Charity throughout the whole period between
EDWARD the Vlth and JAMES the 1st.
The next object of this benevolent spirit was
CIVIL LIBERTY, the Daughter of Religion, and,
after her, the most prolific of earthly blessings. For
this, the generous Englishman long toiled : and, by
a vast expence of blood and treasure, at length se
cured for his Posterity For his Posterity do I say ?
Or should I not rather say, for the human race in
general ? This glorious struggle for the service of
mankind began under JAMES the 1st, continued long,
ai)d was happily ended under WILLIAM the Hid,
Our native Benevolence having thus provided for
the WHOLE, in the security of those two capital
blessings, RELIGION and CIVIL LIBERTY, now
turned its gracious aspect upon the PARTS : and the
BUFFERING
SERMON XXXI. 253
SUFFERING POOR, ordained by Providence to bear
the heaviest burthens of society, engaged tlieir first
and principal concern.
Then Charity-Schools for the education of youth;
Infirmaries for the relief of the diseased ; and Hos
pitals for the solace of old age ; soon overspread
this happy Island. And in these beneficent labours
hath this Godlike Spirit been employed, from the
reign of William III. to this present time.
Thus uniformly hath our native Charity kept
opening and widening through several ages, till it
embraced and took in all the great Objects of Uni
versal Benevolence.
How perfectly this spirit got possession of the
frame and faculties of Englishmen, may be seen from
the most trifling, as well as from the most important
circumstances. We may collect it from the very
words of our language : ALMS-GIVING having, by
a conversion of terms peculiar to the English tongue,
usurped the very name of CHARITY. A plain in
dication of what our Forefathers felt to be the mo
tive, and what they understood to be the genuine
motive of ALMS- GIVING.
One principal branch of this sublime Virtue, which
I am now intrusted to recommend to your favour
and protection, are public Infirmaries for the dis
abled Poor.
But as a retentive purse is ever ingenious in
starting objections, sometimes to the manner of
giving, and sometimes, again, to the utility of the
gift] it will be incumbent on me previously to
remove
254 S E R M O N XXXL
remove both the one and the other of these ob
structions,
We will begin with certain religious scruples to
public and open contributions of this nature, from
a text. of Scripture ill understood, and worse applied.
When thou doest thine alms (says our Blessed Master)
do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypo
crites do but when ikon doest thine A tons, let it be
in secret. -Now this precept is greatly mistaken
when it is understood to be an exclusive direction,
how and in what manner the duty of alms-giving
should be performed; as that its merit consisted
in its being done in secret ; and that it lost all its
virtue when it came to the general knowledge of
men. On the contrary, the Precept is only an in
formation (given, indeed, by way of direction) con
cerning the disposition of mind^ necessary to make
the Giver s Alms acceptable before God. The true
meaning of the text being precisely this " Be
66 not as the Hypocrites, who, devoid of all benevo-?
" fence, and actuated either by superstition, self-
" interest, or vain-glory, or perhaps by all of them
" together, seek only the praise of men ; and there-
" fore sound a Trumpet before them, to proclaim
" their alms. But when thou addressest thyself to
* c the performance of this duty, let UNIVERSAL
" BENEVOLENCE possess thy soul, as knowing that
" though thou bestow all thy goods to FEED THE
" POOR, cmd have not CHARITY, // projiteth thee
" nothing : and knowing this, thou wilt naturally
" and without affectation (when- thou art not called
" upon, on a proper occasion like the present, to let-
thy
SERMON XXXL 255
" thy light shine before men) do thine alms m secret.
ie Not that doing them openly or in secret makes
" any difference in the merit of the action itself.;
" but that the sound of a flawed and faulty heart
" generally accompanies the Trumpeter s procia-
* mation ; while the action of the silent giver
" modestly whispers the integrity of his purpose.
" Otherwise, when UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE hath
" got possession of the heart, then Alms done openly
" must needs be best pleasing to our Heavenly
c< Father ; as the Example spreads abroad the
" Spirit of Benevolence, and each open giver catches
" the sacred fire from another, till the whole Offering
<c arises in one pure blaze of Charity, an llolocaiist
<c of the pious Heart to Heaven : as on the other
" hand, when it is superstition only which stimulates
" thee to this paltry sacrifice of the praise of mtii*
<f thou wilt only add to the nullity of the action,
<c the offence which accompanies its nature/
The second objection is of a civil nature; ih$
legal provision for the Poor is objected to the ne
cessity, if not to the utility, of these new and volun
tary establishments.
But when the origin of that provision comes to
be considered, it may possibly be seen, that these
new establishments are the best means of removing
the inconveniencies, which, in a course of time, have
arisen from that beneficent, but ill-judgecl policy, of
providing for the Poor by law.
Before the times of common sense and Refor
mation, a still-increasing superstition had brought
an immensely disproportioned share of the landed
property
256 S E R M O N XXXI.
property into the hands of Churchmen and other
religious. But lands in Mortmain are a dead weight
upon Commerce ; which rarely rises, and can never
flourish under so unfavourable an aspect. This,
for many ages, filled the nation with beggars. In
deed begging was the only Commerce it had. And
it throve so well, and grew so fashionable, that
whole Orders of Religious, when they had beggared
others, turned beggars themselves ; and, after de
spoiling the rich, did not blush to share the Alms
with the Poor.
In this general distress, the wealthy Monasteries
opened their gates to a miserable starving people :
who, being first reduced to indigence by the Re-
iigiouS) were afterwards supported by them in idle
ness ; till an Abbey-Lubber became the common
name for one of the Monastic Leeches. And while
Laymen seemed to have forgotten the plainest civil
truth, that Necessity was the mother of Invention,
Churchmen were successfully inculcating the greatest
of religious absurdities, that Ignorance was the
mother of Devotion.
When HENRY VII L dissolved the religious
Houses, and, by that means, restored civil Property
to the uses of Commerce, the immense revenues
which came into the Exchequer were soon dispersed
and dissipated ; partly in support cf the measures of
that daring Revolution ; partly in the ill-judged pro
jects of his childish ambition ; and in part, in the
indulgence of his luxurious pleasures.
r>ut so clamorous were those Drones, the Abbey-
r?,) on the destruction of their hives, that the
22 Crown
SERMON XXXI. 257
Crown found it necessary to insert in its grants of
alienation, an express condition of Hospitality ;
which had no lasting effects ; for now, the eman
cipated Church-estates perpetually changing hands,
the charge upon them of Hospitality was soon for
gotten or disregarded.
In the mean time COMMERCE, under the genial
warmth of Property in motion, began to make its
first struggles for birth. Trading Companies were
formed; distant Voyages were attempted, and new
Worlds discovered.
But Infant-Commerce is weak and feeble ; and
its hands unapt for Manufactures, the perennial
source of national wealth : so that still a numerous
Poor remained untaught and unfed.
The glorious administration of a Woman, who
took up her father s reins, after they had been slack
ened, first by Faction, and then by a returning Su
perstition, was intent to supply both these .wants
by Law. But unskilful measures in providing against
distress, soon took off the edge of Industry. And
the law, which quarters the Poor on their several
parishes, grew, in time, so intolerable a burthen,
both on the landed and commercial Interests, and
so difficult to be shaken off, that the Legislature
hath now employed more than an age* in seeking
for the proper remedy, and hath not yet found it.
In this inability, the best relief, though it can
operate but slowly, are these voluntary new-erected
Establishments, entirely formed and addressed to
encourage industry > by providing a speedy cure to
the maladies and disasters of the disabled Poor.
VOL. X. S From
258 S E R M O N XXXI.
From whence it appears, that the legal provision
is so far from being an objection to their continu
ance, that an increase of them is the only means we
have, at present, of putting some stop to the growing
mischiefs of that provision.
Thus we see how civil Policy and religious Cha
rity concur in favour of these mw Establishments
in general. What remains, is only to recommend
to you the object of our present care ; an Establish
ment, that (like all other of the same kind which
have the Poor for their subject) cloth honour to
humanity : and, by the peculiar nature of the
Institution, hath the advantage of being most
beneficial to a commercial people ; as taking in
ail Labourers for the Public, whether by SEA or
LAXD; whether disabled by accidents, or debi
litated by disease. For, against these necessary
Servants of Society all the elements seem to have
conspired. They seize the Workman and Artificer at
home; sometimes by the baleful qualities of the
materials on which he is employed ; sometimes by
the blasting heats of furnaces and forges, in the
.inid.^t of which, the process of his artful industry,
in giving form and fashion to those tortured mate
rials, is carried on ; and sometimes again by the
damps of mines, and the rotten exhalations of woods
and marshes,, to which, in his useful labours, he is
unhappily confined. They pursue the Sailor abroad;
and tiie very air necessary to a prosperous course,
becomes destructive of his constitution ; now by- a
load of corrosive salts ; and now again by the change
of cliamtes in extreme, made unlit for respiration.
Such
SERMON XXXI. 259
Such are the objects of this noble Charity ; to
which no motives of recommendation, whether di
vine or human, can be wanting.
I. If we seek them in RELIGION, Solomon is at
band to tell us, That vchoso hath pity on the Poor,
kndeth to the Lord*: And a wiser than he assures
us, that what we do to our distressed brethren, will
be reckoned as done to himself: Our gracious
Master being pleased to exalt and enoble ALMS to
the Poor into OBLATIONS. to himself.
And though, from the attributes of the Godhead
in general, we can well account for so honoured an
acceptance of human alms ; yet there is another
reason, peculiarly relative to the present dispensa
tions of Providence, which will explain the high en
comium here bestowed upon this Virtue.
In social and civil life, under Government poli
tical, (which God declares f to be his ordinance as
well as man s) the far greater part of those whereof:
it is composed are, by the inevitable order of things,
condemned to a state of labour, distress, and penury.
The Common Father of mankind has therefore ora-
o
ciously condescended to consider himself as respon
sible for the relief and support of all in this humble
station ; and, on this account, hath earnestly and par
ticularly recommended them to the care and protec
tion of the Rich ; to whom, as to the Stezcards of his
bounty and abundance, he hath intrusted, rather
than given j the goods of this world : Goods, which
GOD, at first, created u inappropriate ; and NA
TURE threw in common to all her children.
* Prov. xix. 17. f Rom. xiii. 2. i Pet, ii. 13.
s 2 Indeed
*6o SERMON XXXI.
Indeed, we can never sufficiently ado re the Father
of mercy, who in the tenderness of his Providence,
hath thus set to his own account, whatever is dis
bursed by these his Steward^ upon such, who by
reason of the wants which his own Ordinance hath
occasioned, are under his more especial care ajad
protection.
IL If, in the second place, we seek our motives
in the iioaom of HUMAN VIRTUE, these Stewards
of God s bounty, the Rick, will never want reasons
of humanity and. justice towards their Brethren, as
well as of piety and gratitude to their Lord and
Benefactor, for the ready and cheerful discharge of
their Trust ; when they consider that the lower ranks
in society (on whom distress and penury are fatally
entailed) had this hard measure assigned unto them
by Providence, that the Kick might enjoy the
Blessings of social life in greater plenty, in a more
improved condition, and in fuller security, than
they were even at first poured out on man from
the lap of Cod s prolific Substitute, NATURE : For,
to the toil, the ingenuity, and the ready habits of the
hardy Poor^ both by land and water, are owing the
abundance and stability of those artificial accomoda-
tions which society procures. So that were it not
for the constant toil of the Labourer, the Sailor,
and the Artificer, the man most indulged in the
wanton gifts of fortune would soon find himself, in
the midst of all his proud connexions, as ill ac
commodated in his person and in his domestic,
as a savage Indian Chief amidst his wastes and
desarts.
III. But,
SERMON XXXI,
III. But, thirdly, if neither piety, humanity, nor
even the interests of luxury and commerce, have
force sufficient to open either our hearts or hands
in favour of those who impair their health aucl
shorten their lives in destructive toil and hazardous
adventures, to provide for our ease and pleasures ;
we should consider, how our veiy SAFETY (in the
peace and order of society) is concerned in this
soothing relict; thus beneficently afforded to thq poor
distressed.
One of. the most marvellous circumstances in th$
life of that inconsequent prodigious creature, Man,
is, that the Populace in all governments can feel,
and yet do so patiently abide and groan under toil
and penury ; distresses sustained by the Many, for
the support of the Few in insolence and riot.
The force of. human laws alone is insufficient
to account for this dead calm in the most furious
and impatient of all wild creatures, Map m dis.
tress.
The Populace were never able to comprehend
either the nature or end of National Laws ; their
we to the whole, or their -necessity to the several
parts ; and, therefore, could have no forcible in
ducement to pay them reverence. On the other
.hand, they were never so stupid as not to under
stand that human ICKCS, like a thread of flax before
a flame, vanish and disappear before popular comr
motions.
What is it, then, do you ask, that hath so long
restrained this fierce and agonizing part of Civil
Society, in which all power really resides ; and from
s 3 which
262 S E R M O N XXXI.
which it is fetched, by their Rulers, to be employed
against themselves ? What is it, do you ask, that first
tarried brutal Man, and disarmed the fury of an
enraged multitude, and hath ever since restrained
them, while murmuring under so unequal a partition
of the free blessings of Providence, from using this
power in their own quarrel, to shake off their bur
thens, to reassume the Commonalty of Nature, to
level all the boundaries of Property, and throw
social life into disorder and confusion? What
could it be, but the powerful charm of RELIGION T ?
A charm which makes the Laws sacred, and the
Supreme Magistrate adored.
But now, RELIGION having lost its hold on the
Populace, (amongst whom a new set of Opinions
hath been inculcated to encourage their practices)
some Succedancum will be found necessary to supply
its place, till it can regain its usual force. And
what so natural and efficacious as these NEW ESTA
BLISHMENTS, the first-fruits of CHARITY ; which,
in the absence of FAITH, and during the loss of
HOPE, may supply their place, and restrain the
madness of a desperate people? For while they
see the higher stations in society thus condescending,
and even proud to discharge the office of their
Guardians, zealous to make their distressed con
dition sit as easy on them as the nature of Society
will permit, and the tenderest pity can procure,
the Commonalty will be reconciled to their station ;
and, though neither oversatisfied, nor perhaps over
grateful, will yet cease, in any turoulent way, to
malign the happier lot of those who bend their care
auc]
S E II M O N XXXI. 263
and employ their wealth, to drive away want and
distress from the habitations of the INDUSTRIOUS .
POOR.
Now, would we regard our new Establishments
in this view, we should have a sufficient answer
to the Objection arising from the growing multi
plicity of them.
They are, we have shewn, a Succcdancum, and
the only one we have, to that great bond of Societv,
KELIGION : a partial extension of it, therefore, will
hardly be sufficient. The Charity must spread and
enlarge itself till it encompasses the whole, in order
to enable it to supply the place of that natural and
more efficacious tie, RELIGIOX, now loosened in
most parts, but quite shattered and .broken in that
where its strength was most needful, I mean, the
Populace.
But this is not all : these Establishments abound
in their uses ; not only such as are public and
general, which have been already explained, but
private and particular likewise, as we shall see.
Where every good man is his own almoner, com- >
passion is always readier to bestow, than prudence
and circumspection to distribute. It relieves la
bouring humanity when we ease an object in distress. -
But the judgment (whenever we condescend to be
governed by it) always withholds its assent, till the
object appear worthy our care and attention. And
were the judgment more consulted, we should -not,
at this very hour, have virtuous compassion, by a
false pity, so much abused, as to become, instead of .
s 4 a blessing,
264 SERMON XXXI.
a blessing, a public mischief; as it is in the relief of
common vagrants and street-beggars.
The charitable rich man is, as we have said, the
chosen Substitute of God, to supply what, in the
common course of his Providence, hath, for wise
reasons, been left imperfect and deficient. It is of
his office, therefore, to satisfy justice and mercy, in
the support of distressed Virtue, before he allows the
tender sentiments of a constitutional compassion, to
administer to the alleviation of suffering vice.
For these reasons, we shall, if we be wise as well
as pious, make these public Charities the Treasuries
of our private Alms ; as being well assured, that
what is there lodged will be dispensed in such a
manner as may best advance the national interests ;
may best serve the sacred ends of Religion ; and
best satisfy our own bountiful and humane dis
position.
And if, amongst these various Establishments,
there be some whose principal objects are the
wretches, who, by their vicious and intemperate ap
petites, have brought disease and misery on them,
selves, even these may fairly plead our pity, since
they catched the infection of their immoral habits
from the depraved Example of their Betters.
But the distinguished Charity, which I am at
this time to recommend to your protection, is of a
very different nature. It is, in a word, the most
humane, most useful, and most deserving the at
tention of ail good men ; as it is oest calculated to
produce the satisfactory and salutary purposes which
J3 the,
SERMON XXXI. 265
the wisest Establishments of this kind profess to
aim at.
A still further inducement to support these Cha*-
rities is the present state of the Public Manners;
which are seen by all to be in so profligate a con
dition, as to require some atonement for insulted
Truth and violated Virtue. The most natural in
deed, and efficacious, is the amendment of our lives
and reformation of our vicious habits : yet, while
that is working (and it is always a work of time)
as there is apparent need of some intermediate de
precation of the wrath of Heaven, we are unable to
conceive any more acceptable service to the God
of mercy and compassion, than the relief of his
favourite Creature, Man, struggling under the rigour
of his wise and necessary Dispensation.
But then let no superstitious fancies, that our
habitual vices may be indulged under the ample
cloak of Charity, defeat these hopeful means of a
beginning reconciliation with our offended Master.
For though Charity or benevolence hides the faults
pf others from the severity of our censure, yet Charity
or Alms-giving is totally unable to conceal our own
from the observance of our all-righteous Judge,
Indeed, the only cover for these, or, to speak more
properly, the discharge of all their stains, is FAITH,
is the BLOOD of Christ, working with repentance
towards God. When FAITH, when the BLOOD of
Christ, hath thus done its perfect work, and brought
forth repentance, then we shall not be mistaken in
concluding that one of the noblest fruits of repentance
& of the growth of THIS ESTABLISHMENT ; in giving
covering
266 SERMON XXXL
covering to the naked, in dispensing food to the
hungry, in pouring balm into the wounds of the
afflicted, and administering cordials to the sick and
languishing.
May this be the constant employment of this
humane Establishment ! and may the God of all
Mercies prosper its generous Undertakings !
SERMON XXXII.
Preached before the King, at Kensington, October 27,
CHRIST S LEGACY OF PEACE TO HIS
DISCIPLES.
GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN, xiv. 27.
PEACE i LEAVE WITH you, MY PEACE i GIVE
UNTO YOU: NOT AS THE WORLD GIVETH, GIVE
I UNTO YOU.
HP HE blessed Founder of our Faith, to shew us
-* the superiority of the advantages which Re
ligion offers to his faithful Servants, bequeaths to
them this inestimable Legacy of Peace.
All temporal good results into one or other of
these two blessings, Pleasure and Peace. Thejirst
more strongly solicits the sensual appetites ; the
second, the intellectual : That strikes more forcibly
on the fancy ; this, on the understanding. Pleasure
is the early and single object of the young and.dis-.
gipated : but Peace is the harbour of the wise and
experienced.
268 SERMON XXXII.
experienced. In Pleasure, the pursuit of happiness
is generally begun ; and in Peace, the pursuit of it
as generally ends. For the organs of sense, being
the instruments through which pleasure is conveyed
for the mind s enjoyment, they are soon put out of
order by excess ; or rendered unfit by long use, for
the discharge of that part of their functions. For
by abuse, or unremitting use,, the body becomes so
disordered, or the mind so insensible, that pleasure
degenerates into pain, disgust, or indifference. And
the Mind, fatigued in the fruitless search of hap
piness, finds at length that it is no where to be had
but in peace and tranquillity of mind. And in the
enjoyment of peace , the mind becomes gradually
strengthened and fortified ; as in the exercise of
ftcasure, it is more and rnpFe debilitated an<4
broken.
For peace repairs all the faculties of the niind,
just as pleasure wears them out. And age and
time, which take off all the vigorous sense of plea
sure, add still a new taste and relish to inward peace:
The mind which, during its hurry and violent at
tachment to pleasure, overlooked the sweet allure-
ments of peace, being, by the subdual or subsidence
of the more violent passions, now become attentive
to-, and sensible of, the soft and gentle impressions of
tranquillity.
Our blessed Master therefore could not bestow,
At his departure, a richer Legacy on his faithful
Servants, than this of inward peace : the security
snd reward of Virtue., and the balm of the wounded
spirit*
But
SERMON XXXIL 269
But as the Giver, so was the gift, Divine. And
though a temporal good, yet so purified, ennobled,
and Exalted by Religion, as to accompany us
through these dark regions of sorrow (over which
it throws a constant sunshine) and to pass with us
to the celestial realms of joy and immortality.
But there is an impostor, a Counterfeit of this
Peace, which restless and overburthened mortals are
always seeking for in vain. This Phantom is ever
flitting before us, and assuming a variety of Forms
to engage the pursuit of the mistaken follower ; who,
when he thinks to hold her in his grasp, finds nothing
but empty air ; though Fancy have embodied it in
all the specious shapes of wisdom, power, wealth,
reputation, glory, and every gaudy Form, which
draws deluded mortals to seek for peace amidst their
miseries.
To these Counterfeits our gracious Master all ude.%
when he distinguishes the genuine blessing, which is
iris gift, from these wretched inventions of Men. Mg
Peace I give unto you ; not as the WORLD giveth,
give I unto you: Words that imply an immense dif-
terencc both in the GIFT and in the GIVER.
Let us first then consider, What that Peace is
which the World promises to bestow upon its Vo
taries ; and where it is to be found.
The World would think it strange, if we should
deny &\bt peace is to be found in what it calls wisdom,
power, wealth) reputation and glory. Yet it is
certain, that, when sought for amongst any -or M
A
270 SERMON XXXII.
of these, no more is to be found than the mere
shadow of peace ; and, generally, not so much.
Human wisdom* or science, bids fairest to content
the reasonable mind ; because the object of knowledge
is nature, and the object of the fairest branches of
knowledge, human nature,, whose perceptions and
ideas it attempts to trace ; and whose passions and
appetites it pretends to regulate : yet, wanting those
principles, discoverable only by Revelation, which
teaches man s true end, and which excites his en
deavours to the attainment of it, human knowledge
only fluctuates in the head, but comes not near the
heart, where peace of mind is engendered. While
the whole state of the Sage or Man of Wisdom,
though set off with all the trappings and gaudy
equipage of Letters, is a state of anxiety and disquiet,
of doubt and disappointment.
If peace then keep at such a distance from worldly
wisdom, we can hardly think she will become more
intimate with Power and Grandeur: where, instead
of restraint on the passions and appetites (which
Wisdom attempts) every thing concurs to raise arid
inflame them. Now inordinate and irregular ap
petites are the immediate bane and destruction of
inward peace.
But it is not only from within, but from without
also, that/;e &T is violated by power. In the pursuit
of Wisdom all our Concurrents are our Assistants,
and sometimes our Guides and Directors. And
every Rival s acquisition is an addition to our
own store. But in the pursuits of power it is just
the
SERMON XXXII. 271
the contrary : All our Concurrents are our Enemies :
every advantage of theirs throws us farther back
from the point we had in view : and their successes
prove fatal to our own projects. For corporeal good
is, in this, essentially different from mental ; it lessens
by communicating, and suffers an exclusive appro
priation. And as the rivalry for corporeal advan
tages is, for this reason, as well as others, always
more violent arid constant ; the Candidate for power
lias generally but a small share of peace : for the
same struggle continues as constantly, and often as
violently, after the acquisition of Power as during
the pursuit of it
Riches, the next pretended means of Peace, are
still less efficacious to procure us this blessing. If
wealth be attended with the avarice of hoarding,
it so narrows and contracts the mind as not to leave
sufficient entrance to Peace ; or at least that entrance
is so guarded by anxiety for the present 9 Jejarful ap
prehensions of the future, and mistrust of every
tiling about us, that Peace flies frighted from so
inhospitable a dwelling.
And if the rich man employs his wealth, as wealth
is commonly employed, it brings on a large train of
uneasy wants, and unruly appetites; which, as oft as
they are relieved, are succeeded, in an endless suc
cession, by new wants and returning appetites;
every one more absurd and fantastic, more mis
chievous and unnatural, than the other. So that
there is no interval for peace to get footing in a mind
so agitated, distracted, and disappointed, by the
solicitation,
272 SERMON XXXII.
solicitation, the variety, and the emptiness of its
objects.
But it will be said, that fame and glory, sure, if
nothing else> will amply afford this peace. And,
indeed, if any worldly Charm could sooth and lull
the soul into this sweet Elysium," it must be the sense
of this high prerogative of humanity. And it will
be owned, that as the other advantages tend to con
tract and narrow the mind, so Glory as naturally
.dilates and enlarges it ; and, by that means, prepares
and fits it for the reception of this soft felicity :
For all perturbations arise from the uneasy narrowing
the mind by selfishness.
Yet if we consider how worldly fame and glory
are commonly acquired, we shall find, that there are
some circumstances attending it, which must for
ever keep peace a Stranger, or at least a very pre*
carious Guest.
Eloquence, Ciiil Policy, and Military Honours^
are the three great entrances to Glory. Yet how
oft is the one employed in defence of falsehood and
wrong ; the other in the arts of circumvention ; and
the third amidst the horrors of unjust conquest ! But
these matters are best left to every man s particular
meditation.
On the whole, we see what a delusion it is which
the world presents unto us, when it pretends to give
us that greatest blessing here below, inward peace.
But as empty, and as trifling as the present is,
even under its best form, it becomes still more worth-
less by the caprice and injustice of the Giver* -.
For
SERMON XXXII. 273
For these advantages, by which peace is sup
posed to he obtained, the World distributes with
such injustice, with so little regard to true merit,
that we generally find them shared (indeed not
equally) by the worthless and by the deserving.
Nor is there less caprice and inconstancy in the con
tinuance of the world s favours : which, as it often
gives without desert, as often resumes and takes
away without cause. So that, even though peace of
mind were indeed dependent on its smiles, the pos
session of this peace would be the most precarious
of all things.
The Sages of Antiquity, who made the mosc
diligent inquiry after t\\\s peace, were forced at last to
confess this supreme blessing of humanity was not
to be found without the aid of some Celestial
Guide.
At that juncture, when the Guide was seen to be
most wanted, he was sent by our Almighty Father,
with all the heavenly attributes of Grace and Peace ;
who, having completed his ordained Ministry; to
prepare his followers for the reception of this gift,
and to direct them how to preserve and improve it,
when it was bestowed, left them with the divine
tare well of rny text : Peace I leave wit It you, my
Peace I give unto you : not as the world givet/i,
give I unto you.
This peace consists in a full and pleasing con
sciousness of pardon and restoration to God s favour,
through the blood of his Son, on our sim ere re
pentance.
VOL. X. T The
274 S E R M O N XXXII.
The immediate Giver of this Peace is the Holy
Spirit. Hence, in reference to the mysterious con
veyance, and the supernatural fruits of the Gift, it
is called a peace that passeth all understanding.
That is, such a peace as humanity is not able to
procure for itself; or to preserve when procured,
without the assisting grace of God s Holy Spirit.
And now we may be able to see the immense
difference there is between this fleece, and that which
the world pretends to give, both in its nature and
duration.
The Passions and Appetites are the deadly bane
to all tranquillity of mind : and these, this peace
totally subdues, by submitting our mil to the icill
of God. In the mean time, our full assurance of
favour with him, our supreme good, fills up the
great void of the mind ; which now enjoys, and is
greatly affected with, nothing but its own conscious
content, tranquillity, and joy.
Again, this solid blessing is given, not as the
world pretends to give its wretched Counterfeits ;
that is, capriciously, unjustly, or precariously.
As this Peace dwells only in the mind purified
by the love of God and Man, and hatred of iniquity ;
so while the mind continues in that state, its peace
is as lasting and solid as the foundations of the
earth.
And whatever casual pollution the good man
may contract by presumption, negligence, or com
merce with an evil World, which may abate or
disorder inward peace ; For this, the Gracious
Giver has contrived an instant and efficacious re-
SERMON XXXII. 275
tncdy, sincere repentance : by which all the breaches
in our peace are repaired, and the heavenly tran
quillity of mind restored to its full vigour, through
the mediation of our Blessed Lord and Redeemer-,
to whom, with the Father and Holy Spirit, be all
glory for evermore.
T 2
S E R M O N XXXIK.
Preached at Lincoln s Inn, November 11, 1759.
INIQUITY THE CAUSE OF UNBELIEF.
ST. MATT. xxiv. 12.
AND BECAUSE INIQUITY SHALL ABOUND, THE
LOVE OF MANY SHALL WAX COLD.
words are to be found in the famous
Prophesy of Jesus, in which the predictions
of his first coming to judge the Jews, in the de
struction of Jerusalem ; and his second coming to
judge mankind, in the destruction of the World and
renovation of all things, are interwoven with one
O
another.
And in these words is foretold that general apostasy
from the Faith, of which the Sacred Writers have
so frequently forewarned the faithful, as the cha
racteristic mark of the latter times The love of
many [the adherence of the greater part to the Faith]
shall wax cold: The cause of this apostasy is fore
told likewise, because Iniquity shall abound.
T 3 This
278 SERMON XXXIII.
This melancholy but important truth may be
supported by considerations drawn, ist, from the
nature of things ; and, 2dly, from the experience
of our own times.
Though nothing be more common than to see
men s opinions and practices at variance ; because
the judgment draws one way, and the passions
another; and because, generally, men are neither
masters of one nor of the other, to take them up
and lay them down at pleasure ; and so have it
not in their power to suit their opinions to their
practices, or their practices to their opinions, as
they see fit : yet this contrariety and opposition is
a very uneasy situation ; and the more so, from the
difficulty of removing it. Hence the various arts
and contrivances of the wicked heart, to delude
itself, in procuring a set of principles, that may
support Men, at least give them no uneasiness, in
their practices.
But if the received principles or opinions (such
as those of the Christian faith) not only shew the
falsehood, the folly, and the absurdity of vice ; and
that it is not only destructive of our rational nature
here, but of our very being hereafter ; then the
kicked man, who is resolved not to part with his
vices, and yet finds himself crossed and disturbed
by these opinions, which he had imbibed in his
education, and afterwards approved in his judgment,,
will never rest till he has percerted that judgment,
by sophistical reasonings against the truth of his
opinions. And sophistical reasonings, at best, even
when seconded by a willing mind, always carrying
their
SERMON XXXIII. 273
their suspicions along with them, the self-deluded
victim to his vices is still for trying their force upon
his acquaintance, in order to establish them more
firmly in himself. Hence that preposterous zeal, ob
served in modern unbelievers, for making converts ;
which has always appeared to pious observers so
extremely monstrous ; but which, we find, has a
very obvious cause in the very nature of infidelity
itself.
Thus we see, how truly Iniquity is assigned as
the cause of that general apostasy, from the Christian
faith, predicted to be the Character of these latter
days. And because iniquity shall abound, the love
of many shall wax cold.
And here, before I proceed to my second head,
it may not be amiss to observe, how much this
check upon vice is to the honour of the Christian
Faith ; a check so great, that vice cannot proceed
in its course, till this obstruction to it be removed.
In the Pagan and Mahometan Religions, both of
antient and modern times, wicked men were never
under this necessity : nor have we ever heard that
they quarrelled with their Religion, because they
wanted to enjoy their vices in peace. Their opinions
and practices subsisted together in a very friendly
manner. And we find, much nearer home, that
those men who have quarrelled with their baptismal
Faith for the sake of their vices, profess themselves
to be the followers of natural Religion-, which being
what each man pleases to make it, it is very easy
for them to prevent its becoming troublesome to
T 4 their
28o SERMON XXXIII.
their vices ; and is therefore a very commodious, as
it is a very reputable, profession of Religion.
But I now anticipate the subject of the second
head I proposed to speak to in support and ex
planation of my text ; \vhich was, that the expe
rience of the present times amply confirms its truth,
that abounding of iniquity is the true cause why the.
/tree of many for the Christian faith is waxed cold :
or of that general defection from Christianity which
has now spread itself throughout all orders and
decrees of men.
o
A mere general view of the state of things is alone
sufficient to evidence this truth. When was there
so great a defection from the Religion of our Fore
fathers? And when did profligate iniquity so much
abound ? The estimate of the quantity of national
vice is indeed hard to make. Hut this we may be
assured of, that when Vice stalks triumphant, and
without disguise ; when apologies are made for the
national benefits resulting from private vices ; and
when it is openly maintained that Government
cannot be curried on without corruption ; we may
be assured, that Vice has spread more generally,
and has taken deeper root, than while it sneaked
about in disguise ; while it denied its Parentage,
and pretended to be related to Virtue.
But we have a surer evidence of the truth of my
text. We need but look about us, and consider
who have been the most zealous propagators of
Infidelityt hroughout this present Century ; and who
have been their most devoted followers; and we
shall
SERMON XXXIII. 281
&hail find that both have been as notorious (whether
in high stations or in low) for vice and corruption,
as for the profligate principles of unbelief. So that
there was small danger of being mistaken, when we
saw a man glorying in his Iniquities, to conclude
that he was a Rogue upon Principle, that is, a
Freethinker : as on the other hand, when we heard
a man profess his disbelief of the Religion of his
Country, that he was a corrupt Knave, whether in
a public or in a private Station,
Even great learning and superiority of parts, the
best security, next to Grace, against Infidelity (and
what has in fact secured the generality of exalted
geniuses against this contagion) if unhappily joined
with a very corrupt heart, have not been of force
sufficient to guard men against this evil. So much
has their present ease and the silencing of a cla
morous Conscience got the better of all the con
victions of Reason.
To this it may be objected, that many wicked
men have professed the highest regard for religion :
as, on the other hand, some unbelievers have been
very moral men.
Both these assertions will deserve to be consi
dered. There is no question, but that through
various stages of wickedness, so rational a Religion,
in which men have been brought up and educated*
will stick closely by them. But the horror of this
state, which the constant upbraidings of conscience
must occasion, makes them naturally fly for ease
and respite from their torments : If grace abounds,
they will be enabled to shake off their vices : If
the
282 SERMON XXXIII.
the World prevails, they will choose to part with their
Religion. Distracted by such contrary impulses,
it will not be long ere they part with one or the
other : and the over-abounding of wicked example
encourages worldly men, in general, to make a
wrong choice. This is the condition of the first
stages of life : but it being a very unnatural state
(men naturally pursuing ease) we may be sure, it
will not continue long. Whenever therefore an
old determined veteran in vice perseveres in the pro
fession of a Religion, which denounces the most
dreadful sentence on his perseverance in Iniquity,
and pretends a zeal for this Religion, we may safely
pronounce him to be a consummate Hypocrite.
And if we attentively consider, we shall never be
at a loss to account for the trouble he gives himself,
in putting on, and still wearing, so hazardous a mask.
We shall find it to be either ^ profession^ his station,
his connexions, or some lower persojial Interest,
that obliges him to profess his attachment to religion.
Or if haply these marks be difficult to find, there are
others, which never fail to betray this species of
Hypocrisy. Such as these, this pretended Reli
gionist always makes the truth to be the same
thing with what happens to be the established. He
therefore joins with the real Bigot, to discourage all
inquiries into truth, and is the first to decry and
persecute the Inquirer. And so much for the Re
ligion of the habitual Sinner.
As to the other part of the objection, that some
Unbelievers have been moral men. This will amount
to no more than an exception to a general rule,
w hich
S E R M O N XXXIII. 283
which says that Unbelievers are commonly wicked
men. And the causes which produce the exception
are easily accounted for.
Unbelief has of late become so fashionable, that
its advocates have formed and fashioned it into a
kind of system, and supported and adorned it with
all the arts of sophistry and false reasoning : so
that it w r ould be no wonder if, here and there, a
moral man of cool appetites and enfeebled reason,
seduced by specious appearances, should chance
to do credit to this miserable Philosophy. This,
joined to a vanity of doing honour to a sect (so
much and justly spoken against by sober men, for
the immoralities of its professors) may possibly pro
duce a moral free-thinker. But such a pheno
menon is extremely rare : So rare, that, of ail our
leaders in Infidelity (and England has produced a
greater swarm than almost all the world besides),
we hear but of one or two, who ever passed for
honest men. And the man who had this luck,
though he got the character of temperance, justice,
candour, charity, in his commerce with the world,
yet it is well known to all who have seen his writings,
that in the management of controversy he has
knowingly violated both truth and charit
On the whole then, we cannot but conclude with
the text, that because of the abounding of Iniquity*
the love of many, for our holy faitii, has waxed
cold.
But we are not to expect that these apostates
will own that Iniquity is the cause of their apostasy.
They
284 S E R M O N XXXIII.
They have always assigned other causes of it,
which in their opinion clears them from all sus
picion of unjust prejudice or prevention. And these
are,
1st, The immoral and unexemplary lives of the
Clergy. And,
2dly, The irrational system of Christianity.
Let us examine both these pretences.
They will not believe the truth of the Christian
Religion on account of the unsanctified Lives of
its ministers. But what has this to do with the
truth or falsehood of a Revelation established upon
full evidence, evidence which has nothing to do with
the personal Character of its ministers ? Was ir
resistible Grace promised, by this Religion, to them,
something might be said for so absurd a conclusion;
which infers the falsehood of a Religion from the
follies of its Pastors. But since they continue men,
as other men are, as well after they have devoted
themselves to the service of the altar, as before,
and liable to all the common infirmities of humanity,
no conclusion can be drawn from their personal dis
credit, ta the discredit of that Religion which they
so unworthily serve.
Again, as to the irrational and absurd tenets of
the Religion itself. It is certain no such could come
from God. And if our Religion teaches that such
did come from him, this were fully sufficient to
discredit it. But our free-thinkers should have been
assured of what they say, by a careful study of the
Scriptures
SERMON XXXIII. 285
Scriptures themselves, before they advanced so
heavy a charge against the Religion of their Country.
And so doubtless they would, had not the prejudices
arising from their Iniquities made them very desirous
that Religion should be a false and fictitious thiiv^;
O O
and therefore they received any thing that came to
them under the name of Christianity (so it would
serve their purpose to decry and dishonour it), with
out examining whether it was tiie genuine Gospel
of Christ, or no ; nay, under a strong suspicion, and
sometimes, a sure conviction, that it was not. The
truth is, they knowingly give us the doctrines of
Men for the doctrines of God; and then, from the
absurdities of sects and parties, of sums and systems j
argue against the truth of the Gospel. I said,
knowingly ; for, at other times, when they have been
disposed to abuse the Clergy, they have produced
these very doctrines as their adulterate manufacture ;
which, when they argued against Religion itself,
they called the doctrines of the Gospel. What are
we then to conclude from this conduct, both with
regard to their objections to the / // frees of the
Clergy, and to the absurdity of the Christian tenets,
but that they were ashamed to own to others the
true cause of their Infidelity^ and for their own
ease would even endeavour to hide it from them
selves; and, in its stead, would obtrude upon us
other more specious causes ; which yet are in them
selves so inconclusive, that, but for the reason above,
they would not have ventured to build upon them so
important an affair as that of their own salvation.
If the^e men therefore would persuade us that they
286 SERMON XXXIII.
are, as they so loudly proclaim themselves, sincere
inquirers after truth, let them, by way of experiment
only, cast off their vices, reform their lives, and
conform a little to the moral precepts of the Gospel :
and if then these formidable objections against
Revelation still wear the same face, and do not
shrink into nothing, we will believe them to be
honest and sincere ; which, to believe before, would
be an excess of charity, that even the benevolent
Genius of the Gospel would not excuse, or support.
The conclusion and inference from the whole is
this, that it is infinitely to the discredit of modern
infidelity, and as much to the honour of our holy
faith, that it is Iniquity which makes unbelievers.
For how miserable must that Cause be, where the
true reason of their rejecting Revelation is one of
the marks of its truth, namely, the vengeance of
Heaven against vice and immorality ! No one can
think, had this Religion only offered Rewards for
Believers, that ever there would have been such
a thing as an Unbeliever ; and yet this would have
been a certain mark of its falsehood, as it is of the
Mahometan and other superstitions. But as soon
as ever it proves its pretensions from Heaven, by
pronouncing misery to Vice, as well as happiness
to Virtue, then the world begins to swarm with
Freethinkers.
On the other hand, what can be more for the
honour of a Religion, than that it drives from it all
determined wickedness, as not able to bear the
splendor of its visage ; especially when we consider
that
SERMON XXXIIL 287
that this same Religion, so terrible to hardened Vice,
bears the most benignant aspect to a repentant
sinner, whom she invites to her bosom, and to
whom she communicates all her comforts and con
solations ?
Let therefore such who have been so unhappily
deluded by their sins as to rivet them into their
nature, by a fatal Unbelief, view and contemplate
this rejected Religion on this side, where with so
much pity and compassion she throws out her arms,
to recover these her deluded Children from final
perdition. The frequent contemplation of this would,
with the Grace of God (always at hand to assist the
honest endeavours of men), at last enable them to
break their fetters, recover their liberty, and return
again into one fold, under one Shepherd, Jesus
Christ the Righteous. Amen.
SERMON XXXrV.
Preached before the King, March 12, 1769,
TRUE CHRISTIANS, THE SALT OF THE
EARTH.
MATT. v. 13.
YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH : BUT IF
THE SALT HAVE LOST ITS SAVOUR, WHERE
WITH SHALL IT BE SALTED ? IT IS THENCE
FORTH GOOD FOR NOTHING, BUT TO BE CAST
OUT, AND TO BE TRODDEN UNDER FOOT.
OU R Blessed Master hath here, in an happy
union of scientific and popular instruction,
arising from the joint aid of the sentiment and the
expression, supported a particular truth on a general
principle.
The particular truth is, that the loss of the Salt,
or genuine spirit of Christianity, cannot he supplied
by any human expedient whatsoever : and it is
VOL. X. U supported
290 S E R M O N XXXIV.
supported on this general Principle, that every thing
hath its Salt or essential quality, which makes it
to be what it is ; and, without which, it is no longer
the same, having degenerated into another thing.
Much of our blessed Master s instruction pointed
to future corruptions in his holy Religion ; for at the
time when he first impregnated the world with, what
he here calls, the salt of the Earth, there could
be little danger of its losing its savour during that
generation.
The observation was made to be recorded by the
sacred Penmen ; that when this loss or decay of
savour should arrive, we might remember (to use
his own words) that he had told us of it.
And it is one of the miserable Prerogatives that
we, the Ministers of his word in these latter ages,
have to boast of, above our happier Predecessors,
that we are able to illustrate the divinity of our holy
Faith by the completion of many Prophecies, which
foretold the degeneracy of the Christian Church.
But though I shall not forget the particular Truth
inculcated in my Text, yet it is my purpose, first
of all, to shew from the general maxim on which
it is supported, that the gracious warning, con
tained in the observation, holds good with regard to
every state and condition of human life, as well
civil as religious ; that where the Salt or essential
quality of a tiring, that which constitutes its being
what it is, happens to be lost or depraved, nothing
can prevent the destruction of the subject in which
that quality resided : no succedaneum, no adventi
tious
SERMON XXXIV. 291
tious quality, having the virtue or efficacy to supply
Its place.
To explain my meaning by the trite example of
the Body -natural, employed, on all occasions, to
illustrate the various fortunes and situations of the
Body-politic.
In the human frame, the essential quality of the
eye is its capacity of vision ; of the car, to receive
and modulate sounds ; of the palate, to distinguish
savours ; and so of the rest. Now when the
qualities appropriated to each organ of sense are
lost or depraved, we find it impossible to their
functions to be discharged, or their de!ects to be
supplied by any succedaneum whatsoever. The
vitiated part must for ever lie useless, till ihe mis
chiefs attending the cessation of its functions end
in the destruction of that body \vhich such parts
were formed and designed^ by the divine Architect,
to serve and support.
Just so it is in tiie several orders and stations of
Society ; which are the members, as it were, of
the great Body- politic.
Suppose then the Salt or essential qualities of one
of these members be Frugality and Simplicity ; of
another. Learning ; of another, Wisdom ; and of
the twofold Body itself, in one part, Love of our
Ccuntry ; in the other, Piety : When all, or any
oi tii2.se, no longer operate by their respective fa*,
cultios, the common Body to which they belong
will soon ico into a consumptive decay.
This serious and melancholy truth our divine
u ft Master
SERMON XXXIV.
Master hath plainly intimated, in that elegant figure
of Salt which hath lost its savour.
I shall therefore first endeavour to explain tht
importance of his words, as they are founded on
the general Principle, in their more enlarged and
general sense : By which you may understand the
helpless condition of Society, when any of its capital
members are deprived of their essential qualities.
So that, in whatsoever part you find this Salt to liave
lost, or to be in danger of losing, its savour, you
may hasten to restore it, or to preserve it in its
natural state, instead of hoping by quack inventions
to supply its place.
I. To begin with the PEOPLE. The Salt of this
gross Body, that by which it is kept sweet, arc modes
ty, industry, parsimony, and simplicity of manners.
How far these qualities now make, or mark, the
characteristic of the People, we all see.
Instead of that modesty, by which the English
Populace, till of late, have been so advantageously
distinguished, a censorial spirit, not of their hearts
but of their heads, hath got possession of them. They
erect themselves into Controllers of the conduct of
their Governors ; they prescribe laws to the Legis
lature ; and rise in tumults against the sentence of
Public Justice. In prosperity, they are insolent;
in adversity, outrageous. A People turbulent and
servile ; mutinous and corrupt ; impatient in want ;
improvident in abundance ; and equally unawed by
the uplifted hand of Heaven and the Magistrate.
That
SERMON XXXIV. 393
That Parsimony and simplicity of manners, which
had long supported their station in ease and credit,
are now lost in the distresses attending luxury and
riot. Hence, mad factions, and criminal associa
tions, which shake, and threaten to overturn, the
very foundations of Society.
And now, wherewith shall this unsavoury Body
be salted? They are ready to tell you, with that air
of Sovereignty which they have assumed, By their
large and extensive Commerce; that spring-tide of
Riches ; which they believe (if they believe in any
thing) will set the shattered Vessel of the Common-
ivealth, now stranded by these wretched Pilots, once
again on float.
But this gilded pageant will only add to our dis
orders. For a flow of wealth, which, regulated by
the essential qualities of a virtuous People, would
have set all to rights, will serve only to extend the
luxury, to encourage the dissipation, and to inflame
the insolence and riot of a lawless crew of mis
creants.
II. The MINISTERS OF RELIGION acquire their
Jionoured character from their LOVE OF TRUTH,
manifested in the cultivation of GOOD LETTERS.
And none have surpassed the English clergy in the
glorious exercise of these essential qualities. They
rose to that distinction, and, indeed, they could rise
no otherwise, by the mutual aid which those two
qualities imparted to one another.
Now if ever the Salt of this sacred order should
Become vapid (which Heaven avert !) by 3 coldness
3 for
SERMON XXXIV.
for Truth and an indifference for Letters, one
may easily guess what contrivances will be employed,
and to how little purpose, to preserve appearances,
when the virtue and efficacy of things are lost.
An affected MODERATION will try to soften,
when it cannot warm, that rigid coldness ; and a
blush of MODESTY will be assumed to animate that
lifeless indifference. But these painted virtues will
not bear the weather : this moderation will fade
and betray the pallid hue of IGNORANCE ; and this
modesty soon appear to be only the varnish of
SCEPTICISM.
Now though counterfeits do, in the very act,
bear testimony to the excellence of the genuine
qualities they usurp, (and we know that MODESTY
commonly attends, and always adds a lustre to
Truth ; and MODERATION best recommends the
Teachers of it to the world ;) yet counterfeits can
never supply the place of those Virtues they have
dispossessed.
III. MINISTERS OF STATE, next to Ministers
of Religion, deserve our highest reverence. Their
Salt or essential qualities are WISDOM and GOOD
FAITH. On these the success as well as justice
of public measures depend. These make them
beloved at home, and confided in abroad. Such
have been those Pilots of the Commonwealth, who,
from time to time, have safely steered the Public
Vessel through all those dangers to which the stormy
and tempestuous nature of our Free Constitution
perpetually expose it,
Now
SERMON XXXIV. 295
Now whenever it shall happen, that this Minis
terial Salt shall have lost its savour, is become
insipid or corrupt, no expedients (though EXPE
DIENTS be the Statesman s Asylum) will afford
us its Virtue. Yet CUNNING and CIRCUMVENTION
have been so long employed to hold the place of
Wisdom and good Faith, that it at length, became
a question, which of these two kinds was the native
and genuine Salt of the Politician ; though the
History of Mankind had amply explained the dif
ference ; and long experience had so fully convinced
the Statesman himself, of the small use of cunning
and circumvention in the conduct of public affairs,
that he had learned to turn them, with more success,
for the advancement of his own ; in evading the
force of that opposition he was unable to withstand ;
and in engrossing more power than he knew hqw
to use.
IV. But now, from the partial and subordinate
stations in Society, let us come to the whole Com-
munitii itself; and see what is the Salt, and what
are the essential qualities, of this vast Body, this
Leviathan, of whom it is said, upon Earth there
is not his like *, in whose parts and power and
comely proportion^ (to use the language of the
sacred Writer) are contained two Societies, the civil
and the religious : to each of which, every individual,
in a different capacity, belongs. The essential qua
lity of the civil, is the love of man, manifested by
he service of the Public : the essential quality of
* Job xli. 33. f Ver. 13.
w 4 the
296 SERMON XXXIV.
the religious, is the love of God, manifested in the
practice of virtue and piety.
1. For, in the first part, individuals associating
to obtain those worldly blessings which civil policy
only can bestow, the genuine and most natural
concern of each is THE WELFARE OF THE WHOLE.
Hence that reasonable pursuit, and most heroic,
(though heroism be a passion seldom joined with
reason) the LOVE OF OUR Coo; THY. Transported
with this, and -sacrificing all other passions to this,
nations and people have, from tha lowest and basest
original, arrived at wcahh and empire. A passion,;
which no power, no policy, no advantage of climate,
po superiority in personal endowments, have eves
been able to withstand. Inflamed and purified by
this passion alone, the Banditti of Rome came, \\\
time, to give Law to the discipline and science of
Greece ; to the policy and commerce of Egypt; and
to the opulence and immense power of Asia.
Whenever tiiis passion hath shone strong amongst
us, we have seen England become the Pacificator
of the Continent, and rival Monarchs sue for our
alliance. And what is it that is said to have clouded
this scene of glory? What, but the decline, the
extinction, of the PATRIOT-PASSION ; under the
counterfeit professions of the Factious ; the secret
discouragements of the Corrupt ; and the open ri
dicule of the Profligate.
Now, what shall we substitute to supply the loss
pf this essential virtue, the Salt of this animating
principle ? Something, no doubt, will be attempted,
to
SERMON XXXIV. 297
to prevent Government from falling into dishonour
and contempt. There is a mimic passion, which
will be vainly busied to repair this loss, by the
MULTIPLICATION OF OUR LAWS: For the decay
of that genuine salt, the love of our Country, being
amongst its other mischiefs, attended with a constant
disposition to brave or to evade the old established
Laws, there seems to have been as constant a pro
vocation in our Governors to counterwork this evil
by the addition of new ones. But this will ill sup
port the Patriot-passion, or supply the want of it;
when men observe, or fancy they observe, that a
multiplicity of Laics, instead of giving strength to
the general, becomes a snare and entanglement to
particulars.
2. If we turn from the Community in its civil, to
its religions capacity, we shall find its essence (when
purified, as ours, by the GOSPEL) to consist in the
love of God, and in the practice of piety and virtue.
And this Salt, the native temper of Englishmen
hath, in all past ages, eminently supplied : so that
the Piety of BRITAIN: was long its characteristic
badge. From what fatal concurrence of unlucky
accidents we have sufiered this celestial flame to go
out and die away, even amidst the increase of its
fuel (for never was the Christian Faith so well
proved to be a reasonable service as in these times),
it is not my purpose, at present, to inquire. The
loss is notorious. It is seen by our actions,, it is
avowed in our speculations, and boasted of as cur
298 SERMON XXXIV.
glory, that this Faith hath now no longer its wonted
hold on the lives and consciences of men.
V. And now this brings me still nearer to my
Text For the GOSPEL is that SPECIFIC SALT,
which our blessed Master intimates should, in these
latter days, lose its savour; and more than intimates,
should find no Fuccedaneum to supply its place.
Yet so insensible are we grown even to the
need of any, that we hardly seek or inquire for
relief; contrary to the foregoing cases, where we
find men busied, however vainly, to supply the
depraved state of their condition, bv new inventions.
And were it not for the humanity of certain well-
bred Gentlemen, this crooked Generation would
be in danger of forgetting that there was any such
thing as A RULE OF RIGHT, which these new In
structors offer to us, as an equivalent for THE RULE
OF FAITH.
But, not trusting to this, other phantoms, it is
true, h^ve been raised up to season our insipidity.
The MAN OF HONOUR stands 1orth to assure
us, that a scnte of Honour (from which sacred name
he takes his title), and not of Religion, is the true
polisher and refiner of human manners. And yet
\ve see, modern Honour hath no other connexion
with Virtue than what FASHION hath chanced to
make between them ; and that Honour may thrive
and do well (as the practice of fashionable men
shews) amidst the breach of all God s Command
mmts and the King s.
The
S E R M O N XXXIV. 299
The MAN OF SCIENCE, indeed, hath discovered
a still more exquisite relief, in our distresses. He
bids us procure, for ourselves, a TASTE ; which, in
the lucky absence of our Religion, will answer every
thing. This, says he, is that true internal JeeGng^
which Fanatics have so much mistaken ; and only
wants to be new touched by this Philosophy, to be
indeed THE GOD V/ITHIN T .
Though if we reflect, that TASTE is governed by
the Imagination, just as HONOUR is regulated on
the Fashion, we may find reason to complain that
our Letters have here (as usual) only provided for
themselves ; and that TASTE and HONOUR, like
the Quails find Mama in the wilderness, are too
delicate a repast for the gross appetites of the People :
and that, however solid a consolation this new sea
soning of the decayed salt of Religion may afford
the polite and the well-bred, where fashion &s\& fancy
supply the place of FAITH and HOPE, yet for us
miserable sinners a more substantial Diet is to be
provided.
To sum up all From what hath been said you
may collect, how desperate the condition of things
must needs be, whenever the several stations of
Society, and much more when Society itself, shall
have lost their essential qualities, the SALT which
constitutes their natures, and makes them to be
what they are.
How near we are approaching to this fatal period,
or how far removed from it, must be left to every
man s gcrious reflection.
If
300 SERMON XXXIV
If we should be found to have fallen from that
happy state in which the Creator first placed us,
and to which our Redeemer restored us ; the state
in which nature put us, and Grace hath long sup
ported us ; what have we now to do, but, with all
humility, to apply to the Author of our Salvation,
that he would recall things to that Order, which, on
his creation of them, he pronounced GOOD, and
which, when run into confusion, he restored and
harmonized, when the whole choir of Heaven sung
Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth
peace, good will towards men !
301
A
DISCOURSE
CONCERNING
THE NATURE AND END
OF TPIE
SACRAMENT
OF
THE LORD S SUPPER.
&&gt; THE Subject of the following" Discourse" (eve are told
by Bishop HUUD) " ba 1 been so embroiled by two eminent
" Writers of oppos ue principles, that it became necessary to
lc take it out of their bands, and to guard the Publick from
" being bewildered and misled, either by a Popish or Sociniun
comment. In a moderate compass, he" [WARBURTON] " has
le refuted the system of either party, and explained his
" own notion of the Sacrament (which was also that of
;< the great Cudworth) in so clear a manner, that few men
le of sense and judgment will now question where the truth
* lies."- See Life of the Author, prefixed to this
Edition, Vol. i. p. 75.
DISCOURSE
ON
THE LORD S SUPPER.
THE celebration of the LORD S SUPPER being
our constant duty, as it is to shew the Lord s
death till he come * ; and likewise our greatest in
terest, as it is the communion of the body and
blood of Christ f ; it may not be improper to in
quire into its SPECIFIC NATURE, in order to com
prehend both the force of our obligation to frequent
the Lord s table, and the value of that benefit we
receive in worthily communicating.
The history of its institution is delivered by St.
Matthew, in these words, " And as they were eating,
" Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it,
" and gave it to the Disciples, and said, Take, eat;
" this is MY BODY : and lie took the cup, and gave
" thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye
" all of it; for this is MY BLOOD of the New Tcs-
" lament, which is shed for many for the remission
of Sins;};."
The Rites and Ceremonies of the law were TY
PICAL. A Type, as hath been shewn elsewhere ,
* i Cor. xi. 26. t Ihid. x. 16.
+ Ch. xxvi. 20, &c. Div. Leg. Book iv.
arose
304 DISCOURSE ON
arose from the ancient mode of conversing by signs.
For, by adding a moral import to a significative sign,
the action becomes a TYPE *. This sacred Rite,
which (together with Baptism) was to take place of
the whole Jewish ritual, is, like that ritual, Typical
also : but with this difference, The Jewish Rites
were predictive of things future ; and so, were
obscure and intricate : this, significative of a thing
past ; and so, clear and intelligible.
Thus far as to its form. Its specific nature will
be our next inquiry. To have an exact idea of
this, two things must be well considered : The state
of Religion at the time this Rite was instituted, and
the particular season in which it was celebrated.
i. In those ages of the world when victims made
so great a part of the Religion both of Jews and
Gentiles, the .sacrifice was always followed by a
religious feasting on the thins offered ; which was
called, the feast upon or ajicr the sacrifice ; the
partakers of which feast were supposed to become
partakers of the benefits of the Sacrifice. Now,
from the Gospel-history of the institution of the
Lord s Supper^ and from St. Paul s reasoning upon
it, a celebrated person hath long since shewn, with
great compass of learning, and force of argument,
That Jesus, about to offer himself a sacrifice on the
cross for our redemption, did, in conformity to a
general practice, institute the last supper, under the
* Div. Leg. Book iv.
idea,
THE LORD S SUPPER. 305
idea of a feast after the sacrifice *. So far that
learned writer.
2. As to the particular season in which this holy
Kite was celebrated ; We are to consider, that the
great SACRIFICE ox THE CROSS was typically pre
figured by several of the Temple-oblations ; and
especially by the PASCHAL-LAMB. Now just
before the passion, and while Jesus was eating the
Paschal-supper^ which was a Jewish feast after or
upon the sacrifice, he institutes this holy Kite.
And as it was his general custom to allude, in his
actions and expressions, to what passed before his
eyes, or presented itself to his observation [; who
can doubt, when we see, in the very ionn of cele
bration,
* Dr. Cud worth, in his Discourse concerning the true
notion of t lie Lord s Supper. But to his own System,
like a fair and able writer, who conceals nothing, and
leaves nothing unanswered, he produces this Objection,
" That the true notion of the Lord s Supper is to be
* derived indeed from the Passover, but the Jt wish
" Passover had no relation to a Sacrifice, being nothing
* c else but a mere FEAST ; and therefore, from analogy
" to the Jewish Rites, we cannot make the Lord s
supper to be Epulutn Sacrificaie, a feast upon Sacri-
" fice f " And then answers it at large, in the second and
third Chapters of his Discourse, uith that invincible
force of learning and reasoning almost peculiar to him.
j- See Sir Isaac Newton s Observations on the Pro
phecies, p. 148. where he takes notice how Jesus, from
the approach of harvest, from the lilies in bloom, from
the ti<f-trees shooting out, from the sheep kept infolds near
the Temple, for sacrifices, &c. took occasion to inculcate
his spiritual doctrines and precepts.
VOL. X. X
306 DISCOURSE ON
bration, all the marks of a sacrificial supper, but
that the divine Institutor intended it should bear
the same relation to his sacrifice on the Cross,
which the Paschal-supper, then celebrating, bore to
the oblation of the Paschal-lamb ; that is, to be of
the nature of a feast after the sacrifice. For if
this was not his purpose, and that no more was
intended than a general memorial, or remembrance
of a dead benefactor, why was this instant of time
preferred to all other throughout the course of his
ministry, any of which had been equally commo
dious ?
This reasoning receives additional strength even
from what hath been supposed to invalidate it,
namely, the concluding words of the institution
Do this in remembrance of me. For though these
-words, considered alone, might signify no more than
the remembrance of our obligations to him in ge
neral ; yet when preceded by this is my body,
this is my blood, they necessarily imply the re-,
membrance of his death and passion for us, in parti
cular. And could there be a feast after the sacri
fice in which that sacrifice was not commemorated ?
It is true, the injunction of doing it in remem
brance implies, that the celebration was to be con
tinually repeated ; which was not the case vi feasts
after the sacrifice ; on which, as we say, this holy
Rite was modelled. But this was a necessary dif
ference ; for the great Sacrifice itself, of which this
Feast was a tvpe, differed in the same manner from
all other sacrifices. -The Jewish and Pagan Obla-
THE LORD S SUPPER. 307
tions had, or were supposed to have, only a passing
and temporary virtue : The Sacrifice on the cross
is of perpetual efficacy ; and will continue to operate
till the consummation of all things. It seemed fit,
therefore, that the operating virtue of this Sacrifice
should be perpetually set before us, in a constant
celebration of the Feast upon it.
We have now seen what may be naturally, and
indeed what must be reasonably, inferred of Christ s
purpose in the last Supper, from the history of its
institution.
Let us try next what we can collect of St. PAUL S
sense, in this matter, who hath occasionally spoken
at large concerning it. And here we shall find,
that this very sort of Feast, which the words of the
institution tacitly allude to, St. Paul, in order to
shew the specific nature of the Rite, expressly draws
a comparison from ; and at the same time, in order
to shew the efficacy of it, informs us of the end and
purpose of those Feasts upon the sacrifice. It is,
in that place of his first epistle to the Corinthians,
where he reproves the proselytes to Christianity for
the idolatrous practice of eating with the Gentiles,
of things offered to idols, in their feasts upon the
sacrifice. His words are these " I speak as to
" wise men ; judge ye what I say. The cup of
" blessing which we bless, is it not the communion
" of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we
" break, is it not the communion of the body of
" Christ ? For we being many are one bread, and
" one body ; for we are all partakers of that one
x 2 " bread,
308 DISCOURSE ON
" bread. Behold Israel after the flesh : are not
" they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the
" altar ? What say I then ? That an idol is any
" tiling, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols
"is any thing? But I say, that the things which
" the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and
" not to God : and I would not that ye should have
" fellowship with devils. Ye cannot drink the cup
." of the Lord, and the cup of devils: Ye cannot
" be partakers of the Lord s table, and of the table
AC of devils *."
The Apostle professcth, in this place, to write
to these Corinthians under their assumed cha
racter of wise men. And though perhaps he may
use the term a little ironically, and in reproof of the
divisions, before objected to them ; yet the logical
inference drawn from an appeal to such a character,
holds not the less, for the sarcasm in which it is
conveyed. My meaning is, That we may fairly
conclude, the reasoning to be such as icisc men
would not disdain to consider; and so regularly
conducted as wise men would best comprehend. la
a word, pursued with that science and precision
which leaves no room for a loose, popular, and
inaccurate interpretation.
In the first place, therefore, we may collect, that
The Cup of blessing is not simply a general com
memoration of a deceased benefactor, but a com
memoration of Christ s death and passion : It is the
communion of the blood of Christ ; an expression,
as will be seen hereafter, of the utmost elegance,
* i Cor. x, 15 21.
to
THE LORD S SUPPER. 309
to imply a faint upon the sacrifice. But the infer
ence the Apostle draws from it, puts his meaning
beyond all doubt For ice bang many arc one
bread and out body : for ice are all partaker* of
that Gnc bread, lie says, the partaking of one
bread, makes the. receivers, of many, to become one
body. A just inference, if this Rite be of the
nature of a feast upon the sacrifice ; for then, the
communion of tlie body and blood of Christ unites
the receivers into one body, by an equal distribution
of one common benefit: But if it be only a general
commemoration of a deceased benefactor, it leaves
the receivers as it found them : not one body ; but
many separate professors of one common Faith.
The Apostle having thus shewn the last Supper
to be of the nature of a j east upon the sacrifice ; for
the truth of which he appeals to their own concep
tions of it The cap of blcsx iHg is it not the com
munion? &c. The bread which u e break, is it not the
communion? &c. He then endeavours to convince
them of the impiety of their behaviour, from the-
nature of these feasi3, as they were understood both
by Jews and Gentiles; who equally held, that they
M llO EAT .OF THE SACRIFICES WERE PARTAKERS
OF THE ALTAR. But what had either of these
caters of the sacrifices to do with the partakers of
the bread and vine in the last Supper, if the last
Supper was not a feast of the same kind with their
feasts? But especially, if the three feasts, Jewish,
Pagan, and Christian, had not one common nature,
how could tiie Apostle have inferred that this inter-?
community was absolutely inconsistent? Ye cannot
x 3 drink
310 DISCOURSE ON
drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils,
Sec. For though there might be IMPIETY in the
promiscuous use of Pagan and Christian Rites ; yet
the INCONSISTENCY arises from their having a com
mon nature; and so, consequently (as they had
opposite originals) from their destroying one another s
effects, in the very celebration, The reasoning
stands thus. Those who eat of the sacrifices were
partakers of the altar. A sacrifice at the altar
was a FEDERAL rite : consequently, thejeast upon
that sacrifice became a federal Rite likewise. The
lord s table, and the table of devils, therefore,
being both federal Rites, the same man could not
be partaker of both. This is the Apostle s argument
to the wise men here appealed to : and \ve see it
turns altogether on this postulatum, that the last
Supper is of the nature of <ajeast upon the sacrifice:
Suppose it now a. general commemoration only of a
dead benefactor, and all this reasoning vanishes;
for though a man cannot execute two federal Rites
which destroy one another ; yet a federal rite and a
bare remembrance, in two contrary religions, have
none of this opposition ; but may be celebrated, if
not without impiety, yet without any of that incon
sistency which the learned Apostle here charges upon
Jiis licentious Corinthians.
But this was not the only abuse they committed
jn the celebration of the Lord s Supper ; nor this
the only place in the Epistle declarative of the
nature of that holy Rite. These Corinthians, as
appears by the nest chapter, had been guilty of
Celebrating the Lord s Supper in a very indecent
1$ manner,
THE LORD S SUPPER. 311
manner, by confounding it with their ordinary re
pasts, or with convivial doings of their own inven
tion, where charity and sobriety were too commonly
violated. Now this indiscriminate celebration, the
Apostle calls, the being guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord*. A charge surely much aggravated,
were the Lord s Supper instituted only to comme
morate a dead benefactor. The Corinthians did
not make a due distinction between their more
ordinary food and the eating and drinking in memory
of a deceased friend. This doubtless was a high
ingratitude. Yet to rank these criminals with the
murderers of the Lord of life is a severity in which
\ve can hardly see the justice. But let us only sup
pose, that St. Paul considered the last Supper as a
feast upon a sacrifice, that is, as a Rite in which the
benefits of Christ s death and passion were conveyed,
and at the same time slighted, and all becomes easy
and natural. The profanation of such a Rite, by
rendering his death ineffectual, was indeed aiding
the purpose of his murderers ; and therefore might
be fitly compared, and justly equalled, to the pro
digious enormity of that crime.
Such then, I presume, is the true nature of the
LORD S SUPPER. And was the adjusting a precise
idea of it, as it referred to a religious custom of
antiquity, a matter only of curiosity and speculation,
I might perhaps have left it to the ecclesiastical hisr
torian. But it appears to me to have important
consequences with regard both (o our FAITH and
WORSHIP. For,
* i Cor. xi. 27,
x 4 I- If
312 DISCOURSE ON*
i. If the last Supper be of the nature of a feast
after a sacrifice, then is it a declaration of Jesus
himself, that his death upon the cross was a REAL
SACRIFICE. For figurative expression (as some
are apt to deem the Gospel representation of Christ s
sacrifice and atonement) could never produce a
religious Rite of divine appointment, arising from,
and dependent on, a real specific action. I say, of
tfivine appointment, because many of human original
have been thus produced. Yet then only (which is
^ farther support to the preceding observation) when
had been mistaken for a substance.
2. If the last Supper be of the nature of a feast
after a sacrifice, then is it productive of great and
special benefits to the partakers. For the partakers
of the Jewish and Gentile feasts after a sacrifice
did, or were supposed to communicate of the benefits
of the sacrifice,
However, a very learned writer, whose principles
of reasoning, and method in deducing and conducting
them, may serve for a model to the fair Inquirer,
hath lately endeavoured to prove, in A plain Account
pfthe Nature and End of the Sacrament oftheLortfs
Supper, " that it was instituted merely in remem-
" brance of Christ ; that the bread to be taken and
" eaten was appointed to be the memorial of his
body broken; and the wine to be drunk was
ordained to be the memorial of his blood shed *."
His intention in this appears commendable. It was
to free the last Supper from Superstition ; whose
Untimely fruit is at best but a lifeless rubrical piety.
* P. ?4- 3d Edit,
Yet
THE LORD S SUPPER. 313
Yet in pursuit of this commendable design, he hath
gone, I presume, too far : He hath taken away its
SPECIFIC nature, and left it nothing but its GENERIC.
lie hath excluded the idea of a feast after the sacri
fice, in which the celestial benefits of the Giver are
conveyed, and confined us to the notion of a mere
memorial^ in which the gratitude only of the Re
ceiver is returned.
He proceeds upon this great PROTESTANT
PRINCIPLE; u That the Bible alone ought to de-
" termine our belief in all matters of faith and re-
" ligious opinion." And this, which can never be
too much insisted on, lie urgeth with a freedom be
coming a lover of truth, and a candour expressive
of his disinclination to controversy. This may fairly
be said of his general conduct.
But whether he hath been as happy in the AP
PLICATION of his principle, may be reasonably
made a doubt.
His METHOD of reasoning is not less judicious
than the choice of his topics. He hath deduced a
number of propositions tied and fastened to one
another, till, with these conk of a man, he hath
drawn the reader to his conclusion. Here, if he
obtrudes upon us any false hook in the chain, the
art or mistake is easily detected: If all be strong
and sound, the force of it will be perceived to more
advantage.
Let us examine his reasoning, therefore, with
the same precison and brevity with which he urgeth
it: And, as we deny his CONCLUSION, shew the
FAULTY LINK which hath imposed upon his Read
ers;
314 DISCOURSE ON
ers ; and, it may be, upon himself. The Argument
is comprised in the eight following
PROPOSITIONS.
cf I. The partaking of the Lord s Supper is not a
ct duty of itself; or a duty apparent to us from the
nature of things; but a duty made suchtoChris-
ct tians, by the positive institution of Jesus Christ.
" II. All positive duties, or duties made such by
" institution alone, depend entirely upon the will
" and declaration of the person who institutes and
" ordains them, with respect to the real design and
" end of them ; and consequently to the due manner
" of performing them.
" III. It is plain, therefore, that the nature, the
< design, and the due manner of partaking of the
" Lord s Supper, must of necessity depend upon
" what Jesus Christ, who instituted it, hath de-
" clared about it.
" IV. It cannot be doubted that he himself suf-
" ficiently declared to his first and immediate Fol-
" lowers, the whole of what he designed should be
" understood by it, or implied in it.
" V. It is of small importance therefore to Chris-
< tians to know what the many Writers upon this
" subject, since the time of the Evangelists and
" Apostles, have affirmed. Much less can it be the
" duty of Christians to be guided by what any per-
" sons, by their own Authority, or from their own
" imaginations, may teach concerning this duty.
" VI. The passages in the New Testament which
" relate to this duty, and they alone, are the origi-
f< nal accounts of the nature and end of this
* insti-.
THE LORD S SUPPER. 315
c< institution ; and the only authentic declarations,
" upon which we of later ages can safely depend ;
" being written by the immediate followers of our
" Lord; those who were witnesses themselves to
" the Institution ; or were instructed in it, either
" by those who were so, or by Christ himself;
" and consent in delivering down one and the same
<c account of this religious duty.
" VII. The Writers of the New Testament give
" an account of the Institution of the Lord s Sup-
<c per in the following passages, which therefore
". are principally to be regarded, viz. St. Matthew,
" chap. xxvi. ver. 26, c. St. Mark, chap, xiv.
" ver. 22. &c. St. Luke, chap. xxii. ver. 19, &,c v
" and St. Paul, i Cor. chap. xi. ver. 23, &c.
-" VIII. It appears from these passages, that the
" End for which our Lord instituted this duty was
ff the remembrance of himself; that the bread to
" be taken and eaten was appointed to be the me-
" mortal of his body broken, and the wine to be
" drunk was ordained to be the manorial of his
" blood sheH : or (according to the express w r ords
" of St. Paul) tiiat the one was to be eaten and
" the other drunk in remembrance of Christ, and
" this to be continued until he, who was once pre-
" sent with his disciples, and is now absent, shall
fc come a^ain *."
o
As this, which the learned writer uses, is the
method of the Demonstrators, one would wonder
by what force *f invention he was enabled tq de-
f JPlajn Account, p. 2^-24,
dues
3*6 DISCOURSE OX
duce this conclusion. But we often see, that where
force is wanting, a little matter of address will sup
ply its place.
The 4th Proposition, which runs thus, performed
the feat. " It cannot be doubted (says he) but that
* e he himself [Jesus] SUFFICIENTLY DECLARED to
" his first and immediate followers the whole of
* what he designed should be understood by it [the
** sacrament of the Lord } s Supper ] or implied in it"
Now I apprehend this to be the faulty LINK; and
that all the connexion it hath with the propositions^
which precede and follow it, lies in the unperceivcd
ambiguity of the terms SUFFICIENTLY DECLARED ;
Which may either signify, declared by express words ;
or, on the other hand, declared by significative cir
cumstances, such as respect the time, the occasion,
the mode of acting, or the manner of speaking.
For the communication of our thoughts is carried
on as well by EXPRESSIVE ACTIONS as by WOKD$,
AND SOUNDS: nor did the first bear a small part
in the converse of the Ancients*; especially
.amongst the Jewish people of all ages, to the timq
in question.
Hence it comes to pass, that though we are,
agreed in the Proposition, that Jesus sufficiently
declared the whole of what he understood by his last
Supper, we draw so different conclusions : The
learned writer, that it was simply a remembrance
of Christ; I, that it was of the nature of a feast
upm the Sacrifice. For he considers only what
Jesus in express words SAID, at the institution of
* See .Divine Legation, Vol, I\ T . Book iv. Sect. 4.)
this
THE LORD S SUPPER. 317
this holy rite: I take in both what he SAID anj
DID; and not only that, but the MODE of saving
and doing; relative to the time, the occasion,
the manners, and the customs of the Age; as
being persuaded, that the speaker s meaning can
be but very imperfectly understood without taking
in all these things. A rule of interpretation, ii*
which, I suppose the learned writer would concur
with me, were the point concerning a difficulty in
CLASSICAL expression.
This, then, I understand to be the only remain
ing question, Whether or no the Disciples of Jesus
(as it is agreed, their Master did not, in express
words, call this rite, a feast upon sacrifice) could
collect, from the whole of the circumstances at
tending the institution, that it was indeed of the
nature of such a feast ? namely, from the critical
time of the celebration, which was just before
his passion, and at the Jewish paschal supper ;
from the peculiarity of phrase employed in the
institution, of which more hereafter ; and from his
accustomed manner in the execution of his mi
nistry, to adapt his words and actions to the scene
or subject before him ? Now, I suppose that, from
these circumstances, one may fairly conclude, the
Disciples might and did coliect that the last Supper
was of the nature of ^fca^i upon sacrifice.
For, i. it was much in the genius of those times
to convey information, as well by actions and indi
rect circumstances, as by speech and explicit words.
So that the hearer would be naturally as attentive
to the one mode of instruction, as to the other.
2. Nothing-
5i8 DISCOURSE ON
2. Nothing can be conceived clearer or more
expressive of such a Jeast, than the circum
stances attending the institution of this; as may ap
pear from hence, That we, who live in an age when
such modes , of converse are, and have been long
disused, yet see, in these circumstances of time,
occasion, and mode of expression, such an aptitude
to convey the idea of a feast after the sacrifice,
as, I am persuaded, sufficiently informs every ca
pable person of the nature of this feast.
3. Though the Disciples are indeed represented
by the Evangelists as exceeding slow and dull to
apprehend the things of God, yet this concerned
only the spiritual meaning of such things ; from
which their inveterate prejudices for a carnal eco
nomy had shut up all their faculties; so as to deny
any introduction to a new Religion, opposite to the
temporary purposes of their old one. It doth
not appear, they had any natural defect of appre
hension to understand a plain allusion to the rites
and customs of their Law ; which the institution in
question directly objected to them.
But what is here urged will receive further light
as well as strength from the remarkable reasoning
of St. Paul upon this holy Mystery. We have seen
above, that the language he employs to explain his
ideas, and the similitude he brings to enforce his
reasoning, are adapted only to the consideration of
the last Supper s being a feast upon a sacrifice.
Now one or other of these things will needs follow,
Either that he had an express revelation, as well of
its
THE LORD S SUPPER. 319
its nature as of the History of its institution, from
Christ himself, at the time of his conversion ; or
that lie logically inferred this its nature from the
several circumstances of the history of the insti
tution.
If we hold the first, The dispute is at an end :
If the second, What hindered the rest of the
disciples from doing the same?
I should be inclined to the latter opinion ; and
that all which was revealed to him by Jesus, was
the history of the institution as we find it recorded
in the Gospel. His own words, where he tells us
how he came by his knowledge, seem to decide
in favour of this opinion. " For I have received
" (says he) of the Lord that which also I deliver
" unto you, That the Lord Jesus, the same night
<c in which he was betrayed, took bread : And when
" he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take,
< eat; this is my body, which is broken for you :
" this do in remembrance of me. After the same
" manner also he took the cup, when he had sup-
tf ped, saying, This cup is the new testament
" in my blood : this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in
" remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat thifc
" bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord s
" death till he come *." This is the whole of his
account concerning the history of the institution.
He then proceeds, in the next verse, to reason from
it u Wherefore whoever shall eat this bread, and
" drink this cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be
" guilty of the body and blood of Christ,"
* i Cor. xi. 23 26.
s
320 DISCOURSE ON
So far then as to the SUFFICIENT DFCLA RATION
of the mind of Jesus to his immediate followers,
concerning the nature of this holy Kite. The
Header, perhaps, may think this reasoning not a
little strengthened hy what the excellent Cud worth
says of this matter. " But lest we should seem (says
" he) to set up fancies of our own, we come now
" to DEMONSTRATE that the Lord s Supper is
" & feast upon sacrifice; in the same manner with
" the Jewish and Heathen. And that from a
" place of Scripture where all these three are com-
" pared together and made exact parallels to one
" another, i Cor. x. 14 21. Where the Apostle s
" scope being to convince the Corinthians of the
" unlawfulness of eating things sacrificed to Idols,
" he shcMS, that though an idol was physically
44 nothing, yet wordily, to eat of things sacrificed
" to Idols in the Idol s temple was to consent with
" the sacrifices, and to he guilty of them. This he
* illustrates first hy a parallel Kite in the Christian
" religion, where eating and drinking of the body
and" blood of Christ in the Lord s Supper is a
" real COMMUNICATION in his death and sacri-
" rice. Secondly, from another parallel of the
" same rite amongst the Jews, where always they
" that ate of the sacrifices were accounted partakers
" of the Altar. Therefore, as to eat the body and
" blood of Christ in the Lord s Supper, is to be
" made partaker of his sacrifice ; as to eat of the
" Jewish sacrifices was to partake in the legal
" sacrifice? themselves ; so to eat things offered up
" in sacrifice to idols was to be made partakers of
" the
THE LORD S SUPPER. 321
" the idol sacrifices, and therefore was unlawful.
" The things which the Gentiles sacrificed, they
" sacrificed to Dcvil-s; but Christ s body and blood
" was offered up in sacrifice to God, and therefore
" they could not partake both of the sacrifice of
" the true God, and the sacrifice of Devils. St.
<{ Paul s argument here must needs suppose a PKR-
<: FECT ANALOGY between these three, and tha-t
" they are ALL PARALLELS to one another, or else
" it hath no strength. Wherefore I conclude from
" hence, that the Lords Supper is the same amongst
" Christians, in respect of the Christian sacrifice,
66 that, amongst the Jews, the feasts upon the legal
" sacrifices were ; and, amongst the Gentiles, the
" feasts upon the idol-sacrifices ; and therefore
" epulum sacrificale, or epidum c.v oblatls V
But this apostolic reasoning, so well infurced by
the modern Doctor, our learned Writer found him
self obliged to explain away, before he could
establish his own Hypothesis.
First then, he gives us a long paraphrase on the
reasoning of St. Paul 1 5 which, you may be sure,
he makes very conformable to his own System.
But to this, it is enough to oppose the short one of
Dr. Cudworth just now delivered. And what is
wanting in the weight of its authority, some may
think to be sufficiently -supplied by the advantage?
of a certain favourable prejudice, " That the sense*
which is easiest, and needs the fewest words to ex
plain, is the most likely to be the true." However,
* A Discourse concerning the true Nature of the
lord s Supper, Chap. IV. t From p. 3 2 to 39-
VOL. X. Y
322 DISCOURSE ON
where the learned writer supports his own para
phrase by criticism or reasoning, he will (deserve all
our respect and attention.
First then, on the words The cup which tee
bless, is it not the communion of the, blood of Christ f
The bread zchich we break, is it not the communion
of the body of Christ ? he observes, that, "though
11 this be interpreted by many learned men to signify
" a communion, or partaking of all the benefits of
" Christ s body broken, and- blood shed, yet, he
" thinks, the words cannot have that signification
That, the Greek word Kouw a, used by the Apos-
" tie, and the word communion, which is Latin,
" both signify a JOINT PARTAKING, or a partaking
" of something in common with others of the same
f< society. And this joint partaking of Christ s
" body and blood can signify no more than eating
u his body and drinking his blood as a society of
" his disciples *.
To this, it muy be sufficient to observe, thauif,
by the word Koiv&wa, the Apostle had meant, as the
learned writer sup poseth he did mean, a joint par
taking , or a partaking in common icith our fellow
Christians cf the bread and wine, he would have ex
pressed his meaning. In the text, there is not a
tittle of fellow Christians or others of the same so
ciety. It is Kowuvitx 7% &*ftall& a Koiywiars rupofl*,
the communion of the blood the communion oj the
body. Had he meant what the learned writer makes
him to mean, he would doubtless have said Koww/a
J^wv t\q TO c-w/Aa Your communion in the body, i. e.
your eating of. it jointly. St. Paul knew how iq
* 1". 39; 40.
express
THE LORD S SUPPER. 323
express himself properly. And if this had been his
meaning, he would have expressed himself in some
such manner ; as appears from a passage in his
epistle to the Philippians, where he is professedly
speaking of this joint participation of a blessing.
Kcui/am a vfAuv flf TO EuafysAtov * Your communioti in
the Gospel, i. e. your joint belief and profession
of it./
Bu^ the fallacy of the reasoning seems to lie in
the sense the learned writer gives to the Greek and
Latin words, as if they could signify nothing but a
joint partaking with some other man, or body of
men : and then indeed they could signify nothing
else, in this place, but what they signified in all
others. But He seems not to have considered, that
though indeed this be their direct and original sense,
yet, as is common to moral modes, they had taken
another, by their being applied to spiritual beings,
as well as to man ; nay even to inanimate things,
as may be seen in St. Paul s Epistle to the Philip
pians, Koy&wa TS-aO^uaTWK ocvrx f, the fellowship or
communion of his sufferings. Now, when thus ap
plied, the idea of our joint fellowship with men is
not contained, except where that fellowship is ex
pressed : as will appear from the following words of
the same Apostle. Koivuvia T* uiS the communion
of the Son J ; Kofiwi/iig T &yis vrvivftcflos the com-
munion of the Holy Ghost . In these instances,
there is no pretence for admitting the idea of a joint-
partaking with our fellow-Christians : with whom,
however, we believe in common in the Son, and in
* Phil. i. 5. f Phil.iii. 10.
I i Cor. i. 9. 2 Cor. xiii. 13.
y 2 the
324 DISCOURSE ON
the Holy Ghost \ because here is no joint act, de
fined by lime and place, as in the institution of the
last Supper ; which, I suppose, is the reason of
the learned Author s giving this sense to communion
of the body and blood.
But to make it still more apparent, that where
the sacred writers use the word Kou/wj/i a in this con
struction, to signify our union witli our salvation,
no such joint partaking is to he understood, it will
not be improper to consider the following passage,
where St. John expressly distinguished! the com
munion with Christ, from the communion or fellow
ship with one another : Ea\ tiTTu^M OT xoivwviai*
iiyowsv [A. if avl<s XOH/WM#V p0 ( ui> ( ug] aAA?iAa;v . liltt
if we say ice hare J dl&wslup with him ice hare
fellowship with one another ; and by this mode of
inference, and only by this, the communion of the
jblood, and the contr/iuiiion of the body, may likewise
.signify what the learned Writer would have it, a
joint-partaking, or communion with one another.
The learned Writer then goes on, to reason on
the passage in question : anJ, when he hath done
.that, returns afresh to criticise the word Kowcjn *.
It may not be improper, therefore, before we pro
ceed to liis reasoning on the passage, to consider
what he further urgeth in behalf of his sense of
Kouuv/a ; and so, lay all hi* criticisms together. lie
tells us then, that u there is little ground for the
" remark of some learned men, that the word
u Kojywv/a (communion) is used where the inward
" or spiritual part of the Lord s Supper is spoken
l of; and the word /*1x f * v (partaking) afterwards
* i Gen. Ep. i. 6, 7.
" used,
THE LORD S SUPPER. 325
11 used, where the external only is meant ; when we
" see the word Ko**w (communicants) here used
<c with regard to idols; where no .spiritual part
" could be thought of. For the whole argument
" supposes an Idol to be nothing ; and the Chris-
" tians concerned, to have no thought of receiving
ct good or harm from those idols. Now the same
" words being used with regard to Christ and those
" Daemons [.KOHWV/ and Koivuvo? in one verse ; and
" / t *^ / X * v m an ther] it follows that Communion and
" partaking are words of the same signification in
" both cases *."
There is no ground, he says, for the distinction ;
since, in the place in question Ko^wv/a is used wheu
no spiritual part could he thought of. What, no
spiritual part, when the question was of communi
cating vn&i-Idotef No, for St. Paul says, an Idol
is nothing. This is true. But he says, at the same
time, that these Idols were Devils ; for that the Gen
tiles sacrificed to Devils, and that tho.se who eat of
such sacrifices had communion ?/// D&vii$. Now,
the DEVIL, in St. Paul s opinion, was something. He
says, indeed, an Idol is nothing. But does he mean
a metaphysical non-entity ? Surely, not : for he im
mediately adds, tha! the thing offered to them was
likewise nothing. He must use the negation there
fore in a moral sense, " That no benefits could accrue
t; to the idolatrous worshippers." But this is consist
ent enough with the moral entity of the Devil; and
while that remained, a spiritual part might well be
thought oj\ when the Apostle spoke of communi
cating with him. The consequence is, that the
* P. 45, 4^.
y 3
326 DISCOURSE ON
criticism of those learned men, who distinguished
between K.QWUVI& and ^(\i^v stands good, for any
thing this learned writer nath said to the contrary.
Consider the words What say 1 then ? That the
Idol is any thing, or that which is offered to lads
any thing ? But I say that the things which the
G^nt des sacrifice, thei/ sacrifice to Devils, and not
to God: and 1 would not that ye should have fellow
ship (or communion) with Devils. There seems
to be no great difficulty in the Apostle s meaning;
which amounts plainly to this " a Gentile idol, as
a protector and benefactor, is indeed nothing) their
Idols being the celestial bodies, deceased Ancestors,
Legislators, or Kings: but the Author of Gentile
Idolatry was the Devil , therefore, says he, though
ye can possibly receive no benefit from Idols, ye
may yet receive real damage from the Devil, the
declared enemy of mankind." So that admitting
with the learned writer, against all evidence of Anti
quity, That the Christians concerned had not any
thought of receiving good or harm from those Idols,
yet (which is more to the purpose) we see St. Paul
had.
For whatever notions the Gentiles, or the gentil-
ized Jews of this time, had of Damons, every man
who reads the New Testament with attention will
be forced to confess, that the sacred writers never
use the word (and they use it often) but they always
mean Satan and his Angels, the Powers of darkness,
Reprobates from God and goodness. The good and
evil Damons of Gentilism were indeed those Idols *
not of the Altar > but of the brain, which the sacred
Writers esteemed moral NOTHINGS: And yet, of
that
THE LORD S SUPPER. 3:7
that capital enemy of mankind, the Pagans secrn
to have received some obscure tradition ; but not
unmixed with their own invented superstitions :
Which preserving some traces of resemblance to
the truth, and giving some conformity in the lan
guages of Truth and Error, hath made some men
draw strange conclusions, as if the Founders of our
holy Religion had taken the advantage of Pagan
Superstition to form a System of DEMON OLOGY
agreeable to the preconceived fancies of their Con
verts.
We now come to the learned writer s REA.SON-IXG
on the passage. " If we observe the Apostle s
" design in this argument, it will appear that he had
" not the least occasion to speak here of the BKXE-
" FITS of Christ s death. His de^n was to incite
" the Corinthians to fitefrom Idolatry, by shewing
11 them what a crime it must be in a Christian to do
" what was accounted honour to the Gods of the
" Heathens, by feasting upon anti partaking of their
" sacrifices. In order to do this it was not his
" purpose to say, By eating bread and drinking mne
" in the Lord s Supper, you partake oj all the BKXJ>
" FITS of Christ s death; and therefore you cannot
" eat of the Heathen sacrifices. Neither do I see
cc that this is any argument at all to the point in
" view. But to say, by eating bread and drinking
" wine, $c. you eat, drink, and partake of them,
" not as at a common meal, but of bread and wine,
" called the body and blood of Christ, in remem-
* brance of and in honour to him, and acknowledg-
" ment of his being your master, therefore you
y 4 * cannot,
338 DISCOURSE ON
* cannot, without great absurdity and guilt, pay
" the same sort of honour to false gods by feast -
" ing with their votaries, upon their sacrifices.
" This, I say, is an argument to his purpose, and
<c praxes all he aimed at *."
I. First then, Admitting the learned Author s
representation of St. Paul s design to be fairly given,
" that it was only to incite the Corinthians to flee
" from Idolatry ; " yet I do not see, according to
the Author s own way of reasoning, why it was not
as much to the purpose of the Apostle to urge the
last Supper s being a communion of the bodii and
blood in a feast upon the Sacrijice y as to urge that
the last Supper was not a common meal, but cele
brated in remembrance of and in honour to Christ.
Now, this last, he owns, is an argument to the
purpose, Why then will he exclude the other? He
immediately subjoins the reason this A LOX E proves
ail that he [the Apostlej aimed at. But here, as
I suspect, lurks a fallacy. Because, this alone
proves the great absurdity and guilt of these idola
trous Corinthians ; Therefore, they were not to be
pushed further. According to this reasoning, When
ever a Minister of justice prosecutes a transgressor
of the Laws, it would be to the purpose to prove
him guilty of theft ; but to prove that theft a sacri
lege, utterly impertinent. In a word, the learned
writer argues as if he thought it much to the pur
pose to urge the genus of the action, which proves
them, as the learned writer says, guilty of a great
* P. 40,41.
crime
THE LORD S SUPPER. 329
Crime and absurdity, but nothing at all to the pur
pose to insist on the species of it, which proves them,
as St. Paul says, guilty of the body and blood of
the Lord, i. e. his murderers.
"But it will be objected, That this illustration of
the learned person s argument hath a glare of absur
dity which we do not see in the argument itself. It
is true, it hath so : For in the argument itself, the
glare is taken off by the artful or accidental substi
tution of one term for another, benefits for cwnmu-
nion ; the effects of the thing for the thing itself.
The learned person observes, that it was not to St.
Paul s purpo-se (when his design icas to excite the
Corinthians to flee from idolatry) to talk of the
BENEFITS of Chris fs death. 1 do not know any
one who thought it was : Not even St. Paul himself,
if we may judge by his silence. For he hath nut a
syllable about BENEFITS. Of the communion of the.
body and blood of Christ he indeed speaks largely :
And this seemeth to the purpose : For if the cele
bration of the Lord s Supper brought them to so
near a conjunction with Him, it must be an aggra
vation both of their guilt and their absurdity to
assist at the celebration of a similar feast, in a re
ligion at enmity with His. The benefits, arising
from this near conjunction, is another consideration ;
which doth not directly, but obliquely only, affect
the point in question.
II. But secondly, To excite the Corinthians to
flee from Idolatry was not (as seems to be in
sinuated) the whole of the Apostle s intention in this
place.
330 DISCOURSE ON
place. That matter is pai ticularly inforced in the
eighth Chapter: and though it be here taken up
again in the tenth, it is only as it maketli part or a
different subject, namely, the VARIOUS PROFANA
TIONS OF THE LORD S TABLE, of which the Corin
thians had been guilty. And this is handled from
the first verse of the tenth Chapter to the thirty-
fourth verse of the eleventh ; interrupted by a
digression, concerning order in their assemblies * :
For they had neglected the rules he left with them
concerning that point of Discipline. And his words,
JBe ye followers of me, c. \ suggesting a reproof,
it occasioned the intermediate digression : from
whence, he returns to his main subject, the pro
fanations of the Lord s table: which he had intro
duced by an observation of the same misbehaviour
in their Forefathers : Who, like them, when under
the conduct of Moses, had, in various ways, abused
those miraculous blessings of manna from Heaven,
and water from the Rock ; which St. Paul elegantly
accommodates to this occasion For they did all.
cat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the
same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them ; and that roek
was Christ $. Now the profanations in question
consisted in these two points, The frequenting the
Pagan feasts ; And the making no distinction be
tween the Lord s Supper and their ordinary repast |[.
But the crime of profanation rising in proportion to
* From ver. 2 to 16 of ch. xi. f Chap. xi. vcr. i.
% Ch. x. 3, 4. Ch. x. RCh.xi. from ver. 17,
the
THE LORD S SUPPER. 331
the dignity of the thing profaned, it was much to
the Apostle s purpose, if not to speak of the benefits
of Christ s death, yet to shew the last Supper to be
the communion of the body and blood of Christ.
The learned Writer s other argument against the
received interpretation, is as follows " Ye cannot
" drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils,
u Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord s table, and
" the table of Devils, is the conclusion of the Apos-
" tie s reasoning. And this cannot possibly signify
: Ye cannot be partakers of the BENEFITS of
" the Lord s table and of the BENEFITS of the
" table of the heathen deities :* for no benefit could
possibly be supposed by him to accrue from
" these, even to the heathen worshippers them-
" selves. Consequently, when, at the beginning
" of the argument, and to introduce only his con-
" elusion, he asks, The cup is it not the com-
" m union, &c. he must be supposed to mean what
" alone was to his purpose, * Is not our joint par-
" taking of bread and wine in the Lord s Supper
" a religious partaking of what are memorials of
" Christ s body and blood r ~ the premisses there -
" fore cannot be supposed to contain in them what
" has no relation to the conclusion drawn from
" them. In the conclusion, of partaking of the
" table of Devils, it must be allowed that nothino-
<e is said about benefits: in the premisses therefore,
" of the communion of the body and blood, which
t( lead to this, it was not the Apostle s design to
" speak of benefits , but only of the signi/kancy of
t( that
33* DISCOURSE ON
" that rite, as an act of religious honour paid by
" Christians to their Master *."
Now, not to repeat what hath been already
observed of the Fallacy, which runs through the
learned person s whole argument, by substituting
BENEFITS for COMMUNIOX ; which, however, is of
much importance ; for, though the partakers of the
Pagan feasts could receive no bwejits from Devils,
yet they might be in commnnkn with them : Not,
I say, to repeat what hath boen already urged, It
will be sufficient to observe against the learned
person s reasoning, that it is founded on a suppo
sition, that M. Paal could not argue ad hominem,
as the logicians speak : For if lie could so argue,
the observation hath no force. It is agreed, that
St. Paul believed no benefits could accrue to the
heathen worshippers from their Idols. But, if those
worshippers themselves believed they could> what
should hinder a good reasoner, like St. Paul, from
telling these paganized Christians, that the benefits
from Idol-feasts, and the benefits from the Lord s
table, were incongruous and inconsistent ; what, I
say, but the supposed illogical Liberty of arguing
ad hominem? That these early Christians, who
went knowingly to the idol-feasts, were as likely to
expect benefit from them, as the early Jezcs, who
joined idolatrous worship to that of the God of
Israel, is what, I think, no man can deny. Against
such Christians, St. Paul might reason hypotheti-
cally ; and, for argument s sake, grant the benefits
of the Idol-feasts to be real, like those of the Lord s
* P. 43, 44-
table.
THE LORD S SUPPER. 333
table. And this. I suppose, is the common practice
of all mankind in their reasoning on the like occa
sion.
The learned Writer then proceeds to the confu
tation of those who hold the last Supper to be an
cucharistical Sacrifice, commemorative of that upon
the Cross. But though with this, neither I, nor,
as I apprehend, the Church of England, are at all
concerned, yet as the vindication of the Lord s
Supper in this point is against a common Adver
sary, I am proud to join with the learned writer
to confute this strange idea of an Eucharistical
commemorative Sacrifice, which the pious and truly
respectable Mr. Robert Nelson hath endeavoured
to free from the apparent absurdity of one sacrifice s
being commemorative of another, by this Argument :
<c That its being commemorative no more hindered
<c it from being a proper sacrifice, than the typical
" and figurative sacrifices of the old law hindered
" them from being proper sacrifices. For as to be
4< a type (saith this learned man) doth not destroy
" the nature and notion of a legal sacrifice, so, to
" be REPRESENTATIVE and commemorative doth
" not destroy the nature of an evangelical sa-
" crifice*." This is well put ; but will by no means
bear the test. In order to detect the fallacy of this
ingenious reasoning, I must beg leave to have re
course to the principles laid down in The Divine
Legation^.
* Life -of Bishop Bull, p. 483. f Book IV. Sect. 4.
It
334 DISCOURSE ON
It is allowed, then, that the paschal Lamb, and
the Lord s Supper, are both Signs with a moral
import] and, consequently, are both TYPES. How
comes it then to pass (flight Mr. Nelson ask) that
the paschal Lamb will admit the nature of a sacri-
Jice, and yet the Lord s Supper will not ? For this
plain reason. The relation which the paschal
Lamb bore to the Archetype on the Cross was, at
the time of the institution, for the wise ends of Pro
vidence, kept a secret from the followers of the
Law. Its moral import therefore (and as a TYPE
it must have a moral import} could be only a Sacri
fice. The case is widely different in the institution
of the Lord s Supper. It is declared, by the Insti-
tutor himself, to be a commemoration of his death
and sufferings. Here, the relation between the type
and archetype is declared to all : consequently, its
moral import is a commemorative feast on a sacri
fice ; but the idea of such a feast necessarily EX
CLUDES a sacrifice ; for the Thing done, and the
commemoration of the thing done, can never be an
action of the same kind. However, admitting it
could be so ; yet this type having its moral import
in a commemoration, can never acquire another, of
a sacrifice : which, in metaphysical conception,
would be as monstrous as a double body, in natural
But, to shew, in one word, a difference, where the
learned person thinks there is none Take away
the nature of a sacrifice from the Type of the pas
chal Lamb, and you leave it no moral import : that
is, you deprive it of its nature of a Type.- But take
away
THE LORD S SUPPER. 335
away the idea of a sacrifice from the Lord s Supper,
and it still remains a Type; having still a moral
import, by being a commemoration of the death and
sufferings of our Lord.
Mr. Nelson himself seemed to have some con
fused suspicion of the weakness of his inference
from the typical Sacrifices of the old Law ; and
therefore, seeing but small connexion between a
Sacrifice and a Commemoration (the latter of which
conveys the idea, Scripture gives us of the Lord s
Supper ) he adds the word, REPRESENTATION;
which is indeed consistent enough with a Sacrifice :
for though, of a commemorative sacrifice, we have
no instance in practice, and can see no propriety
in idea; yet a representative sacrifice is very good
sense, and may be well supported in the command
to Abraham to offer up his Son. But then, the
History of the Institution of the Lord s Supper is
not only absolutely silent, concerning this represen
tation, but excludes the idea of it by making it a
commemoration. In conclusion, however, let us
observe, That a commemorative sacrifice, in the
sense Mr. Nelson contends for, is one thin^;
and sacrifices at a commemorative feast, of which
Antiquity has many examples, is quite another.
But though this matter fell so fairly in my way,
and that I have only followed the example which
the learned Writer set rne, yet it will be of more
use to return to the Plain Account, and consider
the Author s method of establishing his own Hy
pothesis. It hath been hitherto esteemed an essen
tial
336 DISCOURSE ON
tial canon of true criticism, that, in order to form a
right judgment of the specific nature of any Ordi
nance or Institution of Antient times, we should
have a special regard to the notions, manners, and
customs of those times ; since it can hardly be sup
posed, that any solemn or public Rite of religion
would be instituted without some reference to the
then prevailing Opinions. But the learned Writer
of the PLAIN ACCOUNT, as if the very title of
his book would have been falsified by such an
inquiry, hath attempted to explain the nature and
end of the sacrament of the Lord s Supper with
as little regard to the genius and manners of An
tiquity, as an English Lawyer would take of them,
in his reading on a modern act of Parliament.
But the ill effects of such a partial View cannot
be better understood than by reflecting, that the
very same method of interpretation, which hath
led the learned Writer into one extreme, concern
ing the NATURE OF THE THING, hath led the
Papists into the direct opposite, concerning the
MEANING OF THE WORDS. The celebrated
BOSSUET, the most artful, as well as most elo
quent, Advocate of the papal Cause, rests all the
trength of the LITERAL interpretation of the
words, This is my body This is my blood on
this very PRINCIPLE, That the institution of the
Lord s supper stands single and alone ; eL
from all preceding discourse ; and imich to
any contemporary Rite. His words are
" Zuinglius said in plain terms, that the> was no
* miracle, nor any thing incomprehei: ? in the
" Euchaasi *
THE LORD S SUPPER. 337
Eucharist : that the bread broken was a rcpre-
sentation of the body offered ; and the wine
" poured out, of the blood which was shed : that
" Jesus Christ, when lie instituted these sacred
" symbols, gave them the Names of the things sig-
" nified : however, that these were not naked
( Signs, nor a simple Representation ; for that the
" remembrance and belief of the body offered and
ce the blood shed for us nourished and sustained
" our souls; and further, that the Holy Spirit
" sealed the remission of sins, in our hearts. This,
" he said, was the whole of the Mystery. Now it
<f must be owned, that NEITHER HUMAN REASON
" NOR COMMON SENSE SUFFERED THE LEAST
<C FORCE IN THIS EXPLANATION. The words of
c Scripture only made all the difficulty. And yet,
when one party urged This is my body ; The
" other had their answer ready/ am the vine
" I am the door that reck was Christ It is
" true, that these instances came not up to the
" point. When Jesus Christ said This is mi]
" body This is my blood he was neither pro-
" pounding a Parable, nor explaining an Allegory.
" The Words, which ARE DETACHED AXD SEPA-
: RATE FROM ALL OTHER DISCOURSE, CaiTy their
" whole meaning in themselves. The business in
" hand was the institution of a new Rift, which
44 required the use of SIMPLE TERMS: And that
" place in Scripture is yet to be discovered, where
" the Sign hath the name of the Thing signified
" given to it at the moment of the institution of the
< llite, and WITHOUT ANY LEADING PREPARA-
VOL. X. Z TIOX."
33 DISCOURSE ON
" TFON *." On the foundation of this reasoning
it is that the celebrated Prelate observes, in another
place, < That Luther continued invincibly struck
4C with the force and simplicity of tl>e words 77//.V
" is my body Thh M wy blood. Tlie Church had
" believed, without difficulty, that Jesus- Christ, in
" order to consummate his sacrifice, and fulfil the
" ancient Figures, hath given us to eat the real
" Substance
* Zuinglc disoit positivcmcnt, qu il nV avoit point cle
miracle dans PEucharistie, nri rien d incomprehensible :
que Ic pain rompu nous representoit le corps immole, et
le vin, In sang repandu ; que Jesus Christ eu instituant
ces signes sacres Icur avoit donne le nom dc la chose ;
que ce n etoit pourtant pas uii simple spectacle, ni des
signes tout-a-fait nus ; que la memoire et la foi du corps
immole et du sang repandu soutcnoit notre ame ; que
cependant le Saint-Esprit scelloit dans les cocurs la re
mission des peches; et que c etoit la tout le mystere.
La raisou et le sens humain n avoient rien a snffrir dan*
^ette explication. UEcriture faisoit de lapeine; mais
quand les uns opposoient, Ceci est mo?i corps, les autres
repondoient, Je suis la vigue, je A-MW la porte, h pierre
rtoit Christ. II est vrai que ces exemples n etoient pas
semblables. Ce n etoit ni en proposant une parabole,
ni en expliquant une allegoric, que Je*us Christ avoit
dit, Ceci est rnon corps, red eat mon sang. Ces PA ROLLS
DETACHERS DE TOUT AVTRF. DISCOUP.S portoicnt
tout Icur sens en elles-memes. II s agissoit d une nou-
yelle institution qui devoit etre faite en TTRMI-.S SIM
PLES, et on n avoit encore trouvti aucun lieu de TEeri-
ture, oil un signe d institution recut le nom dc la chose,
au moment qu on 1 instituoit, et SANS AUCUM: PREPA
RATION PRECKDENTE. Histoirc des Variation-, Tom. L
p. 73, 74. Ed. Par. 1730, 8vo.
THE LORD S SUPPER. 339
** Substance of his flesh, offered up for us. She
c< had the same idea of the blood shed for gur
4 iniquities. Accustomed, from her birth, to mys-
* tones incomprehensible, and to the ineffable fa-
" vours of divine love, those impenetrable wonders
" contained in the literal sense did not shock her
t( Faith : and Luther never could persuade hirn-
" self, that Jesus Christ either purposely obscured
" the institution of his Sacrament ; or that words
<c so simple were capable of conveying so VIOLENT
" A FIGURE *."
Thus, we find, the learned Writer of the Plain
Account, and M. Itossuct, both lay the foundation
of their different reasonings in one COMMON PIUN-
CIPLE, et That the institution of the Lord s Supper
was detached from all other discourse, unrelated to
any other Rite, and unconcerned with any fore
going preparation." Now, even though the false
hood
* Luther demeura frappe invinciblement de la force
et de la simplicite de ces paroles : Ceci est mon corps,
Ceci est mon sang; L Eglise avoit cru sans peine, que
pour consommer son sacrifice ct les figures ancicnnes
Jesus-Christ nous avoit donne a manger la propre sub
stance de sa chair immolee pour nous. Elle avoit i;i
ineme pensee du sang repandu pour nos peches. Ac-
coutumee des son origine a des mysteres incomprehen-
sibles et a cles marques ineilables de rainour divin, ks
merveilles impenetrates que renfermoit le sens literal no
1 avoient point rebutee ; ct Luther ne put jnmais se per
suader, ni que Jesus-Christ cut voulu obscurcir expres
Tinstitution de son sacrament, ni que des paroles si sim
ples fussent subceptibles des FIGURES si
Id. ib. p. 4^.
Z 2
340 I) I S O R S E O N
hood of this principle had not been fully evinced,
as, in truth, it has, where I shew the relation it
bears to the Paschal Supper, and how easily and
naturally that Supper introduced this Christian In
stitution ; Yet the extremes, into which it hath,
carried these two learned Writers, of a MERE COM^
MELIORATION on the one hand, and a REAL PRE
SENCE on the other, would raise a suspicion that
this common principle was neither founded in reason,
nor supported by fact.
I have said enough of the commemoration : And
now turn to the REAL PRESENCE of the Catholic
Bishop.
He rests it, we see, upon the force of the WORDS;
which, in his opinion, can admit of no figurative
sense, without doing extreme violence to human
language and expression. Indeed, as far as regards
the hardness of the figure, I believe, most Pro
testant Doctors have been ready enough to join
with him.
But this difficulty, great as it is, I presume, the
preceding account of the specific nature of the
Lord s Supper will entirely remove. l]y that ac
count it appears, that the words of the institution
are FIGURATIVE ; and so far from Buffering any
violent conversion, that the sense of bread and
wine fall into the figure of body and blood, natu
rally and easily ; Nay, what is above all, N ECES-
SARILV.
We have shewn the last Supper to be of the
nature of thejeasts upon sacrifice: in which feasts,
the very. body sacrificed was eaten. Now as this
Rite
THE LORD S SUPPER. 341
Rite was to be instituted, and first celebrated, by
the very person himself who was offered up for
our Redemption, the Institution must needs precede
the Sacrifice. Of necessity therefore, some symbolic
elements must be given, to be received by the Par
ticipants, instead of the very body and blood. But,
as the flesh of the animal sacrificed was the meat
eaten in the fcaxt after the sacrifice, the symbolic
elements of BREAD AND WINK are naturally, pro
perly, and elegantly called, his BODY AXD BLOOD.
Again, if it were the purpose of divine Wisdom
to give this specific nature to the last Supper, we
must needs conclude that Jesus would intimate
such its nature to the first Participants.
But if (as, in fact, was the case) the same Wis
dom thought proper (in conformity to ancient re
ligious Custom) to intimate this only by the occasion,
and through the icords of the institution, then the
figurative expressions of BOD v AND BLOOD became
NECESSARY : These only being fully declarative
of the nature of the Rite. And as a feast upon
sacrifice made the use of the terms body and blood
ro be necessary, so, on the other side, the terms
body and blood shew this rite to have been a feast
upon sacrifice.
On the whole, We have, indeed, no conception
how divine Wisdom could contrive a more natural,
proper, and elegant way of acquainting his disciples,
that the Rite, now instituted, was of the nature of
a feast upon sacrifice, than by terming the elements
of BREAD AND WINE communicated, his BODY
AND BLOOD.
7 3 Thus
34^ DISCOURSE ON
Thus doth the establishment of the specific nature
of this like serve to remove a difficulty which hath
long embarrassed all the several Opposers of the
doctrine of TRANSUBSTANTIATION ; by shewing
that the FIGURATIVE WORDS of the institution are
easy, natural, elegant, and necessary.
It likewise very well accounts for another diffi
culty, which the Advocates for a real presence throw
in trie way of common sense. They say, "If the
words of the institution were only metaphorical, and
especially, if the FIGURE was expressive of no
more than a death commemorated, they might, and
probably would, have been changed in the narra
tives, five times repeated, by the four Evangelists
and St. Paul, in distinct Histories, and on different
occasions : for that, no reason can be given of the
unvaried use of the same words but because they
are to be understood LITERALLY: and then, as
they were declarative of one of the greatest mys
teries in Religion, there was a necessity to record
the very terms employed, whenever the history of
the institution was related."
To this we reply, that indeed, were the words
used FIGURATIVELY, and the jigure only expres
sive of a death commemorated, as the learned
Author of the PLAIN ACCOUNT supposes, it is
reasonable to think, the terms would have been
varied in one or other of the sacred Writers : Be-
eause, in such a case, it is natural to believe, that
Writers of so different genius and acquirements
would not all have the same sentiment concerning
the use of these precise terms , so as to esteem
them
THE LORD S SUPPER. 343
*hem preferable to any other : as, in fact, on this
supposition, they would not be. Hut we can by
no means allow the consequence, That therefore
they are to be understood LITERALLY: since, if
we admit the Institution to be of the nature of ti
feast upon sacrijicc, as we have proved it is, there
will be the same necessity for the unvaried use of
the terms, although they are Jiguratwe, as there
would be, although they were literal. For these
precise terms are as necessary to denote a feast
upon sacrifice, the Rite we contend for, as to
denote a Sacrifice, the enormous idea of the Church
of Rome.
Here too let me observe, both against our Ca
tholic and Protestant Writer, that on this idea, of
a feaxt upon Sacrifice (which no one, I think, can
doubt but the primitive Christians had of the Lord s
Supper) it would naturally follow, that Antiquity
should always speak of this Kite in the strongest
terms of veneration ; as that, through which, the
highest -benefits of our Religion are conveyed. And
O
this they might do, without much EXAGGERATION
on the "one hand; or any conception of a KEAL
iMiFSENCE on the other.
The learned Catholic Bishop saith true, that Pro
testants have but lamely justified the FIGI:UE of,
This is mi) body, &c. by those other of, / am the
r ;,/e / am the door. And his reason is solid.
Jesus, saith he, in the institution of this Rile, inus
wither propounding a Parable, nor espldbiiHg an
Allegory. But when he would have us infer from
- hence, that there coiild be no other occasion for
c 4 such
344 DISCOURSE ON ill
such a figure, he imposes his usual art upon us.
lie would not speak out. lie knew there were
other occasions ; such as The declaring the NATURE
#/ a Rite; which was the case in question. But he
would cut off our way to this, by supposing it to
be allowed on all hands, That the words are de
tached and separate from all other discourse that
there is no leading Preparation. Now this, we have
shewn to be an absolute falsehood : The leading pre
paration was a plain one : It was the PASCHAL
SUPPER. The preceding discourse was an affecting
one : It was the mention of his approaching DEATH
AND SUFFERINGS. Therefore, the words of the
Institution do not, as M. Bossuet pretends, carry
their whole meaning within themselves-, but refer
to things preceding and exterior. He trifles with
us, when he challenges us to find a place in Scrip
ture where the sign hath the name of the thing sig
nified, given to it at the moment of the institution of
the Rite, and WITHOUT ANY LEADING PREPA
RATION. We have shewn there was a leading
Preparation. And that circumstance proved, the
Bishop, I suppose, would retract his challenge.
In the mean time, his, triumphant conclusion loses
much of its Lustre. a That, in a word (says he)
" which 1 pretend to evince, is, the embarras into
" which the words, This is my body, throws all the
" Protestant party. For either we must confound
" all the Mysteries of Religion, or else give a reason
u why Jesus hath not used these forcible terms
* in any of .his Institutions but that of the last
4C Supper. If his body and blood are equally pre-
15 " sent,
THE LORD S SUPPER. 345
" sent, and : as ; really received by the Faithful else-
" where, in the .celebration of every other act of faith,
" there was no reason for chusing these STRONG
" TERMS for. the institution of the Ei&chctmst, rather
" than for tetiptjsm ; and eternal- Wisdom would.
" in this c&se, have expressed itself at random.
" This point I foretell shall be the eternal and in-
" evitable confusion of the Defenders of the^^zt-
" rat ice sense*."
We see, this mighty difficulty, which is eternally
to embarrass the Defenders of the J Curative sense,
is confessed to be at an end, on the discovery of
one good reason, \Vi such forcible terms are
employed in the institution ui the ld.--t Supper, and
not in Baptiyn, or in the other rites of our Religion.
To send it agoing therefore, we need but observe, ]
That the last Supper, as ^ feast upon sacrifice, re
ferred to the Sacrifice on the Cross, in which, th$
.body .and blood of Christ were offered for our re
demption, Now, to design and indicate such a feast
by the words of the institution, the forcible terms in
question were naturally, properly, nay necessarily,
employed. And the reasoning which evinces this,
* ; Car on il faut embrouHler tons les Mvsteres, on \\
fant pouvoir rciulrc unc raison pourquoi Jesus Christ
n a parle avt-c cette force que dans la cenc. Si sou
corps ct son sang sont aussi prescns et aussi reellement
rcgus par tout aiileurs, il n y avoit aucune raison dc
choisir ces FORTES PAROLES pour rEiichaiistie plutot
cjue pour ie Battmc, ct la sagesse eternelle auroit parlc
c ii 1 air. Cot endroit scva leternelle et inevitable con
fusion dcs Defenscurs da sens ffgdre. Hi.>tu!ie, des Var.
Joip. i. p. 477, 478.
tvfacetf
346 DISCOURSE ON
evinces likewise that they were used in a figurative
sense. On the contrary, the initiatory Rite of Bap
tism referred to another Baptism already in use ; in
both of which the matter administered being water,
an element at hand, it was rightly called, in the
institution of the Christian Baptism, by its proper
name. Butjftesh and blood being the things admi
nistered in the ancient feasts upon Sacrifice, and
they not being at hand at the institution of the last
Supper, the elements substituted in their place were,
in an elegant conversion, called by the Improper,
and very necessary names of body and blood.
To illustrate this matter a little further. It may
be proper to observe, that another Rite, the Rite
of Imposition \ of hands, for procuring the descent of
the Holy Spirit, is called the BAPTISM OF FINE:
in which, both the terms arejjguratire ; as, in the
Baptism of Water, both are literal. And why this
difference ? Because the Agent or instrument, em
ployed in the latter case, being spiritual, there was
need of figurative names, taken from material things,
to aid the grossness of our conception concerning
his manner of operation : But material things, at
hand, as in the former case, needed no such con
version of terms. So that all the mystery in this
affair, I mean so far forth as concerns the terms by
which a religious Rite is instituted, is only this,
That when the things are of a spiritual nature, as
the gifts of the Spirit; or of a material nature, not
yet in esse (as the flesh of a sacrifice not yet offered,
and therefore needing another body to be substituted
in its place) There a necessity of employingy/o-w-
rativc
THE LORD S SUPPER. 347
rtitive terms becomes apparent. Hut when the thing
is -a material substance, at hand, and actually em
ployed, as uater in Baptism, it \vould rather con
found than aid our conceptions, to use improper,,
that is, figurative terms.
Thus we ee, lion , by interpreting Scripture on
the common rules employed in the study of other
ancient Writings, that is to say, having a special
regard to the manners, customs, and opinions of
those Times, the true nature and genius of the last
Supper is discovered ; and the sacred institution
freed from the injuries to which these two extremes
have long rendered it obnoxious.
But now I suppose the followers of both Systems
will be ready to object, what the unbeliever will not
be backward to applaud ; " That it seems hard to
imagine, that one of the most essential Rites of aa
universal Religion, designed for all times and places,
should stand in need of the customs and opinions of
a particular age and country to explain its nature
and genius. For the consequence of this would
seem to be, the rendering its nature precarious, and
in course of time, obscure and unintelligible."
To which we reply, That many good ends may
be discovered in this ordinance; and, therefore,
many more may be reasonably supposed, which we
can no l discover.
i. A Helicon, however universal, when promul-
ged in the manner, and propagated by the instru
ments, which God thought fit to employ when he
crave us the Religion of his Son, must uceik have
many
34* DISCOURSE ON
many dependencies on the Times which saw k
rise and progress.
2. As the Christian Religion rose upon the foun
dation of the Jewish, and became the final comple
tion of God s religious dispensations to Mankind, it
was very natural ibr several of its parts to hear a
reference to that on which it was erected ; it was
very commodious that it should do so, hoth to per
petuate its relation, and to manifest its completion.
So that, on this account, such a Religion, however
universal, could not stand alone, or be independent
of every thing exterior.
3. This reference to the customs and opinions of
the times, was further useful, by impressing on the
Religion so circumstanced, one INDELIBLE MA UK
of Truth, for the use of all ages. Had that Reli
gion, pretending to have arisen in a remote age,
brought down with it no tincture of the times, which
saw its birth and increase, we might have reason to
suspect or disbelieve the traditional accounts which
informed us of its high antiquity.
But when we find upon it so strong a mark of
ancientry ; and impressed in a manner so natural
as to cause no suspicion ; and in a manner so sure
as to afford no handle for Imposture; we may be
confident, that it is of the times it pretends to be.
Each Age hath its character of manners, just as it
hath its character of style and writing ; and as the
Critics pronounce on the date of a manuscript from
the turn of the phrase, and the formation of the
letters, so Divines settle the aera of a Religion by
the relation it bears to contemporary customs and
practices.
THE LORD S SUPPER. 349
practices. But were the MANUSCRIPT composed
in an universal Character, and did the RELIGION
contain only the bare principles of natural Law, do
livered in the abstract, they would both want one
necessary mark to ascertain their respective ages.
4. Again, this restrained peculiarity objected
to, on the point in question, serves a still further,
and greater end. It is contrived to be declarative
of the TRUE NATURE of the death and sufferings
of Christ. That his death on the Cross was a
SACRIFICE for the sins of the world, had been
always held part of the Catholic Faith ; founded on
the express declarations of Scripture. But those
Sects, who oppose the doctrine of a real REDEMP
TION, have always striven to evade the notion of a
real sacrifice ; as that on which the doctrine of Re
demption is founded ; upon pretence, that the scrip
ture expressions of Christ s sacrifice were only
figurative and ailusory. Now if the last Supper,
the rite which commemorates the death of Christ,
be of the nature of the J easts Upon sacrifice, it is
self-evi lent that the death itself was a REAL Sacri
fice, and not merely called so by conversion of
terms, or accommodation of ideas.
5. As it was contrived to declare the real nature
of Christ s death, so it likewise served this further
purpose, a purpose of great importance, to declare
t.l 1C A BO L I T ION O F S A C K I F I C K S IX REV E A L E D R E -
LIG iox. For if in the most solemn act of Worship,
where a Sacrifice always took place, a commemoration
only of a Sacrifice is celebrated, it is plain, all s:i-
rrificial rites are excluded from that Religion : And
(if
3,59 DISCOURSE ON
(if that Religion be the completion of God s reli
gious dispensations) consequently, abolished. The
Sacrifice on the Cross does, indeed, in its nature,
abolish ail those Jewish Sacrifices, which evidently
prefigured it; but to be assured of the abolition oi
sacrifice in general, some more express declaration,
like what we find in tins significant Rite, seemed
to be expedient.
6. But lastly, The very notion of an UNIVERSAL
RELIGTOX, unrelated to, and unconnected with,
the times in which it was first divulged, is, in truth,
repugnant to common sense and the nature of
things. This Religion, as the Objectors tell us, is
designed for all times and places. Some good method
therefore of conveying it to posterity, and of per
petuating the conveyance, must be thought of and
employed. There are but two ways of doing it,
by one or other of these means of human communica
tion, ORAL Tn A D IT i o x or \V u IT i x G . Tradition
hath been ever found insufficient for the purposes
of Truth and Religion ; and incapable of securing
either their purity or existence. The only method
which remains, is by Scripture : and this being to
be composed in the living language of the age in
which the Revelation was given, some parts of it
must, in course of time, grow obscure : as depend
ing on the circumstances of the users, whose cus
toms and manners give the shape and colouring to
ail their discourse. So that, to understand the exact
sense of the terms, and the full energy of the.
phrase, the customs and manners of the times*
\vhich fashioned the words and ornamented the
idiom
THE LORD S SUPPER. 351
idiom of the language, must of necessity be dili
gently studied, if we would arrive at any competent
.skill in the interpretation of such writings. Now
this circumstance, which produced the objection,
resulting from the very nature of things, we see
how little force it hath against the truth of an
universal Religion.
The conclusion from the whole is this, That we
should, with all submission, take (rod s Laws, as he,
in his wisdom, hath been pleased to give them ;
and as the order and condition of things, by him
established, permits us to receive them.
Having now so largely inquired into the SPJ;CI*
FIC NATURE of this holy Rite ; we are enabled,
in very few words, to shew (which we proposed, as
the principal end of the Enquiry) what those bene
fits are which we receive at the Lord s Table ; and
what the obligations are, which we lie under, of
frequenting it.
Christ, by the SAC KJ TICK of himself upon the
cross, purchased the Redemption, of Mankind : And
this Rite bein< bv its nature commemorative there-
o
of/ as it is a feast upon Sacrifice ; e_uch partaker re
ceives, of consequence, the seal of pardon, and
consequently, of restoration to his lost Inheri
tance-
But a* this operates only on the terms of repent
ance, and -newness of iifc, the gift would be defeat
ed, by being bestowed on a condition which our
perverse Nature so much opposes, was not this
Nature softened and subdued by the power of
GRACE ;
352 DISCOURSE ON
GRACE; that promised blessing, peculiar to the
Gospel-Dispensation. Now as the influence of the
HOLY SPIRIT constitutes the most intimate COM
MUNION OF GOD AVI TII MAN, What time can we
conceive so highly sanctified for the reception of
it, as that in which we renew our federal union with
our Lord and Master, in his last Supper; called by
St. Paul, the communion of hix body and blood.
This leads us to what only remains to be con
sidered, THE OBLIGATION" TO FREQUENT COMMU
NION : and this obligation will be best understood,
by considering the reasons of an Institution which
procures us so high a prerogative as an union with
the God of our Salvation.
We are, by the Sacrament of BAPTISM, united,
as members to the MYSTICAL Body of Christ, his
CHURCH. And since Churchmembership is not only
an outward but a public, rather than a private tiling
One single administration of such Rite is sufficient
to make that union lasting.
But, by the Sacrament of the LORD S SUPPER, we
are united, as members, to the SPIRITUAL Body of
Christ, his GRACE. This is an inward union, and
a particular : and lasts no longer than the right dis
position of heart and affections shall continue : and
this, by reason of our corrupt nature, and perpe
tual commerce with an evil world, being always im
pairing, it has always occasion to be strengthened
and renewed. This, as we said, is the office of
the Holy Spirit; whose gracious influence more
peculiarly sanctifies that holy season. Hence ther
use and necessity of FREQUENT COMMUNION;-
intimated
T II E L O R D S S U P P E II. 353
intimated in the words of the institution, Do this
in remembrance of me: Which imply, as we have
shewn, more than preserving the memory of a dead
benefactor-, they imply, the continuing to receive
his benefaction-, which is conveyed to us, from
time to time, and as often as we shew forth the
Lord s death till he come. So true is the account
given of this sacred Rite in the ARTICLES of our
Church, That it Is not only the badge or TOKEN of a
Christian mans profession, but rather a certain
and sure witness and effectual sign of Grace, and
God s good-will towards us-, by which he doth work
invisibly in its, and doth not only quicken, but also
STRENGTHEN and confirm our faith in him *.
All this duly considered, we shall, I hope, be
enabled to regain a proper veneration for this holy
Mystery; which hath of late been so fatally im
paired, as by other liberties, so principally by the
prostitution of it to CIVIL PURPOSES; Not a pros
titution by the LEGISLATURE; but by those licen
tious men, who, contenting themselves with the
observance of the form and letter, neglect the end
and spirit of the LAW.
* Art. xxv.
VOL. X. A A
3.53
DIRECTIONS
FOR T H E
STUDY
O F
T II E O L O G Y.
n account of the following short Treatise will be found
in Bishop KURD S Life of the Author, Vol. i. pp. 108 110,
of this Edition ; where he speaks of Bishop WARBURTON in
his character of a Divine.
357
DIRECTIONS
FO H THE
STUDY OF THEOLOGY.
PART THE FIRST.
THE Husbandman, before he commits the good
seed to the ground, tills it with repeated labour.
The mind, a* the soil, over-run with idle trash,
where the vilest weeds of literature are mistaken for
its flowers and fruit, requires the same kind of cul
ture : it is to be well cleared before you can, with
any reasonable hopes, intrust the great and useful
Truths of Religion to the rankness of its bosom.
O
SECT. I.
To give it this preparation, therefore, I would first
of all recommend to the young student the daily
and long continued use of
Locke on Hitman Understanding,
and
The Institutions of Quintilian.
The one will teach him to think justly; and the
other, to express his thoughts with correctness and
elegance; without which qualities, Science is but
A A 3 learned
DIRECTIONS FOR THE [Sect 2.
learned lumber, a burthen to the owner, and a
nuisance to every body else. These two writers,
possessing in a sovereign degree these excellent
talents which they undertake to impart, are, of all
others, best able, both by precept and example, to
accomplish what they undertake ; which is no other
than to make science subservient to Truth, in the
discovery and communication of it to others ; the
peculiar office of a Minister of the Gospel.
SECT. II.
Natural Law and Natural Religion are the
foundation of, and therefore the necessary intro
duction to, CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.
For a general view of Natural Law, I should
prefer Grofims book, Dejure belli $ pads, to all
the numerous writers on the same subject ; though
some of them be more scientific and philosophical;
for He, perpetually illustrating his precepts by ex
amples, not only teaches, what men should be, but
what they are: without which full knowledge, our
contemplations on moral entities are apt to grow too
refined and visionary.
For a general view of Natural Religion, as dis
tinguished, though it cannot be separated, from
Natural Law, the most useful, I think, is Wollas-
tons Treatise of The Religion of Nature delineated^
for although he has plaoed moral obligation on very
fanciful grounds, yet the solidity of those duties,
which he hath shewn, in so just and elegant a
manner, to arise out of natural Religion, is not at
all diminished by that airy speculation.
But
Sect. 2.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 359
But as the great Pillar of Natural Law is Moral
obligation; and of Natural Religion, the Being and
Attributes of God, there are two capital Books I
would here recommend to our Student, to complete
his ideas of this Law and Religion ; which are,
Cumberland on the Law of Nature, and CudwortKs
Intellectual System. These, on some other ac
counts, might be commodiously placed elsewhere ;
yet on the whole they may, perhaps, be read with
most profit, after the two books of Grot his and
f Folios ton.
Those incomparable works of Cumberland and
Cudworth were, it is true, written in confutation of
Hobbes s Philosophy ; which then threatened, like a
later and ruder attempt, to overthrow all the re
ceived Morality and Metaphysics of the ancient and
modern world. But their method of polemic writing
(for such, indeed-, it was) deserves commendation,
as best answering their general end ; while they
overlooked the personal singularities of their adver
sary, and turned themselves to the abstract ques
tions. In Cumberland, Hobbes met with a very
superior Reasoner ; and in Cudwortk, a far more
accomplished Scholar. Both of them, indeed, in
ferior to that Pest of Science, sacred and profane,
in elegance of composition and in purity and splen
dour of language. On which account, I should
O O
advise, that Cumberland be read, not in his own
ungracious Latin, but in Barbeyrac s excellent trans
lation into French. For the same, and for a further
reason, I should prefer Mosheim s Latin translation
of the Intellectual System, to the English original ;
A A 4 that
36o DIRECTIONS FOR THE [Sect. 3.
that is to say, not only for its purity and elegance,
but- for its great abundance and excellence of learned
notes.
Cumberland excels all men in fixing the true
grounds of moral obligation ; out of which, Natural
Law and Natural Religion, both arise.
Cudworth takes a larger and sublimer range : he
begins with Metaphysics, which employs what we
now have of the famous work of the Intellectual
System.
In exhausting the Metaphysic questions concern
ing the Being and Nature of the Deity; he hath
occasionally given us a complete History of Ancient
Learning as far as relates to those Inquiries : which,
besides the particular use in the order of the course,
will be of this further advantage to our student, the
throwing great lights on what he finds delivered
concerning one Gad and one Lord in the Old and
New Testament, when he now comes, after these
preparations, to the direct study of the Sacred
I Writings ; the proper end of his labours, the gain
ing a trite Knowledge of Revealed Religion.
SEC T. ill.
Now, though the Mosaic Religion, to which we
come, be no where to be learnt, but in the Old
Testament ; nor the Christian, but in the New; yet
it may be convenient for us to know, what ideas
those learned men, who are believed to have most
successfully studied the Sacred Books, have enter
tained of both : not with a purpose to acquiesce in
their labours, but to facilitate our own; not for our
guides,
Sect. 3.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 361
guides, whom we are implicitly to follow in a road
as yet to ourselves unknown ; but for our Counsel
lors or Assistants, who are ready to lay before us
what they conceive of the Carte dupays in general;
which our student may use or correct for his own
advantage, as he goes along.
There are not many who have applied themselves,
in good earnest, to assist us in our knowledge of the
Mosaic Law ; and most of these, very unsuccess
fully. From the Jewish Doctors, we derive much
less instruction than might have been expected.
Yet, to one of these it must be confessed, we owe
what we have of what is most considerable on this
subject; I mean a Rationale of the Jewish Ritual-,
which essential part of the Mosaic Law had been
long the stumbling-block of Infidelity ; and was
likely to continue so ; when, in the first flourishing
times of the Saracene Empire, a great number of
Jews (as we learn from William of Paris, in his
book de Legibus) devoting themselves to the study
of the Aristotelian Philosophy (then cultivated by
these followers of Mahomet with a kind of Scientific
rage), and thereby contracting an inquisitive and
disputatious habit, set themselves on examining into
the Reasons of the Jewish Laws ; which being un
able to discover, they, with their usual levity, con
cluded, that they were futile, absurd, and of human
original; arid so apostatised, in great numbers, from
the religion of their Fathers,, to Mahometanism.
To put a stop to this evil, the famous Maimo-
nides wrote, with much success, the book called
Ductor
3fa DIRECTIONS FOR TH E [Sect. 3.
Duct or Dubiiantium-, the chief purpose of which
Is to explain the causes of the Jewish Ritual.
On this ground, our excellent Countryman, Spen
cer, long afterwards, when the Rabbi s book had
been almost forgotten, erected his admirable book
intitled, De Legibus Hebrceorum Ritualibus. This,
though confined to an illustration of the Ritual
JLaWj is, by far, the most considerable attempt yet
made to explain the nature and genius of the Mosaic
Religion : while the other capital parts of this Dis
pensation, such as the nature of its civil Govern
ment, a Theocracy ; the rewards and punishments,
peculiar to it ; its extraordinary administration by
appointed Agents, endowed with supernatural pow
ers, and with the gifts of Miracles and Prophecy,
the double sense in which the latter was necessarily
involved ; and the language consequent to its nature
and use : these things, I say, of such importance
to the successful study of the Old Testament, have
been hitherto treated, not only superficially, but
absurdly. Yet notwithstanding, as the Ritual Law
constitutes so considerable a part of the Mosaic
Dispensation., Spencer s book is of infinite use, not
only for its own appropriated excellence, but for
the subjects necessarily leading him to a very de
tailed account of the religious state of the ancient
Pagan world, without which knowledge we can have
but a very imperfect idea of the Jewish Law and
History. The scarcity of good Writers on the
Old Testament shews how necessary it is to make
the best of the incomparable Author of the book
DC
Sect. 4.] ST U D Y OF T II E O L O G Y. 363
DC Le gibus Hebrccorum Ritualibux. After this,
the Student having furnished himself with JValtons
Polyglott Bible, and the large Collection called
Critici Sacri, may proceed directly to his great
Work, the Study of the BIBLE.
SECT. IV.
IF it be hard to find good Writers on the Old
Law, it is as hard to choose out of the great Num
ber on the New,
In our study of the Gospel, our wants are not
so great, and our assistances much greater. Though
it be the purpose of these slight hints to recommend
the BIBLE as the genuine mine* inexhausted and
inexhaustible, from whence all our Treasures of
Theology are to be fetched, and which conse
quently is to be principally explored, while we turn
our backs on all the Sums and Systems of Artificial
Divines ; yet a general acquaintance with the two
Dispensations, procured as we can, may, in the
entrance on our Work, somewhat ease our Labour.
After what has been said of a manuduction to the
Study of the Old Testament^ I would only recom
mend, from amongst the crude abundance on the
New, two short tracts, Locke s Reasonableness of
Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures, and
Dr. Burnet of the Charter-house, his De Fide et
Officiis Christiawrum ; the first of these tracts
being a kind of prelude or introduction to the other.
They are both of them excellent in their different
kinds. So that when our Student has done this,
nothing remains but that he may enter directly oa
the
364 DIRECTIONS FOR THE [Sect. 4.
the study of the New Testament, which he will now
find prepared to receive him as a well-qualified
Guest. And Grotiuss Critical Comment on the
Gospels^ and Locke on the Epistles, accompanying
this Study, will open all the treasures of our Faith
to one so happily employed. What, after the use
of these two Commentators, will be wanting for
further illustration, must be sought for in the
Collection called the Sacred Critics, before re
commended, amongst the Critics on the New
Testament.
Only, in the study of The Revelation of St\
John, from whence may be deduced the most il
lustrious and irrefragable Evidence of the Divinity
of our holy Religion, the works of Mr. Joseph
Medc, whose Comments on the Apocalypse is,
indeed, in Theology, what Harvey & discovery of
the circulation of the blood was thought to be in
Physics, should be carefully digested.
This labour, on the New Testament, well over,
our Student may then, but not before, read with
advantage some of the many Bodies, or Institutes,
as they are called, of Christian Theology. The
best I know of is, for its elegance, clearness, and
freedom from partial affections of all sorts, that
of the great Episcopius, though unfinished ; the
parts wanting may be well supplied from LimborcJis
Thcologia Christiana ; a master-piece, which, in
its kind, may be well compared to a work of Ra- -
phael s finished by Julio Romano.
Sect. 5.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 365
SECT. V.
HAVING proceeded thus far in our Course,
and gone through that part of Theology called the
positive or dogmatic, our Student s next step will be
to provide a guard or defence for the security of his
acquirements ; which is to be done by the assistance
of the other part, called the Polemic-, which of late
indeed ignorance has brought into discredit, from
the general decay of critical and dialectic Learning.
1. He will begin with a defence of Revelation in
.general, as it lies in Grotius de Vent ate Religionis
Christiana, enlarged by Stilling fleef s Origines Sa
cra? ; which may be considered as a kind of Com
mentary on the other s text : the just encomiums of
which have so long satiated the public ear, that we
now hear of that with indifference in which our Fa
thers so much triumphed. But the book I mean is
that written by Mr. Stillingfleet ; not that unfinished
work which bears the same title, written when he
became Bishop of Worcester.
2. From thence, he will go on to a defence of the
Christian Religion against Judaism. For which he
will need no other instruction than what he may
find in Limborclis work, intitlcd, DC Irritate
Religionis Christiana Arnica Collatio cum Erudito
Judae. This was Isaac Orobio, a Spanish Jew,
who, escaping from the prisons of the Inquisition,
now practised Physic in Holland. In this Disputa
tion will be found all that the stretch of human
parts on the one hand, or Science on the other,
can produce, to varnish error, or to unravel sophis-
try.
366 DIRECTIONS TOR THE [Sects.
try. All the Papers of Orobio in defence of Juda
ism, as opposed to Christianity, are here given at
large, with Limborch s answers, section by section :
\vhere the subtilest sophisms of a very superior
genius will be found ably and satisfactorily detected
and exposed by the strong, profound > and clear
reasoning of this celebrated Remonstrant
3. The defence of the Reformed Churches against
Popery is next in order, and our Student will find it
completely performed in that master- piece of human
reasoning, ChilHngworth s book against Kaott, inti-
tfed, The Religion of Protestants a safe way t&
Salvation-, in which he will see all the school jargon
of that subtile Jesuit incomparably exposed; and
the long dispute between the two churches, for the
first time, placed upon its proper immovable ground,
the BIBLE alone, after the extravagant Authority
of the Fathers, perpetually appealed to by both
Churches, had long usurped the prerogatives of
Scripture; and, by breaking down the boundaries
betwixt right and wrong, had made the Controversy
endless.
And having here recommended to our Student s
most careful attention these two capital works of
Limborch against the Jew, and Chillingwortk
against the Jesuit, it presents a fit occasion to take
notice of that ignorant censure of Polemic Divinity
now so fashionable even amongst those whose Pro
fession might have enabled them to know better, as
if it were the offspring of the Philosophy and Di
vinity of the SCHOOLS ; when they might see that
the futility of Scholastic Learning was never more
effectually
Sect. 6.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 367
effectually held up to derision, in the persons of
those two subtile Disputants (who were overrun
with it) than by these incomparable Defenders of
Christianity and Protestantism.
4. From the Defence of Protestantism in general,
we come next to that of the Church of England,
against the Sectaries. And here it will suffice, in-
star omnium, to study Hooker s four first Books of
Ecclesiastical Polity ; in which, an established
Church is immovably fixed on this great Principle,
That the outward Polity of a Church, though
divinely instituted, is in the class, and of the species
of those Laws, which even the sacred Authority,
that enjoins them, does not render immutable. A
work bearin all the marks of immortality, as
tined to excite the admiration of men while good
letters remain amongst them.
SECT. VI.
BUT Polemic Divinity, though of the best sort,
being apt to give a rigid turn to the sentiments of
those long engaged in it, we may, by this time, find
it necessary to remind our Student, that though the
means be Learning, yet the end of the command
ment is Charity, and that the truest badge of our
being the Servants of one Common Master is our
mutual forbearance of one another. Now this
Chanty is violated by restraint and intolerance:
whether exercised by a Church to its own Mem
bers; or towards those who have renounced its
jurisdiction.
i. The
368 DIRECTIO N S FOR TH E [Sect. 6.
i. The injustice of the first kind, is combated and
exposed in a very masterly manner by Bishop Tay
lor in his Liberty of Prophesying, and by Bishop
Stillmgfleet in his Iremcum. Taylor wrote when
the Church of England was groaning under the ty
ranny of the Puritans or Presbyterians ; and, there
fore, to remind them of their own claims, under
the like oppressive Circumstances, he intitles his
Apology the Liberty of Prophesying, under which
name they chose, to ennoble their Lectures. Stil-
tingficet wrote when the established Church was on
the recovery of its legal rights ; and, finding it
sharpened by long injuries and indignities, he en
deavoured to allay the heats of his Brethren, by his
Iremcum ; both these writers pleading for religious
Liberty ; the one w hen it was violated by oppression ;
the other when it was in danger from fresh resent
ments. Yet it is not to be denied or disguised that
c
these celebrated Writers, either not yet comprehend
ing the doctrine of Toleration in its full extent, or
perhaps not finding the minds of men sufficiently
enlarged to receive it (which, though a truth, from
its coincidence with the genius of Christianity, one
would have expected to find amongst the first re
ceived in an Established Church, was unhappily
amongst the last) ; they cramped the doctrine within
too narrow bounds, while, to avoid scandal, they
thought it of use to distinguish in laboured in dis
courses between points fundamental and not fun
damental; which, though impertinent to the true
decision of the question of Toleration, yet acci
dentally
Sect. 7.] S T U D Y OF THEOLOGY. 369
dentally let in much light into the true nature of
Christianity.
2. The injustice of the second kind, the oppres
sive treatment of Dissenters or Sectaries, gave oc
casion for the question of Toleration to be more
fully and completely handled by Mr. Locke in his
celebrated Letters on that subject; and by Mr.
Bayle in his no less celebrated Comment, on the
words, compel them to enter in. These four Works
should be very carefully studied. They give a
complete view of the Subject. Such, \vho have
wrote since in support of the Divine Principle of
Tokration, may be said, only, act urn agere.
The enemies of pure Religion have dejiled Reve
lation, each on his o\vn peculiar principles : but
friends and enemies have concurred in dishonouring
o
it, by one common principle, held occasionally by
all in their turns the Antichristian Doctrine of
Persecution and Intolerance. Now, the Books
here recommended expose it in all its iniquity antf
folly.
SECT. VII.
FROM the interior Spirit of our holy Religion,
which is constant and unchangeable, we come to the
outward face of it, whose features have, both by time
and climate, been ever on the change; nor has time,
from the infancy to the old age of the Church,
brought on greater disparities in its looks than the
intemperature of Climates, which have been tl.e
scenes of Ecclesiastical occurrences. The ill-sorted
Pictures with which Church -history is adorned scry*
VOL. X. B a at
370 DIRECTIONS FOR THE [Sect. 7,
at once for the opprobrium and the glory of Re
ligion.
Order requires that the Student should first take
a view of the general History of the Church ; and
convenience points to us, that he should begin with
some well-chosen abridgment. There is only one
that deserves our commendation; but that one is
indeed incomparable : It is written by the very
learned Mosheim, in elegant Latin. Amongst the
various excellencies of his method, I shall only
mention this, his referring, on every subject, to the
best writers who have treated it at large : so that
whenever information excites the Student to look
into the Authors referred to by Mosheim, he is sure
to find the solution of his doubts, or satisfaction to
his curiosity.
From the History of the Church in general, the
nature of the course directs our Student to the Gene
ral History of the Church of England.
But our repeated complaints of the defective state
of this part of Literature amongst us, extends to the
ecclesiastical as well as to the civil History of Great
Britain. There are only two writers of the general
History of our Church who deserve the name of
Historians, Collier the Nonjuror, and Fuller the
Jester.
The first hath written with sufficient dignity, ele
gance, and spirit; but hath dishonoured and debased
his whole work with the absurd and slavish Tenets
of the High Churchmen.
The other is composed with better temper, and
on better principles; and with sufficient care and
attention 5
Sect. 8.] STUDY OF THEOXOGY. 371
attention ; but worked on a slight fantastic ground,
and in a style of buffoon pleasantry altogether un
suitable to so grave and important a subject. Yet
much may be learnt from both ; much, indeed, to
avoid, as well as to approve.
After this general view of Church History, the
Reformation of Religion from the corruptions of
Popery, the most important period of Church His
tory, will deserve our particular attention.
The rise and progress of it may be best learnt
from Sleidan, in his De Statu Religionis 8$ Reipub-
lic& Carole V. C&fare Comment aril ; more valuable
for its veracity than for the charms of its compo
sition.
To have a proper knowledge of that of our own
Church, Burnet s much-applauded History of the
Reformation of the Church of England, with his
third volume of Explanations and Corrections, must
be carefully read. Were we to estimate its value
by the reception it met with from the two Houses
of Parliament, when a whole People were frightened
out of their wits by the imminent danger of Popery,
we should rate it much too high. It is a sensible
well-attested narrative of Pacts, collected with Care,
and digested with Candour.
SECT. VIII.
AND now we are arrived at the concluding la-
o
bours of our young Divine, the imparting of that
knowledge to others, which with so much care and
study he hath procured for himself. Amongst the
many marks which distinguish the Christian Phllo-
B B 2 sophcr
372 DIRECTIONS rou THE [Sect. 8.
sopher from the Pagan, this is one of the most
striking the Pagan sought knowledge in a selfish
way, to secrete it for his own use : the Christian
seeks it with the generous purpose (first in view,
though last in execution) to impart it to others.
The Pagan Philosopher, therefore, having cultivated
the art of thinking, proceeds to that of speaking, in
order to display his vanity in the dexterous use of
deceit. On the other hand, the Christian Philo
sopher cultivates the art of speaking, for the sole
purpose of disseminating the Truth, in his office of
Preacher of the Gospel. That species of eloquence,
therefore, which is only fitted for his use, is best
described by an eminent Writer, who indeed makes
it the genus of the Art : " True eloquence," says
he, " I rind to be none, but the serious and hearty
66 LOVE OF TRUTH : and that whose mind soever is
" fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good
" things, and with the DEAREST CHARITY to infuse
" the knowledge of them to others, when such a man
" would speak, his words, like so many nimble
" and airy servitors, trip about him at command,
" and in well-ordered files, as he could wish, fall
ct aptly into their own places *."
This is the true Christ ain eloquence ; to which I
would have our Student eagerly aspire ; whatever
route his talents lead him to take, in discharge of
this part of his Ministry : whether his Discourse be
employed in illustrating the sacred text or in ex
plaining and enforcing the capital duties of Morality
or lastly, in pressing, upon the conscience, the
* Milton.
practical
Sect. 8.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 373
practical obligations both of natural and revealed
Religion, by a pathetic address to the Passions and
Affections of his hearers : For under one or other
of these three heads, I suppose, may be comprised
all the rational service of the Pulpit.
1. If his disposition incline him to the illustration
of the sacred Text, which, in strict truth, is per
forming what by his office he has engaged himself to
undertake, that is to say, to preach the word of God,
the best model I can think of are the Sermons of
Dr, Samuel Clarke, of St. James s, who is always
plain, clear, accurate, and full.
2. If he rather chooses to expatiate on the great
Duties of Morality, Dr. Barrow should be his prin
cipal Guide : whose comprehensive mind penetrates
into the very darkest recesses of our nature, at the
same time that the radiations of his genius gild the
most solemn and gloomy prospects. In a word,
his is that true Eloquence which Milton so happily
describes, and which this Preacher so eminently
possesses.
But yet we should not suspect, that Clarke is de
fective in what Barrow so eminently abounds ; or
that Barrow, on fit occasions, neglects to cultivate
that sacred sojl from which Clarke reaped such
abundant harvests.
3. A pathetic address to the passions and af
fections of penitent hearers, perhaps tiie most ope
rative of all these various species of instruction, is
that in which the English Pulpit, notwithstanding all
its
374 DIRECTIONS FOR THE [Sect, 8.
its other superior advantages, is most defective.
Here, the persuasive is apt to be barren of reason
ing ; and the pathetic to degenerate into cant. A
perfect model of* this kind we must seek for abroad.
Nor need we be long to seek, though we be forced
to take up with a Papist, and, what is worse, a Je
suit the celebrated Bourdaloue, who, to the most
perfect sublime and pathetic, has occasionally added
all the force of reason in the simplest and most
beautiful method, in which will be found many ex
cellent strokes of scriptural criticism and moral di-
vinity, which so much ennoble the works of the
two English Preachers above recommended for the
execution of their several methods. Nor will there
be any danger that our Student, now so well armed
at all points, by the truths collected in his Course,
should be betrayed or entangled in the errors and
corruptions, which have so miserably deformed the
in other- church of this famous Preacher.
In conclusion, I confide in the young Divine,
who resolves in good earnest to go through the
course here recommended, that he will consider it
as only the foundation of the learning of his profes
sion ; as only the outlines on which he is to work
through life, in order to deserve the Character (at
which we will suppose he aims) of an accomplished
Divine.
On this account, I have been exceeding sparing,
in this first part, to recommend such Writers as are
to aid him in his Course ; omitting all but those O f
capital
Sect 8.] STUDY OF THEOLOGY. 375
capital note, who, as he goes along, are of necessity
to be well digested.
The SECOND PART* therefore will be employed
in an account, under each head, of those additional
Writers, that may enable the Student to make him
self a perfect Master of the several Subjects marked
out in this; which though it may give him a just, yet,
without further assistance, may remain a too general
idea of his Business.
* The Second Part has not been found among the
Bishop s papers, and probably was nevef written.
R. W.
END OF THE TENTH VOLUME.
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near Lincoln s-Inu Fields.
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