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THE 



WORKS 

OF THE 

RIGHT REVEREND 

WILLIAM WARBURTON,D.D 

LORD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER. 

A NEW EDITION, 
JN TWELVE VOLUMES. 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 

A DISCOURSE BY WAY OF GENERAL PREFACE; 

CONTAINING 

SO:ME ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE, WRITINGS. AND CHARACTER 

OF THE AUTHOR; 

JJY RICU4RD HURD,D.D. >, 

1.UTID BJSHOP OF WORCESTER. si <" J * 



VOLUME THE NINTH. ) 



Hondou ? 

Printed bij Luke Hansard $ Sim*, near T.incoln t-Tnn Fif ds t 

J-OJl T. C AUl-LL AND W. DA VIES, IN THE STRAND. 

1811. 



CONTENTS 



OF 



VOL. IX. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL AND 
REVEALED RELIGION, OCCASIONALLY 

OPENED AXD EXPLAINED; IN A COURSE OF 
SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE HONOUR 
ABLE SOCIETY OF LINCOLN S-INN. 



DEDICATION to the MASTERS of the BENCH of 
Lincoln s- Inn -------- p. xv 

SERMON L 

THE NATURE AND CONDITION OF TRUTH. 

John xviii. 38. 

iUitc with unto him, IV hat is truth? Andivhcn 
he had said this, he went out again. - - p. i . 
A3 



i CONTENTS OF NINTH VOLUME. 

SERMON II. 

GOD S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 

Psalm cxliv. 3. 

Lord, what. is -wan, thatjhou takest knowledge of 
him? Or the son of man, that thou makcst ac 
count of him? - o- P- 33 

SERMON III. 

THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN, 

1 John iv. 20. 

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he 
is a liar-, for he that loveth not his brother > 
whom he hath seen, how can he love God, whom 
he hath not seen ?------- p. 53 

SERMON IV. 

THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 

Proverbs xvii. 5. 

Whoso mocketh the poor rcproacheth his Maker. 

p. 67 

SERMON V. 

THE CHARACTER AND OFFICE OF THE MESSIAH, 

i Cor. i. 30. 

Jesus Christ, who of God is muck unto us tvisdojn, 
and righteousness, and sanctification, and re- 
demotion. -P-79 



CONTEXTS OF NINTH VOLUME. VU 

SERMON VI. 

THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MES 
SENGERS OF THE GOSPEL. 

Matt. X. I 6. 

Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst- of 
wolves : Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and 
harmless as doves. - * - - - - P 1 25 



SERMON VII. 

THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MES 
SENGERS OF THE GOSPEL, 

Matt. v. 1 6. 

Let your light so shine before men> that they may 
see your good works, and glorify your Father 
which is in Heaven. P- ] 39 



SERMON VIII. 

THE EDIFICATION OF GOSPEL RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

2 Pet. i. 5, 6> 7. 

Giving all diligence, add to ^.jr faith virtue, and 
to virtue /.v/ozni /, and to htoic ledge temper 
ance, and to temperance patience, and to patience 
godlhicss 9 and to godliness brotherly -kindness, 
and to brotherly-kindness charity. - p. 163 
A 4 



Vlll _ &* TESTS OP NINTH VOLUME. 



SERMON IX. 

OF CHURCH AUTHORITT. 

Matt, xxiii. 9, 10. 

Call no wan, your father, upon the earth: for om 
is your Father which is in Heaven. Neither be 
ye called masters: .for one is your Master^ even 
Christ. - .-- * * - - - . -. p. 191 

SERMON X. 

OF CHURCH AUTHORITT. 

Matt, xxiii. 2, 3. 

The Scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses scat : 
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, 
that observe and do ; but do not ye after their 
works : for they say, and do not. - - p. 207 

SERMON XL 

OF CHURCH COMMUNION. 

Luke ix. 49, 50. 

And John answered and said, Master we saw one 
casting out devils in thy name ; and we forbad 
him, because he followeth not with us. And 
Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not : for he that 
w not against m t is for its, - - - - p. 225 



CONTENTS OF NINTH VOLUME. 1* 



SERMON XII. 

OF CHURCH COMMUNION. 

Ephes. iv. i . 3. 

/ beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation 
wherewith ye are called endeavouring to keep the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. p. 239 

SERMON XIII. 

THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ON REVELATIOX. 

Luke xviii. 8. 

When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith 
<w the earth? p. 251 



THREE 



CONTENTS OF NINTH VOLUME, 



THREE SERMONS PREACHED AND PUB 
LISHED ON THE OCCASION OF THE LATE RE 
BELLION IN 1745. And, 

A DISCOURSE ON THE NATURE OF THE 

MARRIAGE UNION. 

SERMON XIV. 

OCCASIONED BY THE UNNATURAL REBELLION. 

Preached and Published in the Month of November 
1 745, while the Rebel-army was in England. 

i Pet. ii. 17. 
Fear God y Honour the King. - - * - p. 273 

SERMON XV. 

ON THJE GENERAL FAST DAY, DEC. 1 8, 1745* 

Preached and published while the Rebel-army was 
in England. 

Joel ii. 20. 

/ will remove far off from you the northern army, 
and will drive him into a land barren and deso 
late. ---- p. 289 

A DEFENCE of the preceding Discourse. - p. 304 



CONTEXTS OF NINTH VOLUME. Xi 



SERMON XVI. 

Preached on the Thanksgiving-day, for the suppres 
sion of the late Unnatural Rebellion, in 1 746. 

2 Cor. iii. 1 7. 
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty > 



SERMON XVII. 

PN THE NATURE OF THE MARRIAGE UNIOIT. 

Matt. xix. 6. 

What God hath joined together, let no Man put 
asunder. ---.----- p. 345 

POSTSCRIPT to the Sermon on the Marriage 
Union. -----** - -: - - p. 360 



A CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF THE 

PIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER, in 1761 - p. 365 



THE 



PRINCIPLES 

OF 

NATURAL AND REVEALED RELIGION 

OCCASIONALLY OPENED AND EXPLAINED ; 

IN 

A COURSE OF SERMONS 

PREACllfD BEFORE 

THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF 
LINCOLN S-INN. 



TO 



THE WORSHIPFUL, 

THE MASTERS OF THE BENCH 

THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF 
LINCOLN S-INN. 

THE following DISCOURSES were preached, and 
^re now published, with a view of vindicating 
Reiigi >n from the insults of Libertines, and the 
indiscretions of Enthusiasts. Nor will so fair a 
purpose be at ail sullied by the motive I had 
for tliis address : which was, only to acknowledge, 
in the most grateful manner I was able, my obli 
gations to the Bench for the honour done me, at 
the last vacancy, in the generous offer of the 

Prcachership 



Xvi DEDICATION. 

Prcachership of the Society ; as well as for Your 
constant civilities to roe ever since I was honoured 
with the charge. These Discourses, therefore, 
such as they are, are humbly offered to You, by, 

GENTLEMEN, 
Your most obliged and faithful Serv 



Lincoln s-Inn, r 

NOT. 20, 1S5.V. W. VV/RBVRTeN. 



SERMON I. 

THE NATURE AND CONDITION OF TRUTH. 

JOHN xviii. ver. 38. 

PILATE SAITH. UNTO HIM, WHAT IS TRUTH? 
AND WHEN HE HAD SAID THIS, HE WENT OUT 
AGAIN. 

r inHE blessed Jesus was had before Pilate as a 
-* criminal of State : and the Governor began to 
question him upon that footing. But when he found 
the kingdom, which this supposed Criminal was ac 
cused of claiming, was one merely spiritual, or, in 
Pilate s conception, a kingdom only in idea; he con 
sidered Jesus as no proper subject of his animadver 
sion. And so far he acted as became his public 
character. 

But his incuriosity or indifference, when TRUTH 
was offered to be laid before him as a private man, 
and by one who, he knew, had the repute of exercising 
every spiritual power necessary to inforce it, shews 
him in a light much less excusable. The ne^linent 
air of his insulting question will hardly admit of an 

VOL. IX. B apology. 



2 S E R M O N I. 

apology- " You tell me, says be, of Truth : a word in 
the mouth of every Sectary, who all agree to give that, 
name to^heir own opinions. While Truth, if indeed 
we allow its existence, still wanders at large, and un 
acknowledged* Nor does it seem worth while to 
realize and fix her abode : for those things which 
Nature intended for general use, are plain and 
obvious, and within the reach of every man." 

Sentiments like these characterised the ruler of 
an Asiatic province, who had heard so much of 
Truth in the schools of philosophy, and to so little 
purpose. Pilate, therefore, finding a Jewish Sao;e 
talk of bearing witness to the truth, the pretended 
office of the Grecian Sophists, concluded him to be 
one of their mimic Followers. For it was now 
become fashionable amongst the learned Jews to 
inlist themselves into one or other of those schools. 
Thus the famous Philo was an outrageous Plato- 
nist: and Jesus calling himself a KING, this, and 
what was generally known of the purity and severity 
of his morals, probably made Pilate consider him 
as one of the STOICAL WISE MEN, who alone was 
free, happy, and a King ; 

Liber, honor atiis, pulcher, Rex denique Regum. 

Now, as on the one hand, the character of the Greek 
philosophy, which was abstracted and sequestered 
from civil business, made Pilate conclude, that the 
ministry of Jesus had nothing dangerous or alarm 
ing; so, on the other, its endless inquiries and 
quarrels about TRUTH, and which of the Sects 
had it in keeping, made men of the world, and 

especially 



S E R M O N I. 3 

especially those whose practice declined the test of 
any moral system whatsoever, willing to be per 
suaded, and ready to conclude, that this boasted 
Truth, which pretended to regulate and direct hu 
man conduct, was indeed no better than a fanciful 
and shifting vision. 

This, I presume, was the light in which Pilate 
considered the Saviour of the world. Had he 
suspected Jesus for the founder of a public Religion, 
to be erected on the destruction of the established 
worship of the Empire, the jealousies of the Roman 
Court, since the change of the Constitution, had 
doubtless made this servile minister of power very 
attentive and officious to suppress it in its birth. 

But a religion, whose object was the TRUTH, was 
at this time so unknown a thing, that a Pa<ran Ma 
gistrate could have no conception of it, but as of a 
new sect of philosophy. All the Religions then in 
credit had for their object, instead of Truth, public 
utility ; and for their means, instead of Creeds and for 
mulas of faith, only pompous rites and ceremonies. 
So that if this corrupt Politician did, indeed, regard 
the doctrine of Jesus as a new Religion, it was such 
a one as some modern Statesmen have been said to 
form of it; a sort of divine philosophy in the mind\ 
from which, it is true, the governments and politics 
of this world have little to apprehend. For it was 
not till Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, 
and judgment to come, that FelLv trembled. And 
had the Gospel, at this time, been represented to 
Pilate on its practical side, it is probable that lie, 
ns any other Statesman, had been in the same con- 

B -2 



4 SERMON I. 

dition. But Such can hear talk of the TRUTHS of 
God" unmoved and unimproved, who tremble at his 
judgments, and anticipate the terrors of his vengeance. 

But if the ill usage of Truth by the Philosophers 
could so disgust the Politician of old, as to make 
him indifferent to an acquaintance of this import 
ance ; What, must we think, will be her treatment 
amongst modern Statesmen, whose views are neither 
more pure nor more generous ; and whose penetra 
tion, perhaps, does not go much beyond the busy 
men of antiquity ; when they see her so freely han 
dled by those amongst us, who call themselves her 
Ministers, and profess to consecrate her to the 
service of Religion ? Amongst such, I mean amongst 
the active, no less than amongst the idle part of the 
fashionable world, Pilate s question is become pro 
verbial, when they would insinuate that TRUTH, like 
VIRTUE, is nothing but a NAME. 

" What is this TRUTH, say they, of which the 
world has heard so much talk, and hath received 
so little information ? You boast of it, as the Guide 
of life, yet still its residence remains unknown. 
Which would tempt one to suspect, that either 
there is no such thing ; a thing essentially different 
from falsehood ; or that its nature is too fine and 
subtile for the grosser intellect of man to compre 
hend. But above all, what is that GOSPEL TRUTH, 
which its Ministers, in their very attempts to recom 
mend, are wont so much to discredit and abuse? 
We do not mean that dim Specter or Phantasm 
of it, which hath so long haunted and possessed the 
Schools: but, that which you call, its brightest 

Substance, 



SERMON. I. 5 

Substance, as it sits inthroned in the hearts of the 
Faithful. How miserably is this shaken, not only 
by the dissentions of its Friends, but by every the 
slightest effort of its Enemies ! And while objec 
tions to Religion lie plain and level to the capacities 
of the vulgar ; the solution of them requires the 
utmost stretch of parts and learning to excogitate ; 
and equal application and attention to compre 
hend. From all this (say they) we are naturally led 
to conclude, That the Gospel-doctrines are no 
truths ; or at least truths of no general concern ; since 
they are neither uniformly held by those who are 
employed to teach them ; nor subject to the examina 
tion of such as are enjoined to receive them." 

Something like this, I apprehend, may be the 
private sentiment of those who have more decently 
discarded all care and concern about the things 
of religion. 

And as it cannot be denied but that men s acquired 
passions and appetites have concurred with the 
constitutional weakness of human nature to form 
these conclusions against Truth ; and especially that 
best part of truth, Religion ; Charity seems to call 
upon us to detect and lay open the general causes 
which have given birth to men s prejudices against 
both. 

I. And first, with regard to Truth in the abstract ; 
the various hindrances to its discovery ; and men s 
backwardness to acquiesce in it, when found. 

The principal and surest step towards the posses 
sion of the Good we seek, is our love and affection 

B 3 to 



6 SERMON I. 

for the object. This quickens our industry, and 
sharpens our attention. So that the LOVE OF TRU TII 
hath been always recommended by the Masters of 
wisdom as the best means of succeeding in the 
pursuit of it. There is hardly any one who suspects 
he wants this LOVE : and yet, How few are there whom 
their confidence does not deceive ! We mistake the 
love of our Opinions for the love of Truth, because 
we suppose our own opinions true : and yet, for the 
most part, they have been.received upon credit ; and 
consequently are much more likely to be false. 
Hence, this imaginary love of Truth proves, in fact, 
little better than the love of Error : and the affections, 
being now misplaced, they are a greater impediment 
to us in the pursuit of Truth than if we had no 
affections at all concerning it. 

How then shall we know when we have this 
love ? for still it is necessary we should have it, if 
we would follow Truth to any good purpose. It 
is difficult to describe what every man must feel for 
himself; and yet as dangerous to trust only to our 
feelings, when the object is so easily mistaken. 
However, When we set out in search of Truth as 
of a stranger, and not in search of arguments to 
support our familiar opinions ; when we possess 
ourselves in a perfect indifference for every thing 
but known and attested Truth ; totally regardless 
of the place from whence it comes, or of that to 
which it seems to tend; when the mind, I say, is in 
this situation, no one, I think, can fairly dispute 
the reality of its attachment. 

i. But 



S E II M ONI. 7 

1. But our appetites rarely suffer us to observe 
this strict and rigid conduct. We seek the grati 
fication of our humour even in the laws which should 
correct it. Hence so many various SYSTEMS OF 
MORALITY, to suit every man s proper frame of 
mind, and bent of constitution. The indolent, the 
active, the sanguine, the tiegmatic,. and saturnine, 
have all their correspondent Theories. Now, in 
quirers of this turn must needs be admirably qualified 
for the discovery of Truth ! While just as one or 
other of the complexions carries him, the man is 
drawn by a strong, though hidden impulse, into the 
very centre of his congenial system. And what will 
be the issue? His concern, from henceforth, is not 
the trial, but the support of his opinions ; which can 
be no otherwise provided for than by keeping the 
arguments in favour of them always in view, and 
by striving to forget whatever seems to have a less 
indulgent aspect. 

2. Prejudices mislead the inquirer no less than 
his passions. He venerates the Notions he received 
from his forefathers : He rests in them, upon the 
authority of such whose judgment he esteems ; or, 
at least, wishes them well, for the sake of the honours 
and profits he sees attached to the profession of them. 
Nay, he can persuade himself to patronize what he has 
once chosen, for reasons still more remote from the 
conclusions of common sense. He likes them because 
they are old ; because they are new ; for being plain 
and simple ; for being sublime and mysterious ; for 

B 4 being 



8 S E R M O N I. 

being followed by the Few ; for being followed by 
the Many ; in a word, on a thousand other accounts, 
with which Truth hath no manner of concern. But 
this must never be forgotten, that, let Prejudice drive 
from what quarter it will, it is sure to make ship 
wreck of the Understanding, thus flattered and 
betrayed. 

But then bad as this is, Since this too is certainly 
the case, that the impediments in the pursuit of 
Truth are not essential but accidental ; we may well 
account for our mistakes in setting out, the slow 
ness of our advance, and the rubs and oppositions 
in our passage, without having recourse to any 
sceptical conclusions in favour of the incomprehensi 
ble nature of Truth, or the inacessible situation in 
which the eternal Author of all things hath placed 
her. For is this any reason, that because some 
Truths are so deep, that our haste and impatience 
will not suffer us to sound them ; others so disguised, 
that our dissipation will not allow us the attention 
necessary to discover them ; and others again so 
suspected, that our prejudices dispose us to reject 
them ; that because some errors are represented so 
plausibly as to look like Truth ; others seem so 
commodious as to be wished Truth ; and others again 
appear so fashionable as to usurp all the preroga 
tives due unto it ; Is this, I say, any reason for 
sober men to conclude, that either there is no dif 
ference between what We call Truth and Falsehood ; 
or that the difference is so insensible that it will not 
perve us for a distinction? Our very Senses, in 

many 



S E KM ONI. 9 

many cases, our Reason in more, and our Hearts 
in almost all, will convince us of the contrary. 

II. We come next to consider the objections to 

RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 

i. And first, with regard to the Ministers of 
Religion, their passions and their prejudices. It is 
rather to be lamented than objected to us, that con 
secration to the service of heaven will not exempt 
good men from the frailties of humanity. As to 
the bad, indeed, if it does not aggravate their crimes, 
at least it renders them more scandalous : and, in 
general, when the matter is of high concernment, 
the passions both of good and bad are always, from 
the common impotence of our nature, proportionally 
inflamed, Mistaken constancy, or irregular zeal, 
makes this man tenacious of received opinions : 
and the obliquer affections of avarice or ambition 
make that man reverence such as are established. 
Opposition, likewise, will make both but too much 
disposed to obtrude what they suspect to be false ; 
and to secrete what they know to be true. This 
draws them still further from the road of Truth, 
while all they seek is to be at distance from one 
another s Parties and Opinions. So long, there 
fore, as these interests prevail, the plainest Truths 
will be disputed, and the most notorious Errors 
patronized and supported ; the obscurest Principles 
preferred to the clearest, and the subtilest conclusions 
take place of the most simple. 

2. Inveterate 



io S E R M O N I. 

2. Inveterate errors concerning the nature and 
end of God s WRITTEN WORD, errors long since 
sanctified by time and authority, are another source 
of those disgraces to which Revelation is become sub 
ject The Gospel is so commonly honoured with 
the name of TRUTH; and holy Scripture in general 
so frequently recom mended for its capacity of leading 
us Into ail truth, that men have been apt to regard 
it as a treasury of Science ; and to apply to their 
Bible for all the principles of human knowledge. 
And under this delusion, the vain inquirer, to cover 
the dishonour of a fruitless search, hath always had 
recourse to that exhaustless fund, the human Imagi 
nation ; which is ever then most extravagant when 
Reason is at greatest distance. How miserably, for 
instance, hath the Mosaic account of the Creation 
been dishonoured by the wild and jarring expositions 
of men devoted to this or that sect of PHILOSOPHY 
or MYSTICISM ! Platonists, Materialists, Cartesians, 
Chemists, Cabalists, and all the impure fry of phy 
sical, philological, and spiritual Enthusiasts, have 
found their peculiar whimsies supported, and made 
authentic, in the first and second chapters of the 
book of GENESIS ! 

How, again, have the Jewish LAW and the GOS 
PEL of Jesus been abused by Slaves and Rebels ; 
or by such as were ready to become either ; to find, 
in one, the DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS; and, in the 
other, the Supremacy and DOMINION OF THE 
CHURCH ! 

But amidst all the folly and mischief attending 

this perversion of the Bible, in support of human 

20 system? 



SERMON L ii 

systems of Philosophy and Politics, had men only 
reflected, that, though Scripture be said to be 
written to make us wise, it is added unto salvation* ; 
they would have sought for the principles of natural 
and civil knowledge amongst their proper Professors: 
and have studied Scripture only to investigate that 
wisdom which is from above; and is first PURE, 
then PEACEABLE f : a wisdom, which, at the same 
time that it enlightens the Judgment, rectifies the 
Heart ; and so takes away all ground of contention 
both from a perplexed head and a bigotted temper. 

III. But the thing which, most of all other, indis 
poses sceptical men to the truths of Revelation 
is, " That the small remain of SCRIPTURE-TRUTH 
which the friends and ministers of Religion have 
left unimpaired, lies a prey to its enemies : obvious 
(they say) to a thousand objections ; and every 
objection level to the capacity of the Vulgar; 
while the solution of them not only requires the 
best abilities to frame and draw out, but the closest 
attention likewise to comprehend/ 

Now, as this is supposed to affect both the 
nature of Truth in general, and the character of the 
Gospel in particular, we shall consider it in either 
light. 

i. All objections to Truth must needs be founded 
in false judgment : False judgment proceeds from 
ignorance, or a superficial view of things : But this 
ignorance is the proper allotment of the Vulgar ; So 

* 2 Tirn. chap. iii. 15, f Jam. chap. hi. 17. 

that, 



12 SERMON I. 

that, what arises from thence, as referring to, and 
consonant with their capacities, cannot but make, a 
quick and easy impression. On the contrary, the 
solution of these difficulties must needs be formed 
on a true judgment of things. This judgment springs 
from a profound view of Nature. But such a view 
requires a large detail : and the mutual connexions 
and dependencies of things, a strict examination : 
hence the necessity of time to acquire, and of at 
tention to comprehend. These different properties 
in OBJECTIONS and SOLUTIONS are so constant and 
notorious, that the ease of questioning foolishly, and 
the difficulty of answering wisely, is become pro 
verbial. 

Hence we collect, that even admitting Revelation 
to be true, it would be necessarily attended with 
the disadvantages here objected to it. 

2. In vindication of the character of the GOSPEL 
it may be replied, That it is one thing to under 
stand the meaning of a truth delivered in a 
proposition, and another, to comprehend all the 
reasons on which that truth is founded. The first 
of these is all that is NECESSARY for man to know : 
For when God vouchsafed the revelation of himself 
to the world, he annexed SAVING FAITH to the 
knowledge and acceptance of clear and simple pro 
positions, such as these, that Jesus is the Messiah, 
the Redeemer of mankind. They mistake his Gos 
pel, and alter the terms of his Covenant, who put 
salvation upon the evidence to -be given of the 
NECESSITY OF A SAVIOUR. The learned Divine, 

we 



SE RMO N I. 13 

we presume, is able to satisfy all serious inquirers, 
in both these particulars : But if the reasoning which 
proves the latter, exceed the capacity of the mere 
Vulgar, it derogates nothing from Revelation ; since 
the knowledge of that matter makes no part of the 
terms of our salvation. All, that man can wish 
should be indulged him, in consideration of his 
natural infirmities, is indulged him : For the utmost 
he could desire is, that the Truths, which come 
proposed to him from God, be plain and consistent; 
and accompanied with Credentials from the sender. 
Agreeably hereto, the fundamental doctrines, which 
the Christian religion objects to our belief, are the 
existence of one God, the Creator ; and his moral 
government of the world ; that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God, sent by his Father to redeem man 
kind from sin and misery, and to restore them to 
eternal life, by the sacrifice of himself upon the 
cross ; and that the Holy Spirit is the sanctifier and 
enlightener of all those who walk worthy of the 
vocation wherewith they are called. Propositions 
of the utmost clearness and precision. Nor is the 
evidenee of their original less simple or intelligible -, 
such as the Miracles performed, and the Prophesies 
fulfilled, in attestation of them. 

So admirably fitted for the gross body of man 
kind, is this Religion, both in its genius and 
promulgation ! No absurd incredibility in Nature, 
proposed; no blind submission to Authority, required. 
The doctrines, as clear as they are pure, equally 
solicit the Understanding and Affections ; and are 
adapted to satisfy the Reason, at the same time 

ihat 



M S E R M O N I. 

that they allure the Will. In a word, uiforccd 
with that power and conviction as makes it difficult 
for an ingenuous mind to reject them, though under 
cover of that civil (but criminal) dismission of the 
Roman Governor. 

IV. But then, " If these fundamental articles of 
tbe Gospel- covenant were contrived by divine Wis 
dom, with such simplicity and plainness, How came 
they, it will be asked, to be so delivered as to afford 
occasion for the inquisitive to start a thousand curious 
questions, which have no other tendency than to 
perplex and obscure them ? " To this, we beg leave 
to say, that, though, indeed, sacred Scripture, as 
far as it respects the essentials of the Christian faith, 
be exceeding ,clcar and simple, yet it does, at the 
same time, contain many profound, and even im 
penetrable mysteries. Mysteries, however, which 
no less manifest the adorable wisdom, than the 
open doctrines do the abounding goodness of our 
all-gracious Master. 

The Gospel is a Covenant or Transaction of God 
with Man. The immense distance between the 
Parties contracting must needs make the several 
parts of the covenant very dissimilar. So that, if 
from Alan s nature and situation we may expect, 
that, when God vouchsafes to direct us by a revela 
tion of his WILL, all his commands will be brief, 
evident, and -full; we must, on the like reasoning, 
conclude from the nature of the other contracting 
Party, the God of the universe, that when he vouch 
safes to instruct Man in the revelation of his TRUTH, 

there 



S E II M O N I. i- 

there will be some things in the Covenant of Grace, 
which will partake of the sublime obscurity of its 
Author. 

It was the same God who framed the Christian 
(Economy and the Newtonian System. Why there 
fore should it be matter of objection to the former, 
and not to the other, that there are many things sur 
passing human comprehension in both ? Is the 
doctrine of Grace more stupendous than the velocity 
of Motion given to Light ? Or is the incarnation of 
the Son of God more astonishing than the least 
possible quantity of Matter sufficient to make a 
World ? If therefore the Newtonian philosophy 
(which is built on Science) hath revealed and demon- 
srated the .powers of Nature amidst all that darkness; 
how can we doubt of seeing God in his Gospel, 
though surrounded with the impenetrable depths of 
infinity ? In a word, I think we might as reasonably 
conclude against the divine original of the Gospel, if 
there were no traces of such mysterious parts, as 
if there were only such. An unclouded splendor, 
and undiluted obscurity, equally discrediting the 
Works and Dispensations of Heaven. 

But, of the dark parts of Revelation there are 
two sorts: one, which may be cleared up by the 
studious application of well -improved talents; the 
other, which will always reside within the shadow of 
God s throne, where it would be impiety to intrude. 

However, neither the one nor other make part of 
the essential doctrines of our Faith. The impene 
trable nature of the latter totally unfits them for 
objects of religious belief; and the diliicult com pre 
hension 



16 SERMON I. 

hension of the former unfits them for becoming 
objects of the People s. But as it is this sort only 
which can afford any reasonable ground to the 
objection before us, we shall be a little more 
particular. 

The Gospel professes itself to be the completion 
of one entire System, advancing by a gradual pro 
gress, through various Ages and People, from the 
Creation of man to his Redemption. A Dispensa 
tion of this character cannot but be contrived and 
conducted on principles of the sublimest wisdom. 
So that as, on the one hand, the knowledge of the 
relations of the parts to one another; and their 
various coincidencies, and mutual operations, to 
produce, either their distinct, or their united effects, 
will be extremely difficult; so, on the other, the 
attainment of this knowledge will be necessary, if 
we aspire to that full and comprehensive idea of 
Religion, which can alone enable us j;o detect and 
satisfy the doubts and cavils of Infidelity. 

Now, in this consists the ratio and essential 
grounds of the Gospel- doctrine; of which, one 
would think, the only issue should be credit, and 
glory to the Christian Faith. But unadvised inquir 
ers exploring the depths of infinite Wisdom without 
modesty and reverence, have given a handle to 
licentious men to turn these proofs, explored im 
properly, and imprudently inforced, into an argument 
against the divine original of Revelation. And this 
pretence making its appeal to the ignorance of 
the Vulgar, is greedily embraced. In the mean 
time, the solution of the cavil demanding an enlarged 

view 



SERMON I. 17 

view of God s moral economy, acquired by the 
right application of general knowledge, well digested, 
we need not wonder, that a better understanding 
than commonly falls to the share of the People is 
required to enable us to see the force of such 



reasoning. 



But is this general incapacity any real objection 
to the truth of our Religion? By no means. It 
is perfectly agreeable to our ideas of God s moral 
attributes, that he should inform men of his Will; 
that he should deliver to them a rule of action, 
accompanied with the sanctions of a Law : It is as 
conformable to our ideas of Man s relation to his 
Maker, that he should receive and observe this 
Law. Reason, indeed, expects that the delivery of 
it be attended with these conditions, That the pro 
positions in which it is contained be clear and 
intelligible; the truths in which it is conveyed, 
agreeable to the nature of things; and the pre 
tensions of those intrusted with its propagation, 
confirmed by superior power. Along with this Law 
i* proclaimed the free gift of a general blessing ; 
which the Giver might bestow at his pleasure, as 
well in one reasonable way as in another. 

Has rnan any more to expect before he vouchsafes 
to accept this free blessing, or condescends to be 
governed by this equitable Law ? Reason says, 
No. But Passion and Prejudice stand out. cf We 
want, they cry, to be informed how we came to 
stand in need of this Salvation. We want to be 
instructed in the ratio or essential grounds of the 
doctrine propounded, * 

VOL. IX, C Now 



x - 



18 SERMON I. 

Now if divine Wisdom had not thought fit to com 
ply with so bold and insolent a demand, Could we 
accuse him of being wanting to his favourite Man ? 
Surely we could not. Yet God hath been graciously 
pleased to humour our caprice. He hath laid open 
the depth and riches of his System so fully, as to 
enable those, who are duly qualified with human 
knowledge, to satisfy these demands, and to explain 
the WHY of his economy of Redemption. 

Will this content us ? By no means. " The solti- 
" tion, it is said, is founded in such principles of 
c< speculative science as the People can never com- 
" prehend." But for this, there is no remedy. The 
fault, if there be any, lies not in the mode of the 
religious Dispensation, but in the nature of Truth 
itself: Which requires much attention of the best 
gifted and best improved understanding to penetrate 
to its general principles. Would you have the eternal 
nature of things altered to gratify your prejudices? 
Truth, no more than its Author, can sink to the 
level of your ignorance ; but You, by a proper cul 
tivation of your reason, may rise to Truth, may reach 
its sublimes t heights, its residence near the footstool 
of the Almighty. 

<c This attempt, you say, the station and 
condition of the people will never suffer them to 
make; they have neither leisure to learn, nor 
opportunities to philosophise." Be content then 
with those simple principles, and plain argu 
ments for Religion, explained above : and have the 
candour and honesty to own, that, if you want 
knowledge to judge of the answers of the learned, to 

infidel 



SERMON I. 19 

infidel objections; you want it equally to judge of 
the objections themselves ; which, therefore, should 
never indispose you to what you do understand ; 
Principles, which constitute those essential articles 
of faith by which you must be saved. And if the 
higher and more intricate truths of Religion exceed 
your capacity, be assured (if for no other reason than 
this) that you may be safely ignorant of them. In 
the concerns of life, about which, men are generally 
more in earnest than in the affairs of Religion, you 
take the conclusions of Science upon trust, and erect 
them into principles : You navigate, you build, you 
state accounts, and trust to the mathematician for 
the ratio of those rules by which you work and at 
tain your purpose. 

But to this you will say, " It is true, indeed, that 
in the common affairs of life, men go on upon trust ; 
but then uniform experience shews, they are in no 
danger of being deceived ; for the constant success 
attending the operations, thus conducted, assures 
them, that the rules by which they act are deduced 
from principles of Truth." And is that FAITH and 
OBEDIENCE, which constitute us the disciples of 
Christ, less uniformly productive of good? Did 
Faith ever violate civil peace ; or Obedience impair 
domestic felicity ? In vain you tell us of that frantic 
Zeal, of that dire Superstition, which have set whole 
Kingdoms in a flame, and desolated private Houses. 
The first mischief they always do is to corrupt 
FAITH and OBEDIENCE : and after this, to charge 
upon these, the evils caused by their destroyers, is 
adding mockery to injustice. 

c 2 And 



20 SERMON I. 

And here let me observe, that the Founders of 
our holy Faith were in this, as in all other parts of 
their conduct, truly admirable. What they chiefly 
insisted on to the People at large, was the BELIEF 
of a few simple propositions, as necessary to Salva 
tion. When they addressed themselves to such 
Particulars who were fitly qualified and rightly dis 
posed, such who have heads to distinguish, and 
hearts to chuse the right, they as warmly recom 
mend EXAMINATION, to search the Scriptures, and 
to try all things. Yet the only use a late writer 
could find in so sage and generous a conduct was to 
turn it to abuse, in a piece of profane drollery, called 
Christianity not founded on argument. An egre 
gious exploit ! and worthy the Author s charitable 
views; the mock consolation of Fanatics, and the 
sly merriment of Sceptics and Unbelievers. 

But now, we are stopt short and told, that all our 
pains might have been well spared ; for that the ne 
cessity of these profound defences, so much em 
broiling the learned and embarrassing the Vulgar, 
doth not arise from the nature of truth, but from the 
folly or knavery of its Advocates. " It is astonish- 
" ing (says the Objector) how Divines could take 
" so much silly pains to establish mystery on me- 
" taphysics, revelation on philosophy, and matters 
" of fact on abstract reasoning. A Religion founded 
" on the authority of a divine Mission, confirmed 
" by prophecies and miracles, appeals to fact : and 
" the facts must be proved as all other facts, 
" that pass for authentic, are proved. If they arc 
(t thus proved, the Religion will prevail without 

" the 



SERMON I. 21 

" the assistance of so much profound reasoning *." 
To which I reply, That, had this charge on the Di 
vines been well founded, the objection would yet 
have been uncandid and disingenuous. For who 
were they that drew the Divines into metaphysics, 
philosophy, and abstract reasoning, but these Ob 
jectors themselves? And on what occasion, but 
this ? The advocates of Revelation did not want to 
be told that a " Religion founded on the authority 
" of a divine Mission, and confirmed by prophecies 
" and miracles, appeals to facts," and was to be 
proved by human evidence : For in reality, by 
FACTS they had already proved it : And with such 
force and Evidence, that unbelievers were driven 
from their Objections to the Facts, and reduced to 
take refuge in Philosophy " You press us with 
facts (say they) and the testimony of antiquity : 
supports too slender to bear the unnatural load of 
REVELATION ! A thing impossible in itself, as it 
opposes the established order of Providence : A 
thing impossible under the Bible representation of it, 
as several passages in that book directly oppose our 
common notions of God s Attributes." In this 
strait, what was to be done, but either to confess 
the force of the objection ; or, by the aid of that 
metaphysics, philosophy, and abstract reasoning, 
which the last objection appeals to, and which the 
other condemns, to shew its futility and weakness. 
For the constitution of nature cannot be explained 
without metaphysics ; and the Attributes of God 

* L. B s Letters concerning the study and use of 
History. 

c 3 cannot 



22 S E R M ONI. 

cannot be confronted with his supposed commands, 
without the use of abstract reasoning. And yet, for 
submitting to this necessity, for undergoing this 
drudgery, the Divines are upbraided, ridiculed, and 
turned into contempt. A nd by whom ? By the very 
men who occasioned the distress, and defied them 
to get out of it. 

Nor is this the worst The Divines are repre 
sented as applying their " metaphysics, philosophy, 
" and profound reasoning, to prophecies and inira- 
" cles." How gross the misrepresentation ! They had 
more wit, they had more honesty (I speak not here, 
nor does the Objector, of two or three crack-brained 
visionaries), than to take so much silly pains. They 
applied this reasoning as became them ; not to mat 
ter of FACT, but of RIGHT. It was pretended, that 
God could not give a Revelation ; that he could not 
select a chosen People ; that he could not accept a 
vicarious atonement. And against these bold as 
sertions, the Christian Divine directed all the force 
and evidence of true Philosophy. With what suc 
cess, the latest posterity shall tell with gratitude. 

V. But it is not only from what lies hid, but 
from what hath been discovered, that the enemies 
of our Faith can raise objections to its discredit. 
If, in these later times, it hath been pretended, 
that a more rational idea of God s dispensations 
hath been proposed ; if the various genius, the 
comparative excellence, the mutual dependence, 
the reciprocal illustrations of the several Parts, and 
the gradual progress of the Whole towards perfec 
tion, 



S E R M O N I. 23 

tion, have been investigated with a penetration, 
solidity, and precision unknown to those ages which 
time alone hath taught us to esteem venerable ; if, 
I say, this hath been pretended; We are then 
asked, " How it came to pass, that Truths, so 
sublime and useful, should have lain hid till now ; 
When the light of the Spirit was sent so early, and 
had illuminated the Church so long ? How it came 
to pass, they were denied to the best times ; and, 
after a long course of ages, reserved as a reward 
for the very worst ? " And when they have asked 
this, to discredit OLD truths ; they can, in order 
to increase the prejudices against them, join with 
bigots, how inconsistently soever, to decry the 
NEW. 

To this objection, it is sufficient to reply, That 
the promise and gift of the SPIRIT may be con 
sidered either as it concerned the first propagators 
of the Word ; or as it concerned the teachers and 
hearers of it ever since. As to the immediate 
disciples of Christ, there is no doubt of their being 
abundantly enlightened for the work of their minis 
try ; whether it was in making converts, in founding 
churches, or in composing those occasional instruc 
tions, by which Christians of all ages may improve 
the current benefits they receive from the assistance 
of the same Spirit. And that assistance is the 
second point we are to consider. 

Now the endowment of Grace is, in this respect, 
just the same with every common endowment of 
Nature ; of little advantage without our co-opera 
tion ! God hath given men hands and feet, to 
c 4 procure 



24 SERMON I. 

procure good and to avert evil. But the benefit 
does not operate like a charm ; it is to our dextrous 
application of the members that we owe all the 
advantages arising from their use. So it is in the 
free-gift of the Spirit : it was bestowed upon us to 
enlighten the Understanding, to assist the Judgment, 
and to redress the disorders of the Will. But if 
either we refuse to exert these faculties, or will 
direct them to improper objects, the use and efficacy 
of Grace must surely be defeated. These reflec 
tions will enable us to give a reasonable account 
how it might happen, that very important truths, 
concerning God s moral Dispensations, may have 
remained hid for ages, and yet be reserved (to the 
greater glory of his Gospel in its greatest need), for 
the discovery of these worse and latter times. 

This supposed ordonance, in the ceconomy of 
Grace, may receive credit from what is confessed 
to have happened in the economy of Nature. 

The power, wisdom, and goodness of the Author 
of the System to which we belong, is so clear and 
evident from every obvious configuration of Matter 
surrounding us, that it cannot escape the notice of 
the most inattentive, or lie concealed from the most 
ignorant. Hence a GOD, the Maker, Preserver, 
and Governor of the world, is the concurrent voice 
of Nature. 

Now CREATION and GOVERNMENT, from which 
the morality of human actions is deduced, are the 
great principles of NATURAL RELIGION. So that 
God could not be said to have been wanting in the 
discovery of himself to the lowest of his reasonable 
20 creatures. 



SERMON I. 25 

creatures. Yet though the obvious marks of his 
Power, Wisdom, and Goodness, thus obtrude them 
selves upon all men ; it is certain that a well-directed 
study, in the contemplation of the great book of 
Nature, opens to us such stupendous wonders of his 
Power, such awful scenes of his Wisdom, and such 
inchanting prospects of his Goodness, as exceed 
all conception of the unlettered and uninstructed 
Spectator. Some faint taste of these beauties, the 
more Inquisitive enjoyed very early : But their 
successors, by too much indulging to SPECULATION, 
and allowing too little to EXPERIENCE, instead of 
finding a real, invented an infinite variety of ideal 
Worlds ; all as dishonourable to the Author of 
Nature as distant from his Truth. At length, men 
grew wiser by the follies of those who went before 
them ; and a different method of studying Nature 
was invented and pursued; in which Fancy was 
excluded, and Fact only allowed for a solid ground 
of physical progression. From this time, Science 
advanced ; the veil of Nature was drawn aside ; 
and her sacred Mysteries exposed to the open 
admiration of all men. 

This was the case in the System of Nature. The 
System of Grace seems to run exactly parallel. 

The great principles of Revealed Religion are 
FAITH and OBEDIENCE : And these are clearly 
and fully taught in the Gospel ; and are alone 
sufficient to make men wise unto salvation. But we 
should greatly derogate from God s Moral govern 
ment, not to suppose it abounding with the like 
mysterious wonders as the Natural. And to the 

study 



26 S E R M O N I. 

study of these, there were more calls, and much 
better opportunities. The knowledge of God s 
moral Dispensation is the duty of every man ; and 
more especially of the Ministers of Religion : So 
that partly on account of the importance of the 
subject ; part y to enable us to oppose ourselves to 
the malice and sophistry of the enemy ; but prin 
cipally in obedience to the command, to study the 
Scriptures^ it has, from the first ages of Christianity 
down to these times, been one of the principal 
occupations of the Learned. Yet what through 
unfavourable circumstances in the Civil and Literary 
world; what through the bias of inveterate pre 
judices ; but, above all, from the oblique interests 
arid turbulent passions of the inquirers themselves ; 
the various systems of Religion, invented by Divines, 
and which all pretend to find in Scripture, have 
dishonoured the Redemption of mankind near as 
much as those of the Philosophers had dishonoured 
the Creation of the universe : till here, as in the 
other case, the same spirit of prudence and sobriety, 
which taught men the true method of treating 
the things of Nature, by a careful study of the 
volume of creation, led them into the right way of 
treating the things of God, by a careful study of 
the volume of Redemption. So that if, in these 
times, the advances in the knowledge of God s 
WILL should haply prove as considerable as those 
in the discovery of his WORKS, it will not be beside 
a reasonable expectation ; as similar means are 
always likely to produce similar effects. 

We have placed these correspondent histories of 

the 



S E R M O N I. 27 

the progress of the human mind, in NATURE and 
GRACE, thus near one another, that, by comparing 
the parts of them together in the same view, we 
may see whether there he any objections to the 
truth of new discoveries in religious matters that 
do not equally hold against the truth of new dis 
coveries in natural ; of which, for their newness 
alone, no man ever yet entertained the least sus 
picion. 

First, then, as to God s primary discovery of his 
Nature in the great book of Creation, compared 
to the discovery of his Will in the volume of his 
written word, we may observe his goodness in 
either case to be equally conspicuous. In the 
former, a man need but open his eyes to see the 
Divinity in every object; in the latter, he who 
runs may read the means and method of his own 
Salvation: In neither, is any thing wanting, that 
is necessary, to instruct the most ignorant in 
their dependance, and their duty. For further 
information in the works and wavs of Providence, 
God wisely reserved it for the reward of the 
manly and virtuous improvement of the Under 
standing. 

It is true, in fact, that throughout a vast series of 
ages, neither of these Inquirers made any very 
considerable advances in real knowledge : but it is 
as true, that the impediments, in both cases, pro 
ceeded not from any difficulties in the nature of 
the things inquired after, but from the wrong 
methods employed in the search. Instead of endea 
vouring to find out the real constitution of things 

from 



28 SERMON I. 

from the frame of God s works, as they are 
objected to our senses ; or the nature of Revelation 
from the study of the word, as conveyed to us in 
Scripture ; they invented imaginary Systems out of 
their own slender stock of Nothing ; and then, hy 
wresting and distorting, forced Nature and the 
Bible to father this shadowy and spurious issue. 

But both Divines and Philosophers, when they 
became convinced of their follies, and, in con 
sequence of that conviction, proceeded with more 
modesty, as well as better sense, to renounce their 
fanciful Hypotheses, and to erect Theories on the 
real constitution of things, Both, I say, made great 
advances in natural and religious truth. 

These two important studies, therefore, being 
alike circumstanced, and having run the same 
fortune, demand, in all reason, the same judgment 
to be passed on their pretences. 

But, alas! we are not accustomed to be thus 
equitable. One of the principal sources of human 
errors is the drawing different conclusions from the 
same principles. 

It is confessed, that the book of Nature is so 
plain and clear, that every sentence names and 
reveals its Author : that if less obvious Truths have 
lain a long time concealed, it was men s own fault, 
in adhering to a perverse method of inquiry ; and 
that when afterwards a better was invented, and they 
began to apply it with more care and sobriety, 
knowledge opened and enlarged itself proportion - 
ably: while the sudden blaze of light which followed, 
was so far from making Truth suspected, that it 

dissipated 



S E R M O N I. 29 

dissipated all those doubts which had before been 
held of its obscure and equivocal nature. 

But now if we turn from Physical to Religious 
inquiries, we shall find, that the very contrary 
inference hath been drawn from all the same circum 
stances. Because men had been long unsuccessful 
in the discovery of the higher truths of Religion, 
nut only these, so lately found and so difficultly 
comprehended, but even the most obvious prin 
ciples, early delivered and generally received, have 
been rendered doubtful and suspected. 

But there is another sort of Men, the pretended 
friends indeed of Religion, who, from too great 
reverence for things established, have joined with 
such as have too little, in decrying all XOVP:LTJES 
in religious matters. 

These Men, abhorring the vanity to be thought 
wiser than their forefathers, have in express terms 
declared their displeasure at making what they call 
experiments hi Religion, 

Divines, it is true, have long disputed how 
experiments in Religion should be made. Some 
would employ Scripture alone ; others were for 
taking in Fathers and Councils ; and a third sort 
for applying raillery and ridicule to the process. 
But, till of late, every man was for some experiment 
or other. For what is making experiments but (as 
we have just shewn) illustrating Revelation by new 
arguments arising from new discoveries made in 
the order, fitness, and harmony of the various 
dispensations of Religion amongst themselves, just 
as Philosophers (of whom the word is borrowed) 

unfold 



30 S E R M O N I. 

unfold nature by new discoveries made, from re 
peated trials, in the contents of bodies. 

No experiments in Religion is indeed the Language 
of Statesmen (for in some things bigotry and politics 
agree, as extremes run easily into one another by 
their very attempts to keep at distance), because, 
according to the Politician s Creed, Religion being 
useful to the state, and yet only a well-invented 
fiction, all experiments, that is, all inquiries into its 
truth, naturally tend, not to confirm, but to unsettle 
this necessary support of civil Government. 

But, for one who believes Religion to come from 
God to be frighted with the danger of experiments, 
is to take his friend for his enemy, the most ridi 
culous of all panic terrors. 

One might reasonably ask such a one, how it 
comes to pass that experiments, of so sovereign 
use in the knowledge of Nature, should be calculated 
to make such havoc in Religion ? Arc not both 
the works of God ? Were not both given for Man s 
contemplation ? Have not both, as proceeding from 
the common Master of the Universe, their depths 
and obscurities ? And doth not the unfolding the 
mysteries of moral government tend equally, with 
ttie displaying the secrets of the natural, to the 
advancement of God s glory, and the happiness of 
Man ? In a word, had no experiments been made 
in Nature, we had still slept in the shade, or wan 
dered in the labyrinth of School Philosophy ; and, 
had no experiments been made in Religion, we had 
still kept blundering on in the rugged and dark 
paths of School-divinity. 

To 



SERMON I. 31 

To end as we began, with the instruction afforded 
by my text. What reason seems to require of us 
is this ; That if yet we know not THE TRUTH, we 
should seek it of those who do : and if the plain 
and simple principles of it will not serve our turn, 
but that we will needs philosophize, and demand 
a reason for every thing, that at least we stay for an 
Answer ; and stay, too, till we understand it, before 
we venture to pronounce the Religion of our country 
to be nothing but a mere human imposition. 



SERMON 11 

GOD S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 
PSALM, cxliv. ver. 3. 

L0RD, WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU TAKEST KNOW 
LEDGE OF HIM ? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT 
THOU MAKEST ACCOUNT OF HIM? 

r lH H U S the holy Prophet, seized with a sacred 
-*- horror at an UNIVERSE stretched out through 
the immensity of boundless Space ; and with a 
rapturous gratitude for that GOODNESS who has 
graced his favourite Man with so tender and so 
intimate a regard. 

Meditations of this kind are, indeed, most obvious 
and affecting. The RELIGIONIST and the MAN 
OF THE WORLD have equally employed them to 
reduce Humanity to its just value ; though for 
very different purposes ; the first, to excite religious 
gratitude in others ; the second, to encourage him 
self in an impious NATURALISM. 

When the Religionist con), .re9 this small Spot 
of earth to the whole of its System > and sees a 
number of primary and secondary planets, habita- 

VOL. IX. D tions 



V 

34 S E R M O N II. 

tions like his own, if he may judge by probable 
analogy, rolling round with it, and performing their 
various revolutions about one central fire, the 
common source of light and warmth to all, He is 
abashed at the mean and diminished rank his own 
world bears in this solemn and august assembly. 

When, by the aid of improved Astronomy, he com 
pares this subastral economy with the systems of 
the fixed stars ; every one of which reigns a Sun, 
directing and influencing the revolutions of its atten 
dant planets ; and sees that, as the Earth is but a 
point compared to the orb of Saturn, so the orb of 
Saturn itself grows dirnensionless when compared 
to that vast extent of space which the stellar-solar 
Systems possess and occupy ; This Lord of the crea 
tion shrinks suddenly from his height, and mingles 
with the lowest crowd of unheeded and undistin 
guished Beings. 

But when, by the further aids of science, he un 
derstands, that a new Host of Heaven, too remotely 
stationed for the naked sight to draw out and re 
view, hath been made to issue into day ; each of 
which shining strangers is the Leader of a troop of 
others, whose borrowed lustre, too weakly reflected, 
no assistance of art can bring forward ; and that 
still, when sense stops short, science pursues the 
great discovery, and reason carries on the progress 
through the mighty regions of boundless space ; the 
fatigued imagination, tracing system after system, 
as they rise to light in endless succession, turns 
frightened back upon itself, and overwhelms the 
labouring mind with terror and astonishment : 

whence, 



SERMON II. 35 

whence, it never can disengage itself till it rises on 
the wings of FAITH, which bear this humbled crea 
ture from himself, and place him before the throne 
of Cod ; where he sees the mysteries of that Provi 
dence laid open, whose care and bounty so magni 
ficently provides for the meanest of his creatures. 

Thus piously affected is the Religionist with the 
sacred horrors of this amazing scene ; an universe 
stretched out through the wide regions of space, and 
terminated on all sides by the depths of infinity. 

But let us turn now to ths Man of the world, 
whom this view of things, rather DEGRADES th.in 
HUMBLES. Calmly contemplative in the chair of 
false science, he derides the mistaken gratitude of 
the benighted Religionist ; a gratitude rising not on 
reason, but on pride. u For whether, says he, we 
consider this earth, the mansion of evil, or man its 
wretched inhabitant, What madness is it to suppose, 
that so sordid a corner, and so forlorn an occupant, 
can be the centre of God s moral government ! What 
but the lunacy of self-love could make this short 
lived reptile, shuffled hither as it were by Fate, and 
precariously sustained by Fortune, imagine himself 
the distinguished care, and the peculiar Favourite of 
Heaven? As well, says he, might the blind inhabit 
ants of an ant-hill, which chance had placed on the 
barren frontier of an extended Empire, flatter them 
selves with being the first object of their monarch s 
policy, who had unpeopled those mighty deserts only 
to afford room and safety for their busy colonies. 
The most, that reasoning pride can tempt us to pre 
sume is, that we may not be excluded from that 

r> 2 general 



36 SERMON II. 

general providence, governing by laws MECHANI 
CAL, and, once for all, impressed on matter when 
it was first harmonized into systems. But to make 
God the MORAL, that is, the close, the minute and 
immediate inspector into human actions, is degrading 
him from that high rank in which this philosophy of 
inlarged creation hath so fitly placed him : and re 
turning him to the people, tra vested to the mortal 
size of local Godship : under which idea, the super 
stitious vulgar have been always inclined to regard 
the Maker and Governor of the World." 

Thus widely distant are the conclusions of the 
philosopher, from the sentiments of the religious 
man. 

But who are the inlarged thinkers, and on which 
side reason declares, it is the purpose of this discourse 
to inquire: Where, we trust, it will be found, that 
Man, notwithstanding the vast distance between him 
and his Creator, is indeed the subject of God s 
MORAL government, just as instinct prompts him to 
hope, and religion directs him to believe. 

I. If from the difference of intrinsic dignity, and 
native worth in the CREATURE, we can conclude 
aught concerning the proportioned degrees of near 
ness in which it stands to its Creator, we shall be 
forced to give the place of honour to MIND above 
MATTER. 

We are dazzled with the pomp and splendor of 
a visible Creation : and the august forms of material 
things hinder us from discerning the despicable 
qualities of that substance out of which they are 

fashioned. 



SERMON II. 37 

fashioned. But view this substance well, and we 
shall find, that what philosophers call the INERT 
NESS of Matter, a quality essential to it, places it 
in the very lowest class of what we can conceive 
of Being. So that were it not for the virtue of 
ATTRACTION, a thing foreign and extrinsic to it, 
Matter would be totally unfit for all the known pur 
poses of its Creation. 

To make Matter, therefore, any way considerable, 
its accumulated bulk must supply for its inherent 
baseness. And yet the best Philosophy, proceeding on 
geometric principles, hath informed us, that possibly 
all the solid matter in the universe may be comprised 
within a narrowness of limit * still more astonishing 
than .even that immensity through which we find it 
dilated and expanded. 

Thus MATTER carries in it no further marks or 
notice of a creating Hand, than an aptitude of fall- 

* See Newton s Opt. p. 243. Svo Ed. te The Saga- 
" city of our author [Newton] (says Dr. Pemberton, 
" in his excellent View, &c.) has discovered a method 
" by which the least portion of matter may be wrought 
" into a body of any assigned dimensions how great 
" soever, and yet the pores of that body none of them 
" greater than any the smallest magnitude proposed at 
" pleasure; notwithstanding which, the parts of the body 
" shall so touch, that the body itself shall be hard and 
" solid. Which shews that this whole Globe of Earth, 
" nay all the known bodies in the universe together, as 
" far as we know, may be compounded of no greater a 
" portion of solid matter than might be reduced into a 
" Globe of one inch only in diameter, or even less." 
View of Sir Isaac Newton s Philosophy, pp. 355, 356. 



ng 



38 SERMON II. 

ing back into nothing on the withdrawing the in 
fluence of that power which brought it into being. 
While, on the contrary, a rational MIND presents us 
with the strongest and brightest image *, it is possible 
for a Creature to reflect of its Creator. It partakes 
of that divine virtue, the power of agency within 
itself. It has a capacity of imagination to turn its 
regard from the present, to the past anc! future ; an 
ability of judgment to examine and rectify the in 
formations of sense ; and a freedom of Will to give 
morality to all its thoughts and actions. 

But besides this obvious superiority of Mind over 
Matter in the nature of their essences ; there is as 
sensible a difference in he ends of their Creation, 
or in the effects produced by the exertion of their 
several qualities. The material world was made 
but for the sake of the intellectual ; and consequently 
it is not to be supposed, that MORAL GOVERNMENT, 
which regards the end, should be neglected ; while 
NATURAL GOVERNMENT, which concerns only the 
means, should ingross the whole of the Ruler s at 
tention. With respect to the effects produced, Mind 
will, here again, have the same advantage; moral 
fitnesses having a greater intrinsic excellence than 
natural: for Matter being devoid of consciousness, 
the end of the Natural is only good effected ; while 
the end of the Moral is good felt and enjoyed. 

Mind, therefore, cannot but engage the care of 
Providence ; which is confessed to superintend the 
movements of that Matter, whose combinations ul 
timately regard only mind and Intelligence. 

* Gen. chap, i. ver. 26, 

But 



SERMON II. 39 

But what makes fastidious reason so averse 
to the idea of God s moral government, when it so 
easily admits his Natural, is that in this latter case, 
systems are thought to be sustained and kept in order 
only hy the general laws of mechanism, impressed 
on Matter at its Creation ; or by certain powers 
lodged within it, to mold it into form, to push it into 
motion, and to give the true bias to its operations : 
so that here, the Deity works neither immediately 
nor particularly, but leaves every thing to the govern 
ment of those general Laws, or at least to the 
administration of that secondary power, or Plastic 
Nature, which superintends the execution of his 
Laws : while he himself, the sovereign Lord of 
Being, descends not from his high estate, nor suffers 
his supremacy to be degraded by a minute attend 
ance on every particle of body ; or polluted by an 
intimate contact with gross impure materiality. 
On the other hand, they see, moral government 
must be conducted on different principles, For its 
subject being free agency, and its object the direc 
tion of the effects which such an agency produceth, 
the attention of the Deity must be instant, in> 
mediate, and particular ; the relations of Master 
and Servant, of Lord and Subject, necessarily implying 
the most close and constant intimacy. 

But what shall we say, if the indisposition to 
God s moral government, on account of this dif 
ference, be a mere prejudice? An indisposition 
not derived from Nature, but the false explanations 
of its phenomena, obtruded on us by vain system- 
makers ? Indeed, this supposed distance and separa- 

p 4 tiou 



40 S E R M O N II. 

tion of the great Artist from his Work, after having 
once set the Machine a-going by the first impression 
of his general Laws, is the gratuitous conclusion of 
a talking Philosophy : The later, and more correct 
inquiries into the material system, on the unerring 
experience of the Newtonian physics, have clearly 
discovered, that God is intimately present to every 
particle of Matter, at every point of Space, and in 
every instance of Being. For a vis INERTIA, or 
resistance to the change of its present state, being 
an essential quality of Matter, and inconsistent with 
any motive, force, or power in that Substance, all 
those effects commonly ascribed to a certain essence 
residing in it, such as gravity, attraction, elasticity, 
repulsion, or whatever other tendencies to Motion 
are observed in Matter, are not powers naturally 
belonging to it, or what can possibly be made 
inherent in it. So that these qualities, without 
which, Matter would be utterly unfit for use, must 
needs be produced by the immediate influence of 
the first Cause, incessantly performing, by his 
almighty finger, the minutest office in the Material 
Economy ; working still near us, round us, within 
us, and in every part of us. 

If, then, in the Natural government of the world, 
the immediate, the incessant influence of the workr 
man on his work in general, through all its systems 
up to the whole ; and, in particular, through all its 
lesser portions down even to the minutest atom, be 
necessary to enable Matter to perform its functions ; 
there is no reason to revolt against that close con 
nexion necessarily supposed between the Creator 

and 



SERMON II. 41 

and Creature, in God s Moral government ; or to 
wonder that the order of Rationals should be 
honoured with the same immediate presence, the 
same degree of nearness and intimacy, with which 
the Godhead visits the whole inanimate creation. 

II. Hitherto, we have endeavoured to affirm the 
reality of God s Moral government here below, 
by considerations drawn from the nature of the 
Creature. Let us now turn to the CREATOR ; and 
see if those things which human reason discovers 
of his ATTRIBUTES do not farther contribute to 
establish this important truth. 

But we have been told, and with airs of superior 
knowledge, that these pretended attributes, as they 
are commonly specified, and distinguished into 
natural and moral, are a mere human fiction ; in 
vented, by aid of analogy, from the actions, passions, 
and qualities observable in man : And that the simple 
nature of Deity is one uniform perfection ; of which, 
infinity being the base, we can have no distinct idea 
or conception. 

To this, it will be sufficient to reply, That it is 
indeed true, that these specific attributes, from 
which we deduce all our knowledge of the Nature 
and Will of God, are formed on analogy, and bear 
relation to ourselves. But then, we say, such 
attributes are not on that account the less real or 
essential. The light of the SUN is not in the orb 
itself what we see it in the RAINBOW. There it 
is one candid, uniform, perfect blaze of glory : 
flere, we separate its perfection, in the various 

attributes 



42 SERMON II. 

attributes of red, yellow, blue, purple, and what 
else the subtile optician so nicely distinguishes. 

But still, the solar-light is not less real in the 
rainbow, where its rays become thus untwisted, and 
each different thread distinctly seen, than while they 
remain united and incorporated with one another, 
in the Sun. Just so it is with the divine Nature: 
It is one simple individual perfection in the Godhead 
himself : But when refracted and divaricated, in 
passing through the human Mind, it becomes 
Power,, Justice, Mercy ; which are all separately 
and adequately represented to the Understanding. 

I shall venture, therefore, to consider the divine 
perfection, as thus reduced and unfolded to human 
contemplation, under the name of Attributes, with 
out any fear of mistaking shadows for realities. 

And here, I say, that the Natural attributes of 
the Deity, considered as Creator and Lord (and 
with these relations only, the Religionist has to do) 
may be comprised in those of POWER and WISDOM : 
His Moral, in those of JUSTICE and GOODNESS. 

Now I hold, that though the idea of his natural 
attributes be. as clear, in the abstract, as that of his 
moral ; yet the idea of his moral attributes is, in the 
concrete, more adequate than that of his natural*. 

The 

* What is here said may enable us to form a proper 
judgment of the following censure. " I would not say, 
" God governs by a rule, that we know, or may know, as 
" well as he, aqd upon our knowledge of which he appeals 
" to men for the justice of his proceedings towards them; 
" which a famous Divine hath impiously advanced in 
t( a pretended Demonstration of his being and attributes. 

God 



SERMON II. 43 

The reason seems convincing. The moral rela 
tion in which we stand to God, as free Agents, is 
just the same whether man exists alone, or whether 
lie hf but a i; ik in the chain of innumerable orders 
of I -. Jigjnces surrounding the whole Creation. 
Hen j " j must n-jeds have a just and full knowledge 

O 

of onr i^ucy to aim, and of his disposition towards 
us : O ;> vliich knowledge i^ founded, the exactness 
of our conceptions of his Moral attributes, his jus- 
i [C and GOODNESS. But the natural relation in 
which we, or any of God s creatures, stand towards 
him, as Material Bein^, is not the same, when con- 
sidere.l simply, as when a portion of a dependent 
air* connected ~V hole. Because, whenever such a 
Whole exists, the harmony and perfection of it must 
first of all be consulted. This harmony ariseth 
from the mutual subserviency and union of its parts. 
But this subserviency may require a ministration of 
government, with regard to certain portions of matter 
thus allied, different from what might have followed 
had those portions stood alone ; because that precise 
disposition, which might be fit in one case, might be 

unfit 

" God forbid ! But this I may say, that God does 
" always that which is FITTEST to be done. And that 
" this fitness, whereof neither that presumptuous dog- 
" matist was, nor any created being is, a competent 
tl Judge, results from the various natures and more various 
" relations of things. So that as Creator of ALL SYS- 
" TEMS, by which these natures and relations are con- 
" stitutedj he prescribed to himself the rule which he 
" follows, AS GOVERNOR OF EVERY SYSTEM oy 
" BEING." Lord Bolingbroke s Idea of a Patriot Kin cr, 
printed 1749, p. 94, 



44 S E R M O N II. 

unfit in the other. Hence we who know there is a 
Whole, of which our material system is a part, and 
yet are totally ignorant both of its nature and 
extent, can have but a very confused idea of that 
physical relation in which we stand towards God. 
So that our conceptions of his natural Attributes, 
his POWER and WISDOM, which are founded on 
that idea, must, in the concrete, be proportion ably 
vague and inadequate. 

Shall we, then, confide in that information which 
our less adequate ideas of God s power and wisdom 
afford us of his natural government ; and yet reject 
that which cur more adequate ideas of his justice 
and goodness give us of his moral government? 
We understand both, and rightly, as assuring us 
that he presides both in the one and in the other 
Economy. But let us not forget, that this informa 
tion is conveyed to us with very different degrees 
of clearness and precision. A difference, on the 
side of moral government above natural, in pro 
portion as our knowledge of God s moral attributes 
is less vague and inadequate than our knowledge 
of his natural, 

III. Thus far from a separate consideration of 
the CREATOR and his WORKS. Let us see, in the 
last place, whether the same Truth may not be 
further supported from a joint view of BOTH of 
them together. 

The idea of an immensely extended Universe 
tempts weak reason, deluded by sense ancl narrowed 
by prejudice, to suspect that this point of space, in 

which 



S E R M O N II. 45 

which man exists, may well escape a busied Ruler, 
who has innumerable Worlds upon his hands. We 
do not reflect, that the same reasoning, which leads 
us to conclude that a point of space may be over 
looked in God s providence, piercing through infinite 
extension, would lead us to conclude, that there 
may be points of time, throughout infinite duration, 
which likewise escaped his attention. Yet the ab 
surdity of this, we feel : Why not then of the other ? 
The reason is, because the portions of Time rise 
only in succession ; whereas all the parts of space 
exist together. 

But this IMMENSITY, in which bewildered man 
considers himself as absorbed and lost, will, on due 
reflection, evince the very contrary to what it is 
brought to prove. Were Creation not thus widely 
extended, the infinity of its Author might perhaps 
seem less evident. And how far the influence or 
power of a Being not infinite might reach would be 
yet more uncertain. But a boundless creation shews 
its Author to be infinite : So that the remaining 
question concerning the extent of Providence will 
amount to this, Whether an infinite Being can ex 
tend his care to every the minutest portion of an 
Universe to which we can set no bounds. A ques 
tion which will hardly deserve an answer, 

" But (say these objectors) the moral system 
wants one essential mark of divine superintendence, 
which is ORDER; and this the natural very eminently 
bears. The Sun keeps its first appointed station ; 
the Planets perform their accustomed revolutions ; 
each Element preserves its distinct properties ; and 

all 



46 SERMON IT. 

all nature concurs to produce that harmony, with 
which things set out, when God honoured his rising 
Creation with the attribute of GOOD. But Man 
deflected early from his primeval righteouan oo s, and 
felt the miseries of a depraved system ere he had 
fully tasted the blessings which flow from the recti 
tude of the Will, and from the even balance of the 
Affections. And what he so early lost, Time has 
never yet been able to restore ; so that he is likely 
to continue the same forlorn abandoned creature 
throughout the whole of his existence." 

But these Objections are as vague as they are 
stale. We have been accustomed to talk at ran 
dom of the ORDER of natural things ; and we 
suffer ourselves to aggravate the DISORDERS of the 
Moral. 

We can judge but very imperfectly of the whole 
of the material system. For how small is the portion 
of Body objected to our view ! and how fleeting the 
period of time allotted for our study ! 

We see indeed, perpetual peace and concord in 
our own solar World; but we know little of the 
astral systems, innumerable and remote. And the 
little we do know gives cause of suspicion that all 
there is not so regular and constant, as analogy to 
what we find here, would tempt us to conclude. 
New stars have suddenly shone out ; and have as 
suddenly disappeared: Phenomena, which look either 
like eccentric starts in the Courses of those bodies, or 
destructive revolutions in their Natures. Nor are 
we without some appearances in OUR OWN System, 
to give countenance to these suspicions in the more 
22 remote. 



SERMON II. 47 

remote. Perhaps the Ring of Saturn may be no 
other than a less irregular fragment of a crushed 
and broken Globe. The wounds, our own Earth 
hath formerly received, are yet deep and ghastly ; 
which -though skinned over by time and human cul 
ture, are seen, by those who pry the least beyond 
its surface, to bear all the marks and memory of a 
ruined world. 

But to turn from these supposed flaws and maims 
in some of the parts, to the acknowledged perfections 
of the general System. Its order and harmony, it 
must be owned, speak most fully to the sustaining 
power of its Lord and Master : yet those who have 
penetrated deepest into its mysteries *, have dis 
covered rooted evils and "growing disorders, scarce 
sensible, indeed, at present, but what, in time, and 
without the intervening hand of its Maker, will 
render the frame of nature altogether unfit for the 
purposes of its. general destination. 

It is true, it may be said, " That these proceed 
slowly and insensibly, while moral disorders infect 
at once, and rush like a torrent over the fair bosom 
of Creation." 

The thing perhaps is too true : but the inference 

" While Comets move in very eccentric orbs in 

" all manner of positions, blind fate could never make 

all the planets move one and the same way in orbs 

concentric; some inconsiderable irregularities excepted, 

which maij have arisen from the mutual actions of Comets 

and Planets upon one another ; and zohich will be apt to 

increase till this system wants a reformation: Newton s 

Opt. 4th edit. p. 378. 



48 S E R M O N II. 

is unjust. This difference is not to be ascribed to 
a contrary conduct in the Governor, but to the 
contrary natures of the subjects. 

Passive Matter being totally inert, its resistance 
to the Laws impressed upon it must be extremely 
weak : and consequently the disorders arising from 
that resistance, proportionably slow and unheeded : 
\vhile that active self-moving principle, the Mind, 
flies out at once from the centre of its direction, and 
can, every moment, deflect from the line of truth 
and reason. Hence moral disorders began early, 
became presently excessive, and have continued 
through all ages to disturb the harmony of the 
System. 

Nor are the different methods employed by 
Providence, for the reform of either system, less 
distinguishable, than the different qualities of Mind 
and Matter, which occasioned so wide a distance 
in the progress of their several disorders : as may 
be seen by comparing them together. From 
whence it will appear that the disorder and the 
reform of that disorder, in either subject, are wisely 
proportioned to one another. 

When the inertness of MATTER hath occasioned 
irregularities in the corporeal system, it hath no 
ability in itself to redress them. They mus t go on, 
though slowly, from bad to worse, till disabled nature 
calls upon the hand of God for an extraordinary 
reformation. 

But MIND, is ever applying remedies to its own 
distempers. First, by the check put to them by the 
stimulation of opposite passions and affections j for 

the 



S E R M O N II. 49 

the appetites are incessantly defeating one another s 
natural tendencies, and perpetually producing con 
trary effects. So avarice restrains luxury ; self- 
interest withholds injustice; and sloth quenches 
ambition: So revenge and hatred procure public 
justice ; treachery often prevents a national destruc 
tion ; and envy and opposition to power produces 
a sage and cautious administration. 

Thus the jarring interests of corrupt passion keep 
moral evil within moderate bounds, and give time 
and opportunity to the mind to recover the govern 
ment and direction of itself; in the regulation of 
the appetites and reformation of the will : And this 
is the second way the mind has of procuring remedies 
for its own distempers. 

In these different methods of reforming; either 
system, the divine goodness is equally displayed ; 
only his power is more visibly exercised in the one, 
and his wisdom in the other. When blind Matter 
deviates, as nothing but the conducting hand of 
God can bring her back into the road of Nature, 
so the force attending that reduction is so for from 
impairing her essential virtue, that it heals and 
restores it. But the like intervention with a rational 
Agent would impinge upon his freedom. God has 
therefore so admirably contrived, in the disposition 
of his moral System, that it should be able to restore 
itself; by making its very disorders contribute to its 
reform, in the check the vitious passions give to one 
another s operations ; and in the opportunities with 
which time supplies the Mind, to assume its native 
sovereignty, for the carrying on the reformation. 

VOL. IX. K Thus 



50 SERMON II. 

Thus we see God s government in morals becomes 
as conspicuous as in natural things : For, the dis 
posing causes and effects in such a manner as to 
make vice defeat its own end, no less manifests the 
attention of infinite wisdom, than the aiding matter 
to produce its proper destination, is fitted to display, 
infinite power. 

But to perceive the force of what is here said, we 
must remember, that moral government consists of 
TWO PARTS; The one, a Provision to prevent evil, 
and to support good ; The other, a destination of 
reward and punishment, assigned in due proportions 
to the agents of either : Our subject concerns the 
first part only : The second is to be explained on 
other principles ; and is not within the limits of 
this Discourse. 

To conclude, The sober inquirer will not be dis 
pleased to find at length, that the objections to 
God s moral Government spring from the weakness 
of our faculties, and the prejudices attending our 
situation ; joined to a corrupt vanity which makes 
human reason the measure of all things : and that 
this Philosophy, which bears such a shew of inlarged 
and superior knowledge, stands on the narrow 
bottom of ignorance, and as it rises in vanity, 
increases in absurdity. 

To HUMBLE HUMAN REASON is the work of true 
Religion, and, if not the end, is always the issue, 
of sound Philosophy : but to DEBASE HUMAN 
NATURE is the low aim of impiety, and the darling 
project of corrupt manners. Providence laid open 
the knowledge of his works to excite our gratitude, 
1 9 and 



SERMON II. 51 

and strengthen our attachment to their Author. 
What the philosopher said of the knowledge of 
ourselves, may be well applied to the knowledge of 
the universe. " Let us not imagine it was given 
merely to humble human arrogance : One great 
purpose of it was to impress upon our hearts a sense 
of the divine goodness towards man *." To turn 
this knowledge, therefore, to a brutal debasement of 
our nature, or a philosophic oblivion of our Lord 
and Master, is the lowest depravity of an intelligent 
Being. In a word, if reason and piety have no 
weight, let natural shame deter us, when we can 
never merit this distinction, at least from dishonour 
ing the grace by irreverent cavils at the dispensation. 

* Illud yvuQt o-savrov noli putare ad arrogantiam minu- 
endam solum esse dictum, verum etiam ut bona nostra 
norimus. Cic. 



E 2 



SERMON III. 

THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 
i Ep. JOHN iv. ver. 20. 

IF A MAN SAY, I LOVE GQD, AND HATETII HIS 
BROTHER, HE IS A LIAR : FOR HE THAT LOVETH 
NOT HIS BROTHER, WHOM HE HATH SEEN, HOW 
CAN HE LOVE GOD, WHOM HE HATH NOT 

SEEN ? 

THE superior excellence of the Gospel morality 
above all other summaries of human conduct, 
whether preached up as a RELIGION by Priests ; 
inforced for LAW by the founders of Society; or 
recommended under the name of PHILOSOPHY by 
the Masters of wisdom ; is now so generally seen 
and acknowledged, that even the enemies of Revela 
tion have been forced to confess, It is as well in 
perfection as in purity, as well in public use as in 
private, truly worthy the original it assumes. 

An advantage which the Ministers of our holy 
Religion have, with great judgment, taken all occa 
sions to inforce, and with equal solidity to explain. 

J3ut there is another circumstance in this divine 
E 3 economy, 



54 SERMON III. 

economy, which carries the honour of it still higher, 
as directly tending to prove, That the Gospel 
morality which is so worthy of God 3 had, in truth, 
God for its immediate Author. And this perhaps 
may not have been insisted on with the frequency 
and attention which so important a matter seems to 
require. 

The circumstance I mean is, that profound and 
enlarged knowledge of human nature, which the 
Apostles discover in their manner of recommending 
moral duties. In this dispensation, these weak and 
foolish instruments, in the hand of Providence, have 
foiled and disgraced the boasted wisdom of Greece 
and Rome ; and in that very way wherein their 
wisdom most excelled ; in short and detached pre 
cepts, composed for the conduct of human life 
by men studious to reduce their long laborious 
searches after happiness into weighty and com 
pendious aphorisms *. 

But before I proceed to explain the words of my 
text, which afford so illustrious an example of this 
truth, I shall consider, in general, the occasion of them. 

The life, the spirit of Christian Religion is universal 
benevolence. Agreeably to this, we may observe, 
That the first founders of the Churches, let the 
occasion be what it would, whatever Discipline they 
established, whatever Doctrine they inforced, what 
ever vice or Heresy they stigmatized, or whatever 
grace or virtue they recommended, CHARITY was 
the thing still present with them, and always in 

Plat, in Protag. 

their 



SERMON III. 55 

their care. Charity, the bond of perfectness, the 
end of the commandment ; that etherial principle, 
which, like the elastic fluid of the Philosophers, 
animates, connects, and ennobles the whole System 
of intelligent nature. 

The beloved Disciple of our Lord particularly, 
who may be well supposed to know his Master s will, 
seems to have written the Epistle, from whence I 
take my text, with no other design than to recom 
mend this first of Virtues, CHARITY : at a season 
too, when, as Heresies were springing up apace, 
some modern Theologists would be apt to think he 
mi^ht have employed his time and talents to more 
advantage. And indeed one might ask, and scarce 
absurdly, why so very much upon Charity, in an age 
when the followers of the Lamb had so few induce 
ments to pollute it ? For the Faith being yet chaste 
from the prostitutions of the Schools, and the 
Hierarchy uncorrupted by the gifts of Constantine, 
the Church laboured neither under Bigotry nor 
Ambition, the two fatal incentives of uncharitable 
ZeaL But the reply is easy. It was the providence 
of that prophetic spirit which set before them the 
image of those miserable times, When Iniquity 
should abound, and the love of many should wax cold: 
and they were willing to bear witness, and to record 
their testimony against the future violators of the 
bond of perfectness. For I can by no means 
enter into the refinements of him who discovered 
that Jesus and his followers might preach up love 
and charity the better to enable a set of Church 
politicians, some ages after, to tyrannize over 

E 4 those 



50 SERMON III. 

those whom the engaging sounds of benevolence 
and brotherly love had intrapped into obedience *. 
Besides, this is not delivered like a temporary 
direction : it is not barely recommended : the 
reason, on which it stands, is given with it; a reason 
founded in the nature of things, and supported 
by the very order of Providence. If a man 
say, 1 love Gad, ami hateth his Brother, he is a 
liar : for lie that lovcth not his Brother, whom 
he hath seen, how can he love God, whom he hath 
not seen? An argument, which, for its unaffected 

* " Terrors alone, though accompanied with miracles 
" and prodigies of whatever kind, are not capable of 
" raising that sincere faith and absolute reliance which 
" is required in favour of the divinely authorised Instruc- 
" tor and spiritual Chief. The affection and love which 
" procures a true adherence to the new religious foun- 
" dation, must depend either on a real or counterfeit 
" goodness in the religious founder. Whatever ambitious 
" spirit may Inspire him ; whatever savage zeal or per- 
" scouting principle may lye in reserve, ready to disclose 
" itself when authority and power is once obtained ; the 
first scene of doctrine, however, fails not to present 
1 us with the agreeable views of Joy, love, meekness, 
" gentleness, and moderation. Charity and Brotherly, 
" love are very engaging sounds ; but who would dream 
" that out of abundant Charity and brotherly love should 
" come steel, fire, gibbets, rods, &c." Characteristics, 
vol. iii. p. 114, 115, cd. 4th. But the general premises 
are as false as the particular inference is absurd. Ma 
homet did raise that sincere faith and absolute reliance, 
amongst his followers, by terrors alone, and without 
that affection and lore employed bv the founder of Chris 
tianity. 

simplicity^ 



SERMON III. 57 

simplicity, a modish Freethinker will be tempted to 
despise ; and yet would pretend to admire, had it 
come from Plato or Cicero. 

But some, perhaps, may like the reasoning not the 
worse for its being evangelical : and such will bear 
with me while I attempt to illustrate its superior force 
and beauty. 

The Argument is founded in the true theory of the 
RISE and PROGRESS of the SOCIAL AFFECTIONS ; of 
which the following account may afford us some im 
perfect notion. 

An endeavour to preserve its Being makes part 
of the essential constitution of every created thing. 
Hence, in the Inanimate, a resistance to outward 
force; in the Animate, a pursuit or an abhor 
rence of what is helpful or hurtful ; and, in Alan, that 
first and strongest passion of his nature, SELF- 
LOVE; from whence all the other appetites derive 
their force, and to which they direct their aim. Its 
use is to assist the heart to awaken Virtue, and to 
push out and develope the great principle of 
BENEVOLENCE. 

It is true, indeed, that Benevolence, arising from 
this source, at first runs thick and turbid ; but, as it 
holds its way, it refines; it purifies and expands 
its current, till it hath lost all memory of its low 
original. 

For the passion of self-love, aided by the kindred 
appetite of NATURAL AFFECTION, soon makes art 
effort to move outward ; and looking forward with 
an instinctive tenderness on our offspring, it is taught 
to turn its regard, as far back, with rational gratitude 

on 



58 SERMON III. 

on our Parents. And though the former be loving 
ourselves as represented in others ; and the latter, 
only loving others as represented in ourselves ; yet 
the principle of Benevolence being now awakened, it 
begins, from this moment, to desert its origine : it 
extends itself to our remoter relatives ; and, in a 
little time, takes in every connexion of domestic life. 
And, thus continuing to enlarge and widen, by such 
time as it irows impatient of restraint, the wants 
and reliefs, the services and protection, which exer 
cise its virtue in this inferior state, enable it to form 
ideas oi a nobler Community, and to trace the out 
lines and image of a SOCIETY. This produceth 
another effort, and of a more exalted kind ; the ob 
ject of benevolence being no longer an INDIVIDUAL, 
but a WHOLE. 

From tiiis time the social passions make large ad 
vances ; and Benevolence, improved and strengthened 
even by the selfish sense of mutual wants, and the 
experienced means of mutual relief, extends its in 
fluence and efficacy through the whole community 
of those who need, or can impart, assistance : and 
thus, on the natural plan of domestic connexions, 
erects that artificial regimen called Civil society. 
So that, as before, Benevolence advanced from par 
ticular to general ; it now riseth still higher, from 
PRIVATE to PUBLIC. And thus, having a Com 
munity for its object, it wins and truly deserves its 
name : Self-love being now absorbed in the 
noblest of ail social passions, THE LOVE OF ouu 
COUNTRY ; which the Roman Patriot, in a philoso 
phic analysis of its generation and constituent parts, 

rightly 



SERMON III. 59 

rightly defines to be that which " includes all other 
social affections*." 

Thus doth SELF-LOVE, under the varying 
appearance of natural affection, domestic relation, 
and the connexions of social habitude, at first work 
blindly on, obscure and deep in dirt; but, as it 
makes its way, it continues rising, till it emerges into 
light; and then, suddenly expiring, leaves behind it 
the fairest issue ; which, nobly forgetful of its low- 
beginning, advances on the steps of Virtue, till it 
reaches to RELIGION. 

For the interests of mere animal life being well se 
cured in this first progress to Benevolence ; the Mind, 
which hitherto only cared for the Body, begins to make 
provision for itself ; and, having laid in for the others 
wants and weakness, attends, in good time, to its 
own superior dignity and importance. 

And now, placed on so fair an eminence, as the 
LOVE OF OUR COUNTRY, and its sight purged and 
defecated from the gross remains of evanescent Self- 
love, it goes on widening its views, till it hath taken 
in the whole race of Mankind ; considered but as 
one Policy, or rather, FAMILY; connected by the 
equal participation of one common nature ; and sup 
ported by the consequent right of one common 
measure ; and therefore the endeared object of one 
general benevolence. 

Thus DOMESTIC life, which first produced Civil 
society, and then gave birth to this more generous 

* Chari sunt Parentes, chari Liberi, Propinfjui, Fami- 
U fires: sed omnes omnium Charitates P ATRIA una com- 
plexa est. Cic. 

and 



60 SERMON III. 

and enlarged community, at length brings Benevo 
lence round again into itself as to its full and final 
completion, by drawing the whole race of mankind 
into one common FAMILY. 

But, in die course of this progress, the Mind, as 
it widens, becoming fatigued and dazzled by its in 
tense solicitation of this growing Whole, hath fre^ 
quent need, at its several stages, to catch at and to 
rest in partial objects. 

Hence tie origine of FRIENDSHIP *, the solace 
and splendor of private life ; which, while we are 
advancing towards that only adequate object of hu- 

* " Private Friendship,, and Zeal for the Public and 
" our Country, are virtues purely voluntary in a Christian. 
" They- are no essential parts of his CHARITY. He is not 
" so tied to the affairs of this life ; nor is he obliged to 
" enter into such engagements with this lower world, as 
" are of no help to him in acquiring a better." Charac 
teristics, 4th. ed. vol. i. p. 98, 99. The Philosophy of this 
remark is like the candour. For if (as we shall now see) 
no one can acquire the love of God without having love 
or benevolence to man; so neither can this benevolence 
(which certainly is not a virtue purely voluntary in a Chris 
tian) be acquired, without having had private Friendship 
and zeal for the Public and our Country. The reason is 
the same in both cases : the road to the more general 
stages of benevolence lying, all the way, through the more 
particular. Engagements, therefore, with this lower world, 
(to use the language of the noble Writer) are (contrary to 
his conclusion) of great help to us in acquiring a better. 
But when Christian Charity had been represented as not 
springing from Virtue, it was no such bold abuse of the 
public indulgence to endeavour to persuade us, that the 
Christian Faith is not founded in Argument. 



SERMON III. 61 

tiian attachment, a Whole, teacheth us by tlie way 
all our journalary duties to Particulars. 

Having thus endeavoured to explain how all the 
virtues of humanity arise, and have their source, 
from the gradual expansion of the great principle of 
Benevolence : we come, in the next place, to con 
sider, how, in its further advances to perfection, 
RELIGION itself emergeth from it. 

In all the objects of love and benevolence, the at 
tractive quality is GOOD. And this connexion being 
made by the nature and constitution of things, the 
greater the apparent good, the stronger must the 
passion grow. Now when the whole human race is 
considered by us as the object of our love ; The steps 
by which we, are led to this high advance in benevo 
lence, such as Man s origine, his common nature, 
and the dependence of the happiness of the individual 
on the species, carry us naturally higher ; to seek the 
first cause of so orderly and well-regulated an 
effect. An inquiry, which terminates in the Author 
of this, and of all other good : Whom, as such, we 
are forcibly drawn to pursue, and to aspire after; 
and in the contemplation of whose nature and attri 
butes we find at last the SUPREME AND SOVEREIGN 
GOOD : from whence, as we say, all other good 
ariseth, and in which they are all contained. HE, 
therefore, challenged our supreme and sovereign 
love ; which never ceaseth to advance and enlarge 
itself, till it end in an UNION with him. 

And thus the last great effort of benevolence pro- 
xhiceth what we call, RELIGIQN ; whose end all 
agree to be HAPPINESS. 



62 SERMON III. 

This is the true account of the rise and progress 
of UNIVERSAL LOVE : which, as it regards man, our 
holy faith calls CHARITY ; as it regards God, 
PIETY. 

But there were in the apostolic times, and will be 
in all times, a sort of men who are for catching at the 
rewards of faith without undergoing this long, but 
pleasing labour of love ; and whose frantic aim is to 
make a sacrilegious divorce between Charity and 
Piety. These men assume to themselves great merit 
in loving God, while they treat their Brother with 
contempt and cruelty. But what says the Apostle, 
in my text ? Provoked at their hypocrisy, he strips 
off the mask, and brands them with the odious name 
of LIARS: a name, in Scripture language, of the most 
opprobrious import; as given to impostors of all 
kinds ; and implying in it every thing corrupt both 
in moral and religious practice. If a man (says St. 
John) say, I love God, and hatelh his Brother, he 
is a liar: For he that loveth not his Brother, whom 
he hath seen, how can he, (ove God, whom he hath not 
seen ? The force and beauty of which reasoning, 
the foregoing account, of the rise and progress of 
Benevolence, will enable us to understand. 

" You pretend, says the Apostle, to love God, though 
you hate your Brother. Vain and fallacious ! The 
love of every object begins, like all our other passions, 
from self-love : Thus we love ourselves, by repre 
sentation, in our Parents, and in our Offspring : it 
extends to our remoter relatives ; and so on, through 
the whole vicinage, to every fellow-member of the 
Community. And now, self-love refined by reason, 

and 



SERMON III. 63 

and sublimed by virtue, begins to lose its nature, 
and deservedly to take another name. Our Country 
next claims our love : we then extend it to all 
Mankind ; and never rest till we have, at length, 
fixed it on the most amiable of all objects, the 
great Author and Original of Being. 

This is the course and progress of HUMAN LOVE ; 
gradually rising from the individual to the whole : 
as unlike, in its progress as in its purity, to the 
DIVINE BENEVOLENCE ; which, in gracious aid of 
its Creatures, takes a different course : for, spring 
ing from the Whole, it spreads and expands itself 
through every moral system, till it clasps and 
embraces the Individual. 

And now (pursues the Apostle) I reason thus : 
Can you, mistaken man ! who are not yet arrived 
at that inferior stage of benevolence, the love of 
your Brother, whom you hare seen, that is, whom 
the sense of mutual wants, and the experience of 
mutual relief, amongst the joint partakers of one 
common nature, might teach you to love, can you 
pretend to have attained the top and summit of this 
virtue, the love of God, whom you have not seen, 
that is, whose wonderful economy, in the system 
of creation and government, which makes him so 
amiable, you appear to have no conception of; 
You, who have not yet learnt, that your own low 
system is supported on the great principle of be 
nevolence. Fear him, flatter him, fight for him, 
as you blindly dread his power, you may: But, 
to love him, as you know not his nature, is im 
possible." 

This 



64 SERMON III. 

This is St. John s simple reasoning. From whence 
I conclude for tho divinity of that Spirit which could 
infuse so much sublime knowledge into the pen of 
a rude unlettered fisherman. 

Nor does it less recommend the excellence of our 
holy Religion than the wisdom of this its Minister : 
for what could give us a higher idea of Christianity 
than its making the love of man the previous step, 
the only way of acquiring, that happy frame of 
mind, divinely tempered with the love of God ; 
which fits us for what is the end and completion 
of all religion, the possession of his Spirit ? 

But this doctrine, which explains the connexion 
between the love of God find man, has still a further 
use. It keeps our holy Faith pure from SUPER 
STITION, BIGOTRY, and FANATICISM : the three 
worst dishonours to which Religion is exposed. 

1. For DIVINE LOVE thus produced, and rising 
on the knowledge of God s nature, will keep religious 
worship free of SUPERSTITION, will preserve it 
from all barbarous and abject ceremonies ; and 
from all selfish and uncharitable devotion. It will 
remove from God s service all slavish dread of his 
anger for the neglect of actions indifferent ; and 
all childish hope of atoning for violated morality 
by the performance of others, equally indifferent. 

2. THIS LOVE, standing on the foundation of 
human benevolence, whose object is God s rational 
creation, will exclude all the BIGOTRY of false Zeal, 
which, for God s sake, is ever ready to desolate the 

earth, 



SERMON III. 65 

earth. For now, no one can be so absurd to imagine, 
that the means of perfecting the fruit of faith, 
which is the love of God, is by shaking the root of 
charity, benevolence to man. I am aware, how cer 
tain propagators of the Faith, sometimes the despi 
cable tools of others impotency, but as often the 
viler slaves of their own ambition, have endeavoured 
to hide their corrupt passions under the thin cover 
ing of a School-distinction. While they would 
persuade us, that it is pure charity to man which 
thus factiously engages them in, what they call THE 
CAUSE OF GOD: and that what plain honest men 
style a want of Charity, when they insult the fame, 
the fortune, or the person of their Brother, is the 
very height of this princely virtue, a Charity for his 
soul So, indeed, it may be of the Hangman s 
Charity, who waits for your Clothes. But St. John s, 
or St. Paul s, it could not be. It could not be that 
Charity which was not easily provoked, which thought 
no evil ; bore all things, hoped all things, believed 
all things. A Charity, which begins in candor, in 
spires good opinion, and rests in the temporal wel 
fare of our Brother. 

3. But the deceitfulness of the heart is ingenious 
in expedients to elude the commandments of God. 
And when Bigotry, by its coarse and butcherly viola 
tions of Charity, hath sufficiently discredited its own 
measures, FANATICISM, with equal rage, though with 
somewhat a milder aspect, steps in to divest us of 
our humanity, under pretence, to assimilate it to the 
divine nature, by annihilating all love of the Creature, 

VOL. IX. F and 



66 SERMON III. 

and resolving every other affection into the pure un 
mixed love of God ; as if the least portion of bene 
volence, communicated to our Brother, was a rob 
bery to our Maker. The fumes of spiritual madness 
disable these men from seeing so far into the order 
of things as to understand, that till we can throw off 
the condition of related Beings, as well as the passion 
of humanity which results from it, our fellow-crea 
tures will always have a claim to our benevolence. 
In compassion therefore to such, Holy Scripture has 
provided a still easier instruction than this negative 
precept of rny text, by the addition ot the positive 
command, THAT HE WHO LOVETH GOD, LOVE HIS 
BROTHER ALSO*. 

Such then is the Religion which Jesus came into 
the world to teach. Whose foundation being laid in 
the love of our Brother, provides for our peace and 
consolation here; and whose superstructure termi 
nating in the love of God, secures and establishes 
our happiness hereafter. 

* i John iv. 21. 



SERMON IV. 

THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN, 
PROVERBS xvii. ver. 5. 

WHOSO MOCKETH THE POOR REPROACHETH HIS 
MAKER. 

OF all the truths, for the direction of our conduct, 
with which this royal treasury of ancient wis 
dom abounds, there is none fuller either of profitable 
use or profound science than this contained in my 
text ; which so severely censures all expressions of 
contempt towards those whom Providence has 
thrown below us on the distressful stage of human 
life. 

And, as we must first clear our corrupt nature 
from this rankness, before we can attempt to cultivate 
that immortal amarant of Paradise, Christian love 
and benevolence ; it may not be improper to shew 
the reason and explain the use of the WISE MAN S 
divine aphorism, Whoso mocketli the Poor reproach- 
tth his Maker. As much as to say, " He who 
maketh the Poor the object of his contempt and 
ridicule, on account of those disastrous circumstances 

F a which 



68 SERMON IV. 

which attend the want of the goods of fortune, 
tacitly condemns and reproaches the wise and 
gracious order of Providence." 

But it may not be amiss, previously to consider, 
In what state it is, that man becomes the object of 
this criminal mockery to his fellow- creature. It is 
plain, it cannot be in that where he lives uncivilized. 
For there, the distinctions between RICH and POOR, 
whereon the insolence of wealth formeth those 
odious comparisons, which conclude in the contempt 
of penury, have hardly any place; that sordid 
condition, which, now contrasted to pomp and gran 
deur, is become the subject of opulent scorn, being 
there so general as to admit no room for an 
unfavourable distinction : But, an universal parity, 
like darkness, blots out all difference between 
honourable and mean. Nay, should the civilized 
beholder be disposed to regard with contempt the 
wants and miseries of this state, it would not be 
the criminal contempt forbidden in my text : because 
the state of nature is not that in which Providence 
intended we should remain ; as appears by the large 
assistance imparted to us, to free ourselves from the 
distresses of it. So that if, by a shameful indolence, 
man should neglect to improve those advantages, 
the sordid circumstances, inseparable from an un 
civilized condition, would have no claim to be 
exempted from scorn and mockery : and, conse 
quently, however CHARITY might suffer, PRO* 
VIDENCE was not insulted. 

It is only in SOCIETY, therefore, that the Poor 
become subject to this outrage. And, in this state 

only. 



S E R M O N IV. 69 

only, the outrage becomes IMPIETY. For Civil 
regimen, by inventing and improving the accom 
modations of life, and by securing, to the owner, 
what is so invented and improved, changeth the 
natural equality of conditions amongst men ; and 
introduceth that invidious distinction of POOR and 
RICH ; made far more bitter from the insolence 
of Wealth, than the envious longings of Poverty. 
For it is the vicious caprice of Riches to be impatient 
under a rivalship in the advantages of fortune, and 
yet, at the same time, insensible to the distresses, 
and contemptuous to the condition of those who 
have never striven with them for any of those 
advantages. 

So that there is no circumstance in the distresses 
of want, but what insulting wealth can make the 
subject of its mockery. To some, their narrow- 
Minds, their gross conceptions, their unimproved 
talents, are fruitful sources of contempt and merri 
ment. Others, who cannot rise so high in their 
discoveries, can yet find matter of mirth in their 
impropriety of phrase, their unpolished manners, 
their ill air, and unformed figure. Nay to such 
excess of corruption have unbiest Riches brought 
their possessors, that some can make that very 
SORDIDNESS itself, that miserable cloathing of 
poverty, a subject for their scorn and ridicule. So 
that whether it be for want of those advantages 
of mind and person which their poverty disabled 
them from procuring, or whether it be for that 
very poverty itself, they are sure never to escape 
the inhumanity of unfeeling wealth. 

F 3 But 



?o SERMON IV. 

But how highly criminal these insults are, my 
text now leads me to consider. 

As Society is the only means of procuring the 
accommodations, and preserving the dignity, of our 
animal and reasonable nature ; and as this nature 
is endowed with appetites and qualities which make 
it seek, and fit it for SOCIETY ; we must needs 
conclude, Society to be, what Scripture informs us 
it is, THE ORDINANCE OF GOD. Now it is essential 
to this Society, that the goods of fortune be unequally 
distributed ; To the end, that some be goaded on by 
want to seek their relief in new inventions and 
improvements, which, tending to the better com 
modity of life, are objective to the public good ; 
and that others be enabled by abundance, and 
disposed by the love of ease and pleasure, to 
promote and encourage those endeavours. For 
were the goods of fortune to be equally divided, 
such a distribution would soon return us to the 
state of unimproved nature, by taking off those 
spurs to industry, the rewards attending the improve 
ments of social life. 

Again, as an unequal distribution was required 
to answer the ends of civil community, so the 
various tempers, talents, and appetites of men were 
admirably fitted to introduce, and framed to per 
petuate this inequality. 

Hence, we conclude, That these different stations 
in Society were marked out and disposed by the 
peculiar ordinance of Providence : For He, who 
desrees the end, must needs be supposed to direct 
the means conducive to it. 

But 



SERMON IV. 71 

But admitting this to be the case, it must needs 
follow, that he who makes any of these conditions of 
life the subject of his scorn and mockery, reproaches 
the justice and goodness of the Director of the 
system. For that man can never be said to be 
treated with a common degree of goodness, who is 
thrust into such a station as makes him the object 
of reasonable contempt to his fellow- creature ; a 
creature of the same species, and who has no 
imaginable pretensions to better treatment from the 
justice of their common Master. 

We must needs, therefore, subscribe to the doc 
trine of the text, That no greater insult can be 
offered to the wisdom, the justice, or the goodness 
of God, than by looking down with despite and 
mockery on the poverty of our distressed brethren. 

Yet vile as this mockery is, the frequent practice 
hath made it so unheeded, that we see it committed 
daily without suffering ourselves to be affected 
with that aversion and abhorrence, so justly due 
unto it. Hence the serious admonition of the wise 
man ; who, the better to assist our humanity in the 
free exercise of its natural feelings, awakens religion, 
by branding the vice as an IMPIETY : in every 
deliberate act of which is comprised all that is most 
criminal in our degenerate and corrupt nature. 

This species of impiety in particular, contains 
the basest INGRATITUDE towards God, and IN HU 
MANITY to our Brother : Which, including the 
violation of all our relations as reasonable creatares, 
sinks us below the very beasts themselves. 

F 4 And 



72 SERMON IV. 

And can there be a worse ingratitude towards the 
great Disposer of all things, than for man to make 
any station in Society the object of his contempt ? 
Society, which God himself ordained for the ad 
vancement of human happiness ! and which can be 
only procured by means of those various degrees and 
subordinations, productive of that condition, which 
we impiously make the matter of our scorn. Is this 
a fitting return for the care and kindness of that 
Master, who drew us from a state of savages, who 
led us to a life of civility, and hath put it in our 
power to improve the blessings of Providence, and 
the endowments of reason, most suitably to the 
dignity of our nature ! 

We may reflect, likewise, that we, who thus offend, 
do by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, reap all 
the benefit of Society ; while those we injure are so 
circumstanced as to bear all the inclemencies and 
hardships of it ; a burthen, which weighs the heavier 
on them, as it is borne alone. And yet if we look 
into ourselves and them, and compare what we find 
on either part, we shall discover nothing which could 
dispose the righteous Judge of all the earth to 
decree a state of ease and affluence for us, and con 
demn them to indigence and labour. Nay, were we 
not blinded by self-love, we should soon find, in this 
despised quarter, men whose understandings and 
honesty, whose piety and diligence, whose care and 
affection for their families, whose conscientious 
submission and obedience to authority, might well 
enable them to dispute, and qualify them to carry 
the station of honour, from their Betters. 

But 



S E R M O N IV. 73 

But -how detestable must this ingratitude appear, 
when we reflect further, That these low stations, the 
object of our scorn, were ordained for no other civil 
purpose than to support us in that distinction of 
abundance, from the wanton abuse of which arises 
all this guilt of contempt which so justly subjects the 
offender to God s righteous judgment. So that we 
carry our impiety to such a height, when we mock 
the poor, that we even reproach our Maker with the 
very blessings which, at their ex pence, he heaps upon 
ourselves. 

And this leads me to the second point, the INHU 
MANITY to our Brethren. Indeed the very con 
siderations, which upbraid our ingratitude to our 
Maker, expose our inhumanity to the Poor. For 
can any thing be more inhumane than, when the 
stations of Society are thus necessarily unequal, and 
when Providence has thrown our lot amongst the 

o 

few who reap in ease the accommodations of it, at 
the expence of multitudes, who had as good a claim 
to that distinction ; Can any thing, I say, be more 
inhumane than to treat their less happy condition 
with outrage and contempt ? A condition, from which 
no superiority of nature, no advantage of intellectual, 
or merit of moral endowments, nothing but the 
established order of things, hath exempted us, or 
subjected them. 

If to this, we add (as hath been just observed), 
that their low condition was established to support us 
in the proud distinction of abundance, it must greatly 
inflame our guilt, and increase our confusion. For 

to 



74 SERMON IV. 

to rhe Poor it is, that we are immediately, and* almost 
solely, indebted for every advantage of ease and 
pleasure, which improved and refined society affords 
(advantages which we are but too apt to esteem the 
principal blessings of society); it being by their in 
cessant toil that the elegancies of polite and fashion 
able life are procured for us. While all the reward 
TLey have, for becoming benefactors to the Great and 
Wealthy, is but the hard and scanty sustenance of a 
miserable Being. A Being only less miserable than 
That, which the insolent Rich-man himself must have 
been content to drag, in a life unassisted by the sweat 
and ingenuity of the Labourer and Artificer. For 
were it not for the incessant drudgery of the Poor, 
we should soon be brought back a^ain, even amidst 
our largest accumulations of fortune, to a condition 
of distress which would soon wipe out all that odious 
circumstance of insolent comparison, from whence 
arises this mean, this vile, this unmanly contempt for 
the lower stations of our fellow- citizens. 

But what is alone sufficient to strike us with horror 
at so wretched an inhumanity, is the consideration 
of those numerous disorders of body, those Maladies, 
to which a restless application of all their faculties 
for the stipplial of our imaginary, and therefore 
endless wants, perpetually subjects the industrious 
Poor. How, by toiling in pursuit of commodities, 
they themselves are never to enjoy, Some are 
confined to the pestilential damps of mines; and 
Others exposed to the rage of elementary, and solar 
fires : These doomed to struggle with the various 
inclemencies of distempered air : and Those, to 

undergo 



SERMON IV. 75 

undergo the rotten vapours of fenny waters, or the 
corrosive humidity of the ocean : Here a too seden 
tary occupation viciates the torpid fluids : and there, 
a too violent destroys the overstretched tone of the 
solids : The baleful materials employed, or worked 
upon, often strike the artist with acute distempers ; 
and the manner or method of working as often 
draws on chronical : so that the shop of the artificer 
may be truly called the Warehouse of Death. The 
maladies, which swarm so thick and constant in it, 
have even afforded matter for the charitable Phy 
sician to compose distinct works of the Diseases of 
Artificers * : Where we find the distempers of 
each Labourer to be as numerous as the Tools he 
works with \ and as peculiar as the materials he 
employs. 

Such then is the nature of the crime so severely 
condemned in my text ; and such the circumstances 
which so deeply aggravate it. The serious con 
sideration of these things will be abundantly sufficient 
to confound the pride of Opulence, and shame the 
Rich man into those duties to God and his Brother, 
which his STATION more indispensably requires ; 
that very circumstance which, to the dishonour of 
human nature, he hath suffered to mislead him into 
so scandalous a violation of both. 

This salutary humiliation will lead him easily back 
into the road of Piety and Charity. He will grow 
warm with gratitude to his Maker , and soften with 

* Bernardini Ramazini De morbis Artificum. 

compassion 



76 S E R M O N IV. 

compassion for his brother. But gratitude and 
compassion, which stop at acknowledgments and 
commiseration, are as great an insult on God and 
Man, as that more open mockery condemned in 
my text. 

The only acceptable way, of testifying our re 
pentance, in an impious age so forward to cavil at 
the ordinance of Providence, is to discharge those 
duties which have a natural tendency to vindicate 
its ways. God hath given us every encouragement, 
to perform them. He hath put it in the power even 
of miserable man, and how great is that honour ! to 
justify the economy of his system : For the faith 
ful discharge of what our various relations to our 
Fellow-creatures require of us, will repair all those 
deformities of defect and excess, which nature or 
fortune is for ever casting over the fair face of 
Creation. For what is it (in the opinion of impious 
men) that so greatly discredits the dispensations of 
Providence, but that state of misery to which the 
bulk of mankind is condemned, in order to support 
the Few in the full tide of wantonness and riot ? 
Would the Rich once begin to think themselves the 
dispensators of Providence for the Poor, Impiety 
would soon be forced to confess, that the goods of 
fortune, though unequally divided, \\ereyet wisely and 
graciously administered : All men would see, that the 
pouring down wealth on l.igh stations was only a 
sacred deposite to supply the wants and distresses of 
the low : Wants very wisely imposed, as a necessary 
means of producing those accommodations which 
Man s improved nature indispensably requires. 

This, 



SERMON IV. 77 

This, and this only, can atone for the enormity 
condemned in my text. This will support the 
Order, and is consequently the best vindication of 
the Economy, of Providence ; which wants nothing 
to render it as respectable to the world, as it is 
illustrious in itself, but this reasonable compliance 
to the common dictates of Humanity and Religion. 



SERMON .V. 



THE CHARACTER AND OFFICE OF THE 

MESSIAH. 

1 COR. i. 30. 

JESUS CHRIST, WHO OF GOD IS MADE UNTO 
US WISDOM, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND SANO 
TIFICATION, AND REDEMPTION. 

IN these memorable words, the Apostle, Paul, 
hath given us a full and exact Character of the 
Personage of the holy JESUS, and of the nature of 
that Religion he was sent to propagate amongst 
Men. 

Wisdom and Righteousness describe a MESSENGER 
sent from God with the publication of the eternal 
Law of Truth and Right : and Sanctification and 
Redemption denote the MESSIAH foretold, who was 
to atone for man s transgressions, and to restore 
him to his lost Inheritance. 

These two important matters, the first of which 
respects the WORKER ; and the second, his WORK ; 
I propose to make the subject of the following 
Discourse. 

I. The 



8o S E R M O N V. 

I. The Jews, at the time of Christ s advent, were 
in full expectation of their long promised Messiah. 
So that St. John tells us, the multitude on their being 
miraculously fed by Jesus, cried out, this is of a truth 
that PROPHET that should come into the world*. 
And indeed, this judgment was such a one as the 
People are generally wont to pass; crude, undigested, 
and made up of a mixture of truth and falsehood. 
It was true, and they argued rightly, that the 
worker of this miracle was a PROPHET SENT from 
God. But it was false, and they were too hasty 
in concluding, that This was the proper proof of his 
being the PROPHET FORETOLD in their sacred 
volumes. For though one of the marks of this 
Prophet (as it must be one of every messenger sent 
immediately from God), was the working Miracles ; 
yet there were many other circumstances, respecting 
both his time and person, which were to unite in 
that Character, before he could be said, to be, of a 
truth) that Prophet that should come into the world. 

This, therefore, on the whole, must pass for a 
popular prejudice in favour of the Son of God ; but 
yet a Prejudice : Less unreasonable, indeed, than 
many, they presumed to entertain against him : As 
when they thought an idle Proverb sufficient to 
controvert the strongest evidence of his Messiah- 
character. Can any thing good come out of Nazareth, 
saith Nathanael, an Israelite in whom there was no 
guile f, but, as appears from hence, a great deal 
of foolish prejudice. 

* Chap. vi. 14. f John i. 46, 47. 

The 



SERMON V* 81 

The two great Prophets of God, placed by him 
at the head of each of his Dispensations, were 
MOSES and JESUS. In this they differed, that 
Moses bore the simple Character of a DIVINE 
MESSENGER; Jesus, the more complex one of a 

DIVINE MESSENGER FORETOLD. For, though the 

deliverance of the seed of Abraham was predicted 
in the sacred records along with the deliverance of the 
seed of Adam ; yet as the first was only a type and 
prelude of the other it was not Moses the deliverer 
of the Jews, but Jesus the deliverer of mankind, the 
finisher of God s great work of REDEMPTION, who 
had the distinguished honour of being foretold ; as 
tfeli by intimation in a mysterious ritual, as by a 
more open declaration in the oracles of the Law and 
the Prophets- 

However, the preliminary ground of credence was 
the same, in both ; namely, that the doctrines they 
taught were worthy of God. This worth consists in 
their TRUTH, and in their IMPORTANCE. 

i. No falsehood can issue from the fountain of 
Truth. Whatever therefore pretends to come from 
God, which contradicts our common notions of his 
Being and attributes, must of necessity be condemned 
for an imposture, notwithstanding any appearance of 
extraordinary power in the propagator of such doc 
trines. And should an imposture happen to be at 
tended with these circumstances of power, it could 
not be fairly deemed an imputation on God s good 
ness, since the Holy Spirit hath foretold, that de 
ceivers should come with lying miracles, almost 

VOL. IX. G of 



82 SERMON V. 

of force to draw aside the very elect themselves ; and 
since against the illusions of these deceivers, God 
hath given us so sure a test and criterion as are the 
Common notions concerning his Being and At 
tributes. 

2. Nor is it, in the second place, a sufficient ground 
of credence, that what is thus taught be simply true. 
It must be truth of importance. Such as in its im 
mediate tendency respects the good of man, and in 
its ultimate, the glory of God. These are the neces 
sary qualities of such doctrines as we esteem 
WORTHY the extraordinary patronage of Heaven. 

This then, may be called the preliminary ground 
of Credence, but not the CREDENTIAL itself. An 
important Truth is indeed worthy of God. But 
neither the Truth, nor the importance of it, shews 
that it had God for its immediate Author. Because 
it is impossible to measure the bounds of human 
capacity, or to ascertain what progress an improved 
understanding may make in the discovery of divine 
and moral truths. We have been told indeed, but 
by men of no great authority, " That the proper 
credentials of a divine mission are the truth and 
importance of the doctrine proposed." But in this, 
they are neither ingenuous nor serious. They hold 
no extraordinary Revelation at all. So that this is 
only one of their DISGUISED SENTENCES : which, 
like most others from the same quarter, is conveyed 
under an equivocal expression, confounding common 
speech, and making TRUTH and DIVINE TRUTH 

the same thing. 

The 



SERMON V, 

The proper Credential, therefore, of a Messenger 
from God is the POWER OF WORKING MIRACLES* 
A sort of evidence fitted to the capacity of all men 4 
For the difference between true and filse miracles, 
that is, between what we should admit and what we 
should reject, does not consist in the first s being 
the finger of God ; and the other, the operation of 
a finite Being: for then, man, who knows so little of 
the material atid intellectual world, would have no 
criterion to distinguish between the true and false : 
But the difference consists in this, That true mi 
racles are such as are worked in Confirmation of 
doctrines worthy of God ; and false, such as aim to 
support doctrines unworthy of him. Our security 
for the first conclusion is the goodness and justice 
of God, which will never suffer us (I do not mean 
the good in distinction to the bad, which is a low and 
foreign consideration, but mankind in general), to 
be brought into a situation where no human means 
can be found to prevent our falling into error* Out 
security for the second, is the certainty that immoral 
doctrines could never come from God ; and the 
Uncertainty what power other agents may have to 
produce appearances contrary to the common course 
of nature* 

This seems to be the true notion of a MIRACLE^ 
as it subjects all which pretend to that character, to 
the decision of human judgment; every man being 
able to distinguish between what is done in confirma 
tion of doctrines worthy of God, and what is done 
to support doctrines unworthy of him. As ort the 
other hand, that which defines a Miracle to be 

fc a the 



&4 SERMON V. 

the immediate work of God, must needs be 
a false notion of it, because it would render the 
Credential of Miracles an insufficient security, by 
reducing us to an inability of distinguishing between 
the true and the false. 

On the whole, then, we conclude, that MIRACLES 
are the full Credential of a SIMPLE MESSENGER 
from God ; such as we suppose MOSES to be. 

But, now, something more is necessary to establish 
the complicated Character of a MESSENGER FORE 
TOLD, such a one as JESUS challenged to himself. 

It is not enough for such a Character that he 
works the most amazing Miracles; unless, at the 
same time, he be found to have those various marks 
upon him which belong to the Messenger foretold. 
For having assumed both parts of the prophetic 
Character, and united them in his own person, he 
is no longer at liberty to disjoin and prove them 
singly : so as that, when by miracles he hath esta 
blished the Character of a divine Messenger, this 
will remain unshaken, though he should fail in 
proving himself, by other evidence, the Messenger 
foretold. For not only all falsehood is incongruous 
to a divine mission, but is dissociable with all truth. 
Whatever supernatural evidence, therefore, is pro 
duced by such a personage, comes in equally in 
attestation of both parts of his Character ; and if it 
fail in one, cannot be made to support the other. 

Now Miracles can be no proof of his being the 
Messenger foretold, when his person, actions, and 
fortunes agree not, in all circumstances, with the 
prophetic descriptions of that Messenger. For 

Miracles 



SERMON V. 85 

Miracles cannot change times and places ; or make 
that to be, which is not, and that not to be, which is. 

From hence, therefore, we draw this second 
conclusion, " that Miracles were not the full, or 
only, Credentials of Jesus, who was a Messenger 
foretold." There needed another kind of evidence 
to establish his pretensions : and that was, that 
he exactly answered to the description of the pre 
dicted MESSIAH, or, in other words, that he 
accomplished the Prophecies concerning him. And 
this we say he did in the amplest manner. 

But now it may be asked, " Were his Miracles 
of no use to establish his Messiah-Character?" 

The answer will lead us to the second part of 
what we are to speak to : The nature of those 
ancient prophecies which foretell the promised 
Messiah of the Jews, 

We have observed that the office of this Messiah 
was to compleat and perfect God s great work of 
REDEMPTION ; to which, all his various dispensa^ 
tions to mankind were directed. As therefore Jesus 
was the finisher of the whole economy, it is natural 
to suppose that neither the worker nor liis work 
would be forgotten under any of those dispensations. 
This is indeed the fact : He is remembered under 
all of them, though in a manner conformable to 
the specific nature of each. Thus, when he is 
revealed to Adam, the representative of human 
kind, he is spoken of as the destroyer of their 
spiritual enemy who should bruise the head of the 
Serpent * : when promised to the Patriarchal family, 
* Gen. iii. 15. 

ti 3 be 



86 S E R M O N V. 

he is represented as the glory and blessing of their 
Race, the Sfiik>k t to whnn should be the gathering 
of the people *. And when to the Mosaic Republic ; 
as a Prophet and Lawgiver like to its first founder f, 
So that jn all these graphical descriptions, though 
the drawing was the same, yet as the colouring was 
different, this would be one source of obscurity. 

.Again, as each dispensation was preparatory to 
what succeeded, the relation between the type and 
antitype occasioned the prophecies concerning the 
succeed : ng dispensation to be intermixed with others 
respecting the fortunes of the present. Thus, for 
instance, the spiritual victories of the Messiah are 
intermixed with the temporal deliverances atrhievecl 
under the Jewish Leaders. And this is another 
source of obscurity, 

Lastly, the Christian Dispensation is in its nature 
entirely opposite to the Jewish ; and yet the pro^ 
phetic account of it is conveyed under ideas altogether 
Appropriate to the LAW. But this, by the wisest de 
signation of Providence. One important p;irt of 
.Jesus his office was to break down the partition- wall 
between Jews and Gentiles, to extend the privilege 
of being the select people of G od to all the race of 
Adam, to free his countrymen from the bondage of 
the ceremonial Law, to teach" all men the worship 
of God in spirit and in truth ; in a word, to change 
temporal blessings into eternal. But, at the time of 
making those predictions, the Mosaic system had 
not run out half its course : and so was not to be 



* Gen. xlix. 10, 

exposed 



SERMON V. 87 

exposed to popular contempt by an information that 
it u as only the harsh rudiment of one more easy and 
perfect. Now an exact and plain description of the 
Messiah s office, which would have told the people 
this secret, must needs have indisposed them to the 
reverence due to their LAW. A mysterious repose, 
therefore, was to be cast over these living Oracles, 
which should present no more to the dull conceptions 
of the People, than a large increase of blessings, to 
be procured in the age to come, by some mighty 
Deliverer. And the expedients employed for this 
purpose bear the clearest marks of the divinity of 
their Author. 

The first was in the EXPRESSION ; by represent 
ing those spiritual blessings figuratively, under the 
carnal terms of the Law. Civil peace, national 
triumphs, and worldly plenty, to denote religious 
rectitude, victory over sin and death, and large cfr 
fusion of the Holy Spirit. 

The second expedient was in the SKXSK. For it 
being necessary to the carrying on the general scheme 
of Providence, of which the Mosaic institution made 
fio considerable a part, that the various fortunes and 
illustrious deliverers under this dispensation should, 
from time to time, be foretold for the consolation of 
those to whom the prophecy was delivered ; and for 
the trust and confidence of posterity which should 
see it fulfilled; for this end, I say, the Holy Spirit 
made use of these intermediate events for types and 
symbols of the sufferings and victories of the Messiah, 
the final objectof Prophecy. This all-wise contrivance 
of Providence produced whu,t Divines call the 

4 



83 SERMON V. 

SECONDARY SENSE OF PROPHECY *. And of this 

species is the body of those predictions which relate 
to the Messiah. 

These two expedients therefore are another source 
of mysterious obscurity. 

What now are the inferences which must be drawn 
from the NATURE OF ANCIENT PROPHECY, as here 
explained ? They are these ; 

1 . That the only reasonable way of establishing 
the evidence rising from it, is to set the various pre 
dictions together, to compare them with one another, 
and to illustrate what is obscure in this Prophecy 
with what is clear in that ; to reconcile the seeming 
discordancy in particular parts by the order, union, 
and harmony which results from the general econo 
my of the whole. 

2. The second inference is, that even after all the 
advantages gained by the use of this method, there 
will still remain many obscurities in particular pro* 
phecies, which human wit alone will never be able 
to remove or clear up. 

But, in contradiction to the first inference, we 
have been lately told, " That Prophecies are to be 
considered and iriforced like Miracles, singly and 
independently, as so many distinct arguments : and 
that to consider them in a chain, and as having a 
mutual connexion with one another, is a fanciful and 

* Sec Div. Leg. Book vi. sect. 6. 

romantic 



SERMON V. 89 

romantic system, which deserts the foundation laid 
by the Evangelists for their explanation *." 

But the Objector seems not sufficiently to have 
considered the very different natures of these two 
extraordinary interpositions of Providence, in support 
of its dispensations, MIRACLES and PROPHECIES. 

Single Miracles refer to no Whole or System. 
Each is independent oY another, and hath its own 
entire evidence in itself. If we consider a miracle, as 
in the object of the performer, it is simply the creden 
tial to a divine mission : if we consider it as directed 
to its subject, it is a display of the wisdom, the justice, 
or the goodness of that Being by whose power it is 
performed. And in either case, it carries its evi 
dence along with it, and receives no aid or addition 
from without. Indeed, it would be absurd to seek 
it in any other place. For, put the miracles as near 
together as you will, and embody them as closely as 
you can, the stronger will give no support to the 
weaker. When Jesus rebuked | the winds and the 
waves, and a calm ensued ; If any one should pre- 

* The Evangelists applied them [the Prophecies] 
" singly and independently on each other, to this or that 
" occasion, as so many different arguments forthegene- 
" ral truth of the Gospel. He [the Bp. of L.] seems to 
" have rejected the whole evidence of Prophecy as it was 
" understood and applied by the Apostles and Evan- 
" gclists ; and to have substituted, in its place, a romantic 
" system or fanciful chain at antediluvian Predictions,"- 
Dr. Middleton s Examination of the Bp. of London s 
Discourse concerning the use and intent of Prophecy, 

PP- 5. 8 - 

viii* 20, 

tend, 



90 SERMON V. 

tend, that the quiet naturally followed the emotion, 
and was not the immediate effect of divine power, 
the urging his walk upon the Sea * would not 
remove the objection. So again, when Peter [ 
raised Dorcas from the dead, Should an unbeliever 
say, she was only in a swoon, the urging the restora 
tion of Lazarus, after he had been dead four days j, 
would hardly silence the cavil. The reason is plain, 
and the same in both cases. The similar Miracles 
Lad no dependance on one another. 

The Prophecies on the contrary, though, like, 
the Miracles, they may be considered singly and 
fipart ; and the peculiar object of many of them be 
clearly fixed from their own evidence ; yet the truth 
of the greater part, and the fullest conviction in all, 
arise from their being seen in one view, and con-f 

O 7 

sidered as a dependent, connected, and entire 
Whole ; because the general object of all is one 
compleat Dispensation, consisting of various and 
subordinate parts, which reflect mutual light arid add 
mutual lustre to one another. Hence the clearer 
Prophecies must always communicate of their 
evidence to the more obscure. Thus if any one 
should doubt over what part of God s moral dis 
pensation the Messiah should reign, whether the 
Jewish or Evangelic, when he is prophesied of in 
the words Yet have I set my King upon my holy 
Hill of Zlon\\ he may be fully satisfied by the 
Prophecy of Jeremiah : Behold the day is come, 
saith the Lord, that I will make a NEW COVENANT 

* Matth. xiv. 2& *f Acts ix. 41 , 

J John ^i, 39. | Psalm ii. 6. 



S E R M O N V. 91 

with the house of Israel, not according to the 

covenant that I made with their Fathers, fyc. 

But I will put my LAW INTO THEIR INWARD 
PARTS, and write it in their Hearts*. 

And the reason of this difference is evident ; The 
subject of prophecies is ONE ; and the subject of 
miracles are MANY, 

In opposition therefore to so plain a truth, it 
would be idle to tell us, " That Jesus and his 
Disciples employed the Prophecies singly and in 
dependently on each other, to this or that occasion, 
as so many different arguments for the general truth 
of the Gospel. 1 We own they may be thus employed : 
and when they are so, they are considered under 
the nature of Miracles, and ur^ed. as the objector 
well expresses it, for the general truth of the Gospel. 
But what then ? If, because there are some prophecies 
plain and clear enough to stand alone, on the prin 
ciples of those to whom they were addressed, and 
therefore the Evangelists have put them into that 
position ; must the dark and obscure ones, which 
require the aid of others to support them, be treated 
in the same manner ? Are we not rather to conclude 
that their different circumstances require a different 
management ? This is so far from deserting the 
foundation of the Evangelists f , that it is pro 
secuting divine knowledge upon the same principles. 

* Chap. xxxi. 31, 

T " It is certain there was no occasion to desert that 
(f foundation which the Evangelists had laid, and to 
* take refuge in a precarious system." Exam, of the 
Bp. of Lond. p. 24. 

These 



gi S E R M O N V. 

These very Evangelists employ single maxims of 
morality, independent on each other. But is this any 
proof that there is no system of morals : Or that 
our urging those truths systematically, and under 
all their dependencies, which the Evangelists pro 
posed singly and without connexion, is a deserting 
the foundations of the Gospel? 

Would you have the whole truth ? it- is this : The 
fittest way of conveying instruction to the People, 
whether prophetical or moral, was to urge their 
verities singly and independently. For long deduc 
tions and chains of reasoning were unsuitable to the 
capacities of those with whom Jesus and his disciples 
were concerned. But systematical and political 
Divines (as they are here called) were engaged with 
Philosophers and Free-thinkers. And the fittest 
way of urging Prophecies and moral truths to such, 
was to propose them systematically and in a chain. 
For it had been pretended that certain Scripture- 
prophecies have no support from fact; and that 
certain Gospel-precepts have no foundation in 
reason. 

2. We come now to the second consequence result- 
from the nature of Prophecy. And this is, that there 
will be still many difficulties in particular Prophecies, 
which mere human wit, with all the assistance of 
science, will never be able to remove. 

And here comes in the answer which we promised 
to give to the question c< concerning the use of Mi 
racles to establish the Messiah-Character, " 

And 



S E li M O N V. 93 

And this we shall venture to make in the affir 
mative ; and to declare, that they are of great use. 

It hath been already observed, that no miracles 
are sufficient to prove those Prophecies to relate to 
Jesus, which, on the logical rules of interpretation, 
can be plainly shewn to relate only to another : be 
cause Miracles cannot make that to be true, which 
is false. 

But the conclusion is very different in matters 
which human wisdom must leave for ever in doubt; 
and which, on account of the obscure delivery 
of the Prophecy, Reason finds itself unable 
to resolve. In this case, the word of an infallible 
Interpreter (and such we must esteem him who is en 
dowed with the power that Jesus exercised) hath all 
the authority requisite to decide in doubtful ques 
tions. Human wisdom cannot resolve which of two 
things was in the Speaker s meaning: but the wis 
dom residing in that Agent, to whom God hath im 
parted the knowledge of all divine mysteries, can 
resolve it; and the Miracles of Jesus shew that this 
knowledge was communicated to him. 

And AUTHORITY hath here the force of the most 
convincing evidence. Common reason, in the af 
fairs of civil life, hath always directed men to the 
like solution. In all their doubts they have recourse 
to superior wisdom. On this, they regulate their 
conduct, and rest satisfied in the security of its de 
cision. The Authority in question, to ilx the t sense 
of doubtful Prophecies, differs only in this, that 
the evidence of the resolved truth is unspeakably 
greater, as divine wisdom exceeds human. 

And 



94 S R M O N V. 

And we have the same security (infinite Good* 
ness), that we shall be kept from error, when Mi 
racles are employed to fix the sense of doubtful 
Prophecies, as when more generally applied to 
support the character of a divine Messenger. 
Miracles being a species of evidence which reason 
directs us to confide in, as well in one case as in 
the other* 

With regard therefore to Prophecies thus circum 
stanced, we say, that the authority of a worker of 
miracles may be fitly applied to shew, that he is of a 
truth that PROPHET that should come into the world. 

So that we see, licentious writers, from Porphyry 
down to Collins, have misemployed their pains in 
proving, " That the Prophecies which are said to 
concern the Messiah are so indeterminate, that oa 
the common rules of interpretation, we can never apply 
them with certainty rather to him than to any other 
Jewish Deliverer." For was it true, as it certainly 
is not, all that could be inferred from thence is only 
this, That such Prophecies conclude nothing in fa 
vour of a particular japplication, till the obscurities^ 
arising from the intermediate manner in which they 
are delivered, be removed. There are some ob 
scurities which no human lights can penetrate, but 
there are none so impervious but must give way to 
the divine. 

It is the proper resort, therefore, of superior wis* 
dom to decide this doubtful question, and tell us, 
to whom such Prophecies belong. 

And must not He, who inspired the Oracle, know 
of whom he made the prediction ? Tor it was the 

1 7 same 



SERMON V. 5 

Same spirit who cast a mysterious veil over Truth irt 
the Jewish Prophecies, and became manifest in the 
Christian Miracles. Tims much these licentious 
writers themselves will be forced to own , while they 
reason, as they do here, on the supposition of real 
Prophecies, and only pretend to bring in question 
their received meaning. 

On the whole, therefore, we conclude, That to 
clear up doubtful Prophecies by the application of 
Miracles, is a species of evidence which determines 
the judgment with as perfect assurance as if the pre 
diction had beeri conceived in the plainest terms of 
grammar, and in the directest propositions of logic* 

But the mistake lay here, The enemies of our 
Faith saw clearly enough that Miracles could not 
establish a sense of Prophecies in opposition to all 
human rules of interpretation ; and therefore con 
cluded that Miracles had no influence on Prophecy 
at all. .This was too hasty. They saw in what case 
the authority of Miracles was excluded; but they 
would not see where it came in ; and so, because a 
Miracle could not do every thing in establishing the 
Messiah- character, they would suffer it to do 
nothing. 

But let us leave the perversity of men, to adore 
the good Providence of God ; whose POWER, in the 
use of Miracles, is so admirably fitted to supply and 
clear up the defects and obscurities, which his 
WISDOM suffered to remain in the Prophecies* 

II. Haviilg explained and vindicated the Charac 
ter of this last great Messenger of God ; the subject 

leads 



g6 SERMON V. 

leads me to consider the nature and genius of the 
Religion he was sent to propagate amongst men* 
So that having seen the TRUTH of his mission, we 
may now understand the USE and NECESSITY of 
his Work. 

St. Paul, in the words of my text, hath marked 
out those essential qualities which distinguish the 
CHARACTER and OFFICE of Jesus from all other, 
whether true or pretended, Messengers from God, 
Jesus Christ^ says he, is made unto us Wisdom, and 
Righteousness, and Santijication, and Redemption* 
Now as this was addressed both to the Gentile and 
Jewish converts in the Church of Corinth, it is con 
trived to shew, in one view, how Christianity hath 
reformed the depravities of PAGANISM, and sup 
plied the deficiencies of the LAW. 

This beautiful summary of Gospel-blessings (for 
now we turn from the Worker to his work) is so 
artfully adapted to the Writer s views and purposes, 
as will deserve a particular explanation. 

And here let me previously observe, That though 
the Wisdom and Righteousness, the Sanctification 
and Redemption, here mentioned, be each respective 
to the whole race of mankind; yet the GENTILES 
are more particularly concerned in the WISDOM and 
RIGHTEOUSNESS; and the JEWS in the SANCTI- 
FICATIOX and REDEMPTION. In explaining, there 
fore, these four essential offices in the Messiah- 
character, I shall consider each of them as referring 
distinctly and particularly to the One or other of 
these two great divisions of the religious world. 

I. And 



S E R M O X V. 97 

I. And first, concerning the reformation of the 
GENTILES, by Gospel Wisdom and Righteousness. 

i . Jesus Christ, saith the Apostle, is made unto us, 
WISDOM. That is, He was made Wisdom unto the 
Gentile world by instructing it in the knowledge of 
the true God; his nature and attributes : -And by 
explaining the relation in which man stands to his 
Maker. A WISDOM, which, at this time, the Gen 
tiles greatly wanted : most of them being destitute 
of that knowledge ; and all, without exception, ig 
norant of that relation. 

The early descendants of Noah soon lost the re 
vealed knowledge of their Creator. Which though 
indeed revived by an extraordinary dispensation of 
Providence, was however confined within the gates 
of a single family : While the rest of mankind, partly 
by too great a confidence in that unfaithful guardian 
of Truth, TRADITION; and partly from too little 
attention to their better instructor, REASON, fell 
into the most senseless Idolatries. 

For living at first scattered abroad in independent 
tribes, their gross, untutored minds could rise no 
higher than to the sensible causes of good and 
evil: the most considerable of which being the 
elements and heavenly bodies, These became the 
first object of their worship and veneration. And 
having experienced them to be, sometimes, the 
authors of health and plenty; and sometimes again, 
of pestilence and famine ; they from thence began 
to entertain an opinion of good and evil Demons. 

But being now collected into Bodies, and formed 
into Communities; the sudden supplial of all the 

Voi . IX. II wants 



98 S E R M O N V. 

wants of life, which followed, was so sensibly 
understood, that mistaken gratitude took another 
channel, and turned as strongly on their deceased 
Lawgivers, the generous procurers of this their 
improved condition ; whom they soon venerated and 
exalted into gods. 

But as civil life introduced and encouraged the 
culture of the mind as well as body ; both the first, 
and second mode of worship were, from their mani 
fest absurdities, in danger of falling under the popular 
contempt. To prevent this mischief, the Legislator 
diverted the steady attention to either, by confound 
ing them together; making ELEMENTARY and HERO- 
WORSHIP representative of one another," and then 
laying on a new cover over both, by the invention of 
a third species of idolatry, SYMBOLICAL of the other 
two. But a further account of this matter, and how 
the two original and simple forms produced that 
more monstrous compound ; in which, first of all, 
brutes, and then, stocks and stones were worship 
ped ; from what accidents of error, from what 
contrivances of fraud, these prodigies arose, which 
hath since given so much exercise to the learned, 
all this is without the limits of the present discourse*. 
Let it suffice to observe, that St. Paul hath not 
aggravated the case, where, in his Epistle to the 
Romans, he says, that the Gentile world had changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image 
made Like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four- 
footed beasts, and creeping things \\ 

* See the Divine Legation, Book IV. 
*r Chap. i. ver. 23. 



SERMON V. 99 

This was the condition of the Pagan world in 
general. And though, from time to time, some 
thinking men arose amongst them of a more enlarged 

O O O 

understanding than the common, who, as the same 
Apostle observes, could, from the visible things of 
a created world, infer the tier rial power and Godhead 
of its Author * ; yet even these, as he adds, when 
they knew Godj glorified him not as God"\ ; never 
so much as once attempting to introduce his wor 
ship to any People or Nation amongst whom they 
lived, or where they had the greatest credit. So 
that the one true God, though KNOWN in most 
places, was no where publicly WORSHIPPED but in 
the land of Judaea only. 

This leads me to the second point, c The uni 
versal ignorance in the Gentile world, of the rela 
tion in which man stands to his Creator.* The 
Philosophers and Lawgivers had concurred in a 
general opinion (the absurdity of which is sufficiently 
exposed by the success of the Hebrew Sage and 
Legislator in a different conduct) that to teach 
publicly the knowledge, or to establish nationally 
the worship of the one true God, would be of great 
disservice to society ; and had therefore kept all 
consideration of him enclosed within the veil of their 
MYSTERIES. And further, to hide from their own 
consciences the fraud and prevarication of such a 
measure, they first brought those whom they had 
intrusted with that knowledge, and afterwards, 
themselves to believe, That the FIRST CAUSE was 

* Chap. i. vcr. 20. f Ver. 21. 

H 2 an 



ioo SERMON V. 

an extra-mundane Being, too excellent, as well a? 
too remote, to be approached, and addressed to, in 
the first instance. On which account, they said, 
he had delegated the government of the world to 
inferior Deities, his substitutes ; and had made 
Them the immediate objects of religious worship. 
In cultivating this superstition, they found another 
advantage : it gave a shew of reason to that sense 
less Polytheism whose rise and progress we have 
just described : and, at the same time, screened it 
from the approaches of over-curious inquirers. 
But then it could not fail of producing very fatal 
mistakes concerning the close and near relation in 
which man stands towards God. 

All this shews how expedient it was for the happi 
ness of Mankind, that Jesus should be made, unto us, 
wisdom ; when the most enlightened teachers of it 
amongst the Gentiles professing themselves to be 
wise became fools, by their not glorifying him as 
God whom they had clearly discovered to be the 
only true one. 

Let us now see the need the Jews had of this 
wisdom ; for though, as was said, it be principally 
objective to the state of the Gentile world, yet it 
hath its after-view to the followers of the Law; 
who wanted, likewise, though not in the same de 
gree, the aid of evangelic wisdom. For the Charac 
ter of a national, tutelary Deity, under which God 
had been pleased to assume the patronage of their 
idolatrous Forefathers in Egypt ; the Form of their 
civil constitution, which was Theocratical ; and the 
Genius of they- ceremonial worship, which was 

fitted, 



SERMON V. 101 

fitted, through the grossness of their prejudices, to 
secure the great end of their separation, preservation 
from idolatry ; all these, I say, concurred, amongst 
a perverse people, to heget wrong notions of the 
ATTRIBUTES QF GOD ; as if They stood by nature, 
or adoption, in a nearer relation to him than the 
rest of their fellow-creatures ; being chosen for the 
objects of his special care, on account of some 
inherent excellence ; or at least for some secret 
fondness which God had, and would indulge, for 
the illustrious race of Abraham. Vain notions, 
and of dangerous consequence ! which, though they 
received no real support from Moses and the 
Prophets, were yet, by length of time, so rooted 
and interwoven in the passions and affections of 
that people, as to need a new Law to weed them 
out 

And thus was Jesus indeed made Wisdom both 
to Jew and Gentile : bv instructing the ignorance 

7 v O O 

of the one, and reforming the error of the other, in 
that supreme species of Wisdom, the knowledge of 
the true God, 

2. The advantages of his being made, unto us, 
RIGHTEOUSNESS, come next to be considered. 

As the ignorance of, and mistakes concerning, 
the FIRST CAUSE were so universal in the Gentile 
world, it can hardly be supposed that the state of 
VIRTUE was in any very good condition amongst 
them. And in fact, we find that their Morality 
was neither speculatively solid, nor practically 
sincere. 

H 3 The 



loa SERMON V. 

The fitness of some actions and the UP fitness of 
others are discoverable from the NATURAL RELA 
TIONS and essential difference of things. And this 
fitness and unfitness are further supported by a 
MORAL SENSE, or an instinctive approbation of 
good, and dislike of evil. But still, the proper 
ground of moral obligation is the WILL OF GOD : 
Because all obligation implies an obliger ; and 
moral Jit ness \ only a rule to direct us to the will of 
the obliger ; nor is the moral sense any other than 
his arbritrary impression, to dispose the human will 
to a conformity with the divine. The Will of God, 
therefore, is the real ground of obligation ; or that 
which properly maketh man accountable for his 
actions *. 

Now this only solid foundation of morality the 
Gentile world always wanted : and indeed, while 
under the ignorance and mistakes mentioned above, 
could not but want. For their false Gods having, 
as must needs be, from the private views and 
intrigues of the Priests their interpreters, many 
different and contrary Wills, these could never be 
made the ground of a consistent morality : and the 
true God being esteemed an extra-mundane Being, 
who left his Government to others, afforded no 
WILL at all, for this purpose. So that their only 
recourse for instruction and practice was to the 
MORAL SEXSE, and NATURAL RELATIONS of 
things ; which, though they might present a specious 
system to the understanding, had not weight or 
authority to incline the Will *. 

* See Divine Legation, Bcok I, Sect. 4. 

For 



SERMON V. 103 

For their practice of Virtue (to come to the se 
cond point) was as impure as it was unstable. In 
morals, Example hath the strongest influence : and 
this influence increaseth in proportion to the dignity 
of the subject in which it is found. The Example 
of the Deity, therefore, which enforceth itself on a 
principle of Religion, must needs have the strongest 
and widest influence. But the. actions of the Pagan 
Gods, recorded in their sacred stories, were so im 
moral as could not but highly corrupt the practice 
of their worshippers. And Antiquity informs us, 
that in truth it did so. 

Nor should a moral cause of this degeneracy from 
Virtue be forgotten. St. Paul assures us that God, for 
their punishment in not retaining him in their know 
ledge, gave them over to a reprobate mind, to DO 
those things that are not convenient. Hence, as he 
tells us, they werejilled with #// UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, 
fornication, wickedness, covetousjiess, maliciousness*, 
c. The account goes on, in so black a catalogue 
of vice, as sufficiently shews that, at the time Jesus 
Christ was made unto us righteousness, the Pagan 
world was sunk into the lowest state of misery and 
corruption. 

Nor were the Jews themselves so sound, in these 
particulars, as not to want this great physician of 
the Soul. And what was said of the Wisdom is true 
of the Righteousness, mentioned in my text ; it hath 
a secondary reference to the chosen People. For, 
the wrong notions they had conceived of the God of 
their Fathers, and of the relation in which they 

* Rom. i. a 8, & feq. 

ii 4 stood 



104 SERMON V. 

stood to him, had much vitiated and deformed their 
social virtue. They confined the precept of loving 
their Brother to the descendants of their fraternal 
Tribes ; and neglected and despised the rest of the 
sons of Adam ; who, because ritually unholy and 
profane, were deemed to be naturally unrelated to 
them. A Principle which made them as unfaithful 
subjects, when for their crimes they were sentenced 
to the yoke of the Gentiles, as they were merciless 
neighbours while independent and more powerful ; 
neither rendering to Ccesar the things which were 
C&sars ; nor to God the things which at all times 
he principally required of them to do justly > to love 
mercyy and to walk humbly before him *. This, and 
other errors which their false Traditions had intro 
duced, and which some original compliances with 
the hardness of their hearts had occasionally coun 
tenanced, made Jesus tell his followers, that, unless 
their RIGHTEOUSNESS should exceed theRiGRiEous- 
NESS of the Scribes and Pharisees v they should in no 
case enter into the kingdom of Heaven f. 

From what hath been said then it appears, that 
Jesus, as he is made unto us, wisdom and righteous 
ness, is to be considered under the Character of a 
MESSENGER SENT from God, to instruct men in the 
ways of RELIGION and VIRTUE. How much such 
a one was wanting, we have endeavoured to shew 
in a fair representation of the state of BOTH, at the 
time of his coming. 

II. But this was not the whole of his Character. 
He was a MESSENGER FORETOLD ; as appears, and 

*Micahvi. S. t Matt. v. 20. 

is 



SERMON V. 105 

is insinuated from what is further said of him, That 
he was made unto us Sanctification and Redemption. 

To such as are unacquainted with the present 
state of Theology amongst us, it may perhaps seem 
strange that I should stop, in this place, to observe, 
that Sanctification and Redemption are as true and 
essential offices in the Character of Jesus, and as ex 
tensive to Mankind, as the Wisdom and Righteous 
ness assigned unto it. But there are some amongst 
us, who give a figurative sense to the latter attri 
butes in my text ; and in reality confine the charac 
ter of Jesus to that of a Messenger sent from God, 
to instruct the world in truths of religious Wisdom, 
and moral Righteousness. 

But to suppose, that when the Son of God is said 
to be made, wisdom and righteousness, we must un 
derstand by it that he really taught men Wisdom 
and Righteousness ; and yet, when he is said to be 
made Sanctification and redemption, he did not really 
sanctify and redeem ; but that, by instructing men 
in a more pure and perfect worship, he only excelled 
all the IMAGINARY; and abrogated all the CARNAL 
sanctijications and redemptions, both of Jews and 
Gentiles ; to suppose this, I say, is the highest 
violation of all rational interpretation : and gives us 
a meaner idea of the eternal Son of God than a Pa 
gan Sophist would have entertained of him on hear 
ing St. Paul s first sermon at Athens. But this per 
versity can be charitably accounted for no otherwise 
than from a violent disgust these men have taken at 
some current explanations of the doctrine of Re- 
demption ; fitter indeed to discredit, than to confirm 

or 



io6 SERMON V. 

or recommend this fundamental principle of our 
holy Religion. But this is a matter which requires 
a different treatment. I shall consider it in its 
proper place * ; and now proceed with the subject 
before us. 

I have observed, that as Wisdom and Righteous- 
ness were principally addressed to the Gentiles ; so 
Sanctijication and Redemption were directed to the 
Jews. But, as a regard to the Jewish people was 
not excluded in the former ; so neither was a re 
gard to the Gentiles excluded in the latter. 

It is easily seen why the representation of Jesus s 
being made unto us II isdom and Righteousness is 
particularly addressed to the Gentiles : They most 
wanted those blessings. Nor is it more difficult to 
apprehend why the representation of his being made 
unto us Sanctijication and Redemption is particularly 
directed to the Jews : for in their custody were de 
posited the living Oracles, which explain that state 
and condition of man, from whence arises the ne 
cessity of Sanctijication and 



I. But let us consider the words as they lie in 
order. Jesus Christ (says the Apostle) teas made 
unto us SANCTIFJCATJOX ; that is, he sanctified, or 
made us holy. 

It was a received opinion in the ancient world, 
that human nature had contracted a stain or pol 
lution : and that not only particular purify ings, but 
also some general Sanctijication was necessary to 
put man in a capacity of being restored to the favour 

* Divine Legation, Book IX; 

of 



S E R M O N V. 107 

of the Deity. Whether this Opinion arose from the 
remains of a Tradition concerning the FALL; or 
from every man s conscious feeling of his own dis 
orders ; or whether both concurred to its establish 
ment, is very uncertain. However it had that tone of 
the voice of Nature, Universality. And though it 
gave occasion to infinite superstitions in the rituals 
of national lustrations, yet the necessity of some real 
Sanctljicatwn seems fairly to be deduced from it. 

When God, therefore, separated the Jewish people, 
the first object of their Legislator s ministry was to 
render them pure and holy. And as by reason of 
the inveteracy of their prejudices, and the grossness 
of their apprehensions, the real means of purifying 
human nature were to be conveyed under the cover 
of such rites and ceremonies as were then in use 
amongst men ; so because the common way of mak 
ing a people holy, was to adopt them into the 
protection of a tutelary God ; and of rendering 
particulars clean, was by ablutions and other 
cathartic rites; the Almighty was pleased to assume 
the titles of their national God, and regal Governor; 
and to institute, in the offices of his worship, lustra 
tions and expiatory sacrifices, as well for particulars 
as the Community. On these accounts it is that he 
tells them, Ye shall be. unto me a KINGDOM OF 
PRIESTS, and an holy nation*: for the regal and 
sacerdotal were the two peculiar characters of 
ancient sanctity. 

But the LAW having only a shadow of the good 
things to come, and not the very image of the things, 

* Exod. xix. 6. 

cculd 



io8 SERMON V, 

could never make the comers thereunto perfect * : 
therefore the true Sanctijication of mankind was re 
served for the ministry of Jesus ; when being col 
lected together into one people, under his govern 
ment as LORD ; and received into his protection by 
the justification of faith in him as MESSIAH, they 
became a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD and an holy nation}, 
as the Apostle calls them, alluding to the title given 
to the Hebrews by Moses; and transferring it to 
the Christian Church in a completory sense, as it 
was applied to the Jewish, in a typical. 

But a matter of so high importance as the com 
pletion of God s religious dispensations, in the final 
Sanctijication of mankind, will deserve a fuller ex 
planation. 

When the Sanctijier (whose character and office 
cannot well be considered separately) was accused, 
by those who traversed his ministry, of purposing to 
overturn the established Religion, he answered, 
Think not that I am come to destroy the Law and 
the Prophets. I am not come, to destroy, but to 
fulfil . How he executed this commission, in the 
character of SANCTIFIER, we are now to consider. 

Under the old Law, God was pleased to take 
upon himself the office of KING; he assigned the 
office of PRIEST to Aaron ; and that of PROPHET, to 
Moses; the Priest being the MEDIATOR or Advo 
cate for men to God ; and the Prophet the MES 
SENGER of God to Men. Now the Messiah taking 
all these offices on himself; and uniting them in his 

* Heb. x. i. f i Pet. xi. 9. 

JMatt. v. 17. 

wn 



SERMON V. 109 

own Person, did, in the truest and exactest sense, 
fulfil the Law and the Prophets. For by the Law 
and the Prophets is meant the whole of the Jewish 
dispensation, as delivered by Moses, and explained 
and illustrated by those holy men, whom God, from 
time to time, raised up to govern and instruct his 
people. 

This institution consisted of three parts ; the PO 
LITICAL, the CEREMONIAL, and the MORAL, under 
which was contained the SPIRITUAL. 

1 . The political part was a THEOCRACT. The 
purposes of this extraordinary form of government, 
as they related to the carnal administration of the 
Mosaic Economy, I have consided elsewhere *. But 
the spiritual end was to introduce the dominion of 
the Son, which was to be extended to all mankind. 
The Prophets, the interpreters of the Law, whom, 
as well as the Law itself, Jesus tells us, he was sent 
tofalfil, inform us at large, how this peculiar regi 
men was to become an universal blessing. First by 
the resignation of the Theocratic dominion to the 
Son (* ; and secondly, by extending that dominion 
over the whole race of mankind J. Thus the Messiah 

fulfilled both what the genius of the Law and the 
inspiration of the Prophets foretold of him; as it 
concerned the government political. And in so 
doing he assumed the title of KING of the Jews* 

2. The second divison of the Mosaic Law was the 
ceremonial: a ceremonial, which heavily loaded every 

* See Divine Legation, Book V. Sect. 2. 
f Isaiah ix. 6, 7. J Ibid. chap. xi. 10. 

part 



no SERMON V. 

part of God s worship with multifarious and irk 
some rites. Now though the common condition of 
humanity declares that this duty, especially the pub 
lic part of it, can never be decently or properly dis 
charged without the aid of some exterior ceremo 
nies ; yet the minute observance of so complicated 
a Ritual tends rather to stifle than to invigorate the 
spirit of devotion. We may therefore reasonably 
conclude, that these things, which have no moral 
worth or value inherent in them, were not instituted 
on their own account, but for the sake of some oc 
casional good they were found capable of producing. 
And of this, we have clear intimations in the writings 
of the Prophets. They frequently tell us that the 
ceremonial Law was of no use or value in itself; 
but that, the thing in which God most delighted, was 
the moral Law of righteousness *. If then the 
Jewish Ritual was of so slight account with the 
Institutor himself, it may be reasonably asked how 
it came to be so minutely delivered and so scrupu 
lously exacted in his service? In this likewise the 
Prophets will instruct us. It was imposed to restrain a 
headstrong people from Idolatry, to which they were 
violently and obstinately carried f : and, for that 
purpose, it had a perpetual reference to the then 
reigning superstitions. But as this security from 
idolatry (considering them as a People) was for the 
sake of preserving a sound and pure foundation for 
the future dispensation, of which, This was only the 

Amos v. 21, & seq. Micah vi. 7, 8. 
f Jerera. vii. 22, 23. Ezek. xx. 24, 25. 

rudiments, 



SERMON V. in 

rudiments, it pleased the divine wisdom that the 
ceremonial Law should not only be directed against 
those superstitions, but should likewise be typical of 
all the great parts of that future dispensation : and 
whoever examines the ceremonial Law with the care 
and attention so important a study requires, will con 
fess that both one and the other were equally in the 
intention of the Lawgiver *. 

The ultimate end therefore of these rites being to 
prefigure the death and sufferings of Christ, lie may, 
with a peculiar propriety, be allowed to call himself 
the fulfiller of the Ceremonial Law. It being in 
complete and destitute of its final purpose, till Jesus 
had performed the whole of that mission which 
the ceremonial Law, by prefiguring, had predicted. 
And when that was once performed, the Types 
of course were to cease. Now these types con 
sisting of various kinds of sacrificial rites,, Jesus 
by offering up himself on the cross for the sins 
of mankind, as was foretold by the Prophets, 
eminently fulfilled the ceremonial Law, in quality of 
PRIEST. 

3. The last and noblest branch of the Jewish Law- 
was the Moral : which instructs man in all his re 
lations, whether to his common nature, to God,* or 
his fellow- creatures. This, though delivered pure by 
Moses, and according to the truth of things, did 
yet, like the two other branches (as we have seen 
above) need the master-hand of this divine Teacher : 
who, in delivering to mankind a more perfect system 

* See Divine Legation, Book IV. Sect. 6. 

of 



112 S E R M O N V. 

of moral duty, as was predicted of him *, discharged 
the office of PROPHET, or of a Messenger from God; 
as in that of PRIEST he discharged the office of the 
Messenger foretold 

, But under the moral, as we have said, was coin- 
prised the spiritual. And it was this which was 
more peculiarly the prophetic office : whose business 
it was not only to give to every part, in this econo 
my, its due rank ; but to foretel the future fortunes 
of all; How the Political should be EXTENDED; 
the Ceremonial FULFILLED; and the Moral, PU 
RIFIED and exalted. 

Thus we see, from the nature, end, and condition 
pf this political, ceremonial, and moral economy, 
that Jesus was theful/iller of the Law ; and, from 
his doing this in the very manner the inspired men 
of old predicted, that he was likewise theful/iller 
of the Prophets f. Hence he became truly and 
properly the SANCTIFICATION of the People of 
God: and through them, of the whole Church of 
Christ. 

This is that aggregate or corporate holiness to 
which the Gentile nations blindly aspired ; and of 
which, the Jewish people had gained only the 
shadow. 

But besides this GENERAL Sanctiftcation ; which, 
as we have shewn, is the immediate office of the 
Son; there was a PARTICULAR, by which each 
individual was cleansed and purified ; and this was 
performed through the ministry of the HOLY SPIRIT ; 

* Isaiah, xi. 5. and xlii. 1, 4. 

f See Divine Legation, Book VI. sect. 6. 

the 



SERMON V. 113 

the Comforter, whom Jesus, on his leaving the 
world, had promised to send upon the faithful, to 
remain with them for ever *. Who, by the effusion 
of divine grace shed abroad in their hearts, effects 
that purity of mind, which all other ritual modes of 
private lustration tried at in vain, or at best did out 
typically represent. 

Now both these purifications, the aggregate and 
particular, make together, that true Sanctification* 
of which Jesus is said in my text to be the author, 
and bestower on mankind. 

We have observed that Sanctification and Redemp 
tion are addressed to the Jews primarily ; as Wisdom 
and Righteousness are to the Gentiles. But as the 
former graces had a secondary reference to the Jews, 
so the latter, as we shall now see, have the same 
reference to the Gentiles. 

The want of a Sanctifier in the Pagan world 
was still more urgent and deplorable than in the 
Jewish. For the Gentiles having received DEMONS 
for their tutelary Gods, and devoted themselves to 
unclean spirits by their national worship, the PUBLIC 
was become, in the saddest sense of the word, 
PROFANE. And, by administering their demonic 
rites in all the unnatural and exorbitant practices 
of murder and uncleanness, PARTICULARS were 
become in the highest degree IMPURE. 

Thus Gentile impiety and pollution being at its 
height, and the Jewish holiness and purity exterior 
only, and imperfect, there was a pressing NECESSITY 
of Jesus s being made unto us, Sanctijicalion. 

* John xiv. 16. and xvi. 7. 
VOL. IX. I 2. But 



ii4 SERMON V. 

2. But this was not the ultimate benefit bestowed 
on man, through the ministry of Jesus. Sanctifica- 
tlon was only preparatory to a greater blessing : 
and, like the wedding-garment in the parable, a 
habit of dignity given to appear in before the Lord 
our Redeemer. 

For, in the last place, the Apostle tells us, he 
was made unto us, REDEMPTION. 

Amongst the many gracious dispensations of God 
to Mankind, the Mosaic history informs us of one, 
in which the depth of the riches both of his Wisdom 
and Knowledge claims our more particular admira 
tion. And this is the FREE GIFT OF IMMORTALITY 
to the first man ; and, through him, to his Posterity, 
on the easy condition, we find, annexed unto it : 
\vhich Adam having too easily violated, he and his 
whole race returned into a state of mortality and 
corruption. 

From this bondage under death and sin, God, 
in his infinite mercy, decreed to deliver us. And 
the condition of a remitted forfeiture being as 
absolutely in the breast of the Remitter, as the con 
dition on which the blessing was originally conferred; 
he was pleased, it should be done by ONE man s 
willingly offering himself to death for an atonement 
for ALL. That as by one man s disobedience many 
were made sinners ; so by the obedience of one should 
many be made righteous *. 

How agreeable this succinct account of Man s 
FALL and RESTORATION is, to what the best and 
most received philosophy teacheth us both of God 

* Romans, v. 29. 

and 



SERMON V. 115 

and Man, shall be considered at large in a fitter 
place *, 

This future Redemption of the world had been 
promised, even from the time of the Fall, to the 
holy men of old, in terms more or less obscure, 
as best fitted the dispensation under which the 
prediction was delivered. The Chosen People had 
a more defined image of it in their typical redemp 
tion from the slavery of Egypt, and their admission 
to the temporal blessings of the land of Canaan. 
It was still more circumstantially figured in their 
public ritual, through the ministration of expiatory 
sacrifices, performed with many ceremonies plainly 
descriptive of the great sacrifice on the Cross, for 
the spiritual Redemption of mankind. 

This people, then, must hear with conviction, 
and, as many of them as were unprejudiced, must 
confess with pleasure, that Jesus Christ, by being 
made unto its Redemption, was the true completion 
of the Lazv and the Prophets. 

Nor was this blessing of Redemption without a 
secondary reference to the state and condition of 
the Gentiles ; whose Religion was not merely ineffec 
tual, like the Jewish, to redeem them from the 
chains of death and sin, but such as had brought 
them under the more disgraceful bondage of sub 
jection to the Devil, those wicked spirits, whom 
they worshipped and adored as their patron Gods, 

This was the condition both of Jews and Gentiles, 
when the Messiah came to set men free. And here 
let it be observed, in honour of those two Charac- 

* Divine Legation, Book IX. 

I 2 teriatic 



ti6 SERMON V. 

teristic miracles, the raising the dead, and the casting 
out devils, that the one elegantly designed his office 
of redeeming the Jews from the power of the 
grave, and the other his office of freeing the Gentiles 
from the tyranny of Demons. The beauty in this 
disposition of the economy was too striking to be 
passed over in silence : Otherwise, I think, even 
this moderated use, of spiritualizing the miracles, 
should be for born ; as fanciful and precarious. 
We can conceive no otherwise of the miracles of a 
divine Person corning from God, let the peculiar 
mode of his dispensation be what it will, than that 
they should be objective to the corporal infirmities 
of men. Now between these and their spiritual 
disorders, there is, by their common qualities ot 
want and distress, so much similitude and so natural 
an analogy, as affords no ground of reasonable 
supposition, that one was a designed or prophetic 
representation of the other. 

Thus have I endeavoured to shew r which was the 
main purpose of this discourse, That Jesus is made 
unto us, Sanctification and Redemption, in as true 
and real a sense as he is our Wisdom and Righteous- 
"ness. Nor is this a matter of small moment. The 
teaching JVisdom and Righteousness made his mission 
EXPEDIENT: but the bestowing Sanctification and 
Redemption made it NECESSARY. 

To instruct the world in the knowledge of one 
God, and in the practice of moral virtue, was, with 
out doubt, putting us into the road of the divine 
favour ; and making our attainment of the supreme 
good more easy and expeditious. But God, whose 

mercies 



SERMON V. 117 

mercies are over all his works, and who, in this 
very revelation, hath informed us, that from those to 
whom little is given, much will not be required *, 
would have received his miserable creatures to his 
mercy, in what condition soever he had suffered 
them to remain, if so be they had taken care to 
make the best use of the little that was afforded 
them. 

But Sanctlfication and Redemption do more than 
shew us into the road of God s favour: They 
restore us to the free privilege of LIFE AND 
IMMORTALITY ; which man having forfeited, by 
a breach of the condition on which it was bestowed, 
had no pretence to reclaim ; so that whenever it 
was restored, it might be given on such conditions 
as the all-gracious Donor should think fit to impose. 
It is restored: and the conditions are FAITH in, 
and OBEDIENCE to, a crucified SAVIOUR; who, 
by this sacrifice of himself, became the Sanctijica- 
tion and Redemption of mankind. The consequence 
is, that these are not only useful and expedient for 
procuring God s favour, but absolutely necessary 
for our recovery of life and immortality. 

This is placing CHRISTIANITY on its proper 
basis, a foundation of real strength and solidity. 

But when the presumption of men tempts them 
to disjoin what God hath put together, not only the 
benefits of that union are lost, but other various, 
and unthought-of evils arise, which subject the 

* Luke xii. 48. 

I 3 religious 



rig SERMON V. 

religious economy, thus abused, to every kind of 
injury ; dishonouring the Author of our Faith ; 
and exposing the Christian profession to perpetual 

insults. 

This was never more unhappily verified than in 
the case before us. 

1 . For he who considers Jesus only in the light 
of a Reputlisher of the Law of nature, can hardly 
entertain a higher opinion of the Saviour of the 
world than some have done of SOCRATES, whom 
Erasmus esteemed an object of devotion, and many 
a good Protestant hath thought to be divinely 
inspired. For was not Socrates, by his preaching 
up moral virtue, and by his dying to bear witness 
to the unity of the God, made, to the Grecian 
people, aqd (by means of their extended commerce 
f politeness) to the rest of mankind, wisdom and 
Righteousness? And what more did Jesus? for, 
according to the principles of this paganized Chris 
tianity, his titles of MESSIAH and REDEEMER are 
reduced to mere figurative and accommodated terms, 
But these bold extremes men ran into through their 
ignorance of the nature of those prophecies which 
foretel his advent; and the absurdity of those 
systems which pretend to explain his office. * 

2. As this Theology degrades Jesus to the low 
condition of a Grecian Sophist ; so it renders his 
Religion obnoxious to the insults of, every daring 
Impostor. 

He 



SERMON V. 119 

He was sent, say these new Doctors of the 
Church, to teach mankind the worship of the true 
God, and the practice of moral righteousness *. 

" This will be readily allowed, replies an under 
standing MAHOMETAN | And on this very prin 
ciple, WE hold, that when Jesus had done his office, 
and mankind had again relapsed into anti-chrixtian 
Idolatry and Polytheism, as before into Pagan, 
God sent OUR PROPHET, who worked the like 
sudden and sensible reformation in the NORTH-EAST, 
that your Prophet did in the NORTH- WEST. 

What reply now will our rational Divine make 
to this apology for ISM A EL ISM ? 

All he has to say is " That Jesus and his Apostles 
have every where intimated, that his Gospel is the 
last of God s dispensations ; on the terms of which 
our final doom is irrevocably to be decided : so 
that all future pretenders to the like office and 
character must needs be esteemed impostors." 

But here a DEIST would come in, and take 
advantage of our distress; for it is to be observed 
alike of all these shifting defences of fanciful, and 
unscriptural systems, that they only supply new arms 

to 

* A celebrated Frenchman, who writes on all subjects 
indifferently, and, perhaps, knew better what he was 
about than these Divines, goes still further, and affirms, 
That Christianity is not only no more than the Religion 
of nature perfected, but that it could not possibly be any 
more . " Notre Religion reveiee n est meme, et ne 
" pouvoit etrCj que cette Loi naturelle perfectionnee." 
Discours sw le T/ieisme, par M. de Voltaire. 

f The Alcoran teaches, that Jesus did not suffer on 

the cross. Yet Mahomet denied our Saviour s Divinity. 

I 4 



120 SE RMON V. 

to the various adversaries of our faith ; A Deist, I 
say, would be ready to reply, " That it is indeed true 
that Jesus hath declared his own Mission to be the 
LAST : but that this is the artful expedient of every 
pretended Messenger from Heaven, in order to per 
petuate his own scheme, and to obviate the danger 
of an antiquated authority. The Impostor, Ma 
homet himself, hath done the same. He, who here 
obtrudes his armed pretensions upon us, hath secured 
the duration of his sensual Religion by the very same 
contrivance : A thing, in his ideas, so much of course, 
that he did not even object to Jesus s use of it, who 
had employed it before him ; and for no other pur 
pose than to cut off his, and all following pretensions 
to the like character. On the contrary, he avowed 
and maintained the general truth of the Nazarite s 
commission. Now (pursues the Deist) a method 
employed by a confessed impostor is taken up with 
an ill grace by the defender of true religion. But I 
draw a further consequence (says he) against the 

Gospel, 

Why then such aversion to the passion ? Evidently for 
this reason, the doctrine of REDEMPTION followed; and 
that completed the scheme of revelation, and (as we 
shall see) shut out the Impostor s pretences. M. Otter, 
a very intelligent traveller, of the Academy Royal of 
Inscriptions, tells us of a conference he had with a 
learned Persian. The Mahometan said, they reverenced 
all our sacred writings, except St. Paul s quils respectent 
tons, rxceptt Saint Paul. [Voiage en Turque et en Perse, 
vol. i. p. 22.] Why was this exception? On the same 
principle : because St. Paul is full of the doctrine of 
REDEMPTION ; explains the Christian system by it; and 
makes the whole Faith depend upon it. 



SERMON V. 121 

Gospel, from this representation of Christianity. 
For if the preaching of moral truth and righteous 
ness were the whole of Jesus s character and 
office, then his mission did not answer its pur 
pose, the lasting reformation of mankind, in the 
knowledge of God, and in the practice of virtue : 
since the world soon fell back again into the 
state from which Jesus had delivered it ; as ap 
pears from the history of the times in which Ma 
homet appeared, and the advantages he made of that 
degeneracy." 

Thus subjected to the insults and injuries of 
every kind of impostors, who set upon deluding the 
credulous, either by inventing NEW Revelations or 
by decrying the OLD, do these REPUBLISHERS ex 
pose the holy faith of Jesus: That faith which, we 
are told, was founded on a rock, impregnable to the 
assaults of men and demons ; to the sophisms of in 
fidelity, and the prestiges of imposture ! And so, 
indeed, it is, if we will take it as we find it ; if we 
will receive it as it came from above ; if we will 
preserve it pure and entire as it was delivered to 
the Saints, TILE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD, BY 

THE SON OF GOD, IN THE VOLUNTARY SACRIFICE 
Ok HIMSELF UPON THE CROSS. 

This secures * the character of Jesus fro.n the 
insults of false pretenders ; and his Gospel from the 
injuries of false reasoners. 

For, first of all, if Jesus did, indeed, redeem 

* See Div. Leg. Book IX. where the conformity of 
this Doctrine to right reason and the nature of things is 
evinced at large. 

mankind, 



i22 SERMON V. 

mankind, and restore them to their lost inheritance, 
the scheme and progress of revelation is completed : 
which beginning at the LAPSE, naturally and neces 
sarily ends in the restoration and recovery of LIFE 
AND IMMORTALITY by the death and passion of our 
Lord. CHRISTIANITY considered in this view (and 
in this view only Scripture gives it us to consider) 
soon detects all the artiul pretences of imposture ; 
and secures its own honour by virtue of its very es 
sence : the great scene of providence being now 
closed, in a full completion of its one, regular, en 
tire, and eternal purpose. 

Secondly, if Jesus indeed redeemed mankind, then 
did he neither preach nor die in vain : it not being 
in man s power, with all his malice and perverse- 
ness, to defeat or make void the great purpose of 
his Coming. For though one part of his Mission 
was to instruct the world in Wisdom and Righteous 
ness, which it was in man s power to forget and 
neglect ; yet, what is chiefly essential in his character, 
and peculiar in his office, the Sanctification and Re 
demption of the world, man could not frustrate nor 
render ineffectual : For it is not in his power to 
make that to be undone which is once done and 
perfected. 

The fastidious Caviller therefore hath employed 
his pains to very little purpose in attempting to dis 
credit Revelation from this topic. His laboured 
discourses on the moral state of the world, before 
and since the coming of Christ, are quite beside the 
question. For, though, where the comparison is 
fully and impartially stated, I will venture to say, 

the 



SERMON V. 123 

the advantage will be found to lie on the side of our 
Religion: yet supposing the truths preached by 
Jesus, and the assistance given by the Holy Spirit, 
have riot much improved the general morals of man 
kind ; How does this tend to the discredit of the 
Gospel? unless the Gospel can be proved to have 
no natural tendency to make men better? But this 
is so desperate an undertaking, that, I believe, in 
fidelity will hardly be persuaded to engage in it 
Indeed the contrary is so true, that, as I have shewn 
elsewhere, when you lay together the state of PAG AW 
and CHRISTIAN virtue, one manifest and essential 
difference is found between them ; which is this, That 
in the Gentile world, men often acted wrong UPON 
PRINCIPLE; in the Christian always AGAINST PRIN 
CIPLE *. Now, not to insist upon the necessary 
restraint this must be upon vice ; it plainly demon 
strates the NATURAL TENDENCY of the Gospel- 

truths to make men virtuous, and, to enforce them 
with a stronger impulse, did not suit the genius of a 
rational religion, whose object was free agency. 

But the proper answer to this idle cavil is taken, 
as VA e say, from the topic before us. Instruction of 
the world in Wisdom and Righteousness was but 
the secondary end of Christ s mission. The first 
and primary, was to become its sanctification and 
redemption ; the one must needs be common to 
every revelation coming from God ; the other is pe 
culiar to the Christian : and this, as we have shewn, 
cannot possibly be frustrated, or rendered inef 
fectual. 

* Div. Leg. Book iv. 2. 

To 



124 SERMON V. 

To conclude from all that hath been said : As we 
should not affect to pry into the nature of those things 
which God hath been pleased to withhold from our 
search, and to cover with the sacred veil of Mystery; 
so neither should we reject a Truth, expressly deliver 
ed, because we may not fully comprehend all the 
reasons on which it stands. In a word, as we should 
not venture to go on where the silence of Scripture 
directs us to stop; so neither should we presume to 
stop where, with so loud a voice, it commands us to 
go on. 

Men have been made sufficiently sensible of the 
mischiefs attending the first of these indiscretions, 
the being wise ABOVE what is written: I have here 
endeavoured to shew, that the other, the being wise 
AGAINST what is written, is not attended with 
fewer inconveniences. What then remains but to 
choose the middle way, the way to become wise unto 
salvation ; and, neither, in / practice or speculation, 
to ADD to, nor to DIMINISH from, the WORD OF 
GOD? 

Let us therefore religiously adhere to the doctrine 
of my text in its just extent, That Jesus Christ, of 
God, is made unto us WISDOM, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, 
and SANCTIFICATION, and REDEMPTION. 



SERMON VI. 



THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE 
MESSENGERS OF THE GOSPEL. 

MATT. x. ver. 16. 

BEHOLD I SEND YOU FORTH AS SHEEP IN THE 
MIDST or WOLVES: BE YE THEREFORE WISE 

AS SERPENTS, AND HARMLESS AS DOVES. 

SUCH was the direction given by our blessed 
Lord to his disciples, when he sent them out 
to preach the glad tidings of the Gospel. 

The CHARACTER of the Christian Mission is de 
noted in these words, Behold, I send you forth as 
sheep: And the CONDITION of an unbelieving 
World in the following, / send you in the midst of 
Wolves. Though the Faith was to be propagated 
only by the mild measures of persuasion, yet even 
this would provoke the wolfish disposition of the 
powers of darkness, to put in ure all the iniquitous 
contrivance of fraud and violence for its sup 
pression. 

Their provident Master, therefore, in the conclud 
ing words of my text, delivers them a rule for the 
innocence and prudence of their own conduct. Be 
ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 

A direction 



126 SERMON VI. 

A direction equally respecting their PRIVATE and 
their PUBLIC Character. Whereby, the first might 
correspond \vith the dignity of their office ; and the 
other, with the objects of their care. So that, as men, 
the HUMAN virtues; as missionaries, the SOCIAL 
are recommended to their practice : and both, under 
the familiar images of the serpent s wisdom, and the 
innocence of the dove. 

What these human virtues are, the allusion in the 
figurative EXPRESSION will discover: What the 
social, must be determined by the occasion of the 
PRECEPT. Be ye therefore (says the blessed Jesus) 
wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. A direction, 
conveyed in two proverbial sayings, whose import 
.the Disciples perfectly understood. 

The first alludes to a vulgar superstition of the 
ancient world, which gave credit to certain artists, 
who pretended to the power of rendering serpents 
innoxious by the force of charms, and incantations. 
The men who traded in this imposture, in order to 
hide their frequent miscarriages, made the people 
believe that some of these serpents had gotten a 
trick as good as their own ; which was to shut their 
ears to their inchantments. This counterplot was 
as readily believed, as the other s magic power, in 
an age, when every thing was well received, which 
excited the hearer s admiration. Hence the proverb 
of the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears ; which 
refuseth to hearthe voice of the charmer, charm he 
never so sweetly : by which, Moralists would infer 
the wisdom and safety of abstaining from unlawful 
pleasures. 

The 



SERMON VI. 127 

The second, of being harmless as doves, alludes 
to as ancient and as fanciful an error of the Na 
turalists, that the dove is without a gall ; or, at least, 
bears it not within *. 

The whole of this monition therefore, to the dis 
ciples in their private character, implies, That they 
should learn to abstain from all unlawful, unmanly 
and intemperate pleasures ; and to suppress in them 
selves all the sentiments of rage, anger, and revenge. 
The serpent s wisdom being directed against the 
CONCUPISCIBLE passions, as the dove s innocence is 
against the IRASCIBLE : and both together make 
one general precept for the subjection of our brutal 
nature to the rational : in which consists the exer 
cise of the hitman virtues. 

Could any thing be more harmless than this me 
thod of propagating religion ? Could any thing be 
more holy than the manners of its propagators ? 
What regard to the rights of men, to the Laws of 
society, was enjoined to the Offerers of the Gospel! 
What neglect of the interests of flesh and blood was 
required of the Receivers of it ! TRUTH was the last 
ing foundation on which Jesus erected his Church : 
and \ ? IRTUE the living principle which was to 
actuate its members. 

Indeed the purity of his intentions and the 
rectitude of his measures are so evident from the 
evangelic history of his life and death, that the 

* "Avtya fj.i] txpfa xohw txvroQvug, aM ottf tTEpx dexojjtwov 
ypct<pQvle$ [AlyuTrlioi EfpirEfctv ^wy^a^acrjv, S^GOM TO. 6vri<T9(& 
f6a. EV exE/vwj yp Trjv xotav e%u. Horapollinis Hicrugl. 
1. ii. c. 48. 

most 



128 SERMON VL 

most stubborn infidel is ready to clear him of 
fraudulent imposture, and to centre all his suspicions 
in a well-meaning ENTHUSIASM. 

This is the last miserable refuge of obstinate im 
piety. And the order of the discourse, which now 
brings us to consider the precept of the text, as it 
respects the messengers of Jesus in their PUBLIC 
CAPACITY, will enable us to expose it in all its 
nakedness. 

Be ye THEREFORE wise as serpents, and harmless 
as doves. Wherefore ? because they were sent forth 
as sheep in the midst of wolves ; that is, unarmed and 
defenceless amidst the powers of the Prince of this 
world. The virtues, recommended to them under 
their public capacity, were, we see, objective to these 
powers ; and therefore, of the social kind ; and con 
sisted in prudence and justice ; as the other, recom 
mended to them in their private capacity, and 
objective to themselves, were of the human ; and con 
sisted in temperance and forbearance. And here let 
me observe, in honour of God s word (which should 
be the principal end of all discourses from this place), 
the mutual connexion and reciprocal influence, which 
the two parts have on one another. The humanvirtues 
were to recommend their MISSION; and the social, 
to recommend their PERSONS. But to proceed. 

If Jesus had been an Enthusiast, there was no 
time when the fanatic spirit would so forcibly have 
broken out as at this juncture; the critical juncture 
of sending his disciples abroad to convert the world. 
An Enthusiast, possessed with the high glory of 
propagating and establishing a new religion, to arise 

and 



SERMON VI. 129 

and be denominated from himself, would have his 
spiritual passions kindled and inflamed to their ut 
most bearing, at that important moment of com 
mencing his enterprise. 

But the words of Jesus upon this occasion bespeak 
their Author to be perfectly cool, and collected 
within himself. Behold, I send you as sheep in the 
midst of icolves. 

Let us reflect upon them with attention. Though 
I am not altogether of opinion with tho^e who con 
sider the premonition (to which the words of my 
text allude) so frequently repeated by Jesus to his 
followers, of the various persecution that awaited 
the profession of his Gospel, as the clearest evidence 
of his prophetic spirit: because I think a common 
observer of the state and genius of the then pre 
vailing superstitions might easily foresee what would 
be the early fate of a Religion supported by no other 
powers than those of Reason and Grace, when it 
openly opposed its truth and purity to a world sunk 
deep in error and corruption. Yet so far must al 
ways be confessed, that this serious attention to the 
event would not have made part of the Character 
of a heated and inflamed Enthusiast. When we find, 
therefore, the Founder of our holy religion calmly 
attentive to the reception his Doctrine was likely 
to meet with from the People, and provident 
of the treatment his Servants were sure to receive 
from the Magistrate, we must needs conclude that 
he then possessed himself in that dignity of repose, 
under a comprehensive view of his scheme, which 

VOL. IX. K became 



130 SERMON VI. 

became a great Prophet, superior to all the infir 
mities as well as chances of humanity. 

But his provison for his faithful servants did not 
stop at the salutary warning here given unto them. 
When he had hinted at the treatment of the world 
towards them, Behold, I send you forth as sheep in 
the midst of wolves, he directs what should be their 
conduct to the world > Be yc y therefore, wise as 
serpents, ami harmless as doves. A direction which 
none under the influence of a fanatic spirit would be 
either forward to give, or fond to see observed. For 
religious Enthusiasm, as we know by sad experience, 
places its chief glory in despising human prudence, 
and in violating and trampling upon human peace. 

Its two great states or stages are the SUFFERINGS 
and the TRIUMPHS of its deluded Instruments. And, 
in both, this hot and fiery spirit fatally hurries them 
into the most mischievous extremes. 

At the new birth of a visionary Sect, which is 
generally the suffering state of Enthusiasm, those 
under its influence are apt to give great advantages 
to their opposers, and to bring as great discredit on 
themselves. And all for want of this wisdom of the 
serpent \ for want of using these means of human 
prudence which both reason and nature urge and 
dictate to us, for the support of our opinions, and 
for the preservation of our persons. 

The method Enthusiasm chuses to employ ia 
propagating its tenets- is the reverse to this wisdom 
of the serpent; as we may see by comparing the 
practice of modern Enthusiasts with that of the great 

Apostle 



S E R M O N VI. 131 

Apostle of the Gentiles ; who had formed his con 
duct on this monition of his Master. He becan-c all 
things to men, that he might gain some * : They 
comply in nothing, through a visionary fervour to 
gain all. St. Paul, with this allegoric picture of wis 
dom before his eyes, was polite, artful, and insinuat 
ing ; always on the watch, to take honest advantages 
of every principle and practice of his adversaries ; 
in order the more effectually to recommnd the 
Gospel of Jesus to their favour |- The Fanatic is 
stubborn, rude, positive, and overhearing. So far 
from being disposed to turn the best side of his 
adversaries wrong opinions forward, the better to 
set off his own, that he is ever prompt to misrepre 
sent their right ones \ and abhors the temptation 
of suffering you to be of his Faith ; unless you 
express it in his own words, and allow him all his 
consequences. And mistaking the precept of being 
at enmity with the world for an aversion to men 
as well as principles, he helps forward an unjust 
persecution from the public, when he should be 
reconciling particulars to his pretended mission. 

Nor is his conduct less extravagant now r it con- 
cerns the care of his person, than before, in the re 
commendation of his opinions. Part of the yisdom 
of the serpent consists, as Jesus elsewhere explains 
it, in prudently evading the fury of our enemies ; so 
that when they persecute us in one city, we may fly 
to another ; a point of prudence, which St Paul, 
on many occasions, as temperately as successfully 

* ; Cor. ix. 22. f Acts xvii. J Matt. x. 23. 

& 2 put 



132 SERMON VI.. 

put in practice*. And when the same prudence 
directed him to withstand the Magistrate s Fasces,, 
it was not as a Teacher of truth, but as a Citizen 
of Rome f . But neither precept nor example is 
sufficient to moderate the fervors of fanatic zeaL 
So that having stirred up the people to mischief, 
and provoked the magistrate to injustice, he closetk 
the scene, without either the Confessor s merit, or 
his Master s passport, in rushing with presumptuous- 
confidence, on the flames. 

This then being the native hue and complexion 
of powerless Enthusiasm, Is it possible to believe, 
that lie who, in the direction of being wise as 
serpents, discredited and condemned all this extra 
vagance of conduct, could himself be an impotent 
Enthusiast? 

But let us next see the visage Enthusiasm puts 
on when it is now become triumphant, and has 
gotten the People in its train. If, in its suffering 
state, it haply wore the face of patience and for 
bearance, it now shews, by the sudden change of 
countenance, that it esteemed them the virtues 
rather of the time than of the person. For when 
Power hath changed hands, and the magistrate is 
eome over to its side, it is ever ready to turn the 
same authority against others which had been so 
abusively employed against itself. And if haply 
it contents itself to stay the slower issue of the more- 
artful and clandestine methods of discouragement 

* Acts ix. 25. xiv. 6; xvii. to. xxiii. 17.. xxv. 11. 
-p Ibid, xvi. 37* xxii, 25, 

and 



SERMON VI. 133 

end wholesome severities, yet if these do not succeed 
against differing opinions, it falls with the quicker 
appetite on the more direct and -open measures of 
violence and oppression. 

Now the unbeliever will be forced to own, that 
Jesus, with only the common provision which a 
great genius can never be without, might fairly 
foresee, that a Religion so pure, so reasonable, so 
useful to mankind, against which there was nothing 
to oppose but the absurdities and mischiefs of 
Paganism, must, by the use of common prudence 
hi the propagation of it, notwithstanding the opposi 
tion which was as easily foreseen, at length become 
superior and triumphant. So that an Enthusiast, 
who had left instructions how his Ministers should 
act when that time came, would naturally direct 
them to exert all their zeal ; to demolish the 
high places, to cut down the groves, to slay the 
false prophets with the sword, and to establish a 
perfect uniformity. For there is nothing in which 
the fanatic spirit so delights to riot as in the abti- 
S ive application of the rules and principles of one 
of God s -dispensations to another, though of a 
genius directly opposrte. 

On the other had, oar ever-blessed Master, who 
not only foresaw, but predicted the progress and 
superiority of his Gospel, restrains his ministers 
from all anrbitions politics, and unjust violence, in 
the single precept of being harmless as doves. For 
while they observed this rule, and preserved this 
character, they could never aim at usurping on the 

& 3 State, 



334 SERMON VI. 

State, or tyrannizing in the Church : But would 
leave the Magistrate his sword ; would <eave the 
People their conscience ; and De content to remit 
the religious late of Kingdoms to the wise providence 
of God ; .who in his own good time will bring all 
men to the knowledge ot his Truth. 

Thus hath the holy Founder of our Faith digged 
up, by the verv roots, the whole system of Imposture. 
He hath quelled the wildness of the Fanatic in the 
command to be wise as serpents; he hath checked 
the ambition of the Enthusiast in the command to 
be harmless as cloves : so that the unbeliever must 
either acquit him of these affections, or must retract 
\vhat he srvmed so willing to allow him, the great 
ness of his talents and abilities. For, if we will 
credit these men, The great support -of his Charac 
ter was a v el I -directed enthusiasm : and yet he 
effectually contrived to damp its influence at that 
very crisis when an Enthusiast would have let 
loose his genius, and given it tiie utmost iorce and 
moment. 

It is seen, that in this account of a well-directed 
Enthusiasm, [ have supposed it to consist of an 
equal mixture of EXTRAVAGANCE and ART : the 
fitvi betraying itself in the struggle, and the last in 
its application of the fruits of victory. And what 
ever inconsistence there may appear to be in this 
representation, I apprehend the fault lies only in 
the contradictions of our corrupt nature. 

It is coimiv-nly indeed supposed, that the more 

wild and extravagant a fanatic temper is, the more 

1 6 clear 



SERMON VI. 135 

dear it must needs be of all fraud and artifice : 
But both reason and experience are ready to shew 
us our mistake. 

Fanaticism is a fire, which heats the mind indeed, 
but heats without purifying. It stimulates and 
ferments all the passions ; but it rectifies none of 
them : and thus leaving the appetites unsubdued ; 
pride, vanity, and ambition, insinuate themselves 
into the impotent and disordered mind, under the 
disguise of purity, holiness, and perfection. And 
while they are at work, Religion, which lent them 
these more honest appellations, will be so far from 
curbing the owner in the use of oblique means, that 
the strongest influence of fanaticism will be naturally 
directed to push him upon them, as the best instru 
ments for the ready introduction of what he calls 
the truth. 

Nor does the PHYSICAL state of the Enthusiast s 
mind give any stronger check to fraudulent practice 
than the MORA L. For when this passion or affection 
hath taken possession of a great genius, who, if he 
chance to have a lively imagination, is as subject to 
its controul as the meanest, the violence of his fer 
vours makes him impatient of stop or defeat, in what 
he takes to be the cause oj God , and consequently, 
to cast about for any kind of means to remove or 
repair it : readily persuading himself, that any means 
are lawful : And his superior genius will enable him 
to find them ; and wl en found to improve them to 
their utmost use, by all the arts ot fraudulent address. 
Hence, if we examine the history of mankind, we 
shall see, that the Founders of empires and false 

K 4 religions, 



136 SERMON VI. 

religions, which these Artists contrived should sup 
port one another, were frank Enthusiasts : But, at 
the same time, sufficient masters of themselves, to 
turn, with proper address, that spirit which they 
had catched and communicated, to the advance 
ment of their proper schemes. And it is observable, 
that wherever one of these personated actors was 
not perfect in both his parts, he was soon hissed off 
the stage. The reason is evident : it arises from 
the nature of things. Without Enthusiasm, the 
adventurer could never kindle that fire in his follow 
ers, which is so necessary to consolidate their mutual 
interests : for no one can heartily deceive numbers, 
who is not first of all deceived himself; or, in other 
words, seem to be in earnest. But then, on the 
contrary, when the spirit of fanaticism is sufficiently 
spread and inflamed, it can never produce any great 
or notable issue, unless the raiser and director of 
the machine be so far master of himself as to be 
able to turn the point of this powerful instrument 
to the objects of his project, and keep it constantly 
directed to their advancement. 

Indeed (as hath been observed above) the suc 
cessful Directors of this Drama have generally 
exhibited more of art in their latter scenes, and 
more of enthusiasm in the former. The reason of 
which too is not less evident. Fanaticism is a kind 
of ebullition or critical ferment of the infected 
mind : which a vigorous nature can work through, 
and by slow degrees be able to. cast off. Hence, 
history informs us of several successful Impostors 
\vho set out in all the blaze of fanaticism, and ended 



SERMON VI. 137 

their career in all the depth and stillness of Politics. 
A prodigy in our nature ; but not the rarest ; and 
exhibited with superior splendor by the famous 
Ignatius Loiola. This illustrious person, who 
verified the observation of one that almost equalled 
him in his trade, " that a man never rises so high 
as when he does not know whither he is going," 
began his ecstasies in the mire ; and yet ended with 
the direction and execution of Councils, that even 
in his own life-time began to give the Law to 
Christendom. 

Amidst all these distractions of human reason 
and obliquities of worldly politics, we see a spiritual 
Empire suddenly arise ; we mark its progress ; we 
trace its extent ; we examine its establishment ; and 
comparing all its parts with their reference to a whole, 
we find it in effect to have, what was fancied of 
old Rome, every essential character of eternity. 
Yet was this surprizing Revolution brought about 
by means entirely different from those by which all 
the great changes and establishments amongst man 
kind have been introduced, I mean FRAUD and 
FANATICISM. What, then, are we to conclude, 
but that the Religion of Jesus is as divine in its 
origine as it is pure and perfect in its essence : and 
that its Author was as free from all the visions 
and obliquities of Enthusiasm as he was replete 
with all the wisdom and virtue of Heaven ? 



SERMON VIL 



THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE 
MESSENGERS OF THE GOSPEL. 

MATT. v. 16. 

LET YOUR LIGHT SO SIIIXE BEFORE MEX, THAT 
THEY MAY SEE YOUR GOOD WORKS, AXD 
GLORIFY YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEAVEN". 

OUR Blessed Saviour^ as we may collect from 
the foregoing chapter, had delivered to his 
Tollowers the great Principles of the Gospel Dis 
pensation ; which consist in a clearer knowledge of 
the true God ; the lost and forfeited condition of 
man ; and restoration to life and immortality by 
faith in the Messiah . 

Having thus taught them what they were tfo believe, 
he proceeds in this, and the following chapter, to 
shew them what they were to practise ; introducing 
his Sermon on the Mount \\ ith the words of my text, 
Let your light so shine, before jntn, that they may see 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in Heaven. As much as to say, The use you are 
to make of your superior knowledge is to compleat 
and recommend your practice ; that, from thence 

mat 



*40 SERMON VIL 

may arise, what is the legitimate end of all human 
actions, Glory to God. 

This is the general sense of the \vords. But the 
equity, the importance, the necessity of the pre 
cept, do well deserve, a more particular illustration. 

It consists of three distinct parts. 

The first is contained in the more general direc 
tion of Letting our Light shine before, men. By 
light is meant knowledge, or the participation of 
truth ; and not, as it is commonly understood, good 
And tiiis appears r.ot only from what hath 
been just observed of the disposition of the precept, 
with regard to what precedes and follows it ; but 

;ewise from the propriety of the words themselves, 
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see 
yourgcod works; for the thino: seen, and the instru 
ment of seeing, must>oeeds be different. Nottospeaic 
of the propriety of the figure, in (he word light for 
knowledge. For what light is to the eye, that know 
ledge is to the mind : On which account it is become 
a metaphor running through aU languages, but hath 
a peculiar grace and energy in the application of my 
tcxt^: Hie Great Author of our faith being described 
by the inspired men of old under the same figure, 
That there should come a STAR out of Jacob : where 
fore St. John gives him the title of the LIGHT which 
lighteth every man that comet h into the world. 

By this light s Mining before men is meant, that it 
should be diffusive to all, as the nature of light is in 
itself, which sends out its rays on every side around ; 

and 



SERMON VII. 141 

anil that it should be communicated to all, as light 
is in its use and application amongst men ; for as 
Jesus says in the words preceding my text, Neither 
do mm light a candle to put it under a bushel^ but 
on a candlestick. 

But rightly to apprehend the reason of giving an 
express precept for the doing what appears so natu 
ral for his followers to do, and so reasonable that 
they should do, \ve must consider the state and con 
dition of Truth at the publication of the Gospel; 
where we shall find that the societies of the wise and 
learned, in the schools of the philosophers and in 
the colleges of the priests (from whence issued the.- 
voluntary and appointed instructors of the world), 
had imbibed, from one another, very inveterate pre 
judices concerning the communication of truth to the 
people. 

In their sacred fraternities, partly to hide the 
weakness of the national religion, and partly to pre-. 
serve the veneration for, and to increase the gain 
of the priesthood, every thing was wrapt about with 
mystery, and shut up within the cloisters of their 
temples. The books that contained the doctrine 
and discipline of religion were carefully sequestered 
from common eyes, and the inquisitive tempers of 
the vulgar restrained and checked by oracular denun 
ciations against prophane curiosity. 

The same incommunicable spirit prevailed in the 
schools of the Philosophers. These despised the 
people as much as the Priests imposed upon them ; 
and shaking off their common relation to the gross 
body of mankind, they soou began to think, that the 

doctrines 



142 S E R M O N VII. 

doctrines and speculations of their schools were of a 
nature too excellent to come into the n,arkets and 
assemblies of the Vulgar. Hence their solemn 
engagements of secresy ; by which they kept their 
knowledge confined within the limits of their own 
sect or profession. Thus stood the Pagan world 
with respect to Truth. 

Amongst the Jews, That great body called the 
Pharisees, which had all the learning and power of 
the Sanhedrim in their hands, had likewise, in imi 
tation of the Gentile colleges of Religion and Learn 
ing, formed themselves into a 3ect an( j as ^ ne y na( j 
borrowed many Pagan practices and opinions, which 
had miserably polluted the Law of Moses, so this, 
amongst the rest, of confining Wisdom to the walls 
of the temple ; and taking away the key of know 
ledge from their brethren *. 

Such being the perverse state of things, it was no 
wonder that Jesus should deem.it of high importance^ 
to the interests of Truth, to caution his followers 
against a prejudice that had so universally infected 
all the teachers of Philosophy and Religion. 

But there are still further reasons to inforcc 
this precept : The Christian faith hath its advan 
tages of shining, and the Teachers of it their 
obligations to light it tip, which are no where else 
to be found amongst all the various systems of 
wisdom or holiness. 

J?r ; i, The Religion of Jesus is fit for, and 

* Luke ad. 52. 

worthy 



SERMON VIL 143 

worthy the knowledge and examination of every 
man. The several modes of Pagan worship, as they 
composed the national religions, were contrived and 
framed by Lawgivers, in ways that best served the 
ends of their several societies ; so that public ser 
vice, rather than truth, being the object of their in 
stitutions, these were but badly fitted for popu 
lar examination : which, therefore, in consequence, 
was forbid. But Jesus, who had no oblique ends 
to serve, his kingdom not being of this world, de 
livered only pure and exact truth, which will stand 
the severest test, and most critical inquiry : And 
This, which was so fit, was, at the same time, most 
necessary to be communicated to all, as propounding 
to mankind. The terms of salvation to be obtained 
only by his Gospel. Unlike, in this too, to the wis 
dom of the ancient Sages, which comprised only 
idle and fruitless truths, with which the people had 
no concern; or abstract and obscure speculations, 
with which they had no acquaintance. 

Secondly, The Teachers of this Religion had the 
highest obligations freely to communicate of their 
knowledge to others- The pretence, on which the 
ancient masters of wisdom justified themselves in a 
contrary practice, was the cost and labour they had 
been at in acquiring knowledge. A long and studious 
application to letters, in the painful probationary 
trials of their schools; The many and dangerous 
voyages they had undertaken in search of wisdom, 
at their great ex pence of fortune, ease, and he.ilth: 
These gave them, as they thought, an exclusive pro 
perty in the Truths which they iia.d so dearly bought, 

and 



144 SERMON VII. 

and so often paid for. Whereas the followers of 
Jesus hail all their divine wisdom brought home 
unto them, without cost or search. Hence it is that 
their Master elsewhere teils them, Freely you have, 
received; freely give *. That is, you can have no 
pretence to conceal, or sell, the Knowledge, which 
was given to you without search or price. 

II. But it was not enough for this light to shine 
before men ; it was not enough for the followers of 
Jesus to communicate of their savini? knowledge to 
others: it was So to shine, that the world might see 
and understand the virtues of its enlighteners. And 

o 

this is the second particular of the precept. Let 
your light so shine before men, that they may see your 
good works. And as before, the PROPERTY of light 
was alluded to, in the command that it should shine ; 
so here, the USE, that it should so shine. For light 
is not held forth for the manifestation of itself; but 
to illustrate something else, which men would re 
commend to public notice. 

It is here supposed, you see, that the DOC 
TRINES of Christianity will lend a light to good 
works, whereby they may be better seen and under 
stood. And this with great reason. There are two 
ways of estimating moral actions; either by the 
merit of the Performer, or by the benefit of the 
Effects. If by the benefit of their effects, there is 
no need of knowing the motive of the actor ; on 
which all merit must be estimated. In such 
case, we only praise the action for the good it 

*Matt. x. 8. 

pro- 



SERMON VII. 145 

produceth: or if the actor have any share in the 
applause ; as his motives may, for aught we 
know, be only prepossession, habit, or gentleness 
of temper; it is but just such commendation as we 
give to animals undegenerate, and displaying the 
good qualities of their respective species. But when 
we would estimate good works by the merit of the 
Performer, which is the case in question, we are 
then to know his motives of action. These arise 
out of his principles ; and are more or less noble as 
those principles are more or less legitimate. Now 
as the principles, or light, of true religion produce 
the noblest motives for good works, which are love 
of God and universal benevolence towards man; 
with great reason does the holy Jesus suppose, that 
this light will add the highest lustre to CHRISTIAN 
MORALS; and make them, as he \vellexpressesit, 
seen; that is, seen in their full light and splendor. 

By this branch of the precept, again, it was our 
Master s purpose to discriminate his followers from 
the Pagan priesthood; who neither practised virtue 
themselves, nor taught it as of much avail to the 
people. If they were but frequent in their temple 
service, and exact in their ritual solemnities, these 
false guides assured them that the gods were pleased, 
and they had done their duty. 

It was much the same with the Jewish. The love 
of God and of their neighbour was forgotten, or 
made of nont tjfcct, as our Lord tells them, through 
thdr traditions * ; and nothing found to supply their 
place, but mw Moons and Sabbaths, Jasts and 
* Mark vii. 13, 

Voz,. !. L sokmn 



146 SEE M O N VII. 

solemn assemblies *; which had so thoroughly 
usurped the place of Virtue, as, in time, even to 
dispute the very name with it. 

III. But we have not yet the full sense of my 
text. It was not enough that the light of Jesus s 
followers shone before men, and that their good works 
were seen by it: They were to be SUCH good works 
as from whence glory to God might result. Let 
your light so shine before men, that they may sec 
your good works, and glorify your Father which is 
in Heaven. And this is the third and last particular 
of the precept. 

It would be the highest folly and arrogance, in 
the reptile, man, to imagine that he, by any of his 
endeavours, could add to the glory of God, with 
whom essentially dwells all power and perfection for 
evermore. But thougli the pomp of ceremonies, the 
servility of prostrations, the cost of sacrifices, and 
the dedication of sumptuous temples, can add 
nothing to his glory ; yet is he graciously pleased, so 
long as we continue subject to his Son, and obedient 
to his laws, to reckon our procuring and advancing 
our own mutual happiness, by the exercise of good 
works, as the augmentation of his proper glory. 

But it is not only in the end, but in the means, of 
procuring human happiness, that our holy religion 
hath advantages peculiar to itself, for the promotion 
of God s glory. We are taught by this religion, 
that, of ourselves, and without the assistance of 
Heaven, we can do no good work, for that it is the 

* Isaiah i, 13, 

Holy 



SERMON VII. 147 

Holy Spirit who directs us both to will and to do 
of his own good pleasure *. God therefore being the 
immediate giver of this grace, all that proceeds from 
it must be placed to his account, and to the augmen 
tation of his glory. 

Here again will the followers of Jesus be dis 
tinguished from all other teachers. The Pagan and 
Jewish priesthood were, indeed, by their very 
profession, taught, that the glory of the Deity was to 
be their aim. For religion being their employment, 
and the object of religion, God ; they could not 
but see that his glory was principally to be regarded. 
But in the way of doing it they were both equally 
mistaken. They placed this glory, as we observed 
before, only in the magnificence of their temples, 
the train of their processions, the awfulness of 
sacrifice, and the humiliation of expiatory penances; 
They never suspected that peace, good-will towards 
men, advanced glory to God in the highest. 

The Philosophers were still more in the dark as 
to this matter. For though, in one point, they saw 
clearer than the priests, that Virtue was infinitely 
preferable to the pomp of solemnest sacrifice ; yet, 
in cultivating the duties of morality, they were so 
far from thinking of the glory of God, that they 
refined and sublimated VIRTUE for no other purpose 
than to advance the glory of man. Nor could it 
well be otherwise amongst men, who were ignorant 
both of the true ground of moral obligation, and of 
our natural inability to act upon it: from which 
two principles, rightly derived, glory to God most 

* Philip, ii. 13, 

2 eminently 



148 SERMON VII. 

eminently results. For, first, their motives to the 
practice of virtue were absurd and illegitimate. 
One followed it for the love of fame and reputation -, 
another, for the intrinsic beauty of its nature ; a 
third, for the benefit of its effects ; a fourth, for 
that the laws of his country required it , a fifth, 
for he knew not why : But none practised it on its 
true principle, conformity to the will of God : from 
whence glory to him naturally proceeds. Again. 
They were as much mistaken in man s anility. They 
pretended that their SAGE had the whole exercise 
of virtue in his power, by the mere force and recti 
tude of his own nature, without any aid or assistance 
from the Deity. Nay, the Stoics, a sect which, of 
all others, most cultivated the science and practice 
of morality, were so far from seeking the assistance 
of Heaven, that, with an unparalleled extravagance, 
they placed their WISE MAN in a rank superior to 
their GODS, as having in him something of higher 
strength and fortitude; for that he persevered in 
virtue, amidst a thousand difficulties and discourage 
ments ; whereas the virtue of the Gods had no 
temptations to shake it *. In a word, such utter 
strangers were they, in general, both to the nature of 
God and Man, that Cicero, delivering the sentiments 
of ancient wisdom on this matter, expresses himself 
to this effect : " All the commodities of life, says 

* Est aliquid, quo SAPIENS anteccdat Deuui. Ille 
naturae beneficio, non suo s:\piens est. Sen. Ep. liij. 
Ferte farther, hoc est quo Deuin antecedatis. Ille extra 
patieutuun malorumest, vos [Sapientes] supra patientiant 
Idem Lib. Quare bonis, etc. 



SERMON VIL 149 

" he, are the gift of Heaven, but virtue no man 
" ever yet thought came from God. For, who ever 
(i returned him thanks, that he was good and 
" honest? And why should he? for virtue is, of 
" right, our own praise, and that in which man 
" reasonably GLORIES. This, in short, is the opinion 
" of all the world, that the goods of Fortune are to 
" be asked of Heaven, but that wisdom is to be 
" had only from ourselves *." 

But now it will be said, and it is not an objection 
to be concealed, How is this precept to the Disciple, 
to be accommodated to the Master s practice ? Jesus 
directs the Messengers of his word to let their light 
shine before men : and yet his own was so obscurely 
dispensed, that his followers are ever and anon 
soliciting him to explain his meaning. And his 

* The whole passage is in these words: Atque hoc 
quidem omnes mortales sic habcnt, externas comraodi- 
tates, vineta, segetes, oliveta, ubertatem frugum et 
fructuum, omnem deuique commoditatein prosper! tatem- 
que vitae, a Diis se habere : virtutem autem nemounquam 
acceptamDeo retulit. Mimirum recte. Propter virtutem 
enim jure laudamur, et IN VIRTUTE RECTE GLORI- 
AMUR. Quod NONcontingeret, si id DONUM A DEO, non 
a nobis haberemus. At vero aut honoribus aueti, aut 
re familiar!, aut si aliud quippiam nacti sumus fbrtuiti 
boni, aut depulimus mali, cum .Diis gratias aginiu, turn 
nihil nostrae laud! assumtum arbitramur. JSum quis, 
quod bonus vir esset, gratias Diis egit unquam ? At quod 
dives, quod honoratns, quod incoiumis Ad rem au 
tem ut redeam, judicium hoc omnium mortnlitun .est, 
fortunam a Deo petendam, a SEIPSO sumendam esse 
MPIENTIAM. De Nat. Deor, J. iii. c. 36. 

L 3 answer 



150 SERMON VII. 

answer to them, upon one of these occasions, only 
increases the embarras. Unto you (says he) it is 
given to know the Mystery of the Kingdom of God, 
but, unto them that are without, all these things are 
done in parables ; that seeing they may see and not 
perceive, and hearing they may hear and not under 
stand , lest at any time they should be converted, 
and their Sins should be forgiven them*. A penurious 
dispensation of truth is the least offensive circum 
stance in this dreadful account of his commission. 
The keeping numbers in darkness, in order to work 
their destruction, gives but an untoward idea of a 
divine Messenger; and a much worse of him in 
particular who, by his own declaration, was sent 
not to destroy mens lives but to save them f, or, as 
he expresses it on an occasion more to our present 
purpose, to save that which was lost J. 

I shall examine this offensive circumstance in the 
Gospel dispensation, not merely to shew the confor 
mity between Jesus s own practice, and that which 
in my text he recommends to his followers ; but 
principally to vindicate the justice of the divine 
conduct towards those, who, it is confessed, were 
the proper objects of his vengeance. And the rather, 
as this circumstance is become a stumbling-block, 
which licentious men are ever ready to throw in the 
way of the staggering and the weak-sighted. 

In order to do this, we must go back to the 
institution of the Law. This establishment, though 
preparatory to the Gospel, was yet, in order to fit 

* Mark iv. 11, 12. f Luke ix. 56. 

J Matt, xviii. 1 i . 

it 



SERMON VII. 151 

it to the genius of the Jewish people, delivered under 
a carnal cover ; which, for the sake of what was to 
come, the Prophets, from time to time, were ever lift 
ing up ; and pointing to the spiritual substance be 
neath. Notwithstanding this attention of Providence 
to conduct them to their true happiness, the genius 
of the people prevailed ; and instead of suffering the 
SUBJECT disclosed by the prophets to erect their 
minds to heavenly things, They catched at the 
EXPRESSION to fortify themselves in their carnal 
habitudes. In a word, The Jews growing more 
and more earthly-minded ; and with an obstinacy 
so peculiar to them, that their blindness seemed to 
spread in proportion to their increase of day-light ; 
By such time as the change of the economy 
approached, any cover for truth, even the plainest 
apologue, or most obvious parable, was sufficient to 
keep them in that ignorance, into which their pas 
sions and prejudices had brought them. 

Against this hardness of heart and grossness of 
understanding, ,the prophets had long struggled, by 
all the address of information, by all severity of 
reproof; till at length, every mean of reformation 
having proved ineffectual, God, in his wise pro 
vidence, thought fit, that those who would not suffer 
him to save them should, for a warning to an 
impious world, have their rejection of the Lord of 
life predicted by the mouth of his Prophets ; and 
their final destruction recorded in their own Oracles. 

The time foretold was now come. The Lord of 
life was sent to THEM and to all MANKIND. And 
agreeable to his business, was his Office and Cha- 

4 racter. 



152 SERMON VII. 

racter. To mankind at large he was primarily a di 
vine Messenger : To the Jews, a divine Messenger 
foretold. To prove his mission, he worked mira 
cles : to prove himself the Messiah, he fulfilled 
Prophecies. Under the first part of his Character, 
his light shone before mm in the manner he recom 
mends it to his followers imitation : under the latter, 
it shone indeed, but so as to be subservient and 
instrumental to the evidence arising from the marks 
predicted of their promised Deliverer. Now God, 
by Isaiah, had said, " Also I heard the voice of 
" the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who 
" will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I, send me. 
" And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye 
" indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, 
" but perceive not. Make the heart of this people 
" fat, and make their ears heavy, arid shut their 
" eyes : lest they see with their eyes, and hear 
" with their ears, and understand with their heart, 
l and convert and be healed *." From this pro 
phecy, (which the Disciples might have seen was 
then fulfilling on the Jews |, in the very mode of 
communicating the Gospel to thfm) our blessed 
Saviour deduceth the proof of his Messiah-Charac 
ter Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of 
the kingdom of God: but to others in parables ; 
that seeing they might not see, and hearing they 
might not understand^. As much as to say, Take 
this mark amongst others of the truth of my pre 
tensions : My offers of Salvation, as was foretold, 

* Jsai^h vi. 8, 9, 10. f Matt. xiii. 14. John xii. 39- 
Luke viii. 10* 



SERMON VII. 153 

are rejected of my Countrymen; and I have de 
livered my message to them in such terms, and 
attended with such circumstances, as the good pro 
vidence of God hatli foretold ; and by foretelling 
hath prescribed the Messiah to employ, in order to 
promote the accomplishment of his will. So that 
Jesus, we see, is not here declaring the MODE, in 
which, as a divine messenger, he was to propound 
God s good will to man : Much less is it any inti 
mation of the peculiar GENIUS of the Gospel; 
which in one place selected its favourites, ancl in 
another doomed the unhappy to perdition : But it 
is a simple assertion that the prophetic prediction, 
or, if you will, God s sentence, was now fulfilling 
or executing on the Jews : And that Jesus, as 
the instrument of its completion, was indeed the 
Messiah foretold. In a word, lie is here simply 
instructing his followers in the wise and wonderful 
accomplishment of Scripture prophecy, concerning 
the fate of the Jews and the fortunes of their 
Messiah ; to convince them of God s righteous 
dealings, and of the truth of his own mission Let 
what consequence soever therefore, concerning the 
divine justice, be drawn from this declaration, it 
concerns not Jesus, as preacher of the Gospel ; but 
God himself as the giver of the Law. 

We address ourselves then, with due reverence, 
to justify his ways to man; which we trust may be 
done without presumption or difficulty, where Re 
velation informs us of the act ; and Natural light 
instructs us in the equity and reason of it. " Also 

" I heard 



154 SERMON VII. 

" I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall 
fc I send and who will go for us ? Then said I, 
" Here am I, send me. And he said, Go and tell 
" this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; 
" and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the 
" heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, 
" and shut their eyes : lest they see with their eyes, 
" and hear with their ears, and understand with 
" their heart, and convert and be healed." 

Here, we see, the event predicted, is the rejection 
of the Messiah : and though we find it so predicted 
as may seem to imply it was likewise influenced, 
lest they see with their eyes, yet as we are able to 
give a good account why such terms might be used 
though no such influence were exerted, it does not 
follow that the event was indeed influenced. 

First then, we may observe, that, had it been the 
intent of the Holy Spirit to impress upon the hearer 
no more than the CERTAINTY of the event, we 
cannot conceive how this idea could have been con 
veyed more naturally and elegantly than by words 
which imply an INFLUENCE, make the heart of this 
people fat, <8fc. For the human mind being unable 
to reconcile free-will and prescience, it can hardly 
be brought to consider a future event as any other 
than a contingency, till the idea of a superior 
influence be taken in. 

Secondly, where the matter revealed concerns 
Gods MORAL GOVERNMENT, the subject seems to 

require, 



SERMON VII. 155 

require, that the natural effects of vice should be 
represented as positive inflictions, as judicial pu 
nishment for crimes. Philosophically speaking, A 
hardness of heart, in the course of things, brought 
on this fatal blindness : But, prophetically, The 
blindness is a Punishment for their hardness of 
heart ; to them that are without, all these things 
are done in parables, that seeing they may see and 
not perceive, etc. 

The subject, I say, seems to require this repre 
sentation ; men being but too apt to consider the 
natural issue of things, as out of the bounds of 
moral government; though in reality it make a 
very essential part : for what such men call the 
ETERNAL RELATIONS are indeed no other than a 
a DISPOSITION, of God s free appointment; and 
therefore whatever evil results from such disposition, 
may in a moral sense be truly and properly con 
sidered as a positive infliction. 

And I am the rather inclined to believe that the 
prophecy in question is to be understood in this 
sense, when I consider the conduct both of Jesus 
and his apostles to this abandoned people. The first 
offer of the Gospel is made to them : and it is not 
till their rejection, of it, that Jesus turns to the Gen 
tiles. He took care that his followers should observe 
the same conduct. And no reasonable account, I 
think, but this, can be given of his suffering them 
to remain so long under the delusion of that gross 
prejudice, that the offer and benefits of the Gospel 
were confined to the race of Abraham. For the con 
sequence of this was their being strongly driven to 

try 



156 SERMON VII. 

try all methods with a people to whom their com 
mission was supposed both to begin and end. They 
were so driven ; and did not leave Judea till forced 
away by persecution: and then, the same prejudice 
turned them, first of all, to the dispersed amongst 
the Gentiles*. 

But let us now r suppose this predicted blindness 
to be, what the objectors would have it, a positive 
infliction of evil. If ever there were punishments 
in mercy, this was certainly one of them. We see 
from their \\ hole history, how morally impossible it 
was that they should be converted by any mere con 
viction. All their faculties were so totally possessed 
with ideas of a temporal deliverance, that they w r ould 
have rejected a spiritual dominion even from the 
hand of God himself: as they had before rejected a 
glorious Theocracy under his own ineffable admi 
nistration, for the sake of a fashionable Tyranny, 
like what their neighbours groaned under. Now, in 
so desperate a condition, the increase of light must 
have been the increase of condemnation. The 
greatest mercy therefore that could have been af 
forded them was to make their heart fat, their ears 
heavy, and to shut their eyes. 

But he who wall insist that the words, which fol 
low lest they see with their eyes, and hear with 
their ears, and understand with their heart, and 
convert and be healed do necessarily imply a 
punishment in udgment, rather than in mercy, 
shall not be contended with by me : so little reason 
do I think we have to stand out, from the appre- 

* John vii. 35. 

hension 



SERMON VII. 157 

hension of its impinging on the moral attributes of 
God. Be it then a punishment in judgment. 

To suppose no such for long slighted grace, is 
making the highest benefit the cheapest and the 
vilest: and if we suppose any, the most adequate 
seems to be the loss of that which had been long, 
and impiously abused. 

To believe offered salvation to be always at hand, 
after much scornful rejection of it, is to divest God 
of his justice; and to leave him nothing to exercise 
over man but his mercy. But whenever the con 
clusions, which we draw concerning God s dispen 
sations towards us, from one of his attributes, are 
made at the expence of another, we may be assured 
that they are false, because unreasonable. 

Further, Every covenant of God with man, on 
the system of God s revealed will, is a covenant of 
grace or favour; Which therefore may be justly 
made (as in fact it is made) with this conditional 
punishment annexed and declared. And what fitter, 
in the nature of things, than that long and continued 
insults on the Giver should be punished by a total 
deprivation of the gift ? 

But lastly, this part of the great Dispensation 
seems, in some cases, to be necessary for the support 
and dignity of God s moral government. If God 
had nothing to do but to pardon, man would soon 
find nothing to do but to offend. 

The two great sources of human infelicity are 
PRESUMPTION and PREJUDICES; and these we 

are 



158 SERMON VII. 

are apt to indulge in all the objects of our WILL and 
JUDGMENT : the consequence of which is, our so 
frequent miscarriages in the pursuits both of HAP 
PINESS and KNOWLEDGE. 

One of the boldest instances of presumption is 
our so commonly neglecting the calls of grace: so 
that nothing less than this awful part of God s dis 
pensation, the shutting the door on those who have 
long and vilely trifled with it, was sufficient to give 
a check to so impious a folly. 

The impatience of labour, and the violence and 
allurements of the appetites, are the source of all 
our prejudices and wrong judgments : and while 
we continue to be misled by that master prejudice, 
the INNOCENCE OF ERROR, there is little reason to 
expect we should be disposed to bring our opinions 
to a strict account. But this awakening truth, of 
the punishment for abused mercy in taking away 
the means of information, will dispose us to give Re 
ligion as early and fair hearing; and make us sen 
sible that Error is never innocent while the door of 
Truth stands open before us. 

But the best proof of God s righteous dealing are 
the THINGS DONE : and it is only for want of full 
demonstration here, that we are forced to have re 
course to any other : It being but to supply and sup 
port the lower degrees of evidence in the history of 
God s dispensation, that we reason upon the justice of 
them from the nature of things. In all cases where 
we have sensible demonstration of the fact, the rea 
soning, as is fit, goes the other way; and the justice 
of doing is proved from the thing done, Whether God 

could 



SERMON VII. 159 

could cast off his chosen nation, and keep or leave 
them in irremediable blindness, is to be proved, 
where the rejection rests only on moral evidence, 
from what we know of his nature and attributes. 
But where this punishment, whose commencement 
rests only on such evidence, is still executing before 
our eyes, in this case, the sensible demonstration of 
the fact is a better proof of the justice of it, than 
all that metaphysic reasoning can supply. 

This we presume to be the real- case of the Jewish 
people. Whenever this dreadful judgment of God, 
which fell upon them in a national destruction, had 
its beginning; whether at, or before their refusal of 
salvation from the Lord of life; so much at least is 
certain, that it still continues to operate with unre- 
mitted vigour. For, as in civil tribunals, which are 
wonts, in the case of more atrocious criminals whose 
death but half satisfies the demands of justice, to 
doom the lifeless carcase to be gibetted up in terror, 
and exposed to the sight of the survivors, so it hath 
pleased eternal Justice to act, in its disposition of 
the remains of this unhappy nation. For though 
their civil and religious policies have been long 
overthrown and abolished, yet the Name survives, 
and the Race still exists, as dktinct and separate, 
and perhaps more unmixed than while they were 
a Nation. A dreadful distinction, and supported 
against a thousand circumstances which must, accord 
ing to all our rules and experience of human affairs, 
have long since swallowed and absorbed them into 
the great and undistinguishable mass of mankind. 
The circumstances, I mean, are such as arise from 

their 



160 SERMON VII. 

their dispersion over the whole earth, without proper 
habitation, country, or national connexion. For a 
fixed abode, as the head-quarters of a powerless 
people, seems to be a kind of preservative against 
extinction ; and as we are told (by those who would 
willingly lessen the miracle of this punishment) hath 
actually kept in being, the Guebres and the P arsis 
in some retired corners of India. And yet the TEN 
TRIBES, when doomed to the like destruction, found 
a fixed habitation; who nevertheless are absorbed 
and lost as if they had never been. Now, though 
the philosopher and politician will but badly account 
for this ; the religionist can resolve it with ease. 
He says, that God Almighty had decreed and fore 
told that the first dispersion should absorb the name 
and memory of the people punished ; and that the last 
should preserve and hold them up, the visible objects 
of his present vengeance, and of his future mercy. 
But then, how are they held up? As the refuse 
of the earth, the outcast of nations, and the oppro 
brium of humanity; equally hated and detested by 
all the differing religions and various policies of man 
kind. For, in order to convey down the justice of 
the sentence, along with the execution, (so wonder 
ful are the ways of God) the VICE of this abandoned 
people continues to this day, as inseparable from 
their persons, as the punishment it produced upon 
their race. And avarice, fraud, and a savage inhu 
manity, like an incurable leprosy, as effectually 
distinguish their obduracy from the shifting follies of 
mankind, as does the adherence to their rabbinical 
superstitions. 

To 



SERMON VII. 161 

To resume then, and to conclude with the main 
question, which led us into this inquiry, The con 
sistency between the openness and evidence recom 
mended by Jesus to his followers ; and the parables 
and dark speeches delivered by himself. 

We presume, it now appears, that there is a per 
fect harmony and agreement between the precept 
and the example : that the first is declarative of the 
essential genius of the Gospel ; the second only an 
occasional appeal to the evidence of Jcsus s Messiah- 
character: and consequently, which is the inlerence 
to be drawn from both, that throughout the course 
of Christ s ministry, every thing, as well what was 
kept back from some, as what was clearly and fully 
revealed to others, equally tended to the advance 
ment of God s GLORY, and the GOOD of mankind. 



Vot, IX, M 



SERMON 



THE EDIFICATION OF GOSPEL 
RIGHTEOUSNESS. 

2 PET. i. 5 7. 

% 

GIVING ALL DILIGENCE, ADD TO YOUR FAITH 
VIRTUE, AND TO VIRTUE KNOWLEDGE, AND 
TO KNOWLEDGE TEMPERANCE, AND TO TEM 
PERANCE PATIENCE, AND TO PATIENCE 
GODLINESS, AND TO GODLINESS BROTHERLY- 
KINDNESS, AND TO BROTHERLY-KINDNESS 
CHARITY. 

TH holy Apostle beginning his farewel epistle 
to the Churches with a commendation of their 
FAITH, takes occasion from thence to instruct them 
in the nature of that CHRISTIAN EDIFICATION* 
which they were to raise on it ; and, as his last 
labour of lore, brings together, and lays in, all the 
various materials proper for so great a work. 

But we shall have a very wrong, and much too 
low, conception of our Apostle s skill, if we consider 

* This Discourse was printed and published while 
the R^bei Army- was in England, in the latter end of the 
year 1745, 

at a these 



r64 SERMON VIII. 

these but as materials rudely thrown together without 
art or choice ; and standing in need of other hands 
to range them in that architectonic order wherein 
they are to be employed. For on a careful survey 
of his plan it will be found, that no other than that 
Spirit which directed the workmen of the old taber 
nacle could give so artful a disposition to the ma 
terials f this new building not made U ith hands, 
whose builder and maker is God * . 

He hath marked out the Foundation, he hath 
fixed the Basis, proportioned the Members, adorned 
the Superstructure, and crowned the Whole with 
the richest of materials. And all this with such 
justice of science, sublimity of thought, and force of 
genius, that every foregoing Virtue gives STABILITY 
to the following; and every following imparts PER 
FECTION to that which went before : Where the 
three Orders of this heavenly achitecture, the HU 
MAN, the DIVINE, and SOCIAL Virtues, are so 
masterly disposed, that the human and social have 
their proper strengths and graces heightened and 
supported by the common connexion of the divine : 
Where every thing, in short, concurs, in its proper 
station, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the 
edifying of the Body of Christ f. 

In conformity to the Masters of Science, who 
deliver it to their disciples as a first principle, that 
no considerable advancement is to be expected 
without much pains and labour, our holy artist in- 
troduceth his rules with this preliminary precept, 
GIVING ALL DILIGENCE. And if this be necessary 

* 2 Cor. v. i. Heb. xi. 10. f Eph. iy 32 - 

in 



S E II M O N VIII. 165 

in civil matters, where nothing opposeth the progress 
to perfection but the length of art and shortness of 
life; \\ith how great reason are we here enjoined 
diligence, where, besides those discouragements, we 
have numerous enemies within us under the dis 
guise of friends, the confederated Passions, to retard 
our progress ; and devils, and evil men without, to 
stop us as we press forward in the career of virtue? 

But the necessity of this diligence will be fully 
seen in the sequel of our discourse; where we ex 
plain the care and circumspection! required in the 
cultivation of eve,ry Christian Virtue, here recom 
mended, to prevent its languishing by defect, or 
luxuriating by excess. 

St. PETER, as a wise master-builder* , chuseth for 
his foundation that ROCK on which our Lord had 
promised him to build the Church; 

Add to your FAITH- 

as directed by the same divine Spirit with his fellow- 
labourer St. PAUL, who bids every man take heed 
how he btiildeth ; for other foundation can no man 
lay than that is laid, which is JESUS CHRIST f. 

But the simplicity and clearness of the doctrine of 
Faith could not secure it, even in the apostolic 
times, from being perverted to countenance the most 
fatal error concerning its nature and efficacy; while 
it was mistaken to be alone sufficient to make man 
acceptable to his Maker, and, without good works, 
to entitle him to the rewards of the Gospel -covenant. 

To explain the original causes of this error, and 
/ 

* i Cor, iii. 10. f Id, ib. 11. 

M 3 to 



166 SERMON VIII. 

to shew how the perfect novelty of the doctrine of 
Faith the illustrious marks of that Spirit, which then 
accompanied the profession of the Faith and the 
method the Holy Spirit directed the Apostles to pur 
sue in the propagation of the Gospel to shew, I 
say, how all these accidentally contributed to support 
this error, is beside the bounds and purpose of the 
present discourse. 

It shall suffice to observe, that this dangerous ex 
travagance, which hath continued more or less, to 
infect all ages of the Christian Church, spread im 
mediately so swift and wide, upon the wings of that 
divine truth, that a man is justified by faith without 
the deeds of the law *, that the apostolic writers 
found it necessary to give it a frequent and formal 
confutation. And on this account, St. Peter s first 
precept enjoins us to add or build Virtue upon 
Faith. 

Add to your Faith, VIRTUE f. 

From henceforth, Faith, which, while it was 
single and solitary, remained dead, as the sacred 

* Rom. iii. 28. 

f- I understand the word O^CTJ, in this place, in its 
common acceptation as it is used by moral writers. But 
Grotius says, Vox aptr^ non potest hie ita general! ter 
sumi ut Phil. iv. 8. & apud Philosophos. It is fit we 
hear his reason, that the reader may judge between us. 
Sequuntur enim multa virtutum nomina, quare fyeliiv 
hie recte puto posse accipi fortitudinem in fide. He 
owns Est in hoc periodo egregia gradatio. I think I 
have shewn there is such a gradation; but its beauty 
and correctness depend on ? eft s being taken generality, 
trf Phil. iv. 8. # apud Philosophos. 

writers 



SERMON VIII. 167 

writers express it, being thus clothed upon by virtue, 
becomes alive and vigorous, and productive of all 
the fruits of grace and immortality. 

A reciprocal advantage Virtue, thus erected, 
receives from Faith : for we shall find these advan 
tages to be, all the way, reciprocal. The weakness 
of unguided Reason, and the violence of ill-balanced 
passions, had reduced MORAL VIRTUE, both in 
principle and practice, to so shadowy and precarious 
an existence, that the Wisest in the Pagan world 
could not forbear lamenting its helpless condition ; 
and owning that nothing but a Revelation from 
Heaven could realize and support it. \ 

They mistook the true foundation of Morality; 
Some placing it in the native excellence of virtue, 
others in the exterior benefits, of which it is pro 
ductive. They were left destitute, and exposed to 
the free rage of ungoverned passions, without aid, 
and with uncertain prospect of reward. 

But it was the Dispensation of Faith, which 
taught us that the true foundation of Morality was 
compliance to the will of our Creator and sovereign 
Lord. It was Faith which enabled us to surmount 
all the opposition of the appetites, by holding out 
to us an infinite reward ; and which the assistance 
of the Holy Spirit hath placed within our reach. 
Thus, to use the words of the apostle Jude, build 
ing up ourselves on our most holy FAITH, praying 
in the Holy Ghost, keeping ourselves in the love of 
God, ice may look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
Christ unto eternal life *. 

* Ver. 20, 21, 

M 4 But 



168 S E R M O N VIIL 

But though Virtue be here enjoined, and in all 
the preaching of our blessed Saviour, and in all the 
writings of his Apostles, incessantly repeated and 
inforced; yet if we expect to find in them any 
regular or methodic body of Morality, we shall be 
much mistaken. With respect to this, the New 
Testament, all along, refers us to another Guide. 
For God having before revealed the whole doctrine 
of Morality by the RELIGION OF NATURE, and 
none of God s dispensations contradicting another, 
it was enough for the tirst teachers of Christianity, 
when they preached up Virtue, to refer their fol 
lowers for particulars, to what Natural Religion 
taught concerning it. 

This being so, and that the great Pandect of the 
LAW OF NATURE is to be searched and studied, in 
order to attain a perfect knowledge of moral duty, 
there is need of much pains and exercise oi mind to 
learn that Virtue we are here enjoined to build 
upon Faith. For though Nature hath stamped so 
strongly the first principles of moral duty in the 
breasts of all men, that even a kind of friendly 
instinct will not surfer us to be totally ignorant of 
them ; yet the numerous deductions from those 
first principles, of what is fit and right, in every 
circumstance of life, being to be collected by the 
setting together, comparing, and sorting our ideas, 
through all the various combinations of moral com- 
pi xitics, it requires, even with the assistance of 
H<^y Writ, much reflection and habitude ; and 
without that assistance, is a task utterly unsurmount- 
able, as the experience of all ages hath fully shewn. 

Scripture 



SERMON VIII. 169 

Scripture then constantly referring to the Law of 
Nature, what can result from the study of Scripture, 
by one ignorant of that Law, but doubt and uncer 
tainty, if modest ; and if vain and presuming, and 
at the same time (which hath too often happened) 
a teacher of others by profession, what but mistakes 
and errors, the fatal errors of Superstition and 
Fanaticism ? For doubtless to an ignorance of 
Natural Religion must be ascribed those extrava 
gances to which so many Sects and Parties have, in 
their several turns, been obnoxious. 

But much of this mischiei had been avoided, had 
men duly attended to the words of our Apostle : 
who, with this design, gave us the next precept of 
my text. Add, says he, 

to Virtue, KNOWLEDGE ; 

or that wisdom which is the result of the study of 
Nature in the pursuit of Truth. 

I. And that you may see with how prophetic, 
as well as just, a spirit St. Peter was here directed, 
I shall stop a moment to hold you out a picture of 
Virtue unattended with that Knowledge-, copied 
from no obscure or disgraced originals ; but from 
such whose lives are preached up for examples, and 
their deaths commemorated with divine honours; 
such as have shrines and altars dedicated to their 
worship ; and vows and petitions offered up to their 
divinity ; in one word, POPISH SAINTS. 

To understand this matter truly, We must con 
sider, that Virtue consists in acting agreeably to 
those relations, in which we stand to our common 

Humanity, 



170 SERMON VIII. 

Humanity, our Fellow-creatures, and our Creator. 
For as RELIGION, in the largest sense of the word, 
includes the duty we owe ourself and neighbour ; 
so MORALITY, in its larger sense, includes the 
observance of that relation we stand in towards 
God. A ad when the practice respects man, it is 
called VIRTUE ; when it respects God, it is PIETY. 

These relations are commonly distinguished into 
the human, the social, and the divine virtues : The 
end and design of all which is to perfect man s 
nature ; 

1. By restraining, regulating, and directing, the 
private and selfish appetites, according to the dictates 
of reason. 

2. By cultivating, improving, and enlarging the 
social passions and affections, and employing them 
in the service of our Species, according to the 
dictates of charity. 

3. By exercising our understandings in the con- 
tern plation of the first Cause, and by owning our 
relation to him in suitable acts of rational worship, 
in order to unite us to our supreme Good, according 
to the dictates of grace. 

Now when, in the Church of Rome, Knowledge 
came to be esteemed of no use to improve or direct 
Virtue ; but that Ignorance was thought as well the 
mother of all other virtues, as of Devotion : When 
the Law of Nature came to be shunned as a danger 
ous and fallacious guide ; and Faith, traditional, 
not scripturul, had usurped its province of inter 
preting Gospel-righteousness ) then it was, that 
24 these 



SERMON VIII. 171 

these bright examples of a new kind of virtue ap 
peared amongst them, in a barbarous rabble of 
Saints ; who under the common name of RELI 
GIOUS, and on pretence of a more sublime and 
elevated virtue, than natural Religion taught, ran 
into the most horrid excesses of Fanaticism and 
Superstition. For, 

1. Instead of REGULATING the selfish appetites, 
they laboured all they could to eradicate and destroy 
them, as things, even in their nature, vicious ; as the 
graceless furniture of the old man with his affections 
and lusts. All was dismal and dark about them : 
inordinate watchings, excruciating disciplines, attenu 
ating labours : these miseries, still further aggravated 
by hunger, thirst, and nakedness, were the best 
means these poor mistaken followers of Him, who. 
said his yoke was easy and his burthen light, could 
think of to regulate the selfish passions. 7 ill 
the body, deprived of every kind of good, which the 
gracious hand of Providence hath so largely poured 
out for the solace of its creatures, gave way, and 
yielded to the fury of this fanatic penitence : While 
he was esteemed the greatest Saint who was the 
most expeditious Suicide. 

2. Instead of improving and ENLARGING the 
social affections, these Saints fled into caves and 
deserts, or shut themselves up for life in the dust 
and silence of a cloister. Where, to unfit themselves 
for serving their friends and families, they renounced 
their possessions, to give to pious uses ; that is, to 
support the sloth of iazy Mendicants, or the luxury 

of 



i?2 SERMON VIII. 

of debauched Churchmen : To unfit themselves for 
submission to the Civil magistrate, they entered into 
treasonable engagements of unlimited obedience to 
their spiritual superiors : To unfit themselves for 
serving their country or mankind, they took vows of 
voluntary poverty, and renounced all secular em 
ployments : And lastly, as much as in them lay, to 
make war against their very Species, they unnaturally 
devoted themselves to a single life, in blasphemous 
opposition to that first great command and blessing, 
increase and multiply. 

3. Lastly, instead of USING REASON in the offices 
of devotion, to attain the supreme Good, an union 
with the Deity ; By crediting the Imagination, they 
have often thrown themselves, with ecstatic trans 
ports, into the arms of the Demon. While, in the 
place of internal acts of sober meditation, nothing was 
seen but visionary raptures, and transfigurations; 
nothing heard but predictions, prophecies, and reve 
lations : In the place of external acts of rational 
worship, they celebrated the holy offices with gay 
and childish ornaments, with barbarous and super 
stitious rites, and with base and servile prostrations. 
And the favourite objects of their worship were in 
all respects agreeable to the form ; either the idola 
trous adoration of a consecrated wafer, or of those 
yet less substantial divinities, which have their 
existence only in a lying legend. 

You have here a faithful picture of Popish Virtue 
stript of Knowledge. From whence you may collect 
how miserable a creature man grows, when he throws 

aside 



SERMON VIIL 175 

aside his Reason, the first kind gift of Heaven, in 
order to follow the false lights, which custom, fancy, 
or the passions, have stuck up in his breast; and 
how equally miserable that Society must be, which 
supports a Religion, where IGNORANCE hath di 
vested Virtue of all its charms, poisoned all its 
health, and made it as destructive to Communities, 
as barefaced open vice. 

Here, you have been shewn, in a terrible example, 
the mischief done by Ignorance to Virtue ; of how 
much service Knowledge is to it, you may collect 
for yourselves. 

I now proceed to shew the reciprocal service 
Virtue does to Knowledge. Knowledge is the per 
ception and attainment of TRUTH; and useful 
Knowledge the perception and attainment of those 
truths, which tend to the perfecting of our nature. 
But the carnal passions, operating aversely to such 
truths, cloud and darken the understanding, so as to 
mislead us even in those of the most easy discovery, 
and of the highest importance. Again, to acquire a 
competent share of Knowledge, we must, as I have 
said, give all diligence in the pursuit of truth, so as 
to trace her throughout her hidden recesses : But it 
is only a love for the object, which can heartily en 
gage us in the pursuit: And this can arise from 
nothing but the beauty of it. Now while Vice usurps 
the heart, Truth, her mortal enemy, will be a neg 
lected Guest. But when Virtue has assumed her 
seat, the passion for Truth will revive. For Truth 
and Virtue are twin-bom sisters; and, with only a 

name 



174 SERMON VIII. 

name of distinction, participate of one common 
nature ; Truth bring speculative Virtue, and Virtue 
only practical Truth, And now the understanding 
makes a free progress in knowledge, as having no 
headstrong appetites to mislead it, nor earthly pas 
sions to damp its affection. 

From henceforth, the only danger is from the 
quarter opposite : Lest the mind s ardent love of 
truth should engage it in abstractions ; and carry it 
beyond the limits of those truths, which are given 
us for our contemplation here. 

In order to apprehend this danger, we are to 
understand, that, of the immense intellectual system, 
an extremely small portion only lies really within 
our reach ; the infinitely larger part residing near 
the source of Light itself ; whose effulgence becomes 
darkness to the dazzled view of the impotent 
Intruder. 

The reason why so much is kept out of sight, and 
set above the reach of man s comprehension, who 
by the unwearied vigour of his faculties seems 
naturally capable of a much wider grasp, appears to 
be this, Lest, in our earthly condition, the mind 
should become distracted by too great variety of 
ideas; or that it should make a wrong choice; 
and pursue truths of less present importance 
too far, to the neglect of those more necessary 
for its improvement, in this our probationary 
condition. 

This reason is much supported by observing, that 
in the enlightened pnrt of the intellectual world, nay 
even in those dearest and brightest portions of it, 

where 



SERMON VIII. 175 

where full science is to be had, speculations, pushed 
beyond a certain point (that point where Use is 
reasonably supposed to end, and mere Curiosity to 
begin) bring our conclusions to obscurity, extrava 
gance, and contradiction. 

The not attending to this seems to have been the 
very thing, which hath given birth, and so long con 
tinuance, to SCEPTICISM. For men seeing this 
to be the issue of the clearest principles, when pur 
sued to an intemperate length, concluded, against 
their senses, that what ended in darkness had never 
really begun in light. Reason indeed convinced 
them that so perverse a progress was not the 
NATURAL CONDITION of things; but they would 
not suffer experience to teach them, that it was the 
ARBITRARY DECREE of infinite wisdom and mercy, 
which imposed this barrier to the extravagances of 
its giddy, lawless creature. 

But however this may be, certain it is, that men, 
raised and heated by an over-fond passion for know 
ledge, have been always apt to run into the bound 
less regions of chimeras. Where, though lost and 
bewildered, yet, if of warm imaginations, and in 
flamed with the ambition of Inventors, they have 
taken more delight in those obscure and shadowy 
paths, than any sober follower of truth, within the 
limits of open day and nature. 

Now these follies, so taking in themselves, and 
so mischievous in their consequences, proceeding 
from a uant of modesty, arid due consciousness of 
the narrow limits of the human understanding, St. 

Peter, 



176 SERMON VIII. 

PftfT, in his next precept, with admirable skill, 
restrains. Add, says he, 

to Knowledge, TEMPERANCE * ; 
that is, sobriety, moderation, continence, in the 
pursuit of truth. For as Virtue, without Knowledge, 
falls into all kind of FANATICISM in practice; so 
Knowledge, without Temperance, leads to all kind 
of HERESY in opinion. St. Paul observed, even 
in his time, the seeds of intemperate knowledge 
begin to spring up and spread amongst his converts ; 
and therefore cautions them against vain philosophy 
and a knowledge that pujfeth up f. But this so 
deformed and laid waste the Christian Church in 
after-times, that the new earth seemed, for many 
ages, to be under a second curse of bringing forth 
nothing but thorns and thistles ; so much more 
severe than the first, that these delicacies were not 



signifies moderation, or a temperate use 
of things in general. To denote the species, the Ancients 
sai , iyxfcti vis atyotiocrtuv -yarpo$eyxgaTii$ tyKpair.s vTrvx, Sv^aa, 
ciW. When the species is not thus designed, we have no 
way of determining the sense of so generical a word, but 
the context. Cic. uses temperantia in the sense eyxpaTsist 
is here explained. Qui autem, si inaxime hoc placeat, 
moderatius tamen id volunt fieri, difficilem quandam 
TEMPERANTIAM postulant in eo, quod semel admissum 
coerceri reprimique non potest: ut propemodum jus- 
tionbus utamur illis, qui omnino avocent a Philosophic 
quarn iis qui rebus infinitis modum constituant : in reque 
eo meliore quo major sit, mediocritatem desiderent 
tameu nee modus est ullus investigandi veri* Pe JFin. 
}. i. c. i. 
f Col. ii. 8.1 Cor. viii. l. 

to 



SERMON VriL 177 

to be produced without much labour, and sweat of 
the broic. 

II. Here again the ROMAN CHURCH affords us 
a sad example of the mischiefs of intemperate 
knowledge: For though, as was observed before, 
there was great scarcity of true knowledge to direct 
their Virtue, they abounded in false knowledge to 
corrupt their Faith : Though they refused to make 
the RELIC TON OF NATURE the interpreter of Gospel- 
rigktcousness, they sanctified the VAIN PIIILOSOPHV 
OF THE GREEKS * to ?\\A*\\\justlfylng Faith. 

We have seen \vlvt sort of SAINTS the Church 
of Rome adores : Let us now see what kind of 
DOCTORS she builds her faith upon. As their 
DEVOUT retired to their Cloisters to deform Virtue^ 
so their LEARNED assembled in their Schools to 
corrupt Faith. Where, mistaking Theology, which 
is a science of practice, for a ^cicnce of speculation, 
Knowledge, which is only the means, they took to 
be the EXD of Religion ; and as that, which is the 
end of any thing, cannot be too much cultivated, 
they pursued Knowledge with such intemperate rage, 
that, as if Religion was only a trial of skill, and the 
rewards of it to be adjudged to the best disputant, 
they spent their whole lives in agitating and sub 
tilizing questions of faith: Abundantly happy if, 
with all their til, they could at length obtain the 
never-fading titles of Doctors profound, irrefragable, 

* The philosophy of Aristotle being tbe foundation 
.of School Divinity. 

VOL. IX. N sul>tll> 



178 S Eft MO IT Vlir. 

subtil, and seraphic. These, under the reverend 
name of SCHOOLMEN, long monopolized the manu 
factory of Faith ; and wove their cobwebs thin and 
dark for the hangings of the Sanctuary. 

To such then, you will easily believe, the 
APOSTLE S CREED soon became too plain and 
simple. They wanted one that vould afford eternal 
matte? for dispute and wrangle.. So, from the arti 
cle of Mary the VIRGIN, they invented one of 
Mary the GODDESS : From the article of Christ 
ence offered on the cross for our redemption, they 
spun out a daily Sacrifice : and the horrid idea of 
a Transubstantiation : From his descent into Hell, 
they deduced the fable of Purgatory : From belief 
in the holy Catholic CJwrch, the blasphemous tenet 
of the Pope s infallibility.: From the communion of. 
Saint s, the idolatrous worship of dead men : And 
from the forgiveness of sins, the gainful trade of 
auricular confession, and human absolution. 

But none of these strange doctrines being to be 
found in Scripture, they were forced to call in the 
aid of TRADITION to strengthen the feeble Powers 
of SCHOOL-SUETILTY. And Tradition drawing- 
after it a thousand ether beggarly errors, which were 
all now to be supported ; this gave rise to an after 
birth of Heresies, and fresh employment for the 
foster-fathers of the Schools. So that at length, 
the true foundation, the simple faith in JESUS THE 
MESSIAH, was lost and forgotten ; and lay for 
many ages buried under two deformed heaps of 
rubbish, SCHOOL-DIVINITY and TRADITION. Over 
6 each 



SERMON VIII. 179 

each of which, like the /Ediles in ancient Ecmc y a 
venerable Magistrate presided, That called the 
Master of the Sums, and This, of the Sentences*. 

At last, in God s good time, this precept of adding 
temperance to knowledge began to be attended to ; 
And the truth, which flamed out from the well- 
conducted labours of such, soon burnt up and 
consumed this precious superstructure of wood, hay> 
and stubble. When the true Faith, like oft-tried 
silver^ ap peared again in its native purity and can 
dour. In this condition we received it from our 
fathers. So sacred a deposite let us religiously 
preserve, and with the same pious care transmit to 
our posterity : Having always in mind that tee are 
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Pro- 
phets (not the Masters of the Sinm and Sentences) 
Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone^ . 

The avoiding these evils therefore, is the advan 
tage which Knowledge receives from Temperance. 
A reciprocal advantage Temperance receives from 
Knowledge : For Temperance being nothing but the 
withdrawing from all visionary pursuits, and abstain 
ing from all rash judgment, out of a sense and con 
viction of the weakness of human understanding, was 
it not founded upon Knowledge^ it would be in dan 
ger of degenerating into a slothful Scepticism, a total 
uncertainty of all things from a superficial examination 
of the most obvious ; a fatal aptitude in concluding 
that truth was not to be found, from being too soon 
weary of the search. A condition which, we ex- 

* Thomas Aquinas, and Peter Lombart. 
} Ephes. ii. 20. 

> a perience, 



I So SERMON VIII. 

pericnce, hath befallen, and must, unavoidably, befall 
those, whose Temperance is not founded on Know- 
ledge. But being thus secured, Temperance pre- 
series a vigorous, yet a sober course : For the 
regular restraint which it imposeth on the mind doth 
not hinder us from the most active exercise of our 
faculties, but only confines it to objects fitted for 
our contemplation. 

We have observed, that the reasonableness of the 
practice of Temperance ariseth from our sense of 
the weakness of human understanding. Now this 
sense should not only dispose us to be moderate in 
our own opinions, but to be candid and charitable 
to the opinions of others ; and till Temperance hath 
acquired this quality, it is partial and imperfect. 

To render it complete, St. Peter, therefore, in his 
next precept, injoias us to add 

to Temperance, PATIENCE *; 
that is, long-suffering, and bearing with the coo* 
tradiction of Others. This is indeed the natural 
consequence of a perfect Temperance. For having 
experienced, in our own case, how insensibly errors 

* The original is VTTQPOVY]. The reason why the Apostle 
used this word rather than fMutfoBuiM*, which may seem, 
to be the more proper word for the sense I give to 
Patience, appears to me to be this The Church, at the 
time of writing this epistle, was in a subjected and 
distressed condition. And viro^vri is the Patience of those 
in subjection, as (taxgoQufAiot is the Patience of those in 
-authority. Besides, VWIMW in the New Testament gene>- 
rally signifies a Patience attended with hope and expec 
tation of better. And that sen.se I mak to be required 
here, 

insinuate 



SERMON VIII. 181 

insinuate themselves into the mind ; how plausibly 
they assume the air of truth, v.-hen called to account; 
how obstinately they maintain their ground, when 
now become suspected ; and nhat labour is required 
to dispossess them, even after they are detected and 
exposed; having experienced, I say, all this, we 
shall be well inclined to bear with PatUnce the 
contradiction of our erring Brother. We shall still 
preserve the affection we had for him before lie 
went astray ; and shall not suffer his being of another 
Church, or Sect, or Party, or any thing but an 
unchristian life, to lessen that affection ; but with 
7 tmpC ranee and Patience wait the second coming 
of the Messiah to separate the tares from the 
U heat *. 

IIL The want of which virtues, amongst those, 
who yet dare to call themselves the followers of the 
Lamb, hath brought more desolation on the Chris 
tian Church, than all the persecutions of Pagan 
Emperors, or the eruptions of northern Barbarians : 
less Pagan, and Je.ss Barbarian, than the author of 
the PHIXCIPI^; OF JMOLEJIAXCK, who pretending 
to sit in the Chair of Him, who .here enjoins us to 
add patience to temperance, and calling himself the 
I icar of Chrht, hath not beeii ashamed .to make 
kirn the pattern of his ..conduct, who u us an accuser 
oj hls brethren, and a murderer from the begiwting-\.. 

The Christian Church, in its infancy, breathed 
nothing but concord, love, and charity. It hud 
then a spirit us pure, and innocent, as tiie state of 

* Matt, xiji.30. ^ John viii. 44. 

* 3 childhood 



i8a SERMON VIII. 

childhood itself. The holy brethren were, in malice^ 
children ; howbeit, in understanding, that is, in ra 
tional faith, in vigorous virtue, and in sober know-* 
ledge, they were mm. And thus was the new Je 
rusalem built like a city* that is at unity in itself *. 
No disputes, no strife, no emulation, but who should 
most excel in works of chanty and piety. 

But, alas! this glorious rising of the Gospel, which 
came with healing in its wings, and promised the 
arrival of that long wished-for day of everlasting 
peace, was of a Sudden overcast, and nothing suc 
ceeded but storms and tempests. For our evil Genius, 
the Prince of the air, was early at work to obscure 
and deface the promised triumphs of the Sun of 
Righteousness. Nor was the engine he employed 
to defeat man s Restoration, different from that, 
with which he procured his Fall : It was, still, Know 
ledge without its regulator, Temperance. 

For when now the SCHOOLS, by obtruding on the 
world a system of sanctified absurdities under the 
name of catholic religion, had produced schisms and 
dissensions ; and the CLOISTERS, by perfecting their 
saints in a sour inhumanity and holy pride, had 
raised a spirit impatient of contradiction (and the 
papal history informs us, that their learnedst Doc 
tors were the most unintelligible, and their Holiest 
saints the least forbearing) ; then it was that their 

O 

Church, impregnated with these mischiefs, brought 
forth the Fu r y, p K us i<: c u T i o N . 

Of all the Mysteries of iniquity, that of persecu 
tion is the soonest learnt, and easiest reduced to 
* Psal. cxxii. 3* 

practice : 



SERMON VITL 183 

ipractice : On which account it hath had its profi 
cients, that were fit for nothing else, in every Sect and 
Party : But the honour of reducing it to a science, 
and conducting it on certain principles^ is solely due 
to the CHURCH OF ROME. For no sooner was a 
people found who refused to receive Me markoftJie 
Beast, than, assisted by the Schools and Cloisters, it 
erected that infernal Butchery, the INQUISITION, 
the master-piece of its ecclesiastical Policy ; which, 
under the name of an HOLY OFFICE, as directly vio 
lates the law of Nature and Nations in the injustice 
of its process, as all the precepts of the Gospel in 
the inhumanity of its judgments. 

But (holy Jesus!) should I relate the tricks, the 
treacheries, the frauds, the rapines, the delays, the 
horrors of imprisonment, the tortures of the rack, 
the bloodshed, the murders practised there, mur 
ders committed with so exquisite a malice, that body^ 
3oul y and reputation, are intended to fall a sacrifice 
at once should I but represent, I say, these things 
to you in their native colours, your just indignation 
would endanger that heaven-born Charity, which it 
5s my aim to rceoiamendioyou even here, and here 
chiefly, where J am pointing <out the enormous evils 
which the exclusion of lier blessed influence occa 
sions. And though I have expressed myself witli the 
free resentment of a man who regards POPERY, not 
only as the corruption of true Religion, but as an 
insult on the SENSE, and an invasion of the LIBER 
TIES of mankind ; yt \\culd I carefully endeavour 
to keep withia the bounds of that charity which 
constitutes the character of a minister of Christ. 

^ 4 I shall 



184 SERMON VIII. 

1 shall therefore draw a veil over this unhappy 
scene, which gives o deadly ? WOUI~M to the integri 
ty of the Cinlstian na ne; and infixes so ladling a 
disgrace even on our Common nature. Content 
to have given you. one general view of ths .PA ? v L 
RELIGION, which, unde* the name of a Religion* 
is indeed no other than . ir i itnpiou., ^arcc. I have 
shewn you, in their ordny the three acts of which 
.it consists: The iirst ; <yed by their ?!> /its, and 
their subject, fanatic Virtue: The second by their 
Doctors, and theirs, unintelligible Faith : The third 
by their Priests, and theirs, the antichristian dis* 
cipline of racks and gibbets. I have shewn you 
likewise the connexion these three parts have on 
one another ; and the natural tendency of the two 
first to produce the dreadful catastrophe of the 
third. For when Virtue becomes stript of humanity, 
and Faith forsaken of reason, charity is -soon lost in 
zeal, and piety changed to persecution. 

Such a view should teach 113 to set a just value 
on our own happy Constitution, where Gospel-light 
and C wil liberty go hand in hand. And he You 
well assured that these two blessings must stand or 
fall together : That Civil slavery will make room for 
Popibh cruelty ; and that Popish superstition will 
support a tyrant in trampling on our laws. For the 
politician knows that the surest way of fixing slavery 
is to tie it on the consciences of men : And the priest 
hath experienced, that the mind is never so tame 
and servile, so subrpiss in swallowing contradictions, 
as when the body is already broken and humbled 
by the stroke of tyranny. 

Thus 



SERMON VIII iB5 

Thus hath the Apostle shewn us, that the secu- 
rky ag:iin?t" the evils of dissension and intolerance 
are jempcr^ice and Patience; which teach us to 
fed our own wenlipi^, and to bear with that of 
Others. T> it hert- .gain the infirmity of our Common 
natuiv betrays i^elf; and Temperance and Patience, 
excellent and r v-ine as they are, become suhject 
to the general fate of human virtues, grow dege 
nerate and deprive- i. Thus, too often, moderation 
and tolerance sink into carelessness and indifference, 
a fatal indifference, for all truth, and all religion. 
That men, and even Churches, are but too apt 
to fall into that remiss and lukewarm state, for 
which, the Holy Spirit denounced so severe a 
judgment on the Laodlcenm *, we have melancholy 
proof. Nor is such a degeneracy hard to be con 
ceived. For when the corrosive ferment of bitter 
Zeal, which desolates mankind under a pretended 
concern for the glory of God, has, by the infusion 
of the cool and heavenly dew of moderation, been 
brought to a gentle temperament; the Mind, be 
come tired, and ashamed of its late tumultuous 
disorders, is apt to sink into the other extreme 1 , of 
a languid and unactive indifference. I wish I had 
no cause to say, that this very age and place have 
seen this shameful infiimity of our nature exem 
plified. And whoever reflects upon the indiscreet 
zeal which disturbed the Church in the beginning 
of this century, an J on the nature of that effectual 
cure which began to operate, before we reached to 
the middle of it, will not, if he be serious and im- 
* Rev. iii. 16, 

> partial, 



186 SERMON VIII. 

partial, accuse me of an uncandid reflection. But 
to return. To provide against this evil is the design 
of our Apostle s next precept, which bids us add 

to Patience, GODLINESS. 

And then (as St. James adviscth *) we let Patience, 
have her perfect work. For then, at the same time 
that we preserve the greatest moderation towards 
others, we shall keep alive the holy fire of innoxious 
zeal in ourselves. For by Godliness is meant the 
warm and affectionate discharge of ail the duties of 
divine intercourse, whether in public acts of devo 
tion, or in private sentiments of meditation. 

With exquisite skill likewise hath our Apostle 
raised this second ORDER of Christian architecture, 
godliness, or the divine virtue, on the former, namely, 
the human. For, by this means, godliness cannot 
degenerate, as it did in the CHURCH of ROME, from 
not observing this direction, either into fanaticism, 
superstition, or bigotry ; but will remain sober, ra 
tional, and truly sublime. 

And yet there is another danger to which it is ob 
noxious. For, by long and intense exercise in holy 
offices, the joy and transport that elevates the mind, 
thus filled with its true and proper object, GOD, na 
turally disposeth us to contemn all inferior things ; 
and from despising the things, but too often, to des 
pise the persons who delight in them : And by mak 
ing odious comparisons, l*ke the Pharisee to the 
Publican, to forget our relation, our near relation, 
both by nature and grace, to the meanest of our spe 
cies. Hence ariseth SPIRITUAL PRIDE, the last and 

* Chap. i. 4. 

most 



SERMON VIII. 187 

most fatal enemy to true Godliness. Now for this, 
too, the Apostle, in his next precept, provides a 
remedy. Add, eays he, 

to godliness^ BROTHERLY-KINDNESS. 
Thus begins the third, and last ORDER of this 
Christian building. And, from this time, Godliness, 
placed between, and supported, on each hand, by 
the human and social virtues, becomes stable and 
permanent. And while it receives this united aid 
from both, it returns it back again -to both. 

We have shewn the benefits temperance and 
patience receive from godliness : We are now to 
speak of that which brotherly-kindness receives 
from it. 

The most beauteous, and elevated branch of 
brotherly-kindness is FRIENDSHIP, whose natural 
root and origin is similitude of manners. But these 
being as often bad as good, friendship becomes as 
frequently a confederacy in vice, as a community of 
virtue. So that this adorable virtue, the cordial 
of private life, and largest source of public good, by 
being built on the false foundation of ungodliness, 
hath often produced all that mischief to Society it 
was designed by nature to prevent. But when, as 
here, it is rightly placed on godliness, it stands secure 
from abuse, and is enabled to bring forth all its 
genuine fruits of public beneficence, 

Brotherly -kindness is now only liable to one 
disorder for human depravity will shew itself to 
the very last and it is this, that brotherly-kindness 
being enjoined to be built on godliness, or Religion, 
jnen are yet too apt, like the Pharisees of old, to 

confine 



188 SERMON VIII. 

confine their brotherhfrkindness within their own 
sect or pale : While all without are treated by them 
as the wounded traveller by the Priest and Levite. 

But this narrow and partial benevolence the 
Apostle has effectually removed in the concluding 
precept of my text. Add, says he, in the last place, 

to brotherly-kindness, CHARITY; 
that is, universal love of all mankind. This regulates 
and perfects all the other virtues ; and is, itself, in 
no want of a reformer. All the other virtues, as we 
&ave observed, degenerate both by defect and 
excess ; This is incapable of either. Its nature and 
essence secure it from defect ; and its fruits and pro 
ducts from excess. 

This then is the crown, the keystone of this 
heavenly edifice, this triumphant Arch of immor 
tality - y or, as the holy Apostle more emphatically 

CaUs it, THE BOND OF PERFECTNESS *. This, with 

respect to the foregoing Virtues, is like the gilt 
dome or covering of the imperial Palace. Without 
which, the strongest foundations, the richest orna 
mented walls, the best-disposed apartments, become, 
in a little time, but naked and deformed ruins ; 
open to every storm, and exposed to all the desola 
tion of wasting elements. 

WITHOUT THIS, if we may believe, his fellow- 
labourer St. PAUL, the rest of the Christian building 
bath ncitheir ornament nor use. The very FOUN 
DATION is precarious and unstable: Though / 
have all FAITH, says he, so that I could remove 
mountains, and have not CHARITY, / am nothing. 

* Col. iii. 14, 

ViRTUF, 



SERMON VIII. 189 

VIRTUE, likewise, without it, is equally unprofitable : 
Though 1 give my body to be burnt, and have not 
CHARITY, it projiteth me nothing. KNOWLEDGE 
likewise T/ithoui it is vain and brutal : Though I 
speak with the, Tongues of men and of angch, and 
have all K x o w L E p c, E, and have not c n A R i T Y, 7 am 
become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. Eveti 
GODLIXESS is unacceptable without it ; Though I 
have the gift of prophecy, and understand all 
mysteries, and lur-:e not CHARITY, I am nothing. 
Lastly, BROTHERLY-KINDNESS, when separated 
from it, goes unrewarded : Though I bestow all my 
goods to feed t lie poor, and have not CHARITY,// 
profit eth me nothing. 

But, ix THIS, as the same Apostle tells us, are 
comprised all the efficacies of the foregoing graces : 
For, like FAITH, he tells us, it be Here th all things, 
ithopeth all things , like VIRTUE, it thinketh no 
evil, cloth not behave itself unseemly ; like true 
KNOWLEDGE, it vaunteth not itself] is not puff ed 
up ; like TEMPERANCE and PATIENCE, it suffereth 
long, and is kind, is not easily provoked, beareth all 
things, endureth all things ; like GODLINESS, it 
rejoice th not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth ; 
and like BROTHERLY-KINDNESS, it cnvieth not^ 
seeketh not its o:r??. 

In a word, beginning then with FAITH, and 
finishing with CHARITY, or, as the same Apostle 
much better expresseth it, FAITH WORKING BY 
CHARITY *, we come by just degrees to erect, after 

* Gal. Y. 6. 

the 



igo SERMON VIII. 

the divine model here given us, that heavenly edifice 
of Christian perfection, Jesus Christ himself being 
the chief corner-stone, in whom all the building, 
fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple 
in the Lord*. 

* Eph. ii. 20, 2 u 



SERMON IX. 

OF CHURCH AUTHORITY. 
MATT, xxiii. 9, 10. 

CALL NO MAX YOUR FATHER, UPON THE EARTH 1- 
FOR ONE IS YOUR FATHER WHICH IS IN HEA 
VEN. NEITHER BE YE CALLED MASTERS : FOR 
ONE IS YOUR MASTER, EVEN CHRIST. 



claim Rule or Mastery in matters of Religion, 
on mere human Authority, shews so much 
impudence; and to acknowledge the claim, so 
egregious folly ; that one could hardly conceive any 
man, who had been delivered from the bondage of 
corruption, Into the glorious liberty of the children 
of God, should be in danger, either of assuming it 
himself, or submitting to it when assumed by 
others. For what FATHER, doth common sense 
bid us acknowledge, but him who begot us through 
the Gospel ; our Father which u in Heaven : Or 
what MASTER, but him who visited and redeemed 
his people, even Jesus Christ the righteous. 

i. But this Government of God s Church under 
the Gospel, not being administered, as under the 
Law i in PERSON, but by a WRITTEN RULE ; the 

Minister- 



igs SE&MOK 

Ministers of the word, under pretence of interpreting 
it, took occasion to introduce their own authority \ 
and on that, by insensible degrees, a very wicked 
Usurpation. The business of interpreting was, at 
first, modestly assumed, as a mere &ct of Charity, 
to assist the brethren in the study of God s word. 
But the employment being commonly confined to 
a certain Order, this act of Charity soon grew into 
an office of Authority, which at last put the Law 
and the Gloss upon an equal footing. 

The T >retence for the exercise of this office, on 
\vhich the Usurpation took its rise, was the OBSCU 
RITIES in sacred Scripture. Unhappily, it was not 
understood, that the very Obscurities themselves 
were a sufficient evidence that the subject of them 
could never be matter of faith necessary to salvation. 
What perhaps contributed to obstruct so obvious a 
truth, was the great privileges ascribed to Christian 
Faith. So that men became more solicitous to 
have it Luge and full, than to have it pure and 
perfect. 

2. The administration of Christ s Kingdom by a 
written Word, on his withdrawing bodily from his 
Church, gave another advance to tins usurped 
Authority, of a more public nature. It necessitated 
the Church to assume a form approaching to that 
of mere human Societies; in which, Rulers and 
Governors were ordained to keep the several mem 
bers in subordination to the whole ; which could 
Le only done by investing such Governors with a 
power to inforce a common formula of Faith. And 

though 



SERMON IX. loj 

though this was barely necessary to keep Society 
together; yet we see, how easily it might be abused, 
to introduce an usurpation over Conscience. 

3. Hitherto we have considered the steps to this 
unjust dominion, condemned in my text, as they 
advanced from WITHIN the Lord s heritage : Others 
rose from WITHOUT. For our civil us well as spi 
ritual Governors have been equally disposed to play 
the Tyrant over Conscience ; and, not rarely, have 
agreed to share the Tyranny between them. 

The civil Magistrate, the Apostle tells us, is the 
minister of God to us for good ; that is, the means 
of procuring and preserving those blessings, which 
oj-ir reasonable nature, and the indulgence of Pro 
vidence, concur in enabling us to enjoy. In order 
to this end, the enforcement of the GREAT PRINCI 
PLES both of common morality, and of natural 
religion, fall under his Jurisdiction. Such of them, 
I mean, as are absolutely necessary to form that 
fundamental bond of civil Society, OBEDIENCE FOR 
CONSCIENCE SAKE. But, under this pretence, the 
civil Magistrate hath frequently attempted to draw 
in the WHOLE of Religion into his Cognizance. 
And this usurpation, many mistakes concerning his 
Office, and the nature of civil Society, joining in 
\vithi imaginary necessities of State, contributed to 
support He observed, that the regal arid sacerdotal 
character were of old commonly united in the same 
person. And the particular reasons of this con 
junction not being considered, he imagined that 
what was only an accidental coalition, was a per- 

VOL. IX. O petual 



1 9 4 SERMON IX. 

petual union. Again, he supposed civil Society, 
whose sole end is the security of one certain kind of 
good, comprised in the temporal liherty and property 
of man, to be ordained, for the attainment of all 
possible good of every kind ; which necessarily 
implied his care in, and jurisdiction over, Religion, 
Lastly he concluded, that NECESSITY OF STATE 
required an Universal conformity to the Religion of 
the Sovereign. A necessity merely imaginary : for 
wherever religious TOLERATION is allowed, diver 
sities of sects never affect the peace of civil Society. 
Indeed, when the Magistrate begins to violate the 
rights of Conscience, then this necessity becomes 
real : but it is a necessity of his own making ; it 
does not arise from the nature of things. There 
fore the cause, which w r as in his own power to 
reform, he should have reformed ; rather than have 
sought to remedy the effects by further injustice. 
He should have taken off that iniquitous restraint ; 
which, in forcing to Church-conformity, by civil 
penalties, hath occasioned the violation of the 
national peace : rather than, by additional penalties, 
to seek to regain that peace, in an universal con 
formity of mere outward profession ; under which 
the power of Religion vanishes. 

Such were the pretences of our ECCLESIASTICAL 
and CIVIL Governors, to Mastery and Dominion in 
the Lord s Inheritance : From whence we may collect 
the care and tenderness of our blessed Master, in 
this early warning to his followers, against exercising 
or submitting to, this Antichristian Claim. Call no 

man 



SERMON IX. 195 

man Fa f her upon the Earth : for one is your Father 
which is in Heaven. Neither be ye called Masters; 
for one is your Master, even Christ : Which words 
plainly imply, that whoever requires religious obe 
dience, or a right over Conscience, by his own Au 
thority, is an Usurper in another s Jurisdiction ; and 
whoever pays obedience to such a Claim, is a rebel 
to his lawful Master. For, revealed Religion coining 
immediately from God, the LAWGIVER, and the 
SUPREME MAGISTRATE, are one and the same; 
and all Authority properly resides in him. 

But Man s claim is not only unjust, and Man s 
submission to it sinful; but tney are both, in the 
highest degree, extravagant and absurd. 

A jurisdiction in matters of Faith is what no hu 
man authority is capable of administering; as all hu 
man authority is subject to error and mistake. This 
is so olwious an objection, that the Bishop of Rome, 
who first set up this claim, or at least, digested it 
into a System, soon saw the necessity of supporting 
it on a pretended INFALLIBILITY. And though 
this was adding blabphemy to usurp .-,tion, yet it 
made the Mystery of L>ngodiiness consistent: and 
free, at least, from the absurdity 01 thoe who comebS 
them elves JaLllblt ; and yet exact ttit sume sub 
mission to their Authority as if the} could not 
err. Which of them is the most abburd, is easily 
understood; but which of them the most presuming, 
is hard to say : For if one intrenches upon deaven, 
the other ventures to insult common sense. 

But the mere weakness of the understanding is 
not the only circumstance that disqualifies men for 

O 2 this 



196 SERMON IX. 

this authority over Conscience. The prejudices* 
arising from the passions, make the unreasonable 
ness of implicit submission still more apparent. The 
most specious exercise of human Authority is doubt 
less in those Assemblies called GENERAL COUNCILS. 
And yet every one, not an utter stranger to Church- 
history, must have learnt, that the same partialities 
mix themselves in their conclusions, which mislead 
Crcil Assemblies. And, where is the wonder, if 
Churchmen, acting on an usurped plan, should 
deviate from the paths of Faith and Charity, when 
we every day see Statesmen, in their proper office, 
mistake the plainer road of Justice and the public 
Good. 

One, therefore, is our Father, which is in Heaven : 
One is cur Master, even Christ. And their Will, 
as announced to us in Sacred SCRIPTURE, is the 
only Law, to which Christians, as such, are held 
and obliged. On this Rock, where Christ built his 
Church, every private Man may safely repose his 
conscience. To ibis truly infallible Guide, we may 
commit ourselves with perfect confidence ; in this 
assurance, that so much of God s Will as is neces 
sary for us to know, is easy to be known ; and that 
whatever is dark or difficult in his Word, is therefore 
not necessary to be known. 

But if human Authority hath usurped upon Con 
science ; there are not wanting those who, on the 
other hand, have used Conscience for a cloke of 
maliciousness : and, on pretence of one being our 
Father which is in Heaven, have denied that Obe 
dience to the CHUKCH OF CHRIST, which, as a 

mere 



SERMON IX. 197 

mere human Society, it might claim ; and which, on 
that very footing, Christ himself hath commanded 
us to pay unto it, where he directs his followers to 
hear tht Church *. 

But Authority, which these words imply, is a 
mockery, without submission and obedience. Hence 
the reasonableness of subscription to a general for 
mulary of Faith ; which the nature of Society makes 
necessary, in order to tie a number of particulars into 
one body. A bond, which may have its due efficacy 
without violating any of the rights of Conscience : 
For, all the jurisdiction which follows from it is only 
this, that so long as any member of the Community 
professcth that %p\\G\d\ formulary, which the end of 
Society requires, to admit him into Church-commu 
nion, he be obedient to such Laws of his spiritual 
Governors, as concern DISCIPLINE : So far, the 
Authority of the Church, as a religious Society, ex 
tends ; and no farther. For whenever a private 
Member of it can no longer, with a good conscience, 
subscribe to the points oj Doctrine professed ; or 
conform to the mode of worship in practice ; or 
submit to the rules of discipline in forced, all that 
remains is expulsion, or Fxcoimnunication ; but, 
unattended with opprobrious censures, civil incapa 
cities, or corporal or pecuniary inflictions ; in a word, 
with every consequence that may injuriously affect 
the person, fortune, or reputation of the ejected 
Member. 

II. But to return now to my text. As the reason 
against calling any one our Father upon the Earth, is 
* Matt, xviii. 17. 

O 3 not 



ig8 SERMON IX. 

not founded in our own strength, and our neighbour s 
weakness, but in the common infirmity of all ; the 
other prohibition naturally tollows, that nttihcr 
should we affect to be called Masters. For if, 
purely to p eserve the rights ol Conscience, and to 
vindicate the Authority due to God s tribunal, we 
refuse to acknowledge man s jurisdiction; with 
what face can we claim that lor ourselves, which 
we have denied to all others ? 

And yet it is a melancholy truth, that when the 
great separation was made trom POPERY, on this 
very principle, that it had usurped the titles of 
FATHER and LORD, due only to God and his Son; 
Those holy Men, who v\ere obedient to the learning 
voice, which called them out of Babylon, were too 
apt to forget the condition, on which only, they 
had a right to vindicate their Christian liberty from 
the dominion of a MASTER; which was, the not 
pretending to MASTERSHIP themselves. 

The spirit of Dominion soon betrayed itself in 
these newly manumised Churches of God : First, 
by too unreasonably narrowing the bottom of 
Church -communion ; and then, by persecuting of 
those whose Consciences would not suffer them to 
subscribe to their terms. So that the simple, uni 
form GOSPEL FAITH, on which the Protestant 
Churches were professedly founded, soon became 
broken into Sects and Conventicles : And every 
defenceless Party, which had. most suffered for 
opinions, no sooner got Civil Power on their side, 
than they returned the injustice with double injury. 
For Persecution, though it may strengthen and 
ao improve 



SERMON IX. 199 

improve our Faith, doth not so easily enlarge our 
Charity. 

It hath been offered in excuse for tlvs behaviour 
of the Protestant Churches, on their separation from 
the Church of Rome (for, their persever nee in it 
afterwards, will admit of no apology), that the 
SPIRIT OF PERSECUTION hath a marvellous ma 
lignity in its nature, above all other errors, to corrupt 
and deprave the human mind. So that when every 
other Iniquity of Papal power had been now detected 
and expelled ; this still skulked behind, within the 
close recesses of the heart ; and, as often as it could 
disguise its deformity under a zeal for the work of 
Reformation) was ready to step out again and play 
the Devil. 

This is not to be wondered at. There is scarce 
a material error in the CHURCH OF ROME, which 
doth not sooth and cherish some or other of our 
corrupt passions and prejudices : but PERSECUTION 
regales them all : It flatters our SPIRITUAL PRIDE, 
the vanity of superior knowledge, and a purer faith : 
It confirms our BIGOTRY, the mistaken zeal for the 
honour of God and holy Church ; and it supports 
our AMBITION, the itch for Mastery, and misrule. 
Were it not for so powerful a bias, this Iniquity, 
which had most imbittered their thraldom, and kept 
them longest in their chains, must, on their first 
deliverance, have been immediately detected, and 
marked out for execration. 

It is true, however, there was another accident, 
which found business for this Fury, when once it 
got harbour in the fair bosom of the reformed 
O 4 Churches* 



2co SERMON IX. 

Churches. The Protestant profession was founded 
on the principle of FREE INQUIRY, and the liberty 
of private judgment. But as it is rare for men 
not to abuse a long-sequestered privilege, when 
new recovered, by pushing the exercise of it to an 
extreme ; so it happened in the work of reformation. 
Several curious fancies grew up with the simple 
Faith of that Gospel, from whence the Reformed, 
in general, sought their knowledge of God s will. 
And they being, through their long inexperience, as 
unknowing in the real nature of Church-communion, 
as inattentive to the simplicity of Christian-faith, 
through desertion of their Guide; these fancies, 
harmless, indeed, while held indifferent, Mere, by 
their fond inventors, soon made important, and the 
terms of Fellow-membership. The effect was fatal ; 
It served to rend the Reformation into various Sects 
and Parties. We may be sure, the Church of 
Rome would take advantage of this miscarriage. 
They did so: and upbraided the work of Heforma- 
tlon with being conducted by a Spirit of confusion : 
They inferred, that when men had once left the 
centre of unity y and would seek truth by a liberty 
of thinking, which authorized private judgment, 
there would soon be as many false opinions as free 
Inquirers : And as many Sects as both. The 
Reformed seemed sensible of this opprobrium : But 
it being supposed impracticable to go back to the 
simplicity of the Gospel -Faith; and on that sim 
plicity, to regulate the terms of Church-communion ; 
they contented themselves with stopping where they 
were which they thought they should be ^ble to 






SERMON IX. 201 

do, by applying unjust coercion to all such novel 
ties, as, either by their subtilty or plausibility, pro- 
raised the birth of a new sect, or, by their grossness 
and extravagance, reflected dishonour upon Refor 
mation its^if. 

To proceed. This Error was not more disgrace 
ful to /the beginnings of Reformation^ than fatal to 
the progress of it. 

It hath, indeed, been observed, and perhaps with 
truth, that the restraint ol religious liberty hath, 
made men more eager to exert and exercise tha 
right uf thinking for themselves. But this was 
accidental ; \vhen, after a long and indolent resig 
nation of the understanding to authority, some casual 
persecution of a new opinion had served, as a 
stimulus, to quicken the benumbed faculties of Rea 
son. And even then, the benefit was much allayed 
by the small helps which such times afford to the 
discovery of truth ; and the great danger there is 
in using such as may be had : Hence it was, that 
during the twilight of dawning Science, men, the 
best intentioncd, and naturally the best qualified, 
did, in struggling to get iree, advance such crude 
and hasty conclusions, as greatly discredited that 
Gospel- liberty, they were then labouring to promote. 
Of this we have many unhappy examples in the 
first efforts towards Reformation. 

But the issue would be very different in different 
circumstances ; in such especially where the Spirit 
of Liberty had done its general work ; and had 
established the few great principles of Gospel-truth 
purity. If, amongst these, the antichristian 

discipline 



202 SERMON IX. 

discipline of restraint should be received, adieu to 
all further advances in Reformation. Coercive 
power would from henceforth keep it for ever tied 
down to that imperfect state, in which Church 
Authority had found it. For, in this ca^e, the 
reverence paid to the new Authority, under which 
particulars had sheltered themselves from an old 
Tyranny, would concur with its power, to depress 
and discredit private Judgment. 

Nor would this prove a slight or trivial evil. For 
we are not to think the work of Reformation could 
be perfected at once. Those who know, in gen i al, 
what prejudices old habits impress on the most 
vigorous mind, even while enlarging itself by 
Liberty ; and those who know in particular, how 
hastily and sometimes how tumultuarily the Refor 
mation was brought about, will easily understand, 
that the whole Gospel Regimen was not likely to be 
restored together : and that such a perfect recovery 
required time and leisure to study ; and freedom to 
profit by our studies, in the Word of God. 

But still further. Did persecuting Churches dis 
courage private judgment in order to take the matter 
into their own hands, that Truth might have the 
sanction of Authority, and they themselves the 
honour of doing it further service, something might 
be said, perhaps, in excuse for this proceeding. But, 
alas ! their infringement of religious liberty arises 
from a different principle. They discourage private 
inquiry, not because it is carrying on by better 
hands, but because there needs no inquiry to be 
made : The work of Reformation; they say, is al 
ready 



SERMON IX. 203 

ready perfected ; and the duty of particulars is now 
to acquiesce. A strange coi Delusion, which the prac 
tice of unj ist restraint, indeed, hath made familiar, 
but is, in itselt, a verv indecent presumption. For, 
as a Protestant Church claims no INFAI LIBI MTY, 
like t >e J.t irch of Rome, nor iaimodiate I ASPIRA 
TION like fanatic Sectaries, it must needs confess 
itselt obnoxious to error: and from the unfavourable 
circumstances spoken of before, very likely to fall 
into it. And then, whatever mistakes it had com 
mitted through the condition of humanity, it mi Jit, 
from time to time, have redressed with good grace, 
on the modest principles of Reformation. This was 
an advantage which infallible and inspired Pretenders 
had, by their knavery and tolly, put for ever out of 
their power. But restraint and persecution deprived 
the Reformed Churches of this advantage : For, 
when once they were in the train of implicit sub 
mission, they grew ashamed to own they had any 
errors ; and with reason ; for what could more ex 
pose the criminal absurdity of such proceeding? 
Therefore, whenever the force of Truth had worked 
a change in the general principles of a Protestant 
Church, as it did more than once in the matter of 
Catvinisticat predestination, men had rarely the 
courage to confess it. Which made one of their 
enemies observe, with a sneer, That it ivas allowable 
Jor the New Reform to change : but not avow the 
change *. 

* 11 est bien permis de changer dans la nouvelle re- 
forme, mais il n est pas pennis d avouer qu on change, 
Bossuet Var. V. i. p. 405, 

There 



204 SERMON IX. 

There is yet another mischief behind, which is 
still more general ; I mean, that of Schisms, divi 
sions, and increase of Sects and parties. For though, 
as hath been observed, the effect of Persecution, in 
these circumstances, is to stifle Truth ; yet it gives 
life and vigour to a thousand Counterfeits. For, that 
thorough discipline of uniformity, which brings all to 
one dead level in the Church of Rome, is utterly im 
practicable in the Churches of the Reformed. Pro 
testant Rulers, indeed, may, by stirring up the hu 
mours, elude and prevaricate with their own prin 
ciples ; but it is impossible they should ever go so far 
as to be able to put in practice the principle of their 
capital enemy: And yet there is no other that hath 
force enough to expel those humours. Now although 
the mischief to the State, from various sects and 
parties, may be reasonably well amended by a just 
TOLERATION, afforded to such, whom the Church, 
from the narrowness of its communion, ejects; yet 
the mischief to Religion still remains. The Object of 
Civil Government is PEACE; and this, a toleration 
secures : But the object of Religion is TRUTH ; and 
this a diversity of Sects, arising from the cause in 
question, will alw r ays discredit. So that, in this 
sense, SCHISM is a real and irremediable evil, which 
no Civil prudence can palliate or cure: and which 
nothing but the Church, by widening its Communion, 
can prevent or remove. 

Thus have I endeavoured to explain the equity 
and wisdom of my text. I have pointed out the 
good which follows from the observance, and 

the 



SERMON IX. 205 

the evils which arise from the violation, of the 
precept. 

What remains is only to caution you from suffer 
ing the ABUSES here exposed (and now ABUSES are 
become the favourite topic of declamation *, and the 
fashionable motive for disbelief), let not this, I say, 
prejudice you either against the REFORMATION in 
particular, or against the CHRISTIAN RELIGION in 
general. 

Those Communities, and Bodies of Men, who 
made the first secession from the Church of Rome, 
did it, amongst other causes, to avoid the profession 
of those errors, and the practice of those supersti 
tions, which that antichristian power tyrannically in- 
forced upon Conscience. The measure was evidently 
right. And if they narrowed their justification on 
that partial principle, that their opinions were true, 
and their adversaries false, instead of carrying it 
to that genuine and more generous ground, That 
Christian Liberty giv\s every man a right to wor 
ship God according to his Conscience ; and conse 
quently, by so doing, laid the seeds of unjust re 
straint ; this is no more to be admired, where no 
inspiration is pretended, than that, in Civil matters, 
men should labour to promote the general good on 
erroneous or mistaken Principles. Many of the 
Chief Instruments of our deliverance from Popery 
and arbitrary Power, by the late happy Revolution^ 
proceeded, we know, in their accomplishment of 

* See Lord Bolingbroke s posthumous Volumes, whose 
reasoning, such as it is, proceeds, from one end to the 
other, on this /single topic, 

that 



206 SERMON IX. 

that glorious work, on maxims, which controverted 
the true origine of Government, and were unfriendly 
to the benefits it procures. Yt-t what honest man 
doth not rank them amongst the favoured Servants 
of Providence, employed in the advancement of a 
general Good? Why then should the work of 
Reformation be more hardly thoug 1 t of, because the 
Instruments of Christian Liberty were not more 
dexterou sin disengaging themselves from inveterate 
prejudices, than the Instruments of Civil Liberty? 
We must assign both events to the particular piovi- 
dence of God; or give them both up to the direction 
of Fate and Fortune. We must either be content 
to join the Character of Protestant to that of Patriot, 
or we must throw them both off together. 

As little ought those unjust measures to prejudice 
us against the Gospel in general: which was so tar 
from leading Men into them, or encouraging 
Churches to persevere in them, that the genius of 
the Dispet^Htion is manifestly violated thereby. 

The sum of all is this, that if we would not dis 
honour our FATHER, and his Son Jesus, our 
MASTER; nor give Scandal to the good, nor a 
handle of blasphemy to the bad, we should no longer 
elude this great Commandment; but obey it in that 
candour and ingenuity, in which it was delivered. 
To call no Man Father upon Earth ., because one 
is our Father in Heaven; nor aspire ourselves to 
be called Matter, because one is our Master, even 
Christ. 






SERMON X. 

OF CHURCH AUTHORITY. 
MATT, xxiii. 2, 3. 

THE SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES SIT IX MOSES* 
SEAT : ALL THEREFORE WHATSOEVER THEY BID 
YOU OBSERVE, THAT OBSERVE AND DO ; BUT 
DO NOT YE AFTER THEIR WORKS; FOR THEY 
SAY, AND DO NOT. 

THE SCRIBES and PHARISEES, the public 
Teachers of the LAW, were now fallen into 
that depravity of manners, which the Law had 
foretold and condemned ; and consequently, sunk 
into that general neglect, which is ever the lot of 
profligate Instructors, whether set over us by civil 
or divine Appointment. 

An Impostor, who had a new System to introduce, 
upon the established, thus shaken by the corrupt 
morals of its Teachers, would certainly have im 
proved so favourable a circumstance, by inflaming 
the general aversion against those who most stood 
in his way. But the Son of God declined this 
advantage : on the contrary, he reproved this 
popular prejudice, though so friendly to his own 

Mission; 



2oS SERMON X. 

Mission ; and endeavoured to reconcile them to 
their Teachers, his inveterate Enemies, on such 
rational principles as best affirmed the People s 
Obedience, and their Directors Authority. Secure 
in his own Virtue, he rejected the obliquities of 
human Policy : and, in order to rectify the error 
on which the mischiefs of a despised authority 
subsist, lie instructs his hearers to distinguish 
between the public and private Character of the 
Teacher. He shews them that though Men, who 
say and do not, should never be followed for EXAM 
PLES ; yet, that Ministers of IMi^ion, who sit in 
Moses choir, and are invested with authority to 
teach the Lmc, are to be attended to as INSTRUC 
TORS, when, in their office, they denounce and 
inforce the ordinances of God. Nothing appears 
more reasonable than this distinction. 

And yet in another place of the same Evangelist, 
our Holy Mastic seems to insinuate a very different 
doctrine. " BEWA-E (says he) of false Prophets, 
* f which come to you in Sheeps cloathing, but 
lt inwardly they are rarening Wolves. Ye shall 
" know them by t: cir f ruits. Do men gather grapes 
" of thorns, or figs of thistles : Even so every good 
" tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a corrupt tree 
" bringcth forth evil fruit. Wherefore by their 
* fruits ye shall know them *." 

Here, we see, it is expressly said, That they 
whose morals do not correspond to the purity of 
their doctrine, shall have no regard or observance 
paid unto them ; but, shall be shunned and avoided 

* Matt. vii. 15 20. 

as 



SERMON X. 209 

as deceivers ; because the corruption of their man 
ners is a sufficient proof of the imposture of their 
pretences. Beware of false Prophets Do men 
gather grapes of thorns, or Jigs of thistles? Oil 
the other hand, our text instructs us to reverence 
the immoral Teacher ; and to separate his manners 
from his Doctrine. All whatsoever they bid you 
observe, That observe and do ; but do not ye after 
their works. 

To reconcile these two places of Scripture, it 
will be sufficient to observe, That very different 
Persons and Characters are the subjects of these 
two different directions. 

They of my Text were an Order of ESTABLISHED 
TEACHERS; with whom the custody of God s Word 
was intrusted , to be dispensed on all occasions to 
the People. These men had grossly abused indeed, 
but yet not forfeited their trust ; and therefore it 
was the part of every good Citizen to support them 
in their Character. And though the Jeivish Economy 
was now near the eve of its dissolution ; when part 
was to be abolished, part to be reformed, and the 
remaining part to be completed, by the last Reve 
lation of God s Will, intrusted to his Son ; Yet the 
dignity of Truth, and the eminence of that Person 
who came to bring Truth into the world, required, 
that the interests even of an expiring Dispensation 
should not be neglected. 

But the FALSE PROPHETS, mentioned in the 
other Scripture, who come w Sheeps clothing, but 
with wolfish dispositions, and therefore to be shunned 
and avoided as deceivers, are such as assume a very 

VOL. IX. p different 



sic SERMON X. 

different character. The character of GotTs ex 
traordinary Messengers, intrusted with the delivery 
of a new Revelation to mankind. For, about this 
time the expectation of the promised Messiah was 
very general. So that selfish and ambitious men 
were encouraged to personate his Character. Though 
the marks, by which they are described, might, one 
would think, have prevented the mischiefs the delu 
sions drew upon this infatuated People. 

Having now seen the perfect agreement of the 
different rules delivered in these two Scriptures; 
Let us enquire into the reasons of them. 

In the caution against false Prophets it is direct 
ed, that, in case the morals of a pretended Mes 
senger from God be inconsistent with his Office, we 
should shun and avoid him as a cheat. And surely 
with much reason. The very nature of things in 
forming us, that, when God thinks fit to reveal his 
Will, in an extraordinary way, to man, he will not 
disgrace his dispensation by an unworthy Instru 
ment. Both the dignity and the interests of Religion 
require, that the first bearer of it should be thorough 
ly possessed of that power of virtue which true 
Religion bestows. 

It is highly absurd to fancy, that so bright an 
emanation from the source of Light and Purity, as 
divine grace and favour, should be conveyed to u* 
through unclean and polluted hands. Neither would 
the Author of good endure the near approach and 
intercourse of such an Agent; neither could the 
good, he bestows, be so conveyed, without stain and 
defilement 

The 



SERMON X. ?u 

The interests of Religion will not suffer so impure 
a conveyance. In propagating a new Religion, there 
are many corrupt prejudices to overcome. To see 
therefore the Messenger of God untouched with the 
importance of his high commission, and unrenewed 
himself with tl>e renovation he conveys to others, 
would afford those prejudices too much aid and 
assistance. 

But, this sanctity of manners, which is so expedient 
to support the honour and interests of the mission, 
is indeed the natural and inseparable attendant on 
the Office. For, in the promulgation of a new Re 
ligion, besides those marks of truth arising from the 
reasonableness and purity of the doctrine, which 
shew it worthy of God ; to prove it actually came 
from him there is need of certain miraculous gifts, 
which the Holy Spirit imparts to those with whom 
he then condescends to dwell. But the peculiar 
office of the Holy Spirit is the Sanctification of the 
heart. 

From all this, we must conclude, that, when our 
blessed Master warns us to reject all such for Im 
postors who pretend to an extraordinary commission 
from God, with morals unsuitable to their message, 
he doth it upon the best grounds of truth and ex 
pediency. 

But now we must be careful to observe, that th 
case of such is very different from theirs, whom 
God, in the ordinary course of his providence, raiseth. 
up, from time to time, as the bare Instruments of a 
REFORMATION in Religion; and who pretend to no 
higher character: Of whose agency, Providence 

p 2 avail* 



212 SERMON X. 

avails itself to free an old established Religion from 
the errors contracted through length of time and the 
malice of men. Here, the same conclusion will not 
hold ; most of those circumstances being wanting, 
which made the inconsistency between the public 
and private Character of the extraordinary Agtnt : 
And God, now administering the affairs of his Church 
by the settled economy of his common providence, 
may sometimes be well supposed to do here, as in 
the rest of his moral dispensations, to produce good 
out of evil; to use wicked Instruments, in the natural 
eourse of things, to promote the ends of virtue ; and 
make the oblique interests of the world serve to ad 
vance the honour, and to restore the purity of his- 
Laws. 

Of this different conduct, the Jewish History 
affords us an example. When God, at various pe 
riods, revealed his Will to particular families, and 
to his chosen people ; the agents and messengers, 
whom he honoured with his commands, were select 
ed from the most virtuous amongst men ; such as 
NOAH, ABRAHAM, and MOSES. But when, during 
the established order of things, he decreed in the 
course of his providence, either to execute vengeance 
on the oppressors of his People ; to purge the holy 
land from Idolatry ; or to punish the transgressors 
of the Law ; he frequently employed the agency of 
wicked kings and rulers, to bring his judgments to 
their purposed issue. But we need not wonder at 
this designation, when we see I roviclence Hid rut 
dis lain to employ the like impertect Instr.^ 
a ,v/ tbit a-mro.!" - 
I 



SERMON X. 213 

the first operation of divine Love; I mean the 
ESTABLISHMENT of Religion : of which, that of the 
Law was committed to DAVID, and that of the 

Gospel, tO CONSTANTINE. 

This, our Adversaries of the Church of Rome, 
do not sufficiently consider *, when with so much 

triumph 

* The celebrated M. Bossuet says, Mr. Burnet prend 
beaucoup de peine a entasser des exemples de Princes 
tres-deregles dont Dieu s est servi pour de grans ouvrages. 
"Qui en doute? Mais montrera-t-il un seul exemple ou. 
Dieu voulant REVELER aux hommes quelque verite im- 
portante et inconnue durant de siecles, pour ne pas dire 
entierement inouie, ait choisi un Roi aussi scandaleux q ue 
Henri vm. et un Eveque aussi lache et aussi corrumpu 
que Cranmer? Hist, des Var. 1. viii. torn. i. p. 349, 8vo. 
Here the learned Writer plainly confounds the two dif 
ferent Characters distinguished above. The Instruments 
of Reformation pretended to no agency or commission 
from God, to REVEAL any thing to Man. And if they 
discovered an important truth which had lam hid for 
many ages, it was by laying open the Scriptures to the in 
spection of all men ; after they had been so long locked 
up from the vulgar, in the learned languages. But 
he goes on Si le Schisme de 1 Angleterre, si la i eforma- 
tion Anglicane est un ouvrage divin, rien n y sera plus 
divin que la PRIMAUTE Ecclesiastique du Roi, puisque 
ce n est pas seulement par la que la rupture avec Rome, 
c est-a-dire, selon les Protestans, le fondement necessaire 
de toute bonne reforme, a commence, mak que c est 
encore le seul point ou Fon n a jamais varie depuis le 
Schisme. Id. ib. Now, though I take the SUPREMACY 
of the Magistrate to be a divine work, in the sense that 
all civil Institutions, founded on the principles of Equity 

P 3 



214 S E R M O N X. 

triumph against the work of Reformation, they ob 
ject to us those impure Instruments, who had neither 

motives 

and Justice, are the ordinance of God [Rom. xiii. 2.] 
yet it is not pretended to be a divine work (as the 
learned writer puts it) in consequence of its being an 
establishment introduced by the Instruments of Refor 
mation : because the Character of such Instruments is 
very different from that of an inspired Agent, sent 
immediately from God, to reveal his will to mankind; 
into w r hose Message nothing merely human can insinuate 
itself under the form of a divine institution. The Re 
formation itself, which these Instruments have established, 
will likewise partake of the imperfections of the Foun 
ders. So that the continuance of an error no more im- 
peacheth the providence of such a work, than the intro 
duction of it. But we will suppose the Magistrate s su 
premacy to be as anti-christian as this learned Prelate 
would represent it, and then apply his argument to one who 
was confessedly such an Instrument for the reformation 
of God s Church, I mean JEHU ; to whom God himself 
speaks in this manner " And the Lord said unto Jehu, 
" Because thou hast done well in executing that which 
" was right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the House 
" of Ahab according to all that was in my heart" 
2 Kings x. 30. Here we have an Instrument of God, in 
all its forme. Let us put him then into the Bishop s argu 
ment, instead of Hen. vin. and see how it will fadge, 
"If Jehu s destroying BAAL [the POPE] out of Israel, 
was a divine work ; nothing could be more divine than 
his establishing the GOLDEN CALVES [the King s SU 
PREMACY] in Bethel and in Dan." v. 28, 29. I leave it 
to the advocates of the Church of Rome to find out a 
distinction by which their Champion s argument will be 
made to conclude for Jehu s Reformation, and at the 
frame time, against that of Henry vni. 



SERMON X. 5 

motives nor manners suitable to the truth or purity of 
that Gospel Faith which they pretended to restore. 
We are so far from being ashamed of receiving benefit 
from men who supply these circumstances of re 
proach to themselves, that, supported by the general 
principle, arising from the Doctrines of these two 
Texts, as here reconciled and explained, we find, 
in the perversity of Man, new matter of Glory to 
God. And we bless the hand, which turned the 
Avarice of a furious Friar, and the luxury of a 
debauched Monarch, from their natural mischiefs, 
to become Instruments of the choicest blessings ; 
the recovery of LETTERS and the restoration of 
RELIGION. 

Indeed, it would be hard to conceive a reason, 
ivhy this kind of Dispensation should not be esteem 
ed as adorable in the religious government of the 
world, as it is in the moral ; where we see, and 
without hesitation acknowledge, the goodness, the 
power, and the wisdom of God : whose Providence 
is incessantly employed in turning the crimes and 
passions of selfish men, to the advancement of pub 
lic Justice. How many wholesome Laws have had 
their birth from the oblique views of interested 
Ministers! How many salutary inforcements of 
them from the blind passions of disappointed 
Factions ! 

Indeed, if we should so far mistake, or rather, 
abuse these blessings, as to turn our gratitude, or 
repose our trust, upon the Instruments, instead of 
the Sovereign Hand which guided them, Their vile- 
ness might then be fairly objected to us : But while 

p 4 we 



216 SERMON X. 

we are careful to give the honour where it is due, 
none of that just reproach, which may fall upon the 
Instrument, will at all affect the glorious work it 
was employed to produce *. 

So 

* Yet this sophism, miserable as it is, is the favourite 
argument both of SUPERSTITION and INFIDELITY : and 
constantly employed to discredit that Providence by 
which the work of Reformation was effected. The first 
step to the ruin of that unhappy Monarch, whose 
bigoted posterity has so often disturbed and endangered 
our civil peace, was the being perverted by this very de 
lusion. Father Orleans tells the story from his own 
mouth : Ce fut a Bruxelles au sortir de France qu ayant 
assez de temps pour lire, il tombasur V Histoire d Heylin. 
II la lut avec attention, et au travers des divers pretextcs 
dont les Protestants s efforcent de colorer le schisme de 
leur pais, il reconnut evidemment que cette separation, 
si contraire a la maxime d unite, qui est le fondement 
de 1 Eglise, etoit en effet 1 ouvrage des passions hu- 
maines 5 que V incontinence, d Henri vni., I ambition 
du Due de Somerset, la politique de la Reine Elizabeth, 
Yava nee de ceux qui d abord s etoient emparez des biens 
Ecelesiastiques, avoient ete les principes de ce change- 
men t ; que 1 esprit de Dieu n y avoit point de part. II 
savoit que Dieu s etoit servi de PROPHETES d une vie 
sainte, pour etre les chefs de son Peuple toutes les fois 
qu il s etoit agi de leur intimer ses volontez touchant la 
Religion ; que dansle changement de Loi, des APOSTRES 
revetus de la vertu d enhaut, et plus semblables aux 
Anges qu aux autres hommes, avoient annonce FEvan- 
gile ; que dans les relachemens arrivez dans Tun et dans 
Tautre Testament, ce n etoient point des hommes charnels, 
des ames vindicatives, des esprits ambitieux, qui avoient 
prech6 la reforme, mail des hommes pteins de I esprit de. 

Moyse, 



SERMON X. 217 

So far, as to the reasonableness of the caution 
against false Prophets. But now, as to the respect 
due to immoral Ministers, or the appointed Teachers 
of established Religion, who lie under the same 

imputation, 

Moyse, ou de celui de Jesus-Christ, seuls canaux dignes 
de recevoir les eaux qui opulent de ses vives sources pour 
lie les point rendre suspectes de s etre corrompues en 
venant a nous. I hardly need stop to observe, that the 
sophistry and false reasoning of all this has been exposed 
above, in the distinction, laid down, between an ordinary 
Instrument and an inspired Agent. He goes on -Des 
reflexions si raisonnables ouvrirent les yeux au Due 
d York : des lors il rut Cathoiiqtie dans Fame; et ce fut 
dans cette disposition d esprit qu au temps du retablisse- 

ment il repassa en Angleterre La Duchesse d York, 

par un evenement remarquable, fut convertie en lisant le 
meme Livre, quiavoit convert! le Due. Hist, des Revol. 
d Angleterre, torn. iii. What the Priest thus urges with 
the cunning of a Statesman, to discredit the Protestant 
Religion; the Politician employs with the zeal of a 
Missionary, to decry Revelation in general. " With 
" the same impartial eye (says Lord Bolingbroke to his 
g< noble Friend), that your Lordship surveys the abuses 
" of Religion, and the corruptions of the Church, as 
" well as Court, of Rome, which brought on the Refor- 
" mation at this period ; you will observe the Characters 
" and Cqnduct of those who began, who propagated, 
" and who favoured the Reformation : and from your 
" observation of these, as well as of the umy sternal ical 
" manner in which it was carried on, at the same time, in 
" various places, and of the want of concert, nay even 
" of Charity, amongst the Reformers, you will learn 
" zvhat to think of the several Religions, tkat unite in their 
" opposition to the Roman, and yet hate one another 

" most 



2i8 SERMON X. 

imputation, of discrediting their doctrine by their 
practice, we shall shew their case to be very dif 
ferent ; and consequently that the different reception 
which my text directs us to afford them, is equally 
reasonable. 

Whatsoever (says the lest) they bid you observe, 
that observe and do ; but do you not after their 
Works : for they say, and do not. That is, " As 
they are appointed to dispense unto you the doc 
trines and precepts of Religion, and to support and 
inforce them, with all the power of their wit and 
eloquence, attend to them, as to a public Character, 
with reverence ; but shun their ways, and forbear 
to imitate their practice, which stands condemned 
by their own contrary professions. In a word, 
receive them for your Instructors ; but beware of 
taking them for your Examples" 

The fitness and reasonableness of this direction 
may be seen, both from the NECESSITY and the 
NATURE of the office. 

1 . We learn from the experience of all ages, that, 
to preserve Religion amongst the people, there is 
need of public teachers, to be set apart for that 
purpose. Thus in the Jewish state they were 
appointed by God s particular direction : amongst 
the policied nations of Paganism, by the civil 

magistrate : 

" most heartily ; what to think of the several sects, that 
" have sprouted, like suckers, from the same great Roots ; 
" and what the true principles are of Protestant Ecch- 
" siastical Policy ."L. Bolingbroke, Letter VI. of the 
Study of History^ Vol. i. pp. 209, 210. 



SERMON X. 219 

magistrate : and wherever our ho y Religion hath 
opt footing, both divine and human authority have 
concurred to their establishment. The office there 
fore of the Ministers of a national Religion, like 
ours, is to support and cultivate that Revelation, 
which the first Messengers of it, by their extraor 
dinary graces, had planted and disseminated through 
out the world. For its divinity being once thus 
powerfully evinced, all that remained for the constant 
exercise of the ministry, was to have the exterior 
evidence of its truth, and the interior evidence of 
its excellence, set in the fairest and most convincing 
light. And as this might be done by the common 
aids of reason and grace, the power of miracles, as 
no longer necessary, was withdrawn from the Teach 
ers of Religion. So that it was now no matter of 
wonder, though it will always be of scandal, if men, 
equally subject with their hearers to the common 
infirmities of their nature, should, in more degenerate 
times, fall under the same vassallage to sin and 
corruption. However, that this will not excuse 
their hearers from rejecting their ministry, and 
disregarding their doctrine, appears plainly from the 
second consideration, the nature of their office. 

2. Whoever assumes to instruct and direct the 
People, upon the footing of his own authority, hath 
need to be irreproachable in his life and conver 
sation ; because the truth of what he delivers rests 
upon the integrity of his character. Fraudulent and 
corrupt manners very justly discredit all he would 
recommend. And, though his prevarication cannot 

alter 



220 SERMON X. 

alter the nature of things, yet it seems to acquit his 
hearers for their neglect of him ; and for declining 
to examine what he delivers on his own personal 
authority. This was the case of the ancient PHI 
LOSOPHERS. While the first of them practised the 
virtues suitable to their name and title, they were 
treated with regard and reverence. But when, in 
after-times, they became as notorious for their 
immoralities, they deservedly sunk into general 
neglect. The First Christian apologists urge their 
vices home upon them ; and consider the popular 
contempt into which they were fallen as the natural 
consequence of their profligate manners : For even 
uncultivated reason tells us ? that it is absurd to 
expect grapes of thorns, or Jigs of thistles. 

But a Minister of established Religion stands 
upon another footing. He delivers nothing on his 
own Authority. His office is to inforce God s esta 
blished Truth by argument and persuasion. The 
Guide he recommends is not HIMSELF, but HOLY 
SCRIPTURE ; which he invites all men diligently to 
study and examine. And if, in aid of his general 
office, he maketh one part of his ministry to consist 
in interpreting what he thinks may minister grace 
to the hearers, it is but to assist them in their Know 
ledge of God s Word : and to weigh the force of 
what he offers, in behalf of its Authority. Now 
what have the private morals of such a Character 
further to do in this matter, than to excite the com 
passion of every charitable hearer ? who cannot but 
lament thtft so much science, and application to 
holy things, as is necessary to fit him for the dis 
charge 



S E R M O N X. 221 

charge of his employment, should not have force 
enough to subdue his evil habits. 

But if on this account we do unreasonably, to 
set at nought a Minister of Christ ; how absurd is 
it to encourage or excuse ourselves in our vices, by 
his bad example. We reject the authority he has 
from God, we resist the evidence he draws from 
Reason, yet seem to respect, in him, the works of 
the flesh and the tyranny of enslaving Passions. 

But, of all the delusions into which licentious 
men are apt to fall, the most unhappy sure is that, 
which, from the vices and imperfections of the 
ministers of the Gospel, inclines them to reject, or 
entertain suspicions of, that Religion itself, they 
are intrusted to teach : And yet I believe nothing 
has more contributed to keep men attached to their 
infidelity, than this foolish prejudice. 

Did the Gospel deliver, or was it suspected to 
deliver, any doctrines even of the remotest tendency 
to encourage its Ministers in their vices, much 
might be said for this strange conclusion. But 
when it is by those very doctrines that the People 
discover the true nature and enormity of vice ; when 
it is by those doctrines they hear the Preacher con 
demned out of their own mouths ; it seems strangely 
perverse to think amiss of Religion on that account. 
Surely these men of reason have not brought them 
selves to expect, that, in the ordinary course of 
God s providence, a mere knowledge of his Will, 
and of the truths arising from it, should have a 
resistjess force to bear down inveterate habits, and 
subdue the strongest bent of human inclination. 

In 



SERMON X. 



In conclusion, I have only one caution to subjoin, 
That what is here said of the prejudices and per 
versities of the Hearers of thk Word, be not 
mistaken, as intended for an excuse of the immoral 
Preachers of it. Their guilt admits of none. 
Against them, under the names of the Scribes and 
Pharisees of my text, Jesus, in the same place 
where he vindicates their public character from 
contempt, hath denounced the severest woe of 
offended Heaven. Woe unto you, Scribes and Pha 
risees, Hypocrites, How can you escape the damna 
tion of Hell? But when he speaks still more directly 
to the Ministers of his own Religion, his condem 
nation goes still higher. It is impossible (says he 
to his Disciples) but that offences will come ; but 
woe unto him through whom they come. It were 
better for him that a millstone were hanged about 
his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he 
should offend one of these litte ones *. The woe 
denounced against the Ministers of the Mosaic Law 
was for offences arising from enormous crimes : 
But this, against the Ministers of the Gospel, is, for 
offences, occasioned even by indiscretions. Who 
ever (says he) shall offend one of these little ones : 
and this, with the highest reason, both on account 
of the superior holiness of the Gospel, and the 
superior charity required of its Followers. 

In a word, the Crime of a profligate life, in the 
Stewards of the Mysteries of God, is aggravated 
by many considerations. 

* Matt, xviii. 6, 

The 



SERMON X. 223 

The acquired knowledge, necessary for the or 
dinary discharge of their office, gives them advan 
tages, in religious wisdom, above other men : So 
that if their progress in virtue he not proportionate 
to their superior knowledge of its nature and effects, 
they become very guilty before God ; who, by the 
mouth of his Son, has assured us, that to whom 
much is giveti, from him much r* 1 /// be required *. 

Their solemn dedication and separation to the 
service of Religion, likewise demands a more especial 
sanctity of manners. The very Heathens saw, that 
such as were employed about holy things, ought 
to be endowed with, or at least should learn to 
acquire, a higher degree of purity, than those who 
stood further from the altar: And accordingly 
public authority exacted from them the observance 
of a stricter and severer rule of moral conduct. 

The sum of all is this, That the Hearer should 
not entertain prejudices against Religion, on account 
of the bad lite of the Preacher : Nor, on the other 
hand, should the Clergy suffer these unjust preju 
dices of the Laity to abate their horror for a faithless 
discharge of their Trust. Let them equally concur 
in confessing the divine original of VIRTUE and 
RELIGION, in the midst of all their abuses of both; 
let them concur to give Glory to God, while each 
lies humbled under the deep sense of Iris own con 
demnation. 

* Luke xii, 48. 



SERMON XL 

OF CHURCH COMMUNION. 

LUKE ix. 49, 50. 

AND JOHN ANSWERED AND SAID, MASTER, WE 
SAW ONE CASTING OUT DEVILS IN THY NAME ; 
AND WE FORBAD HIM, BECAUSE HE FOLLOW- 
ETH NOT WITH US. AND JESUS SAID UNTO 
HTM, FORBID HIM NOT : FOR HE THAT IS 
NOT AGAINST US, IS FOR US. 

^\A7 ^ E ^ J esus 5 m the entrance on his Ministry, 
* * had thought fit to confirm the truth of his 
Gospel, by the EVIDENCE OF MIRACLES, he was 
graciously pleased to contrive, that that which was the 
credential of his Mission should, at the same time, 
minister relief and consolation to the bodily infirmi 
ties of those, whose spiritual disorders he was sent 
to heal. On this account, as well as to give ad 
ditional lustre to his Character, he communicated of 
this divine power to his Followers. 

But these gross pnd carnal-minded men considered 

their gifts and graces, not as a trust imparted to 

them for the benefit of others ; but as a prerogative 

given them in proper to adorn their own personal 

VOL. IX. Q characters. 



226 SERMON XL 

characters. So that, on seeing a man dispensing 
the same blessings, though in the name of their 
common Master, yet because he followed not with 
them> they forbad him the exercise of his ministerial 
function ; as if they themselves had been erected 
into a Society or Company, with the privilege of an 
exclusive trade : And, with great satisfaction in this 
their conduct, they acquaint their heavenly Master 
with the silence they had imposed upon this pre 
suming Schismatic. But they were surprised at 
their reception, when, instead of applause, they 
were received with this colcl admonition, Forbid 
him not : for he that is not against us, is for us. 
Yet they would have seen reason to be thankful for 
the moderation and gentleness of the reproof, had 
they reflected on the absurdity, as well as iniquity, 
of their behaviour. For it was but just before * 
that these very men, who now restrained a Follower 
of Christ from exercising the virtue communicated 
to him, because he was not of their Society, had 
themselves essayed the very same power, and, 
through the deficiency of their faith, had essayed it 
in vain. So that we may reasonably conclude, 
there was in this Jirst exertion of uncharitable re 
straint, what has been found in it ever since ; not 
a little envy mingled with a great deal of zeal. 
* Yet as carnal as this temper is, and as season 
ably as it was reproved, it has rarely failed to shew 
itself in every age, and almost in every country, to 
stop the progress of the Gospel, and narrow the 
Communion of Saints. 

* Ver. 40, 

And 



SERMON XI. 227 

And here, as in all other cases, where the genius 
of our holy Faith is violated, a text was at hand, to 
flatter their prejudices, and support them in their 
delusions. For St. Matthew * teils us, that Jesus, 
on a certain occasion, delivered himself in the fol 
lowing manner, HE THAT is NOT WITH ME is 
AGAINST ME. A declaration so opposite to the 
former, that it will require to have the two texts 
accorded, before we can draw any certain conclusion 
from either of them. 

It is to he observed, then, that these different 
propositions are delivered by Jesus at very different 
junctures : so that we may presume they were 
directed to different objects ; and may therefore be 
well reconciled, and made to stand quietly together. 
This is indeed the case ; they bear a very friendly 
aspect towards each other. 

The words of my text were occasioned by the 
disciples forbidding a man the exercise of his 
ministry, though he professed his faith in Jesus, 
because he conformed not to the discipline of the 
Twelve. But the words in St. Matthew were directed 
to another sort of men, his enemies, the Pharisees ; 
who, when they were convinced of the truth of his 
miracles, were yet so prejudiced against his mission, 
that they affected to believe, he cast out Devils by 
Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils. The absurdity 
of which impious subterfuge, when Jesus had ex 
posed as it deserved, he subjoined this general truth, 
He that is not with me is against me. 

Here we see it is the dissenting from the FAITH 

Ch. xii. 30. 

Q 2 o* 



S 1<; II M O N XI. 

OF JESUS, not from the DISCI PL INF. OF A CHURCH 
denominated from him, which deprives the Dissen 
tient of any share in him. And, indeed, as it, 
\vould seem to violate the strong Benevolence of 
our holy Religion, to debar the faithful of their 
claim to its benefits, on account of their separating 
from, or rather not associating with, some of its pro 
fessors, in Church-fellowship ; so it would appa 
rently dishonour its dignity, and defeat its peculiar 
virtue, to imagine that the opposers of it had a right 
to its privileges, on this only title, that they stood 
upon the common foundation of the moral Law. 

These two texts, therefore, do not only agree 
well together, but do indeed imply the truth of one 
another. For if the benefits he so great, and so 
necessary to humanity, it is not fit they should 
depend on so precarious a ground, as this or that 
mode of discipline : And if it be the proper virtue 
of Christianity, to bestow them, it would not be 
just that any other mode of belief should share in 
the honour of conveying them. 

These reciprocal Truths, likewise, have a com 
modious application : and we may properly oppose 
them to those two extremes; one of which is apt 
to bewilder the zealots for the national Religion ; 
the other, the lukewarm professors of Christianity 
at large: While one side supposetk, there is no 
Salvation, out of the pale of his own Church ; and 
the other, that there is no happiness which moral 
virtue alone is not able to procure. 

These errors are equally hurtful to true Religion. 
But the former only is my present subject : It is 

that 



S I- R M O N XL 

that which my text condemns. How justly, we 
.shall now sec. 

Ti.is narrow, intolerant Spirit, which excludes 
from the benefits of the Gospel, all without the 
national or established pale, notwithstanding their 
profession of the common faith of Jesus, is alike 
injurious to GOD and MAX. 

I. For first, it alters the TERMS OF SALVATION, 
as they arc delivered in the Gospel ; which are, 
Faith In Christ, and repentance towards God; by 
adding others to them, such as fellow-membership 
in Church Communion. To change the funda- 

O 

mental Laws of Christ s spiritual Kingdom, where 
he is the only Lawgiver, is an otfence of the highest 
nature, as not only implying simple disobedience, 
but usurpation likewise. A Church acting with 
this Spirit, not only throws off Subjection, but 
assumes the Sovereignty : And is no longer the 
Sheep-fold of the good Shepherd, but the den of 
Anti-Christ, the Thief and Robber. 

Again, This innovation is opposite to the doctrine 
of REDUMPTION, and foreign to the whole genius 
of the Gospel. They were not the sins of men, as 
they make collective bodies in Communities, but 
the sins of each individual of our common species, 
for which Christ died. The descendants of Adam 
had, through his transgression, lost the free gift of 
immortality ; which was as freely restored by ,the 
death and sufferings of Christ. But to whom was 
it restored ? not to collective bodies, who should 
worship this Restore! with public Rites and Ccrc- 
0, 3 monies - 5 



236 S E R M O N XL 

monies ; but to ever} particular man who had a 
lively faith in him. The Gospel is the publication 
of the glad tidings of this restoration : And though 
indeed it was first addressed to the Jews, as a 
NATION, a Church, or Society; yet this Mas not 
because the redemption of Mankind had any tiling 
to do with Societies of Men as such ; but because 
the Race of Abraham, from whose loins the pro 
mised Redeemer was to spring, had been, by God s 
special appointment, collected into a Body, as 
amongst other uses, so for this, the better to prepare 
his way, and to mark his predicted original according 
to the flesh. But when the Gentiles had in their 
turn the Gospel offered unto them, the address 
was only to PARTICULARS. For though the terms 
of Salvation respected the Jewish Sanhedrim y yet 
the Roman Senate, as such, had no concern in them. 
And those particulars who received the word, 
became not necessarily, from the simple nature and 
genius of the Faith, members of any Community, 
but of the spiritual Kingdom of God. And though 
for the better conveyance of the dad tidings of the 

/ O O 

Gospel, it was expedient that the Disciples of Christ 
should be formed into a kind of Sodality, yet the 
Founder of our holy Faith never intended this, or any 
other religious Society, to be part of its essentials ; as 
appears from his express words in my text, where 
he receives one, who was propagating the faith in 
him, to all the benefits and prerogatives of his 
Religion, though he was out of the pale of that 
fraternity he had just then instituted. 

Now what Jesus himself did, in this establish 
ment, 



S E I! M O N XI. 231 

mcnt, for the propagation of Religion, was done 
afterwards by his Apostles, in imitation of him, 
for the support and continuance of it. They 
erected Churches and Societies wherever they came : 
which being founded in one common Faith, were 
in Communion with one another, as the various 
parts and members of the spiritual Kingdom of 
God ; but, at the same time, no more essential to 
that Faith than their own sodality founded by their 
Master. 

Nay, for the very reasons of establishing the 
Churches, namely the conveyance and security of 
Religion, it appears they could not be essential to 
the Faith ; nothing more obstructing its progress 
than the notion of a Society s being essential to it, 
as the consequence of that is the confining Salvation 
to some one Church or Communion. 

From all this it appears, that a principle, which 
narrows the communion of Saints, is contrary to 
the doctrine of Redemption, and foreign to the 
genius of the Gospel. Such are the dishonours 
this notion brings upon Revelation. 

II. Humanity is not less injured by it. For first 
it turns the free gift of God into a bartering trade ; 
the liberty of the Gospel into a spiritual tyranny. 
For when once it is believed, that there is no sal 
vation out of a particular Church, and that the 
admission into it, and exclusion from it, are at 
the disposal of a certain order of men, the persons 
and fortunes of the faithful will lie at the mercy of 

Q 4 their 



232 S E R M O N XI. 

their Ministers. And it will require a very un 
common share of Grace and Virtue not to abuse 
so dangerous a privilege ; and to restrain avarice 
and ambition from prostituting the sacred ordinances 
of Keligion to lucrative and secular purposes. 

Ot this we- see a sad example in the CHURCH 
OF ROME : who, from the principle of no salvation 
out -of its own Community, at length brought men 
to believe, that salvation depended on the Clergy s 
duly administering the sacraments, and other offices 
oi Religion. From hence arose all the mercantile 
traffic of Indulgences, and the whole political ma 
chine of Excommunication. And by this means 
the CHURCH, that is, the CLERGY, got themselves 
possessed of all the power, and almost all the 
wealth, of the Christian World. 

Secondly, Religious Societies formed by divine 
appointment to spread and to support the "FAITH, 
and, together with it, the great principle of univer 
sal BENEVOLENCE, became, through the bigotry of 
this error, the very bane of btHcwlence , by exas 
perating every Church or Society against another, 
for its exclusive pretensions; and by stirring up re 
ciprocal hate and aversion to one another, from the 
supposed state of reprobation in which they all lie 
amongst themselves; till the whole Church militant/ 
instead of-directing its warfare against their spiritual 
enemies, turns its arms upon itself: and dividing 
into separate bands and parties, each damns and 
curses, smites and persecutes the other, who ap 
pears with marks and badges different from his 



own. 



S E 11 M O N XL 233 

own. For persecution naturally follows unchurch-, 
ing and reprobation. And Zeal is never at ease 
till it hath completed the system of desolation. 

This may be seen. from the conduct of the very 
men in my text, amongst whom this evil first ap 
peared ; for the Story informs us that their next ex 
ploit, after silencing this bold Separatist, was the 
calling down fire from heaven on the heretical Sa 
maritans *. A circumstance recorded by the Holy 
Spirit to instruct us, how easy a step it is, from IN 
TERDICTION, tO the SECULAR ARM. 

These are some of the mischiefs which arise from 
the wretched bigotry of confining salvation, and the 
benefits of Christ s death and passion, to one Church 
or Society ; forgetful of that just reproof which so 
seasonably curbed this spirit in its birth, Forbid him 
not :for lit that is not against us, is for us. 

But falsehood is never so effectually exposed as 
when it is traced and laid open to its original. Let 
us follow this error then to its source. 

The nature of things require, that men professing 
a Religion should, form themselves into a Society, in 
order to support that profession. On this principle 
it was that Moses and Jesus, the Authors, under 
God, of a revealed Religion, positively instituted; 
that Society which the nature of things virtually 
prescribed : But with this difference ; the Mosaic 
Religion being temporary, the rudiments of one 
more complete, and given, in the interim, only to a 
single .family or people, in order to keep them sepa 
rate from the rest of mankind, it needed such a pe- 

* Luke ix. 54, 55- 

culiar 



234 S E R M O N XI. 

culiar Ritual, as should give it a PUBLIC as well as 
a PRIVATE part; and make the house of Israel, as 
well as each individual of it, the subject of Religion. 
In this case, the religious society was essential^ the 
Religion, and composed a Church of one denomina 
tion ; out of whose pale no man could be in titled to 
its benefits. 

But Jesus, as the Author of an universal Religion, 
though rising on the foundations of the Mosaic, had 
only the general reason for forming his disciples 
into a Society, namely, for the better security of the 
Faith ; consequently, the Society made no essential 
part of his Religion ; nor needed a Church of one 
denomination, within which the benefits of it should 
be confined. 

Yet, so it happened, that the Rulers and Gover 
nors of this Church, which as we say, arose out of 
Judaism, did not rightly consider what Spirit they 
were of*, nor sufficiently advert to the reasons, on 
which that peculiarity, in Judaism, was founded ; 
and so transferred it into Christianity, as they had 
unwarily done many others, to its irreparable damage 
and dishonour. 

What hath been here said is sufficient to unmask 
that vile imposture obtruded on the early Christian 
Church, called the APOSTOLICAL CONSTITUTIONS. 
The Forger of which apparently went on this false 
principle, that some one individual Society was as 
essential to Christianity as it had been to Judaism : 
so that a system of Laws, equivalent to the Ritual 
cf Moses, was as necessary in one Religion as in 

* Luke ix. 55. 

the 



S E U M O N XI. 

the other : to supply this want, the honest man, 
whoever he was, set upon his worthy labour. And 
in all probability foresaw, that his forgery would 
neither want advocates nor arguments, such as they 
were, to keep it in credit. We have seen of these : 
and the amount of their reasoning comes to this, 
" that if the Comtitutiom be not genuine, the Apostles 
made no Laws for the government of Christ s 
Church ; which would sink its dignity below the 
Mosaic." They were not aware, that this imaginary 
advantage did not arise from the perfection, but the 
imperfection of the Jewish Religion. 

But now let me not be misunderstood, as if from 
all this I would infer, that it were indifferent, in 
what Church or Society we profess our Faith in 
Christ. Some Churches, we know, have become so 
corrupt as to endanger the salvation of those who 
continue in them, and, on this principle, amongst 
others, we separated from the CHURCH OF ROME. 
Well would it have been, had the first Separatists 
kept entire, and not split and divided themselves 
into different Sects. But since Providence decreed 
otherwise, their posterity had yet a task behind ; 
and this was, to chuse amongst the several Churches 
erected on Reformation Principles, that which came 
nearest to the purity of the Gospel. For with .so.nc 
or other, the Genius of our holy Religion, and the 
condition of mankind, require that we should join. 

The choice too should be made with the utmost 
precaution. For amongst the various Societies of 
Christians, there are some, in which the holy Or 
dinances 



2 jb S E 11 M O N XI. 

dincn wes are more regularly administered ; 
more equitably inforced; and Christian Liberty 
more watchfully protected. Now all these circum 
stances tending to forward the true Believer in the 
way of his Salvation, it is of much importance to 
him to chuse his fellow-membership in that Church, 
vrhich is most exactly dressed on the model of pri 
mitive rectitude and simplicity. 

Thus, we see, there is a wide difference between 
declining to join in Communion with this or that 
Church here, and excluding them from the Com 
munion of Saints hereafter. Nothing can justify the 
latter. Whereas prudence, integrity, and common 
justice, frequently require us to keep separate from 
a Church of this or that denomination, when by join 
ing in communion with it we subject ourselves to 
unprofitable, difficult, or dangerous ordinances ; when 
it imposeth on us what we may think sinful or un 
just ; or, lastly, when it hath contracted that enor 
mous stain and pollution here condemned, the 
denying salvation to all out of Its own pale. 

My purpose, in this discourse, was only to expose 
the vain opinion of inherent sanctity, or superiority, 
or exclusive privilege in one Church above another, 
merely because founded by a Paul, a Peter, an 
Andrew, or a James : or merely because adminis 
tered by an Hierarchy, by an equal Ministry, or a 
moderate Episcopacy. Because such opinions have 
produced, and do still support, that wretched spirit, 
which here, on the Authority of God s- Word, I 
have endeavoured to discredit, and ventured to 

condemn 



S E R M O N XL 237 

rundemn : confiding in the Oracle of eternal Truth, 
that lie that is not against, us, M- for its; and will 
he treated by our heavenly Master, not as a Rebel, 
hut a Subject ; and therefore should be now con 
sidered by Us, as he will then be by Him, who is 
the common Jud^e of us both. 



SERMON XII. 

OF CHURCH COMMUNION. 
EPHES. iv. i, 3. 

I BESEECH YOU, THAT YE WALK WORTHY OF 
THE VOCATION WHEREWITH YE ARE CALLED 
ENDEAVOURING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF 
THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE. 

THE nature and genius of the Christian Religion 
annexes the rewards of the Gospel- covenant 
to a System of FAITH or belief: and, at the same 
time, requires and encourages examination into the 
truth and reasonableness of such a System. From 
the first circumstance arises the discredit, from the 
other the danger, of difference in opinion ; whe 
ther that difference respects the truth, or only the 
importance of doctrines supposed to belong to the 
integrity of the Christian Faith. And on this dis 
credit, and on this danger, is founded the admonition 
of my text, to endeavour to keep the unity of the 
spirit. 

By these endeavours, the welfare of Religion, and 
especially of the Christian, is best consulted. For, 

The flourishing condition of every system of 

things, 



240 S E 11 M O N XII. 

things, whether spiritual or c/d/, consists in their 
being kept in a state of Peace and Honour. 

Concord and uniformity in opinions, after a care 
ful examination of their truth, does, in a supreme 
degree, secure the peace of the Church, and advance 
the honour of Religion ; as will be seen by con 
sidering, what it is that most disturbs and disgraces 
both. 

Unreasonable fondness for our own notions, and 
mistaken zeal for God s glory, make us eager to 
bring others over to our opinions. And in pro 
portion to the fancied importance of the doctrines, 
and to the wideness of the difference, will be our 
endeavours to prevail ; and at the same time, our 
resentment at their opposition. 

Diversity of religious opinions, therefore, must 
needs produce suspicions very opposite to social 
peace; such as perversity of will, corruption of 
heart, and, what seems less uncharitable, but is yet 
more hardly endured, a narrowness of mind and 
sentiment. These soon proceed to open censures, 
and mutual bickerings; till at last each party 
regards all that differ from them as the enemies of 
God, and unworthy of their benevolence and love. 

Nor is difference of opinion less injurious to the 
honour of our holy Religion, than obnoxious to 
the peace of the Church. 

One would naturally expect, that the fundamental 
doctrines of a Religion delivered as the final com- 

o 

pletion of all God s preceding revelations, and 

intended for universal use, should be precise and 

clear; agreeable to the most obvious reason, 

24 and 



SERMON XII. 241 

and conformable to the plainest truth. To find, 
then r disputes and differences concerning Doctrines 
deemed to be essential, must needs have an ill 
effect on the popular reputation of Religion ; and 
afford its enemies a handle (which the sanctity of 
its precepts will always make them very ready to 
lay hold on) to bring in question the divinity of its 
original. They will say, " That the mark of a 
divine truth is the fulness of its evidence ; which is 
a necessary quality of truths proposed for general 
belief, and inforced by religious sanctions, both on 
account of the importance of the truths themselves, 
and the incapacity of the people to comprehend any 
but the most obvious. Yet the endless disputes 
concerning fundamentals seem to shew, that such 
pretended truths want this necessary degree of 
evidence : and so cannot have the original which 
they pretend to." 

Such are the objections of men, who are always 
ready to take offence as they are to give it, by 
throwing stumbling-blocks in the way of the weak 
and captious. And though the force of these cavils 
be but small ; yet the evil arising from the occasion 
is very great. 

Having thus shewn the importance of endeavour 
ing to keep the unity of the Spirit ; the next is to 
propose direction for its better observance ; i. By 
explaining how it became violated : and 2. How it: 
may be restored to its integrity. 

The genius of Christianity, as well as the re 
peated declarations of its Foundef, concur in as- 

VOL. IX, R suriag 



242 SERMON XII. 

suring us, That it is by FAITH ALONE we are justi 
fied or hit if led to the rewards of the Covenant of 
Grace. Hence some men, \vho held this truth in 
its greatest simplicity, thought they never could have 
enough : and so, instead of .stopping at the few 
general and fundamental Principles of Christian 
faith, clearly delivered, and uniformly believed by 
all, they went on, and brought into the Church, as 
terms of Communion, abstruse questions relating to 
points obscurely delivered ; and made still more 
doubtful l>y having the Principles of the Greek Phi 
losophy, to which the sacred Writers paid no regard, 
and with which the Faith hath no concern, applied 
to their solution. They did not consider, that the 
very obscurity itself sufficiently declared that they 
never were proposed by the gracious Author of our 
Faith, for fundamental articles; nor consequently 
that he ever intended the profession of them as the 
necessary condition of Church Communion. Much 
less had this imaginary defect in the all-perfect ivord 
0/YiW given any scandal, had it been considered, 
that the proper aim and business of the Founder of 
an universal Religion must needs be, to represent the 
divine Being under the idea of the MORAL GOVER 
NOR of the World, without any further explanation 
of his metaphysical Nature than so far forth as it 
tended to promote the moral purpose of Religion. 
v Now the violation of the unity of the Spirit hav 
ing been occasioned by these mistakes, we may 
easily collect that the means of preserving it entire 
had been the requiring no more, as the terms of 
Church Communion, than what Christ hath delivered 

to 



SERMON XII. 243 

to be explicitly believed : and these not consist 
ing of many particulars, and all of them clear and 
simple, had afforded no handle for difference or di 
versity of Opinions : especially had due care been 
taken to express, as much as possible, those points 
of Communion, in scripture terms, without running 
out into modern glosses, conceived upon the prin 
ciples of Science and Philosophy merely human ; on 
which, as we said, the divine wisdom of holy Scrip 
ture has neither relation nor dependence. 

These had been the most direct and efficacious 
means, I know of, for preserving the unity of the 
Spirit : Always supposing that previous disposition 
of HUMILITY and CHARITY, which all parties 
confess to be necessary for the union of opinions, 
as well as of hearts and affections. 

But since, through a neglect of these rules, this 
unity of the Spirit hath been unhappily violated, the 
next question is of RESTORING it. Which what is 
here said concerning the means of its preservation 
shews us is to be done,. 

i . By retrenching all unnecessary articles, to 
which the animosity of parties, the superstition of 
barbarous ages, and even the negligence of time, 
have given an imaginary importance : and by re 
ducing the formula of Faith to the primitive sim 
plicity : Leaving all disputable points, together with 
such other as no party deems necessary, to the free 
decision of every man s private judgment : whereby 
the terms of Church Communion will be made 
as wide as is consistent with the welfare and good 
government of. a SOCIETY. 

R 2 2. As 



244 SERMON XII. 

2. As divisions, long kept up, have inflamed the 
passions, strengthened the prejudices, and biassed 
the judgments of the contending Parties; another, 
and indeed principal means of restoring unity, is the 
mutual compliance with one another s weaknesses. 
And this methinks, would not l>e difficult amongst 
well-disposed men, as we must needs esteem those 
to be, who seek to regain this unity of the Spirit : 
For though these long contentions may have made 
us blind to our own infirmities, yet they have rather 
sharpened our sight towards those of our adversaries. 
So that a general weakness being mutually seen and 
pitied, the very passions raised by our differences 
may be naturally brought to promote our recon 
cilement 

But notwithstanding this apparent ease in bearing 
with one another s weaknesses, it deserves a more 
than ordinary care to put the disposition in practice; 
as Ecclesiastics of all denominations are but too apt 
to reason wrong in applying it to their mutual en 
deavours for reconciliation. " The demands of our 
adversaries, say the established party, are for matters 
owned by themselves to be no duiics ; and against 
others they confess to be indifferent : why then 
should we alter the stated order of things to comply 
vuth their pcrvcrscucss or imbecility?" But those 
who reason thus seem not to consider that they 
themselves become guilty of the very miscarriage of 
which they accuse, and rightly accuse, their Adver 
saries. For if the thing in question be of matters 
indifferent, why are they not complied with, for the 
sake of so great a blessing us the unity of the Spirit, 

how 



SERMON XII. 245 

how foolishly or obstinately soever demanded? Al 
low them to be -weak or wilful for insisting on in 
different things astlie terms of fellow-membership in 
Church Communion ; Do \ve shew less of this im 
becility in refusing to comply with them in these 
indifferences : which, because they are so, we pretend 
our opposites should not be indulged in. For wherein 
consists their fault or folly but in treating indifferent 
points as Duties by an obstinate demand of them? 
And wherein consists our wisdom, but in treating 
indifferent points as Sins by as obstinate, a refusal ? 
Now when this miUual miscarriage hath defeated, 
as it often hath done, the repeated endeavours of 
good men ow, all sides to restore the violated unity 
of the Spirit, each Party may reasonably blame the 
conduct of the other, but it is impossible he can 
justify his own. Indeed it would be hard to say 
who are most to blame ; Those who oppose esta 
blished authority for the imposition of matters indif 
ferent ; or that Authority which rigidly insists on 
them, and will abate nothing for the sake of tender 
uninformed Consciences : I say it would be hard to 
resolve this, had not the holy Apostle done it for us, 
where he says, IVt that arc. strong ought to bear 
the infirmities t/f the, weak, and NOT TO PLEASE 
ou US-ELVES *. / wyw//I says he, do ,vo, and all for 
the Gospel * sake. This is the man who tells us he 
had fought a goodjight and overcome. And we may 
believe him ; for, in this contention, the Party that 
submits is always Conqueror. 

* Horn. xv. i. 

a 3 But 



246 SERMON XII. 

But now, though the UNITY OF THE SPIRIT 
cannot be purchased at too high a price, yet UNI 
FORMITY of established worship may be bought too 
dear. Here then, in pursuit of this spiritual blessing 
we must stop ; and not venture to go one step further : 
We must not dare to procure it either at the expence 
of TRUTH or JUSTICE. It must be now left to the 
good care of Providence. And this, as we shall see 
next, is implied in the very words which direct us 
to attempt it. 

1 . It is the unity of the SPIRIT which the Apostle 
recommends to us, to keep and preserve. But if, 
for the sake of uniformity of WORSHIP, we disguise, 
or betray, or give up any fundamental Truth, it be 
comes a confederacy of the Spirit of this World : 
at best a politic Union for the preservation of civil 
peace : A peace, where Religion is not the actuating 
principle, but only the cloke and cover. 

2. Nor again, was this unity of the Spirit pre 
served (so long as it was preserved), nor is it to be 
again recovered, by restraint or CIVIL-COERCION. 
This would be violating that bond ofpeacc y in which 
the Apostle tells us, the unity of the Spirit is to be 
kept. For force upon the Conscience being a violation 
of man s natural rights, it will be always resented 
accordingly. Hence it is that Persecution for Re 
ligion necessarily tears asunder all the bonds of Peace 
and Charity ; and reduces the Church of Christ to 
that distracted condition which our blessed Master 
described when he foretold the miseries that would 
arise from Persecution. The Father (says he) shall 

be 



SERMON XII. 247 

be divided against the Son, and the Son against the 
Father ; the Mother against the Daughter, and the 
Daughter against the Mother. And a mans Joes 
shall be those of his oicti house. 

When therefore those means spoken of above, 
have, through the early folly or later perversity of 
man, proved ineffectual to preserve or to restore the 
WnltytiftKt Spirit, the only remaining care to which 
we should then turn us, is the keeping fast the BOND 
OF PEACE. 

Now the only means of securing this, as expe 
rience hath fully shewn us, is by a general TOLERA 
TION , or full Liberty to all Christian sects (who give 
security for their good behaviour to the civil Govern 
ment) of worshipping God according to the dictates 
of their own Consciences, without let or molestation 
from the ESTABLISHED RELIGIOX. 

Under this wise and well-regulated provision, when 
the blessing of unity of Spirit cannot be obtained, 
the Church of Christ may be still enabled to enjoy 
all the benefits which arise from the bond of Peace. 
So that though men will not be persuaded to go all 
one way to Heaven, yet it is to be hoped, when no 
human impediment is laid across the road, that good 
men of all parties may get thither at last; though 
some with more, and others with less difficulty. 

The distractions and iniquities of these latter ages 
give us no reasonable grounds to hope for a better 
condition of the Church. It is therefore that which 
reasonable men would aim at. It is that which our 
own Church enjoys. Here we sought our peace : 
and here happily we have found it : The experience of 

R 4 a course 



S E R M O N XII. 

a course of years having discovered that it is produc 
tive of much good, and preventive of many evils. 

But the restless mind of man, rarely at ease with 
the present state of things, and still impatient for a 
better, has ever, as opportunities served, been as 
suming various projects, of visionary improvements, 
but all really tending to defeat or disturb this well- 
ordered regulation. 

The most plausible, yet as visionary as any, is that 
called a COMPREHENSION. A word very express 
sive to distinguish the Thing, from that Unity of the 
Spirit ; and even from that Uniformity , spoken of 
above. An Unity is the agreement in heart of those 
v, ho aim at the same thing though by different ways; 
an Uniformity exacts a profession of the same thin^ 
by the same way ; but a Comprehension would be for 
tacking together different things and different ways, 
even under the existing difference of profession. Tho 
first is brotherly-concord ; the second is Church-com 
munion : but the last is political combination. Nor is 
the Scheme less impracticable than it is mischievous ; 
as may be seen from the following considerations. 

i . This project hath of late been conceived by 
men who agreed in nothing but in a dissatisfaction 
with the present order of things. For one side hav 
ing been unjustly prejudiced against the equity 
of a TOLERATJOX; and the other, as unjustly, 
against the rights of an ESTABLISHMENT; they 
readily concurred in a Comprehension, that seemed 
to bupersede the use of both. But we needed not 
the gift of prophecy to foresee that it would come to 

nothing; 



S L: R M O N XII. 249 

nothing; since the very tiling which so naturally 
brought the confederates together, would, when they 
understand one another, as naturally separate them; 
namely, the profession of inconsistent Principles: 
and if not so ; yet their Principles being at the same 
time equally false, it would make their staying to 
gether ineffectual : For what could a mutual false 
hood produce but an impracticable absurdity. And 
well perhaps is it for Religion that it always does 
so. For this Comprehension, the ape, and mimic 
of Umty, tends to the destruction of that spiritual 
SOCIETY, which Unity strengthens and supports. 

2. The Projectors of it are generally private men, 
who undertake for more than they can perform. 
For it is not the temper of Societies to come into 
what is promised in their names, by men uncommis 
sioned to act for them. 

3. The main end of a Comprehension being 
PEACE; indeed the only end that could induce the 
?\Iagistrate to engage in such a business ; and the 
Community being already in posession of this bless 
ing by a well-ordered Toleration , He will, I sup 
pose, be very hardly persuaded to exchange an 
experienced good in possession, for one untried; 
which, though it appear fair in prospect, yet the 
road to it may prove difficult and dangerous. 

4. It hath been often essayed in vain by the 
worthiest and wisest men of their times, such as 
CASSANDER and GROTIUS. And it is no wonder 
this fancied Magisterium should still evaporate 
in the projection. For cither the Comprehension 

must 



250 SERMON XII. 

must be so large and loose as to dissolve all 
Church Government, and even Religious Society : 
Or, if it be so tempered as to keep these sub 
sisting, there will be need of all the regulations 
\vhich distinguish and separate things tolerated from 
things established-, and then Comprehension will 
shrink back again into an empty name. 

On the whole, Since the Church of Christ hath 
been so unhappy as to be deprived of its greatest 
blessing, the UNITY OF THE SPIRIT, let not the 
same, or even contrary follies, be of force to per 
suade such who are sensible of the loss, to try con 
clusions with what yet remains, the next best good 
of Society, THE BOND OF PEACE; but rather 
let them be content to preserve what we still 
possess, by such sober means as the genius and dis 
position of the times will permit us to employ. 
These we have long experienced to be abundantly 
sufficient. So that those who wish well either to 
the ESTABLISHED, or to the TOLERATED, Societies 
of Christians, have nothing to do but to prevent the 
exercise of their distinct powers from degenerating : 
This, indeed, might at last provoke the MAGIS 
TRATE to lend an unwilling ear to the ignorant and 
destructive schemes of these vain and idle Vision 
aries: But till then, I suppose, Sober Churchmen, 
and experienced Ministers of State, will have this 
mutual confidence in one another, that neither the 
Church will abuse its privileges, nor the State leave 
it unprotected. 






SERMON XIII. 



THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ON 
REVELATION. 

LUKE xviii. 8. 

WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, SHALL HE 

FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH? 

Til I S is one of those fatal MARKS expressive 
of the latter fortunes of the Christian Church, 
as foretold, in the sacred Writings, amongst the Signs 
of the second coming of the Son of man. And with 
This, many other of those signs now concurring, 
seem, in the opinion of serious men, to point out to 
us the near approach of that awful period; the 
completion of the moral, and the renovation of the 
natural system of things. 

But the labour of the Christian Divine will be 
perhaps better employed in searching out the natu 
ral causes of the rising disorders in the Church of 
Christ, than in hazardous conjectures about Futu 
rity ; although laid open to him in some measure by 
the import of those marks, which the predicted evils 
are supposed to bear. 

And indeed, if He have not this discretion, his 
speculations will sometimes, as in the case before 

us, 



252 SERMON XIII. 

us, be rudely called off from the Prophetic matter, 
to other considerations, in which the honour of 
Christianity is more immediately concerned. 

A late noble Writer *, who, together with the Re 
ligion of his Country, hath attempted to erase from 
the minds of men the very idea of all that goes un 
der the name of Religion, hath, amongst his dis 
coveries of the FIRST PHILOSOPHY, laid down the 
following maxim : " That since the revival of 
learning in the West, and the consequent practice 
of thinking for ourselves, the CHRISTIAN FAITH 
hath kept gradually decaying ; and men have given 
less and less credit to its pretensions f. 1 From 
hence he would infer, and not illogical ly on such a 
gratuitous Principle, " that the Religion of Jesus 
is false." 

I propose therefore to debate this matter with him ; 
a point of the utmost importance to the honour of 
Revelation. 

His Lordship s proposition may be expressed in 
plainer terms, " That the more the world has ad 
vanced in real knowledge, the more it has dis 
covered of the intenable pretensions of the Gospel." 

To expose the futility of his maxim, I shall first 
of all shew, that it was not IGNORANCE which 

* Lord BOLINGBROKE. 

f The resurrection of Letters was a fatal period: the 
.Christian system has been attacked, and wounded too, very 
severely since that time And again, Christianity has been 
in decay ever since the resurrection of Letters. Lord 
BOLIVNGBKOKE, on the study and useof history, Vol. 111. 
pp, 430, 31. Octavo Edition. 

gave 



SERMON XIIL 253 

the Gospel its early credit : Which is a pre 
sumption, at least, that KNOWLEDGE hath not since 
hurt it. 

Now CHRISTIANITY arose when KNOWLEDGE 
was at its height, in the latter part of the Augustan 
age ; and in the very centre of human learning, Rome, 
Greece, and the Lesser-Asia. Neither was it pro 
pagated in confederacy with Sophists or Philoso 
phers; but in direct defiance of all their eloquence 
and reasoning ; over which, after a sharp conflict of 
FAIR ARGUM ENT, it at length completely triumphed : 
Nor, again, under the protection of civil Rulers, or 
the Imperial authority ; for these were all combined 
to its destruction ; some with the arms of human 
learning and Philosophy, as MARCUS ANTONINUS 
and JULIAN: but the far greater part with the 
more peculiar argument of Tyrants, the sword of 
the executioner: Yet these, likewise, the Gospel, 
after a still sharper conflict of PATIENCE and SUF 
FERING, brought over to the side of Truth and 
Reason. 

But what need we more? We have the noble 
Author himself giving testimony to the fact ; and, in 
his usual icaij^ destroying his own system of political 
philosophy. He not only confesseth, that at the 
publication of the Gospel, the Gentile World was 
highly advanced in knowledge, but that this know* 
ledge facilitated the reception of its truths. Speak 
ing of this very rera, he says " Polytheism wa* 
" mitigated; Idolatry was in good measure dis* 
" tinguished away, amongst the Philosophers at 
* ( least. Oracles and the Arts of Divination grew into 

" contempt; 



254 SERMON XIII. 

* contempt : and if Heathenism was kept up by men 

* above the vulgar, it seemed to be so only by the 
" Priests for lucre, and by others for fear of having 
* DO Religion at all. THUS THE WAY WAS PRE- 
** PARED BY REASON FOR REVELATION, in the 
** Countries where Christianity first appeared, and 
" which were enlightened by Philosophy *." But 
his Lordship goes further ; he not only confesseth 
that this learned age was favourable to the SUCCESS 
of Christianity, but that it was most adapted to its 
GENIUS; since, those who published it chose rather 
that it should be submitted to the examination of 
REASON, than forced upon the world by the weight 
of AUTHORITY. " It is plain" (says his Lordship) 
" that the first publishers of Christianity did not 
" rest the cause primarily or solely on AUTHORITY 
< of any kind. It is plain that they submitted the 
<c Gospel, and the Authority of those who published 
<c it, to the examination of REASON, as any other 
" system even of divine Philosophy ought to be 
" submitted |." 

After this, to talk of any real advantage the Gospel 
can gain by ignorance, or any real hurt it can re 
ceive from knowledge, is reckoning much upon the 
advantage of favourable hearers. 

Another presumption that Knowledge is not in 
jurious to the interests of Religion, was the later 
conduct of the MINISTERS OF THE GOSPEL. The- 
noble Writer, whose suggestion I am here op 
posing, hath thought fit to represent them as a set 

* Bolingbroke s Works, Quarto Edition, Vol. IV. 
J>- 373, 374- t Vol. IV. p. 267. 

of 



SERMON XIII. 255 

of knavish Politicians combined together to support 
Revelation as the best system to advance the Wealth 
and Power of their Order. But whether Revelation 
be a divine Truth or a commentitious Fable ; whether 
the Order be Ministers of Religion, or Confederates 
in Iniquity; it is at least certain, that men who have 
devoted their time and talents to the service of this 
Institution must needs be best acquainted with its 
nature, and with the means most proper to advance, 
or to retard its interests. And this their superior 
knowledge will admit of no dispute, if, as is pre 
tended, Revelation was their INVENTION" : for they 
could not but be very intimate with the work of 
their own hands. Now it is remarkable, that when 
divers accidental causes had concurred to revive 
learning in the West (not the least of which was the 
protection and encouragement the Clergy afforded 
to the exiled Greeks), this Order was amongst the 
first, as soon as ever it had given any signs of re 
turning life, to cherish and support it; to raise and 
restore it to its ancient dignity and splendor. One 
amongst them in particular having done more in 
this service than all the Laity of that age together. 
I need not tell the learned hearer, that I mean 
ERASMUS *. The inference I would draw from 

it 

* There is one circumstance in the life and character 
of this excellent Person, that distinguishes him with ad 
vantage from most others, even of the greatest eminence 
in Letters : and will for ever endear his memory to the 
Wise and Good. His zeal for the interests of Learning 
and Religion was equally warm and constant. To serve 
the first, he began with discrediting the MONKS, the 

mortal 



SERMON XIII. 

it is this> That had the Clergy, who best understood 
the mutual effects which Learning and Revelation 
must have upon one another, been apprehensive 
that LETTERS would prove injurious to the FAITH, 
xvhich it was, it seems, their peculiar interest to sup 
port; so cunning Politicians had never acted so ab 
surd a part as to promote Learning when it was in 
their power to suppress it Yet they did support it. 
And, with no great assistance from the Laity, ad 
vanced that degree of eminence in which our Fathers 
have seen it. 

I know it hath been pretended, that in this service 
the Clergy we re passive ; that they entered into it 
toith reluctance; that they went heavily with the 

current, 

mortal Enemies of reviving Letters. He pushed them 
with all the vigour of his wit; and seemed resolved td 
give no quarter to that ignorance Xvhich was become 
the mother and nurse of all the bigotry, and superstition, 
which most dishonoured and denied Religion. In this 
attack on the established barbarity of the times, he suc 
ceeded so well, as to bring good Letters into fashion : 
to which he gave a new splendor by preparing for the 
press correct Editions of many of the best ant lent 
Writers both ecclesiastical and profane. But his 
labours were not yet ended. He had a new adventure 
to undertake. He lived to see the zeal for Letters, which 
he had been so instrumental in promoting, carry the 
VIRTUOSI of Italy into an opposite and yet more ridicu 
lous extreme than the monkish, when he first set upon 
laughing ignorance out of the world. The Italian Latin 
Writers (and almost every body then was a Latin 
Writer), from their dread and horror of monkish bar- 
Jbarisyns, would use no WOK!, not even when thev treated 

of 



SERMON XIII. 257 

current, which tlren ran strongly to the advancement 
of Science. But they who say so, know little of the 
history of those times. It is true, the poor Monks 
in the midst of all their blindness, saw well enough 
the havock Learning would make throughout all the 
quarters of Superstition : and therefore employed 
their weak endeavours to stop the progress of it 
But what was the issue? They made themselves 
doubly ridiculous : for the learned Clergy were not 
now content to despise, they found it necessary to 
expose, their ignorance. Soon afterwards indeed the 
world was surprised with the sudden rise of a more 
formidable Order of Religious, the JESUITS ; who 
perhaps had been well pleased to have acted their 

parts 

of the highest mysteries of Religion, but what had been 
consecrated as it were in the Capitol, and dispensed to 
them by the sacred hand of TULLY. Erasmus observed 
the growth of this folly with the greater concern, as he 
thought he saw, under all their fondness for the Language 
of old Rome, a growing libertinage, which disposed them 
to think slightly of the Christian FAITH ; and, what is 
still stranger, gave them even a reverence for the ab 
surdities of the old Gentile worship. Now, this opposite 
extreme, he thought it equally his duty to expose: 
which he hath done in that immortal work intitled 
CICERONIAN us: and done so effectually, that the pub 
lic was soon brought back to that just medium which he 
had been all his life endeavouring to mark out for their 
observance: Purity, but not Pedan try, in Letters; and 
Zeal, but not Bigotry, in Religion. In a word, the em 
ploying his talents of genius and literature on subjects of 
general importance declared him a TRUE CRITIC ; and 
his opposing the extremes of all Parties in their turns 
declared him an HONEST MAN. 
VOL. IX. S 



258 SERMON XIII. 

parts like their predecessors, in the shade of clois 
tered ignorance. But the matter was then too far 
gone. These Politic Fathers, if you will, were in 
deed forced to swim with the stream : but they went 
in it with so good a grace that few have more ef 
fectually contributed to the advancement of Learn 
ing. In a word, this was the general Spirit of the 
Christian Clergy ; both of the Friends and Enemies 
of Home, that from the time in which Letters gave 
the first symptom of recovered life, to the present, 
they cherished them with a zeal and assiduity next 
to what they used in the support and defence of their 
more peculiar charge, Religion. 

What then must we conclude, but that they 
thought, and still think, that the Christian Faith is 
much benefited by the application of human Learn 
ing to its service ? They were not mistaken, as I 
shall now endeavour to shew. 

For, from these PRESUMPTIONS, I proceed to a 
DIRECT PROOF, that as the infant growth of the 
Gospel was not retarded by that flourishing state of 
Knowledge which saw it in its birth ; so the revived 
Knowledge of these latter ages did greatly support 
the established honours of Revelation, by illustrating 
its primeval Truths. 

Since the more careful cultivation of natural 
and moral Science, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, and 
ANTIQUITY, have all contributed to spread a new 
light over the evidences of it, 

In natural Philosophy, more exact enquiries have 
been made into the contents of the superior covering 
of the terraqueous Globe; the peculiarities of whose 

arrangements 



SERMON XIII. 259 

arrangements give the strongest evidence to the Mo 
saic account of the Deluge *. And the immortal 
Theory of Newton absolutely demonstrates that in 
timate relation which Moses speaks of, between the 
Creator and his work. 

Profane History, the more nicely it is examined, 
the more clearly it discovers, through all its corrup 
tions, an exact and surprising conformity with 
the sacred: It affords a vast number of precious 
Monuments that serve to illustrate those obscurities 
in holy Writ, which time and the universal change 
of manners, both Social and Civil, have unavoidably 
occasioned amongst men. 

The Science of Antiquity, which is properly con 
versant with the manners and customs of ancient 

times, 

* The contents of the Ocean are found, in a petrified 
state, all over the terrestrial part of the Globe ; and in 
places most distant from those in which they were first 
formed. I say they are found over all the earth, but not 
in all sorts of soils indifferently. And from these two 
circumstances considered together, an incontestable proof 
of the truth of the Mosaic relation, I think, may be de 
duced Had these adventitious fossils not been found in 
every quarter of the Globe, we could not conclude the 
Deluge to have been universal: and had they been 
found in all kind of soils indifferently, we might suppose 
them to be (what they were once commonly thought) the 
natives or those narrow beds in which they are discovered, 
and a kind of lusvs nature. But when we see the^m, 
spread over every climate, and yet only in such soils a 
are proper for the preservation of foreign bodies, we 
rightly conclude them to be the deposite of a Deluge of 
waters which covered the whole face f 

S 2 



26o S E R M O N XIII. 

i 

times, supports the general credit of sacred Scrip- 
ture by illustrating those internal marks that prove 
the high antiquity to which they pretend. 

The Science of Morals hath been more success 
fully pursued, and more happily investigated, since 
the revival of Letters, than at any other period what 
ever. And this, reflected upon Gospel-morality, 
hath thrown such a lustre on the purity of its nature, 
oh the utility of its general direction, and on the 
truth of revelation principles, as? shews its original 
to be indeed divine. 

True Knowledge being thus friendly to the 
FAITH, you will naturally expect, I suppose, to find 
the great Masters of Science confirming what is here 
said, by their warm attachment to REVELATION. 
The expectation is not unreasonable. And you 
have the pleasure to see every great name amongst 
the Laity, such as BACON, BOYLE, NEWTON, 
, GROTIUS, SELDE.N, SYDENHAM, PASCHAL, and 
j LOCKE, no less respectable for their sincere belief 
j of Christianity than for their profound Knowledge 
in their several Professions. Nor should you suffer 
yourselves to suspect that the weight of this argument 
is at all diminished, if there be others, accounted 
in the rank of Learned Men, who have affected to 
think slightly of the Religion of their Country. For 
when the matter is to be decided by Authority, 
Hobbes I suppose will not be opposed to Newton, 
or Spinoza to Bacon. Much less would any one 
compare Toland with Grotius, or Tindal with Sel- 
den, or Coward and Morgan with Harvey and 



....... . 



SERMON XIIL 261 

If then true Science hath thus advanced the credit 
and story of REVELATION, by the nature of its 
principles, and the sentiments of its professors; and 
if yet there hath been, ever since the revival of 
LETTERS, a gradual defection from the Faith, we 
must seek for the causes of this Apostasy in some 
thing else than in a SUPERABUNDANCE OF KNOW 
LEDGE. And on a fair inquiry, I persuade myself, 
they will not be difficult to find. 

We have just seen, ho\v one division of the 
learned World, into the GREAT and the SMALL Phi 
losophers, contributes to the credit of Religion: 
another, into the MORAL and the IMMOKAL, would 
no less support its honour, were it not too invidious 
a task to oppose these to one another, by name. 
But the various instances may be safely trusted to 
every man s own recollection. For who hath not 
observed, that in the learned Tvorld every the most 
virtuous person hath been most eminent for his ad 
herence to Revelation : and that such who have dis 
tinguished themselves in the cause of free-thinking 
have been generally as remarkable for the free in 
dulgence of their passions. Nor is it at all strange, 
that, when men have nothing to hope, and much to 
fear from a Religion proposed to them as true, they 
should for their own ease be willing to find, or, if 
that fails, to suspect it to be false. And when 
once men are in this disposition, they will never 
want objections to FACTS established by the fullest 
evidence; or to DOCTRINES supported by the 



strongest reasoning. 



But, 



262, SERMON XIII. 

But, it will be said, perhaps, " Why did not 
this natural, though unreasonable prejudice, appear 
sooner ? Men have been always vicious ; and have 
ever since the first appearance of Christianity been 
made uneasy in their vices." 

The fact is true. But the answer to the question 
easy. We are to consider that, for many ages pre 
ceding the restoration of Learning, SUPERSTITION 
had invented a thousand expedients to evade the 
threats of Religion against a wicked life, to reconcile 
the difference; and to make Salvation consistent 
with the practice of habitual immorality. So that 
bad men were under no temptation to quarrel with 
the evidences of their Faith, in order to enjoy their 
vices in quiet. 

But the case is much altered since Religion, by 
the assistance of revived Learning, hath been restored 
to its ancient purity. The original terms of the 
Gospel Covenant between God and man are seen 
to be immoveable : That habitual crimes can be 
no otherwise atoned for but by sincere repentance : 
And that the very essence of repentance consists 
in forsaking vice, and returning to the actual prac 
tice of virtue. 

However, admitting so rare a phenomenon as an 
Unbeliever of real learning and reasonable morals ; it 
would be absurd to ascribe this to his superior 
Knowledge, when so natural an account may be 
given of this traverse, from his learned passions and 
infirmities. A progress in arts is far from working 
that change in the heart and affections which a 
progress in the practice of Religion is wont to do. 

The 



SERMON XIII. -263 

The higher you advance in FAITH, the easier you 
subdue, and the mere skilfully you balance your 
appetites and affections : but too often, the further 
you advance in SCIENCE, the more you inflame 
those appetites and render them intractable. PRIDE 
and VANITY grow spontaneously out of the con 
sciousness, whether real or imaginary, of superior 
knowledge. As these passions render us impatient 
of instruction, and scarcely submitting to be self- 
taught, so they are most gratified when we quit the 
opinions of the crowd. " If all my Learning (says 
such a one to himself) only leads me to think with 
the Many, and to have my science confounded in 
the mass of popular opinions, how shall I be dis 
tinguished with advantage from the ignorant and 
illiterate? To give such people a due esteem for 
my importance, they should see that Learning leads 
men to conclusions, very distant from common sen 
timents. These visions, light and fantastic as they 
are, have, I am afraid, led many scholars to affect 
a singularity in thinking, which their better judg 
ments, if not their very hearts, condemned. 

This infirmity of learned heads did not escape the 
noble Writer, whose maxim is now under consi 
deration ; when, speaking of what he calls the resur 
rection of Letters, he said, u In the darkness of 
" ignorance, superstition prevailed: in the light of 
knowledge, overweening curiosity, the offspring of 
" SELF-CONCEIT; as self-conceit is of PRIDE*/ 
And in another place, " As men advance in Know- 
" ledge, their self-conceit is apt to increase f." 

* Vol. iv. p, 170. f Vol. iv. p. 171. 

s 4 But 



264 SER MON XIII. 

But if simple vanity be thus strong;, how powerful 
will it prove when joined to warm resentments for 
neglected merit or injurious suspicions! I wish I 
could not say, there have been some, even of those 
consecrated to the service of Religion, who have 
suffered those passions and resentments to carry 
them into the quarters of the Enemy. 

But as to the Learned of that time, many cir 
cumstances concurred to indispose them towards the 
Religion of their Country. They went to the cul 
tivation of the new Learning , as it was then called, 
with a sort of enthusiasm. They were promised 
wonderful things from it And nothing could more 
flatter their passions than to fancy they had dis 
covered by it, that the Religion, under which sense 
and conscience had lain so long oppressed, was 
false; a prejudice they would be very ready to in 
dulge out of revenge to the Monks, who employed 
all their Authority to discredit and discountenance 
the new Learning, and all the favourers of it. 

Again, there are some Sciences little conversant 
in that kind of proof by which the truths of Religion 
are supported ; such as the simple and mixed Ma 
thematics, which labour only in strict demonstration. 
What wonder then, that the simple Demonstrator *, 

unused 

* " Les Geometres memes (says a very able judge of 
these matters) qui devroient mieux connoitre les a van 
tages de Fahaiise, q><e les autres Philosophes, donnent 
souvent la preference a la sinthese. Aussi, quand ils 
sortent de leurs calculs pour entrer dans les recherches 
d une nature differente, on ne leur trouve plus la meme 
clarte, la mme precision, ni la meme etendue d esprit. 

Nous 



SERMON XIII. . 265 

C 
unused to calculate the numerous combinatibns that 

constitute the various degrees of moral probability, 
should, when the evidence for Religion came before 
him, appear little fitted, and less disposed to estimate 
its force ? 

To the incapacity, which an addiction to certain 
Sciences induceth, may be added the prejudices 
which certain circumstances in the state of the two 
Religious parties, that divide the Western world, 
were apt to occasion. In the CHURCH OF ROME^ 
the gross corruptions; and amongst PROTESTANTS, 
their endless divisions into sects and factions. The 
corruptions were apt to make doubting men suspect 
Revelation to be only a knavish Fable; the divisions, 
that it was only an enthusiastic dream. 

Hitherto it appears that it is not Learning, but 
the infirmities of those who profess Learning, which 
produce that infidelity whose origin is the subject 
of our inquiry. 

But certainly, its largest source is pretended 
learning and superficial knowledge ; the very defect 
and want of that, to which his Lordship ascribes the 
present propensity to unbelief. In a state of simple 
Ignorance men hardly get so far as into the confines 
of doubt : which was their case before the resur 
rection of Letters: Superficial knowledge soon brings 

them 

Nous avons quatre metaphisiciens celebres, DESCARTES, 
MALEBRANCHE, LEIBNITZ, et LOCKE. Le dernier est le 
seul qui ne fut pas .Geometre, et de combien n est il pas 
supericur aux IFOIS autres?" Essai sur 1 Origine des Con* 
noiflsaoces Humaines, 2de partie, p. 289, 90. 



266 SERMON XIII. 

them thither, and supplies them with many shallow 
objections against Religion : and this has been the 
state of things ever since. And the vanity that ac 
companies learned pursuits being stronger and more 
unchecked in the entrance to Science than in the 
more advanced stages of it, as having but little of 
that conscious ignorance to counterbalance it, which 
increases in proportion to our progress, the doubts 
and objections of the half- learned will soon terminate 
in settled infidelity. Hence it is we find the leaders 
and professors of Free- thinking to have been gene 
rally of this class of men. And hence it is, that 
there are now much fewer Unbelievers amongst 
eminent men in the learned Professions than at the 
revival of Letters. For as Science has kept ad 
vancing, and the true theory of nature opened, men s 
hard thoughts of Revelation have gradually lessened 
and subsided. The Philosophy of Aristotle, when 
the Schools first got to its source in the sixteenth 
Century, inclined the Italian literati to Atheism: 
fend the new inventions of Descartes, in the seven 
teenth, disposed the French to naturalism. They 
have both now given place to the true theory 
of nature. And Newton, as well by his doctrine 
as example, has taught the Philosophic world to 
believe and tremble. Nor is the present overflow 
of infidelity any objection to the truth of this ob 
servation. For, as to the great body of unbelievers, 
it is neither deep, nor yet superficial, Learning that 
gives the bias. This, indeed, may form the leaders: 
but it is FASHION only (as in every other folly) that 
perverts the followers. 

For 



SERMON XIII. 267 

For just as in the times of IGNORANT DEVOTION, 
believing was the mode; so in these our days of 
LEARNED INDIFFERENCE it \s free-thinking. It 
is not much nor little learning, it is not knowledge, 
nor yet ignorance, which influences the body of 
mankind in their Opinions, any more than in their 
dress ; it is CREDITABLE IMITATION, the thing we 
call FASHION. 

In a word, if we consider LEARNING in the sense 
of a discipline for the improvement of the under 
standing it has at all times been of infinite advantage 
to REVELATION. Yet it must not be denied, that 
it may sometimes be so circumstanced as to produce 
much mischief. I have shewn that both antient 
and modem Learning have contributed to the pro 
pagation and establishment of the Christian Re 
ligion : yet it is but too true that the one, in the 
genius of its Doctrines, and the other in the mode 
of its propagation, have, witli great good, acci 
dentally occasioned variety of evil. 

The metaphysical principles of antient Philosophy 
were destructive of the great doctrines of our Faith*; 
which made St. Paul caution the Churches, lest any 
should spoil them through Philosophy and vain 
deceit, after the tradition ofmen-\. 

The mode of propagation has done all the mischief 
in these latter times. The use of Letters among 
the Antients, even in the flourishing state of them, 
was confined to the FEW ; who, by their stations in 
life, were enabled to make a real and a reasonable 

* Divine Legation, Book HI. Sect. 4. 
t Col. ii. 8. 

improvement. 



268 SERMON XIII. 

improvement. But since the invention of printing, 
the instruments of Knowledge have grown so com 
mon as to get into the hands of the PEOPLE : where, 
instead of improving the understandings, they have 
had no other effect than to inflame the passions: 
of which RELIGION, SOCIETY, and even LETTERS 
themselves, now feel the miserable effects. 

On the whole then we see, how ridiculous as 
well as malicious the noble person s obseivation is, 
" That Revelation owes its credit to. ignorance; 
and loses ground as Learning and Science advance 
against it." For what there is of fact, on which he 
supports his observation, is only this, that there is 
a greater number of Unbelievers amongst the pro 
fessors of Christianity since the revival of Letters 
than before. But if this inference be just, it would 
hold as well against the being of a God, as against 
the truth of Revelation : for, to one Atheist in the 
Monkish times, there were a hundred at the revival 
of Learning. One degree of science is fitted to 
discover error ; and another, to find out the truth. 
In the interim, the infirmity of our nature betrays 
us, and in running from an absurdity we rarely stop 
till we be got intangled in its opposite. 

But the inference is, in every view, so groundless, 
that Christianity (as we have shewn) made its first 
way against the highest powers and prejudices, in 
the very centre of the most flourishing age of Know 
ledge. 

At the last revival of Letters it received the 
strongest aid from human Science ; and the sincerest 

homage 



SERMON XIII. 269 

homage from the most illustrious names that ever 
adorned or cultivated Letters. 

The only enemies it found amongst the Learned 
were either such as were immoral in their lives; or 
were tied down by a false Philosophy to inveterate 
prejudices ; or were carried away by vanity ; or were 
incompetent judges by their unacquaintance with 
the nature of the proofs ; or lastly such who pretended 
only to a Knowledge they indeed had not. 

And as to the gross body of licentious men, 
Learning had no concern in the affair ; These were 
entirely under the sway and influence of FASHION. 

From all this we conclude, that let INFIDELITY 
be risen to what height it will, it is not yet of that 
kind which brings any real discredit to REVE 
LATION. 

The Rejectors of it, therefore, would do well to 
consider the grounds on which they stand ; and 
what account they will be able to give to the great 
Judge of all the earth at his second coming, for 
having contributed to that horrid defection which 
he hath foretold will be then found amongst men, 



THREE SERMONS; 

PREACHED AND PUBLISHED 
ON THE OCCASION OF 

The late REBELLION in 1745 = 



AKI>, 

A DISCOURSE 

ON THE 

NATURE OF Ttti MARRIAGE-UNION, 



SERMONS on the REBELLION : 

XIV. Preached in November 1745. 
XV. On the General Fast-day, Dec. 18, 1745, 
DEFENCE of the preceding Discourse. 
XVI. Thanksgiving Sermon. 



XVII. DISCOURSE on the NATURE of the 
MARRIAGE-UNION; with 

A POSTSCRIPT. 



SERMON XIV. 



P reached and published in the Month of November IJ45> 
while the Rebel-Army was in England. 



i PET. ii. 17. 

FEAR GOD, HONOUR THE KING. 

THE holy Apostle has, with great propriety, 
joined together these two precepts of our duty 
to GOD and the CIVIL MAGISTRATE ; as well 
knowing what mutual influence Religion and So 
ciety have, and what mutual aid they bestow, upon 
one another : that the truth and purity of Faith 
prescribe and recommend the rules of civil justice ; 
and that a free and equal Government favours and 
encourages the profession of the truth. 

But not only the genius and disposition of Re 
ligion and Government dispose them to this friendly 
intercourse of good offices; but the actual adminis 
trations of their respective powers are always im 
parting mutual assistance to one another. The 
State lending its coercive power to restrain and 
Vol. IX. T punish 



274 SERMON XIV. 

punish that vice and immorality which renders all 
religious profession, contaminated with it, vain 
before God ; and the Church employing the terrors 
of the Lord to inforce obedience to the Magistrate s 
lawful commands : teaching men subjection, not only 
for wrath, but also for conscience sake. 

But this is a truth, which, I presume, will easily 
find its way to an English audience; who now 
actually possess and enjoy all those blessings which 
arise from so natural and sacred an Union. For 
by the equity of our civil Constitution the consciences 
of men are not only left free, but protected in their 
liberty : and by the truth and power of our religious* 
the rights of citizens have been more than once 
supported, when threatened by arbitrary and illegal 
power. 

But then, though true and pure Religion, and a 
just and equal Government, be thus fruitful of mutual 
good ; Superstition and Despotic power are, on 
the contrary, as productive of mutual evil ; inces 
santly inflaming one another s disorders, till they 
sink the wretched victims of their tyranny into the 
lowest state of misery arid distress. 

For tvhen once Superstition hath violated the 
rights of conscience, then, in order to dispose the 
civil magistrate to become the executioner of their 
decrees, or, if they fail in that, to be an unconcerned 
Spectator of their violence, they preach up his DI- 
ViNfc RIGHT, and a power from Heaven like their 
OWn : with a free invitation to make as bold with 
property, as they have done with conscience. On 
the other side, whenever the civil Magistrate aims 

to 



S E R M O N XIV. 275 

to play the tyrant, he naturally begins with giving 
up sense and piety for a prey to Superstition and 
Church censures; in order to save labour, and to 
receive one half of the man .already subdued to his 
hands. 

In a word, that Religion, which renders void the 
first precept of my text, by taking away Aerj&ur of 
God, niil always be for introducing a form of Go 
vernment which renders void the second, by taking 
away all honour from the King. And so, reci- 
pocrally, will an honourlcss King promote the 
worship of a fearless God. And for the truth of 
this, we need look no further than upon the insolent 
attempts, just now making, to overturn our happy 
Constitution in Church and State, and, in its stead, 
to introduce POPERY and ARBITRARY POWER. 

But of this complicated monster, now crawling 
from the North, which, Amphisbena like, has at 
either end a Head, it is sufficient to observe, that 
though Each may lead and follow in its turn, yet 
they are still inseparable : and that between them 
both, they effectually make void this great Chris- 
tan summary of human conduct, to Jcar God and 
honour the King: POPERY entirely effacing from 
the winds of men all religious fear of the Deity ; 
and ARBITRARY POWER tearing from their affec 
tions all manly honour for the Magistrate. 

To begin therefore with POPERY, under its best 
face, that of a Religion, though it be, in truth, little 
other than a mere Antichrhtlan Policy. 

T 2 This 



276 S E II M O X XIV. 

This Religion strips Christianity of \befectr of 
God, First, by transferring much of the worship due 
to the Creator upon the creature, in their idolatrous 
adoration of dead men ; by whose merits and medi 
ation the anger of the offended Deity is supposed to 
be appeased, and the unalterable terms of justice, 
between Cod and man, removed or relaxed : The 
very same idolatry, which, the Apostle Paul assures 
us, had banished v\\fear of the Deity out of the Pagan 
world, when the wrath of God was revealed by Jesus 
from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighte 
ousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness. 
That is, who mixed with their knowledge of the true 
God, the most abominable idolatries, and changed 
his glcry into an image made like to corruptible 
man, 8$c. A practice, which, if it begins not in a 
contempt of the Deity, must necessarily end in it, 
and take away &\\fcar of God s JEALOUSY. 

A second way, in which Popery takes away the 
fear of God, is in its doctrine and discipline of 
penitence. We are taught, as well by nature as 
the Gospel, that sin is so offensive to God s purity 
as to provoke his wrathful indignation upon trans 
gressors. Hence, the fear of God s displeasure 
tends to keep men in their duty; and to call them 
back to it, when they have transgressed, by a sea 
sonable repentance. 

Now, in the church of Rome, the doctrine of at 
trition with absolution roots out all this \\v\yfear, 
by teaching men, that an ill-spent life is to be 
atoned by simple sorrow,, and the priest s forgiveness, 

at 



SERMON XIV. 277 

at the hour of death : Whereby, zllfatr of God s 
JUSTICE becomes evaded. 

A third way, by which Popery takes away the 
fear of God, is in transferring his rule and govern 
ment in the Church, upon a mere man, assuming 
to himself all power both in heaven and in earth. 
And he administers this power with the same ex 
travagant impiety with which he usurped it; by 
giving indulgences to sin, and dispensations from 
the most solemn obligations of morality. So that 
such an exercise of Church Authority cannot but 
work out of the minds of men &\\ fear of God s 

DOMIXFOX. 

A fourth way, by which Popery takes away the 
fear of God, is in its tyranny over conscience, called 
submission to the Holy See. It is the Gospel-doc 
trine, that God alone is the Jud^e of conscience ; that 
it is accountable only to him ; and that to bring it 
before another Tribunal, is to usurp upon the rights 
of the Divinity. For who art thou, says the Apostle 
Paul, that judgest another mans servant? to his 
own matter he stamkth or falleth. Yet hath this 
unchristian Church, in defiance of the divine, and 
in opposition to the maxims of human laws, erected 
a COURT OF IXQUISITIOX, which imprisons, starves, 
and burns all who set not their opinions by those 
of the Holy See. Now, amongst the numerous evils 
of this infernal butchery, this is not the least, that 
it has a natural tendency to root out all fear of 
God: For Hypocrisy (which i.s the only genuine 
offspring of Force) familiarizing its mask to the face 
of Heaven, soon wears out of the mind all/ew of 

T 3 the 



278 SERMON XIV. 

the dhine OMNISCIENCE, intent only on deceiving 
these more dreaded tyrants over conscience. 

11ms we see, by how many various ways the fear 
of God, which is the soul of piety, is weakened and 
rendered void by this darinir Impostor, who usurps 
the reverend name of the holy cai holic Church. 

Its inseparable companion, DESPOTIC POWER, 
which generally follows it, but now, indeed, seems 
to lead the way, under its most hideous form of a 
bloody and unnatural Rebellion, tends equally to 
destroy all honour due to Kings. 

Let us consider from whence the honour due to 
that sacred character is naturally derived : and 
how inevitably arbitrary power tendeth to des 
troy it. 

The first ground of honour is, that a KING, who 
considers the people, as his CHILDREN, of his fa 
mily and houshoid, is incessantly employed in feed 
ing, supporting, and enriching those committed to 
his care. So that gratitude, "\\hich requires all the 
returns of filial duty and affection, gives him honour, 
as to a comr.Mnjather. On the other hand, a TY 
RANT, v ho regards bis subjects as his SLAVES, born 
for the gratification of all his impotent purposes, is 
only solicitous how to make the most of their blood 
and sweat: the fruits of \\hicii he squanders away 
in wild projects of depopulating ambition, or in his 
more destructive habits of luxury and pleasure : So 
that, instead of honour^ his actions repay him 
with deserved aversion and CONTEMPT. 

Another 



SERMON XIV. 279 

Another ground of honour is the equal protection 
a King affords to all his subjects ; not suffering his 
people to be oppressed in their religious rights by 
cruel or intolerant Churchmen ; or, in their civil, 
by proud and overbearing Nobles; which gives him 
honour as their common protector. The Tyrant, 
on the contrary, who wants the assistance of Super 
stition to support his illegal prerogative, and tlie 
connivance of the Powerful, in the unjust exercise 
of it ; delivers up his people, for a prey to Both ; 
that himself may direct and preside in the common 
pillage; which must needs turn all esteem and 
honour into hatred and DETESTATION. 

Another ground of honour is, that the rule which 
the King prescribes to the exercise of his power, is 
the old, established, and well known Laws of the 
realm ; by which the People are secured in the 
freedom of their persons, and in the enjoyment 
of their possessions. Hence, the King becomes 
honoured as the common jit^ge, the avenger of 
wrong and oppression. On the other hand, the 
Tyrant, by making his will and pleasure the rule of 
his administration, imprisons and confiscates without 
legal complaint or lorteiture ; which, exposing liberty 
and property a prey to court sycophants, reduces all 
honour to a SERVILE FEAII. 

The last ground of honour is, the King s owning 
himself created by the People, and for their sake * : 
The end of his office, being the public good : So 

* Rex detur proptcr regnum, et non regnum propter 
Ilegenj. Fortescue, de Laud. Leg. Ang. c. 37. 

T 4 that 



280 SERMON XIV. 

that he is honoured by fhem as their common bene 
factor. A Tyrant, on the contrary, claims his right 
from Heaven, or Nature, or Conquest, or, in a word, 
from any thing, rather than that from whence only 
a free obedience can arise ; and consequently holds 
the People made for the gratification of his pleasure, 
and the support of his magnificence; and that, when 
he condescends to employ himself in their service, 
tis merely of his princely grace and favour ; which 
turns all h&nour into jealousy and DISTRUST. 

Thus, here again, we see, \\owarbitrarypower, 
so essentially different from our happy Constitution, 
deprives the Magistrate of all civil honour, by 
making him unworthy of it ; and leaving nothing in 
its place but contempt, aversion, jealousy, and 
slavish fear. 

When we are therefore bid by the Apostle PETER 
to honour the King, we must conclude, he previously 
supposes, that ue have had the courage to procure 
for ourselves such a Constitution as establisheth a 
King worthy of honour ; or, at least, that we have 
the grace to preserve and support what our an 
cestors* courage hath procured for us. For if, where 
the Apostle bids usjfaz; 1 God, he means that we 
should adhere to the great Lord and Governor of 
the universe, in opposition to thosedumb idols, which 
it was the purpose of Gospel-holiness to root out ; 
then certainly, where he bids us honour the King, 
he must needs mean a legitimate Magistrate, in 
opposition to a lawless Tyrant, so contrary to the 
true spirit of gospel-liberty. And St. PAUL, where 
he exhorts men to civil obedience, defines this lawful 

Magistrate 



SERMON XIV. 281 

Magistrate to be one, who beareth not the sword in 
vain A terror not to goodworkt, but to the evil 
A minister (if God to us for good An avenger, to 
execute wrath upon him that doth ml: the very de 
scription of our own constitutional Monarch. In a 
word, If it were the intent of the Holy Spirit, in the 
precept of fearing God, that we should support 
Religion in the purity of the Gospel : then certainly 
it was his intent, in the precept of honouring the 
King, to recommend to us a legal Government, 
which only can support Religion in that purity. 

Hence we see, that to fear God and honour the 
King is, in other words, to support our holy Religion 
against popish Superstition ; and our equable govern 
ment against Arbitrary poicer. Precepts never out 
of season to recommend to free Men and Christians : 
but, in this time of public danger, when both are so 
insolently threatened, and, in them, every thing that 
is dear and valuable to honest men, the duty of our 
ministry calls upon us, with all our power, to inforce 
them. 

If therefore, my Brethren, you have yet in your 
hearts any sentiments of true Religion, any feeling 
for the love of your Country ; if you be Christians 
any more than by profession ; if you be Britons any 
more than by name ; if you have the piety, as well 
as reason of Protestants; if you have the virtue, as 
well as the rights and privileges of Free-men ; you 
will now stand fast in the liberty in which Christ 
has set you free, and in which the Holy Spirit, by 
my text, exhorts you to persevere. 

You 



282 SERMON XIV. 

You will drive far from you the yoke of Rome, 
now ready to be once more cast about your necks. 
A yoke, which your forefathers could not bear, even 
when use had made it habitual ; and ignorance had 
shut them up from the sight of Truth and Liberty. 
But You, who have a clear view, as well as a free 
choice, of good and evil, will doubtless prefer Gos 
pel light to the Antichristian kingdom of darkness. 
You will, doubtless, prefer liberty of conscience to 
blind obedience, or the dungeons and fires of an 
Inquisition ; You will prefer piety to superstition, 
virtue to fanaticism, your Bible to the mass-book, 
and sense to nonsense. 

You will employ all your virtue to oppose the in 
sults of France, which your forefathers, at all times, 
so well knew how to repel : You will rather chuse 
to trust your liberties and properties to laws of your 
own making, than to be beholden, for the precarious 
enjoyment of them, to the goodwill and pleasure of 
that monster in the creation, that despoiler of God s 
Works, an arbitrary and an unlimited Master. 

In a word, would you aspire to be virtuous ; would 
you be w illing to be thought religious ; would you 
continue to be happy here, or would you entertain 
hopes of happiness hereafter ; you must now, all of 
you, in your several stations, concur to the vigorous 
support of that glorious Constitution to which you 
have the honour to belong : The pride and confidence 
of our friends ! The envy of our Neighbours ! The 
terror of qur enemies, and the admiration of man 
kind ! Happy Nation ! the nurse of heroes, the school 
of sages, the seminary of holy martyrs, the distin 
guished 



S E R M N XIV. 283 

guished favourite of Heaven! But how momentary 
are all these :s, when freedom is once sepa 

rated, and divorced from virtue i for, according to 
the generous saving <n ancient freeman, That 
very day which sees a rmm a slave* takes away half 
hi* virtue. But, above ail, let me remind the bene- 
vo : ent man, that though we ourselves be the first 
and greatest, yet we shall not be the only sufferers 
by so terrible a reverse. The effects of it will be 
felt by the remotest nations. Britain hath now the 
distinguished glory of being the Depositary, as it 
were, of civil and religious Freedom, for the rest of 
mankind : And while we continue faithful to our 
trust, there are still hopes that the degenerate sons 
of men may, some time or other, catch this noble 
fire from us, and vindicate their ravaged birth-right. 
But, in our destruction, Liberty itself expires ; and 
human nature will despair of evermore regaining its 
lirst and original dignity. 

These indeed are motives consecrated to such 
only whom the sacred spirit of Liberty inspires. 
However, if these be too exalted for the times of a 
general luxury and corruption (the unhappy effects 
of ill-used freedom) there are yet other considera 
tions, and such as are abundantly sufficient, to ani 
mate those wtio have not lust all sense of Manhood, 
alons; with their Virtue and Religion. 

For when ever had an Englishman higher cause 
of resentment, than at present, when he sees Spain, 
whose impotency we have long despised, and France, 
whose violence we have never tailed to repel, pre 
sume 



284 SERMON XIV. 

sume to impose, upon a powerful Nation, a mean, 
servile, tributary Tyrant ; and to attempt the de 
throning an illustrious Family, raised by Providence, 
for the Head of the Protestant interest abroad ; and 
appointed by a willing People, the Protector of 
British liberty, at home ? 

But, what so just an indignation may fail to ef 
fect, the secret sense of ignominy and dishonour will 
amply supply. Should we not blush to have it said, 
that a mighty Kingdom, a People that still gives laws 
to the Main, and has long held the balance of Power 
between contending Empires, was suddenly over 
turned by a rabble of superstitious ruffians, of moun 
tain robbers, of half-armed and half-starved barba 
rians, with a wild and desperate Adventurer at their 
head; and reduced, by the madness of these miser 
able varlets, from the most free and happy people 
upon earth, to be a Province to France, a Warehouse 
fa Spain, and a patrimony to the pretended successor 
of St. Peter? The very thought of so amazing a dis 
honour is enough to cover us with confusion. And 
certainly, if ever this dishonour should befal us, the 
most inclement, the most inhospitable of our Ameri 
can Plantations, would be far too good for us to run 
into, and hide our coward heads : There we might 
waste our wretched days ; still more imbittered with 
this cruel reflection, That when LIBERTY, now dri 
ven from the Continent, had retired for refuge, and 
taken shelter, in Great Britain, we were unable to 
stay her parting footsteps, though she brought with 
her all her dowry of religious, of civil, and of social 
Virtues. 

And 



S E R M O N XIV. 285 

And now, if happily this consideration be but 
of power to kindle again any of the seeds of old 
English valour, they may be easily excited and 
blown into a flame by a virtuous emulation of our 
brave and generous Ancestors : The first in Europe 
who shook off that very Superstition and Tyranny 
with which we are now insulted; and ever-after, 
with the utmost vigour, repelled all the wicked at 
tempts for their re -establishment: But never with 
so great hazard and expence as against that infatu 
ated Family from whence this Pretender boasts to 
have had his birth, and from whence he derives his 
imaginary title, founded on I know not what jargon 
of indefeasible hereditary Right for the King, and 
passive obedience and non-resistance for the Sub 
ject : A title, which the much provoked resentment 
cf an injured People hath long since with the 
Iciest justice dissolved and abrogated. 

Nor should Gratitude lose its share in waking us 
from our fatal slumber of luxury and pleasure. The 
blessings those brave men purchased for us are 
inestimable, and the price they paid for them was 
immense So that the warmest return of gratitude 
is due to the Manes of our Benefactors. Let us pay 
it in that way which most becomes us, and would 
best please them; a vigorous exertion of all our 
faculties to preserve the blessings they have pro- 
cured for us. 

But if neither shame nor gratitude can work upon 
us to venture any thing for the keeping ourselves free 
and happy, yet, at least, natural affection, and pity 
for our Posterity, (the last bar to ignominy in 

the 



286 SERMON XIV. 

the absence of virtue) should make us either resolve 
to die bravely, or to deliver down unimpaired to 
our children that glorious heritage which our pro 
vident forefathers bequeathed to them, through us. 
And not suffer our cowardice or indolence, -it this 
important juncture, to hazard the intailing upon our 
wretched of^n rv "* ion . -cries or ignorance, .vuper- 
stition, want, servility, and all the miseries and dis 
tresses which attend arbitrary government, and 
Pnpal coinmttnhiL 

Ii:jt if it be the unhappy fa ft- of England that no 
generous motive, worthy the breasts of men and 
citizens, can make impression on her sons, now be 
come insensible through sloth and luxury, They may 
yet, nay They should be applied unto, as Slaves, 
and awakened with the servile dread of punishment: 
A punishment as great as it is inevitable! The di 
vine vengeance pursuing them at the heels, for their 
violated oaths and perfidious engagements; when 
in the face of Heaven, by the most sacred office of 
Religion, they invoked GOD as a witness and 
avenger, and swore allegiance to his excellent Ma 
jesty KING GEORGE. For natural Religion will 
teach us, though we throw off all reverence for the 
Revealed, that no crime is more offensive to the 
great God of Truth, than the breach of publi coaths. 
And civil History will inform you, that none is so 
speedily and severely punished: A punishment, 
most Incoming the justice of Heaven. For the 
sanction of an Oath was the only means, amongst 
equals, of bringing men into Society; and is still 
tiie only means of keeping Societies entire. 

But 



SERMON XIV. 287 

But I trust, that neither Virtue nor Religion will 
be wanting, on this great occasion, to repel the storm 
now gathered over us ; how much soever the state 
of both may need amendment. In conclusion there 
fore, let me recommend it to men in all stations, as 
one of the most general and efficacious means for 
the successful discharge of their duty to the King 
and Government, religiously to imp ore a long for.- 
got f en succour, laughed at by most, and scarce 
trusted to by any, The assistance of God s Holy 
Spirit, to warm our Affections, to purify our Hearts, 
to enlighten our Understandings, to strengthen our 
Wills, and to supply all the weaknesses and defects 
of our corrupted Nature ; to the glory of God s 
holy Name, and the good and happiness of Man 
kind. 



SERMON XV. 

ON THE GENERAL FAST-DAY, DECEMBER 1 8, 1 745- 



Preached and published wliih the. Rebel-Army was in 
England. 



JOEL ii. ver. 20. 

I WILL REMOVE FAR OFF FROM YOU THE 
NORTHERN ARMY, AND WILL DRIVE HIM INTO 
A LAND BARREN AND DESOLATE. 

GOD, by the prophet JOEL, having denounced 
against a sinful People, the invasion of the 
Assyrians, together with the forerunners of that 
judgment, his army of locusts ; at the same time, 
declares, that, on their true repentance, he would 
drive the Invaders back again into the horrid re 
gions from whence they came ; and with a slaughter 
as great as their preceding ravages and desolation. 

Now the apostle PAUL tells us, that whatsoever 
things were written aforetime, were written for our 
learning ; that we, through patience and comfort of 
the Scriptures, might have hope * : By which we 

* Rom. xv. 4> 
VOL. IX, U understand 



2 go SERMON XV. 

understand in general, that the like disposition of 
humiliation before God, of hearty repentance for 
our sins, and sincere resolution of amendment, are 
the proper means of enabling us, at this juncture, to 
drive back the haughty powers of France^ which 
now hover over us ; together with their forerunners, 
this Northern army of locusts ; allured hither by the 
scent of prey, because, as the prophet expresses it, 
The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and 
behind the?n, a desolate wilderness*. 

Thus tar human reason, the true interpreter of 
Scripture, will allow us to infer. But further to 
conclude of God s dealings with States and Societies 
from his dispensations to the Jewish People, will 
be the occasion of our turning that Scripture, which 
the Apostle here tells us, was written for our learn 
ing and instruction., to our delusion and ruin. Yet, 
from this character given of the Scriptures of the 
Old Testament, in several places of the Scriptures 
of the New, men have not only ventured to regulate 
God s proceeding with Particulars, but also to 
judge of the fate of Kingdoms and Societies, by his 
administration of the Jewish Nation. This hath 
been the source of numberless superstitions. Some 
of which dishonour Religion, by derogating from 
the justice of God : while others weaken and dis 
tract Government, by violating the rights of men. 
And all of them defeat the rational conclusions of 
that learning and instruction which may be found 
in Scripture ; and which is able to make us wise 
unto salvation. In the number of these super- 
* Joel ii. 3. 

stitions 



SERMON XV. 291 

stitions is the popular opinion, That God, in the 
common government of the \vorld, punisheth chil 
dren for the crimes of their parents : A dispensation 
peculiar to the Jezcisk Nation ; and there indeed 
administered with the highest equity * : but, in the 
present order of things, not to be employed with 
out impinging on God s justice. So again, that 
other absurd fancy, which transfers to modern Kings 
the title peculiar to the Jewish, of the LORD S 
ANOINTED : equally violates the rights of Men. 
For to resist the Lord s anointed, who was God s 
Deputy or Lieutenant in his kingdom, was rebellion 
against God. Hence court flatterers, when they 
had given the title to modern Kings, did not rest 
till they had invested them with the prerogatives of 
it likewise. And from thence inferred their divine 
Right, and the people s unlimited Obedience. "Where 
as, had this title, which belonged to the Jewish 
Kings in a literal and real sense, been applied, as 
it ought, to our Monarchs, in a figurative and ac 
commodated meaning, it had been of excellent use 
to instruct the People in the sacred character of 
every legitimate Magistrate ; the resisting of whose 
ordinances is, indeed, the resisting the ordinance 
of God. 

But another place may be more proper to go 
through the many various errors and superstitions, 
which have arisen, in these latter ages, from a mis 
application to the Men and Societies of the world 
at large, of the Principles and Providences on which 
the Jewish state was formed and conducted. It 
shall suffice at present, that I have just pointed out 
* See Divine Legal. Book V. 

u 2 their 



292 SERMON XV. 

their nature and consequences ; and shewn how they 
arise from an apostolical declaration ill understood ; 
that whatsoever things were written aforetime 
were written for our learning, which, when rightly 
interpreted, yield that patience and comfort, St. Paul 
speaks of, as the genuine fruits of Christian hope. 
Let us distinguish, therefore, and always have in 
njind, that the DOCTRINAL points of the Old Tes 
tament were written for our belief, the MORAL 
parts for trie regulation of our conduct ; and the 
DEVOTIONAL for the exercise of our piety. This 
will lead us to St. Paul s true meaning, where he 
says, All scripture is written by inspiration of God, 
ami is profitable for doctrine t for reproof, for cor 
rection, for instruction in righteousness*. But 
then, as to the greater part of the Volume of the 
Old Testament, that which is HISTORICAL, and 
gives account of the Laws and Fortunes of the 
Jewish Republic, it was written for our information^ 
concerning the general economy of God s dispen 
sation to mankind; of which the divine establishment 
and administration of that Commonwealth makes 
a considerable part. A RELIGIOUS POLICY added, 
as the Apostle says, or thrust in, between the PA 
TRIARCHAL and CHRISTIAN Dispensations, because 
of transgressions ; and to preserve the memory 
of the true God, in an idolatrous world, till the 
seed should come, to whom the promise was made f. 
For this end, God saw fit to erect that State into 
a THEOCRACY, properly so called; in which he 
himself was the supreme civil Magistrate. 

* 2 Tim. iii. 16, f Gal. iii, 10. 

The 



S E R M ON XV. 293 

The consequences of which form of Government 
were these : i . That it was administered by the 
exertion of an extraordinary providence. 2. That 
Religion and civil Society were thoroughly incor 
porated. 3. That Religion had a public, as well 
as a private part ; the subject of it being as well 
the State collectively, as individuals separately. 
And, 4. That the sanctions both of religion and 
society were temporal rewards and punishments. 
Of all this, that is to say, of the expediency and 
even necessity of such a form of Policy, for the 
carrying on the great ends of God s moral govern 
ment of the world, and the natural consequences 
arising from it, I have elsewhere discoursed at 
large* . 

Now from the^zr^ circumstance, the exertion of 
an extraordinary providence, it follows, that we 
are not to regulate our ideas of God s dealing with 
us, as a State or Nation, by his administration of 
the Jewish Theocracy ; Mankind being now under a 
common, not an extraordinary providence : I mean, 
it follows, we are not to expect it in the DEGREE ; 
though, indeed, from this circumstance, nothing 
hinders but we might expect it in the kind. 

But then from the other three it follows, that wo 
are not to expect it, even so much as in the KIND. 
For Religion, among the Jews, was incorporated 
with their Society, and had a PUBLIC part: Hence 
Impiety, when it abounded, became a public crime ; 
and, as such, was, from time to time, severely pu 
nished on the State. But, the Christian Religion 
* Div. Leg. Book V. sect. 2. 

u 3 hath 



294 S E R M O N XV. 

hath no public part ; hath, not the State, as such, 
but individuals only, for its subject. Hence Impiety 
is not now a public, but a private crime: For 
which, the offender will doubtless be severely pu 
nished, but his punishment shall be according to tlie 
rules of the Gospel dispensation. 

Again, the Jewish sanctions were TEMPORAL 
only ; which made it fit, and sometimes necessary , 
that the crimes, even of private men, should have 
their punishment inflicted on the State, as by that 
means condign misery was derived on particulars. 
But the sanctions of our religion are future rewards 
and punishments ; for the latter of which, impious 
and wicked men are properly reserved ; and there 
fore, there is not the same expediency in punishing 
them through the State. 

This, then, to which numberless other considera 
tions might be added, is sufficient to shew, that we 
have no real authority from Scripture, when in 
terpreted on the principles of human reason, to 
conclude, that God s dealing with the Jewish people 
is the measure of administering his providence over 
other States : Or that, because the PRIVATE vices 
and impieties of men under that economy have, by 
the just judgment of God, often brought distress 
upon the COMMUNITY, that they have now the 
same tendency to provoke his wrath and indig 
nation against ours. 

This I presume to be a fair representation of this 
important subject : And I hope, it will not be 
judged unseasonable in a time of general danger ; 
ivhen, though the ill state of our moral condition 

should 



S.ERMON XV. 295 

should not be kept hid from us, yet methinks it 
ought not to be aggravated by discouraging ex 
amples drawn from tnose dreadful judgments in 
flicted on the Jewish nation : A parallel much in 
sisted on ; but not with that exactness which the 
dignity of the sacred Writings demands, or the 
crisis of our present Disorders seems to require ; 
when every good man will deserve the public thanks, 
Quod de republica non desperasset. 

But it will be asked, " Are not vice and impiety 
the certain destruction of Communities ? And are 
not Communities the subject of God s mercies and 
judgments ?" My answer is in the affirmative : 
And it will serve to support \vhat hath been already 
said, concerning that crude, inconclusive Divinity, 
which makes God s dealing with the Jews the model 
of his Providence in the world at large. It will, 
at the same time, explain and clear up what may 
be further obnoxious to objection or misinterpre 
tation. 

To the first of these questions, therefore, I say, 
that where, in defining the nature of the Jewish 
Commonwealth, I spoke of God s national judg 
ments on his chosen people, for their impieties, I 
used the exact and philosophic language of a Divine ; 
and meant those consequences of wrong which follow 
from the will of God ; not the effects which arise 
from the nature of things. Rewards and punish 
ments of the first kind are those only which revealed 
Religion acknowledgeth for the sanction of its pre 
cepts : though platonic preachers, in their moral 

u 4 harangues, 



296 S E R M O N XV. 

harangues, may have been accustomed, by a latitude 
of expression, to call the mischiefs arising naturally, 
out of moral evil, by the name of God s judgments. 
Which, perhaps, would scarce deserve notice, were 
they not accustomed likewise to confound These 
with the judgments of God, properly so called; 
to the great injury, as I think, of revealed Religion, 
for reasons too long and too intricate to be here 
assigned. Now, as to the natural issue of vice and 
impiety, nothing can be more certain than that 
they are the inevitable ruin of a Commonwealth. 
For IMPIETY, which consists in a contempt of the 
sanctions of Religion, removeth the first and strongest 
pillar of Society, the fear of divine punishment, 
for falsehood and wrong. From hence ariseth a 
disregard to the outward tie of oaths, the great 
security of the MAGISTRATE ; and a disregard to 
the inward tie of conscience, the great security of 
the PEOPLE. As impiety undermines society, so 
VICE more openly attacks it. But both with the 
same fatal success. The epidemic evils of every 
powerful Community in its decline, are LUXURY 
and AVARICE: Which, by an unnatural mixture, 
are incessantly begetting one another even in the 
same breast. By these means, the NATIONAL 
WEALTH, one of our main strengths against foreign 
invasions, becomes in part exhausted , and, which 
is almost as bad, in part, unequally distributed: 
And the PERSONAL VIGOUR of the people, which 
makes the other, is either enervated by opulence 
misemployed, or debased by sordid and inactive 
poverty. But to reckon up the train of evils, which 
23 issue 



SERMON XV. 297 

issue from these two master-vices, would be an 
endless task. Let it suffice to say, that these are 
the evils which fill private Families with unnatural 
quarrels ; infest the Courts of justice with chicane; 
and distract the councils of Government with faction. 
FACTION, which accumulates all the evils of dis 
sension in one ; and, fraught with the dispositions 
of the worst citizens, impudently pretends to all 
the qualities of the best. FACTION, which scruples 
no shape however venerable, no name however 
sacred, to draw the deluded People to second her 
private and corrupt purposes, masked over with 
pious zeal for Religion, and disinterested love of 
our Country. 

But then if the evils of impiety and vice be, 
separately, so destructive to a Public ; How ma 
lignant must they prove, when they act in concert ? 
as they always do, when they exist together. For 
profaneness gives an edge and keenness to im 
morality ; and immorality claps on a leaden bias 
to the mind, which accelerates its growing aversion 
to Religion. 

However secure, therefore, the PUBLIC maybe 
from apprehending the judgments of God for the 
iniquity of particulars, yet we see it has every thing 
to fear, from the nature of things. A case, which, 
when arrived to a certain point, admits even of less 
hope than the other. For God, whose mercies are 
over all his works, frequently withholds the evils of 
his positive judgments from sinful man; but never 
reverses the order of Nature to embolden him in 
his wickedness. Yet we have this consolation at 

least, 



S E R M O N XV. 

least, that though such destruction be sure, it is 
still in our power to avert it. It is only resolving 
on a speedy course of sobriety, justice, and piety : 
By which, as kingdoms become great, so by that 
only can they remain secure. For as in the natural 
body, an athletic habit, acquired by abstinence and 
exercise, can never be preserved by intemperance 
and sloth ; so a body- politic, become powerful by the 
modest parsimony, by the virtue and religion of its 
citizens, can never support its power by their luxury, 
injustice, and impiety. 

We come now to the second question, " Whether 
STATES, as well as PRIVATE MEN, may not be the 
subject of divine displeasure, so as to bring down its 
severest judgments upon them ?" To which we re 
ply, that Nothing is more certain. A Society is an 
artificial man, having like the natural, all those es 
sential qualities, which constitute a MORAL AGENT; 
The discernment of good and evil ; A will to chuse, 
and a power to put its choice in execution. Hence 
the rules of civil justice, in the intercourse be 
tween nation and nation, are the very same, as 
those, in a state of nature, between man and man. 
And accordingly we find (for here Scripture comes 
in again for our learning) that God dealt with the 
Jewish nation under this idea. And though his par 
ticular contract with it, will not suffer us to collect 
a mode of providence over others, similar to what 
was administered amongst them; yet his entering 
at all into contract shews that states are considered, 
and will be dealt with by him as MORAL AGENTS. 

We 



SERMON XV. 299 

We must needs therefore conclude, both from 
Revelation and Reason, that the hand of Heaven 
distributes good and evil to Societies, according to 
their merit or undesert : Not upon that fancy, that 
as States are only artificial beings with a present 
existence, and incapable of a future, therefore God 
is obliged in justice to punish and reward them 
HERE. This is a mere school invention, and con 
futed by the general history of the moral world : 
Where, we find indeed many signal examples of the 
divine vengeance inflicted upon States and Commu 
nities; yet generally, at such a distance from the 
crime, that the punishment is not identical, as ac 
cording to this learned fancy it ought to be : for 
the sameness is not real or natural, but nominal and 
artificial only. Again, according to this doctrine, 
the administration should be constant and exact, 
failing in no instance, nor defective in any degree. 
Whereas we have many examples in States as well 
as private men, where iniquity hath absolutely 
escaped the rod of divine vengeance. From all this 
we conclude, that, not for the fantastic reason here 
confuted, but for one far more weighty and substan 
tial, SOCIETIES are punished or rewarded according 
to their behaviour ; a reason worthy the dominion 
of the great Lord of the universe, That is to say, 
For example, and to keep alive the sense of God s 
providence, in a careless and impious world. 

It remains, therefore, only to consider what those 
actions of Society are, which we suppose to be the 
objects of divine favour or displeasure : Now these 

(in 



300 SERMON XV. 

(in a Society, like our own, established on a system 
of Laws which secure reverence to the Deity, and 
impose due restraint on vice and immorality) can 
be evidently nothing else than the observance or 
neglect of GOOD FAITH, justice, and equity in the 
transactions of one of these communities towards all 
others. By this test, therefore, we might well con 
sent that Great Britain should be tried to the ut 
most ; tried even by her enemies. When it would 
be clearly seen whether, in her collective capacity, 
she deserves, or has just reason to fear that impend 
ing vengeance, from the hand of Heaven, with which, 
in a time so critical, good men may be but too apt 
to terrify themselves and others. 

In all our national transactions since the REVOLU 
TION to these times, Great Britain has been so 
unfashionably tenacious of the public faith, and so 
generously intent on the good of Europe, that we 
have never passed for Politicians amongst those who 
are most famed for their science in the mysteries 
of State. And as to the war which we are 
at present engaged in; though the corrupt in 
terests of Private Men, of Trading-bodies, and of 
State-parties amongst us may have all concurred 
to push us forward ; yet a common observation 
is sufficient to satisfy you, that it was first begun 
against SPAIN, for satisfaction of real injuries, 
which they had owned, acknowledged ; and in 
public convention contracted to repair. But, 
encouraged by our unhappy divisions, the agree 
ment was unjustly violated, as soon, almost, as 
it was made. lu this quarrel we were principals. 

An 



S E II M O N XV. 301 

An auxiliary war, in which the PUBLIC FAITH 
called upon us to engage, followed, in support 
of the house of AUSTRIA, taken at advantage, 
and against all the spirit of treaties cruelly attacked 
and plundered. Both these together soon produced 
a defensive war against FRANCE; whose restless 
ambition (essential to her Constitution) seizing 
every favourable conjuncture of advancing that 
idol of her politics, the giving law to Europe, 
now supported Spain, to persist in denying to 
do us justice, and encouraged the other enemies 
of the house of Austria to join her in their unge 
nerous depredations. And all this with an apparent 
design to break that established and equitable 
balance of Power, so necessary for the peace and 
felicity of Europe : Which when she found us re^ 
solved to maintain, she publicly denounced war 
against us in all its forms. 

This is a true state of the public quarrel; of our 
share in it ; and of our conduct with regard to all 
oar neighbours. Now what is there in all this, that 
shall make us afraid to appeal for aid and protection 
to the tribunal of eternal justice ? 

If reparation, by the sword, for national injuries, 
after all the ways of peace had been tried in vain ; 
If the discharge of public faith, when solemnly de 
manded, in behalf of a confederate Power, most 
cruelly oppressed ; If self-defence against those 
who openly set themselves to defeat the honest pur 
poses which Justice called upon us to discharge ; If, 
lastly, the support of the established balance of 

power 



302 S E R M O N XV. 

power, that is, of the liberties of Europe, against 
the most detestable perfidy, the most unjust usur 
pations, and the most lawless and destructive am 
bition ; If, I say, all, or any of these, may intitle 
us to the protection of Heaven, we seem to have the 
best grounded expectations for its declaring in our 
favour. 

This public act of humiliation before God is 
therefore enjoined with a modesty and holy con 
fidence, not always observed by AUTHORITY on 
these occasions : Where, with an impiety that makes 
sober men astonished, the tremendous Majesty of 
Heaven is too often mocked and insulted, by in 
voking its blessings on the arms of fraud, rapine, 
and injustice. But, blessed be God ! GREAT BRI 
TAIN hath now a CAUSE, for which it may not only 
with decency supplicate the protection, but with 
confidence appeal to the justice of Heaven : a came 
founded on the solid basis of SELF-DEFENCE, PUB 
LIC FAITH, and the LIBERTIES OF MANKIND; all 
nobly vindicated in a just and necessary war. 

There is only one impediment to the happy issue 
of our appeal; and that is the PRIVATE vices and 
impieties of the People : And to remove this, was 
the purpose of this solemn Act of devotion; in which 
we are called upon by our gracious Sovereign (ever 
intent upon our welfare) to humble ourselves before 
the avenging hand of God, and to deprecate his 
Judgments, by a free confession of our sins, and a 
determined purpose of amendment. 

I have shewn you how certain and inevitable a 
destruction VICE and IMPIETY always bring upon 

a People. 



SERMON XV. 303 

a People. If this be not sufficient to induce you to 
a speedy reformation, think upon the consequence 
of persisting in them at this juncture ; when, by 
suspending the protection of Providence, which, as 
a Community, I have shewn, we have just reason 
to expect, we hasten, by a stroke from Heaven, 
that ruin, which is more slowly advancing from the 
nature of things. So that, in our instant resolves, 
not only our future welfare, a matter of infinite 
importance, which we have in common with all men, 
but our present, is eminently concerned. The en 
joyment of all that is dear and valuable to men, 
depending on the preservation of our happy Con 
stitution, more shaken by our intestine vices, than 
by the arms of its degenerate and rebellious Citi^ns, 
now audaciously advanced into the very heart of the 
Kingdom. 

Let us then, in good earnest, resolve upon a 
thorough Reformation ; A return to that gracious 
simplicity of manners ; that amiable modesty in dress 
and diet; that temperance in pleasures ; that justice 
in business; which made BRITAIN so distinguished 
in the manly annals of our forefathers. Let us 
speedily return to that sober piety, that serious 
sense of Religion, by which our Ancestors were en 
couraged to form, and enabled to support, the 
PRINCIPLES on which this happy Constitution is 
erected. But above all, as the first step into the 
old paths of honour, let us emancipate ourselves 
from that detestable spirit of libertinism, impudent 
ly assuming the name of FREETHINKING; the 
bane of common life, the opprobrium of common 

sense, 



3 04 SERMON XV. 

sense, and the dishonour even of our common 
humanity. Let us but be instant in doing this, and 
we shall soon have earth and heaven once more 
in conjunction, to make us happy and victorious 
over all the confederated enemies of our peace. 



A DEFENCE 

OF THE PRECEDING 

DISCOURSE. 

A FREE and equal Government is the greatest 
temporal blessing the Almighty ever bestowed 
upon mankind. Such an one, in his great mercy, 
he bestowed on us ; of which we were in full pos 
session, when a vile unnatural rebellion, supported 
by the most formidable Power in Europe, threatened 
to overturn it; and on its ruins, to erect a civil 
and ecclesiastic tyranny; the most detested evil 
wherewith God, in his wrath, ever permitted the 
enemy of mankind to deform the fair work of 
creation. 

At this important juncture, when no human 
means, sufficient to save us, were at hand, but our 
determined courage to live and die with the Con 
stitution, I observed some good men were apt to 
terrify themselves and others with an apprehension, 
that the private vices of the people had brought 
down this judgment of God, upon the PUBLIC, 

which 



DEFENCE, &c. 305 

tvhicli it was to be feared must end in its destruction. 
Into this kind of Divinity I supposed them to be 
led by the consideration of God s dealing with the 
JEWISH PEOPLE ; on whom, in the magnificence of 
his royal bounty, he had graciously bestowed the 
most excellent of all civil governments ; subjected ; 
however, to destruction in punishment for their 
irreligious practices. 

At this juncture, a fast-day being appointed by 
authority, to implore God s blessings, and to depre 
cate his judgments, I understood it to be my duty, 
on such an occasion, both as a minister of God s 
word, and a subject of the King, to examine into 
the reasonableness of these apprehensions ; and to 
shew, to those committed to my care, what they had 
indeed to trust to. 

In the first place, therefore, I endeavoured to 
prove, that the case of the Jewish People could not, 
for many reasons, be brought into example : That 
the method of Providence, there administered, did 
indeed admirably fit the Mosaic constitution ; but 
the Christian economy had revealed unto us a 
different way of punishing the tins of particulars : 
And that, on the principles of natural light, we 
might gather, that the punishment of a right con 
stituted Public was due only to civil crimes ; from 
which we being remarkably free, I concluded, that 
our happy Constitution had great reason to expect 
the distinguished protection of heaven : For that 
- it would be hard to, find, throughout the history of 
mankind, any one State, either ancient or modern, 
Moivirchy or Republic, so long, and so eminently, 
VOL. IX. X distinguished 



3o6 DEFENCE OF THE 

distinguished for its OBSERVANCE OF PUBLIC FAITH : 
Theft being but one instance since the Revolution 
(at which time our Constitution, properly, arose) 
where good faith was not most scrupulously and 
religiously discharged by it. 

Such was the doctrine I delivered in the pre 
ceding discourse. And was it natural to think, 
that at such a time, and on such an occasion, it 
should give offence to a Divine of the Church of 
.England ? It did. And I was then told from the 
press, that " The clergy very well know, and needed 
" not my help to inform them, that God was 
" under a special covenant with the Jews for tern- 
" poral good and evil. But as this covenant, what- 
" ever privileges it gave to the Jews above other 
" nations, could not destroy God s right as universal 
" governor ; an argument therefore would very pro- 
" perly lie from God s dealing with the Jews, to 
<( what other nations are to expect in like cases, in 
" such points as either reason or Scripture shew, to 
" appertain to God s universal government ; of which 
* sort is the punishing nations and kingdoms for 
ft the wickedness of them that dwell therein. As 
" appears from the FLOOD, from the case of SODOM 
" and GOMOURAH, of the NINEVITES, and of those 
* HEATHEN NATIONS whom the Jews were raised 
cc up to destroy (as the Scripture expressly says) 
" for their wickedness *." 

The pernicious doctrine to be confuted, we sec, 
was this, <l That God, in his common government 
" of the world, doth not deprive nations of that 

* Hist, of Abraham, Sec. p. 100. 

greatest 



PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 307 

* greatest blessing he ever bestowed upon them, a 
" free and equal Government, for the vices of par- 
(< ticulars.^ This position, I supported on our na* 
tural notions of God s providence ; and on what we 
find revealed of his moral government in Scripture. 
In the first, the Objector was silent : In the second 
(where I considered the Jewish government as the 
only case that could seem to support the contrary 
opinion), he supplies my omissions : and urges me 
with God s judgments on the people at the flood, 
on Sodom and Gomorrah, the Ninevites, and the 
ween nations. 

But amongst all these, I could not find one free 
and equal government , for which, only, I under 
take to be an advocate ; and therefore they were 
omitted. Some of them were uncivilized tribes, 
living in a state of nature, in which there was no 
blessing of Government to take away : And others, 
in a still viler condition, the slaves of petty tyrannies, 
where the destruction of the State was the removal 
of God s severest curse. In a word, I was speaking 
of the greatest human happiness hostilely attacked, 
and in danger of being lost. And the Objector 
confutes my doctrine, by instances of the greatest 
human misery occasionally removed : The destruc 
tion of the noble Constitutions of Sodom and Gomor 
rah ; to which, not over decently, he thought fit to 
compare the free Government of Great Britain. I 
was speaking, and speaking only, of a CONSTITUTION, 
of a COUNTRY, where civil and religious liberty 
flourished at their height. I never concerned rnyselij 
how God would deal with a rabble of savages : nor 
x 2 thought 



3o8 DEFENCE OF THE 

thought it worth \\ hile to consider, what kind of a 
punishment it was, to those who groaned under it, 
to overthrow a tyranny. I regarded those illustrious 
Societies as hardly coming into account, when God, 
in his justice, weighs the fate of nations. 

" * But Mr. W. (says the objector) who loves 
<c to be by himself, after having retailed to us the 
.* principles of The Divine Legation, comes to 
<c this conclusion, diametrically opposite to the sense 
" of his brethren, and I believe of all Christian 
<c divines from St. Paul to this day, viz* that zee 
" have no warrant to conclude, that because the 
tl private vices and impieties of men under the JEW- 
" ISH ECOXOMV, by tht >. just judgment of God, 
< frequently brought amazing destruction on their 
" nation, that it lias now the selfsame tendency to 
" provoke his wrath against OURS." This I should 
have thought might have stit the Objector right ; 
and have shewn him, that I confined my doctrine 
to the blessing of a free and tqual government, when 
I considered none other than the JEWISH and OUR 
OWN. But he seems to mean well, and to be much 
embarrassed: Let us try to help him out. 

The temporal punishments, which God inflicts 
upon iniquity, have three objects, Particulars , a 
People ; and a State or Government. The punish 
ment of the two first Objects, I hold to be inflicted 
for the CRIMES OF MEN ; the latter only for the 
CRIMES OF THE STATE. The subject of my sermon 
was concerning the punishment of legitijnate States, 
as such. The particular case confined me to this 
* Hist, of Abraham, &c. p. 101. 

consideration ; 



PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 309 

consideration ; the imminent danger of our happy 
Establishment from a powerful body of rebels, .which, 
at the moment of my writing, had penetrated; without 
control, to the very centre of the kingdom. With 
God s punishment for the sins of particulars, by, 
what may be called, the national judgments of fa 
mine, pestilence, or any other way that hurts not the 
Constitution, my subject was not concerned. In 
this, as much a lover of singularity as he is pleased, 
to represent me, I believe with my brethren. 1 
believe these judgments to be sent for the sins of 
private men ; but so restrained, as not to hurt that 
great gift of God, a free and equal Government: 
For here I stop ; and still affirm, that if a State 
be a MORAL AGENT, its actions, as such, are those 
only which make it accountable. : God, according to 
my theology, never depriving us of a blessing, he hath 
been pleased to bestow, till that blessing hath been 
abused. The very case of the Mosaic economy, 
which so much misleads the Objector, might, if he 
had attended to plain facts, have set him right. lie 
might have seen, that, in this Dispensation, if a 
Particular transgressed in his Ceremonial observan 
ces, divine punishment pursued Particulars. When 
the body of the People disused or had corrupted 
the holy Ritual, the body of the People suffered. 
But it was IDOLATRY only which brought destruction 
on the Republic. For Idolatry was the introducing 
another Laic ; which was high, treason ; it was the 
transferring their obedience from their Supreme 
Magistrate; which was rebellion: Crimes deservedly 
punished by subjection to a foreign yoke. And this 

x 3 punishment 



310 DEFENCE OF THE 

punishment was inflicted on the State at different 
periods, both under the administration of their Judges 
and their Kings. Its last final Overthrow was at 
tended with a general dispersion, which subsists to 
this very day. And the crime, as the punishment, 
was the same. For the rejection of the Messiah 
was a species of this Treason and Rebellion. Idola 
try set aside the Law ; and Rejection of the Son of 
God was setting aside their supreme Magistrate, on 
whom the Father had devolved his Kingly rule and 
Government. In a word, though the Jewish State 
was frequently overturned for what are no crimes of 
State with us, yet it never suffered for what were 
no crimes of State with them. And this may serve 
to obviate the charge of Contradiction, which the 
Objector brings against me, for supposing the People 
are punished for private Sim; and yet denying that 
the State incurs the danger of God s judgments for 
any thing but public crimes. 

Had the Objector considered all this, and it lay 
as open to his consideration as it did to mine, his 
Monsters, both before, and after the flood, might 
bave been well spared : His Sodom and Gomorrah, 
his Ninevites, and the Seven nations. Just as per 
tinent, on this occasion, as the giants Gog-magog 
and Coryncus. Having said thus much for tho 
truth of my doctrine ; One word, if it may be done 
without offence, concerning its expediency. This 
will be best seen by considering what must be the 
natural conduct of a good man, on the principles 
of the Objector, in a State (which he compares to 
Sodom and Gomorrah] when so imminently threa- 
20 tenecl 



PRECEDING DISCOURSE. 311 

tencd as ours was at the time of my preaching this 
sermon. Must not such a one, all these circum 
stances concurring, think us a devoted people ? 
And would he not, in mere piety, deem it a strug 
gling against God, when he fought for the Consti 
tution. What encouragement would he now left 
him for the discharge of his duty as a Cii.i>. 
lie is supposed to measure every thing by the Jc 
standard. He knows what character history 
transmitted to us of those Zealots for their country, 
who so long opposed the progress of Til us s arms, 
in the last destruction of Jerusalem. These he 
finds represented as an abandoned crew of mis 
creants, impiously opposing the fixt destination of 
Providence : And is it charitable to believe that 
this good Christian of the Objector s making would 
dare to follow their example? Besides, on such 
grounds as these, what false theology could not 
perfect, real poltronry would supply ; which, by the 
aid of a religious principle, would teach men to dis 
guise their Cowardice under the specious show of a 
pious resignation. 



4 



SERMON XVI. 



Preached on the Thanksgiving Dm/ for the Suppression of 
the late unnatural Rebellion in 1/46. 



2 COR. iii. 17. 

WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE 
IS LIBERTY. 



T 



I II IS is the character St. Paul gives of the 
GOSPEL in the purity of its profession; that 
it begets LIBERTY; the blessing, through which 
the perfection of our nature is obtained. For, 
by Liberty is to be understood that right and due 
exertion of our faculties which terminates in TRUTH 
and VIRTUE; The Slavery of rational creatures 
consisting in a subjection to Viet and Error. 

The various kinds of Liberty, thus procured, 
may be the subject of some less confined Inquiry. 
On this occasion, I shall consider only one, but 
that of the nobler sort, CIVIL LIBERTY; And 
shew, from REASON and FACT, that, where the 
Spirit of the Lord is, there is this Liberty. 

I. i. TRUE 



314 SERMON XVI. 

1. i. TRUE RELIGION, delivered in the Gospel, 
and called in my text the SPIRIT OF THE LORD, 
recommends and encourages a LIBERTY OF EN 
QUIRY; and supports and Indulges the free exercise 
of Conscience. But men practised in the exertion, 
and habituated to the enjoyment, of these RELI- 
GTOUS RIGHTS, can never long continue ignorant, 
or bear with patience the invasion, of their CIVIL. 
The human faculties can never long remain in so 
\iolent and unnatural a state, as to have their ope 
rations perpetually defeating one another, bj the 
contrary actions of two such opposite Principles, 
as those of freedom and restraint. The one or 
other must, in a little time, overcome. Either the 
inveterate spirit of tyranny will vieiate the purity 
of Religion, and introduce that blind submission 
of the understanding, and slavish compliance of the 
Will into the CHURCH, which it exacts in the State; 
Or else the spirit of the Lord will break down the 
barrier of an unequal, despotic power, and bring 
into the STATE, as well as Church, a free and rea 
sonable service. 

2. TRUE RELIGIOX teaches, that its End is the 
HAPPINESS OF MAN ; in opposition to all the su 
perstitious fancies of the false ; which place it in 
the arbitrary, the selfish, or the capricious mani 
festation of God s power, or interest, or glory. 
And this naturally leading us to the end of civil 
Government, will direct us how to form a right 
Constitution, when we have, by the foregoing Prin 
ciple of free inquiry, already detected the injustice 

of 



SERMON XVI. 

of the wrong ; which professes to make the People, 
ibr the sake of the Prince. 

3. That equitable Policy, by which TRUE RELI 
GION governs in the Church (and true, as well as 
false Religion must always have a Church to govern) 
will further aid us, when we have now found the 
end of civil community, to attain the means likewise, 
by copying, in civil matters, from that ecclesiastical 
subordination of authority and limitation of power, 
where the sovereignty resides in the whole body 
of the Faithful ; Not, as in the administration of 
corrupt Religion, where a despotic Clergy constitutes 
the CHURCH. 

4. But, above all. That grandeur and elevation 
of mind, that sublimity of sentiment, that conscious 
dignity of human nature, which TRUE RELIGION 
raises ; which Holy Scripture dictates ; and which the 
Spirit of the Lord inspires, will be ever pushing us 
forward to the attainment of those CIVIL RIGHTS, 
which we have been taught to know by reason, are 
Ours ; and which, we have been made to feel by 
experience, of all Ours, are the most necessary to 
h-jinan happiness. 

By these several ways, is the Spirit of the Lord, 
or TRUE RELIGION, naturally productive of the 
great Blessing, CIVIL LIBERTY. But turn now to 
the reverse of the medal ; and there we shall find 
the antipart of this divine truth ; and read in as 
clear characters, that where the Spirit of POPERY 
is, there is SLAVERY. 

Instead 



3i6 SERMON XVI. 

Instead of freedom of inqirry and uncontrolled 
liberty of Conscience ; instead of making the end 
of Religion human happiness; instead of an equitable 
administration of Church policy ; instead of that 
elevation of mind and conscious dignity of Human 
nature ; we are here presented with a blind sub 
mission of the understanding ; with a forced com 
pliance of the will ; and with absurd and super 
stitious doctrines concerning God s despotic and 
capricious government; imitated, in its own HIE 
RARCHY; and administered by an ambitious and 
corrupt Clergy, who labour to establish narrowness 
of thought, lowness of sentiment, and base and 
abject conceptions of MAX, created after GOD S 
own Image. 

II. I proceed now to my second point ; namely, 
to confirm the foregoing observations, by FACT ; 
From which likewise it will be seen, how naturally 
true Religion is productive of civil Liberty. 

K When the fierce and free nations of the North 
dismembered and tore in pieces the ROMAN EM 
PIRE, they established themselves in their new 
conquests, on one common principle of policy ; in 
which, the LIBERTY OF THE PEOPLE made, as it 
ought to do, the Base, and operating Power. And, 
erected on so just a plan, these GOTHIC Govern 
ments might have stood till now, had not the rank 
influence of PAPAL SUPERSTITION so vitiated those 
generous Policies, that, when the great instruments 
of Reformation first appeared, they saw the Western 

world 



SERMON XVI. 317 

world as deeply lost in civil, as, in that from which 
they were appointed to free it, ecclesiastic slavery. 
For the triumphant Hierarchy had amply revenged 
the fallen Empire on the necks of its destroyers. 
But it was now wonderful to observe, how equal 
a pace, the civil and the religious Reformations 
kept with one another. Wherever the influence of 
the GOSPEL reached, it never iailed to redress the 
exorbitances of Government : While those places 
which continued sunk in SUPERSTITION, still 
groaned under the weight of civil oppression : In 
a word, the sera of political and religious freedom 
was the same : So general is tiie truth of my text, 
that inhere the Spirit of the Lord /,y, there is 
liberty. 

2. To this perhaps it may be objected, That as 
the Reformation of religion on the Continent was 
generally the work of the populace, and sometimes 
carried on in a very tumultuary way, it is more 
reasonable to ascribe the consequent regulations 
in the State to this lucky circuimiance of popular 
fervour, than to any natural influence of the Gospel. 
But this objection will be seen to have little weight 
as we come nearer home: Mere we shall find, that 
Reformation produced the same happy fruits, in 
England, where it was begun and perfected by the 
Prince; who can hardly be supposed to have formed 
designs of liberty, in favour of the People, agai.ist 
himself. What regulations, therefore, in the ba 
lance of power, succeeded the reformation of the 
Church, we must needs ascribe to the sole influence 

of 



3i8 SERMON XVI. 

of true Religion. Now, when the first foundations 
of it were laid amongst ourselves, we knew little 
more of civil liherty than the name. For though, 
in Magna Chart a, we had a kind of Original Com 
pact, as the last appeal of the People ; Though the 
historical and legal records of our Constitution de 
clared us to be a free Nation ; And though we had, 
from time to time, asserted our right to freedom, 
as in claims at law, to prevent forfeiture from pre 
scription ; yet was the balance of power so ill ad 
justed, by that undue inclination which SUPER 
STITION had made in property; and by the more 
hurtful separation it had established between the 
temporal and spiritual Interests, that public liberty 
lay at the mercy of a Court cabal, composed of 
Churchmen and Ministers of state; where it had 
rarely room to breathe, but when the two interests 
quarrelled among themselves ; which they neve rdid, 
but when the crown refused to share the tyranny 
with the mitre. 

Add to this, that he who fixed this foundation 
was a luxurious sanguinary tyrant ;<: ; who, tricked 
and deluded by the Court of Rome in a scandalous 
pursuit of a papal dispensation, threw off in a rage 

the 

* " For Henry the Eighth ; if all the pictures and 

" patterns of a merciless prince were lost ia the world, 

" they might all again be painted to the life, cut of the 

" story of this king. How many servants did he ad- 

" vance in haste, but for w*iat virtue no man could 

" suspect ; and, with the change of his fancy, ruined 

" again, no man knowing for what offence ? How men* 



SERMON XVI. 319 

the bishop of Rome s usurped supremacy : And, by 
that act, notwithstanding the accession of a NEW 
SUPREMACY to himself, laid the first step to the 
destruction of his own exorbitant power in the State. 
In which we can never sufficiently admire and adore 
the rectifying Hand of Heaven ; who made arbitrary 
power his instrument to lay the foundations of 
Liberty ; and employed the impious pretensions of 
the Rojnish see to introduce Reformation. 

3. From this time of Gospel light, a CONSTITU 
TION became seen and understood : And the Church 
made no advance to its original purity, hut the State 
was the better for it, in some additional security to 
public liberty. In a word, their interests were now 
found to be so inseparable, and the aid they lent each 
other so reciprocal, that, whenever the COMMON 
ENEMY formed schemes to the prejudice of the one, 
He always began with some attempts against the 
other. Thus, when the two first Princes of the house 
of STUART aimed at a despotic power in the State, 
they fir^t endeavoured to vitiate the simplicity and 
freedom of reformed Religion, by the pomp of 
Worship, and the servility of papctl Discipline. And 
again, when the two last of that unhappy House 
laboured to restore the Romish superstition, they 
tried to pave the way by & poiver of dispensing icith 
the laics. 

In 

" wives did he cut and cast off, as his fancy and af- 
ft fcction changed ? How luany princes of the blood, 
" with a world of others of all decrees, did he execute 3 
" Yea in his very de.ith-bed/ &c. Ralegh s Pref. to 
his Hist, of the World. 



SERMON XVI. 

In the first of these important struggles, the de 
fence of our happy constitution was intrusted to the 
LAITY: In the latter, it was assumed by the 
CLERGY. And were we to judge only by events, 
these would be enough to expose the injustice of 
that clamour so frequently raised against our Order 
by the common enemies of our holy Faith, " that 
" in all matters wherein public liberty is concerned, 
" the Clergy, either through malice or ignorance,, so 
" embroil and defeat the counsels of honest men, 
" as shews they are inveterate enemies, or at 
" least very unfit agents, of the common rights of 
" subjects" 

But I will not take this advantage. Nor does 
their cause or character require it. The truth (and 
truth can never hurt them) was this, The LAITY 
were new in the trade of opposition. They felt their 
grievances too sensibly : They resented them too 
warmly. They had suffered under many repeated 
acts of injustice; and .the frequent promises of re 
dress, which they had procured by a constant atten 
tion to their trust, they had seen as often violated. 
Successful opposition made the Spirit of liberty run 
high : and distrust and jealousy hindered them from 
finding -tiny other safety than in arms ; though satis 
faction had been already procured by the ordinary, 
legal way, of the Constitution. What followed was 
all madness and despair : till anarchy and confusion 
shut up the dreadful scene of JURIDICAL murders 
and SPIRITUAL impieties. But, see now, the efficacy 
of Liberty and true Religion, when they have min 
gled their powers together ! The ruined Constitution 

rose 



SERMON XVI. 

rose again more suddenly than it fell : But, rising 
out of a chaos, by the sole force of its natural vir 
tue, unassisted by the experienced hand of Policy to 
form and proportion its parts, it revived with the 
same imperfections that had occasioned all the pre 
ceding calamities. A melancholy presage, that the 
friends of liberty were not yet gotten to the end 
of their labours. Such was the miscarriage of the 
LAITY. 

But HOW the CLERGY, when it came to their turn, 
on a later occasion, to stand in the gap against op 
pression, had learned the great art of putting their 
Kneiny * in the wron?, by forbearing to excite the 
people to the last remedy of the Constitution, till 
He had plainly shewn that he was inexorable, by 
arming himself with a divine right to govern against 
Law. And even then, grown wiser by former er 
rors, both of their own and of the Laity, they con 
ducted themselves so sagely, and directed others so 
temperately, that they not only recovered the Esta 
blishment from the brink of ruin, but enabled the 
Legislature to repair and perfect those defects and 
weaknesses which had so often brought it into that 
condition. This gave a new birth to the Constitu 
tion, and fixed it on that solid basis of liberty on 
which we now enjoy it ; and which nothing, but our 
own follies, can unsettle. For though it may be 
stirred or shaken by the application of any trifling 
power, yet, like that ancient image of its state, the 
rocking-stones of our ancestors the DRUIDS, no 

* James II. 
VOL, IX. Y unitei 



522 S E R M O N XVI. 

united force can remove it from its centre. For 
that exactness of balance which subjects it to the 
first appearance of danger, secures it from all real 
and substantial injuries. 

Amongst the benefits this new Establishment pro 
duced, the CHURCH received, as it well deserved, 
its share; which was the removing from it that 
scandal to true religion, restraint on the consciences 
of men. But the Church of Christ never receives 
a courtesy from the State, that it does not, sooner 
or later, repay with interest. Of which it hath given 
us an instance in the unnatural rebellion just now 
suppressed : when every thing that is dear to us 
came suddenly, nobody knows how, into hazard; 
and was, by the valour and conduct of a brave 
young Prince, under the manifest guidance of Pro 
vidence, as suddenly retrieved. At this important 
juncture, no order of men better approved them 
selves to the State than the body of the Clergy; 
though all exerted an unusual vigour for its preser 
vation. And to this wise and happy attachment, 

Of a WHOLE PEOPLE TO A CONSTITUTION, was 

owing, next to the distinguished protection of 
Heaven, the preservation of British liberty, and in 
that, of the liberties of MANKIND. 

Thus have I endeavoured to shew, from REASON 
and FACT, how naturally true Religion produceth 
civil freedom : and, when produced, how strongly 
it supports it. Which is a sufficient answer to the 
dull invectives of ignorant or malicious Libertines, 
against Christianity and its Ministers-, as if both 

were 



SERMON XVI. 323 

were obnoxious and unfriendly to the cause of liberty; 
as if the end of Religion was to chain down slavery 
on us by conscience ; and the business of the Clergy 
only to fasten the rivets. On the contrary, we have 
seen, under the first head, how auspicious the true 
Faith is to free Government; and under the second, 
how faithfully devoted the Ministers of that Faith 
are to its interests. 

It will be said, perhaps, that their merit to the 
State was very equivocal at the Revolution; the 
time when they most pride themselves in their ser 
vice to it: For that their great object was the 
CHURCH : with little regard to the civil Establish 
ment ; whose reformation they retarded, if not en 
dangered, by that absurd system of SUCCESSION, 
which they had been long instilling; and whose in 
fection then worked strongly to the disturbance of 
that august assembly then solemnly convened for 
settling the nation. 

To which I answer, it is no wonder, the Clergy 
should be most solicitous about w<hat was their pro 
per care ; what they best understood ; and what was 
then deemed to be in most danger : That if they knew 
little of the nature and rights of Society, they might 
be \vell excused, as they had been misled by a set 
of COURT DIVINES, who had betrayed and sacrificed 
the Principles of the REFORMERS, to the practices 
of James and Charles the First s Ministers ; and as 
they had never been taught by experience, the bless 
ings of a free Government, regulated upon true 
principles. Nor is this candid representation at the 

Y 2 expence 



324 S E R M O N XVI. 

expence of justice: For when now become happy by 
a Constitution, which they themselves had so large 
ly contributed to procure, they manifested, by their 
early and unanimous assistance, in the late danger 
to the State, that they know as well how to prize 
the benefits of free Government, as the blessings of 
pure Religion. 

On the whole, therefore, whether we consider the 
genius of Religion, or the conduct of its Ministers, 
we must needs conclude, That ichere the Spirit of 
the Lord w, there is liberty. 



ir. 



But REVELATION rarely gives us one Truth to 
contemplate, without enabling REASON to pursue 
the argument, to the discovery of another. So it is 
in the case before us. The very PROOF of this apos 
tolic proposition, that where the Spirit of the Lord 
is, there is liberty, shews the fact to be inverted; 
and, that WHERE LIBERTY is, THERE is THE 
SPIRIT OF THE LORD, i. e. that civil liberty is fa 
vourable to, and naturally productive of, true 
Religion. For if, as hath been said, true Religion 
be auspicious to civil liberty by the similar PRIN 
CIPLE on which both are established ; by the same 
MAXIMS on which both are administered; by the 
like END to which both are directed; and by the 
same ENLARGEMENT of the hitman faculties, which 
both naturally produce ; it will then follow, that civil 
Kberty is equally auspicious to true religion : So that 

whichever 



SERMON XVI. 325 

whichever be the first established, it will, when all 
foreign impediments are away, make room for, and 
introduce the other *. 

This 

* En regardant la Religion simplcmcnt du ^cote de la 
politique, il paroit rjucla PROTESTANTK est la plus con- 
\i --liable aux repttbti^irts et aux monarchies ; die s aecorde 
Jc inienx avee eet esprit de LIBKRTT qni fait Fesseneedes 
premiere-: ear dans mi etat on il taut des negoeiuns^ 
des labourcurs, des artisans, des soldats, des sujets en uu 
mot, il e*t sur que des eitoiens, qui font vtru de Jaisscr 
pt ; rir 1 espeee huniai-nc, dcvienncnt |ernieieux. Dans les 
jnmuirehies, la religion, protestante, <|tii ne relevit de per- 
^)nnc, est (Hitieremcnt somiiise an gonverneinent; au lieu 
tjiie la catho/if/ue etablit un eiat spiritticl, tont-pnissant, 
lil-vond en eoniiilots et en arttices dans 1 etat tcmporel du 
prince; que Jes pretres cpii dirigent les conseienecs, et 
qui n ont de snper n-ur qiu- h- pap<-, sunt plus inaitres des 
[KMiples que la souveraiu <jui les gouvenic, et que p;u % 
7uie addresse a i-ontondre le.> interets de Dieu a\ee 1 ain- 
bitiondes lioinnK-s, K> pupe ^.esl \usou\eiitciioppositiou 
;iv< -c drs souveiains >uir des snjeN qui n rioient anenne- 
du re.ssorl de ri lgli- -. Mc/Jivim de la Maiwti de 



;, p. 27O. C U. OVO. 

\\ U pleasant enough likewise to see . mother writer, 
the celebrated M. Voilaire, a very good Catholie, \vboiu 
c Sfiirify an piea-e \<>u, /Y^>/^ crainiciit 
, lias t.uigbt to <k sp4>e \\ i \ r.j, \TION ; to see 
him, 1 sav, bring this very truth to di-eredil both the 
Ci o.vy; -/ and the Rc-fannulion. The /<i(l( ) f in his opinion, 
onlv reviving that i; i.i iinLn A N si UMT in the \\Vst of 
I .urope, \\hieh the other first kindled in (.ireece and Asia. 
" Ne })ourroit-on pas Irons er peut-etre Torigne de eeiu 
" nouvelle peste (jui a ravage la terre [la in fur des, 
" gucrres de Religion] dans I/I.SI-IUT RKruuLie.vi N (]ui 

A- > " aninui 



326 SERMON XVI. 

This inverted truth is, on this side as well as on 
the other, confirmed likewise by Fact. The Chris 
tian Religion, on its first appearance, making its 
earliest and readiest way, through the free cities of 
Greect and Ltsser Asia. 

But to bring the matter home to the present oc 
casion ; iet us just take a view of the advantages 
which civil freedom affords for the exertion of the 
Spirit of the Lord, both in faith and practice, by 
means of the two great principles of LIBERTY and 
JUSTICE; on which, a free State is founded and 
administered. 

i. The 

" anima les premieres Eglises ? Les assemblies secrettes, 
" qui braivoient d abord dans des caves & dans des 
" grottes 1 autorite des Empereurs Remains, formerent 
" peu-a-peu un etat dans Tetat. C etoit un REPUBLIC>UE 
(C cachee au milieu de 1 Empire. Les anciennes opinions 
" RENOUVELLES dcpuis par LUTHER, par ZWINGLE, 
" par CALVIN, tendoient pour la plupart a detruire 1 au- 
" torite Episcopate, & meme la puissance Monarchique. 
" C est une des principales causes secrettes, qui firent 
" re^evoir ces dogmes clans le nord de 1 Allemagnc ou 
" 1 on craignoit d etre asservi par les Empereurs. Ces 
" opinions triompherent en Suede & en Danemarck, 
" pays ou les peuples etoient fibres sous des Rois. Les 
" ANGLOIS, DANS on LA NATURE A MIS L ESPRIT 
" D INDEPEN DANCE, les adopterent Elles penetrercnt 
" en Pologne, et y firent beaucoup de progrcs dans les 
" settles villes ou lepenple n est point esclave. La Swisse 
" n eut pas de peine a les regcvoir, parce qu elle etoit 
" Repitblique. Elles furent sur le point d etre etablies 
" a Venise par la meme raison Les Hollandois ne 
" prirent cette Religion, que quand ils secouerent le joug 



SERMON XVI. 327 

i. The first advantage ariseth from the allowance 
of free inquiry, which the maintenance of the rights 
of conscience disposeth men to make in religious 
matters. By this employment, we come of course 
to the Author of Truth and to the profession of his 
Religion in its PURITY : This was the case of those, 
who took the liberty before it was allowed them : 
Nor was their labour vain. They dug through the 
rubbish of papal superstition, till they came to the 
pure fountain of Gospel truth. FREE INQUIRY 
can never fairly, and of itself, terminate in UNBE 
LIEF. Infidelity is the natural product of restraint 
and spiritual tyranny, when borne by us with sus 
picion and reluctance. For then we arc apt to 
reflect, and to reason on the truth and fitness of 
the things imposed. And the least attention is suffi 
cient to convince us of the absurdity of what we 
find thus violently established. But restraint not 
aiibrding us the means, nor slavery the courage to 

penetrate 

de 1 Espagne. Geneve devhtt un Fjat popidair, en 
* devenant Ca/vhmte *." Here he owns, that as, in the 
former instances, Civil Liberty procured Reformation, so 
in this of Geneva, Reformation procured Civil Liberty. 
His assignation of the cause and effect is not exact. Re 
formation was the cflf?ke in Holland and some other places 
;is well as in Geneva. However, you have here an Enemy 
of Revelation bearing testimony to these great truths, 
that WH r.i: r. Tin: SIM HIT OF THE LOUD is, THKKK is 
LIBERTY; and that where liberty is, there the Spirit 
oftke Lord will not be long absent. 

* Le Siccle de Louis XIV. Turn. II. p. 185. Lond. 1753, 8vo. 

v 4 



325 S E R M O N XVI. 

penetrate through inveterate errors into truth, we 
run with blind resentment into a brutal infidelity; 
hurried forward by that common infirmity of the 
unstayed mind, which perpetually inclines it to fall 
from one extreme to another. Hence it is we see 
France and Italy overrun with the worst kind of 
Deism. There our travelling Gentry first picked 
it up for a rarity. And, indeed, at first, without 
much malice. It was brought home in a cargo of 
new fashions : and worn, for some time, with that 
levity by the importers, and treated with that con 
tempt by the rest, as suited, and was due, to the 
apishness of foreign manners : Till a set of solemn 
blockheads, grown insolent by liberty, and malicious 
by unsuccessful attempts towards distinction, abused 
the indulgence of a free Government, in reducing 
those vague impieties into a system. And so it 
was, that licentious ignorance came to be distin 
guished with the name of FREE-THINKING. Thus 
liberty abused, we see, comes to the same issue with 
liberty oppressed. They both terminate in IGNO 
RANCE, with this only difference, that the one is 
the ignorance of the Feu\ and the other the igno 
rance of the Many. But that these are not the 
genuine fruits of liberty, appears from the example 
of the best and wisest Men, whom it hath ever con 
ducted to the knowledge and belief of Revelation. 

2. Nor is civil liberty less friendly to the MO 
RALITY, than to the DOCTRINE, of the Gospel. 
The Government of a free State is administered by 
;-v system of equal Laws ; founded in the general 

maxima 



SERMON XVI. 

maxims of Justice ; and objective to the Common 
good. For all States are administered by the same 
principles on which they arc erected. Now a ha 
bitude to such laws must needs enable men to jud^e 
more truly, and to think more favourably, of the 
morality of the Gospel ; solely calculated to pro 
mote the peace, and to multiply the blessings of 
mankind. For as to that inconsistence, between 
the maxims of POLICY and RELIGION, so aifcct- 
eclly insinuated by those who would palliate their 
vicious practice, or re commend their impious opi 
nions, it is no where to be found, but in the ad 
ministration of despotic Governments, or of those 
mongrel free ones,, which, forsaking the genius of 
their institution, act like such as are most arbitrary. 
And, indeed, how could the maxims of Policy 
and Religion be inconsistent? Unless there were 
DIFFERENT ROADS to happiness licrc, as the sup 
porters of this paradox pretend there are, to happiness 
hcrcaJ Ur. But since the temporal good of Man, 
whether rising, as in Religion, from the acts of 
particulars to the whole ; or descending, as in society* 
from the acts of the whole to particulars; since 
this, I say, can only be procured by the application 
of the same invariable principles of NATURAL JUS 
TICE, we must needs conclude, That true Policy 
and Religion are not only perfectly consistent, but 
(as was the purpose of the foregoing account to 
.^hew i mutually beneficent. 

These recipror.d advantages, arising from the 
very Ijein^ and Nature of either institution, are 

one 



330 SERMON XVI. 

one part of that mutual aid and support, so much 
spoken of, which Religion and civil Government 
lend to one another. 

A second springs from the natural influence of 
their respective powers : And there is yet a third, 
which is derived from the artificial application, and 
interchange of those powers. But of the two latter 
parts, I have elsewhere discoursed at large * ; and 
mention them in this place for no other purpose than 
to give light to an acknowledged Fact, employed 
to enforce the application, proper for this glad so 
lemnity, in which we celebrate the divine mercies 
for our late providential deliverance. 

III. 

Now the sense of these mercies should always 
rise in proportion to the consciousness of our own 
demerit. And this will naturally draw us to 
that only acceptable return of service, The refor 
mation of our lives ami manners. 

The unhappy condition of human things makes 
the greatest goods of providence most liable to abuse. 
The moral State of the People is now felt by all, 
and apprehended by many. For, blessed be God, 
our condition is not yet so desperate as to render 
us insensible. 

It is a TREE Government only that attains the 
end of Government ; which is, so to improve the 
mind and accommodate the body, as to make a 

* See The Alliance between Church and State. 

rational 



SERMON XVI. ,331 

rational life .safe and elegant. Its equity allows 
free inquiry, which leads to truth ; and its policy 
encourages commerce, which produces plenty. But 
men grown wanton by prosperity, ahuse the liberty 
of thinking, and the fruits of industry ; so as to 
indulge every wanton fancy of the mind, and every 
vicious appetite of the body. From hence arise 
INFIDELITY and LUXURY, the two capital evils 
of our infatuated countrymen. 

The height, to which they are both arrived, 
cannot be aggravated ; and need not be particu 
larly described. The case is notorious, and con 
fessed. So that nothing remains, on this occasion, 
but to exhort you, from motives of the utmost con 
sequence, now at length after Religion hath done 
so much for you, in producing liberty, to let liberty 
do its part, and produce the Spirit of the Lord; 
that is, a reverential regard for that which gave 
birth to liberty, Revealed Religion, and a moderate 
use (such as even natural Religion prescribes) of 
these good things, which Commerce, the offspring 
of liberty, hath procured for us. 

r. We may consider, therefore, in the first place, 
how unsuitable it is to the nature of civil Freedom 
to fall back into the slavery of vice and error, to 
which tyranny had kept men enthralled. The ex 
cellency of civil Freedom consists in its power of 
emancipating the mind as well as body ; and making 
the whole man dependent on himself. For what 
matters it to be exempted from the chains of a pre 
carious tyra nt, if we still continue slaves to the 



332 SERMON XVI. 

caprice of our own corrupt nature ? We are freed 
by Providence from the unjust dominion of a 
Master, that we may enjoy the blessings of Nature 
in that just measure in which they are bestowed 
upon us. But can this be done amidst the excesses 
of Luxury and Irreligion ? The enjoyment of 
good implies pleasure in its use. But all pleasure 
arises from these two sources, the passive sensation 
and the reflex act. In the first, moderation con 
stitutes the pleasure. For those agreeable sen 
sations, which the appetite to good provokes, and 
the possession of it gratifies, are all lost and dissi 
pated by excess ; which produces, instead of plea 
sure, disgust and loathing ; every racking distemper 
of the body, and every inflamed passion of the mind. 
From the second source, the rejlex act, arises our 
grateful meditation on the Giver. And what ge 
nerous mind is there whose pleasure, in the moderate 
use of worldly things, is not doubled by the con 
sideration of their flowing from the kindness of a 
friend, whose affection for us is always operating, 
for our good ? How high then must be the raptures 
of the religious man, who considers all he enjoys 
as the gift of Him who gave him life, and preserves 
him in being. But all this pleasure Irreligion 
destroys ; and leaves nothing in its stead, but an 
unsatisfactory indulgence of the grosser appetites : 
much below the brutal, as it is haunted with the 
dismal apprehensions, of a miserable reverse : a 
reverse not in his power either to prevent or retard, 
as it is, upon his own wretched principles, the 
caprice of Chance, or the fixed order of Destiny ; 

which 



SERMON XVI. 333 

which is for ever clouding or shifting the scene. 
Thus unsuitable to the ends of Freedom are vice 
and error. 

They are no less inconsistent with the character 
of a Free-man. It is the Free-man s glory to have 
vindicated the dignity of human nature, in shaking 
off oppression, and becoming his own master. 
This is indeed his glory. But if he stop here, his 
sweat and blood are spent in vain. Had he a 
body only to take care of, he had done his work, 
when he secured it from outward violence. But 
Humanity is not an empty carcass. Its nobler part 
is an informing mind ; the guide, the director, and 
final object of its operations. If he suffer this to 
be brought into subjection, all his boasts of out 
ward Freedom are childish and impotent. 

Yet shall this wretched victim of Luxury and 
Irreligion look high ; and pretend to pity the SA- 
VAGK, who hath never got, and despise the SLAVE, 
who was unable to preserve, the mighty blessings 
of Social life and Liberty. But let Them speak 
for themselves : Let us hear them in their turn, 
and observe how easily they confound his miserable 
Vanity and Arrogance. " And why," says the 
Savage, <; will you affect to pity me ? Do not I 
" use the gifts of Nature just as you employ the 
" benefits of Society ? Whatever chance hath 
<c thrown in my way, or my honest toil hath pro- 
" cured, I waste indeed, and devour with an in- 
" temperate and beastly appetite. But are you 
more humane or circumspect, after having ainas- 
sed the spoils of your Country, or succeeded to 

" the 



334 SERMON XVL 

" the patrimony of your Ancestors ? You may 
" disguise, indeed, our common brutality under the 
u civilized language of sacrificing to your gcnms : 
* c But your riot is the more insufferable, as your 
<c pretended arts of life have taught you to pre- 
" serve, to improve, and to multiply the blessings 
" of Providence, so as to make the enjoyment 
" lasting and diffusive. Whereas We waste them 
" just as \ve receive them from Nature s hand, 
" rude and perishable : being as unable to preserve 
* c or improve them, as to use them with moderation^ 
** Moderation, that art of life, which, sensible 
" experience tells ns, must needs he the leader 
" and conductor of all the rest. For, whatever 
<c difference there may be, in other respects, be- 
* f tween Society and Savage life, they agree in this, 
" that want, distress, and misery, are the certain 
" issue of luxury and riot. But here, the untaught 
" Indian might set you a lesson. The patience*, 
tc the fortitude, and resignation, with which we 
<c bear the wants, we bring upon ourselves, astonish 
" the civilized beholder. But, if he tell us true, 
" of what passes in Cities, the issue of your luxury 
" wears a very different face. The first approaches 
<f of distress make you restless and impatient. 

You 

* This character of the savage is common to all the 
natives of South and North America, as our voyagers 
and missionaries agree. Gloutons jusqu a la voracite, 
quancl ils ont de quoi se satistaire ; sobres, quand la 
necessite les y oblige, jusqu a se passer de tout, sans 
paroitre rien desirer. Relation d un voyage dans 1 Amo 
rique Merid. par M. de la Condamine, p. 52. 



.SERMON XVI. 3- 

c You quarrel with the Government you arc so 
tf vain of ; you despise the Rulers you have chosen ; 
" you trample on the Laws you had so hotly de- 
4e manded ; and, unless the relief be speedy, your 
" giddy madness drives you on, till you precipitate 
yourselves into that condition, you so much affect 
" to pity, a Slate of Nature: Indeed, so cir- 
" cunistanced, of all conditions the most pitiable. 
" For this which, with us, is a State of Peace, is, 
* with you, as both the politician holds, and the 
" people feel, a state of war and madness, where 
" every man s hand is set against his God and his 
( brother." Thus might the Savage answer. 

Nor has the Slave of arbitrary power loss ad 
vantages in this contention, while he thus addresses 
this vain idolater of liberty ; " You triumph in your 
" generous exploits; when, in vindication of your 
" own freedom, you retrieved, what you call, the; 
" scandal of human nature, the lying patiently at 
" the foot of a tyrant. But cease these empty 
" brags, and attend to your gains. What have 
iC you got, good man ! by shaking off oppression ? 
" Have you shaken off, with it, those Impieties 
" that make oppression heavy, and Slavery indeed 
" a scandal ? If the plague-sore of irreligion, that en- 
" dernic evil of despotic governments, still continues 
" to corrupt your notions, how miserable is your 
<c boasted freedom ! You are only accumulating 
e guilt, while you thought to reap the fruit of your 
6 labour. Glory or profit you can pretend to none. 
16 That fortitude of reason, which led you to Li- 
i berty, hath betrayed \QU in the pursuit of Truth: 

" ami 



336 SERMON XVl. 

" and those unsightly errors you have embraced 
4C in its stead, suffer you not to enjoy the blessing 
" you had so greatly purchased. You borrow our 
4< vices, while you despise the slavery that produced 
" them ; not considering that oar abject state affords 
" some excuse for these disorders, which your 
<c happier situation renders unpardonable. You 
* c have light to lead you to the source of truth ; you 
." have liberty to profess it. Error is of a piece with 
<c the rest of our fortunes. And if, like beasts of 
<c burthen, we are to move as our conductors drive 
" us, it is something more tolerable to drudge on 
" blindfold, than to have the uneasy prospect of a 
" better way, which we are not permitted to pur- 
<c sue." Thus far with justice, might those, we 
most pity and despise, recriminate upon us. 

In a word, without freedom from vice and error * 
the rest is but the shadow of liberty. At best, but 
as the ornaments of dress to a distempered body, 
absurd and cumbersome; though, to one in strength 
and vigour, they become the preservation of health, 
and the improvement of natural beauty. 

2. But if what we owe Ourselves and the dignity 
of our common nature will not move us ; we should, 
at least, consider what we owe to Providence. Our 
case, how light soever we may make of it, is a little 
uncommon. We find ourselves in possession of 
the greatest human good, CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS 
LIBERTY, at a time when almost all the rest of 
mankind lie in slavery and error. This is no ordi 
nary mercy. Nor is this conceit the effect of that 

vulgar 



SERMON XVI. 337 

vulgar prejudice to country or opinions, Tvhich 
always inclines men to overrate their own advan 
tages. It is a Fact, we feel : a Fact, we see : 
a truth which all the conclusions of reason support ; 
and the united voice of experience confirms. So 
that if there be any thing certain, this is not to be 
disputed, That we Englishmen (how unworthy so 
ever) are at present most indebted to Providence of 
the whole race of mankind. 

Nor is this all. The bestowing these blessings 
on us was but the earnest of God s favour to us. 
His election of us for the instruments of his glory 
is more clearly seen in his preservation of us, at 
every important crisis, when human power and po 
licy, as in our late deliverance, seemed combined 
to our destruction. Of which, whoever doubts, 
must be either very ignorant of our history, or very 
ready to call in question God s moral government. 
Not that we are to fancy ourselves, on these ac 
counts, the peculiar favourites of Heaven. But 
rather that we hear it speaking to us, as it did 
sometimes to the Jews, I do not this for your sakes, 
O house of Israel, but for my holy name s sake. 
It is possible we may be selected by Providence, in 
these latter ages, to preserve the memory of civil 
liberty amidst a slavish world, as the house of Israel 
was formerly, to keep alive true religion amidst an, 
universal apostasy. And, if this be the case, we 
betray our trust as well as forfeit our obligations, 
when we neglect to make a suitable return. 

But, on whatever footing we receive our blessings, 
our debt of gratitude is the same : which, at this 

VOL. IX. Z time 



338 SERMON XVI. 

time especially, calls upon us to consider seriously 
how we shall best address ourselves to discharge it. 
Right reason tells, that the most acceptable way of 
returning God s mercies, is to apply them to the 
attainment of that further good, which they are 
capable of producing : Especially when, in the 
nature of things, the mercies given are only the 
MEANS; and that further good is the END. We 
have shewn, that CIVIL LIBERTY does, above all 
other blessings, afford us the largest helps to the 
improving ourselves in the principles and practice 
of TRUE RELIGION. How desperate then is our 
ingratitude, if we neglect to make the best use of 
so happy a situation ! a situation which enables us 
to advance as far beyond our neighbours in piety 
and virtue, as we are placed above them in liberty 
and power : And if, instead of applying these ad 
vantages to the purposes for which they were in 
tended by Nature, and directed by Providence, it 
. should be found we have only abused them to the 
. inflaming our impiety and luxury, what name can 
be given to so horrid a profanation ! an abuse of 
Gods mercies so strangely unnatural, that though 
-experience makes it familiar to us, yet retired 
Reason stands aghast at so inexpiable a prodigy. 

3, Bat however indulgent we may be to those 
iidle notions in theology r which promise us impu- 
, nity for our transgressions of the law of God ; we 
yet would blush to be thought so ignorant in phi 
losophy, as not to know, that there is no escaping 
<the ruin .which follows the violated order of things, 

NATURE, 



S E R M O N XVI. 339 

NATURE, to which our libertines fly, from the 
GOD OF MERCY, is more stubborn and vindictive. 
We have shewn the mutual aid and support which 
true religion and civil liberty impart to one another; 
and the necessary connexion established between 
them. We always find, that when civil liberty is 
gone, the religion of the sovereign takes place; 
that is, any kind of superstition fitted to the support 
of arbitrary power : and slaves are ready to receive 
even the worst. Again, the fall of true religion, 
whether betrayed by Superstition or suffering open 
violence by Infidelity, draws after it the destruction 
of civil liberty. 

How Superstition helps it on, hath been shewn 
in the former part of this discourse : and how In 
fidelity (that is, a contempt both of the principles 
and practice of religion) precipitates its ruin, is seen 
by all who understand what effects impiety hath on 
the security ; and luxury on the stability of Govern 
ment. These are old beaten topics, which the com 
mon sense of mankind hath made current in all 



ages. 



IV. 



I shall attempt, therefore, to illustrate and inforce 
this truth (which one may justly reckon amongst the 
first principles of true politics) by an observation 
not so commonly attended to, " That though Im- 
tc piety and Luxury be the certain bane of civil 
" society in general, yet they are more speedily 
e< destructive of a FREE STATE." 

z 2 Tfie 



340 SERMON XVI. 

The two immediate supports of Government 
against inward and outw r ard violence, are PUNISH 
MENT of offenders, and FUNDsyir the public ex- 
pence. Now, irreligion and luxury hinder & free 
State, more than any other, from making these ne 
cessary provisions : as, in such a State, the con 
viction of the guilty, and the exaction of subsidies, 
are regulated and restrained by equal and established 
laws. 

The enlarged wants, and inflamed appetites of 
men in social life, have so improved their cunning 
in the arts of secret injustice, as to evade all the 
force and resentment of human statutes. Here Re 
ligion comes in aid of the Law, to frighten men, by 
the terror of an invisible Judge, from those crimes 
which escape the notice of the Magistrate. 

Now, take off this restraint, and see the different 
effects it will have upon a, free, and a despotic 
Government. The Latter hath found, in the very 
genius of its constitution, a speedy and vigorous 
remedy to this evil, by (what goes for nothing with 
an arbitrary Magistrate) the violation of natural 
justice, in the use of the rack, and conviction 
on doubtful evidence. Which, though perhaps be 
gun in the wantonness of power, repeated to gratify 
some oblique interest, and continued out of habit, 
were at length found so necessary a balance to dis 
order, where Religion had lost its hold, that it became 
a maxim in these sorts of Governments, " that it was 
u better ten innocent men should suffer, than that 
one offender should escape." And on this maxim, 
they have long regulated their administration of civil 
justice. 

On 



SERMON XVI. 341 

On the other hand, a free State, not only de- 
nouucelh the crimes it punishes, by written Laws, 
but prescribes and adjusts the proof of them by 
explicit modes of invariable practice. While the 
prosecution of them is carried on by established 
Forms, regulated on public equity, and the national 
justice of a whole community. This, with all its 
general uses for the security of particulars, cannot 
but embolden the secret contrivers of evil : which our 
Law seems to have been aware of when it endea 
voured to hide the inconvenience under a maxim 
founded in its natural lenity, " that it is better twice 
" ten guilty persons should escape, than one inno- 
" nocent man suffer *." A maxim, though be 
coming the genius and dignity of a free Society ; 
yet at the same time it betrays the want of some 
restraining Principle, which may co-operate with 
human Laws. So that when Religion is gone, which 
only can afford a principle adequate to this service, 
we see in what a desperate condition the best 
Governments, because they are the best, will be 

left. 

Again, with regard to the support of Government 
against foreign injuries. In a free State the public 
subsidies are the act of a delegated legislature ; and 
so of course, the voluntary contributions of the 
People : Which generally will be restrained in too 
light a proportion to their abilities, rather than 
extended to the necessities of the occasion. Now 

* Mullein revcra viginti facinorosos mortem pietata 
evadere, quain justuin unuin injuste condemnari. FOR* 
TESCUE, deLaudibus Leguin Angliae, C. xxvii. 

z 3 when 



342 SERMON XVI. 

when a free People are debauched by luxury, 
and impoverished by the ex pence which must 
feed and supply their excesses ; and consequently, 
are become both unwilling and unable to answer 
the public demands, To what distress must the 
State, in such exigencies, be reduced? 

But it is not thus in a land of slaves : where 
the blood and sweat of the people make part of their 
Master s exchequer : Where what is deemed the 
wealth of the Country to-day, becomes the Court- 
treasure to morrow : where money, by the magic of 
arbitrary power, is transformed into fairy favours ; 
of one value when issued out ; and of another when 
called in again. 

Now this being the consequence of the ESTA 
BLISHED ORDER OF THINGS, it is no wonder it 
should be inevitable. For why did God establish this 
order, but to fix such bounds of right and wrong as 
should serve for the direction of mankind ? On the 
contrary, might events happen out of, or contrary to, 
this course, then would God s providence no longer 
govern, nor man s purposes have any aim ; but the 
moral world would fall into a chaos as incapable 
of observing the law ordained for its direction, as 
the natural was in that state from which the al 
mighty fiat awaked it, and called it forth for 
creation. 

On the whole then, my brethren, if you have 
any regard to your character of free subjects to a 
lawful Prince, of grateful worshippers of a beneficent 
God, or of rational dependents on a well-ordered 
System ; you will, in good earnest, set upon re 
forming 



SERMON XVI. 343 

forming those horrid abuses which make vicious 
Free-men a scandal to those sacred relations. Re 
member, you are called upon by all that is excellent 
in Humanity, by all that is holy in Religion, and by 
all that is right and fit in the Order of things. And 
should you still continue deaf to the united voice of 
Nature and Grace, that which is out of Nature, and 
reprobate to Grace, the only things you have left, 
atheistic CHANCE or FATE, will prove utterly unable 
to snatch you from this impending ruin. 



SERMON XVII. 



ON THE NATURE OP THE MARRIAGE 
UNION. 



MATT. xix. 6. 

WHAT GOD HATH JOINED TOGETHER, LET NO 
MAN PUT ASUNDER. 

GO D, as Creator of the World, is Author of 
the constitution of NATURE; and as moral 
Governor of the World, he is Author of the con 
stitution of GRACE. It is impiety, therefore, in 
man to attempt any alterations in either System : 
whether it be by putting asunder what God hath 
joined together, the crime here forbidden; or by 
joining together what God hath put asunder ; which 
is generally the next step in this progress of human 
folly. For when men have dissolved the established 
combinations made by God, their preceding interests 
invite them, or their subsequent necessities draw 
them on, to make others of their own. 

I shall first explain the Precept of my text in its 
general import ; and then consider it as applied to 
the particular occasion on wliich it was deliver^ 

Amongst 



346 SERMON XVII. 

Amongst the more important combinations in 
the constitution of Nature, God hath joined to 
gether, as CAUSE AND EFFECT, Virtue and 
Happiness, Vice and Misery. Now should the 
CIVIL MAGISTRATE so far forget his office of 
GOD S Delegate, as to annex rewards to Vice, and 
punishment to Virtue, he would incur the double 
guilt of putting asunder what God hath joined 
together, and of joining together what he had 
put asunder. 

Again, God hath joined together, as RELATIVE 
AND CORRELATIVE, Children s obedience to their 
Parents, and Parents care and support of their 
Children. Here too should the CIVIL MAGIS 
TRATE, like the Jewish Priests with their Corban, 
infringe upon the first, on pretence that the Public 
had need of all the Children s service ; and on the 
latter, on pretence that it hath need of the purses 
of the Parent ; he would be equally guilty of this 
impiety. 

All attempts to separate what God hath joined 
together in the constitution of Grace hath the same 
wickedness and folly. God hath joined together, 

AS THE FOUNDATION AND SUPERSTRUCTURE of 

one Church in Christ, the Jewish and the Gospel 
dispensations. But should PARTICULARS, when 
embarrassed and perplexed with difficulties arising 
from certain circumstances in the Jewish History 
and Religion, presume to violate this connexion, by 
denying any necessary dependence of Christianity 
upon it : what would this be but the profane sepa 
ration here condemned? 

Again, 



S E II M O N XVII. 347 

Again, God hath joined together, AS THE GIFT 
AND THE CONDITION OF IT, Belief in Jesus the 
Messiah, and everlasting life. A connexion, which, 
in the language of Divines, is called justifying 
Faith. But should PARTICULARS; from their igno 
rance, their imperfect conception of the true nature 
of the Christian dispensation, or from the injury 
which the abuse of this doctrine hath occasioned to 
virtue and morality, venture to deny that it is faith 
alone which justifies, such men would assuredly 
incur all the guilt of this impious separation. 

This is but a small specimen of the numerous 
cases which might be given of the folly and per 
versity of men, in rebelling against God, and violat 
ing the constitution of NATURE, and the economy 
of GRACE. But it is enough to shew what mis 
chiefs attend, and what impieties accompany, the 
.separating by human will, or by human Authority, 
what God by his will, or his nature, hath joined 
and united. For what can be conceived more de 
structive than to violate the settled order of things ; 
or more impious than to counterwork the designs 
of Him who established that order ? 

But to come to the particular occasion of the 
precept. 

The Law of Moses, for the wise ends of Pro 
vidence, indulged the Israelites in the use of Poly- 
gamy and Divorce. These, which were allowed 
them for the hardness of their hearts, had, by length 
of time, and the corruption of their manners, still 
further degenerated into a more licentious abuse : 

so 



348 SERMON XVII. 

so as to stand in need of the animadversion of Him 
who came to fulfil the Law and the Prophets, 

He more obliquely reforms Polygamy, by ob 
serving that, at the Creation, the human race began 
by a male and female; and that these were made 
man and wife *. He more directly condemns their 
practice of Divorce, by observing that God had 
pronounced, They twain should be one flesh \. 
From whence he infers, that whosoever shall put 
away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall 
marry another, commits adultery, and whoso mar- 
rieth her which is put away, doth commit adultery : 
for that God having joined them together on those 
terms, it was impiety in man to alter the conditions 
of the contract : What God (saith he) hath joined 
together, let no man put asunder. 

That it is highly criminal, therefore, for human 
Authority to put asunder those whom God in matri 
mony hath made one, is allowed and confessed on 
all hands. 

The only question is, WHEN the two Parties may 
be said to be THUS joined together, or made one. 

To determine this, w r e should consider MAR 
RIAGE under all its forms. And, first, in its most 
simple idea, divested of its relation to revealed 
Religion and civil Society. 

This union is, in itself, partly natural, and partly 
social. 

So far as regards the condition, that is, the pro 
hibited degrees ; and the end, the procreation of the 
species, it holds of Nature : In what concerns the 

* Ver. 5. f Ibid. J Vcr. 9. 

mutual 



SERMON XVII. 349 

mutual aid and support of the parties, and their 
distinct claims to certain rights and privileges, it 
holds of Society. But Nature and human Society 
alone seem not to have determined either against 
POLYGAMY or DIVORCE. 

Revealed Religion and Civil Government soon 
followed. They were introduced to perfect human 
nature according to their several characters. What 
additions or regulations they brought with them is 
next to be considered. 

RELIGION declares marriage to be the union of 
one to one : and the reason given is, that God at 
first created only one of each sex. It declares the 
union to be indissolvable ; because the female was 
made out of the substance of the male. And thus 
marriage, from a natural, became a religious union. 

CIVIL GOVERNMEXT requires, that to make 
private contracts (in which Society is affected) valid 
and binding, they be entered into and executed by 
prescribed and public forms, i. Because the minis 
try of public justice is to compel to the performance 
of them : so that it is but fit it should prescribe the 
conditions of the act it is to vindicate. 2. Because 
some contracts, as this of marriage, have civil rights 
and privileges annexed unto them. 

Thus we see, Marriage is of a MIXED nature; 
in part a sacred ordinance, in part a human insti 
tution. It hath both a natural, and a social efficacy : 
Considered in a natural lieht, as an union of male 
and female, from whence all the charities of human 
lifc arise, it is a religious contract : Considered in a 
social light, as creating nctv relations and connexions, 
all of which have their distinct rights and priviligcs 

assigned 



350 S E R M O N XVII. 

assigned to them in civil life, it partakes of a civil 
contract. 

This distinction is marked out to us by the nature 
of things; and confirmed by Laws, divine and 
human. 

What then, it may be asked, are the distinct parts 
which GOD and the MAGISTRATE claim, as their 
peculiar, in this solemn contract? It is from God 
that two are made one by an indissolvable tie : and 
this is the LAW OF RELIGION. It is from the 
Magistrate that this Union, ordained by Heaven, is 
executed by a solemn form prescribed by the State : 
and this is the LAW OF SOCIETY. 

In confirmation of what is here said, it is remark 
able that in the Jewish Law, where all even the most 
minute matters that concern religious rites and cere 
monies are circumstantially prescribed ; nay, where 
the most exact directions concerning the legality and 
illegality of Marriages are delivered ; it is remark 
able, I say, that there is no Form of the marriage- 
ceremony : though the Ritual Law abounds with 
all other forms that relate to Offerings, Lustrations, 
and Sacrifices. The same sage economy may be 
remarked in the Gospel. Though Jesus, as we see, 
reformed the abusive practices crept into Marriage, 
yet he prescribes no Form for the celebration of it : 
as he has done for Baptism and the Lord s Supper. 
What is this but a plain declaration by the Founders 
of both Religions, that the Form of celebration 
belongs to the civil Magistrate ? 

From all this, it necessarily follows, That till this 
sacred Union, instituted by God in Paradise, be 
sealed and confirmed by such rites and ceremonies, 

as 



SERMON XVII. 351 

as the wisdom and policies of civil States direct to 
be observed, God hath not joined any Pair together, 
according to his holy ordinance : and that the ob 
servance of such rites and ceremonies is essen 
tial to that union which he declares to be indis- 
solvable. 

To suppose this Union may be authentically 
made in the present state of Religion and Society, 
without the intervention of the civil Magistrate, 
leads either to fanaticism or licentiousness. 

The only two conceivable means besides are, 
Either God s revelation of his purpose to the parties 
concerned, as in the case of the first pair : Or else 
his declared sanctification of the natural desires, and 
private agreement of those who come together by 
sensual impulse, without the intervention of the 
Magistrate s allowance, and the sanction of his co 
operating authority ; so as to make their private act 
God s act, and thereby erect it into that religious 
Union, which he forbids human power to disturb 
or violate. 

To expect God s extraordinary appointment, 
would be opening the door to a new species of 
fanaticism, which, inflamed by the most violent of 
our natural passions, would know no bounds. 

To give the prerogatives of a sacred union to the 
private desires of the two sexes, would disturb 
Society, by rendering Succession precarious, the 
Relations which arise from marriage uncertain, and 
the Rights and prerogatives annexed to them unde 
terminable. 

In a word, the one would dishonour the sanctity 
of Religion ; the other would disorder the harmony 

of 



352 S^ERM O N XVII. 

of Civil life. And therefore \ve may be sure God 
hath not done, nor Mall do, either one or the other. 

We return then to our conclusion, That the 
marriage-bond which Jesus, in my text, forbids 
man s presumption to dissolve, is a contract so 
VIRTUALLY circumstanced as the Laws of Religion 
ordain; and so FORMALLY executed as the Laws 
of each particular Society prescribe. 

Where either of these requisites are wanting, it is 
not that Union of which God is pleased to call him 
self the Author ; and which he forbids man, on any 
other terms than that which the Religion of his Son 
prescribes, to dissolve. 

From these clear principles, and this certain de 
duction^ we collect the justice and Religion, as well 
as expedience and true Policy of a late salutary Law 
solely calculated for the support and ornament of 
Society : by which the just rights and Authority of 
Parents are vindicated ; the peace and harmony 
of families preserved; the irregular appetites of 
Youth restrained ; and the worst and basest kind 
of seduction encountered and defeated. I mean, that 
sage provision, whereby all pretended Marriages, 
not solemnized as the WISDOM OF OUR ANCIENT 
CONSTITUTION directs, are rendered null and void. 

For the dissolution of a mock-marriage not en 
tered into with the previous qualifications the Law 
of Nature enjoins, nor executed by the public forms 
which the Laws of Society require, is so far from 
putting asunder those whom God hath joined to 
gether, that it it is only breaking an insolent and 
disorderly confederacy in licentiousness, where 

God s 



SERMON XVIL 353 

God s Sanction and the Magistrate s Authority are 
equally insulted : and by a crime too which indeed 
savours the most of that very impiety \vc are so 
commendably anxious to avoid : there being nothing 
which God hath more inseparably united than the 
obedience of Children to the care and protection of 
Parents. 

And if the indulgence of former times hath con 
firmed such irregular and lawless combinations, 
which this Law condemns and dissolves, it pro 
ceeded on wrong and mistaken notions concerning 
the nature of Marriage. For Popish policy had 
turned this Union into a Sacrament; and Protestant 
simplicity had, by way of interim, given a kind of 
authority to those Canons in which the system 
of that policy was contained. But now, that the 
true principles of natural Lir- and revealed Religion 
ii ive made this solemn and sacred contract better 
understood, and that the abuses of it were become 
intolerable, the wisdom of the Legislature found it 
necessary to provide the efficacious remedy in ques 
tion: the only one which, on mature consideration, 
was found to be effectual. And it is worthy our 
notice, that this, which was the more immediate 
object of their care, is contrived with so much pro 
vident sagacity, that, had it been their directer pur 
pose to seek a means for restoring the SAXCTITV 
OF MAKIUAGK to its ancient honours, we cannot 
conceive a wore effectual method than what this 
very remedy has provided. The things which most 
contribute to excite reflection, and to impress awe 
and reverence for any solemn Rite, being all here 

VOL. IX. A A scrupulously 



354 . S E R M O N XVII. 

scrupulously required ; such as previous caution* 
public notoriety, open celebration, and a well-at 
tested record. 

With matters of policy we have nothing to do, 
any otherwise than as the truths of Religion come 
in question, by their being actively or passively 
concerned. And therefore I should here conclude 
\vhat I had to say on this subject, but that a very 
material objection to my general argument is sup 
posed to arise from the express words of Scripture. 
This is within our province; and, I presume, I 
may be permitted to examine it. 

My argument proceeds on this principle, that 
MARRIAGE being in part a religious, and in part a 
civil contract, it must, in order to give it its essential 
efficacy, be entered into on such terms as Religion 
enjoins, and completed by such forms as the Civil 
Magistrate prescribes. From whence it is inferred, 
that the mutual agreement of the two Sexes alone 
is not sufficient to make a legitimate Marriage, 
either in the sight of GOD or of SOCIETY. 

But, to this it is objected, That the premisses must 
needs be false, since St. PAUL hath expressly de 
clared against the conclusion. f( Know ye not (says 
" he) that your bodies are the members of Christ? 
" Shall I then take the members of Christ, and 
" make them the members of an harlot? God 
" forbid. What, know ye not, that HE WHICH is 

<c JOINED TO AN HARLOT IS ONE BODY? FOR 

" TWO (saith he) SHALL BE ONE FLESH. But he 
" that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit *." 

* i Cor. vi. 15, 16, 17. 

" Hence, 



SERMON XVII. 355 

" Hence, say the objectors, it appears, that no 
more than the mutual agreement of the two Sexes 
to come together is necessary to give this contract 
its most essential quality, namely, INDISSOLUBI- 
LITY, since the Apostle declares that the two sexes 
meeting, or at least living, in Concubinage (a state 
Societies disallow, and therefore a contract in which 
the Magistrate doth not interfere) become ONE 
BODY; the very circumstance which makes an /;/- 
separable union." 

To understand the weight of this objection, we 
must consider the Apostle s manner of treating his 
subject. To shew the great enormity of fornication 
in a professor of the Gospel, he employs, for one 
of his topics, that essential property of Marriage, 
the making the two parties, uncfash or body. 

By FORNICATION, we will suppose him to mean 
frequenting the Stavs, or that more decent indul 
gence of the irregular passions called Conciibinagt. 
And then, according to the scn.se of the objectors, 
he lays down this position, That every whoremonger 
and harlot become out flesh and one body, by virtue 
of the holy ordinance of Matrimony instituted in 
Paradise. A position, which not only disturbs 
and violates Society ; but, by confounding Concu 
binage with Marriage, and making them one and 
the same, leaves the Apostle nothing to argue against, 
even in the height of his resentment at a criminal 
association, which this very topic is employed to 
aggravate. 

But this is not all. The Apostle, according to 
*his interpretation, wakes one of two, where Jesus 

A A 2 makes 



356 SERMON XVII. 

makes two of one. For the Saviour of the world al 
lows fornication for a sufficient cause of divorce. 
So that the crime is made to have two contrary 
effects at once. 

Again, if fornication makes one, of two ; then, by 
God s Laws it is both commanded and forbidden. 
For we are directed to make that union, whereby 
two become one, in the injunction to increase and 
multiply ; and yet we are warned, again and again, 
tojleejbrnicat ion . 

Since therefore the sense which supports the ob 
jection abounds in these absurdities, we must seek 
a reasonable meaning elsewhere. That is, in the 
Author s context, and in the course and tenour of 
his own reasoning. 

St. Paul, in order to expose the enormity of for 
nication amongst Christians, considers every man as 
the member of Christ s spiritual body ; and every 
man, living in fornication, as the member of a har 
lot : a profanation which renders the criminal un 
worthy of the spiritual union with Christ. But then, 
to make the Corinthians still more sensible of this 
profanation, he sets before them the closeness of that 
spiritual union ; which, in his accustomed manner, 
he inforces by analogy to the thing propfaning. Just 
as, in another place of this Epistle, he exposes the 
profanation of the Lord s supper when joined to an 
Idol-feast, by a comparison between what those 
two Rites had, or were supposed to have, in com 
mon *. But the union of Concubinage not so well 

* See the Discourse on the Lord s Supper, in the Xth 
Volume. 

fitting 



SERMON XVII. 357 

fitting his purpose as that of Marriitgc, he employs 
the latter to inforce the enormity of the former, 
and, without stopping to change the terms, con 
tinues the use of the word ILiriut, to predicate of 
her, what is strictly true only of a JVij^ 9 namely, 
that he which it joined to her is one bxdy. 

This seems to he a fair account of the Apostle s 
illustration. And the manner of expressing it i.s al 
together suited to that quickness of conception, 
and rapidity of argumentation, which distingul-iii 
this great Apostle s reasoning. " He was a imui 
" (says Air. Locke) of quick parts and warm tem- 
<e per ; mighty well versed in the writings of the Old 
" Testament, and full of the doctrine of the New. 
" All this put together, suggested matter to him in 
" abundance, on those subjects that came in his 
" way. So that one may consider him, when he 
" was writing, as beset with a croud of thoughts, all 
<c striving for utterance. In this posture of mind it 
" \vas almost impossible for him to keep a slow 
" pace, and observe minutely that order and method 
" of ranging all he said, from which results an 
" easy and obvious perspicuity One may see his 
" thoughts were all of a piece in his Epistles : his 
" notions were at all times uniform, and constantly 
" the same : though his expressions very various. 
" In them he seems to take great liberty. This is 
" certain, that no one seems less tied up to a form 
" of words *." 

The character here given of St. Paul s knowledge 
shews him to be too well versed both in the Jewish 

* Preface to his Commentary on St. Paul s Epistles. 
A A 3 and 



358 SERMON XVII. 

and Christian dispensations to ascribe the essential 
attribute of MARRIAGE to FORNICATION or con 
cubinage : and yet his genius made him very 
capable, amidst a torrent of thought and crowd of 
expression, to use one term for another, which had 
in them those ideas in common of which he wanted 
to make use. 

But it may be thought perhaps a much easier, as 
well as juster solution of the difficulty, to suppose 
that, by FORNICATION, the Apostle meant neither 
frequenting the stews, nor yet concubinage ; but a 
formal marriage ; though within the Jewish prohi 
bited degrees. 

It is certain that this was the general term which 

o 

the followers of the Law employed to design such 
marriages. And we seem to have a very eminent 
example of it in that famous apostolical decree 
which commands u to abstain from pollutions of 
" Idols, and from FORNICATION, and from things 
" strangled, and from blood *." For this sense of 
the term removes a difficulty which will for ever 
embarrass the Decree, while fornication is under^ 
stood to signify vague lust , whereby things positive 
and moral are confounded, and put upon the same 
foot of obligation ; either making abstinence from 

fornication temporal ; or abstinence from things 
strangled and from blood, perpetual. 

But in the place in question the sense seems yet 
more evidently determined. The fornication, the 
subject of this sixth Chapter, plainly refers to the 

fornication described in thejifth. " It is reported 

* Acts XY. 20. 

" commonly 



SERMON XVIL 359 

u commonly (says the Apostle) that there is for- 
Cf nication amongst you : and such fornication that 
" is not so much as named amongst the Gentiles, 

u THAT ONE SHOULD HAVE HIS FATHER S WIFE*." 

The crime in question therefore appears to be a 
MARRIAGE, on the principles of the Jewish Law, 
incestuous. 

And thus the objection, which stands on a sup 
position that St. Paul is speaking of concubinage, 
in which the marriage-ceremony does not take place, 
nor consequently the Magistrate interfere, comes to 
nothing. And let not the Apostle s calling it such 
a species of fornication, as was not named amongst 
the Gentiles, induce us to think it such a Marriage 
as the Gentiles esteemed illegal, and consequently 
an union the civil Magistrate did not authorize, 
which would bring .us round again to concubinage* 
from whence we set out : for by these words he only 
meant that it was disreputable and scandalous 
amongst them, not such as was contrary to the 
Laws f . 

* i Cor. v. i . 

f " That the marrying of a Son in Law and a Mother 
" in Law was not prohibited by the Laws of the Roman 
" Empire, may be seen in Tully : but yet it was looked 
" on as so scandalous and infamous, that it never had 
" any countenance from practice. His words, in his 
" oration pro Cluentio, 4. are so agreeable to the pre- 
" sent case, that it may not be amiss to set them down. 
" Nubit Genero Socrus, nullis auspiciis, nulln auctoribus. 
" O see/us incredibik, et, prater hanc unam, in omni vita 
" inauditum!" LOCKE, on the place. 

A A 4 The 



360 S E II M O N XVII. 

The fornication then in question was a scandalous 
marriage. And being altogether unsuitable to a 
Christian s profession, we find * that the offender, 
on St. Paul s remonstrance, took advantage of the 
Laws of divorce then in use, to shew his penitence. 

All, therefore, we learn from this famous Case, 
is this general truth, corroborative of the foregoing 
argument, that where a pretended Marriage is so 
lemnized in defiance of any Law, divine or human, 
which has a right to regulate the terms of the con 
tract, it never was that union which God declares 
to be indissolvable, but one virtually void at the very 
making; and that the enacting its dissolution by a 
positive Law is only declarative of the Law of right 
reason and Religion concerning it. 



POSTSCRIPT. 

TH E tendency of the foregoing Discourse is to 
shew, that the Legislature, in the Law con 
cerning Marriage, was so far from unsettling the 
rights of Religion, that it supported and inforced 
them. The Legislature has, indeed, been defended 
on other principles. 

It has been said, that this Law, which annuls 
illegal Marriages, concerns itself only with 
their civil effects ; and meddles not with the con 
science of the parties ; who may be still bound by 

* See the second Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. ii. 

the 



Postscript.] SERMON XVH. 361 

the religion of the contract, when all the civilities 
are dissolved. And this casuistry, it seems, has the 
authority of the bishops STILLINGFLEET and FLEET- 
WOOD for its support. The former of these learned 
men expresses himself in this manner : " Marriage 
" being a contract of a civil and public nature, it 
u is very just and fitting that the Civil Society and 
" the Christian Church should appoint rules and 
" orders for the decent performance of it, and may 
cl appoint penalties to the breakers of those rules; so 
" far as to illegitimate the Children born of such 
" marriages, which is nulling the contract as to the 
civil effect of it. But 1 do not see how either 
" Church or State can null the CONTRACT AS TO 
" CONSCIENCE, so AS TO MAKE IT LAWFUL FOB 

" SUCH PERSONS TO MARRY OTHERS*. " 

This determination, when applied to vindicate 
this act of civil power, scorns to have a very ex 
traordinary aspect ; as fixing the imputation of in 
jury, to Society and Religion, in the very attempt 
to throw it oiF. 

It intangles the Parties irregularly contracting, 
between two Authorities. They are deprived by Law 
of all the civil benefits consequent on Marriage, 
and arc at the same time bound by Conscience to 
hold the contract indissolvable. 

If they follow Conscience, Society is like to suffer 
by throwing bars in the way of the marriage state : 
If they follow Convenience, under the shelter of 
Law, they violate the duties of Religion. 

It is of moment, therefore, to examine a doctrine 

* Misccll. Discourses, p. 73. 

supported 



362 SERMON XVII. [Postscript, 

supported by so reverend Authority, and which ap 
pears to be attended with such manifest absurdity. 
I apprehend the conceit may have arisen from 
not distinguishing a real difference in the general 

<-- o o 

nature of Contracts. One kind there is into which 
a Man may lawfully enter, without observing the 
conditions which the laws prescribe to contracts, it 
undertakes to support and vindicate. There is 
another, into which a man may not lawfully enter, 
without observing the conditions. 

Of the first sort are those which concern the sale 
and alienation of real property. If such be transact- 
ted by a verbal form only, when the law requires a 
written* I apprehend no civil effects will follow ; 
though the parties be obliged in justice and good 
faith to perform the terms of their agreement. 

Of the second sort is that of Marriage. If this 
be entered into by any other form than what the 
- Laws of Society prescribe, no obligation will follow, 
in Conscience. In the preceding Discourse I have 
attempted to shew, that Marriage is of this sort : 
that, without the sanction and concurrence of the 
Magistrate, neither divine nor human laws permit 
the parties to enter on the contract. The legal 
incapacity therefore occasions an original nullity, 
which a positive law only declares and supports. 
So that Conscience is, in this case, no further con 
cerned than to oblige the Party deluding to make 
civil reparation for the accidental injuries accruing, 
v by his profanation of the rite, to the Party deluded : 
But as to the Contract itself, this not receiving its 
essential quality of indissolubility till made on the 

terms 



Postscript.] SERMON XVII. 363 

terms which civil laws prescribe, it was null and 
void from the beginning. 

The authority of parents, the harmony of families, 
the peace of Society, all seem to require the dis 
solution of personal contracts of this kind illegally 
transacted. The wisest of all Lawgivers has fully 
declared himself to be of this opinion in a case 
purely and entirely religious, in the most awful of 
all contracts, Vows made to the Almighty: For, 
in conformity to the genius of the Mosaic Religion, 
God indulged his chosen People in frequent con 
tracts or intercourse with him, by Vows. Now 
the Code of this Divine Lawgiver expressly decrees, 
that " if a woman vow a vow unto the Lord, and 
" bind herself by a bond, BEING IN HER FATHER S 
" HOUSE IN HER YOUTH; and her Father hear her 
" vow, and her bond, wherewith she hath bound 
" her soul, and her Father shall hold his peace at 
" her ; then all her vows shall stand, and every 
" bond wherewith she hath bound her soul shall 
" stand. But if her Father DISALLOW her in the 
" day that he heareth : not any of her vows or 
" of her bonds, wherewith she hath bound her soul, 
" shall stand : and THE LORD SHALL FORGIVE 

" HER, BECAUSE HER FATHER DISALLOWED 

" HER*." He goes on, in the same manner, to 
give the like privileges to the Husband. 

Here we see a bond, in its own nature the most 

irremissible, entered into according to the genius, 

and by the direction, of Religion : Yet if it be op* 

posed, though but by human considerations, by 

* Numbers xxx. 3. seqq. 

those 



364 SERMON XVIL [Postscript, 

those to whom the contracting party owes duty and 
obedience, and under whose care and protection 
she remains, it becomes void as if it had been never 
made. The Parent, or the Husband the natural 
Guardian, may confirm or annul it, just as he sees 
convenient : but it never became a real indissol- 
vable bond, till, by their acquiescence, it had received 
its essential nature. 

On the whole, it appears, that there are two kinds 
of contracts in use amongst men ; one of which it 
is not so much as lawful to enter into without the 
magistrate s allowance; and of this kind is MAR 
RIAGE, which therefore, so irregularly made, be 
comes null and void from the beginning. The 
other kind may be lawfully transacted, without 
following the Magistrate s prescribed rule ; and there 
fore, this, indeed, will bind in conscience, though 
no civil effects arise from it. 



A 

CHARGE 

TO 

THE CLERGY 

OF THE 

DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER 
1761. 



A 

CHARGE, 

&c. 

to 

MY REVEREND BRETHREN", 

IN the simplicity of the good old times, when 
the Clergy first met their BISHOP, who might 
be then said, in every sense, to do the honours of 
the Assembly, He held it incumbent on him, to 
inform them by what means this relation had sprung 
up between them ; that it was neither clerical am 
bition on his part, nor court intrigues on the part 
of his Patrons, which drew him from his beloved 
obscurity ; but a mere sense of the Church s want 
of good Governors, that had induced the State to 
force out his reluctant merit into so eminent but 
hazardous a Station. 

This was an ancient custom, and a good. The 
acquaintance between the Bishop and his Clergy 
could not commence more happily than in the in 
formation he gave them of the confessed importance 
of his character. 

In 



308 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 

In course of time, this friendly confidence was 
found to have its inconvenience, which, !>y degrees, 
brought un the disuse ; and this without much 
violence on the communicative disposition of the 
Diocesan : For now the Clergy were become little 
curious to know how, or from whence, their Bishop 
had dropt down amongst them ; and he as little 
disposed to tell them a ridiculous or unedifying 
story. It was enough that they met ; and that their 
meeting was to their mutual content. 

This it could not fail to be, as it was devised for 
these two good purposes : 

First, That the Bishop might from time to time 
remind his Clergy, thus assembled, of their obli 
gations to the faithful discharge of the pastoral 
care. 

And secondly, That he might receive, in return, 
their best advices for the good government of his 
Diocese. 

But this latter purpose, whether through the mo 
desty of the Clergy, or the sufficiency of their Dio 
cesan, is now forgotten. A neglect much to be 
lamented, as the two duties have a close connexion 
with one another : yea necessary to support and 
maintain that harmony which should always subsist 
between the Bishop and his Clergy, while every 
return of this triennial meeting becomes a mutual 
interchange of good offices. 

Believe me then, my Reverend Brethren, that I 
shall always esteem your counsel and advice as the 
most valuable mark of your affection and attachment 
to me. 

But 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 

But inveterate custom hath so long prevailed, that 
these Meetings are now entirely taken up with the 
first part only of their destined purpose -the Dio 
cesan s exhortation to the faithful discharge of the 
pastoral care. And though sometimes his discourse 
may have deviated, and not a little, from the oc 
casion, yet the title, common to them all, still keeps 
up the remembrance of the thing : the name, 
CHARGE, implying that they had once a common 
subject, and that subject the PASTORAL CARE. For 
the name is not taken from the decisive harangues 
bearing the same title, in civil Judicatories, where 
the presiding Magistrate explains the Law to an 
uninstructed audience, or inforces it to the inferior 
Ministers of Justice. Nor yet from a command or 
Charge which a Lord and Master itnposeth on his 
Servants ; but from that tender and pathetic exhor 
tation of St. PAUL in his pastoral letter to the 

Thessalonians " You know (says he) how we 

" exhorted and comforted, and CHARGED every 
%c one of you, as a father doth his children^ that you 
" walk worthy of God, who hath called you to his 
* kingdom and glory *," Thus are names some 
times of use to call back deviating or depraved In 
stitutions to their original rectitude. 

A CHARGE from this place, therefore, which did 
not first and principally exhort to the faithful per 
formance of this capital duty, would want much of 
its essential integrity. Literary acquirements, a zeal 
for the present government, personal morals, and 

* i Thess. ii. 11, 12. 
VOL. IX. B B soundness 



370 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 

soundness in the orthodox faith, may have their 
turns on this occasion ; but as means only to this 
capital end. 

Let me never forget, therefore, first of all t6 
exhort you, uith all the warmth and earnestness 
becoming your Pastor and Overseer, to pay a strict 
attention to this principal and characteristic duty. 

But when I have done this, I reckon, I have done 
all that is necessary on so beaten a subject, and to 
so well-instructed an Audience. If any thing fur 
ther be wanting, it will be only to caution you, in 
the discharge of it, against those two extremes of 
temper, Lukewarnmess and janatlc zeal: This ac 
companied with a morose seventy of manners, which 
makes even t!ie Gospel-morals unamiable ; That, 
with dissipation and love of pleasure, which gives 
scandal to the sounder part of your Flock, and a 
.bad example to the unsound. 

The pastoral care, therefore, we will suppose to 
be ever in our view, and. the pleasing object of all our 
labours. What the younger part of you may haply 
want, is only to be assisted in the best means to this 
end. You may occasionally need to have it explained 
to you How your own integrity of morals best faci 
litates this care, by procuring you the esteem and 
reverence of your Flock How the extent of your 
knowledge \vill enable you to throw a fence round 
your Fold, that shall bar all entrance to fanaticism, 
whether spiritual or literary; to bigotry, whether 
religious or civil ; to infidelity, whether philosophical 
or immoral. And lastly, How the soundness of your 
faith will secure you from labouring in vain. In a 

word, 



HIE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 371 

word, you may need occasionally to be instructed, 
in what manner the great work of salvation may be 
accomplished to the best advantage : You will rarely 
need to be informed of the importance of the work 
itself. 

Give me leave, then, to take up one of these 
topics for your present consideration. 

And, as the best human security, I know, against 
the mischiefs just now enumerated, is, superior abi 
lities in the learning of your profession, I shall 
choose to select this for the subject of my dis 
course. 

And purposing, hereafter, to hazard my thoughts 
concerning the best method of studying Theology*, 
I desire, that what I now say may be understood 
as addressed to you, the younger part of my 
Brethren : The elder being better qualified to give, 
however ready, in their modesty, they may be to 
receive, advice on this important subject. Indeed, 
to these reverend men I might well remit the care 
of instructing their younger Brethren, did I not con 
sider that advice and direction may possibly come 
with somewhat more authority, as it certainly comes 
with more solemnity, from this place. 

I would suppose, from the circumstances both of 
your private and public character, that there is no 
occasion to excite you to the pursuit of KNOW 
LEDGE; especially when, from the circumstances of 
the times likewise, both your private and pub 1 : 
character so much need this ornament and 

* See concluding Article of following 
BBS 



572 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 

Use and habit in your private character, one would 
hope, should naturally keep you attached to these 
pursuits : your education (to enable you to sustain 
with decency your public character) having formed 
your mind to abstract reflection ; and given it the 
needful ply towards speculative meditation. 

But unhappily, by too short a view of things, you 
have been apt to mistake the completion of your 
academic courses for the completion of your theo- 
logic studies : and then, by a false modesty, have 
despaired of knowing more than you would suffer 
those august places of your education to teach you. 

Were it not for such mistakes as these, your 
habits, concurring with the leisure so bountifully 
bestowed upon your station, would have enabled the 
former impulse to keep you moving in that literary 
course ; till fresh impulses from increasing knowledge 
had fixed you steadily in that orb which you are 
appointed to enlighten and adorn. 

And this LEISURE, which is so peculiarly your 
own, is not, like the other means of knowledge, to 
be employed with indifference, or neglected with im 
punity. You may cast aside your books ; you may 
withdraw yourselves from learned instruction ; and 
still possess your ignorance undisturbed. But your 
leisure^ like those spirits which magicians are said 
to raise, and know not how to set on. work, will 
haunt and terrify you till you find it in employment; 
if not to the benefit of your neighbour, yet, like 
those wicked spirits, to his harm and mischief. For 
nothing is more dreadful to the imagination than 
TIME still attendant and unoccupied. 

Lay- 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 373 

Lay-gentlemen have many advantages of you in 
the disposition of their leisure; if they neglect to 
employ it usefully, they may yet waste it without 
much scandal. The decency, the dignity of your 
profession will not suffer you to be the companion 
of their usual sports and dissipations. Nay, could 
you in honour partake in their amusements, yet the 
slender provision for the support of your order will 
disable you from figuring amongst them in such a 
way as only a gentleman would choose. 

Now here, the noblest, as well as cheapest amuse 
ment (if you should happen to mistake letters for 
nothing more) lies open to you. An amusement, 
which, unlike those other inglorious ways of eluding 
the business of life, neither clouds the mind, nor 
enervates the body : But gives strength to the cor 
poreal, and -adds vigour to the intellectual faculties; 
for application to letters leads us into the habits of 
temperance ; and advances in philosophy help us to 
subdue the more disorderly passions. Hence the 
profession of learning is seen, above all others, to 
reward its followers with Icngtli of days-, a vigorous 
old age being observed to be the more peculiar lot 
of reverenced letters. 

Nor is it merely long life which a pursuit of learn 
ing procures: for long life, without honour, the 
generous mind would disdain to make its choice. 
No; WISDOM provides more amply for its vota 
ries. Happy (says the illustrious King of Israel) 
is he thatjindeth wisdom, and the man that getteth 
understanding : length of days is in her hand, and- 
m her right hand RICHES AND HONOUR*. And, 

Prov. iii. 13 & 16. 

B B 3 in 



374 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 
in times like these, so eagerly aspiring to the prize 
.of superior knowledge, who will dare to suspect that 
riches and honour are not the constant fruits of 
men s successful studies ? 

But be this as it may. A noble mind will pursue 
wisdom, let the reward of his attainment of it be 
never so uncertain; since a Churchman, who neg 
lects to gain honour by letters, is sure to fall into 
contempt. If a lay-gentleman, of no learned pro 
fession, chooses to be illiterate, he lives without a 
species of reputation, which few esteem a defect in 
his character. If a lay-gentleinan of a learned pro 
fession be found thus wanting, he is only neglected 
and forgotten : But let a Clergyman be once noted 
for his ignorance, and so strong is either the general 
malignity to his order, or the inforced sense men 
have of its inward dignity, that such a one is held 
up, through life, for the common object of contempt 
and derision. 

These are the motives which should dispose you, 
as gentlemen, brought up in the study of letters, to 
persevere in the same pursuit, for the support and 
ornament of your character. But as men professing 
fiacred learning, there are others still more forcible. 
The honour and reputation attending the acquire 
ment of wisdom is now no longer a mere personal 
concern; it reflects honour and reputation on the 
Body to which you belong. Yet still, this is to be 
understood only of those studies which relate imme 
diately to your ministry. For a Clergyman to follow 
other studies, is, in the attempt, disreputable, as it 
has the look of neglecting or deserting the interests 
of your own Body : It is, in the issue, fruitless, as 
15 the 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 375 

the stage to which men arrive in studies foreign to 
their profession is rarely considerable. Let a Church 
man busy himself in law, and his ambition must 
terminate in a tolerable Justice of the Quorum. 
Let him amuse himself in the art of physic, and he 
never rises higher than a Village-doctor. 

By this fantastic desertion of the studies of his 
calling, he transgresses likewise one of the plainest 
precepts of moral duty. Every member of a so 
ciety lies under a tacit obligation to consult in the 
first place, the reputation, honour, and benefit of 
that society. But this duty can be discharged no 
otherwise by us, than in prosecuting such studies as 
may best serve to illustrate and support those prirl- 
ciples of knowledge and wisdom on which the prac 
tice of the profession is established. 

Yet further : Such an one not only stands in 
debted to his society, but likewise to himself. Every 
particular is, by the same rule of moral duty, obliged 
to examine carefully the grounds of his profession, 
to enable him to discharge that personal service to 
which he bound himself when he entered into it. 

The lawyer, who employs his time in natural and 
mathematical enquiries, will be ill qualified to adjust 
the due degrees of moral evidence, on which -the 
interest of his clients principally depends : And the 
physician who turns poet, since the use of chdnns 
hath been separated from the art of healing, will 
need (and must expect no other) a patient \\ith a& 
warm an imagination as his own. 

Far higher interests than these are intrusted to 

our care : and therefore far greater attention is re- 

B B 4 quired 



376 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 

quired in the support of them. So that no honest 
Churchman will be lightly drawn away by foreign 
studies, when seen for what they are. He may be 
accidentally deluded, when they wear the face of 
relation to his own. Thus Church-history making 
an important part of our theologic studies, the Anti 
quarian, who delights to solace himself in the be 
nighted days of Monkish owl-light, sometimes passes 
for the Divine. But while he flies from the sublime 
knowledge of modern times, and yet never goes 
back far enough to seize the pure and simple truths 
of primitive Christianity, he soon betrays his adul 
terate species. 

But what will be of more force than all, to hold 
you attached to the proper studies of your profes 
sion, is to keep in mind those sacred engagements 
which you so solemnly contracted with Heaven, 
when you first entered on your ministry, to de-vote 
yourselves entirely to the service of Religion, And 
surely you can never think that this service may be 
effectually discharged without the succours of such 
parts of human wisdom as are most fitted to enlarge 
the understanding, and to enrich the mind with the 
knowledge of the Divine Nature, and of its own. 

There never was an age of tiie Church, when 
this learned apparatus was not necessary to the 
work of the ministry ; for no age hath been exempt 
from the folly or impiety of perverse opinions* 
Some have had more need of this shining panoply 
than others ; but none ever wanted it so much, and 
was, at the same time, so ill supplied as the present. 

BIGOTRY, SUPERSTITION, and FANATICISM, 

have, 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 377 

have, in every age, corrupted the integrity, stained 
the purity, and dishonoured the sobriety of the 
Gospel ; so that there was always full employment 
for human wisdom and science to support the truth 
and dignity of our holy Religion. But in these 
miserable times, LEARNING ITSELF hath been made 
to apostatize, and to bear arms against its own in* 
terests. For dire fanaticisni y hitherto content to 
pollute THEOLOGY, hath now taken a wider range, 
and ostentatiously attempted to draw over both 
PHILOSOPHY and CRITICISM (the specific remedies 
of her disorders) to her party. So that now we 
have not only, as of old, a fanatic theology amongst 
our field-preachers, but a fanatic species of phi 
losophy excogitated by Mr. Law, and a fanatic 
species of criticism, under the control of Mr. 
Hutchiuspn. 

Besides these enemies of our RE A sox, we have 
likewise upon our hands the common enemy of our 
HOPES; who, from every quarter, and under various 
names, makes bands apart to assault the Ordinances 
of Heaven ; such as the Freethinker, who attacks 
Revelation obliquely, under the cover of scepticism ; 
such as the Deist, who defies it openly with the 
blunted arms of overworn sophistry ; and such as the 
Naturalist, who would involve all in one common 
ruin, by his blasphemies against the moral Govern* 
ment of God. 

From what fatal concurrence of circumstances 
these principles came to infect the body of the com 
mon people (principles, till of late, confined to a 
few Particulars, perverted by a bad philosofliy, and 

still 



378 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 

still further corrupted by worse morals), how this, 
I say, came about, it is not my purpose to explain 
to you in this place. I have already said enough 
upon it, on other occasions. It is sufficient that 
sad experience informs you of the fact. 

Now though the fashionable world might support 
itself for a time, on Principles which, from their 
novelty and boldness, flatter its vanity, and keep it 
easy in its vices ; yet the common people could never 
remain long without a religion of some sort or other. 
Hence arose new evils, and fresh employment for 
the Ministers of the Gospel. 

A Religion (as we say) the People, however de 
bauched or misled, must always have, though it be 
only to swear or to cheat by. A return to that ra 
tional and established system, which they had so 
wantonly cast aside, is never to be expected, after 
having abused the exercise of that reason which first 
brought them to embrace, and which (till that abuse) 
had kept them steadily attached to it. Their pas 
sions now governed, under the leading of supersti 
tion and fanaticism : and as each man s temperature 
disposed him to listen to the one or the other of 
these Seducers, there were emissaries at hand to 
take advantage of the prevailing infirmity. Of 
their superstition, the indefatigable Agents of Rome 
secretly availed themselves : and the field-preachers 
openly set fire to their fanaticism. 

Great cities, where only a true judgment of the 
general bent of a people can be made, are at pre 
sent full of complaints of the vast numbers daily se 
duced to Popery and Methodism. 

To 



THE DIOCESE OT GLOUCESTER. 379 

To make head, therefore, against this torrent of 
evils, the most improved abilities, and the most un 
wearied diligence, are but just sufficient, We have 
now, to deal with the sophisms of Infidelity, the 
authority of Papistry, and the jargon of Methodism. 
And though bad logic may ask much dexterity to 
unravel; and old prescription may require much 
erudition to expose its rotten grounds ; yet spiritual 
gibberish is still better intrenched, and harder to be 
approached, for its having no weak side of common 
sense ; 

*recalcitrat undique tutus. 

These motiyes, to minds like yours, will, I am 
sure, give redoubled vigour to your studies. I wish 
I could honestly encourage you by another ; which 
only such minds deserve to have objected to them, 
and which baser natures think of more worth than 
all the rest; I mean, the rewards attendant upon 
letters. All States have indeed provided for them : 
But statesmen of all times have found it necessary 
to divert this sinking fund, more or less, from its 
proper designation, to their own temporary occa 
sions. There is but one season in which meric 
in our profession bears a price in the public market ; 
and that, no good man would wish to see return ; 
I mean, one of those state revolutions, when, for 
the sake, or on pretence of LIBERTY civil and re 
ligious, both the Crown and the Constitution are 
put in hazard. Then, indeed, as in a time of com 
mon danger, the people grow serious ; they fly 
to the altars, and take refuge under the wings of 
the ablest and most approved dispensers of the 

established 



38o CHARGE TO THE CLERGY OF 
established faith ; who now, become of civil use to 
prop a shaken throne, are brought forward even by 
ministers of state. At all other times, these rewards, 
although provided by every political Institution, are 
yet rarely dispensed in the administration of any of 
them. 

Let us expect then nothing from Learning, but 
what learning itself is able to bestow : That serene 
pleasure which accompanies the progress, arid that 
happiness which crowns the end, of our labours. 
For though, like all other, even the best of human 
pursuits, the first advances may be attended witli 
anxiety and pain ; yet, unlike all other, the delight 
which flows from increasing knowledge, through the 
habit of investigating TRUTH, is as pure and undis 
turbed as it is warm and rapturous. In all other 
rational pursuits, the pleasure arises from the end ; 
the means being still accompanied with disgust : 
here it springs alike both from the end and means 
and, as in the advancing work of Creation, where 
good accompanied every step of the progress, the 
labour, and therestfrom labour, were equally blessed. 
All pleasure comes from, and results into, our in 
tellectual feelings. Many species of it are conveyed 
through perverse, many through corrupted channels. 
But the irradiating influx of sacred truth comes di 
rectly from its source ; and is received by the chaste 
and enlightened mind with holy raptures, as in its 
native sanctuary. In a word, the state of growing 
knowledge is, to the SAGE carried up in divine and 
moral speculations, no other than a state of hap 
piness.. 

Such 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 381 

Such are the powerful and alluring motives to 
proceed in the proper learning of your profession. 
But, without some advices to direct your course, 
the laying these exhortations before you would do 
me but little credit, and produce as slender benefit 
to yourselves. 

I shall proceed therefore, as my leisure may en 
able me, and your attention give me encouragement, 
to hazard my further thoughts on this important 
subject. Much experience, and not a little reflec 
tion, may have rendered me not totally unqualified 
for this undertaking. And, proper DIRECTIONS 
FOR THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY, is, in the present 
state of things, I will suppose, no less necessary 
than difficult. 

The usual time you sojourn in the UNIVER 
SITIES is very laudably employed in the prosecution 
of such studies as are to fit you for your Degrees. 
Some of these are foreign to the learning of your 
profession ; others but remotely relative to it. So 
that, what between the increasing expcnccs of the 
age, rather than of the place, and the daily wants 
of a fresh supply for the Ministry, the greater part 
of you are turned out into the world before those 
incomparable Establishments have put the last hand 
to your education, and led you through the more 
sacred parts of the Temple of Wisdom. 

It is true, you no sooner step into the world than 
you have your wants abundantly supplied. Instruc 
tors crowd in upon you from all quarters. And, just 
as on Man s entrance into life, in the famed table of 
Ccbes, every false species of happiness presents itself 

before 



382 CHARGE TO THE CLERGY or 

before him, each striving who shall first get possession 
of the new comer ; so, on your entry on the ministry, 
every phantom of false science, raised up at the 
resistless call of the Sages in St. Paul s Church 
yard, open wide their hospitable arms, to receive 
you to their daily, their weekly, and their monthly 
lectures. What shining collections of polite litera 
ture ! What weighty volumes of profound criticism, 
have crowned their generous labours ! But in Scrip 
tural abundance, their unsparing bounty chiefly dis 
plays itself: Commentaries, Histories, and even 
Dictionaries of the HOLY BIBLE, keep rolling down 
upon you, from the same perennial source. While 
the smaller Divinity, like the flies and lice of Egypt 
from the dust of the land, meets you in your dish, 
and lies hid in all you taste and handle. The artful 
disguise, too, is no less taking than the plenty. And, 
as Flaminius s Host of Chalcis entertained his Guest 
with a magnificent variety of viands, and all from 
the hog- s tie, so the whole of this delicious cookery 
comes from as dirty a place, I mean, a Bookseller s 
Garret. 

While you retain any tincture of that noble learn* 
ing with which you were imbued, in those pure Foun 
tains of Science, which you left too soon, you will be 
in no danger from the delusions of these miserable im 
postors, Ix at<r0avo l ai vwi> rrs lawruv fyctWdtf, as Origeil 
elegantly expresses it, where he characterizes certain 
false Teachers of the same stamp. In this temper, 
you will be prepared for, and indeed worthy of, 
better instruction. Whether my mediocrity shall 
be able to impart it, must be left to time, and to 

your 



THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER. 383 

your use of it, to determine. Till then, you need 
not blush to recollect and bear in mind what you, 
once learnt at School, 

" Virtus est VITIUM rtroERE, et sapientia prima 
" STULTITIA CARUISSK." = 



ND OF THE NINTH VOLUME. 



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