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THE
THEOLOGICAL
AND
MISCELLANEOUS WORKS
OF THE lAXE REV-
WILLIAM foNES, M.A.
MINISTER OF NAY LAND, SUFFOLK.
T<» WHICH IS PREFIXED,
A SHORT ACCOUNT
OF HIS
LIFE AND WRITINGS
BY WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ.
A NFAV EDITION.
IN SIX VOLUMES. VOL. IV.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON,
ST. Paul's church-yakd,
AND WATERLOO-PLACE, PALL-MALL.
1820.
LONDON :
PRINTED BY R. GILBHIIT,
ST. John's square.
I
•CONTENTS. _ ■
FOURTH VOLUME.
SERMONS.
SERMON I.
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
PAGE
And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself; and God saw that it was good- Gen. i. 12.. 1
[Preached on Mr. Fairchild's foundation at the church of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, June 1, 1784.]
SERMON II.
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND OECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE.
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Gen. i. 25 13
[A second sermon, on the same occasion, preached on the Tuesday in Whitsun-week, May 17, 1785.]
SERMON III.
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS.
And God said. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together tmto one place, and let the dry land appear ; and it was so.
A 2
IV CONTENTS.
PAGE
And God called the dry land earth ; and the gathering to- gether of the waters called he seas ; and God saw that
it was good. Gen. i. 9, 10 39
[A third sermon, on the same occasion, preached June G, 1786.]
SERMON IV.
ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead, Rom. i. 20 57
[A fourth sermon, on the same occasion, preached Tuesday in WhitsunWeek, 1787.]
SERMON V.
THE NATURE AND EXCELLENCE OF MUSIC.
Sing to the harp with a psalm of thanksgiving. Psalm xcviii. 6 74
[Preached at the opening of a new organ, at Nayland, Suffolk, July 29, 1787.]
SERMON VI.
THE REASONABLENESS AND NECESSITY OF FEARING GOD.
Fear God. 1 Pet. ii. 17 90
SERMON VII.
THE BENEFITS OF CIVIL OBEDIENCE.
Honour the king. 1 Pet. ii. 17 .*... 103
[Preached at Harwich, on Sunday, June 21, 1 778,]
SERMON VIII.
PAROCHIAL REFORMATION RECOMMENDED.
To the one we are the savour of death unto death ; and to the other the savour of life unto life : and who is sitffi- cient for these things? 2 Cor. ii. 16 114
CONTENTS.
V
SERMON IX.
THE DUTY OF RELIEVING THE POOR AND THEIR CHILDREN.
PAGE
Ye have the poor with j/ou always, and, whensoever ye
will, ye may do them good. Mark xiv. 7 128
[Preached in the parish church of St. Peter's, Colchester, April 27, 1783.]
SERMON X.
THE BLESSEDNESS OF CONSIDERING THE POOR.
Blessed is he that consider eth the poor and needy: the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble. Psalm xli. 1. 142
[Preached at Chelmsford, September 10, 1786, for the benefit of the charity school.]
SERMON XI.
THE HISTORY OF COLLECTIONS FOR THE POOR ; WITH ADVICE TO THE MEMBERS OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES.
Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.
Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. 1 Cor. i. 2. 157
[Preached to a friendly society (who, by mutual contribution, re- lieve one another) on Easter Tuesday, 1782.]
SERMON XII.
ETERNAL LIFE, THE GREAT PROMISE OF THE LAW.
As touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken to you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the liv- ing. Matt. xxii. 31, 32 172
Vi CONTENTS.
SERMON XIII and XIV.
PRODIGALITY DISPLAYED, AND (ECONOMY RECOMMENDED.
PAGE
And when he had S2)ent all, he began to be in want. Luke XV. 14 189 and 202
SERMON XV.
THE MAN OF SIN.
How is it that ye do not discern this time ? Luke xii. 56. 217
[Preached at Spring Garden Chapel, on Sunday, Jan. 26, and at Oxford Chapel, on Sunday, Feb. 2, 1794.]
SERMON XVI.
THE AGE OF UNBELIEF.
When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth ? Luke xviii. 8 , . . . . 230
[Preached in Spring Garden Chapel, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 1795.]
SERMON XVIL
THE NATURE, USES, DANGERS, SUFFERINGS, AND PRESERVATIVES OF THE HUMAN IMAGINATION.
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Gen. vi. 5 249
SERMON XVIII and XIX.
A FRIENDLY ADMONITION TO THE CHURCHMAN, ON THE SENSE AND SUFFICIENCY OF HIS RELIGION.
Hear the Church. Matt, xviii. 17 265 and 281
[Addressed to the inhabitants of the parish of Paston, in Northamptonshire.]
SERMON XX.
THE USE AND ABUSE OF THIS WORLD.
And they that use this world as not abusing it. 1 Cov. vii. 31 295
[Preached at St. Bene't, Gracechurch, in the city of London, on Sunday, October 9, 1796.]
CONTENTS. VII
SERMON XXI.
CALLING AND ELECTION.
PAGE
Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. 2 Pet. i. 10 314
SERMON XXII.
THE NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER ; WITH A METHOD OF PRAYING ALWAYS.
Men ought always to pray. Luke xviii. 1 330
SERMON XXIII.
THE DANGER OF DESPISING LAWFUL AUTHORITY.
These filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. St. Jude, Verse 8 347
SERMON XXIV.
REPENTANCE NECESSARY TO OUR SALVATION.
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke xiii. 8. 359 SERMON XXV.
PAUL AND ELYMAS.
And when they had gone through the Isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false Prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-.fcsus. Acts xiii. 6 371
SERMON XXVI.
AIHTHOPUEL THE SUICIDE.
And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and jmt his household in order, and hanged himself, and died. 2 Sam. xvii. 23 383
SERMON XXVII.
THE DELAY OF GOD's JUDGMENTS.
Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Eccles. viii. 11 399
viii
CONTENTS.
SERMON XXVIII.
THE MAN BORN BLIND.
PAGE
And as Jesus passed by, lie saw a man which was blind from his birth. John ix. 1 409
SERMON XXIX.
DOGS AND SWINE.
Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither east ye your pearls before swine ; lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. Matt. vii. 6. 422
SERMON XXX.
CHRIST THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. John xiv. 6 432
SERMON XXXI.
THE CASE OF THE LAW STATED.
For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made mid, and the promise made of none effect. Rom. iv. 14. . . 444
SERMON XXXII.
RAHAB AND JERICHO.
By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were
compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that
believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.
Heb. xi. 30, 31 455
SERMON XXXIII.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
TJien said Jesus unto him, go and do thou likewise. Luke X.37 466
AND THE EARTH BROUGHT FORTH GRASS, AND HERB YIELDING SEED AFTER HIS KIND, AND THE TREE YIELDING FRUIT, WHOSE SEED WAS IN ITSELF ; AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD. GEN. I. 12.
If an author, who should undertake to explain the proportion of architecture, were to trouble us with a long preface, to prove that every house we see must have been the work of some man, because no house could possibly build itself, or rise into form by acci- dent ; I presume, we should all be of opinion, that he might have spared this part of his labour. It seems equally superfluous to insist, that the structure of na- ture could not raise itself ; the cases being exactly pa- rallel, and both self-evident to common sense. There is a sort of sense, which pretends to discover, not only that the argument is necessary, but that the proof is deficient. We trust, however, that such neither is, nor ever will be common. If there re^^lly be such a thing as speculative or philosophical atheism, that doctrine must be the individual point, in which the affectation of wisdom meets the extremity of folly : and it would be loss of time to reason with it. We therefore take it upon the authority of the text, that herbs, trees, fruits and seeds, are the work of God ; and the present occasion requires us to consider how, and
VOL. IV. B
2
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF
C^SERM. I.
in what respects, this work is good, and displays the wisdom of the great Creator.
The goodness ascribed to this part of the creation is evidently not moral but natural : it means, that the several articles of the vegetable kingdom have that sort of goodness of which they are capable ; that they are beautiful and perfect in their kinds ; wonderful in their growth ; sufficient in their powers and pro- perties ; and beneficial in their uses. In these capa- cities we are to consider them ; and to observe how the wisdom of the Creator is manifested.
First, in the form and structure of vegetables.
Secondly, in the manner of their growth.
Thirdly, in their natural uses, for meat and medicine.
Fourthly, in their moral uses ; for the advancement of human prudence and religious faith.
Herbs and flowers may be regarded by some per- sons as objects of inferior consideration in philosophy; but every thing must be great which hath God for its author. To him all the parts of nature are equally related. The flowers of the earth can raise our thoughts up to the Creator of the world as effectually as the stars of heaven : and till we make this use of both, we cannot be said to think properly of either. The contemplation of nature should always be sea- soned with a mixture of devotion ; the highest faculty of the human mind ; by which alone contemplation is improved, and dignified, and directed to its proper object. To join these together is the design of our present meeting ; and when they are joined, may they never more be put asunder !
In the form and structure of plants, with the pro- vision for their growth and increase, there is a store of matter which would more than fill a philosophical
SERM. I.^
BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
<»
o
treatise : I must therefore content myself with tracing some of the outlines of^o large a subject.
The first thing that engages the curiosity of man, and tempts him to bestow so much of his labour and attention upon this part of the creation, is the beau- tiful form and splendid attire of plants. They who practise this labour know how delightful it is. It seems to restore man in his fallen state to a participa- tion of that felicity, which he enjoyed while innocent in Paradise.
When we cast our eyes upon this part of nature, it is first observable that, herbs and trees compose a scene so agreeable to the sight, because they are in- vested with that green colour, which, being exactly in the middle of the spectrum of the coloured rays of light, is tempered to a mildness which the eye can bear. The other brighter and more simple colours are sparingly bestowed on the flowers of plants, and which, if diffused over all their parts, would have been too glaring, and consequently offensive. The smaller and more elegant parts are adorned with that brightness which attracts the admiration without en- dangering the sense.
But while the eye is delighted with the colouring of a flower, the reason may be still more engaged with the natural use and design of a flower in the oeconomy of vegetation. The rudiment of the fruit, when young and tender, requires some covering to protect it ; and accordingly, the flower-leaves surround the seat of fructification ; when the sun is warm, they are expand- ed by its rays, to give the infant fruit the benefit of the heat : to forward its growth when the sun sets, and the cold of the evening prevails, the flower-leaves na- turally close, that the air of the night may not injure the seed-vessel. As the fructification advances, and
B 2
4
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF |^SERM. I.
the changes of the air are no longer hurtful, the flower- leaves have answered their end, and so they wither and fall away. How elegant therefore, as well as ap- posite, is that allusion in the Gospel ; / say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these * .• for the flower, which is the glory of the lily and other plants, is literally and physically a raiment for the clothing of the seed-vessel ! And a raiment it is, whose texture surpasses all thelaboured productions of art for the clothing of an eastern monarch. The finest works of the loom and the needle, if examined with a microscope, appear so rude and coarse, that a savage might be ashamed to wear them : but when the work of God in a flower is brought to the same test,we see how fibres, too minute for the naked eye, are com- posed of others still more minute ; and they of others ; till the primordial threads or first principles of the texture are utterly undiscernible ; while the whole substance presents a celestial radiance in its colouring, with a richness superior to silver and gold : as if it were intended for the clothing of an angel. The whole creation does not afford a more splendid object for minute examination than the leaves and filaments of flowers ; even of some flowers which look obscure, and promise little or nothing to the naked eye.
But besides this richness of substance and colour, there is an elegance of design in the whole form and disposition of a plant, which human artists, in orna- mental works, are always studious to imitate. Their leaves, and branches, and flowers, are thrown about with that ease, and turned into beautiful lines, so as to charm the eye with a variety of flexure, and con- vince us that all the excellence of art must take its pattern fi*om nature.
* Matt. vi. 29.
SERM. I.^ BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
5
The parts generally observable in plants, are a root, a stalk, branches, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds, succeeding each other in their order, and all seeming necessary to one another. But under the direction of divine wisdom, vegetable life is carried on in every possible form, and the end of fructification is attained, while the n^eans seem to be wanting : as if Providence meant to shew us, that it is not confined to any parti- cular means ; and that the work of God in this respect essentially differs from the work of man. The Ferns, have neither stalks, nor branches, nor flowers, but consist of single leaves on their pedicels, with seeds upon the backs of them. The flower of the Dwarf- thistle sits upon the ground without a stalk ; while the Torch-thistle, has nothing but a stalk, like the staff of a spear. The Melon-thistle is all fruit ; the Opuntia, or Indian fig, all leaf : and whilst the various fruits are produced from the germens of their re- spective flowers, the Fig-tree gives us its fruit with- out any such concurrence, and incloses the flowers themselves. The Tuber terra, or Truffle, has neither leaf, stem, branch, flower, nor seed ; nothing but a globular root, which thrives under ground, and does not appear to be fed by fibres like other roots ; yet it increases and multiplies.
It is a general rule in nature, that plants which have the same characters have like qualities ; but where this rule would teach us to expect a poison, we find a plant with an agreeable odour and wholesome nou- rishment ; as in the Solannm Escidentum, which is of a deadly race, with all the external characters of a Night-shade. Are we not hence to learn, that quality does not arise from configuration, or from any neces- sity of nature ; but follows the will and wisdom of the
6
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF
C^SERM. I.
Creator; who to every plant, as to every man, divideth severally as lie ivill 9
It seems essential to trees, that they should be fixed in the earth, and draw their nourishment from it ; but some will have no communication with the earth ; affixing themselves in a strange manner to the wood of other trees, and subsisting upon their juices ; yet pre- serving their own peculiar nature and complexion.
Flowers are commonly expanded by the heat of the sun ; but some are opened in the evening when others are closed ; and break forth at midnight ; particularly one, which is the glory of the vegetable creation ; like the nightingale, which delights the ear of men, and displays its skill without a rival, while other birds are silent and at rest.
When we survey the plants of the sea, how discern- ible is that wisdom which hath provided for their sub- sistence and safety in that element ! Such as have broad leaves, and would be forced from their station by tides or storms, if their roots were fixed into an earthy bottom, are fastened by the root to weighty stones and pebbles ; where instead of being driven about at random by the agitations of the water, they lie safe at anchor. That they may not be bruised by lying prostrate on the ground, they are rendered powerfully buoyant, and kept in an erect position, by means of large vesicles of air, variously disposed about their leaves or their stalks, as the difference of their form and structure may require. A similar provision for their preservation is observable in many of the plants which grow upon the land. Such as are tender and flexible, and apt to trail upon the ground, are furnished with spiral tendrils, or other like means, by which they lay hold of such other plants as are firm and upright. What an useful lesson is this to human
SERM. 1.3
BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
7
society ! where, according to the analogy of nature, the strong ought to support the weak, and the de- fenceless should rest securely upon the powerful. How different a place would the world be, if this ex- ample were religiously followed !
And now if there are so many effects of the divine wisdom visible to us who are confined in a climate re- mote from the sun; what opportunities must they have, what wonders of the Lord must they see, who go down to the sea in ships, and make their observa- tions in happier regions ; where the sun, the soil, the air, all things being different, vegetation is on a much larger scale, and presents many grand and glorious objects which can never come to our sight !
In speaking of the growth of plants, which is the se- cond thing to be considered, I must forbear to attempt a theory. The first particular which meets us is that spoken of in the text ; that herbs and trees carry their seeds in themselves : from whence it seems deducible, that the primeval tree or plant, which was contempo- rary with tlie first father of mankind, included all the trees that should proceed from it to the end of time ; so that the seed which is growing into an herb at this day, is but an evolution of something which subsisted in the first plant at the creation. How to get clear of this consequence we do not see ; and to pursue it we are not able ; our imagination is bewildered and lost in the idea of such a succession ; the rudiments of a future forest included in a single acorn !
It is not so far beyond us to observe, how the ele- ments in their several capacities are made subservient to the life and increase of plants. The soil on which they grow contains a mixture of principles, wisely tempered together, which supply vegetables with matter for their nourishment ; and their root with its
8
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF
[[SERM. I,
fibres and lacteals, which takes in this nourishment, answers the same purpose as the stomach in animals. Water is the vehicle which conveys this nourishment into their vessels ; while the -iun and air, expanding and contracting, keep up an oscillatory motion ana- logous to that of respiration.
It is now allowed, that there is both a vital circula- tion of the juices in vegetables, and a large perspira- tion from their pores : which latter is become a subject of great curiosity and importance, from the success- ful labours of those who have cultivated this part of natural philosophy. The circulation in plants is strong in the spring, and languid in the winter ; in some it is so forcible and abundant, that if their vessels are opened at an improper season, they will bleed to death, as when an artery is divided in the human body. If the finer spirit evaporates from a plant, and it has no fresh supply, it becomes instantly flaccid and fading, as an animal body dies with the departure of its breath.
The process of vegetation is forwarded in a wonder- ful manner by the vicissitudes of day and night, and the changes of the weather. The heat of the sun raises a moist, elastic vapour, which fills and expands certain vessels in plants, and so gradually enlarges their bulk ; while the colder air of the night condenses and digests the matter which has been raised, and so confirms the work of the day. We complain of cold blasts and clouded skies, by the intervention of which vegetation rapidly advancing is suddenly stopped and seems stationary : but this may be wisely ordained by Providence ; the growth of herbs may be too hasty ; they are weak in substance, if they are drawn forward too fast. A cold season prevents this too hasty growth ; as in the moral world some seasonable disappointment may give a salutary check to an aspiring mind, and es-
SERM. I.]] BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
9
tablish it in wisdom and patience. Even the rough- est motions of the elements have their use. Winds and storms, which agitate the body of trees and herbs, loosen the earth about their roots, and make way for their fibres to multiply, and to strike more kindly into the soil, to find new nourishment. Thus is nature more effectually progressive when it seems to be sta- tionary or even retrograde ; and all things work toge- ther for good ; which they could never do but under the foresight and direction of an all-wise Providence.
But above all, the showers of heaven, concurring with the sun, promote the work of vegetation. They keep the matter of the soil soluble, and consequently moveable ! for salts cannot act but in a state of solu- tion ; they furnish matter for an expansive vapour, which acts internally and externally ; and, what is but little understood, though equally worthy of admira- tion, the rain brings down with it an invigorating ethe- real spirit from the clouds, which gives it an efficacy far beyond all the waterings which human labour can administer. It is here in the kingdom of nature as in the kingdom of grace ; nothing can succeed without a blessing from heaven : Every good gift and every per- fect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Fa- ther of lights *. How commonly do we see, that some seeds which lie still in the ground, and cannot be made to stir by all the waterings of art, will suddenly start up to life as soon as they are touched by a wa- tering from the heavens ! Such is the difference be- tween the gifts of God and the gifts of man.
But, thirdly, the goodness of God, as well as his power and wisdom, is diplayed in the uses of plants ; and it is rather a matter of duty than of curiosity to consider them attentively. It is the wisdom of man
* James i. 17.
10 THE RELIGIOUS USE OF [|SERM. I.
to learn the will of God from the state of nature, as well as from the pages of revelation ; and it is his hap- piness to follow it when known. According to the state of nature, a preference seems to be given to ve- getable diet. For the useful and harmless cattle, which either feed man with their milk, or assist him in his labours, nothing is provided but a vegetable or farinaceous diet. Animal food is proper to wild beasts of fierce and savage natures ; and the man who abuses it is too nearly allied to that class of animals. The beasts distinguished by the Levitical Law as proper and wholesome to man are very few. The inhabitants of the waters, which supply a more temperate diet, are administered to us in much greater variety : but the luxuriance of nature is found in the vegetable king- dom ; where the roots, leaves, fruits, and seeds of plants, afford all that is most tempting to the eye, grateful to the taste, and desirable to the appetite. The sweet- est food in the world, which is honey, is a composition elaborated by the bee from the flowers of vegetables. The emblematical horn of plenty is not stored with beasts, fowls, and fishes, but with herbs and fruits for the sustenance and delight of man. The efficacy of a vegetable diet, for preserving the body in health, and the mind in a clear and temperate state, hath in all ages been confirmed by the experience of the wise and good. The greatest instances of longevity have been found among the virtuous and the recluse, who feasted on the herbs and roots which their own hands had cul- tivated.
Of the goodness and wisdom of God we have far- ther evidence in the medicinal herbs. If men obtain the reputation of wisdom by a judicious application of them to the cure of diseases ; what must that origi- nal wisdom be, which gave them their forms and their
SERM. I.]]
BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
11
faculties ! The Lord, saith the son of Sirach, hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise ivill not despise them*. When he considers who is the author of them, he will be persuaded, that, if un- derstood, they must be found more safe in their use, than the preparations of human art ; he will there- fore respect their virtues, and give them the prefer- ence which is due to them. There is certainly a momentum in mineral preparations, which produces sudden and great effects ; but their power approaches too near to violence : while the vegetable medicines, ordained to be such by the Creator, are more conge- nial to the human constitution; and thus a reasonable alliance is preserved between the medicine of man and the diet of man ; but we never eat minerals, though we use them in medicine ; often with some good, and also with the danger of some bad effect. The mineral materials of a volcano will warm us, as the fuel of any other fire; but at the same time they may suffocate us, or send down ruin upon our heads.
What possible modification of minerals can chemis- try exhibit, which will quiet a distempered agitation of the nerves, and lessen the sensation of pain, which would otherwise be insupportable ? But this desirable effect is wonderfully produced by the medicinal juice of the poppy. The learned know that there are seve- ral effects in medicine, m hich are never to be obtained but from vegetables ; and so persuaded are they of a specific, salutary power in them, that they apply for help even to such plants as are poisonous. That the poisonous plants have their use, we must presume, be- cause they have the same divine author with the rest. Every Creature of God is good in its proper capacity ; but if we mistake its capacity, we shall abuse it. Poi-
* Ecckis. xxxviii. 4.
12
THE RELIGIOUS USE OF
CSERM. I.
sonous herbs, from their great power, may do ser- vice internally, in very small quantities ; but we should rather suppose, from what we have heard and seen, that they were intended chiefly for external ap- plication ; in which they can perform wonders ; and medicine might perhaps be improved, if more expe- riments were made in this way. But, it is not my province to enlarge here, and I have nothing but a good meaning to plead for proceeding thus far.
It is now to be observed, lastly, that the same wis- dom, which ordained the vegetable creation for the natural use of feeding and healing the body, hath ap- plied it also to a moral or intellectual use, for the en- larging of our ideas, and the enlightening of our un- derstandings. It joins its voice in the universal chorus of all created things, and to the ear of reason cele- brates the wisdom of the Almighty Creator. As the heavens, from day unto day, and from night unto night, declare the glory of God, so do the productions of the earth, all trees and herbs, in their places and seasons speak the same language ; from the climates of the north to the torrid regions of the south, and from the winter to the spring and the harvest.
The Holy Scripture hath many wise, and some beau- tiful allusions to the vegetable creation, for moral and religious instruction. The most ancient piece of this sort is the parable of Jotham in the book of Judges ; where the dispositions and humours of men, and their effects in society, are illustrated by the different na- tures of trees. On occasion of AhhnelecK s treachery, Jotham tells the people, under the form of a fable, that the trees went forth to anoint them a king ; and when all the good and honourable, as the olive, the fig-tree, and the vine, declined the trouble of ruling in so- ciety, the bramble offered his services, and invited
SERM. BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY, 18
them to trust in his shadow *. Thus it happened in the case of Ahimelecli : and doth not experience shew us at this day, that the moral is still good ? that the worst, and most worthless, are always the most for- ward to thrust themselves into power, and promise great things ; how safe and happy we should be un- der their shadow ! As if brambles, of a nature to tear the skin, and draw blood from every part of the body, and fit fpr nothing but to be burned out of the way, could form an agreeable shade for the people to sit under. The good and the virtuous, who are fruitful and happy in themselves, would be deprived of their internal comforts by the hurry and danger which at- tend the possession of power : but bad men who have no source of content and enjoyment within them- selves, are always so forward to seek it without them- selves, and would turn the world upside down, or tear its inhabitants to pieces, to satisfy their own ambition. When circumstances conspire to bring those into action who are most worthy of power, then people sit under the vine, and under the Jig-tree, in the enjoyment of peace and plenty.
Our blessed Saviour, with a like allusion, hath re- ferred us to the natural state and condition of plants and flowers ; thence to learn the unprofitableness of that anxiety and distrust, with which we seek after the things of this world. Consider the lilies, how they grow — If God so clothe the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe you f ? As if he had said : " You admire the beautiful clothing of a flower ; and indeed it is worthy of all admiration ; the God on whom you depend is the author of its wonderful contexture ; whence you ought to learn, that if he hath bestowed this rich attire upon the inferior part of the creation,
* See Judges ix. 8, &c. t Maft. vi. ^8. .30.
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THE RELIGIOUS USE OF [[SERM. I.
the grass of the field, so fading and transient, he w ill never leave you unprovided who are made for eter- nity."
The accidents to which plants are exposed in their growth, afford matter for the beautiful and instructive parable of the sower, which conveys as much in a few plain words, as a volume could do in any other form *. The seed of God's word, when it is sown by a preacher, may fall into an honest and good heart, as the seed of the sower into a happy, fruitful soil ; or it may light among the thorns of worldly cares, and the rank weeds of worldly pleasures, which, springing up with it, will choke it, and render it unfruitful ; or it may fall into an hasty, impatient mind, like seed upon a shal- low, rocky soil, w^here it hath no depth of earth, and so cannot endure when the heat of the sun dries it. Other minds are open to the ways of the world in pub- lic or fashionable life, and unguarded against the dan- gers of sin ; so are exposed to the depredations of evil spirits, which rob them of what they had heard ; as birds of the air pick up without fear or molestation the seeds which are scattered by the side of a public road.
The transient nature of plants and flowers has given occasion to many striking representations of the brevity and vanity of this mortal life. " As the " leaves wither and fall away from the trees, and " others succeed, so," saith an ancient poet, " are " the generations of men -f
* Matt. xiii. 3, &c.
■}• OtTj Trep ^uXXwv yev£?j, Toirj^e (cat avBpwv. <bv\Xa ra fiey r avefioe x<^/^*'^'£ X**'*
Horn. II. ^. 146.
Like leaves on trees the race of man is found, Now green in youth, now with'ring on the ground.
Pope's Homer, b. vi. 1. 181.
13
SERM. I.^ BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY.
15
How sublime and affecting is that reflection in the book of Job — " Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery ; he Cometh up like a flower, and is cut down * :" In the same figurative language doth the Psalmist speak of the flourishing state of man in youth, and his decay in the time of age ; " In the morning they are like the grass which groweth up, in the morning it flourisheth and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut down and withered." To cure us of our confidence in the wealth and prosperity of this world, and make way for the serious temper of the Gospel, nothing can be more expressive and rhetorical than that sentence of St. James : " Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted ; but the rich in that he is made low ; because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away ; for the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it pe- risheth ; so shall the rich man fade away in his ways :" that is, he shall decay in his prosperity, as the flower fades the sooner for the enjoyment of the sun-shine.
The reviving of seeds and roots buried in the earth, though so common a fact, is yet so wonderful, that it is more than a figure, it is a pledge and assurance that the dead shall rise again. In every spring nature presents us with a general resurrection in the vegeta- ble world, after a temporary death and burial in the winter. The root that lies dormant under the ground is a 'prisoner of liope, and waits for the return of the vernal sun. If it could speak, it might repeat (and to the ear of faith it does repeat) those words of the Apos- tle : — O grave ivhere is thy vie fori/? So plainly doth vegetable nature preach this doctrine of the resurrec-
* Job xiv. 2.
16
THE RELIGIOUS VSE OF [[SERM. I.
tion, that the man is supposed to be senseless, who does not make this use of it — Ihou fooJ, it is not quickened, except it die.
I would now only observe, after what hath been said, that a right use of our present subject in all its parts must contribute to the dignity, and to the hap- piness of man. How innocently, and how pleasantly is he entertained, who in cultivating the various pro- ductions of the earth, hath the elements working with him, and assisting him to perfect his flowers and fruits, and raise a Paradise around him ! What a rational and noble employment it is, to trace the ef- fects of divine wisdom in a survey of the vegetable kingdom ; in the beautiful forms of plants, their end- less variety, the configuration of their organs, the distinction of their characters ; the places of their in- habitation, by land, by sea, in rivers and in lakes, on rocks and mountains, in the fields, the pastures, and the woods : Avith their successions from the spring to the summer, from the summer to the autumn : their appearances by day and by night !
How proper is it to use them for health and for temperance, as the wise have done, and as the Crea- tor, ever mindful of the sum of our happiness, hath appointed ! What a respectable benefactor is he to mankind, who discovers their virtues in medicine, and applies them to the relief of the miserable ; an office ever grateful to a benevolent mind !
But happiest of all is he, who having cultivated herbs and trees, and studied their virtues, and applied them for his own, and for the common benefit, rises from thence to a contemplation of the great Parent of good, whom he sees and adores in these his glorious works. The world cannot shew us a more exalted cha- racter than that of a truly religious philosopher, who 11
SERM. I.]3 BOTANICAL PHILOSOPHY. 17
delights to turn all things to the glory of God : who from the objects of his sight derives improvement to his mind, and in the glass of things temporal sees the image of things eternal. Let a man have all the world can give him ; he is still miserable, if he has a grovel- ing, milettered, indevout mind : let him have his gardens, his fields, his woods, and his lawns, for gran- deur, ornament, plenty and gratification ; while at the same time God is not in all his thoughts. And let another have neither field nor garden; let him only look at nature with an enlightened mind; a mind which can see and adore the Creator in his works; can consider them as demonstrations of his power, his wisdom, his goodness, his truth : this man is greater, as well as happier, in his poverty, than the other in his riches. The one is but little higher than a beast, the other but little lower than an angel.
We ought therefore to praise those who in their life-time made this use of the natural world, and grate- fully to remember that piety which directed our minds to an annual commemoration of God's wisdom in the works of the vegetable creation ; a great subject ; in discoursing on which, I have only scattered some seeds, to be opened and perfected by your future meditation : in which may the grace of God assist us all, through Jesus Christ our Lord, &c.
VOL. IV.
C
SERMON II
AND GOD MADE THE BEAST OF THE EARTH AFTER HIS KIND, AND CATTLE AFTER THEIR KIND, AND EVERY THING THAT CREEPETH UPON THE EARTH AFTER HIS KIND : AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD. GEN. I. 25.
When the works of God were finished, his eye surveyed them, and saw that they were good ; that they were perfect in their construction, and capa- ble of answering all the ends to which they were ap- pointed. As far as man can observe his goodness in the works of nature, and see the mind of the Creator in the creature, so far he sees things as God sees them, and becomes partaker of a divine pleasure.
On a former occasion, I endeavoured to point out some of that goodness which is found in the vegeUtble kingdom * ; from whence I shall now proceed to the animal, with a desire to trace the same goodness in the structure, qualities, and ceconomy of living crea- tures : but confining myself chiefly to those spoken of in the text, beasts and cattle.
When vegetable and animal life are compared, dif- ferent things are to be admired, but nothing is to be preferred ; for the wisdom of the Creator, being infi- nite, is every where equal to itself : to its works no-
* See the preceding Sermon on the Religious Use of Botanical Philosophy,
15
SERM. IlO CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE, &C. 19
thing can be added with advantage, nothing can be taken from them without loss. All things are perfect in their several kinds, and possessed of that goodness or sufficiency which must be found in every work of God.
Yet there is a visible series or scale in the natural creation; where those derivative powers which are in the creature, rise from the lower to the higher, and keep ascending regularly till we can follow them no farther. When we pass from a lower to an higher order of beings, some new faculty presents itself to our admiration. Thus, betwixt plants and animals there are essential differences, which immediately strike us. A plant is a system of life, but insensitive, and fixed to a certain spot. An animal hath voluntary motion, sense, or perception, and is capable of pain and pleasure. Yet in the construction of each there are some general principles which very obviously connect them. It is literally as well as metaphorically true, that trees have limbs, and an animal body branches. A vascular system is also common to both, in the channels of which life is maintained and circu- lated. When the trachea, with its branches in the lungs, or the veins and arteries, or the nerves, are separately represented, we have the figure of a tree. The leaves of trees have a fibrous and fleshy part ; their bark is a covering, which answers to the skin in animals. An active vapour pervades them both, and perspires from both, which is necessary to the preservation of health and vigour.
The parallel might be extended to their wounds and distempers : but we must not be too minute, when our purpose is rather to raise devotion than to satisfy curiosity. However, it ought not to be omitted, that the t'/.y vitcp, or involuntary, mechanical force of ani-
c 2
20 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATI RE AND [^SERM. II.
mal life, is kept up by the same elements which act upon plants for their growth and support.
The organs of respiration, acted upon by the air, are as the first wheel in a machine, M'hich receives the moving power ; heat preserves the fluidity of the blood and humours, and acts as an expanding force in the stomach, heart, and blood-vessels ; which force is counteracted from without by the atmospherical pressure; for the want of which, the vessels would be ruptured by the prevailing of the force within.
The nerves form another distinct branch of the ani- mal system, and are accommodated by the Creator to the action of that subtile, forcible fluid, which in its different capacities we sometimes call light, and some- times ether. Late experiments have shewn us how little this acts on the blood-vessels, and how power- fully on the nerves and muscles, the functions of which it will therefore restore, and hath done in several cases, when they have been impaired by diseases or accidents.
The animal mechanism, and the forces of life, are things fearful and wonderful in themselves, and of such deep research, that I am afraid of venturing too far ; but thus far I think we are safe, that animal life, considered only as motion, is maintained like the other motions of nature, by the action of contrary forces; in which there is this wonderful property, that neither appears to have the priority ; and their joint efiect is a motion, which in theory is perpetual. The flame of a candle cannot burn without fire, nor be lighted without air: which of these is first we cannot say, for they seem co-instantaneous ; and they con- tinue to work together till the matter fails which they work upon.
Thus, when an animal is born into the world, and the candle of life is lighted up, it is hard to give any
SERM. 11.^ (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 21
precedence to the elementary powers which support it. The weight of the atmosphere forces into the lungs, as soon as they are exposed to its action, that air which is the breath of life ; but this could not happen unless the more subtile element were to occasion a rarefac- tion within ; and this reciprocation, once begun, is continued through life : though it will fail if either of the elements cease to act upon it. With extreme cold, the circulation of blood will stop ; and the want of air, or the admission of that which is improper, will ex- tinguish the vital motion in the lungs. But here, as the power of the Creator is found to maintain a vege- table life in plants, v/here the necessary means seem to be wanting ; so when we think the mechanism of ani- mal life is understood, and that heat, and respiration, and circulation, are all necessary to it, we look far- ther, and find animals living without respiration : some totally, and others (which is more wonderful) occasi- onally. Some are comparatively, if not positively, cold in their temperature ; as those which lie under water in the winter months. These are unable to en- dure that degree of heat which is the life of others : as there are plants which fix themselves upon the bleak head of a mountain, and will never be reconciled to a richer soil and a warmer air. Thus doth the wis- dom of God work by various ways to the same end ; and animal life is maintained where the means of life seem to be wanting. That the elements which act upon the barometer and thermometer are necessary to animal life cannot be doubted, however the recep- tive faculties of organised matter may be varied. We have musical sounds from the pipe, the string, and the drum ; but never without the musical element of air.
If we enquire how the wisdom of the Creator is dis- played in the different kinds of animals, the field is so
22 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [[SERM. II.
large, that the time will permit us to consider those only to which we are directed by the words of the text, beasts of the earth and cattle after their hind. And that we may proceed herein without confusion, we must take advantage of a plain and significant distinction which the Holy Scripture hath proposed to us for our learning.
The law of Moses, in the xith chapter of Leviticus, divides the brute creation into two grand parties, from the fashion of their feet, and their manner of feeding ; that is, from the parti?tg of the hoof, and the chewing of the cud ; which properties are indications of their general characters, as wild or tame. For the dividing of the hoof and the chewing of the cud are peculiar to those cattle which are serviceable to man's life, as sheep, oxen, goats, deer, and their several kinds. These are shod by the Creator for a peaceable and in- offensive progress through life ; as the Scripture ex- horts us to be shod in like manner with the prepara- tion of the Gospel of Peace. They live temperately upon herbage, the diet of students and saints ; and af- ter the taking of their food, chew it deliberately over again for better digestion; in which act they have all the appearance a brute can assume of pensiveness or meditation ; which is metaphorically called rumination, with reference to this property of certain animals.
Such are these : but when we compare the beasts of the field and the forest, they, instead of the harm- less hoof, have feet which are swift to shed blood *, sharp claws to seize upon their prey, and teeth to de- vour it ; such as lions, tygers, leopards, wolves, foxes, and smaller vermin.
Where one of the Mosaic marks is found, and the other is wanting, such creatures are of a middle na-
* Rom. iii. 15.
SERM. II.)] (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 23
ture between the wild and the tame ; as the swine, the hare, and some others. Those that part the hoof afford us wholesome nourishment; those that are shod with any kind of hoof may be made useful to man ; as the camel, the horse, the ass, the mule ; all of which are fit to travel and carry burdens. But when the foot is divided into many parts, and armed with claws, there is but small hope of the manners; such creatures being in general either murderers, or hunt- ers, or thieves ; the malefactors and felons of the brute creation : though among the wild there are all the possible gradations of ferocity and evil temper.
Who can review the creatures of God, as they ar- range themselves under the two great denominations of wild and tame, without wondering at their different dispositions and ways of life ! Sheep and oxen lead a sociable as well as a peaceable life ; they are formed into flocks and herds ; and as they live honestly they walk openly in the day. The time of darkness is to them, as to the virtuous and sober amongst men, a time of rest. But the beast of prey goeth about in so- litude ; the time of darkness is to him the time of ac- tion : then he visits the folds of sheep, and stalls of oxen, thirsting for their blood ; as the thief and the murderer visits the habitations of men, for an oppor- tunity of robbing and destroying, under the conceal- ment of the night. When the sun ariseth the beast of prey retires to the covert of the forest ; and while the cattle are spreading themselves over a thousand hills in search of pasture, the tyrant of the desert is laying himself down in his den, to sleep off the fumes of his bloody meal. The ways of men are not less different than the ways of beasts ; and here we may see them represented as in a glass ; for, as the quiet- ness of the pasture, in which the cattle spend their
24 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II,
day, is to the bowlings of a wilderness in the night, such is the virtuous life of honest labour to the life of the thief, the oppressor, the murderer, and the mid- night gamester, who live upon the losses and sufferings of other men.
The different qualities and properties in which brute creatures excel are as manifest proofs of the divine wisdom as their different modes of living. The horse excels in strength and courage. His aptness for war is finely touched in the book of Job. — Hast thou given the horse strength 9 hast thou clothed his neck with thunder ? — He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the aimed men : he mocheth at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he hack from the sword*. When he heareth the sound of the trumpets, and the noise of the battle at a distance, the thunder of the captains and their shouting, he signifies by his voice and his motion, that he is impatient to join them and be in action. The fox excels in subtilty and subterfuge ; and his arts find employment for some amongst mankind, who dis- dain to busy themselves in any useful study or labour for the benefit of the community.
The dog is gifted with that sagacity, vigilance, and fidelity, which qualify him to be the guard, the compa- nion, the friend of man ; and happy is he, who finds a friend as true and uncorrupt as this animal ; who will rather die by the side of his master than take a bribe of a stranger to betray him. The sense whereby he is enabled to trace a single person through a croud of people, is a gift of the Creator, which exceeds our comprehension : and many other examples of the sa- gacity of this creature would be incredible, if they were not common and well attested. By what natu-
* Job xxxix. 19.
SERM. 11.^ (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 25
ral faculties they are performed, it is hard for us to conjecture.
In all brute creatures there is implanted an ardent attention towards their offspring, which prevails over every other consideration. Even the weakest crea- tures will undertake to defend and preserve their young at the hazard of their lives. They do not leave their offspring to be attended for hire by others, that they may be at liberty to follow their own un- profitable pleasures ; this duty is their greatest plea- sure ; and yet it never exceeds the bounds of discre- tion. Beasts, with all their tenderness, are never be- trayed into any acts of false indulgence : their affec- tion never gratifies itself with raising up their young to an unnatural state of ease, idleness, and ignorance : as soon as they are well able to exercise the faculties the Creator hath given them, they are compelled by their parents to provide for their own wants. And, through the divine bounty, the world is open to them, and their own labour is sufficient to maintain them. Provision of the proper sort is within the reach of every species, and a place is allotted to each, in which it does not encroach upon the rest. The mountains and rocks are a refuge for the wild goats, which climb over frightful precipices to a pasture where no other creature can partake with them. The beast of prey is covered by the wood, and can feed himself accord- ing to his nature. Foxes, and other animals, have holes wherein they rest and hide themselves under the earth. The sheep hath a fold, the ox hath a stall, provided for them by man ; having no covert pro- vided by themselves. Beasts of labour are main- tained by their labour ; for few men are so unjust as to muxxle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
The different manners of beasts and cattle, with their dependence upon the bounty of God, are briefly
26 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
described to us in those sublime terms which are pe- cuhar to the Scripture. Thou makest darhiess that it may he night ; wherein all the beasts of the forest do move. The lions roaring after their prey do seek their meat from God. The sun ariseth, and they get them away together, and lay them down in their dens. (Then) man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening ; and those serviceable worthy creatures, which are the companions of his labour, go along with him — O Lord, how manifold are thy works ; in wisdom hast thou made them all ; the earth is fidl of thy riches ! All creatures wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. When thou givest it them they gather it ; and when thou openest thine hand tJiey are filled with good. How great is this idea ! the hand of man scatters food to the few creatures that are about him ; but when the hand of God is opened, a world is fed and satisfied.
The usefulness of cattle to the support, comfort, and convenience of man, is a topic which would carry us out to a great length. The state of man, as an inhabitant of this world, could not be maintained without them. From cattle we have food, and rai- ment, and assistance, and employment. How wisely and mercifully is it ordained, that those creatures which afford us wholesome nourishment are disposed to live with us, that we may live upon them : their milk is so agreeable to the human constitution, and so pleasant in itself, that it is celebrated among the first blessings of the promised land. The wool of the sheep gives us clothing, such as the world cannot equal ; and late discoveries explain to us an essential differ- ence between the vegetable clothing and the animal; the former of which draws off, the latter retains and promotes animal heat ; and is found to assist in the cure of some very critical distempers. What would
SERM. II.]] CECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 27
the labour of man avail, without the strength and pa- tience of beasts to assist him in the cultivation of the earth, and the necessary business of life ? even the fiercest of creatures made to be taken and destroyed *, have their use ; for, in taking and destroying them, man is employed ; and so one great purpose of his present life is answered. Whoever considers this, will find, that the true state of nature is a state of so- ciety ; in which men necessarily unite against the beasts of the field, which would otherwise prevail against them : and he is fittest to be a leader in natural so- ciety, who can best defend others against their natural enemies the beasts. Thus from the nature of wild beasts arises one of the employments of man, which is that of hunting ; to which war is nearly allied, as another sort of hunting ; and it should never be en- tered upon, but for reasons the same with those which arm us against the beasts that would devour us ; that is, for self-defence ; though it is too true in fact, that men hunt men for their spoils, as they hunt wild beasts for their skins ; and the scalps of men are the trophies of some, as the scalps of foxes are nailed up by others against the wall.
Hunters and warriors make a great figure in the world ; but he that feeds the sheep is more honour- ably employed than he who pursues the lion. The attendance of man upon those innocent creatures which God hath ordained for his use, is an employ- ment which succeeded to the life of Paradise. The holy patriarchs and servants of God were taught to prefer the occupations of shepherds. Their riches consisted in flocks and herds : and it was their plea- sure, as well as their labour, to wait upon them in tents, amidst the various and beautiful scenery of the
* 2 Pet. ii. 12.
28 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
mountains, the groves, the fields, and streams of wa- ter. The fancy of man hath always been delighted with the simple pleasures of the pastoral life ; which probably afforded matter to the first poetry, before the tumultuous scenes of war and slaughter had been cele- brated in verse. Whatever the improvements of mo- dern times may be, the imagination has a pleasure in resigning them all, to dwell upon the less improved manners of those who lived in the purer ages. O happy state of health, innocence, plenty, and pleasure; plenty without luxury, and pleasure without corruption ! How far preferable to that artificial state of life, into which we have been brought by overstrained refinements in civilization, and commerce too much extended ! where corruption of manners, unnatural, and consequently unhealthy modes of living, perplexity of law, consump- tion of property, and other kindred evils, conspire to render life so vain and unsatisfactory, that many throw it away in despair, as not worth having. A false glare of tinselled happiness is found amongst the rich and the great, with such distressing want and misery amongst the poor, as nature knows nothing of; and which can arise only from the false principles and selfish views and expedients of a weak and degenerate policy.
It hath been made a question, v.hether the world and the creatures that belong to it were made for the benefit of man : which question was well argued, and wisely determined in the affirmative, by the philoso- phical orator of Rome : but the modern infidel, to make man an inconsiderable being, has a strong propensity to the negative ; and some poets, in their way of arguing, have attempted to make the subject ridiculous. We see that even the fiercest creatures have their use, by driving men into society for their mutual defence. All creatures in general are the sub-
SERM. 11.^ (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 29
jects of man, whose dominion is established by a char- ter from heaven. By the reason and understanding of man the swiftest are overtaken, and the strongest are overpowered: he can take them as his property, manage them as his servants, confine them as his cap- tives, and destroy them at his pleasure : they are im- pressed with a fear and dread of him, as if they were sensible of his power. Most of them serve to some natural use ; but all have their intellectual use, in giving necessary ideas and lessons of wisdom to the mind of man. The goodness of God is no where more manifest than in this intellectual application of brute animals and their properties ; no one creature upon earth can make that use of man, which man makes of all the rest ; in rendering himself, if he will, a better reasoner, a better citizen, a more devout worshipper of God. This is so important a part of our present subject, so curious in itself, and so necessary to the improvement of the human understanding, that I must beg your attention, while I dwell upon it as far as the time will permit.
I. First then, we borrow from beasts, cattle, and creeping things of the earth, many of our best ideas of moral good and evil. As it was said by Solomon, " Go to the ant, consider her ways and be wise;" so might it be said, with parity of reason, go to the sheep for a pattern of submission and obedience ; go to the ox for an example of patient labour; go to the swine, con- sider its stubborn disposition, its intemperance, and beastly uncleanness ; and thence learn to abhor and avoid them. The passage taken by St. Paul from the poet Callimachus contains a plain allusion to the unprofitable character of this beast — " The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies * ;" for the
* Kpr/rtf ati il/ivrjrai, kuku Brjptu, ya<Trfp(c apyai. Tit. i. \2.
30 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
swine of the Eastern countries drags its belly upon the ground, and is so incapable of speed, that it can scarcely walk. And such is man, if he is a slave to his bodily appetites ; his feet are retarded by the heaviness of his nature, and he can make no progress in any w^ork that is good, useful, or ingenious.
The first man w as instructed in Paradise from the qualities of brute creatures, which God summoned before him for his observation. The first writing in the w^orld was by pictures and forms of animal life, for the conveying of religious and moral truth to the mind, before alphabetical writing was in use. These forms or likenesses had been abused by the idolaters of Egypt ; so God forbad the use of them, and ap- pointed the alphabetical signatures in their stead ; which still retain some traces of the old animal forms *. The moral fables of antiquity are chiefly founded on the properties and manners of brute creatures, which are made to converse and reason according to the views and tempers of each, and so to give notice of the ways of different sorts of men. Thus also did God instruct his people in the laAv of Moses, by or- dering their diet as they were to order their conversa- tion. The unclean, and the rapacious, were prohi- bited, and, as it were, excommunicated ; the useful, gentle, and obedient were selected for food and sacri- fice. The prophets explain things in the same way. Isaiah describes the conversion of cruel and immoral heathens to the Gospel of peace under the figure of a miraculous reformation amongst the wild beasts of the earth ; when the lion should eat straw like the ox, the wolf and the lamb should feed together, and all the
* See some very ingenious observations on the Origin and Pro- gress of Alphabetic Writing, by the Rev. Mr. Davy, printed for Cadell.
SERM. U.'2 CECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 31
savage kinds should put off the nature of evil beasts, as formerly when they had all lived quietly under the same roof in Noah's ark, a figure of the Church of Christ. The New Testament carries on the same mode of instruction, and Peter is taught in a vision that a communication was to be opened between the Jews and the Gentiles, under the figure of a liberty to eat all kinds of unclean beasts, now to be made clean by their reception to the purity of the Gospel *. Even the ill qualities of the great adversary of mankind are set forth for our dread and abhorrence, from Genesis to the Revelation, under the emblem of the old ser- pent, cursed above every beast of the field ; insidious, insinuating, double-tongued, and having the power of death in his bite. We see him again under the em- blem oi a roaring lion, going about and seeking whom he may devour. Thus are all the creatures service- able, both good and bad, in giving us ideas for the improvement of the mind and manners.
2. We may observe next, that industry and activity are recommended to us by the example of the whole animal creation. All work, that they may eat ; and therefore, he who does not work, is not fit to live. All creatures seek their meat from God ; it is not pro- vided for any of them in an inactive state, but they must employ themselves to find and obtain it. Birds of the air are upon the wing from morning till evening. Wild creatures must hunt before they can be fed. Some partake of that sentence of labour passed upon man after the fall, and labour with him for their daily food. If it is then the appointment of God, that all his creatures should be in action, the idle man is a monster in the creation, who must pay for his offence
• See Acts x. Compare verses 14, 15, and 28,
32 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
either by poverty, sickness, ignorance, or vice ; and must, in some respect or other, become a nuisance to society; on which consideration, it is a great evil in government to maintain any, or to suffer any, for want of employment, to live idly.
3. From the state of beasts under the dominion of man, as God hath wisely established it, the parallel is very strong for the benefit and necessity of govern- ment amongst mankind.
Among brute beasts we find the two classes of wild and tame, totally differing in their manners, and in a state of hostility with each other. Man is over them all, to feed the gentle and domestic, to reward the laborious, and to secure them from the incursions of the common enemy. To the one sort he is a governor and protector ; to the other an avenger, who ought not to bear the sword in vain ; for if he does, he him- self must suffer by it as well as the beasts that are committed to his care ; the enemy being equally at war with both.
Let us now suppose this law of subordination and subjection to be dissolved : let us suppose the autho- rity of man to be withdrawn, and all animals aban- doned to their natural liberty : what would be the consequence ? The swine would make his part good by his impudence, and would root up the fruits of the earth in fields or gardens at his pleasure. Foxes, and other vermin, would no longer be thieves, because there would be none to judge them, and so they would take what they wanted by natural right. The wolves would scatter the sheep and tear them to pieces : the dogs, having no master to encourage and direct them, would forget their duty, and join the enemy : and thus the best part of the animal creation would become
11
SER.M. II. 3 UiCONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE.
33
a prey to the worst. The dogs might perchance quarrel sometimes with a wolf : but the sheep would be no gainers by that.
In order to bring things to this state, the wolf might persuade the sheep, that the power of the shepherd is an imposition, a base encroachment of that tyrant and usurper man ; that all creatures arc born free and equal ; and that they would see blessed times, if they were to assert their natural rights and become independent. The wolf that should thus argue for universal liberty, would be a wise wolf; for he would be a gainer : but the sheep that should admit the ar- gument, and bring up her lambs in the doctrine, would be a silly sheep indeed ; for she would soon be a loser, chased out of her pasture, and worried out of her life.
Among men there certainly is the same difference as among the beasts. There is a sort of them with hard and unfeeling tempers, impudent foreheads, idle dispositions, voracious appetites, and endless wants : who will push themselves into importance, and make their party good either by importunity or by force. There is another sort, modest, sober, and gentle ; fearful of offending, and contented with a little. This difference, so obvious and indisputable, is totally over- looked by those who plead for universal liberty and natural equality : for men are no more equal in their natures than the lamb and the lion's whelp : and sup- posing liberty to be universal, the bold, the impudent, the idle, and the rapacious, instantly make their for- tunes out of the peaceable and the patient. There- fore these can never live together in the world, but under the ordinance of God, who has appointed an authority of law and magistracy, which lays a common restraint upon all : whence all good men, who mean
VOL. IV. D
34 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
well and know their duty, will pray for those who are in authority, that God would direct their counsels and strengthen their hands in the execution of his laws, for the common good : that the fences may not be weak, nor the beast of prey find friends and ac- complices within the fold. It is of pernicious con- sequence to the peace of mankind, that there is a certain wild spirit of reforming policy, which, whe- ther it works with the commanding air and garb of philosophy, or with the powers of oratory, or the fancies of poetry, can never rest till it has made men wolves to one another ; for as things are, this must be the effect of natural equality brought to its proper issue. If we would reason like men, let us first in- form ourselves from the regulations and laws which God hath established in the world : this will be our best philosophy : When oratory takes us off* from this ground, it is nothing but sophistry ; and poetry, when it misrepresents the nature of things, is de- lusion and madness.
4. But now, fourthly, as the animal creation sets before us the natural interests of men in society, it leads us farther on to the attributes and perfections of God ; as the stream, if we trace it upwards, must bring us to the fountain. The whole world, as an effect, is so constituted as to instruct us in the na- ture of its cause. Thus the effect of motion in the world demonstrates a cause which has motion from itself, and in which all other motion must begin. Derivative life in living creatures must descend from a life which is original ; that is, from a Being, wJio, as the Scripture speaks, only hath immortality.
The faculty of sight, so piercing and extensive in some creatures, and so necessary to all, directs us to an all-seeing Power, from which nothing can be hid.
SERM. 11.^ (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 35
He that made the eye must see with perfect sight, and be the witness of our secret thoughts. The ap- pearance of mechanical art in animals, which is won- derful and incomprehensible in some kinds, is a spe- cimen or emanation of that consummate art and skill which are in the Creator himself. Natural affection in animals toward their young is a proof that the Creator, who infused it, hath the same affection to his own creatures ; especially to man \for ive are his offspring. The workings of natural affection in the creature are appealed to, as a sign or pledge of his own tender mercies to us : can a woman forget her Slicking child, that she should not have compassion on tlie son of her womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet ivill not I forget thee. Our Saviour insists upon a like example in nature to give us an idea of his own ten- derness towards his people : how often would I have gathered thy childreyi together, even as a hen gather- eth her chickens under her wings ! From these and other like examples, we infer with certainty, that whatsoever is good or excellent in the creature, the original of all that goodness is in the Creator him- self ; the whole world being as it were a transcript or transfusion of the Divine Mind.
5. Lastly, from the consideration of those wonder- ful instincts which are found in living creatures, it should be our earnest desire and our highest ambition to have God for our teacher. The stork, the turtle, the crane, and the swallow, know their appointed times *, and find an unbeaten invisible track through the air, and over the wide ocean to a distant climate. The spider spreads and suspends its web by the nicest rules of art. The beaver, the architect of the waters, builds an habitation which no human architect could
• Jer. viii. 7- D 2
36 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE AND [^SERM. II.
contrive or execute. The bird weaves a nest of un- tractable materials, which it disposes and adjusts with- out any difficulty. The bee designs with unerring skill what no geometrican could teach, and measures its work in the dark. As a chemist, it has the grand secret of transmutation ; extracting the sweetest of meat from the most poisonous of herbs. See how wise all these are, without the tedious forms of prac- tice and experience ! they have no elements to learn, but are well read by immediate infusion. From the same power, and in the same compendious manner, did the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, attain to the knowledge of all languages M'ithout learning them. The working of God is to us as unaccount- able in the one way of teaching as in the other. And doth not God still give to man a sense and a powder su- perior to reason, when he appears plainly to have given such a power to inferior creatures ? Will not he still teach man, who continueth to teach the beasts of the earth, and the fowls of heaven ? Therefore, if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who cer- tainly will give to men as liberally as to brutes; and they have a promise that they shall be answered if they apply for direction. Where shall the ant or the bee go, but to the Creator, to learn what no reason of man can teach them ? And whither shall man go but to the same teacher ? The knowledge he wants is not from himself, but from the Spirit of Truth, and the word of Revelation ; and now, by the sending of the Holy Ghost, and the publication of the Gospel, we see fulfilled which was written in the prophets, they shall be all taught of God ; the grace of God hath been given to all nations as universally as instinct hath been infused into all the kinds of living creatures : and so God is just and equal in all his works: what we have
SERM. (ECONOMY OF BEASTS AND CATTLE. 37
not in the ordinary way of nature, we obtain in the extraordinary way of grace ; which is the better and the wiser way upon all accounts ; and he, who pre- tends to have by nature what God giveth by grace, is more unprovided, and in a worse condition, than the beasts that perish.
6. Upon the whole, the animal world sets before us the most evident assurances of the Divine wisdom, power, and goodness ; and our duty, in respect to this subject, is equally plain from what has been said. As the government of all creatures is committed to man by the Creator, not obtained by chance, it must be considered as a trust, which we are seriously and faithfully to discharge. We think few men are fit to be kings, and are strangely apprehensive of despo- tism : yet is every man an absolute monarch over these poor brute subjects ; often shamefully abused by the wanton, the passionate, and the hard-hearted : A righteous man, who doeth good from a sense of duty, regardeth the life of his beast * : he abstains from all cruelty ; he rewards the labour of his brute servants and domestics, and delights to render their lives as easy and comfortable as he can ; knowing that he must give an account of this as of every other trust. In their natural capacity, he uses them for his benefit with thankfulness to their Maker : in their intellectual application, he derives improvement to his mind from the contemplation of their natures. That man is a poor animal, not worthy of the name of a man, who looks upon beasts as beasts look upon him, and learns nothing from them ; when a wise man may gather so much instruction to serve him in every relation of hfe, whether natural, social, civil, or religious.
* Prov. xii. 10.
38 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE NATURE, 8fC. [|SERM. II.
When we see what wisdom is found in the beasts of the earth, and fowls of the heaven ; how they per- form what surpasses the power of reason, because God worketh in them ; let us apply to their Teacher, that he may assist us in all the works necessary to the saving of our souls : that we may be as wise for the next world as they are for their well-being in this world. Whatsoever gifts and talents are necessary to them, they have by nature without asking ; for they cannot ask : what we want we must pray for ; God having made his teaching unto us an object of choice, and endued us with speech for the great ends of praying to him and praising him. To Him therefore, who is the only wise, who only hath im- mortality, the Lord and giver of life, who is magni- fied in all his works, even the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, three persons and one God, be ascribed all honour, glory, power, and dominion, now and for evermore. Amen.
SERMON 111
AND GOD SAID, LET THE WATERS UNDER THE HEAVEN BE GATHERED TOGETHER UNTO ONE PLACE, AND LET THE DRY LAND APPEAR : AND IT WAS SO. AND GOD CALLED THE DRY LAND EARTH, AND THE GATHER- ING TOGETHER OF THE WATERS CALLED HE SEAS : AND GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD. GEN. I. 9, 10.
The earth is generally considered as the place of man's habitation, and the theatre of those various actions which have filled the pages of history. When we take the earth in this sense, we find it a bad and a troublesome world, a scene of error and confusion, in which the exploits of the mischievous bear away the prize from the actions of the virtuous, and the most wicked of men are celebrated as the benefactors of mankind. Here warlike nations have extended their borders, and erected kingdoms, which appeared in great splendor for a time, to serve the purposes of God's providence, and then vanished away like a fiery meteor of the night. Here have busy men, by fraud and violence, obtained large possessions, which soon changed their owners, and raised magnificent buildings, which are fallen into the dust. Thus do all the works of men upon earth pass away, while the earth itself, which is the work of God, and is inno-
10
40 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS, |^SERM. Ill,
cent of all the evil that is done upon it, standeth sure, and his building suffereth no decay.
This is the earth which I would now propose to your consideration ; the natural history is very dif- ferent from its political ; and, I trust, we shall find it both an agreeable and an edifying subject.
Writers, who have given us descriptions of the natural world, have divided it into three grand de- partments, or kingdoms, oi plants, animals, and mine- rals. Of plants and animals I have treated in two former discourses : and I shall proceed now to the consideration of the earth and its minerals ; in which we shall every where see the most evident proofs of the wisdom and goodness of God, and by which the truth of his revelation will be illustrated and confirmed.
I shall enter into no new curious theories ; nor will there be any occasion for it. The great outlines of nature are fittest for all the purposes of Christian edification. The plainest things, and such as are best understood by every capacity, are generally the most wonderful, and the most improving to the mind that meditates upon them. Where there is much ciuriosity and difficulty, there is frequently less profit.
The words of the text relate the generation or birth of what is called the Earth ; that immense body of land and water, which human writers call the ter- raqueous globe : from which we learn, that, as the dry land did not appear till the waters were gathered together, the land was formed under water. The wisdom of this mode of formation is evident ; although the progress of it must be above our comprehension. For in water all the materials of the earth were easily moved ; and by means of water, solution, separation, association, and subsidence are manifestly promoted ;
SERM. III.^ ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 41
and accordingly, by those who dig into the earth, its solid materials are found to be duly sorted, and have the appearance of a sediment, which had once floated in water, and afterwards settled out of it. And if the strata of the earth in mountains are not now pa- rallel to the horizon, but often very oblique, and some- times nearly perpendicular, yet the construction of such masses shews that they had settled in a regular form, and were brought by some force afterwards to their present situation.
As the earth appears to have been formed under the waters, it is as manifest to every attentive observer, that the waters did once retire from the whole surface of the earth. When we compare small things with great, we find, that as the land and the channels of rivers are worn into precipices, pits, and winding furrows, by the departure of occasional inundations, so the surface of the earth, upon a scale proportion- ably larger, doth every where present to the sight the effect of descending waters. From the tops of the highest mountains, it is furrowed with channels ; which, meeting others in their descent, grow wider and deeper, and wind about, as water doth in its progress, till they fall into the bed of some river, or lead us down to the sea, into which they retired when they subsided from the land.
From this retiring of the waters, we derive the in- equality of the earth's surface : and to that inequality we owe the generation of springs and rivers, the feed- ing of metallic ores and minerals in the fissures of the earth, and the .regular draining off of waters, with an uninterrupted course, towards the sea. And to the great water-courses of the earth we owe most of those prospects which delight the eye. The waters, which once covered the earth, having forced their way
42 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [[SERM. HI.
down to the sea, left a way open for other waters ever after, over the whole face of the earth. Let the stream start from the higher grounds, and it will no where be detained till it falls into the ocean ; which is a won- derful provision of divine Providence, though not commonly attended to ; and how it could have been brought to pass by any other mode of formation but that related in the Scripture, doth not appear. The elegant serpentine disposition of vallies, occasioned by the descent of water, constitutes the chief beauty of our prospects. Where the soil is soft and moveable, these cavities are easy and gradual, and the bottoms are rich with the vegetable matter which has been washed off from the higher grounds. But in lands of an harder texture, rocks are undermined and over- thrown ; frightful precipices are formed by their frac- tures ; and the vallies are rough w^th stones and rub- bish. Yet we are no losers : for here the lines of nature are bolder. Where the face of a country is abrupt and irregular, it becomes sublime and magni- ficent ; as a building in ruins makes a better picture, and is a fitter subject for a painter than where it has a fiat and regular face. A new building, which is the production of human art, hath a littleness about it, from the uniformity of its lines ; but when time and the elements have done their work upon it, it ap- proaches nearer to the grandeur of nature.
The sea, considered in itself, with the periodical motion of its tides, and its occasional commotions by winds and storms, gives us a stupendous idea of the power and greatness of God, who hath this raging element so much under his command, that he is re- presented to us as holding the seas and waters of the world in the hollow of his hand. Nor is his goodness less evident than his power : for the agitation of the
SERM. III.^ ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 43
sea, by the daily reciprocations of the tides, contri- butes to the purity and the wholesomeness of the air ; the labour of man is assisted by the advance and retreat of the waters through tracts of inland country. The sea, which seems to divide the inhabitants of the world from each other, keeps up an intercourse more effectually between the most distant parts of the globe. Mankind are likewise abundantly fed by the waters of the sea ; wherein the creatures of God multiply in a much greater proportion than by land, and are all maintained without the cost or attendance of man: they are a singular flock, which have no shepherd but the Creator himself, who conducts them, at different seasons, in unmeasurable shoals, to supply the world with nourishment.
From this hasty survey of the earth, we cannot but be struck with the many ends which are answered by the generation of the earth from the waters of the sea, although we have considered but a part of them.
When we examine the substance or matter of the earth, we find all things useful, all administering in various ways to our support and convenience. Even the very dirt we tread upon is a compost of rich principles, which supply the necessary nourishment to plants : and when particles from an offensive putrid mass of earthy matter are diffused through the frame of a vegetable, they put on an appearance of beauty, which is dazzling to the eyes, and emit a fragrance, which is ravishing to the sense. If such a thing had not yet been, and we were told that it would be, mortals affecting wisdom would have sig- nified their doubts ; as when it was questioned what the rising of the dead should mean.
Below the surface of the earth, we find the various sorts of stones; the ores of metals and minerals; and
44 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [I^SERM. III.
the stones which are called /;rm'o?/,y, from their beauty and rarity. The common uses of stone in building, and the several degrees of them, from the coarsest rock to the finest marble, are well known : but still, the situation of the stone, as it lies in the earth, compared with the property of that stone, which is most ordinary, is v/orthy of particular consideration. Beds of stone, as they lie in the quarry, are parted here and there with perpendicular cracks, by means of which the largest masses become accessible, and subject to such forces as will separate and raise them up ; and unless the beds of stone had been thus na- turally parted, all the art of man would have been insufficient to extract stones from the earth, for the common uses of life. Some are of such a grain that they will split like wood, and may be shivered even without a tool, into thin plates, by the force of the weather. But wonderful above all is the pro- perty of the limestone; which, when its native mois- ture is totally expelled by fire, imbibes water with such force that it falls into an impalpable powder, and forms a cement, by which separate stones are indissolubly joined into one body : and it holds them together more firmly at the end of a thousand years than it did at first. This is a discovery of such im- portance in the art of building, that it is probably, as ancient as the art itself. The use of stone and mortar is spoken of as known before the building of Babel: and how it could be found out, doth not ap- pear ; because, I think, there is no operation in the common course of nature which could lead to it.
It would answer no purpose here to recount the various sorts of opaque stones; some curious for their beauty, others excellent for their use. The flint enables us to produce fire, of which no creature
SERM. III.^ ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 45
but man hath the use and management. The fiercest of wild beasts fly from the sight with terror ; and dread that fire which is kindled by man, as man himself dreads the fire of lightning which is sent from heaven.
In regard to the common stones of the earth, there is a certain fact which must excite the curiosity of those who attend to it. Of the pebble kinds, the greater part are formed out of fragments of stone, spar, and marble rounded by trituration in water ; of which kind millions are agitated to and fro, and worn by the motion of the tides upon the shores of the sea. The inland parts of the earth, to the great- est depths, contain these pebbles ; which, being the production of the sea, could never have been formed where they are found, and must, therefore, have been originally lodged by water in places which are now remote from the sea. The same may be said of an immense quantity of sand, which, though it is now lying in dry beds of earth, has the certain marks of trituration by water.
Metals and minerals, which are the more valuable productions of the earth, are, in form and appear- ance, but another kind of stones ; under which name they are mentioned in the book of Deuteronomy ; where Moses commends the promised land to the people, as a land whose stones are iron, and out of ivliose lulls they might dig brass ; not in the form of hrass, but of stones, out of which brass might be ex- tracted, and compounded by the labour of man, and the rules of art. All the treasures of the earth are found in an imperfect state, which calls forth the arts ' of chemistry, and makes work for the fires of the re- finer ; but when due pains have been bestowed upon them, then we discover what a pure and splendid
46 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [[SERM. III.
nature is given to them by the Creator. Who would think, that burnished gold, and polished steel, should have been in an obscure state, like the stones of the earth ? The mind of man, improved by education, is just as different from the same mind in the state of nature.
Such is the richness and brightness of the several kinds of metals, that it hath been the custom with men, from time immemorial, to give to the metals of the earth the same names as to the lights of heaven, according to their colour and their dignity. Gold is allied to the sun, from its yellow colour, and its splendor ; silver to the moon, from its whiteness, and as being next in dignity to the sun. Mercury or quicksilver takes its name from the planet nearest to the sun ; copper from the planet next in order ; iron, tin, and lead, were given to the remaining planets more remote from the sun.
The natural history of the metals seems to have had a considerable share in the mythological mysteries of heathenism *. But leaving these fanciful doctrines of men, who gave the honour of God's works to their idols, we may go on from the metals to the gems, which are of an higher order, and a more refined na- ture. Here the glory of the terrestrial, approaches very near to the glory of the celestial bodies ; espe-
* Copper had its name from the Island of Cyprus, where the use of brass was said to have been first invented ; (In Cypro, ubi, pri- ma fuit aeris inventio. Plin. lib. xxxiv. cap. 2.) and hence we may account for the mystical dedication of that Island to Venus, the Cy' prian goddess, (Diva potens Cypri. Hor.) who agrees in name with a planet in the heavens, and with the ore of Copper in the earth. On this plan, it is very probable that the fable of Jujxiter's burial in the island of Crete might, at the bottom, be nothing but a mytho- logical mode of signifying to those who were in the secret, that tin was found under ground in that island.
SERM. III.^ ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 47
cially in the diamond, the prince of precious stones ; which vies in purity and brightness with the matter of the heavens, and appears like embodied light ; inso- much that, if the fluid of light could be fixed into an ice, as the fluid of the water is, we may imagine that something like the diamond would be produced. It is remarkable, that the brightest matter of the earth is united with the richest, for the formation of a precious stone ; the various sorts which receive their colour from some metal ; as the ruby ixom gold ; the emerald from copper; whence emeralds were commonly found in the copper mines of Cyprus *. When the metals are united to a chrystalline, or pellucid basis, they form a gem ; but, if to an opaque earthy matter, they form the high-coloured earths of the painters, which all derive their beauty from some metallic mix- ture. It is further remarkable, that the chrystalline matter, and the metal which gives it colour, are united in nature by the mediation of water : whereas, if we attempt to unite them by art, in the artificial gems, we are obliged to have recourse to the violence of fire, to diffuse the colouring parts through the crys- tal. This, and some other like instances of the dif- ference between the chemistry of art and the che- mistry of nature, should make us cautious of pro- nouncing too hastily concerning subterraneous pro- ductions, lest we take that for the effect of fire, which was, in reality, the effect of water.
Instead of naming the several minerals which are dug out of the earth, I shall rather direct your atten- tion to two which are of more consequence than the rest : these are salt and sulphur. Salt preserves from putrefaction ; and, being soluble in water, it keeps
* Theophrastus.
48 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [^SERM. III.
the sea sweet and wholesome. Where the heats are greater, the sea has more salt ; because there is more danger of putrefaction ; which teaches us that the sea was not salted, by accident, but by design*. As the doctrine of truth in the Gospel saves the world from moral corruption, so doth salt preserve it from natu- ral corruption ; whence the one is used as a figure of the other. Ye are the salt of the earth, said Christ to his preachers ; without you the world would be as putrid as flesh is found to be without the use of salt.
The other ?«^Wr«/ substance is sulphur; of univer- sal effect, as the cement of nature for uniting the parts of metals into masses or mineralizing them, and giving them many of their properties. It is also the grand combustible of the world ; which, as it descended from the heavens in rain for the destruction of Sodom, so is it now the chief cause of those dreadful commotions which happen in the earth. When iron and sulphur and water meet together, a fermentation ensues, which, if strong enough, breaks out into actual fire and flame. It hath pleased God, for wise ends, to lodge these different principles near to each other, in many places, that their mixture may present to our sight one of the most tremendous appearances in nature. When the sun shines upon the calmness of the ocean, we under- stand that God is benevolent as well as great ; and, when the volcano rages,weareto learn thathe is justand ter- rible in his wrath and vengeance. When the law was given on mount Sinai, the whole mount trembled, and burned with fire, and there were thunders and light-
* The late Dr. Halleij, supposing that the sea grew salt by ac- cident, in tract of time, from the waters washing away some salt from the land, proposed a new method for finding tlie age of the World, from the saltness of the sea. See Phys. Disq. where some farther observations are made on this subject.
SERM. III.^ ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS.
49
nings, and a thick cloud upon it. Here were all the appearances of a volcano ; and, as this manifestation of God at Sinai was intended to fill the hearts of the peo- ple with the fear of God, by shewing them how terri- ble he is in his judgment against those who break his law ; so every burning mountain, at this day, in the world, should inspire the same religious fear ; and, I believe, generally does, to those who are spectators of it; declaring to the world, that God is the avenger of sin ; and that the fires of nature, which are now but partial, and under the restraint of mercy and forbear- ance, shall at length break out to the burning of the earth, and of all things therein. When the flood came upon the world, the fountains of the great deep were opened; the waters of the air were added to the waters of the earth, and all united their forces to exe- cute the divine sentence : so at the last visitation of this world, all the fountains of fire shall be opened ; the burning mountains of the earth shall send forth all their hidden stores, while new ones shall be opened in all places ; and the fires of the sky shall co-operate with the fires of the earth. Modern discoveries have taught us, that the sea, the earth, the air, the clouds, are replete with a subtile and penetrating matter, which, while at rest, gives us no disturbance ; but, when excited to action, turns into a consuming fire, which no substance can exclude, no force can resist ; so that the elements, which are to melt with fermnt lieat, want no accidental matter to inflame them ; since all things may be burnt up by that matter which now resides within them, and is only waiting for the word from its Creator.
All the phsenomena of nature speak some religious truth to those who have ears to hear their voice. When we say this, we do not deny that voicanos may have a
VOL. IV. E
50 OM THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. []sERM. III.
natural use in purging the earth, and giving vent to combustible principles, which, if wholly confined, might shake and shatter the earth to pieces before the time. These things are very consistent, because the wisdom of God works for many different ends by the same means.
A review of the earth and its contents, however short and imperfect, must inspire us with an awful sense of the divine power and wisdom. But we are not to stop there ; the natural history of the earth bears an unanswerable testimony to the truth of revelation? and we should never fail to apply it to that purpose, when an opportunity offers. The Scripture, which tells us that this earth, on which we live, is now under sentence to be destroyed by fire, doth also teach us, that it hath been once destroyed already by water : of which destruction the earth still bears such evident marks, that the belief of it is as obvious to every ob- server of nature, as it is necessary to a Christian. From the surface of the earth we understand, that the whole was once under water ; v»'hich descended, with an accelerated velocity, from the land to the seas, to- ward which all the furrows of the earth are directed, and in which they terminate. Then if we search under the earth, Ave find, that as man is not in the state in which God first made him, but fallen into disorder and sinfulness ; so the earth has undergone some na- tural revolution, which, in part, dissolved its sub- stance, and lodged within it such bodies as must have been the remains of a former earth, because they could not possibly be the productions of the present. Bones of animals, shells of fishes, fruits of trees, are found buried at all depths, and even in the midst of the hardest stone and marble. Whence we are to argue: 1. That these bodies were transported and
SERM. III.J ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 51
deposited by a flood of waters ; because most of them belonged to the sea. 2. That the matter of the earth must have been in a state of sokition when this hap- pened; because it could not otherwise have inclosed sea shells, and filled up their cavities through the small- est apertures. 3 . That the flood was general, or com- mon to the whole world; because these monuments of it are found in all countries of the earth ; on the highest mountain, and in tracts most remote from the sea.
To account for a disorderly situation of things, out of their several places, under ground, we must apply to water or to Jire ; which two are the causes of all the changes in this globe. We cannot apply to sub- terraneous fire, because here is an effect which is uni- versal, and subterraneous fire is a cause but partial and occasional ; the marks of which, when compared with those of water, are but of small extent *. Be- sides, fire would have destroyed bodies which water preserved ; such as the tenderest shells, the skins of scaly fish, the fruits and leaves of vegetables. All these would bear drowning and burying, but could never survive the devastations of fire. How could fire trans- port the productions of all climates into one place ? But if they floated on water, subject to winds, tides, and currents, such a thing might easily be ; accord- ingly, we find the fruits of the East and West-Indies ; bones, teeth, and shells from fish of different seas ; the elephant of Africa, the tortoise of America, all near to one another in the same spot ■\, as if laid up for a testimony to the truth of the Holy Scripture,
• The effects of fire, compared with those of water, may per- haps be nearly in the same proportion, as the forge of the smith, with its flags and cinders, when ccmpared with the lands of the whole parish.
t What is here said is verified in the island of Sheepy in Kent.
E 2
52 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [^SERM. III.
which alone gives us a faithful account of this great revolution in nature. When we are informed, that the earth we now inhabit is the hurying-'place of a former earth, it is as reasonable that we should dig up the remains and ruins of it, as that we should find the bones and coffins of former generations in the earth of a church-yard.
Our subject will become more edifying, if M'e exa- mine what use hath been made of some parts of it in the Scripture.
1. Thus, for example, every man is to consider himself as clay in the hands of a potter, and to sub- mit himself, with resignation, to the appointment of God, who gives to all men their proper stations and uses in life, as the potter forms some vessels to mean, and some to honourable offices ; and it is as vain for any man to quarrel with the ordination of heaven, and throw himself out of that sphere of life in which God hath placed him, as for the clay to murmur against the design of the potter. There is an ancient fable of Eastern original (for the son of Sirach hath it *) which relates the folly of the vessel of earth in join- ing itself to the company of the vessel of brass ; in consequence of which it was broken to pieces.
2. The treasures of the earth are buried within it; so that they cannot be discovered and brought forth without the labour of man ; yet they are not placed so deep, as to render our labour ineffectual. Thus hath God ordained in every other case ; nothing, but what is worthless, is to be found by the indolent upon the surface of life: every thing valuable must be ob- tained by labour ; all wisdom, all science, all art and experience, are hidden at a proper depth, for the ex- ercise of the wise ; and they, who do not spare their
*■ Ecclus. xiii. .'i.
SERM. III.]] ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 53
labour, shall not be disappointed in their search. The treasures of wisdom, in the word of God, do not lie upon the surface of the letter, for every superficial reader to observe them ; therefore, where it is said. Search the Scriptures, the word implies that laborious kind of searching, by which the treasures of the mine are discovered under ground.
3. The properties of metals are very considerable, and would afford us much instruction, if the limits of this discourse would admit of it. As gold stands the test of fire, such is the constancy of true piety, which grows brighter and purer with every trial. And, as gold cannot be pure without being refined in the fur- nace, so cannot any man be fit for God's acceptance, till he hath first endured temptation. The father of the faithful was put to the fiery trial of offering up his own son for a sacrifice, that he might be an ex- ample to all his children ; to whom this warning is given by the son of Sirach, My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation—for gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the
furnace of adversity *. I suppose this rule to be so certain, that human life never did, nor ever will, admit an instance to the contrary.
4. In the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Baby- lon, the four great monarchies of the world are signi- fied by the four principal metals, gold, silver, brass, and iron. The Assyrian monarchy has the pre-emi- nence, as well in dignity as in order of time, and is compared to gold. Thou, said the Prophet Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, art this head of gold: from which interpretation, his image of gold seems to have been presumptuously derived ; the proud king, not content
* Ecclus. ii. 1 — 5.
51 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [^SERM. III.
with being the head, assumed to himself the whole body of worldly empire.
As silver, brass, and iron, have less value than gold, the monarchies of Persia, Greece, and Rome, which succeeded, must have had less splendor and dignity than the Assyrian : and the Roman must have been the basest of all, if the Scripture is just in its compa- rison. If we were to enter into the question, how kingdoms are debased, we might obtain some light from the case of the Roman empire, as it is stated in this prophecy. This empire then, though strong as iron in war, was of a baser nature than those which preceded, because it was unnaturally compounded of miry clay mixed with its iron ; which two would never incorporate. It was compounded of military power and popular authority ; to unite which, all attempts were unsuccessful ; and, consequently, with all that hardness of iron, with which it bruised and hroJee in pieces other nations, there was a constitutional weak- ness ; by reason of which, it was vexed and broken at home with eternal balancings and divisions ; and, when it had conquered the world, it became its own executioner. The words of this prophecy are very remarkable, when applied to the character and con- stitution of the Roman state. It was partly strong as iron in military force, and partly broken, from this unnatural mixture in the materials of its govern- ment. By the mingling of iron with miry clay, as it is interpreted for us by the Prophet, it was signified, that they of this kingdom should mingle themselves with the seed of men, and not cleave to one another, even as iron is not mixed ivith clay. Imperial power in the Scripture, is a divine institution, of heavenly original ; and to suppose it an human thing, and derive it from the power of the people, as the Ro-
SERM. 111.]] ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. 55
mans did, is to mingle it with the seed of men, and debase the nature of it; of which the certain conse- quence is disunion and weakness : for no state can be strong in itself, which is founded on principles subversive of God's authority. Under the Assyrian monarchy and the Persian, and the kingdoms of Greece, in the age of Homer, there was no question concern- ing the origin of power ; it arose afterwards amongst the Greeks ; and the popular scheme attained its highest degree of absurdity under the Romans. Would to God it had never found its way amongst Christians ; where it has done infinite mischief, and will probably continue so to do, till it has undermined the peace of all mankind, and unhinged the whole political world ! Majesty, when it is in kings, is where God hath placed it : honour is then in the fountain of honour ; but the majesty of the people, which the enthusiastic vanity of the Romans hath so magnified, and in which they have been followed, for selfish ends, by libertines and deistical philosophers, is con- trary to all the ideas of revelation, and is inconsistent with common sense. A people may seem to them- selves to rise higher, as \kveimwer of government sinks lower ; but it is all a deception ; for nothing can be more evident than that nations are debased in the estimation of the world, by the doctrines of anarchy. For which of the two is the most respectable ; the house wherein there is a proper respect kept up : or that where there is none ? The family of the noble- man, whose domestics are under his authority, pre- serves an appearance of greatness and elegance ; but the publick house, where the people who fill it are upon a level with the householder, is a scene of vul- garity and disorder.
5. And now, what should be the end of all our re-
10
56 ON THE EARTH AND ITS MINERALS. [^SERM. III.
searches mto Nature and the Scripture, but to delight in giving God the honour that is due to him ? For his pleasure all things were made ; and he "will be pleased with men when they glorify him in his works. We should therefore call upon all nature to join with us in a Psalm of praise and thanksgiving, after the example of the royal prophet : Praise the Lord, ye moimtains and all hills, fruitfid trees and all cedars, heasts and all cattle. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth he glad ; for the name of the Lord is ex- cellent, and his praise is above heaven and earth. To him therefore, cj'c.
SERMON IV.
FOR THE INVISIBLE THINGS OF HIM FROM THE CRE- ATION OF THE WORLD ARE CLEARLY SEEN, BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE, EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD. ROM. I. 20.
The wisdom of God in the natural creation, is a proper subject of the lecture delivered in this place upon this occasion * : but as the knowledge of the Scriptures is not excluded, I may be permitted to bring them both together into one discourse : for they illustrate one another in a wonderful manner : and he who can understand God as the fountain of truth, and the Saviour of men, in the holy Scripture, will be bet- ter disposed to understand and adore him as the foun- tain of power and goodness in the natural creation.
To those who search for it, and have pleasure in receiving it, there is a striking alliance between the oeconomy of Nature, and the principles of divine re- velation ; and unless we study both together, we shall be liable to mistake things now, as the unbelieving Sadducees did, in their vain reasonings with our blessed Saviour. They erred, not hiowing tlie Scriji- turesy nor tJie power of God: they neither understood them separately, nor knew how to compare them to- gether.
* This Sermon was preached at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, on Tuesday, in Whitsun Week, 1787, on Mr. Fairchild's foundation.
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ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [[SERM. IV.
Men eminently learned, and worthy of all commen- dation, have excelled in demonstrating the wisdom of God from the works of Nature : but in this one res- pect they seem to have been deficient ; in that they have but rarely turned their arguments to the particu- lar advantage of the Christian Revelation, by bring- ing the volume of Nature in aid to the volume of the Scripture ; as the times now call upon us to do : for we have been threatened, in very indecent and inso- lent language of late years, with the superior reason- ings and forces of natural philosophy ; as if our late researches into Nature had put some new weapons into the hands of Infidelity, which the friends of the Christian Religion will be unable to stand against. One writer, in particular, who is the most extrava- gant in his philosophical flights, seems to have per- suaded himself, and would persuade us, that little more is required to overthrow the whole faith and oeconomy of the Church of England, than a philoso- phical apparatus ; and that every prelate and priest amongst us hath reason to tremble at the sight. This is not the voice of piety or learning, but of vapour- ing vanity and delusion. Neither a Bacon, nor a Boyle, nor a Newton would ever had descended to such language, so contrary to their good manners and religious sentiments ; the first of w^hom hath w isely observed, that the works of God minister a singular help and preservative against unbelief and error : our Saviour, as he saith, having laid before us two books or volumes to study ; first the Scriptures, revealing the ivill of God, and then the creatures, ex- pressing his 2}oiver ; whereof the latter is a 1(C]) unto the former *. Such was the piety and penetration of this great man. However, let us not take it amiss, that, at certain times, we are rudely attacked and in-
* See Bacon's Adv. of Learning, B. i.
SERM. IV.^
OF CHRISTIANITY.
59
suited. Christians, under the temptations of ease and security, would forget themselves, and go to sleep ; they are therefore obliged to their adversaries for dis- turbing them, that they may awake, like Samsori, and discover their own strength. So little reason have we in fact to be terrified with the threatenings of our ad- versaries, that we invite them to enter with us upon a comparison between the word and the works of God. For it will be found true, as I shall endeavour to shew, that the invisible things of God, that is, the things concerning his Being and his Power, and the ceco- nomy of his spiritual kingdom, which are the objects of our faith, are clearly seen from the creation of the world, and understood by the things that are made.
Having much matter to propose, I must not in- dulge myself in the use of any superfluous words. A plain and unadorned discourse will be accepted ra- ther for the meaning than the form; and as I am about to consider the works of God in a new capa- city, I must bespeak your attention, not without a degree of your candour also, to excuse an adventu- rous excursion into an unfrequented path of divinity.
Let us enquire then, how the religious state of man, and the spiritual kingdom of God, as the Scrip- tures have made known to us : that is, how Christi- anity, as a scheme of doctrine, agrees with the works of God, and the ceconomy of Nature 1 In conse- quence of which it will be found, that the Christian Religion hath the attestation of natural philosophy ; and that every other religion hath it not. '
Our Bible teaches us these great principles or doc- trines ; that man is now in a fallen state of forfeiture under Sin and Death, and suffering the penalties of disobedience : that, as a religious being, he is the scholar of heaven, and must be taught of God ; that
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ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [^SERM. IV.
the Almighty Father of men and angels gives him life and salvation by his Word and Spirit ; in other words, by Christ and the Holy Ghost : that there is danger to us from the malignity and power of evil spirits : that a curse hath been inflicted upon the earth by a flood of water : that there is no remission of sin without shedding of blood ; and that a divine life is supported in us by partaking of the death of Christ in the Paschal or Sacramental Feast of the Lord's table ; that there is a restoration to life after death by a resurrection of the body ; and lastly, that the world which we inhabit shall be destroyed by fire.
These are the principles, at least the chief of them, which are peculiar to the Scriptures. He that be- lieves them is a Christian ; and if the works and ways of nature have a correspondence with these princi- ples, and with no other, then ought every natural philosopher to be a Christian believer.
I. Let us proceed then to examine how the case stands. The unbelieving philosopher supposes man to be in the same state of perfection now, as when he came from the hands of his Creator. But the infirmi- ties of his mind, with the diseases and death of his body, proclaim the contrary. When the death of man is from the hand of man, according to the laws of justice, it is an execution : and it is the same in its nature, when inflicted upon all men by the hands of a just God. The moral history of man informs us, that he offended God by eating in sin. His natural history shews us, 'that, in consequence of it, he now eats in labour and sorrow. The world is full of toil and trouble; and for what end, but that man may earn his daily bread ? The hands of the husbandman are hardened, and his back is bowed down with the cultivation of the earth. Thorns and thistles prevail against him, and multiply
SERM.
OF CHRISTIANITY.
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his labour. While some are toiling upon the earth, others are doomed to work underneath it. Some are exercised and wasted with works of heat: some for a livelihood are exposed to the storms and perils of the sea ; and they who are called to the dangers of war, support their lives at the hazard of losing them.
The woman who was first in the transgression, is distinguished by sorrows peculiar to her sex ; and if some are exempt, they are exceptions which confirm the general law ; and shew, that the penalty doth not follow by any necessity of Nature, but is inflicted.
Many are the unavoidable sorrows of life ; but if we consider how many more are brought upon man by himself, it is plain his ynind is not right : for if he had his sight and his senses, he would see better and avoid them.
Suppose human nature to be perfect; what is the consequence ? We not only contradict our own daily experience : but we supersede the use of Christianity, by denying the existence of those evils, for which only it is provided. The whole system of it is offered to us as a cure for the consequences of the fall. From the accommodation of its graces, gifts, and sacraments to the wants of our nature, we have a demonstration that our minds are in a distempered and sinful state : as the drugs and instruments in the shop of the sur- geon are so many arguments that our bodies are frail and mortal.
II. The Scriptures declare farther, that man, thus born in sin and sorrow, would grow up in darkness and ignorance, as to all heavenly things, unless he were taught of God : whose word is therefore said to be a light. The case is the same in nature. For how doth man receive the knowledge of all distant objects? not by a light within himself, but by a light which
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ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [^SERM. IV.
comes to him from heaven, and brings to his sight a sense of the objects from which it is reflected. What an uninformed empty being would man become in his bodily state : how destitute of the knowledge of all remote objects, but for the rays of light which come to him from without ? Such would he be in his religious capacity without the light of revelation, which was therefore sent out into all lands, as the light of the sun is diffused throughout the world : The people that walked in darkness (which is the state we are born to) have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined*. The Scriptures declare that we are in a state of stu- pidity and death, till we are illuminated by the Gos- pel: Awake thou that steepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light f. But they cannot make our souls worse than our bodies would be with- out the visible lights of heaven; and therefore in this respect, the physical state of man answers precisely to his religious state ; and if we duly observe and reflect upon the one, we must admit the other also, or oppose the testimony of our senses.
III. The Gospel informs us, that there is a light of life to the soul of man, and a divine Spirit of God which quickens and inspires; and that the whole oeconomy of grace is administered to us by the persons of the Son and the Holy Ghost. And are not the principles of man's natural life maintained by a parallel agency in nature ? Do we not there also find a light to ani- mate, and a spirit to inspire and give us breath ? The divine Spirit,from his nature and office, takes its name from the air or natural spirit of the world, which sup- plies us with the breath of life. On the day of Pente- cost he descended fromheaven under the outward sign * Isa. ix. 2. t Eph. v. U.
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of a rushing mighty wind; that from his philosophical emblem we might understand his nature and opera- tions; who, like the wind, is invisible, irresistible, the medium of life and the inspirer of the prophets and apostles, who all spake as the Spirit gave tJiem utter- ance. The air is the instrument of speech, and the vehicle of sound. Such was the divine Spirit to the apostles ; by whose aid and operation, their sound went out into all lands. The ways of the Spirit of God in the birth of man unto grace, are hidden from us : we distinguish him only by his effects : so it is in na- ture : we hear the sound of the wind, but we cannot tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. Thus did our Saviour himself illustrate the operations of the Holy Ghost from those of the air : and, what is very remarkable, he communicated the Holy Ghost to his disciples under the outward sign of breathing upon them.
In the invisible kingdom of God, there is a sun of righteousness which rises upon a world that lieth in darkness ; raising up the dead to a new life, and restoring all that sin and death had destroyed. So doth the visible world present to us the great lumi- nary of the day, whose operations are in all respects like to those of the sun of righteousness. In the morning it prevails over darkness, and in the spring it restores the face of Nature.
When the Scriptures say that the powers of the Word and Spirit of God are necessary to the souls of men ; they say no more than what the most scrupu- lous philosophy must admit in regard to their bodies : for certainly mankind cannot subsist without the sun and the air. They must have light, to live by as well as to see by ; and they must have breath, with- out vvhich they can neither live, nor speak, nor hear.
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ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [^SERM, IV.
We are to argue farther ; that as we must suppose a sun to shine before we can suppose man to exist upon earth : so by parity of reason, the divine h'ght was pre- existent to all those who are saved by it; and to pre- sume that J esus Christ, who is that light, is only a man like ourselves, is as false in divinity, as it would be false in philosophy to report the sun in the heavens as a thing of yesterday, and formed like ourselves out of the dust of the ground. Doth not philosophy teach us, that the elementary powers of light and air are in nature su- preme and sovereign ? for is there any thing above them ? Is there a sun above the sun that rules the day ; and is there a spirit above the wind that gives us breath ? therefore, so are the persons of Christ and the Holy Ghost supreme and divine in the invisible kingdom of God. If not, it must lead us into idolatry and blas- phemy, when we see them represented to us in the Scripture by these sovereign powers in nature. God is Light, and God is a Spirit: therefore, that person who is called t/ie Sjiirit must be divine ; and Jesus Christ who is the true Light must be the true God.
"Wheresoever we go in divinity, thither will philoso- phy still follow us as a faithful witness. For if we are assured by revelation, that there is a power of divine justice to execute vengeance on the enemies of God, and which shall destroy with a fearful destruction the ungodly and impenitent whenever it shall reach them; we find in nature the irresistible power of fire, which dissipates and destroys what it acts upon, and which in many instances hath been applied as the instrument of vengeance upon wicked men. Sacrifices were con- sumed by fire, to signify that w rath from heaven is due to sin, and would fall upon the sinful offerer himself, if the victim did not receive it for him by substitution. When the law was given on Mount Sinai, the heavens
SERM. IV.^
OF CHRISTIANITY.
(i5
flamed with fire, and the mountain burned below, to give the people a sense of the terrors of divine judg- ment. With allusion to which exhibition, and other examples of the actual effects of his wrath, God is said to be a consuming fire : and happy are they who re- gard the j)oiver of it, and flee from it, as Lot and his family fled from the flames of Sodom.
IV. Another doctrine, peculiar to the Scripture, is, the danger to which we are exposed in our religious capacity from the malignity and power of the Devil ; whose works are manifest, though he himself is invisi- ble. But the natural creation bears witness to his ex- istence, and to all his evil properties ; where the wis- dom of God hath set before us that creature the Ser- pent, a singular phaenomenon of the same kind ; whose bite diffuses death so suddenly and miraculously through the body, that he may be said, in comparison of all other creatures, to have thej^ower of death. He is double-tongued and insidious ; often undiscovered till he has given the fatal wound. In a word, he is such a pattern of the invisible adversary of mankind, who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, that the hieroglyphical language of the Bible speaks of him in the history of the first temptation, under the name of the Serpent. The wicked who are related to him as his seed or children, are called a generation of vipers; by which figurative phrase it is literally meant, that they were of their father the Devil.
In the modern systems and schemes of those who affect the philosophical character, we are not always sure of finding a God : but we are sure never to find a Devil : for as the Heathens of old offered sacrifices to him without understanding that they did so ; in like manner do some people of these days work under him without knowing him. Yet certainly the Scripture,
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by its application of the word Serpent to the Tempter who brought Sin and Death into the world, hath re- ferred us to the natural creation for the properties of the Serpent-kind : and from those properties every naturalist may learn what the Devil is, and what we have to fear fi'om him, more accurately and effectually than any words can teach. What he finds in the na- tural Serpent he must apply to another invisible Ser- pent, who can think and reason and dispute the ve- racity of God ; which the common Serpent never could. How came so fearful and cursed a creature into the works of God ? Certainlv for the wisest end : that men might understand and avoid the enemy of their salvation. The world was made, as the Scrip- tures were written, for our learning ; and unless the Serpent were found in it, there would be a blank in the creation, and we should have been to seek for some ideas, which are of the last importance to the mind of man.
Other ideas, nearly related, may indeed be collected from the contrariety between light and darkness ; with their figurative alliance to moral good and evil. The power of Satan hath the like effect on men's souls as darkness hath upon their bodies ; and the Scripture calls it the power of darhnesa. If the enemies of God's religion are called the seed of the Serpent, in opposition to the sons of God ; so are they also re- presented to us as children of darkness, in opposition to the children of light. What communion, saith St. Paul, hath light with darhiess ; ivhat concord hath Christ icith Belial; or icliat part hath he that be- lieveth ivith an Infidel? The ancient Persians, who were given to speculate as Philosophers on the prin- ciples of their theology, argued from a course of Nature, that there are two contrary principles of
SERM. IV.^
OF CHKISTIANITY.
67
good and evil in the world of Spirits : that there is a malignant Power acting in opposition to the benign goodness of the Creator, as darkness, in the vicissitudes of day and night, holds divided empire with light. Which speculations, properly corrected, are agreeable to the imagery of the Scripture ; in which the author of evil is called the power of dark- ness ; and, in his capacity of a destroyer, is compared to lightning, which, like Yjwcxiox, falls from heaven to do mischief upon earth.
V. Another doctrine of Revelation is the execution of a curse by the waters of a flood ; which obliges us to examine how it agrees with the natural history of the earth. It was impossible to know that this catas- trophe was universal, but by Revelation ; but when known, it is confirmed as a fact by the same proofs of it occurring to us in every part of the known world. The curvatures, furrows, and channels, on the whole face of the earth, open to common observation, are so many marks and monuments of the forcible effects of descending waters. The relics, fragments, and bones of marine productions, every where found under the earth, shew that the sea covered the land, and that the present world, on which we now live, is the burying- ground of a former, on which that curse was exe- cuted, which God pronounced at the beginning. The natural history of the earth, as bearing this tes- timony to the Flood of Noah, has been very trouble- some to our Infidel-Philosophers ; and the improba- bility and weakness of some theories, with the wild extravagance of others, advanced to disguise this plain fact, shew that its evidence is stubborn and un- tractable.
VI. The derivation of a principle of life from the death of Christ, and the remission of sin by the shed-
F 2
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ON THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [^SERM. IV,
ding of his innocent blood, are doctrines essential to the Gospel, and every way agreeable to the condition of man's natural life : for we live by the death of in- nocent animals, who lay down their lives for our sustenance, not for any fault of their own. Such creatures as are hurtful, and not fit to live, are not fit for us to eat. The act of killing clean beasts in sacrifice, and the sprinkling of their blood, and the feasting upon their flesh, had undoubtedly an intended correspondence with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and the support of our spiritual life by a participation of his death. The whole institution was prophetical, and the Scriptures are copious in the application of it. And though the act of slaughtering innocent creatures is not now a religious act, as it used to be, the ra- tionale of it is still the same ; and it will speak the same language to the end of the world ; it will always be declaratory of the salvation of man by the death of an universal sacrifice. The insensible people who trade in the slaughter of innocent animals, and shed their blood by profession ; and they who feed upon them by daily custom, never think of this : but the uni- versal practice of mankind speaks, w ithout their un- derstanding it, that which Caiaphas prophesied with- out knowing what he said, it is expedient that one man die, that the whole people perish not. It is expedient that the innocent should die to feed our bodies : let any man deny it if he can : and it is equally expe- dient, that Jesus Christ should die to feed our souls.
Some philosophers of antiquity, ignorant of the terms man is now upon with his Maker, refined upon the traditional rites of sacrifice and the priesthood, (which are nearly as ancient as the world) and rea- soned themselves into an abhorrence of animal food. They exclaimed against the use of it, as barbarous.
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and unworthy of a rational creature : especially as the lot falls upon the most inoffensive of animals, whose dispositions and services have a claim upon us for kindness and protection. But these are doomed to die by the wise appointment of God ; and by these men live; as Jesus Christ the righteous, with the meekness and innocence of the Lamb, was brought to the slaughter ; that through his death we might have life eternal.
VII. The resurrection of the body, which comes next in order, is no where taught but in the Scrip- tures. The apparatus of the philosopher can furnish no argument against it : and God's apparatus is clearly on the side of it. For if it be examined by the light of nature, that is, by the light reflected from natural things, it becomes a reasonable, and almost a natural doctrine.
It is evident that man's body was made of the dust of the earth, because we see that it returns into earth again. Philosophy therefore may argue, that as God formed man's body of the dust at first, he can as easily restore and raise it from the same afterwards. That he will actually do this is promised to us in the Scripture ; and on that promise Nature is giving us a lecture every day of our lives. Many animals, after a torpid state, scarcely distinguishable from death, recover the powers of life at the proper season by the influence of the sun : some after submersion in water during the whole winter. Some crawl for a time as helpless worms upon the earth, like ourselves ; then they retire into a covering, which answers the end of a coffin, or a sepulchre, wherein they are invisibly transformed, and come forth in glorious array, with wings and painted plumes, more like the inhabitants of heaven, than such worms as they were in their for-
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ox THE NATURAL EVIDENCES [^SERM. IV.
mer earthly state. This transformation is so striking and pleasant an emblem of the present, the interme- diate,and the glorified states of man, that peopleof the most remote antiquity, Avhen they buried their dead, embalmed and inclosed them in an artificial covering, so figured and painted as to resemble the caterpillar, or silk-Avorm, in the intermediate state : and as Joseph was the first we read of that was embalmed in Egypt, where this manner prevailed, it was very probably of Hebrew original.
The vicissitudes of night and day instruct us far- ther on the same subject. The sun sets to rise again ; the year dies away into the winter, and rises to verdure and beauty in the spring. Sleep is a temporary death from which ■sve daily awake ; insomuch that in many passages of the Scripture, sleep and death are the same thing, and he that j-ises from the dead is said to aivake out of sleep *. The furrow of the field is a grave, out of which the seeds that are buried rise to a new and better state. Their death and burial, which seems to be their end, is the beginning of their life : It is not qidcJcened except it die. The allusion to plants and seeds is very common in the Scripture, to illustrate the present and future state of man : and if it reminds us, that all flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field ; it makes us amends, by assur- ing us, that our hones shall flourish as an herb, and that every seed shall have its oicn body.
Vni. The destruction of the world by fire is the last doctrine I shall take occasion to speak of : which, though never unreasonable, and admitted even by the Heathens of old time, is now more apparent than ever, from the late improvements in experimental
* See Daniel xii. 2.
SERM. IVO
OF CHRISTIANITY.
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philosophy. Indeed, we may say, the world is already on fire : for as Sinai, with its smoke and flame, was a positive, so is every volcano a natural prelude to the burning of the last day. The earth, the air, the clouds, the sea, are all replete with a subtile penetrating fire, which, while at rest, is neither felt nor observed, and was absolutely unknown to some of the most learned for ages ; till accidental discovery hath now laid open the treasures of fire in heaven and earth to all that have the use of their sight and senses. The publica- tion of the philosophy of fire hath been so sudden and so universal, and is so wonderful in itself, that it seems to be second to the publication of the Gospel : at least, there is no event in philosophy or literature that comes near to it.
In this element we live and move ; and, perhaps, so far as our frame is mechanical, we are moved by it. When excited to action, it turns into a consuming fire, which no substance can exclude, no force can resist. The matter of lightning, which seems to break out partially and accidentally, is now found to be constitutional and universal in the system of Nature : so that the heavens, which, according to the language of the Scripture, are to melt ivith fervent heat, want no foreign matter to convert them into fire. What is called phlogiston can rise in a moment from a state of quiescence to a state of inflammation ; and it dis- covers itself in many bodies where we should little expect to find it. The earth, and the works that are therein, carry within them the seeds of their own de- struction; and may be burnt up by that element which now resides within them, and is only waiting for the word from its Creator.
Upon the whole then, philosophy, so far as the term signifies a knowledge of God's wisdom and power
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in the natural creation, which is the best sense of the word ; this philosophy, I say, is so far from being ad- verse to true religion, that with all the common evi- dences of Christianity in reserve, we may venture to meet the philosopher upon his own ground ; we have nothing to fear from the testimony of Nature ; we ap- peal to it : we call upon every man of science to com- pare the Gospel which God hath revealed, with the world which God hath created : under an assurance, that he will find tlie latter to be a hey unto the former, as our noble philosopher hath well asserted. We have ventured to try this comparison upon the general plan of Christianity, and we see how it answers.
And if Nature answers to Christianity, it contra- dicts Deism ; and that religion cannot be called na- tural which is contradicted by the light reflected upon our understandings from natural things. The Socinian is nearly in the same situation with the Deist: and they may both join together in calling upon Na- ture, from morning until night, as the Priests of Baal called upon their Deity : but there will be none to answer ; and philosophy must put out one of his eyes before it can admit their doctrines. In short, take any religion but the Christian, and bring it to this test, by comparing it with the state of Nature, and it will be found destitute and defenceless. But the doctrines of our faith are attested by the whole natural world. Wherever we turn our eyes, to the heaven or to the earth, to the sea or to the land, to men or to beasts, to animals or to plants, there we are re- minded of them. They are recorded in a language which hath never been confounded : they are written in a text which shall never be corrupted.
The Creation of God is the school of Christians, if they use it aright. What is commonly called the world,
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consists of the forms, manners, diversions, pursuits, and prospects, of human society. But this is an arti- ficial world, of man's making : the subject of his study, the object of his ambition. The natural world, of God's making, is full of wonder and instruction ; it is open to all, it is common to all. Here there can be no envy, no party, no competition ; for no man will have the less for what his neighbour possesses. The world, in this sense, may be enjoyed without fraud or violence. The student in his solitary walk, the husbandman at his labour, the saint at his prayers, may have as much as they can desire, and have no- thing to repent of; for they will thus draw nearer to God, because they will see farther into his truth, wisdom, and goodness.
Some have expressed their astonishment at the choice of hermits, and men of retirement, as people who have fled from all the enjoyments of life, and consigned themselves to melancholy and misery. They are out of the world, it is true ; but they are only out of that artificial world of man's making, in which so many are hastening to disappointment and ruin : but they are still in that other better world of contemplation and devotion, which affords them all the pleasures and improvements of the mind, and is preparatory to a state of uninterrupted felicity.
Let us then, finally, give thanks to him, who to the light of his Gospel hath added this light of nature, and opened the wonderful volume of the creation be- fore us, for the confirmation of his truth, and the illumination of his people ; that we may thence know and see the certainty of those things ivherein we have heen instructed. As all his works are for our good, let it be our study and our wisdom to turn them all to his glory.
SERMON V
SING TO THE HARP WITH A PSALM OF THANKSGIVING. PSALM XCVIII. 6.
These words, like many others in the Psalms of David, assert and encourage the use of music, both vocal and instrumental, in the worship of God : the propriety and benefits of which will be evident from such an examination of the subject, as the present occasion may well admit of : and I hope the good affections of my hearers will be as ready to enter into a rational consideration of the nature and uses of music, as their ears are to be delighted with music. For this art is a great and worthy object to the un- derstanding of man : it is wonderful in itself: and in its proper and best use, it may be reckoned amongst the several means of grace, which God in his abund- ant goodness hath vouchsafed to his church ; some to direct our course through this vale of tears, and some to cheer and support us under the trials and labours of it.
INIusic will need no other recommendation to our attention as an important subject, when it shall be understood, as I mean to shew in the first place, that it derives its origin from God himself : whence it will follow, that so far as it is God's work, it is his pro- perty, and may certainly be applied as such to his service. The question will be, whether it may be applied to any thing else.
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What share soever man may seem to have in modi- fying, all that is found in this world to delight the senses, is primarily the work of God. Wine is pre- pared by human labour ; but it is given to us in the grape by the Creator. The prismatic glass is the work of art ; but the glorious colours which it exhibits to the eye are from him who said. Let there he light. Man is the contriver of musical instruments ; but the principles of harmony are in the elements of nature ; and the greatest of instruments, as we shall soon dis- cover, was formed by the Creator himself. The ele- ment of air was as certainly ordained to give us har- monious sounds in due measure, as to give respiration to the lungs. This fluid is so constituted as to make thousands of pulses at an invariable rate, by means of which the proportions and coincidences of musical sounds are exactly preserved. The same wisdom which established the seven conspicuous lights of the firmament, which gave names to the periodical mea- sure of time in a week ; and which hath distinguished the seven primary colours in the element of light, hath given the same limits to the scale of musical degrees, all the varieties of which are comprehended within the number seven.
In the philosophical theory of musical sounds, we discover some certain laws which demonstrate that the divine wisdom hath had respect and made pro- vision for the delight of our senses, by accommodat- ing the nature of sounds to the degree of our percep- , tion. As this must be a pleasing consideration to the lovers of music, I shall beg leave to enlarge upon it.
There is no such thing in music as a simple or soli- tary sound. Every musical note, whether from a string, a pipe, or a bell, is attended by other smaller notes which arise out of it. When a string sounds in
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its whole length, the parts also sound in such sections or divisions as have a certain proportion to the total sound. We find by calculation and experiment, that these measures are harmonious in the greater of them, but that in the lesser they run into discords. Now herein is the wisdom and goodness of God manifest ; that these sounds are so attempered to the sensibility of the human ear, that we feel all the pleasant with- out any part of the disagreeable effect. Were the ear more sensible, or these discords louder, all music would be spoiled.
There is another providential circumstance in the theory of sounds, that if a pipe is blown to give its proper note, a stronger blast will raise it to its octave (8 notes higher.) This is done by an instantaneous leap, which if it were done by procession from the one to the other, as bodies in motion rise or fall, not music, but a noise would be the consequence, most disagreeable to the ear ; to which nothing is more of- fensive than a sound rising or falling by the way of the whole intermediate space, and not by just inter- vals ; for that is a principle of noises as they differ from notes : and a curious principle it is, if this were a proper occasion for pursuing it. We find music as a work of God in the constitution of the air ; which is made capable of proportionate vibrations to delight us ; and in such degree and manner as to save the ear from offence and interruption.
Music may be farther traced as the work of God in the nature of man : for God hath undoubtedly made man to sing as well as to speak. The gift of speech we cannot but derive from the Creator ; and the gift of singing is from the same Author. The faculty, by which the voice forms musical sounds, is as wonderful as the flexures of the organs of speech in the articu-
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lation of words. The human pipe is of a small diame- ter, and very short when compared with the pipes of an organ : yet it will distinctly give the same note with the pipe of an organ eight feet in length. The move- able operculum on the pipe of the human throat, which is imitated by the reed of the organ, has but a very small range : yet with the contraction and ex- pansion of the throat, it will utter a scale of seven- teen degrees, and divide every whole tone into an hundred parts ; which is such a refinement on me- chanism as exceeds all description.
But, more than this, man is an instrument of God in his whole frame. Besides the powers of the voice in forming, and of the ear in distinguishing musical sounds, there is a general sense, or sympathetic feel- ing, in the fibres and membranes of the body, which renders the whole frame susceptible of musical emo- tion. Every person strongly touched with music must be assured that its effect is not confined to the ear, but is felt all over the frame, and to the inmost affections of the heart ; disposing us to joy and thankfulness on the one hand, or to penitential softness and devotion on the other. Whence it follows, that when words convey to the mind the same sense as the music does, and dispose us to the same affection, then the effect of music is greatest; which consideration at once gives to vocal the pre-eminence above instrumental music.
It is a very observable experiment in music, that when one stringed instrument is struck, and another in tune with it is held upon the palm of the hand, it will be felt to tremble in all its solid parts : Thus doth the frame of man feel and answer to instruments of music, as one instrument answers to another.
Man is to be considered as a musical instrument of God's forming; he has music in his voice, in his ear,
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and in his whole frame. Hence the Psahnist, when he calls upon the lute and harp to awake, hath rightly added, I myself, an instrument which God hath formed for his own use, will awake right early : I will utter, and I will feel, such sounds as are worthy of a soul awakened to the praise and glory of God.
Now we have derived music from its proper origin, we are to consider the end which it is intended to answer. The mind of man is subject to certain emo- tions, which language alone is not sufficient to express; so it calls in the aid of bodily gestures and musical sounds, by which it attains to an higher kind of ex- pression, more adequate to its inward feelings. In prayer, words alone are not adequate to the affections of the soul : so the eyes are lifted up to the everlasting hills, the knees are bent, and the body falls prostrate upon the dust, to denote the prostration of the mind. So naturally are the knees bended, and the hands folded together, when we are imploring the divine forgiveness, that the word supplication is taken from thence. In joy and thanksgiving, the tongue is not content with speaking ; it must aw^ake and utter a song ; while the feet are also disposed to dance to the measures of music ; as was the custom in sacred ce- lebrities of old among the people of God, before the world and its vanities had engrossed to themselves all the expressions of mirth and festivity. They have now left nothing of that kind to religion ; which must sit by in gloomy solemnity, and see the world, the flesh, and the devil, assume to themselves the sole power of distributing social happiness. When the holy prophet David danced before the ark of God, INIichal scorned him in her heart, as if he was ex- posing himself, and robbing the vain world of its tributary right : for which she was barren to the day
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of her death ; as all they are likely to be in their hearts, who are either ashamed of the condescension, or can find nothing chearful and pleasant in the wor- ship of the God of Israel. However this may be, it must be admitted, that nothing adds so fully to the expression of joy, as the sound of instruments ac- companying the voice.
When the mind is intent upon some great object, then all the aids of speech are called for. They are, therefore, never so proper and necessary as in the praises of God, the best and the greatest. When you glorify the Lord, (saith the son of Sirach) exalt him as much as you can ; and when ye exalt him, put forth all your strength, and he not weary, for you can never go far enough. Ecclus. xliii. 30. Here music ap- pears in its proper character : but to call in the as- sistance of great sounds to magnify little or worthless things, is absurd and ridiculous. The powers of speech are more than they deserve : but certainly, laborious celebration, when dedicated to trifles, is to the reproach of human judgment. The winds of hea- ven, and the waves of the ocean, which can transport the loftiest ships, were not intended to float a cork, or to drive a feather. When the highest music is ap- plied to the highest objects, then we act with reason and propriety, and bring honour to ourselves, while we are promoting the honour of our Maker. If a musician has any sense of great things, they must lead him to higher performances in his art than little things : they call for an higher sort of expression ; and accord- ingly we find, in fact, that masters have exceeded themselves when their talents have been turned to divine subjects in the service of the church ; in whose archives are to be found the most sublime and excel- lent of all musical compositions. What is the sense
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and subject of the most perfect piece of music in the Avorld, but the humiliation of man, and the exaltation of God ? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, hut to thy name he the glory ! In truth, there is nearly the same proportion between the music of the church and the music of secular assemblies, as between the vene- rable Gothic aile of the cathedral and the common chamber ; and there is the like difference in their ef- fects upon the mind ; for its elevation and enlarge- ment are better than its levity ; and rapture is above mirth.
It may have been made a question by some people, more melancholy than wise, and soured with the prin- ciples of spurious reformation, whether instrumental music may be lawfully applied to divine worship. But it is no question at all. The voices of men are to speak the praises of God : but not they alone. Every devout and well-informed mind hears the whole frame of nature, the world and all things that are therein, joining in one great instrumental chorus to the glory of the Creator. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad — let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is ; let the floods clap their hands — let the field be joyful, let the vallies sing — let all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord. This is a grand sentiment, sufficient to overpower and confound all the sullen objections of enthusiatic melancholy *, and to awaken the stupidity of indevotion itself. Here the whole inanimate creation is musical : and the thought hath been plainly borrowed by our best poet
* Amongst other laws, equally extravagant, established in a Democratical province of ftmatics in America, we find the follow- ing : " No man shall keep Christmas, read the Common Prayer, eat minced pies, or play on any instrument, except the drum, trum- pet, and Jews-harp.
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in his supposed hymn of Adam and Eve in Paradise ; which will naturally occur to the memory of those who are acquainted with it. Sounds from inanimate bodies, such as musical instruments, are, therefore, undoubtedly to be used in divine worship : and all ages and nations of the world have admitted them. On occasion of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel in her hand to celebrate the glorious triumph of the Lord. In the service of the tabernacle and temple, all kinds of in- struments were used, and bands of singers and mu- sicians were appointed in so great a multitude, that their sound must have produced an astonishing effect. A father of the church informs us, that the music of the temple, on great occasions, from the multitude of performers, and the elevation of the place, was heard to the distance of ten miles. That the songs of Sion were usally accompanied by the harp, ac- cording to the exhortation in the text, appears from the 137th Psalm. Even the Heathens, in their sa- cred festivals, retained the use of instrumental mu- sic. When the golden image was set up in the plain of Dura, the signal was given for the act of adoration by the sound of all kinds of instruments.
In the lowest state of the church, when the suffer- ings of our blessed Saviour were at hand, himself and the company of his disciples still followed the custom of adding music to their devotions ; they sung an hymn. Pliny, the minister of the emperor Trajan, t^lls his master how the first Christians made it their practice to sing hymns to Jesus Christ, as to God. We are surely not to wonder, if instruments were not used while the church was in an afflicted and perse- cuted state : it could have no organs when it had no public edifices to put them in, supposing them to have
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been then in use : but when the church was supported and established by the kingdoms of the world, it as- sumed a like form of worship w ith that which pre- vailed in the prosperous days of David and Solomon.
We find organs in the church as early as the seventh century, near 1200 years ago. And here let all the admirers of the musical art stop awhile to reflect with gratitude and devotion, that the invention of choral harmony in parts arose from the Trinitarian worship of the Christian church. It is certain we have no music of that form extant in the w^orld, but such as is Christian ; nor do we read of any ; and had it not been for the schools of music, established and main- tained by the church, I will venture to say there had, at this day, been none of that excellent music with which all of us are now charmed, and I hope, many of us edified. Look out of Christendom into the king- doms of China, Tartary, Turkey, and the regions of the southern world, and you will discover no music but what is beggarly and barbarous, fit only to amuse the ears of children or savages. Every thing that is great and excellent in this w-ay, hath come down to us from the Christian church. O holy and blessed society, w'hich hath thus introduced us to all that we can know and feel of heaven itself! How shall we celebrate thee, how shall we cultivate and adorn thee, according to what we have derived from thee ! Let others be cold and indifferent, if they will, to our forms of w orship ; but upon musicians, if they know themselves, religion hath a particular demand ; for they would never have been w hat they are, if God in his infinite goodness, had not brought us to the im- provements of the Gospel.
If we proceed now to enquire, what are the subjects to which music may be applied, we shall find the chief
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of them set down for us in the 33d Psalm ; where the righteous are directed to praise the Lord with instru- ments of music, because his word is true, and all his works are faithful. The wisdom of his word, and the w^onders of his works, are, therefore, to be celebrated in our sacred songs ; he is to be praised as the de- fender of his people, giving victory to their arms against their heathen enemies ; feeding, healing, and delivering out of all danger those who trust in him, as their help and their shield. To all these subjects music may be applied ; and this is the use we make of it in the Te Deum, and all the hymns of the morning and evening service ; to the words of which such strains of harmony are adapted in this our Church of England, that the world cannot shew the like.
But as the mind has another language of sighs and tears, very different from that of praise and triumph, so the scale of music affords us a melancholy key with the lesser third, and a mournful sort of harmony pro- ceeding by semi-tones, which is exceedingly fine and solemn, and reaches to the bottom of the soul, as the lighter sort of music plays upon the top of it. That musical sounds are applicable to prayer and suppli- cation and penitential sorrow, none will doubt, who hears the Anthem, / call and cry ; or that other. Call to remembrance, O Lord ; by two of our most ancient and excellent composers * : or that versicle of the Burial Office, Thou knoivest, Lord, the secrets of our liearts, by the greatest of modern masters f. Thus much for the subjects of music.
The form of the Anthem derives itself naturally from the structure of some of the Psalms, in which we so frequently find the soliloquy, the dialogue, and the
* Tallis and Farrant.
G 2
f Piircel.
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chorus. Thus, for example : — The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble, is the voice of a company encou- raging a priest in his intercession ; who also answers for himself, and expresses his confidence; Now hioic I that the Lord heJpeth his anointed: then all join to- gether in supplication ; Save, Lord, and hear us ivhen tve call upon thee. The solo, the verse, and the chorus, in our church music, express all these turns in the sa- cred poetry, when they are properly applied. The re- sponsory form of our chanting by alternate singing in the choir, is agreeable to the heavenly worship of the seraphim, in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, where they are represented as crying one to another with alteniate voices*. Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts. The version of the Psalms into poetical metre leads to a sort of Psaknody so plainly measured, as to be easily comprehended and perfonned by the gene- rality of the people in a congregation: and simple as this music may appear, the greatest masters have thought it worthy of their cultivation, and we have some di\ine pieces of harmony in this kind. The old hundredth Psahn, which is ascribed to Martin Luther, is deservedly admired; the 113th is excellent; so is the old 81st, the 148th, and many others, which are judiciously retained in our congregations.
Such is the state, and such the excellence of our music, in the church of England ; and long may the sound of our cathedrals and churches go up to hea- ven, and reach the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
To what hath here been said on the nature, and use, and state of music, I wish it were in my power to add something effectual toward the reformation of some abuses ; for such will find admission into all societies.
* Altemis dicetis, amant alterna Camaenas. Virg.
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through negligence in some, and want of judgment in others.
As God is the greatest and best of beings, and it is the highest honour of man in this life to serve him, every thing relating to his worship should be ordered with decency, propriety, reverence, and affection. / will sing with the understanding, saith the Apostle : so should we sing, and so should we perform, in all our approaches to the throne of Grace ; our music should be the music of wise men and of Christians. No lame, or maimed, or defective sacrifice was permitted to be offered in the temple of God ; who, being the first proprietor of all things, hath a claim to the best of every thing, and consequently to the best music, performed in the best manner we are able.
Church music has a proper character of its own, which is more excellent than that of secular, or pro- fane music, and should always be preserved. With- out the restraints of discretion, wisdom, and authority, the art of man is apt to run out into excess and im- propriety ; and while it affects to be too fine, and too powerful, becomes ridiculous. What is it but vanity that betrays the poet into bombast, the orator into buffoonery, the composer of music into useless curio- sity, the performer into ineffectual rapidity and flou- rish ? Thus do men always fail of their end, when they think more about themselves than about their subject. Queen Elizabeth, therefore, took what care she could by her injunctions, that affectation, which spoils all other things, should not be permitted to spoil the music of the Church; and it hath been rightly observed, that the music from the Reforma- tion to the Restoration was more plain and solemn in its style than that which succeeded ; though it still preserved great excellence.
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The performer on the organ, who for the time he is play ing by himself, hath the minds of the congregation under his hand, should take care not to mislead the ignorant into vain fancies, nor to offend the j udicious with unseasonable levity. In the tone of the diapasons of the church organ, there is nothing noisy and mili- tary, nothing weak and effeminate, but a majestic sweetness, which is fittest to dispose the mind of the hearer to a devout and holy temper. If the diapasons could speak in articulate words, there is not a text in the Bible which they would not utter with dignity and reverence ; and hence their music is of excellent use to prepare the people for the hearing of the Scrip- ture. Many here present must have felt the effect of it : and I hope I shall give no offence if I add it as a suspicion that they who do not feel the power of slow harmony upon the organ, have not the right sense of musical sounds. The organist should, there- fore, by all means cultivate that style of harmony which is proper to this noble capacity of his instru- ment.
The Psalmody of our country churches is universally complained of, as very much out of order, and want- ing regulation in most parts of the kingdom. The au- thority of the minister is competent to direct such mu- sic as is proper, and to keep the people to the ancient forms. A company of persons, who appoint themselves under the name of the singers, assume an exclusive right, which belongs not to them but to the congrega- tion at large ; and they often make a very indiscreet use of their liberty ; neglecting the best old Psalmody, till the people forget it, and introducing new tunes, which the people cannot learn ; some of them without science, without simplicity, without solemnity ; causing the serious to frown, and the inconsiderate to laugh. I 15
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have frequently heard such wild airs as were not fit to be brought into the church : through the ignorance of the composers, who were not of skill to distinguish what kind of melody is proper for the church, and what for the theatre, and what for neither. If any Anthems are admitted during the time of divine ser- vice, country choristers should confine themselves to choral harmony, in which they may do very well ; and our church abounds with full anthems by the best masters *. No solos should ever be introduced with- out an instrument to support them; and besides, these require a superior degree of expression to make them tolerable. The Psalmodists of country choirs may with care and practice sing well in time and tune ; and
* We labour under one inconvenience in respect to our Psalmody, which might be removed. Our Psalm tunes have undergone so many experiments, that there is great diversity in copies and editions, some of them very false and bad ; whence it happens too often, that the organist plays one way, while the congregation sings another, and a confusion arises which should always be avoided. I have known even the 1 00th Psalm tune, common as it is, materially affected by the blunders of incompetent editors. An eminent master (the late Dr. Boyce) furnished our cathedrals with a correct and valuable copy of the best Services and Anthems from the Reforma- tion to the beginning of the present century. It is to be wished that all the Psalm tunes of the first merit and authority were published in the like complete form by as faithful an editor. An original edition by Ravenscroft, himself the greatest author of our ancient Psalmody, was published in four parts, but is rarely to be met with, and, in its present form, is not very intelligible to common singers. To render the old Psalm tunes more generally useful in congregations, a learned friend of mine hath published a very good collection of them in three parts very lately, under the title of. Select Portions of the Psalms of David, for the Use of Parish Churches : and though I am precluded from saying any thing in praise of this edition, I shall ven- ture to recommend it as the most correct and convenient work of the kind. I am witness also, how rapidly it hath advanced the just per- formance of Psalmody in a parish of my own.
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in choral music, or music of several parts, the want of due expression is compensated by the fulness of the harmony : but they can never attain to the speakhtg of music without being taught. There is an utterance in singing, as in preaching or praying, which must be learned from the judgment of those who excel in it. A man can no more sing a solo for the church without a musical education, than a clown can speak upon the stage for a learned audience in a theatre.
When we consider the performance of sacred music as a dictij, much is to be learned from it. If music is a gift of God to us for our good, it ought to be used as such, for the improvement of the understanding, and the advancement of devotion. Services, Anthems, and Psalms should be understood as lessons of purity in life and manners. Rejoice in the Lord, O %je righ- teous, saith the Psalmist, for it becometh well the just to be thankful. What ? shall we praise God with our lips, while we blaspheme him with our lives ? Praise, saith the Son of Sirach, is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, for it was not sent him of the L,ord. Praise to the Lord is proper to those only who derive blessings from the Lord ; it is impertinent and false when it comes from those who are never the better for him. O give thanks unto the Lord, for lie is good, for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy : but let not them say so, who have given themselves up to a state of captivity under sin and folly. Some there are, who are very loud and forward in singing, while they are insensible of the greatness and the value of those subjects which our music cele- brates ; like the souiiding brass of a trumpet, which makes a great noise, but feels nothing. Others there are, who are not chargeable with this error : loose.
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irreligious people, who have an absolute dislike and contempt for divine music : and they are right ; for it would carry them out of their element. But God for- bid that we should be where they are : no ; let us keep our music, and amend our lives. It must be our own fault, if our music doth not contribute to our reformation, and we may have it to answer for in com- mon with the other means of improvement which we have abused. All our church music tends to keep up our acquaintance with the Psalms, those divine com- positions, of which none can feel the sense, as music makes them feel it, without being edified. The sacred harp of David will still have the effect it once had upon Saul ; it will quiet the disorders of the mind, and drive away the enemies of our peace.
Another excellent use of music, is for the increase of charity ; and this in more senses than one. When Christians unite their voices in the praises of God, their hearts become more united to one another. Harmony and Charity never do better than when they meet together ; they are of the same heavenly origi- nal ; they illustrate and promote each other. For as different voices join together in the same harmony, and are all necessary to render it complete ; so are all Christians necessary to one another. The high and the low all meet together in the church of Christ, and form one body. As those who perform their different parts in a piece of music, do all conspire to the same effect ; so are we all members one of another ; and as such, are to be unanimous in the performance of our several duties to the praise and glory of God. And as a greater heat arises from a collection of a greater number of rays from the sun ; so more Christians, united in charity and harmony, are happier than fewer. The most critical judges of music must deny their
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own feelings, if they do not allow that the effect of music is wonderfully increased by the multiplication of voices. Indeed the principle is attested and con- firmed by the grand performances of the present age, so greatly and skilfully conducted of late years to the astonishment of the hearers. Magnitude of sound will strike the mind as well as sweetness of harmony; and this is one reason why we are all so affected with the sound of thunder, to which the sound of a great multitude may well be compared. Thus it comes to pass in the union of Christians : the joy and peace of every individual increases in proportion as charity is diffused and multiplied in the church.
But there is another sense in which charity is pro- moted by music. This happens on those occasions, when music is promoted with a charitable intention. Very considerable sums are raised from the contribu- tions of those who come to be treated with sacred harmony. The poor are fed, the sick are healed, and many good works are carried forward. Blessed be the art, which from the hands and hearts of the wealthy and the honourable, can draw relief for the poor and needy ! The widows and orphans of the poor clergy of this church were the first objects relieved through the medium of church music : and let us hope they will rather be gainers than losers by all improvements in this way : for they who are related to the church have, undoubtedly, a priority of claim upon the music of the church.
1 am now, lastly, to remind both my hearers and myself, that all our observations upon this subject will be to no purpose, unless from the use of divine music, and its effect upon us, we learn to aspire to the felici- ty of heaven, of which it gives us a foretaste. While we are in this lower state, there is no vehicle like
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sound for lifting the soul upwards toward the eternal source of glory and harmony. We may conceive the spirit of man as riding on the wings of Psalmody to the celestial regions, whereto its own powers could never transport it. A great admirer and practitioner of sacred music, who was also a man of great piety and devotion, was present at a grand church performance, with which he felt his mind so wrapt and elevated, that in describing the sensation afterwards, he made use of this emphatical expression — I thought I should have gone out of the body*. O what a place would this world be, were it our only employment thus to be ris- ing upwards towards heaven, to visit God with our hearts and affections, adoring his greatness, and de- lighted with his goodness ! but this we can attain to only by uncertain intervals ; the corruptible body will soon recal the soul from its heavenly flights. How high soever it may mount, on certain occasions, it must descend again to the wants and weaknesses and sorrows of mortality ; as the lark, from its loftiest song in the air, drops to its lowly residence upon the ground. However, what we do enjoy must make us wish for more. What then have we to do, but to fit ourselves for that society, which praise God without interrup- tion in his own glorious presence, and rest not day or night ?
When that heavenly scenery is described to us in the Revelation — " I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying. Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him !" Who can read these words without a desire to add his own voice to that multitude, and to sing as a member of that king-
* The late Rev. Sir John Dolben.
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dom, in which the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth ! How must the soul be filled with that immense chorus of men and angels, to which the loudest and mightiest thunder shall add dignity without terror, and be re- duced to the temper of an accompaniment !
God of his infinite mercy give us grace so to pray, and so to sing, and so to live, in this short time of our probation, that we may be admitted into the celestial choir, where with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, and with sounds as yet un- heard and unconceived, we may laud and magnify the adorable name of God ; ascribing to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, into whose name and worship we were baptized upon earth, all honour, glory, power, might, majesty and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
SERMON VI
FEAR GOD. 1 PETER II. 17.
Man is led to the fear of God by a wise considera- tion of his power in the creation and preservation of the world, and the justice with which he governs it now, and will judge it hereafter.
By this fear man is distinguished from the heasts of the field ; which are fearfully and wonderfully made, but have no apprehension of the power which formed them : they are fed by the hand of God, but are insensible of his bounty : they are governed by him, and observe his laws, but know not their law- giver. But the view of man extends to that invisible power which made and sustains the world : he sees that hand which filleth all things living with plen- teousness ; and expects retribution from that just Judge, who knows the secrets of all hearts, and is no respecter of persons.
The brute creation is subject to the dominion of men ; but man himself, being the subject of God, is never to proceed in any matter, as if God had no concern with it. When we think and live by this rule, we are men, properly so called ; because we are under the influence of a fear unknown to irrational creatures ; and are exalted to our proper dignity, as subjects of the kingdom of God.
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Fear is a servile passion, when it has an unworthy object; but it becomes honourable when God is the object of it, and is the test of the human character. When fear is understood in a more general sense, and qualified Avith prudence, it is the passion which dis- tinguishes men from brutes, and wise men from fools. The ignorant fear nothing, because they know no- thing; and some people are mistaking and offending all their lives, because they never know when to fear, nor what to be afraid of : so that the want of fear argues a want of wit in common life, as it undoubt- edly argues a want of grace in religion.
Nothing but the fear of God can render a man fit to live in the world as a member of society. No penalties, which human authority can inflict, lay any obligation upon the conscience ; but he that fears God will consider himself as the servant and subject of God, and consequently he will be true and just, independent of all temporal considerations.
To believe in God, and to fear him, ought to be the same thing with all mankind : but experience shews us, that many who would be ashamed to deny God openly, do not live as if they feared him. Let me, therefore, point out to you some of those consi- derations which produce the fear of God in the heart of man.
The first of these is the consideration of his power, as it is manifested to us in the natural world. Who can observe the glorious lights of heaven in their wonderful order ; the changes of the seasons, the operations of the elements, the structure of man, without being filled with a sense of the divine power ? They shall fear thee, saitli the Psalmist, as long as the sun and moon endureth. The lights of heaven must be blotted out of it, before we can
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resist the necessary inference, that the Maker of them is the first and greatest object of our fear and reverence.
We go forward with this argument, and consider God as the governor of the world ; directing the ele- ments for our good, or interrupting the course of them for our punishment. What force of language can imprint such an awe upon the mind, as a sight of that solemn and majestic appearance of the sky, which is preparatory to a storm of thunder ? When the clouds, as if they were summoned by a divine command, are gathered together from different quarters of the hea- ven; when the air is dark above, and the earth below is in silent expectation of the voice that is to follow, and fearful of that fire, which gives us an assurance and foretaste of what shall happen at the destruction of the world. Well might it be said by EliJm, in the book of Job — At this my heart trembleth, and is moved out of its place. The man who feels nothing upon such an occasion, has no reason to value himself upon his courage : such courage is no honour to any man : it is not fortitude, but stupidity. In different minds the effect will be different : in some, the ter- rors of guilt will be awakened ; in others, a pious fear and a submissive veneration, by which they are brought nearer to God, and become better acquainted with their own sins and infirmities.
The providence of God in the government of states, and the changes of empire, is another consideration which will instruct us farther in the fear of him, by shewing us how we are subject to his power, and de- pendent upon his will.
The mighty monarchy of Babylon was raised up for a scourge to other nations : it was an axe in the hand of Providence, and hewed down other powers.
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to exalt itself; while the invisible hand, which direct- ed it, was turning it to other purposes. It was made instrumental in punishing the Jews for their idolatry; detaining them under a long and miserable captivity, till they were cured of their inclination to idols : and when this end was answered, and the Jews were to be replaced in their own land, the power of this great kingdom departed from it in one night. As soon as the sentence was passed, it was executed on the pro- fane Belshaxzar ; and the particulars of this catas- trophe are preserved by a celebrated heathen histo- rian. Cyrus, to whom the kingdom was transferred, used his authority soon afterwards for the rebuilding of the temple of J erusalem, and the restoration of the Jewish oeconomy.
When God w^as about to send the Christian religion into the world, which was to be spread into every part of it, the Roman empire increased to its utmost gran- deur, and the form of it was changed from republican to monarchical, amongst a people, who by education, natural temper and principle, were the most averse to monarchy of any upon earth. The country of Judea, the stage on which the Gospel was to make its first appearance, was become a Roman province, governed by Roman magistrates, and subject to Roman laws and customs : whence it came to pass, that our Sa- viour, Jesus Christ, suffered death upon a cross, after the Roman manner ; his preachers were sent about the world, over which the Roman jurisdiction was extended ; and the Gospel at length became the esta- blished religion of the empire, by virtue of the im- perial edicts, in opposition to all the power and in- terests of paganism. When these things were accom- plished, and the designs of Providence were answered, this mighty empire was broken into smaller inde-
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pendent kingdoms, and the name of it is now nearly lost in the world.
The Roman power answered another remarkable purpose in the hand of God, for the punishment of the Jews under their last and great apostasy. They betrayed and crucified their Saviour, lest the Romans should come and tahe away their place and nation ; maliciously exclaiming, that they had no king but Ccesar : therefore, these very Romans were the peo- ple appointed of God to drive them out of their land ; the power of Caesar, to whom they had given the preference, was turned against them ; and they who had sold their Saviour were, themselves, sold into captivity and bondage ; thirty of them, as history saith, for one piece of silver.
Their rejection of the Gospel and the consequent judgment of God upon them, are thus represented in one of the parables of Christ — Theij took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them: hut wJien the king heard thereof he was wrath ; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and hurnt up their city. When the Jews had filled up the measure of their sins, the Roman armies were sent out by the Divine direction, to inflict the ven- geance due to them. Their city was burned, their temple levelled with the ground : their land is now possessed by aliens and infidels ; themselves are wan- dering about the world, without any home, and their backs are bowed down under the burthens they carry upon them ; they are mixed with all nations, but in- corporated with none ; they sojourn with all people, yet still differ from all, in their customs, and even in their looks ; they are marked out like Cain, as va- gabonds and murderers, and are miraculously pre- served for a lesson to all that behold them : so that
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a man can hardly look upon a Jew without exclaim- ing— Thou persnadest me to be a Christian. Slay them not, said the prophet, lest my people forget it, hut scatter them abroad : for thence it will be under- stood in all succeeding ages, that God is terrible in his judgments ; that none can forsake him, without being lost to themselves ; and that obedience to his law can alone secure his protection to any other na- tion.
The Jews are held forth as the most striking ex- amples of national sin, and national punishment ; but they are not singular : other nations have had their share, when their pride and wickedness have pro- voked the divine displeasure : and some would grow wise, in time, from the example of others, unless it were found to be true, by fatal experience, that men become infatuated in their understandings, when they are devoted to destruction.
If the history of this kingdom were to be written, with all the truth and impartiality of inspiration, and effects compared justly with their causes ; we should see how God, at sundry times, and in divers manners, hath interposed to visit us ; sometimes raising us to honour, in the sight of those that are round about us, and indulging us with the blessings of peace and plenty ; at other times giving us up to be devoured among ourselves, when a spirit of faction and dis- obedience has been let loose, to set us at variance, and make us a scourge to one another. When a sense of past evils shall have lost its effect upon us, then the same turbulent spirit will again prevail, to undermine our greatness, and render us weak and contemptible in the sight of the nations that are round about us.
Upon the whole, so manifest is the power of God
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in the creation and direction of the natural world ; so remarkable the interposition of his providence in the revolutions of kingdoms ; that he who cannot thence infer the necessity of fearing him, and the wisdom of being subject to him, has neither the faith of a Christian, nor the understanding of a man. And now, if to the foregoing considerations we add this, the last and greatest of all ; that the same God, who visits us here in this life, is to judge us in ano- ther ; all other fear will resolve itself into the fear of him ; according to that precept of our blessed Sa- viour, / will forewarn you ivhom you shall fear : fear him, which, after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, fear him. But then you are to understand with all this, that our religion is not intended to make life melancholy and misera- ble, but rather to make us happier by making us wiser, and to keep us in safety by bringing us nearer unto God. It teaches the necessity of a reasonable fear ; the wisdom of a voluntary subjection ; a fear which brings security, and a subjection which leads to liberty.
If, after what I have said, there should be any here present, who have not the fear of God, and will not be persuaded to it ; I must warn them of one thing, which perhaps they have not considered. I give them to know, then, that no man born into this world can live without fear. If he does not fear God, he shall not escape fearless, as he thinks ; for he shall certainly fear something else. The fear of God would do him good, and make him happy : but if he does not fear God, he shall fall into some other fear, which will do him no good at all, but haunt him like an evil spirit, to make his enjoyments worthless, and his life miserable.
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You are to observe, then, that he who does not fear God, shall fear death. When God is banished from the mind, the hope of immortality goes with him, and the fear of death prevails : and death being an enemy whom no man can cheat, or conquer, or avoid ; the mind that is apprehensive of him falls un- der a sort of bondage, for which the whole world has no remedy.
When a man does not fear God, he is possessed with a servile fear of the world; he becomes the slave of fashion, in his mind, his body, and his morals : he dreads nothing so much as to be thought little and insignificant, by those who give laws to the fashion- able part of society. He looks up to the opinion of the world with all that anxious reverence with which a Christian looks to the word of God. How many do we meet with, who are miserable, unless they are seen where the world is, and go where the world goes! How many renounce their judgment, or con- ceal it, and that with respect to the greatest sub- jects, if it contradicts the current of the day !
You are to consider farther, that he who does not fear God shall ieox jioverty. The fear of God gives a man the hope of an inheritance in another world ; therefore he is easy if he has but little property in this. But where this world is all a man hath, and all he is to expect, he will fly from poverty with the loss of his conscience, and at the hazard of his soul, if he is in the higher class of life : if he is a profligate of the lowest order, he will expose himself daily to the iron hand of justice, for the sake of some stolen pos- session, and all his enjoyments are embittered with the terrors of the halter and the gibbet.
All cases are not equally bad : yet I may venture to pronounce, that although many do not entirely
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forget God, yet, in proportion as the fear of God is wanting in the heart, in that same proportion will these other fears enter in and dwell there : and a thoughtful and sensible person can no more enjoy him- self in such company, than if he were daily beset with ruffians and murderers. All the base passions which murder a man's soul, murder his peace at the same time : and this is what he gets by a dislike to the fear of God. Therefore, as it is the worst of folly to live without the fear of God, it must be the beg'mning of wisdom to have it, and be directed by it. But folly in this world leads to misery in another ; which is the most dreadful consideration of all. Who can express or conceive the amazement of those, who have lived here without the fear of God, when they shall see the day of vengeance approaching, and all the terrors of the last j udgment gathering round about them ! Then shall that fear of God come upon them, which now for a while they can put away : and the hearts of those, who now seem to care for nothing, shall sink and melt away within them. What would they then give, if they had but been wise enough to attend to instruction while the day of grace lasted ? What will then become of their proud speeches, and their looks of defiance ? when they shall remember their folly in the bitterness of their souls, and be afraid to lift up their heads towards heaven, where their Judge is now revealed to every eye, no longer to be despised and in- sulted, but attended with millions of the heavenly host ; seated on a throne rendered majestic and ter- rible, with dark clouds and flames of fire.
For the present hour, we talk of these things, as distant from us ; yet when they shall be displayed before our sight, the interval between this time and that will seem but as a moment. What are wc then
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to do, but to set the Lord alway he/ore us ; who, if he is our fear now, he will be our defence then : and in the mean time, we shall find our fears of all other things lessening every day, and our hopes increasing; till an acquaintance with God shall give us a foretaste of the peace and liberty of that glorious kingdom, in which we shall serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness.
SERMON VII.
HONOUR THE KING. 1 PETER II. 17.
The precept in the text, which at this time deserves the serious consideration of all Christian people in this kingdom, is founded on that common doctrine of the Scripture, that kings and rulers have their authority from God, and that upon this account they are to receive honour from men.
To prevent all mistakes, give me leave to observe, in the first place, that it can never hurt kings and rulers to tell them so. Are the clergy the worse men, when they consider themselves as the servants of God ? May they do as they please, because they are the ministers and stewards of a Master, who is no respecter of persons, and from whom, if they fail, they will re- ceive the greater condemnation ? That would be a strange inference : and the same observation is ap- plicable to civil governors. All power being originally inherent in God as his own property, power is a talent committed by him to man : and as the abuse of this is more extensive in its ill effects than the abuse of any private endowment, it must be strictly accounted for ; therefore this doctrine can do no harm : there is no flattery in it ; it is a fearful consi- deration.
With respect to ourselves, the consequence is plain;
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that if kings rule by an authority from God, it must be our duty to give them honour : in treating of which, I shall endeavour to convince you, that it is also our wisdom, and our interest, as a people.
Our duty is evident from the Scripture; which de- clares that government is the ordinance of God ; that the ruler is the minister of God ; that the sword in his hand, is a sword of divine justice ; and that the wrath, executed by it, is the wrath of God against those who transgress his laws. Government must therefore be supported, that the Imvs of God may be executed: and this is one reason why rebellion against govern- ment is an offence against God himself, because its tendency is to set us loose from the observation of his laws. That charge of Jehosaphat to the judges of Israel, is upon all others in the like authority ; tahe heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, hut for the Lord ivho is with you in judgment. And the same charge will apply itself to the people : " take heed what ye do, for your obedience is not to man, but to the Lord."
The primitive Christians placed civil obedience among the first articles of social duty ; and we cannot refuse to Christian princes that honour which they allowed to heathen emperors. / exhort, said the apostle, that first of all supplications, prayers, in- tercessions, and giving of thanlts, he made for all men; foi' Mngs, and for all that are in authority, that we 7nay lead a quiet and a peaceahle life in all godliness and honesty. When the enemies of the Christians had no evil thing to say, they endeavoured to make them odious to the state, as people of suspicious politics, the friends of another king, whose interests w^ere not consistent with those of the empire. But this scandal was confuted by that amiable submission
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and quietness which they never failed to observe towards all that were in authority over them.
Our duty, then, is clear from such precepts as can- not be evaded, and such examples as are taken from the purest times of the Gospel, when obedience to heathen persecutors was a trial far more severe to flesh and blood, than the practice of common loyalty to the friends and protectors of Christianity.
The wisdom of adhering to this duty, is the next thing to be considered. And surely it must be the wisdom of men enlightened by the word of God, and blessed with great improvements of science, to pro- ceed on true principles ; to walk in that light which they have, and not to emulate the darkness of hea- thens, or the confusion and rapine of barbarians. The Scripture teaches us, that there is no power hut of God ; that, as he is the maker of the world, all the property of the world is originally vested in him ; that kings hold of him ; and the people of their kings ; and our laws recognize this doctrine, by making all property revert to the crown, upon any act of treason or rebellion. Some embrace another opinion, that there is no power hut of dhe people ; which position being contrary to that of the Scripture, they cannot both be true. The question about pov/er may easily be solved, if we do but distinguish rightly between physical or natural poiver, and power of authority. It can never be denied, that an armed multitude is superior in physical power to any defenceless man, with all his honours and titles about him ; as smoke and ashes, shot upwards from the bowels of the earth, can put out the light of the sun : but in this there is no power of authority; and it may be turned against all the law, and all the reason in the world. A gang of robbers have power over the helpless traveller in
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the forest, and he is obliged to submit to it at the peril of his life : but still there is no authority ; no- thing but brutal force ; and it matters not how large we suppose the gang to be ; for its properties are no more changed by its magnitude, than the properties of a circle, which are always the same. Their power is absolute force ; and the authority by which they ex- ercise it, is from themselves, against all the settlements of law, and all the rights of j)ossession. Allow but the force of those two commandments. Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not steal, and then all this sort of power vanishes.
Such, however, is the power of the people ; against which, therefore, every government is armed and de- fended ; and without such a defence, there could be neither property nor security in the world ; nothing but violence and rapine, which are sure to prevail, as soon as the people, under some wolvish unprincipled leaders of sedition, attempt to take power into their own hands. All liberty then takes its flight ; the li- berty of acting, of speaking, and perhaps of breath- ing ; unless the breath be applied to blow the flames of sedition.
My brethren, let me speak freely to you upon this subject : power is a weapon of so sharp an edge, that mistakes about the nature and exercise of it are perilous indeed, and the bad consequences inexpressi- ble : therefore, as we value our own security, let us always distinguish between power and authority. The storm hath power to blow ; the waves of the sea have power to rage ; the lightning hath power to strike ; the fire hath power to consume ; but all this power tends only to destruction : the power which God givetli is for edification, and not for destruction. It is to build up society and preserve it, not to destroy
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it. He hath appointed the sun to rule over the day, the moon and the stars to govern the night : all the nations of the earth enjoy light, and peace, and hap- piness under their dominion, and their authority is confined by a law which cannot be broken. But if we should become so insensible of this blessing, as to argue for a lawless power in the elements, and they were to be let loose upon us in consequence of our mistake ; we should then discover, that it is the wisdom as well as the happiness of man, to submit to the ordinance of God. They are Ms laws which are executed in a state ; and they can be executed by no authority but his own : if by an authority from the people, that would exalt the people into the place of God. Every state must have power of life and death : but no individual hath any such power over himself ; and consequently, he cannot give what he hath not : such a power can be communicated only by that God, in whose hand are the lives of all man- kind ; to whom alone belongs that sword of justice, which is borne by the magistrate : who being the giver, is also the Lord of Life ; and to suppose it otherwise, is to derive power by ascent instead of de- scent ; which is contrary to the order of nature in all other cases whatsoever. Christians, who, according to the doctrine of their religion, derive all power from tibove, from whence every good and perfect gift cometh, go as high as they can, up to God himself: they who derive it from beneath, must go as low as they can, even down to the father of all that tumultuous rage and disorder, which distinguishes the power of the people. When this power is supposed to include authority, it is so contrary to fact, to reason, and to revelation, that it is seldom taken up, but by those, who wish to raise a storm against the state, and en-
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courage the waves to beat, because they have hopes of plunder from the wreck. Such a power was, in- deed, admitted and highly esteemed by those fanciful Greeks and Romans of later times, who, having de- parted from their ancient principles, were torn to pieces with factions, and amused themselves with a vain search after that philosopher's stone in politics, a constitution where all might govern, and none be governed; till their balancings and fluctuations pro- duced an arbitrary government, and brought them all under the yoke of military power ; the natural con- sequence of such experiments. When a nation is grown restless with dreams of despotism, jealous of all authority, and agitated with contentions for power, on the ground of natural right against positive law ; then we may know that the desolation thereof is nigh ; that it must either fall under the lawless power of some intestine faction, or be reduced to the mortifi- cation of looking on, while its lands are divided and parcelled out by a foreign force ; which hath hap- pened lately in a country of Europe, where liberty was professed, whilst the worst sort of tyranny was practised.
But it is also our interest, as well as our duty and wisdom, to honour the king, and support that power by which we are protected. Government was not ordained to enslave the world, but to preserve the peace of society, to defend the innocent from the violent and injurious, to distinguish and secure pro- perty, and to prevent the people from falling a prey to one another, as they never fail to do in times of rebellion. When the restraint of government hinders the will of one man from being a law to another, by maintaining a common rule of action for all, it is the greatest blessing upon earth. There are in every
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iLition turbulent spirits, who would permit no law to prevail but their own will ; and if there were nothing to hinder them, would set the world on fire to make themselves considerable. Tribute is, therefore, due from every people, in return for the protection they receive : and if the government of the most absolute tyrant is better than the force of a lawless multitude ; that is, if one bad man without law is a less evil than an hundred thousand, the purchase (dear as it may be) is certainly worth the price to those who are blessed with a regular establishment.
Our common interest will oblige us to consider, that the strength of every government against its fo- reign enemies depends on the affection of its own natural subjects ; so that they are its worst enemies, who endeavour to lessen that affection ; for when a nation is out of humour with its governors, and care- less of its establishment, it is of course weak and de- fenceless. Great things may be done, when the people are united with one heart and mind under the per- son of their prince. How small and contemptible an insect is the bee ? yet, when the whole swarm is as- sembled, and kept together by an attachment to their leader, they are invincible ; neither man nor beast can stand against them. Every loyal nation hath the same advantage : but then we are to remember, that the union, in which their strength consists, is the gift of God ; who maketh men to be of one mind for their common preservation.
Under this head of i4iterest, our lioyioiir is concern- ed : for the honour of the people is involved in that of their king. We must judge of states as we do of fami- lies. Does it not add to the reputation of any family, when there is a good understanding among the mem- bers of it ; especially if the father of it is well esteemed.
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and treated with veneration by those who are under him, his children and his servants ? But it is a sure sign, that the family is either very wicked, or very vul- gar, when a proper deference is wanting from the chil- dren to the parents ; the disgrace of their ill behaviour returns with double weight upon themselves ; accord- ing to that admonition of the son of Sirach, Glory not in the dishonour of thy father ; for thy fatJier's disho7iour is no glory unto thee : for the glory of a man is from the honour of his father. "Whatever ac- cusation there may be ground for, it is w^eak and cruel in a son to take it up : he should leave that to the worst enemies of the family, whose malice is waiting for the ruin of them all. But if the father is virtuous and honourable, then the son is a wretch, who can de- light himself with the dishonour of such a parent. All this is applicable to those subjects, wheresoever they are to be found, who search for accusations, who feed upon grievances, who shout for joy on any dis- advantage to their native country, and publish its distress to all the world, making ten times more of it than is true. If duty could not restrain such, policy and common sense should be sufficient to guard them from so unnatural and ridiculous a crime.
To conclude ; we live in a country, where the fear of God, and the honour of the king, are inculcated by the laws of the state, and all the forms and doctrines of the church. Let us be thankful to God that they are still preserved to us : and that our profession is such, as duty, wisdom, interest, and honour, will never fail to recommend. There is nothing to seduce us from the practice of this profession, but false ideas of liberty, Avith which unthinking minds are easily capti- vated ; and complaints of slavery and grievances, with which weak and unbridled tempers are easily terrified.
SERM. VII. 3 THE BENEFITS OP CIVIL OBEDIENCE. Ill
Against the ill effects of these, give me leave to ob- serve, not as a politician (for I do not aspire to that character) but as a minister of Jesus Christ; that there is no true liberty but in the service of God ; and that the greatest of all grievances is sin, as fatal to societies as to individuals. The only free men, properly so called, are they whom the Son of God hath made free from the bondage of sin : the slavery is all on the other side ; with those who are subject to their own turbulent lusts and passions, by which they are as effectually enslaved as the wretch who is chained down to drudge at the oar all the days of his life : his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedi- ence unto righteousness. Pride, vanity, avarice, envy, hatred, ambition, extravagance, and impatience : these are the tyrants of the children of disobedience, who, while they are under the dominion of such masters, are generally the most forward to hold out the temp- tation of liberty, and promise it to all their followers ; but the beggar may as well promise crowns and scep- ters. Of such men St. Peter gives us this character, that they speulievil of dignities ; and while they ^;;-o- mise liberty are themselves the servants of corrxiption. Tied and bound with the chain of their vices, and probably of their debts, they commence arbiters of freedom ; and would have us believe, what great quietness we should enjoy, and what very worthy deeds would be done by their providence.
It is a mistake of the worst tempers only to sup- pose that liberty consists in contradiction ; for if that were true, then the more unreasonable the contradic- tion the greater the liberty. Every society is a body, the members of which being appointed to different offices, should all conspire to the same end for the good of the whole. Hath the tongue no liberty, but
13
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in uttering imprecations, and calling down vengeance upon its owner ? Have the hands no liberty, but when they are lifted up against the head, or striking at the heart ? It is the honour of the feet, that they can sup- port the head by which they are animated and di- rected ; it is the honour of the hands, that they can defend the vital parts, and repel the adversaries of the body : this is their proper employment, and when the order of nature is observed, the whole sys- tem will be in safety, which is all the liberty good men will ever expect in a world so full of mischief and danger.
As to grievances, it must be owned we have our share ; and no government in the world is withoutthem; but it is the unhappiness of this nation, to be more disturbed with imaginary than with real evils. The sick man may suffer much from his distemper ; but he often suffers much more from his dreams, and throws him- self into certain destruction, while he is flying from the terrors of a vision. It is no such easy matter for people in a lower sphere, especially in this age of scandal and defamation, to know when and how their superiors are in fault. The inhabitant of the valley blames the dimness of the air, and sees a mist spread over the hills and higher grounds ; which to those in a better situation, appears to rise out of his own soil, and to settle upon the place of his own habitation. But then, have governors no faults, and are we to see nothing amiss in them ? undoubtedly they have their faults, if they are mortal men, together with many dif- ficulties, misfortunes, and mortifications from their office ; under all which, it is our duty to pray for them, and not to revile them ; to pray that God will give them grace to amend their faults, and assist them by his good providence, in the critical affairs of their
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country ; approving ourselves as true Christians, servants of God, and friends of mankind.
Let not then any heathen principles, any visionary notions of liberty, interpose to debauch our minds with disaffection, and thereby give occasion to foreign enemies, whose envy will always be active, and is even now awake, to foment our divisions, and to triumph in all the unhappy effects of them *. Not many years are passed since we might justly be accounted the first people in the world. Nothing can support us in that high rank, but loyalty and unanimity, without which, a kingdom that hath attained its utmost greatness, must soon fall with its own weight.
May therefore the King immortal and invisible, in whose hand are all the nations of the earth ; who, ac- cording to his good pleasure, sendeth counsel in peace and success in war, give us all grace, in our several stations, to correct what is amiss, to hold fast what is good, to restore what is lost, to preserve what is ready to perish, and to see the things that belong to our peace, before they are hid from our eyes ! Amen.
* Those enemies have now disamned themselves, by falling into the doctrine of licentiousness, against which this Discourse was directed.
VOL. IV.
I
SERMON Vlir.
TO THE ONE WE ARE THE SAVOUR OF DEATH UNTO DEATH ; AND TO THE OTHER THE SAVOUR OF LIFE UNTO life; and WHO IS SUFFICIENT FOR THESE THINGS ? 2 COR. II. 16.
So Strangely has the world been divided in its opinion concerning the Gospel, that the Ministers of Jesus Christ, whose business it is to preach it, have always found themselves in a difficult situation ; for which no mancanbe sufficient without the gifts of fortitude, and prudence, and patience, from the Spirit of God, to support and assist him in his office. Christianity al- ways had, and always will have its adversaries : it cor- rects the false opinions, and controuls the licentious morals of unconverted nature ; therefore nature rises up against it ; and as nature is the same in all ages, and in all parts of the world, time and place make but little difference in this respect. The difficulty was certainly greater to the Apostles than it is to us. The heathen religion was then in possession of the world; and all its abominable practices had the sanction of custom and establishment ; so that the opposition then carried on against the Gospel was more active and vi- rulent, as well as more powerful, than it is now. But error and vice are still the adversaries of true religion as they were then ; and therefore the difficulty must
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remain to all the successors of the Apostles, so long as error and vice shall have any power and interest upon earth. God, who gave to his ministers the know- ledge of the truth, and all good men who love the truth, will be ready to encourage them for their work's sake ; but evil will be as near at hand to discourage and resist them. The Apostle, having this case under his consideration, is shocked with the difficulty, and cries out, who is sufficient for these things 9 Who can endure to stand in this fearful and troublesome situa- tion, with the sun shining on one side of him, and a cold tempestuous wind beating against him on the other ? What patience can hold out against, what con- stitution can long survive, such a trial ? Yet such must be the trial, in some degree, of every true preach- er of God's word ; and as it has been my lot to preach amongst you, I hope with some profit, I am sure with much sincerity, it will be for our common advantage to consider the difficulties to which I am exposed in common with every other minister of a parish : that having considered them, you may be ready (as I have reason to think you will be) to do all in your power to lessen them. The better I shall succeed in my duty, the greater will be your advantage ; and that as well in this world as in the next.
However well disposed and tractable the people of a parish may be, all will not be alike. Some will respect their minister for God's sake, for the church's sake, and for his work's sake : they will attend with pleasure to his doctrine, and his advice will sink into their ears. He found them good, and his instructions will make them better: they will profit by his admoni- tions, and even bear his reproofs, if such should be ne- cessary, without being offijiided. But it will not be so with all : others there are who will judge differently;
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some from an untractableness of natural temper : some from worldly interest : some from an unhappy turn in their education, or from a total neglect of it, under careless and ungodly parents ; more from bad customs, and long established habits of vice or self-indulgence. Hence it will always happen, that if a minister in his preaching bears hard upon any particular sin, as the course of his duty may require, and describes the fol- ly, misery and shame of it ; every sin will find a friend in some corner of the church who will take its part, and be offended with the preacher. If he speaks against drunkenness, " there," says the drinker, " he " means to reflect upon me :" that stroke upon covet- ousness, was intended for me, says another : in that remark upon the pernicious consequences of fornica- tion, he meant to expose me, says another. Thus they bring themselves to a persuasion, that their mi- nister is their enemy, and means to be severe upon them: for no other reason, butbecause they cannot help being severe upon themselves. Hear how the Apostle states this difficulty in a few words : am I therefore, says he, become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? Suppose we see a man straying out of the road, while he is going on business of the last importance, and has no time to lose ; and we call out to him to tell him he is wrong, and use all our endeavours to put him in the right way ; ought that man to take us for his enemies ? We should think him a strange man if he did. Is the shepherd an enemy to the straying sheep, when he would bring it back from the error of its ways in safety to the fold ? But suppose that which shouldbe a sheep, is a wolf, or a swine : such, indeed, have an interest against being brought back ; and, instead of respecting their guide as a friend, will turn again and rend him. Some such there will be found in
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all places. Every minister must expect to have some amongst his flock, who are more nearly allied to the forest than the fold ; who never intend to reform them- selves, and do not even wish to be better than they are; even as the swine gives itself no trouble to acquire the character of the sheep. What will such do ? What can they do, but endeavour, out of favour to themselves, to lessen the influence of their minister ? There are several ways of doing this : of which the most common and obvious is to impute all his zeal to an evil motive ; to pride, hypocrisy, or ill nature : to any thing rather than to sincerity and charity. Another way is to take advantage of some accident or appearance, and raise reports to his disadvantage. There never did, nor ever will, live that man upon the earth, whose life could be secure from misrepresentation: and truth misrepre- sented answers all the purposes of defamation better than a lie, because there is some apparent foundation of reason and fact to build upon. Another artifice is that of ridicule. There is in most men, through the de- pravity of their nature, almost as great a propensity to laugh, as there is in monkeys to chatter ; and there- fore they are very easily provoked to it. Children laugh at that which is nothing ; and many with older heads upon their shoulders laugh at that which is next to nothing : some laugh when they ought to pray : and others when they ought to cry. I could tell you of a Wit, (now gone to answer for his folly) who even ridi- culed the providence of God *, and the doctrine of future rewards and punishments in another life : Yet this is the engine which many people employ, to lessen the efficacy of the Gospel, and the influence of those
^ Voltaire, in his C'andtde, which is a satire upon tlie btlitf both of a particular and general Prov idence.
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that preach it. Not only the ministers of God, but even God himself is made an object of ridicule !
Thus you see how every preacher is liable, from the nature of his office, to suffer from the tongue of slander. They who hate the truth, must never be expected to love those that publish it : and of those whom they do not love, they will be tempted to speak evil. Hence you will understand the propriety of that declaration of our blessed Lord " icoe he unto " you ivhen all men speak icell of you for the world at large never will speak well, hnt of those who make all things easy, and give them no disturbance ; false prophets who speak smooth things, and care for no- thing but themselves, will be v^ eW spoken of.
It is another misfortune upon the minister of a pa- rish, that with frequent use his voice and manner be- come familiar, and consequently lose something of their force and influence upon the audience. When he comes first to a place, he is gladly received and eager- ly attended to : just as any other thing would be that is new. But when curiosity abates, as it always must do with familiarity and repetition, such as have no deeper root than this to their attachment, must grow indifferent, and will fall away, perhaps into total in- attention. The public is so fond of novelty, and more in this than any nation of Europe, that they are apt to over-rate what is new, and having begun with inexpe- rience and indiscretion, they end with disappointment. Imagination, that deceitful faculty, is always at work to cheat men with vain expectations : they look for more than they can find, and thence suspect, at last, that they have found nothing. They expect a preacher to be all perfection, and exempt from the errors of mortality ; but preachers are exposed to the same cross accidents with other men, from the vicissitudes and
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trials of human life, and the humours of other people, over which they have no power. They have their in- firmities and their mistakes ; they are exposed from without to the contempt of real enemies, and from within to the neglect and treachery of pretended friends; the world, from abroad, may frown upon the sincerity of their labours : and at home, their foes may be those of their own household. In all things of this kind, they are not only on a level with other men, but are in farther danger of being reduced below it from envy to their office, and jealousy against their autho- rity : These things, saith St. Paul, / have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sahes, that ye might learn in us, not to think of men above that ivhich is written— for I think that God hath set forth us tite Apostles last, as it were appointed unto death : for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to an- gels, and to men*. Even Christ himself, whose time was all spent in doing good, and shewing forth many mighty works, all of a saving and merciful turn, was railed at and despised, as one that Jiad a devil and was mad. But who were they that spoke evil of him ? conceited, blind guides, who had made God's word of no effect; covetous and adulterous Pharisees; worldly minded priests : unbelieving Sadducees ; hypocrites, politicians and profligates. In like manner, if there are any in a place who shew less regard than the rest to their clergyman ; look at such persons, and examine their lives and manners : see whether they are kind and merciful to their poor neighbours ? whether they make a conscience of frequenting the worship of God in the church ? whether they are sober and temperate, abstaining from all indecency and excess ? It is a common observation, that some tongues can be guilty * 1 Cor. iv. a.
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of little slander ; because the reports of men and their reflections will have weight according to the value of their private characters. What does it sig- nify hoAv many ill w'ords a man vomits out against his minister, who, perhaps, is seen in the street soon after, vomiting up his drink ? What does it signify w^hether he honours a priest or not, who blasphemes the holy name of God in his common discourse, and is a disgrace to his profession, and a nuisance to the public? However, as there is no man who means to court another's ill-will, and who would not rather be glad to have his esteem ; the disesteem which falls upon clergymen from their office, though it be only from the worst, aud is totally owing to the parties themselves, is yet a loss and a trial : for the worst man has a soul, which might be saved ; and a minis- ter is bound to promote the salvation of it by for- bearance, and tenderness, aud kind advice, so long as there is any hope remaining.
Now I have represented to you some of the general difficulties and discouragements which must, in all places, attend a sincere clergyman ; I shall venture to go a step farther, and set before you some of the dis- advantages peculiar to myself in this place : and I trust you will hear me patiently, and without offence.
My brethren, I am thankful that I came amongst you, and hope I shall never have any reason to repent of my choice ; for hither did I come by choice, and not by necessity. The world was before me, and any other place might have suited with a busy life, such as mine has always been. But when I settled here, the parish had been long without a resident minister, and at times had been served very irregularly, and was consequently out of order : yet I think, upon the whole, not so much as w ould have happened in some
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other places under the like circumstances : and I have imputed much of the good that was retained amongst you, to the seed sown, and the labour be- stowed by a late learned and worthy predecessor, the Reverend Mr. John White *, whose light is not yet gone out, and whose name ought to be had in ever- lasting remembrance.
The first difficulty I was under, and that a very great one, was owing to an habitual neglect of the communion in too many of the congregation : on which account I laboured in the pulpit, and out of it, to produce some reformation ; and not in vain ; for we have many more communicants than formerly. But alas ! how often have I been distressed with vi- siting people in their last sickness, who had never attended the communion in all their lives ! In some few cases, they had been misguided by vain fears, and the influence of ill advice ; all arising from an ig- norance of the subject ; but in many others, this ne- glect arose from the want of a godly sense of the de- ceitfulness of sin, and the great danger of a careless life unrepented of : and seeing too many others in the same way, they were encouraged (or rather they en- couraged themselves) to go on to their lives' end in the same fatal error. It is sorrow enough to a mi- nister to attend a parishioner to his grave, and to see the dust thrown upon a person with whom he had conversed, and to whom he had preached : this is sufficient of itself ; but when the consideration is added, that he had neglected the terms of his salva- tion ; that he had been often called upon in the ex- hortation of the church (a powerful address upon the subject) but never prevailed upon ; that now there is no farther exhortation to be used, no opportunity
* Author of Letters to a Gentleman dissenting from the Church of England, and other pieces which were well received.
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in the grave : this is a greater sorrow to every consi- derate mind ; and I wish to God I may feel less of it for the time to come.
Another evil is the prevailing practice of excessive drinking, with all its fearful consequences ; of which, as you all know, there are so many examples ; and I fear the rising generation is likely to furnish more. I cannot stay now to set hefore you the sin, and shame, and danger of this vice : I have done this at other times : I have shewed you how it is attended with loss of time, of health, of substance ; to the inj ury of a poor family ; the hardening of the conscience ; the quenching of God's grace, till the light of religion is turned into total darkness. From the havoc this sin makes in men's minds, bodies, and estates, too much can never be said against it : and as it is a fearful thing to be a partaker in other men's sins, when every man has too many of his own to answer for ; therefore if there be any here present, who, from deceitful calcu- lations of worldly interest, are tempted to encourage their neighbour to this folly and excess, and urge him on to abuse and ruin himself ; I beseech them to con- sider what they are doing, and to hear that warning voice of the prophet — Woe unto him tlmt giveth his fieighhour chink ; that puttest thy bottle to him, and mahest him drunken also, that thou inayest look on their nakedness — that thou may est see them stripped of their reason, when they are turned fools, and their minds are naked ; and see them also stripped of their property, after they have sat swallowing liquor, till there is not a penny left in their pockets. He that strips a man upon the highway has all the sin to him- self; but he that strips a man in this way, has his neighbour's sin, as well as his own, to answer for ; and it is justly to be apprehended, that the provi- dence of God, in many instances, brings ruin instead
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of riches, and disappointment instead of success, from all that sort of gain which arises from the cor- ruption of other men's morals. So the prophet tells us, that there is a cup of judgment which comes round at last, to give them their reward in kind, and make them vomit up what they have unjustly gotten. On which consideration I entreat all those, whose oc- cupation exposes them to this danger, to be aware of it, and guard against it as well as they can ; with this assurance, that who grows rich by other men's ruin, takes a fire into his bosom, which may lie there smo- thered, for a time, like embers under the ashes, but will too surely break out at last into a flame, the effects of which will be felt, when the cause is forgotten.
Another evil, and to the great misfortune of this country, an increasing evil in many places, is that of fornication, which brings an unhappy and unpromis- ing race of children upon a parish, who grow up half disowned and neglected, with the influence of an evil example from their parents, added to the influence of a corrupt, uncultivated nature ; and who, if they live, will perhaps bring another breed of the same sort ; and so on to the end of the world ; to the great corruption of the youths of both sexes, and the impo- verishing of those who live honestly, and are obliged to assist in the maintaining of such, as become charge- able to others from vice and idleness. Something might be done toward the lessening of this evil, if the ofiicers of a parish would bestir themselves, as they are all bound to do in reason and conscience, and some of them by the sacred obligation of an oath. The lower class of people will certainly make light of this evil, if those who are above them do nothing to prevent it. A minister, according to his duty, repre- sents the miserable consequences of this unlawful
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commerce ; how it is attended with loss of con- science, loss of character, the destruction of family happiness, the forfeiting of God's blessing, the pros- pect of beggary, infamy, and eternal damnation. These things he may represent ; but unless admoni- tion is seconded with some activity, and some au- thority from the laws, it will not be of sufficient weight ; because, when things are left to this, and reformation is forwarded by nothing but admonition, it looks as if people were not in earnest.
Another evil is the profanation of the Sabbath. We have too many examples of persons exercising their worldly business in defiance of sobriety and decency ; of others absenting themselves from the church for years together, and attending no other place of wor- ship ; as if it were the opinion of the place, that men are at liberty to live without God in the world.
Of all these abuses which I have set before you, there is not one, for the preventing of which I am not ready to do my part : but it is the chief business of this Discourse to remind you, that I can do no- thing of myself, against the sense, and without the hearty concurrence of my neighbours. V/hen the minister of a parish stands single in the exercise of discipline and the work of reformation, he can only make himself enemies, who will hate him without a cause, instead of amending themselves.
In an age when civil and ecclesiastical authority are both grown decrepit with old age and want of exercise, the defects of lawful government must be supplied by confederacies and associations of one party against an- other. This is a poor substitute for regular authority ; but in some cases, it is the best the times allow us. Therefore, they who wish to preserve order, must unite against those who wish to break it. There is
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nothing that appears odious in the application of such remedies as the law affords, if the many unite against the few, who are then left without that countenance and defence which they borrow from the neglect of their superiors. The minister can do little for his parish in this way, unless the majority are with him, and desire that he should succeed. Indeed it is uni- versally true, that nothing can be done for those who will do nothing for themselves. It is thus in the edu- cation of youth, and the instruction of the ignorant ; none can be taught to much purpose, but they who are desirous to learn. Even God's grace works only with those who will work along with it : Yea, and our blessed Saviour himself, when upon earth, though ever ready to do good, could do none to those who were not disposed to look for it, and ready to receive it.
I wish to see this place a pattern of regularity and sobriety, not an example of drunkenness, profaneness, and ill manners. If ever I hear it spoken of under this latter character, I am hurt and grieved, as if I had heard some evil report against myself, or my own family. And does it not concern you, my Brethren, to feel as much for yourselves as I feel for you ? Re- ligion, reason, and good policy, the authority of God, and the common sense of man, call upon you to do what you can against the spreading evil of bad exam- ples and corrupt communications. Vice is an expen- sive thing to all that practise it, and to all that con- nive at it. A wicked parish will ever be an idle parish ; and an idle parish (as men are to live by their industry) must be a poor parish ; and the more the poor increase in any place, the fewer shoulders are left to bear the burthen ; and then ^some who do not deserve it, and have no share in the general cor- ruption, are broken down with the weight of it.
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I am sometimes very uneasy when I revolve these things in my mind : yet under all these difficulties, I have two considerations on which to repose myself. I have lived long enough in the world to know, that however sincerely a man may wish to have every body do what is right, he must be content to see much evil which he cannot prevent, and to hear many falsehoods which he can never hope to silence. If it is his desire to resist prevailing evils, they will not be imputed to him, though he should not succeed : let those look to it, who might forward his good intentions and do not. The other consideration, with which I comfort myself, is this, and a very common one it is ; that if w e cannot do as much as we would, we must still be willing to do as much as we can. If some advantages are denied to us, others will always be left to us. I can instruct the children of my parish ; I can visit the sick, and com- fort those who have no comforter but God and myself ; I can help the poor in some of their occasional dis- tresses ; (and with God's help) I can preach the Gospel freely ; and if my labours should not prosper here so much as might be wished, and my evening lectures should not be so well attended as when novelty recom- mended them, I must then consider my country as my parish, if it will give me leave ; I must hope that what I speak here, will be better attended to somewhere else, and be doing some good, when I can speak no longer. In the mean time I shall not be discouraged : this sermon may do more good than I can yet foresee, and may stir up some others to be like-minded with myself. God send it may do so ; the advantage will not be to me, but to us all : and as the time is ap- proaching, when some yearly regulations are to take place, I trust you will all remember what has now been said to you. I have only to tell you farther, that
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the time is short ; and that all worldly interests and worldly considerations will soon be of no value to any of us : but that the zeal we exercise for the honour of God, and the benefit of the place in which we live, will follow us into the grave, and rise with us again to judgment ; when they that have done good shall go into life everlasting.
SERMON IX.
YE HAVE THE POOR WITH YOU ALWAYS, AND WHEN- SOEVER YE WILL, YE MAY DO THEM GOOD. MARK XIV. 7.
When Ave enquire into the ceconomy either of the natural or the moral world, we are anxious to account for the origin of evil ; so in the political world, a like question may be raised concerning the origin of po- verty ; how it comes to pass, that, as the text asserts, ice have the poor icith us always ? ^Miy could not all men have been born in the same station, and lived together on terms of equality, like the oaks of the forest, or the lilies of the field, or the cattle which feed upon a thousand hills ? "When we see but a little way into the constitution of things, we may pei'ijlex and distress ourselves v. ith such questions : but when we see farther, we shall discover, that the general form and condition of society in civilized states, is as much the appointment of God, as the form and structure of the human body ; and that the several orders of which it consists, are as necessary and useful to each other, and as fully display the wisdom of God, as the head of all government, and the author of all regularity ; as the limbs, and mem- bers, and faculties of the body demonstrate his power and goodness as the Creator of the world.
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Man without society, would be what the world was in its chaos, when it was dark, and void, and form- less : and He who brought it out of that state, and divided the lights of the firmament, the clouds, the air, the waters of the ocean, and fixed the body of the earth, into their several distinct regions ; hath with equal wisdom brought men out of their barba- rous state, such as they would be in by nature, to be divided into classes, offices, and employments ; each in due subordination, and all serviceable to one another ; for there is no plan of God's establishing, in which all the parts do not work together for the good of the whole.
Two societies were certainly formed under God's immediate direction, the commonwealth of Israel, and the Christian church ; and in neither of these did he set men in a state of equality. The apostle St. Paul enforces a comparison between the body natu- ral and the body ecclesiastical ; shewing how God hath tempered all the members together, and that those which seem to be more feeble * are necessary to the rest.
We can all see that the strong are necessary to the weak, and the rich to the poor : but that the poor are also necessary to the rich, does not appear so imme- diately ; yet they certainly are so, both in a civil and in a religious capacity. Many offices must be per- formed, and much work must be done for the service of society, which will never be done either by the proud, or the indolent, or the effeminate. It would be as reasonable to expect, that those works should be executed by the hands of men, which are proper to horses and bullocks, appointed by God's providence
VOL. IV.
* 1 Cor. xii. 22.
K
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for such ends, and furnished with strength and pa- tience to fit them for the business they were intended to perform. So much for the civil capacity of men : when we consider them in their religious capacity, it appears that they have works to do for the service of God, and for the benefit of their souls ; as they have other works to be performed for the ends of common life. In human society, men are related to one another, and work for one another ; in religious society, they are all related to God, and are to work, in another way, for his glory, and the salvation of their own souls ; approving themselves, in their several orders and degrees, as the subjects of that community, of which God is the head, and in which he is the only law-giver. All have their proper parts assigned to them, together with their proper stations ; and all are to do their duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call them. The poor are to be con- tented with their lot, as being the appointment of God ; and the rich are to be careful of the poor, as holding of God in trust for that purpose, and account- able to him as stewards and overseers. They could not approve themselves to God by giving such an ac- count, if there w^ere no poor. In such a case, one ge- neral scheme of selfishness and independence would prevail, useless to man and dishonourable to God.
It would be easy to shew, that there is perfect jus- tice as well as wisdom in this distribution of things ; no partiality, no respect of persons. The rich have a sort of superiority, which is temporary, transient, and dangerous : the poor, with their low station, have health, and safety, and a better disposition to receive the Gospel. Heathens could see, in ancient times, that poverty was the school of virtue ; and many of them on that ground aifected voluntary poverty, and
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made an ostentatious shew of their rags. But what- ever the abuses of Heathens might be, poverty among Christians is certainly a preparatory exercise of the mind for the reception of truth, and consequently for the belief of the Gospel. Thus then we are to make our estimate ; that if the poor are rich in faith, and have laid a foundation for eternity, they have nothing to complain of; while the rich, on the other hand, have no reason to boast of that wealth or that honour, which will set them never the higher in the kingdom of heaven ; and too often disqualifies them for a place there. Thus the ways of God are equal, where they seem, to us, to be unequal ; and the several parts of society, like the several parts of the creation, serve in a wonderful manner toward the common good.
By a sort of writers, who call themselves moral phi- losophers, I have seen it lamented that there is such a thing in the world as exclusive property : and they think it a great pity that this evil cannot be prevented. But the poor, considered as a link in the chain of society, are of God's making ; and to speak in the language of an apostle, the foolishness of God is wiser them men * ; that is, the ways of God, which seem most exception- able, are so, only because they are superior to our wisdom, and higher than our thoughts. They who would make a better religion than God hath revealed, are tempted by their vanity to expose the shallowness of their reason : and the case is the same with those, who would alter that form of society which God hath ordained, and?»^»c?it; as if Providence had committed a mistake, where it has given us a demonstration of in- finite wisdom and goodness. All this arises from an affection toward high things, and an indisposition to
• 1 Cor. i. 25. K 2
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condescend to men of low estate. Such is the error of man's imagination, that it always inclines to the side of pride and haughtiness, the first sin that was infused by the author and father of pride. As the worldly-minded Jew could see nothing wonderful or necessary in the story of Bethlehem, and the manger, and the shepherds ; so the haughty philosopher thinks the world would do better, if there were nothing low in human life, nor any thing higher than himself ; as if the creation could be improved, by taking the sun, moon, stars, air, earth, and waters, and stirring them all together into one horizontal miscellany. If there had been no poor in the world, Christ could not have submitted to that state which was necessary to our salvation. He was born in poverty ; of parents not thought good enough to be provided with room in a common inn, but shut out to make room for their betters, and lodge with beasts in a stable. Let us not wonder that the contemplation of this history of our Saviour's birth inspired many saints and hermits with the love of poverty. If all men were duly affected by it, and compared it properly with their own un- worthiness, the proud would lay aside their plumes, the ambitious would be ashamed of their popularity, and kings would throw down their crowns and scepters to the earth.
From the foregoing considerations, it appears to be a part in the plan of Divine Providence that we should Jiave the poor always with us. To this plan the social laws of God are accommodated, which pre- scribe condescension, compassion, and almsgiving on the one side ; contentment, industry, and submission on the other. Without this, the moral government of God, and the social duties of man, would have been imperfect ; and it does not appear how the scheme
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of our salvation, by the birth and humiliation of Jesus Christ, could have taken effect. We have, therefore, every reason to conclude, that what is, in this respect, is right ; and that the poor do not exist by accident, but by preordination.
If this doctrine is important enough in itself to merit our serious meditation, it is still more so in the uses we are to make of it. The goodness of God could, and if it had been best, would have prevented, the wants of the poor ; but now we see a reason why he did not. The poor have their wants, that the rich may be blessed with the opportunity of reliev- ing them : a duty very earnestly enjoined in many places of the Scripture, and supposed in those words of the text — whensoever ye will ye may do them good. Too many have the ability without the will to do them good; others say, they are sure they should have the will, if they had the ability. But this will is amongst the other gifts of God, and is always most to be depended upon when it arises from a religious principle. It is then neither subject to be defiled by vanity and hypocrisy, nor defeated by capricious hu- mour and partiality.
I do not mean to move you with an afflicting re- presentation of the evils of poverty ; I would rather apply myself to your reason and your consciences than to your imaginations : but my subject obliges me to mention them ; because it requires me to shew how, and in what respects, we are to do the t^ooy good according to their wants ; after which, I shall endea- vour to inforce the obligations we are under, and the encouragement we have to relieve them.
It is a common observation, that one half of the world knows but little what the other half is doing and suffering. While the licentiousness of the rich is
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studying how to provoke appetite with variety ; the poor are either half filled, or satisfied with what the delicate would disdain to feed upon. While indolence is enjoying its ease, and proud of the contemptible privilege of having nothing to do ; they are seeking bitter bread by severe labour. Their occupations expose them to all the varieties of the weather ; at noon day they are wasted with the heat, and at night they are wetted with the dew of heaven. While others are spending their precious hours in a vain and fruitless adorning of their persons, they are too fre- quently exposing themselves to the air when they are heated w ith hard labour ; and thence are subject to pains in their joints, stiffness in their limbs, and premature old age and decrepitude. Other hardships are brought upon them by the contempt and oppres- sion of their superiors ; I will not call such people their betters. Some men carry themselves with a lofty air toward the poor, as if they were of some lower species of animals : and as if contempt were not suffi- cient, others proceed to injury and oppression : nor are there wanting those who are said to grind the faces of the poor * ; that is, who are mean enough to make a property of them ; extorting unjust and paltry gains out of a poor man who has nothing to part with ; nothing but what is necessary to his life and being : so that their attempt has as little sense and as little mercy in it, as if they were to grind off something from the skin and the flesh of his face.
But the greatest wants of the poor, and those which I am directed by the present occasion chiefly to insist upon, arise from their ignorance, and their inability to procure necessary instruction. Whatever they may
* Isa. iii. 15.
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suffer from their bodily wants, the wants of the mind are of much greater consequence. It is one privilege of the rich, that they have it in their power to cultivate their understandings ; though many of them neglect it, and are weak enough to think their wealth a sub- stitute for education and improvement. But the poor, without the assistance of the rich, have no such op- portunity. Some of them are, and some are not sen- sible of their loss ; but it is very great to all those, who, for want of timely instruction, are not able to read the Word of God. When we meet with a poor family, in which neither the father nor the mother is able to read, what a prospect is there before the chil- dren of such parents ! If many fall a prey to vice, who have been well taught in their childhood, what must become of those who are left to their natural ignorance ? We are all sensible, that bodily blind- ness is a miserable defect ; but certainly ignorance, which is the blindness of the soul, is much worse ; because it is more dangerous to fall into a profligate course of life, than into a pit ; and worse to lose the soul, than to bruise the limbs ; and when ignorance is led by passion, tlie blind leading the blind, what but ruin can be expected to the mind and manners ?
The poor, who with their children are in a place where they may have them taught for nothing, and despise or neglect the opportunity, will have both their own ignorance and that of their children to an- swer for. God is said to have winked at the igno- rance of the heathen world, because it is not expected that men should see in the dark ; but such ignorance, as may be prevented, and is not, will be considered as a love of darkness. We think it a very preposterous passion, when a white inhabitant of Europe falls in love with a black savage ; but it is more unaccount- 15
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able that a Christian, who is born among the children of light, should be fond of that ignorance, which was the misfortune and curse of the heathen world.
Now we have taken a prospect of these evils, let us consider the obligations we are under to find a remedy for them. And the first obligation is that of gratitude ; when we remember our own dependence upon God, and the blessings we receive from his bounty. If we have any portion among the good things of this life, it is he whogiveth us all things richly to enjoy ; and the offerings we make out of what we have are so many acknowledgments that we have no- thing but what we have received. All the beasts of the forest, says he, are mine, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills. No sacrifice therefore could be of- fered to God under the law, but of that which was already his own. And the case is the same now : God is the real proprietor of all things ; the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof : so that we can make no return to God, but of that which was his own before.
The obligation we are under to do this, is farther evident on a principle of distributive justice. That inequality of possession, which is both wise and neces- sary, does not proceed from any respect to particular persons ; for the mercies of God are over all his worles ; but God has been pleased to put the allowance of one man into the hands of another, for a trial of his virtue ; so that the rich are guilty of fraud and injustice if they either keep it, or bestow it wantonly upon themselves. Withhold not good, saith the wise \mx\,from them to whom it is due * .• as if charity were not a gift, but a debt. As such it is spoken of in the New Testament ;
* Prov iii. 27.
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Charge them that are rich — that they be ready to dis- tribute, willing to communicate ; the original means, willing to make that common, which God intended to be so ; at least, amongst the household of faith ; in which they that have most are stewards for the rest.
But our obligations as Christians is plainest of all from this consideration ; that God doth not require us to do any thing for the poor, but what he himself hath done for us, in a sense infinitely superior. If he com- mands us to visit them, he himself, as the day-spring from on high, hath visited us : If he commands us to give bread to the hungry, he himself hath given to us the bread of life. Who is it that commands us to clothe the naked, but he who hath put the best robe upon his returning prodigal, and clothed us with the garments of his own righteousness, which shall never decay ? as a sign of which, the clothes of his people did neither wear out nor wax old, neither their shoes upon their feet, in their journey through the wilder- ness. Who is it that expects we should teach the ignorant, but he who hath taught us by his holy word, opening to us all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and giving light to them that sit in dark- ness ? Few exhortations will be wanting to those who believe these things, and are sensible of their own ob- ligations to God as the Saviour of sinners : the love of God is already shed abroad in their hearts, and cha- rity to man will be the fruit of it. Happy are they who act on such liberal and sublime principles : it is their pleasure, as well as their honour, to be doing good. Far from looking with an evil eye upon their poor brethren, they rejoice that there are any poor to be relieved ; they would never wish to be without them; and they are thankful for the opportunity of assisting
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them ; and if the poor do not look for them, they look for the poor.
But besides the obligations which arise from the consideration of what is past, we are encouraged to do good to the poor from the expectation of future bless- ings. And here let me observe, that no kind of cha- rity answers better in this world than that which pro- vides for the teaching of the children of the poor. It shews them the way, and it gives them the power of becoming useful members of society ; it introduces them to the knowledge of God's holy will and com- mandments ; it sets before them the reasons, the mea- sures, the rewards of those duties, by means of which they are to prosper now, and be happy hereafter. Superior talents, with good principles, may lawfully raise the poor above the level of their birth ; but it cannot be expected that this should happen, without the advantage of an early education. I have known some instances of poor children, who have attained to credit and affluence,by the help of that learning, which they obtained from the hand of charity ; and who lived to make returns of gratitude to the persons from whom they had received it. Where the seed of instruction has fallen into a proper soil, there have undoubtedly been many examples of the same kind, which never came to the knowledge of myself, or of any that are here present. But with all this, we are to consider, that if a charitable education should never raise them to wealth, it may do more ; it may be the saving of their souls : and though the effect in this case is not so conspicuous as if it mended their fortune, it may be of greater value, though but little heard of ; for the advancements of piety are secret and silent, and better known to God than to man.
This is an encouragement which relates only to them
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that receive : they who are the givers have something higher to expect ; and the case is stated to us in such a manner as is well worthy of our attention. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which lie hath given will he pay him again *. To the charitable man the proprietor of heaven and earth is a debtor, and will assuredly pay him in another life, and probably in this also. There are some sins which meet with their punishment even in this world ; I look upon the oppression of the poor to be of that num- ber : therefore, by parity of reason, the same attention of Providence which punishes some, will reward others ; especially as the Author of all good is more ready to bless than to afflict. He does the one un- willingly ; the other is the natural fruit of that mercy which is over all his works.
So much for this world : but when the great day of retribution shall come, then our blessed Saviour will consider himself as the object of what we have done to his poor brethren. I was an hungered, says he, and ye gave me meat : / was thirsty and ye gave me drink : I was naked and ye clothed me When he was manifested in the flesh, he joined the party of the poor, not of the rich nor honourable. We are all ready to own him under the majestic part of his character ; for human vanity loves to attach itself to what is great and splendid : but this is the trial of our affection ; whether we can condescend to him as the advocate and brother of the poor ; whether we can make our- selves poor with him, who was poor with us ; who submitted to the condition of a servant, that he might bring down the pride of man, and prepare him for exaltation by self-abasement ; the hardest, and there- fore the greatest of all the Christian virtues.
• Prov. xix. 17. t Matt. xxv. So.
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Upon the whole, in order to fulfil the duty which is due from the rich to the poor, it is good that there should be a natural tenderness of the mind, which makes it susceptible of what is called compassion ; which, if it is not a virtue of itself, is nearly allied to it ; it is the soil of virtue, and a rich one too, on which many excellent fruits may grow. Did not I weep, says Job, for him that was in troubled was not my soul grieved for the poor * ?
To this disposition we are to add the obligations of gratitude, and justice, with the encouragement arising from the hope of a blessing upon us in this world, and the next. But if all these considerations should be in- sufficient, there remains one more, which is the fear of punishment, and as it is urged in the book of Job, with all the vehemence and zeal of a godly mind, it seems irresistible: If I have withheld from the poor their desire — If I have eaten my morsel myself alone — If I have seen any perish for want of clothing — If I have lift up my hand against the fatherless ; then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and let mine arm be brolcenfrom the bone: for destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure f. He means, that God will destroy those who can bear to see others destroyed ; and that this consi- deration had raised a terror in his mind which he could never resist. The same sentiment is more forcibly expressed in another place ; where, on a supposition of any neglect in this matter, he asks, what then shall I do when God riseth up ? and when lie visiteth what shall I answer him 9 To some of his servants God hath committed more, to others less : to all will he come at last, and enquire how that which he committed
* Job XXX. 25.
t Job xxxi. 16, &c.
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hath been disposed of. Every man is now to consider, what answer he shall then give ; and what will become of him if he should have no answer ! Better would it be to suffer all the evils of poverty in this life, than to stand speechless in the great day of our final account. If this one consideration is duly weighed, we shall want no farther instruction in the duty of this day : we shall never see the jooor, without being willing to do them good.
SERMON X.
BLESSED IS HE THAT CONSIDERETH THE POOR AND NEEDY ; THE LORD SHALL DELIVER HIM IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE. PSALM XLI. 1.
To consider the poor, in the common acceptation of the phrase, is to give them something for the reUef of their wants : but he only can be said to consider the poor in the true sense, who relieves them in con- sequence of having meditated on their condition, and his own duty. When the nature of the case hath been duly considered, few words will be wanting to enforce the practice of relieving the poor.
Poverty passes for a frightful subject, and the poor (especially in these times) for a troublesome class of people : but great instruction may be derived ; and, I hope, some rational entertainment together with it, from a consideration of what I must call the theory of poverty.
When we meditate upon this subject, we discover, that poverty doth not appear in the world by accident, but by the preordination of God. For, first, in- equality of condition amongst mankind is absolutely necessary in a state of civilization. Many things must be done for the common good, which will never be done by the proud, the indolent, or the effeminate: They who can live without their own labour, (which.
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by the way, is no very great privilege) cannot live without the labour of others ; as the head and the eyes cannot execute their own designs without the assistance of the hands and the feet. The same divine wisdom which hath tempered the body toge- ther, and made some of the parts subservient and necessary to others, hath appointed the like subordi- nation in the political body of men in society.
But inequality amongst men is farther necessary for moral reasons. By being placed in different stations, men are called to the exercise of different duties : the poor to the duty of submission ; the rich to the duty of compassion. The rich are to be served by the poor, and the poor are to be protected and relieved by the rich. Unless there were want in some, God could not be served by the bounty of others. Nothing can be more evident, than that some are en- trusted by Providence to take care of others. And hence we infer, that if they assume an exclusive right to what they have, they are contradicting the designs of heaven ; and that a want of charity is a breach of trust ; an offence which, under certain circumstances, may be more base and sinful than robbery itself. " Charge them who are rich," saith the apostle. It is not said, admonish and persuade, as if they were at liberty; but give it in charge, as a matter of indispen- sable duty and justice. We hold it to be a great sin, when a servant defrauds his master, or wasteth his goods : but the very same sin is committed, with many aggravations, when the rich waste upon their own pride or pleasure that superfluity, which was put into their hands, that they might supply what is left wanting to others. God is the common master of all ; their goods are his goods ; and if these are misapplied or wasted by some of his servants, other servants of the same master
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will be suffering under the fraud ; for which, they who are guilty of it, will be called to account, when the day of reckoning shall come.
To rectify that inequality which Providence permits for the wisest ends, the primitive Christians cast all their property into a common stock, out of which an equal distribution was made, as every man had need. None could be idle; none could be extravagant ; none could be drunkards or profligates ; if they did not work it was the apostolical rule that they should not eat; and none could hope to obtain any allowance for the support of their vices. Let every Christian ask himself, whether, if it were now required, he could submit to this charitable regulation ; or, w^hether the proposal would send him away sorrowful? Out of the apostolical fund, a society of devout widows were pro- vided for, who employed themselves in all works of charity ; such as those of making garments to clothe the poor, distributing the alms of the church, and as- sisting in the service of God. Such an institution can- not take place in these days ; but the law will be in force to the end of the world, that the strong should uphold the weak, and the rich relieve the poor.
It may seem to us upon a superficial view, that Provi- dence hath been partial in distributing the good things of this world, and hath made some happy and others miserable by their birth and station. But when the advantages and disadvantages are laid together, we shall find, that the ways of God are just and equal to- ward all men. Rich persons are tempted, in considera- tion of their wealth, to be proud,insolent, and wasteful; to trust in this world, and to be forgetful of God : and hence we are told, that but few of them are fit for the kingdom of heaven. The poor, under all their pre- sent disadvantages, are more frequently blessed with
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an humble mind, and look up to God for that hap- piness which they do not find here : therefore Jesus Christ, when he preached the Gospel, chose the poor for his hearers : while those of higher life and prouder education had no respect to his person, and were only hurt by his doctrines. By the reception of the Gospel, the poor are made rich in faith, and so have nothing to complain of; and the rich have but little reason to boast of a very perilous situation.
Upon the whole, the rich and the poor are neces- sary to one another ; the difference between them is agreeable to the designs of God's providence and his moral government of the world ; and when the ac- count is balanced, all is just and equal. If there were no poor, there could be no alms : if all were equal, a spirit of independence and selfishness would prevail, which is most hateful to God. Every man would then live to himself, v/hich no man ought to do ; and he would also die unto himself ; none would want him ; none would miss him. How far better is it, that there should be the generous feelings of hu- manity on the one side, and an humble dependence on the other.
But besides all the foregoing considerations, the condition of poverty was necessary to the humiliation of Jesus Christ. The Saviour of mankind was to visit a world corrupted with pride, and lost in sin : he therefore took upon himself that state of poverty, which was satisfactory to God, and exemplary to man. He that was rich in heaven became poor on earth for our sakes, and took the form of a servant, the lowest condition of life. While the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air nests, he had not where to lay his head. While he fed hungry multitudes by a miracle, he was himself dependent on the liberality
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of those who ministered unto him. So noble and divine was this voluntary poverty of the Son of God, that many have been in love with poverty, and have taken it upon themselves for his sake ; leading a life of obscurity and abstinence, while the world was not worthy of their virtues. And where is the mighty difference ? So short is the time of man, that the dis- tinctions of this world are but shadows ; his great ob- ject is to get safe to heaven ; and he may make his way more safely in poverty than in riches. What is salvation but an escape from shipwreck ? and he who swims naked and uprovided, is more likely to reach the heavenly shore.
Poverty, in itself, is a low thing ; but you see it is a great subject. However, it is time, now, to leave our contemplations, and proceed to the duty of re- lieving the poor.
The things necessary to man's natural life, are meat, drink, and cloathing ; to his civil or social life, knowledge and learning ; to his spiritual life, the faith, hope, and charity of a Christian. Therefore, the three great evils of poverty, are hunger, and nakedness, and ignorance ; and, consequently, the three great works of charity corresponding thereto, are the feeding, the cloathing, and the teaching of the poor.
That it is a good work to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked, is universally allowed ; and the sight is pleasant, which we have now before us, of such decency and comfort in so many children of the poor. It is pleasing to us all : but it must be so in a more especial manner to tjieir benefactors, who have a nearer interest in the case. Thus far, then, we are all agreed, that it is good to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked : but I have heard it questioned.
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whether it be expedient or charitable to teach the poor. You may be surprised at this ; but I can assure you it is very true ; and the arguments by which the objection is supported, are these ; viz. that learning tends to lift the poor out of their sphere, or tempts them to affect things above their station ; and, which is worst of all, gives them ability to do that mischief in society, which they could not have done, if they had been left to their o wn ignorance. The objection against any thing good, which is drawn from the possibility of its being abused, is the weakest as well as the most common ; for all things in this life are abused ; and if we were to drop them one after another on that account, we should have nothing left. In the present subject, all arguments against the teaching of the poor may be answered on this one consideration, that God hath given to man a revela- tion in writing ; it must therefore be good for man to read. But how shall the poor read, unless they are taught ? and if they cannot pay for their own teaching, others must pay for it who can afford it better : and in so doing, they are undoubtedly fufilling the will of God. If learning enables the poor to raise themselves above their station, in God's name, let them do it, if they can : the pen of business is a more innocent and useful instrument than the sword of war, by which so many have raised themselves from a low station to wealth and honours. If learning disposes the poor to be discontented with their con- dition, it ought not to do so, because the remedy goes with the temptation. When they are taught to write and read, they receive religious instruction at the same time ; they are taught, that their duty is to be done in that state of life to which God hath called them ; and they may thence infer, that discontent is
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an act of rebellion against his Providence ; and will forfeit his favour, the loss of which is worse than death. In an age when vain and corrupting publi- cations abound without any restraint, reading may be a dangerous employment ; and many, who read only to amuse the imagination, have read themselves into idleness and beggary. I have heard of a mother, who hath gone into a workhouse with a novel in her hands, followed by a family of poor ragged children. But then, reading is not taught with this view : for there is the reading of wisdom, and the reading of folly ; and they are at liberty to take the one, or the other. Life and death are set before all, as the two trees were planted for the trial of our first pa- rents in Paradise ; and if some are so infatuated by passion as to make choice of death, many will prefer the worst sort of reading ; such as will corrupt the mind, as surely as death corrupts the body. But this danger ought to be no discouragement : it proves nothing, but that good, by an abuse of it, may be turned into evil ; and that the world abounds with temptations to sin.
But now, if some are disposed to plead against learning from the possible danger of it ; it is but fair, that they should consider how the case stands with ignorance. There the danger is certain. Leave nature to itself, say some, and it will go right ; but, that I deny. Leave the land to itself, and see what will happen ; you will soon find it covered with weeds ; and the stronger the soil, the fouler it will grow, if it is neglected. It is thus with the heart of man; which must be cultivated, and sown with good seed, before any fruits can be gathered from it : and by neglect, the weeds of nature become so deeply rooted, that nothing but a miracle of grace can ex-
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tract them. In the account which is given of felons and malefactors, or which they have given of them- selves, I never heard of one that imputed his ruin to his learning; but of numbers who have laid it wholly to their ignorance ; which ignorance proceeded either from the want of instruction, or their own indispo- sition to receive it. Some were neglected by bad parents ; some had no teachers ; others had them, and ran away from them, because they were idle and ill disposed ; as if there were a mutual antipathy between vice and learning.
The profligacy of the lowest order of people, in this age and nation, hath of late become so alarming to the public, (who know not what cause to ascribe it to, but to a general want of teaching ) that Sunday schools have lately arisen out of the evil, as the most promis- ing remedy ; and I trust in God, we shall, in a few years, see the benefit of them. They must tend to remove that ignorance of the common people, which hath of late years, so filled our gaols, and occasioned such numberless executions. A worthy clergyman who had attended an unhappy criminal, lately con- demned and executed for a shocking murder, told me he found him in total ignorance : he had never been, to his own knowledge, within a church since he was baptized there; and seemed to have no sense of God or the devil, but such as had been collected from the oaths and curses of his wicked companions. This poor wretch, roused into a little sensibility by an ap- proaching execution, had the elements of his catechism to learn, when he was going out of the world. This man is but the pattern of multitudes, who come daily, by the same way, to the same end. Upon the whole, if knowledge doth harm, it is by accident, and con- trary to its nature : but ignorance destroys by neces-
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sanj consequence ; and, therefore, it is both wise and charitable to promote the teaching of the poor.
That this teaching may have the better effect, I must address myself in a few words to the children, who are supported by the charity of this day. If then the benefits of instruction are so apparent, it is your duty to value it accordingly, and receive it with atten- tion and patience. Learning of every kind is the work of time ; it comes by little and little, and more slowly to some than to others ; but all must be im- proved by patience and perseverance. Remember how the grain, which the poor claim, as their portion from the rich, at this season of the year, is gathered up by single ears, for which they are patiently stoop- ing all the day long, till they are wetted with the dew of heaven. We have seen the fields overspread with children at this employment ; their parents encourag- ing them, and setting them the example. The fruits of learning, which you are gathering at school, are far more valuable and lasting : gather them, therefore, with the like perseverance, and you will find at length, that as the single ears of the field rise insensibly to a burthen as large as you can bear; so will your learn- ing increase in a few years to such a stock, as will be sufficient to carry you through the business of this world to a better.
Above all, when you learn to read and write, learn to pra?/. Think how many fall into sin and misery, and the displeasure of God, because they were never taught to pray, or, because they would never learn. To walk without prayer, is to w^alk without God : and how miserable must that be in a world of such danger! If the righteous man, who lifteth up his eyes unto the everlasting hills, and prayeth daily for the help and protection of God, is scarcely saved, and escapes as a
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brand plucked out of the fire ; what must become of those, who never pray at all ? If we wrestle against principalities and powers, for which we are not a match : what must be the fate of those who have no helper ? The poor and friendless orphan is in a hope- ful state when compared with the soul that has lost the presence of its heavenly Father, and while it is under the weakness and poverty of nature, and the deceit- fulness of sin, is left to the malice of its spiritual ene- mies. Make it, therefore, the first and the main busi- ness of your lives, to engage the power and good- ness of God on your side, by learning to call uipon him at all times, as your catechism directs, hy diligent prayer. We have a promise, that, whosoever cometh to God by the prayer of faith, shall not be cast out : but, he who doth not pray, casteth out himself ; and to such all evil must follow of course, both in this world and the next.
This is a reflection which equally concerns us all ; and brings us back to the duty of the text, and the promise which attends it. i/"God he for us, saith the Apostle, ivJio can he against us ? and if God be against us, who, or what, can be for us, to do us any good ? What will all the power, honour, and wealth, of this world signify to that man, to whom the great God of heaven and earth is no friend ? and if the indevout, who never pray, have no title to his favour, the un- merciful shall pray in vain; they never listened to the prayers and wants of others ; and so their own prayers shall be fruitless. But, on the other hand, how blessed is he that consider eth the poor and needy; the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble.
Blessedness, as the term is applied in the Scripture, and particularly in the Psalms, denotes the happiness of man living under the approbation and favour of
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God, and taking pleasure in the way of his command- ments. Such is the state of the blessed man in the first psalm ; he is happy in himself, and his ways are prospered upon the earth. There is a farther blessed- ness in peace of conscience under a sense of the for- giveness of sin ; as it is said. Blessed is the man to wJiom the Lord ivill not impute sin.
It is certainly one of the first blessings in this life, to be able and willing to relieve the wants of the poor; not only for the prospect of future good, but the en- joyment of present pleasure. For is it not a blessed privilege in the divine nature, that it can distribute to the wants of all, and Jill their hearts with food and gladness ? and can it be otherwise than a blessedness in man, when he partakes of the blessedness of God? Here pleasure and duty go together ; and, doubtless, there are many good hearts which feel in themselves the blessedness pronounced upon them in the text. Man can be like unto God in no capacity so much as in that of being glad to distrihute : and to this like- ness we may aspire without ambition. In fact, we are commanded to propose God himself as a pattern to us. " Be ye perfect," saith our blessed Saviour, " even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Not perfect in wisdom, or power, or purity, but in goodness ; distribute with kindness, and do good to all without partiality, even as He malteth. his sun to rise, and sendeth his raiii on the just, and on the un- just. It is said of kings and magistrates, that they are gods, though they shall die lilte men : and Moses was made a god unto Pharaoh, with authority to execute vengeance on a proud prince, and a wicked people. This office we are not to desire; nor did Moses desire it ; he was the meehest of men in his temper, and therefore God chose him as a fit instrument for the in-
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flictingof his judgments'; who could drive the furious blast with calmness and serenity. He is the proper minister of vengeance, who can execute it without wrath. Our blessed Saviour, to whom all judgment is committed, was the mildest and the most lowly in his conversation upon earth. In this capacity of a judge, we are not called to imitate him ; but all may go about doing good; and they who can do the most good, have the most pleasure within their power.
But there is now another sort of blessedness (and that more valuable to us in our present state) to which he shall be entitled, who considereth the poor and needy ; — the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble.
In the days of youth, we are thoughtless and for- getful; in the days of prosperity, we are high-spirited and presumptuous ; but the time of sorrow must overtake those who least think of it ; and there are troubles in store, by which the highest minds shall be brought low, and the stoutest hearts shall be made to tremble. Then to find deliverance from the Lord, is the greatest blessedness of man ; and, consequently, to secure it before hand, by shewing mercy to the poor, must be his great wisdom. Wealth being so often abused as a root of evil, is called the Mammon of unrighteousness ; but by this wise application of it, we may provide to ourselves a sure friend in the day of our distress.
The troubles of man's mind are as many and as various as the diseases of his body, so that it were vain to number them : but there are some in par- ticular under which you must all see, that we can expect no deliverance but from God. There are cares and disappointments, brought upon us some- times by our own oversights, sometimes by the per-
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verseness and treachery of others, from which nothing can extricate us, but that Providence which ruleth over all, and worketh by ways which are secret and unexpected. And by some such way shall he be de- livered, who hath co?isiderecl others in their necessity.
There is another trouble, by which the mind is sub- ject to be agitated ; and which is more afflicting than worldly sorrow : I mean a remorse of conscience under a sense of guilt. Some men when they have fallen into sin, seem to be as easy as they were before. This is a dreadful symptom. When a limb feels no pain from incision, we know it is in a state of morti- fication : and ease in such a case, is the forerunner of death. But a mind more tender, and of a godly frame, is often reduced to a fearful sense of past sins. Sor- row, and shame, and terror seize upon it like fiends, and threaten to tear it in pieces. Where can it look for deliverance at such a time, but to the grace of God, who hath promised forgiveness of sin ? Neither the power of man, nor the comforts of the world, can reach this case. Spiritual griefs must have a spiritual remedy ; and that remedy is with the great Physician of the soul, who alone can heal our sins, and help our infirmities. If he is sought at such a time of trouble, and tiot found, nothing remains but despair, which is the extremity of trouble. Many passages in the Psalms are written for the use and support of contrite minds, labouring under the bur- then of their sins ; and by the charitable they shall not be uttered in vain. They that have shewed mercy shall find mercy, and be restored to peace of conscience.
Another time of trouble is the time of sickness. The help of God, under this trial, is particularly promised to the merciful, in the words which follow
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the text. TJie Lord shall comfort Mm when he lieth side upon his bed: thou shalt make all his hed in his sickness. The Scripture expresses all things in figure and metaphor, with great force and significa- tion. The making of his bed is a relief to the sick, and sometimes the only relief they are capable of. How easy then must he lie, whose bodily sorrows are made lighter by a communication of ease and comfort from above ! for an easy mind, which is the gift of God, will sustain all the infirmities of the body. How frequently and unexpectedly doth the blessing of God raise up the sick, whose life hath been despaired of ; as it is here said. The Lord shall preserve him and keep him alive, that he may be blessed upon the earth. But some sickness must end in death : and when that time of trouble is approaching ; when this world is vanishing from our sight, and we are departing into the world of spirits ; how inesti- mable is one ray of light from above, to cheer us in that hour of darkness ! Who, that duly considers this in the days of health, would not sell all that he hath, and give to the poor, to purchase it ?
But there is still another occasion of trouble, and that the greatest of all : when we shall be summoned by the trump of judgment to appear before the tri- bunal of Jesus Christ. Then must the rich and the poor, the weak and the powerful, stand naked and helpless before a Judge, who is no respecter of persons, but will demand an account of every man ; of me that speak, and of you that hear ; and reward them all according to their works. Who are they that shall be able to stand in that fearful day of reckoning ? who, but they that have distributed of their abundance to the poor members of Jesus Christ ? What is now done to them, will then be
15
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placed by him to his own account, as if it were done to himself. / was naked, saith he, and ye clothed me; sick and in prison, and ye visited me. To the rest who bestowed their possessions upon themselves, and were unmindful of him, and of his poor brethren, he saith. Depart from me, I know you 7iot.
Think then, all ye that have ability : think what a serious trust is coftimitted to you, and what great things depend upon a faithful discharge of it. We count the rich happy ; we labour for wealth ; we court popularity ; we are proud of honours and titles ; but all these things will fail us in the time of troid)le. No man can be accounted happy, but he who shall find deliverance from God. This de- liverance is promised to the charitable man ; and the promise of God shall never disappoint him. In all the cares and vexations of life ; in the temptations of prosperity, and in the sorrows of adversity ; in health and in sickness ; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment; Messed is he that consideretk the poor and needy ; the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble.
SERMON XI.
NOW CONCERNING THE COLLECTION FOR THE SAINTS, AS I HAVE GIVEN ORDER TO THE CHURCHES OF GA- LATIA, EVEN SO DO YE :
UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, LET EVERY ONE OF YOU LAY BY HIM IN STORE, AS GOD HATH PROS- PERED HIM. 1 COR. XVI. 1, 2.
Hence we learn, that the custom of providing for the wants of necessitous Christians by a voluntary contribution, is as ancient as Christianity itself. The method ordained by the Apostle in the churches of Galatia, and, by this precept of the text, in the church of Corinth also, was to lay by something in store weekly, according to the abilities of each, and the blessing of God upon their affairs ; and at stated times, what was so raised, was collected by the go- vernors of the church, and distribution was made as every man had need ; so that in the first ages, though there would of course be many poor in the church, because there were people of all orders converted to the faith, yet there were none without relief. If they were sick, or under persecution, or any other misfor- tune, they were the pensioners of the church, and
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their wants were supplied, as the charity and pru- dence of their rulers directed.
The text seems to call upon me to take a review of the modes of making collections for the poor^, which have prevailed among Christians in different ages of the church. The subject is edifying in itself, and very interesting at the time when the poor are supported at so enormous an expence ; which shews that they are strangely multiplied, and the causes of this de- serve to be enquired into.
So great was the zeal of those who first embraced the Gospel, that if they were wealthy they sold their possessions, and a common fund w as raised, out of which the ministers of the church were maintained, and the poor relieved at their discretion.
Though this practice of selling all w^as really and readily observed by many, w^e do not find it was ab- solutely commanded. But this other custom of lay- ing apart something every week was established by a standing order of the church, which extended to every member of it, according to their several abi- lities : let every one of you, says the Apostle, lay hy him in store.
When the church was farther spread, and better established, then the ancient rule took place amongst the Christians, of giving the tenth part of all their increase ; which rule had been observed long before the law of Moses, and lasted, though with many abuses and interruptions, till the times of the Gospel, when we hear the Pharisee boasting that he gave tithes of all he possessed. When Christianity was admitted into this country, the same practice came with it, Avhich prevailed, as we learn from the writings of the first ages, in all other nations of the world. Christians gave a tenth part of the increase
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of their lands and chattels, and every article from which any gain or profit was derived. In process of time, the first hereditary Saxon monarch that go- verned the whole nation of England in peace, re- peated what had been done in another form about an hundred years before ; he gave to the church, by a solemn charter, with the presence and consent of the Lords and Commons, the tithes of the whole king- dom for ever, in the year of our Lord 855, and of- fered his charter upon the altar of the great church at Westminster, the bishops receiving it from his hands on the part of God. The piety of succeeding benefactors added many lands to the support of the church and religious monasteries : and, out of these, churches and colleges were built ; strangers and tra- vellers were entertained ; the poor were all fed, or set to work, and the sick received into infirmaries and almonries (or amberies) as they were then called. I do not pretend to say that there was no mixture of superstition in these things ; that charity was not carried to excess ; and that there were not many abuses in religious societies. It could not be other- wise ; because there never was any good in this world, nor ever will be, without a mixture of evil. In this, however, as a fact, all writers agree, that it belonged to the church for many hundred years to take care of the poor out of their own revenues : and it was computed, in former times, that in all the pa- rishes of England, taking them one with another, one-fourth part of the tithes of the parish would, and actually did, maintain the poor.
Till the latter end of the reign of Elizabeth, there never was any tax laid upon England as a poor's rate. Before the Reformation, the poor were kept by the clergy, with the voluntary contributions of well dis-
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posed people ; but there was no such thing as a poor's rate. The bishops and clergy of different kinds, kept open hospitality for the benefit of strangers and travellers, and the poor of the neighbourhood ; and were obliged so to do by their foundations : and it pleased God to bless these means to such a degree, that the poor were no burthen to the nation : not a penny was imposed upon any layman for maintain- ing them. But when the sacrilegious encroachments of Popery were confirmed at the Reformation, by the alienation of church lands, and the clergy were thereby impoverished ; the laity who took them did not comply with the conditions of the tenure.
Reason and law suggest to us, that they, who got the lands of the church, took them with the encum- brance that was upon them. Out of those lands the poor had been maintained ; therefore, they that took the lands should have taken the poor with them ; and they made a great shew of doing it for a time, be- cause that was the pretence with which they took them from the clergy : but when the fish was taken, the net was laid aside.
I need not inform you what state we are in at present, when the poor's rates are come to such an enormous height throughout the kingdom, that about the year 1700 they were computed at a million yearly : and from that time to this they have been more than doubled ; so that there is more than twice as much paid to the poor, as is now paid to all the clergy in the kingdom. And in all this expence, there is no charity ; no devotion as formerly ; it is an involuntary payment, forced from us by law, and squeezed out of many, who are fitter to receive some- thing for their own wants, than to contribute to the wants of others.
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If there was a time, when one-fourth of the tithes was found sufficient to maintain the parish poor, and the revenues of the national poor are now twice as great as the revenues of the church, thence it follows, that where they had one poor man we have eight throughout the kingdom, that is, 1000 poor instead of 125. It may please God still to increase the poor, till they swallow up the rich who de- voured them : for I think it requires no degree of superstition or credulity to see the hand of God in this whole matter.
Even heathens were persuaded that their gods were the avengers of sacrilege ; and if it is a certain fact that the poor have increased as the church hath gone down, they who lessened the patrimony of the church brought upon us such an evil as might be ex- pected ; indeed, such as seems to follow naturally and necessarily ; for what a man soweth, that sliall he also reap ; therefore, he that soweth in sacrilege must ex- pect to reap in poverty. Even in this parish, there is a singular concurrence of circumstances : and if I speak of them, you all know me too well to suspect I have any design in it, but that of following the order of my subject ; which has required me to give you a brief and impartial history of collections for the poor, and the nature of them in different ages. It is a fact known to us all, that in this place, no part of the property of the parish is settled upon the service of the church. The rectorial tithes are in the possession of a lay impropriator who is a papist ; the vicarial are taken by the minister of another parish ; and the only certain dependence of a minister is upon bene- factions of a modern date from other quarters. So stands the case with the church. Now look at the poor ; and you will find such a charge as occurs but
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in few parts of the kingdom ; for the sum expended annually upon the poor amounts, one year with another, to three hundred and fifty pounds ; that is, to more than one fourth part of the whole rents of the parish. Amongst the rest of our national burthens, the single tax upon the land, a new imposition, never thought of till within the last hundred years, takes more from the landed interest, than would, at the time when it was imposed, have been sufficient to maintain all the poor in the kingdom : and these two burthens were neither of them felt by the nation while the poor were maintained by the church. So many ways has the providence of God of shewing us, that he is stronger than we are ; and how little they are like to gain in the end, who mix sacrilege with their policy, and hope to enrich themselves by any act of impiety.
We can now only lament these things ; we cannot correct them. We have no reason to think God will be reconciled to national sin, without national resti- tution; and there is less hope of that every day. The work of Sir Henry Spelman *, shewing the ma- nifest judgments of God upon the violation of churches and the usurpation of church lands, had its effect for a time in some instances, but it is now almost forgotten. There are, indeed, some other lesser concurring causes to increase the burthen of the poor, to which prudence might apply some remedy : these are, first, the corruption of morals amongst the poor; secondly, the indolence of persons of fortune and influence, who take no care of them ;
• See the work of Sir Henry Spelman, De non temerandis Eccle- siis. — A Tract of the Rights due unto Churches. A work alarming in its subject, and unanswerable in its argument ; the author of it being equally skilled in law and divinity.
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and thirdly, the laying of too many farms together, especially where new enclosures have taken place.
As to the first of these causes, when the state of the poor was inquired into, at the desire of govern- ment, by a person of great eminence for learning, in the year 1697 ; he delivered it as his opinion, to the Lords J ustices, that many of our grievances, in regard to the poor, arose from the toleration of tippling in public-houses ; drinking spirituous liquors at private shops ; and the wandering about of idle people, as beggars, without restraint, from their proper parishes. However great these evils might be at the time above mentioned, I fear they grew much worse afterwards. Of late years, indeed, the magistrates have been so sensible of the increase of poverty, from the increase of public-houses, that the number of them has been much diminished in many parts of the kingdom ; and they are more cautious, than heretofore, in granting licences. I am not pre- pared to give you an exact history of the inn and the public-house in England. It seems there were no such common sources of corruption to the people, when travellers, in times of greater simplicity, were accommodated by charitable hospitality : and, bad as they are by their nature, they are become still much worse in practice since the common use of spirituous liquors, which is but of the last hundred years.
Another cause of our increasing rates, is that want of public spirit, and that aversion to business, which has prevailed of late years amongst our gentry ; who leave the inspection of the poor wholly to their infe- riors. I knew a worthy person, of great piety, charity, and extensive learning, who was allowed to have great judgment in all national concerns, and was so well
M 2
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acquainted with the state of the poor, that none ever wrote better upon the subject than himself. It was an observation of his, that the rich are under a fun- damental error, in supposing that the duty of alms- giving is the essential part of the comprehensive duty of charity ; and so their object is rather to remove present misery, than to pi-event it by encouraging piety, order, and good morals. Let gentlemen of fortune, said he, give more of their time to the poor though they give less of their money, and then we shall have found out the grand secret for reducing the parish rates : the poor would then behave better, and cost less, and find themselves much happier than they do at present *.
To these another cause may still be added, which has had the unhappy effect of damping the industry of the poor, by taking away from them the hope of bettering their condition by good management : I mean the selfish practice of laying many farms into one, to save trouble and raise more money ; whence it comes to pass, that labourers have not that en- couragement to endeavour to advance themselves and their families as they had formerly : in some places there are no small farms left for them, and they are not able to take a large one ; in consequence of which they grow desperate in their poverty ; and even where there are small farms, the profits are, in a manner, eaten up in many parishes, by burthensome rates and taxes.
* Paupers at London take collection from many parishes, at once, under false names. A spy is detected in a camp, by ordering all the soldiers to their tents ; so these impostors might be de- tected by a muster, or roll-call, of all the parishes held at the same time : and every person so detected, should receive corporal punishment, and a brand of infamy on their forehead.
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I have now enumerated, to the best of my know- ledge, and without concealing any part of the truth, the several causes which have contributed to increase the number of the poor, and to render them so bur- thensome, that they cannot always find a provision adequate to their wants in times of sickness and ina- bility. Societies have, therefore, been formed, the members of which undertake, in the days of their health, to make a better provision for one another, out of a common stock, than they could expect from the public, if they should ever be reduced to the ne- cessity of applying for it. As I heartily approve of this design, and have given you my sentiments to that effect on former occasions, I shall now add such ad- vice as may promote and secure the benefit to all those that are concerned in it ; and I know not how to do this more effectually than by enforcing the ex- hortation of the Apostle, that each of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him. For in order to do this, so as to keep up to the sense of the exhorta- tion, he must be.
1. Prudent; 2. industrious; 3. sober; and 4. honest ; without which, he has no reason to expect that God will prosper him.
By prudence, I mean a proper attention to his affairs ; which we call ceconomy. It is as wicked to waste what God hath bestowed, as to deny it to him that is in need ; and for this plain reason, because he who wastes what he has, will have nothing to give. Prudence in our affairs is a duty so necessary, that our blessed Lord, who was exemplary and instructive in his actions, as well as in his words, seems to have shewn a particular regard to it : Gather up the frag- ments which remain, said he, that nothing be lost : and if he, whose word alone was sufficient to provide
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for an hungry multitude in a wilderness ; if he, I say, thought it expedient that we should make the most of his gifts, the same rule will oblige us to make the most of our own gains, and to take care that nothing he lost. It is a sort of tempting God, if we expect him to work two miracles, when a prudent application of one would answer the end. The means were miraculous the first time the multitude were fed; but they were natural when the fragments that had been laid up were distributed. It is the care of Pro- vidence to put us in a way, and do what we cannot do for ourselves ; but it must be our care to make the most of his gifts by a prudent attention to them.
A second qualification, necessary to those who would lay by any thing, is industry. Idleness is the disgrace of human kind. It was made neither for the rich nor the poor ; neither for man when he was in Paradise, nor now he is out of it. The body, the mind, and the estate, all suffer by it. It brings diseases upon the rich, and filthiness upon the poor : it weakens all the faculties of the mind, and leaves it empty and dissatisfied ; it ruins the estate, because an idle disposition is for the most part attended with ex- pensive inclinations, while it brings in nothing for the supply of necessary wants. Idle people are generally vicious : they are idle because they are vicious ; and vice always did cost more than virtue to maintain it. Instead of having any thing to lay by, idleness expects to receive that from the labours of others, which it does not deserve from any body. The idle man is to society, what a useless limb is to the body, which must be carried or dragged along by the rest ; and if he is not troublesome to-day, he will be soon : for he that has neither house nor land, nor any useful employ- ment, must be maintained either by beggary or by
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working in the dark, when other men are asleep : therefore, such people ought to be strictly watched ; and every society has a right against them on a prin- ciple of self-defence ; for he who does them no good, will very soon do them some mischief. In a neigh- bouring nation, celebrated for few virtues besides those of frugality and industry, they endure no idle- ness amongst them ; so you see no beggars about their streets, and very seldom hear of any executions for felony. If any poor man turns idle, and a,dmoni- tion does him no good, they take the following method to make him work : they confine him in a large cistern, into which the water runs so fast, that unless he pumps it out with all his might for several hours, it will prevail over him and drown him. Our schools of labour are called houses of correction ; but the place where this discipline is exercised, is called the bettering home : and if the first trial does not make a man better, they give him a second ; and so on, till he is brought to reason with himself : then he dis- covers, that it will be less trouble to earn his living by moderate labour, than to do such hard work and get nothing by it. This, however, is a way of teaching men as we teach brutes, by compulsion. How much better is it to hearken and learn as children do, and be bettered hy the instructions of wisdom ! Go, then, to the ant, thou sluggard, consider Iter ways and be wise : which Jiaving tio guide, overseer, or ruler, jjro- videth her meat in tlie summer, and gather eth her food in the harvest.
But now, thirdly, I am to remind you, that he who would lay any thing by for charity, must be temperate. No man will ever be able to do much good to others, who does not lay some restraint upon himself. Intem-
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perance is hurtful to the rich ; but it is ruinous to the poor ; and alas ! we have too many examples of it in all places ; of men who spend all they have upon themselves, and sometimes more than they have, and live more like swine than Christians. If there should be any such here present, may God give them grace to understand rightly the miserable bondage into which they have been betrayed by ungoverned appe- tites ; while, instead of fancied indulgence, they find nothing but real misery ; the ingredients of which are the three great evils of human life, sickness, guilt, and poverty. If we were to follow some people of the lower class of life, to observe how they live, particu- larly those who are employed in handicraft trades, in the great metropolis of this kingdom ; we should see them working hard for a few days, then taking their wages, and giving themselves up for as many days more to idleness and intemperance in a public-house. There they meet with others as idle as themselves ; who are come upon the same errand, to waste their time and their money. They sit till all is spent, and, perhaps, till their senses are gone together with their money ; but if not so bad as that, their consciences are wounded, and their peace of mind is destroyed ; so that they have not one moment of rational enjoy- ment. In the mean time, if we were to see the un- happy wife of one of those free-livers, we should find her at home, with her poor, ragged, helpless children about her, hungering and thirsting for the fruit of their father's labour ; with which, he is all the while abusing himself in other company. When all is gone, and he has time to think a little, the distress of his family stares him in the face ; he is entertained with bitter accusations, which he has brought upon him-
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self; and the cruelty and robbery he has been guilty of prey upon his spirits. Instead of laying by for the day of necessity, he is treasuring up for himself misery in this world, and wrath against the day of vengeance, in another.
You will not expect such to follow the advice of the Apostle : no, they that Imj hj, with the design recommended in the text, are another sort of persons. How different from the picture I have just set before you, is the man, who returns home in sobriety to his family, there to be received as the protector and friend of all that belong to him ; congratulated by his wife, embraced by his children, and entertained after the toils of the day, with their pretty innocent conver- sation. He sleeps in peace, and returns again to his work, with his wits about him ; and when his contri- bution becomes due, he hath it in readiness, and bestows it with chearfulness. When the day of sick- ness comes, as it must come some time, the distress of his family is greatly alleviated ; and if his health is not suddenly restored (though it is the sooner likely to be so, from the benefit to which he is intitled) his wants are fewer, and his mind is more at ease, than it could possibly be, if he had been obliged to apply in the usual way for relief from the public.
You therefore see, my Brethren, how necessary prudence, industry, and temperance are to those who undertake to lay by for the future wants of themselves and their companions. But now I must warn you, though I have recommended these virtues, not to trust in them, or in yourselves. Your trust must be in God ; because your prosperity is from him only ; you are directed to lay hy as God hath prospered you. Therefore, the object of your present meeting, if you
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make a right use of it, leads you daily to a pious de- pendence upon God for his blessing ; and this, as I observed above, will keep you honest in your deal- ings. If you take the matter in this light, and are persuaded you have succeeded better, because God hath prospered you, you must then be conscious that you have laboured honestly in your vocation ; and you will go on as you have begun, in hope of farther prosperity from the same divine assistance. Thus your labour will become a work of faith ; you will persevere as seeing him that is invisible ; you will remember, that the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good: that the greatest prudence, without him, will turn into foolishness, and the greatest industry will be labour in vaiji. There is nothing like this sense of God's aK-seeing eye, to make men honest, and Iceep them so. The bad man and the good differ chiefly in this respect, that the former thinks of nothing but the world, and the gain he can make of his craft by any manner of means ; the other works under a continual sense of God's presence. He feels himself under a daily obligation to behave so as to ensure that prosperity, which is the gift of God ; if he loses that, he loses his all ; for he knows that wealth is but a snare to those who forget God, and think they can do as well with- out him as other men do with him. But if he be- lieves, that all he has is from God, then he may apply to himself that promise of the Old and New Testament, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. In all the labours and trials of our life, may those gracious words be ever sounding in our ears — / will never leave thee nor forsake thee ! By shewing how nigh God is to us, they will keep us nigh unto
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him, in the observation of his laws, the frequenting of his worship, the receiving of his sacraments, the reading of his word : and he who takes this way of qualifying himself for any society upon earth, shall be company for saints and angels in the society of heaven.
SERMON XII.
AS TOUCHING THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, HAVE YE NOT READ THAT WHICH WAS SPOKEN TO YOU BY GOD, SAYING,
I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, THE GOD OF ISAAC, AND THE GOD OF JACOB ? GOD IS NOT THE GOD OF THE DEAD, BUT OF THE LIVING. MATT. XXII. 31, 32.
The resurrection of the dead was a doctrine gene- rally received among the Jews, and the expectation of it had supported all the faithful from the fall of Adam. That there were some in J udea who did not believe it, appears from the case before us ; but these were not Jews ; they were conceited philosophizing heretics, who had departed from the religion of their forefathers, and were declared by our blessed Saviour to be ignorant of the Scripture, and of the power of God ; so their example is of no more weight against the general persuasion of the Jews, than that of our modern Arians, Socinians, Quakers, and such like, against the faith of the Gospel, and the general sense of the Christian world. If we listen to such people as these, our Gospel has no atonement, our Saviour no divinity of person,ournaturenoneedofthe assistances
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of divine grace. In short, Christianity will be no Christianity, if bad men, who pretend to teach it, are allowed to be of any authority. We shall remain under the like uncertainty, if we ask Sadducees and Herodians, who had fallen into gross secularity, and were little better than our Deists, what was the faith of the Jews under the law of Moses ? Those of the Jews must have learned better, to whom our Saviour appealed, when he said, Search the Scriptures, for in tJwm ye think ye have eternal life ; not only the promises of this world, but of the world to come. And the same must be admitted, where he asserted against the Samaritans, that salvatioji, (meaning spiritual and eternal salvation) was of the Jews- John v. 29, and iv. 22.
That the resurrection of the dead was commonly believed amongst them, appears from many examples. When our Lord told Martha (speaking of Lazarus) that her brother should rise again, " I know," said she " that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." She, therefore, had no doubt about this doctrine, although not so inquisitive as Mary in sub- jects of divinity, St. Paul's words are much more remarkable, as being of much greater extent and ap- plication : " For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain." Now, if we refer backwards to his trial before king Agrippa, we shall see that this hope, which it seems was the hope of Israel, that is, of the church of the Jews at large, was the hope of the resurrection. " I stand, and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise, our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come; for which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the
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dead?'' This, then, was the express object of their hope : and why ? not because they had learned it of one another, till it grew into a national persuasion ; but because it yf^i?) promised of God unto their fathers, the Patriarchs and their posterity. Therefore, the promises made to them, however worded,and however carnally misunderstood, in ancient or modern times, were promises which included the hope of another life, and the resurrection of the dead. This agrees exactly with our Saviour's interpretation of the pro- mise in the text. The God of life, the God of the spirits of all flesh, calls himself the God of the fathers of Israel, when they were laid in their graves ; and Moses reported this to sheio * that the dead are raised: in as much as the God of spirits, that is, the God of the living (for all spirits live) can have no relation with the dead, but as still living in spirit, and pre- served unto life eternal in body also. With this text, we read that the Sadducees were put to silence, and the multitude were astonished at the doctrine. The Sadducees were impudent and obstinate ; but the case was too plain to be resisted ; and the promise of life was recognized by the people with wonder and delight.
I may instance, again, in that passage of Ezekiel, chap, xxxvii. where the resurrection of dry bones into a multitude of living people, is used by the prophet, as a sign, to assure the Jews, then in captivity, that they should be restored to their own land. For this passage shews, it was a doctrine universally known to them, that the dead should be raised out of their graves. It was not written to teach them the doctrine of the resurrection at that time, but to build upon it.
* See Luke xx. 37.
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as a thing known and allowed amongst them. There is a plain reason in all language, why the sign should be better known than the thing signified. Here, the thing unknown to the poor desponding Jews, was their deliverance from captivity ; the resurrection of the dead from their graves, is the sign and pledge to assure them thereof. The God, who according to his promise, was engaged to bring them from the last and greatest captivity under the power of death, would bring them out of the land in which they were then held in bondage : and as they believed the one already, they might thence be induced to believe the other, when the prophet Ezekiel informed them of it, in terms borrowed from the resurrection of the body.
The hope of Israel was then in the promise of a resurrection : this was in all times the general persua- sion of the Jews, to whom Moses had shewed it : and none but the worst of heretics disputed it, who dis- puted every thing. How comes it then to have been imagined, that the people of God, while under the law, looked only for temporal promises? The seventh article of our church is strongly pointed against this error ; therefore it had made its appearance soon after the Reformation. And, I am sorry to say it, one of our most learned divines, whose sermons are de- servedly in great repute, hath affirmed in plain words, that the people, and even the priests of the Jews, did not know so much of the immortality of the soul, as the heathen philosophers did *. And another of later
* " As to evident discovery concerning the immortality of man's soul, or the future state (so material a point of religion, of so great moment and influence upon practice) even the Gentile theology (assisted by ancient common tradition) seems to have outgone the Jewish, grounding upon their revealed law ; the Pagan priests, more expressly taught, more frequently inculcated 15
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times built a grand argument for the divine authority of Moses on the supposition, that the doctrine of a future state is not to be found in his writings !
Here, then, is a very strange and shocking oppo- sition between the doctrine of Christ and his apostles, and some of our celebrated reasoners of modern times. Christ saith, Moses shewed that the dead are raised: Paul says, he taught nothing but what Moses taught *, and that the resurrection of the dead was the hope of Israel: while some of later times say, Moses has pur- posely omitted the doctrine of a future state ; and that even the priests of the Jews knew little or nothing about the immortality of the soul and a future life. It is our misfortune, that for four generations past, a strange degree of inadvertency with respect to the sense of God's promises, and the language of his law, hath been stealing upon us ; since the new schemes of human religion have been invented, and have found so many admirers. I have, therefore, determined to examine the Scripture by the light of the Scripture, and see what it delivers to us on the immortality of the soul, the world of spirits, the resurrection of the dead, and the rewards of the faithful after death.
Our best method will be to suppose the negative ; that the immortality of the soul, and the world of spi-
arguments drawn from thence, than the Hebrew prophets : a plain instance and argument of the imperfection of this religion." See Dr. Barrow s Sermons on the Imperfeclion of the Jewish Religion. Such a remark, from a man of such judgment and learning, and good intentions as Dr. Barrow, must be considered as a symptom, that we were falling into times, when the spirit of the Old Testa- ment should be less understood than formerly : and accordingly it was strangely misrepresented by Sj^encer, Warburton, Middleton, and others : while Stanhope, and many writers of his class, asserted the doctrine which I am defending in this discourse.
* Acts xxvi. 12.
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rits, and a reward after death, were not taught in the law of Moses, and then to compare this with the Scripture.
Is it not then very strange, to say, that the immor- tality of the soul is not taught in the law of Moses; when the Bible begins with it ? what was the tree of life in Paradise ? It was not the tree of natural life ; for this man had already ; and every other tree in the garden would support it ; therefore, it was the tree of spiritual life ; that is, of a sort of life which admits of no death : and when man was debarred from the use of it, the reason given is, lest he should take of it and live for ever. What is it to live for ever ? it is to be immortal : therefore, the immortality of the soul is one of the first doctrines of the Scripture. What did man gain by eating the forbidden fruit ? 3Iortalify, What then did he lose ? Immortality. Therefore, it is the doctrine of Moses that man was intended for immortality ; and that his mortality was an accident, occasioned by the entrance of sin. The word life, in many places of the law, can mean nothing but eternal life. What else can it signify, when it is applied to God ? " As I live, saith the Lord." — And when it is told the people by Moses that God is their life, and the length of their days, {Deut. xxx. 20.) nothing can be understood but a divine life, no days but the days of eternity ; as when it is said, that Christ is our life (in the other Testament) it means, according to his own sense, / am the resurrection and tlie life — and again, because I live, ye shall live also. The reason of the thing is the same in both Testaments, for the life of God must be eternal ; and there is to mortal man, whose life here is a shadow, no length of days but by the resurrection from the dead.
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• ETERNAL LIFE, THE GREAT []SERM. XII.
Let US next suppose, that the Jews under the law had no knowledge of another invisible world of spi- rits. How could this possibly be, when people, in the times described in the historical part of the law, had a nearer intercourse with heaven than we have now ? God himself, the head and father of the world of spirits, was visibly known to Adam, to Abraham, to Moses. The host of angels, the inhabitants of the in- visible world, were personally revealed to the Holy Patriarchs. We read, (Gen. xxxii.) that Jacob went on his way, and ihe angels of God met him : and when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's host : and he called the name of that place Mahanaim : which means the encampment of an aiimj, on account of their number. Before this, a visionary ladder was shewn to the same Patriarch, on which angels as- cended and descended, to signify that there is a com- munication between heaven and earth. This was the immediate sense of the vision ; and must have been inferred from it : but its full accomplishment is in the Person of the Son of God, the living ivay, on whom hereafter the angels of God will be seen ascending and descending as in Jacob's vision.
That there is in this world of spirits an evil being, the enemy of God and man, is taught in the history of the fall; and the name of a serpent is given to him ; a name much more instructive than that of the devil or satan ; because the name of a serpent gives us his whole character at once. That the serpent was not a real, but a figurative one, is evident from his having the gift of speech : as from his argument, it appears, that he was a lyar ; and from his act, that he was « murderer from the he ginning.
Let us next suppose, that the rewards of faith and obedience, promised in the law of Moses, were merely
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temporal ; that is, an enjoyment of good things in the land of Canaan. If this was the sense of God's pro- mises, then they were false to Abraham, to whom they were first made : for he never received the pro- mises in that sense. St. Stephen {Acts vii. 5.) urges the Jews with this case, in answer to their own blind Avorklly wisdom, which had totally mistaken the mean- ing of their law. We ought never to conclude what the law taught, from what some disaffected people learned from it : for when the affections are wrong, the understanding is never right. " God," saith St. Stephen, speaking of Abraham, " gave him none in- heritance in it ; no, not so much as to set his foot on ; yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession." What follows then^ but that the earthly C^inaan was not the thing meant in the promise, but only a figure of the thing ? and so St. Paul assures us in his Epistle to the Hehreivs ; telling us, that they who had received this promise, did not look upon Canaan as the end of tlie promise, but still called themselves jyilgrims and strangers upon earth, de- claring that they were seeking a country, not an earthly one (for when they had left Canaan they shewed no desire of returning jto it) but an heavenly country, the thing intended in the promise. The very person, to whom God promised a land to be afterwards enjoyed, had not a foot of land upon earth, except a hurying- place ; and when he was laid in that, God still calls himself his God, still in covenant with him, still re- lated to him, the same as before, though he was now dead ; and, consequently, still as much engaged as ever to make good his words in their true sense, and give him the land he had promised. Go then, thou worldly Jew, or thou half-blind Christian, go to the sepulchre of thy father Abraham, and there consider,
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whether the promises of God in the law of Moses were temporal onhj. To him they were spiritual only; I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward, saith the promise in Gen. xv. 1 ; and what they were to Abraham, that they were to all his posterity ; and are to us at this day : for the law, which was after, could not set them aside, or render them of no effect.
The rewards of another life were also promised to the people of God, under the name of a sabbath or rest. When Gods works of this world were finished, he rested. Now it was promised, that into that rest of his, his people, if faithful, should erder. Where could it be, but in heaven ? for there God rested : ichen could it be, but after the works of man are finished ; that is, after this present life ; as the I'est of God was after the worJes of God ? The sabbath, or rest of the seventh day, was therefore a perpetual memorial, before and under the law, that God had so rested, and that man should rest icith him ; and it was a constant monition, to those who observed it, of an heavenly rest ; as the Apostle argues more at large in the Epistle to the Hebreics *.
You will not wonder at this language of the law,nor find it difficult, when you see how it is copied in other parts of the Scripture. In the Prophet Jeremiah, where Rachel mourneth for the death of her children, she is comforted with a promise, that they shall come again from the land of tJie enemy : their death is ex- pressed as a captivity ; and the region of departed spirits, is the country, in which the grand, or the last enemy, detains his prisoners. But, saith the Lord, tJiere is hope in thine end, that is, in thy death, that
• This argument is drawn out in the Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Scripture, p. 362. §. 6, Second Edition.
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thy children shall come again to their own border ; that is, that they shall return at the resurrection, as captives are brought back from the land of the enemy, and restored to their native country. See Jer. xxxi. 15, 16, 17. In the same language doth the widow of Telcoah plead with David. She takes the metaphor which arises from the occasion of Absalom's banish- ment : and argues, that though death is appointed to all men, yet God deviseth means, that his banished be not expelled from him. 2 Sam. xiv. 14.
Now if death and life are thus spoken of in the Prophets, under the similitude of leaving and return- ing to our native land ; this is the land which God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ; who never enjoyed the earthly Canaan, but were pilgrims and strangers upon earth. This is the land wherein dwell- eth righteousness, in which shall be found the true ta- bernacle of God, the city of God, the new Jerusalem,, where saints and angels shall dwell together. All this, as the Apostle assures us, was intended by the pro- mise in the text. God is there called the God of those who are dead in body, because they are still alive in spirit ; and having prepared for them a city, which they shall enjoy at the resurrection, he is not ashamed to be called their God ; as he would have been, if his covenant with them had extended only to the present life. Because he gave an earthly land, and a city built by men, we think he meant nothing else ; whereas these things never were more than similitudes and pledges ; the one of an heavenly country, the other of a city, whose builder and maher is God. Of that place which is reserved for the blessed after the resurrec- tion, we can have no conception, but from what we see upon earth ; and therefore, God doth not describe it in words of its own to Jews or Christians, but gives.
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it to both in sign and figure. Our Saviour Jesus Christ tells us, that he is gone before to prepare a place for us. What that place is, he does not say. If we would know something more of it, we must look back to his forerunner, the Joshua, or Jesus of the law, who went before the people of God, to pre- pare a place for them in Canaan, and settle them in possession of it. Thence we shall learn, that the place prepared for us is preferable to that we now live in, as the freedom of Canaan was preferable to the bondage of Egypt : that there are many nwnsions in the heavenly land, as Canaan was divided and laid out into many quarters, for the orderly reception of the several tribes of Israel. That as they all went up to worship at Jerusalem, so shall all the tribes of the earth, who shall be saved, assemble together to wor- ship in the heavenly city of God. Other particulars w^e might gather; but this is the only way in which we can learn ; and we can go no farther than this method will carry us, in understanding the promises of God. Jewish priests and prophets, even though they had taken their lesson from the philosophers of heathenism (who thought their deities delighted in good eating and drinking) could have come no nearer than they have done : for the things of another life are not to be described, as they are, in words which man can under- stand : it is, therefore, never attempted : since the beginning of the world, men have not heard, nor per- ceived hij the ear, neither hath the eye seen — ichat he hath prepared for him that wuitefh for him. Isaiah xiv. 4. Our present life is not a state of knowledge, but of expectation, on which alone the Patriarchs and friends of God subsisted so long as they were here, in the want of due conception, Jews and Christians are all upon a level : all the information they can
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receive is conveyed under the words, life, rest, a pro- mised land, redemption from enemies, a city of God, new heavens and neiv earth, and such like signatures of visible things; for which reason the doctrine of the prophet is taken up and reasserted by the Apostle. See 1 Cor. iii. 9.
I might add other things, if the time would permit, on the character of Enoch and Elijah, and the idea given of death to the priests, and rulers, and kings of ancient times. A state of life after death could never be unknown to those, who knew that Enoch was actually taken into it. His character was handed down to the times of the Gospel, as that of an evan- gelical prophet, who warned the people of the old world of a judgment to come — Behold the Lord Cometh, &c. See Jude ver. 14. — Elijah went up alive into heaven ; whence it was known to all those who knew the fact, that men may live in heaven ; and so, the Jews must of necessity have learned from the rapture of Elijah, what we learn from the ascension of Christ ; though of heaven itself we know nothing but from the sky which we behold with our eyes. When it is said of the saints of old, that they slejd with, their fathers, what could be meant, but that they should awake ; as it is actually applied in the prophet Daniel, chap. xii. 2. Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt. So when it is said of Moses and Aaron, that they should he ga- thered to their fathers, it is therein affirmed, that their fathers were still alive: which sense is so obvious, that I find it insisted upon even by Jewish commenta- tors.
From what has been said, I hope you will see farther than some learned men have done into the resurrec-
13
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tion of the dead and the life everlasting, as they were promised under the law of Moses ; to shew us which, against the blindness and perverseness of the Saddu- cees, was the design of our blessed Saviour in the text.
It may be proper now to clear up a difficulty or two, and make some reflections to render this subject of moral use to us.
It has been insisted upon, that temporal blessings in the land of Canaan were plainly promised to the people under the law of Moses ; and thence it has been argued, that these were the only sanctions of the law, the only rewards of obedience. But this doth by no means follow : because ^of?//we*5, under the Gospel, hath the promise both of this life, and of that which is to come ; and it is still the effect of righteousness to exalt every nation. The present blessings of this life do not exclude the blessings of the other, neither can a nation be blessed, as such, but in the present life. The promises of God are very nearly alike under both Testaments. We Christians have a pro- mise, that, even here, our obedience shall be rewarded with houses and lands : but lest we should forget what is to come, the enjoyment of these things is tern- i^ereA. with j)ersecutions : {Markx. 30.) even as God, for the correcting and spiritualizing the minds of those who were under the law, preserved wicked heathens, for thorns in their sides, and terrors upon their bor- ders. The Holy Patriarchs never enjoyed the bless- ings promised in their literal sense : to them, there- fore, as to us, they were no more than signs of better things : and under every age of the Mosaic dispensa- tion, they who entered by faith into the ways of God, and the language of his law, voluntarily renounced, like the family of the Rechabites, the enjoyments of
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this world, and made themselves pilgrims and so- journers upon earth, such as the best of their fathers had been before, and as all good men were to be after.
It has been objected farther against the doctrine of immortality in the Old Testament, that life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel. But, if by bringing to light we understand the revealing of what was not hnown before, the expression is not true ; because the resurrection of the dead was cer- tainly known to the Jews before the Gospel ; and the greater part of them in our Saviour's time never thought of disputing it. Therefore, when it is said that immortality (the word is incorruption, and means the incorruption of the body) was brought to light, the sense is, that not the doctrine, but the thing it- self was brought to light, by the,/«c/ of our Saviour's resurrection, and the actual abolition of the power of death. It might, indeed, be said, with respect to all mankind, that the thing was then brought to light : but, if it is understood of the doctrine, that can be applied only to the Gentiles, who had no knowledge of the resurrection ; and the wisest of them mocked as soon as they heard of it. Therefore take it either way, and there will be no objection from this text against the doctrine of the resurrection in the Old Testament.
But it is objected farther, that if this doctrine is revealed in the laAv and the prophets, it is in a way so faint and obscure, as if it were intended that the Jews should not learn it. This merits consideration: however, if the Jews did learn it, and receive it, as they undoubtedly did, then there must be in us some misunderstanding of the case. Accordingly we shall find, and must allow, that there is an obscurity in
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the law, arising partly from design in God the law- giver, and partly from ignorance in man. When we read the historical, prophetical, or ceremonial part of the law, we see the wisdom of God there deliver- ing itself in parables ; and for the same reasons as our Saviour did afterwards ; covering up the pre- cious doctrines of life under a veil : which method, while it rendered them still more precious to the wise, who could see and understand, secured them from profane heathens and carnal Jews. They could not despise them, for they could not see them *.
The life and spirit of the signs and figures in the Christian mysteries are now as effectually lost to our Deists, Socinians, and other like disputers of this world. They who do see through this method, which God hath constantly observed from the beginning of the world, from the tree in Paradise, to the lamb of the Passover, and from thence to the bread of the Christian sacrament, see the better for it; while those, who have not an heart to understand, are blinded, and confirmed in their unbelief. Not only the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the dead, are doctrines of the law lost to a carnal mind, but all other great doctrines are lost in like manner : the corruption of man's nature, the bondage of sin, purification of the heart by grace, atonement by the shedding of blood, the true character of the Messiah, the calling of the Gentile world, were none
• The sense I have here fallen upon, coincides so exactly with the words of a Jewish writer, that I shall set them down i'or the Reader to reflect upon. " Servans recondilam, et relinquens doctis et sapientibus eruendam, ex variis legis locis, iWumfutiiram hcatitudi- nem. Atque haec eadem causa est, cur nulla mentio nperta fiat in Genesi ; sub metaphora tantum proponatur." Menasseh Ben Israel, de Resur. Mort. lib. i. cap. 13.
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of them to be found in the law, according to the sense of the carnal Jew ; neither are they now seen by the disputing Christian. Therefore, let us all en- deavour to put oif this Jewish spirit, and pray in the words of the Psalmist, who understood all these things, open thou mine eijes, that I mmj see the won- drmifs things of thy law ! The letter of the law is the shadow of truth, and nothing more. Of this some have been ignorant, while the world allo^ved them the reputation of great learning ; and this igno- rance produced the monstrous proposition published amongst us of late years, that a revelation came to man from the living God, without life in it : which is so far from being an improvement in literature, or divinity, that it must be shocking to the ears of in- telligent Christians ; and being false and heretical, stands condemned in the Articles of the Church of England.
But now, lastly, give me leave to tell you, that the moral doctrine to be drawn from the words of the text, is a matter of great consideration : and I desire you will lay it up in your minds. God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob : this is the title he has chosen ; his favourite memorial to all ge- nerations : but in this title he declares his relation to his friends and servants when they are dead. He is our support in life ; and that is a blessing and an ho- nour to us ; but he delights rather to consider him- self as our lije in death ; and as such we ought to consider him daily. We are ?A\ solicitous to raise ourselves in the eyes of our neighbours, and to be reckoned among the higher orders of the living : whereas it should be our chief care to consider, with whom we shall be numbered when we are dead. Let, then, the vain and the ambitious be striving to be in
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the class of the mighty, the wealthy, and the honour- able of this world, while they live : but let us rather provide, that we may be numbered with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, when we are dead. Then will God be with us when we are no longer with men ; and we shall rest in the hope, that he will soon fulfil the promises made to the Holy Patriarchs, our spiri- tual forefathers, by raising us from the dead, and giving us a place in the heavenly city, which he hath prepared for them and for us, that they without us, should not be made perfect.
SERMON Xlir
AND WHEN HE HAD SPENT ALL, HE BEGAN TO BE IN WANT. LUKE XV. 14.
The words describe the miserable situation of a young man, who might have lived in his father's house, where there was plenty of all things for those who were wise enough to enjoy it.
But the love of liberty, and novelty, arose in the mind of this unfortunate youth. A restless curiosity was in his temper, and pleasure was his object : not the pleasure of the wise, but of the foolish ; not that which God allows for our comfort, but that which the tempter throws in our way to ruin us. So he left his father's house, and went afar off, to be his own master, and take his pleasure, where no authority would reprove him, no counsel direct him, but that of himself and his wicked companions.
For awhile, he went on as he pleased : but at length, the evil consequences which he had kept out of his mind, fell upon his affairs : he had spent all, and began to he in want. He, who is without prudence, will, by degrees, be without money : and he, who hath spent all, must suffer many inconveniences ; of which this is one ; that having learned no useful employ-
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merit, he will be driven to miserable and base expe- dients to keep himself from starving : as this poor young man, in his distress, submitted to be sent into the field to feed swine, without being allowed the liberty of partaking with them.
The parable supposes this poor sinner to have re- covered his senses, and to have returned : but, alas ! how many are there, who go oiF and never return ! whose ruined affairs can never be repaired.' who have no father to receive and restore them ; but are left to do as they can, and be lost in the misery they have brought upon themselves.
I mean to use this example of the Gospel, for the purpose of warning my hearers, especially some of the younger part of them, of the causes and miseries of extravagance, and of recommending the wisdom and virtue jof ceconomy, as absolutely necessary to make them happy.
When you enquire into the sources of extravagance, you may imagine that extravagance is owing to an extravagant temper. But extravagance is not the cause of itself : A man will no more throw away his fortune, than he will throw away his victuals, till some infirmity or folly has got possession of his mind. Every act, good or bad, is the result of some counsel, either from a man's judgment, or his imagination, leading his judgment astray. If his idea of things is false or partial, his actions will accord with it : unac- countable, perhaps, to reason and wisdom, but suit- able to his conceptions. Allow a madman his princi- ples, and then you will no longer wonder at his actions. Thus it is in the case of an extravagant person. He has conceived a false idea of things, and persuaded himself, either that we are sent into the world for no- thing but to seize the present nK)ment, and take our
SERM. XIII.^ AND (ECONOMY RECOMMENDED, 191
pleasure, or that Ms actions will not be attended with such consequences as other men's are ; or that con- sequences, which are distant, are not to be weighed against gratification which is present. Extravagance, therefore, in all cases, is to be considered as an effect which hath its causes : and these I find to be,
1. Intemperance. If a man is hungry, he may feed cheaply ; but if he is nice, he cannot live but at a great expence. And here we are also to consider, that besides the extravagant charge of high eating and drinking, excess of every kind has a bad effect upon the understanding, and brings upon the mind a sottishness, which is always improvident. As the drunkard loses the direction of his feet, an intemperate man is very apt to lose the direction of his fortune, and run headlong into many other foolish and hurtful expences. Fulness breeds sleepiness and indolence ; and while extravagance is carrying every thing out, idleness brings nothing in ; so that an intemperate man is between two fires ; he has ruin before him and behind him ; and if his livelihood depends on his attention to business, he very soon falls into distress. And the case is not much better with the man of for- tune ; whose inattention and indolence will have the same baneful effect upon his affairs, though his ruin may not come on so rapidly. Two evil principles are working upon him at once : the same passions, which make him wanton and expensive, render him also inattentive and careless ; and so his affairs, instead of being inspected by himself, are left to others, who are secretly making a property of him ; feeding and enriching themselves, and their friends, without his knowledge. While his visible expences are great, and he gathers his fruits too fast v/ith his own hand before they are ripe: there is an invisible worm work-
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ing at the root, which brings on unexpected, and seemingly unaccountable but certain decay. It is, therefore, a very unfortunate circumstance, when any gentleman, or lady, through a fault in their tem- per, or a defect in their education, think themselves too great to be personally acquainted with the state of all their domestic concerns : a privilege to which nobody is born but the idiot.
2. A second cause of extravagance is a vain desire of shew and appearance. Persons who do not seek true happiness within themselves, derive an imaginary happiness from the opinion, or what they think to be the opinion, of other people. They suppose it impos- sible for them to be happy, unless they seem so : therefore they purchase this visionary happiness at an extravagant rate. No man or woman can say how far this fancy will carry them, or where it will end : for perhaps it will never be satisfied so long as a single competitor is left. It is too common in this age, for those who are less, to take their pattern from those who are greater. God made them to be rich : but they find a way of making themselves poor, by living after a fashion which is above their condition. Hence it is a just observation, and has been frequently made by those who know the world, that some of the poorest families in this kingdom, are those of middle fortunes who affect the style of the nobility. For, what is po- verty ? It is want : and he, who is in w ant, is poor, whatever may be the value of his estate. He suffers the distress of poverty, with those additional evils of vexation and mortification, unknown to persons of humble life. Artificial appetites are observed to do- mineer more than the natural ; and it is equally true, that artificial poverty is more pressing and more dis- tressing than that poverty to which we are born. It
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ought in justice to be so ; because the one is innocent and the other sinful. Therefore, let not the poor re- pine, as if they were the only poor ; many of their betters, who make a great shew in the world, are in the same condition with themselves, or a worse. Sup- pose a man of reasonable size should resolve to add even one inch more to his stature. This small ad- dition he cannot preserve but by being constantly upon the rack, and submitting to be in an agony, that he may appear greater than he is. What is worst of all to themselves, when they come to the knowledge of it, such people find they have made themselves con- temptible to their superiors, and ridiculous to their equals. In his sphere, every man may be respectable ; but no man can be so out of it ; because he cannot get thither without having first made himself a fool. So great is this species of folly, that in many instances it approaches near to madness. I remember an ex- ample of a gentleman, who was a wit in other respects, but so desirous of appearing great and splendid above himself, that he had laid out large sums in beautifying a seat which did not belong to him; and he was shew- ing a friend what waters and plantations he had added, and how much farther he intended to carry his improvements; while the oflficers of justice were then actually in the house, to apprehend him as a debtor.
Admirable is the sentence of the son of Sirach, on the abortive plans of extravagant people : he that huildeth an house ivith other meiis money, that is, by running into debt, is like one who gathereth stones for the tomb of his burial. Ecclus. xxi. 8. The edifice raised on such terms, stands as a monument of the builder's oeconomical death. Thus did the vanity of Absalom raise a pillar, to be a grand memorial of himself : not thinking that an ignominious death should
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lay him under a rude heap of stones, a monument more suitable to his character and actions.
3. A third cause, by which many fortunes are dissi- pated, and the owners brought to beggary, is a pas- sion for gaming. The employment, as an employment, is below a rational creature, and not well consistent with honesty, under the best acceptation of it. For, whence doth the gamester seek his happiness ? From the hopeof depriving others of their property, without giving them any thing in lieu, but chance ; which is but a shadow, and to the loser is departed as such. Unless gaming is for a large stake, the passions of the avaricious are not sufficiently interested to make it an entertainment: and if it is, then gaming is equivalent to duelling, and is to be condemned on the same prin- ciple. The gamester does that for covetousness, which the duellist doth for revenge. The one stakes that life wantonly, which is the property of God, and due to his country : the other stakes that property which should maintain his family and pay his debts ; and this, being a wicked act, is generally attended with ruinous consequences. Who are the persons that profess gaming ? the profligate, who are either too proud or too idle to work. In low life, they are sharpers and cheats; the hawks and vultures of civil society, who are upon the watch to tear and scatter the plumage of the simple. And, it is to be feared, they are often not much better in higher life. Woe be to those who love their company, and fall under their rapacity ; for this vice is not like some others which consume by slow degrees : it is not like blight- ing winds, overflowing rains, or burning droughts, bringing scarcity in their rear : but like an earth- quake, which swallows up houses and lands with in- stantaneous ruin. The love of play generally takes
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place, where bodily labour, or thoughtfulness of mind, is wanting: it is the business of those who have no business ; it is a spirit which rushes like wind into a vacuum.
4. A fourth cause, which drains many of their wealth, is that vain curiosity which is always wanting something, always seeking after novelty or rarity. It is weary of the last toy, and must buy a new one ; not considering that this must soon be succeeded by another, and that by another; because none of them are sought for their real, but for their fancied, worth ; and when fancy tires (which, being weak, it is very apt to do) they lose their value. Vain curiosity is an in- satiable principle, because its objects are such as give no real satisfaction. It is analogous to that infirmity of the stomach, which covets and swallows every thing and digests nothing ( revomuntur cihi) but is still empty, with all its feeding. It is the curse of some people that they are tormented with imaginary wants, till there is no supply left for such as are natural : the lean and hungry kine, never to be fattened or satisfied, eat up all those of better condition. This humour of wanting every thing for its novelty, and the ruin it brings with it, was censured by one of the Latins, with an equivocation, in which the wit is very just and se- vere— You buy every thing, says he, therefore you will sell every thing : and the world has frequent oppor- tunities of seeing how often, and how soon, this taste for buying is followed by the necessity of selling. Sales are daily published, in which the superfluous ar- ticles, heaped together by ruined people, are dispersed abroad, and pass into the hands of others, who attend with a curiosity, which either knows nothing, or feels nothing, of the unhappy state of those who are thus stripped of their effects.
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The case would not be nearly so bad, if the spirit of profuseness preyed only upon itself : but so many industrious families are hurt, many relations and dependents injured in their just expectations, who happen to lie within the vortex of an extravagant man, that there ought surely to be some legal restraint on those who are apparently (as privileged swindlers) undermining and plundering others, while they are ruining themselves. There is a kingdom of Europe, where, if it can be shewn by the relations or parties concerned, that a man has sunk one-third of his capital or his estate, complaint may be made, and the attorney-general, after due inquest, appoints guar- dians, as if he were a minor, for the management of what remains : and thus his ruin, with the conse- quences of it to others, is prevented by the timely in- terposition of authority. Under such an establish- ment, I apprehend, there can be no such thing as gaming.
5. The two remaining causes of extravagance are, the love of fame, and the love of pleasure. Pride works more or less in all mankind : but as it shews itself in a desire of popularity, it was very prevalent among the heathens of Greece and Rome ; who were lavish of their gifts to the populace, to obtain their interest or their applause. Pride is never so mean, as when it looks beneath itself, and pays its court to those over whom it wants to rule. It appeals, for its own merit, to those who have no judgment; and yet blinds their eyes with a gift, before it ventures to take their opinion. Popular interest is become a public commodity, for which there are so many candidates and competitors, that it is frequently purchased at an exorbitant rate, and brings the possessor to poverty. I do not mean to extend my observations to particu-
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lars ; but shall only observe, that it is a sign the times are degenerate, and that Christians are become too much like heathens, when opinions are bought and sold like provisions in a market, and the minds of the people, which should be pure and uncorrupt, are given up to prostitution.
As to pleasure, little need be said to prove the ill effects it hath upon a man's circumstances. With wise men, it hath always had the character of an har- lot, as well for its extravagance and expensiveness, as for its deceit and wickedness. When pleasure is become the grand object, the mind grows so weak and effeminate, that all resolution is lost, and it must have what it demands. If, in its pride and wantonness, it requires pearls of inestimable value, to dissolve and swallow them at a draught, as Cleopatra did, they must not be refused. Here the prodigal of the text returns upon us, whose substance was wasted with riotous living ; that is, in the enjoyment of expensive revellings in the worst of company ; and there is none worse than harlots, who are next in order to the gaming table, for bringing the unwary into speedy ruin. They are therefore stigmatized in the parable as devourers : this thy son, said the elder brother, hath devoured thy living with harlots.
Having thus far enquired into the causes of pro- digality, which I believe are in general such as have been here described ; we are now to consider its effects. These are, loss of comfort, loss of honour, of liberty, of honesty, perhaps of life itself, and (which is worst of all) of the grace of God.
And first, the extravagant man forfeits the comfort of his life ; while his substance is wasting, he may for a time be insensible of his danger ; like a patient in a consumption, who flatters himself he may do well.
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though others see and lament that he is daily drop- ping into his grave : but when he has spent all, which he who spends without consideration wiU soon do, then poverty, w hich had concealed itself under his table, rises up as an armed man, to assault and terrify him : and it is impossible for him to enjoy any com- fort with such a companion at his side. The bur- then of debt is so much like the burthen of sin, that the one is often put for the other. It is as unplea- sant to a man of sensibility to walk with this load upon his mind, as to travel barefooted through bad ways with a load upon his shoulders, which he can- not shake off; and remorse gnaweth upon him, when he reflects that he hath made it for himself.
In the next place, he loses the repute and honour of his character in the eyes of the world : for what can be more contemptible than a man who was great, but has made himself little; who was rich, but has made himself poor ; not in assisting others, but in abusing and undermining himself!
The loss of liberty is another unhappy effect of ex- travagance. It brings on debt ; and hopeless debt leads to hopeless confinement. Misfortunes, impu- table to the secret influence of Providence, or which arise from want of judgment, in respect of which some men differ much from others, have a claim upon the benevolent for their favour, and will always find it : but if we were to review the company in some prisons, and enquire into their past conduct, we should find amongst them the vain and inconsiderate, who flou- rished away in a character which did not belong to them, and, like the flies of a day, which dance about in the air, took their pleasure in a little false sunshine of their own making, to bring a cloud of misery and infamy upon the rest of their lives ; and whose pride
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and indiscretion, though they were extricated, would soon involve them in their former difficulties.
Extravagance hath in many cases a worse effect than I have yet mentioned : it tempts men of good hearts to actions which cannot be justified. The best of prodigals are in a dangerous situation ; neces- sity drives them upon mean and base expedients, for the satisfying of present wants : such as they would never have thought of, if their circumstances had been unembarrassed, and their judgment free. This is reported to have been the case with that renowned and otherwise great and good man, the Lord Chan- cellor Bacon. In such a situation, men who are no profligates are tempted to make encroachments upon their conscience ; which, having yielded to one dis- honourable action, grows more insensible to those that follow ; and when the case becomes desperate, their actions are desperate. When a man is sinking he catches at a twig ; and if it has thorns upon it, he must lay hold of it in the moment of distress ; though his hand is pierced through by the shift he is making to uphold himself and save his life.
As for the worst of prodigals, who die by the hand of justice, they are not properly holden within our consideration. Many of them can waste nothing of their own, for they have nothing ; and the profusion, of which thieves are so universally guilty, arises, as their theft doth, from the prevailing of ruinous vices ; such as idleness, intemperance, the love of ill com- pany ; all under the influence of ignorance and ill principle. And it is incredible, how much persons of this character will run through in a short time. One of them, who was executed of late, declared, that be- tween the months of October and April, he had seen the end of eight hundred pounds. But there are pro-
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digals of an higher class, who do not lose their lives by the hand of justice, but, what is worse, by the hand of despair. The history of all past times informs us, how common it hath been, and many miserable examples, of the present day, shew how common it is, for a spendthrift to throw away his life, when he has nothing else left. The disappointed avarice of the gamester rages with impatience ; and pride, brought to beggary, sinks with dejection ; and neither of these having any support from the sources of religion, there is neither comfort in the present, nor hope of the future ; so, to their distracted imagination there seems to be no refuge for them, but in that black and dark gulf, to the brink of which their steps have been carrying them through the mazes of a mistaken life.
This leads me to observe, farther, that prodigality, while it throws away that property which is temporal, is also forfeiting the grace of God and the better riches of eternity. This, being the worst, is the only ill effect of wastefulness insisted upon by our blessed Saviour in his parable of the Unjust Steward : If ye have not heen faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches ? that is, if ye have wasted the riches of this world which were com- mitted to you, how can you expect to be trusted with the gifts of faith, and the talents of divine grace ? con- cerning which, we learn farther, that man has no other possession properly so called; for our Lord hath added, as equivalent to what he had said before, but differently expressed for our better instruction, if ye have not been faithful in that which is another's, who shall give you that which is your own 9 As the ma- nagers of this world's wealth, we are not proprietors but stewards, holding in trust for the great proprietor of all, to whom we are accountable : therefore, the
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unrighteous mammon is not our own but another's ; and we must leave all such possessions behind us at our death : but the grace of God, the true riches, when given, will abide with us in life, and pass with us through death into the land of righteousness, from whence they came. These, therefore, when we have them, may be called our own ; for they never leave us, and no man can take them away : but he who is found unfit to be trusted with what is of less value, shall not have these committed to him, to be abused and wasted. And it is surely to be apprehended, that much of the grace of God is seldom committed to a man who is loose and wasteful in the conduct of his life. He is without that consideration, that serious- ness, that purity, that justice, which are necessary to the character of a religious man who is a candi- date for heaven, and keeps up an acquaintance with God.
SERMON XIV.
PART II.
AND, WHEN HE HAD SPENT ALL, HE BEGAN TO BE IN WANT. LUKE XV. 14.
When the case of the prodigal is considered, we owe it as a debt due to the folly of mankind, to shew them the sins and miseries of extravagance : but we owe it also as a debt to their understanding and good sense, to convince them of the duty and wisdom of oeconomy. Some may think it sufficient to say, that the way not to be profuse, is to be saving ; and that the spirit of parsimony is the only certain cure for the spirit of prodigality. But this remedy, so as it pre- vails in some constitutions, may prove as bad as the disease. The eeconomy of a wise man and a Chris- tian doth not consist in the saving, but in the prudent and charitable disposal of his substance : not exclu- sive of a sparing principle, when that becomes ne- cessary to his affairs.
The ingredients which properly constitute what we call eeconomy, are providence, prudence, and order or method. He, who doth not observe these, will always be in danger of that dissipation which leads to ruin.
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The provident man, according to the sense of his name, looks forward: he lives to-day, as one who con- siders that he is to live to-morrow ; whereas the fool, looking to the present day only, saith, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. When he undertaketh any work, he first revolves in his mind, how it is to be conducted, and when it will be finished. It may be such, perhaps, as any body can begin. Any man can leap into the stream ; but he who does this, without considering how he shall swim across, is very much to be blamed ; especially if he hath been first admonished of the depth. A person, who miscarries for want of timely consideration, makes himself the talk of his neighbours. Want of foresight is want of wisdom ; and want of wisdom, when it affects any thing great, is always in danger of being ridiculous. This case is strongly represented by our Lord in the Gospel : which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whetJier he hath suf- ficient to finish it ? lest haply after he liath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all that behold it begin to mock him. No man can be allowed to have sense, who hath sense of the present, with no sense of the future. The laughter, which is not restrained by thought, is mad ; and the mirth, not tempered by a consideration of what is to come, is frantic. Im- providence is against nature ; at least, it is against what we call nature in brutes ; because it is against the principle of self-preservation ; of which principle he seems to be destitute, who considereth not what is to become of him, when the day of present gratifi- cation is over. Therefore every man, who would live in the world, must consider what his station and cir- cumstances will admit of ; leaving as little as possible to probabilities and contingencies, which are very apt
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to fill the minds of the indolent, and to produce many abortive expectations.
The catechism of the church of England teaches us, while we are children, that there is a certain state of life to which God by our birth or education is pleased to call us : we are to lay down a plan of living suitable to that state, and then we may be able to support it for the time to come. Even in our re- creations, it is wise to provide a reserve, and keep up a future relish for them ; lest they become insipid, and consign us over to remorse and melancholy. But, there are young people, headstrong and inconsiderate, with no experience of human life, and fascinated with ideas of self-indulgence, who enter upon the world, as if they meant to tear up pleasure by the roots, that it may never bear any fruit to them afterwards : and so their pleasures either end in untimely death, or leave them nothing but bitter herbs to feed upon for the rest of their life. Whereas, a little timely foresight, with regard to common sense as well as to virtue, would preserve to them all that can be enjoyed with wisdom and innocence : and nothing else, which this world hath to give, will be worth their seeking.
The second ingredient, in good ceconomy, is 'pru- dence. The use of this virtue is to distinguish between good and evil, between causes and effects, between appearances and realities : and in consequence of a proper discrimination of things and persons, to choose the good, and avoid the evil. Prudence examines all things, rather in their consequences, than in them- selves : it judges of things, as the Gospel teaches us to judge of men, by their fruits. Many actions of man- kind are of a doubtful nature ; partly good and partly bad : good under some circumstances, and as bad under others : good in appearance, bad in effect: well
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esteemed in the sight of man, but of no account, or even odious and abominable in the sight of God. The world hath virtues of its own manufacture, very expensive, and highly praised, and yet good for little at the bottom. When Satan has the vending of such equivocal virtues, he turns their white side upper- most : and men learn of him, to deceive one another by the like artifice. They praise some good thing, for the sake of some evil thing which is attached to it ; or magnify one side of a man's character, which is good, or at least specious, to recommend the other which is bad. How agreeable it is to hear, that a man may be a libertine, and yet pass for a man of vir- tue ! Such deceptions as these may have a very fatal effect upon our oeconomy. We are captivated and flattered with fine ideas of liberality, generosity, hos- pitality, benevolence, and charity ; which are indeed most excellent things, when they are found in the wise and prudent ; but when they are affected by the vain or the inconsiderate, they change their nature, ,and become sometimes ridiculous, often mischievous, always dangerous. Real virtue will be sure to ad- vance us sooner or later : spurious virtue may bring us to ruin, as it hath already brought many, whose profuseness, while upon its progress, did very little good to their neighbours or their country.
Prudence, therefore, is always to distinguish. It will teach us, that no man can be generous in his gifts, till he is just in his payments. It is no better than a specious fraud, to convert that into a gift, which is due elsewhere as a debt : to purchase the character of benevolence, by feeding one man with the bread of another : or, perhaps, by sending one man to gaol, for want of that money which buys another man out of it. Sometimes it is a much greater kindness to
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prevent evil by timely and friendly admonition, than to cure it afterwards (perhaps very imperfectly) by giving money. It is a good thing to shew mercy to felons and debtors, in a prison ; but it would be a , much better thing to keep them out of it, by teaching them the happiness of sobriety and moderation, or restraining their excesses by a seasonable execution of the laws. It is good to relieve the poor, but the passion of feeding vagrants, encouraging idleness, or promoting debauchery, is so weak and unserviceable, that we may be called to an account for such kindness in the day of judgment. And here I must observe, moreover, that all fictitious virtue, being the child of vanity, is apt to raise an enthusiastic affection ; and being chiefly resident in weak minds, who do not make proper distinctions, it has been found to eat deeper into men's fortunes, than the most heroic charity. Prudence, therefore, must save us from being cheated by specious but false virtues ; to the power of which many noble and unsuspecting minds are exposed. Before we admit, we must prove them ; as the wary prove their money, before they put it into their purse, by applying it to some touchstone ; and there is none better than this of prudence.
To providence and prudence, we must add, above all things, order and method, for the regulating of our daily affairs. Persons of high spirits, and volatile dispositions, look down upon order, as a low thing, fit only for dull people. But no man's life can be either useful or pleasant, who does not live by rule in the disposing of his time. We all see the absolute necessity of order, in the marshalling, leading, and governing an army ; in transacting the business of a kingdom ; in regulating the company of a ship, and carrying on the practice of navigation; without order
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and discipline, these things cannot be done : every man must have his post, and his work, and his time. And the reason is the same in common life ; for every family is a lesser kingdom ; life is a voyage, and a warfare ; in which the undisciplined must expect to suflfer the inconveniences of confusion and anarchy. Such is the dignity, propriety, benefit, and beauty of order, that it is from God himself, and shines through- out the whole world which he hath made. The sun rises every morning at his time ; light and darkness succeed regularly, for labour and for rest ; the stars perform their courses with unerring certainty ; the tides ebb and flow at their hour ; there is a season for every change, and every change is in its season. Even brute creatures all follow their instinct in an orderly manner. Those that are made for pasture spread themselves over the hills with the rising of the sun ; while those which are made for prey are then retiring to their dens. The stork in the firmament knoweth her appointed time ; the turtle, the crane, and the swallow observe their seasons ; the bees, the ants, are examples of the most exact order and oeco- nomy. The heavens above, the earth below, the seasons and the tides, beasts, birds, and insects, all in- struct us, that we are to live by rule, and be exact in allotting our time to the several works and functions of life. And let me tell all those who have such an opinion of the brightness of their parts, and depend so upon the agility of their minds as to think they are above rules, that they are the persons, who stand most in need of them ; to reduce their motions to some meaning, and oblige them to a certain time, in doing those things, which otherwise their wandering heads would never do at all. Fluid mercury is very bright, and wonderfully active ; but we can make no vessel
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out of it for the service of a family. For all such purposes, the solid metal is better, as well as more valuable in itself. Yet good wits may be regular, without any impeachment of their sufficiency. Our great Alfred was a man of wit, learning, magnani- mity, and accomplishment ; but, from his wisdom and piety, such was his self-government, that no man ever lived by more exact rules, or did more business by the force of them. We have seen another character of modern times ; not an Alfred, but very great as a man of parts, and a prince, and a general ; Avho made his time of incredible value, and did wonderful things, by the observation of an exact method in the oecono- mical application of his hours. It may be difficult at first to live by rule : all restraint bears hard upon the wildness of nature, like a bit in the mouth ; but habit makes it pleasant, and they who have tried it find so much use in it, that they can never willingly depart from it ; such is the facility with which it enables us to conduct our alfairs ; such the readiness with which we transact business, and pass through all the concerns of life. It renders our time of much greater effect and value : a regular man will do more business in one day, and with less trouble, than another will in two. Kings are not ashamed of regularity : the want of it is the mark of a vulgar education, or a weak understanding, or an irreligious and vicious disposi- tion. Where regularity prevails, the cottage becomes respectable ; and without it, the palace itself is mean, unpleasant, and contemptible. Solomon, who is cele- brated as the wisest man upon earth, was also the greatest and the most splendid, from the singular order of his kingdom, and the exact oeconomy of his household. This produced such an appearance of prosperity and happiness, and was judged to be the.
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result of so much wisdom, that the queen of Sheba was beyond measure astonished at the sight — Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continiially before thee, and Jiear thy wisdom. Where the greatest wisdom was, there was found also the greatest order ; and with it the greatest dignity and splendor. Yea, and our blessed Lord himself, a greater than Solomon, with the business of heaven always before him, was yet never regardless of order and ceconomy upon earth. He was exact in observing days and hours, times, places, and persons, set apart for the services of the church. When he fed five thousand people at once, there was no tumult, no in- terruption, in so great a company. They were all exactly divided into parties of a certain number : what was to be distributed amongst them, was given first to the disciples, and from them to the multitude: and when they were all fed, the fragments were care- fully gathered up, that nothing might be lost or wasted. This was done by him, who could so easily supply all defects, who could even create and multiply with his word, for a pattern of attention and consideration to us, in the use we make of the things of this world. After the two examples of Solomon and our blessed Saviour, I can only say, that no man should pretend to be wise, or great, or good, or happy, whose life is not conducted with order and regularity.
All the lessons of the moralist may be reduced to this short one : " vice is evil, for it makes us misera- ble ; virtue is good, for it makes us happy." The truth of this is no where more apparent than in our present subject; when we compare together the man of extravagance, and the man of moderation. The Apostle admonishes us, to use this world, as not abus- ing it. The happiness of man depends on his atten-
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tion to this distinction ; for every creature of God, all the elements of the world, all the gifts and riches of his Providence, all the senses of the body and the faculties of the mind ; all are good, as they are used; all disappoint and torment us when they are abused. In this respect, beasts are in a safer way than men, being restrained by that instinctive wisdom, which hinders them from abusing what God hath given. They pass through life, without having the command of fire, or the use of gold and silver, Avhich are so dan- gerous to man. They cannot burn their own stalls, nor bring themselves to beggary, by purchasing ar- ticles of luxury or vanity. From these dangers and temptations they are free : some things they cannot abuse, and they are not disposed to abuse other things : but live contented within the bounds of tem- perance ; and their instinct is an infallible direction for their preservation. They rise when the light ap- pears, and lie down to rest when it is departing ; they eat what is natural, they decline what is hurtful, and observe such measures as secure to them the benefit of health and strength. But man is committed to his appetites, and is subject to the delusions of an ima- gination, in which causes and effects are falsely repre- sented. He has no rule within him to direct him, no instinct to restrain him ; and, if he is without religion, and the checks of prudence, he lives in absurdity and uneasiness, and contradicts all the ends of his being. He goes to a fire, not to warm himself, but to be burnt ; he eats, not to be nourished, but to be bloated and surfeited ; he drinks, not to be re- freshed, but intoxicated ; he sleeps, not for rest, but for sloth and stupidity ; he spends his wealth on what will destroy him, and with that unthinking profusion which turns it into poverty. In short, he abuses all
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the gifts of God, and all his creatures ; and in so doing he turns the world upside down. This world ought to be a place of preparation for the blessedness of heaven ; but he converts it into a place of disappoint- ment and torment ; as if it were intended only for an introduction to the kingdom of darkness, where man will associate with those evil spirits, who threw away the glory they possessed, and by reason of their own ill management found heaven itself insufficient to their happiness.
Physicians have a way of curing distempers, by en- quiring into their causes, and counteracting them by others of a contrary effect. The method is good, and often proves effectual : I would, therefore, recom- mend it in the present case. We have seen the causes of prodigality ; that it arises from intemperance, affectation of appearance, gaming, love of novelty, of fame, of pleasure.
To guard against intemperance, we are to consider as Christians, that we are not sent hither for a life of pleasure, but into a world of danger, to be surrounded with enemies, and wrestle with principalities and powers, who are snatching from us the prizes of eter- nity. If men in contests of little peril, and for objects of little value, are temjierate in all things ; how shall we be intemperate, who are striving for the salvation of our souls ?
As to the love of shew and finery, how ridiculous is all extravagance of dress, when we remember that clothing was not known, till the innocence of man, and with it his happiness, was lost : that, as sin hath brought death, all our splendid equipages must termi- nate in the hearse ; and, that as we came naked into the world, we must go naked out of it. This is the real state of man. The pride of life throws a disguise
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over it for a time, which death takes off and lays aside for the moths to devour.
Gaming will be no snare to those who avoid the company of gamesters, which hath very little to re- commend it. This will be most easy to such persons as have learned to amuse themselves more rationally than they do, with reading, conversing, and following such works and pursuits as are worthy of a man. Gamesters often lose all by coveting all ; which dan- ger he will be sure to escape who covets nothing, but makes himself contented with what his diligence earns or God gives.
Curiosity is another cause of ruin. It is always seeking some new object : let us choose that which is good, and hold it fast, and we shall not want to change it. Buy the truth : it will not cost much ; and we shall never wish to be selling it again. Great things may be had for little cost. A Bible, value five shillings, is of more use, and will do us more good, and, if we understand it, give us more pleasure, than all the others books that can be bought for five thou- sand pounds. A Christian, from the great objects he hath before him, will not want new things like a child ; and, from the humble state of his mind, will not be tempted by the pride of purchasing.
The expensive love of fame and popularity will never do any hurt, where the approbation of the wise and virtuous, and the favour of God, is sought after. The praise which is paid for is very uncertain and de- ceitful, and may turn against us to-morrow. The praise of God is not to be obtained by all we can lay out; not even by selling all we have, and giving it to the poor : but by an affectionate mind, performing small and cheap things, according to our ability, on great motives.
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As to pleasure, the last, and perhaps the most uni- versal cause of ruin to the bodies, souls, and fortunes of men ; the surest method will be to seek that plea- sure which is good, and then we shall not wish to de- stroy ourselves by that which is evil. The body hath its pleasures, and the mind hath its pleasures : the latter only are the pleasures of a man ; and many of them are so cheap, that they may be had for nothing. I told you of one, who ruined himself by beautifying a seat which did not belong to him ; and you wondered at his folly : but the moral is better worth considering than the fact : for this is true of us all, when we waste our substance in forming scenes of grandeur and plea- sure upon this earth ; we are beautifying what does not belong to us, and must soon be left behind. There is a pride in being the owner of fine places ; but the thoughtful mind may have great pleasure in them, without being the owner of them ; and so far as God hath beautified the world, he hath done it for the com- mon pleasure of us all : and the saint or the philoso- pher, who contemplates it as a scene which God hath adorned, partakes of a pleasure as sincere, perhaps as great, but certainly more pure and lasting, than the possessor who calls himself the owner of the soil- When he sees the wood towering upon the hill or hanging over the vale, his happiness does not depend on his being able to cut down the timber in it, but in admiring its verdure and rejoicing in its shade. The garden of pleasure is planted and adorned at a great expence ; but, to the botanist, the world is his garden, and God is the planter of it. I might go on to shew you, from other like instances, how the greatest plea- sures are frequently enjoyed by those who spend least upon them. Vicious pleasure is a deceitful harlot, who smiles at us and ruins us ; virtuous pleasure is
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such as Eve Avas in the state of innocence, and there is a paradise around her.
"When we meditate on the miseries of prodigality, it is natural to turn our eyes about us, and examine how it is with us, as a nation, in respect of our oeco- uomy. And here we cannot but discover, that it is the error of all orders of people amongst us to live at a more expensive rate, than can consist with the pros- perity of themselves, or the public. The ill effects of this are manifest and undeniable ; and I see more than it may be prudent to speak of. In the rich, it pro- duces distress within doors, and the oppression of the poor without : in the poor it produces hopeless debt, and promotes profligacy of manners. If our nobility and gentry, who form what is called the landed in- terest, live upon too large a scale, they must find such resources as they can. Their rents must be raised to an immoderate height : which the farmer cannot pay, unless corn is dear ; and then, if any artificial scarcity should take place annually, either by connivance, or by trifling with the laws, and making a breach between the constitution of the country, that must be a very great evil ; for if there is a just human right upon earth, and which ought to be religiously attended to, it is a right in the poor to have bread for their labour ; and so long as they have bread cheap, we shall never hear any complaints from them : and this, I say, they ought always to have, except when scarcity is from the visitation of God. Why is there such a demand for money, among the rich ? is it to support two families instead of one No ; but that one family may live at the expence of two : that they may be able to lead a dissipated, unprofitable, unhealthy life ; which, while it seems to benefit some individuals (among whom we .shall find the most useless members of the commu-
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nity) hurts themselves and the public in general. Our metropolis is swollen to a monstrous size, like a body that is dropsical : and we may consider it as a scale, whereby our expensiveness, as a people, is to be measured ; for its magnitude has been rendered excessive, chiefly by a change of manners, in those who have exceeded the bounds of their oeconomy.
And the poor follow the rich according to their measure. Many of them have departed from a cheap and manly diet, to admit articles of luxury, on which they live worse for more money. The terms they are upon, under the present laws, and the ill management of parish officers, tempt them to idleness and profli- gacy. It would be a dangerous experiment to render the maintenance of the poor discretionary, at a time when all the rich are outliving themselves : but cer- tainly it is of bad consequence, that the maintenance is fixed by the laws ; depending on which, many people make themselves poor by idleness and drunk- enness, and apply for relief when they ought rather to be sent to the house of correction. When the high price of the necessaries of life brings a poor in- dustrious family into difficulties, so that they are obliged, after all their labour, to live upon what cre- dit they can get ; harassed with small debts, and dejected at the sight of their creditors ; then my heart bleeds for them : I wish I was rich enough to relieve them all. I lament that there is not more oeconomy in their betters ; and I pray that God will some time shew them a better world than this they now live in. When we compare the wants of many honest poor people, some under difficulties, some in distress, some in sorrow and lamentation, with the thousands which are squandered away for no one good purpose by the rich ; a sum, perhaps, in the adventures of a single
216 PRODIGALITY DISPLAYED, &C. ^SERM. XIV.
night, is hazarded and lost, sufficient to clear and set up an hundred poor families for life : when we compare these things, what shall we say, but that wickedness and folly united, cannot shew us a worse case ? If he who gains the world, and loses his soul, be a fool, what is he who loses both ! For here I am to warn all Christian people, that God giveth to us, that we may be able to give to others. He is no respecter of persons ; his ways are equal ; his mercy is over all his works ; and all men must account strictly to his justice. Then the prodigal, who hath tormented and ruined himself, will discover that he has also robbed the poor, and that the Almighty is their Avenger. Therefore, let the poor be frugal, that they may lessen the troubles of the present life ; and let the rich be prudent, that they may be chari- table ; so shall they find the blessing of God upon themselves and their affairs in this world, and secure an interest in the world to come.
SERMON XV
HOW IS IT THAT YE DO NOT DISCERN THIS TIME ?
LUKE xii. 56.
God never calls upon us to discern the ways of his Providence, without giving us some signs, to direct and assist us in our judgment ; who can no more comprehend the Divine counsels, without the Divine light, than we can behold the sun, without the assist- ance of his own rays.
When our blessed Lord required the people to ex- amine, and judge for themselves, from the signs which attended his coming, he called them to a pleasant as well as a profitable enquiry : for as he then came to save the world, all the signs given to confirm his mission, explained the end of it, and were signs of salvation. The blind received their sight, the ears of the deaf were opened, the sick were healed, the dead were raised. Even the heathen poets, according to the expectation they had of so desirable an event, represent it under the most beautiful imagery, as the restoration of a golden age, in which man should recover that purity and happiness, of which he had so long been dep/ived by the corruption of his nature. And when these things were about to be fulfilled, we hear the servants of God, who were better informed.
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congratulating each other on the times they had lived to see ; Blessed art thou among women, said Elizabeth to the holy Virgin : Blessed are your eyes, said the Lord to his disciples : many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which ye see, and have not seen them. The wise men of the east rejoiced with exceeding great joy, when they saw the star which directed them : the shepherds glorified and praised God for all the things which they had seen and heard : even the heavenly host uttered a song of triumph : the heavens rejoiced, and the eai-th was glad, when the Saviour was ushered into the world : all the signs of his birth, and of his ministry, were favourable and salutary, and inspired with hope and gladness all those who were wise enough to understand them.
Such were the sentiments of men and angels at his first appearance. His second coming, to judge the world, hath also its signs ; but none of them are plea- sant : they are all alarming, all terrible ; all partaking of the nature of that tremendous event in which they are to terminate : earthquakes, famines, pestilences, distress of nations : insurrections and tumults ; dis- turbing the world, as storms agitate the wide waters of the sea : these are the things we are to look for. As bodily death is preceded by symptoms of a deadly sort; by terrors, and faintings, and pangs, and convul- sions ; we have every reason to expect, that the world's death will be brought on by sins and disorders, upon a great scale, and of a new species. And here it is worth observing, that while men, by their perverse- ness, are making the miseries of the time, they are marking its characters: hut, in ignorance; they know not what they do.
Herod and Pontius Pilate, and the rulers of the Jews, were all busy in bringing to pass what the hand
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and counsel of God had determined to be done ; but without knowing it : they had ends and objects of their own, at which they were aiming for themselves, while they were fulfilling the purposes of God ; and had they received any friendly hint of what they were doing, they would have rejected it with disdain, and probably have put the monitor to death.
The case is the same now. A considerable part of mankind are vehemently pursuing their own imagina- tions : and while they themselves are blind to the nature and consequences of their own actions, they are giving instruction to us : their darkness is our light ; and I mean, with God's help, to use it as such upon the present occasion.
lam very sensible, that the attention of the public hath been nearly exhausted, and their curiosity satiated, with the many fearful accounts transmitted to us, and the pious and penitent reflections made upon them by good and learned men. But still, there is a certain view of the subject, so edifying, that we can scarcely dwell too much upon it. As politicians, we enquire how far government may suffer from dangerous innovations : as a commercial nation, we consider how trade may be affected : as a military people, we consult how war is to be carried on ; with what resources ; and what will be its probable issue. All this is very proper : but, as Christians, it is our duty to compare the signs of the time with what the Almighty Ruler of the world hath been pleased to open, concerning his own purposes, and the events to be expected as the world draws nearer to its end. I enter here upon no diffuse investigation ; but mean to confine myself to one remarkable sign of the last days, which I think hath never yet received an ade- quate interpretation ; not through the unskilfulness
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of interpreters ; but, because it seems to be one of those mysterious predictions, which nothing but the event can enable us to understand : and which a succession of future events may still be opening to us farther than we can see at present.
It seems there was a persuasion very early in the Christian church, that the coming of Jesus Christ, to judge the world, was then near at hand. His judg- ment of the Jewish nation had been foretold, in terms so applicable to his final judgment, that a mistake might thence arise, even among wise and pious Chris- tians : of which St. Paul having heard, gives them proper information, in that remarkable passage of the second chapter of the second epistle to the Thessa- lonians ; wherein he warns them of a very extraor- dinary fact, which would precede the final destruction of this world ; and that the end of all things was not to be expected, till this should have come to pass. The passage is this, — Let no man deceive you hij any means : for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (an apostacy) first, and that man of sin he revealed, the son of perdition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he as God, sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. It may be proper, that the words, in which a prophecy is delivered, should have a certain degree of obscurity, that they may not open too much before the time ; and the same happens partly from the necessity of the case ; because the thing which hath not as yet been known to the world, will be conceived with difficulty even from a plain description of it. This is appli- cable to the passage now before us ; on which volumes have been written, with great uncertainty of interpre- tation ; depending on facts, which however bad in
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their way, did certainly never come up to this descrip- tion. But when the event brings its own interpre- tation with it, a child may see farther than the most learned could before : and if the whole passage be taken in its obvious sense^ and with all its circum- stances, it will apply itself so directly to a case in hand, that little doubt can remain in the mind of any reader, who has no reason for shutting his eyes against the truth.
We observe, then, first, that a falling away should happen before the end of the world. The original calls it an apostacy ; which term, in the mouth of a Christian apostle, can mean nothing but an apostacy from the Christian faith and worship. And this is more particularly said to consist in a revelation of a man of sin, the son of perdition. It is not necessary here to suppose, that this man of sin is only one in- dividual person. In the tenth Psalm, when we read of the tnan of the earth, we do not understand a single person but a character, a sort of ungodly people, whose whole confidence is in this world. In like manner, the tnan of sin may very properly denote a particular sort of sinful character, or even the race of mankind, when become sinful in the extreme, according to that state of depravity, which is described in the words that follow . For, it seems, this man of sin opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. Here the terms are less diflScult in the original than in the English. All that is called God is literally every person, every man who is called God : and the word we translate worshipped expresses more properly that sort of worship which is given to venerable or august persons, whatever the oflfice may be that makes them such.
If we enquire who they are that are called God, it
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immediately occurs, that the expression cannot so properly denote God /limselfasiheyicegerents of God; those who are called by his name. And who are they ? The Scripture itself will answer us : I have said, ye are gods ; which words are spoken of princes and rulers ; as it is also said in the law {Exod. xxii. 28.) thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people ; where the latter clause is but explanatory of the for- mer. The reason of this is plain ; rulers are called God, because they act under him, and execute his laws by liis own authority. The question therefore is partly answered : they that are called God are kings and rulers. Our blessed Saviour himself tells us who they are in the New Testament — He called them gods, to whom the word of God came. John x. 35. The name of God, therefore, is plainly given to men, on account of their office and commission under the word of God, whether they be princes, prophets, or priests ; because they act in God's stead with respect to mankind. Our Saviour, therefore, even in his human capacity, had a right to be called God, in virtue of his commission ; and this seems to have been the inten- tion of his argument with the Jews, as an argumentum ad homines, taken from the words of their own law.
We shall obtain some farther light into the charac- ter of the man of sin, if we go on with the apostle's account of him. The subject, it appears, had been mentioned to the disciples before, and privately ex- pounded to them ; for, says he, ye knoiv wJiat with- holdeth, that he might he revealed in his time ; for the mystery of iniquity doth aheady worTi ; only he who mw letteth, will let, till he be taken out of the zvay ; and then shall that wiched one be revealed whom the Lord shall destroy icith the brightness of his comiyig. This part of the description informs us, first, that the
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man of sin, and thatmystery of iniquity which worketh for the producing of the character, was even then in the world, and would have broken out ; but that, secondly, there was some restraining power, which served as a let or hinderance, to keep it down ; till the time should come, when it should rise up in its true shape, and be fully displayed to the world. And, lastly, as it is to be destroyed by the actual presence of the Lord in judgment, it must be the last form of sin, or power of iniquity, that shall appear in the world. It may be worth distinguishing here, though I would build nothing upon it, that the word for wicked one is [noi Trovrjpoc but avoixoq^ lawless ; as cast- ing out, and renouncing all authority of law, as well human as divine.
What has been said amounts to this : that, in the last age of the world, before the coming of Christ, there should be an actual apostacy, or departure from the Christian faith and worship : that the sinful nature of man, rising up against the powers of religion and government, which had restrained it for so many ages, should break loose, and take a form of iniquity, such as may properly be called a new revelation of sin, which the world had never seen before. More par- ticularly, that this form of sin should exalt itself against the authority of God in his ministers, whether civil or religious : that it should even seize upon the temple of God, and convert it into the temple of man ; that it should exclude God, and make a God of itself, claiming the honours of divine worship. That this spirit of disobedience had always been at work ; but that there was a power which hindered it from shewing itself to the world, till the proper season ; when that restraining power should no longer operate, but be taken out of the way, either by the violence of man, or
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the just judgment of God, or by the one co-operating with the other. And, finally, that this is the last and most desperate state of sin, on which Christ himself shall come to take vengeance, when its measure (of which he is the only proper judge) shall be filled up. Then shall this iviched one, whose sin is the same with that of Lucifer, the rival of the Most High ; and of Corah, who exalted himself against the authority of God in his ministers Moses and Aaron, the king and the priest ; perish as they did. Satan was cast down, and the flames of heaven followed him. The fire of the Lord came forth, to destroy Corah and his company : and after the like form shall judgment be taken on this man of sin ; who is to be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall be revealed in flaming fire.
I will not omit, though it be scarcely necessary to observe after what has been said, that, in detecting the man of sin, we may use the same method as John the Baptist did for discovering the true Messiah, when he sent his disciples with this question. Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? The messengers in this case were bidden to observe, what was done by Jesus Christ, and were assured, that John would thence know for certain, who he was that did it : the works of salvation would infallibly point out the Saviour. So if we are inquiring after the man of sin, let us but observe what he does, and we shall be sure who he is. Thus, for example ; if instead of the sacred right of government, we find the sacred right of insurrection ; instead of God only wise, the wisdom of man deified and adored in the temple of God ; instead of the liberty of serving God, which is the only true freedom, the liberty of disobeying him ;
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instead of that justice and mercy, in which only man can be like to God ; the power of death, the delight of the devil, wantonly exercising itself in destroying men's lives ; instead of laws for securing property, rapine and sacrilege laying every thing waste ; w^e desire to know, what the true man of sin, whoever he is to be, and whenever he is to come, can do more ? If there could be such a thing as an actual incarna- tion of the prince of the infernal regions, it does not appear what he could do worse. He might perhaps display greater acts of power, as being an angel that excels in strength ; but he could not commit greater acts of sin : For, what sins do we know of beyond rebellion, sacrilege, murder, and blasphemy ? two of which are more than Lucifer was guilty of when he was cast out of heaven.
Little did we think, twenty years ago, that we should live to see these things fulnlled so nearly as they have been ; and in shewing this, I shall have no occasion to invent or to exaggerate : the facts are such as will speak for themselves ; and there is scarcely a person here present, who could not say to me what I am about to say to him. We all know, that in a neigh- bouring country, a direct apostacy hath taken effect. The Christian religion hath been renounced; not ne- gatively, through corruption of manners, or neglect of truth ; but positively, publicly, and in solemn form. The restraining power of government, and tlie obliga- tions of law, have not been interrupted and defied, in the fury of tumultuous agitation, but absolutely iahen out of the ivay and abolished. The will of a wicked nation hath been admitted as the only sovereign law now to be obeyed: and while the Gospel teaches, that there is one Lawgiver, ivho is able to save and to destroy, we see a portentous company risen up, who
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take to themselves the sublime denomination oi legis- lators ; not under the authority of God, but in their own right ; exclusive of his legislation, and in opposi- tion to his power. And, that nothing may be wanting to the fulfilling of the prophecy, even in the letter, the churches have been shut up from the worship of God, and opened to admit the worship of reason ; an idol unknown to the temples of Pagan antiquity. And what is the reason here intended ? It is the reason of man; that is, of the philosopher or the plowman; for the one is as much a man as the other ; and where all are equal, as good a man. And what is the reason of man, but the mind of man ! And what is the mind of man, but man himself ; who now, as God, is actually seated in the temple of God to be wor- shipped. This is what the wisest man living could not have suspected some years ago ; and what the most incredulous man cannot now deny : it is pub- lished and gloried in before the face of all people : the publication of Christianity itself was not more notorious. Government hath been murdered in the person of its prince ; sin and blasphemy of every kind, like wild beasts that have broken their chains, have over-ran the country. No law subsists : the will of sinful man, or of the man of sin, is a law unto itself; and as the apostle once said, that the law was the strength of sin; so now it maybe said, the strength of sin is the law ; and there is no other. It is a law, which doth not punish robbery, but ordains it : a law, which doth not protect or save men's lives, but destroys them : and, if it had power according to its will, would not leave one honest man upon the earth. And hereby the man of sin proves himself to be, what the apostle calls him, the son of perdition; that is, the son of the destroyer, whose name is Apollijon ; 15
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the son of that father, who was a murderer from the heginning, and leads all his children to the practice of his own favourite sin ; who, in their capacity of legislators, have nothing to render them respectable, but new-invented terrors of torture and bloodshed. The prospect here becomes too shocking to be mi- nutely delineated : every human creature, that has any feeling, must turn away from it with horror ; and resolve, that if such be the world now left to us, it must surely be our duty and interest, to pray to God, that he would put an end to it : or, in the more devout and affecting language of our Liturgy, that he would shortly accomplish the number of his elect, and hasten his kingdom.
As the bee can extract honey from a poisonous flower, so may the Christian, when properly informed, derive comfort from every subject. Every event, whatsoever it may be in itself, is valuable to us, if the consideration of it tends to the confirmingand strength- ening of our faith : and how can it be otherwise, when we see with our eyes that God is faithful and true, and that the sure word of his prophecy is daily fulfill- ing in the world ? This brings the truth of the Gospel home to our bosoms, and makes us living witnesses of it. When the wickedness of the Jews brought down the vengeance of heaven upon Jerusalem, the time was fearful and fatal to that people : while Christians considered the whole as an accomplishment of what their Master had foretold, and an earnest of their own approaching redemption. The more wicked this world becomes, the nearer is its end : corruption is never very remote from dissolution. This great subject will have different effects on the minds of different persons ; to some of terror, from the aveng- ing hand of God, whom in the moment of licentiout:-
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ness they have insulted and defied : to others, of comfort and confidence, from the fulfilling of the Divine promises. The same waters of the flood, which drowned the world, supported that ark which preserved the family of Noah. When the world shall be in its last agonies of sin and perturbation, and men's hearts are failing them for fear ; the servants of Christ are commanded to lift up their lieads (which have been bowed down under reproaches and perse- cutions) and to looh up, for their redemption draweth nigh. That the time is actually come, for the Chris- tians of this generation to lift up their heads, it would be rash to affirm, and perhaps weak to believe : many strange things may intervene : yet thus far, I think, our persuasion may extend with reason : that all the servants of God, who now are, or shortly will be, leav- ing this present world, may go to rest, under an as- surance that their separation from the body will be short : a consideration, which to our weak minds, sub- ject to strong impressions from the ideas of time and place, may have its use in lessening the fear of death ; and it is therefore worth encouraging.
As you have seen, from the prediction of the apostle, that the revelation of the man of sin was an event, to happen before the end of the world ; how thankful ought we to be, that it did not happen here: for, that the mystery of iniquity hath long been at work in this nation, cannot be denied : and it would have prevailed, but for that power which letteth, the restraining power of government, which ithath pleased God, of his unmerited goodness, still to preserve amongst us. I fear there is too much truth in the as- sertion, that the first seeds of all this mischief were sown in Britain. Here it was, that reason, now dei- fied in France, was first invested with the right of
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making its own religion ; Avhicli, in other words, is a right of being its own God : and modern atheists have only carried that right to the point, to which it has always been tending, mider the management of our deists. The lights and sanctions of religion can be only from God : if from man, then he is God to him- self. This doctrine, in fairer words, was first started amongst us : and so was that other, that there is no power of government but from the power of the people. Here did that doctrine arise in the last cen- tury ; and the murder of a king, with a sacrilegious plundering of the church, and a miserable oppression of the people, soon followed. But, through the mercy of God, we were not given up : our mistakes did not terminate in atheism : and may the same Di- vine grace still dispose us to take proper warning, and make a wise use of the example now before our eyes ; that we may every day be farther from the danger, and safer from the infection, of apostacy : that the church, which God hath promised to preserve to the end of the world, may be preserved here ; and that the little faith he shall find at his coming, may be found with us. Amen.
SERMON XVI.
WHEN THE SON OF MAN COMETH, SHALL HE FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH ? LUKE XVIII. 8.
When the Son of Man dwelt among us, faith was the first thing he looked for in those with whom he conversed : and if it was not found, his mission, to such persons, was without effect. At his second coming, he will be looking for the same ; but the text gives us little hope that he will find it. The words do not positively assert, that no faith shall then be left, but that the finding of it shall be questionable : it shall be so far lost, that the instances in which it is found shall be few and rare. With this the words of St. Paul agree ; who teaches us, that in tJie last claijs pe- rilous times shall come, 2 Tim. iii. 1 ; that the truth should be resisted by men, as Moses was resisted by the perverse unbelieving magicians of Egypt, Jannes and Jamhres, and that they should become, as those men were, reprobate concerning tJie faith, ver. 8. This character of the last age of the world falls in with another equally remarkable ; I mean the appearance of the man of sin : though it may well be suspected, that both these characters of the time are reducible to one : for the man of sin arises out of the Christian
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faith, and raises himself upon the ruins of it ; as the worm that destroys the fruit, is bred within it. That the depravity foretold in the Scripture, is the depravity of Christians, there can be no doubt ; the prediction concerning it being thus worded — the spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, &c. 1 Tim. iv. 1. The corruption, therefore, foretold, is a departure from the faith ; and in that we may expect to see something much worse than the corruption of unin- formed savage nature. An apostate from truth adds perfidy to his wickedness : he is in darkness, because he has out the light : and can offend with that blasphemy against heaven, which is not in the power of an ignorant unbeliever.
It is not my design, however, to display his wicked- ness, but rather to shew how truly the text has pointed out the root and cause of it in a single word ; in order to which it must first be shewed what faith is, and what place it holds in the Christian religion. Of this it is so considerable a part, and so essential to all the rest, that it is frequently put for the whole : for what does the Apostle mean by departing from the faith, but departing from Christianity? and where he speaks of the word of faith, what does he intend, but the preaching of the whole Gospel? and the Gospel is called the word of faith, because faith only can receive what it delivers. The invisible things of God and of a spiritual world must be told to us ; for we can nei- ther see them nor know them ; and faith receives the testimony on which they are revealed. Things invi- sible can have no evidence but that of the faith which believes them : and if the witness of them be from God, then is God the object of our faith ; and if we live and act in consequence of that faith, then our
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works are wrought in God ; and they are accepted, not for what is done, but for the faith with which it is done. He that does not receive the witness of God, makes God a liar ; and of such a person it will ever be true, that his M^orks, however specious they may appear, will be the works of opposition and pride, and have the nature of sin. As a branch cannot hear grapes, unless it abide in the vine, John xv. 4. no good work can be produced but in the life and faith of the Gos- pel. In all the works of faith, God is the immediate object : in all other works he has no share, and he hath promised no reward. He owes no man any thing ; but he accepts and rewards every thing in those that believe in, and diligently seek him. Heb. xi. 6. He called Abraham from his country, and from his Mndred, and from his father's house. Gen. xii. 1. and he went out, not knowing whither he went, Heb. xi. 8. but readily obeying such commands, as he could not thoroughly comprehend; he believed God, audit was imputed to him or accounted for righteousness, and he is proposed as a pattern to all believers. There is, strictly speaking, no such thing as righte- ousness in the world ( there is none righteous no not one, Rom. x. 3.) but the act of faith is accounted for it, because it shews a love and friendship to God ; and it is that only which he regards. With faith a man sees every thing, he receives every thing, he is content M'ith every thing, he loves every thing, that comes from God : without faith he sees nothing, he receives nothing, he is discontented with every thing, he hates every thing, if God has any share in it. Though a matter be incontestably proved, even to the senses, it makes no difference : it is not received, unless there be in the heart that principle, which be- lieves God on his own testimony.
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The relations of things that are seen, may he proved and understood by the natural reason of man : hut the relations hetween man and the things which are not seen, and the relations of those things between themselves, can be understood only by faith : they must be received on testimomj, or not at all. If we wish to see a reason, why faith is so highly accounted of in the sight of God, we may take this one instead of all the rest. Virtue may be practised on worldly motives ; and being only between man and man, the most specious virtue may be practised in hypocrisy, and be good for nothing : but faith being between man and God, on whom it is not possible for us to impose, there can be no such thing as hypocritical faith in God. But when faith is established, then virtue comes in well ; and therefore we are bid to add to our faith virtue. In short, there can be no duty to God, but when it is done to God, as to the Lord, and not unto men: Ephes. vi. 7. but God be- ing invisible, nothing can be done as to him, but in faith. And farther, as nothing can be done towards God, nothing can be received from him but by faith. The light is without its power to the man that has no eye : no gift can be offered to him that has no hand to take it. Of the spirit of man faith is the eye and the hand, which some men have, and some have not ; all men have not faith, 2 Thess. iii. 2. How did it happen, when mercy went forth to all, that one sick man was cured, and another was not cured ; but that the one had faith to he healed, and the other had not ? No mighty work could be wrought, even by Omni- potence itself, where men had no faith to be wrought upon. Therefore faith gains all, and unbelief loses all. The Israelites in the wilderness fell short of Canaan, because of their unbelief: it is true they
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were guilty of many acts of ingratitude and dis- obedience : but the whole is laid to their want of faith : this was the cause of all : and so it is in every other man, with whom God is not well pleased ; for witJiout faith it is impossible to please him. Heb. xi. 6. And while faith is the root of all good, it is the only remedy against all the evils of life ; it gives tience, and is the victory that overcometh the world. When the storm arises, and the waves toss them- selves, it knows that Christ is with it in the ship: it levels all mankind, by making the gifts of the poor equal to those of the rich: it performs what human strength cannot accomplish ; all things are possible to him that believeth. Mark ix. 23.
I have said thus much to convince you, that in all the transactions betwixt man and God, faith is every thing : and that without it, the name of Christianity may remain, but the thing is lost.
We are now to ask, what is the present state of faith in the Christian world? But for this inquiry we shall not be well prepared, unless we attend first to a plain distinction, which is of the utmost importance in our present subject. When we speak of reason, we mean the wisdom of man ; and I know of none who will not give me leave thus to define it : but by the Gospel, we mean the word of faith, or the wisdom of God. Between these two there is an essential difierence ; and the Scripture assures us in the plainest language, that, ever since the entrance of sin, there has been an opposition. The manner in which God has thought proper to save mankind, is not approved by the wisdom of man. It is so contrary to his thoughts, and so mortifying to his wishes, that the preaching of it, being taken for foolishness, was seconded by the force of miracles ; and even these were often found in-
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sufficient to make men receive it. And when it is admitted, it will always be in danger from the wisdom of man. There are in the world two interests, the human interest and the divine interest: and they can no more prevail both at once, than any other two par- ties in opposition. The one party rejoices to own, that man is wise with the word of God ; the other boasts that man is wise without the word of God. The one raises high thoughts and imaginations, as so many strong holds and fortifications of human wis- dom : the other is mighty through God to the imlling them all down, 2 Cor. x. 4. that God alone may be exalted : what the one builds, the other demolishes. Take faith and reason for the wisdom of God and the wisdom of man, in which sense I have used them, and the opposition between them is undeniable : if that, then, be true, which a foolish man hath said, that the present age is the age of reason ; then it must follow, that it is not the age of faith ; which is, indeed, what he means ; and then our point is proved without farther trouble. In such persons as himself and his friends, the assertion is true in its fullest sense : rea- son is triumphant over faith ; that is, man has pre- vailed against God. And I wish we could stop here; but it is our duty to examine, how far faith is decaying in better people, and on what principles ? The attempt, I well know, is critical and dangerous; and, to some persons, I doubt not, it will give offence. But this we are not to regard ; for there never yet was the time or place, when good could be done to some with- out offence given to others. It was the fate of the Gospel, and of Christ the author of it. When the Apostles preached the Gospel at Jerusalem " say no more about it," said the Jews : and the Devils said to their Master, " why art thou come to torment us?"
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As if his design, which was to save the world, had been only to torment them. Such considerations as these ought not to stop us at any time, and least of all at this time ; let us therefore proceed.
When we review the different sorts of men as they present themselves to us on the present occasion, the first that occur are the Infidels of the age, who openly declare their unbelief. That the faith is not found in them, and that it never will be, needs no proving. Here the fact is as open as it is lamentable ; and if we cast our eye over Christendom, we shall observe how they have increased of late years ; perhaps there are ten for one, if the end of this century be compared with the beginning of it. The more we have of these in the earth, so much the less is faith found in it : and if we look forward, the prospect is tremendous ! Should the world go on to its appointed period (what- ever that may be) and this humour should prevail in the proportion it hath of late years, it seems as if no flesh could be saved. But it is promised, for the sake of God's elect, that the days shall be shortened. Matt, xxiv. 22. A few years ago, it seemed as if the infidel party trusted to scoffing and jesting and pleasantry, and meant no more than to laugh the Gospel out of the world if they could. These were the coruscations of wit, which played in the air for a while, and pre- tended to be gentle and harmless ; but they were soon changed into the thunders of persecution, and followed by torrents of Christian blood ; insomuch that it is probable the heathens, when they raged most furiously against the Gospel, did never shed so much blood in so short a time. If they have any friends in this coun- try, they are found among persons of the same class, actuated by the same spirit ; men of no religion, or of a false religion, which is as bad as none, and some-
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times worse. These are the worst members of society amongst us.
Next to these are the men of pleasure, whose minds being wholly devoted to themselves, they see nothing of God or of another world. With them the present moment is all : and when pleasure is the God, we can easily tell how he will be worshipped. In the days of Faith and Piety, churches are seen to arise about a country, for the honour of God, and the prac- tice of devotion : but in proportion as infidelity in- creases, it will be with us as with the Greeks and Romans ; spectacles will be multiplied ; theatres will arise, and outshine the glories and splendors of reli- gion *. There was a time, when the priest of the country parish was seen leading his people to public prayers in the middle of the week ; in some places on every day ; where now no such practice is seen or thought of. If faith is alive in the heart, it will as certainly pray, as a living body will certainly breathe. If Christians do not pray so much in this age, as they used to do in the last ; there is not so much faith amongst them now as there was then f. And if we
* One of our poets, a professed derider of faith, triumphs in this as a certain symptom of the decay of superstition ; his words are too remarkable to be omitted :
In the good age of ghosthj ignorance, How did Cathedrals rise, and zeal advance ! But now that pious pageantry's no more, And stages thrive as churches did before.
There never was a more severe satire upon the entertainments of the theatre : not excepting even the Book of Jeremiah Collier with all its wit and spirit. The author of these lines was supposed to be Dr. Garth ; and they were preached (as a prologue) to a very numer- ous congregation.
t An excellent discourse on the daily service of tlie Chilrch of England, is distributed this year, as the annual present, by the
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proceed from the state of prayer, to the way of preach- ing and handling the Scripture ; there again we are much degenerated ; and all upon the same principle, the decay of faith. W e preach Christ crucified, said the Apostle : too many of his successors, alas, might say, " ive do not preach Christ crucified" we have more of the orator and of the philosopher than of the apostle, and have improved the obsolete Christian Homily, into an Essay upon Virtue. How many there may be of this way I do not conjecture : may their number be much less than is apprehended ! but in the beginning of the last century there were none. In expounding the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, the decay of faith makes a great differ- ence. It was the doctrine of St. Paul, in his charge to a minister of the Gospel, that the Scriptures of the Old Testament were able to make men wise wito sal- vation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus : 2 Tim. iii. 15. consequently, if they are interpreted without that faith, their nature is changed, and they no longer answer their design. The word of God, like man, for whom it was given, consists of two parts, a body and a soul, called the Letter and the Spirit ; the one the object of sense, the other of faith ; and as the body without the spirit is dead, so is the Scrip- ture a dead letter, unless we keep the spirit and inter- pretation of it. Instances might be given in abun- dance to shew my meaning ; but let us be content with one.
The things which God did for our fathers, under Moses, have a spiritual relation to us, and shewed what God would do for us under the Gospel ; and
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge ; occasioned by the notorious decay of daily worship, particularly in cities and populous towns.
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many excellent and necessary lessons are thence to be drawn*. Thus, they were saved by water, when they passed the Red Sea ; as we are saved by water in baptism. They were fed with manna, as we are by that bread of life, which, like the manna, came down from heaven ! They drank of miraculous waters from a rock, which rock, as St. Paul adds, was Christ, because he gives to all his thirsting followers the waters of life: let him come to me, said this rock him- self, a7id drink. Of these and other like events, the plain history, as it was witnessed by the Jews of old, is the Letter : the meaning, as it concerns us Chris- tians, is the Spirit; and the relation between the facts under Moses and those under Christ is so certain, that it is our duty to understand them, and to reason from the one to the other : and without so doing, we can have no proper sense of the greatness of the dis- pensation we are under, so marked out by such aston- ishing events so many ages ago. But without faith, to discern and embrace the spiritual things so de- livered, the whole is lost upon us : and therefore it is not wonderful that we see an infidel of noble birth absolutely denying the likeness, and scoffing at the blessed Apostle, as a fanciful cabalistical interpreter, who applies things to Christianity, which had no more relation to it than to what was then doing in France. From this teaching of the Apostle, you see what the spirit of the Old Testament means ; and in the exam- ple I have given, you see the blindness of infidelity ; and the same blindness will be more or less in every person, who reads, or criticises, without the eye of faith: and in proportion as this way of interpreting is either disliked or neglected, we may be certain there
* See 1 Cor. x.
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is a decay of faith in the same proportion. Here lies the grand distinction between a Jew and a Christian : the Jew sees nothing of Christianity in the Old Testa- ment, and rejects it with scorn when it is pointed out to him : the Christian sees it with admiration and con- viction ; and, if God has made him a minister of the spirit, 2 Cor. iii. 6. he teaches it to the people. If you understand what I have said, your own expe- rience will confirm the observation : if you do not understand it, then your want of understanding is a proof of what I have said ; that these things are not taught as they should be amopg Christians, and as they used to be formerly.
There is another remarkable instance, and that of great moment in these times, where the decay of faith is notorious. The Scripture teaches us that God governs the world, and that his /dngdoni rnleth over all. But this kingdom they only can see, who by faith see him that is invisihle. In our Liturgy, wherein we pray as Christians, we frequently acknowledge this doctrine ; the Scripture every where affirms it ; but, in the world, what is become of it ? Is it not almost universally forgotten or stigmatised ? Are not prin- ciples publicly taught, and received, and boasted of, as the wisest in the world, which render this doctrine of the Scripture impertinent and impossible ? In a neighbouring country thousands have been inhu- manly butchered for adhering to it. Yet is the doc- trine as true as the Gospel ; and it is the only scheme that can be made sense of: but when faith goes this doctrine goes with it; and the lawless kingdom of darkness, in which there is nothing but discord, con- fusion, and misery, rises up in the place of it. Many see and lament the confusion ; but how few are there who acknowledge the true cause of it ! However, let
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us hope, that the present times have opened many eyes *. A dreadful lesson hath been given, to alarm and enlighten us : they that are not enlightened are plunged farther into darkness, and inflamed to greater rage and insolence ; which is the worst of all misfor- tunes. They say it hurts government to maintain the doctrine of the Liturgy, and to preach as we pray : but, I say, not : it is the want of this doctrine that makes the people perfidious and turbulent, and puts government upon shifts and expedients, by which the people are sufferers.
I have stated some effects, as they are too visible amongst us ; and I hope nothing has been exaggerated. We are now to enquire into the cause : and here you may be ready to answer, that the facts explain them- selves ; and that the want of faith is at the bottom of all the evils we complain of. But we must go a ques- tion farther : how has it come to pass, that we are thus wanting in the faith of our forefathers ? The ene- mies of our faith are those we renounce at our baptism, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world hath its vanities, its pomps, and its pleasures : the flesh hath its passions ; and the devil hath his devices. But these causes are too general ; all ages have been ex- posed to their influence; and the world in conse- quence hath always been filled with vice and misery. This doth shew us how the age differs from those that were before it. Let us try then, if we cannot account for the change, as the infidels themselves account for it : let us allow that it is the age of reason ; that is,
* See Mr. Whitakers publication on the real Origin of Govern- ment, lately printed and sold by Mr. Stockdale, in Piccadilly. As this is the strongest book of its size and date against all the So- phism and Subtleties of Republican Theorists, I must request the Reader, if a Christian, or willing to be such, to give it a fair hearing.
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the age in which the ivisdom of man has been admitted as an authority against the ivisdom of God. How this has happened it may he difficult to say, though the fact cannot be denied. I question very much whether I can trace the evil from the beginning : but I will give my own sense of it, submitting what I say to be corrected by those who see farther than I do.
We all know how Christianity was disgraced by the folly, hypocrisy, and cruelty of fanatical men in the last century ; who surfeited the wise with their cant- ings and absurdities. To wipe away the reproach of which, it was thought good to produce a scheme of religion not capable of such abuses ; more reason- able in itself, and more worthy of philosophers ; a re- ligion of human reason. This is the plan adopted by our Deists, who profess a rule of life independent of Revelation : and so the facts of the Bible, with their consequences, on which our whole religion is founded, are all rejected as no longer necessary, Christianity is a scheme of facts ; the other is a scheme of abstract reasoning. And, what is worst of all, the plan which thus answers the purposes of infidelity, was not ushered into the world by profligates and blasphemers (for in that case Christians would have stood upon their guard) but by persons of learning and religious character : who by once admitting that nature can furnish man with religion, have opened a door which will never be shut again. If nature is once allowed to be its own teacher, here is the finest opportunity in the world for throwing off all the ob- ligations of Christianity, and setting religion upon a new bottom. This is the use the Deists have made of it ; and thus a religion from reason soon turns a man into an Infidel. But there is a middle generation of people, who would preserve some decency and
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solemnity of character, between believers and infidels: these are your rational Christians (as they call them- selves) who allow in Christianity all that is agreeable to the religion of rjeason, but nothing more : and when they have divested Christianity of all that is Christian, they wonder why there should be any infi- dels ; for that Christianity is the most reasonable thing in the world. To make it so, all the doctrines of faith are taken out of it : for nature knows not one of them. How can it reveal them to itself? It has no redemption from sin, no gift of divine grace, no dan- ger from the tempter, no priesthood, no sacraments ; in a word, it has not one of those things to which salvation is promised. It was never admitted into this country, till toward the latter end of the last century ; since which the strides of infidelity have been gigantic. And what can be done ? We have admitted a worm to the root of the tree of life ; and the withering of its top should have convinced us long ago of our mistake. Happy would it be, if in these dangerous times, when many evils are come so near to maturity, men of learning and ability, whose de- signs are good, would be roused, before it be too late, to an impartial consideration of this case, as I have laid it before you.
There is another cause which has bad effects, besides this of a pretendedly — rational religion, which has operated with much mischief against the faith. When a man values himself upon his knowledge, he grows proud, and then he becomes weak. The knowledge of nature is a noble science, and deservedly holds a distinguished rank in this kingdom. The contempla- tion of nature should bring us nearer to God who framed it : but it seldom does ; too often it has the contrary effect : and if we were to survey, with more
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accuracy than is proper for a sermon, the different classes of men, who have done most mischief to re- ligion, w e shall find them chiefly among those who take the name oijyhilosojjhers. They make discoveries on matter, or think they do (for there is great contra- diction among them) till they see no such thing as spirit : and so fall into materialism. It was an old and true accusation, that the ivorlcl hy icisdom hieiv not God: 1 Cor. i. 21. and the same is the great mis- fortune of man at this day. Thousands are spoiled, not by philosophy itself, but by the vain deceit of phi- losophy. Tell a person of this sort, inflated with his own importance, that in order to be icise he must be- come a fool: and what good can be expected ? His monitor will be set down for the fool ; and the mad- man may probably be added. Some mathematicians, w ho see no farther than their own science, can find certainty no where else: not distinguishing, that there is natural certainty and moral certainty ; and that by far the greater part of w hat we know, and receive, is, and must be, founded upon the evidence of testimony ; and he that disputes this kind of certainty hath as little reason in him as he that disputes the other. Now, if we receive the ivitness of men, as we do every day, and neither knowledge nor business can go on without it, the witness of God is greater, 1 John v. 9. W e call the evidence of testimony moral evidence ; but in the case of religion, we can trace it up to natural evidence ; that is, to the miraculous facts evident to the senses of men, which w^ere publicly given in confirmation of the word of God. But it doth by no means follow that because the evidence is natural and sensible, the doctrine proved thereby will be admitted. In multi- tudes of people it had not that effect : for instead of admitting the truth which they hated, they attempted
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to destroy the evidence ; as in the case of the resur- rection of Lazarus, and the resurrection of Christ himself. The wise men of Pharaoh's court were eye- witnesses to the miraculous deeds of Moses, but they were not convinced. And the Apostle hath forewarned us, that men of like character, the wise men of the last days, should resist the truth, as Jannes and Jam- hres, the magicians of Egypt, withstood Moses. He calls them men of corrupt minds, in a state not fit for the reception of truth, and consequently reprobate concerning the faith. The formal rejection of Chris- tianity by a nation of reprobates, who build every thing upon their philosophy (materialism), and are as busy in working natural wonders, and as conceited of what they do, as Jannes and Jambres were in the land of Egypt, is a melancholy demonstration of what I have here said, and ought to serve as a warning to the philosophers of Britain.
I shall now come to the use of all that hath gone before ; in which I must be brief.
The text gives us reason to expect, that at the com- ing of the Son of vawn, faith shall scarcely be found on earth. It is therefore obvious to conclude, that in proportion as the faith decays, the coming of Christ is drawing near. The scoffers of the last days may inso- lently demand of us, as it was foretold they should, ivhere is the promise of his coming? and object that there is no sign of it, for that all things continue as they were : but this cannot now be said with truth ; all things do not continue as they were : there hath been a marvellous change of late in the affairs of this world, and in the state of religion, with which all serious men are alarmed, j ustly apprehending that some still greater event is to follow. The signs of the times, to those who can read them, are many ; and there is one which is
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but little noticed. When it is mentioned, some will be ready to tear their garments with rage, as if they had heard blasphemy.
Before the first coming of Jesus Christ, the world has been harassed, plundered, and destroyed for many years by a nation of Republicans ; enthusiasts for liberty at home, but subjecting all nations in their pro- gress to robbery and slavery ; who, like wolves, by na- ture quarrelsome and ravenous, were banded together to make a prey of mankind. This was the state of the world before the first advent of Christ, and with his appearance it ended. In the ways of Providence there is an uniformity of conduct ; and though we must not presume, where we have no positive direction to guide us, yet it is a very strange incident, that when the se- cond coming of Christ is expected, the most powerful nation in Europe (for such they are) and the most monarchical (for such they were) should turn into the most savage and ravenous republicans, and form a plan, as the Romans did, of invading, overturning, and plundering all other nations ; this nation, in par- ticular, if it should ever be in their power, above all the rest. How this began, we can tell : how it will proceed, and by what farther steps, God only knows : but this we are sure of, that however long it may last, it must cease with the coming and kingdom of Christ. In the interval, they may rejoice and be as merry as Ahab was, when he had seized upon the property of the murdered Naboth : but the fearful question will come at last, Jiast thou killed, and also taken posses- sion? 1 Kings xxi. 19. Then shall rebellion, and blood-guiltiness, and blasphemy, call upon the moun- tains to hide them from Him, who will then manifest himself in the two characters, at present the objects of their peculiar hatred and contempt — a Priest and
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a King. It may be admired as a great exploit, that Christianity, with all its restraints, is driven out : but the world may be assured, this will be no peaceable event. The faith, planted throughout the earth, will never be rooted out without a tremendous shock. When the founder of our religion expired, the earth trembled, the sun was darkened, and all nature felt the stroke ; and if his faith is to expire, the catas- trophe will shake the w orld ; a circumstance often spoken of in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament, as preparatory to the great day of the Lord. How much the earth is moved at this time, we feel every day : how much more it may be before the end cometh, it is not for us to judge : but this we know, that all the commotions of the earth will ter- minate in the fulfilling of the promises of God, when we shall receive a kingdom which cannot be moved *.
It is either weak and childish, or wicked and pro- fane, to consider this as a frightful subject. We learn many things to prepare us for the part we are to take in this world ; but we learn Christianity to prepare us for that other world which it hath promised : and shall we be afraid to hear it is at hand ? shall we pray daily that the kingdom of God may come ; and shall we wish at the same time it may not come ? Is not death the end of this world to every man ; and is there any man who thinks he shall never see it ? Does it come the sooner, because we preach about it ? We may make people serious, and that may make them sober ; and so they may live the longer ; and then death will come the later. So in the other case ; the Lord, in his time, must be revealed from heaven, with every circumstance of majesty and terror : he that shall come
* Heb. xii, 28. See also Hagg. ii. 7.
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will come, and he will come in this manner. If we preach about it, we may make men wiser ; and that will make the event less terrible ; and we shall thereby do them the greatest kindness in the world. If any man can be brought to such a state of mind, as to hope for and desire that great event, which all the pov/ers of earth and hell can never prevent ; then he is a happy man indeed ; and not before. Let us there- fore all devoutly pray, that when we are told of the Lord's coming, our hearts may be ready to answer — Amen ; even so, come LordJesus.
SERMON XVII.
GOD SAW THAT THE WICKEDNESS OF MAN WAS GREAT IN THE EARTH, AND THAT EVERY IMAGINATION OF THE THOUGHTS OF HIS HEART WAS ONLY EVIL CON- TINUALLY. GEN. VI. 5.
In the short and comprehensive history of ^he time before the flood, we are told how sin first arose ; how it came to maturity ; and how it was punished. The words of this text do not give us a systematical ac- count of it ; hut we may thence collect, what is the seat of it, and how it operates in the constitution of man : a subject which demands a close and serious scrutiny. For the nature of man is still the same : evil now keeps its place as in the beginning ; it arises in the same manner, and gathers strength from the same causes.
Of all the things we see, nothing can be truly un- derstood in its first principles. God alone can see things in their beginnings, who is himself the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of all things. We can trace them so far only as he hath been pleased to disclose them to us ; not for physical, but for moral purposes.
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The wickedness of man, is here said to consist in the evil workings of his imagination : the imagination therefore is that faculty, in which the wickedness of man hath its beginning. To miderstand this better, we must examine what the imagination is, how it works, is worked upon, and with what effects ; a matter of more concern to us, than all the curious disquisitions that can be written upon the understand- ing. He that can discover the seat of a disease, and tell us how it may be cured, or how it may be pre- vented, is a more useful man in an hospital, though in a lower office, than the curious demonstrator, who can descant on the structure and ceconomy of the human frame. And here, one hint from the M ord of God, who knoweth whereof we are made, and in what respects we are become degenerate, will carry us farther in an hour, than our conjectural researches in the whole course of our lives.
Let as then first obtain what light we can from the sense of the words which the wisdom of God hath used in the text, to denote the imagination and tlwughts of man. The terms of the original are trans- lated, I believe, as accurately as they can be ; and only want a little explaining. The word we render imaginationy has the sense of forming and Jiguriiig, as a potter forms the clay, or a seal gives the impres- sion ; and when applied to the mind, denotes its fa- culty of receiving and forming images. When it re- ceives them it is passive ; when it forms them it is active. The other word, which signifies the tJioughtSy has the sense of adding, computing, or putting things together : and as all the faculties of the mind can work together, like the members of the body, this operation of the head is very much under the in- fluence of the heart, which is the seat of the passions;
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SO that what the head can form, in image and figure the heart and affections can compound, and put to- gether. If the images of the mind are rightly com- pared, the result is truth ; if improperly, unnaturally, or unfairly, the result is error. The old logicians, in tracing the operations of the mind, have told us very truly, that the mind compares two ideas, and thence forms a judgment. If a man does this falsely for himself, he is deluded : but if his intent is to deceive, he does the same thing for others ; and having pre- sented to them a false composition of ideas, he leads their judgment wherever he pleases. To put the images of the mind truly and faithfully together, is the greatest wisdom of man ; and it is what the word of God hath taught us how to do throughout the images of nature; particularly in the parables of Christ, by which he instructs the world ; to put images falsely together, is the artifice of Satan, by which he deceives the world ; and by which wicked men never fail to deceive one another.
The subject now before us is so deep and curious, that it would admit of much subtile disquisition; which, however, I shall avoid as much as I can, and endeavour to make it plain and profitable, by shewing the right use of the imagination, with the dangers we are under, and the punishment we suffer from the abuse of it. After which, if I can prescribe such rules as will secure us from the evils of the imagination, the moral end I have in view will be answered.
Truth being the great object of the understanding, the use of the imagination is to give us pictures and images of truth ; and without the aid of such pictures, we can receive but little information. Give the mind a well-adapted image, and in that image it will see truth : an object so beautiful in itself, that it will see
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it with delight ; and the influence between the ima- gination and the affections being reciprocal, a great advantage is obtained, if the affections are once in- terested in the cause of truth ; or, (as the Scripture speaks)" receive the love" of it. 2 Thess. ii. 10. He is one of the best friends to mankind, who presents images to the head, with design to amend the heart. Emblems, of a moral signification, furnish a most excellent mode of instruction ; especially to minds young and inexperienced : for while new ideas are ac- quired, and the fancy is amused, the heart gets under- standing, and becomes prepared for action. Great pains have therefore been taken in this way by ancient moralists: but the method itself is of such sovereign use, that our blessed Saviour observed it in all his discourses ; he never spake without a parable ; that is, without some natural illustration of truth ; and the like method is followed in all the teaching of the Bible ; where divine and moral truth is conveyed to the mind under some sign or figure of it ; the exam- ples of which are without end.
This mode of instruction is not only necessary, as being accommodated to the faculties of man ; but it is of all others the most agreeable ; because the mind is delighted with every kind of imitation ; and ac- cordingly, they that undertake to delight the mind, whatever their intention may be, always have recourse to imitation in some shape or other.
There are occasions, when it is not possible to get access to the judgment, and to set the truth before it, but under some image of the truth. Of this we have an example in the address of the prophet Nathan to King David, which may stand for all the rest. The prophet set before his imagination a parable, wherein wickedness and cruelty were so discernible, that the
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judgment of the king immediately pronounced upon- the case, without being aware that he was passing sentence upon himself : and when he saw it was im- possible to retract, he was brought to shame and peni- tence ; to which, it is probable, he never could have been brought by any other way of reasoning : and all this was effected by applying properly to his imagina- tion. There are few minds, however ill disposed, which may not be wrought upon in this oblique man- ner ; and the ignorant are sooner instructed by it than by any other ; which makes it so proper for the teaching of children. More may thus be learned in an hour from a plain simple teacher, than in a year, under the dry and abstracted language of the wisest philosopher. In the Parable of the Sower, a volume of Christian instruction is communicated under a short form. It sets before the eyes a case in the course of nature, parallel to the preaching of the Gospel : and when once the similitude is pointed out, a train is kin- dled, which runs to a great length, and without which it is not easy for the mind to get forward. For there are subjects, which the bestandthe wisest of mankind cannot understand, till they are taught after the man- ner of children. There are things of a sublime and spiritual nature, which our reason would understand as they are in themselves ; but it cannot be : for here the judgment can get nothing without the help of the imagination. For the conceiving of many things which the Gospel reveals, the glass of the natural creation must be used ; and they must be viewed as they are thence reflected to the understanding. From the light of the day, we learn to value the light of divine truth ; from the sun, too bright for the eyes to look upon, we learn, that God is too great for the mind to comprehend ; from the element of air and
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its operations, we know there may be ministering spi- rits ; in whom great power is united to a substance invisible : and even the divine Spirit, as the Lord and Giver of life, is understood from the natural air, or breath, upon which we live. By such teaching as this, we are raised above ourselves : we ascend up to God by the scale of his creation ; and while we are in this world can foretaste the wisdom of a better. This is the best and highest use of the imagination ; and if I have been so happy as to make myself understood, we may now go on to the abuse of the imagination.
For, the thoughts of man's heart, which puts things truly together, for good, can put them falsely together, for evil ; and be prepared for hell by those powers and actions of the mind, which should lift us up to heaven. The first evil that came into the world, entered by this way of the imagination. On that faculty the tempter practised, when he promised a sort of wisdom indepen- dent of God; and a sort of happiness consistent with disobedience. It was suggested to our first parents, that a new light would break in upon their minds; and that, in consequence of it, they would rise to an equality with God. Here is first a vision for the head ; and with it a lesson of pride for the heart : and thus the first sin is a pattern for every other. In every temptation, some alluring object is held up ; the image of it works upon the heart ; the heart re-acts upon the head ; false and irrational compositions are formed, and vain expectations are raised : the act is sin ; the result is error ; and the end is death. Yet, in this manner doth the mind of man, in his present fallen state, and left to itself, never fail to work, if the text be true ; every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually. The first motion to sin begins in the imagination; and it may be questioned
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whether any one instance can be produced to the con- trary. The passions, so productive of evil works, do all act as the imagination directs, to fulfil some vision it has entertained. Love, hatred, hope, fear, envy, revenge, and despair, which contribute in their turns to agitate and torment the heart of man, do all ope- rate according to the measures of the imagination ; that is, according to the images the mind hath formed of persons and things ; of itself within ; and of the world without. The slightest affront will give un- pardonable offence to the man who has formed a great idea of himself : when disappointed he is ex- ceedingly hurt ; because the magnitude of the disap- pointment will be according to the rate or value he has set upon his own person : so that one man shall even be killed outright with indignation and despair, by an accident, which another circumspect man, of an humble mind, would not feel for half an hour. A grand idea of this world in a man's head, with the love of its wealth or its fame in his heart, will work together, till they produce strange efifects, and turn a man of sense into a fool : of which we can find no greater example, than in the case of an avaricious person ; who admires gold for its use in procuring every thing ; and with it procures nothing. The thoughts of his heart unite together wealth and hap- piness : the wealth, with much toil and anxiety, and perhaps no small degree of fraud and injustice, is rea- lized : but the happiness is still a vision as at first : it began in the imagination, and it never gets any farther.
Our danger will be better understood, when we consider how the imagination is furnished with matter by the two senses of the sight and the hearing. The Psalmist apprehending this, did wisely pray, O turn (may mine eyes lest they behold vanity! When the
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passions are enslaved, and ruin is inevitable, how often do the deluded sufferers wish, they had never beheld such and such objects ! So much sin enters by the sight, that the Sou of Sirach (chap. xxxi. 13.) pro- nounced, there is nothing more wicked than the eye ; that therefore it iceepetli, and is made the fountain of sorrow in every countenance. On this consideration, public spectacles and stage entertainments, so alluring to the eye, and so curiously provided, are always dan- gerous, and not seldom fatal : for by indulging this luxiurious and insatiable appetite of the eye, distem- pers are introduced into the mind, of which it is never cured. The objects there presented to the sight, are either corrupting in themselves, or made so by art and circumstance. Piety, goodness, and virtue, are quiet and obscure ; they pass through life without noise or figure : but the spirit of intrigue is active and busy ; productive of plot and incident ; vice is enthusiastic, impetuous, and picturesque ; and furnishes matter of grand effect, fit for stages and theatres. When good and evil are both misrepresented, Avhich often happens, the mind of an unguarded spectator catches the mis- representation, and makes it a rule of action. Let the self-murderer appear with dignity, and the robber be merry and successful, upon the stage ; suicides and thieves will be increased and multiplied. This is not speculation ; it is undoubted fact. What a com- mon artifice it is, to couple something that is great and sacred with something which is mean and contemp- tible; to make it ridiculous, and provoke insult! While that which is base, worthless, and pernicious, shall be raised and recommended, by joining it to something that is good ; or, which the times agree to call good. These arts of deception are so necessary to the cause of wickedness, that prints, pictures.
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public sights, and shews, are always employed to work upon the mind, by the fabricators of public mischief. They can lead religion and loyalty to be hooted at and burned with disgrace ; while sedition and treason are carried home upon men's shoulders in triumph. No preposterous disguises or deceptions can be wondered at, in any age or country, when it is remembered, that the Lord of Glory was disfigured by a wicked world with a crown of thorns ; and the hand, that can aim the lightnings of heaven, insulted with a weak reed for a sceptre : while, perhaps, Ba- rabbas, the acquitted felon, was attended home with acclamations.
The ears are imposed upon by sounds, as the eyes by appearances ; the orator can work with de- ceitful iniages and false comparisons, to inflame the passions, and mislead the judgment. That prime in- tellectual juggler of the times, Voltaire, whose logic has driven the world to madness, never fails to work upon his readers with false associations : they are his peculiar manufacture. His reasonings are contemp- tible ; but his power in debauching the minds of men, by setting false images before them, is prodigious, and would be unaccountable, if the principle now be- fore us did not explain it all.
I shall conclude upon this part of my subject, with observing, that the Scripture imputes all the wicked- ness of an unbelieving world to the inventions of their imagination. Here all the various formations and fictions of idolatry began : and they never ended, but in the total perversion of truth, the corrupting of manners, and the sanctifying of cruelty and all kinds of immorality. The old idols are many of them out of fashion : but the restless mind of man can never forbear its fictions ; so that new idols are daily rising
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up ; not without the pomp and pageantry of the old, to recommend them : such as liberty without law ; majesty of the populace ; equality in all ranks ; by which and other like phantoms, while the world is amused, it is betrayed into confusion and calamity ; and God alone can tell whether it will ever more be reduced to peace and order : for which, however, we should daily pray.
We have now seen how the imagination leads into sin ; let us next inquire how it brings us into misery. For it is always found by those who consider the righteous ways of divine Providence, that men are punished by those things wherein they offend. When the entrance of sin brought sickness and deatli upon the body, the imagination also became weak and sub- ject to some grievous distempers. It seems to be the faculty on which the fall hath taken effect. So long as it continues in a sound state, it is like a mirror, plain and bright, and reflects all objects truly; but if its polish be injured, it reflects them imperfectly; and then we conceive things slowly and obscurely : if it be lost, as in the case of idiots, it reflects nothing — and as there is no wickedness where there is no imagina- tion, language gives the name of an innocent (Fr. un innocent) to the idiot. If the mirror hath a false figure, it will give the image wrong: it will make great things appear little, or little things great ; or even distorted and monstrous, though they are regularly formed and beautiful. Sometimes one certain image is seen constantly by the mind, as if a figure were burned in upon the face of a mirror : and in some cases, the mind forms images involuntarily, and be- comes like a body which has lost its retentive powers, and is both active and passive at once. Neither must we forget, that images are forced upon the
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mind, for torment, by the malignant Being who first introduced them for sin ; even heathens were per- suaded that ideas of horror might be raised in the mind, for punishment, by tormenting Furies. In all such extreme cases as these, the person is mad ; his imagination is under no more controul when he is awake, than that of rational men when they are asleep ; whence it is plain, the humiliating distemper of madness, the most deplorable evil of man's life, is seated in the imagination, where sin first began. And if it be considered, that there is no man, who at all times has the perfect command of his imagination, what can we say, but that all minds are subject to a sort of weakness, which may pass for a degree of in- sanity ? The imaginations of some ingenious per- sons, particularly those of a poetical turn, work so freely and so violently, that they are nearer to mad- ness than other men ; and sometimes actually fall in- to it. If so, it seems as if what we call genius, may, in certain cases, be infirmity : like the beautiful va- riegations of a flower ; which are known to proceed from the weakness of the plant.
It is scarcely credible, how much the evils of life are magnified, multiplied, and even created, as the imagination happens to be affected : which can strike with such force upon the passions, that sudden fear and terror, or even joy and surprise, have been fol- lowed by instant death. Persons of lively imagina- tions have irritable nerves ; they suffer more from pain and grief of every kind ; and pay a severe tax for their boasted sensibility. They that use but little air and exercise, and accustom themselves to an in- dolent delicate way of life, grow lax and soft and effeminate, and suffer more on every occasion, than those that rise early, and fare hardly, and preserve a
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firmness of habit and constitution. Too many there are, who by giving themselves up to the luxury of the imagination, become totally worthless and useless in their minds ; never acting from reason and duty, but always from the impulses of fancy, which is no rea- soning faculty. Many are taken off from the neces- sary employments of life, and fall into poverty and contempt, because truly, their imagination will allow them no time to work. Instead of feeding upon their labour, they are starving upon their thoughts. In every station of life, the indolent never fail to be tor- mented with imaginary evils : they contradict the great and universal law of God ; who hath ordained, that man shall eat his bread, not in the fancies of his brain, but in the sweatings of his brow. Let it also be observed, that for want of useful employment, the mind wears and preys upon itself, like a mill, when it is not supplied with corn to work upon. We are all rightly informed, and, I believe, most of us convinced by experience, that man's life is a struggle, a warfare, a passage over a dangerous sea : but none can under- stand to what degree, and in what extent it is such, till they have reviewed the errors, and dangers, and sufferings of the imagination.
It is therefore our duty, and will be our wisdom, to consider how we may best secure ourselves against these evils.
First then, that the imagination may not be danger- ously employed, let it be turned to its proper use. The word of God presents no images to the mind, but to lead us into truth : that word ought therefore to be the daily object of our attention. To set a mistaken value upon things, and make false estimates ; to take little things for great, and great for little, is the worst misfortune that can befal the mind of man : his whole
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life is hereby thrown out of its due course; he becomes useless to others, and unhappy in himself. On the contrary, the Scripture gives us a sure rule for finding the weight and measure of every thing : and with the use of it, let us beseech God to deliver us from the wandering of our thoughts ; by which we are so apt to be disturbed in our meditations and devotions. Every serious Christian must have found, how trouble- some and impertinent the imagination is, when the soul should be given up to its prayers ; by which all our sacrifices are so interrupted, and rendered so im- perfect, that another prayer is commonly necessary at last, for forgiveness upon all the prayers that have gone before.
2. If we know the true excellence of the Scripture in furnishing the mind with images, we shall of course avoid all such reading as only fills the head with empty visions ; which is too often the only excellence that can be found in works of genius. In a corrupt age, the vanity of invention abounds: idle novels arise, to feed upon public folly ; as worms breed in putrid flesh, and then live upon it. Those fashionable productions, whose object is only to amuse, are the ruin of thousands; who collect from thence false ideas of themselves and of the world, which betray them into fatal mistakes, and render them totally un- fit for the business of life. Nor is this the worst : the disappointed mind, with vanity to inflate it, and nothing solid to support it, is driven to the agonies of despair, and to the last miserable refuge of despair — God send better things to every Christian soul in which there is a spark of grace !
3. Many strange doctrines, with a colouring of re- ligion upon them, have been propagated of late years, nearly allied to the old heathen magic ; which lead
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people into a new land of shadows and dreams, and have been known to produce such an effect upon the imagination, that it sees spectres at noon day, and is under the delusions of sleep while it is wide awake. If such reports are true, they should teach Christian people to beware how they listen to miraculous novel- ties in religion or pharmacy.
4. He that would be sober -minded must also learn to regulate his bodily appetites. Experience must have taught us all, what an effect our diet has upon our dreams : and it must, in its degree, have a like effect upon our waking thoughts. How differently do the same things appear according to the different states of the body ! When the blood is inflamed, the mind falls into a delirium : and it is worthy of con- sideration, whether there be not persons, who, though not accounted insane, are yet never so perfectly in their senses, as they might be, if they would but do justice to their own understandings, by keeping them- selves cool, and practising a little reasonable self- denial : for thus did the saints of God in the best ages preserve their minds pure, patient, humble, wise, and devout ; and why should not the rule succeed as well now, when there is a natural reason for it ?
5. Business is another remedy ; and the best for the purpose is business with some aim, some useful object in view ; to keep the thoughts at work in a right line, and prevent wanderings. Labour of some kind is the lot of man, to keep his restless mind out of mischief: and the careful mind, even though it be anxious, is always preferable to the empty : it is delivered from itself : it no longer looks inward on that gloomy va- cuity, which it is impossible to survey without being dispirited. The labouring part of mankind are seldom tormented with the evils of the imagination ; and in
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this respect they have an advantage over the rich, the learned, and the delicate: who will never be cured of their weakness but by that which preserves the strength of the poor ; and the labours of the field or the garden are always open to the wealthy ; and will be productive of pleasure to the mind, as well as health and soundness to the senses. The Christian should carry it a little farther ; and learn, as the apos- tle advises, to endure hardness, like a soldier, to keep afar off that effeminate tenderness of the frame, which induces a weakness of the imagination : and hardness of life will have the same effect upon the Christian, as it hath upon the soldier ; it will lessen the fear of death, that greatest of all terrors ; from which none can escape, and for which all must prepare.
6. To sum up all my rules in a few words, " fear God and keep his Commandments, for this is the whole duty of man :" with this, man is every thing he should be ; and without it he is nothing. His security can be found only in that, with which all wisdom should begin and end. Religion : I mean the religion of faith, hope, and charity. The first conflict in Para- dise was between faith and imagination ; and it is con- tinued, under the original form, at this day. Ima- ginations and thoughts, according to the language of the text, are the ruin of man: faith is the victory that overcomes them both. What imagination raises, how- ever high and strong, faith throws down ; and brings every ' hought into captivity : and having no depen- dence on man or itself, but only on God's truth, it is steadfast and unmoveable against all the changeable forms of human wisdom. Hope, like the sunshine that gilds all objects, improves every innocent enjoy- ment, and makes every state of life supportable. Charity, delivered from the tormenting selfishness of
15
264.
THE NATURE, &C.
[^SEllM. XVII.
nature, is the friend of God and man ; and preserves a conscience void of offence. Where these three are found, there will the Peace of God abide : and with it that illumination of the heart, that holy light of the day-star, before which all imposture is detected, all shadows fly away. In which state, keep us, O God of Truth, according to the measure of this present time ; and bring us to the consummation of it in thy presence, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
FRIENDLY ADMONITION
TO THE
CHURCHMAN,
ON THE
SENSE AND SUFFICIENCY OF HIS RELIGION ;
IN
TWO SERMONS,
ON THE TEXT OF MATTII. XVIII. 17. ADDRESSED TO THE
INHABITANTS
OF THE
PARISH OF PASTON, IN NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.
TO THE
CONGREGATION
AT
PASTON.
MY DEAR BRETHREN,
Having more employment in my profession than will admit of my attending upon you so often as I wish, it is my endeavour, when I speak to you from the pulpit, to give you as much truth as I possibly can in a small compass.
It can be no offence to any of you to suppose, that as members of a congregation in the Church of England, you may stand in need of some seri- ous admonition, concerning the nature of your profession. Too many there are, who follow the Church from custom, without considering and applying personally to themselves what the Re- ligion of the Church teaches and requires. My business, in what I here present to you, is to put you in mind of the sense and spirit of your wor- ship, and to prove that you can have no just cause to depart from it.
268
DEDICATION.
It gave me a sincere pleasure to find that I was heard with so much attention when I spake to you upon this subject; and that you wished for an opportunity of reading and laying up in your minds what I then delivered. In conse- quence of which the following Discourses are printed, and very affectionately recommended to your farther consideration.
That God Almighty may give you his Grace to apply them effectually ; to your comfort here, and your eternal happiness hereafter; is the hearty prayer of
Your brother and servant,
August 6, 1796.
For Christ's sake,
W. JONES.
SERMON XVIII.
HEAR THE CHURCH. MATTH. XVIII. 17.
There are two sorts of Christians, who do not hear the Church ; and of these, one sort is in the Church. There are also two great errors, into which Christian people are hetrayed ; the first supposes, that the Church will save men without godliness ; the second, that godliness will save men ivithout the Church. The first was the error of the J ews, and is now the error of too many, who call themselves Churchmen : the other is the error of those that leave the Church to follow some private way of worship. Very plain rules may be laid down, by which both these parties may judge of themselves, if they will but be honest and sincere : and as the case of the Church- man is of nearer concern, I shall in this discourse address myself to him in the first place.
His profession is right : but it will do him no good, unless he is wise enough to keep up to the design and spirit of it. All the living creatures, which God hath made, are endued with form and life. There is no life that we know of without form. And the Church, which God hath made, is of a like constitution. It hath its forms, its sacraments, its ordinances ; and with these, it has a life, sense, and spirit of them ;
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FRIENDLY ADMONITION [|SERM. XVIII.
without which, the Church is nothing but a form; that is, a body without a soul. Every Christian is taught, that with the sign, there is the thing signified. The sign is the pledge for information and assurance : the thing signified, is the inward and spiritual part : and neither of these can be, what God intended it should be, without the other. With every doctrine of the Church, there is a moral, or practice, which should attend it : and the latter should always follow : accord- ing to that admonition, be ye doers of the word and not hearers only. But here the Churchman falls into a mistake : if he complies with the form, he is too apt to think himself safe ; and his mistake is the same as that of the Jew was formerly. If the Jew was cir- cumcised on the eighth day, he was called a son of Abraham; and such he was; but not by the sign without the sense of it. For there was a circumcision made with hands : and there was another circumcision made without hands, which was inward upon the heart, by the power of God's Holy Spirit, disposing and enabling a man to put away all carnal and un- clean affections. This latter was the inward and spi- ritual grace, without which a person was uncircum- cised in Jieart. By the outward circumcision, he be- came a Jew ; but unless the inward and spiritual were added, he was not a true Jew ; not an Israelite in- deed.
The case is the same, and the danger is the same, at this time, with the Christian, in regard to Baptism. The outward sign is water ; and the promise of God to the office and authority of the Christian Ministry, makes that water effectual to the purpose intended. But what is the sense of the sign ? What is it that water doeth ? It washes and cleanses : and what that doeth to the outward man, the Spirit of God doeth to
SERM. XVIII.^ TO THE CHURCHMAN.
271
the inward. But the effect may remain with us ; or, it may be lost. He that is washed may remain white and pure, as the sheep doth ; or, he may turn again to the mire, as the swine doth. From the lives of too many Christians, it appears, that they have returned to the vileness of nature, and are now in the midst of it, defiling themselves with that sinfulness, which it is the work of Baptism to wash away.
The true Churchman is therefore mindful of his Baptism ; knowing that its real value is not in the washing with water, but in the new creature*. He therefore continues in newness of life ; according to that petition of the office in his behalf, wherein the Church prays, that he may lead the rest of his life according to that beginning ; that he may be dead unto sin, and alive unto righteousness. The end of Baptism is everlasting life : for it makes us members of Christ, and consequently heirs with Christ of his Father's kingdom ; but all this must be through a pre- sent life of righteousness. In this we have the true sense of Baptism ; it is not only a birth but a Ife, never to be departed from. For Christ being dead unto sin, dieth no more, butliveth for ever unto God : and the Christian is to be conformed to the same pattern ; sin should no more have dominion over him : then is Baptism what it should be, and what the Church intends, and prays for, from the beginning.
The service of the Church requires every person to repeat the Articles of the Apostles Creed : and so far we may be said to witness a good confession. But does he that repeats the Creed endeavour to practise it ? I say, practise it : for the Christian faith is prac- tised in the Christian life : if not, it will be a witness against us : every word we repeat will condemn us.
* Gal.vi. 15.
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FRIENDLY ADMONITION []SERM. XVIII.
A man may say, he helieves hi God: but does he live as if he believed in him ? Does he serve him, and shew the world that his faith is real by the life it pro- duces ? He believes that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary : but, is he bom of God: and doth it appear to himself, or to any body else, that he is a spiritual man, be- gotten again by the Gospel to newness of life ? He believes that Jesus Christ was crucified : but is he crucified ? Is the old man of sin, that was born in him, put to death ? Is he hated by bad people, for the good that is about him ? Does he, for the sake of Christ, suffer any thing w ith Christ : or is he conformed to the world, that he may suffer nothing ? He believes in the Holy Ghost : does he also believe, that the Holy Ghost now w'orketh in the Church for the re- mission of sin : that he is the Lord and giver of life ; that there is no life to the soul of man wdthout him ; and that it is impossible to think a good thought, or do a good action, without the help of the good Spirit of God moving and assisting us ; and that the Spirit is therefore most eminently called the gift of God, with- out which all other gifts and endowments are vain ? He believes that the Church is holy : but has it made him holy ; or, does he desire that it should evei' make him holy ? An unholy person may be in the Church ; as he was at the feast, who was w'ithout a wedding garment : or, as the bad fishes were inclosed in the same net with the good ones : but he cannot continue ; for when God shall come, to cast out all things that offend, he will not abide that inquisition.
The Commandments may be considered in the same way. For the honour of God, and the benefit of those w ho belong to the Church, they are com- monly written about the Altar^ and held up before our
SERM. XVIII. ^
TO THE CHURCHMAN.
273
eyes. This is a very good custom, and agrees well with our profession : but then, the Churchman is to remember, that the Commandments which are written upon our walls, are to be written upon our hearts : for this is the promise of God to the Gentiles, when they should be called into the Church of Christ : / IV ill put my law in their inward part, and icrite it in their hearts * .• and when this promise was fulfilled in the Gentiles, the Apostle boasts of them to the Jews, for the ivot^Jc of the law written in their hearts : so written, that no man had now any occasion to teach another ; because the law transcribed into his own heart was thenceforward a source of teaching to him- self: sufficient for admonition or justification to the conscience, or, as the Apostle words it, their thoughts accusing or else excusing one another. So should the law now be written in the hearts of us Gentile-Chris- tians, as a constant, and I may say, ^portable rule of our obedience.
If the matter of the Commandments be well consi- dered, particularly of the first and second, the sense extends much farther than we may suppose at first sight. For the beart of man, as well as his eyes, may have its idols. We are to have none but the true God in our thoughts: and instead of placing idols before the imagination, we are to set the Lord always before us ; to be mindful, that he sees all our actions, and knows all our thoughts, and that his eyes are in every place : that he is the author of our happiness ; and, as such, the supreme object of our love and affection. If we trust to any thing for our happi- ness more than to God, that object, whatever it may be, whether it be wealth, or pleasure, or fame, takes
* Jer. xxxi. 3rJ. Ileb. viii. 10. VOL. IV. T
274
FRIENDLY ADMONITION C!SERM. XVIII.
the place of God ; and we become, in sense and effect. Idolaters. If we love the things of the world and trust in them, the world is our God. When the Apostle says, whose God is their helly *, he means, that all are idolaters, and the worst of idolaters, even self-worshippers, who make the gratification of their appetites the object of their actions, instead of making the Commandments of God the rule of their obedience. They act as their lusts command ; not as God com- mands ; and so, their belly is their God. This may seem a coarse expression, but it is very true ; the hap- piness of such a person being like that of a beast, which knows of nothing above this present life. If the heart be set upon diversions, spectacles, appear- ance, precedence, or any other thing which is merely of this world ; it signifieth not what the object is, if it takes the affections away from God, to whom they are due ; and in comparison of whom, all things are to be given up, if he requires ; even father, mother, wife, children ; yea, and life itself also. This is our Saviour's doctrine to his Disciples : God will have no competitor.
Let every Churchman then ask himself, with this attention to the sense of the Commandments, " Do I shew that I have God for my God, by loving his wor- ship ? Do I frequent it when I have an opportunity ? Or, do I put it from me as a thing that is needless, and prefer some other employment ?" If that should be the case, then you have some higher object of your affections ; some other God, whom you secretly prefer to the true. You may say, this is rigid doctrine ; but this is the doctrine to which you and I are bound, if we are Churchmen indeed, and not in name and ap- pearance only ; and I should deceive you if I were to preach any other. I cannot here go through the
* Phil. iii. ] 9.
SERM. XVIIlO I'O THE CHURCHMAN.
275
Commandments ; but I give you a key, with the help of which you may go through them for yourselves.
You are commanded farther to love your neighbour as yourself: by which it is meant, that you should act toward him by the same rule and measure as you would act toward yourself. He that means to hurt himself is justly accounted a madman; for no man in his right senses ever yet hated his own flesh : there- fore certainly you are not to hurt your neighbour by any injurious act: no, nor by any injurious word. But now let every person ask himself, " Did I never raise any evil report against a neighbour, whom I do not like ? Or, if I do not make evil myself, do I never take a pleasure in hearing it ; and afterwards in re- porting what T hear ?" This ought not to be : what envy delights to publish, charity should delight to conceal ; for by so doing, our own faults will be co- vered ; of which Ave have much need. All the Com- mandments might be treated in this way : but instead of proceeding farther, let me observe to you again concerning them all, that it will signify little to you, how much the Church excels the Conventicle, in having the Commandments of God fairly Avritten in letters of gold, to remind people of their duty ; unless they are also written in the heart, and made a rule of action : or, as the Apostle speaks, in language taken from the original history of the Commandments, un- less they are transcribed from the tables of stone to the fleshy tables of the heart *. For the heart of man is by nature as hard as those tables on which the Commandments were first engraved : but God hath promised by the Prophet, to change that heart of stone into an heart of flesh, a substance soft and yield- ing, on which an impression may be made : and when
* 2 Cor. iii. 3. T 2
276
FRIENDLY ADMONITION j^SERM. XVIII.
it is made, let us pray, and let us endeavour, that it may never be effaced any more.
I would speak with you a little in the same way about the other Sacrament of the Church, the Supper of the Lord. It is a blessed thing that the Church of England, after the example of the primitive times, offers it so frequently to the people : while perhaps among some other classes of Christians, the observa- tion of it is neglected for a year, or several years, to- gether. You are therefore to thank God that you have such frequent opportunities of partaking of the Holy Communion ; and you do well in appearing there ; but then you are seriously to ask yourselves, what brings you there ? Is it custom ; or the example of your neighbours ; or the fear of being singular ? Or, is it, as it ought to be, a belief in Christ as the life of the world ; and a desire to partake of that life ? Do you go, as the Hebrews went, out in the wilderness to gather manna for their life ; knowing that your spiri- tual life cannot be supported in this wilderness without bread from heaven ? Do you go for the strengthening and refreshing of your souls, as the Catechism pro- perly expresses it, that like labouring men you may be better enabled to worh out your oivn salvation ; and together with your spiritual strength, receive a pledge of a blessed resurrection and a glorious immortality ?
I have hitherto said nothing of the duty oi prayer : but here the Church most eminently leads the way, in appointing a form of morning and evening service for every day of the year ; and particular forms for every season of the year. But does it give us only the form ? Does it not also teach us the sense and spirit of prayer ? that prayer is an evidence of the Christian life, as breathing is the evidence of our natural life : that we are under dangers and necessities, out of
SERM. XVIII.]] TO THE CHURCHMAN.
277
whicli nothing but the right hand of God, stretched out to those that cry unto him, can possibly save and deliver us : it therefore supposes that Churchmen pray every day — twice a day — as they certainly ought, either at the Church or in their families, or both. What must (or rather what does) become of families who do not pray together ? What must become of single persons who do not pray for themselves by themselves ? By disuse they become more and more averse to their duty, and farther from God, in their lives and conversations ; and he, of course, is farther from them. Such persons therefore as do not ac- custom themselves to pray ; what are they ? Are they true members of the Church of England? If they do not pray, they are not Christians ; and cannot be said to be members of any church : they cast themselves out of all Churches. Their life is a passage through storms and tempests over a dangerous sea : what will become of them in life ? What will become of them in death ? What will become of them after death ? For the soul will continue in such a state after death, as it lives and dies in. If it dies without prayer, it will continue without God. The souls of the righteous are represented to us in the Revelation as still continuing in prayer, and uttering to God what was the petition of their lives, hoiv long, O Lord, holy and true *, &c. In this language do they cry unto God to fulfil that righteousjudgment upon the world, which the Church of the living prayeth for ; particularly in the Burial Service, where we call upon God to accomjjlish the number of his elect, and to hasten his Icingdom.
Enough has been said, I hope, to convince you, what it is, in propriety of speech, to hear the Church :
* Rev. vi. 10.
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FRIENDLY ADMONITION [^SEllM. XVIII.
that it is not to hear with your ears only, but to un- derstand with your heart ; to keep up to the sense of her doctrines, and the life and spirit of her forms. When our blessed Saviour described in few words the character of Nathaniel, he said, behold an Israelite in- deed: for all w^re not Israel in spirit, that were of Israel by their birth and education. So may we now say of him, that keeps up to the life, while he follows the forms of the Church ; behold a Churchman indeed: and it is devoutly to be wished, that the portrait I have drawn were more frequently verified. But as there were not many Nathaniels when Christ visited the Church of Israel ; so it is to be feared, that of the Nathaniels of the present day there is no great num- ber : and there will be fewer every day, if the delu- sions and deceptions, with which mankind are so easily drawn away, should increase upon us as they have of late years. I have shewn you plainly how the cha- racter is to be attained ; and instead of blaming me, as if I had brought up a new doctrine to disturb your consciences, you are to examine yourselves impartially by this plain rule of hearing the Church. You may have persuaded yourselves that if you believe the facts of Christianity, you have the religion of the Church ; and that nothing more is necessary. But the facts of the Christian history are all without you : what is it that happens within you ? Do you believe the inward distempered state of your nature ; and that the Gos- pel is a remedy sent from Heaven to those who are poor, and blind, and nahed*? To believe the Gospel truly, is not to believe that there is such a thing as the Gospel, (for the Devils know that;) but that it is the power of God for the salvation of man ; that there is
15
Rev. iii. 17.
5ERM. XVIII.]] TO THE CHURCHMAN.
279
no life without the spirit of it ; no teaching without the liffht of it : that the wisdom of nature can never shew us the will of God ; and the works of nature never render us acceptable to Him : that if laws are written in the heart, they are God's laws, transferred to the heart, according to his promise, by the power of his Grace. If this be your religion, we may then truly say that you are a Churchman ; and every good man will allow it. But if you take the outside of Christianity, Christianity will never be more than the outside of you : your religion will be a form, and you yourself will be a lifeless Christian. On this subject, no rule is so worthy to be remembered, as that short and plain rule of the Apostle : he is a Jew, which is one inwardly *. For all the gifts of God's religion are inward : nothing but signs are outward ; and if the Churchman is an outward Christian, he is nothing but the sign of a Christian ; with no more true life in him, than the sign of a man's head, which is painted on a board : and how bright and glaring so- ever the colours may be, it is but a board at last.
I do not say these things with design to reflect upon any person in particular : my design is to stir up the minds of you all by way of remembrance, and prevent a fatal security, of which there is too much in all places. Many are prevailed upon to leave the Church, and frequent other assemblies, because there is nothing but form amongst us : and whoever he may be, that contributes to the truth of the accusation, he is partaker in other men's sins ; he is answerable for the ill use that is made of the fact, to intice people from the sober and edifying worship of the Church. Be in earnest then in your profession : be sincere.
* Rom. ii. 2'J.
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FRIENDLY ADMONITION, &C. [^SERM. XVIII.
and alive, as you ought to be, and you will disarm them : perhaps you may convert them from the error of their ways : but if not, you will secure yourself : the Church of God will be to you what he intended it should be to all; and the promises made to it will be made to you.
And now, my friends, having taken courage to speak a little plain truth to Christians of our own sort ; reason and duty require, that I should be as plain when I speak of Christians, who are of a dif- ferent sort, who think they are better than we are. The godliness which we want they profess to have. They know that our ungodliness will not save us m the Church, but they think that their own godliness will save them out of it. How far that may be true or false, is a question which deserves great consi- deration : and I shall, for your security, answer it as far as I am able on a plain principle, the application of which will require but few words. I conclude at present with a prayer for both parties : not that you, or I, or they, may distinguish ourselves ; for which all mankind are so given to strive ; but that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ.
SERMON XIX.
HEAR THE CHURCH, MATTH. XVIII. 17.
I REMINDED you, in a former discourse, that Chris- tians are betrayed into the two great errors, of living in the Church without godliness ; and of professing godliness without living in the Church. In opposi- tion to the former of these, I shewed you, that true godliness is the sense and spirit of all the forms and services of the Church : and that forms and services have no meaning, unless they are so understood and applied. Men may call themselves Churchmen, while they are without the life of the Church : but they are not Churchmen indeed, and will certainly fall short of the benefits of their profession. This case, I think, was made so plain, that no reasonable person could misunderstand it.
That you may not fall into the other error, of pro- fessing godliness independent of the Church, I am now to shew you what dangers there are on that side ; and to do this effectually, I shall lay down a plain and easy doctrine, which none can deny, and which all may understand. When this is done, we shall be upon firm ground ; and may apply the doctrine as we find occasion.
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FRIENDLY ADMONITION [^SERM. XIX.
I say then, that man consists of a soul and a body, which the Scripture distinguishes by the inner and the outward man. I say farther, that this being the nature of man, his soul cannot be taught but through the senses of the body ; whence all the institutions of God, who teaches after a perfect manner, will have something outward to teach, when there is something inward to be understood : or, in the plain words of our Catechism, that if there be any inward and spi- ritual grace, it will be attended with some outward and visible sign, for a pledge and assurance thereof. Hence it will follow, that if God has planted any Church upon earth, that Church will be outward and visible, as well as inward and spiritual ; and that we must be of the Church outwardly, in order to be of the Church inwardly.
Thus we shall find the matter to be upon exami- nation. The Apostle teaches us, that as the body is one, and hath many members — so also is Christ : for by one spirit we are all baptized into one body *. This body being called Christ, we cannot be members of Christ without being members of this body. So far as Baptism is an invisible work of Grace, it makes us members of an invisible society ; but Baptism being also a visible thing, there must be a visible body an- swering to it. From this similitude of a body, the Apostle argues — that as a body cannot be a body, un- less it has members of different stations and uses, so God hath set\ officers of different orders in the Church, who have all one common life, and are under one common law of the Spirit ; with their several uses so distinguished, that there need be no more disorder or confusion in the Church than in the body natural.
* 1 Cor. xii. 13. t Ibid. v. 28.
SERM. XIX.^ TO THE CHUllCHMAN.
283
It appears then, that although the Spirit of God be the life of this body ; yet must the body itself be an outward and visible thing. It always hath been such from the beginning ; when although it had some gifts in it, which were proper to that time, yet had it others which were proper to this. For while it had miracles, prophecies, and diversity of tongues, it had also teachers, governments, and helps, which are as neces- sary now as they were then ; for without teaching, and governing, and helping when there is need, no society ever did or ever can subsist. These therefore must remain with us to the end of the world. And the Apostle having declared, that they are all set in the Church by God himself ; it must follow that they are set neither by the people, nor by themselves ; but set by God in such a way, that we may know the thing to be of his doing; and this we do know when we see it to be done by those whom he hath already appointed. All persons of the ministry are set in the Church in an outward and visible manner, by the laying on of hands ; and have been so appointed from the time of Jesus Christ to this day; yea, from the time of Moses, who was two thousand years before. Give him a charge in their sight *, said God to Moses, that all the people might be sure he had the true commission. The Scripture knows of no such thing as a calling which is out of sight : the inward calling is ever at- tended with the outward, that is, by some infallible sign and testimony which all men may see and under- stand. And now we are upon the subject of Jewish Ordination, it is a matter worth your observing, that less is said about the governments of the Chris- tian Church in the New Testament than we might
* Numb, xxvii. 19.
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FRIEKDLY ADMONITION [^SERM. XIX.
expect, because the\^ were copied from the Jewish. The Apostles were twelve in number, after the twelve Patriarchs who were heads of the tribes of Israel * ; and the Disciples were seventy, after the seventy Elders of Moses. History also does abundantly testify, that in Christian Churches, wherever they were plant- ed, there was a Bishop, and Priests, and Deacons ; answering to the High Priest, and Priests, and Le- vites of the Law. For the Christian and Jewish Churches were not two, but a continuation of the one Church of God. Things were thus regularly ordained, because it is of infinite consequence to man, that he should always be able to know, by certain outward marks and signs, where and with whom the gifts of God are to be found. ^Miere spiritual things are ad- ministered there is ever something open to the sight of all, as a rule to direct, that we may never be left in uncertainty.
The same rule will hold good, if we apply it to the spirit and character of individual men. We are never to judge of a man from any thing which he thinks, or has thought, or which he now says and tells, of what passes in his own mind. Thai may be evidence to him, but it is none to m ; and is therefore never to be drawn into a rule. There must be some outward mark : therefore saith our Lord, " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." We may call ourselves the Disciples of Christ in heart and affection, and think ourselves to be such : but how are other men to know that we are truly so ? Here again we have an outward sign to direct us : " By this shall
* I am not sure that a division into tribes does not take place, in a mystical sense, in the Christian Church. See and consider Acts xxvi. 7. Jam. i. 1.
SERM. XIX.^
TO THE CHURCHMAN.
285
all men Inioiv that ye are my Disciples, if ye have love one to another *." The reason is good, and the rule is general : we are to know men by their fruits, not by their thoughts ; and to judge of them accordingly, not by what they say, but by what they do.
After this, you will not wonder, that a contrary rule is followed by those who have any intention to deceive. They lead you off in the first place from outward means and visible evidences ; that when you are un- settled in this respect, the way may be open, and you may be carried into farther delusion.
Having now laid my foundation, by shewing you the invariable rule of divine wisdom, with the reasons of it ; this alone, if you bear it in mind, may be sufficient to keep you in the right way, and preserve you from going into the by-paths of religion. But as there are specious objections, from which well-disposed minds may be in danger, I shall produce and answer some of the chief of them.
1. It is made a grand objection against the Church, that the people who follow it are formal and lifeless in their profession. Too many of them are so : we see and lament it ; but how many soever they may be, this is no reason for leaving them — far from it : for, hath it not always been thus ? The kingdom of Heaven is like a net cast into the sea, ivhich gathered of every land, both had and good f. In the Church, the righ- teous and the wicked are mixed together ; and if this be a reason for leaving the Church, it always was a reason ; the best people should always have left it ; and then, what would have become of it ? Allowing such persons to be as good as they think themselves, would it not be better that they should stay, and try if they can amend, by their good advice and example,
* John x,iii. 35. f Matt. xiii. 47.
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those who are not so perfect as themselves ? That would be a charitable measure. Besides, if the bad affright and drive them away from the Church, ought not the good to prevail w ith them to continue in it ? Is it just to desert the righteous for the sake of the wicked ? Many devout godly people are to be found in the Church, more than are commonly observed. Much of the fear and love of God is with many Chris- tians, who make no great shew of themselves. In the worst of times, the Church has many who know God, and are known of him. Could any thing be more cor- rupt than the generality of the Jewish people were in the time of our blessed Saviour ? Yet you read of Anna the Prophetess, who departed not from the Temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. Many bad people frequented the place, but that was no reason with her for leaving it ; she did not follow the people, she followed God ; and there at the latter end of her days she found him : she saw the blessed Jesus there ; which would not have happened, if she had objected to the bad members of the congregation, as not holy and good enough for her to assemble with. And d id not Christ himself frequent this same Temple afterwards, and teach in it after- wards, though there were many great and scandalous abuses, which he endeavoured to reform ; not by taking affront and leaving the congregation, but by staying with them, and bearing with their contradic- tion and ill humours.
But, as the heart of man, when judging of itself, is very deceitful, it may not be for reasons of piety, as they believe and would have it supposed, when per- sons forsake the congregation ; but for reasons of a very different kind ; for pride ; for distinction ; to shew the world how much wiser they are ; and if that
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should be the case, will not the pride that separates them from man separate them from God at the same time, and spoil all their religion, instead of bringing them nearer to perfection ? Christians would not be so weak as they are in this respect, if they did but duly consider, that true piety does not lead to will- worship, in which men consult the pleasing of their fancy ; but in a conformity of the mind to the will and the ways of God. This is the severest trial of man, and few are able to endure it : nay, not one amongst us, without the special grace of God, disposing the heart to self-abasement, and poverty of spirit.
There is another danger which persons may bring themselves into, by boasting of an higher degree of piety than that of the Church : for while they do themselves no real good,, they may be doing much harm to other Christians. The great godliness, on which they value themselves, may prove at last to be false and counterfeit ; or it may appear weak and ignorant ; more zealous than wise ; or it may be en- vious and quarrelsome : and thereby they will give persons occasion to say, that all pretension to superior piety is a suspicious thing, generally taken up for some bad purpose. Thus they bring universal reproach upon a religious character : it being concluded from their example, that honest and sensible people will be better thought of, if they purposely avoid all appear- ances of godliness, and discover as little of it as pos- sible in their words and actions. This is a fearful conclusion, and hastens many a dangerous downfall. I have heard, and many others must have heard, per- sons talking and arguing after this fashion, whom it is out of our power to convince ; and perhaps it is con- venient to themselves that they never should be con- vinced. It is one lamentable consequence of division.
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that the months of such vain talkers are opened. Persons divided in their religious sentiments watch one another with an evil eye ; and instead of hiding one another's faults, are delighted with detections and aggravations. This is to the great disadvantage of all piety : it is an evil we should be studious to avoid ; and the prospect of that havock which it makes amongst us, should be one great inducement towards a prudent and charitable union with our fellow Christians.
It is said farther, that there is better teaching out of the Church. But I do sincerely believe, on the other hand, that bad as the teaching of the Church may be, there is worse teaching out of it than in it. This in- deed we must confess, that so far as the doctrine de- pends upon the minister, it is not always right : but we may say at the same time, that so far as the doc- trine depends upon the Church, it is never wrong. The Church duly delivers the teaching of God in the Scriptures; and has an unexceptionable form of sound Christian teaching in her Homilies : I wish the people heard them more frequently, and that the spirit of those Homilies was followed by all the Teachers of the Church.
But, does all religion consist in man's preaching ? Some argue as if they thought so. Hath not God preaclied to us all in his Gospel ; and doth he not say, " My House shall be called the House of Prayer?" Did not the Apostles, though appointed to preach in all the world, go to pray in the Temple ? They under- stood that God had ordained them to preach, with design that they should convert the world to the prac- tice of praying ; and it would have been strange, if they had not set the example of it in their own per- sons.— Preaching meant at first the publishing of the
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Gospel ; that the world might be brought over to it : when the world is converted, and the Scriptures are received as the word of God, the duty then is to read, and to pray, and to act, as the Gospel instructs ; which Gospel is now daily preaching to us all. The more hopeful employment of the ministry now, and of more extensive benefit, is that of teaching the first elements of Christianity in the Catechism. Preaching will never teach these, if they have not been taught be- fore. No science can be understood properly unless we begin with its elements. For this reason I have always been so desirous, that children should be well instructed in their Catechism. I received the advice many years ago from a Bishop of this Church, who was your Diocesan * : he said, " Whatever you do be diligent in catechising ; it is of much more use than preaching." So indeed it is : and there are those who can witness that I have never been wanting in the practice : in which if any minister engages with sincerity and affection, I can promise him, from my own experience, that the smiles of the little children of his parish Vv^ill make him amends for many of the frowns he may meet with in the world.
It is a farthei: temptation to people to leave the Church, because it has been supposed of late years that something better is now found out, which will answer the purpose without it — I mean a new birth. That there is a new birth in the Scripture, and that it is neces- sary to Salvation, no man can deny; for, saith our Sa- viour, " except a man be born again of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven f-" There is then a new birth of the spirit; but as water is mentioned with it, it must mean the new birth in
* Bishop Kinchcliffe. + John iii. 5.
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Christian Baptism. There is also a Regeneration spoken of by St. Paul * : but as it is called the wash- ing of Regeneration, this also must refer to the water of Baptism. The Church of England follows this doc- trine of the Scripture, and understands Regeneration as the gift of God in Baptism : for this is the language of the Church in the office: " We yield Thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it hath pleased Thee to regenerate this infant with thy Holy Spirit."' Regeneration therefore is the work of the Holy Spirit in Baptism: and neither the Scripture nor the Church gives us any encouragement to believe, that Christians are ever baptized by the hearing of a Sermon. If it be said that the presence of the Spirit of God cannot be without the effect of Regeneration ; and that every person who has the Spirit of God, must be born of God ; this is not accurate Divinity ; even allowing them to have the Spirit as they say. For the gift of the Spirit may be one thing, and Regeneration may be another. AVheu the Holy Ghost fell on them that heard the word, this was the effect of preaching: but the Apostle commanded those very persons to be baptized with water, although they had received the Holy Ghost t- Therefore the receiving of the Holy Ghost, so far as this is the effect of preaching, is different from what is done in Baptism, and is not what is meant by Regeneration, or the New Birth. If it can be shewn, that the Gospel any where pro- mises a New Birth, independent of Baptism, we will believe it : but as the Church could never find it, we never shall ; and they that teach it, and say there is experience for it, have no warrant from the Scripture.
* Titus iii. 5,
t Acts X. 47.
SKRM. XIXO
TO THE cm RCHMAN.
291
A famous Preacher of late times, who believed, and pleaded for, all the extraordinary symptoms of a New Birth, refers us for the reality of it to numbers of people who had experience of it. " Ask them," says he, " they will not deceive you. ' But supposing they are deceived themselves, they will in that case deceive us also; and it is no wonder if they should; for most men are inclined to repeat a story which magnifies themselves ; and their teachers are willing that they should repeat it, for it magnifies them too *. These facts, whether true or false, are attended with a mis- take. The conversion of the mind to a sober and godly life is here confounded with a New Birth; and the tendency of this is to depreciate the means of Grace; which enthusiasm never fails to do: but Con- version and Regeneration are never confounded in the Scripture : they are different things, and the one may be without the other. Infants are subjects of Regene- ration in Baptism ; but they are not capable of Con- version : nor do they want it, being already in that simple unassuming state of mind, to which grown per- sons are to be converted, and become as little chil- dren f. Baptism is one of the necessary means of Grace : it is the gift of God : no man can make it, or substitute any thing else in the place of it : but if he wishes to raise a party, and make a Church of his own, he will depreciate Baptism, and teach you how you may do
* The like wonders were boasted of by the Puritans of the last century ; whose ministry, as it is noted by Merick Casaubon, pro- duced in their followers " lirst desperation, or somewhat very near to it ; then an absolute covjidence grounded upon it. That this is the only way is an invention of their own, whicli I think hath more of policy in it, in the first inventors and abettors, than of ignorance." Casaubon on Credulity and Incredulity, p. 193.
t Matt, xviii. 3.
u 2
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[^SEUM. XIX.
without it, by finding a sort of conversion, which will answer the same end. He will lead yon from outward means to inward testimonies : texts w ill be misapplied; and the evidences of Christianity will all be reduced to personal experience ; of which experie ce another person knows nothing, and in which the person him- self may be grossly mistaken. The consequences are very bad ; for some think they have this experience, and proceed with confidence to farther errors : others wish for it in vain, and not being able to perceive it, fall into despair, and sometimes into distraction; they are left without the witness which they are taught to expect, and therefore think they are lost. But the witness which the Scripture teaches, is that of faith and a good conscience: faith is the witness to ourselves; and obedience, which is the fruit of it, is the witness to others. In this doctrine there is no danger.
Before I conclude, let me forewarn you, that good people are in danger (perhaps in most danger) of being imposed upon by strange appearances ; sup- posing them to be new, when they are not. Above two hundred years ago, the party that began to trouble this kingdom, and at length completed its ruin, began with setting up the spirit, and decrying the order and authority both of Church and State. The people that troubled the Christian Church, in its earliest days, were always of the same fashion ; they never failed to despise government, and taught their followers to do the same*. They boasted of superior gifts in praying, preaching, and converting : but the Apostle settled that argument for ever with the Church of Corinth. They were disputing, and dividing themselves into parties, upon the reputation of their gifts : but he
* 2 Pet. ii. 10. Judc, 8.
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shewed them, that although it was a good thing to have good gifts, there was a more excellent way of salvation, the w^ay of peace and charity : without which all their gifts, however great and wonderful in the sight of the people, would be of no value in the sight of God. It signifies not (argues he) what I have and what I understand ; if I have no charity I am nothing. How extremely dangerous is it then, to break the order and peace of the Church ; even though it be done with a sincere desire to promote faith and piety ! for whatever good appearances may attend it for a time, they will not end well. If we do evil that good may come, we shall find, sooner or later, that the evil will remain and the good will be lost : which might be confirmed by the recent exam- ple of a large body of people, who are now divided from us without being united among themselves. Division is not the way to unity : all experience teaches us, that it leads to more division ; and that there can in fact be no security, no pillar and ground for truth to rest upon, no stability, no certainty, but in that Church, with its doctrines, institutions, and orders, which God hath appointed in the word. I therefore end as I began : I say. Hear the Church. Let the Churchman understand, that he then only hears the Church as he ought, when the Christian forms lead him to the Christian life. And let others learn, that if they would have the Christian life, they must have the Christian forms. These hath God joined together as soul and body. No man ever had, or ever will have, any authority to put them asunder; and I have given you my reasons why it cannot be attempted without danger to the Christian cause, and to the salvation of Christian people.
THE
USE AND ABUSE OF THIS WORLD:
A
S E li M O N,
PREACHED AT
ST. BENE'T GRACECHURCH,
IN THE
CITY OF LONDON,
ON SUNDAY, OCT. IX. MDCCXCVI.
TO THE
REV. GEORGE GASKIN, D.D. RECTOR OF ST. BENE'T GRACECHURCH.
DEAR SIR,
When I delivered the following Discourse in your pulpit, I did not foresee that the audience would require me to print it. At the request of good people, I have already printed more sermons, and within a shorter time, than I intended or desired. The subject of this present one being almost as wide as the world of which it treats; I would have kept it awhile longer under my eye, for the chance of some further improvements ; but if your Con- gregation are disposed to accept it in its present imperfect state, I ought to submit without scruple to their good intentions. On one account, I am pleased with the accident : it gives me a fair op- portunity of expressing my regard and affection for you J who serve the Church at large, by dedi- cating your life, as Mr. Broughton, that eminent example of piety, did before you, to the busmess of Christianity, as well as to the other common offices of devotion and charity.
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DEDICATION.
In return for the honour your Congregation have done me, I can wi^h them nothing better, than that they may distinguish wisely, and receive faith- fully, the blessings they may derive from 3'our ministry.
This Epistle is the smallest testimony due to your merits, from.
Reverend Sir, Your affectionate Brother in Christ, And humble Servant,
Nayland, Nov. 10, 1796.
W. JONES.
SERMON XX
AND THEY THAT USE THIS WORLD AS NOT ABUSING IT. 1 COR. VII. 31.
To distinguish properly between the use of this world, and the abuse of it, is the part of every wise man ; and happy will it be for him, if, when he knows this distinction, he makes it a rule of action, which doing, it will seldom fail to direct him. How common is it for men to render their lives insignificant to others, and troublesome to themselves, for want of knowing, and observing this plain distinction ! The life of man is, and will be, short, when we do our best ; and it must be often disturbed, by the ways of other peo- ple, over whom we have no power : but, after all, most of the evils which man finds in this life, are of his own making. Natural and necessary evils may be great, but artificial evils are much greater : and so true is this, that if the case were properly related, with all circumstances, it would be generally found, that of those unhappy wretches, who drive themselves out of the ivorld, the far greater number are brought to this extremity, by their abuse of it. They first spoil the world by their folly, then dislike it, and at last leave it in despair. Great effects often follow
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from little causes ; on which account, the nature of effects and causes in human life should be minutely observed, that we may know how to avoid the begin- nings of danger : and if we cannot be so great, or so happy, as we may be tempted to Avish, we may at least not be the authors of our own misery.
There are so many plain matters of fact to prove what I say, that the subject before us may be seen, and understood, by every person that w ill cast his eye upon it. It will be therefore profitable for us to sur- vey some of the chief of those things, which this world presents to us ; and having considered what their na- tural and proper use is, according to the intention of Providence ; then to compare the conduct of men in respect to them, and note the effect that conduct must necessarily have upon themselves. By this rule, we may examine ourselves, and others ; and having done so, we shall see better what human life is, and be taught how to use it.
The first thing which this world presents to us, is Time, which God hath given to us all. To some he gives nobility ; to others w^ealth ; to others quickness of parts ; but he gives Time to all. To have life is to have time, and time is given only for its use. It is divided into day and night : the day, being light, is intended for work and labour : and the night, being a time of darkness, is made for rest. All the useful creatures which God hath made, conform themselves to this division of their time. When the sun arises, the cattle go out to pasture ; the birds of the air take wing in search of food. Even the flowers of the field open their eyes, to take advantage of the light, that shines upon them, and is bringing them to per- fection. All creatures are well, and easy, when they follow this order of nature. The busy man that rises
SERM. XX. ^ ABUSE OF THE WORLD.
301
early to work, is cheerful in his mind ; his family are living upon the fruits of his labour ; and, according to the common course of things, his days will be pro- longed upon the earth. He that uses his time as he ought, will have most of it to use. A regular life is commonly a long life.
But now what is he that abuses his time ? never happy ; never truly at ease ; but restless, because he is useless. If he be rich and idle, he can afford to turn night into day. When the night comes, nature would shut his eyes ; but folly keeps them open : and what is contrary to nature cannot be without injury to the health and spirits. He that is busy in the night, must rest in the day : if he be a poor man, his affairs go to ruin ; if he be a rich man, his health and mind suffer. With irregularity he loses his prudence, and with that he loses his fortune : for woe be to the man, who in a world of so much danger, is not careful to keep his head clear, and his wits about him. If the watchful man scarcely escapes, what must become of one who is stupid with sloth, or giddy with pleasure and dissipation ? A regular orderly life is generally prolonged ; an irregular life is shortened ; and how often do we see, that he who lives in the world to no purpose, is sent out of it before his time !
The case is so plain with respect to the use and abuse of Time ; that we may go on to another article ; which shall be that of wealth.
What we call wealth has no intrinsic value of its own ; it is valued for the sake of what it will procure ; and when it procures nothing, it is worth nothing : but as its nature is, to answer all things ; it gives us the command of all things. And what a noble op- portunity is this ! The rich man has the means of im- proving himself in wisdom, and knowledge ; he can
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THE USE AND
(^SERM. XX.
obtain all the information he desires : he can buy light; light for his mind to see by ; while others of less ability are obliged to sit in their own darkness. This is one great purpose, for which wealth is bestowed ; but it is not the only one : for wealth is given to some for the sake of all: God is no respecter of persons, but appoints some as his stewards and agents, for the benefit of others. On which consideration, no man has a right to consider himself as an absolute proprie- tor, with power to dispose of every thing he has, ac- cording to his own will. No : the Creator is the only proprietor, who is possessor of heaven and earth : and when man giveth to any, he resembles God, who giveth to all. Not he that receives most, is the greatest, but he that gives most, because he is most like to God ; which consideration alone is sufficient to prove, that it is more blessed to give than to receive. What a divine pleasure is it, to see others relieved in their wants, or gratified in their expectations, by any thing we have to bestow. The mind that delights in this, can find no higher or purer pleasure upon earth : and it is a pleasure that does not end with this world,but reaches to a better ; it lays up treasure in heaven. Such is the use of wealth. But the abuse of it does great mis- chief : for as it furnishes an opportunity of more wisdom, when well used, its abuse corrupts the heart, breeds idleness, and nourishes folly. Instead of mak- ing others happy, it makes the possessor himself miserable : it puts him into a dangerous situation, by multiplying his temptations, and his opportunities of sin : so that it might well be said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God I If he bestows that upon himself in wantonness, which he ought to bestow upon others ; he becomes vain, selfish, and hard-hearted. Instead of being loved, he
SERM. XXj
ABUSE OF THE WORLD.
303
is hated : for nothing is more odious than pride and selfishness: and how must that man feel in his own mind, who is sensible that nobody loves him ? All his wealth will never make him amends for such a loss. Wealth is therefore (as you will find all other things to be) either good or bad, the means of happiness or misery, according to the use that is made of it.
This will appear farther, when we consider the use of meat and drink, for the support of man's life. To the hungry man, what a comfort it is to eat ; and to the thirsty and faint, how pleasant it is to drink. Great reason, therefore, we have, especially in this plentiful season, to be thankful to the Author of all good, when he gives us food sufficient for us. But for what end is it given ? To enable us to carry on the necessary business of life ; and that our support may be such as our work requires. This is the use of food : man eats and drinks that he may work : there- fore the idle man forfeits his right to his daily bread ; and the Apostle lays down a rule both just and na- tural ; that if any man will not ivorl', neither sJiould he eat.
But no sooner do we fall into abuse and excess, than we are sure to suffer for it, in mind and in body ; either with sickness, or ill-temper, or vicious inclina- tions ; or with all of them at once. It is with men, as it is with cattle. If we feed a horse properly, he is able to work : if he be over-fed, he is high-spirited and kicks ; and perhaps may break his own neck, as well as that of his rider. We may know how neces- sary moderate living is to the temper, if we observe how high living disposes the mind to riot and mischief. Besides ; it has an effect directly contrary to its na- ture : for as man is enabled to work, by eating what is sufficient; he is hindered from working, and becomes
15
304
THE USE AND
CSERM. XX.
heavy, idle, and stupid, if lie takes too much. As to the bodily distempers, that are occasioned by excess, there is no end of them. How often do the limbs of men become useless, which were given that they might use them in their necessary occupations ? Gluttony breeds apoplexy ; drunkenness sometimes ends in a dropsy, or a fever, or even in fm'y and madness. By seeking too much enjoyment, we have no enjoyment at all. Ungovernable appetite leads to ungovernable passions: to a clouded understanding; to a miserable life ; and often to a speedy death. When we use that gift of God to destroy us, which was intended to pre- serve us, then we are fools indeed.
Consider next what is the use of our clothing ? It was intended, as its name signifies, in the first lan- guage of mankind, to cover shame. Another use of it, especially in such a climate as ours, is to protect us from the coldness of the air, and the roughness of the weather. It serves likewise as a mark, to distinguish the different orders, and degrees, amongst mankind. But soon enter vanity and fashion, and turn it all into absurdity. Fashion is so variable, that the study of it absolutely fills up the lives of some people ; and helps to swallow up the fortunes of others. New fashions are continually arising; some of which are foolish and monstrous, and make the wearers ridiculous ; others are so unnatural and in- convenient, that they make them uneasy : yet they must all be followed. To this foolish servitude, the world has given its sanction ; and it is submitted to. So much thought is taken for the body, what it shall put on, that if we were to read the history of some people's lives we should hear of nothing but of what they put on, and what they put off. The mind is little thought of : the putting off the old man, and the put-
SERM. XX.^
ABUSE OF THE WORLD.
305
ting on of the neio mem, are subjects little studied, and little understood ; though upon this alone de- pends our admission into the presence of God, and the fashion in which we must appear to all eternity.
We have another matter to consider, which would require many words, if it were properly treated, and according to its importance : I mean, that society which God hath ordained of man and woman, for their mutual help and comfort in life. If this be ac- cording to the laws of God, it leads to happiness : if according to the laws of sin, it leads to misery and death. The estate of matrimony is wise, and holy, and honourable ; and if it proves to be, what God de- signed it always should be, it is the most happy in the world. It was the state of man, in the time of his in- nocency ; and even now innocency is gone, it is a re- lief under all the cares of life : poverty and labour are more tolerable; sickness is less afflicting ; disap- pointments are diminished, and blessings are in- creased. All this is, or may be, true : and the pro- fane jests of the libertine signify nothing. We argue with God on our side, and are in no fear of being mistaken. It is certain, that from a common rela- tion to a family of children, a friendship arises out of matrimony, such as the world can never produce, from any other relation in life : and, as friendship is one of the first of blessings, so far as paradise can be recovered by us, in this state of mortality, it must be found here, or nowhere.
But, who can describe the miseries which arise from all abuses of the relation between the sexes ? True and lawful society renders life innocent and happy : false society never fails to end in wretchedness, and corrup- tion of every kind. For the man, if a libertine, has no real friend ; such as he ought to have : he can
VOL. IV. X
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never expect to find it in any partner of his iniquity. The woman has no protector, on whom she can de- pend ; but is left to scorn, to beggary, to infamy, and wretchedness. How much there is of this wretched- ness in the world, they only can tell, who are ac- quainted with the crooked paths of life ; of which, honest men know but little. However, a great deal of it must be known to all mankind. In every place we need not go far for some shameful and wretched examples of vice and ruin : out of which, the hand of God may be able to save ; but the hand of man can- not ; because it is not in man's power to change a lost character. How can I say more in few words on the subject than this ? that as matrimony is the insti- tution of God, for man's good (perhaps for the sal- vation of his soul), so whoredom is the institution of the devil ; for man's destruction in this world, and perhaps for his damnation in the next. How careful then ought we to be, to do all we can, by vigilance, by example, by discipline and correction, to save from ruin those who are going headlong to perdition ; blinded by their passions, and corrupted by the licen- tiousness of the times, or the bad examples of the place wherein they live. They see not the gulph of misery into which they are hastening : they lose them- selves ; they lose the world ; and they lose (which is the greatest of all calamities) the grace of God, and his favour ; which is worse than the loss of life : and all this, by not following the commandment of God for the right use of the world. They that follow other commandments of their own lusts, may seem to be easy and happy under them, for a time ; but that is no more than a bait ; which the devil offers, when he means to have a lost soul in return.
As the states of men, so all their faculties, have their use and their abuse. How excellent is the use
SERM. XX.]] ABUSE OF THE WORLD.
307
of speech, when applied to the instruction, admo- nition, or consolation of others ! It is to the mind, what light, and medicine, and food are to the body : it can enlighten the ignorant ; feed the hungry ; heal the sick. In these cases, the speech of a man is like the voice of an angel from heaven. But how shame- fully is it misapplied ; for corrupting the manners ; for railing, for cursing, for blaspheming, and setting the world on fire. What should the idle, the igno- rant, or the vicious man speak, when he has nothing good to speak upon ? Lo, his talk degenerates into empty jesting, to provoke laughter ; and to make those merry whom he is not able to make wise. Though, in such a case, it be the speech of a man ; it is but little better than the noise of a beast. When a beast uttereth its voice, the subject is that only, which it knoweth naturally : and the subjects, on which the natural man speaketh, are nearly the same : and then his speech is but little better than a brutish noise : sometimes it is worse ; for beasts can neither curse man, nor blaspheme their Maker.
Music, nearly allied to speech, is another faculty which man hath : and how noble is it, when it cele- brates the praise and glory of God, or recommends lessons of wisdom to man ; which was the use of it, in very ancient times. It calms the passions ; inspires devotion ; and raises the mind above itself ; as if it were carried upon wings of air toward the heaven above. It has therefore always been used in religious worship, by Christians, Jews, and Heathens, But how little and low is it, when applied in a light, in- sipid form, to enervate the mind : or in songs of drunkards and debauchees, to inspire corruption of manners : to weaken the reason, and inflame the passions!
x2
SOS
THE USE AND
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I might go on to shew the like as to many other particulars ; but ^^^e have seen enough to convince us. Let us now ask ; who gave us all things ; but God ? for which his name is ever to be praised : and he that gave them, has taught the use of them, "When we follow his rules, we are like to do well, and are never disappointed : the world is then to us what it might be to all : for godliness hath the promise of this life, and of that which is to come : it is not more surely the way to glory above, than to peace and comfort below. ^Vho is it that leads us into the abuse of all things, but the devil ? whose pride and malice have no delight, but in spoiling, perverting, and defacing the works and the gifts of God, If man observes the laws of God, they give to him, and to the world, an al- liance Avith heaven : but the laws of the devil infuse the poison of hell into all the comforts upon earth ; and create torments in the present time, wliich are preparatory to those of eternity.
If I were to meet with two men, one of whom uses the world, while the other abuses it ; and both these characters v>-ere complete in their kind ; I would shew them to you : but if we cannot find them, let us form them. Before they are known, we may affirm of them in s:eneral, that the one is a wise man, and the other a fool. The wise follows the order which God hath appointed in the use of his time : he works with the light, he rests with the darkness ; his time is therefore of its natural value : and the regularity of it gives a habit of activity and cheerfulness to his mind. His uealth, ^vhen it has supplied his own wants, supplies the wants of others ; and brings down, upon his head, the blessings of the widow and the fatherless. He clothes not himself for vanity and shew, but for decency and convenience : he can there-
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fore afford to put clothes upon the naked. He eats and drhiks for health and refreshment; and his wits are always with him. As he feed not to excess, he can spare something to feed the hungry. If he be the father of a family ; he is their friend and protector ; he looks upon them with kindness and affection ; and they look up to him with gratitude and delight. His speech is with grace ; and his words are the words of truth and soberness ; the ignorant derive light from it, and the afflicted help and comfort. Hymns and psalms give calmness and sweetness to his mind ; and when God is exalted, he is lifted toward heaven ; which place he will reach at last ; for his charities and his affections went thither before him.
Such may be, and such, by the blessing of God, hath been the life and the end of many a wise man : but what is the other? what is the servant of sin ? He begins with folly, and ends with misery. His time has neither order nor value : a thousand years of such time would be worth nothing. His object is pleasure ; but he is always out of the road : for an unnatural world can never prove to be a pleasant world. His wealth is devoured by himself; or lost and squandered away upon hawks and harpies ; who would tear the flesh off his bones, and never thank him, for any thing they get by him. By eating, or drinking to ex- cess, his understanding is darkened; his body is dis- tempered ; and his life is cut short. The ill company he keeps at home by their faithlessness and ingratitude, disappoint him, distress him, and ruin him : and, in the end, he treats them, and they treat him, with mutual curses and accusations. As to his conversa- tion, the best of it is seasoned with foolish jesting, and the worst of it is poisoned with blasphemy. His music is the noise of intoxication ; itgives glory to vice
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and folly ; and his mirth is the crackling of thorns under apot^, which consume themselves with their own blaze. When he has done what mischief he can to himself and others, he comes to his last hour ; but there is no comfort to be found ! a dreadful gulph is before him ; God hath not been in all his thoughts : the world which he abused is going from him ; and a worse is coming ; toward which, every step of his life was leading him ; but he saw not the end.
The two men I have now been describing appear like the inhabitants of two different worlds. They certainly belong to two classes of beings ; the first to the children of light ; the other to the poor disap- pointed children of this world, who love darkness rather than light.
Methinks I hear some of you cry out, " What would I give to be like the first of these men ?" And hath not God called you for this very end, and taught you how to be like him ; and promised to assist you, in the etideavotir to make yourself like him ? If you dread the other character, hath not God taught you how to avoid it ? Has he not forewarned you of the deceitfulness of sin ; what a cheat it is ; and how it betrays into certain misery ? Conquered you may be; but you never can be taken by surprize, when you have had so many warnings.
You may now see by example, that man is the maker of most evils ; for the greater part are occa- sioned by the abuse of this world ; and they are in most danger of abusing it, who have most of it in their possession. Men look up to them with admiration for what they have got, and praise the happiness of their situation ; but, unless they have wisdom along with their riches, they are to be pitied rather than envied, for their temptations and dangers. The poor
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man has not so much to fear, yet he can find ways of abusing the world to his own ruin : so that all men, rich and poor, should learn in time, what it is to use it wisely : if they do not, they see the consequence ; the whole subject has been reduced to matter of fact.
And now, who can behold, without sorrow of heart, what man is, when it is considered what he might be ! But how dreadful does the case become, when it is added, that man has but owe life to live in this world; if he throws that away, there is no second trial : he never returns to correct his mistake ; he is never per- mitted to try the world over again ; and if he were to try it a thousand times, he would always miscarry, if he is not with God, and God is not with him.
Thrice happy, then, is he, who looking up to God, and following his rules, and depending upon his pro- tection, is in the way of deliverance : who looking upon the world as a wide ocean, sees others tossed in the storm, while his own feet are upon firm land ; who, having used this world according to the sense of the Apostle in the text, shall be admitted to the use of a better, where there shall be neither abuses nor offences, but righteousness and peace without end, and without interruption.
SERMON XXI.
CALLING AND ELECTION.
PREFACE.
Evil is not yet established by law in this country ; but good and evil have been growing up together so long, that they will never more be separated, unless it shall be in some small remnant of Christians. By means of predestination falsely stated, the rights of God and his ministry are so far forgotten, that we are getting every day nearer to Babel, and farther from Jerusalem. In the last century, this Calvinistic corrup- tion swallowed up both Church and State, and it threatens to do so again, if it be not guarded against, more than I expect it will be. It will not work directly and with the same vio- lence as before, but slowly and by way of sap, under the name, appearance, and intention of good, as evil always does, when most mischief is intended. We cannot wonder, that it is so unmerciful now in consigning the souls of men to perdition, when we remember how cruelly it treated their bodies and estates formerly. God, who saved us before, cannot be ex- pected to save us again, by any equally extraordinary inter- position, where the error is the same as before ; I have therefore drawn up these few hints to set wise men on thinking : if I had been in health, I would have carried them much farther : I pray God to turn them to good, to the end that old apos- tolical faith, that piety and peace, may still remain among us.
SERMON XXI.
BRETHREN, GIVE DILIGENCE TO MAKE YOUR CALLING AND ELECTION SURE. 2 PET. I. 10.
There is not a more plain precept than this in the Gospel ; even a child that has been christened, and has learned the catechism of the Church, is taught to be thankful to God, who by haptism has called it to a state of salvation : and to pray and to hope, that with the help of God's grace which he promises in that sacrament, it may continue in the same state unto its life's end.
This, I say, is plain doctrine, and I am sure it is true ; we may also safely say, it is the doctrine of the Church of England ; which tells us in the 27th article, that baptism is a sign of regeneration, or new birth, whereby we are ingrafted into the Church, and by which the promises of forgiveness of sin and of our adoption to be sons of God by the Spirit are sealed ; faith is conjfirmed, and grace increased.
If the Church of England (as some contend) is not a Church of Christ, I know not what to say more ; if itis, then all the promises made to baptism in the Scripture are ensured to all the members of it ; and the sign will
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be attended with the thing signified ; supposing that the baptism is administered according to the will and command of Jesus Christ. But to this another doc- trine is preferred by Christians of a new fashion ; which doctrine supposes the election of God to sig- nify only the election of single independent persons ; whom God, by an eternal purpose and secret decree, hath chosen out of others (either in a Church or out of a Church, I know not which, nor do they know themselves) : and that for this we have no other reason, but that absolute will, that sovereign power, which God exercises over all his creatures, whether heathens or Christians, to save some, and cast others away.
This notion some have carried so far (for when people are out of the road they never know where to stop) as to affirm, that persons elected can never fall away; and that persons rejected can never be re- ceived : I shall therefore undertake to shew yow, first, that this is a frightful doctrine ; next, that it is a dan- gerous doctrine, and answers a very bad purpose ; and lastly, that it is not a scriptural doctrine, taught by the Apostles of Jesus Christ : after which I shall think it my duty to warn you against it. It will do you no good, because you have all you can want with- out it ; you have the promises of God, made to Churches, and to single persons ; and if you insist on more, you fall into that dreadful sin of tempting God ; you would know what cannot be known. It may do you much harm ; it may lift you up with spiritual pride, or disturb you with vain fears ; and discourage those prayers, in which every Christian should perse- vere to the last gasp ; never giving up his prayers, till he gives up his breath.
According to the plain sense of the text, you will understand, that the Christian life is a Calling, or
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Profession ; not like to the callings and professions that are of this world ; but of an high and heavenly nature, to which God has called us out of the world, and confirmed our calling by the sign of baptism. Thus was Abraham called and elected, and all his children in him ; and their calling was confirmed by the sign of circumcision. Every Jew, such, was a child of Abraham, and an elected heir to the promises of God ; even under their blindness and apostacy, the Apostle speaks of them as still beloved, still capable of being again received, for their father's sake ; for though men may change, God doth not change ; his gifts and callings are without repentance *.
In like manner, we Christians, by our profession, are called out of the world, and taken into the Church of God by baptism; with allusions to which, the New Testament, when it speaks of God's elect, means bap- tized Christians: this you may see at the 13th verse of the 5th chapter of St. Peter's first Epistle ; and it seems most probable, that St. John, by the Elect Lady mentioned in his second Epistle, means some par- ticular Church ; and by her Elect Sister with her chil- dren, he means that Church, and its sons, with which he was then present at the writing of this Epistle. The text admonishes Christians to make their calling and election sure ; that is, to persevere in the course of the Christian life, as they began it rightly in bap- tism. But to teach, as many have done, and that with great confidence, that some are saved, and that others are lost, by a decree, which we can never pre- tend to know without laying ourselves open to the de- lusions of Satan : to teach this is to teach a doctrine
* Repentance here signifies change of mind in God ; as in the passage respecting peace. See Heb. xii. 17.
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deceitful to some, and frightful to others : for must it not terrify any man in his sober senses, when he is told, that the Creator gives being to his creatures, but with this difference ; that some of them are brought into the world as vessels of his pleasure, made for sal- vation ; others as vessels of his wrath, made for de- struction, without any hope or possibility of fleeing from the wrath to come ? Let us allow that all man- kind in their natural state are sold and lost under sin, and can never receive any thing but of God's free and unmerited grace in Christ Jesus : that he may give and take away as he pleases, and none can contradict his will: but all this we must allow to the power of God; still his promises demonstrate that these are not the terms to which he hath called his people : they are the terms under which he hath left heathens. Does he not appeal to his Church by a prophet in the Old Tes- tament, that his ways are equal, and that the ways of man are unequal, unjust, uncertain; while his own ways are always consistent with that goodness and mercy, which willeth not the death of any one sinner? Does he not therefore appeal to his people, and ask them why they will die ? suggesting by those words, that if a sinner dies who has been under his covenant and among his elect people, to whom the prophet speaks, it is not according to the will of God, but ac- cording to Ms own v/ill *. For God hath set before him life and death, that he may choose which he will take. This choice is not given to the heathens, and the like question could not be put to them ; there must be a sense therefore in which, and circumstances under which man maybe said to choose : for it would be a cruel sort of mockery for God to tell his people
* See the absolution in the Church service.
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that their destruction is from themselves, if it be or- dered from his own sovereign will ! Would he ask " why they will die T when they are not within his covenant, and it is impossible for them to live ? There must here be some great misunderstanding in our method of conceiving and stating the ways of God : his counsels may be deep and mysterious, but they cannot be cruel and unjust.
Suppose a poor prisoner to be shut up within massy walls ; and one were to look through the iron gate of his cell, and tell him, that the prison was about to be set on fire, that he must fly for his life, and lose no time ; that the delay of one moment is an argument of his infatuation ; would not this be to trifle with the misery of a poor wretch devoted to destruction ? It has therefore been well said of those who believe that God can speak and act upon those principles, that they have given to him the nature of the destroyer ; yea, that they have actually turned the Author of all good into the author of all evil.
Predestination is also a very dangerous doctrine ; it brings a snare upon others ; it intrusts every man with an office for which no man is fit, by making him an arbitrary judge of his own spiritual state. None but the Searcher of all hearts can fathom the depth of deceit to which the human heart is subject; therefore the Scripture takes this judgment out of our own hands, and gives it, first to other men, but ultimately to God : " not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth." He that hath the judgment of himself in his own hands will natu- rally despise the judgment of other men, and set it at defiance ; yet the Scripture pronounces that other men shall know by their fruit what we may ourselves be ignorant of ; and that whatever our inward testimony
15
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may say, they shall clearly see by our works to v/hat party we belong : whether to the Author of Peace, or the spirit of confusion. If we look back into the last century, we may find examples in plenty of great sin- ners, who thought themselves great saints; and some of them are reported as such to this day ; to the great danger of some Christians, and the great grief of others. This was the lamentable and hopeless state of the Pharisees ; " They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others ;" but God knew their hearts. He saw that their contempt of others was as vain as their opinion of themselves ; and the doctrine which they had about their own election as Jews might be the foundation of all : for I believe the doctrine of election had never a worse effect and a worse issue than it had upon them. The like persuasion, instead of being a ground of safety and comfort to Christians, has been a delusion of Satan to draw souls into perdition : and if there be any amongst us who never yet observed this, we should pray to God to open their eyes, and give them grace to be alarmed at the prospect ; for it is a dread- ful one.
This doctrine is further dangerous, as it favors the practice of schismatical division in the Church ; it both promotes and covers the evil of separation : whether that was foreseen by those who brought it into fashion I will not say; but it was seen in a short time after by every body else, and this use of it was very natural : for who shall convince those of sin in schism who have a rule above us all ? If we will allow it, they have an inward testimony superior to all au- thority upon earth, and who shall dare to speak against it? When Jesus Christ was upon earth, no man was so hated and despised as He : and by whom ? By
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proud, conceited, quarrelsome people, who called themselves the elected of God in their Father Abra- ham. The contempt which then fell upon Jesus Christ, now falls upon his Church ; and from the same sort of people, who call themselves the Elect.
When the superstition of the church of Rome was done away by the overthrow of order, and the pre- sumption of envious or insidious piety prevailed among irregular protestants, then this doctrine came in and abounded ; but it may soon be detected, for it is either with the means of grace administered in the Christian Church, or it is without them : if it is with them, then let them shew ns how the privilege of one Christian is above another Christian. Are not all entitled to the same promises ? Will not baptism carry a child to heaven ? As surely, though it be born of a slave, and baptized in a church ; as if it were of noble birth, and baptized in a parlour. Under the means of grace in Christ Jesus there is neither rich nor poor, bond nor free ; but all are equal. If elec- tion be ivithout the means of grace, then it explains itself ; it must be an imposture ; it is to supply their place, and render them superfluous ; and when the means of grace are gone, the appearance of Christi- anity will last but a short time.
If any person, through pride or envy, hath thrown himself out of the Church, or is not able to prove himself in it ; I say, if any such person can yet boast of his election to salvation, and persuade others to believe him, to what purpose then did Jesus Christ found a Church in opposition to the gates of hell, and promise to be with it to the end of the world? Here is a persuasion to which it doth not appear that anij Church is necessary : therefore all dissenters are fond of a Churchman, who believes it : it is a notion that
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rests in the conceit of a man's own mind ; and if we admit its authority, what is the consequence ? We then give to the word of a man a place above the word of God. A good meaning is supposed by weak people to sanctify a bad action : but St. Paul meant well when he persecuted the Christian Church : yet he condemned himself severely for it afterwards. It may be said, by some who profess this doctrine, that they take it for their comfort, and mean no harm by it ; intending thereby to draw us away from the foun- dations of truth and the certainty of divine promises, till the whole Christian fabric falls into ruins at once ; as if, when the kingdom of God were departed from amongst us, some other new light should spring up in the world.
Enough has been said to prove the danger of this doctrine ; I think it may be shewn as plainly that it is not a doctrine of the Scripture. This we freely al- low, that the election of Christians out of the world into the Church of Christ is plain and certain : but the election of Christians out of Christians is not so ; if there were such a thing, it is what we cannot know, having no visible sign for it, and therefore we do wrong, and must bring ourselves and the Church into danger if we pretend to know it. The religion of the Gospel, by which we are saved, is the religion of faith, hoj)e, and charity : to this religion we are called at our baptism ; with that which cannot be re- duced to any of these three we can have no concern; and such is the knowledge of God's secret decrees. We are not called upon to know what cannot be known, neither are we required to act as if we knew it : we are to trust in God, but always to be in fear for ourselves ; and thence the Church wisely directs us to pray, that even in our last hour we may not fall
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from him. To what end is this prayer, if it be de- termined by our predestination that we shall never fall? This language of the Church implies, that we may fall even to the last moment, and that we are never safe till death shall put an end to sin and temp- tation.
The great mistake seems to have consisted in ap- plying to Christians what is said to heathens. The vessel of wrath fitted to destruction was an heathen ; a man never taken into the covenant of God, and who had determined that he never would be. It should always be remembered, that in the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle is arguing against the Jews, about the reception of the heathens ; a thing they could never bear to hear of, because they confined all grace to themselves. There is not a Christian upon earth who can prove that he is entitled to any one privilege but what he hath in common with other Christians ; he is therefore to pass the time of his so- journing here in fear; not to think that he has found out a short way of being saved, a way unknown to other people : not to be high-minded, as the Jews were, who fell, through vain confidence of their own election. Such a sort of election the Scriptures do not teach ; they shew the vanity of it from the exam- ple of the J e ws : the text also is expressly against it ; for if Christians are called upon to make their elec- tion sure, then is that election such as may be iiot sure. Why else is it said, " let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 2" He who thinheth he hath got farther can only think so ; and in that he may be grossly mistaken. And how doth he stand ? not by certain knowledge, as he pretends, but hy faith : faith in the promise of God, as his only secu- rity.
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There is no case more to our purpose than that of the Apostle St. Paul : he was a vessel individually chosen by God : in him we see the election of God's grace falling on a single person : but what does he infer from it ? No absolute exemption from danger : he supposes that he may still be cast away, and lost by his own neglect. He led a severe, watchful, and mor- tified life, " lest, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway." Will any man pre- sume upon privileges higher and surer than those of this great Apostle ? Might St. Paul be cast away ? who, then, shall dare to be secure ? He, who can per- suade himself that God hath called him to a privilege which St. Paul had not, must be under some strong delusion *.
But is there no assurance ? Undoubtedly there is : but it is the assurance of faith, and the assurance of hope: for any thing further we must wait till that judg- ment for which all men are reserved ; which shall detect the secrets of all hearts ; laying open to thou- sands the true nature of those works, that they never understood before, though they imagined they did. How shall God judge every man according to his works, if every man is to judge himself before half his works are done, according to his feelings f Are we to judge first, and is God to judge afterwards ? Can we think such a thing without blasphemy ? and can we teach it, without thereby rendering our whole religion of no effect, as the Jews did by a like presumption ? Shall we take from the chief Shepherd his office of separat- ing the sheep from the goats in the next life, by doing it for him beforehand in this life ? Shall we poor blind
• See Note 1, p. 827. Y 2
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sinners dare to say who have made their election sure, and who have not, when prohably our first mistake is about ourselves ? All this may be prevented by a single text from St. Paul, " Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God." Till we shall ob- tain that praise, let us forbear to depend upon our own, which will only render us suspected by those who know hov>' to distinguish. In the mean time we may know with absolute certainty that no election will save us, but that which teaches us to tvorl: out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Poor self-con- demning mourners, who lament their own sins, and those of the church to which they belong *, are in a much safer way, than those who are confident and self-witnessed : and they have a blessing on their side ; " Blessed are they that mourn (especially for sin) for they shall be comforted."
If, after all I have said, there should still remain in any man a desire to be assured, whether God hath actually adopted him for one of his own children, I will satisfy him as soon as I can.
It is a rule in Scripture, to which I believe there never was, nor will be, any exception, that " iihom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scoiirgeth every soyi whom lie receiveth ; and that if tee are without chastisement, then are tee bastards and not sons." He who can see the hand of God, through the course of his life, correcting him for his soul's health, and leading him into crosses, sufferings, and persecutions
* See Ezekiel ix. 4.
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from the world ; that man has the best of all evidence that he is the child of God, and that he is intended to bean heir of salvation. The man who sees and knows this will be thankful for his troubles, and would not be without them for all the world. When God was pleased to choose the blessed Paul, He did not tell him what inward testimonies of his own election he should feel, nor did he teach him any of the heavenly uses of false doctrine ; his promise runs in a different strain ; " He is a chosen vessel unto me, for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." And the same must be the rule with all other Chris- tians ; the best proof they can have in this world of their jfinal election to glory, is their suffering upon earth for the truth's sake. What could support the Martyrs of the Christian Church, but this one con- sideration, that if God called upon them to suffer, he called upon them to be saved, according to that faithful saying, that " if we suffer, we shall also reign with him ?" But that a man, with blood-guiltiness upon his head, and that of the worst sort, unrepented of, should be an heir of salvation, and find himself in the sure way to heaven, is a dream fit only for a de- duded Christian of the last days to believe ; if there ever was one person so deluded, the case would make us for ever afraid of this doctrine ; whereas history assures us there have been many, and that in this kingdom.
Upon the whole, Christianity is a religion which does not busy itself about decrees never to be known nor understood * ; but which believes promises, re- joices in hope, acts with charity, and suffers with
• See Note 2, p. 32!).
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patience. It does not send a man to heaven by the short soft way of sweet meditation and self-com- placency ; but it sends him first to Calvary to carry a cross after Jesus Christ; to bear some trifling affliction, some burden of sorrow, which God lays upon him : he may then think himself a true child of God, and in the right way to make his calling and election sure.
NOTES.
NOTE I.— Page 323.
For that sense of election which I allow and rejoice in I have two excellent authorities,- Bishop Andrews and Bishop Jeremy Taylor ; the former of which has these words in one of the forms of prayer in his daily devotions : " Let my faith in the Church " entitle me to a part in its calling and election." (Andrews* Devot. p. 36. Bishop Home's edition.) Bishop Andrews is right in ascribing salvation first to the Church, and from the Church to its members ; for thus we are taught to argue from the figure of Noah's ark : to be saved by rvater was a property original to the ark ; and salvation was derived from the ark to those who were taken into it : so election belongs first to the Church, the proto- type of the ark. Such as were to be saved when the world was drowned were taken into the ark. Such as shall be saved when the world shall be again destroyed are added to the Church. The Church, we grant, may be much degenerated ; but so long as it is a Church, the promises of God must remain with it. If its pri- vilege of bringing children to a state of salvation is lost, how and when did it lose it ? Time might possibly produce a leak in the ark, yet certainly none of such consequence as to change its nature, and prevent its usefulness. The Christian Church, by reason of its connection with this world, has fallen into many mistakes and irregularities, which piety will lament and correct as far as it can, instead of triumphing in them as an occasion for mockery and in- sult against God and his institutions. Difficult cases must occur from the commerce between the Church and the world, too great for us to resolve ; and we must leave them to the judgment of the great day ; as we ought also to leave those mysterious characters, in which we find such a mixture of godliness and prophaneness as to our judgment is utterly unaccountable.
328
NOTES.
In a prayer to be used on his birth-day, Bishop Taylor speaks thus : " I give thee glory that thy hand sustained and brought me " to tire illumination of baptism with thy grace preventing my " election, by an artificial necessity and holy prevention engaging " me to the profession and practices of Christianity." (See Holy Living, p. 316.) I cannot stop without shewing how differently election is spoken of by a great predestinarian, and of what sort his proof is : " let it suffice," saith he, " that we feel it ;" but this, we affirm, is the very thing that will not suffice ; because our Saviour hath expressly cautioned us against it upon more occasions than one. He commands us to judge their feelings by their fruits ; and not as they themselves do, their fruits by their feelings. We have seen how lamentably many have been deceived, and how they have de- ceived others : but hear how this predestinarian concludes, " and let " them perish with their errors that cast away a doctrine of such " heavenly use." (See Bishop Babington's Sermon, p. 35, in Sir Richard Hill's Apology for Brotherly Love) : that is, let them perish who do not receive our election with its self-evidence of feelings, ■which our Saviour would not admit in favour of himself ; " if I bear " witness of myself, my witness is not true." Who then shall insist upon our receiving their own witness, and tell us it is sufficient for them, when it was not sufficient for Jesus Christ ? They must think themselves in this respect more sufficient than He. He appeals to that second greater witness, " The works which my Father giveth " me to finish bear witness of me."
Thus must it be in our case ; to visible works we must at last ap- peal ; and we shall be confident the rule is right, though predesti- narians go on to the end of the world wishing that we may perish for insisting upon it. Miserable it is to see what self-conceit and un- merciful judging of others this doctrine produces in tlie hearts of Christians. This uncharitableness to fellow-Christians is sufficient witness against it, and proves it to be worth nothing : yet if we were to believe some writers, it is the first and greatest of incentives to brotherly love : but if you will examine it, you will find it to be of a very spurious sort ; it embraces Schismatics, but cannot endure a Churchman. If it be thus unmerciful to men's souls, and consigns them so easily to perdition, who can wonder that in the last age it spared neither men's bodies nor estates ?
NOTES.
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NOTE 2. Ease 325. On the XVIIth Article.
O
By the adversaries of the Church of England, who take Calvin for their guide, it has been boasted that the 17th article is calvinis- tical : but this our best divines never allowed ; they say the times required that the article should be neutral. So the fact appears to be ; and the article may be retained, as far as it goes ; for it teaches us to receive the promises of God, and to act according to his rvill, as it is expressly declared. His rvill we do know ; and his promises we know ; his decrees relating to particular persons, we do not know ; and tlierefore we cannot set up his decrees against his promises. The article tells us, the elect are taken out of viankind; this we allow : but the spurious predestinarian holds, that Christians are elected out of Christians : which doctrine is to be found neither in the Scripture nor in the article ; though we apprehend, less than this will npt come up to the wishes of the Calvinists. They preach to us, that the un- known decrees of God, and the use they make of them, are necessary to be admitted by all true Christians ; warning us, that we are under strong temptation not to admit them, because they humble our pride ; and is there not enough to do it without them ? and wishing that all may perish who do not admit them. But how then does it happen, that neither St, Peter nor any of the Apostles ever published this doctrine as a foundation for Christians to build upon ? When the new converts on the day of Pentecost asked Peter and the rest of the Apostles what they should do, he does not bid them believe the all- sufficient doctrine of predestination for the remission of sins: but commands them to " repent and be baptized, every one of them, for the remission of sins, and they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
St. Paul, having a knowledge of the secret decrees of God by re- velation, argues from them to reconcile the Jews to the election of heathens; but never makes them articles of faith, or principles of ac- tion : and from the great stress laid upon them in these latter days, a snake in the grass is to be feared ; and he that knows the history of predestination must have discovered, that this doctrine hath been and is the strong hold of schism : therefore I take St. Peter's old doctrine ^ rather than this nerv ; and I would advise all Christians to do the same. If it should be said, that baptism is not now what it was in St. Peter's time, what is it but to tell us, that we have lost the jjrt>- mises of God, and have now no Church ? This will be a pleasant hearing to the Roman Catholics, who have been telling us the same thing ever since the Reformation.
SERMON XXII.
MEN OUGHT ALWAYS TO PRAY. LUKE XVIII. 1.
The man who does not pray, does not live ; he may walk about, and seem to be alive, but he does not live, in the Christian sense of the word ; for as the natural breath is a proof that the body is alive, so the breath of prayer is a proof that religion is alive in the heart. When the body ceases to breathe perceptibly, in that case its life becomes doubtful, and it may be actually dead : even so that faith, which does not breathe in prayer to God, may be dead past recovery ; at least, there may be great danger that it will never come to a state of life and godliness. Many con- siderations naturally arise from this likeness between hreath and prmjer : for, is it easy to breathe ? it must tdso be easy to pray. If the body be alive and well, it breathes of itself, without pain or difficulty ; and prayer will in like manner be a thing of course, if faith be alive in the heart. Is it necessary to breathe ? m necessary, that life cannot long continue without it ? It is equally necessary to pray ; for the spiritual life of
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the soul cannot possibly be preserved without it. There is something always at hand, which will never fail to destroy it ; of this our Saviour gave notice on a certain occasion to his disciples : prai/, said he, i/ia( ye enter not into temptation. Temptation would de- stroy us all : and, if we enter into it, we shall, without God's grace, fall under it. It was this, that first brought death into the world ; and is now the great danger of man. The first evil did not arise from man's own nature,but from the suggestion of the devil; who first taught man to disobey his Maker, and which it is ever at hand to teach the same lesson at this hour : and his manner of teaching is different from what it was at first ; he taught evil to our first parents by a speech from without; he now teaches from within us: he gets into our hearts and affections, and worketh in the children of disobedience ; it is therefore a petition in the Lord's Prayer, that our heavenly Father would not lead us into temptation. This is one of the reasons why we ought to pray : if we would know them all, we must find them in the Lord's Prayer : because the petitions of it shew us what are the duties, the wants, and the dangers of man. They shew us, why we ought to pray ; why we must pray ; and what will certainly happen to us if we do not pray. They direct us to the first object of our thoughts; even to the great God that made us ; the Father of our being, the Author of our faculties. He is the great object of our worship ; and the man who is made by him, and does not wor- ship him, differs in nothing from a beast, but in his in- gratitude ; the basest of all sins, and such as beasts are seldom guilty of : for the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Even the dog is mindful of him that feedeth him. What must the man be then, who makes no return of worship to God, who
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feedeth the creation ? Can any man consider the great- ness of his kingdom, without raising his voice, and lifting up his heart, to promote the glory and honour of it 1 Every Christian soul is a subject of that king- dom, which is over all ; and when he knows what it is, the Lord's Prayer teaches him to pray, that it may prevail in himself and in all the world : that the w ill of God may be the rule of man; and maybe done by men on earth, as we are sure it is done with readiness and delight by the angels of heaven. What a divine privilege is it, that the subjects of this great King are permitted to speak to him ! how much more, that they are invited and encouraged to it ? and what shame and infamy to them if they do not speak to him ! they that tvill not pray must have their portion with those beings, whose curse it is, that they cannot pray. With those that pray God is present : and if God be not with them, we know who will be so ; and that they who live without God must die without him ; and there is no more certain sign that they live without him, than that of their keeping up no intercourse with him by prayer. Hear the testimony of an illiterate savage on this subject, who had only the feeble rays of tradition for his guide.
Some English soldiers, (as I heard once from an officer who had been amongst them), were quartered on a settlement in Africa, where the climate was hot and unwholesome : they had no clergyman, and they attended no place of worship. While they were in this situation, a fatal distemper broke out among them, and carried them off daily. A poor negro of the country, who was a witness to the case, made this ob- servation upon it, " the English never speak to God " Almighty ; God Almighty never speaks to them : " bO the devil comes to fetch them away." Such was
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the language of this poor ignorant person ; but simple and illiterate as the language may be, the observation is very alarming, and the doctrine is true : they who live without God must die without him. If a sheep be strayed in the night, and is met by a lion, we know what will become of it.
Man is therefore to pray ; not only because he owes worship to the God who made him ; but also, because he is a poor dependent creature ; in daily want and danger, and must perish without the divine protection.
One of his first petitions to God, is for his daily bread: he must live by him; and therefore he prays to him. If a man can live of his own substance, he need not beg ; but if he have nothing to support him, he must seek assistance from the charity of others. And he is not only ready to speak in his own behalf, but is ingenious in asking and provoking compassion; insomuch that the language of beggary is a science. And all this is for the wants of the body, which must soon be at an end. The soul has its wants, which none, but God, can supply ; and cannot live a single day, unless they are supplied : I say live ; for the life that is without God is not life : his grace is as neces- sary to the soul, as bread is to the body : for man Uveth not hy bread alone, but by the icord of God : and as the manna came down from heaven every day, we are thereby taught, that man must do as the Israel- ites did ; he must go out every day to seek it ^i-^ prayer, and gather it. If we seek it, we shall find it; nothing is promised to him, that seeketh not ; he who knows this, and acts accordingly, is a true believer : he feels himself to be, when he comes to God, what the beggar feels himself, when he comes to the door of plenty : hungry, and thirsty, andjull of complaints ; he feels.
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what no man but a Christian can feel ; his hunger and thirst are therefore blessed : they are a proof that he is alive; they have a promise, that they shall be filled. But he that asketh not, hungers not ; and he that hungers not, has not the wants of a living man.
We are now to consider that every man ought to pray as a sinner ; for a sinner he certainly is. many things tve offend all : and if God should he ex- treme to mark ichat is done amiss, no flesh should be saved. What shall then become of us, without for- giveness of sin ? for this purpose were the morning and evening sacrifices appointed from the beginning, which ought to be daihj offered at this time, in their proper signification, to him, without whom there is no remis- sion of sin. All men are guilty of offences which they do know ; and of many more, which they do not know. Hence the Psalmist says, who can tell how oft he qf- fendeth ? O cleanse thou me from my secret faidts ! Sins of both kinds were equally before the eyes of God, and needed the advantage of the sacrifice. That forgiveness of sin is to be prayed for daily, is manifest from hence ; because it is the subject of a petition in the Lord's Prayer, which is daily to be used. But the same was signified by the daily practice the Church, before that prayer was given : every sacrifice that was offered shewed the necessity of atonement for sin. And the sacrifices of the tabernacle and temple being offered daily in the morning and evening service, the congregation who offered them applied for forgiveness of sin twice a day to God : and less, I think, will not suffice in any family at this day. We are not departed from the custom of sacrificing^ though we do not offer up a bloody sacrifice, as of old ; but we offer to the Father his Son Jesus Christ, who suffered for our sins upon the cross. Twice in the day doth the Church
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direct all its members to put up a petition to heaven, that the Lord would have mercy upon us miserable of- fenders, according to his promises declared unto man- kind in Christ Jesu our Lord. But here it should be well considered, that when we ask forgiveness for our sins, we ask it, on condition that we forgive the sins of others. The words are easily spoken ; but what man can fulfil them, without the grace of God to dis» pose and assist him ? for wrath and malice are in the heart of man : the spirit that is iti us lusteth to envy ; and we thirst for revenge against those who have despised, offended, or injured us. The struggle be- tween duty and passion is often very hard to good men ; who cannot bring their minds to calmness, pa- tience, and forbearance, till they set before their eyes the patience of Jesus Christ, pleaded ^lXM^ prayed for his murderers.
But after all that has been said, the greatest reason for prayer is yet behind. Our duty first calls upon us to pray ; next, our wants and necessities ; and lastly, our dangers. From the final petitions of the Lord's prayer, we may learn what will certainly become of us, if we do not pray : viz. that we shall, as I observed before, be led into temptation, and not be delivered from evil. The first temptation brought death with it : all temptation aims at man's destruction : and the world is full of it. Every age, every state of life, hath its temptations. How shall we meet them ? how shall we overcome them ? never, without the help of God ; and this I cannot repeat too often : that help he will not find, who does not pray for it. If you would have a prospect of all the dangers to which man is liable, set before your eyes the three great enemies of his salvation ; always endeavouring to draw him into sin. Look at the vain and wicked world, with all
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its ways and its fashions, its vain pageants and diver- sions, its corrupt customs and lies ; by which it ac- quires an absolute authority over the unguarded man : it first deceives him, and then domineers over his judgment. Next to this, behold theflesJi, with all its appetites ; all of which are by nature given to impe- tuosity, and excess. As the dog goes to his vomit, and the swine to its wallowing in the mire, so doth the natural man, if he has self-indulgence for his rule, lose the understanding of a man, and fall into what is beastly and destructive. Every object which is about us, if our faculties are not duly regulated, tempts us to some abuse of the creatures of God : and, what is worst of all, there is a subtle invisible enemy always at hand, who, being himself evil, turns all things to evil ; to the end that those things, which God made for our good, may work together for our ruin ; and we are either to be delivered jyom this enemy, or to be de- livered tq) to him. Where we pray to God, to deliver us from evil, it means rather, from the evil one ; and many of our best divines agree, that the words ought to have been so rendered ; deliver us from the evil one, that is, the Devil. Our English version seems to fail in the same way, in another passage where the person of our Saviour is to be understood ; " V>'ho will harm you, if ye be followers of that ichich is good ?■' where it ought rather to be, " if ye be followers, or imitators} of that good one, Christ for the Scripture does not deal much in abstractions. Taking it for granted then, that evil is the evil one ; we learn from the Scripture, who, and what, he is ; that his work in general is, to overthrow all the de- signs of God for the salvation of man : that he is a serpent, a liar, a murderer, a destroyer : though mo- dern divinity, if it may be called divinity, says he is
SERM. XXII.^ ADVANTAGES OF PRAYER.
nothing. (What ? when Christ came into the world to destroy the works of him?) We learn also, that with all this he is a spirit, who excels in the strength of a spirit ; and is armed with darts of fire ; against which there is no defence, but from the shield off aith, which Prayer holds up to guard us against the enemy. It is no shield, until prayer applies it : pray, says our Lord, that ye enter not into temptation. How terrible is that warning, which is given us in the Revelation against this enemy of man ; of whom some Christians, not worth reasoning with, now make no serious ac- count ! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea ; for the Devil is come down to you, having great wrath, because he hnoweth that he hath hut a short time. His wrath will therefore do all the mis- chief that can be done in the time : and he hath lately found some new ways of doing-great things in a short space : consider then, ye who are careless, that while you neglect him, he does not neglect you ; while you lose all your time, he loses none of his. He leads you captive at his will -.firstmio sin, and at last into con- demnation : as you will find, when the spiritual world, which is now concealed, and seems to be nothing, shall be opened upon you. If you would flee from the wrath to come, you must pray : if you would fall into it, then neglect to pray ; nothing further is necessary ; all the rest will follow of course.
My design in what I have already said on these words, has been to shew the necessity of prayer to those who do not pray : in what follows, I shall speak to those who do pray; with the hope of teaching them how to pray better ; by giving them a new method of jiraying always : which may seem to be a very hard thing; but you are not here to understand, that men are always to be upon their knees : for then the busi-
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ness of life could not go forward, as the condition of man in this world requires. To separate the time of business from the time of prayer, stated hours were appointed in old time : and devout persons, who ob- served them, might be said to jjraij always ; that is, at all the appointed hours of prayer. I consider Corne- lius the Centurion to have been one of these ; and that it is therefore said of him, that he 'praijed to God al- ways ; that is, he prayed with the Church daily, at all the hours of prayer. The time of the day when he saw the vision agrees with this ; it appeared to him at the ninth hour of the day (one of the hours of prayer) and while he was in the act of prayer : because it is =said to him, as to a man who was praying, thy prayers are come iip before God. Peter, in like manner, had his vision, at the sixth hour of the next day : when he went up, according to custom, to the house-top, to pray. There are those, who mock at us for praying formally at appointed hours of the day : as if all pray- ing were to be by fits and starts, as man pleases : but if God himself from heaven has jiaid regard to these times, we are undoubtedly justified in the practice ; and it is in conformity to God's will that we should so pray. This custom of praying with the Church at all the regular times of prayer, was one of the methods of praying always. The chapter from which the text is taken shews us another way. A poor widow is repre- sented as praying for justice to an unjust judge, who, it seems, attended to her petition lest she should weary him by her continual coming. Our Saviour relates the parable, to shew us the certain effect of perseverance in prayer : we should pray without ceas- ing, till our petition is granted, how long soever it may please God to try our faith and patience, by not granting it so soon as we might hope and expect. We
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ought therefore to pray always, without fainting, or being wearied out ; and this is the sense of praying always, according to the text. But there is another way, which to me seems the most excellent of all. When Saint Paul advises the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing, he adds, in every thing give thanks. This cannot be done, unless the mind be in a constant habitual frame of devotion ; using itself to the daily custom of setting God alway before it, and walking with him in all the actions of life ; endeavouring to turn all things to his glory. Believers are to consider God, in his power, his wisdom, his providence ; in all which he hath made, in all which he hath given, in all which he hath done, and all which he doth do for the children of men : in his blessings, his judgments, his visitations, his corrections : under a persuasion that every thing we see is formed by his wisdom, every thing that happens in the world is from his justice, mercy, or goodness ; and, therefore, that every thing he does is right, and is to be so received by us. We . are to give thanks for good, because it is a present blessing ; for evil, because it will be a future bless- ing, if God pleases.
There is no object of nature, nor any occasion of man's natural life in this world, which may not be im- proved to some holy purpose ; if we learn to under- stand objects, as the Gospel hath applied them, and then make them the subject of some petition. There is no great difficulty in the thing : custom will keep the mind ready and in a godly frame ; and use will make is pleasant. Thus the duty of praying always will be fulfilled in a way, of which the world hath very little knowledge. We cannot begin too soon in the morning : and there is no better object in the world to begin with, than the light of the day. As soon as
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"sve see it, we should utter some thanksgiving to the Almighty Creator : who hath given to us, not only the natural light, but the light of truth, the light of the Gospel ; and hath promised us an inheritance of the saints in the light of the new Jerusalem, ^^"hen we awake to such thoughts, we awake as men and Chris- tians, not as beasts ; who receive the benefit of the light, without knowing what glorious things are to be understood by it. When we see the sun in his daily course, we should say to ourselves, such is the Sun of Righteousness, and thus did he rise upon the world, and thus will he rise again to dispel the darkness of the shadow of death, and begin the glorious day of Eternity. As the natural light moves from East to West, so hath the Gospel shined throughout the world: as the day declines, and the evening comes on, so doth the life of man decline. "S^'hen this happens, we should say with the two Disciples, when they invited Christ to tarry w ith them at Emmaus, ••' abide with us, for the dan i-^fd^' spent."
The elements and the changes of the weather will supply us with more matter of the same sort. If there cometh rain to water the earth, let us be thankful, not only for that, but for the grace of God, and the word of truth, ■uhich cometh down from heaven as the rain : that the soul of man may be fruitful in works of righ- teousness. As the earth is parched in a time of drought, and cracked with dryness, so should man open his mouth, and say with the Psalmist, " my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh also longeth after thee, in a barren and dry land where no water is." If there cometh thunder, we should listen to it, as to the voice of God ; which, what noise soever men may make below, will be heard above all. How insignificant do the word and power of man appear, whenever God is
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pleased to shew himself, and his lightning shines from one end of heaven to the other ! This appearance should always remind us, that the Lord will at last be revealed in flaming fire. What will then become of us, if we have never thoughtof his judgments, till they are upon us, and the great account is to be given by all sinners ? He who lives by the rule I am now giving, will never be surprized. He sets the Lord always before him, therefore he shall not be moved : if his heart is ready, he will in every place find matter for prayer or for praise. If he is in a garden, he thinks on Paradise : how it was lost by the first Adam, who ate in sin ; and how it was regained by the second Adam, who fasted in the wilderness. If he is in the fields or meadows, by the river side, and sees the flocks and herds feeding, he remembers, that he him- self belongs to God's pasture ; he prays, that the Lord, the keeper of Israel, who is his Shepherd, will convert and bring him back, when he strays from the paths of righteousness, and will lead him forth beside the waters of comfort : under these circumstances he may be disposed to repeat the twenty-third Psalm ; and he will then feel the force of it.
The husbandman, who is employed in the works of the field, has many opportunities beyond other men ; all his works are of such a sort, as may suggest reli- gious thoughts, and lead his mind to devotion : our blessed Saviour took one of his finest parables from the labours of the field ; where the ground, good and bad, is the heart of man ; the seed is the word of God ; the wheat the righteous ; the tares the ungodly ; the harvest the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. Who can have these things before him, with- out thinking about himself; what he is, and what is to become of him? and these thoughts will lead him to
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his prayers ; that he may be ready to receive into his mind the good seed of God's word, and to lay it up in his heart, as the grain is covered in the earth, that it may bring forth fruit to life eternal. Then shall the angels come at the end of the world, when the great harvest shall be gathered, to take the elect into the kingdom of God. If the husbandman thinks on these things, his work will be sanctified ; and he himself will be brought nearer every day to the kingdom of heaven. It is very truly said of the husbandman, that his work is never done ; every season, every day, brings some new employment with it. It is the same with the Christian : his work is never done ; and he would be under a dangerous mistake, if he should think it is : for the tempter is always at some new device, to give a Christian sorrow or trouble ; Jie never thinks his work done, till the man is destroyed, and made a child of hell, instead of a child of God.
I would have it here to be remembered, that 1 am only giving a few examples, which the learner is to practise upon, and be multiplying all the days of his life. I open a school-door, into which he that is dis- posed may enter and profit according to his capacity; the employment is delightful ; and the matter in- exhaustible.
In our observations upon other people, charity and all the Christian virtues will be exceedingly promoted, if we use ourselves to make a short prayer on what passes before our eyes. Thus if we see one that is blind ; how proper would it be to say, " Lord, thou hast taken from that man bodily sight, give him the sight of the mind, which is far better." If you see one that is lame, you may say, " O thou who didst enable the lame to walk ; though thou art not now pre- sent with us, to heal the infirmities of our bodies, thou
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canst still show us the path of life, and enable us to walk in the way everlasting : thus shall the halt and lame enter into life." If we hear of any one that is fallen into some dreadful sin or calamity, it would be proper to say, " Lord, I bless thy name, that I myself am not made an example to that man, who is now made an example to me : raise up him that is fallen ; and let me not he high minded, hut fear ; for hlessed is the man that feareth ahvays in such a world as this." If you should hear the bell sound for a funeral, you may say, " Lord, make me wise to consider my latter end: that while I live I may live unto thee, and when I die, I may die unto thee, so that living and dying I may be thine."
Once more : if you should be present when cri- minals are judged at an assize ; think of the great tribunal of Jesus Christ : think, how we shall all be called out of our graves, to stand hefore his judg- ment-seat : in which case it is hardly possible for a man to turn his eyes towards himself, without saying, " liOrd, how, where, shall I appear in that dreadful day ? O let thy holy angels find me, to strengthen and encourage me, before I dare to look upon thy face ; that so I may have boldness in the day of judg- ment, and find myself placed on thy right hand among the heirs of salvation : Lord rememher me in that day; for my heart ptanteth, my strength faileth, when I think of it : but thou didst expire upon the Cross, to lessen the terrors of it to ine and all ptoor jicniient sinners."
There would be no end, if we were to collect such other examples as might be thought of ; the day, the night, the sea, the land, the heaven ahove, and the earth heneath, abound with objects to exercise our devotion. I would now say a word or two on the ad-
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vantage of praying in this manner. If prayer be a labour to the mind, there is none of it here : a small transient ejaculation is sufficient to signify the dis- position of the heart, even though it be not uttered by the lips : for God is a witness to the meditations of the heart. Therefore it may be used in society, as well as in solitude ; and in whatever work a man is employed, provided it be lawful, it will not be inter- rupted but promoted. Is the husbandman interrupted, if, when he casts the seed into the ground, he prays that the seed of God's word may take root in his own heart ? so far from it, that it will bring down a bless- ing upon himself and his labour : and improve his daily work into a work of grace ; a work, by which his mind will be kept in constant practice, to a temper of piety : so that he may be strictly said, to loalk with God, as the Saints did of old ; which should be the first object of a Christian's ambition. The agreement between the objects of the natural world and the ob- jects of revelation, so amply and illustriously displayed in the Scriptures, shews (to those who understand it) a wonderful sight ; it shews the whole Creation as one great picture of divine truth : which will give as much entertainment, and afford more variety to the imagi- nation of a Christian, than all the works of genius, which all the wit of man ever did, or ever will invent. It is as wide as the world, and as bright as the ocean, when the sun shines upon it. Religious meditation and devotion draw it forth into use ; and shew so many ways of applying it to the edification of the mind, that if we can bring any qualified person to this one employment, he will never complain that Christianity is a dry study. It infuses a new spirit into common things, which in themselves are dull and insipid : every trifling event assumes a new figure and new import-
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ance, when applied to spiritual things : every common object changes its nature and value * : the touch of a devout mind has a magical effect upon it, and turns it into gold ; so that to live by this rule, and turn all objects to a spiritual use, is the next thing to living in a spiritual world.
There will be this further advantage, and a great one it is, that we shall find this sort of devotion our best security against temptation. Good thoughts will keep out evil ones. The tempter makes use of all objects to corrupt our minds, and draw us into evil : the way of turning them to godliness, is directly con- trary to his way of turning them to sin : and there- fore it is the best remedy in the world against his devices ; it may be used also, as a test to the mind, whether it be alive to God or not. If the Christian finds himself disposed to it, or if he does not, he may thence learn the state of his own soul, and discover, whether he is a carnal or a spiritual man ; whether he is in the light or in the dark : if he feels no incli- nation to it, his own soul is then a thing of no con- cern to him. Satan may have it, for what he cares ; this world has blinded his eyes : all the objects in it serve to wrong uses; it is a curse, and not a blessing to him, that he was brought into it ; and when that perishes, he must perish with it.
If a man sees nothing spiritual here, he will see nothing hereafter : but if he looks at the things of this
* If the reader wishes to know better this art of applying natural objects to sacred subjects ; I would desire him to consult a small Key to the Language of Prophecy, hound up with the third edition of the Book of Nature ; also, Lectures on the Figurative Language of the Scriptures. The Husbandman's Manual ; with such other things as he can collect of the same kind : particularly a Treatise on Eja- culatory Prayer, by the Rev. Robert Cooke, late Vicar of Boxted, in Essex. All printed for Rivingtons.
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world with an eye of faith, and can make them the subject of some petition to God, he may then con- clude, that his heart is alive; and that, with the help of divine grace, he may so pass through things tem- poral, and make such an use of them, that they shall help him to pass on through them, to things eternal.
Before I conclude, my beloved brethren, suffer me once more to look back to the subject of prayer in general ; of which I must always think, and will al- ways affirm it, that it is the first practical ^niy of the Christian religion : on which consideration, I know not what to say of those Christians, who do not pray : they will pardon me, if I know not what to call them ; I can scarcely cry out with the prophet, " awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." To speak freely, I wonder how any family can look one another in the face, when they assemble together in the morning, to begin the works of the day, with- out a solemn invocation of Almighty God, for his di- rection, help, and blessing on all the affairs of this transient and dangerous state. I shall be thankful, if one single soul shall be brought by what I have here said to a better mind.
SERMON XXIII.
THESE FILTHY DREAMERS DEFILE THE FLESH, DES- PISE DOMINION, AND SPEAK EVIL OF DIGNITIES. ST. JUDE, VERSE 8.
The people here described are every way reprehen- sible. They are compared to the men of Sodom for their wickedness ; and to dreamers, for their absur- dity and foolishness ; their thoughts, principles, and reasonings, having no more foundation in sense, than those of men in a dream. There always were such peo- ple in existence ; but of late, a new and abundant ge- neration of them has appeared in the world ; as if a swarm of locusts had lately issued out of the bottom- less pit, with fire and smoke, to destroy all things. They are very busy in the work of turning the world upside down ; and a considerable part of their work (the beginning on which all depends) consists in cheating the senses, and inflaming the passions of ignorant people. They are said to despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. Dominion is the same with Government : these people despise the thing, and speak evil of those that exercise it : but their ar- gumentation signifies no more than if they were talking in their sleep, according to the visions or the fancies with which the brain is then occupied. 1
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This is as exact, a description of some persons who now make a great noise in the world, as if the Apostle had seen them. But that is no wonder : folly and wickedness may find some new words ; but they are no new things. What Satan does now in the children of disobedience, is so like what he did formerly, that we are not ignoi-ant of his devices : and the delusions of men are after the old fashion, though they may find some new expressions.
The text requires us to examine, first, what the thing is which these people despise : secondly, how they proceed, when they would make others despise it.
The thing which they despise is Dominion. The word here used signifies lordship over others ; and such lordship there must be in some persons or other, because the world cannot go on without it: there must be rulers below, as there are rulers above. The sun is said to rule over the day ; and the moon and stars to govern the night : without them, nature would be all in confusion. The elements of the world are contrary tempers, and must be regulated by the powers of heaven, which keep them to their appoint- ed course. The state of the natural world is, and will ever be, so long as it continues, a state of go- vernment. The sun will be the lord and ruler of the day : and if any man should talk of improving the world, by setting the elements to rule themselves better without the sun, we should immediately pro- nounce that man to be in a dream. And the case is as clear with respect to human society. For no man comes into this world to have his own will ; but to have somebody set over him, that he may not have it. And the reason is this ; that if one man be born to have his own will, another will be born to have his ;
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but this is not possible : for different men ivill very different things : two men want the same thing, where but one of them can have it. Their wills in- terfere in such a manner, that if every man were to have his will, human society would be like the waves of the sea in a storm, dashing and breaking one ano- ther to pieces. They must therefore be under some law, some i-ule; and consequently there must be some Ruler to enforce it : for a law considered in itself is a speculation, and can effect nothing. Unless confu- sion is to prevail, the authority of some over others is as necessary to the world, as that God should go- vern the universe, and keep the elements in order. For this purpose He that certainly rules the natural world, hath as certainly placed himself at the head of the active world : he hath made laws, to restrain the will of man, and keep it in subjection to himself His ten commandments are an absolute check upon the unlawful will of one man, that it may not interfere with the lawful will of another, but may leave him in the quiet possession of every thing that is his ; and in so doing God hath established the right of possession. And if there be a right of possession, and laws can- not execute themselves (for what can letters and pa- pers and books do ?) there must be persons to see that they are executed : in order to which, they must have power over those who wish to see them 7iot executed. And who are they? Who, but the men that cry out for liberty ? Honest men want no liberty, but that of being secure and unmolested in their possessions; for which end law and government were established in the world. Liberty and government, in the mouths of some men, are two opposite things, but they are in their nature the same. Laws may be mild and fa- vourable to the people : but government must be go-
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vernment : there may be liberty under- it, but there can be no liberty against it. For as the total absence of government would be absolute confusion ; so every relaxation of government is a weakness which par- takes of anarchy, and must be attended with many of its effects. If you would know what a nation is with government, and what witJiout it, look at a man of sense, and a madman. The man of sense walks by rule : he has a regard to the happiness of others as well as his own, knowing that they have an equal right to it; and he lives in subjection to the laws of God and man. In the madman, the governing prin- ciple is gone : he has no rule, but his inclination to foUy and mischief: it is dangerous to meet him abroad ; therefore he is shut up, and his liberty is taken away for the safety of all honest sober people, who go regularly about their business. If there should be a majority of lunatics, they would vote themselves to be the only people of sense, and pro- nounce the sober part of the world to be mad. If in such a case there should not be power enough to restrain them, in what a fearful condition should we be ! God Almighty deliver us from it ! And it is cer- tainly his will that we should be delivered from it, by his appointed law and government amongst us.
Let us then ask what this government is ? When men are gathered into an orderly society, they are called a hodij ; because, like a body, they are under some head, which rules and directs all the rest of the members. If the head is stricken off from a body, that body falls into convulsions, and becomes a shocking spectacle. If the head is of no effect, the body is like that of a madman, acting extravagantly and doing mischief. Every body therefore must have some effective head to rule and direct, and a people under a government of
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due authority, and who are themselves in due subor- dination, are like the body of man when in a rational and healthy state, and in a fair way to continue so. The two cases of an army by land, and a ship at sea, are plain cases, which shew that whatever the con- stitution of a government may be in theory, it must be, in practice, under some one leader, as a natural body has one head. The ship then keeps her destined course ; but if the crew are mutinous, and rise upon the commander, then the ship turns pirate and plun- ders the world, or changes her course, and sets sail for some paradise of fools in a remote part of the uni- verse. The history of such a crew would be some- thing like the history of a certain nation, now in a state of piracy against the world, whos6 directors are nothing but criminals, and, as such, merit the fate of robbers and ruffians, which by the just judgment of God many of them have met with.
The sum of the matter is this. Man is not under his own will, but under the will of God : and as man doth not know the will of God, nor can know it ; the laws of society must originally come from God ; and the authority to execute those laws must be from the same. He that kills a man for his own will and plea- sure without law is a murderer : he that kills him with law is a judge or ruler ; one into whose hand God, for the maintaining of his own laws, and the safety of the people, puts a sword : and if he holds that sword in vain, evil prevails, and the hand is turned against him- self. This was the case of the poor unfortunate King of France ; of whom it is said, that by permitting the law to take its course against a few worthless wretches, not fit to live, (as he was intreated to do at a critical moment, when the sword was in his hand) ; he might have saved the lives of a million of innocent peo-
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pie. How many more we know not : for the con- fusion being once begun, and among the people who have always given fashions to Europe, may last to the world's end, and be the immediate cause of its end.
Look upon the natural world, and see how quiet and orderly it is under the Government of God. There his laAvs are never broken. The sun shines ; the moon rises ; the stars are in their prescribed sta- tions ; the tides ebb and flow at their time ; the spring gives her flowers ; the summer ripens the corn ; and the autumn gathers it. Thus tranquil and orderly would human society be, if it would but be as obe- dient to the laws of God. Oh how devoutly is it to be wished, that the moral world were under an authority as wise and as irresistible ! But God has left man, as a free agent, to his own counsel ; that, if he sees fit, he may break the divine laws, overturn the whole or- der of things, and terrify the nations of the earth with " blood and fire and pillars of smoke ;" which words do well describe the present state of war in this last age of the world.
The reason being now plain, why God hath ap- pointed the rule of some over others ; and it being fully shewn what a blessing it is, when this order is duly observed, and what misery follows when it is broken, we are now to examine what sort of people they are who despise dominion. Evil men you may be sure they must be ; and in one respect they act wisely ; they do well to hate government ; for it is pointed against themselves. A great philosopher of ancient Greece pronounced it impossible for man to be wise if he were not good ; and he spoke the truth : for if you watch evil men closely, you will always discover that they are fools, and that their own tongues will
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make them fall ; insomuch that he who seeth them shall laugh them to scorn. Our text therefore calls them dreamers; their opinions being as monstrous, as incoherent, as unprofitable, as ridiculous, and as un- accountable, as those of men that are asleep. One of their first devices is this : when they cannot openly deny the necessity of Government to the good of man; they speak evil of dignities ; they rail at the persons that exercise it : either as persons weak in their un- derstandings ; or ill-intentioned ; or insufficiently in- formed ; or oppressive and tyrannical. If the laws cannot be spoken against (though they do this as often as they dare) they fall foul upon them that administer them, in order to make the laws themselves odious. The children of disobedience, who reject all authority, are particularly denominated as children of Belial, in whom he is said to work. Now if the Scripture tells us truly, that the spirit that is in us, our own human spirit, lusteth to envy, and that envy, and hatred which always attends it, are natural lusts of the mind ; what must men become, when there is an Evil Spirit work- ing within, to impel them, and inflame them, till their tongues (as the Apostle speaks) are set on fire of hell? Then does all . manner of seditious language break forth and abound, with such vain boasting and vile abuse as honest men cannot account for : but the Evil Spirit knows what he intends by it : he knows, that as the fiery tongues of the Gospel gave light and peace to the world, so his fiery tongues will spread discord and confusion, to the ends of the earth. All this is done directly, to raise discontents, and make govern- ment itself an odious thing. Their next step is to overturn it, by propagating false principles among the people. I called them principles ; but having no foun- dation, they really are dreams. The first is this, that VOL. IV. A a
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every man has rights; -which is said with this design, that every man may be discontented, and may turn the world upside down by contending for them.
There is no such thing in the world as the absolute right these persons talk about. There is no right with- out reason ; and right will follow reason, so long as men speak sense. But in a dream, reason has no share ; so we find little of it here. We must ask, in what state of man is this right to be found ? Man can have no right before he is born. To his hirth he has no right ; for it is the gift of God that he comes into the world at all. In his infancy he may have a right to be fed and nursed, because he cannot feed himself; but then his parents also, so long as he is dependent upon them, have a right to his obedience and service. If as he grows up he refuses to work, he has no right to eat. If as he grows up he cheats and steals, he has no right to be exempted from suffering punishment as a felon : if he commits murder, he has no right to escape the righteous sentence of death. I say these things to shew that rights are in every case, the rights of justice; that every right must have its reason ; and where there is no reason there can be no right. The rights of man must be the rights of man in society ; and where there is society, there must be government : all the rest is either a vision, which is nothing ; or it is the direct contrary to all right and justice; the assumed right of the wild beast in the desert, or the lawless murderer. If it were true that one man comes into the world with a right against another, it must be equally true, that the other comes into the world with an equal right against him ; and opposite rights amount to nothing : they can be no rights till there be some third preponderant power to decide between them ; which third power is what we call government ; and
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till that interferes, the social compact is a state of war and violence, in which every man's hand is against every man.
But it may be imagined, that though single men have no rights, many men, whom we call the people, may have some right. I think not : for if one wave of the sea has no right ; add all the other waves of the ocean, and you make the case worse. All the right they have is to ride over one another's heads, and dash one another to pieces. And this never fails to be the case when the experiment is tried among mankind : and therefore the Scripture puts together the noise of the waves, and the madness of the people. The winds and tempests drive the waves ; and the winds of concupiscence, which will never be at rest, so long as man is man, drive the people.
But our dreamers say further, that all men are by nature equal : whence the practical inference follows, that as they are now in fact unequal, one half may rob the other half, till they are all reduced to the same level. This is the doctrine of those who are called Levellers. But call it what you will, any man may see, that the whole is a scheme of plunder ; and that the reason given for it is no reason, because it has no foundation in nature. For, are all men born equal ? No : not in any one respect whatever. Some are born wise, some foolish : and if we are to have a law that all men shall be equal, we may as well have a law that all shall be wise ; all shall be tall ; all shall be strong. Consider all men as members of a body. Is this body all head ? Are all men heads ? all made to direct — are all men eyes ? all made to see for others ? Are all hands, to work for others ? all feet, to walk ? all made for messengers ? have all tongues to speak and teach ? What absurdity is here ! Change
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the order of the body in any one respect, and it is no longer a body but a monster *. Are they men that can reason thus in a dream, or are they not ? The man that is awake will know : but he who is himself dreaming will not. But if men were all born equal, like the blades of wheat in a field of corn ; or if it were in the power of man to make them equal, nothing could lieep them so. If all the lands of a country were equally divided, the share of a single man would be small ; and how is a poor man to oc- cupy it ? To furnish himself with stock and imple- ments of husbandry, he must part with some of his land, which immediately makes him unequal ; and so the plan miscarries at the first step. They who have of late invented or revived this equality, are them- selves a proof of its absurdity : has equality set them at ease ? has it indeed ever taken place amongst them ? By no means : they are ravaging and destroying the countries on three sides of them, and they would ravage this country if they could. It is with them as naturalists tell us it is with the kingdom of bees : if their chief be lost, the rest turn thieves, and plunder their neighbours as far as they can. This is exactly verified in the nation who of late destroyed their king ; and it is a fact which ought to open the eyes of this whole nation : but when men are under the power of visions in a dream, realities have no effect.
* When the first republic of these last days was begotten by rebellion, (as all republics are) they were going to make a law that all men should be equal : " but hold," says one wiser than the rest, " you must make a law first, that none shall be industri- " ous : for the industrious will soon be above the idle, do whatever *' you will : and certain it is, equality can never be restored again till " the idle robs the industrious, and seizes the fruit of another's " labour."
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But your enemies, knowing the wildness and weak- ness of their arguments, and not daring to trust their cause to them, have another deep device to practise upon you ; in which, I must no longer say they dream, but show how nearly they are related to the grand author of mischief, who never sleeps. If they cannot make you foolish all at once, they are persuaded they shall do it at last, if they begin with making you wiclted. Therefore every art is tried to spread wick- edness among you. You believe the word of God : that keeps you in the fear of God : and that fear will never suffer you to turn robbers and republicans. Therefore the Bible, which stands in the way, must first be taken out of the way : Christianity must be ri- diculed : argument, mockery, and blasphemy, rise all at once, to perplex you and corrupt you. To overturn the world, by first overturning Christianity, has been the work of the party from the beginning. This was their employment at home till they had ruined their own monarchy : and no sooner did they get footing in Germany, than, in a military fortress, they began to print the works of that infidel, who drew people on with his wit, till he ruined their hearts, and made each of his disciples as much the child of hell as he was himself. All the world knows that the first Re- publicans were heathens : therefore, if the foundation of heathenism can be laid, a broad and easy way is open to a Republic. See who they are that incline to this party : they are either persons of a false reli- gion, or of no religion at all : the avaricious, whom nothing will satisfy ; the prodigal, whom nothing will maintain ; the ambitious, who have no other way of distinguishing themselves ; the vicious, who can bear with no regular authority. The eyes of such persons the God of this world hath blinded, that he
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may lead them blindfold to their own destruction, and that of their comitry.
My brethren, you see who they are that despise dominion, and how they argue. When you consider that they are in a dream, be thankful to God who hath called you to awake out of sleep, and be of the number of those who are not of the night nor of dark- ness, but are children of light and truth. If you wish to have the advantage against them, be Christians : they will hate you the more, but they will prevail the less ; for God, we hope, will be on our side. Let us, in one word, escape their sin, and we shall have no reason to be afraid of X\ieix power.
SERMON XXIV.
EXCEPT YE REPENT, YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PARISH. LUKE XIIL 8.
All impenitent sinners will be punished ; but not immediately. Some are distinguished, for an example to others : and if those others do not take warning, they will then be doubly guilty, and deserve a double punishment.
Some people of Judea had been killed at Siloam by the falling of a tower upon their heads ; and others of Galilee had been cruelly slaughtered by Pilate. In such cases, it was the manner of the Jews to argue, that if any suffered punishment, it was a sure sign they were sinners ; and if their punishment was great, that their sin must have been great also. But with this they had another dangerous opinion ; viz. that if a man were not punished, then it would follow, that he was not a sinner ; at any rate, not so great a sinner as those that were punished. This was one way they had of justifying themselves, by comparing themselves with other men. When they told our Saviour how the Galileans had suffered ; partly with design to affront him as a supposed Galilean, and partly out of curio-
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sity to hear what he would say, they put this question to him: " Master, what great sin had those Galileans committed, that they suffered such things ?" He does not answer to their curiosity, (which signified nothing) but he answers to their mistake ; letting them know, that those men had not been chosen for punishment because they were the greatest of sinners ; but to give warning to other sinners, as great or greater than themselves, that without repentance they also would certainly perish at some time or other. A tower might not fall upon their heads, to kill them in the midst of their rioting, as was the case at Siloam ; neither might the sword of a tyrant slay them ; yet they might be assured, they should at length perish under the vengeance of God ; and this vengeance had already fallen upon some as an earnest and ex- ample to all the rest.
If you consider with yourselves what it is to perish, that is, to be lost and miserable to eternity ; and that you must either perish or repent; I think you will be ready to hear what I have to offer upon the subject ; and if your minds should hitherto have been careless and dead upon it, you will awake, and hear what is to be said : for at some time or other you must awake ; and how much better is it to be called out of your sleep by 2i friend, than to be awakened in the morning by the voice of an executioner, calling you to your death !
I shall have but little difficulty in making you un- derstand what it is to repent, if you recollect the vow you made at your baptism, to renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are the three enemies, which draw men into sin, and by binding them down in it with a chain, hinder their repentance. The devil tempts you to pride, envy, malice, ignorance, cruelty.
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falsehood, and disobedience ; by the last of which, I mean rebellious undutifulness. The world tempts you to covetousness, vanity, the pursuit of pleasure, the love of shew and appearance : and covetousness draws you into injustice, fraud, oppression, and extortion. The flesh tempts you to excess, self-indulgence, sloth, intemperance, greediness, drunkenness, and all such sins as turn man into a beast ; the worst of beasts, and the most odious, which is the swine.
The law of God in the ten commandments, as you have been taught in your catechism, is pointed against all these sins, and, the law of God being known, con- science will be sure to tell you how and when you depart from it ; and it will so often set your offences before you, that it requires very little art and skill to try and examine yourselves according to the plain rule of God's commandments. Your heart, if you listen to it, will soon tell you how you stand, in respect to the law of God on the one hand, and to your three enemies and their works on the other. To repent, is to forsake them and their works, and turn to God and his law; not in your words only, but in your hearts ; for so the catechism teaches ; that by repentance we do not only confess sin, but forsake it.
I am convinced, that very little teaching is wanting to shew people what it is to forsake sin, and turn to God. Our Saviour says nothing about it in the text, but supposes his meaning to be sufficiently under- stood ; and that nothing is wanting in his hearers, but a due consideration of the motive, which should lead all men to repentance : that except they repent, they shall perish. What a terrible world is this, if we could understand it now, as it will be understood by sinners hereafter : But, as it is said of the things which God hath prepared for them that love him, that they are
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such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive them ; so may we say of those other things, which God hath prepared for them who do not love him, that they are such as our senses of seeing, and hear- ing, and conceiving, will not now enable us fully to understand. What it is to perish, can be known, so far only, as God has been pleased to reveal to us in his word. If it were possible for us to comprehend it in its full extent, the prospect might shock us to such a degree, as to strike us dead upon the spot with terror. But that would be of no use ; it is not de- signed to fright us out of life, but to fright us out of sin. God grant that it may have its effect ! The general sense of it is contained in those words of our Saviour concerning his sheep — I give unto them eter- nal life, and they shall yiq.\qx perish: so that to perish, is to lose eternal life ; and, with that, all things desire- able and delightful to man. It is hard for us to con- ceive what a spirit can be without life : but you may have some understanding of it, if you consider that there is even in this world a life which is no life ; with which when death is compared, it is preferred, and often chosen, as the better of the two. Many there are to be found, who live only to feel misery ; who breathe only to utter sighs and groans : and when the body is thus overloaded with infirmity, the faculties of the mind are of little use. When the strength of the body is gone, the spirit is also broken, and no longer capable of exerting itself any further, than barely to be sensible of its own suffering. What is such a life as this, but a daily death ? And if we were to say of such a person, that he dies every day, the meaning of the expression would immediately be understood by those who are made acquainted with the case. We
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are then to conceive, that the spirit which loses eternal life, lives only to suffer and to be miserable. It lives, but without the powers and comforts of life. It is separated from Christ, the Light of the world ; and having lost him, finds nothing but the darkness of despair. It is separated from the Spirit, whose name is the Comforter, and its misery can find no allevia- tion. Being thus divided from the Light and Spirit of the Lord, the divine presence can be manifested to it only as a consuming fire, such as God is said to be to the wicked : it will never be blessed with a prospect of that place which Christ hath prepared for his disci- ples : it will never be admitted to the society of an- gels, and just men made perfect ; but will be sent away to join the blaspheming crew of fallen angels ; and be tormented with those, for whom torment was made. These are some of those terrors of the Lord, by the preaching of which the Sii^ostles persuaded tnen; that is, persuaded them to repent, and fly from the wrath to come. And perhaps, they that hear me now may think it necessary they should repent : perhaps they form a resolution that they will repent. So did Felix ; and thought he might find a proper season for it ; but that season never came : " Go thy way, for this time, (said he to Paul,) when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." Thus it generally hap- pens : for, as Felix never found a time, so the man who doth not enter upon a new course of life, the moment he is convinced that such a course is neces- sary, never enters upon it at all : if he suffers himself once to cool upon the subject, all things are against him, and he will never be warm any more : if he can put off his repentance, he will never repent at all : and I will give you my reasons, why I think he will not.
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1. Man brings with him a corrupt nature into the world : he is more incHned to evil than to good. One bad example can draw him further into a life of wick- edness, and prevail more for his destruction, than twenty good ones for his reformation. One corrupt- ing discourse from a seducing companion will instil more evil into his mind, than twenty demonstrations from the pulpit will be able to overcome : this is my first reason.
2. When sin becomes habitual to the mind, the case is daily altering for the worse. There is a double disadvantage ; sin grows stronger, and the mind grows weaker : on which account, he who does not resist his sin to-day, will be less able to do it to-morrow. It is the same with sin as with sickness. All men know, that in the case of bodily sickness, it is of the utmost importance to seize the first opportunity of a cure. Some trifling remedy may be sufficient now ; but after a few days, not all the remedies in the world ; and so the case is a lost one.
3. The Scripture represents it as an impossibility to change a habit of evil for a habit of good : and we have a frightful picture of the case by the prophet Jeremiah, in the following words : " Can the Ethio- pian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye do good, that have been accustomed to do evil." Yet men are so sottish as to continue the practice of sin ; and if they think at all (which some never do) they think they shall be able to wash it off when they please, as easily as if it were a speck of dirt. But when it is grown old, it is no longer like dirt upon the skin ; it is the blackness of the Ethio- pian, to take away which, you must take away the skin at the same time. Did you ever hear of the herdsman, who thought the time would come, when
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all his black cattle would turn white ? You would conclude such a man to be out of his senses. But doth not the sinner ; doth not he, who knows he can not make one hair of his head white or black, expect that this may happen to himself? Doth not he per- suade himself, that his soul, hardened and blackened by sin, (by a life of sin) may become pure and white before he dies? Thousands commit this mistake, and the world wonders not at it ; neither will such people appear in their true character, till the last day shall shew them without disguise to men and angels.
4. There is another reason, why such men never re- pent ; because they see so many around them who do not. Well therefore may the Spirit warn us against this danger ; follow 7iot a multitude to do evil. And if you would know what the power of a multitude is, look at the fashions : see how fast people run into them, and how they are never ashamed of them ; ashamed did I say ? how they are proud of them : and certainly very many are proud of their sin, for the same reason, because without it they cannot be like the multitude. The world is always wrong, and it never repents ; neither will he repent who conforms to it ; the world will keep the impenitent sinner in coun- tenance : there are so many of his own sort, that he need never be ashamed; and if it is like to be well with them all, he has nothing to be afraid of : but we know that the world, which lieth in wickedness, is to be condemned ; and he that looks up to it as a rule will be condemned with it.
If you consider, that true repentance is a conver- sion from sin to a life of righteousness, you will be sure that it must be a work, not only of difficulty, but of time. It is in grace, as it is in nature : the grain
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comes to be fit for the harvest by slow degrees. The ground is first to be broken up by the plough ; then it is to be sown ; then follow the blades of corn ; at first they are tender, and remain long upon the ground be- fore the ears of corn are found upon them. This is a process which begins in the spring, and is not finished till late in the summer. It is thus with the Christian ; the fallow ground of his heart must be broken up by true contrition,before the seed of God's word which falls upon it can spring up, and bear fruit. Yet there are some people, who think they can be Christians all at once, when they please to find time for it. You never heard of a field that was ploughed, and sown, and full grown, and fit to be reaped, and all this in one day : and you never yet saw a Christian, who at- tained all at once to the life of grace. At the creation of the world, plants grew up instantly at the word of God ; but no farmer of any sense expects that such a thing will happen noiv. So, at the beginning of the gospel, Paul, by a miracle of which he had no expect- ation, and against his own will, was a complete Christian in a few days : but the like is not to be ex- pected now, any more than that God should raise up the fruits of the earth as he did at the creation of the world. As he would be a foolish husbandman, who should neglect his land, and let the weeds grow till midsummer, and presume that God will give him a crop by a miracle at the harvest ; so must he needs be a foolish Christian, who puts off the great work of re- formation to the close of his life, till the opportunity, and the accepted season of grace, is lost : who thinks the good seed of God's word may take effect in a heart, where sin has been striking its roots deeper and deeper every year : who thinks, that the religion of Christ may be learned at a time of life, when few men,
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who had not learned them before, would be able to learn their letters : who can flatter himself, that he may be entitled to the reward of good works, after his life has been spent in filling up the measure of his iniquities.
Christian reformation then is a work of time ; and the man who puts it off to another day will not be reformed at all, unless by a miracle of grace ; which he hath no reason to expect ; whose vain presumption is a tempting of God to transgress the laws of his justice, in favour of an impenitent sinner, who hath so long trifled with the offers of his mercy and good- ness. Repentance, at whatever season it comes, is the gift of God; and St. Paul makes it very doubtful whether God will grant it at all times, even to those that ask it : for to some whom he adviseth to pray for it, he uses these remarkable words, if God per ad- venture will give tJiem repentance : as if there were no rule nor promise to render it certain, that every sort of offender might have it for asking. St. Peter expresses the same doubt in the case of Simon Magus : " repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, IF PERHAPS the thought of thine Jieart may be forgiven thee." But the most terrible of all to this purpose is the declaration of God by Solomon ; whence it may certainly be inferred, that the dilatory presump- tuous sinner, who has dared to try the patience of God, by refusing to hear him, shall at last find no place for repentance and acceptance. " Because I have called and ye refused, I will also laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer ; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me." Therefore seek God while he may be found : refuse not to hear him at the first call ; for after that re-
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fusal, you know not what the second may be : death and judgment may be the only things remaming to you.
We often see how dreadfully they are disappointed, who deceive themselves with the assurance of future opportunities, when there can be no such assurance. Two things are requisite toward a true repentance, time and ability, neither of which are in our power ; both are in the hands of God. I look upon it as a sure sign of repentance, when a person thinks of the blessed sacrament, who never thought of it before, and is desirous of preparing his mind for it by prayer and a serious examination of his conscience, as the Church of England directs, in her exhortations to the people. That person I consider as a true penitent, who is forsaking his sins, and putting himself in a way of salvation ; and I pray to God to help him forward and give him perseverance. But I have met with those, who seemed to have formed a good intention to do their duty, yet have put off the performance for the present, and said in their hearts, " Not this time ; the next will do very well ;" but, alas, before the next time came, I have seen them seized with sudden inca- pacity, and hurried without warning into their grave; where every farther opportunity was lost, and while their great account remained unsettled.
On the other hand, if I see a man, who from time to time can hear the exhortations, the solemn, and earnest, and affectionate exhortations of the church, to bring the congregation to the holy communion, and pay no regard to them ; I am sure that man does not repent ; and I have all the reason in the world to fear and believe, that he 7iever intends it. What is to be- come of him hereafter, when he shall make his appear- ance before the tribunal of Christ, we do not yet see :
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but I can tell you what generally comes of him here ; (I say generalhj ; for we must not presume to make a certain rule for the searcher of hearts to follow :) generally then it happens to such a person, that he dies as insensible as he lives ; and when death gives him warning, that warning is not taken. He who has hardened his ears against the language of the Church, does at last not understand the language of death, though it speaks loud enough and plain enough for every body else to understand it. For it is the en- deavour of Satan, after he has deceived a sinner all his life, to deceive him at his death, and make him as insensible of his bodily, as he has always been of his spiritual danger : so that when his neighbours and friends see him sinking apace out of life, his head is filled with nothing but thoughts of this world : he is contriving how some business shall be done a month or a year hence, and perhaps at some greater dis- tance. He determines in his sickness, what a man dare not determine in his health, if he has any wis- dom about him. If it happens that he is aware of his ill state, then he is amused with hopes of reco- very : his old Enemy suggests to him, that he is not in such danger as people think him ; that there is but a very little between him and health ; and with these vain expectations he is buoyed up, till his last breath undeceives him. This is the common end of one who has hardened himself against the^grace of God, and lived in the total neglect of repentance, or put it off to the time of his death : he and his in- tended repentance go on and on, from time to time, till they drop both together into another world, wherein there is no repentance.
If then, my brethren, the text assures every sinner, that he must either repent or perish ; and if a careless
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life ends in an impenitent and hopeless death ; my lesson after this may be short. If the sinner would tiy to be saved, he must try noic ; and he must be as quick as he can : he must flee from the wrath to come. He must be as much in haste, as he would be, if he were running with the family of Lot, and saw Sodom on fii"e behind him. For the same fire is now pur- suing every sinner, whether he sees it or not ; and unless the saving angels shall lead him by the hand to Zoar, it will certainly overtake him. There is no time for loitering : you must escape for your life with all speed, or be lost : Sodom was intended to shew you that ; where one faithless soul, by loitering, was lost.
Let no man therefore deceive himself with any vain expectation, that though he is not such as he could wish at present, he shall be so, at some future time: that if he is not prepared to meet his God now, he shall be so, before he dies. This is the delusion un- der which so many perish. The broad way to hell is crouded with people, who intended to grow better, but never did. When once they have this habit of loitering, as they live, so they die : nothing makes any difference in them but death ; and that makes A great difference. Now to God, &c.
SERMON XXV.
AND WHEN THEY HAD GONE THROUGH THE ISLE UNTO PAPHOS, THEY FOUND A CERTAIN SORCERER, A FALSE PROPHET, A JEW, WHOSE NAME WAS BAR-JESUS. ACTS XIII. 6.
The great apostle of the Gentiles is here in the course of that mission, on which he was sent by the Church of Antioch. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that the same Paul, who had been ap- pointed to the ministry by Jesus Christ himself in person, and who had his call and ordination from heaven, should yet be sent out like other men accord- ing to the forms of the Church. An order came from the Holy Ghost to them of Antioch, that they should separate (that is consecrate*) Barnabas and Saul; and accordingly they fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, and sent them away. After this, where is the man that shall pretend to a call from heaven, without a call from the Church, as sufficient to constitute a preacher of the Gospel ; when it was not sufficient in the case of Paul himself? To prevent disorder, it is the will of God, that the authority and rule of his Church should in all cases be preserved : so the Church sends out even where God himself hath separated already ; to the end that no man, under any circumstances whatever, may be independent of
* See Numb. xvi. 9.
B b 2
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the Christian society. The Apostle might have ob- jected to this " laying on of hands/' as unnecessary in his case, who had been consecrated already by an higher authority : but God acts by the Church which he has appointed, for the preservation of order and the preventing of imposture ; and charity, which seeJe- eth not her ouui, will never claim any private rights in opposition to it. St. Paul, therefore, who had been sent forth from heaven, was sent forth by the Church in company with Barnabas. It had been the custom of Christ to send out his disciples upon the work of the ministry by two and two, and thence we hear one of them calling his companion a true yolte-fellow : in conformity with which custom, Paul and Barnabas were sent together ; who travelled from Antioch to Seleucia, and thence took ship to the island of Cy- prus ; where, at Salamis, in the synagogues which the Jews had in that place, they exercised their minis- try : and, proceeding from thence, they went through the island to Paphos, which lay at the other extremity of it. In their progress, they must have said and done many things, which had already made them well known to the people : and in all probability the fame of their preaching had reached the place long before they arrived thither : in consequence of which, we are not to wonder that Sergius Paulus, the Roman pro- consul, was desirous to hear what so many others of the people had heard before him : he therefore called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God ; and being himself a man of sense and pru- dence, with a mind open to conviction, the word of God was likely to have its effect, and make a convert of him. But here an accident intervenes, which is far from being uncommon ; a certain man, who has an interest against the truth, throws himself across the
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way to hinder its progress : there seems to be some such mischievous blasphemous person ready in all places ; permitted by God, and provided by the Devil ; provided to resist the truth ; permitted to make it shine more bright ; as truth seldom fails to do, when it meets with malicious opposition. Thus when Moses presented himself to Pharaoh, the ma- gicians withstood him : with design to confute his wisdom by their philosophy, and to equal his miracles by their enchantments. This man seems to have been partly of the same character : the text calls him a sor- cerer ; nearly the same thing with an enchanter ; and so far he is an heathenized magician ; with that name o^3Iag'/ts, which is given only to the wise men of the heathen religion. There is a portentous mixture in this man's character ; for he who, as a magician, is an heathen, is also a Jew, and is called Bar-Jesus, which is a Jewish name. A Jew, free from prejudice, and learned in the Scriptures of the first covenant, was of all others best qualified to hear and receive the Gospel of Christ ; but this was a Jew fit for nothing but un- belief: because a Jew turned heathen, would be much worse than a native heathen : his Judaism, being of a spurious malignant kind, would be all against him, and carry him away so much farther from the truth. From his being acquainted, as a companion, with the proconsul, we may also judge that he was a person of some figure, one who had probably the repute of a learned education, such as qualified him to be in the society of the superior class of people. Such a man as this could foresee nothing but the total ruin of his own character in the doctrines of the Gospel ; there- fore it was improbable that he would receive them himself; and he was determined that no one else, as far as his influence went, should receive them. So he
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withstood the Apostles, and either by his arguments, or his sneers, or his lies, sought to prevail with Sergius not to listen to them. In such a case as this what does the Apostle do ? I can tell you what he would probably have done, had he lived in this civil half- believing age : when it is the fashion not to stand up for the authority of God, for fear of being reputed an high-churchman ; nor to be too sure of any thing, lest you should give offence to those, who find it conve- nient to be sure of nothing, and say, they cannot think as you do : so with the influence of our times upon him, he might have observed, " that the learned philosopher would be of another opinion if he would but permit him to lay the case before him ; that he had many things to say, which his opponent had probably not well considered." This was not the Apostle's manner : he knew that nothing but the Devil could resist the Gospel ; that nothing but darkness could be opposite to light ; so he makes the man no fair speeches ; but tells him and his friends in plain terms what he thinks of him, " O full of all subtlety and all mischief ; thou child of the Devil; thou enemy of all righteousness ; wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord ?" The ways of the Lord are the ways of truth, and the ways of truth are strait ; this man wanted to make them appear crooked and false ; and the Apostle seeing that this was his design, had no mercy upon him ; but gave him his real cha- racter at once. And from this example, we have a rule for our own conduct in like cases. Where per- sons err through ignorance, or cannot see properly for want of light, we are to make a proper difference, and treat them with all gentleness : but if they pre- tend to be wiser than wisdom, and wish not to see by the light, but to put it out that nobody else may see
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by it : in short, if their design is bad, then we are never to spare them ; we are never to be tender to malice ; for that is the same as to be cruel to all true men : therefore, there are cases, when the difference between good and evil must be expressed without reserve. Our power upon such occasions can be shewn only in words ; but the words of the Apostle were confirmed by a miracle ; and that so remarkable that there is nothing more so. Consider, that truth is light ; and that this man resisted the light of truth : therefore, the Apostle for a season consigned him to a state of darkness, in order that he himself and all pre- sent might know what he had done. Christ is the Sun of righteousness ; and he who will not own his light is not fit to see the light of heaven. The pu- nishment is exactly apposite to the crime : all who will not see the Gospel, deserve no other. All are not struck blind ; for that is not necessary, nor would it be expedient : but one is here struck blind for a warning to the rest. This Bar-Jesus, or Elymas, "was probably one of those who called themselves the illuminated : perhaps he would not have refused the Gospel, had he not in opinion had a better light of his own. Woe be unto them, therefore, who think they see : no men are in a worse state than they : you see their fate in this man : his bodily blindness is a pattern of their spiritual blindness ; and there is nothing more terrible in this world.
What a remarkable judgment is here upon unbelief! You may argue upon it, and say, surely it must have changed his opinion. When he perceived, that for resisting the Gospel he lost his eyesight, that must im- mediately have convinced him of his mistake, and he must have been converted to the truth ; but this was not the case : we do not find, that it wrought any 15
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difference in him. He makes no confession of his sin ; he utters neither prayer nor cry for mercy ; but goes about seeking for some to lead him by the hand. He can direct his feet no longer; that seems to be his concern : he wants somebody to lead him, that he may find his way home : as for finding the way to truth, he is as far from it as ever ; he had an hatred towards it, and had purposely withstood and prevented it ; and therefore did this evil come upon him. Where wickedness is in the manners of a sinner, his mind may be rectified, and that will mend his manners : but when the wickedness is in the mmd, there is little hope : it is not a departure from God and goodness through the prevailing lusts of the flesh ; but it is a hatred of them ; and then there is no remedy. St. Paul calls him by his true name, " thou child of the Devil;" and for this reason the miracle has no effect upon him ; he that is a devil, will continue to be a devil. This is a fearful consideration ; and it is a doctrine which it highly behoves us to understand.
The character of this wretch is very instructive : it shews us what sort of people there are in the world ; men whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded : whose minds are actually incapable of receiving the light of truth. This man was by profession a Jew ; but with it, was a Sorcerer, and a false prophet : and have not we as strange characters amongst us ? Put together another composition of the same kind; in- stead of the Jew, and the false prophet, and the sor- cerer ; say, a Christian, and a Socinian, and a philoso- pher : how often do these meet together ? and when they do meet, they form as strange a character as that of Elymas : a Christian, but no more of a Christian than Elymas was of a Jew ; a Sorcerer, big with con- ceit about the mysteries of nature ; a false prophet.
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denying as false what the Scripture reveals to be true : and teaching that the Lord of Glory is a mere man like ourselves ; that the writers to whom the Holy Ghost dictated were not inspired; that man neither hath nor wants any redemption in Jesus Christ : with other things of the same kind ; so hurt- ful to man, and so contrary to truth, that no Jew, no sorcerer, no false prophet, could teach worse.
If St. Paul had met with one of these, he would cer- tainly have addressed him as he did Elymas; he would have accused him of subtlety and mischief, and called him a child of the devil, whatever his companions might have wished to call him : they, perhaps. Would have extolled and magnified him, as a great, a learned, an ingenious man, wonderful in wisdom and know- ledge : and so, very probably, was this man reputed by people at the island of Cyprus ; if he had not been eminent in his way, he would scarcely have been encouraged by Sergius Paulus, the chief person of the place : and with this man, prudent as he was, the sor- cerer might have succeeded, and turned him away from the faith, if it had not been for the miracle which was wrought in his sight. For no sooner was Elymas made blind, than the deputy, seeing what was done, believed what he had heard, being astonished at the word of the Lord : he was astonished at the miracle, and he believed what was so confirmed. The power that made one man blind, opened the eyes of another ; and this was the way in which it pleased God to bring men to the Gospel. When the wisdom of man thinks about the right way of bringing us to truth, it thinks a different way from this. Man tells us, we must be reasoned with ; we must have it proved to us, that a doctrine is reasonable before we believe it ; and that if it does not appear reasonable, we ought not to re-
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ceive it at all. This is absurd and impossible : the Gospel could never have been propagated in that manner : there was no time for it. Sergius Paulus, to whom our Apostle addressed himself, was an heathen ; and to convert him by reasoning, he must have pro- ceeded methodically, and have brought him first to an understanding of the Old Testament ; of the religion of the law, and the writings of the prophets : he must have made a Jew of him first ; then he must have ar- gued from the agreement of the events of the Gospel, with what had been foreshewed, and foretold in the Scriptures before ; and this course of instruction would have required a long time : and, what is worst of all, it might not have succeeded at last ; for man is not in a condition to be taught this way : till God works upon him by his grace, he can be nothing more than a natural man ; and we are told the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God ;for they are foolishness unto him : they seem to be all wrong : it is contrary to man's pride, and lust, and covetous- ness, to receive and follow a crucified Saviour. Na- ture and reason can never be brought to this, with- out being conquered by some power which the senses cannot resist ; and when the word of God comes for- ward in this manner, then it is received. The pro- consul was astonished when he saw what was done by the hand of the Lord ; and then he believed what was said by his minister, and became a Christian.
This is God's way of converting the world to the truth : but man would have it all done by reasoning. When a man has received it, he may see that it is all reasonable, and be in love with the wisdom of it, and 6ven give up his life for the truth of it ; but for all this, he is not indebted to his own reason or nature, but to the power of God, by which his reason is taken
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captive. Upon the evidence of miracles, the world at first received the Gospel ; and when parents have it and understand it, they will teach it diligently to their children, who receive it before they can reason upon it. Let them be neglected and left in ignorance till they are grown up, and then see whether their reason will ever take to it. I fear it will not ; for the children of bad parents are generally bad themselves : not al- ways ; because the goodness of God can find other ways of bringing them to the truth, and putting them into the way of salvation : but the ordinary way, after the first establishment of the Gospel by miracles, is by education and instruction ; and woe to parents that neglect it ! they will suffer in a two -fold sense ; in their own persons, and in the persons of their impeni- tent children.
We have now gone through the particulars of this wonderful narrative. We have seen how the power of the word of God wrought by his Apostle. We have seen a wise man (for such without doubt the sorcerer thought himself) made blind ; and a prudent man brought over to the Gospel, which he wanted to know, from what he had heard. Before we leave the subject, I would point out some few things which are most worthy to be laid up in our minds.
1. The Apostle of the Gentiles makes a great ap- pearance upon this occasion, and acts in that honour- able character, under which he ought always to be remembered. We are told how God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul ; and that wrought upon the sorcerer was a special miracle, great in itself, and instructive to those who consider it. The progress of the Apostle through the isle of Cyprus shews us with what power the Gospel made its way in the world. This island was an accursed place ; it was one of the
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grand seats of heathenish delusion, wliere Satan might be said to have established his throne ; and yet, in this place, all the power of the enemy gives way to the Gospel. The preachers begin at Salamis, and pub- lish the word in the synagogues of the Jews there : they begin, as it was their constant custom, with the Jews, and thence go through the isle, working and preaching as they go, though the particulars are not related ; and coming at length to Paphos, that grand mart of idolatry, they find this Sergius Paulus, an heathen, desirous to hear, and disposed to receive the word of God. They come to him, and enter upon their em- ployments ; but here is a man in the way that would hinder them ; this Elymas would turn away the de- puty from the faith. He was a prudent man, and able to see and to judge : why could not he leave him to himself? But this wicked men can never do ; they can never let people alone ; they expect that all men should be like themselves, and are as earnest for a lie, as an apostle is for the truth. The Devil is always active and zealous; he never suffers the truth to prosper, if he can help it : and his children are like him : they are full of subtlety and art to do mischief: but let them be as cunning as they will, God and his truth are above them.
When you see what this man does, you must expect that others will be doing the same to the end of the world ; and you ought never to be staggered in your belief by the tempers and actions of the enemies of the truth. All men will not love truth : many are adverse to it, and to God for being the author of it ; which is a most lamentable consideration. Even a miracle, which brings astonishment and conviction upon some, will have no effect upon others. They go on just as they did before : when this man is made
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blind, all he seeks is to be led by the hand, that he may find his way : he makes no reflections, and re- ceives no benefit. It was thus with the men of Sodom. When they had beset the house of righteous Lot, they carried on the assault after they were struck blind : they still " wearied themselves to find the door," and were as intent upon mischief as ever. The sufferer in the parable thought that a miracle would be the saving of his wicked brethren ; but he judged falsely ; for if men who have the Scriptures do not hear them, their heart is wrong, and then a miracle would have no effect.
Now in the last place, remember, that the man, who would not see, lost the use of his eyes. Beware, lest the like misfortune should befal any of you ; lest, by neglecting the light while it is shining in your eyes, you should be able at last to see nothing. Never turn away from the truth, lest the truth should turn away from you, and leave you in eternal darkness. Culti- vate every gift that you have, and it will be increased : use what light you have, and God will open your eyes to see more : he that can see great things, shall see greater. If you read the Scripture, and desire to un- derstand it, some new light will come in upon you, and will enable you to understand it better. When once the inclination is discovered, it will be encouraged and assisted. Sergius Paulus callediopc Barnabas and Saul ; and then all those great things followed, about which I have been discoursing to you. Philip the Evangelist was sent to the Ethiopian nobleman in the wilderness ; but then you are to observe, that he was sent to a man, who had already got a Bible in his hand, and who wished to hear it interpreted.
God will act by the same rules now, by which he acted in former ages : these examples of the Scrip-
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tures will certainly be fulfilled in you. If you hate the light, as Elymas did, you will become blind and lose it : if you rejoice in it, and use it, it will increase more and more unto the perfect day ; that is, till the light of truth shall lead to the light of life eternal ; for which end God sent it from heaven, and spread it over the world.
SERMON XXVI
AND WHEN AHITHOPHEL SAW THAT HIS COUNSEL WAS NOT FOLLOWED, HE SADDLED HIS ASS, AND AROSE, AND GAT HIM HOME TO HIS HOUSE, TO HIS CITY, AND PUT HIS HOUSEHOLD IN ORDER, AND HANGED HIMSELF, AND DIED. 2 SAM. XVII. 23.
Self-murder is a subject, the consideration of which can never be impertinent or unseasonable in a Christian congregation : because in setting forth the causes of that dreadful crime, and in recommending preservatives, we may secure people from many of those lesser evils which lead to it ; evils, which every wise man will be glad to avoid. The same rules which are sufficient to save a man from death, may save him also from a burning fever ; for which he will have great reason to be thankful. One of the best methods I can think of for the understanding of this crime is, to examine the nature of it, as it appears to us upon the record of historical truth. Example shews more than reasoning or precept will teach without it : I shall therefore proceed to explain the subject, from the ex- ample which the Bible hath set before us in the re- markable case of Ahithophel.
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When we see ruin and destruction brought upon the soul of any man, much good may certainly be done by dissecting his character. Dissection is a disagree- able operation: to learn from the actual inspection of a dead human subject is a hard trial to a tender mind. But if the corpse is that of a malefactor, justly put to death for some hateful treason, or some inhuman practice, the mind is more easily reconciled to it. The wretch, who, when alive had defaced in himself the image of God, is no longer to be considered as a man. The person now under our consideration was a male- factor of the basest kind in his life-time : we may therefore very properly dissect him, and learn w^hat we can from him.
All the circumstances prove that this man Avas no lunatic ; that he acted Avith as much deliberation against his own life, as if he had been lying in wait for the life of any other man. He committed his own murder with the same foresight as he would have committed any other wickedness. He " set his house in order that is, he settled his affairs, he made his will as a j)erson of sound mind and memory ; as he would have done, if death had been coming upon him in a natural way. The case is therefore unexception- able of the kind; such as we may safely make use of for discovering that internal state of a wicked mind, which terminates in the fatal crime of self-murder.
We discover in the first place, that he was a man of had principles ; by which I mean such principles as do not restrain, but give encouragement to the bad passions of pride, covetousness, and ambition ; which is the nature of those principles wdiich are not of God, but are of man, and of the world. When a man of these principles gains the world, in its wealth, its fame, its honour, or its power, he gets all he wants ; when
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he loses it, he loses all he seeks for ; there is nothing left for him. A worldly-minded man commonly grows up under worldly parents ; who set an unprofitable example in their own conduct, and place before the minds of their children no great and worthy objects : for it must be a very bad mind indeed that gives the preference to this world, when it has been taught the value of the other. And we have in this Ahithophel a man who was in no want of a capacity to learn ; he was not ignorant for want of an understanding ; on the contrary, he had obtained the repute of great wisdom: The counsel of Ahithoplicl, ivJiich he coim- selled in those days, was as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God. It is often found too true by ex- perience, that persons of superior penetration and wisdom are of bad intentions : they see further than other men, and are under a temptation to turn their minds to the overreaching of others, and effecting mischief: their ability in accomplishing wickedness is a snare and a temptation to them : they find they can do it, and therefore are ready and willing to do it. The children of this world are wiser in their genera- tion than the children of light : they study causes and effects as to things of this life, and can conjecture what will be, and what will not be, with more precision than persons whose minds are employed upon higher things. If any man was at a loss in a difficult case, here was the man who could tell him how to act for the best ; he was like an oracle ; his judgment was never under a mistake : but he made a great mistake in one respect, as we may learn from his own case. We may suppose he would be as exact for himself, as for any other person : but when he calculated for himself, it appears, that he left God out of the ques- tion. Providence made no part of his plan. He
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considered with great sagacity how he was to act; but he never considered how God would act : and there- fore all his wise designs must have been very defec- tive. " I will act so and so," says the man of the world : but he never asks himself, " how will God act?" The rich man said, *' I shall want room for my stores ; I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and then I can do as I please." But the Gospel calls him a fool, for not considering that God might call him out of the world that night, and that then all his schemes of happiness and prosperity would die with him. Such is he who is wise w ithout God ; and such was this Ahithophel. He had no regard either to the ways of God or the laws of God; for he advised Absalom to commit such horrible wickedness against his father's house as could never be forgiven^ that the people might be sure there could never be a reconciliation between them, and thereby might be confirmed in their rebellion. All this he did without scruple, as a wise politician ; and his advice, though very wicked in itself, was good advice for promot- ing the ends he had in view. A politician may be a good man : but then, I am afraid, he will be a bad politician; because there are cases, in these evil days, in which a man of nice virtue will be apt to miscarry. So practically and experimentally true is it, as we said before, that the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
But now we proceed to consider, that this wise man was soon after under great mortification and disap- pointment. His pride, his vanity, his ambition, were all disappointed. He knew he had given the best ad- vice for the destruction of the king and his party ; but he found that the worse advice was preferred, and
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foresaw that it would be the ruin of Absalom and of his cause. He had entered into the conspiracy with a persuasion that his advice would be taken ; that he should continue to be the great oracle he had hitherto been : but his purpose was frustrated ; that hurt his pride ; and when the worse counsel was preferred to the better, that opened a dreadful prospect ; for in case of a miscarriage, which he now considered as un- avoidable, all his golden hopes were blasted. His am- bition had promised itself wealth and honour; instead of which, the disgrace, infamy, and punishment, due to his treason, presented themselves to his mind. And perhaps he now began to see for the first time, that as he had been against God, God was against him, and, according to the prayer of David, was turn- ing his counsel into foolishness. Under this calamity, what had he to support him ? Nothing but that policy of a wicked man, which never supported any body long. It may work for a time, and may seem to pros- per : but when it falls, it falls to rise no more. In the trouble of a righteous man there is hope ; but in the trouble of the wicked there is none : he had no cou- rage to make any further trial, but giving the whole matter up for lost ; to avoid an ignominious death, which he knew was what he merited, he went home to put an end to his life, as many others have since done under the like circumstances.
It was a severe misfortune to him that he kept bad company, that he associated with persons of that de- scription and character, which from time to time have helped to bring ruin upon many a man. A leader of sedition, let him be ever so wise, has bad designs : to the execution of bad designs bad people are necessary, and, therefore, such a sort of person soon finds him- self in the midst of them; they encourage him, and he
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makes his use of them, and so they work together to fulfil some wise ends of Providence, an hich it is hard for us to understand, till it pleases God to bring the authors of evil to destruction. " That which is now is that which hath been." Look at any leader of rebel- lion, in these days, and you will find him an ungodly man, a man of no principles ; and Avho are they that follow him ? Are they not in general as bad as him- self ? No man that has the fear of God will unite him- self with such a party : his conscience will keep him from it ; but if that were not suflBcient, the expectation of wrath and vengeance, which ^however slow its ap- proach) certainly comes at last, would deter him from the undertaking. He that joins the wicked will come to the end of the wicked ; and, of late days, we have been witness to many strange examples of this : we have seen party after party, in a neighbouring coun- try, rising up, one after another, and triumphing for a while in murder and oppression, but in time as effectually cut off, as if it had been done by virtue of a death warrant sent down upon them from heaven. Some, and they not a few, seeing their own wicked designs defeated, have laid violent hands upon them- selves, like Ahithophel, sending themselves out of the world because their wickedness was unsuccessful. If I were to attempt an history of those whom ill com- pany has brought to destruction, it would be a black catalogue ! O beware then how you join any bad party : let no Absalom beguile you with fair and flat- tering speeches ; he is in the way to ruin himself, and you may soon be ruined along with him. Absalom and Ahithophel both perished, as we see, in a strange manner : the judgment of God hanged up the one in a tree by the hair of his head, and the other hanged himself.
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It seems, further, to have been the case of our traitor, that he never opened his grief to any body ; in which respect he was a more sullen sinner than Judas his successor : for Judas, in the agony of his mind, did speak out, and said, " I have betrayed the innocent blood." — He spoke it indeed to those who gave him no comfort, but left him to his distress ; as it often happens among partners in iniquity : they are no " sons of consolation ;" but, when calamity comes among them, they leave one another to desperation and death. Indeed how can a man give comfort to another, who has none for himself? He who has wicked friends, can expect nothing but to be cast off and for- saken at last ; and he is therefore debarred from that salutary relief of a troubled mind, the opportunity of telling its burthens and sufferings to a faithful coun- sellor ; without which, and for the want of which, the mind of the wretched has been so frequently lost. The soul that cannot speak its grief, is in a like situation with the body when it is pent up in a close room ; it is suffocated with its own smoke ; it dies of a fulness which has no relief ; as when the body is lost by an apoplexy, which might have been saved by a timely use of the lancet, to lessen the quantity of the fluids. As the apoplexy is prevented by the opening of a vein, and by other seasonable evacuations, so the mind be- comes lighter and more tolerable to itself, if it can but throw off outwardly some of that noxious matter with which it is inwardly overcharged. This relief is so natural and necessary to the case, that reason can no more invent a suhstitute for it than the art of me- dicine can cure palsies, apoplexies, surfeits, and in- flammations, without lessening the quantity of blood. When a person goes with a sick body to a physician, he must describe his ailments, and tell all the symptoms
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under which he suffers : wilhout which,it is impossible for the physician to take such a course as will restore him to health. This parallel suggests to us, that the proper person to whom the griefs of the mind should be opened, is he w hose profession makes him the phy- sician of the soul. The practice of consulting a spi- ritual counsellor, and confessing of sins, was too much discountenanced at the Reformation ; and the Clergy are so much disused to the custom of giving private advice, that many of them are less prepared for the office than might be expected. An opportunity of » this kind is, indeed, still allowed to the people ; and, upon a particular occasion, w^e invite them to come to us, and 02)en their grief: — But who ever comes ? few, very few, indeed. If a clergyman has any know- ledge of physic, the people will be ready to apply to him for advice ; and if they do not in the other case, what can we infer, but that their souls are either per- fect and well, or that if sick, they are of no value ? In the person of Ahithophel we see a man brought into the extremity of misfortune, with neither inclination nor opportunity to open his mind. He is sullen and silent, and he falls a sacrifice to his wicked temper. Any one may see from the particulars which I have stated, that he was a man of no religion from the be- ginning : this v/orld was the grand object of his atten- tion and affection ; the pride of his own wisdom had filled his heart ; the desire of greatness had raised his expectations ; and to humour his pride, and gratify his expectations, he was ready for any thing. A change of government seemed to promise what he wanted ; and he was upon the high road tow ard the fulfilling of his wishes. He had formed some promis- ing schemes ; but they were not better than airy vi- sions— mere cobwebs, which the hand of Providence,
SERM. XXVI.3 AHITHOPHEL THE SUICIDE. 391
when it interfered, swept away at a stroke ! Disap- pointment came upon him in a form he little ex- pected ; his counsel, which had been so highly valued, was now set at nought ; and in consequence of that, all his projects were ruined. This wise Ahithophel was taken in his own craftiness ; disgrace and punish- ment were before him ; and for a man like him there was no refuge but in despair. From his example we may learn what is the common, and, as I may call it, the natural way to his fatal end. When a man lives without God, and has formed no expectations in an- other life, but has deluded himself with wicked hopes in this world, and they are all disappointed ; then life becomes insupportable, and he throws it away. Some destroy themselves in a gust of rage and passion be- fore they have time to think (and may God have mercy upon them !) but the hardened atheist dies with deliberation and forethought, like the sinner in the text, who seems to have placed himself beyond the reach of divine mercy.
As religion lessens, despair increases ; and when the true religion of Christianity decays, the false wis- dom of heathenism prevails. There is therefore in this age much more of the crime of suicide (or self- murder) than there was in the last, and there will probably be more in the next than in this : for which some reasons may be given; and it may be of use to make them known. Men corrupt one another by their foolish mistakes, which pass among themselves for a sort of wisdom. It is now the fashion to dislike the authority of law and justice, and to be tender to crimes under the name of misfortunes, though it be notorious thata sinner wilfully brings them upon himself There are laws intended to render self-murder infamous, that men may abhor it, and be deterred from the com-
13
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mission of it; and history informs us, that by a shew of severity toward the dead, the living have been pre- served. By false indulgence toward the dead, the living may be lost; and often are so; a circumstance which neither reason, nor law, nor piety will justify. Some destroy themselves who are out of their minds, in a state of lunacy, not being accountable for their own actions ; of such the law takes no account : but when a man, like this Ahithophel of the Scripture, discovers every sign of sobriety and deliberation, and brings himself to a fatal end by trusting to the world instead of trusting to God, it must have a very bad effect to make such a man innocent by calling him a lunatic : the persons who give such a verdict are per- jured ; the justice of the country is insulted ; the public is abused and corrupted ; and no good is done to the dead ; the difference is all to the living. False mercy, or compassion against reason, notwithstanding the applauses it may find from the ignorant, is cruelty; the worst of cruelty, because it is lasting ; it promotes and multiplies the misery of posterity.
It is farther to be lamented, that the representations of poetry have tended very much to the corruption of the times. The world admires wit, though it is not agreeable to truth ; without considering that the end of such wit is misery and madness. The stage has often done mischief, but never more than in a well- known tragedy, wherein self-murder appears with all the reputation of Roman courage, and all the wisdom of heathenish philosophy; because the politics of the time when that tragedy appeared were thought to re- quire, that this sullen, sour republican should be brought out for a pattern of patriotism. The truth of the matter is no other than this ; the pride of that man would not bear to see that the greatest man in the
SERM. XXVI.^ AHITIIOPHEL THE SUICIDE. 393
world was greater than himself: so he wounded him- self with his own sword for envy and disappointment; and when his wound was dressed by those who wished to save his life, he tore it open, and died wallowing in his blood. All this foul rage of republican enthusiasm is turned into a fine scene of patriotic virtue ; the man dies with honour, and the guilt of his blood is laid upon the world ; that is, in effect, upon the providence of God, which raised Caesar to be Emperor of Rome- This artifice has been attended with fatal effects : the story thus disguised has been adopted as a noble pre- cedent, and pleaded as a sufficient reason by persons who have destroyed themselves ; of which I might give you several examples, and some of them very striking. When the imaginations of men are thus wrought upon by false pictures, and fine verses, there is very little difference between poetry and poison : only the sin is greater in poisoning the mind than iu poisoning the body.
Another artist of the same profession commemo- rates the death of a certain lady, who murdered her- self because she had entertained a criminal passion, in which she was disappointed, and could not bear it. Here is a precious picture for a poet to work upon. In the first place, her crime is misfortune : instead of guilty and desperate, she is called unfortunate : then, the self-murderer is made an honourable character, because it is Roman, and as such must be great and brave : her desires were the more noble for being un- lawful, for so were the desires of Lucifer ; and there- fore her mind had in it the greatness of an angel * ; that is, of a fallen angel, a devil : in the ground where she is buried, she is pronounced to rest in peace: and
* See Note 1, p. 396.
39'i AHITHOPHEL THE SUICIDE. [[SERM. XXVI.
angels make it holy by spreading their wings over it. These are called flowers of poetry, but they are in reality the poisonous weeds of a wild and ungodly imagination. What grandeur and sublimity is here given to those unrestrained passions which ruin the world, and make a hell upon earth ? Take these senti- ments out of their poetical dress, and they are no better than madness and blasphemy ; but in it, they dazzle the eyes of the vain and unthinking, and do irreparable mischief. When we see poets thus mis- applying their talents, and combining with the great adversary of mankind, that they may be admired for their wit, while they are doing all they can to destroy the world, one could wish they were all banished out of a Christian country: but as if this were not enough, sentimental novelists add themselves to the party, and teach us, what is horrible to hear, that self-murder may be an act of piety ! farther than which, madness itself can never go *.
From the whole of this subject, you must see what is the dangerous situation of miserable man : deceived by his imagination, how he is agitated by the winds of his ov, n passion, and drawn out of his course by the false lights held out to him by the deceivers and cor- rupters of mankiild ! Beware therefore of men, and fly to God, who alone can support and deliver us under the trials of this mortal life. Danger destroys many ; but danger awaits all : even those that are saved must first be tried. There never was a saint who found his way to heaven, but after some great tribulation, of which the world perhaps knew little or nothing. Many things pass between God's providence and the heart of a poor sinner, which can neither be
* See Note 2, p. 398.
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described, nor forgotten : the soul is brought into some strait, out of which it seems impossible to escape, that it may feel its own insufficiency, and depend only and wholly upon the sufficiency of God : in other words, that it may be convinced of the truth of the principle, on which it is to be saved ; of which principle the world knows nothing, and it is lost for want of it. We have a great pattern of this in the history of the children of Israel, when they were brought out of Egypt : the Church of God was led forth in a direction toward the Red Sea. The wa- ters were before them ; the Egyptians were behind them : if they went forward, they were drowned ; if they went backward, they were slain : they could do nothing but stand still ; they did so ; and they saw the salvation of God *. It is not a time to learn these lessons when the evil is upon us : fhey must have been learned before, or we shall not be able to stand in the evil day.
That God brings good men into difficulties out of which he alone can save them, is a doctrine which none but good men can understand or believe. And let them never be discouraged ; such trouble is no sign that God has forsaken them ; it is a sign that God hath adopted them for his children, and will save them at last. One of the greatest favourites of hea- ven, the patriarch Jacob, was exercised with these trials ; but under them all God was present to his faith, redeeming him from all evil ; and whenever we are in extremity, let his words be a lesson to us.^ — / have waited for thy salvation, O Lord.
* See Note 3, p. 398.
NOTES.
NOTE 1.— Page 393.
The Poet in his Elegy on an unfortunate Lady who killed herself for love (I believe incestuous) thus blends his praises with his lamen- tations.
First, it is made questionable whether it can be any crime in hea- ven to act the part of a Roman, and the lady is celebrated for think- ing greatly 'and dying bravely : that as she soared above vulgar passion in the practice of incest, her ambition was sanctified by the example of aspiring to angels and gods, that is devils ; for he can allude to nothing but the fall of Lucifer, whose fall is called a glorious one. The poet, seeming to think himself in possession of St. Peter's keys, makes no doubt but that the pure spirit of this self-murderess (who made Lucifer her pattern) is gone to heaven, its congenial place. Yet such is the consistency of a poet's logic, that he prays heaven that the lasting lustre, the great sentiments, and the heroic death of this woman, may be sent as a curse, and a sudden vengeance on the posterity of those who crossed her de- sires. So are they all to perish ; that is, they are to indulge the passion of angels and gods, and die an honourable Roman death, receive the protection of angels' wings over (Jieir graves, and con- secrate the unconsecrated ground in which self-murderers are buried !
Our studies of late have encouraged a sort of religion which has no devotion in it ; while it affects superior rationality, it leaves us there, and so we are destitute of that divine comfort without which the soul of a Christian cannot weather the storms of life.
Want of employment renders the mind stagnant, vapid, and by degrees noxious to itself.
If the affections are violently set upon any thing in this world,
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whether fame, wealth, or pleasure, and are disappointed, then life becomes insupportable. Therefore the moral is this : " Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth."
Lunacy, though sometimes accidental or natural, is generally arti- ficial : ungovernable appetites fill the vessels with gross humours, and if they settle in the head, they generate disorders in the mind. I do not suppose there ever was a well-governed mind in an un- governed body : and mortification being now totally out of fashion in the world and exploded in religion (so far have we unhappily carried on reformation) there is more self-indulgence than there used to be, and consequently the mind becomes distempered, and when vice co- y operates, and inflamed passions are disappointed, lunacy succeeds, and ends in suicide. This is often the progress : the world is full of disappointment : he who would bear it well must reduce his passions, and he who would do this must mortify his body. There is no other course. I have heard it observed in a Roman Catholic country, *' that the fulness which intemperance breeds in the gentry is brought down by the meagre days of the week ; and if that is not sufficient, when the Lent comes round, that it is sure to bring them into good order, good principles, resignation to the will of God in all things, and trust in his protection." God permits the troubles of the righ- teous, whose disappointments are productive of future good to pious men, and they then often live. Faith holds out a light in tlie dark- est night of vexation, and hope raises the dejected spirit. They are not the passions of good people that lead to suicide, but of the proud, the vain, and irreligious ; who take their comfort from this world, and it forsakes them.
Temperance is the next preservative : and to open the mind to some faithful friend, especially to a spiritual counsellor. When the mind is filled with some bad subject and overloaded, it must be relieved, as the body is when it is too full of bad blood.
Vanity and ungoverned passions breed extravagance ; extravagance soon leads to distress and poverty : to remedy which they fly to gaming for a poor chance of mending their broken affairs, which becoming still worse by this dreadful expedient, desperation ensues, and self-murder is the end.
The doctrine of reprobation terrifies some ill-informed minds, who taking the notion of absolute unconditional predestination in a wrong sense, are driven to despair, and give themselves up as ob- jects devoted to destruction ; a most unhappy delusion, to remove which would require a discourse of itself ; but here I can only touch upon it.
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NOTES.
NOTE 2— Page 394.
Ignorant and ill designing people tell us, that suicide is no where forbidden in the Scripture. If it be not expressly forbidden, it is because it is not supposed, as being a thing to which there is no temptation ; for no man hateth his own flesh ; he is in danger of loving it over much ; when a man is forbidden to murder for rob- bery or revenge, to commit adultery, and to covet his neighbour's goods, there is the temptation of gaining or gratifying ; and there- fore there is something to he forbidden : but how strangely would it sound, if it were inserted into the commandments, " thou shalt not put out thine own eyes !" It would look as if the commandments were given for the benefit of fools and madmen ; to whom no com- mandments can be of any service: and they that can argue in such a manner are surely no better.
NOTE 2.— Page 395.
When a man is surrounded with danger, and knoweth not in his distress which way to turn himself; it may sound like foolishness to bid him sit still, but it is good doctrine, even tlie doctrine of God himself, by the prophet Isaiah, (xxx. 7.) their strength, says he, is to sit still; and it is very true ; for when it comes to this, God is their strength ; and in that case they are sure to be delivered. There are situations, under which nothing can preserve the servants of God, but the faith and patience with which they wait upon him.
SERMON XXVII.
BECAUSE SENTENCE AGAINST AN EVIL WORK IS NOT EXECUTED SPEEDILY, THEREFORE THE HEART OF THE SONS OF MEN IS FULLY SET IN THEM TO DO EVIL. ECCLES. VIII. 11.
If it were executed speedily — for instance, if every man who committed a theft were immediately to lose the use of his right hand, there would be no such thing as theft in the world : but the honesty produced by such a measure would be of little value, because it would be the effect of force ; there would be no prin- ciple in it but that of fear ; which is the principle of a slave ; the same with that which keeps brute beasts iu order. The works of men can be good or bad only so far as they are the works of the will, which is at liberty to choose between good and evil. True religion assists the will of man, and works with it, but does not destroy it. Therefore sentence is not executed speedily against an evil work ; but the punishment of it is generally suspended for a time, and the decrees of God in that respect are left to the contemplation of faith, which sees things as yet invisible. In some cases punishment is deferred for so long a time, that men persuade themselves it will never be executed :
400 THE DELAY OF GOd's JUDGMENTS. [|SERM. XXVII.
that there is no invisible judge of human actions ; or, if there is, that he either careth not about them, or puts off all punishment to another world : and that therefore men may act as they please in this world without any fear of the consequences. These are per- sons of a very untoward disposition of mind, and there is little hope of doing them much good : but if it were possible to open their eyes, they might judge in a dif- ferent manner. I shall therefore attempt to prove in this discourse, that although God does not punish speedily, he punishes certainly. Sin and misery do so belong to one another, that they will meet togetlier ; in many cases much sooner than people are aware of : this is what I mean to shew by arguments taken from the nature of sin, from the records of holy Scrip- ture, and from the opinions of good men.
The nature of sin is such (of some sins more than others) that it either carries its own punishment with it, or soon brings it. Among a list of unrighteous persons St. Paul places the drunkard, the fornicator, the covetous, and assures us, that such persons shall not inherit the kingdom of God : which is certainly true, because the kingdom of God can never bear what is contrary to its nature. But follow such per- sons for awhile, and see what becomes of them in this world. Is there any misery in poverty ? How much more miserable does it soon become if you add drunk- enness to it ! In honest poverty there is no shame ; but the poor drunkard is all shame : he is a nuisance to himself and to the world. If the drunkard be rich, will that save him ? How many such are carried off suddenly ; some by distempers ; some hjevil accidents ; some by fighting and contention ! And they who may seem to be at a stand, as if they were in no danger, are slowly undermining their constitutions, or bringing
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ruin upon their affairs, and paving the way to a prison.
If you look into a jail, you see men sitting there pensive and in rags : that is their posture now : had you seen them awhile ago, they were uttering shouts of riotous exultation among their profligate compa- nions, as if no harm could possibly come to them. Then as to covetousness, which is the opposite vice, all the world agrees that it is a torment to itself, by giving to a covetous man the name of a miser or mi- serable one. To a man in a dropsy thirst is a torment- ing part of the distemper. What he drinks never quenches it, but makes it worse : such is the appetite of the miser for wealth : what he gets never satisfies, but only increases the distemper of his mind. Evil trees will bear evil fruits. No thorn will produce grapes ; no thistle or bramble will bear figs ; so can no happiness arise out of sin. As men sow they will reap ; perhaps not to-day, nor to-morrow ; but cer- tainly, though not speedily : and you must have seen so many examples of this, that a doubt ought not to remain on your minds. Health may as well consist with poison, as peace and happiness with a sinful life ; andif there were nothing to prove it but the natural effect of vice, that alone m ould be sufficient with wise men. But as all vice is disobedience, and disobedience against God, whose laws are transgressed by it, vice is not left to its natural effects, though they are suffi- ciently disastrous, but calls down various kinds of punishment from God. These judicial effects of sin bring us to the examples of the Scripture, Avhich are to be found in every part of it. Cain the first mur- derer was not (as murderers are now) put to death immediately ; but is that man under no punishment, who is condemned to constant terror of mind, and
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cast out as a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth ; like the Jews at this day, who are under the same sentence for the same crime ? Every day of their lives, they rise up in the morning with that sentence upon their heads, and carry the guilt and punishment of it with them when they go to their rest in the night. Hophni and Phinehas, the two profligate sons of Eli, whom he did not correct as he ought to have done, went on for a time in their own ways, but signal ven- geance overtook them in the midst of their course : in one day they died both of them by the sword of the enemy, as it had been foretold of them. David fell in an evil hour into the sins of adultery and murder : of his guilt he was for a while insensible, till he was alarmed by a n^essage from Nathan the prophet ; and from that time forward he saw no more happiness and peace in this world : his life was disturbed with tumults and rebellions ; always do we find him either flying from danger, or weeping with sorrow. Let no man then hereafter tell us of the example of David, as an encouragement to sin ; the miserable consequences of sin were never more displayed than in the history of that man. He was a sinner for a comparatively short period, and he was a sorrowing, afflicted, and tortured penitent for the rest of his life. We learn from the case of David, that God can punish and that he can forgive at the same time. How that can be, and why it happens, may be considered in another place.
If we goto the New Testament, we are there taught how sin is punished in this world. When a poor man, who had suffered from an infirmity thirty and eight years, was cured by our Saviour at the Pool of Bethes- da, he added some words of advice in consequence, which contain much in a little compass, and throw great light on our subject when examined— Sin m
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more, lest a worse thing come to thee : from which it is an obvious inference, that the bad thing under which he had so long suffered, had been sent upon liim for his sin ; for some sin which his conscience knew, and which he should have corrected by repentance. We learn further, that when God chastises sin in his servants, and that chastisement has not its proper effect, something worse is to be feared, and may be expected. If this be the situation of the servants of God, will any man tell me that sin goes unpunished in this life ? Is not the rod of correction daily held over us ? Happily for us, it is : for its use is to awaken us, and open our eyes, that we sleep not in death; that sin may not increase and stupify us, till it becomes mortal.
We learn from St. Paul, that there were great abuses in the church of Corinth respecting the sacrament of the Lord's Supper : their meetings were not godly, but even riotous and disorderly : one was hungry and another was drunken ; so that they were a disgrace to the Church, and to the occasion for which they came thither. What was the consequence of this ? For this cause, says the Apostle, many are weak and sicJdy among you, and nmny sleep ; that is, many suffer for the offence, by being visited with sickness, or even death itself, who ought to have examined themselves, and to have attended that holy institution with repent- ance and faith, as all Christians are taught even by their catechism; let them but listen to that; they will then have nothing to fear, and every thing to hope : for God never yet cast out the poorest sinner, who came to himwith a penitentheart, trusting in the merits of Christ's death. If any one would escape, he must judge himself, and then he will not be judged of the Lord : But the reason why I mention this, is to shew^
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that God sends punishment upon sin in this life; and therefore that no man has any reason to think he is secure against it. No wise man ever thought that sinners are left to their own ways : they seem so in- deed, because sentence is not executed speedily : but all that understand the case know that it is executed certainly. Hear what the son of Sirach pronounces against perjured persons and profane swearers. — • " A man that useth much swearing shall be filled with iniquity, and the plague shall never depart from his house : if he shall offend, his sin shall be upon him ; and if he acknowledge not his sin, he maketh a double offence : and if he swear in vain he shall not be inno- cent, but his house shall be full of calamities.*' In like manner it is threatened to the adulteress, that her children shall not take root, and her hrcmches shall hring forth no fruit. Does not David pronounce that hloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days ? The wicked seem to prosper while the sen- tence is suspended ; but execution comes, when nei- ther they expect it for themselves, nor the world for them. These are the ungodly, says the Psalmist, these prosper in the \vorld, and these have riches in posses- sion. The case is enough to stagger the godly ; but let them wait awhile, and the scene is changed : let them go into the sanctuary of God for instruction, and then they will understand what comes to such men; how their prosperous situation is but a slippery place, from wliich they fall and are destroyed. O how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end ! Psalm Ixxiii. 18. To the same purpose he saith in another place ; ivicTted doers shall he rooted out — yet a little ichile, and the ungodly shall he clean gone ; thou shalt look after his place and he shall be away ; and again, / myself have seen the ungodly iti
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great power, and flourishing like a green hay tree. I went by, and lo, he ivas gone ; I sought him, hut his place could no ivhere he found. Psal. xxxvii. 36.
It appears from what I have said, that no sinner can promise himself any security even in this present world : and if his heart is set in him to do evil, hecaiise sentence against an evil work is not speedily executed, he will soon find himself miserably deceived. This point being settled, I cannot help observing to you, how idly people are often heard to talk about sin and its punishment. They suppose that God does not punish sin in this world, and therefore that it is tin- charitahle for us to judge that he does so in any par- ticular instance : but on the contrary, God does often punish sin openly and visihly ; and therefore it must be our duty to see that he does. For if God punishes some for a warning to others, what benefit can arise to those who do not see it ? And in many cases, the judgment of God is so plain, that men must either see it, or shut their eyes against it. If they are not taught by it, they will have to answer for their indo- cility ; and God, who never brings evil upon some, but out of mercy to others, will be justified in all his ways. It must be said, that the judgment which falls upon sinners in this world, is suspended for so long a time (God waiting for their amendment in many cases) that men persuade themselves it will never be executed at all : that there is either no in- visible judge of human actions ; or that if there is, he careth not about them for the present, but putteth off all judgment to another world: and perhaps when they have got thus far, their next step is to deny the punishments of the other world ; and not only to deny them, but even to mock at them.
I know how wicked people corrupt one another
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with foolish and wicked reflections : the fire of bell, it is true, was ordained for the punishment of devils : but if there be Christians, so called, who take part with the devil in his sin, they must expect to have their part in his punishment ; they will be consigned to the company they have chosen. They who think with angels, and jiraise God with angels, will live with angels. They who think with devils must have their place with devils : they hate the ways of God, and mock at them ; devils hate them, but they do not mock at them ; they know too much for that ; and in this they tempt ignorant men to be more wicked and desperate than they dare to be themselves ; which is a fearful consideration. Devils who dare not mock at God, will mock at tliem for their folly, and accuse men before God as more ivicTted than evil spirits : and what can such men say for themselves ? they will be speechless then, however rapidly and holdly they may talk now. To such false confidence as this is that warning given, in the same book from whence my text is taken — Rejoice, O young man in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and ivalk in the ways of thine Jieart, and in the sight of thine eyes — that is, go on in tlie icays of thine own passions and opinions — hut know thou, tlmt for all these things, God will bring thee into judgment. Ecc). xi. 9.
That God will judge men hereafter, we have no doubt : that he often judges them here, cannot be de- nied : and though all the laws of infinite justice, by which rewards and punishments are administered ia this world and the next, are such as we can neither find Old, nor understand, still the reason is sufficiently clear, why g-ooc? men are qftm punislied in th^ world, ^334^ bad men a^-rO. nqi.
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It was observed above, that God can punish and forgive at the same time : because punishment from him, when it falls upon good men, is not the punish- ment of wrath and vengeance, but that of love and correction; it is therefore a sign that he forgives, and it ought to he so understood. It may seem a strange doctrine, that God should punish ivhile he forgives; but it is certainly tme. When Nathan said to David, the sword shall never depart from thy house ; he said at the same time, the Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shall not die. God therefore for- gives while he punishes, and punishes because he for- gives. It may possibly be a privilege of the godly to suffer under him ; and every wise Christian will pray, as many have been known to do, that they may have all their punishment in this world. If they are the sons of God, they must be corrected when they offend : for what wise father is there who doth not correct his own children ? It is a sign that they belong to God ; who speaking to his people Israel, saith. You only have I known of all the families of the Earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities. What a comfort is it under every affliction for a Christian to know, that his sufferings mark him for a child of God, under the care of the Almighty ! He has little to fear, in life or in death.
On the other hand, when we see the wicked not only unpunished, but even prosperous, it is no sign that they are in a safe way, but the contrary ; they are neglected and left to their own ways, because they are bastards and not sons : they escape in this world, because they are reserved for the punishment of another, and miserable will they be when the day of their visitation shall come ! We see one in the Gos- pel, possessed for a time of his good things, and faring
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sumpti(0Hs/7/ evenj day : but how soon does he lift up his eyes in torment ! This is the end of such a man, be he never so easy and prosperous in his life. The sentence may be speedily executed upon him, and often is. He has no security against it, and he has reason to fear it every day : but however slow it may be in its approach, it is sure to come at last. Cloud after cloud may pass over him : but one will come, a black and dark one, from whence the storm ■svill break upon his head. How foolish and mad are all the ungodly speeches, by which he and his empty companions set judgment at defiance. Alas, poor sinner ! whilst thou art boasting that no harm shall happen to thee, the judge is standing at the door, ready to enter, and condemn thee to everlasting torment.
I speak not to them who sin of malignity and un- belief, for they come not for instruction ; but if there be any here, whose hearts are set to do evil, from carelessness and inconsideration ; O, let them awake, and consider these things ; let them judge themselves here, and pray that God also may touch their hearts, and take them under his correction in the time pre- sent, that their souls may be saved in the day of the Lord !
SERMON XXVIII.
AND AS JESUS PASSED BY, HE SAW A MAN WHICH WAS BLIND FROM HIS BIRTH. JOHN IX. 1.
These words are introductory to an history so curious in the subject of it, and so remarkable in all its cir- cumstances, that there is nothing of the kind, which can be more worthy of our meditation.
We have here the story of a man blind from his birth ; on whose case a question is raised ; how and for what reason Providence had ordered such a thing ?
Next we have the cure of this man, with the man- ner of it, and the moral of it : the explanation of which would, of itself, furnish matter enough for a sermon.
After this we have a particular account of the effect wrought upon the Pharisees ; where we see how truth operates upon those that will not receive it.
Then there is the condition and disposition of those that do receive it : which we see in the account of the man himself.
And last of all, the Judgment of Jesus Christ upon both parties — " Far judgmeiit I am come into this
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world, that they which see not might see, and they which see might he made blind."
These things let us examine in their order : and first, the case; which, it seems, had occasioned some speculation among the disciples. They had reasoned thus ; " As the misery of man is punishment, and as all punishment is for some offence, where could the offence be, of which a man brought the punishment into the world with him ? so they asked their Master, who did sin, the man or his parents ? They enquire curiously about the cause or heginning of the fact ; but our Saviour answers in a few words with respect to the end of it : they speak of the evil that was in it ; he of the good that would come out of it ; that the thing was not designed as a punishment for the sin of any person, but as a case that would afford an opportunity for the works of God to be made manifest : the man was born blind, that Jesus Christ might give him sight. What wisdom is here, in giving such a turn to the sub- ject t How many vain, tedious, and fruitless questions about causes and beginnings might be avoided, if we did but consider ends and effects, and the good which there is in every thing which is easy to be seen, and is worth all the rest. How does the rain fall, says the Philosopher ? is it by its own weight, or by the state of the Heavens ? Is the cause in the water itself, or is it in the air, or in something else ? What an opening is here for disquisition ! Whereas the answer of Truth and Wisdom is exactly like what we have heard al- ready : " It falls, that the fruits of the earth may grow ; that man may be fed, and may be thankful to the Giver of all good.'*^ That is enough for us ; this is the best part of the subject ; and here we are in na danger of being mistaken. The best way then to answer the great question about the origin ^ Evil,
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is to consider what is the end of it ; what good comes out of it ; this makes the subject at once plain and useful. Why was the man born blind ? That the works of God might appear, and Christ might cure him. Why did man fall ? That God might save him. Why is evil permitted in the world ? That God may be glorified in removing it. Why does the body of man die ? That God may raise it up again. When we philosophize in this manner we find light, and certainty, and comfort : we have a memorable ex- ample of it in the case before us ; and I humbly think, this is the use we ought to make of it.
Next in order is the ewe of the blind man ; con- cerning which, we are first taught the manner of it, and then the moral of it : the manner of it is very in- structive ; but the moral is more so. The power of God being invisible in its operation, is always attended with some outward form, as a visible sign of it. In the present case, Jesus anoints the eyes of the patient with clay, and bids him go and wash it off with water, in the Pool of Siloam : in consequence of which, when the water should wash away the clay, the Divine Power would take away the blindness. Now, if this man bad been a modern Philosopher, he would have put a question or two : he would have said, " Clay ! What can that do ? it will make my eyes worse instead of better. And as to the water that is to wash it away, when did that make a blind man see ? And why the waters of Siloam ? What are they moi-e than others ?" Thus does human wisdom stand questioning and ex- pecting to have a reason for every thing ; and this, in eases where, perhaps, a reason cannot be given ; the will of God being the only reason, and the best of all ; but it is such as human reason never yet submitted to: nothing hyxifaith can submit to the will of God : and
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as nothing but the will and pleasure of God can save lost mankind, nothing but faith, which submits to that will, can be saved. Man asks, how can an effect fol- low from that which is no cause of it ? But faith an- swers, it will be a cause, if God shall please to make it so : therefore I will take it as a cause, and trust to him for the effect. Thus doth faith reason, and it finds its own account in so doing ; but thus the Philosopher never did reason, nor will he ever. And Naaman was one of them when he argued, that if water was to be the cure of his leprosy, why not any water ; why not the better waters of Damascus, rather than the worse in Israel ? But here he was mistaken — water was not to be used as a natural cause, but a spiritual cause ; a cause according to the will of God ; a pledge, without thcAise of which, the invisible divine cause of the cure would never have acted. The Syrian was angry, when he was directed to the use of such a cause ; and Christianity, for the admitting and pre- scribing of such causes, is never forgiven by the wise reasoners of the world, but called superstition. But the poor man now before us, being blessed with common sense, and having none of that fine superior sense, which turns a man into a fool by making him act absurdly, did as he was bid ; he went to the pro- per place, though he could give no reason for it but the command of Christ, and he returned with his eyesight. So much for the manner of this cure ; the moral of it is still of more value.
When our Saviour was about to perform the mi- racle, he preached upon the case, and gave the sense of it. "As long," said he, " as I am in the world, am the light of the world." He did not come into the world to cure the bodies, but the souls of men ; and he never cured their bodies, but as a sign that he
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came to cure their souls. If his office had beeu to cure their bodies, he might have said, I am come to give sight to this man that was born blind : but no ; he gives light to a ivorld ; and to this poor man only as a sign of it. He is a figurative and spiritual sun, and if he restores to the blind the light of the day, it is no- thing more than a proof that he restores to the under- standing the light of truth. He shines, as the sun does, who is his image, not to an individual, not to a nation, not to an age, not to a world ; but to all places, and to all times. He who comes to destroy the works of the Devil, must work upon the same great scale. The Devil is called the god of this world, who hath Minded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Therefore, he who came to destroy the works of the Devil must act as a light of the world ; and restore the sight of their minds, that the light of the glorious Gospel may shine unto them : and this was the sense and spirit of the miracle, as Christ him- self hath applied it. In the common way of reasoning, nothing more is considered, than that a miracle is an act of divine power ; to shew that he by whom it is done must be a teacher come from God, and that God is with him : but there is much more than this to be learned ; for while the jmtver of the miracle shews that he was sent of God, the sense of the miracle teaches for what purpose he was sent ; and so where reason sees a proof, faith hears a sermon.
Christ is therefore the light of life, the light of the mind, without whom every man is in darkness, without whom every man is born in darkness : and before the Gospel can shine in upon the mind, the eyes of the understanding must be restored to sight, that the organ of faith may receive the things of God ; with-
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out which an unbeliever, let him be as wise and as learned as he will in all other things, is perfectly in the state of a man that is blind ; he was horn blind, and he continues so.
We come now to a most interesting part of the nar- rative : the effect which this miracle had upon the Pharisees, who could not receive it. When the sun shines full upon a man's eyes, and he cannot turn away from it, he discovers symptoms of uneasiness, which make him appear to great disadvantage. And the case is the same with his mind : which, when the truth which it cannot receive is thrown strongly upon it, is in the same condition with the face ; it is agitated and convulsed, and so much out of shape, that the mind of a wise man cannot be distinguished from that of an idiot: of which reflection the truth will be fully confirmed by the case before us.
For in the Pharisees, who were assembled upon this occasion, we have a set of men, learned in the law, and subtle and captious disputants, who from some appearances, which did not well agree with their prin- ciples, had already agreed among themselves, that if any man did confess that Jesus was the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue ; that is, that he should be excommunicated. But here comes a man, who shews them by an undeniable fact, that he was, and must be the Christ. The question therefore was, what could be done under this dilemma ? How they could maintain their own precipitate sentence, or how they could yield to the demonstration ? Here they were in a great strait ; for they could do neither the one nor the other : a cowardly retractation would have ruined their cause, and made their characters ridiculous ; the expedient, therefore, which offered itself, was, to try whether they could deny the fact.
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Some of the people had been questioning with the man before ; but when it is said that he was hrougM to the PJiarisees, it is to be apprehended that he was brought in form to the council or seat of Moses, in order to be examined. And first, they do not ask him directly about the fact, but about the manner of it, Jiow he had receive his sight ; hoping to find therein some subterfuge ; either that it might have been an accident, or might be owing to some natural cause : but that could not be ; for clay and water, without the power of God added, will never cure a man that is blind. Here some of them thought it a good objection against the miracle, that it had been done on the Sabbath Day, and that therefore he who did it must be a bad man : but it occurred in answer to that, that if he had been a bad man, he could not have done it at all. — How can a man tJmt is a sinner do such mi- racles 9 Here then they were at a stand : so their next device is, to get rid of the fact by cross-examining the witness. They send now for his parents, knowing that they would be loth to speak out, for fear of the consequences : but their evidence was positive, as to the identity of the person, and as to his former blind- ness : as to the fact of his cure they left it to their son to bear witness of that, and the manner of it : and he adhered to his own story with such firmness and sim- plicity of truth, that nothing could be made of him. So now we find them at another stage of their absurdity ; they admit the fact, but deny the consequence ; and attack the character of Christ, as if they knew him to be a sinful person ; a man that could never be taken for the Messiah, because they could not know whence he was. Here common sense could no longer contain itself: the man is astonished to think, how it could possibly happen, that there should be a prophet in the
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place, opening the eyes of the blind, and that the great doctors of the time should know nothing of him ! He therefore preserves no respect for them any longer, but follows up his arguments so closely, that there was nothing left but to have recourse to absolute autho- rity, and do that by violence which they could not compass by all the arts of evasion. So they gave him to know, that all he had said signified nothing, because he was an inferior person, not fit to teach them, and had come into the world as a poor blind sinner : thus they answered him at last, and " cast him out" of the congregation ; which act shews that he was before a Court of Judicature. And here, we may suppose, that the persons who would have put Lazarus to death, that his resurrection might not bear witness against themselves, would freely have put out the eyes of this man again, that his sight might not condemn their blindness. If we would see human perverseness in its utmost excess, and to what lengths of absurdity the hatred of truth will drive men ; there is no greater example upon earth than this we have now before us. But we have done for the present with those who rejected the truth ; and are now to consider the case of the man who received it.
He that finds Jesus Christ, and follows him, must bear his reproach : but his gains will be far greater than his losses. This man being likely to prove a troublesome witness against the Pharisees, they rid themselves of him as well as they can ; and being themselves in possession of the law, there is neither law nor judge to call them to an account: but, never- theless, judgment hangs over their heads. As to the man himself, their conduct, though apparently against him, was very much in his favour— for he could never more have any opinion of their judgment ; and so
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great a difficulty in the way of every common Jew as the authority of the rulers, was removed. He could never think of their persons afterwards, without hating and despising their opinions : and in consequence would never after be deceived by them. He was in every respect a fit object for our Saviour's mercy — he was born in blindness : a sort of beginning that would not dispose his mind to reject the light * : he was in so much poverty, that the history tells us he sat and hegged: the world had affronted him, and had con- demned him against all sense and reason, when they could not answer him ; so he was in little danger from fashion and opinion, those pests of learning and re- ligion. He had a personal experience of the power of Jesus as a prophet sent from God : and being thus prepared in mind, body, and estate, he would have no objection against his unpopular character, or against the novelty of his doctrine. When Jesus heard that they had cast him out, he found him; whence we may presume he went after him, as it was natural for him to do, the man being now one of those whom he came into the world to seek and to save, a lost sheep ; a sheep turned out of the fold, and in want of a Shepherd to take him up and receive him. To this man our Saviour put the question, " Dost thou believe on the Son of God ?" The man was already convinced, that he was 2i prophet, and had affirmed it to the Pharisees ; the question then must mean more than that : and what can it mean, but the belief of his divinity ? which it certainly did, because in conse- quence of this belief, we are told, that he worshipped him. It has been already observed, how this man was
* Heu dementiam ab his initiis existimantium, ad supeibiam se genitos. ' Plin,
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prepared for a believer ; but his readiness is wonder- ful ; as soon as he heard the name of the Son of God, he asked, who is he, that I might believe on him ? Blessed and happy, however contemptible in the world's esteem, is this poor man, so ready to believe ! How much do we now hear of those, who are not ready to believe ! who looking upon every act of faith as an act of weakness and enthusiasm, are ready for any thing rather than that ; and are never easy till the world knows it. The Gospel of Christ has not many recommendations for the great and the wise : the blind can see it, the lame can go after it, the poor can pur- chase it : and all the greatness of man must put itself into their state, and stoop to poverty of spirit, before it is possible to believe. In the two characters of the Pharisees, and the person they thus cast out, we have a pattern of the believer and the infidel, which will hold true to the end of the world ; where the temper of the Pharisee is, there will Christ be unknown or re- jected ; where the other temper is, of the man that was born blind, there will Christ be accepted and valued, and no where else. It is the wise and righteous judg- ment of God, never to be thought upon but with the most profound reverence and submission, that the low should be exalted, and that the lofty should be made low ; that the hungry should be filled, and the rich sent empty away ; the ignorant enlightened, and the wise confounded. For this purpose did our Lord, as he informs us, come into the world, that this judg- ment might take place ; and this is the last part of the subject we are to consider : for the history is concluded with this application of the whole. — For judgment am I come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. The language of the Gospel has many seeming contradic-
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tions (called paradoxes), which when examined are strictly true and proper ; this is one of them. How can he be said to see that seeth not, or he to be made blind that has the use of his eye-sight ? The meaning is, that the Gospel should make the poor and ignorant, who are reckoned to see nothing, wise and knowing in the things of God, but that it should make those, who are wise in their own conceit, and think they see every thing, know less than they did before. In the reason and propriety of all this, God will be justified, when the case shall be explained to us : but the fact has been notorious in every age. We have the first in- stance of it in Paradise : " Ye shall see," said Satan, and he was believed : in consequence of which, man fell from light into darkness, and is now born in it ; every son of Adam is born blind. The heathens again had originally the knowledge of God; it is expressly said that they knew God; but when they reasoned, and would see for themselves, they lost what they had before ; they lost the object and the sense, God and their understanding, both at once ; and we are told that their foolish heart was darkened. Dark and foolish it must have been, if we recollect what doc- trines they taught, and what things they committed ; how they sacrificed one another, and celebrated im- purity with adoration: how they lost the way of peace, and fell into eternal discord in pursuit of liberty, a phantom never to be found on earth.
When Christ, as the light of the world, came to his own people, they would not see him or know him : and in consequence of it, we have seen in the history before us, how they acted against reason and common sense ; with the weakness of children, and the fury of madmen ; the more they knew, in the way of their own conceit, the less they could see of the truth ; and
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thus they proceeded till they crucified their Saviour, fell into misery and confusion amongst themselves, and were at last extirpated or dispersed. When we see a Jew, we see one of these poor objects, who having rejected, and still rejecting, the light, is made blind, and goes wandering darkly about the world: the light of the Gospel shining around him, and him- self groping like the blind at noon-day.
View the Christian world at this time ; you will see that we are living, to our danger and sorrow, within sight of a country once enlightened, but now lying in darkness and the shadow of death. Take the character which these men give of themselves, and they are illuminated ; they can see every thing, while poor su- perstitious Christians see nothing : but their works are the works of infernal darkness and diabolical in- fatuation ; such as rebellions, rapine, murder ! bar- barity, more than heathenish ; idolatry, more than savage. What further proof do we require, that these new seers are of the number of those whom the God of this world hath blinded ? But enough of these examples : the tendency of them all is to teach us, that there is no wisdom against God ; that truth alone (religious truth) can preserve the mind in a sound state ; in short, that if we keep the Gospel, we may keep our wits. What shall we do then, but pray God, as our Church wisely directs, to lighten our darkness; knowing and confessing, that like the poor man in the Gospel, we are horn blind : that the light of all true knowledge is wanting, till the God that made the Sun sends it down upon us from Heaven ; and that even when light is come, the organ of sight is distem- pered and must be cured. This world too is so much before the eyes of men, that it will not permit them to view better things : let us arise then at the com- mand of Jesus, and wash away that clay.
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From what we have seen in the Pharisees, let us beware the judgment of men, who would bear us down with their own false opinions, the fashionable errors of the time; and never have recourse to such judges to know what the Gospel is, and how far Jesus is to be received by us. When we see into what excesses of absurdity and envy they were carried through a conceit of false learning, let us put up the following petition, which in few words comprehends the whole moral of the subject. — Give us, O Lord, the sight of that man who had been blind from birth, and deliver us from the blindness of his judges, who had been learning all their lives and knew nothing : and if the world should cast us out, let us be found of Thee whom the world crucified ; and having followed the Light of thy Truth in this world, we may, through thine own merits and mediation, have with Thee the Light of Life in the everlasting glory of the world to come. Amen.
SERMON XXIX.
GIVE NOT THAT WHICH IS HOLY UNTO THE DOGS, NEITHER CAST YE YOUR PEARLS BEFORE SWINE; LEST THEY TRAMPLE THEM UNDER THEIR FEET, AND TURN AGAIN AND REND YOU. MATTH. VII. 6.
No man wishes to bestow labour in vain : and if the fruit of labour is nothing but danger, that is worst of all. Such must be the labour of those who under- take to feed dogs with holy things ; or cast what is valuable before swine : for dogs may be fed with com- mon things ; and it is an act of profaneness to give them holy things ; for which the dogs are no better ; and the giver is much worse. Swine have no know- ledge of any thing valuable ; if it is not eatable (which is all they think of) they despise and tread it under their feet. Instead of being obliged, they are disap- pointed and provoked ; instead of thanking the person who treats them so much out of their own way, they will turn again upon him and rend him.
Any wise man would so little wish to be thus em- ployed, that the precept, m the letter of it, is scarcely necessary ; but in the spirit of it there is great sense and reason. For these dogs and swine are unholy
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men ; who are so called, because they are like the dogs and swine, in their manners and disposition. The holy thing, here meant, is the Gospel ; and its value is expressed by pearls, things rare and precious. Therefore we will first consider the nature of this holy thing : then the persons to whom it will do no good, and ought not to be given. The reason is, because the attempt will be unsuccessful and danger- ous. When this is made to appear, some admonition proper to the case may arise, as a conclusion from the whole.
The holy thing here spoken of is first to be con- sidered. This is the Gospel ; and a holy thing it is in its nature, because it comes from God, who is the fountain of holiness, and must, as such, partake of his nature. But it is chiefly so, when we consider that the end of it is to communicate holiness to man, and lead him to holiness and purity of life. It calls men to be separated from this world, which lieth in wicked- ness, and to become members of the kingdom of God. From thenceforth it sets new objects before them, new good and new evil, and inspires them with new affec- tions, with love for the one, and hatred for the other. Its objects being all of an high and spiritual kind, the precepts which are intended to lead us to them are all pure and holy, and the sum total of them all is ex- pressed in that one precept of the lavv^, " Be ye holy, for I am holyT Man is to be made fit for the presence of God ; but that cannot be, unless he becomes such as God is. Therefore the Gospel saith, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God :" no other per- sons will be fit for it ; it is therefore the design of the Gospel to make them such. And this it doth, not by restraining men from sin, as the laws of the land and the terror of punishment do ; but by inspiring them
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with an admiration of purity, and a love towards it ; for the sake of God who is purity itself. The Gospel, as an introduction to the kingdom of heaven, must be a lesson of holiness : it cannot be otherwise : and poor blind mistaken men, who would make it consistent with unholiness, know nothing about it, and can have no share in it. How precious then is the Gospel, if it can lead man to the glorious presence of God ! It is therefore represented to us by something more pre- cious than gold itself, even hyjiecirls : " cast not your pearls" saith the text. And in another text, the Miig- doni of heaven, which is still no other than the Gospel, is like unto a merchant, seeking goodly pearls : who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. So apposite is this comparison, that even the history of the pearl will afford us moral instruction. Pearls do not lie in the way of every common observer ; they lie deep in the ocean ; he that would obtain them must seek for them ; and he that would purchase the best of them all must give a great price. So also must he who would pur- chase the Gospel ; he must seek it — he must give — the whole world for it ; nothing less will buy it ; and he who would have it for less, shews that he is not wor- thy of it. The world, as men commonly understand and use it, is one great lie : he that would have the truth, must give it up. " We have left all," said the disciples ; and they did right : they were merchants that knew how to reckon, and how to estimate : they were therefore assured what they should have in re- turn : this pearl would make them amends for all they had given up.
But this pure, this holy, this inestimable treasure, is not to be thrown away upon those who are inca- pable of possessing it. It is not to be given to dogs
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or swine. A dog is incapable of that which is holy : if he were fed with a limb from a sacrifice, it would in that capacity be nothing to him : he would look upon it, as upon any common thing *. Give a pearl to a swine, and it becomes a thing of no value. It is the same with men. To many of them the Gospel sig- nifies no more, than if you were to give a sacrifice to a dog : and its value is no more seen or understood, than when pearls are cast before the filthiest beasts in nature ; who tread them under foot as they would the mire of the streets. The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews bids us think of what sore punishment they must be worthy, who have trodden under foot tJie Son of God, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified, an unholy thing ; re- garding these sacred and precious things as dogs and swine would regard and treat the greatest treasures of the world. But of that sore punishment such per- sons do not think, because they are insensible of their own unworthiness. From the animals by which they are denoted, we may learn what temper they are of, and what is the true reason of their contempt and insensibility. The chief qualities by which dogs and swine are distinguished, are greediness, impudence, and uncleanness. These qualities are odious in the worst of beasts ; but how much more so, when they are found in men : worst of all, when they are found in Christians ; I mean in those who are so called. And first, for their greediness.
To a bad man this world is the great object. He thinks he never can have enough of it ; and he is re-
* The ancient Greeks had holy or sacred places ; they had even sacred islands ; but into such places it was not lawful to transport a dog. See Xenoph, Cyneg. cap. v. §. 23.
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solved to get it by any manner of means. As one dog will snatch the meat from the mouth of another, so will he take to himself the property, the prospects, the character, of another man. The dog is all for the present time ; so is he. The dog sees nothing beyond it; no more doth he : if the appetite is supplied, it it all he looks for. When the dog is hunting, he thinks of nothing but his prey ; and the man of the world, in all his pursuits, thinks only of what he shall catch. The prophet complains of bad watchmen under the name of greedy dogs, which can never have enough ; looking every one for his own gain from his quarter. — Isa. Ivi. 11. Such men think only how they may get, and have, and enjoy ; as the dog when he is hunting thinks only how he shall overtake and de- vour. How incessant are the labours of some men in this chace, hunting the world ; hunting one another; and snatching whatever they can from those who are upon the same hunt with themselves! These are the men who are so fond of the doctrine of equality ; they admire it of all things ; but this shews their true character ; for a pack of dogs are all equal; all have the same rights ; all are born to hunt and devour. No dog gives any thing to another dog : his rule is, to have it all to himself : and so little justice or mercy is there among these animals, when the devouring principle takes place, that it is not an uncommon accident for one poor beast to be marked out for a victim ; in which case the rest fall upon him, and tear him to pieces.
That fatal distemper of madness, communicable to men and all four-footed beasts, and so dreadful in its effects, begins wholly (to the best of our knowledge) in the species of dogs ; and is therefore distinguished by the name of canine madness. Distempers of the
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same quality are bred in the minds of greedy men : distempers as unaccountable, as infectious, and as deadly as that which is bred in dogs . When they lose their religion, and all sense of another world, they are often given up to this malady ; and when one man hath it, he is as eager as a raving dog to communicate the Same to others. The doctrine of equality ; what is it, but the bite of a mad dog ? The " rights of man" is another bite : The doctrine of election, as the fanatics understand it, is another : and as the dog under his distemper leaves his home, and runs wild into the fields, and woods ; so do men with this notion in their heads, leave the church and go off into schism. In all these cases, we see how fast the infection spreads ; and how often it is incurable : reason and argument cannot reach it. What can the event be, but that men shall worry and devour one another to the end of the world, unless God of his infinite mercy shall find some remedy ? And what does all this arise from but a dog-like greediness after this world ? This it is which makes men the enemies of God, the ene- mies of truth, and the enemies of one another.
A second quality of the dog is impudence ; the most ancient of heathen poets compares a man to a dog on account of his impudence — he calls one a shameless dog. With the greediness of the dog, there com- monly goes the impudence of the dog. There is scarcely any property which distinguishes a bad man from a good one more than his impudence : therefore, impudent men are great favourites with the author of evil. Blessed are the meek, says the Saviour : blessed are the impudent, says the destroyer : and if there be any sort of grace, which it is in the power of Satan to bestow, it is certainly this of impudence : ye may call it the devil's Messing. If he employs any person
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about his own works and designs, he seems commonly to provide in the first place, that he be impudent. A love of truth, an honest heart, and a good intention, will make a man bold : piety and trust in God will make him patient : but a bad heart and a mischievous intention will make him impudent ; and unless he is so, he will have but little chance of succeeding in his undertakings. If an honest man is met by any one in the road to evil, he is easily abashed, and his modesty saves him : but an evil man, if confronted and dis- appointed, begins again : his conscience feels no more than his flesh would do, if it had been seared with a hot iron : if confuted and exposed, he feels no shame ; nothing hurts him, unless it be the loss of some worldly object, or a miscarriage in some base design : and even then he is not discouraged, but still perseveres ; repeats his old lies, renews his old attempts, and as he begins, so he goes on, stedfast and unmoveable. These are the men in whom Satan delights, and whom he employs upon the best of his enterprises. Look at some of the principal of those persons, who at this time are leaders in public mischief : see if there is a modest man amongst them : it cannot be : such a man would be of no worth in tJiat party. And indeed you will generally find, that the man whose face can op- pose every thing, goes naturally into opposition : that is the stage on which his talents are displayed : the face of an hog can make its way through an hedge of thorns.
But there is another quality remaining ; which is that of U7icleanness. For this the two animals of our text are brought together by St. Peter. Christians are called away that they may escape the pollutions of the world: but many return to them again, and be- come as they were before. This is illustrated in the
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following words. — It happened unto them according to the true proverb : the dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and the sow that was washed to her ivallowing in the mire. These practices are loath- some : but they are no more than a sign of the more loathsome ways of those people, who forsake the grace of God for the pollutions of the world. Nothing is really unclean in the sight of God but sin, which defileth the soul and spirit. Devils are called unclean spirits from their wickedness ; though in them there can be no such thing as bodily impurity. A soul de- filed with sin is as contrary to the nature of God, as a beast wallowing in the mire is hateful and adverse to man ; and a soul returning to the sin it had forsaken, falls into as loathsome an habit as that of the dog ; who never can be raised above his nature, and cured of his odious manners : education will never mend him ; he will be a dog still as he was before.
When we meet with men of these ill qualities, of such men we, as Christians, are to beware ; for we shall do them no good, and if they can they will do us harm : therefore, says the Apostle, beware of dogs ; for there were persons, particularly the unbelieving Jews at that time, w^io beset the preachers of the Gos- pel, as dogs fall upon a stranger. Ill men arm them- selves against those who reprove them ; and if a man is given up to this world, nothing provokes him more than Avhen he is told of another world. It was de- clared, in the language of prophecy, that Christ should be persecuted by evil men, in that passage of the twenty-second Psalm — " many dogs are come about me, the council of the wicked layeth siege against me." It is tl 0 same with the followers of Christ at this day : they who do not receive the truth, will al- ways hate, and despise, and contradict, and persecute.
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and snarl at, and bite those who deliver it. If any one hears the Gospel, he can very seldom hear it with indifference ; it either pleases him or provokes him : and provoked he must be, if he belongs to the class of people we have been describing. For the Gospel tells a man he must dejiy himself ; how will he bear that, if he is greedy ? it tells him he must renounce the world : how will he bear that, if it is the great idol of his affections ? and if it be the pride and bu- siness of his life to follow the forms and fashions of the world ; he will be out of patience when he hears, that a Christian must not conform to it ; that he must not do as the world does.
Every person of common sense must know, if a swine could hear the doctrine of obedience, with the necessity of submission, how he would despise and detest it : precious as the doctrine is, he would trample it under his feet. And is not the world full of these swine ? do they not abound more every day ; who cry, " down with order, down with authority, down with property, down with honesty, down with religion; let all things be under ourfeet^" How can it be expected, that those who have once imbibed such notions, should ever hear the truth, or forbear to persecute those who bring it to their ears ? The purity of the Christian religion never can be acceptable to the unclean and abominable; it is recommended to us here, that we may be fit for the presence of God hereafter : but the world to come and the glory of it is no more to such, than a pearl is to a swine ; so he tramples that also under his feet ; and not satisfied with expressing his contempt, he turns again and expresses his hatred and rage. How did the Jews and heathens revile and persecute the first preachers of Christianity ! and what was the reason of it all ? it was only because 11
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the persecutors were allied to the dog and the swine in their principles and manners.
You see therefore what must be, in order to re- ceive and value the Gospel ; you must put away those sins and corruptions which hinder the reception of it. Into the place of greediness and insatiableness, you must admit self-denial ; for impudence you must admit of an humble, contrite spirit ; intemperance and uncleauness must be exchanged for holiness and purity : then will you love the truth, and delight to hear it preached. Then shall we ever be ready to give you that which is holy, and cast pearls at your feet ; knowing that they will be taken up with reve- rence, and valued according to their worth. The text says, cast ye not your pearls. What a blessing is that ! the Gospel hath put us in possession of them : these pearls are our property : God hath given them ; and all the world cannot take them away : neither moth nor thieves can touch them : nothing can for- feit them but our own unworthiness, and the indul- gence of base and grovelling affections. Which may God Almighty prevent, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, &c.
SERMON
XXX
JESUS SAITII UNTO HIM, I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. JOHN XIV. G.
He who would be liappy in this world, and in the world to come, must know Jesus Christ, and love him, and keep his Commandments. — By knowing him, I do not mean that we should have personal knowledge of him, as Peter had, when he said, Loi'd thou hnowest that Hove thee. It is sufficient for us to know ivhat he is : to receive him with the heart and affections ; though it be not possible that we should see him with the eyes of the body. To the eye of faith he is visible enough, for all the purposes of salvation ; and so the words of St. Peter imply, where he says — whopi having not seen ye love: in whom, though ye now see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Such joy must every man feel, when his eyes are opened, and Jesus Christ is revealed to him; and no words can reveal him to us more effectually than the words of this text. — Blessed are the eyes which can see him as he is here described ! That you may be able to do this, I shall make them as plain and easy as I can : and if there be any among you, who
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have not seen him yet, may God hring such out of darkness into light ; that their eyes may not be closed in death, till they have seen the salvation of God!
I proceed to shew you, how truly these three terms, the way, the truth, and the life, describe to us the character of Jesus Christ : and first I shall shew, how he is the way.
We are all departed from God : our disobedience drove us from Paradise, to wander about this world ; and nothing but disappointment and misery can attend us, till we find God whom we had lost, and return to him again. We are all gone out of the way : and in- stead of seeking after God, we are always seeking after something else. We have some vision of happi- ness before us, to which God is not necessary ; in which he has no share — God is not in all their thoughts, saith the prophet. Here are two very bad circum- stances : first, that we are lost, and next, that we have neither power nor inclination to return. The poor sheep, straying in the wilderness, when wolves are abroad, cannot be in a worse case. It was the wolf which first made us wander. Such doctrine as a Avolf would give to a sheep, such did the tempter give to man; and in consequence of it, he has been wandering ever since — he is in a loilderness ivhere there is no way ; no footsteps are to be seen : we may go over the whole world, and find no way that will lead us to God : every way of man carries us farther from him. The way in which he commonly walketh is called a shadow ; it is only an image and outward semblance of life, which, like a shadow, soon departeth. Try all his ways by this rule, and you will find them all alike. When he is in the way to be rich, he is laying up for some other to gather when he is gone. If he is in the
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way to be happy, his pleasures turn into thorns and vexations. If he is in the way to be great, a short time will put him upon a level with the lowest of man- kind. If he is in the way to be wise, his wisdom is a wisdom of words. If he is a discoverer, he brings in a fresh generation of terms ; persuading the world that he has new knowledge, because he has new ex- pressions. Thus is man constantly seeking the way, but he is still estranged from it, and misses his true object. It was therefore intimated of old that a way is prepared, which man can neither make nor find. Jacob's visionary ladder had this use; it foreshewed that there should be a communication between earth and heaven ! a method of descending from heaven, and of ascending from the earth. This our Saviour applies to his own person. He is that ladder by which man is to ascend to God : and to attempt it without him, is to think we can step into the clouds. Man can no more make his own communication with God, than he can make a ladder to heaven. Christ must be our mediator, before he becomes our teacher ; and of this we can give you another proof. When man was shut out of paradise, a flaming sword was in- terposed to keep the way of the tree of life. When man left that seat of bliss, labour and death were be- fore him, and vengeance was behind him. There was no return for him into paradise, without passing the fire of that sword. This is the thing which Christ did for us : he suffered that fire, and survived it ; and thus he recovered for us the way to paradise : he overcame this sharpness of death, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers : and from the story of the malefactor upon the cross, we may know, what was true of him, may be true of us all ; we may all be with him this day in paradise.
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There is no way to the favour of God, or to the knowledge of God ; no entrance administered, but by Jesus Christ ; who being the only mediator, is also the only teacher, who shews us the way in which we are to walk. This was one great end of his coming : and all the world hath known and confessed, till of very late years, that tJie way of man is not in himself: it must be revealed to him. And as a way is wanting to all mankind, it is necessary all should understand it. The prophet therefore speaks of it as an highway; such as all may see and understand, if they will walk in it. What can be easier to every capacity, than the rule of example ? We have nothing to do but to look at Christ ; and all is plain. Learn of me, says he, Jbr I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your soids. — Matth. ii. 29. How short, and how proper ! How suited to our case ! — while the world gives a very different lesson. — " Learn of me, for I am proud and high-spirited, and ye shall find nothing but disquiet and labour of heart." The blessed Apostle repeats a lesson corresponding with that of his Master — Be ye followers of me, even as I am of Christ. How heavy is the burthen of the world, when compared with the yoke of Christ! how laborious and difficult is the way of fashion, when compared with the way to heaven ! This short, plain rule, of following Christ, would deliver us all.
And as for that other way ; that valley of the sha- dow of death, in which we must all walk, there Christ hath gone before us, and shewed us the path of life : so that we may all say with the Psalmist, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they shall comfort me. We shall find the way, as sheep are directed across a ford by the shep-
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herd : and though that ford be as wide and as deep as the Red Sea, it will make no difference : the bondage of Egypt will then be left behind, and Canaan will be in full view before us ; to which the rod and staff of this great Shepherd will conduct us in safety.
But now let us consider the second capacity in which Christ appears to us ; that of the truth.
When we lost our way, we lost the tnitli at the same time. When Satan shewed a way of knowledge, truth was no longer to be found. — The different opinions among men ; that vain jangling, as the Apostle calls it, is a proof that there is no truth among them. Let any man hear what philosophers have said about God, and he will soon see what human truth is. But the truth of God is this : that the Father sends his Son into the world, that all that believe in Him may be saved. This no philosopher ever thought of. But this is the truth, on which man has depended ever since it v*'as said in paradise, " the seed of the woman " shall bruise the serpent's head." The great end of revelation was to keep up and explain this truth, which was fulfilled in the person of Christ. Without him neither the law nor the prophets, nor even the world itself, hath any truth in them. What are all the types of the law of Moses ? What is that greatest of all, the passover? It is nothing, unless you add to it, Christ our passover is sacrificed for us. The law had a shadow of good things to come ; but the body and substance, from whence that shadow was formed, is of Christ. Take away the blood of Christ, and what is the blood of bulls and of goats? It cannot take away sill : it cannot do that for which it was commanded to be shed ; and so it is nothing. We are told of a redemption from Egypt ; but that was a temporary re- demption : nothing will save us but an eternal redemp-
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tion, of which that was a figure ; but the truth is in Christ : he is the true Lamb, the true Moses, the true Aaron, the true Joshua : he is the truth of all that were before him ; the true leader and captain of the people of God ; the true priest, the true sacrifice : and this was probably the glorious subject of his Exodus, about which INIoses and Elias talked with him at his transfiguration. For neither Moses nor the prophets have any other truth : Christ is the sum and substance of all.
But I ventured to say, that the natural or created world itself has no truth without him: and I am per- suaded you will find the assertion true. For look at some of the world's first objects, and examine them. We see and admire the light of the day ; and we may say with the wise man, " truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun." But this is the light of the eye : it is not the light of the mind : Christ is that light ; and therefore he calls himself the true light, whom the sun in the heavens points out to us as the sun of righteousness. The natural light of the day cannot enlighten a man that is born blind : but the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, that alone is the true light : and this Christ shewed, when he gave light to a man blind from his birth : he did this to teach us, that no man is out of the reach of his light, be his case what it will : from the enlivening rays of that sun nothing is hidden.
Bread is of great consequence to man's life ; but it is so only to his natural life : that alone is the true bread which cometh down from heaven, and giveth light to the world. He that eateth of what we call bread, will die afterwards ; and even they that did eat of manna in the wilderness, all died : but this is the
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true bread from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
On another occasion, Christ calls himself the True Vine ; because every thing that can be said of the vine is fulfilled in him. The vine, considered in itself, is but a shadow ; apply it to him, and it has sense and substance.
Water is made to quench the thirst ; but he that drinJeeth of it, shall thirst again : this is the true tiring water, of which a man may drink and thirst no more : and this is what our Saviour offered, when he said, if any man tJiirst, let him come unto me afid drink.
In like manner, all things in this world that are most necessary and valuable to man, are verified in Christ : in him alone the truth of them is found. And we may thence affirm, that the world we see without him is not the true world ; it is only a shadow of it. The world before us is a bodily world, and made for the body of man : but the true world is made for his spirit, and must be of a spiritual nature. Hence you may understand the two great mistakes which the wise man of tlie world is sure to make, concerning this world and the other. He judges totally amiss of the Christian and of himself. He supposes his own ob- jects to be real, and the objects of the Christian imagi- nary ; because the one walks by sight, and the other by faith : whereas the objects of a Christian's faith are the true objects, while the man of the world has no- thing but the shadow of them; and when he loses the shadow, the Christian gains the substance : when this world goes down and disappears, the world of eternity rises up, and the objects of faith are all realized. — Lord, give us evermore of that world which we see not ; and of this that now appears to us give us more or less, according to thy good pleasure : for we now
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see how it is possible to possess all things, even while we have nothing !
But there is still one more capacity in which our Saviour is to be understood. He that is the Way, and the Truth, is also the Life ; and what a blessed hear- ing is this in such a world as ours, where death spoils every prospect, dissolves all society, and renders every possession vain and empty! What is your life ? It is a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth ; like a cloud that passes over our heads before the wind, and is gone. Even a wise Heathen can tell us, that it is rather death than life ; and that the only real life is to be found, not in this world, but out of it. Ask the man of pleasure how he finds it ? He must answer, according to matter of fact, (if he has any sense in him) that it is a life, which through the fear of death brings him into continual bondage. The thought of death may be profitable, as it leads us toward another world ; but it turns this into a Gol- gotha, njilace of a scull ; a place to which men are brought only to be executed. When the Saviour ap- pears in it, it is no longer that lamentable place it was before ; its very nature is changed : for when he be- held the funeral procession of a young man that was carried out to be buried, and the widow his mother following, he said unto her, weep not : and what he said to her, he saith to us all : it is a voice to the whole Christian world. He who spake these words to that poor widow, was himself the resurrection and the life, and was about to raise her son. She did not know that, and therefore she we2)t. But now we all know it ; and therefore we ought not to weep.
Since the resurrection of Christ, death is no death, because he has no sting ; for sin is the sting of death : and when sin is taken away, as by the atonement of
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Christ, death should no longer be terrible. Hence the Apostle exclaims, O death, where is thy sting? For if Christ be risen, it is a proof that the debt is paid ; and that sin, which kills us all, is no longer imputed.
From the history of man it is known, that if sin had not entered, man would not have died ; for death Cometh by sin ; without it there Avould have been none. The life of paradise would have been sustained per- petually by the tree of life. But when man fell into sin, he was driven from the tree of life, to return to the dust out of which he was taken. To restore that life which we lost in Adam, and give us that to which the tree of life would have raised us, the Saviour came into the world. How much more than this his own words may promise to us, we cannot affirm ; but he tells us — / am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly : whence we may gather indubitably, that the life which we obtain through Christ is better than we should have derived from Adam ; and that for this reason he is called the Tree of Life : he does what that would have done, and more : and as we have no title but through him, he is therefore called our Life.
It is a plain doctrine, and generally understood, that Christ becomes our life by his resurrection from the dead ; and that therefore he calls himself the re- surrection and the life ; but the Gospel teaches, that Christ is our life before the resurrection of the body ; there being a resurrection to grace and newness of life, which begins here, and is the pledge and earnest of the resurrection of the body. Modern Christians seem to think that the Christian religion is a history (a very true history) of things without us : but is it not also a history of something within us 1 does it
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not also preach up a principle of life, given to Chris- tians at this time, and distinguishing them from a dead world that lieth in darkness ? is not Christ now a life to animate and revive the dead ; as well as a light to instruct the ignorant ? Doth not the prophet say the same — awake thou that steepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light ? Can the sun of the spring shew itself, without raising the roots that lie huried in the earth ? Even so, he that gives light must give life at the same time, and by the same act. And this must be the life of which Christ himself speaketh, where he saith, he that helieveth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live ; and he that liveth and helieveth in me shall never die. This must be meant of that spiritual life with which we now live : and the occasion on which the words were spoken, the resurrection of Lazarus, relates to the same : for Martha had said, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. But this confession was notsufficient; the resurrection of Lazarus was to shew somethin;^ more : it was to shew, not only that the hour is coming, but that it now is, when the dead in sin hear his voice and come forth. Reason therefore requires that the words which follow should be strictly taken — " I am the resurrection and the life" — and were they not strictly fulfilled, when the Gentile world were raised up by the Gospel from that hopeless death of sin in v/hich they lay ? And are they not now ful- filled in every sinner, who at this time is raised up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness ? To such Jesus Christ is now the resurrection and the life : but there are many who say with Martha, that they believe the resurrection at the last day, without seem- ing to regard or understand tins : but blessed and holy is he who hath part in this first resurrection : to
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him Christ is truly the life ; and over him the second death shall have no power.
I have now shewed you, how just a description the text hath given us of Jesus Christ ; and from that you may learn the value of his religion ; and what a bless- ing it is to us all that we are still in possession of it ; for if we lose that, we lose all. The world would no longer be a place fit to live in. If there be any such thing as a religion without Christ, you may judge what it must be : it can neither shew us the way, nor tell us the truth, nor give us the life ; and that must be a strange religion. It has no teacher to shew us the way ; no mediator to prepare it. It leaves us like sheep in a desert ; departed from God, and not know- ing how to return to him. If we try to be wise, we are ever learning, and never ahle to come to the know- ledge of the truth. If we are shocked at the brevity and vanity of man in this world, we see no remedy. The richest and fairest parts of the earth, whatever trees and fruits they may produce, have no tree of life. Death reigns without controul ; for whatsoever the various schemes of man's wisdom may promise, not one of them all ever pretended to give Ife.
How devoutly thankful ought we to be for that in- estimable blessing which God hath bestowed upon us, in giving us his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have ever- lasting life ! The way to heaven lies right before us, and is so plain that a child may find it. We have knowledge of that truth, which is above all truth ; and we partake of that life, which is a life of eternity.
We shall be thankful in the only proper manner, and as God requires, if we take advantage of these blessings, and use them as we ought.
Therefore, if Christ be the way ; let us return
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to God by him : let us pray, with him for our inter- cessor ; and then we shall have access to God. It is the custom in the East to this day for persons to gain access to some great and powerful man, by sending an offering before them to prepare the way. Our offering is Christ : we offer him to the Father, and we are accepted in the beloved. Paradise itself is open to those who seek it in this manner : no flaming sword is now in the way, to stop them from the tree of life.
If Christ be the Truth, let us find him in the word of truth. Let us learn how he is the end of the law for righteousness : how it all points to him, and is fulfilled in him. Let us look unto him through the works of the creation, and learn how he is the truth of nature : the true vine ; the true bread; the true light ; the truth of every thing our eyes can see, that is great and valuable in the world. Till we see this use and sense of nature, the sun may give light to our eyes, but it gives none to our minds.
If Christ be the Life, let him be our life. As man liveth not by the bread of earth alone, but by the bread of heaven ; let us go out to gather that manna, where it is to be found (and as often as it is to be found) at the table of the Lord. Christ our passover being sacrificed for us, let us keep the feast ; and let us think it a feast ; as indeed it is, in comparison of which all that is in the world is emptiness and famine. Christ being also the true Tree of Life, the old pro- hibition is no longer in force against us ; we may now with safety put forth our hand, and talce of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Now to God the Father, &c.
SERMON XXXT.
FOR IF THEY WHICH ARE OF THE LAW BE HEIRS^ FAITH IS MADE VOID, AND THE PROMISE MADE OF NONE EFFECT. ROM. IV. 14.
The five books of Moses stand in the beginning of our Bible, and it is of great importance to all readers of the Scripture, that they should have a right un- derstanding of them ; for two reasons : first, because we have in those books the foundation of all that follows ; and secondly, because in this age they have been dangerously misrepresented.
The doctrine of the text is this ; that they who were under the law could not, as such, inherit the promise ; because the promise had been made to the faith of Abraham before the law ; and had it after- wards been given to the law, it would have been taken from faith ; and so the Avhole together would have been a contradiction. But as the promise had first been given to faith, it could not be given to the law afterwards ; and it was not given : for the law answers other purposes, as we shall see.
That the promise is given to faith, the case of the great father of the Church was intended to shew. God called Abraham from Iris friends, that he might
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go out to a land which he had not seen : he commanded him to devote his son to God, and he obeyed : in consequence of which he received the promise. — Now I knoiv that thou fearest God — thou didst not withhold thy son — in Messing I will Mess thee, &c. Few words are here wanted to shew, what sort of re- hgion is most pleasing to God. It is the religion of Abraham ; which leaves father and mother, and for- sakes the world, at the call of God ; which believes his word, while appearances argue the contrary ; and resigns itself to his will, though he requires what is most valuable in life. In a word, it shews, that God is pleased with faith, and that without faith it is im- possible to please him — he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. Gen. xv. 6.
If you would know the justice of this, the case is plain. Man is in a state of alienation and forfeiture : the works of his nature are nothing worth : there is none righteous, no not one. God hath therefore con- cluded all under sin : and as righteousness is not to be found, another service is admitted, to be counted for righteousness : which is the service of faith. The Apostle breaks out into rapture when he thinks on it — O the depth of wisdom and goodness ! that God should conclude all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all ! Thus Gentiles as well as Jews are all brought in, as children of Abraham, and heirs of the promise. All that was given to faith in Abraham ; the promise, and the blessing, and the oath which confirmed it, might also be given to the like faith in them. Every thing is given to this faith ; even Christ himself, the greatest blessing of all. For as Abraham had given up his son, so did God in due time give up his. In return for that act, which resigned Isaac as a sacrifice, did God on the very same spot, in after
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ages, give Jesus Christ to die for the sins of the world. In conformity to the same example, the Christian is still required to resign his fame, his pleasure, his chil- dren, his friends, when God requires ; and then he will have Christ in return. This is the true religion, which leads men to salvation, and which always did so ; and it is as plain and easy as it is true.
But with this religion of faith, there was another sort of service, another necessary rule of obedience to God, called the law : concerning which the text in- forms us, that they who were of it could not be heirs ; that is, could not thereby be intitled to inherit the blessing which God had promised to Abraham. And, I believe, whosoever shall examine the law of Moses, will find that no such promise is any where added to the works of the law. The Apostle expressly declares the contrary: hy the deeds of the laio shall no flesh be justified in his sight : and again ; a man is justified hy faith without the deeds of the law. Rom. iii. 20. 28. Certain it is then, that if the law cannot justify ; it could not give life ; and if it could not give it, it could not promise it ; and accordingly it never did. But here the Jew made a fatal mistake. He went about, thinking it possible to establish the sufficiency of his own righteousness by the deeds of the law ; and so he failed of that other righteousness which God had im- puted to Abraham. It is no disparagement to the law of Moses, that it did not give righteousness : nor should we hence imagine that the law and the promise were in opposition : God forbid ! for if there had been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law ; it was the most excellent system which could be for the purpose : but from the nature of man t/iat could not possibly be. The Scripture had concluded all men, had as it were
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shut them all up together, under a sentence of sin and condemnation : so that justification must be .brought in some other way ; which way is that of faith ; and a counting of that for righteousness, which in itself was not righteousness, till God pleased to make it so. It would surely have been a strange thing, if the law had promised what it could not give : and much hath been said about this to little purpose : but there is in the mean time a great and useful question which deserves to be answered. For if the law could not give life, what was the design of it, and what end did it answer ? The Apostle in- structs us, that it was added because of transgression; and that it was a schoolmaster unto Christ. We are therefore to examine into the signification of these two characters.
And first, the law was added because of transgres- sion. If it was added, there was something in use be- fore it, to which it was added by way of preservation, in order to lessen transgression for the time to come. The case was this : from Adam to Noah, and down to Abraham, there had been a practice of divine Avor- ship, which comprehended the chief institutions of that law which was afterwards written. This worship, the people whom we call Heathens, and who are sup- posed to have arisen from the confusion at Babel, had corrupted, and had turned the rites of it to the ser- vice of false gods ; whom they worshipped with such abominable practices as made them hateful to the true God, and of course very dangerous companions to his people. That Abraham might escape this danger, God called him from his family, who are said to have served other gods ; (Josh. xxiv. 2.) and for the same reason his posterity were separated from all other people : and when they were to be settled in the land
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of Canaan, the nations of Idolaters were ^riven out. The first form in which God gave his law was that of the ten commandments : and the first of these forbids the worship of strange gods; as doth the second the invention of images, which was the constant wicked- ness of the heathens. And this, without any thing farther, is sufficient to shew, what kind of transgres- sion the law was added to prevent, and who the trans- gressors were, ^^'hat the witchcraft was which di-ew mankind away to the belief and worship of false gods, it may not be easy for us, at this distance of time, to detect and understand. The shortest svay is to sup- pose, what is certainly true, that idolatry was a subtle invention of the devil : and we know what he can do, and what absurdities men can receive and embrace, from what is at this time stirring in the world. Cer- tain it is, that the company of these Heathens always was a snare to the people of God ; of whom it is too truly said, that they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and tvent a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them. We are to note well that expression, theij went a whoring: for as fornication and adultery are lusts of the body ; so is disaffection to the true God, and a love of unclean idols, a lust of the mind ; which ill company and bad teaching are sure to excite. For this cause God divided his people from the Heathens, and laid them under every possible obligation for their security, by the institutions of the law of Moses ; as a good father would keep his son from the seducing company of profligates and blasphemers. Many of the Mosaic laws are preservatives against heathenism ; but there is one law, of equal effect with all the rest ; this is, the distinction of meats into clean and unclean, in the 11th of Leviticus. By this law Heathens and
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Jews could not eat together, and so could not live together. God tells them in direct words, that the design of this law was to keep them separate from the Heathens, and all their abominable customs — ye shall he holy unto me, for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine.
Thus was the law concerning beasts understood ; for this end was it observed ; and thus is it applied and interpreted in the Acts of the Apostles ; where Peter, referring to his vision of the animals in the sheet, saith ; ye hiow how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to heep company, or come unto one of an- other nation; hut God hath shewed me (by putting an end to the distinction of meats) that I shoidd not (now) call any man common or unclean. The sepa- ration was now at an end ; and therefore this law, which had kept it up, was no more to be observed.
This law, as I have said, which forbid them to eat with Heathens, made it impossible to live with them; and this might be sufficient to account for it. But it is delightful to see, how that law which kept up the distinction, comprehended in itself the sense and reason of the distinction. Forbidden meats were so fixed on as to resemble forbidden men; and lawful meats, properly understood, were so many lessons of purity, patience, obedience, and integrity.
To this question then, wherefore serveth the law ? the Apostle, we see, is right in one of his answers : it y^ac^ added to the Patriarchal religion, to prevent those transgressions and abominations which heathenism had brought into it. In his second reason we shall find him as right as in the first; namely, that the law was a schoolmaster unto Christ. And when Christ came, the Jews, who had been under this school-
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master, ought to have known him immediately, and to have said : " These new and wonderful things, which we are taught to believe of Jesus Christ, are the very same in sense and substance with what we all have seen and been acting over from the beginning of our law. As children are sent to a schoolmaster to acquire the first rudiments of learning, so have we been brought up to learn these things : and as chil- dren are shut up in a school, so have we been shut up from the world, to practise over continually those signs and figures which describe to us Jesus Christ."
For, is Jesus Christ a mediator between God and man ? And had not we our mediator, Moses, between God and us, at Mount Sinai ? Is Christ the true high priest of God ? And have not we always been used to the sight of an high priest and his ministry ? Is he a sacrifice for the sin of the world ? And hath not the blood of sacrifices always been shed amongst us for atonement and sanctification, and always taught us that without shedding of blood there is no remission ? Is Christ the lamb of God redeeming us by his blood, and turning away the wrath of God ? And did not a lamb in Egypt save us by its blood from the destroying angel, when the first-born of Egypt were slain ? They say Christ is the true passover. And is he not in every respect like the passover we have been used to ? How wonderful is it that his bones were not broken when he hung upon the cross ! but were not we for- bidden to break a bone of the paschal lamb ? They say he hath ascended into heaven, there to appear in the presence of God for us : and did not our high priest go yearly into the most holy place of the temple, and return from thence to bless the people, as the Comforter is now sent down from Jesus Christ in heaven ? These and many other like things have we
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learned under our schoolmaster the law ; and if we do not now see and understand them, after we have so long been used to them, we must be lost in ignorance, and incapable of receiving information.
What I have here said for the Jew, he should have said for himself ; and he would have said it, had not the love of this world, together with a vain trust in the letter of the law, and in his own righteousness built upon it, blinded his eyes and hardened his heart. And when he had blundered in the beginning, by rejecting Jesus for not encouraging him in the love of this world ; his pride would never condescend to compare the figures of the law, to see whether these things were so. He had determined that Jesus was not the Christ before he had enquired ; so he would never enquire after he had determined. Wonder not that the Jew thus erred: for the Christian world is still full of such Jewish scholars, who begin where they should end ; who first determine, and are never afterwards dis- posed to enquire. Instead of beginning with the wis- dom of God, and from thence deriving the wisdom of man, they begin with what man has established, and thereby they judge God, as the Jews crucified Christ.
An examination of the text has enabled us to lay down such certain principles as will correct some mo- dern mistakes. The law, you see, did not give life. It could not give it, because the promise had given it be- fore : and had the law given it, the promise must have lost it. — Some have hence concluded, that the Jews under the law had no knowledge of another life and another world. But what do they mean ? that while the Jews practised the book of Leviticus, they were not permitted to read the book of Genesis, which told them of the fall of man from life to death ; of the pro- mised seed ; of the life, and pilgrimage, and death,
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and burial, of the patriarchs ; of the intercourse of man with God and with his angels? Could they know these things, and know nothing of another world ? Is such an opinion worthy of a man of learning, which is scarcely worthy of a child ? We allow it to be true as a fact, that the Jews preferred the carnal part of their law, and neglected the spiritual : but it is much to be lamented that any Christians should follow them in their mistake, and lay the fault upon the Bible, as if the books of Moses were wholly secular. But as this has been done, it was wise in the Church of England to provide against this error in her seventh article ; where we are rightly taught, that m the Old Testa- ment and New everlasting life is offered to tnanldnd ly Jesus Christ ; and that they are not to he heard, which feign that the old fathers did look only for transitory promises.
It seems indeed true, that the promises of God, so far as they are added to the law of works, are transi- tory, and do relate to this world only. The promises of the law are given to two covenants ; so it has pro- mises and better promises * ; promises temporal, and promises spiritual. And are not Christians at this day upon the same terms ? have they not a promise of this world, and of that which is to come ? I look upon the cases of the Jew and the Christian as perfectly similar ; and that as temporal blessings were given to the due observance of the law of Moses, so the promise of this world is given to the keeping of God's commandments, while faith only can entitle us to the promise of the world to come.
A good argument for the divine original of the law of Moses may be founded upon its temporal promises.
Heb. viii. 6. See Eph. ii. 12.
SERM. XXXI.3 THE CASE OF THE LAW STATED. 453
For who but God, the Proprietor of the World, and the Disposer of all Events, could fulfil those promises? Human lawgivers have added 2)u?iL<ikments and penal- ties, for those are in their power ; but they never added jiromises, which were out of their power. Who was it that could bring armies of aliens to vex and pu- nish the sins of Israel ; and who could turn them to flight, but the same God, who could blow with his wind, and carry an army of locusts into the Red Sea? Therefore a law promising and threatening such things as are above man, could come only from God, who was able to fulfil his promises. And unless the nation, who were so many ages under the law, had found them true, they would have had no reason to remain any longer under it. The argument is very plain, and can never be answered.
When we reflect on the case of the Jews, and the principle on which they fell away, it must occur to our minds (because we see too much of it before our eyes) that Christians fall away after the same example. They are born under the promises of the Gospel ; but they aim at nothing more than the keeping up of a moral character, because common honesty is abso- lutely requisite to those who would obtain and enjoy the blessings of this life. But when will you find such people at their Bibles ? When will you find them at their prayers ? When will you find them at any good work for the love of Christ, and the prospect of an heavenly kingdom ? If all these were selected out of a country called Christian (profligates and atheists I take not into the account), and we were to add to them the multitude of those who justify themselves, and expect to be saved by their own works as the Jews did, there would be left a remnant, but only a remnant, of those who keep the faith, and
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follow the steps, and look for the reward of their father Abraham.
That we may understand these things better every day, may God of his mercy grant, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
To whom, &c.
SERMON XXXII
BY FAITH THE WALLS OF JERICHO FELL DOWN, AFTER THEY WERE COMPASSED ABOUT SEVEN DAYS.
BY FAITH THE HARLOJ RAHAB PERISHED NOT WITH THEM THAT BELIEVED NOT, WHEN SHE HAD RE- CEIVED THE SPIES WITH PEACE. HEB. XI. 30, 31.
It is tlie doctrine of the Gospel, that salvation is from faith, and destruction from unbelief. In this Scripture the Apostle sets before us a striking ex- ample of both, in the fall of the city of Jericho, and the deliverance of Rahab the harlot.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen ; by which it is to be understood, that faith proves to the mind of a believer what cannot be proved by other evidence : viz. that the promise of God shall be brought to pass, while as yet there is neither sign, nor appearance, nor any reason to expect it, other than the word which has foretold it. Thus, in the case before us, the walls of Jericho were to be overthrown, and the people within the city were to be destroyed. In order to this, priests were commanded to blow with trumpets, and the walls were to be encompassed seven days. It certainly
15
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did not appear how this harmless ceremony could tend to destroy a besieged city ; no city had ever been destroyed by means of such a cause ; but the people, believing it would be made the cause, complied with the ceremony, and the effect followed.
You are not in the situation of the Jews in the land of Canaan — but their case is nevertheless your own. You are tried ; that is, your faith is tried, after the same manner as theirs was — you are taught to expect things, of which the producing cause is no cause, till God shall make it so ; no more than the sound of a trumpet can shatter the wall of a city. You are com- manded to be washed with water, that you may be born of the Spirit ; and that your sins may be forgiven : you are to receive power from above, by the laying on of the hands of man ; but what relation is there between water and the Spirit of God ? What relation between the hands of man, and the powerful grace of God ? Who sees all this ? No man. But faith believes what it does not see : and this is the great trial by which God is pleased to prove his ser- vants. The man of the world, who with an opinion of his ow^n wisdom, has no faith in God, can never abide this test ; but in order to maintain his own ground, he ridicules the whole plan of Christianity, or persecutes the preachers of it : he has no other wea- pons of controversial warfare. Such an one is not of the number of those that encompass the city, but of those who are shut up Avithin it, and are consequently devoted to destruction. The men of Jericho, when they saw from the wall how the priests and the people were occupied, and how fruitlessly they were em- ployed, must have judged the whole to be no better than an unmeaning pageantry, dictated by folly and madness : they could see no relation between the ap-
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parent cause that was acting, and the effect that was to follow ; and in all probability were deriding the Hebrews, and encouraging one another in their un- belief and insolence, till the moment, when, at the command of God, his people shouted, and sudden destruction came upon them.
From this destruction, one person of the city is de- livered; and she, as we should think, a most unlikely person; even the harlot Rahab. But the text gives us the reason of this : hij faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that helieved not, when she had received the spies with peace. All the people of Jeri- cho had heard of Israel, and of what God had done and was doing for them, as well as Ptahab : but they did not believe, and she did. / Icnow, said she, that the Lord hath given you the land; now therefore swear unto me, that ye will shew me kindness, and de- liver our lives from death. When the king of Jericho was informed that the spies were with her, he sent to demand them ; but she hid them till the danger was past. She did all this at the peril of her own life ; for had she been discovered in what she had done, she would surely have been put to death ; but she brought herself into present danger, to obtain future deliver- ance for herself and her relations, which accordingly was granted soon after ; and she is an example to us at this day. For this history of Jericho and Rahab is to be fulfilled upon the world, and those that dwell therein ; the world will be destroyed like Jericho, and the faithful will be saved like Rahab. The Apostle speaks of the future judgment of the world in such terms as certainly allude to this history of Jericho. The Lord himself, says he, shall descend from heaven with a shout, ivlth the voice of the Archangel, and with tJw trump of God. Observe here ; it shall be the
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liord himself, not Jesus the servant of Moses, but Jesus the Son of God ; the true captain of our salva- tion ; and as the people shouted when Jericho fell, so shall there be a great shout of the host from heaven when this world shall fall. O how will the righteous be encouraged, and the wicked terrified, at the hearing of that shout ! The trumpets also that sounded at Jericho, shall then prove figurative of the trumpet of the last judgment, called the trumj) of God: a thing not unknown to the people of Israel ; for they had al- ready heard the sound of it on Mount Sinai, as a pre- lude and earnest of that last sound which will shake the world. At that time will the faithful be delivered as Rahab was ; whose example teaches us this lesson, that we are to believe what we have heard of the judgment which is soon to come upon us, and to make our peace against that time of vengeance, not regard- ing what the world may say, and what men may threaten, to terrify those who dare to take a better part, for the sake of securing their own future deli- verance. Rahab knew all that was said by the peo- ple of the city ; but she was not moved from her pur- pose ; the king's command did not terrify her ; and at last she saved her life, by having ventured the loss of it ; she perished not with them that believed not.
Such is the history of Jericho and of Rahab : on the particulars of which many important reflections must arise to those who consider it. And first ; the city of Jericho presents itself to us as a figure of this world, in which we now live : as being wicked ; as being in opposition to God ; as being blind to impendingjudg- ments. The people of Jericho are distinguished by the title of those that believed 7iot. In this consisted the difference between them and Rahab. Had they believed as she did, they might have been saved as she
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was ; but where unbelief hath once prevailed, how rarely is it corrected ! The Scribes and Pharisees of Jerusalem had principles of their own, which would not suffer them to believe Jesus Christ to be the true Saviour ; their pride would never give up their own false wisdom ; and their covetousness would not give up the world : so all the miracles of Christ could not convince them. But publicans and harlots, and all others to whom sin was burthensome, and judgment frightful, believed and were saved. Every man that will not believe, has some wicked reasons for it ; and he can never believe, till those reasons are given up : on which consideration, it is necessary that repentance should go before faith. What those reasons were in particular, which hindered the people of Jericho from believing, it may now be hard to enumerate : long established idolatry, with the habitual vices attending it, was sufficient ; in which pride and presumption are among the chief. I believe, their high walls, and their miraculous downfall, were alluded to in those words of the Apostle, where he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, hut mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds ; casting down ima- ginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and hringing into cap- tivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Such weapons as men use in war, are called carnal : these were not employed against Jericho ; but such only as were figurative and mystical, but which never- theless, are mighty through God to the casting down the walls of this proud city ; such weapons as could have no effect but what he gave them. The Gospel is such another weapon : it is sounded by priests ; and with the same effect : the high thoughts of man are brought down, and all imaginations fall before
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it *. In such wicked imaginations did the people of Jericho persist ; and therefore they could not under- stand what was coming upon them. But observe, that though they continued firm to the last in their unbelief, they were far from being easy. The terror of destruction was upon them, and their hearts melted within them. Thus it is with wicked men : they suffer fear and terror from the state they are in ; but it does them no good : they neither grow wiser nor better. What a deplorable case is this ! but it was the case almost universally of those wicked na- tions of Canaan, when they had filled up the measure of their iniquities : and such is the natural end, and last effect of sin : when it has blinded the eyes, it hardens the heart, and then there is no recovery to be expected. The judgments of God are then cer- tain, and his justice is inflexible. When judgment is come, mercy is past ; according to that terrible declaration by the prophet Amos ; I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good. How dreadful is it, when it comes to this! when God is determined upon punishment, then it soon appears what it is to fall into tJie hands of the living God.
But whatever a sinner may have been, if he returns and makes his peace while the day of mercy lasts, he is never cast out. This doctrine is exemplified in the case of Rahab ; who was received to mercy when the city perished. This case, before it is well con- sidered, may seem to give encouragement to sin. What ? hath a wicked harlot nothing to do, but to believe and be saved ? Here we are too hasty : for when she believed, what did she ? She did not sit still to be idle and worthless ; but as she believed, so
* See Isaiah ii. 14.
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she acted : she received the spies with peace : and saved their lives at the hazard of her own. Surely then, if he who gives only a cup of cold water as a testimony of his faith, is entitled to a reward ; he who saves the life of another, on the same principle^ must he entitled to a greater.
This case of Rahab has given occasion to some rea- sonings in the Scripture, which often are not rightly understood. In the text the Apostle teaches us, that hy faith the harlot Rahah perished not : but St. James asks ; was not Rahab the harlot justified hy worhs, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another ivay f There is here an apparent contradiction in words ; but there is none in point of fact ; for faith, and the work of faith, are in reality but one and the same thing : the faith produces the work; and the work proves the faith ; and neither of these can be certain without the other. Faith which does not work is dead ; and a work, if a work of faith, justifies : indeed faith itself is a work in the heart of man, and so the expression of St. James imports; for he says of Abraham, that faith wrought with his works; and so it was a working, that is, a living faith. But the most express declaration to this purpose is the answer of Christ to that question of the Jews ; ^vhat shall we do, that we might work the works of God 9 to which he answered. This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. So that the dispute which men have raised about faith and works, is without foundation. When these two are asunder, they are nothing : when they are together, they are but the same thing. Faith that is alive will work ; and the work will be good, because it is the work of a believer.
They who never considered the power and value of
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faith toward salvation, may learn how great it is from the history of Rahab's deliverance. When we are told, that Abraham was justified by faith, we do not wonder: we can believe any good of our father Abraham. But that it should avail to the saving of Rahab is extraordinary, and never to be accounted for by the man of the world. The just live by faith ; that is, they are not saved for their justice, but for their faith : and if the best are not accepted without faith, the worst may not be condemned if they have it. But why is faith preferred in this manner above all things ? I will tell you some of the reasons. Faith in God is a cure, because it is contrary to man's native distemper. Man began to sin with believing a lie : and he believed it when told by an enemy ; by the enemy of God ; as he is still disposed to do at this day ; with what pro- priety of justice then can God receive the man, who refuses to believe him upon his word ? Faith in the Enemy brought him to ruin, and keeps him in it : nothing can restore him, but its contrary ; which is faith in God.
Another reason is, that the way of faith is contrary to the way of man's own wisdom ; and is therefore the hardest trial that he can be put to. It is after the wisdom of God : but it has nothing of man's wisdom in it : it is contradictory to it all. This the wise man cannot bear to hear of ; and he therefore pronounces it to be folly. There are in the world two contrary descriptions or characters of men : the one has faith, the other has none : and they are so different in their conception of things, that each is considered as un- wise by the other. The man of the world makes it a rule to believe nothing but what he sees : but the faith of the believer is a sight of the mind, which gives evidence of things not seen. There is no doctrine
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upon earth which mortifies the pride of man, like this of salvation by faith ; it is therefore appointed as the great test by which man is proved. He cannot endure the thought, that his wisdom should be foolishness, and that his ostentatious virtues should be good for nothing. But he who cannot bear this mortification, he who will not freely make an offer of his mind to God, is not fit for the kingdom of heaven. He per- sists in that rebellious desire of the mind, which first drew him away from God : and to shew him his mistake, God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty. How is the worldly-wise offended, when the Gospel tells him of a malefactor, translated from a cross to paradise ! What rage will torment him, when he shall see the harlot Rahab admitted, and himself shut out ! But such are the ways of God : he exalteth the weak, and putteth down the mighty. Men may glory for a while in the appearance of their greatness ; but their high walls will come to the ground. They may despise Rahab ; but the best and the greatest of them all must submit to be saved, upon the same terms with that repentant and be- lieving sinner of Jericho. They may talk to one another in high strains about virtue, and right, and degrees of credibility : but God regards them not : his salvation is bestowed upon the poor penitent, who believes that Jericho will soon fall; that de- struction is coming upon the world of the ungodly ; that the judge standeth at the door ; and who makes provision accordingly ; securing an interest against the day of vengeance. They who Avould not be found, but persecuted the messengers of God (as un- believers never fail to do) shall be involved in all
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the horror and confusion of a falling world : while they that have made their peace like Rahab, shall be sought out and delivered. God shall send his an- gels, to gather together his elect ; who have made a covenant with him, through the sacrifice of Christ ; and can produce the scarlet token of his blood, which marks them for the redeemed of the Lord : and they shall be advanced to a place in the kingdom of God, as Rahab was joined to Israel, and her name now stands, as that of a mother in Israel, in the line of those from whom the Saviour of the world de- scended *.
I have presented to your minds an history, the sense of which is so important to a Christian, that you cannot remember and apply it too often. When you are alone, think that you have before your eyes that proud city of unbelievers, filled with the eue- mies of God : think that you hear the noise of its downfall, added to the shrieks and exclamations of those that are found within it ; and that you see a cloud of dust rising up into the air !
Such will be the ruin of this world ; and such will be the terror of those, on whom destruction (una- voidable destruction) cometh. You did not see and hear the fall of Jericho : if you had, you would never have forgotten it : but the other judgment upon the world, the fulfilling of it, the substance of which that was but a shadow ; you sliall see ; that sight you can- not escape : therefore prepare for it in time : take part with God and his truth, while you may — even at the hazard of your life — while the day of salva- tion lasts : when the city shall fall, you will then have nothing to fear. You will indeed see yourself sur-
* See St. Matthew i. 7.
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rounded with destruction — with the destruction of many whom it would have rejoiced you to have saved : but it shall not touch you : ye shall be as a firebrand plucked out of the burning — angels shall be sent to take you out of the overthrow : ye will be saved as Rahab was ; and hj faith, will not perish with tJwm tJiat believe not.
VOL, IV.
Hh
SERMON XXXIII.
THEN SAID JESUS UNTO HIM, GO AND DO THOU LIKEWISE. LUKE X. 37.
The parable, of which these words are the principal part, is proposed as an inducement to the exercise of mercy toward all mankind : the charitable act of this good Samaritan is described with all its circum- stances, and then the practical inference is added — go and do thou liheicise. The man must have a hard heart and a mean understanding, who is insensible to the beauty of this story : it being a striking instance of that simplicity of expression, and propriety of descrip- tion, for both of which the Gospel is so superior to all other writings. But the story hath certainly a more deep design, than such a narrative might be supposed to have, if it had occurred in some other book : and this I think must be evident upon the following con- sideration. The precept — go and do thou likewise, is of general obligation. What our Saviour here said to the Jews, he said to all his disciples and followers to the end of the world. And if they are all bound to the practice of this precept, it is but natural to think, that they should all be interested in the circumstances of that narrative, on which the precept is grounded.
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It is the general design of the parables of Christ, to set before us the great and interesting principles of th3 Gospel, under the form of something familiar to the understanding : therefore our blessed Saviour never relates any thing of this kind, but with some superior allusion : and if we take this story as a para- ble, representing to us under other terms that merciful act of redemption in which we are all equally con- cerned, then there will l)e no difficulty in making the example and the precept consistent with each other. I may add likewise, that in this Christian acceptation of the parable, we shall agree with all the best expo- sitors of the Church, from the apostolic age to the pre- sent : which consideration will have its weight with all those, who are not poisoned with the pretended improvements of modern times. It is the general intention of the Gospel, and of all its principles and doctrines in particular, to improve our understandings in the way of godliness, and encourage our endeavours to the practice of holiness. This passage of the Scrip- ture, when truly interpreted, will, like the rest, be found capable of answering both these purposes : with which persuasion, I shall now propose to your consideration the several particulars.
A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Je- richo, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
If we suppose the man here spoken of to be Adam, departing first from innocence to sin, and next from paradise into the world ; all the circumstances of the parable will fall naturally into this interpretation, and we shall soon be satisfied that the design of it is not misunderstood. The journey from Jerusalem to Je- richo is plainly that from paradise into the world. In
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the book of Revelation, the names of " Jerusalem" and " Paradise'" are applied indifferently to the same thing. The tree of life is spoken of as growing in the midst of the paradise of God : but in another place, the same tree of life is said to grow in the midst of the street of the new Jerusalem. Something of the like kind occurs in St. Paul ; who tells us he was caught up to the third heaven, which he calls paradise : yet elsewhere, with allusion to the same paradise, he speaks of a Jerusalem that is above, which is the mother of us all: to which character, in a proper sense, the earthly paradise also had a title, in as much as all mankind are descended from it. And if it be true, that we all died in Adam, it will follow, that in him we all were once inhabitants of paradise ; and the sin which drove Adam from that happy place, drove out his posterity with him. So long as Adam pre- served his innocence, he was secure in his possession of paradise, and had a right of inheritance in the Je- rusalem that is above ; that heavenly original, of which the garden planted upon earth was but an ear- nest and a pattern. But when he disobeyed the divine command, he lost the present enjoyment of the inferior paradise, and at the same time forfeited his reversionary title to the superior. His departure therefore is very properly described as a going doivn from Jerusalem : the fall of man, as the term neces- sarily signifies, being in every acceptation of it a des- cent from an higher to a lower state.
Nor is the place to which he descended less ex- pressive than that of Jerusalem : for when Adam was expelled from Eden, he was removed into the world, of which the city Jericho was emblematical in several respects*. It was accursed to the Lord for the * See this idea enlarged on in the preceding discourse.
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wickedness of its inhabitants, as this world is now sub- jected to a curse for the disobedience of man. Jericho was formally devoted to ruin and destruction; and the man who should attempt to rebuild it, was to lay the foundation thereof in his first-horn, and in his youngest son to set up the gates of it : wliich sentence was at length fulfilled upon Iliel, a presumptuous projector in the degenerate times of Ahab. The world itself is under a like sentence ; being kept in store against the day of judgment. The walls of Jericho fell down flat, and the city was burned with fire, and all that was in it was destroyed, on the seventh day, after the sound- ing of the trumpets and the shouting of the people. The world in like manner, according to the sense of antiquity, and some obscure intimations of the Scrip- ture, is expected to endure six thousand years, and to perish in the seventh, which answers to the sab- bath ; when the lust trumpet shall sound, and the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. — The Lord himself seems here in the language of the Apostle to be oj^posed to Joshua or Jesus his repre- sentative, and the circumstances attending the de- struction of the world are selected and worded in such a manner, as to shew a plain allusion to the fall of Jericho*.
But we are now to follow our traveller, and to ob- serve what happens to him upon his journey.
Ever since the introduction of evil, the constitution of tliis world hath been changed, and the Devil (to- gether with the host o-f darkness) hath been permitted to establish his own empire in it; v, hence the devil is expressly called the 2)rince of this world. Hence it Cometh to pass, that no man can depart from paradise
* Compare 1 Tlicbs. iv. IG, and v. li, vvitli Jo&lma, cliap. vi. -
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into the world, without falling into the hands of evil spirits, or, as the parable expresses it, without falling among thieves. For these are the thieves to whom our Lord seems to refer, where he commands us to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. The moth which devours the garment of the body, is death * : the rust whereby the soul is darkened and defiled, is sin : and the malignant powers of hell are the thieves which steal away our treasure : who, according to the cha- racter given of them in another parable, endeavour to steal the word of God out of the heart as soon as it is laid up there.
If we examine the marks of violence which they left on the man who went down to Jericho, it will soon be discovered that they are the thieves intended by this parable. Devils, like men, may be known by their acts ; as a lion maybe distinguished from other beasts by the print of his foot. For in the first place, these thieves stripped the traveller of his raiment. Adam, when he had sinned, found himself /iftAw/. — Then they wounded him ; sin was the Aveapon, and mortality was the effect of it ; for it Avas said in the day thou eatest thou shall surely die: While Christ was upon earth, it was his custom to signify his power in curing the distempers of the soul, and renewing it again to purity and holiness, by restoring all the diseased faculties of the body. So the Destroyer, whose actions are oppo- site to those of the Saviour, made it his practice to commit such acts of violence upon the body, as corres- ponded exactly with his destructive attempts upon the
* Isaiah li. 8, fear ye not men, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment.
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spirit. For, according to the pattern of this original stripping and wounding in the parable, the poor de- moniac in the country of the Gadarenes, who was possessed by a legion of these thieves, tvare no clothes : he wandered amongst the mountains and the tombs night and day, crying, and cutting himself with stones. We read also, that when the evil spirit \\2Ld prevailed over the seven sons of Sceva, they fled out of that house NAKED and ivounded. All of which presents us with a wonderful uniformity in the operations of the Devil, who delights himself with every thing that looks like a repetition of that mischief and cruelty which he first committed in the fall of Adam.
When the thieves had stripped the man andwounded him, thei/ departed: their malice had effected all its purposes ; righteousness was stolen from him, and the feting of death was left in him. But here the case is very particular ; they left him half dead. Sin was not the immediate death of Adam, in a bodily sense ; but he died in spirit on the very day in which he sinned, and so his better half was dead : in consequence of which, the death of the body would necessarily follow. The man who is mortally wounded, may languish for a considerable time ; but he has the earnest of death in him, and its effect must at length be completed.
Such is the present state of every son of Adam ; from which neither the prince, nor the warrior, nor the philosopher, is exempt. The first may glory in his honours, the second in his conquests, and the last in his contemplations : but whatever they may think of themselves, these thieves have prevailed against them all : they are stripped, wounded, and half dead, in the sight of God, and also in the sight of those who are taught by divine revelation to distinguish between appearances and realities.
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The case now before us being difficult, and almost desperate, let us enquire what help is to be met with ?
The parable proceeds to inform us, that by chance there came down a certain Priest that way, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And like- wise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
By the Priest and Levite, we are to understand the Mosaic law, which was administered by these two or- ders of men, the sons of Aaron, and the tribe of Levi ; or perhaps we shall not err, if we take these figurative persons for the patriarchal and legal dispensations ; the former, as well as the latter, having been distin- guished by priesthood and sacrificature, ever since the commencement of our present condition. These per- sons came to the place, and looked upon the wounded man, as might be expected ; because the law, whether written or traditional, was not made for a righteous man, but for the ungodhj and for sinners, and would of course point out to them the fallen condition of human nature. They both looked upon him, but could afford him no relief : his wound was sin ; and the blood of bulls and of goats, which they admi- nistered, cannot take away sin. So far then was the law from furnishing any effectual remedy to be applied by the Priest and Levite, that it could only shew the wounds to be mortal, and by their endeavours to be incurable. The Priest and the Levite therefore must leave him as they found him : they cannot make any atonement to God for him, but must pass by on the other side, and let that alone for ever.
But what the law coidd not do, was at length effected by Him who cometh after the Levite, who is himself the end of the law for righteousness to all them that be-
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lieve. For a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to the place where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion on him. The unbelieving J ews, who were fond of representing Jesus Christ as a person false to the interests of his own people, and as one who upon that account should be deemed an alien and an outcast, appealed to him once in these insolent terms — Saij we not well that thou art a Samaritan ? There was then a particular aversion in the J ews to- ward the Samaritans ; therefore they meant this for a name of the utmost contempt and reproach. Never- theless, under all this reproach, we take that person to us as a Saviour, who was to them as a Samaritan ; and in this we follow the example of our master himself, who hath thought fit to exhibit a Samaritan to us, under the character of a Saviour. In the per- son of this Samaritan then, we see the second Adam looking with compassion upon the first : the great High Priest of the human species, touched ivith the feeling of their infirmities, and administering relief to his ene- mies. A Samaritan, saving a Jew in distress, affords us an example of disinterested and ineffable mercy, and as such doth aptly illustrate the condescension and love of that Saviour, who offered himself for those that reviled him as an alien, and who deemed malicious Jews and profane heathens the objects of his compas- sion : as if he had said — " You have in this Samaritan the pattern of a true neighbour, who generously over- looking all the foolish animosities arising from pride and personal considerations, chooses his worst enemy as a fit object of his mercy ; attending first and chiefly to the distress that presented itself, without standing to consider the description of the sufferer." The journey he took was that of the incarnation, which called upon him to take the same course with his bre-
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thren, whom he followed from Jerusalem toward Jeri- cho, that he might bring them back with him on the way from earth toward heaven. In the course of this journey, he came into this vale of tears, and found miserable man naked and helpless upon the earth ; and as he came from heaven in the capacity of a phy- sician to the soul, he was furnished with every thing necessary to counteract the works of the Devil. When he had found the wretched object of his compassion, he went to him, and bound up his wounds, poured in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. Each of these particulars is well worthy of a particular con- sideration; and as you may possibly begin to find yourselves interested in the event of this narrative, I hope you will bestow some attention upon them.
His first act was that oihinding tip his tcounds, pour- ing in oil and wine * : which passage is worth regard- ing in its physical acceptation; for wine hath an ab- stersive sharpness in it, which renders it of sovereign use for the cJeansins of wounds : while it is the nature of oil to heal, on which account it is a general ingi e- dient common to all ointments, the use of which is to mollify and heal, when the wound is properly cleared and prepared for them. But the virtue of oil is most remarkable when applied to the bite of a serpent, par- ticularly a viper, for which it is now publicly received as an infallible cure, and the experiment is very com- mon in this age. To our understanding such an effect is almost miraculous ; for oil is a liquor, in all ap- pearance indolent, insipid, and incapable of pene-
* An ointment is now in use with many under the name of the Samaritan Balsam. It is composed of sound old wine boiled to a consistence with an equal quantity of olive oil. — It is of great efficacy for the cure of green wounds.
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trating in such a manner as to do any good ; yet few substances are more quick in their operation, nor is there a fluid in the world which will pass through the body of steel itself in so short a time.
The application of all this is plain enough. — The whie poured by the Saviour into the wounds of man, is his own precious blood, which, as St. John ex- presses it, clcanseth us from all sin. By the oil is sig- nified the power of the holy Spirit, which healeth all our infirmities ; and which in baptism restores what sin and Satan had destroyed.
The misery of sin, and the cure of it, are repre- sented under the like terms in other figurative parts of the holy Scripture. Isaiah thus describes the corrupt state of the people of his own time — " from the sole of the foot even to the head" (that is, from the lowest of the people up to the princes and rulers) " there is no soundness, but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores : they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil." The prophet David, in the person of a natural man, describes his own case in similar expressions — *' There is no soundness in my flesh becauseof thine anger, neither is there any health in my bones by reason of my sin — my wounds stink and are corrupt, through my foolishness." Then on the other hand, there are promises to the poor and helpless, that the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, neither will he deliver him unto the will of his enemies — the Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, and will make all his bed in his sickness — for he healeth the broken hearted, and bindeth up their wounds. Psal. cxlvii. 3.
The second act of this Samaritan was to set the wounded man upon his own heast. No sinner hath any natural ability to rise from the earth, and convey
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himself to a place of safety : any more than a man lying half dead upon the ground can stand upright and find help for himself by the strength of his own limbs. With the divine help man is brought to a new state : he is removed from the perils and dangers of the world, to find health and refreshment in the Church of God : for the parable adds — he hrought him to an inn, and took care of him. The life of a Christian is that of a pilgrim, or way-faring man, upon his journey from this world of vanity to the heavenly city of God : and to preserve a sense of this journey, as well as of their pilgrimage from Egypt, the Israelites were commanded to eat the passover with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staffs in their hands ; that is, equipped in all respects as tra- vellers. In the road to heaven we find the Church, which, like an inn, receives all that will come to it, and is open indifferently to people of all nations. The question is never put to any stranger, v. hether he is Jew or Gentile, Greek or Barbarian, bond or free : these distinctions are of no more account in the Chris- tian Church than at an inn on the highway : all men being accepted, and their wants supplied in this place of accommodation. The master of it, standing before the door, and seeing the weary traveller pass by, calls out to him with the voice of hospitality and mercy — Come unto me, all ye that travel and are heavy laden, and I ivill refresh you. In this place, the Samaritan is said to have tarried awhile with his charge, in order to settle things that were necessary toward his perfect recovery. And on the morrow ichen he departed, lie took out twopence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him. Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendcst more, when I come again I will repay thee. By the host we are here to understand the ministers
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and rulers of the Church, to whom at his departure Christ committed the care of every returning sinner : and thatthey may be enabled to supply all their wants, he hath committed to them the Holy Scriptures under the form of the two Testaments, which it is the proper business of the host to expound, enforce, and apply for the support of those who are committed to their charge. The ministers of the Church are stewards of the mysteries of God; who are to keep that safe which is committed to their trust, and not to suffer their people to perish for lack of knowledge. Other duties are indeed required of them, such as mercy, charity, the administration of the sacraments, the power of absolution, in the distribution of which they are to act according to the exigence of particular cases — therefore it is added, whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee. Our Samaritan then, who when he had made provision for the salva- tion of man, and committed his Church to the care of his ministers, went into a far country, will once more travel upon the same road, and make his appearance in his Church. The heaven must receive him till the time of the restitution of all things ; when, accord- ing to his promise, he will come again, to enquire how far the trust hath been fulfilled. In the mean time, every faithful minister of Christ hath the comfort to reflect, that he is not only a steward, but a creditor of the Fountain of mercy and goodness ; and be it soon or late, yet the time will certainly come, when what he hath laid out shall be paid him again.
On a review of the parable thus interpreted, some inferences naturally offer themselves.
1. From the condition and circumstances of the miserable object herein described, it appears that no man hath any thing to boast of, in the great work of
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his salvation. This wounded man doth not find the Samaritan, hut the Samaritan finds him. How sen- sible soever he might be of his own misery, he knew nothing of the person who was able and willing to give him relief: and had he known it ever so per- fectly, he was unable to seek after him.
It is thus with every Christian : he does not find the Gospel, but the Gospel finds him. He doth not indeed so much as know his own misery, till he is told of it : nor hath he sense to seek for any relief till it is offered to him, and in some cases almost forced upon him against his will. Happy therefore and wise also is he, who submits himself with thankfulness to the mercy of God, for the saving of his own soul ; even as this poor traveller committed himself to the hands of the Samaritan for the healing of his wounds.
Many there are who lie in the way of mercy, with- out receiving any benefit. The true Samaritan vi- sits them with his institutions, his Scriptures, his sa- craments, and would convey them to his Church from all the perils to which they are exposed : but they remain insensible of their misery ; either denying that they have any wounds, or endeavouring to bind up and heal them in their own way. There is one sect of Christians in particular, who will have neither oil nor wine from the Saviour of mankind, rejecting both baptism and the supper of the Lord. Others, through sloth and carelessness, will lie bleeding to death, ra- ther than be disturbed with the process of their own deliverance. A man who hath lain abroad in the field, naked and wounded, finds the benefit of an inn, and is sensible of the change: while they who are born and brought up from their childhood under the advantages of the Gospel, sink into stupidity, and become as in- different to the means of grace, and all the mysteries
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of divine mercy, as if there were no such things to be heard of upon earth.
O fools, and blind ! do men ever behave in this senseless manner with respect to their bodily wounds ? A man will give all that he hath for the saving of his life, while he neglects to have his soul saved, though it might be saved for nothing. This corporeal pain is felt and understood : while the misery of a soul wounded by the Devil, is never felt, or never com- plained of.
It appears, secondly, that works of mercy are re- quired of every follower of Christ : for nothing can be plainer than the admonition which directs us to follow the example of this Samaritan. He who refuses this upon any consideration, conducts himself as if he were no neighbour to his fellow-creatures, nor they to him ; but keeps himself in a lofty abstracted state, like that hateful tribe of Pharisees and hypocrites, whose felicity seemed to consist in a contempt for other men : and he who misunderstands this great duty toward his neighbour, which comprehends one half of the divine law, will have but a partial title to the inheritance of eternal life : like that narrow- minded teacher of the law to whom this parable was directed, and whose principles were condemned out of his own mouth.
Lastly and chiefly, we are hence to learn the motive and source from which all our works of mercy are to be derived. The faith which receives the Christian redemption, and the gratitude which that faith will inspire, should lead us to the practice of goodness and mercy toward all mankind, as well as to those who are of the household of failh. Christ hath here proposed his own example to us, and we are to have compassion upon others, even our very enemies, as
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he had compassion upon us in the same state. Grant, therefore, O blessed Lord, that thy people may know how to value and imitate thy example, how meanly soever their spirit and their practice may be esteemed by a proud and mistaken world. Above all, grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries, to whom thou hast committed the inestimable means of grace in thy Church, may not pass hij, like the un- profitable Priest and Levite, but carry on that great work, which thou thyself didst descend from heaven to begin amongst us. As thou hast shewed thyself a neighbour to him that fell a?nong thieves, let them ^0 and do likewise.
END OF VOL. IV.
LONDOX:
PRINTED BY R. GILBERT, ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.