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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029181076 
 
THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE 
 OF SANCTIFICATION. 
 
THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF 
 SANCTIFICATION 
 
 CONSIDERED 
 
 5n €isht Pennons!, 
 
 pheaohed 
 
 BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 BAMPTON LECTURE, 
 
 roil THE YEAH MDCCCXI-Vlir. 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWARD GARRARD MARSH, M. A. 
 
 CANON OP aOUTHW^LIi, VICAR OF ATLBSPOIID, AND 
 FORMERLY FBLLOW OP ORIEL COLLBGE. 
 
 I^fegs, 
 
 FLEET STllEET, ahb IIANOVEU STKEET, 
 
 LONDON : MDCCCXLYIII. 
 
1. SRELET, THAMES DITTON, SURTtEY. 
 
Extract from the last Will and Testament 
 of the late Rev. John Bampton, Canon of Salisbury. 
 
 " I give and bequfeath my Lands and 
 
 " Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scho- 
 " lars of the University of Oxford for ever ; to 
 " have and to hold all and singular the said 
 " Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the in- 
 " tents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that 
 "is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice- 
 " Chancellor of the University of Oxford for the 
 " time being shall take and receive all the rents, 
 " issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, 
 " reparations, and necessary deductions made) 
 " that he pay all the remainder to the endowment 
 " of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be es- 
 " tablished for ever in the said University, and 
 " to be performed in the manner following : 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first 
 " Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly 
 " chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by 
 " no others, in the room adjoining to the Print- 
 " ing- House, between the hours of ten in the 
 " morning and two in the afternoon, to preach 
 " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol- 
 " lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the 
 " commencement of the last month in Lent 
 " Term, and the end of the third week in Act 
 " Term. 
 
VI 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight 
 ' Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached 
 ' upon either of the following Subjects-— to con- 
 ' firm and establish the Christian Faith, and to 
 ' confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the 
 ' divine authority of the holy Scriptures — upon 
 ' the authority of the writings of the primitive 
 ' Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the 
 ' primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our 
 ' Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the 
 ' Divinity of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles 
 ' of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in the 
 ' Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. 
 
 " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight 
 ' Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always 
 ' printed, within two months after they are 
 ' preached, and one copy shall be given to the 
 ' Chancellor of the University, and one copy to 
 ' the Head of every College, and one copy to 
 ' the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy 
 ' to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the 
 ' expense of printing them shall be paid out of 
 ' the revenue of the Land or Estates given for 
 ' establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; 
 ' and the Preacher shall not be paid, nor be en- 
 ' titled to the revenue, before they are printed. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that no person 
 ' shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec- 
 ' ture Sermons, unless he hath taken the degi'ee 
 ' of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two 
 ' Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and 
 ' that the same person shall never preach the 
 ' Divinity Lecture Sermons twice." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON. 
 
 I. Man, when created, distantly resembled God, 1. 
 in dominion, 2. in knowledge, 3. in holiness, 
 disposing him to the love of God and his neigh- 
 bour. Hence he was happy. Yet he was 
 exposed to temptation, and fell. . . fage 1 
 
 II. The fall of man removed the sources of his happi- 
 ness, and introduced envy, jealousy, rapacity, 
 and other uneasy passions. . . . 'page 24 
 
 III. To recover from this state, he must again learn to 
 obey the law, which he had broken. But this 
 he cannot do with crippled powers and pro- 
 pensities. To surmount these disabilities, he 
 needs, 1 . a hope of acceptance, 2. spiritual assis- 
 tance, the first of which is afforded to him by 
 the atonement of Christ, the second by the 
 gift of the holy Spirit. . . . page 47 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON. 
 
 IV. The reluctance of sinful beings to a life d holi- 
 ness gave rise to idolatry by substituting for 
 the true and holy God objects, which appear 
 more easy to be propitiated. . . page 71 
 
 V. The different theories of heathen philosophers 
 for the recovery of men from this state of de- 
 gradation. paffe 94 
 
 VI. The Israelites, though favored v^ith a divine re- 
 
 velation, yet fell into idolatry till the Baby- 
 lonish captivity, and afterwards placed much 
 of their religion in traditional observances. 
 This also sprang from dislike to the holiness 
 of the law of God paffe 118 
 
 VII. Christians likewise substitute form for substance, 
 
 that they may escape from the holy requisi- 
 tions of the bible. .... page 143 
 
 VIII. The true doctrine. The beginning of sanctifica- 
 tion is the atonement of Christ, to be applied by 
 faith, which implies repentance, going before, 
 and obedience, coming after. This process 
 requires aid from God, discipline by the church, 
 and vigilance over ourselves, to be sought by 
 prayer, sealed by sacraments, and promoted by 
 activity in all well-doing. . . . page 169 
 
SERMON I. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS XI. 7. 
 
 He is the image and glory of God. 
 
 These words, though introduced quite inciden- 
 tally in the discussion of a matter of far inferior 
 moment, contain the boldest assertion of the 
 original dignity of our nature, that is to be found 
 in the sacred volume. They imply not only, 
 that our first parent was created in the image 
 and likeness of God, a statement, which is often 
 repeated there, but further, that God took plea- 
 sure in his own likeness, and even gloried in it, 
 when visibly impressed upon this new-formed 
 creature. We read in the first chapter of Genesis, 
 that God saw every thing, which he had made, 
 and behold ! it was very good. He therefore 
 viewed it with complacency, as 
 
 Answ'ring his great idea, 
 
 and fulfilling the purpose, which he had designed 
 
 ^ B 
 
by it. But on man he looked with a higher sen- 
 timent of dehght. The creation of man had 
 been preceded by a council, as it were, of the 
 eternal Three, who thus announced the result of 
 their united deliberation — ' Let us make man in 
 ' our image after our likeness ! and let them have 
 ' dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
 ' fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all 
 ' the earth, and over every creeping thing, that 
 ' creepeth upon the earth ! ' So God created 
 man in his own image. In the image of God 
 created he him. This reduplication in the 
 statement of the inspired historian marks the 
 satisfaction, with which God put the finishing 
 stroke, if we may so describe it, to his creation ; 
 and we thus understand something of the import 
 of that sublime and daring expression, which as- 
 serts concerning man in his primitive integrity and 
 honour — ' He is the image and glory of God.' 
 
 In what then did this image of God consist, 
 an image, in which the divine being himself is 
 said to have gloried ? 
 
 First it consisted in dominion over all creatures, 
 who occupied the earth, which was given for his 
 habitation. This is implied in the very terms of 
 
the decree — ' Let us make man in our image after 
 ' our likeness ! and let them have dominion ! ' A 
 dominion over a world formed an apt resemblance, 
 though necessarily a very feeble and distant, a 
 miniature resemblance, as it were, of the majesty 
 of him, who is lord of the universe. It declared 
 him within his narrow sphere sovereign and 
 supreme. 
 
 But this point of resemblance would have been 
 very faint, and could hardly have warranted the 
 strong language of the apostle, had not Adam 
 been gifted not only with absolute dominion, but 
 also with those qualities, which were necessary to 
 enable him to exercise it with wisdom and 
 justice. 
 
 For this purpose then we find him endowed 
 with extraordinary knowledge. The Lord, God, 
 brought every beast of the field and every fowl 
 of the air unto Adam, perhaps on the very first 
 day of his existence, to see, what he would call 
 them ; and whatsoever Adam called every living 
 creature, that was the name thereof. To give 
 names to every living creature implies an inti- 
 mate knowledge of all their properties and dis- 
 tinctive characters, which were thus almost on 
 
 B 2 
 
the same day imparted to the creatures, and com- 
 municated to Adam. He was thus qualified to 
 govern them, when he knew all, that related to 
 them, their appetites, dispositions, instincts, and 
 sagacities ; and the description, thus vividly 
 drawn, of the Lord, God, bringing them all in 
 succession before Adam, to see, what he would 
 call them, indicates a delight in witnessing the 
 perfect knowledge, which had been thus instan- 
 taneously bestowed upon a creature, who but an 
 hour before had no existence, which corresponds 
 in some measure to the picture, furnished so 
 long afterwards by the apostle in the words — 
 ' He is the image and glory of God.' 
 
 Yet knowledge alone would not be a godlike 
 quality. The fallen angels no doubt retain a 
 measure of knowledge far beyond the conception 
 of our now impaired and stunted faculties. But 
 the knowledge, imparted to Adam, was also ac- 
 companied with that inherent holiness of disposi- 
 tion, without which he could never have made 
 a right and wholesome use of it. 
 
 Accordingly this is the true and distinguishing 
 quality, which constitutes the image and likeness 
 of God. When therefore it pleased our gracious 
 
father in his mercy to renew in us the divine 
 image, which sin had obUterated, as in one place 
 it is written, that the new man is renewed in 
 knowledge after the image of him, that created 
 him, so in another it is explicitly asserted, that 
 the new man is created after God in righteousness 
 and true holiness. 
 
 In a word God created man upright. His 
 thoughts, his feelings, and his affections were all 
 rightly directed ; and, since with this rectitude of 
 disposition he possessed also an intuitive know- 
 ledge of all things, which for the discharge of 
 his proper duty it at all concerned him to know, 
 he was thus clearly furnished with all requisites 
 for the exercise of that universal dominion 
 within 
 
 this visible diurnal. sphere, 
 
 with which he was invested. 
 
 Let us then endeavor to ascertain with a 
 little more distinctness, what is meant by that 
 original holiness of our nature, in which more 
 than in any other quality consisted its resem- 
 blance to God ! For, if the loss of that holiness 
 was the true forfeiture, which the fall entailed 
 
upon us, and if the recovery of it be the grand 
 object in all the ceconomy of redemption, it is 
 evident, that an accurate acquaintance with the 
 features, by which our original similitude to our 
 maker was characterized, and a consequent per- 
 ception of their loveliness and beauty, must be a 
 great help to us in our endeavour to retrace our 
 steps, or at least to apprehend the suitableness of 
 the means, which have been graciously appointed 
 for that end. 
 
 To this inquiry therefore (that is to an in- 
 quiry into the particulars, which constituted the 
 original holiness and perfection of our nature) 
 the present introductory lecture will be devoted : 
 and may he, who lived, and died, and rose again, 
 and ascended . into Heaven, and, while he there 
 pleads the cause of his people, sends down thence 
 the holy Spirit into the hearts of beHevers, to 
 restore to us that holiness, which, as our primi- 
 tive endowment and birthright, entitled our first 
 parent to be regarded, as the image and glory of 
 God, bless and guide us in this investigation, 
 that we may all be led into the right way, and be 
 preserved in it unto the end ! 
 
Now it cannot be doubted, that the chief 
 element in that character, which formed the ex- 
 cellence of Adam at his creation, was obedience 
 to the first commandment. That commandment, 
 as propounded by our lord himself, the restorer of 
 our race, is — 'Thou shalt love the Lord, thy 
 ' God, with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with 
 ' all thy soul, and with all thy strength.' 
 
 Adam accordingly on the very first moment of 
 his existence knew God. He knew him, as his 
 creator. He knew him also, as the author of 
 the universe, and consequently, as the most 
 glorious being in it. He was ermbled at once to 
 contemplate him in all his godlike perfections, 
 glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing 
 wonders : and, knowing further, that to him he 
 owed every thing, that he possessed or enjoyed, 
 his life, his soul, and his body, the faculties of 
 the one, and the powers of the other, together 
 with all those comforts and blessings, which sur- 
 rounded him, as well as that extensive dominion, 
 with which he was entrusted, he could not but 
 be attracted towards him, and disposed to hold 
 constant communion with him, to regard him 
 with that filial reverence, which was his just due. 
 
8 
 
 and to address him in prayer and praise. In 
 short, being a holy and upright creature, he could 
 not, when he knew God, fail to glorify him, as 
 God, and to be thankful. That good and gra- 
 cious sovereign, the footsteps of whose bounty 
 were visible in Heaven above and on the earth 
 beneath, and whose wisdom, greatness, and 
 majesty were as conspicuous and universal as his 
 goodness, must have appeared to him the most 
 attractive object within the range of his observa- 
 tion ; nor could he do otherwise than love him 
 with all his mind, heart, soul, and strength. 
 Such love would necessarily prompt implicit 
 obedience ; and it was no doubt both his desire 
 and his dehght to know his righteous will, and to 
 conform to it in all things. 
 
 But forasmuch as the will of God in regard to 
 his intelligent creatures branches out into two 
 commandments, and he requires them not only 
 to love him with all their powers, but also to love 
 their neighbour, as themselves, hence he was 
 pleased to declare concerning Adam on his first 
 formation — ' It is not good, that the man should 
 ' be alone. I will make him an help, meet for 
 ' him.' — : and no sooner was Eve formed, than it 
 
9 
 
 appeared to be the will of their divine parent, 
 that she should only be the first of a numerous 
 family ; for she was immediately declared to be 
 the mother of all living : and towards all these 
 the then understood, and since written law of 
 God was — ' Thou shaltlove them all, as thyself.' 
 And can we doubt, that Adam was thus dis- 
 posed toward all his fellow-immortals, whenever 
 they should be born ? That disposition indeed, 
 while he was in Paradise, was only put to the 
 test in respect to one human being. , But towards 
 her his love appears to have been rather in excess 
 than in defect. He was not required to love her, as 
 he loved God, with all his powers, but only, as he 
 loved himself, whereas his first fault would seem to 
 have been, that he loved her with an idolatrous af- 
 fection, an aflfection beyond that, w^hich he had for 
 God : for it is particularly written, that, whereas 
 Eve, being deceived, was in the transgression, 
 Adam was not deceived, but yet, when she gave 
 him of the forbidden fruit, he from a fond and 
 fatal attachment to a creature, whom he was com- 
 manded indeed to love, but not to love more than 
 his creator, wilfully took part in her crime, and 
 tasted of the tree, which God commanded them not. 
 
10 
 
 While therefore Adam and Eve continued 
 innocent, we have reason to conclude, that they 
 lived in the pure spirit of that twofold precept — 
 ' Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, with all 
 ' thy heart, and thy neighbour, as thyself.' 
 
 And from this hallowed source, while it conti- 
 nued pure, there can be no doubt, that all holy 
 desires, all good counsels, and all just works 
 would proceed : for how can any thing, that is 
 unholy, mean, or selfish, issue, from the love of 
 God and man ? 
 
 Moreover, being in this sense a holy, he was 
 also necessarily a happy creature : for what was 
 there to impede his happiness ? 
 
 In the first place there was nothing from with- 
 out, that could disturb his peace. God saw 
 every thing, that he had made ; and behold ! it 
 was very good. The animals in Paradise were 
 harmless and docile, neither exciting terror, nor 
 occasioning mischief, but yielding wilhng obedi- 
 ence to their lord ; and the delightful picture in 
 Isaiah, which is emblematical of the restored 
 Eden, was doubtless realized in the original. 
 The wolf dwelt with the lamb, and the leopard 
 lay down with the kid, and the calf and the 
 
11 
 
 young lion and the falling together. And as the 
 animals, so also the plants were innocuous. 
 Thorns and thistles had not then sprung out of 
 the earth ; no poison lay concealed in root or 
 berry ; but out of the ground made the Lord, 
 God, to grow every tree, that is pleasant to the 
 sight, and good for food. In short, before sin 
 had tainted the atmosphere with pestilence and 
 death, and turned the bountiful provision of the 
 earth into poison, there was nothing in all, that 
 Adam saw around him, to produce annoyance, 
 uneasiness, or alarm. 
 
 Nor, secondly was there any thing within him, 
 to impair his enjoyment. We know very well, 
 that no degree of power can satisfy an ambitious 
 man, no abundance of wealth a covetous man, 
 nor any extent of pleasure a voluptuous man. 
 So though the garden of Eden was full of delights, 
 though there was nothing admitted there, which 
 could disturb the tranquillity, or impair the com- 
 fort of its possessors, still, if the spirit, which 
 was in Adam, like that, which haunts his des- 
 cendants, had lusted to envy, if there had still 
 been a desire of something, not possessed, if there 
 had been in his bosom a querulous, selfish, or 
 
12 
 
 ambitious disposition, all this goodness, like the 
 prosperity of Haman, would have availed him 
 nothing, so long as that one desire was ungrati- 
 fied. One uneasy passion would Adtiate the 
 mind, and disqualify it for perfect enjoyment. 
 But in Adam there was nothing of this kind. As 
 there was nothing without, so was there nothing 
 within him, to discompose that perfect satisfac- 
 tion, with which he regarded all the dispensations 
 of his maker. Being full of love, he was full of 
 peace ; and so long as he continued so, his hap- 
 piness was incapable of interruption or diminu- 
 tion. 
 
 But, though there was thus nothing from 
 without, and nothing within him, to ruffle the 
 calm, or mar the enjoyment of his soul, there 
 would seem to be something wanting, besides 
 these negative recommendations, to constitute 
 the happiness of our first progenitors. A stagna- 
 tion of the soul is not enjoyment ; and there 
 needs some active spring of comfort, some living 
 energy, like the well of water, so expressively 
 described by our saviour, as springing up within 
 the heart of a believer, to produce positive and 
 perfect happiness : and such a perpetual spring 
 
13 
 
 of joy and delight was found in the constant flow 
 of benevolent affection. This is the most de- 
 lightful of all human sensations, and, when fixed 
 on an object, truly worthy of it, and not impeded 
 by any conflicting emotion, or any counteracting 
 influence, is itself a source of happiness inex- 
 haustible. What then must be the happiness of 
 that soul, where God is the object of its supreme 
 aflfection, the best, the holiest, the most perfect 
 of beings, whose goodness can never disappoint 
 any, that trust to it, any more than his power 
 can fail, or his wisdom become subject to decay ? 
 Love desires the good or the honour of its ob- 
 ject, not its own. When therefore all the wants 
 of a creature are supplied to the full, and, look- 
 ing out of himself for objects, on which to bestow 
 his affection, he finds one object, altogether 
 worthy of it, who at once deserves, returns, and 
 rewards it, what can be wanting to the happiness 
 of such a creature ? And yet the goodness of 
 God was not satisfied to suffer the affections of 
 his new-formed creature to rest solely upon him- 
 self. He raised up another object, more upon a 
 level with Adam, more meet therefore for his 
 daily and familiar conversation ; and from that 
 
14 
 
 one he promised to raise up a multitude of others, 
 all of whom ; so long as they observed the law of 
 rectitude, in which they were created, would be 
 worthy, though in an inferior degree, of his love, 
 and on whom it would be at once his privilege 
 and his duty to bestow it, not in any scanty 
 degree or measure, but even as he loved himself; 
 for both he and these objects of his affection 
 would be in all respects equal, and the love, 
 which regarded them aU, as they deserve, must 
 be an impartial love, extending to all mankind. 
 
 Still however after all, though these compa- 
 nions of his daily life would be regarded by him 
 with a sure, but proportionate attachment, the 
 supreme affection of a perfect creature must ever 
 rest upon his creator. His perfections indeed are 
 infinite ; and the development of them to the un- 
 derstanding of a finite creature may engage his 
 faculties to eternity. Thus the holy angels, for 
 example, had long been familiarly acquainted 
 with the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of 
 God ; and every successive act of his providence, 
 and every successive occupation, in which he saw 
 fit to employ them, would discover those quali- 
 ties in him more and more to their apprehension. 
 
15 
 
 But yet, till the fall of man gave occasion to it, 
 they knew nothing of the mercy of God. That 
 was an attribute, which had not yet been dis- 
 closed ; and to the exercise of it there existed 
 impediments in that very holiness of his adminis- 
 tration, which they knew, that nothing could be 
 permitted to violate, and which consequently 
 made them desire to look into the mystery, by 
 which those impediments were destined to be 
 overcome, and the mercy of God introduced tri- 
 umphantly, rejoicing against judgment. And so 
 too there may be many other qualities in God, 
 with which it is little to say, that we are not ac- 
 quainted, but the very existence of which we are 
 perhaps in our present state incompetent to con- 
 ceive, qualities, which have never yet been dis- 
 covered to the universe, as there must have been 
 a time, before the worlds were, when even his 
 creative power was unknown, when that wisdom 
 and goodness, which resided in him from all eter- 
 nity, had not displayed themselves, but the 
 gradual disclosure of which in acts, peculiar to 
 Deity, may give ever new and constant delight to 
 souls, who love to contemplate his perfections, 
 and that in infinite progression for ever and ever. 
 
16 
 
 When therefore such is the being, towards whom 
 the supreme aiFections of an intelHgent creature 
 are kept in perpetual exercise by a perpetually 
 improving acquaintance with his divine character 
 and actions, to say nothing now of the enlarge- 
 ment of the faculties themselves for the compre- 
 hension of so vast an object, what streams of in- 
 effable delight must be continually flowing into a 
 soul, so occupied ! Isaiah gives us some faint 
 notion of it, where he says — ' Then had thy 
 ' peace been as a river, and thy righteousness, 
 ' as the waves of the sea.' 
 
 Nevertheless, while this was the condition of 
 Adam, a holy, happy creature, the image of God 
 upon earth, and even his glory, although with 
 one exception nothing was suffered to approach 
 him, which could in any degree disturb his 
 serenity, or impair his enjoyment, and he might 
 thus seem to be 
 
 from within 
 And from without to all temptations arm'd, 
 
 it did not please his almighty sovereign to exempt 
 him from trial. There was a malignant being, 
 
17 
 
 who, not having kept his first estate of innocence 
 and happiness, but left his own habitation in 
 Heaven, sought to pervert others also from their 
 allegiance, and to involve them in the same des- 
 truction and misery. Him the Lord suffered to 
 try his cruel skill upon the founders of the human 
 race, the governors of this new world : and un- 
 happily his malice was too successful. Neither 
 Adam, nor Eve had any excuse for yielding to 
 his seduction. Created in the image of their 
 maker, gifted with all requisite knowledge, en- 
 dowed with an ample dominion, surrounded with 
 every thing, that could minister to their delight, 
 and privileged to hold high and unrestrained 
 communion with their creator, they were assu- 
 redly 
 
 Sufficient to have stood, tho' free to fall : 
 
 Nor could the enmity of the devil have prevailed 
 in any degree against them, if Eve had not lent 
 an ear to suggestions, which she ought to have 
 indignantly repelled. 
 
 However Adam fell. He transgressed a clear 
 commandment of his maker : and by that one 
 act his relation to God, his affection towards him, 
 
18 
 
 and all those qualities of mind, which constituted 
 his happiness, underwent a sad alteration ; and 
 he, who was before the image and glory of God, 
 being no longer upright, forfeited his favour, and 
 incurred his displeasure. He was cast out of 
 Paradise, and doomed to a life of labour. But 
 this was little. He lost that innocence and 
 purity, in which only he could be regarded, as 
 bearing the likeness of his maker, became a 
 guilty creature, and was no longer capable of 
 that perfect love of God, which casteth out fear, 
 or of that confiding and unmingled love to his 
 partner in sin and sorrow, which their common 
 guilt had clouded with painful recollections. 
 The similitude of God was gone ; and one act 
 had already been committed, in which they re- 
 sembled his enemy. In short the downward 
 course of iniquity was begun : and who could 
 stop its progress? For whosoever committeth 
 sin, is the servant of sin. 
 
 Here then began a new stage in human exist- 
 ence. The fall of man was final, and appeared 
 to be incurable : for how could he recover from 
 a fall, which separated him from the author of 
 his being, the source of all purity and perfection ? 
 
19 
 
 But in this crisis of his destiny, when all things 
 concurred to proclaim his irretrievable perdition, 
 the wonderful mercy of God interposed, and 
 devised a scheme for his restoration. By one 
 man sin had entered into the world, and death 
 by sin : and so death has since passed upon all 
 men, for that all have sinned. But, where sin 
 abounded, grace did much more abound, that as 
 sin had reigned unto death, even so might grace 
 reign through righteousness unto eternal life 
 by Jesus Christ, our lord. 
 
 For the gradual development and eventual 
 accomplishment of this merciful design the sen- 
 tence of death was respited ; and a long in- 
 terval was afforded, within which the mischief of 
 the fall might be repaired, and they might 
 recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, 
 who were taken captive by him at his will. 
 
 This is a great mystery. Saint Paul calls it 
 the mystery of godliness. A dreadful ruin had 
 befallen the species, and there needed a remedy, 
 more powerful than the disease, before it could 
 be healed. Whether, or where this remedy was 
 to be found, or how it was to be rendered effica- 
 cious, remains to be considered. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 But we shall proceed in the investigation of 
 these questions with best hope of success, if we 
 previously examine the extent and character of the 
 change, which human nature sustained through 
 the first transgression. 
 
 When these two preliminary points, the ante- 
 cedent glory, and the subsequent fall of man, 
 shall have been settled and understood, and we 
 have thus traced out the eflFect, which the fall of 
 Adam has produced upon the integrity of that 
 nature, which we all inherit from him, we shall 
 have formed some estimate both of our pri- 
 mitive constitution, and also of that, to which 
 we now find ourselves reduced. Having sur- 
 veyed the defect in all its fearful magnitude, we 
 shall be better able to distinguish the qualities, 
 by which it must be supplied. We shall perceive, 
 what in the nature of things requires to be done, 
 if ever the evil of the fall shall be cured, and 
 the original perfection of our nature regained. 
 
 Whether indeed such a complete recovery is to 
 be hoped for, and, if so, how it is to be brought 
 about, is a matter of pure revelation : nor indeed 
 could any revelation from Heaven be more valua- 
 ble than that, which should relieve our natural 
 
21 
 
 uneasiness upon these questions. We cannot 
 but be anxious to know, whether any adequate 
 means have been devised for accomplishing this 
 most necessary restoration, and in what those 
 means consist. It is too evident, that, whatever 
 they may be, they are not universally understood 
 or followed, and that the world does not present 
 that picture of reformed and regenerated huma- 
 nity, which is to be desired. These are consi- 
 derations, which impart peculiar solemnity to an 
 inquiry into the particulars of that heaUng pro- 
 cess, through which by the wisdom and mercy of 
 God the soul of man may regain the glory, which 
 it has lost, that so his gracious purpose in our 
 favour may be accomplished, to restore under a 
 new head, avaxe(f>aXaiaia-aar6ai, as saint Paul ex- 
 presses it, all things in Christ. 
 
 That process is in scripture called the work of 
 sanctification. The nature of it, the errors and 
 misapprehensions, which have been committed in 
 regard to it, and the means, by which it is to be 
 carried forward, wherever it is real and effectual, 
 are the subject, which is proposed for the ensu- 
 ing course. 
 
 In the regular prosecution of this inquiry the 
 
22 
 
 next lecture will accordingly be devoted, as I have 
 already intimated, to a consideration of the pre- 
 cise extent and nature of the mischief, consequent 
 upon the fall. After this we may proceed in the 
 third lecture to consider, what has been actually 
 revealed to us in regard to this evil and its 
 remedy. But, forasmuch as this revelation is 
 not even now universally received, and since, 
 even where it is professedly received, much more 
 then, where it is not, grave mistakes are con- 
 tinually made upon a subject, the most interest- 
 ing and important of any, on which the mind of 
 man can be engaged, we shall go on in the four 
 lectures, which will follow, to examine cursorily 
 the various errors, which have prevailed in regard 
 to it, as exemplified in the idolatry, the philoso- 
 phy, and the moraUty of the heathens, as well as 
 in the formaUsm, or mysticism, the ecclesiastical 
 tyranny, or ascetic self-righteousness, which have 
 at various times misled those, to whom the 
 oracles of God have been committed, and further 
 to trace, so far as may be practicable, the common 
 source, in which these various errors have origi- 
 nated : after which it will only remain in a con- 
 cluding lecture to contrast the true doctrine of 
 
23 
 
 sanctification with the several misapprehensions 
 of it, which will have been specified, that by 
 thus observing the leading particulars, in which 
 the real life of a christian consists, the dangers, 
 by which it is encompassed, and the divine helps 
 and encouragements, by which it is supported, 
 we may at length be enabled to deduce such 
 principles as under the direction of scripture, 
 and by the blessing of its divine author, may 
 preserve us from dangerous error in following 
 again after that holiness, without which it is de- 
 clared to us in the volume of inspiration, that 
 no man, whatever may be his other endow- 
 ments, recommendations, or advantages, shall 
 see the Lord, 
 
 May his gracious and sanctifying spirit lead 
 us into all truth, and render it eflFective to our 
 personal salvation ! 
 
SEEMON 11. 
 
 1 JOHN V. 19. 
 
 The whole world lieth in wickedness. 
 
 How awfully different is the statement in this 
 text from that, which describes the original dig- 
 nity of man ! When there was but one man on 
 the face of the earth, and he retained his prime- 
 val innocence, he was the image and glory of 
 God. But at a time, when the earth was over- 
 spread with innumerable multitudes of inhabi- 
 tants, saint John is moved by the holy Ghost to 
 declare concerning it, that the whole world lieth 
 in wickedness. Such is the fearful consequence 
 of that one sin, which 
 
 Brought death into the world, and all our woe. 
 
 But we must examine the precise meaning of 
 the text, before we pursue it into the particulars, 
 of which it consists. ' 'O koo-jms oXos ev to irowipto 
 ' xeirat.' The proposition is opposed to one, 
 which almost immediately follows. ' 'Etr/^ev ev 
 
25 
 
 ' Tw aXyi^ivw.' They must be translated alike; 
 and, if by tm aX-^^vZ a person is meant, we 
 must also understand a person by tS mv^pw- 
 Now the apostle has explained his own meaning 
 in the one phrase -. for by tw aXv/^ivf he declares, 
 that he means the son of God, Jesus Christ. 
 Therefore by to mv^pS he must mean a per- 
 son likewise : and the two correspondent phrases 
 may be rendered — ' The whole world lieth in 
 ' the wicked one. We. are in the true one.' 
 
 But still there remains the question — What is 
 meant by lying in the wicked one, and being in 
 the true one ? The expressions are undoubtedly 
 figurative : and the surest way of ascertaining 
 the meaning of a figurative expression is by ob- 
 serving, what the same phrase imports, when 
 used without a figure. 
 
 Now, when our blessed lord is introduced to 
 the notice of the shepherds, as to ySp/^of, wifjsvov Iv rij 
 ^omtfi, we understand by that phrase, that the holy 
 babe rested upon the manger, and was supported 
 by it : and this we should understand, whether it 
 was said, that he lay, or that he was in the man- 
 ger. Just so here therefore we are taught, that 
 the whole world rests or reposes upon the evil 
 
26 
 
 one, being upheld and supported by him, but 
 that we, christians, on the contrary rest upon the 
 true one, and are upheld and supported by Jesus 
 Christ. The whole unconverted world conse- 
 quently is under the dominion of the wicked one, 
 while those, who truly believe in Jesus Christ, 
 are under the dominion of him, who is true, nay, 
 who is himself, to use his own language, the way, 
 and the truth, and the life, or, as he speaks of 
 himself in another place, he, that is holy, he, that 
 is true. 
 
 ' The whole world lieth in wickedness.' Let 
 us consider, what this painful statement imports ! 
 and may he, who desireth not the death of a 
 sinner, effectually translate us all from the power 
 of Satan unto the kingdom of his dear son ! 
 
 The origin of this frightful evil is thus des- 
 cribed by saint Paul. ' The serpent beguiled 
 ' Eve through his subtlety.' He led her to believe, 
 that by tasting the forbidden fruit she should 
 gratify at once her eye, her taste, and her appe- 
 tite for knowledge, whereas, when the short fever 
 of indulgence was past, nothing could be more 
 distasteful to her than the memory of that tree, 
 
27 
 
 and the only increase of knowledge, which she 
 obtained, was an acquaintance with evil, to which 
 it had been her blessed privilege to remain a 
 stranger : and the course, which he pursued 
 with Eve, he has since pursued with aU her pos- 
 terity ; for so we are expressly informed in the 
 book of revelation, where it is written — ' That 
 ' old serpent, called the devil and Satan, deceiv- 
 ' eth the whole world.' And does not enlight- 
 ened observation and conscious experience con- 
 firm the testimony ? Else by what strange 
 infatuation is it, that the pleasures of sin are 
 always dressed out to the imagination of youth in 
 the most flattering colours, as if nothing could be 
 wanting to the felicity of indulgence, while yet 
 it is universally found in the issue, that even in 
 laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that 
 mirth is heaviness, and we learn too late the lesson, 
 of which the word of God had long forewarned 
 us — " Know, and see, that it is an evil thing 
 " and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord, 
 " thy God, and that my fear is not in thee " — 
 ' saith the Lord, God of hosts' — ? The delu- 
 sive fascination of sin, which, as the eye of a 
 serpent attracts the captivated bird to its destruc- 
 
28 
 
 tion, perpetually decoys multitudes of the child- 
 ren of men to their ruin, bears witness to the 
 power of the tempter, and shews, that he has 
 access to our senses, and is able by the fallacious 
 impression, which he makes upon them, to allure 
 unsuspecting souls to their own undoing. 
 
 This however is only one example, to prove, 
 that in the fall of our first parents we are all par- 
 takers. The mysterious community of nature, 
 which is summed up in that short, but fearful 
 sentence — ' By one man sin entered into the 
 ' world, and death by sin, and so death passed 
 ' upon all men, for that all have sinned ' — , it 
 would be equally hopeless to explain, or to deny. 
 Rather let us with all humility receive the truth, 
 as we find it recorded in our ninth article, that 
 original sin is the fault and corruption of the na- 
 ture of every man, that naturally is engendered 
 of the oiFspring of Adam, whereby man is very 
 far gone from original righteousness, and is of his 
 own nature inclined to evil, so, that the flesh 
 lusteth always contrary to the spirit, and there- 
 fore in every person, born into this world, it de- 
 serveth God's wrath and damnation ! 
 
 Our present business is to trace the particulars. 
 
29 
 
 or some of them, in which this corruption con- 
 sists, and to shew, that the image and likeness of 
 God, in which our first father was created, passed 
 away from him, and with him from all his poste- 
 rity, the moment he became guilty of sinning 
 against God. He, who has once sinned, is no 
 longer an upright creature ; and from that one 
 defect others immediately result, which are all 
 alike destructive to that similitude, which he 
 once bore, to his holy creator. 
 
 We have already remarked upon the deceitful- 
 ness of sin, anra-Tri -rtji afrnprtai, or, as the same phrase 
 is elsewhere translated, the deceiveableness of 
 unrighteousness, airdrvj TVjg aliKiag. If sin itself 
 destroys our righteousness, its deceitfiilness 
 impairs our knowledge : and hence these two evils 
 are commonly classed together in scripture — 
 ' The heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
 ' perately wicked.' It is deceitful, because it is 
 wicked, and loves to be deceived. Because it 
 has pleasure in unrighteousness, therefore it re- 
 ceives not the love of the truth, but is prone to 
 believe a lie. So again Isaiah describes the 
 transgressor. ' A deceived heart hath turned 
 ' him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul. 
 
30 
 
 ' nor say — " Is there not a lie in my right 
 " hand ? " ' 
 
 It is plain, that a heart, thus prone to deceive, 
 and to be deceived, cannot retain that clear 
 knowledge of things, which was part of the origi- 
 nal endowment of our nature. But particularly 
 it will decline in the knowledge of God. Having 
 refused to obey him, it regards him under a new 
 aspect, as arrayed in terrors, and pledged by the 
 very truth of his word and the awful holiness of 
 his character to punish transgressors. Hence, 
 instead of taking pleasure in holding communion 
 with him, it is unwilling to think of him. Adam 
 and his wife immediately after the first sin hid 
 themselves from the presence of the Lord, God, 
 amongst the trees of the garden : and the neces- 
 sary consequence of this indisposition to meet 
 their benefactor, or to look up to him, as before, 
 is, that the very knowledge of him instead of im- 
 proving, as it would otherwise do, to all eternity, 
 must decline. The heart turns aside from the 
 contemplation of him, till at length God is not 
 in all its thoughts : and this forgetfiilness of 
 God must lead to ignorance of him. Thence 
 sprang all those false notions of God, which pre- 
 
31 
 
 vailed among the heathen, who thought, that the 
 Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, 
 graven by art and man's device, till at length, as 
 it is written, they sacrificed unto devils, not to 
 God, to gods, whom they knew not, to new gods, 
 that came newly up, whom their fathers feared 
 not. 
 
 Thus the knowledge of the true God came to 
 be lost in the world, except among that one fa- 
 vored people, with whom it was still preserved 
 by special revelation. Nor was this the case 
 only in barbarous nations, unenlightened by 
 learning, and untaught in science. The world 
 by wisdom knew not God ; and even those, 
 whose splendid researches and attainments have 
 won universal admiration, and displayed a com- 
 pass of mind, not to be easily bafiied, were yet 
 involved in the darkness of ignorance upon a 
 subject, with which above all others it concerns 
 us to be acquainted, the nature and attributes, 
 the government and laws of the God, who made 
 them. Nor can it be doubted, that, when the 
 noblest object of human knowledge was hidden 
 from view, and awful mistakes were made con- 
 cerning the first principles of natural theology, 
 
32 
 
 the theory of morals also must be liable to be 
 perverted, and the intellect of man, unvisited by 
 the light of heavenly truth, and clouded by 
 worldly passion and prejudice, must lose much of 
 its original perspicacity, freedom of thought, and 
 largeness of view, and thus even in inferior things 
 fall short of that readiness of apprehension and 
 correctness of judgment, which he enjoyed, when 
 he was conversant with the highest principles, 
 and walked habitually with God. 
 
 Of course with the knowledge of God the love 
 of him must perish too : or rather perhaps it 
 should be said, that the love of him went first, 
 and the knowledge of him followed. Men could 
 not regard a being, whom they had offended, 
 with that supreme and delighted affection, with 
 which he was contemplated before the fall. They 
 had learned to fear him, as an avenging judge : 
 and that fear is incompatible with perfect love ; 
 for, as an apostle reasons, there is no fear in 
 love, because fear hath torment. Hence it be- 
 came painfdl and uneasy to think of God. He 
 came not readily into the thoughts of men. He 
 was forgotten, and in time unknown. 
 
 Thus the first and greatest of the command- 
 
33 
 
 ments came to be neglected. But the second is 
 like unto it. We need not wonder therefore, if, 
 when the first was disregarded, the second shared 
 its fate. "When men ceased to love God with all 
 their powers, they ceased to love their neighbour, 
 as themselves. 
 
 Indeed on this subject we need not say much : 
 for who is there, that would now dare to profess, 
 that he loves his neighbour, every neighbour, 
 every man therefore (for such is the extent of 
 the command), as himself? The idea is so far 
 from being realized, that by many it would be 
 regarded, as impracticable and romantic. Not 
 to love some persons indeed would be deemed 
 monstrous and unnatural. But to love our 
 families, and country, our intimate acquaintance, 
 or associates, would fill in most men's minds the 
 measure of the duty. Consequently the original 
 disposition of Adam to love his neighbour, as 
 himself, a disposition, acted upon by all holy 
 angels, and hereafter to be exhibited anew by 
 the whole company of the redeemed in Heaven, 
 is to be reckoned, as a part of that fatal loss, 
 which the first sin occasioned. 
 
 And consequently, when the knowledge of the 
 
34 
 
 true God declined, and when by inevitable con- 
 sequence the supreme love of God and the im- 
 partial love of man ceased to be characteristics 
 of our nature, mankind became unfitted to ex- 
 ercise that dominion over the other animals, 
 which was at first entrusted to them. It was 
 not indeed altogether taken away. Nay. It may 
 be said to have been in some measure extended, 
 when many of the other animals were given him 
 for food. But there are animals now, which 
 disown his authority, which maintain perpetual 
 warfare with him, and, though often subdued, 
 and in individual instances tamed, yet preserve, 
 as a race, their wild freedom, and refuse to be 
 brought into subjection. 
 
 When therefore mankind have lost that ab- 
 solute dominion over the inferior creatures, which 
 was their primitive distinction, when they have 
 also lost what is a far more lamentable forfeiture, 
 that righteousness and true holiness, which con- 
 sisted in the pure and disinterested love of God 
 and of their fellow-men, when they have even 
 lost, except in those countries, and in the in- 
 stance of those persons, to whom it has been 
 restored by a new revelation, the very knowledge 
 
35 
 
 of his perfections and character, what then has 
 become of that image and likeness of God, in 
 which they were created ? They are no longer 
 the image and glory of God ; nor can we hesi- 
 tate to admit, that, except, where divine grace 
 has re-asserted its empire, the whole world heth 
 under the dominion of the wicked one. 
 
 This indeed is expressly declared in some 
 other passages of the new testament as well as 
 in the text. For instance saint Paul says to the 
 Ephesians — ' In time past ye walked according 
 ' to the course of this world ' — ; and then it is 
 immediately added, as if the two modes of state- 
 ment were of precisely the same import— r' ac- 
 ' cording to the prince of the power of the air, 
 ' the spirit, that now worketh in the children of 
 ' disobedience.' And to the same eiFect also our 
 blessed saviour does not scruple to call the devil 
 the prince of this world, saying—' The prince of 
 ' this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.' 
 Nor are there wanting intimations to a similar 
 purport in the earlier writings of the bible. 
 Thus the universal apostasy of mankind is as- 
 serted in the book of psalms, where it is written, 
 that God looked down from Heaven upon the 
 
 D 2 
 
36 
 
 children of men, to see, if there were any, that 
 would understand, and seek after God ; but 
 they were all gone out of the way : and even 
 in the antediluvian age, soon after the introduc- 
 tion of sin into this part of the creation of God, 
 it is written — ' 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.' 
 
 But, if the poison of the fall thus diflFused it- 
 self universally, and left not a soul of man un- 
 infected by the contagion, so, that even the 
 purest and best of men has reason to say — ' Be- 
 ' hold ! I am vile. Mine iniquities are gone over 
 ' my head, and are like a sore burden, too 
 ' heavy for me to bear ' — , to what a height of 
 wickedness has it not risen in some instances ! 
 which indeed we might decline to notice, if they 
 could be considered, as mere proofs of individual 
 extravagance and guilt, but which are really to 
 be regarded, as more virulent symptoms of the 
 same fatal epidemic, which has befallen the 
 species. Thus at one time the world was filled 
 with violence, and thereby brought down upon 
 itself the judgment of the flood. At another 
 
37 
 
 time such was the pollution of a particular part 
 of it, that it provoked Heaven to rain down fire 
 and brimstone upon the cities of the ungodly. 
 At another time, the iniquity of the seven nations 
 of Canaan having become full, a sentence of 
 extermination was pronounced against them all. 
 The pride of Babylon and other imperial cities 
 has caused them to be swept away from the face 
 of the earth. And how truly, and yet how 
 generally is it said by David in language, still 
 fearfully applicable, that the dark places of the 
 earth are full of the habitations of cruelty ! 
 Frightfiil will be the disclosures, which the last 
 day will make, of the wickedness, lasciviousness, 
 and cruelty of men : for, when thou. Lord, 
 makest inquisition for blood, thou rememberest 
 them. 
 
 Is this then the race, which God created up- 
 right, to be a representation, a visible transcript 
 of his own holiness ? How is the gold become 
 dim ! How is the most fine gold changed ! ' I 
 ' had planted thee ' (may the Lord say to us), 'a 
 ' noble vine, wholly a right seed. How art thou 
 ' turned into a degenerate plant of a strange vine 
 ' unto me ! ' 
 
38 
 
 And all this must be regarded, as the work 
 of that evil spirit, who first deceived Eve by his 
 subtlety. Although we see him not, nor do we 
 in the ordinary intercourse of society hear any 
 thing about him, yet are the holy scriptures full 
 of declarations, attesting the reality and power 
 of his efforts for the completion of that victory, 
 which was won from our ancestors in the garden 
 of Eden. To say nothing of that fearful power, 
 which he exercised in the time of our saviour, 
 when he gained possession of the bodies of men, 
 and spoke and acted with their organs of speech 
 and motion, we are warned continually against 
 his artifices for the ruin of the soul. ' Be sober !' 
 — says saint Peter. ' Be vigilant, because your 
 ' adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh 
 ' about, seeking, whom he may devour ! ' ' We 
 ' are not ignorant ' (says saint Paul) ' of his de- 
 ' vices. Put on the whole armour of God, that 
 ' ye may be able to stand against the wiles 
 ' of the devil ! ' He has legions of evil spirits 
 at his command, who act with union, subordina- 
 tion, and discipline, having among them princi- 
 palities and powers, and being acknowledged in 
 scripture, as the rulers of the darkness of this 
 
39 
 
 world : and accordingly it is distinctly stated in 
 the text, that the whole world lies naturally 
 under their power, subject to their dominion, 
 and a willing prey to their machinations. 
 
 Nor yet was the world at large altogether 
 insensible to the evil influence, under which it 
 lay. Men did not indeed ascribe it to any un- 
 seen agency, operating with powerful effect upon 
 their minds. But they perceived a corrupt prin- 
 ciple, actuating the conduct of the great mass of 
 mankind, and drawing them aside from those 
 paths, which even in this world lead to happi- 
 ness and peace. They perceived, that present 
 pleasure is preferred by the many to ultimate 
 good, that a prospect of personal advantage 
 renders them deaf to the claims of friendship, or 
 of the public welfare, and that, when some per- 
 sons are found to act upon more generous prin- 
 ciples, and to manifest extraordinary instances 
 of integrity or patriotism, it has been the result 
 of self-restraint and self-discipline, and not of 
 following the spontaneous tendencies of nature. 
 Hence they perceived, that man, if left to him- 
 self, is apt to err, to err both in sentiment, and 
 in practice, to judge erroneously of what con- 
 
40 
 
 stitutes his true interest, and, even when he has 
 determined it rightly, to turn aside from the 
 course, which leads to it. Hence they cast about 
 in their minds to discover, what is the real good 
 of man, and how it may be reached, by what 
 means the counteracting tendency of nature may 
 be best met, and a remedy discovered for that 
 proneness to iniquity, which in spite of interest, 
 reason, and experience prevails in all states of 
 society. 
 
 The expedients, to which they resorted for 
 this purpose, the errors, into which they fell, and 
 the perplexities, which were occasioned by con- 
 flicting theories, will form a future subject for 
 our inquiry. 
 
 For the present it may be sufficient to observe, 
 how necessarily all these evils flowed from the 
 admission of sin into the world. A single sin 
 was sufiicient to constitute man a transgressor. 
 It deprived him of his uprightness, of that righ- 
 teousness and true holiness, in which he re- 
 sembled his maker. That conscious rectitude, 
 in which alone he could approach him with con- 
 fidence, or reckon securely upon his acceptance 
 and favour, was gone, and gone too, so far as 
 
41 
 
 any efforts of his own are concerned, irrecovera- 
 bly, and for ever. No future course of obedience 
 could cancel either the fault, or the recollection 
 of it. He was no longer one, and never to all 
 eternity could again be regarded, as one, who had 
 not offended his maker, who had walked up- 
 rightly according to the measure of his know- 
 ledge and duty, and had maintained, unimpaired, 
 the integrity, which he possessed-at his creation. 
 There might indeed still remain in him many 
 relative virtues, much mutual affection, many 
 generous feelings, much respect for excellence, 
 and even a disposition to conform to it, when no 
 overpowering temptation came in the way . There 
 might even be in Adam, after he fell, a remaining 
 love for the God, whom he had offended, though 
 accompanied with dread of his wrath. But, as 
 his love for his maker could no longer be perfect or 
 absolute, a love with all the heart and soul and 
 mind and strength, it was not the love, which 
 fulfils the law. There might also still be, and no 
 doubt there was much love for his fellow-crea- 
 tures. But, if he could not love them, as himself, 
 it was such a love as lefb him an offender, a de- 
 faulter, liable to the penalties of the violated law: 
 
42 
 
 and thus, although even among heathens, unen- 
 lightened by revelation, there have since been 
 many heroic instances of generosity and self-de- 
 votion, and of a readiness to suffer wrong rather 
 than to do it, still it remains, that aU, even the 
 most splendid virtues of the best of human cha- 
 racters must needs fall short of the standard of 
 duty, because the love, which it commands, can 
 never be exhibited by a sinner. 
 
 But this is not all. Sin, once introduced into 
 the heart, has a natural tendency to propagate 
 itself, and, even if we leave out of our considera- 
 tion the power and malice of a spiritual enemy, 
 has in itself a downward gravitation, which dis- 
 poses it for more iniquity. When love declines, 
 other principles supply its place. Discontent, re- 
 sentment, jealousy, despair of reconciliation to 
 God, producing hatred of his holy law, disregard 
 of his authority,- contempt, envy, ambition, ava- 
 rice, and every evil - passion rise up easily in a 
 bosom, which has been robbed of its best inmate : 
 and thus men wax worse and worse, deceiving, 
 and being deceived. When Adam had departed 
 from obedience, he was easily led to deviate from 
 truth. One vice generated another. The father 
 
43 
 
 had rebelled against his God ; the son murdered 
 his brother ; and but few generations passed, be- 
 fore the world was overspread with violence and 
 crime. When once the law of God is broken, it 
 is no longer loved ; and, not being loved, h dis- 
 position is engendered to resist it, wherever it 
 can be done with impunity, to deny its obhgation, 
 or to lower its demands, tiU at length men, know- 
 ing the judgment of God, that they, which do 
 such things, are worthy of death, not only do the 
 same, but have pleasure in them, that do them. 
 What sad pictures are drawn of human nature, 
 when such events as the plague of Athens, or the 
 factions of Corcyra set men loose from the res- 
 traints of civil society, and the terrors of human 
 law ! and even under and amidst those restraints 
 what contentions and fraud, what extravagance 
 of sensual indulgence, and occasional outbreaks of 
 violence and murder deform the face of society ! 
 
 Perhaps however the strangest feature in human 
 degeneracy as well as the most universal is pride. 
 That a fallen creature shouldbe proud, is most un- 
 natural. That a ransomed creature, who owes all 
 his liberty and his hopes to his benefactor, should 
 be proud, adds ingratitude to folly. And yet 
 
44 
 
 this perhaps has been the greatest of all hin- 
 drances to the reception of the gospel, men being 
 unwilling even to be saved, if they may not be 
 their own saviours. Nay. The most perverse 
 and preposterous combinations result from it. 
 Men are proud of their vices ; and, after they 
 have been in some measure humbled by a sense 
 of them, they are proud of their humility. Even 
 that opprobrium of humanity, the burial of a 
 lifeless corpse, often bears about its sad solem- 
 nity the trappings of pride ; and mankind at 
 large appear to stand up before their maker, not, 
 as petitioners for mercy, but as competitors for 
 favour. Then with respect to their intercourse 
 with each other how great is the pride of wealth, 
 of birth, of rank, of country ! and yet how much 
 greater in some instances the pride, which vaunts 
 itself to be destitute of all these, and to rely on its 
 own inherent dignity for a moral power, which 
 no external advantages can confer ! And how 
 ill does all this self-complacency sort with the 
 condition of a being, who must be conscious in 
 the midst of it, that he has offended his maker, 
 and cannot justify himself before God ! 
 
 Moreover, in the last place, this tendency of 
 
45 
 
 sin in all its forms to propagate itself, and to 
 grow to more ungodliness through the pride and 
 wilfulness of nature has been manifested notwith- 
 standing the gracious provision, which God has 
 made, for the recovery of fallen man from sin and 
 from uncleanness. Divine grace has ever striven 
 against the iniquity of the world ; and there . 
 have always been some witnesses to the truth 
 amidst the iniquity, which abounds. How much 
 more frightful then would have been the progress 
 of evil, if its tendency had not been thus counter- 
 acted ! If notwithstanding the grace of God, 
 which has appeared to all men, teaching them, 
 that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they 
 should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this 
 present world, notwithstanding the success, which 
 has been granted to the ministry, of the gospel in 
 many nations, and the degree of righteousness, 
 which has been exhibited by many individuals, 
 the whole world, taken, as a body, still lieth in 
 the wicked one, what would be its condition, if 
 this correcting influence had been withdrawn ! 
 
 May God give further and further efiicacy to 
 the word of his grace, and to the means, which 
 are used, by his appointment, for the conversion 
 
46 
 
 of the nations, that they may speedily be recovered 
 out of the dominion of the wicked one, and that 
 so the mischief of the fall may at length be effec- 
 tually repaired, and the kingdom of God reestab- 
 lished in the world ! 
 
8EM0N III. 
 
 JEREMIAH III. 22. 
 
 Return, ye backsliding children ! and I will heal 
 your hachslidings. 
 
 It has been seen, that, when man was first crea- 
 ted, he was the image and glory of God : for he 
 was created upright. His nature was righteous 
 and holy. He was gifted with a measure of 
 knowledge, quite adequate to all his occasions. 
 Most especially he knew the Lord, who made 
 him, and was disposed by the very affections, 
 originally implanted in his bosom, to love him 
 with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength, and 
 his neighbour, as himself. In addition to these 
 high endowments he was entrusted with entire 
 dominion over all inferior creatures, and was 
 worthy of it : for, while his nature continued free 
 from sin, he could not use it, but with wisdom, 
 and consequently with advantage to the beings, 
 committed to his care. 
 
48 
 
 But sin, once admitted, defaced all this glory. 
 When Adam became conscious of having offended 
 his maker, he could no longer approach him with 
 the cheerful confidence of a son. He could no 
 longer love him, as he did before. He had 
 learned to fear him : and as perfect love casteth 
 out fear, so fear casteth out perfect love. The 
 very thought of God was no longer that bright 
 and happy thought, which it was in the begin- 
 ning. It was rather a comfort to forget him for 
 a time ; and thus the way was prepared for that 
 ignorance of God, which soon overspread the 
 world : and then, when the love of God declined, 
 the love of his neighbour declined with it. That 
 neighbour, being a sinner, was less amiable than 
 before ; and he himself, being a sinner, was less 
 apt to love him. Evil tempers, jealousies, envies, 
 mutual disUkes, conflicting desires, rapacious dis- 
 positions, and all the other effects of ungoverned 
 appetite were sure to supervene : and hence wars 
 and fightings arose. He was no longer that holy, 
 wise, and benevolent creature, who was fitted to 
 hold rule over the animal creation. . The beasts 
 of the field began to multiply against him ; and 
 his dominion, so far as he continued to retain it, 
 
49 
 
 was the dominion of superior art or power, 
 not the wiUing homage of dependent creatures to 
 their lord. 
 
 Thus the very nature of man as well as his 
 condition was changed ; and all, who partake of 
 that nature, inherit it in its lapsed character, its 
 crippled powers, its degeneracy, and its corrup- 
 tion. There is also in every thing, that is evil, a 
 tendency to grow worse and worse. Disease 
 generates disease ; and it is the character of sin 
 to depart farther and farther from the standard of 
 right. We see this exemplified in every barba- 
 rous state, which have all degenerated from a 
 better and happier condition to their present des- 
 titution and misery. 
 
 Moreover, to this evil tendency in the nature 
 of sin itself were added the perpetual machina- 
 tions of a subtle adversary, who, having once 
 succeeded in tempting our first parents to trans- 
 gress, never desisted from his malignant attempt 
 to seduce all their descendants, and to stimulate 
 them to more ungodliness. Thus, having fallen 
 once, they had fallen irrecoverably ; and the 
 whole world came in time to lie prostrate under 
 the dominion of the evil one, who became, as the 
 
50 
 
 bible does not hesitate to call him, the god of 
 this world. 
 
 Nor must we omit here to mention, what will 
 be the final eiFect of this wickedness, if suffered 
 to proceed to its ultimate consummation. Sin is 
 indeed its own tormentor ; and its natural fruit 
 and result is misery. But there is also, as we 
 are forewarned by our gracious lord, a penal re- 
 sult of it, an everlasting fire, prepared not origi- 
 nally for any memher of the human race, but for 
 the devil and his angels, to which all, who have 
 been taken captive by him at his wiU, and from 
 that cause lie now under his dominion, if they be 
 not previously recovered from that state of sin 
 and danger, wiU at the last day be consigned to- 
 gether with the master, whom they have chosen, 
 where according to the terrible denunciation of 
 scripture they wiU drink of the wine of the wrath 
 of God, which is poured out without mixture 
 into the cup of his indignation, and be tormented 
 with fire and brimstone. 
 
 How cheering then in this state of things are 
 the words of the text — ' Return, ye backsliding 
 ' children ! and I will heal your backslidings.' — '. 
 
51 
 
 Indeed this invitation and promise are the more 
 deUghtful, because it is clear, that without some 
 such exterior influence and power the disease of 
 nature is incurable. If we have ceased to love 
 God in that degree, which is his just due, how 
 can we ever hope to love him again, as we ought ? 
 Will our affections obey the command of our 
 reason, and rise to a higher point at the dictation 
 of our understandings ? Can we raise them to a 
 juster tone at our will ? Can that, which has 
 acquired a gravitating principle, which draws it 
 down to the earth, rise upward again by its own 
 innate power or buoyancy ? Can the ^Ethiopian 
 change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then 
 may they also learn to do good, which are accus- 
 tomed to do evil. Then may the human heart, 
 being once stained with guilt, recover its native 
 innocence. Even indeed if it could return to its 
 original purity, it could not cancel the guilt of 
 its past ofiienees. But in fact, when once the 
 affections have sunk below their right level, no- 
 thing can raise them again, except the operation 
 of a new motive, unknown, or unacknowledgied 
 before : and this is exactly what is doiie in the 
 gospel by the bringing in of a better hope. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 The influence must come from abroad, which 
 
 would 
 
 minister to' a mind diseas'd. 
 
 It cannot come from within. 
 
 How cheering then (I repeat) is the invitation, 
 how delightftil the promise, contained in the 
 text — ' Return, ye backsUding children ! and I 
 'will heal your backslidings.' — ! The promise is 
 to heal, not merely to pardon, but to heal, to re- 
 store, to recover the original health and purity 
 of the soul. But the promise is conditional : for 
 it is addressed only to those, who will return. 
 
 You perceive therefore from the tenour of this 
 invitation, and of the promise, with which it is 
 coupled, that two things are necessary for the 
 restoration of our fallen nature, that it must re- 
 trace its steps, and that its disease must be 
 healed. Less than this will not answer the pur- 
 pose of repairing the breach of the fall, and 
 restoring us to our original condition. 
 
 With respect to the first point, it is quite in- 
 dispensable, that the sinner must return. He 
 must retrace his steps. God will not alter his 
 laws in accommodation to human infirmity, still 
 less in condescension to human sin. The law of 
 
53 
 
 our nature must be obeyed. When the ten 
 commandments, written upon two tables of stone, 
 were broken, the Lord did not alter them, or 
 diminish the rigour of his enactments in a single 
 letter. His language is — ' I will write on the 
 ' tables the words, which were in the first tables, 
 ' which thou brakest.' So his command remains 
 still in full force — ' Thou shalt love the Lord, thy 
 ' God, with all thy mind, heart, soul, and 
 ' strength, and thy neighbour as thyself' — : and 
 he, who came, to save us, declares concerning it 
 with a most solemn asseveration — ' Verily I say 
 ' unto you, till Heaven and Earth pass, one 
 'jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
 ' law, till all be fulfilled.' It is absolutely neces- 
 sary therefore, to the moral recovery of mankind, 
 that they should obey the law, which they have 
 broken. The backsliding children must return. 
 
 But we have already seen, that this involves a 
 moral impossibility, unless some extraneous in- 
 fluence be exerted, to overcome the wrongful 
 propensity, which has been contracted. Left to 
 themselves, and to the tendencies of their fallen 
 nature, the backsliding children cannot return. 
 
 Therefore, that they may not despair, a pro- 
 
54 
 
 mise is made to them — ' I will heal- your back- 
 ' shdings.' The promise is, that the disease of 
 nature shall be healed, that men shall again 
 know and love the Lord, their God, with all their 
 mind, heart, soul, and strength, and their neigh- 
 bour, as themselves, and that they shall again 
 become, as they were at first, the image and 
 glory of God. 
 
 This then is the final result of the process of 
 sanctification, which forms the proper subject of 
 these lectures, that heahng process, by which a 
 sinner is to be converted into a saint, gradually 
 parting with all his corrupt and corrupting ten- 
 dencies, and advancing towards the attainment 
 of those heavenly virtues, whereby he may grow 
 into a nearer and nearer conformity to the will 
 and likeness of the holy author of his being. In 
 short this is the process, which saint Peter most 
 exactly describes, when, speaking of the exceed- 
 ing great and precious promises, which are given 
 unto us in the gospel, he says, that the end of 
 all the promises is this, that by these ye might be 
 partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the 
 coiTuption, that is in the world through lust. 
 
55 
 
 Let us therefore first inquire generally, leaving 
 a more particular investigation for the sequel, 
 what is that course of sanetification and renewal, 
 which the hible prescribes to us, that we may 
 thus be put upon our guard against any of those 
 mistakes, by which men ever have been, and still 
 are withheld fi-om coming to the true physician of 
 souls ! 
 
 It has already been observed, that, when the 
 affections have been deranged, they cannot be 
 restored, except by the exhibition of a new mo- 
 tive : and the motive, which the gospel presents 
 for that purpose, is indeed itself of a nature, 
 fitted to rouse the dullest affection, and to stim- 
 ulate the most torpid feeling into activity. Ac- 
 cordingly it addresses us in language, which 
 anticipates such a result, saying to us with a 
 voice, which seems, like that of the last trumpet, 
 to command death and the grave — ' Awake, 
 'thou, that sleepest, and arise from the dead! and 
 ' Christ shall give thee light.' 
 
 It has also been stated, that the first step in the 
 revival of a fallen soul must come from without. 
 The influence must proceed from a,nother. It 
 
56 
 
 cannot spring from itself. Accordingly the first 
 step, which the bible reveals, for the sanctifica- 
 tion of a sinner, is taken by the son of God him- 
 self, by him, who, coming forth from the bosom 
 of the Father, and condescending to assume our 
 nature, was made like unto his brethren in all 
 things, except sin. The son of God, arrayed in 
 mortal flesh, and taking his station among men, 
 as one of their number, subject to their infirmi- 
 ties, and liable to their temptations, set us a per- 
 fect example of obedience to the law of God, 
 and was truly even in human form his image and 
 glory. He did indeed know God. He loved 
 him with an affection beyond earthly love ; and 
 he loved those also, whom he graciously vouch- 
 safed to regard, as his neighbours and brethren, 
 so well, that he even gave up himself for their 
 benefit. 
 
 But this perfect example, had that been all, 
 would have shamed instead of saving us. It 
 would have shewn us in a living pattern, how 
 we ought to have lived, and to please God. 
 But instead of enabling us to do so, it would 
 only have set before us in clearer contrast the 
 height, from which we had fallen, and taught 
 
57 
 
 us to fear and to feel, that it was utterly im- 
 possible for us ever to remeasure the distance. 
 
 Our lord accordingly did not rest here. This 
 was necessary for us, but not sufficient. Before 
 man can return to God, he must know, that 
 God is willing to receive him with favour ; and 
 of that he cannot be convinced, until he knows, 
 that his sins are forgiven : and here therefore 
 lies a difficulty in the very way of his return, 
 which none, but God himself, can remove. Who 
 can remit sins, but God only ? That is the first 
 difficulty. But even to his forgiveness of sins 
 there are apparent obstacles in the very holiness 
 of the divine administration, which nothing, less 
 than the divine wisdom, acting in conjunction 
 with divine love, could overcome. 
 
 Jesus Christ therefore, to surmount this im- 
 pediment, became himself an atonement for 
 sinners. He gave his life, a ransom for many. 
 He died for sins, the just for the unjust, that 
 he might bring us to God. God is even said 
 to have made him to be sin for us, who knew 
 no sin, that we might be made the righteousness 
 of God in him. 
 
 Can any motive to gratitude, any incentive 
 
58 
 
 to love be imagined, equal to this ? If a debtor, 
 pining in a dungeon, were suddenly released in 
 consequence of some benevolent stranger having 
 defrayed all, that he owed, — if a prisoner, 
 working in chains, were discharged from con- 
 finement through the payment of his ransom 
 by some person, who felt for his sufferings, — if, 
 to adopt a still closer comparison, a soldier in 
 battle, who had to cross the range of a parti- 
 cular gun, were saved from death by a comrade, 
 who purposely placed himself between him and 
 the instrument of destruction, could any of 
 these persons fail to love his benefactor? Yet 
 all these instances of nobleness and generosity 
 would faU infinitely short of the grace of the 
 saviour : for, though it be true, that for a good 
 man some would even dare to die, Christ Jesus 
 died not for a good man, but for sinners, not 
 for a friend, but for enemies, not for those, who 
 deserved his compassion, but for men, who had 
 abused his goodness, and provoked his wrath. 
 Nay. The creator died for the creature. He, 
 who was the absolute lord and sovereign of 
 us all, paid the penalty, which by righteous 
 sentence was due to transgressors, that his 
 
59 
 
 rebellious servants and subjects might be 
 spared. 
 
 Surely, when this love is brought home to an 
 awakened conscience, it must excite love in 
 return. We love, we cannot refrain from loving 
 him, because he first loved us. The bosom, 
 which felt its love to God grow cool, and its 
 love to man turn selfish, kindles into gratitude, 
 when it hears of such godlike goodness, such 
 surpassing mercy. 
 
 It is indeed too true, that this motive is con- 
 tinually presented to the natural heart without 
 awakening it from its torpor. It has become 
 insensible to spiritual impression, and hears, 
 and sees, and knows what is best adapted to 
 rouse it to new energy, without regarding it, as 
 it ought : and this is a consideration, which opens 
 a new chapter in the history of the human mind 
 to our serious reflection ; for it proves further 
 the necessity of not only exhibiting the motive, 
 but also of preparing the mind to receive it in 
 order to its deliverance from the captivity of 
 sin. Thus the historian of the acts of the 
 apostles informs us concerning Lydia, that the 
 Lord opened her heart, that she attended unto 
 
60 
 
 the things, which were spoken by Paul. The 
 stony heart must be softened, the callous feeling 
 renewed ; or the pleadings of divine mercy will 
 be urged in vain. ' This, however it may be 
 accomplished, is necessary in order to gain ad- 
 mittance for the new and regenerating motive, 
 and to give it efficacy and power. 
 
 When however this effect, by whatever 
 means it may be attained, is once produced, 
 when this decayed and expiring sentiment is 
 once reawakened in the heart, then at length 
 the first difficulty in the way of conversion is 
 overcome. The backsliding child is willing to 
 return. Finding that his ofiended God is ready 
 to forgive, nay, that he has resorted to so costly 
 a sacrifice in order to make the exercise of 
 mercy compatible with the claims of justice, he 
 no longer stands at a distance, but becomes 
 desirous to draw near : for he reasons — ' If the 
 ' Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not 
 ' have shewed us all these things. Nay. Ra- 
 ' ther he, that spared not his own son, but de- 
 ' livered him up for us all, how shall he not 
 ' with him also freely give us all things ? ' 
 
 But this is not all, that is wanted. The sin- 
 
61 
 
 ner indeed, under this influence, is made willing. 
 But he is not made whole. Though his past 
 guilt has been cancelled, and he is willing to 
 return to God, how can he now with his con- 
 tracted powers, his imperfect knowledge, and 
 his disordered affections serve him, as he did, 
 before he fell, or love him with that glad and 
 undoubting confidence, which his law presumes 
 and requires ? 
 
 It is evident, that he cannot do it : and there- 
 fore, to encourage him under his despondency, 
 and dispose him still to return notwithstanding 
 his fears and his frailty, he is cheered by a most 
 gracious promise : — ' Return, ye backsliding chil- 
 ' dren ! and I will heal your backslidings. That, 
 ' which you cannot do for yourselves, I will do 
 ' for you. I will undertake your cure. I will 
 ' restore your integrity. I will recover your soul. 
 ' Try, as you will, to recover yourselves ! Trust, 
 ' if you can venture to do so, to your own energy 
 ' and virtue for reascending the height, from 
 ' which you have sunk ! You will find at last, 
 ' that I alone, and not your own right hand, can 
 ' save you. I, even I, am. the Lord; and besides 
 ' me there is no saviour. Look unto me, and be 
 
62 
 
 ' ye saved, all the ends of the earth ! For I am 
 ' God, and there it none else. Come unto me, 
 ' all ye, that are weary and heavy-laden ! and I 
 ' will give you rest.' 
 
 How then is this healing process, which was 
 begun by the atonement on the cross of the sa- 
 viour, to be carried on ? How is the work of 
 sanctification, which is to cure the vice of nature, 
 and restore it to original righteousness and 
 purity, to be matured, and brought to perfec- 
 tion ? 
 
 Now it has pleased God to reveal this to us 
 also. Christ reconciled us by his death. But 
 he saves us by his life. Having risen from the 
 dead, ascended into Heaven, and taken his seat 
 at the right hand of the father, he there pleads 
 the cause of his people, and sends down thence 
 into their hearts his holy Spirit, without which 
 theywould have remained deaf to the invitations 
 of his goodness, to renew their souls to obe- 
 dience. 
 
 It is thus, that the influence of Satan, which 
 occasioned the fall, meets with a counteracting 
 influence of superior potency : for greater is he, 
 that is in us, than he, that is in the world. The 
 
63 
 
 holy and gracious spirit, that dwelt in Jesus, 
 dwells in his disciples also, to suhdue the spirit 
 of rebellion, and to implant the spirit of love : 
 for the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts 
 by the holy Ghost, which is given unto them. 
 
 But this is a gradual operation, a spark, 
 rising into a flame, and gathering more and more 
 strength, till it consumes the sordid dregs of 
 natural corruption, and burns upon the altar of 
 our heart, like the fire, that descended from 
 Heaven. 
 
 How then is this work to be advanced ? How 
 is the flame to be nursed and fed, how guarded 
 from extinction, and fanned into brightness and 
 vigour ? 
 
 This indeed is the great business of the chris- 
 tian life. It consists, as saint Paul describes it, 
 of two parts, to put off the old man, and to put 
 on the new, to mortify the original nature, in 
 which we were born, and to cultivate, strengthen, 
 and nourish the new nature, which is communi- 
 cated by regeneration : and these two operations 
 must be carried forward together ; for it is by 
 putting on the new man, that we best learn to 
 put off the old ; or in other words it is by exer- 
 
64 
 
 cising the properties and virtues of our renewed 
 nature, that we get rid more and more of the 
 propensities, dispositions, and vices, which be- 
 long to our fallen condition. It is, when a tree 
 puts forth its fresh leaves in the spring, that any 
 decayed reninants of a former vegetation fall off, 
 as a matter of course. 
 
 Still this is a change of stupendous magnitude, 
 affecting all the faculties and dispositions of the 
 soul, and entering into the production, and influ- 
 encing the character of every action. As the 
 first impulse, which disposes us to return to God, 
 was from above, so the maintenance of that new 
 action in all its consistency and power requires a 
 divine strength, to accomplish it, and can only be 
 brought about by the agency of the holy Spirit. 
 Hence arises the necessity of continual prayer 
 for guidance and blessing, as an element in the 
 divine life, which can never be dispensed with : 
 for the holy Spirit is only promised in answer to 
 prayer, and, being needed by us for every duty, 
 requires to be solicited by perpetual prayer. 
 
 The work is also one, which in the second 
 place is encountered by manifold temptations. 
 The remainder of original sin, which can only be 
 
65 
 
 extinguished by degrees, will find in every cir- 
 cumstance of life a temptation, which will prompt 
 it to renewed activity, and thus hinder the work, 
 which ought to make progress : and again, the 
 weakness of the implanted principle in its com- 
 mencement and infancy renders it easy for us to 
 miss, or to neglect, and even not to discern or 
 apprehend opportunities for doing the work of 
 God, which his providence continually places in 
 our way, and by which it is his will, that the 
 talent, which he has bestowed upon us, should 
 be brought into use, and improved. Both these 
 causes, alike retarding us in running the race, 
 that is set before us, call for perpetual vigilance, 
 to guard against the danger, and invigorate our 
 flagging energies to renewed exertion. 
 
 Hence we see the wisdom of our blessed lord's 
 caution to his disciples — ' Watch, and pray ! ' 
 Watch your own hearts, and pray for divine as- 
 sistance ! 
 
 These are the two simple expedients, to which 
 we have need always to resort in order to grow 
 in grace, and in the knowledge of our lord and 
 saviour, Jesus Christ. They are the two essen- 
 tial elements, which, after we have repented of 
 
66 
 
 sin, we have still to use in the daily process of 
 sanctification. They are the means, by which we 
 obtain the continual aid of the divine spirit, who 
 alone sanctifies : for by watchfulness we keep 
 away those evils, which would provoke the holy 
 spirit, and by prayer we invite his entrance. 
 
 There are many other acts and graces, essential 
 to the life of a christiati, which demand a separate 
 investigation. Indeed the particulars, on which 
 our watchfulness must be exercised, and the ob- 
 jects, to which our prayers must be directed, 
 give scope for much discrimination and judgment : 
 and then the many helps to devotion, which are 
 afforded by the word of God, read and preached, 
 by the sacraments, and by the sabbath, all rcr 
 quire to be considered, if we would understand 
 the nature of that process, through which the 
 Lord heals his once backsliding, but now return- 
 ing children. 
 
 On all these points indeed grievous mistakes 
 are made. Men have in all ages been prone to 
 invent for themselves ways of returning to God 
 instead of simply submitting themselves to his 
 righteousness, and to the methods, which he has 
 devised for their recovery. The necessity of 
 
^7 
 
 some change in the character of all men in order 
 to render them what they ought to he is too oh- 
 vious not to have been admitted by considerate and 
 reflecting persons in every age and country : and 
 therefore a process of sanctification of some sort 
 and by some means seems always to have appeared 
 to the common sense of mankind essential to 
 their final happiness and perfection. Christians 
 of course cannot but perceive, that the necessity 
 of it is inculcated in scripture : and yet even 
 christians have differed, and still differ in their 
 notions of that sanctificatioUj which the scrip- 
 tures require. 
 
 The grand cause of these differences, when the 
 scriptures themselves are clear and explicit, is' 
 the reluctance, which the human heart, not yet 
 weaned from the corrupt influences of the fall, 
 feels, to the way of sanctification, which the bible 
 reveals for its guidance, and its consequent readi- 
 ness to escape from a conviction of its truth. 
 
 That the true way of sanctification may be ac- 
 curately discerned, and that we may be duly on 
 our guard against every pei^version of it, we may 
 next proceed to trace some of the errors, which 
 in successive ages have prevailed on this subject, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 and then lastly to state and demonstrate, so far 
 as we may, by the light of scripture, the true 
 course, which is there pointed out for our return 
 to God. 
 
 In the mean time this may be premised, as the 
 result of our enquiry, so far as it has been conducted 
 hitherto. Man is fallen in Adam. If he is ever 
 to recover from this state of degradation, he must 
 for that purpose again learn to obey the law, 
 which he has broken. But this he cannot do 
 with dimished powers and depraved propensities. 
 In order therefore to surmount these disabilities, 
 he needs first a hope of acceptance, and secondly 
 spiritual assistance : and happily for him the 
 first of these is afforded him by the atonement of 
 Christ, and the second by his gift of the holy 
 Spirit. Thus is Christ constituted a new head to 
 the human race ; and it becomes necessary for 
 us to be engrafted into him, as we were once 
 united to Adam. The union to Adam was 
 effected by nature. The union to Christ must 
 be produced by grace. 
 
 This then is the general outline, which we 
 shall have hereafter to fill up, when we come to 
 look more minutely into the course, through 
 
69 
 
 which we must pass in being translated from the 
 sinfulness of nature to the holiness of God. 
 
 The work indeed is arduous : for it is a work 
 above and against nature. It is caUed in scrip- 
 ture a fight, a conflict, a warfare. But, if the 
 work be great, how much greater is the end, 
 how inconceivably great the reward ! If we aim 
 at nothing less than the recovery of that divine 
 image and likeness, from which we have fallen, 
 if we are contented with nothing less, as the 
 end of our pursuit, than sinless perfection, how 
 glorious will be the victory, how transcendant 
 the joy and blessedness, when it shall have been 
 attained ! ' To him that overcometh, will I 
 ' give,' (saith the Lord) * to eat of the tree of 
 ' life, which is in the midst of the paradise of 
 ' God. The pure in heart shall see God. 
 ' When he shall appear, we shall be like him : for 
 ' we shall see him, as he is.' To be made like 
 unto the son of God, to resemble our perfect 
 redeemer, to be presented, faultless, before the 
 presence of his glory with exceeding joy. — well 
 may we endure pain and self-denial by the way, 
 if such is to be the happy end of it : for then 
 the last stain of sin will be purged away, and 
 
70 
 
 the redeemed and purified sinner will stand forth 
 again, as the image and glory of God, qualified 
 through his heauty, which is hestowed on him, 
 to see, to enjoy, to hold hallowed and uninter- 
 rupted communion with his creator. Then will 
 the work of God be perfected, and the victory 
 of the cross complete. Then will the son of God 
 see of the travail of his soul, and be satisfied, 
 when the righteous shall shine forth, as the sun, 
 in the kingdom of their father. 
 
 Thus, my brethren, as it is written, that, 
 when the maimed and the sick came, to touch 
 the hem of our saviour's garment, every one, 
 who touched, was made perfectly whole, so 
 they, who return to God in the way of his ap- 
 pointment through Christ by the spirit, will be 
 healed of their spiritual malady. They will be 
 made perfectly whole. 
 
 May we all have wisdom to discern, and grace 
 to follow this only path of peace and safety, 
 that we may also experience the end of our faith, 
 even the salvation of our souls ! 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 ISAIAH XLIV. 20. 
 
 A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he 
 cannot deliver his soul, nor say — ' Is there not 
 ' a lie in my right hand ? ' 
 
 The promise of a redeemer was immediately 
 consequent upon the fall. It was conveyed in- 
 deed in obscure terms, but yet in terms, quite 
 adequate to the purpose, for which they were 
 designed, namely to that of teaching Adam 
 and Eve to repose an undoubting confidence 
 upon the power, wisdom, and goodness, which 
 were pledged for their deliverance. It was not 
 necessary, or even desirable to this end, that 
 they should knpw explicitly the manner, in which 
 their reconciliation and consequent deliverance 
 were to be effected. They had disbelieved the 
 word of the Lord, which made death the penalty 
 of transgression. They were required now to 
 rely on the word of promise, which made righ- 
 teousness the reward of their faith. 
 
72 
 
 Accordingly the only language, in which the 
 promise of a fiature redeemer was conveyed to 
 them, was that mysterious declaration, addressed 
 too not to them, but to the serpent — ' I will put 
 ' enmity between thee and the woman, and be- 
 ' tween thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise 
 ' thy head ; and thou shalt bruise his heel.' 
 
 There was enough in this promise to cheer 
 their trembling hearts with the assurance, that 
 at some ftiture day the head of the serpent, who 
 had ruined them, should be bruised, and that the 
 deliverer, who should achieve this victory, would 
 be the seed of the woman. In all this they could 
 see nothing distinctly. Still less could they see 
 in the qualifying clause, which followed it, that 
 the serpent should bruise his heel. But they 
 saw in it a distant promise of a future deliverer : 
 and that was enough. That promise was guar- 
 anteed to them by the word of the Lord, a word, 
 the truth of which they began now to experience, 
 and were thus led to believe : and in this manner 
 they were trained from the very beginning to 
 walk by faith, and not by sight. There was an 
 apparent fitness in the remedy to correct the 
 disease : for as they had sinned through unbe- 
 
73 
 
 lief, so it was ordained, that henceforward they 
 should be restored through faith. 
 
 Still this faith, however obscure, rested from 
 the very first on a future deliverer, nay, more, 
 on a human deliverer, on one, who was to 
 conquer the enemy, who had prevailed against 
 them, and who was by his own sufferings 
 in some way, as yet unknown, because uh- 
 revealed, to accomplish their salvation. How 
 exact a shadow, though still but a shadow, an 
 outline of that great truth, so fully bodied out 
 in the new testament, where we read — ' For this 
 ' purpose the son of God was manifested, that 
 ' he might destroy the works of the devil. He 
 ' took part of flesh and blood, that through death 
 ' he might destroy him, that had the power of 
 ' death. That is the devil.' — : and therefore 
 ' the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your 
 ' feet shortly.' — ! 
 
 This reliance however upon a future saviour 
 implied three things, distrust of themselves, faith 
 in the promises of God, and a disposition to 
 place themselves under his direction and gui- 
 dance : and it is evident, that these three quali- 
 ties had a direct tendency, so far as they were 
 
74 
 
 possessed, to rectify the evils, which occasioned 
 the fall ; for that first offence sprang from confi- 
 dence in themselves, distrust of God, and a re- 
 fusal to be guided by his authority. Had our 
 first parents and their descendants lived thence- 
 forward in this spirit, they would have been 
 gradually led to that simple dependence upon 
 God in all things, which would have ensured his 
 promised blessing. 
 
 But, whatever may have been the conduct of 
 Adam and of Eve, of whom we are not forbidden 
 to trust, that they repented of their sin, and were 
 received into mercy, the world at large did not 
 so. Cain and his family fell off from the true 
 God ; the sons of Seth were corrupted by evil 
 connexions ; and at length the earth was fiUed 
 with violence. The promised saviour was con- 
 sequently forgotten. Men studied only their 
 own personal enjoyment and comfort in the pre- 
 sent world, and thus provoked the Lord to sweep 
 away one whole generation by a flood. 
 
 Even before this in the first offering of Cain 
 there was a plain indication of this forgetfulness 
 of the promise. His offering was from the fruits 
 of the ground, a mere thank-offering, which im- 
 
75 
 
 plied a forgetfulness of that truth, which seems 
 to have been inculcated from the very time of 
 the fall, and even to be intimated in the pro- 
 vision of the skins of beasts for their clothing, 
 that without shedding of blood is no remission. 
 There was consequently in this offering no act 
 of faith in the future redeemer, but a mere ac- 
 knowledgment of the divine bounty : and thus 
 the first specimen was exhibited of that method 
 of sanctification, which men have invented for 
 themselves, a method, by which they virtually 
 declared themselves their own saviours, and seek 
 to return to God by acts and services, which can 
 never take away sin. 
 
 The very rejected offering of Cain itself shews, 
 that men, even when they disregard the method, 
 which the divine wisdom has appointed, and 
 harbour in their bosom malignant feelings, which 
 are contrary to his will, cannot be satisfied with- 
 out some form of religious worship, whether it 
 be, that they regard devotional services, as some 
 atonement for moral offences, or that they cannot 
 altogether rid themselves of the notion, that 
 something in the nature of an expression of 
 homage and subjection is due to the Deity. It 
 
76 
 
 cannot therefore well be thought, that, while the 
 sons of Seth invoked by the name, Jehovah, the 
 daughters of Cain, with whom they afterwards 
 contracted alliances, if that be the true interpre- 
 tation of the inter-marriages between the sons of 
 God and the daughters of men, recorded in the 
 sixth chapter of Genesis, had abandoned all ex- 
 ternal regard to the forms of religion. What 
 their notions on the subject were, we have no 
 means of knowing. But, if they had any sense 
 of religion, while yet the earth was fiUed with 
 violence through them, and at length became 
 altogether corrupted, they must have had a 
 notion of sanctification, or of becoming reconciled 
 to God, which is altogether at variance with his 
 revealed will. 
 
 But, when the returning flood had renewed 
 the face of the earth, and mankind began to be 
 propagated, as it were, from a second original, we 
 have a little more light thrown upon thei page of 
 sacred history, and are enabled to distinguish 
 some portion of the form and lineaments of those 
 superstitions, which soon again took the place of 
 real religion. 
 
 The brief account, which we possess, of Nim- 
 
rod, indicates, that violence began to overspread 
 the earth again ; and the building of the tower 
 of Babel implies a daring attempt to counteract 
 the purposes and resist the declared will of the 
 most high. But in the last chapter of the book 
 of Joshua we are told, that Terah, the father of 
 Abraham, served other gods, when he lived in 
 Chaldsea ; and it is intimated there, that these 
 were different gods from those, which were wor- 
 shipped in Egypt and in Canaan. 
 
 Here then we for the first time distinctly t^ace 
 that awfiil and most humiliating crime of ido- 
 latry, which by a strange infatuation seems for 
 so many ages to have deluded all nations, and is 
 still the prevailing sin of many. The forms of 
 idolatry indeed are infinitely diversified: and of 
 the form, which first deceived mankind, we have 
 some obscure hints in the early records of the 
 bible. Thus, when Job in the solemn protesta^ 
 tion of his innocence recounts the various des- 
 criptions of wickedness, from which he had kept 
 himself clear, the only crime against the purity 
 of religious worship, to which he alludes, is thus 
 delineated. ' W — says he — ' I beheld the sun, 
 ' when it shined, or the moon, walking in bright- 
 
78 
 
 ' ness, and my heart hath been secretly enticed, 
 ' or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this were 
 ' an iniquity to be punished by the judge ; for I 
 ' should have denied the God, that is above.' 
 
 It seems to follow almost undeniably from this 
 passage, that the first created beings, which were 
 worshipped upon earth, were those great lights, 
 which God hath set in the firmament of the 
 heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule 
 over the day, and over the night, and to divide 
 the light from the darkness. It was a fearful 
 descent from acknowledging only the universal 
 creator to bow down before any, even the most 
 glorious of his creatures, much more then to 
 yield divine honours to an inanimate luminary, 
 which must be perfectly insensible to the homage, 
 paid to it. But this descent, once made, pro- 
 ceeded at an accelerated rate, till men came to 
 worship the animals, which were subjected to 
 their dominion, the plants, which grew by their 
 cultivation, or even senseless images, which their 
 own hands had made. It is difficult to conceive 
 a degree of degradation to the human intellect 
 below that, which is exposed with sacred ridicule 
 by the inspired prophet, who exclaims — ' The 
 
79 
 
 ' carpenter stretcheth out his rule. He marketh 
 ' it out with a line. He fitteth it with planes ; 
 ' and he marketh it out with the compass, and 
 ' maketh it after the figure of a man according to 
 ' the heauty of a man, that it may remain in the 
 ' house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh 
 ' the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth 
 ' for himself among the trees of the forest. He 
 ' planteth an oak ; and the rain doth nourish it. 
 ' Then shall it be for a man to burn : for he will 
 ' take thereof, and warm himself Yea. He 
 ' kindleth it, and baketh bread. Yea. He 
 ' maketh a god, and worshippeth it. He maketh 
 ' it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. 
 ' He burneth part thereof in the fire. With 
 ' part thereof he eateth flesh. He roasteth 
 ' roast, and is satisfied. Yea. He warmeth 
 ' himself, and saith — " Aha ! I am warm, I have 
 " seen the fire." — : and the residue thereof he 
 ' maketh a god, even his graven image. He 
 ' falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and 
 ' prayeth unto it, and saith — " Deliver me ! For 
 " thou art my god." They have not known, 
 ' nor understood : for he hath shut their eyes, 
 ' that they cannot see, and their hearts, that they 
 
80 
 
 ' cannot understand ; and none considereth in 
 ' his heart ; neither is there knowledge, nor un- 
 ' derstanding, to say — " I havehurned part of it 
 " in the fire. Yea; Also I have baked bread 
 " upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh, 
 " and eaten it : and shall I make the residue 
 " thereof an abomination ? Shall I fall down to 
 " the stock of a tree ? " — He feedeth on ashes. 
 ' A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he 
 ' cannot deliver his soul, nor say — " Is there not 
 " a lie in my right hand ? " 
 
 But the degradation, thus entailed upon the 
 powers of the mind, when exercised towards 
 God, did not come alone. It was accompanied, 
 if not occasioned, by other proofs of degeneracy. 
 Thus, if men do not like, as saint Paul says, to 
 retain God in their knowledge, it is, because they 
 are unwilling to perform, and because it is in 
 that case inconvenient to know without perform- 
 ing their whole duty to him ; and, if they are 
 reluctant to perform their whole duty to God, it 
 is for the same reason found inconvenient to 
 perform their whole duty to man. The whole 
 system of the divine commandments hangs toge- 
 ther ; and the indisposition to comply with any 
 
81 
 
 part of it arises from a selfish desire of present 
 ease, or present enjoyment, which is incompatible 
 with those personal efforts or sacrifices, which an 
 all-controlling principle of love would prompt or 
 require. Thus the practice of idolatry springs 
 from a secret dislike to the spiritual service of a 
 holy God, and a desire to find in the object of 
 worship one, who will not be too exact to know 
 what is done amiss. If a few outward services 
 to a dumb idol will make compensation for any 
 neglect of the rules of morality, if any expendi- 
 ture, or penance, or occasional act of self-denial, 
 still more, if any pompous ceremony, or showy 
 pageant will satisfy the demands of religion, 
 surely it must be seen, that fallen human nature 
 is a gainer by substituting a creature for the 
 creator, as the object of its adoration. 
 
 Accordingly this is the true history of idolatry 
 in all parts of the world. The votaries of an 
 idol form all their plans of action irrespectively 
 of the will of any deity, and then call upon their 
 idol to help them by sacrificing a victim at pre- 
 sent, and vowing an offering hereafter. A lively 
 picture of this method of worship is drawn in 
 the twenty-first chapter of Ezekiel, where the 
 
82 
 
 prophet writes — ' The king of Babylon stood at 
 ' the parting of the way, at the head of the two 
 ' ways, to use divination. He made his arrows 
 'bright. He consulted with images. He looked 
 ' in the liver. At his right hand was the divina- 
 ' tion for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open 
 ' the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice 
 ' with shouting, to appoint battering rams against 
 ' the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort.' 
 Here we see a great king, conducting a powerful 
 army, and then using divination, not to ascertain, 
 whether the enterprise, in which he was engaged, 
 was lawful, but whether it would succeed, to 
 learn, which of two courses, which were both 
 open to him, would prosper. The main under- 
 taking was already determined ; and the arrows, 
 and images, and liver were consulted, only to 
 assist an unsettled deliberation, and give confi- 
 dence to adventure. It was thus, that every 
 general resorted to some method of augury or 
 enchantment before an action. He was often 
 fettered by it in some of the details of a cam- 
 paign, but formed the campaign itself at the 
 command of his country, or at the dictate of his 
 own ambition. As the image of Jupiter or 
 
83 
 
 Mars or Minerva could tell him nothing, he 
 sought to gather the will of the gods, in whom 
 he professed to beUeve, from the flight of birds, 
 or the entrails of animals, or the chance of a lot, 
 but yet sought to know this will rather, as an 
 auxiliary to his enterprise, than as a corrective of 
 his purpose. Balak engaged Balaam, as an emi- 
 nent enchanter, to pronounce words of divina- 
 tion, to which he attributed the power of blast- 
 ing, or of prospering the machinations of his 
 enemies. He evidently regarded the prophet, 
 not as a holy, but as a powerful man, who 
 without reference to the justice of a cause could 
 influence at will the issues of war. ' Behold ! ' 
 — said he. ' There is a people, come out of 
 ' Egypt ; and they abide over against me. Come 
 ' now therefore ! Curse me this people ! For 
 ' they are too mighty for me. Peradventure I 
 ' shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that 
 ' I may drive them out of the land : for I wot, 
 ' that he, whom thou blessest, is blessed, and he, 
 ' whom thou cursest, is cursed.' 
 
 Hence, whether the object, which they wor- 
 shipped was a senseless idol, an inanimate crea- 
 ture, or a deified hero, the idea of holiness was 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 no way connected with it. Homer attributes to 
 his gods all the passions, nay, and the very vices 
 of men : and even Herodotus, who was no in- 
 ventor of fictions, whatever may be the character 
 of some of his narratives, has no scruple in in- 
 troducing Solon, the wise legislator of Athens, 
 pronouncing the whole race of the gods to be 
 both envious and malignant, to ^hov vav eov (p^ovepov 
 re v.eu rapayahf. The fables, which are related 
 of many of the heathen deities, are such as must 
 have been destructive of all reverence for their 
 character, as beings, who excelled mankind in 
 any moral excellence : and hence the idea of 
 practising virtue, as serving to recommend them 
 to their gods, could not in the nature of things 
 be very seriously entertained. Some heinous 
 crimes indeed those powerful rulers would resent 
 and punish. But they could not be expected to 
 be very severe towards faults, to which they were 
 themselves prone, and were commonly believed 
 to act upon a principle of favoritism, and to be 
 better pleased with costly offerings, than patrons 
 of true excellence and virtue. Thus the very 
 notion of sanctification, or of acquiring a higher 
 degree of moral goodness ceased to be an element 
 
85 
 
 in heathen religion : nor can we wonder, if in 
 consequence of this defect the character of the 
 heathen world came at length to be that, which 
 is described by saint Paul in his first chapter to 
 the Romans. ' Because, when they knew God, 
 ' they glorified him not, as God, neither were 
 ' thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, 
 ' and changed the glory of the incorruptible God 
 ' into an image, made like to corruptible man, 
 ' and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creep- 
 ' ing things, God also gave them up to unclean- 
 ' ness through the lusts of their own hearts, 
 ' being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, 
 ' wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,' and 
 that fi:ightful train of further evils, which makes 
 up the sequel of his picture. 
 
 And, if we turn from the idolatry of the ancient 
 world to that of the modern, we shall not find its 
 character improved, or its tendency altered. 
 
 Even in the Romish church the adoration, 
 which, under whatever modification, is paid to 
 the virgin, and to the saints, springs from the 
 same origin. It springs from a desire to address 
 in prayer not exclusively one, who was in all 
 points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin, 
 
86 
 
 but one, who was originally a partaker of a fallen 
 nature, like ourselves, although in the course of 
 time the natural disposition to exalt the object of 
 our worship produced the fiction of the blessed 
 virgin, Mary, the destined mother of our lord, 
 having been exempted from the taint of original 
 sin. But the voluntary humility, as saint Paul 
 calls it, which led men at that early age to the 
 worshipping of angels, and at a later age to the 
 worshipping of canonized men, though it have 
 at all times a show of wisdom in will-worship, 
 and be often accompanied with an ostentatious 
 neglecting of the body, is in fact a device of 
 Satan, by which a sinner is enabled to select his 
 patron-saint, from whom he may naturally hope 
 for some indulgence to his frailties, and to address 
 him in prayer in preference to the essentially holy 
 God, who cannot look on iniquity. 
 
 And then, if we pass to the heathen world at 
 the present day, whether we observe the abomi- 
 nations of buddhism, or hindooism, or advert to 
 the innumerable deities of China, or the impuri- 
 ties of Juggernaut, we see every where a forget- 
 fulness of the awful character of a holy God, and 
 an effort to satisfy, or rather to silence the 
 
87 
 
 clamours of an uneasy conscience by expensive 
 offerings, or laborious pilgrimages, or painful 
 penances, or suicidal practices, or even, as the 
 prophet, Micah, expresses it, by giving the fruit 
 of the body for the sin of the soul. It would be 
 as unnecessary as it must be offensive to enter 
 into particulars on this subject. To a christian 
 mind the whole ceremonial of idolatry, wherever 
 practised, or however modified, conveys the con- 
 viction, that it is impossible to depart from the 
 simple knowledge of the one true and righteous 
 God without losing much of that just perception 
 of right and wrong even in matters of human in- 
 tercourse, on which the comfort and peace and 
 security of society depend. In heathen nations 
 even at the present day there is no confidence 
 between man and man in the integrity of each 
 other ; and hence all confederacies are soon 
 broken down by mutual jealousy and distrust : 
 and this is the real cause of that moral ascen- 
 dancy, which christians with all their admitted 
 faults have obtained over heathen nations with 
 all their boasted virtues. It is the secret of the 
 British empire in India ; and it is also the source 
 of that moral superiority, which has at different 
 
88 
 
 times been observed in the protestant states on 
 the continent of Europe, and even in the protes- 
 tant cantons of Switzerland, 
 
 Amidst all the varied forms however of idol- 
 atry, which have prevailed, and still prevail, in 
 the world, it is impossible on the present occasion 
 to forbear from taking especial notice of one, 
 which marks its author. I mean the honour, 
 which has frequently been bestowed on the ser- 
 pent. To this must be added the disposition in 
 many nations to invest the object of worship with 
 terror, and to regard him rather, as the author of 
 evil than of good, and thence rather to propitiate 
 his anger than to solicit his favour. Do not 
 these concurring particulars prepare us for the 
 statement of the apostle, that the things, which 
 the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, not 
 to God ? Do they not illustrate the meaning of 
 our saviour, when he speaks of the devil and his 
 legions, banded together in a strict alliance 
 against the human race, and forming an united 
 kingdom among themselves ? Do they not shew 
 the strict propriety of the expressions of the 
 apostles, when they call the devil the god of 
 this world, the prince of the power of the air. 
 
89 
 
 the spirit, that now worketh in the children 
 of disobedience ? and do they not almost jus- 
 tify the language of that evil spirit himself, 
 when he said in the arrogance of his presump- 
 tion to our blessed lord in his hour of tempta- 
 tion — ' The kingdoms of the world and the 
 ' glory of them are delivered unto me, and unto 
 ' whomsoever I will, I give them.' — ? 
 
 Yet his empire is established not by might, 
 but by fraud. It was by deception, that he pre- 
 vailed over Eve ; and it is still the character, as- 
 cribed to him in the book of revelation, that he 
 deceiveth the whole world. We are cautioned, 
 not against his power, (for it is said to every 
 christian—' Resist the devil ! and he will flee 
 ' from you ' — ), but against his wiles and devices, 
 against his lying wonders, and his ingenious- sub- 
 tlety. He misleads the judgment of men, tempting 
 them to call evil good, and good evil. In particu- 
 lar he disguises from them the bitterness and 
 hatefulness of sin, and represents it, especially to 
 the youthful mind, as a thing, that is sweet and 
 pleasant, being conducive to the cheerfulness, 
 and consequently to the happiness of life, till at 
 length, as Isaiah describes his case in the text, a 
 
90 
 
 deceived heart turns him aside, and he cannot 
 deUver his soul. The enemy of his salvation has 
 entangled him in a delusive snare, and thus taken 
 him captive at his will. 
 
 But the great effect, which he labors to 
 produce by all these contrivances of cunning 
 craftiness, whereby he lieth in wait, to deceive, 
 is to destroy that aspiration after holiness, 
 through which alone a fallen creature can hope, 
 as saint Paul expresses it, to recover himself out 
 of his snare : and this he accomplishes by 
 various methods of delusion. False notions in 
 religion, superstitious observances, apostasy 
 from God, and the worship of himself under 
 different disguises, these are not his only expe- 
 dients for deceiving and depraving the heart of 
 man. The bla,ndishments of pleasure, the cares 
 of life, the glitter of wealth, the pressure of 
 distress, the fascination of power, the resent- 
 ment of injury, in short all, that attracts, and 
 all, that disquiets the heart of man in its present 
 state of degeneracy, are woven by him into 
 his web of seduction ; and all lend their aid to 
 that great artifice, by which he contrives to 
 draw off the minds of the perishing sons of 
 
91 
 
 Adam from attention to the one thing, that is 
 needful. The heart, when so deceived as to 
 regard every thing else, or any thing else, as of 
 more pressing importance to it than its own 
 renewal in that holiness and purity, in which 
 alone it can ever hope again to see God, 'turns 
 its possessor aside continually from taking a 
 right view of his condition and prospects, so 
 that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say — ' Is 
 ' there not a lie in my right hand ? Am I not, 
 ' whatever he my religious profession, making 
 ' riches, or pleasure, or some earthly thing my 
 ' idol, instead of loving him with all my heart, 
 * from whom my breath is, and whose wiU is the 
 ' law of my being ? ' This is what St. Paul 
 describes by the phrase of being alienated from 
 the life of God through the ignorance, that is in 
 us because of the blindness of our hearts. It 
 is thus, that, the understanding being darkened, 
 every form of error finds easy entrance and ac- 
 ceptance, and can only be dispelled by the efful- 
 gence of the light of truth. The god of this 
 world blinds the minds of them, which believe 
 not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of 
 Christ, who is the image of God, should shine 
 
92 
 
 unto them ; and the Lord may justly say to 
 them in the language, addressed to the angel of 
 the church of the Laodiceans — ' Thou sayest — 
 " I am rich, and increased with goods, and have 
 " need of nothing " — , and knowest not, that 
 ' thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, 
 ' and blind, and naked ' 
 
 Hence it is found, that, although the promise 
 of a redeemer was given immediately after the 
 fall, the desire of it, and consequently the re- 
 collection of it came in time to be almost ob- 
 literated. Mankind at large sought it not, 
 thought not of it ; and hence it ceased to be 
 regarded by the mass of men, as an object of 
 hope, or a motive of conduct. Men flattered 
 themselves, that they were good enough, without 
 referring their conduct to any correct standard 
 of excellence ; or they invented ways of expia- 
 tion or amendment, calculated to deceive them- 
 selves or others, but not to advance them 
 towards the restoration of their character to its 
 primitive integrity. 
 
 It remains next to inquire, what opinions 
 their wise men and philosophers formed, or enter- 
 tained concerning the method of sanctification. 
 
93 
 
 This accordingly will be the subject of the next 
 lecture^ 
 
 In the mean time may it please our heavenly 
 Father to preserve us by his special grace from 
 every form of error, that we ourselves may be 
 privileged to know his wiU, and see with the 
 eye of faith that just one, and hear the voice 
 of his mouth ! 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 1 CORINTHIANS I. 21. 
 
 The world by wisdom knew not God. 
 
 We have now seen, how universally the know- 
 ledge of the true God declined in the world 
 after the flood. Yet mankind have never been 
 able to banish altogether from their minds the 
 idea of a supreme governor: and hence arose 
 the monstrous error of idolatry, by which the 
 great seducer has succeeded to a wonderful 
 extent in blinding the understandings of men, 
 and thus leading them, because something must 
 needs be worshipped, and they had forsaken the 
 true God, to worship almost every created thing 
 in the place of God. But of all idols that, 
 which marks most distinctly the true origin and 
 author of idolatry, as was observed in the last 
 lecture, is the adoration, which has often been 
 paid to the serpent, the very creature, whose 
 subtlety was rendered instrumental to our fall. 
 
95 
 
 and by the selection of which the tempter ob- 
 tained his triumph. 
 
 Yet the palpable unreasonableness of idol- 
 worship is too gross not to have offended the 
 judgment of those, whose understandings were 
 cultivated, and who had at all accustomed them- 
 selves to the investigation of truth, or of nature. 
 Accordingly many ingenious subterfuges were in- 
 vented by learned men, to cover its absurdity, as 
 for instance, that the worship paid to an image, 
 was only symbolical, the real homage being (de- 
 signed for him, whom the image represented, 
 that diiFerent idols, honored in different places, 
 signified different perfections in the one supreme 
 being, and that mankind at large, being immersed 
 in objects of sense, could never maintain a truly 
 spiritual service, except, as it is clothed under 
 sensible images : and thus it was, that, while 
 philosophers conformed to the existing idolatry, 
 they exposed, and excused its folly. But the 
 excuse will not serve the purpose, for which it is 
 pleaded, inasmuch as several of the heathen 
 deities were so far from being suitable represen- 
 tatives of any perfection in the one supreme 
 God, that they were rather personifications of 
 
96 
 
 human vices. Such were Mars, Mercury, and 
 Venus ; and the fahles, freely promulgated con- 
 cerning other heathen gods, were such as to ex- 
 tirpate all notions of religious reverence from 
 minds, which either believed them, or, not be- 
 lieving them, could be contented to pay to such 
 characters the honour, due to God. 
 
 Still the notions, which heathen sages or philo- 
 sophers entertained, of God and godliness, form 
 a distinct subject of inquiry, and one, which 
 cannot be omitted, when we are trying to dis- 
 cover, what opinions have prevailed among men 
 concerning the way to repair the vices and follies 
 of humanity. 
 
 It is however very curious, and not a little 
 satisfactory, to observe, how all these notions, 
 even the best of them, which the wisest of the 
 ancient Greeks taught, and which they even 
 seemed to discover by the force of reasoning, are 
 found to connect themselves by tradition with 
 the original revelation of God : for all the phi- 
 losophy of Greece appears to have been engrafted 
 upon discoveries, imported from Eg|ypt and the 
 east, as afterwards it came in the progress of 
 events to be transmitted to Italy and the west. 
 
97 
 
 Yet the learned men, who thus imparted to 
 their countrymen the result of their researches, 
 were unwilling to shock the prevailing idolatry 
 by a plain and unequivocal publication of the 
 truths, which they had collected by foreign 
 travel : and therefore they either disguised them 
 in fiction, or reserved them for the ear of a 
 chosen few after a period of probation, or divided 
 their whole scheme of doctrine into esoteric and 
 exoteric for ^he initiated and the uninitiated. 
 
 Thus, when Pythagoras had returned from 
 Egypt, and settled at Crotona, he is said to have 
 imposed upon his disciples four or five years of 
 silence, before he would admit them to a fill I dis- 
 closure of the whole system of truth, to the know- 
 ledge of which he had himself attained. The 
 same explanation is probably to be given of the ori- 
 ginal institution of those mysteries of Ceres, which 
 were taught under the most solemn injunctions 
 of secrecy : and so a precedent was established, 
 for that communication of knowledge to a parti- 
 cular class, to be approved by the instructor, which 
 pervaded the principal schools of philosophy in 
 Greece, and tended to inflate the privileged so- 
 phists with an arrogant assumption of superiority. 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 But what were the opinions, thus taught by 
 the ancient philosophers, on the nature of God, 
 and the means, by which man may come to be 
 accepted by him ? 
 
 The mystery, with which, as has just been 
 observed, they purposely siirrounded their doc- 
 trine, hinders us from distinctly apprehending 
 their opinions on these important questions: 
 Nevertheless enough is preserved in some of the 
 writings of antiquity, to shew, what was their 
 prevailing tone of sentiment in matters, relating 
 to God. 
 
 Of Pherecydes, or his disciple, Pythagoras, 
 who were the first of them, (for the seven wise 
 men of Greece, as they are called, have left no 
 system of theology, or of morals), we know but 
 little, except, that they introduced from the 
 east the forgotten doctrine of the soul's immor- 
 tality, and engrafted upon it the fable of trans- 
 migration. Their moral maxims, so far as we 
 possess any trace of them, tend rather to restrain 
 from vice than to eradicate it by the implanta- 
 tion of a higher and holier principle, while 
 in respect to religion they appear evidently to 
 
99 
 
 have sanctioned the pluraUty of gods, wor- 
 shipped among their countrymen. 
 
 Indeed the unity of the Godhead had become 
 so obscured by the worship of false deities, that 
 not one of the philosophers of the heathen can 
 be said to have held it in its purity : and, when 
 the idea of God himself was so corrupted, how 
 was it possible to form any correct notions of 
 the proper method of approaching him ? Those, 
 who felt the unreasonableness of polytheism, had 
 yet no conception of the absolute holiness of 
 God. Some indeed held him to be a being 
 without beginning or end, a pure spirit, a sub- 
 tle aether, a disposing mind, the former of the 
 universe. But yet there was none of them, who 
 regarded him, as its absolute creator, because 
 for the most part they beheved matter, or the 
 material, from which the universe is formed, 
 to be eternal, and to be a perpetual impediment 
 to his operations, being in fact an antagonist 
 principle, which the supreme being was not 
 powerful enough to destroy. Others again 
 taught the mystical doctrine, which is still 
 perpetuated in the Brahminical superstition of 
 India, that God is himself the universe, perva- 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 ding it, as the mind animates the body, so, that 
 every particle of matter is not so much the 
 creature of God as a part of his substance, while 
 Plato, although, amidst much metaphysical specu- 
 lation and much conjectural dogmatism, he has 
 frequent flashes of a fine conception concerning 
 Deity, a conception, which, had it been followed 
 up to its truly legitimate consequence, that those, 
 who worship God, must worship him in spirit 
 and in truth, might have opened the way to the 
 scriptural doctrine of sanctification, though not 
 to the scriptural method of obtaining it, invents 
 a theogony of his own creation, and ascribes 
 the government of the world rather to the agency 
 of intermediate daemons than to the sole autho- 
 rity of one all-seeing and all-pervading God. In 
 general indeed it may be observed, that the su- 
 j)reme being, however described, was left by the 
 ancient philosophers on a solitary throne, un- 
 encumbered with the cares, and unconcerned 
 about the proceedings of the world, it being 
 thought, that, if he regarded them, the evil, 
 which prevails in them, must disturb his peace, 
 and that consequently his happiness must con- 
 sist in an unfeeling and imperturbable apathy. 
 
101 
 
 Of course the morality, which connects itself 
 with these vague speculations, must want a basis 
 to rest upon : for we entirely lose in them the 
 idea of an omniscient governor, who searches 
 the hearts and the reins, directs all things ac- 
 cording to the counsel of his own will, and will 
 hereafter bring all things into judgment, whether 
 they be good, or whether they be evil. The 
 fables of Minos and Rhadamanthxis, or the Egyp- 
 tian theories of retribution will not supply the 
 place of such a governor, to whom all hearts are 
 open, and from whom no secrets are hid, even 
 if they obtained belief. But the very tenet of 
 the soul's immortahty, notwithstanding the pre- 
 tension of Plato to demonstrate it by an argu- 
 ment, which will equally prove its eternity, was 
 doubted, or disbelieved: and without this all 
 religion is vain. 
 
 But our present business is to inquire, what 
 were the actual notions, inculcated by the chief 
 heathen philosophers, concerning the moral 
 
 condition of mankind, and the means of im- 
 proving it. 
 
 It cannot be expected, that in this place all 
 the numberless shades of opinion, entertained by 
 
102 
 
 the various sects of heathen philosophers, and 
 by all seceders from the diiFerent schools, should 
 be examined, or even mentioned. Cicero has 
 counted up a great variety of opinions on the 
 chief good ; and in the fondness for speculation, 
 which prevailed among them upon the deepest 
 and darkest questions, which without revelation 
 were incapable of solution, it may well be said, 
 that they bewildered themselves instead of in- 
 forming their hearers. 
 
 And found no end, in wand'Ting mazes lost. 
 
 One sentiment however was common to most 
 of them, that all evil is a counteraction of the 
 design of nature, and that consequently what- 
 ever is contrary to human happiness is unnatural, 
 being opposed to the proper nature of things. 
 This statement (it is clear) is equivalent to a 
 declaration of the general degeneracy and cor- 
 ruption of mankind, because it admits, that men 
 are prone to vices, and subject to calamities, 
 which are at variance with the original dictates, 
 and opposed to the proper condition of their 
 nature : and the practical question is opened by 
 it, how this contrariety is to be corrected. On 
 
103 
 
 this question, which, if stated in christian terms, 
 would be the all-important question of human 
 sanctification, great diversities of opinion ob- 
 tained, and, as might naturally be expected, very 
 inadequate conceptions of the momentous subject 
 itself prevailed. 
 
 And yet all these varieties, as they must be 
 allowed to be, when examined in detail, may be 
 reduced, when traced up to their principles, under 
 two heads : for the stoics find a cure for all evil 
 in the native energy of the human mind, which, 
 if matured in virtue, is able to despise suffering, 
 and thus reach the perfection, to which it aspires, 
 while the academics and peripatetics look for 
 that remedy chiefly to the discipline of education, 
 and the restraints of law. Plato and Aristotle ac- 
 cordingly have drawn the picture of a community, 
 founded upon their respective principles, with a 
 view to train up youth to a conformity with their 
 theoretical notions of rectitude ; in the course of 
 which disquisitions Plato has introduced some 
 particulars, which are not only visionary, but un- 
 natural, and Subversive of all true morality, while 
 Aristotle with a more severe love of truth, and 
 less exuberance of fancy, lays down a social code. 
 
104 
 
 which is far more correct, and conformed to the 
 fbndamental laws of society. 
 
 Such then are the theories of the porch, and of 
 the academy, the one seeking to elevate the cha- 
 racter of individuals by its own strength, the other 
 to improve that of the whole community through 
 the influence of a well ordered government. 
 Both no doubt had a foundation in truth : for in 
 order to correct what is wrong in human nature 
 there must be power apphed from without, and 
 energy exerted from within. It is therefore 
 more surprising, that heathen philosophers 
 should have so far travelled in the right path, 
 than that, being still in the dark on many points, 
 they should have eventually missed their way. 
 
 The stoics in applying their principle of an 
 innate energy evidently overrated its power. 
 They spoke of it, as still entire, and were not 
 aware, that it had been impaired by sin, and 
 shorn of its strength and beauty : and hence they 
 held in opposition to universal experience, that a 
 virtuous man is perfectly independent of all ex- 
 ternal circumstances. The excess, to which they 
 carried this speculative principle, deprived it of 
 all moral efficacy, except in the case of some 
 
105 
 
 chiefs of the sect, whose inflexible obduracy 
 stoutly resisted the dictates of nature, and main- 
 tained, if not a stern insensibility to pain, at least 
 a resolute defiance of it, and a fixed determina- 
 tion not to allow, that it is an evil. It was their 
 maxim and their resolution to demonstrate, if 
 possible, that the soul, being armed with virtue, 
 is proof against all disasters, and able to sustain 
 itself in peace and happiness alike in the sunshine 
 of prosperity, and amidst the troubled storms of 
 distress and suffering. There was in this theory 
 a fundamental error : for it denied the disease of 
 nature, and consequently could not cure it. But 
 there was also a necessary truth, that human per- 
 fection must be wrought within the soul, though 
 in its present state it cannot be found there. 
 Hence arose many of the extravagances in their 
 ordinary statements, as, that a good man com- 
 bines in himself every perfection, and that he 
 alone, though in a humble station, is a king, and 
 competent to the right performance of every 
 office in life from the highest to the lowest. But 
 their fundamental principle was, that human per- 
 fection consists in living according to nature, or 
 in other words, that the natural constitution of 
 
106 
 
 man is such, that, if he do not suffer himself to 
 be drawn aside by present impressions in opposi- 
 tion to eternal truths, but live according to those 
 rules, which are in the nature of things conducive 
 to his true dignity and highest happiness, he will 
 prefer the soul to the body, permanent interests 
 to temporary gratifications, and the good of the 
 species to the satisfaction of an individual : and 
 this is true, if by the natural constitution of man 
 be meant his original constitution, as God created 
 him, but not, if those propensities, which are now 
 natural to him, be taken into the account ; for to 
 assert not only the superiority of the mind to the 
 body, but its perfect independence of it for com- 
 fort and happiness as well as excellence, at a 
 time, when both mind and body are impaired in 
 all their functions by a fatal disease, is rather to 
 maintain a perpetual and hopeless struggle against 
 nature, than to live according to it. It is an en- 
 deavour to produce a perfect work with broken 
 tools, instead of seeking in the first instance to 
 repair them. 
 
 The academics and peripatetics seem to have 
 been more sensible of the damaged and imperfect 
 condition of the faculties and inclinations of the 
 
107 
 
 human soul. There is a memorable passage, in 
 which Aristotle describes the condition of those, 
 who have not yet attained the mastery over 
 themselves. ' There appears in them ' (says he) 
 ' another quality, distinct from reason, which 
 ' struggles and contends against reason : for as, 
 ' when a paralytic patient attempts to turn his 
 ' body in one direction, the palsied limbs are un- 
 ' intentionally carried to the opposite, so it is in 
 ' the soul also ; for the efforts of persons, who 
 ' have no self-command, are in contrary direc- 
 ' tions. In the body however ' (he adds) ' we see 
 ' the distortion, but do not see it in the soul : 
 ' and yet perhaps we ought no less to admit, that 
 ' in the soul also there is some quality, distinct 
 ' from reason, which opposes and resists it.' The 
 moral distemper being thus perceived, as neces- 
 sarily affecting in a greater or less degree all per- 
 sons, who have not yet attained that complete 
 self-control, which is essential to a perfect cha^ 
 racter, the question arose, how it is to be cor- 
 rected : and the short answer, given by both 
 these sects of philosophers, is — ' By discipline 
 ' and education.' Plato forms his ideal republic in 
 part upon the principle of excluding all, that he 
 
108 
 
 thought evil, from the instruction of youth, and 
 placing them from their earliest years under such 
 an influence as in his view of it would he favorahle 
 to the production of virtue. Aristotle, maintain- 
 ing the formation of virtuous characters to be es- 
 sential to the healthiness and prosperity of a state, 
 analyses all the virtues of mind and body, and 
 proposes the enactment of laws, which should 
 prescribe every citizen's duty, and prepare him to 
 do what is right, and abstain from what is wrong, 
 that so a habit may be formed, disposing him to 
 every thing, that is excellent in nature. In en- 
 forcing this argument he introduces a maxim 
 of high importance towards rectifying the de- 
 praved inclinations of humanity, namely, that all 
 our efibrts should be directed to the object of 
 enabling men to feel pleasure and pain on the 
 right occasions : and he concludes his investiga- 
 tion by pointing to a stiU higher object of pur- 
 suit ; for he considers aU the moral virtues, as 
 qualities, that are necessary to satisfy the de- 
 mands of our spiritual nature, much as air and 
 food and exercise are essential to the health of 
 the body, but urges, that, when all these have 
 been acquired, they only fit the mind for a hap- 
 
109 
 
 piness, which without them would be unattain- 
 able, and that we should then strive to give a 
 new elevation to our nature, to immortalize it, as 
 it were, to live according to the better part of it, 
 and to resemble the Deity himself, as he con- 
 ceives it, in the pure enjoyment of an unclouded 
 intellect. 
 
 Other philosophers set up different principles 
 of right and wrong. Particularly Epicurus taught, 
 that nature points to enjoyment, as the height 
 of perfection, and that consequently whatever 
 tends most to the pleasure of man, sensual, 
 moral, and intellectual, must on the whole be 
 the fittest, the wisest, and the best for him. 
 By this theory he very consistently excluded the 
 worship and obedience of a supreme lawgiver 
 from his system of morals. 
 
 But Cicero had the advantage of examining 
 all these lucubrations of successive philosophers, 
 and exercising an independent judgment upon 
 them. He seems to have been perplexed by 
 their variety, but has nevertheless drawn out 
 with their help a code of morals, which in many 
 respects exhibits an unbending rule of social 
 duty, which may even be an instructive pattern 
 
110 
 
 for christians : for, laying it down, as a maxim, 
 that no conduct which is dishonorable, can 
 ever be expedient, because every one has a 
 deeper interest in the preservation of that bond, 
 which holds society together, than he has in 
 any private gratification, which may be obtained 
 by the disruption of it, he deduces from it 
 lessons of self-denial and self-devotion for the 
 general good, which are certainly above the 
 level, not indeed of gospel-morality, but of the 
 professed morality of many, who call themselves 
 christians. 
 
 Still however it remains a melancholy truth, 
 that the world by wisdom, even the boasted 
 wisdom of Greece and Rome, knew not God : 
 and this one defect vitiated all their ethics, and 
 hindered them from discerning what is the true 
 basis of human virtue, the main object to be 
 pursued in all attempts to correct the obliquity 
 of our fallen nature. They never reached that 
 great, cardinal truth of all human morality, that 
 we are the creatures of God, and therefore 
 bound to love him with all our strength, and 
 for his sake to love all, who partake with us in 
 
Ill 
 
 the common nature. Hence their scheme of 
 duty neither looked up directly to God, nor 
 round to the whole family of man : nor lastly, 
 except in some occasional sentiment, which 
 breathes a moral grandeur above the tone of 
 their practical system, did it stretch its view 
 beyond the present scene ; for even transmigra- 
 tion itself does not carry us out of the limits of 
 
 this visible diurnal sphere. 
 
 It was consequently not only defective, but 
 unsound in principle, and could not, however 
 correctly observed, sanctify, or restore the dege- 
 nerate character of man. 
 
 The eastern world has given birth to other 
 and wilder speculations upon the origin of evil, 
 and the foundation of human morals, attributing 
 all the evil, that exists in the world, to an ori- 
 ginal principle of evil, as weU as all good to 
 an original principle of goodness. These two 
 sources of opposite influence were traced up 
 ultimately to Mind and Matter : whence the 
 doctrine easily resulted, that the sum of human 
 virtue consists in giving to mind a proper as- 
 
112 
 
 cendancy over matter. This theory led in its 
 further progress to the Brahminical notion, 
 that the mind of man is a part of the deity, 
 into which it is again absorbed after death, and 
 to all those absurd inventions of self-torture, 
 still practised by fakeers and others, as if by 
 inflicting pain upon the body, suspending its 
 functions, and depriving it as much as possible 
 of aU acti^aty and usefulness, they aided the 
 great object of resisting matter, and advancing 
 mind. This idea, amidst every diversity of idol- 
 atry, and the idlest fables of incarnations, and 
 other exploits of their gods, the coiTupt relics 
 of original revelation, is found to pervade and 
 animate more or less every known form of ori- 
 ental philosophy. Even the Persian magians, 
 who worshipped the sun, as the purest emblem 
 of Deity, yet regarded Light and Darkness, as 
 two independent powers, contending for empire, 
 and thus lost that sense of entire dependence 
 upon one uncreated, original, all-sustaining gover- 
 nor, which is the foundation of all true morality. 
 Thus, look where you will, among the Hindoos, 
 or Buddhists, or other idolaters of the east ! 
 You will find some trace either of that sentiment, 
 
113 
 
 repeatedly mentioned by Herodotus, that the 
 Deity is envious of human happiness, and that 
 consequently he must be appeased by surren- 
 dering some portion of that happiness, to save 
 the remainder, or else, that voluntary sufferings 
 and self-inflicted tortures have a direct tendency 
 by their resistance to matter |;o purify the spirit, 
 and fit it for its highest enjoyment. 
 
 The immense nations of China and Tartary 
 indeed stand by themselves in this survey of the 
 world. That they are gross idolaters, is well 
 known. But of the means, on which they rely 
 for repairing the evils, to which humanity is 
 prone, we know but little, and have reason to 
 believe, that they are themselves for the most 
 part rather indifferent to all questions, connected 
 with a future state, than bigoted to any parti- 
 cular form of superstition. 
 
 There is still another large body in the east, 
 who have been formed on the ruins of Chris- 
 tianity, and who therefore admit many important 
 truths, though they add to them a vile imposture. 
 Mahomet borrowed from the christian scriptures 
 the duty of faith, but proposed himself, as the 
 object of it, teaching his followers, that Moses 
 
'114 
 
 and Jesus were indeed prophets, but that he was 
 a greater than either. He denounced idolatry, 
 and maintained the unity of the Godhead, but 
 added to it the foul falsehood, that Mahomet is 
 his prophet. With respect to morality, he intro- 
 duced a new duty, that of fighting for the faith 
 against all idolaters and unbelievers, which would 
 outweigh every other virtue, and even compen- 
 sate for many faults : and he accordingly pro- 
 mised to those, who should die in the prosecu- 
 tion of it, the highest rewards in his sensual 
 Paradise. But we need not pursue the details of 
 this notorious imposture further than to observe, 
 that it generates in all its adherents a contempt 
 or hatred for all, who reject it, and a proud con- 
 fidence in their own acceptance with the Deity 
 on the mere ground of their being the family, 
 for which Mahomet will make intercession, and 
 conforming to the arbitrary rules of his koran. 
 
 But how melancholy is it in looking round on 
 that vast portion of the human race, which has 
 now passed under our review, to find a total 
 absence of that fundamental truth, that the reco- 
 very of man to the original perfection of his 
 
115 
 
 nature must be sought in his return to that gra- 
 cious and righteous governor, who alone could 
 prescribe rules to the creatures, whom he had 
 made, and in conformity to whose holy will must 
 consist their true excellence, and real dignity, and 
 perfection ! The sentiment, just quoted from 
 Aristotle, indicates an indistinct perception of 
 this sublime truth. But its practical influence is 
 destroyed by his mistaken notions of the cha- 
 racter of God, whom he describes, as rather a 
 contemplative and intellectual being, who sees 
 and knows all things, and interferes with none, 
 than as a moral governor, and a righteous judge. 
 Most truly is it said, that the world by wisdom 
 knew not God. The utmost stretch of human 
 wisdom, when once the light of revelation was 
 withdrawn, was insufficient to discover the true 
 nature, character, and laws of that supreme cre- 
 ator, preserver, and governor, from whose will 
 all things derive their existence, on whose will 
 they depend for continuance in being, and by 
 whose will they ought to be regulated in all cir- 
 cumstances of their history. It is melancholy 
 to observe transcendant intellects, thus darkling 
 in their search of truth, and unable to discern 
 
 I 2 
 
116 
 
 the way, which the oracles of God have dis- 
 tinctly revealed to us, insomuch, that to those, 
 who are initiated in the doctrine of the bible, it 
 is justly declared, that the words of his mouth 
 are plain to him, that understandeth, as well as 
 right to them, that find knowledge. 
 
 And how thankful should we be for the in- 
 estimable gift of that book of God, which makes 
 known to us with a clearness, which renders 
 ignorance inexcusable, all, that it most concerns 
 us to know for time, and for eternity ! There 
 are truths in the bible, which, though they be so 
 high, that they cannot be reached by the unas- 
 sisted efforts of the most cultivated mind, are 
 yet brought down there to the level of a child's 
 understanding, so, that now a simple, illiterate 
 mother, who knows only, and values that book 
 of God, may convey to her child notions of wis- 
 dom and duty, far more correct, more convincing, 
 and more conducive to happiness and peace than 
 the wisest of ancient philosophers ever attained. 
 The history, the precepts, the parables, the pro- 
 mises, the prophecies, and withal the pervading 
 purity, and moral elevation of the bible form 
 altogether a code of direction to the human 
 
117 
 
 heart, which, when duly received there, can make 
 it wise unto salvation : and, whenever we can 
 trace this influence to its proper efiect in the 
 behaviour of a pious, humble, and self-denying 
 christian in circumstances of trial, which throw 
 him upon his principles and his God, we perceive, 
 that it is calculated to form a character, incom- 
 parably superior to any, which an unenlightened 
 philosophy can either conceive, or comprehend. 
 
 Yet nevertheless numerous errors are still 
 committed even among christians, as they before 
 were among Jews, in the notions, which are 
 commonly entertained, on the nature of sanctifi- 
 cation, or on the means of returning to God : 
 and we have therefore in the next lecture to 
 open .a new chapter in the progress of our in- 
 quiry, and to trace some of the erroneous senti- 
 ments, which have at different times prevailed 
 in the church of God itself, and been supported 
 "by mistaken interpretations of his word, con- 
 cerning the way, which is there propounded for 
 our progressive recovery and final salvation. 
 
SEKMON YI. 
 
 1 SAMUEL XV. 22. 
 
 Behold ! To obey is better than sacrifice. 
 
 We have now taken a survey of the notions, or 
 sentiments, which have prevailed at different 
 times, and in all the world on two important 
 subjects, the fallen condition of human nature, 
 and the means, by which it is to be restored. 
 We have confined this view indeed hitherto to 
 those states of society, in which there was no 
 actual knowledge of the revelation of God : and 
 we have found, that, wherever the true God was 
 not revealed, he was not known. The world by 
 wisdom knew not God; and, not being truly 
 known, he was of course forgotten. He came 
 not to any real or practical purpose into their 
 thoughts; and, although the diAdne vengeance 
 was sometimes apprehended, as a punishment 
 for notorious crimes, and his interference in the 
 affairs of the world was admitted in general 
 terms, whence arose the universal practice of 
 
119 
 
 sacrifice, the reverence for oracles, and the varied 
 forms of superstition, still there is this remarka- 
 ble in all the notions, which were formed among 
 the heathen concerning the nature of human 
 duty, and virtue, and happiness, that they had no 
 respect to any, but the present life, and were not 
 founded on any direct recognition of a divine 
 law. There were indeed, as has been already 
 admitted, fables about Elysium and Tartarus, 
 and the judgment of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and 
 ^acus. But as there was no known code, by 
 which their decisions were supposed to be regu- 
 lated, so the very general scepticism, which ob- 
 tained, in regard to the immortality of the soul, 
 and the reahty of a future world, deprived them 
 of aU possible efficacy in the determination of 
 conduct, except in the case of those flagrant 
 enormities, and universally proscribed vices, in 
 respect to which 
 
 Conscience doth make cowards of us all. 
 
 In fact the question, often agitated, was not simply, 
 whether the soul of man be immortal, but also, 
 whether it survive the body for a time, whether 
 that be the case with the souls of all men, or 
 
120 
 
 only with those of the great and distinguished, 
 and whether, if it continue to exist, it do not 
 necessarily follow, that its condition must be 
 improved after death, and its capacities enlarged. 
 Xenophon introduces Cyrus, as arguing upon 
 his dying bed, that, because during life the 
 soul is impeded in many of its functions by the 
 imperfections of the body, therefore, when it is 
 separated from the body, it must begin to hve in 
 a nobler sense ; and Socrates seems also to have 
 entertained a similar expectation. These uncer- 
 tain speculations, which seem to promise to all 
 mankind, except the notoriously profligate and 
 wicked, that their condition cannot be made 
 worse, and may be greatly ameliorated by death, 
 hindered the anticipation of futurity from having 
 any positive effect upon the regulation of life : 
 and indeed it is very obvious, that, when the 
 question was asked by any heathen philosopher — 
 ' ^ What is the chief good, or what the happiness 
 ' of man ?' — , the question was asked and an- 
 swered with reference to the present life exclu- 
 sively. Hence sprang the inquiry, so often 
 made, and so variously determined, whether any 
 man can be pronounced happy before his death ; 
 
121 
 
 and hence arose the dilemma, which appeared 
 always to perplex it, that if it could be answered 
 affirmatively, then a man, who should die misera- 
 bly and disgracefully, might yet by reason of 
 his foregoing prosperity be esteemed a happy 
 man, or, if it must be decided in the negative, 
 then a man would only then be pronounced 
 happy, when he had ceased to be so, a dilemma, 
 which would vanish at once, if the happiness of 
 man were conceived to have any reference to 
 eternity, and to his condition in a higher state 
 of being. So too the principles of human virtue 
 were founded on a calculation of what is con- 
 ducive to the welfare of society, to the present 
 interests of the human race, and not to the will 
 of the Deity, to which the creatures of his hand 
 are bound to conform. 
 
 The introduction therefore of this single idea 
 throws a new and wonderful light over the whole 
 theory of morals. ' We are not born ' (says a 
 heathen moralist) ' for ourselves alone, but for 
 * our families, and for our country.' The bible 
 adduces a new and higher object of our creation. 
 We are bom, to glorify God. It is the first duty 
 of a creature to serve and obey his creator. 
 
122 
 
 Thus the Israelites had a principle in their 
 religion, which alone entitles them to superiority- 
 over the rest of the world. Nor was this prin- 
 ciple with them a mere barren or speculative 
 notion. They alone possessed a distinct and 
 authentic narrative of the production of all things 
 out of nothing, and of the formation of the world 
 we live in by the one, only, universal creator : 
 and they had a law, delivered to them by imme- 
 diate revelation from himself, and a history of 
 their own nation from the beginning, which made 
 him known to them by his marvellous inter- 
 positions for the establishment of their ancestors 
 in the land, in which they dwelt, and by the 
 overthrow of all their enemies. They had there- 
 fore every advantage for knowing the will of the 
 Lord, and the means, which he had devised for 
 human recovery. 
 
 Accordingly it is found, that their morality 
 was of a purer stamp than that of the heathens 
 around them ; and, wicked as were many of their 
 sovereigns, and corrupt as was the people, they 
 yet retained maxims, and practices, and senti- 
 ments, which excelled those of their gentile neigh- 
 bours. Thus even in the time of that idolatrous 
 
123 
 
 king, Ahab, the servants of the king of Syria 
 said unto him — ' Behold now ! We have heard, 
 ^ that the kings of the house of Israel are merci- 
 ' fill kings,' — ; and still later, after the captivity 
 in Babylon, Darius, seeing something in them, 
 which was superior to the rest of his subjects, 
 saw fit to make a decree, that expences be given 
 unto the elders of the Jews for the rebuilding of 
 the house of God, that they might offer sacri- 
 fices of sweet savours unto the God of Heaven, 
 and pray for the life of the king, and of his sons. 
 Indeed the Jewish scriptures are full of sublime 
 and spiritual truths, which shew, how far the 
 doctrines of revelation surpass the discoveries of 
 reason, and the speculations of philosophy. 
 Where for instance in all the writings of the 
 gentiles shall we find such maxims as these ? 
 ' If a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, 
 ' ye shall not vex him. But the stranger, that 
 ' dwelleth with you, shall be unto you, as one 
 ' bom among you ; and thou shalt love him, as 
 ' thyself. If thou seest thine enemy's ox, or his 
 ' ass, going astray, thou shalt surely bring it 
 ' back to him again. If thou at all take thy 
 ' neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt de- 
 
124 
 
 ' liver it unto him by that the sun goeth down : 
 ' for that is his covering only. It is his raiment 
 ' for his skin. Wherein shall he sleep ? and it 
 ' shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, 
 ' that I will hear ; for I am gracious. When 
 ' thou cuttest down thy harvest in the field, and 
 ' hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not 
 ' go again, to fetch it. It shall be for the 
 ' stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow, 
 ' that the Lord, thy God, may bless thee in all 
 ' the work of thy hands. When thou beatest 
 ' thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the 
 ' boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, for 
 ' the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou 
 ' gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt 
 ' not glean it afterward. It shaU be for the 
 ' stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.' 
 But what gives to these maxims in the writings 
 of Israel their peculiar value is the impress of 
 authority, which rests upon them. They are not 
 deductions of reason fi-om calculations of expedi- 
 ency, or disquisitions upon the moral fitness of 
 things, liable to be called in question by other the- 
 orists, and superseded by the doctrines of a differ- 
 ent school. They are the commands of God. They 
 
125 
 
 are accompanied continually with the solemn de- 
 claration — * I am the Lord ' — : and they carry 
 with them not only the sanctions of law, but 
 the promises of favour, as in the passages, alrea- 
 dy quoted, there is on the one hand the denuncia- 
 tion — ' When thy oppressed neighbour crieth 
 ' unto me, I will hear ; for I am gracious ' — , 
 and on the other there is the encouraging pro- 
 mise — ' That the Lord, thy God, may bless thee 
 ' in all the work of thy hands.' 
 
 With aU these advantages then towards form- 
 ing a right decision, what were the current senti- 
 ments among the Jews on this great question of 
 human sanctification ? 
 
 Not those, which are inculcated in the scrip- 
 tures, certainly : for we find the prophets gene- 
 rally, and our lord himself, the last of them, 
 complaining, that they knew not the scriptures, 
 neither the power of God. Thus Jeremiah 
 expostulates with them in accordance with 
 numerous other remonstrances throughout the 
 books of the prophets — " Hath a nation changed 
 " their gods, which are yet no gods ? But my 
 " people have changed their glory for that, 
 
126 
 
 " which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye 
 " heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid ! Be 
 " ye very desolate ! " — saith the Lord. " For my 
 " people have committed two evils. They have 
 " forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and 
 " hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that 
 " can hold no water." 
 
 It is surely a very surprising fact, considering 
 the precise revelations of the one true God, 
 which were made on many occasions to the 
 people of Israel, and the signal manifestations of 
 divine power, with which they were often accom- 
 panied, it is under these circumstances very sur- 
 prising, that down to the time of the captivity in 
 Babylon that people should have been perpetu- 
 ally given to idolatry. It is almost equally surpri- 
 sing, that after their restoration from Babylon, a 
 restoration, effected in a manner, which, especially 
 when taken in connexion with the prophecies, 
 which announced it, marks a visible interposition 
 of divine providence, there should have grown 
 up among them a sect, like that of the sadducees, 
 who denied the resurrection of the dead, the 
 existence of angels, and the existence of the 
 separate spirits of departed men, though the 
 
127 
 
 scriptures of the old testament strongly imply 
 them all. 
 
 Such however being the treatment, which the 
 scriptures of truth met with from the great body 
 of the Jewish people, we cannot doubt, that their 
 notions upon the question, how a sinner may 
 return to God, must have been very different from 
 that, which is taught in the sacred volume. 
 
 Indeed the infidelity and apostasy of the 
 nation was foreseen from the beginning, and 
 occasioned a very remarkable modification in the 
 appointments, which were made for them by God. 
 
 The covenant, formed with Abraham, was the 
 charter of the IsraeHtish people. It was the foun- 
 dation of their title to the promised land, of their 
 national connexion with the coming saviour, and 
 of their participation in all the privileges and 
 blessings of his redemption. 
 
 But, because the people, to whom these pro- 
 mises were made, were not, as Moses reminds 
 them, a righteous, but a stiff-necked people, who 
 would continually, as was foreseen and foretold, 
 provoke the Lord by their transgressions to 
 withdraw his grace from them, therefore, to pro- 
 vide against the consequences to be apprehended 
 
128 
 
 from their perverseness, and to preserve in them, 
 if possible, some remembrance of their hopes 
 and duties, the burdensome rites and ceremonies 
 of the Mosaical law were in due time added 
 afterwards, by which the promises, precepts, and 
 sanctifying character of their holy religion were 
 daily forced, as it were, upon the recollection of 
 all, who observed it. The distinction of meats 
 symbolized to them the difference between holy 
 and profane ; the sabbatical years, and the jubilee 
 brought home to them the claims of piety and 
 charity ; and the institution of sacrifice with all 
 the ceremonial of public worship led them con- 
 tinually to look forward to one greater and all- 
 sufficient sacrifice, which had been promised, to 
 take away the sin of the world. 
 
 But, as was naturally to be expected, the 
 same worldly spirit, which neglected the pro- 
 mises, perverted the law, which was intended to 
 guard them. The service, which stood only in 
 meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal 
 ordinances, imposed on them for the purpose of 
 drawing their attention to the spiritual duties, 
 thus outwardly represented, the gifts and sacri- 
 fices, which could not possibly be the ultimate 
 
129 
 
 end of their religious worship, because they 
 could not make him, that did the ser\dce, per- 
 fect, as pertaining to the conscience, were by 
 them substituted for the reality and the power of 
 godliness. They placed their religion in them 
 altogether, and satisfied themselves with outward 
 conformity, when they chose to conform at all, 
 instead of inward holiness. 
 
 Against this error their prophets are con- 
 tinually protesting. Thus Isaiah represents the 
 Lord, as rejecting, and even loathing these very 
 institutions of his own appointment, because 
 those, who observed them, rested in them, and 
 instead of using them, as instruments, for their 
 advancement in holiness, made them a cover 
 for iniquity. " To what purpose is the multi- 
 " tude of your sacrifices unto me ? " — saith the 
 ' Lord. " I am full of the burnt offerings of 
 " rams, and the fat of fed beasts ; and I delight 
 " not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or 
 " of he-goats. Whea ye come, to appear 
 " before me, who hath required this at your 
 "hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more 
 " vain oblations'. Incense is an abomination 
 " unto me. The new moons and sabbaths, the 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 " calling of assemblies I cannot away with. It 
 " is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your 
 " new moons and your appointed feasts my soul 
 " hateth. They are a trouble unto me. I am 
 *' weary to bear them : and, when ye spread 
 " forth your hands, I wiU hide mine eyes from 
 " you : Yea. When ye make many prayers, I 
 " will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." 
 
 By Jeremiah again the Lord remonstrates with 
 his people in the bitterest terms on this very ac- 
 count, saying — " Behold ! Ye trust in lying 
 " words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, mur- 
 " der, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, 
 " and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after 
 " other gods, whom ye know not, and come, and 
 " stand before me in this house, which is called 
 " by my name, and say — '" We are delivered, to 
 " ' do all these abominations '" ? Is this 
 " house, which is called by my name, become a 
 " den of robbers in your eyes ? Behold ! I have 
 " seen it:" — saith the Lord.' 
 
 Moreover it is striking to observe the very 
 same fault, charged upon the Jews in our saviour's 
 time, though all the circumstances of their con- 
 dition were changed, and although their national 
 
131 
 
 character in some other respects had undergone 
 proportionable variations. ' Woe unto you ! ' — 
 says our lord himself to the scribes and pha- 
 risees of his day. ' Woe unto you, scribes 
 ' and Pharisees, hypocrites ! For ye pay tithe 
 ' of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have 
 ' omitted the weightier matters of the law, judg- 
 ' ment, mercy, and faith. These ought ye to 
 ' have done, and not to leave the other undone, 
 ' ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and 
 ' swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and 
 ' pharisees, hypocrites ! For ye make clean the 
 ' outside of the cup, and of the platter. But 
 ' within they are full of extortion and excess. 
 ' Thou blind pharisee, cleanse first that, which is 
 ' within the cup and platter, that the outside of 
 ' them may be clean also ! Woe unto you, 
 ' scribes and pharisees, hypocrites ! For ye are 
 ' like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed ap- 
 ' pear beautiful outward, but are within full of 
 ' dead men's bones, and all ancleanness. Even 
 ' so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto 
 ' men. But within ye are full of hypocrisy and 
 ' iniquity.' 
 
 But there is no passage of scripturej where the 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 substitution of outward homage for real confor- 
 mity is more distinctly exposed, or more sternly 
 rebuked, than it is by the language of Samuel to 
 Saul in the text. ' Behold ! ' — said that faithful 
 monitor. ' To obey is better than sacrifice.' 
 
 In this sentence the opposite principle to that, 
 which characterized the common and prevalent 
 course of Israelitish feeling and practice under 
 every variation in their history, against which 
 successive prophets, and even our lord himself, 
 as with one mouth, protested, but which still 
 continued to mark the conduct of the great mass 
 of the people till that time, when the avenging 
 justice of God took away from them the power of 
 sacrifice, as they had themselves surrendered the 
 still higher privilege of obedience, is strongly put 
 forth, and asserted. 'Behold!' — says the pro- 
 phet. ' To obey is better than sacrifice.' 
 
 The law of sacrifice was a divine institution. 
 It inculcated by a public act, constantly repeated, 
 the necessity of an atonenient ; and it directed 
 accordingly the blood of some appointed victim 
 to be shed every day, avowedly for the pardon of 
 sin. Still however it was of use only for that 
 purpose, to obtain forgiveness, not to begin that 
 
133 
 
 new life of holiness, without which no man can 
 see the Lord. It was indeed a preparation for 
 that new life. But all actual and willing obedi- 
 ence is more than a preparation. It is a part of 
 it : and therefore to obey, which is an essentially 
 holy act, is better than sacrifice, which is only a 
 sacramental and propitiatory service : whence it 
 is, that saint Peter even declares without any di- 
 rect reference to that great sacrifice, which taketh 
 away the sin of the world, that in every nation 
 he, that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, 
 is accepted with him. He is doing that, for 
 which that propitiatory ofl^ering only prepared the 
 way : and therefore his acceptance is clear ; for, 
 whatever e&cacj sacrifice may have in procuring 
 the acceptance of a sinner, to obey is better than 
 sacrifice. It is a farther advance in the life of 
 godliness, a nearer conformity to the law of our 
 being. 
 
 Let us now then proceed further to consider 
 more particularly, what must have been the 
 exact notions, the settled opinions, which the 
 great body of the Israelitish nation actually 
 entertained, upon the means of returning to God, 
 and recovering from the mischief of the fall ! 
 
134 
 
 They were clearly aware, that they were sin- 
 ners against God. Of this their continual use of 
 sacrifice, whether offered to the true God, or to 
 idols, is an unquestionable evidence : for no one 
 offers a sacrifice, who does not seek remission of 
 his offences, or conceive, that he needs some- 
 thing, to effect his reconciliation with the Deity. 
 But, having joined in the sacrifices of the taber- 
 nacle, or temple, the Israelitish worshipper was 
 often content ; or, if that could not satisfy his 
 conscience, there were the various rites of purifi- 
 cation, ablution, abstinence from unclean food, a 
 vow of nazaritism, and other positive ordinances, 
 on the strength of which, if regularly, or duly 
 observed by him, he felt himself assured of being 
 in the right way, and counted among the true 
 people of God : or again, if still he should be 
 disappointed in his expectations, if, after having 
 looked for temporal blessings in reward of his 
 acts of piety, he should meet with afflictions or 
 distresses, ill health, the loss of fii-iends or child- 
 ren, or any other grievous calamity, while others 
 prospered, and were at ease, (for to these earthly 
 prospects the view of a sadducee must have been 
 limited), he would attribute his misfortune to a 
 
135 
 
 neglect of some ritual appointment, and would 
 
 thus be tempted to try the practices of others, of 
 
 his heathen neighbours for instance, much in the 
 
 same way as ignorant persons even in this day 
 
 will resort to gipsies, or charmers, to do that for 
 
 them, which they neglect to seek from the pure 
 
 and simple rules of the gospel. This was what 
 
 the multitude of Jews, who had fled into Egypt, 
 
 said to Jeremiah — ' As for the word, that thou 
 
 ' hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, 
 
 ' we will not hearken unto thee. But we will 
 
 ' certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of 
 
 ' our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen 
 
 ' of Heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto 
 
 ' her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our 
 
 ' kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, 
 
 ' and in the courts of Jerusalem : for then had 
 
 ' we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw 
 
 ' no evil. But, since we left off to burn incense 
 
 ' to the queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink- 
 
 ' offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, 
 
 ' and have been consumed by the sword, and by 
 
 ' the famine.' This again was what Saul did, 
 
 when he persuaded himself, that he might make 
 
 compensation for neglecting a divine command 
 
136 
 
 by oflfering an uncommanded sacrifice, and when 
 afterwards on finding, that the Lord answered 
 him not either by dreams, or by urim, or by 
 prophets, he sought out a woman, that had a fa- 
 miliar spirit. 
 
 Even after the vice of idolatry had been com- 
 pletely worn out by the captivity in Babylon, we 
 trace the same propensity in another form, and 
 find the pharisees, and scribes, and doctors of the 
 law, making their escape fi*om its plain and sim- 
 ple rules, to take refuge in human traditions. 
 ' For,' (said our lord himself to them in his dis- 
 tinct and authoritative remonstrance upon this 
 very point), ' laying aside the commandment of 
 ' God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the wash- 
 ' ing of pots and cups ; and many other suchhke 
 ' things ye do ' — : and then he added in a 
 strain of sacred irony — ' Full well ye reject the 
 ' commandment of God, that ye may keep 
 ' your own tradition.' 
 
 And how are we to account for this prevailing 
 disposition to substitute first the ceremonies of 
 the law for its moral precepts, and then the in- 
 ventions of men for the worship, appointed by 
 God ? The first must arise from that dislike to 
 
137 
 
 the moral precepts of God, which has adhered to 
 our nature ever since the fall, the second from a 
 consciousness, that, all the ceremonies of a reli- 
 gion, which comes from God, imply in the wor- 
 shippers a desire to fulfil his precepts also spiri- 
 tually as well as formally, whereas idolatry and 
 tradition content themselves with outward 
 service. 
 
 Hence arises that instinctive readiness, with 
 which men discover and pursue any easier refuge 
 from the wrath of God than that, with which 
 they are furnished hy the word of God. The 
 institution of sacrifice (they are quick enough to 
 perceive) alters most beneficially their condition 
 before God. It points to means of acceptance 
 and reconciliation, of which he, who makes use of 
 them, may avail himself: and, being thus assured, 
 that their condition is changed for the better, 
 they rest satisfied with this improvement, and 
 aspire to nothing beyond it, being willingly 
 ignorant of that ulterior truth, with which 
 however conscience, when honestly consulted, 
 will not suflfer them to be entirely unacquainted, 
 that this improvement in their condition is in- 
 tended to be instrumental to a higher end, 
 
138 
 
 namely the improvement of their character ; that 
 the forgiveness of sin is designed, as a step to 
 the conquest of sin ; and that after all a holy- 
 God cannot be satisfied without holiness in his 
 worshipper. It is the secret consciousness of 
 this tinith, accompanied with a real unwillingness 
 to receive it, that disposes men to submit rea- 
 dily to any multiplication of ceremonies, nay, 
 even to severe penances, and acts of considerable 
 self-denial, or still further to the Adolation of 
 their own natural feelings in giving the fruit of 
 their body for the sin of their soul, if they can 
 thereby flatter themselves, that an indemnity 
 may be obtained by them for continuing in their 
 evil ways. Thus the pharisee in the parable 
 said — ' I fast twice in the week. I give tithes 
 ' of all, that I possess.' — : and this he did, and 
 much more than this, abstaining from all those 
 outward vices, the commission of which would 
 degrade him in society, and hoping by these com- 
 pliances with the outward directions of the law, 
 or the traditions of the elders, to cover those 
 more subtle and cherished offences of the heart, 
 with which our lord distinctly charges him. 
 Still, if these institutions come immediately from 
 
139 
 
 God, none, who receive them, can altogether 
 hide from themselves the holiness of heart and 
 life, to which they are intended to be subser- 
 vient : and therefore they the more willingly 
 acquiesce in the commandments and doctrines of 
 men, which, if they be only observed in the 
 letter, press upon the conscience no further. 
 
 It is thus, that, while the morality of the old 
 testament infinitely excels all the boasted ethics 
 of the most learned of the heathen philosophers, 
 and while those individuals in the commonwealth 
 of Israel, who conformed to its spiritual requi- 
 sitions, exhibited the living proof of it in their 
 own practice, it often happened, that the moral 
 code, actually embraced by the Jewish nation, 
 even by their best-instructed scribes and doctors 
 in the most straitest sect of their religion, 
 fell short of them. The corruption of the best 
 things is often the worst. The heathen philo- 
 sopher, when he saw and lamented the vicious- 
 ness of mankind, set about reforming it by 
 early discipline, or legislation, or instruction, 
 his aim being honestly to make men better than 
 they were, though he knew not how to effect it. 
 But the Jew had learned a more excellent way. 
 
140 
 
 He knew, that there was a provision for sin, and 
 for uncleanness ; and he rested in that provision 
 without intending any reformation at all. This 
 is intimated by saint Paul, when he says — 
 ' Behold ! Thou art called a Jew, and restest in 
 ' the law, and makest thy boast of God.' 
 Resting in the law, and making his boast of 
 God, to whom he had been consecrated by his 
 circumcision, he thought himself safe, and said 
 to others — ' Stand by thyself! Come not near 
 ' to me ! For I am holier than thou.' — , although 
 in essential holiness of heart and life he had 
 made no advances at all. 
 
 The truth, which the Jew thus neglected, is 
 yet written in his own scriptures, as with a sun- 
 beam. ' Behold ! Thou requirest truth in the 
 ' inward parts. If I regard iniquity in mj'^ heart, 
 ' the Lord will not hear me. The thoughts of 
 ' the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. 
 ' For the Lord seeth not, as man seeth ; for 
 ' man looketh on the outward appearance, but 
 ' the Lord looketh on the heart. The Lord 
 ' searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the 
 ' imaginations of the thoughts. The righteous 
 ' God trieth the hearts and reins. Thinkest 
 
141 
 
 ' thou, that I will eat bulls' flesh, or drink the 
 ' blood of goats ? Wash you ! Make you 
 ' clean ! I, the Lord, search the heart. I try 
 ' the reins, even to give every man according to 
 ' his ways and according to the fruit of his 
 ' doings. I desired mercy, and not sacrifice, and 
 ' the knowledge of God more than burnt-oifer- 
 ' ings.' Had they regarded all the institutions in 
 their rehgious worship, as subservient and instru- 
 mental to this end, they would have found in 
 them what they were designed to prove, helps to 
 the knowledge of God, and to the consistent 
 practice of duty ; for, as saint Paul reminds 
 them, circumcision verily profited, if they kept 
 the law, whereas otherwise their circumcision 
 was so far from profiting them, that it was made 
 uncircumcision in the sight of God. When 
 therefore they forgot the great cardinal truth, 
 that to obey is better than sacrifice, and presumed 
 to ofier to God the very sacrifices, which he had 
 appointed, while yet in other respects they 
 neglected the obedience, which he requires, he 
 says of them — ' These are a smoke in my nose, 
 ' a fire, that burneth all the day.' 
 
 Thus every thing, which we have yet traced in 
 
142 
 
 our rapid sketch of the sentiments and religious 
 notions of mankind, tends to confirm us in the 
 melancholy truth, that the heart of man is na- 
 turally alienated from the mind of God. It dis- 
 likes the strictness of the divine law, and shrinks 
 from its purity. 
 
 Tt is only in the bible itself, that faithful 
 mirror of the will of God, that we can discover 
 the true way for a sinner to be recovered, and 
 restored. Having therefore examined the opi- 
 nions upon that subject, which were commonly 
 entertained by those, to whom those lively oracles, 
 ' or rather the first part of them, were originally 
 committed, our next inquiry will be, what opi- 
 nions have been commonly entertained upon this 
 question among christians. 
 
 May the holy spirit help us in the prosecution 
 of this inquiry, that we may honestly seek, and 
 clearly discern, and faithfully pursue the only way 
 of peace and safety ! 
 
SEEMON VII. 
 
 JOHN III. 19. 
 
 This is the condemnation, that light is come into 
 the world, and men loved darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds were evil. 
 
 Our inquiries have been limited hitherto to the 
 notions, entertained on the subject of sanctifica- 
 tion, by heathens, or by Jews. We must now 
 proceed to investigate a question of greater 
 nicety, namely the sentiments, which have pre- 
 vailed upon this all-important topic since the 
 revelation of Christianity, and the completion of 
 the canon of scripture. This indeed ought to 
 have put an end to all perplexity, and to all 
 difference of judgment upon a matter, which 
 is the very scope and end of the gospel, and on 
 which its instructions accordingly are designed 
 to be most explicit. 
 
 But unhappily there is nothing, in which the 
 depravation of our nature through the fall is 
 more manifest, than in its slowness to admit 
 
144 
 
 truths, the admission of which iirtpUes an ac- 
 knowledgment of error, and the consequent duty 
 of reformation. This is the secret cause, which 
 amidst many modifications, and under various 
 disguises has hindered the true scriptural method 
 of sanctification from being apprehended or re- 
 ceived in every age, and which also indisposes 
 men, though unconscious of that indisposition, 
 to search diligently the sacred volume, which 
 reveals it. 
 
 It has been already observed, that, when it 
 pleased God for the purpose of preserving his 
 chosen people in the true religion to give them a 
 system of types, ceremonies, and external ordi- 
 nances, calculated to keep him and his appoint- 
 ments constantly in their mind, they perversely 
 rested in these means, as their end, and substi- 
 tuted the outward ordinances of their reUgion for 
 that religion itself, to which it was intended to be 
 subservient. The same disposition still haunts 
 the church, and will ever haunt it, so long as any 
 reluctance to the true and spiritual service, which 
 Christianity demands, remains, unsubdued. 
 
 The first indication of this leaven appeared in 
 the very life-time of the apostles themselves : 
 
145 
 
 and they notice it thus. ' We have heard, that 
 ' certain, which went out from us, have troubled 
 ' you with words, subverting your souls, saying 
 ' ye must be circumcised, and keep the law, to 
 ' whom we gave no such commandment.' Some 
 Jewish converts (it seems) were so attached to 
 the law of Moses, that they would fain have 
 perpetuated its shadows, after they had been 
 superseded by the substance : and so indignant 
 is saint Paul at this attempt to obscure the free 
 promises of the gospel by the dark and distant 
 resemblances of the law, that he says to the 
 Galatian converts — ' I marvel, that ye are so 
 ' soon removed from him, that called you into 
 ' the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, which 
 ' is not another,' or, which other gospel has no 
 real existence. ' But there be some, that trouble 
 ' you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 
 ' But, though we, or an angel from Heaven 
 ' preach any other gospel unto you than that, 
 ' which we have preached unto you, let him be 
 ' accursed ! ' — : and again to the Colossians he 
 writes — ^ If ye be dead with Christ from the 
 ' rudiments of the world, why, as though living 
 ' in the world, are ye subject to ordinances — 
 
146 
 
 " Touch not ! Taste not ! Handle not ! "— , 
 ' which all are to perish with the using, after the 
 ' commandments and doctrines of men ? ' — : and 
 therefore he adds — ' Let no man judge you in 
 * meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or 
 ' of the new moon, or of the sabhath-days, 
 ' which are a shadow of things to come ! But 
 ' the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile 
 ' you of your reward in a voluntary humility, 
 ' and worshipping of angels, intruding into those 
 ' things, which he hath not seen, vainly puiFed 
 ' up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the 
 ' head ! ' He enumerates many particulars, some 
 borrowed from the Mosaical law, others the 
 inventions of men, professing the gospel of 
 Christ ; and he proscribes them all, as unfit to 
 be rested in, or trusted to by those, to whom 
 the blessed message of salvation has been 
 proclaimed in all its fulness and purity. 
 
 The earnestness, with which the apostles de- 
 nounce this error, the strong language, with 
 which they guard their readers against any per- 
 version of the simplicity of the gospel, implies 
 what on some occasions they distinctly declare, 
 that even in that early age, before the first love 
 
147 
 
 of christians had begun to cool, and while the 
 presence of the apostles kept it in perpetual 
 exercise, there was a principle at work, which 
 would corrupt the doctrine of Christ. That 
 principle is sometimes called the mystery of 
 iniquity, which (saint Paul tells us) even in his 
 days was already working in the bosom of chris- 
 tians. At other times it is called the spirit of 
 Antichrist, of which saint John declares, that 
 even then already it was in the world. Whether 
 it assume the shape of magnifying the form of 
 godliness, that it may the more artfully deny its 
 power, or whether it take the course of under- 
 mining some of the leading truths of the gospel, 
 that it may deprive them of their force and in- 
 fluence, it has but one origin, that men, though 
 convinced of the truth of Christianity, unable to 
 resist its evidence, and in some measure sensible 
 of its beauty and suitableness to • the wants of 
 our fallen nature, yet received not the love of it, 
 that they might be saved. In our saviour's own 
 language in the text men loved darkness rather 
 than light, because their deeds, the deeds, to 
 which their hearts inclined, even when they were 
 withheld by the checks of conscience, or by the 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 fear of consequences from practising them, were 
 evil. 
 
 If this was the subtle principle at work even in 
 the life-time of the apostles, while the church 
 wore its first gloss, and every thing, which would 
 soil its purity, might seem to be kept away both 
 by their salutary presence, and by the watchful- 
 ness, authority, and persecuting spirit of its nu- 
 merous enemies, Jewish, philosophical, and 
 pagan, we shall of course expect to see it more 
 developed, as we advance down the stream of 
 time, and find the power, which then repressed 
 its manifestation, taken out of the way : nor shall 
 we be mistaken. Amidst all the diversities of sects 
 and sentiments, which have sprung up at different 
 eras in the church, the master principle of delu- 
 sion has ever been a disposition to attach dispro- 
 portionate importance to the exterior, the ceremo- 
 nial of religion, and thus to draw attention away 
 from that, which is its real design and tendency, 
 namely to substitute the love of the Father for the 
 love of the world. The great object of Satan, when 
 he could not extinguish the light of truth, was to 
 throw a mist around it, to dimitslustre, and deprive 
 its beams of some portion of their healing efficacy. 
 
149 
 
 But even in the days of primitive truth and 
 order there were not wanting some precocious 
 specimens of the full development of this perver- 
 sion. Thus Hymeneeus, Alexander, and Philetus 
 hegan by putting away a good conscience ; and 
 then, that they might quiet the uneasiness of 
 that internal monitor, they first made shipwreck 
 concerning their own faith, and afterwards over- 
 threw the faith of others, saying, that the resur- 
 rection is past already, and thus taking away 
 from the pursuit of holiness aU that support, 
 which is derived from the hope of the future. 
 Again, saint Peter speaks of some persons, who 
 feasted with the christians, and yet sported them- 
 selves with their own deceivings ; the reason of 
 which was, that they had a heart, exercised with 
 covetous practices, through which, while they 
 spoke great swelling words of vanity (that is pro- 
 bably, while they dazzled the brethren by the 
 charms of a specious eloquence), they allured 
 through the lusts of the flesh, through much 
 wantonness those, that were clean escaped from 
 them, who live in error. Afterwards in saint 
 John's later days the Nicolaitans seem to have 
 been a sect of immoral professors of Christianity. 
 
150 
 
 Immorality prepared the way for error in doc- 
 trine. Hence men gladly seized hold of the 
 gnostic fables, and listened to those many de- 
 ceivers, who, while they called themselves chris- 
 tians, yet confessed not, that Jesus Christ is 
 come in the flesh, or in other ways denied the 
 Lord, that bought them : and, when saint John 
 opposed their delusions, so bold had they become 
 in error, that Diotrephes refused to receive the 
 brethren, whom saint John himself sent, to re- 
 prove him, and even presumed so far as to cast 
 them out of the church. 
 
 The pertinacity, with which these errors were 
 retained, even when the true light was shining in 
 all its orient brightness, could arise from no other 
 cause, but this, however it may be disguised or 
 palliated, that men loved darkness rather than 
 light, because their deeds were evil. 
 
 But still in all these Protean varieties of delu- 
 sion one principle is always discernible, namely 
 the disposition, natural to the fallen heart of 
 man, to deprive the gospel of its truly spiritual 
 character by setting up some phantom, which 
 may be followed without the extent of sacrifice, 
 which Christianity requires. 
 
151 
 
 We may trace this tendency in several parti- 
 culars. 
 
 First our lord prayed for his disciples, that 
 they aU might he one ; %hich saint Paul inter- 
 prets, as the unity of the faith, and of the know- 
 ledge of the son of God, and therefore urges the 
 disciples to keep the unity of the spirit in the hond 
 of peace. But in how many instances has this 
 unity been inculcated, as if it consisted merely 
 in an external confederacy under one earthly 
 head, so, that, if men would only profess them- 
 selves members of that one church, and submit 
 to its discipline and decisions, no inquiry would 
 be made, whether there was any real unity of the 
 spirit among them, or any actual possession of the 
 faith, and of the knowledge of the son of God ! 
 
 So too our blessed lord declares — ' Except a 
 ' man be born of water, and of the spirit, he can- 
 ' not enter into the kingdom of God.' But how 
 often have we known the mere act of baptism re- 
 lied upon, as a sufficient test of discipleship, 
 without due regard to that work of the holy 
 spirit, which alone constitutes a true christian, 
 and the church itself, of which he is a member, a 
 habitation of God ! 
 
152 
 
 Again, when our blessed lord affirmed with a 
 solemn asseveration — ' Except ye eat the flesh of 
 ' the son of man, and drink his blood, ye have 
 ' no life in you' — , when he added — ' Whoso 
 ' eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath 
 ' eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last 
 ' day ; for my flesh is meat indeed, and my 
 ' blood is drink indeed. He, that* eateth my 
 ' flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, 
 ' and I in him ' — , and again — ' He, that eateth 
 ' of this bread, shall live for ever ' — , and when 
 on his disciples' murmuring at this saying he 
 subjoined in explanation — ' It is the spirit, that 
 ' quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing' — , 
 have we not known these gracious promises tied 
 down to the literal and carnal expression of them, 
 as if a formal celebration of the Lord's supper 
 could profit those, who by their life and conver- 
 sation are shewn to be destitute of the life-giving 
 spirit ? 
 
 Once more it is plain, that the apostles con- 
 stituted bishops over some of their ghurches, 
 giving it in charge to them to commit the things, 
 that they had heard of them, to faithful men, 
 who should be able to teach others also, but to 
 
153 
 
 stop the mouths of such as were unruly and 
 vain talkers and deceivers, whereby they laid 
 the foundation of that true apostolical church, 
 which by the good providence of God has con- 
 tinued ever since. But how often do we find 
 the mere succession from the apostles insisted 
 on, as the single and sufiicient evidence of an 
 evp,ngelical ministry, without reference to those 
 spiritual qualifications, which the apostles con- 
 join with it, that they be faithfiil men, who may 
 be able to teach others what was originally re- 
 ceived from the eyewitnesses and ministers of 
 the word ! 
 
 It is remarkable also, that the apostles of our 
 lord speak often of the simplicity, which cha- 
 racterized their teaching ; that in witnessing both 
 to small and great they said none other things 
 than those, which the prophets and Moses did 
 say should come, that Christ should suffer, and 
 that he should be the first, that should rise from 
 the dead, and should shew light unto the people, 
 and to the gentiles ; that hence they determined 
 to know nothing among their hearers, but Jesus 
 Christ, and him crucified, and almost in a manner 
 confined their testimony both to the Jews, and 
 
154 
 
 also to the Greeks, to those two main articles, re- 
 pentance toward God, and faith toward our lord, 
 Jesus Christ. On the other hand they caution 
 their disciples against every thing, from whatever 
 quarter, which might have a tendency to keep 
 these fundamental truths out of view hy occupy- 
 ing their minds with matters of secondary mo- 
 ment. ' Beware,' (says saint Paul) ' lest any 
 ' man spoil you through philosophy and vain 
 ' deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudi- 
 ' ments of the world, and not after Christ ! 
 ' Give no heed to fables, which minister questions 
 ' rather than godly edifying, which is in faith ! 
 ' Turn not aside unto vain janghng ! Kefiise 
 ' profane and old wives' fables, and exercise 
 ' thyself rather unto godliness ! Shun profane 
 ' and vain babblings ! For they will increase 
 ' unto more ungodliness. Avoid foolish and un- 
 ' learned questions, knowing, that they do gender 
 ' strifes ! ' Thus philosophy on the one hand, 
 and unlearned questions on the other, the tradi- 
 tions of men, and fables, which minister questions, 
 are alike to be guarded against, if they with- 
 draw the mind from that godly edifying, which 
 is in faith. 
 
155 
 
 These repeated warnings indicate a deep- 
 rooted propensity to the faults, against which 
 they are directed : and the originating cause of 
 that propensity is the spiritual character of the 
 true religion, which cannot but be distasteful to 
 the corrupt inclinations of natiu^e. 
 
 Hence men under the christian dispensation 
 have resorted even to the blind expedients of 
 heathenism rather than follow the pure guidance 
 of a holier principle. The very idolatry of the 
 heathens has been imported into the christian 
 church, only substituting the virgin and the saints 
 for the heroes and demigods of antiquity. Al- 
 though the one true sacrifice, in which all other 
 sacrifices were merged, because they were only 
 emblematical and prophetic of the true, has been 
 once offered upon the cross, another sacrifice has 
 been instituted, and the ancient, superseded insti- 
 tution revived, called the sacrifice of the mass : and 
 the Platonic doctrine of purgatory, and the Brah- 
 minical system of penance have been introduced 
 into the church, that so there might still be some 
 power on Earth to forgive sins without the ne- 
 cessity of going for it to that throne, which no 
 riches can bribe, nor any hypocrisy elude : nor 
 
156 
 
 have men been unwilling to elevate the christian 
 priesthood into a character, with which the scrip- 
 tures have not invested it, and even to give 
 those, who are entrusted with it, dominion over 
 the faith of their brethren, because it was hoped, 
 that a human intercessor would be more indul- 
 gent to human frailties than one, who is alto- 
 gether divine. Hence arose the belief in papal 
 indulgences, and the persuasion, implied in that 
 belief, that the gift of God may be purchased 
 with money, and hence all that tissue of fraud 
 and delusion, which makes the intention of the 
 priest of more value in the administration of a 
 sacrament than the faith of the communicant, 
 there being always a ready disposition to make 
 religion the business of a profession, and consign 
 it to a particular order of men, rather than to re- 
 gard it, as the personal work of each individual, 
 and thus to transfer to others those duties, 
 which none can discharge, but ourselves, because, 
 as the scriptures instruct us, every man shaU 
 bear his own burden, and every man must give 
 account for himself before God. 
 
 These exaggerated notions of the sanctity, 
 adhering to a particular profession, or to par- 
 
157 
 
 ticular places, and times, and forms, has led other 
 persons by a natural recoil to explode all forms, 
 and even to dissipate the substance of rehgion by 
 diluting it into a mere moral system without an 
 atonement, without a divine saviour, without a 
 sanctifying spirit, although the consciousness of 
 sin, which cannot be extinguished, naturally dis- 
 poses them to look for a mediator, and cannot 
 be pacified without a well-grounded assurance 
 of pardon. 
 
 In fact in the bosom of a conscious sinner 
 there is an instinctive dread of approaching God. 
 Thus the people of Israel said unto Moses — 
 ' Speak thou with us ! and we will hear. But 
 ' let not God speak with us, lest we die ! For 
 ' this great fire wiU consume us. If we hear 
 ' the voice of the Lord, our God, any more, then 
 ' we shall die.' — : and Gideon, when he per- 
 ceived, that an angel of the Lord had spoken to 
 him, exclaimed — ' Alas, O Lord, God, for be- 
 ' cause I have seen an angel of the Lord face to 
 ' face ! ' The same sentiment drove Peter, when 
 the miracle of the fishes made him sensible, in 
 what presence he was standing, to say unto 
 Jesus — ' Depart from me ! For I am a sinful 
 
158 
 
 ' man, O Lord ' — : and so also the swineherds 
 of Gergesa, aware, that they were maintaining 
 unclean animals for a purpose, forbidden by the 
 law of Moses, when they saw those animals 
 driven into the sea through an exertion of the 
 power of Jesus, besought him, that he would 
 depart out of their coasts. 
 
 It was indeed partly to meet this natural feel- 
 ing, that our lord himself graciously became man, 
 and interposed himself, a human being, a parta- 
 ker of all our wants and weaknesses, a sharer in 
 all the sufferings of our nature, and of all the 
 evils, which attach to it, except only its sin, be- 
 tween us and a holy God, that so we might be- 
 come convinced, that in him we have one, who 
 can be touched with a sense of our infirmities, 
 and intercede with effect for creatures, whose 
 griefs he has borne, and whose sorrows he has 
 carried. But yet this intercessor (it seems), 
 notwithstanding all this graciousness, is still too 
 awful, too holy for unrenewed human nature ; 
 and it therefore seeks for intercessors, who can 
 sympathize not only with its sorrows, but with 
 its sins. When our lord was upon Earth, he 
 had occasion to complain — ' Ye will not come to 
 
159 
 
 ' me that ye might have life.' — : and the same 
 complaint he has still too often occasion to re- 
 peat now, that he is exalted to the right hand of 
 the Father. The entire absence of all sinfulness, 
 of all allowance for unrepented iniquity, and of 
 all compromise with any, the least disposition 
 to retain it, which, whether he be on Earth, or 
 in Heaven, is an essential element in his charac- 
 ter, must needs indispose all, who have not fully 
 made up their minds to abandon it, to regard, 
 as their friend and their counsellor, one, who, 
 though he has indeed died upon the cross, to 
 save us, yet did not come, to save us in our sins, 
 but from them. It is this absolute necessity to 
 renounce all sin, and to take the holy law and 
 pure example of the blessed Jesus for our guide 
 in every part of life, which renders us ready to 
 catch at any other method of salvation than that, 
 which has been so wonderfully provided for us 
 by the Lord, our redeemer : for this is the con- 
 demnation, that light is come into the world, 
 and men loved darkness rather than light, be- 
 cause their deeds were evil. ' Behold,' — says 
 the Lord to all, who prefer their own dark inven- 
 tions to the bright and clear discoveries of his 
 
160 
 
 perfect gospel — ' all ye, that kindle a fire, that 
 ' compass yourselves about with sparks ! Walk 
 ' in the light of your fire, and in the sparks, that 
 ' ye have kindled ! This shall ye have of my 
 ' hand. Ye shall lie down in sorrow.' 
 
 Hence it arose, as I have already intimated, 
 that even in the primitive and apostolical church 
 itself many indications were afforded of this 
 lingering attachment to the rudiments of the 
 world. What saint Paul calls will-worship, is an 
 inclination to worship God after the dictate of 
 our own wills instead of submitting our wills 
 to the appointments of his righteousness. Thus 
 many even then placed a great part of their 
 religion in the observance of particular days, 
 or in abstinence from food at particular sea- 
 sons, and became again subject to obsolete 
 and discarded ordinances; and afterwards in 
 the age, which almost immediately succeeded 
 that of the apostles, while men were very precise 
 in the maintenance of fasts, while they were 
 zealously intent on fixing the right time for the 
 festival of Easter, and attached a peculiar sanctity 
 to a life of celibacy and monastic institutions, 
 they were not equally exact in certain rules of 
 
161 
 
 morality, which appear indeed not to have yet 
 become quite purged from heathen laxity and 
 error. For instance we find frauds and falsehoods, 
 if committed for pious ends,' or holy purposes, to 
 be not only tolerated, but defended by many of 
 the early fathers ; and in their mode of contend- 
 ing for Christianity we too often find credit taken 
 for pretended miracles, and currency given to 
 some of those legends, connected with the relics 
 of martyrs, which have since defaced the cha- 
 racter of the church, while the prayers of those, 
 who had faced the danger of martyrdom, or 
 devoted themselves to the seclusion of a hermi- 
 tage, were thought of more efficacy than personal 
 faith and repentance. The superstitious merit 
 also, which was attached to the act of baptism, 
 led many, who professed and called themselves 
 christians, to defer it till the end of life, that so 
 it might cover more delinquencies, when admi- 
 nistered, and in the mean time allow them to 
 continue in the indulgence of sinful habits, 
 unmortified tempers, or immoral practices, 
 which they were not at present prepared to 
 abandon. 
 
 These were some of the early perversions of 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 christian truth. The same tendency may be 
 found at the root of most of the erroneous tenets, 
 which have obtained currency in every subse-. 
 quent age. 
 
 Men, who renounce the righteousness, revealed 
 in the gospel, invent a righteousness of their 
 own, consisting in religious austerities and meri- 
 torious mortifications, to satisfy the cravings of a 
 heart, conscious of sin, and averse to holiness ; 
 and, when it is found, that there are still persons, 
 who cannot be contented with, such exterior righte- 
 ousness, and whose more entire devotedness to 
 the will of God shames the less spiritual religion, 
 to which the world is willing to conform, the 
 secret dislike of the heart to the work of real 
 godliness has often been stimulated so far as to 
 enact laws, and awaken the flames of persecution 
 against such as worship God in the spirit, and 
 rejoice in Christ Jesus, and, having no confidence 
 in the flesh, are taught to wait through the spirit 
 for the hope of righteousness by faith. 
 
 But what is the prevailing notion of Christi- 
 anity among the great mass of believers even at 
 the present day ? I do not mean among papists, 
 or heretics, or persons, who are misled by sotoe 
 
163 
 
 particular theory. I do not mean among soeini- 
 ans, or others, who deny the fundamental verities 
 of the gospel. But in this favored, this protes- 
 tant country, and among the ordinary memhers 
 of our own church, what is the idea, most com- 
 monly entertained, of the means, by which the 
 soul may be recovered to God, and attain ever- 
 lasting salvation ? 
 
 We see multitudes, who pass through life 
 without thinking it necessary to make the words 
 of Christ the law of their actions. They have 
 been baptized in infancy ; and they attach a cer- 
 tain degree of holiness to that. They fancy 
 without much earnest inquiry, that it places them 
 in a safe state ; and, unless they forfeit the ad- 
 vantage of it by some notorious immorality, they 
 persuade themselves, that they are sure of the 
 mercy of Christ, when they die. They know in- 
 deed, that they have fallen short of many of their 
 acknowledged duties, and perhaps have been be- 
 trayed into some actions, which they cannot pre- 
 tend to justify : and the recollection of this 
 together with a vague notion, that a participation 
 of the Lord's supper demands a degree of purity 
 and devotion, to which they have not attained, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 and do not aspire, hinders them from coming 
 frequently, or constantly, or perhaps from coming 
 at all to that hallowed rite : and yet, while they 
 thus count themselves unworthy of this common 
 privilege of christians, they flatter themselves, 
 that, should they die in that state, they shall not 
 be shut out from the kingdom of Heaven. 
 Nevertheless they are not quite ready to put 
 their souls upon that venture. They look for- 
 ward to a time, when they shall think more of 
 these things than suits with their present inclina- 
 tion or leisure ; or at all events they hope, that 
 God will be so indulgent to them as not to cut 
 them off suddenly, before they have had time to 
 send for a minister, and to receive from his hands 
 the tokens of the dying love of their master. In 
 the mean time it seems little to them to neglect 
 the sabbath occasionally, to live without much 
 secret or earnest prayer, to waste time in idleness 
 and dissipation, to devote all their days to the 
 accumulation of a fortune, or the attainment of 
 some earthly good ; and they do not reflect, or 
 at least they do not remember, that the religion, 
 which they profess, pledges them to a course of 
 conduct, essentially different from that of decorous 
 
165 
 
 heathens, and furnishes them with helps, of 
 which they are required to make diligent use, for 
 the acquisition of that real and vital holiness, 
 without which no man can see the Lord. 
 
 In short they regard Christianity, as a provi- 
 sion for obtaining the pardon of iniquity, rather 
 than as the power of God, enabling them to sur- 
 mount it, as a dispensation from the penalties of 
 transgression, rather than as a system of grace, 
 by which the tendency to transgress may be re- 
 sisted and overcome, as a mitigated law, rather 
 than as a remedy for sin. Many even among 
 those, who have made great attainments in 
 science, in learning, in eloquence, in political 
 skill and sagacity, are contented with the esti- 
 mation, in which they are justly held by their 
 fellow-mortals, and forget to concern themselves 
 anxiously or seriously about the way of peace 
 and salvation. They conform to all the out- 
 ward services of religion, to all the decorous 
 proprieties of life ; they have perhaps been 
 instructed early in the general scheme and 
 subject of the bible, in which they imagine, 
 that they have little more to learn ; they think, 
 that in cultivating the talents they possess 
 
166 
 
 they are discharging the duty, which God has 
 assigned to them ; and it never seems to enter 
 their minds, that their souls are naturally in a 
 state of danger, that they are now spared by 
 the mercy of God, in order that they may seek 
 and use the means for delivering them out of 
 that danger, and in short, that they have sins 
 to subdue, and graces to cultivate, before they 
 can be fit for a state of society, in which all, 
 who are admitted intp it, love God with a per- 
 fect love, hate sin with a perfect hatred, and 
 are restored to that image and likeness of God, 
 which they cannot flatter themselves, that they 
 at present possess. 
 
 If this is the state of things even amidst the 
 clear light of the gospel, so freely and widely 
 difiused, as it is in this country, can we wonder, 
 if stiU grosser perversions of christian truth 
 should be admitted, where, as in the Romish 
 church, the bible is a sealed book to the laity ? 
 It is the accredited doctrine of that church, that 
 man may merit grace, that he may perform acts 
 of virtue above the law of God, that the earthly 
 governors of the church have power to wield the 
 prerogative of Heaven in the pardqjn of trans- 
 
167 
 
 gression, that justification is not a boon, granted 
 to a penitent sinner, but a benefit, to be earned 
 by intrinsic holiness of life, or instead of that by 
 conformity to .the rules of the church, and vari- 
 ous other positions, subversive of the gracious 
 scheme of the gospel. Nor must it be omitted, 
 that some even among ourselves have counte- 
 nanced several of these errors by denying the 
 doctrine of justification by faith, and thus con- 
 founding the act of justification and the work of 
 sanctification together, whereby the free grace of 
 Christ in the absolute forgiveness of sin and re- 
 conciliation of the offender is disparaged and 
 annulled. 
 
 Thus it is, that men are continually striving 
 by one expedient or another tO elude the neces- 
 sity of spiritual sanctification. If once they can 
 be brought to believe, that they are justified by 
 the mercy of God, they too often shew little 
 desire to be sanctified by his spirit. If on the 
 other hand they are taught, that justification 
 cannot be perfectly attained, while any sinfulness 
 remains in the heart, they are led to put a lower 
 construction upon the nature of sanctification 
 than the bible inculcates and requires. In either 
 
168 
 
 case the plain word of God, which warns them, 
 that they must he sanctified, and that wholly, in 
 body, soul, and spirit, if ever they would enter 
 Heaven, is evaded; and fresh and melancholy 
 evidence is continually accumulating in proof of 
 the statement in the text, which alone explains 
 the mystery, that light is come into the world, 
 but men loved darkness rather than light, because 
 their deeds, however specious in their own eyes, 
 however honorable in the estimation of others, 
 in the sight of God and the testimony of en- 
 lightened conscience were evil. 
 
 We have now only remaining to consider care- 
 fully the nature and process of sanctification, as 
 it is revealed in scripture : and may almighty 
 God, who made his blessed son to be circumcised 
 and obedient to the law for man, grant us the 
 true circumcision of the spirit, that, our hearts 
 and all our members being mortified from all 
 worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things 
 obey his blessed wiU through the same his son, 
 Jesus Christ, our lord ! Amen ! 
 
SERMON VIII. 
 
 JUDE 20, 21. 
 
 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves in your 
 most holy faith, praying in the holy Ghost, 
 keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for 
 the mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, unto eternal 
 life ! 
 
 We have now surveyed at some length the 
 original rectitude of human nature, the first de- 
 fection from that rectitude, which constituted 
 the fall, and the extensive mischiefs, which have 
 followed, not only in the punishment, which it 
 entailed, but also in that depravation of all our 
 faculties, dispositions, and habits, which one 
 foul and fatal offence occasioned. We have "also 
 observed, that the extent of that depravation is 
 such, that all men are in some measure sensible 
 of it. They are seen to complain, as with one 
 voice, of the general wickedness of mankind, and 
 to acknowledge the need of some remedy. Ac- 
 cordingly various remedies have been suggested ; 
 
170 
 
 and the course of our investigation has led us to 
 trace some of the expedients, which heathen 
 philosophers have devised for correcting the obli- 
 quity of our nature, and recovering it to a better 
 state. We have further inquired into the notions, 
 which have been commonly entertained, con- 
 cerning the means of that recovery, among Jews 
 and christians, and have thus discovered another 
 proof of our degeneracy in the readiness of men 
 to put up with any expedient for that purpose, 
 rather than resort to the only true one, which 
 requires the entire surrender of the soul to a 
 superior guidance, that it may be brought back 
 into the way of peace and holiness. Light is 
 come into the world, even the light of truth, a 
 light from Heaven. But yet men love darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds are evil. 
 
 It remains only, that we should honestly and 
 fearlessly come to the light, which has been shed 
 upon our path in the book of revelation. We 
 have seen, that in all the varied circumstances of 
 human society, alike in patriarchal, Israelitish, 
 and christian ages, there has been a propensity 
 to rest in the form to the neglect of the sub- 
 
171 
 
 stance of religion. This propensity indeed was 
 in some degree excusable under those dispensa- 
 tions, which taught by emblem, and instructed 
 by outward ceremony, whereas now to recur to 
 them is to retrograde from light to darkness, 
 from truth to shadow. Let us therefore look to 
 the bible itself, that we may there discern, what 
 is the plan, devised by almighty wisdom, for 
 bringing back a sinner to God, and training him 
 gradually up to that perfection, from which he 
 is fallen, and to which he is invited to return ! 
 
 That plan consists of two parts : and it is in 
 disjoining those parts, that all the errors of chris- 
 tians on this vital question essentially originate, 
 and by which they are sustained. 
 
 Those two parts are first reconciliation, secondly 
 sanctification. When these two works are fdlly 
 accomplished, and have produced their true eifect, 
 then, but not before, is attained the great end of 
 aU, which is perfect salvation. 
 
 The reconciliation to God, which is the first 
 and greatest need of a sinner, was once for all 
 efiected by our blessed redeemer upon the cross. 
 It was effected, but not applied. Thus saint 
 Paul tells us, that by the righteousness of one 
 
172 
 
 the free gift came upon all men unto justification 
 of life, that God was in Christ, reconciling the 
 world unto himself, that it was his gracious de- 
 sign through the blood of his cross to reconcile 
 all things unto himself, and that consequently 
 Christ by his own blood has entered in once into 
 the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
 tion for us. His Work is therefore perfect. It 
 has reached its completion, and is never to be re- 
 peated. 
 
 This work however, though perfect in itself, 
 requires to be applied in order to be eifectual for 
 its object. A further operation therefore is still 
 necessary, to render the finished work of Christ in 
 the atonement for sin effectual to the perfection 
 of the sinner : and for this reason saint Paul de- 
 clares, that by one offering he hath perfected for 
 ever, not all mankind, not all, for whom his blood 
 was shed, but them, that are sanctified. 
 
 Thus then we are conducted to our present 
 subject of inquiry, the nature of that sanctifying 
 process, by which the benefit of the universal 
 redemption is applied to individuals for their im- 
 provement, establishment, and final salvation. 
 
173 
 
 I need not here dwell on the wonderful love of 
 God in providing for us an atonement, in which 
 his own coequal son was the victim, and the ran- 
 som of a ruined world from sin and misery his 
 only reward. I am addressing persons, to whom 
 that great subject is familiar, though (I fear) we 
 none of us are so much impressed by it as we 
 ought. But it is necessary to observe, that this, 
 which is the source of our pardon, is also the 
 commencement of our sanctification, as may be 
 inferred indeed from that same sentence of saint 
 Paul, which has been already quoted, that by one 
 offering he hath perfected for ever them, that are 
 sanctified. Faith therefore in this atonement (it 
 is evident) must be the first step in the sancti- 
 fication of a sinner. 
 
 At the same time by faith in the atonement of 
 Jesus Christ is not meant a mere belief, that such 
 a propitiation was really made by his voluntary 
 self-devotion to death for the sins of the world. 
 It means such a sense of that act of surpassing 
 love, and of our own personal interest in it as 
 will induce us to put our whole trust in that 
 saviour, to confide in his government, and to 
 follow his direction. It is plain, that no one can 
 
174 
 
 be truly said to put his trust in Christ, who does 
 less than this : for any one, who has a right per- 
 ception of the value of his great salvation, of his 
 own lost condition without it, and of his perfect 
 blessedness, if he can but avail himself of it, 
 (and this is what any sinner upon Earth may at- 
 tain, who hafe been taught the evil of sin, and 
 has thus been driven to look for deliverance from 
 it in Jesus Christ) cannot but desire to be led 
 by such a saviour, to commit the keeping and 
 direction of his soul into his hands, and to obey 
 him, as the captain of his salvation. A blind 
 man would lean with confidence on the arm of 
 his father, or his friend, and walk with security, 
 while he was assured of his guidance. But, if 
 he were timid, and chose rather to grope his way 
 by some fancied skill or sagacity of his own, no 
 one would say, that he placed confidence in the 
 sight, the Carefulness, or the fidelity of his con- 
 ductor : and so also a faith in Christ, which does 
 not lead us to trust ourselves entirely to his di- 
 rection, is stigmatized in scripture, as a dead 
 faith, (that is in fact no faith at all, any more 
 than a dead body is a man), and cannot profit. 
 It is further evident however, that such a 
 
175 
 
 faith as has been described cannot be unac- 
 companied with repentance : for he, who places 
 confidence in Jesus Christ, and is determined 
 henceforth to be directed by him in all things, 
 has in that very determination repented of sin, 
 begun a new course, adopted a principle of ac- 
 tion, contrary to the corrupt tendencies of na- 
 ture, and in short turned to God from all idols, 
 to serve the living and true God. 
 
 Now to a person in this state of mind the 
 holy scriptures offer a free pardon of all his 
 sins : for what less than this can be under- 
 stood, when saint Paul declares — ' Through this 
 ' man is preached unto you the forgiveness of 
 ' sins, and by him all, that believe, are justi- 
 • fied from all things, from which ye could not 
 ' be justified by the law of Moses ' — ? and 
 again in his epistles to the Colossians and 
 Ephesians, he says without any restriction or 
 reserve — ' We have redemption through his 
 ' blood, even the forgiveness of sins.' Even 
 under the old dispensation the Lord's invita- 
 tion by his prophets was equally gracious and 
 encouraging : for — ' Come now ! and let us 
 ' reason together ! ' — saith the Lord by Isaiah, 
 
176 
 
 ' Though your sins be, as scarlet, they shall 
 ' be, as white as snow. Though they be red, 
 ' like crimson, they shall be, as wool.' — : and 
 indeed to him give not one, or two, but all the 
 prophets witness, that through his name who- 
 soever believeth in him shall receive remission 
 of sins ; and our saviour himself in full ratifi- 
 cation of all foregoing predictions promises not 
 only pardon, but peace to all, who come to 
 him. ' Come unto me,' (said he) ' all ye, that 
 ' labor, and are heavy-laden ! and I will give 
 ' you rest.' 
 
 Surely then we are authorized to say, that 
 every one, who comes to the saviour in that 
 state of mind, which has just been described, 
 is thereupon pardoned, or in the language of 
 scripture justified. His faith is counted for 
 righteousness. It is not righteousness. But it 
 is counted for it ; and through the gracious 
 acceptance of God, by virtue of the merit of 
 Christ's atonement, and in compliance with the 
 prayer of his prevailing intercession he is jus- 
 tified freely. Consequently, being through the 
 clear testimony of scripture persuaded of this 
 fi"ee justification, he is at peace. His consci- 
 
177 
 
 ence is pacified. It bears witness to iiis faults 
 indeed, which he confesses and deplores. But 
 it assures him also, that they are forgiven. 
 They are covered. There is a man, even the 
 son of God himself, who is a hiding-place for 
 him from the wind of God's anger, a covert 
 from the tempest of his displeasure : and under 
 the shadow of his wings he rests secure. Being 
 justified by faith, as saint Paul describes his 
 condition, he has peace with God through our 
 lord, Jesus Christ. 
 
 Thus is the justification of a true disciple 
 of Christ perfect : for it is the act of God, who 
 alone can justify the ungodly, and who graci- 
 ously receives the penitent and believing sinner 
 back into favour for the sake of his beloved 
 son. 
 
 Moreover in the humble and confiding state 
 of mind, in which he applies for justification, 
 and obtains it, his sanctification also is begun : 
 for that state of mind is essentially a holy state, 
 the work of the holy spirit upon his heart : and 
 the faith in Christ's merit and goodness, which 
 is the essence of it, is a holy, nay, as saint 
 Jude calls it in the text, a most holy faith. It is 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 a right disposition towards God, and inclines 
 the heart, which possesses it, to seek a nearer 
 and closer conformity to the holy will of God. 
 
 But may the hlessed man, whose unrighte- 
 ousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered, 
 rest in this stage of his progress ? May he be 
 left alone, as if he had already attained, either 
 were already perfect, and had no further work 
 to perform, nor any higher attainments in grace 
 to acquire ? 
 
 I fear among the multitude of expedients, 
 by which the perverted ingenuity of a fallen 
 mind, aided by the malicious industry of an 
 ever-present tempter, contrives to elude the 
 plain testimony of the word of God, and to 
 neglect without self-reproach the obvious duty 
 of a christian, one is the readiness to substitute 
 a correct apprehension of the doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith for the actual life of a chris- 
 tian, which ought to be engrafted upon it. 
 Thus a truth, which, as it stands in scripture, 
 is the element of hoUness, the commencement 
 of a new life, in which God is served, and self 
 denied, and the varied graces of the christian 
 character are successively developed in their 
 
1^9 
 
 season, and matured by experience and practice, 
 becomes merely the shibboleth of a party, a 
 convenient phrase, by the ready use of which, 
 combined with some conventional observances, 
 and an abstinence from some worldly amuse- 
 ments, the neophyte in doctrine passes for a 
 converted character, and is received without 
 further inquiry, as a faithful and established 
 christian. 
 
 But this is not the system of the gospel. 
 Ye, brethren, have not so learned Christ, if so 
 be, that ye have heard him, and have been 
 taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, that 
 ye put off concerning the former conversation 
 the old man, which is corrupt according to the 
 deceitful lusts, and that ye put on the new man, 
 which after God is created in righteousness and 
 true holiness. 
 
 It is true, that the faith, which has been 
 described, cannot be inactive. It will work. 
 It will work by love ; and it will thus have a 
 sanctifying tendency and character. Moreover 
 it is itself, as has been already intimated, and 
 must not be forgotten, a holy principle, being 
 derived from the holy spirit of God, and must 
 
 N 2. 
 
180 
 
 needs partake of the purity of the source, from 
 which it springs. He, who has it, is, as saint 
 Peter declares of him, born again, not of cor- 
 ruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word 
 of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 
 
 Yet still it is only a seed ; and it is planted 
 in a heart, where it is sure to be surrounded, 
 and liable to be choked by weeds of a different 
 origin and riper growth. It therefore requires 
 protection, nurture, cultivation, watchfulness : 
 and it is with this especial view, that the chris- 
 tian ministry is constituted, that those, who are 
 God's ministers, attending continually upon this 
 very thing, may not only sow, but watch, and 
 guard, and water, and tend that spiritual seed, 
 which is at present but a germ, to be expanded 
 into life and fruitfiilness. Saint Jude in the 
 text represents this work under a different 
 image, that of building up ourselves in our 
 most holy faith ; by which phrase he intimates, 
 that although the ministers of the gospel are 
 appointed, to help us in this work, yet it is to 
 be our own work still. We are to build up 
 ourselves in our most holy faith, or, as saint 
 Paul expresses it, to work out our own salvation 
 
181 
 
 with, fear and trembling. In short, when we 
 are justified by faith in that redeeming mercy, 
 which has forgiven us all trespasses, we in that 
 act of faith apprehend Christ, or, as saint Paul 
 corrects the expression, we are apprehended of 
 Christ Jesus, who however apprehends us for 
 a particular purpose, namely this, that, pressing 
 towards the mark, we may at length attain that 
 perfect holiness, which is the real prize of our 
 high calling of God in Christ Jesus, We are 
 thus put in the right way. It remains, that 
 we be careful to continue in it. We have be- 
 come light in the Lord. It behoves us to walk, 
 as children of light : and this we do in the 
 state of mind, which has been just described, 
 with great advantage ; for we then begin to live 
 unto the Lord with heart and hope, when we 
 know, that our sins are forgiven, though still 
 (it should be remembered) we have only begun 
 the christian life, and have need to carry it 
 forward unto perfection. 
 
 This however is a point of so much import- 
 ance to our present inquiry, that it is necessary 
 to dwell on it a little longer. In fact the per- 
 suasion, that we have redemption through the 
 
182 
 
 blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of our sins, 
 the persuasion, that our own sins are actually 
 forgiven us through the blood of the cross, 
 appears absolutely essential to that work of 
 sanctification, which the gospel prescribes. If 
 indeed it were our only object to abstain from 
 gross vice, to cultivate certain virtues, and to 
 discharge the duties, which we are commonly 
 reputed to owe to society, this might be brought 
 about by a steady effort of reason, or by a stoical 
 hardihood of temperament. But, if our aim be 
 higher, if it be to realize the divine standard of 
 the gospel, to become partakers of the holiness 
 of God, to be holy, as he is holy, pure, as he is 
 pure, merciful, as he is merciful, to be filled with 
 the spirit of Christ, or in the daring language of 
 saint Paul with all the fulness of God, to exchange 
 our fallen, corrupt nature for an union with his 
 divine and perfect nature, or, as saint Peter sums 
 up the whole particulars of our christian calling 
 in one comprehensive description, to become par- 
 takers of the divine nature, having escaped the 
 corruption, that is in the world through lust, if 
 this be the scope of our pursuit and desire, no 
 one can imagine, that this can be accomplished. 
 
183 
 
 while we are still laboring under the apprehen- 
 sion of unpardoned sin. The first element in 
 our renewed life is that pure love to God, which 
 arises from a sense of his love to us in freely 
 pardoning our transgressions, and receiving us 
 back into favour. But how is it possible, that 
 we should carry into effect this or any other 
 evangelical precept, while we remain in doubt, 
 whether our sins are indeed blotted out, or whe- 
 ther the God, whom we profess to love, and de- 
 sire to obey, will yet exact from us the infinite 
 punishment, which they deserve ? How can we 
 in such a state of mind rejoice in the Lord 
 alway ? How can we sing merrily unto God, our 
 strength, as the psalmist injoins us, or experience 
 that transcendant joy in the holy Ghost, which 
 the apostles describe ? But, when our faith lays 
 hold on the justifying righteousness of Christ, 
 then it immediately becomes our first object to 
 please him. The desire of our soul, as the pro- 
 phet Isaiah declares, is to his name, and to the 
 remembrance of him. When once this belief of 
 the divine word, this reliance on the divine pro- 
 mise is fiilly established in the soul, it is no 
 longer subject to the spirit of bondage. It is 
 
184 
 
 under the spirit of adoption, and in the free and 
 spontaneous impulse of filial affection aspires to 
 give itself up to the service of God, not doubt- 
 ing his gracious acceptance, but leaning ever on 
 the promise of his heavenly grace. His pro- 
 mises are then the pole-star of our enterprise. 
 The hope, which rests upon them, is the anchor 
 of our souls, a sure and stedfast hope, which 
 entereth into that within the veil : for, as saint 
 Paul says, having these promises, we cleanse our- 
 selves, or, as saint Peter, by these exceedingly 
 great and precious promises we become partakers 
 of the divine nature, until through his grace we 
 are led on by sure and steady advances to perfect 
 holiness in the fear of God, even unto the mea- 
 sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 What then is that process of sanctification, 
 the only remaining process, which we need, but 
 still an indispensable process, by which we are to 
 be built up in our most holy faith, and on which 
 a confiding reliance upon the love of God in 
 Christ Jesus enables us, unworthy as we are, to 
 enter with hope and peace and joy ? 
 
 First, it having been determined, that a belief 
 
185 
 
 in pardoning mercy is the necessary commence- 
 ment of that process, we must consider, who are 
 entitled to entertain it : for it cannot be imagined, 
 that all, to whom the knowledge of the way of 
 salvation comes, may thereupon safely believe 
 their own sins to be forgiven. Such belief may 
 be, and often is a delusion : and therefore we are 
 taught, that the faith required must be a living 
 faith, productive of its proper effects, not, that 
 all those effects must follow, before it can be 
 accepted ; but it must be such a faith as will 
 produce them in their season : and accordingly, 
 if we are now really devoting ourselves to the 
 service of God, seeking to do his will, and to 
 know it, that we may do it, if, denying ourselves, 
 and taking up our cross, we are following the 
 saviour, if we are earnestly striving against sin, 
 while we rely on his promised aid for success in 
 the -struggle, if this be the case with us, and 
 our conscience charge us not with any hypocrisy 
 in this our professed subjection unto the gospel 
 of Christ, then, so long as this state of our 
 affections continues, we may assure our hearts 
 before him, and rely on the certainty of his for- 
 giving love. 
 
186 
 
 There are indeed many obstructions to this 
 work : for that belief in pardoning mercy, which 
 is the first step in the process, even when it is 
 right and sincere, may be easily weakened by 
 heedlessness, by neglect, by temptation, by the 
 conflict of worldly desires, and the omission of 
 prayer unto God, or it may be even obhterated 
 by any indulgence in wilful sin. Our next ques- 
 tion therefore is — How may the good work, so 
 begun, be maintained, continued, and advanced ? 
 What are the helps, afforded to us ? and through 
 what means, and by what instrumentality does 
 he, who has thus begun a good work in us, ordi- 
 narily carry it on, and perform it until the day of 
 Jesus Christ ? 
 
 Towards the Eiccomplishment of that work he 
 indeed does much by his providence, and every 
 thing by his grace : for he purges and prunes the 
 branches of his vine continually, that it may 
 bring forth more fruit. With this view he cor- 
 rects us by his fatherly discipline, and sends us 
 both trials and encouragements, and supplies us 
 with teachers, or warnings, with affliction, or con- 
 solation, as he sees to be best for us. But espe- 
 cially he gives his holy Spirit to them, that ask 
 
187 
 
 him, whereby they are weaned from the love of 
 evil, incited to the pursuit of good, and thus 
 rendered more and more meet by gradual ad- 
 vances for their heavenly inheritance. 
 
 These however are corrective and spiritual 
 medicines, which the Lord keeps in his own 
 hand, and dispenses according to his sovereign 
 wisdom. There are others, which he entrusts to 
 human agency. Particularly the church does 
 much for us in this respect, providing us with 
 instructions, admonitions, and spiritual guides, 
 administering to us the holy sacraments, and 
 helping us in the worship of God. It holds up 
 the book of God before our eyes, and furnishes 
 us with ministers and pastors, whose duty it is to 
 watch for our souls, to feed us with food, conve- 
 nient for us, to admonish us in danger, and com- 
 fort us in trouble from the word of God, and 
 further to exercise our christian love, and form 
 us into a holy body in the Lord. 
 
 But after all, we must still build up ourselves. 
 We must make use of the helps, which the 
 church affords us, and place ourselves under the 
 guiding influence of the holy Ghost, that so we 
 may grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
 
188 
 
 lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, being fruitful in 
 every good work, as saint Paul describes the cha- 
 racter of a growing christian, increasing in the 
 knowledge of God, and strengthened with all 
 might according to his glorious power unto all 
 patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. The 
 manner, in which we must proceed in thus build- 
 ing up ourselves in our most holy faith, and 
 availing ourselves for that purpose of all the 
 means of grace, which are afforded to us, is the 
 subject, which must occupy the remainder of 
 this discourse. 
 
 The great business is to keep our faith and 
 love in perpetual exercise, not to let them droop 
 from inaction, or from the intrusion of other 
 objects of desire, but rather to strengthen them 
 by what saint Paul calls the work of faith, and 
 labour of love, and patience of hope in our lord, 
 Jesus Christ, in the sight of God, our father. 
 
 In short the Hfe of a christian, who has once 
 felt the misery of sin, and the greatness of a sa- 
 viour's love, and has thence been led to surrender 
 himself by the constraining influence of love to 
 the disposal of his redeemer, ought to be mani- 
 festly different from that of those, who, although 
 
189 
 
 partaking of the same ordinances, are actuated 
 by another spirit. ' Ye,' (says saint Paul to his 
 Corinthian converts) ' ye are our epistle, known 
 ' and read of all men.' The divine impress 
 ought to be legible in the life of a christian ; and 
 we should be compelled to take knowledge of 
 him, that he has been with Jesus. 
 
 But the main question is — In what should this 
 difference consist ? Not certainly in any studied 
 difference of speech or manner. This appears 
 from our lord's directions to those, who fast, to 
 wash their hands, and anoint their face, that they 
 appear not unto men to fast, but unto their 
 father, who is in Heaven. 
 
 Neither should it consist in any conventional 
 code of regulations, not to be found in scripture, 
 for the government of such persons as agree in 
 sentiment upon the main doctrines of the gospel. 
 A church indeed may enact such regulations, if 
 they be consistent with scripture, in the exercise 
 of discipline over all its members. But indivi- 
 duals should beware of imposing any arbitrary 
 rules for distinguishing a true christian, such as 
 adherence to a particular sect, or the use of 
 party-names and phrases, or for exalting particular 
 
190 
 
 believers, into a class of stfperior sanctity to the 
 rest, as in the imposition of celibacy, or the bea- 
 tification of monastic austerities, instead of look- 
 ing to the prevailing spirit and temper of his 
 life, lest they should fall into the error of tradi- 
 tional additions to the word of God. In all 
 such cases the attention, which is fixed on some- 
 thing, which is unnecessary, is withdrawn from 
 that, which is essential. 
 
 The true objects of concern for a christian, 
 after he has been awakened to a sense of his 
 condition, and thus turned from darkness to 
 light, that he may be also turned from the power 
 of Satan unto God, are those, which have been 
 already quoted from the epistle to the Ephesians, 
 to put off the old man, and to put on the new. 
 
 It is true, that every justified sinner has already 
 done in a measure both these acts. But yet we 
 perceive, that saint Paul impresses even upon 
 such persons the duty of doing them still. A 
 new nature has indeed been imparted to them, 
 without which they could not attempt it in ear- 
 nest. But the old nature remains : and there is 
 ample need for all their circumspection and watch- 
 fulness, for self-examination and prayer, that the 
 
. 191 
 
 old nature may not regain its ascendancy, and 
 that the new nature may grow. We find the 
 apostle, Paul, himself lamenting, that there was 
 still sin in his memhers, and that such was its 
 potency, that, even when he would do good, evil 
 was present with him, insomuch that while with 
 the mind he served the law of God, he yet felt 
 himself to a certain extent overmastered in the 
 flesh, or through the remainder of a fallen nature, 
 to serve the law of sin. 
 
 Nor can this conflict ever be brought to an end 
 till death. So long as we are in this tabernacle, 
 we have a fight to maintain, as well as a race to 
 run ; and it is incumbent upon us vigilantly to 
 guard against the entrance of sinful inclinations, 
 and for that purpose to pre-occupy our minds as 
 far as possible with heavenly pursuits and aspira- 
 tions. 
 
 Hence, while a christian continues in the world, 
 it becomes him to be ever on his guard, that he 
 may not be of the world. With this view he 
 should continually study and meditate upon the 
 rules of action, which are prescribed in the holy 
 scriptures, and compare his own mode of think- 
 ing and acting, as shewn in his daily practice, 
 
192 
 
 with no other standard, but that. He will thus see 
 much to lament even in actions, which the world 
 deems indifferent, and will especially strive to for- 
 tify himself on that side, on which he finds himself 
 most easily tempted to transgress . He will conse- 
 quently feel it necessary not only to keep a strict 
 watch over all his thoughts, words, and actions, 
 but to say with David — ' Search me, O Lord, 
 ' and know my ways ! Prove me, and examine 
 ' my thoughts, and see, if there be any wicked 
 ' way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting J ' 
 It would be endless to enter into particulars 
 on this subject. But a true christian will per- 
 ceive "the need of guarding every avenue, by 
 which temptation enters. The lust of the flesh, 
 and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life will 
 all have his attention. The falls of eminent 
 saints will convince him, that this vigilance must 
 never be intermitted, that he must never consider 
 himself safe against a surprise. If David, the 
 man after God's own heart, was betrayed into 
 adultery and murder, if Peter, the foremost of 
 the apostles, denied his master, if Moses, the 
 meekest man upon the face of the earth, sinned 
 by presumption, surely it cannot be an easy task 
 
193 
 
 for any man to put off the old man with his 
 deeds. We must even in this part of our work 
 seek the grace of God, the aid of the church, 
 and the counsel of our fellow-christians in addi- 
 tion to studying the word of God, observing the 
 example of saints, and giving carefiil attention to 
 the besetting infirmities of our own character. 
 
 But after all this labour will be fi"uitless, if it 
 be prosecuted alone. In order to put off effec- 
 tually the old man with his deeds, we must strive 
 to put on the new. It is, when the principles of 
 the new nature, which Christ imparts, have taken 
 deep root within us, that the old nature, inherited 
 from Adam, will begin to give way. There is 
 not room within us for two such principles to 
 bear sway. One of them must expel the other ; 
 and, though the struggle be maintained to the 
 end, one or other of them must at all times have 
 the Ascendancy : and it is only by cultivating the 
 fruits of the spirit, that we can ensure the decay 
 of the fruits of natural corruption. This shews 
 us the necessity of having the objects of our faith 
 and hope and love kept constantly in view. The 
 wonderful love of God in the whole ceconomy of 
 salvation, the atonement, intercession, and priestly 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 office of Christ, the communion of the holy 
 Ghost, the nature of heavenly blessedness, the 
 happiness of a state, in which there is no sin, but 
 where love is perfect, God seen, as he is, and all 
 orders of created beings united in his worship 
 and service, these are contemplations, which can- 
 not be constantly pursued without producing in 
 us some of those emotions, which belong to our 
 new nature, or without rendering the inferior and 
 grovelling pursuits of the flesh, or fallen nature, 
 comparatively distasteful. But it is not con- 
 templation alone, which will answer the purpose. 
 There must be an active exercise of christian 
 graces, a real performance of those good works, 
 which God has ordained for us to walk in, parti- 
 cularly of those works, which unite us to the 
 brotherhood of Christ, and tend to promote most 
 directly the glory of God, and the temporal and 
 eternal welfare of our fellow-creatures. Th;f6 we 
 cannot but feel the necessity of aiding those 
 missions to the Jew and the heathen, which are 
 in progress, as well as of promoting, where we 
 can, the relief and mitigation of human suffering 
 abroad and at home, especially, as seen in the 
 slave, the prisoner, the diseased, the mourner, 
 
195 
 
 and him, that has none to help him. In short 
 he, who gives himself up most entirely to the 
 service of God and Christ by devoting his time, 
 thoughts, labour, and property, without neglect- 
 ing any more immediate duties, to the advance- 
 ment of those objects, for which our blessed 
 saviour came into the world, will, if he walk 
 humbly, prayerfully, and watchfully, make most 
 progress in those two great departments of the 
 christian life, the mortification of sin, and im- 
 provement in holiness. 
 
 Those, who follow this practice in their daily 
 life, will best understand the exhortation of saint 
 Jude in the text — ' Ye, beloved, building up 
 ' yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in 
 ' the holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of 
 ' God, looking for the mercy of our lord, Jesus 
 ' Christ, unto- eternal life ! ' For they by the 
 very supposition of their case are cultivating the 
 love of God from day to day, and studying to 
 keep themselves in that love by exercising their 
 faith in it, prajdng for a larger supply of it, and 
 endeavoring to practise such duties as seem 
 most directly to flow from it, while still the im- 
 perfections of their best service, and the power of 
 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 temptation to draw them aside continually from 
 the work, which they deliberately prefer and 
 love, will feelingly convince them, that in their 
 best estate, and after their greatest attainments 
 they must still look only for the mercy of our 
 lord, Jesus Christ, that they may attain unto 
 eternal life. 
 
 But I may be asked — ' What then is the place 
 ' of the christian sacraments in the business of 
 ' sanctification ? ' I have already said, that the 
 aid of the church is necessary and indispensable 
 in the process of our sanctification : and of that 
 aid the administration of the sacraments forms 
 an essiential, and a principal part. They are both 
 of them outward signs as well as effectual instru- 
 ments of an inward grace, wrought in the heart 
 by the spirit of God, which ought to be anxiously 
 cultivated by all those means, which I have been 
 describing. Those, who are really intent on 
 building up themselves in their most holy faith, 
 cannot wilfully neglect any of the means of 
 grace ; and least of all can they neglect the sa- 
 craments of their lord and saviour. They indeed 
 are the persons, who will take the greatest de- 
 
197 
 
 light in frequenting the Lord's table, because 
 they maintain in their spirits the most lively 
 sense of his love, and strive in their daily lives to 
 realize the vows of their baptism. To them 
 therefore by virtue of his institution and promise 
 these sacraments are life-giving ordinances, be- 
 cause in them through the operation of his grace 
 they meet the corresponding dispositions, which 
 are necessary to turn them to profit. As bap- 
 tism is to them a baptism of the holy Ghost, so 
 also is the Lord's supper to them a communion 
 of his most blessed body and blood. To others, 
 who profane them by irreverent abuse, they min- 
 ister wrath by adding to their other crimes the 
 misuse of the sacraments. 
 
 Thus, brethren, sanctification, the subject, 
 which has been brought under investigation in 
 the course of lectures, now drawing to a close, 
 appears to be a work of God, carried on by his 
 Spirit in the heart of a sinner, and producing in 
 him first repentance of sin, faith in the atoning 
 blood of the saviour, and love to God, and then 
 from that stock bringing forth successively 
 through the means of grace, provided for us, the 
 
198 
 
 several fruits of the Spirit, humility, self-abase- 
 ment, thankfulness, benevolence, and still further 
 hope of glory, joy in the holy Ghost, content- 
 edness under affliction, habits of earnest devo- 
 tion, and an active desire to consecrate all his 
 energies to the advancement of the cause of God 
 and Christ in the world. 
 
 Wherever such qualities are exhibited, there 
 can be no doubt, that the work of sanctification 
 is going forward. They are not the qualities of 
 corrupt nature. They are implanted by the holy 
 Spirit of God : and God will recognise his own 
 work, and honor, and reward it. Still it is carried 
 on amidst many interruptions, and very imper- 
 fectly; the sense of which should increase our 
 humility, and stimulate our prayers. But he, 
 who has begun this good work in us, wiU, if we 
 do not forsake him, perform it until the day of 
 Jesus Christ, when the work of grace will be per- 
 fect, and sin with aU its bitter consequences 
 abolished in the victory of the cross. 
 
 In the mean time the christian's motto must 
 be — ' Onward ! ' The Lord in answer to his 
 prayer giveth him more grace ; and, while a sin- 
 gle sin remains unsubdued, his work is unfi- 
 
199 
 
 nished, and he must give all diligence to add to 
 his faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, 
 godliness, hrotherly kindness, and charity. 
 
 From all, that has been now said, it appears, 
 that in the divine process of sanctification a true 
 christian under the guiding hand of the holy 
 Spirit has much to do. That process is indeed 
 most justly called by Scougal the life of God in 
 the soul of man, and by Horsley the mysterious 
 commerce of the believer's soul with the divine 
 Spirit. But though it is the life, and consequently 
 the work of God, yet it is conducted through 
 the operation of his own faculties, and by the 
 instrumentality of his personal actions. In jus- 
 tification he was only a recipient. He must 
 come for it indeed in a humble, penitent, and 
 believing frame. He must consequently be re- 
 newed in the spirit of his mind, and is in that 
 sense a new creature already. But, before these 
 new dispositions have manifested themselves by 
 any outward act, except that of prayer, he is 
 accepted and pardoned. He is thus far then 
 only a recipient of the divine mercy, fiut, having 
 received it, having obtained mercy of the Lord 
 
200 
 
 to be faithful, he henceforth becomes an actor. 
 The faith, by which he was justified, becomes an 
 actuating principle, prompting him to every good 
 word and work ; and he desires to live the rest 
 of his time in the flesh not to the lusts of men, 
 but to the will of God. He has much therefore 
 to do. He has, as has been already said, and 
 cannot be too often repeated, an old nature to 
 put away ; he has a new nature to cultivate and 
 call into exercise : and these two objects will fur- 
 nish him with abundant employment for every 
 day; for he will find upon every remission of 
 his toil the old man with his deeds resuming 
 his power over him, and the divine life propor- 
 tionably falling into decay ; and this discovery 
 will stimulate his prayers for pardon and grace, 
 will shew him the necessity of increased vigi- 
 lance, and engage him in a more vigorous hostility 
 to those evil principles, which, however they may 
 be disguised, have a tendency to drown men in 
 destruction and perdition. But he. will also find 
 it necessary to occupy himself zealously in all 
 those active employments, which call forth the 
 energies o? his renewed nature, in public and pri- 
 vate prayer and praise, in sacramental duties, in 
 
201 
 
 self-examination, in conference with those, who 
 are wiser than himself, in the study of scripture, 
 of good hooks, and instructive examples, and in 
 those works of piety, charity, self-devotion, and 
 self-denial, which are acceptable to God, and 
 beneficial to men. In proportion as he abounds 
 in these works and pursuits, in proportion to 
 the spirit of love, of humility, and of dependence 
 on God, in which he enters into them, and to 
 the purity of the spiritual graces, which he ex- 
 ercises in the course of them, will be his im- 
 provement in the life of godliness, and conse- 
 quently in sanctification. 
 
 We must not however omit in this sketch, 
 however cursory, of the character of a renewed 
 christian, his behaviour under unmerited re- 
 proach or persecution. The apostles very soon 
 after the descent of the holy Spirit on the day 
 of pentecost began to shew that most distin- 
 guishing proof of their changed disposition, 
 which consisted in rejoicing, that they were 
 counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of 
 Jesus : and conformably to this sentiment saint 
 Peter asks — ' What glory is it, if, when ye be 
 ' buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it pati- 
 
202 
 
 ' ently ? But, if, when ye do well, and suffer 
 ' for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable 
 ' with God.' Happily in this country we have 
 long enjoyed an unprecedented exemption from 
 persecution. But yet the conduct of a christian 
 under unjust treatment and calumny is often 
 put to the proof; and the passive virtues of 
 the gospel, the disposition to lead a quiet and 
 peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, and 
 to abstain from murmuring and complaint un- 
 der trial "are at all times called into occasional 
 exercise, and prove, what manner of spirit he 
 is of. 
 
 I do not specify any of the strictly reUgious 
 exercises, in which he will needs be engaged by 
 following this course. In these particulars in- 
 deed he will gladly conform to the rules of his 
 church, and to the admonitions of his spiritual 
 superiors. But yet the earnestness of his pray- 
 ers, of his confessions, and of his thanksgivings 
 will be proportioned not to the rule of his in- 
 structor, but to the depth of his piety : and 
 that, if it be real, will prompt him to many acts, 
 which cannot be prescribed beforehand by any 
 
20^ 
 
 general law. It will dispose him for instance to 
 retire, and to fast, when he finds, that special 
 sins require special mortification, or the entrance 
 on some new and untried sphere of duty calls 
 for a more than ordinary separation from worldly 
 engagements, that he may call upon God for 
 direction ; or, if he feels his own affections 
 grow cold, or perceives, that those of his family 
 need to be stimulated and enlarged, it will in- 
 cUne him to join with others for united worship 
 and mutual instruction. But the great point 
 is to be always every day occupied in doing the 
 work of the Lord, whether that be the labour 
 of his worldly calling, to be performed, as under 
 his eye, and in submission to his appointment^ or, 
 during the intervals of such direct calls of duty, 
 in the exercise of christian affections, and in the 
 active exertions, to which .Christianity invites its 
 disciples : and, lest this course of continual self- 
 scrutiny and faithful service should seem irk- 
 some to us, though in truth it will be found, 
 that the service of the Lord is perfect freedom, 
 and the cultivation of christian graces a source 
 of the purest joy, the Lord has given us the 
 highest of all encouragements to the pursuit of 
 
204 
 
 it by promising to those, who abound most in 
 the works of godliness a more abundant entrance 
 into his heavenly kingdom. Although the works 
 of the purest saints are imperfect, and unworthy 
 to be noticed by the judge of all, he will not 
 suffer one of them, not even a cup of cold water 
 in the name of a disciple, to be without its 
 reward. Although the reward is altogether of 
 grace, not of debt, yet will it be proportioned 
 at the last day to our work of faith, and labour 
 of love, and patience of hope in the Lord. They, 
 who have suffered most for Christ, will be most 
 highly exalted. There will be ten cities, or five 
 cities, according as there have been ten or five 
 talents laid out in his service ; and, while every 
 vestige of evU will be rooted out of every sancti- 
 fied soul, the attainments, which have been made 
 on Earth in the grace and life of the gospel, will 
 measure the degree of blessedness, to be be- 
 stowed in the kingdom above. Thus many, 
 that are first, will be last, and the last first ; and 
 yet there will be no room for jealousy, where 
 all will be rewarded up to the full measure of 
 their capacity, and infinitely beyond their desert. 
 
205 
 
 Here then is an occupation, worthy of im- 
 mortal creatures, not like the pursuits of this 
 world, where many run, and few obtain, an 
 occupation, where all may succeed, and where 
 the successes, already gained, admit of infinite 
 extension. The purest saint on Earth may be 
 purer still, the holiest holier ; the best love 
 may be improved, the liveliest devotion invi- 
 gorated ; and, while we feel, that our distance 
 is still infinite from the mark in view, and yet, 
 that our services^ however defective, are re- 
 garded with favour, we have every motive to 
 increased energy in the work of the Lord, 
 that we may be more occupied in his service, 
 more devoted to his cause, more filled with 
 his love, and that at length our whole spirit 
 and soul and body may be preserved blame- 
 less unto the coming of our lord and saviour, 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 That coming indeed of Jesus Christ will be 
 the great object of a christian's hope. In pro- 
 portion as he gains experience in the warfare 
 against the powers of evil, he will perceive, 
 that his present condition is far indeed beneath 
 
206 
 
 the standard, to which his hopes are directed; 
 and he will therefore look forward with joy 
 and gratitude to that day, when all the mul- 
 titude of the saved will be raised, to meet 
 their returning lord, and enter together into 
 his joy. The expectation of that day will add 
 strength to his patience, and vigour to his 
 hope, and in short wiU tend to make him 
 stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the 
 work of the Lord, forasmuch as he knows, 
 that his labour is not in vain in the Lord. 
 
 Let then those of us, who have already mea- 
 sured the greater portion of their race, labor to 
 bring forth more fruit in their age, that they may 
 be fat and well-liking ! and let the young, who 
 have as yet only commenced their coarse, recol- 
 lect, that they have a work to do, a race to run, 
 a conflict to maintain, that life is not given them 
 for idleness and frivolity, but that as they have 
 been redeemed with precious bloody and called 
 with a holy calling, so it is required even from 
 the young, that the word of God should dwell 
 in them, and that they should overcome the 
 
207 
 
 wicked one ! Let them give their early years to 
 God ! and then they may be sure, that he will 
 not forsake them, when they are old and grey- 
 headed. The work of sanctification is a progres- 
 sive work, and ought to be begun early, and 
 continued without intermission, that it may be 
 perfected in the day of the Lord. Let them not 
 rest contented with low attainments in godliness, 
 but, remembering, that the Lord has invited them 
 to a heavenly kingdom, endeavor to cast off all 
 habits and practices, which are unsuitable to so 
 high a dignity, and to walk worthy of the Lord, 
 who has called them to glory and virtue ! In 
 short as it is mercy, which has called them, and 
 mercy, which has redeemed them, so it is mercy 
 also, which alone can bring them to eternal life 
 through the faith and hope of the gospel. Being 
 justified by the son of God, they must be sanc- 
 tified by his spirit, that so they may attain unto 
 salvation. 
 
 Let me then take leave of you, brethren, in the 
 language of saint Jude in the text ! ' May ye, 
 ' beloved, building up yourselves in your most 
 
208 
 
 ' holy faith, praying in the holy Ghost, keep 
 ' yourselves in the love of God, looking for the 
 ' mercy of our lord, Jesus Christ, unto eternal 
 ' life ! ' 
 
 Now unto him, that is ahle to keep you from 
 falUng, and to present you, faultless, hefore the 
 presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the 
 only wise God, our saviour, he glory and majesty, 
 dominion and power both now and ever ! Amen. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 P. 3. To give names to every living creature implies an inti- 
 mate knowledge of all their properties. 
 
 It is rather a singular coincidence to find a confirmation of 
 this argument in the writings of Cicero. After speaking 
 of the varied powers of the human mind he accords an appro- 
 priate meed of praise to the authors of useful inventions, be- 
 ginning with the person, qui primus, quod summte sapientite 
 Pythagoras visum est, omnibus rebus imposuit nomina. Tusc. 
 qusest. 1. 1. 62. 
 
 P. 10. The wolf dwelt with the lamb. 
 
 This fact is not directly stated in scripture. But the de- 
 claration, that the Lord, God, brought every beast of the 
 field and every fowl of the air unto Adam, to see, what he 
 would call them, seems almost to imply it ; and the extensive 
 prevalence of a tradition to that effect, like that of the denial 
 of animal food to the antediluvians, is worthy of some regard. 
 
 Ante Jovem nuUi subigebant arva coloni. 
 lUe malum virus serpentibus addidit atris, 
 Prsedarique lupos jussit, poutumque moveri. 
 
 Virg. Georg. 1. 125—130. 
 
 It may be added, that metaphorical allusions have commonly 
 
 P 
 
210 
 
 some original foundation to rest upon, and derive much of 
 their beauty from that concealed reference, unconsciously re- 
 cognised, if I may so express myself, by the hearer or reader. 
 Hence I reckon the passage from the eleventh chapter of 
 Isaiah, referred to in the sermon, among the concurrent evi- 
 dences of the fact, which is assumed there. 
 
 It is true, that the structure of the digestive organs in 
 carnivorous and graminivorous animals is essentially different ; 
 and the case supposed seems to infer the necessity of an 
 organic change in the constitution of many animals after the 
 fall. I leave this diiHculty to be settled between the critic 
 and the anatomist. It does not however appear to me greater 
 than belongs to the only other alternative, namely, that either 
 death and mutual destruction existed in the paradisaical state, 
 Or that tigers and lions and other fierce creatures were 
 brought into the garden of Eden, to be named, and then 
 turned out of it, to indulge their savage propensities. I am 
 not certain, that our knowledge of the theory of digestion is 
 so complete as to render it altogether incredible, that carnivo- 
 rous animals should once have fed on roots or herbs without 
 more than a modification of their present organs ; nor on the 
 other hand is it altogether incredible, that, whereas it was a 
 part of the sentence, pronounced upon the earth, when Adam 
 sinned, that it should bring forth thorns and thistles, which it 
 did not before, some analogous change should also have taken 
 place in the nature and constitution of the animals, who cer- 
 tainly partake of many of the unhappy consequences of the 
 fall, and may therefore be presumed to have partaken in some 
 correspondent measure of the benefits of human innocence. 
 
 P. 25. By TM mtvijfS he must mean a person. 
 
211 
 
 This argument, as it is stated in the lecture, being com- 
 plete, it was not thought expedient to encumber it with fur- 
 ther particulars. Yet the frequent use of the phrase, o 
 icov^ipo;, in this epistle strengthens the conclusion. Thus the 
 words, which almost immediately precede the text, are— "O 
 irovijpo? oix aicrerai avTov.' — ; it is twice said to young men — 
 ' 'SeviKr]KaTe rov Ttovvipov' ii. 13, 14. ; and in ch. iii. 12. Cain 
 is declared to have been of that wicked one. The use of the 
 word, KeTrai, may be paralleled in that common phrase in 
 Homer — 
 
 Tavra S/eSi/ iv jovvaat Kfnai, Od. 1. 400; — 
 
 and a similar expression may be found in Polybius, as — 
 KeZo'&ax yap airovf dv r^ a-fetfpc/. icla-in. iii. 15., and to (fvvexov 
 ToJ; 'BvC,avlioK; t^; liiOfMtrii; toJ) woXeftot/ Keipeyov h taHq accrat 
 roll 'Ax<^'ov eXir/o-i. iv. 51. 
 
 P. 39. They perceived a corrupt principle, actuating the 
 conduct of the great mass of mankind, and drawing them aside 
 from those paths, which even in this world lead to happiness and 
 peace. 
 
 There is a remarkable acknowledgment to this effect in the 
 Tusculan questions — ' Sunt enim ingeniis nostris semina innata 
 ' virtutum, quae, si adolescere liceret, ipsa nos ad beatam vitam 
 ' perducerent. Nunc autem, simulatque editi in lucem et sus- 
 ' cepti sumus, in omni continuo pravitate, et in summa opini- 
 ' onum perversitate versamur, ut psene cum lacte nutricis, 
 ' errorem suxisse videamur.' Cic. Tusc. Qusest. iii. 2. 
 
 Pp. 74, 75. His offering was from the fruits of the ground, a 
 mere thank- offering, which implied a forgetfulness of that truth, 
 
 P 2 
 
212 
 
 which seems to have been inculcated from the very time of the 
 fall, and even to be intimated in the provision of the skins of 
 beasts for their clothing, that without shedding of blood is no re- 
 mission. 
 
 In this reasoning the divine origin of sacrifice is assumed. 
 This indeed is §till a disputed point among divines. But I 
 cannot bring myself to doubt a conclusion, of which although 
 there is no direct evidence in scripture, yet the presumptive 
 evidence is to my mind irresistible and decisive. 
 
 The origin of sacrifice must be either human, or divine. If 
 human, these two inferences must follow, first, that, before 
 any instance of death had occurred in the world, before any 
 experience had shewn, in what way it might be inflicted, or 
 what wounds would prove mortal, (for those, who believe, 
 that animals were slain by divine command in Paradise for 
 clothing, will hardly contend against the divine institution of 
 sacrifice) our first parents conceived from the impulse of their 
 own understanding, that it would be an acceptable service to 
 God to inflict death on some of his creatures, and secondly, 
 that without any distinct notion of the doctrine of atonement 
 they invented a mode of worship, which afterwards proved to 
 be the very mode, which almighty wisdom appointed, as the 
 way, by which he chose to be approached by a sinner. Both 
 these suppositions are alike incredible, the first in its own 
 nature, the second, because no other instance can be shewn, 
 in which men have invented a way, in which God might be 
 acceptably served. On the contrary we find him jealous of 
 will-worship, and refusing to be approached by any other 
 method than that, which he has himself prescribed, having 
 even directed both Moses and Solomon, Ex. xxv. 40, 1 Chron. 
 xxviii. 19., to frame all things, relating to his worship, accor- 
 
213 
 
 ding to a pattern, which he had devised. On the contrary, if 
 sacrifice was from the beginning a divine institution, the whole 
 revelation of scripture is in harmony with that Assumption. 
 A prophecy of a future deliverer having been aiforded imme- 
 diately after the fall, the rite of sacrifice was thereupon insti- 
 tuted, to throw light upon that mysterious promise, and to 
 keep it in remembrance. Probably animals were at once slain, 
 as an atonement, and the offending pair directed to clothe 
 themselves vrith their skins. More particular directions con- 
 cerning the order of sacrifice were given in after ages. But 
 the rite itself continued, till the only meritorious sacrifice, of 
 which all others were types and shadows, was offered upon 
 the cross. 
 
 Still to all this reasoning may be opposed the alleged im- 
 probability, that, if sacrifice was originally a divine appoint- 
 ment, the first institution of it should not have been distinctly 
 recorded. 
 
 But this negative argument from the silence of history is 
 very precarious. It may be stated thus. The divine original 
 of sacrifice is not recorded. Therefore its origin was not 
 divine. The divine appointment of the distinction between 
 clean and unclean animals, which was in use before the fiood, 
 is not recorded. Therefore its origin was not divine. So too 
 it has been argued, that the observance of the sabbath before 
 the time of Moses is not recorded. Therefore it was not ob- 
 served ; and even the recorded institution of it ought to be 
 interpreted proleptically. 
 
 But, though none of these particulars is recorded, indica- 
 tions of them arise in the course of history, by which they are 
 implied. Thus sacrifice began immediately after the fall. The 
 distinction of clean and unclean animals was in use before the 
 
214 
 
 flood. The practice of observing seven days, as an interval of 
 time, had grown into a custom at the time of the flood. Gen. 
 viii. 10, 12. From these several particulars, which are re- 
 corded, those, which are not recorded, may be inferred with 
 great probability. Indeed our lord himself has taught us to 
 draw extensive inferences from incidental hints in the Mosaic 
 narrative ; for he enforces the law of marriage by a reference 
 to Gen. ii. 24., from which text the prohibition of polygamy 
 is only to be coUepted by indirect inference : and though we 
 are not, like our lord, infallible interpreters, yet his reasoning 
 at least shews, that in the brevity of the Mosaic narrative 
 more may often be implied than is directly obvious. 
 
 This however is not the entire strength of the case. The 
 apostle lays down the distinct maxim, that without shedding 
 of blood is no remission. Heb. ix. 22. This therefore is the 
 principle, on which the sacrifice of victims in the way of ex- 
 piation is accepted. How then can we reasonably doubt, that 
 what the Lord accepts from sinners, he also directed to be 
 observed by them ? But the sacrifice of victims does not 
 stand alone. It is coupled with the distinction of clean and 
 unclean animals, which was clearly in use before the flood : 
 and by what authority was that distinction made, and for 
 what purpose ? Can it be conceived, that it was made with 
 any other design than that of determining, what animals might 
 ■be offered in sacrifice to God, and what not ? and, this being 
 a purely arbitrary distinction, who was authorized to make it, 
 but God himself ? Accordingly we find the distinction ob- 
 served in directing the number of animals, which by his ap- 
 pointment were to be received into the ark, and that no doubt 
 with purposed respect to the sacrifice, which was ofifered by 
 Noah on coming out of it. Gen. vii. 2. viii. 20, 21. Here 
 
215 
 
 then we come very near, we come within one step of a divine 
 institution of sacrifice : for we find God in appointing the 
 number of animals, to be preserved in the ark, sanctioning a 
 distinction between them, which had respect to that very sa- 
 crifice, which was to be offered afterwards. Here are two 
 arbitrary appointments, sacrifice, and the distinction of animals. 
 The origin of neither is expressly recorded. But the two are 
 closely connected together ; and in regard to one of them we 
 have seen the Lord interposing with a direct and most impor- 
 tant command. Surely then the probability is very strong, 
 that both were originally appointed by him ; and, when we 
 afterwards perceive both appointments incorporated into the 
 Mosaical law, that . probability is strikingly confirmed. For, 
 since it is. admitted, that sacrifice was at one time expressly 
 appointed by God to be a symbolical representation of the 
 great atonement of the cross, and since at that time all 
 its minutest observances, including among others the distinc- 
 tion of animals to be offered, were prescribed by him, is it not 
 infinitely more probable, that the whole should have been 
 originally directed by him for that use, to which it was ulti- 
 mately made subservient, than that it was invented by men 
 first, though ignorant of its use and purport, and adopted by 
 God afterwards ? Indeed the introduction and the abolition 
 of sacrifice are alike destitute of specific record ; and if in the 
 latter case the discontinuance is an inference from its purpose 
 having been fulfilled, it is only a parallel reasoning, though an 
 opposite application of it, to infer its original appointment 
 from the purpose it was destined to serve. 
 
 On the whole, I consider the foilovring paragraph from 
 Shuckford's sacred and profane history of the world connected, 
 as a just representation of the subject. 
 
216 
 
 ' Some christian writers have imagined, tha the original of 
 'sacrifices was human, men being prompted by reason to 
 
 • offer to God by way of gratitude part of those things, for 
 ' the use of which they were indebted to his bounty. I 
 ■ should rather think the contrary opinion true. God ap- 
 ' pointed the skins of beasts for clothing to our first parents ; 
 
 • which could not be obtained without killing them : and this 
 ' seems to intimate, that the creatures were at that time ap- 
 
 • pointed for sacrifice. It looks unlikely, that God should 
 ' order the creatures to be slain merely for clothing, when 
 
 • mankind were already supplied with another sort of covering, 
 ' but very probable, that, if he appointed a creature to be 
 ' ofiered in sacrifice, he might direct the offerer to use the 
 ' skin for clothing : and perhaps from thi^ institution was de- 
 ' rived the appointment in Leviticus, that the priest should 
 ' have the skin of the burnt offering. There are several con- 
 ' siderations, which do (I think) very strongly intimate, both 
 ' that sacrifices of living creatures were in use, before man- 
 ' kind had leave to eat flesh, and also, that the origin of 
 ' sacrifices was at first by divine appointment. The talmu- 
 ' dists agree, that holocausts of the creatures were offered in 
 ' the earliest times, and long before men had leave to eat 
 ' flesh ; and it is very plain, that Noah offered the creatures, 
 ' before God had granted leave to eat them ; for that grant is 
 ' represented to be made after Noah's sacrifice, and not be- 
 ' fore it ; and it is evident, that the distinction of clean and 
 ' unclean beasts was before the flood : and it cannot be con- 
 ' ceived, how there could be such a distinction, if the crea- 
 ' tures were neither eaten, nor used for sacrifice. Abel's 
 ' sacrifice seems rather to have heen a burnt offering of the 
 ' firstliqgs of his flock than an oblation of wool and cream. 
 
217 
 
 ' The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews took it to be so. 
 ' He supposed Abel's offering to be Siva- la, a sacrifice of a crea- 
 ' ture killed, and not an oblation, which would have been 
 ' called irpoo-po/iai, or hSpov : and as to the first origin of sacri- 
 
 • fices, it is extremely hard to conceive them to be a human 
 
 • institution, because we cannot this way give any tolerable 
 
 • account of the reasons of them. If mankind had in the 
 ' first ages no immediate revelation, but came to their know- 
 ' ledge of God by the exercise of their reason, it must be 
 
 • allowed, that such notions as they had of God, such would 
 ' be their way and method of serving him. But then how is 
 ' it possible, that they should go into such notions of God as 
 ' to make it seem proper for them to offer sacrifices in order 
 ' to make atonement for their sins ? Reason, if it led to any, 
 ' would lead men to a reasonable service. But the worship of 
 ' God in the way of sacrifice cannot (I think) appear to be of 
 ' this sort, if we take away the reason, that may be given for 
 ' it from revelation.' Shuckford. Vol. i. Book 2. pp. 80 — 82. 
 
 I subjoin a single sentence from the second of Mr. Garbett's 
 Bampton lectures, which embodies in few words the whole 
 principle of the foregoing argument. 
 
 ' The discovery of the atonement bafiles reason : and there- 
 
 • fore the type of it would be beyond its invention.' Garbett's 
 Bampton Lectures, V. I. L. 2. P. 121. 
 
 P. 76. The sons of Seih invoked hy the name, Jehovah. 
 
 This is the literal translation of the words in Gen. iv. 26., 
 rendered in our bibles. — • Then began men to call on the 
 ■ name of the Lord.' So Gen. xii. 8. 
 
 P. 78. The first created heings, which were worshipped upon 
 
218 
 
 Earth, were those great lights, which God hath set in the firma- 
 ment of the heaven. 
 
 Mr. Bryant's System of Mythology is throughout an elabo- 
 rate demonstration of one position, namely this, that ■ all the 
 ' Grecian names of deities, however appropriated, were origi- 
 ' nally titles of one God, and related to the sun.' P. 46. 
 
 Sir William Jones delivers the following judgment upon the 
 question. ' Although I cannot believe with Newton,' (says 
 he) ' that ancient mythology was nothing, but historical truth 
 ' in a poetical dress, nor with Bacon, that it consisted solely 
 ' of moral and metaphysical allegories, nor with Bryant, that 
 ' all the heathen divinities are only different attributes and 
 ' representations of the sun, or of deceased progenitors, but 
 ' conceive, that the whole system of religious fables rose, like 
 ' the Nile, from several distinct sources, yet I cannot but 
 ' agree, that one great spring and fountain of all idolatry in 
 ' the four quarters of the globe was the veneration, paid by 
 ' men to the vast body of fire, which looks from his sole 
 ' dominion, like the god of this world.' 
 
 Discourses before the Asiatic society. P. 33. 
 
 P. 84. To Srfiov wav iov f^avefiiv Ti_ Ka) rafa^wSef. Herod. 
 Clio. 32. 
 
 Two other passages in the same author illustrate this senti- 
 ment. One is in a letter from Amasis to Polycrates on his 
 
 long-continued prosperity. ' 'EjWoJ Se ai a-a) jA,(ydKai eirvxlai 
 oiKjcpe(rKOV!ji, to S'eiov ewi(7Taj«€»u, a? eoTi f^ovtfov.' Thai. 40. 
 
 The other occurs in a conversation between Artabanus and 
 Xerxes, in which the former after drawing an unfavorable 
 picture of the calamities, which are incident to human life 
 even in its happiest state, concludes thus, ' '0 tl ®£o«, y^vKvv 
 
219 
 
 ' yiiircn; tok aluvd, f^ovepht iy aCrj) eipta-Knae iuv.' Pol. 46. 
 
 For this misrepresentation of the character of the divine being 
 Herodotus is reproved by Plutarch in a treatise wc/k t?? 'H/joSotou 
 KaKtijSlelai. ' 'A yap airoq ifpivei itfp) rSv Stsbv,' (says he) ' r^ 
 ' SoXDivt irpoirpipifA.evoi, KaKOVjSSftav rrg pXatrfiJiAdii, icpoa'tiSfijin, 
 
 P. 84, 85. The very notion of sanctification, or of acquiring 
 a higher degree of moral goodness ceased to be an element in 
 heathen religion. 
 
 Although the words, sanctitas and sanctus, are of frequent 
 occurrence in X<atin writers, they do not appear to convey the 
 idea of purity of conduct. They are applied to acts of piety, 
 or religious worship, but have no connexion with justice, 
 benevolence, or moi^al duty. ' Est enim pietas justitia adver- 
 ' sum deos. Sanctitas autem est scientia colehdorum deorum.' 
 Cic. de Nat. D. 1. 116. ' Et in nostro populo, et in cseteris 
 ' deorum cultus religionumque sanctitates existunt.' Ibid. ii. 5. 
 
 There is also a secondary sense, in which the words are used, 
 as implying inviolability, that being an attribute of all religious 
 worship. It is in this sense, that Cicero says — ' Sepulchra 
 ' fiunt sanctiora vetustate.' (Die. Phil. 9. 14. — and again — 
 ' Quid est sanctius, quid omni religione munitius quam domus 
 ' uniuscujusque civium ? Hoc perfugium est ita sanctum om- 
 ' nibus, ut inde abripi neminem fas sit.' Cicero. pro domo 
 sua. 109. The poets also often use it in this sense, as 
 Sanctarum inscitialegum. Hor. Sat. ii. 1. 81. 
 Sanctos ausus recludere fontes. Virg. G. ii. 175. 
 Sanctum senatum. Virg. ^n. 1. 426. 
 although they sometimes invest it with a moral grandeur, 
 which does not attach to it in popular, or even philosophical 
 acceptation. 
 
220 
 
 ' Sancta ad vos anima, atque istius inscia culpse, 
 
 ' Descendam.' Virg. ^n. 12, 647, 648. 
 
 ' Nee sanctum numen fati protollere fines 
 
 'Posse.' Luc. 5, 310, 311. 
 But in fact the ceremonies of religion were the actual religion 
 of the heathens. Their morality was altogether distinct 
 from it. And this application of words in common use is a 
 strong illustration of the tone of sentiment, which prevailed 
 among the best thinkers and writers in Greece and Rome. 
 
 It was the attempt of Socrates to connect morality with 
 religion, which probably proved fatal to him. Yet even in 
 his apology by Xenophon I find traces of the same use of 
 language : for in a passage, where he places tf^/iio-T^?, as the 
 
 opposite term to a-atpfav, moKv^anavoi to £uS»a»To;, otvifAV^ to 
 //.erpioicoTvii;, and jUaXaxo; to fiXovovo^, he represents aviimii, 
 
 unholy, to be the opposite to eto-ejSij?, pious, thus making un- 
 holiness to be synonymous to impiety, or neglect of the wor- 
 ship, due to the gods, which was the subject in hand. 
 
 P. 85. In the Romish church the adoration, which, under 
 whatever modification, is paid to the virgin, and to the saints, 
 springs from the same origin. 
 
 I need only refer to Middleton's well-known letter from 
 Rome, for proof of tlie actual derivation of christian from 
 pagan idolatry. The following passages I extract, as marking 
 the identity of idolatry, under whatever form it may appear. 
 
 ' The adoration of images was reckoned always the princi- 
 ' pal of those gentile rites, that agreeably to the sense of the 
 ' purest ages of Christianity are never mentioned in the im- 
 
 • perial laws without the epithets of profane, damnable, 
 
 * impious, etc. What opinion then can we have of the pre- 
 
221 
 
 ' sent practice of the church of Eome, but that by a change 
 ' only of name they have found means to retain the thing, 
 ' and by substituting their saints in the place of the old demi- 
 
 • gods have but set up idols of their own instead of those of 
 
 • their forefathers ? in which it is hard to say, whether their 
 ' assurance or their address is more to be admired, who have 
 ' the face to make that the principal part of christian wor- 
 
 ■ ship, which the first christians looked upon, as the most 
 
 • criminal part even of paganism, and have found means to 
 
 • extract gain and great revenues out of a practice, which 
 ' in primitive times would have cost a man both life and 
 ' estate. 
 
 ' But our notion of the idolatry of modem Rome will 
 ' be much heightened still, and confirmed, as oft as we follow 
 
 • them into those temples, and to those very altars, which 
 ' were built originally by their heathen ancestors, the old 
 ' Romans, to the honour of their pagan deities, where we 
 ' shall hardly see any other alteration than the shrine of 
 ' some old hero, filled by the meaner statue of some modern 
 
 • saint. Nay. They have not always, as I am well informed, 
 ' given themselves the trouble of making even this change, 
 ' but have been content sometimes to take up with the old 
 ' image, just as they found it, after baptizing it only, as 
 ' it were, or consecrating it anew by the imposition of a 
 ' christian name. 
 
 ' The noblest heathen temple, now remaining in the 
 
 ■ world, is the pantheon, or rotunda, which, as the inscrip- 
 ' tion over the portico informs us, having been impiously 
 ' dedicated of old by Agrippa to Jove and all the gods, was 
 ' piously reconsecrated by pope Boniface the fourth to the 
 ' blessed virgin and all the saints. With this single altera- 
 
222 
 
 ' tion it serves as exactly for all the purposes of the popish 
 ' as it did for the pagan worship, for which it was built : 
 
 for as in the old temple every one might find the god 
 ' of his country, and address himself to that deity, whose 
 ' religion he was most devoted to, so it is the same thing 
 ' now. Every one chooses the patron, whom he likes best ; 
 ' and one may see here different services, going on at the 
 ' same time at different altars with distinct congregations 
 ' around them, just as the inclinations of the people lead 
 ' them to the worship of this or that particular saint : and 
 ' what better title can the new demigods shew to the ado- 
 ' ration, now paid to them, than the old ones, whose shrines 
 
 they have usurped ? or how comes it to be less criminal 
 ' to worship images, erected by the pope, than those, which 
 ' Agrippa, or that, which Nebuchadnezzar set up ? ' Mid- 
 dleton's Letter, pp. 158— 162. 
 
 But no other evidence needs to be adduced of the virtual 
 identity of Romish with pagan idolatry, than the following 
 argument in a decree of the council of Trent itself, which, 
 mutatis mutandis, might equally serve for the defence of 
 either, ' imagines porro Christi, Deiparse virginis, et alio- 
 ' rum sanctorum in templis praesertim habendas et retinen- 
 
 • das, eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertien- 
 ' dam, non quod credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas vel 
 ' virtus, propter quam sint colendae, vel quod ab eis sit ali- 
 ' quid petendum, vel quod fiducia in imaginibus sit Agenda, 
 ' velujti olim fiebat a gentibus, quae in idolis spem suam 
 ' coUocabant, sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur, refertur 
 ' ad prototypa, quae illae reprsesentant, ita ut per imagines, 
 ' quas osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus, et pro- 
 
 • cumbimus, Christum adoremus, et sanctos, quorum illse 
 
223 
 
 ' similitudinem gerunt, veneremur.' Concilii Tridentini 
 canones. Sessio xxv. Decretum de invocatione. 
 
 In this decree a distinction is attempted between heathen 
 idolatry, and that, which has been set up in the christian 
 church, as if the gentiles worshipped the idols themselves, 
 but christians the persons, who are represented by them. 
 Yet it is not difficult to produce from heathen writers 
 the same idea of idolatry, which . is here appropriated by 
 the Roman church. Thus Cicero represents it, as the pro- 
 bable purpose, for which images of the gods were formed, 
 ' ut essent simulachra, quae venerantes, deos ipsos se adire 
 ' crederent.' Cic. de Nat. D. i. 77. 
 
 P. 86. In the course of time the' -disposition to exalt the 
 object of our worship produced the fiction of the blessed virgin, 
 Mary, the destined mother of our lord, having been exempted from 
 the taint of original sin. 
 
 Burnet, speaking of the early church, says — ' Among 
 ' all the saints, that are so much magnified in that age, we 
 ' never find the blessed virgin so much as once mentioned. 
 * They knew not, where her body was laid. They had no 
 ' tomb for her, no, nor any of her relics, or utensils. But 
 ' upon the occasion of Nestorius's denying her to be the 
 ' mother of God, and by carrying the opposition to that too 
 ' far, it made a progress, sufficient to balance the slowness of 
 ' its beginning. The whole world was then filled with very 
 ' extravagant devotions for her.' Burnet's Exposition. Art. xxii. 
 
 At length in the twelfth century Mosheim observes, ' that 
 ' the enthusiastic veneration for the virgin, Mary, which had 
 ' been hitherto carried to such an excessive height, increased 
 ' now instead of diminishing, since her dignity was at this 
 
224 
 
 ' time considerably augmented by the new fiction, or inven- 
 ' tion, relating to her immaculate conception.' Mosheim. 
 Cent. xii. Part 2. Chap. 4. 
 
 Mr. Newman in his Essay on the development of christian 
 doctrine thus traces the progress of this extravagance. 
 
 ' There was in the first ages ' (he admits) ' no public and 
 ' ecclesiastical recognition of the place, which saint Mary holds 
 ' in the oeconomy of grace. This was reserved for the fifth 
 
 • century. In order to secure a right faith in the manhood 
 ' of the eternal son, the council of Ephesus determined the 
 ' blessed virgin to be the mother of God. 
 
 ' Thus there was a wonder in Heaven. A throne was seen 
 ' far above all created powers, mediatorial, intercessory, a 
 ' title archetypal, a crown, bright, as the morning star, a 
 ' glory, issuing from the eternal throne, robes', pure, as the 
 ' heavens, and a sceptre over all : and who was the predestined 
 ' heir of that majesty ? Who was that Wisdom, and what 
 ' was her name, the mother of fair love and fear and holy 
 ' hope, exalted, like a palm-tree in Engaddi and a rose-plant in 
 ' Jericho, created from the beginning before the world in 
 ' God's counsels, and in Jerusalem was her power .'' The 
 ' vision is found in the apocalypse, a woman, clothed vrith the 
 ' sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a 
 
 • crown of twelve stars. The votaries of Mary do not exceed 
 ' the true faith. P. 406, 7. 
 
 ' The supreme and true worship, paid to the almighty, is 
 
 • severe, profound, awful. Christ is addressed as true God, 
 
 • while he is true man, as our creator and judge, while he is 
 ' most loving, tender, and gracious. On the other hand to- 
 
 • wards saint Mary the language employed is aiFectionate 
 ' and ardent, as towards a mere child of Adam, though sub- 
 ■ dued, as coming from her sinful kindred.' P. 436. 
 
225 
 
 P. 86. Wltether we observe the abominations of buddhism, or 
 hindooism, or advert to the innumerable deities of China, or the 
 impurities of Juggernaut, we see every where a forgetfulness of 
 the awful character of a holy God. 
 
 I. The buddhists do not believe in a first cause. -They 
 suppose however, that there is alvrays some superior deity, 
 who has attained to this elevation by religious merit. But 
 they do not regard him, as the governor of the world. Those, 
 who perform works of merit, are admitted to the heavens of 
 the different gods, or are made kings or great men on Earth ; 
 and those, who are wicked, are born in the forms of different 
 animals, or consigned to different hells. The happiness of 
 these heavens is described, as entirely sensual. Among works 
 of the highest merit one is the feeding of a hungry, infirm 
 tiger with a person's own flesh. Ward's View of the history, 
 literature, and mythology of the Hindoos. Vol. iii. pp. 
 424—427. 
 
 II. Every Hindoo receives an initiating incantation from 
 some brahmin, who then becomes his spiritual guide, gooroo. 
 Ibid. p. 258. The disciple must promote the welfare of his 
 gooroo by all his actions. If he injure him, in another birth 
 he will become a worm, feeding on ordure. A disciple must 
 honor his gooroo's son and grandson, as he honors the gooroo. 
 Whether the spiritual guide be learned, or ignorant, a vile, or 
 a holy person, a disciple has no other resource, no other way 
 to happiness, but his gooroo. P. 263. To become a religious 
 guide, it is only necessary to be a brahmin, and to be ac- 
 quainted vdth the incantations. P. 265. The Hindoos believe, 
 that the repetition of the name of God is an act of adoration. 
 Hence repeating the names of the idols is a popular ceremony 
 
 Q 
 
226 
 
 among the Hindoos. P. 282. It is said, that a person obtains 
 whatever he seeks by persevering in this act of adoration. If 
 he be desirous of a wife, or of children, or of money, (say a 
 lac of rupees !), or seek recovery from sickness, or relief from 
 misfortune, he begins to repeat the name of his god, and be- 
 lieves, that the god soon becomes subject to his wishes. P. 
 283. Some brahmins acknowledge,that not a single Hindoo 
 seeks in his religion any thing of a moral nature. A Hindoo, 
 when he supplicates his god, prays for riches, or for recovery 
 from sickness, or for a son, or for revenge upon his enemy. 
 P. 284.. If the god do not grant the requests, and regard 
 the vows, made at these times, the worshipper sometimes 
 vents his rage in angry expressions ; or, if the image be in 
 his own house, he dashes it to pieces. Pp. 287, 288. The 
 Hindoo objects of worship were themselves monsters of vice. 
 Vol. i. i. ci. 
 
 III. There are more than a hundred temples in Canton, 
 consecrated to the various systems of religions falsehood, 
 which maintain an ascendancy over the popular mind. There 
 exist also numerous public altars to the deities, who are sup- 
 posed to preside over the locality, or to exercise a dominion 
 over the different elements, together with countless altars, 
 raised to the household gods. The whole number of priests 
 is estimated at two thousand, who live a monastic life of celi- 
 bacy as long as they remain inmates of the temple. They 
 lead an idle, sauntering life, and may be seen, standing about 
 the entrance of the temple-precincts, distinguished more by 
 their bare, shaven crowns than by their manners or demeanour 
 from the surrounding crowds of idlers. About a thousand 
 nuns are also supported in the various institutions. 
 
 Though Confucianism is the only religious system, professed 
 
227 
 
 by the state, the sage, and the scholar, yet every system of 
 superstition exerts its divided influence over the ignorant 
 masses ; and by an unhappy inconsistency idolatry, though 
 decried by the learned, is followed and practised by all. 
 Smith's Narrative of an exploratory visit to each of the con- 
 sular cities of China. Pp. 35, 36. 
 
 IV. The characteristics of Moloch's worship are obscenity 
 and blood. Buchanan's Christian Researches at Juggernaut, 
 P. 28. 
 
 P. 86, 87. To satisfy, or rather to silence the clamours qf 
 an uneasy conscience by expensive offerings, or laborious pilgri- 
 mages, or painful penances, or suicidal practices, or even, as the 
 prophet, Micah, expresses it, by giving the fruit of the body for 
 the sin of the soul. 
 
 I. In the year, 1804, Huree Turku Bhooshunu, a brahmin 
 of Calcutta, aged about sixty, was carried to the river-side at 
 the point of death j and, while there, one of his disciples, 
 Ubhuyu Churunu Mitru, went, to see him. The dis- 
 ciple asked his dying gooroo, if there was any thing, that he 
 wished from him. The gooroo asked him for a hundred 
 thousand rupees. The disciple hesitated, and said he could 
 not give so much. The gooroo then asked him, what he 
 was worth. He said*lie might be worth about a hundred 
 thousand. But it was not all in rupees. The gooroo asked 
 him to give his children half this sum. This the disciple 
 surrender^, and then asked him, what else he could do for 
 him. He pretended not to want any thing else. But his 
 youngest son, then present, was in want of a pair of gold rings 
 for his wrists, and which he had been unable to give him. 
 The disciple had a son, standing near, who had on a pair. 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 These rings, worth about five hundred rupees, were imme- 
 diately taken ofF, and put on the wrists of the old gooroo's 
 son. The disciple again asked, what else he could do for 
 him. The gooroo requested him to give his eldest son a 
 piece of ground in Calcutta. He gave it. This land was 
 worth twenty thousand rupees. The disciple again asked, if 
 there was any thing further he could do, to please him. The 
 old fellow made apologies, but at length requested him to 
 make a present of five thousand rupees towards the expences 
 of his shraddhu, rites for the repose of the soul. This was 
 added. The next morning the gooroo died. Ward iii. 264, 265. 
 
 II. "We have been joined by several large bodies of pilgrims, 
 perhaps two thousand in number, who have come from various 
 parts of northern India. Some of them, with whom I have 
 conversed, say, that they have been two months on their 
 march, travelling slowly in the hottest season of the year 
 with their wives and children. Some old persons are among 
 them, who wish to die at Juggernaut. Numbers of pilgrims 
 die on the road. Buchanan's Christian Researches, p. 19. 
 
 III. In January, 1812, the author vpitnessed the performance 
 of some uncommonly severe acts of religious austerity in the 
 suburbs of Calcutta. A number of Hindoo mendicants had 
 erected huts near one of the descents into the Ganges ; and 
 several devotees on tliis spot daily surrounded themselves 
 with fires of cow-dung, and for three or four hours each day 
 rested on their shoulders with their legs upward, repeating 
 the names of the gods in silence, and counting their bead-rolls. 
 Crowds of people were coming and going, astonished spectators 
 of these infatuated men, who continued their religious austeri- 
 ties in the night by standing up to the neck in the Ganges 
 for two or three hours, counting their beads. Ward iii. 267. 
 
229 
 
 IV. Voluntary suicide is not only practised to a dreadful 
 extent among the Hindoos ; but the shasters positively recom- 
 mend the crime, and promise Heaven to the self-murderer, 
 provided he die in the Ganges. In some places of the 
 Ganges, deemed peculiarly sacred and efficacious, infatuated 
 devotees very frequently drown themselves. Ward i. cxx. cxxi. 
 
 The victims, who devote themselves to death in these forms, 
 have an entire confidence, that they shall by this meritorious 
 act of self-murder obtain a healthful body in the next birth. 
 Ward iii. 337. 
 
 V. When a woman has been long married, and has no chil- 
 dren, it is common for the man, or his wife, or both of them to 
 make a vow to the goddess, Gunga, that, if she will bestow the 
 blessing of children upon them, they will devote the first-born 
 to her. If after this vow they have children, the eldest is 
 nourished till a proper age, which may be three, four, or more 
 years according to circumstances, when on a particular day, 
 appointed for bathing in any holy part of the river, they take 
 the child with them, and ofier it to this goddess. The child 
 is encouraged to go farther and farther into the water, till it 
 is carried away by the stream, or is pushed ofi^ by its inhuman 
 parents. Ward iii. 338. 
 
 P. 87. It is the secret of the British empire in India. 
 
 In illustration of this statement I quote a passage from 
 Capt. Basil Hall's Fragments of Voyages and Travels. 
 
 I remember once hearing a learned native of Hindostan 
 remark, that, if any two of his countrymen, not to say two 
 states, could be found, who at all times and under all circum- 
 stances might entirely depend upon each other, the British 
 power in India wodd soon be at an end. On being pressed 
 
230 
 
 to expand his enigma a little further he said — ' The essential 
 
 • difference between you, English, and us, natives, consists 
 
 • chiefly in this particular, that, while all of you have implicit 
 ' confidence in one another, and can reckon upon every one 
 ' of your respective movements being regulated by the strictest 
 ' maxims of good faith, we, alas ! possess no such bond of 
 ' union, as a rule of our lives. You act over the whole of 
 ' this vast empire, as it appears to me, permanently from a 
 ' sense of duty, not merely, because it seems to be your in- 
 ' terest at the moment, but on principle, and simply, because 
 ' it is right. We too ' (said he) ' certainly act in the main 
 ' honestly. But we do so, because we have learned, that such 
 ' a course is for our advantage. We have our proverb as well 
 ' as you about honesty and policy, which (we say) are twins, 
 ' that are born, live, and die together. But unfortunately for 
 ' us, Asiatic^, whenever the temptation to err happens to be 
 ' pretty strong, the unsubstantial nature of our motives he- 
 ' comes apparent ; and straightway the whole of our moral 
 ' structure falls to pieces from the want of the cementing 
 ' principle of good faith, by which your conduct is regulated. 
 
 • The enormous superiority of physical force on the side of 
 ' the natives sinks absolutely into nothing, when opposed to 
 ' this moral strength, which you bring into the field, and may 
 ' continue to exert as long as you please. It unites all of 
 ' you in body and soul indissolubly, while it imparts to the 
 ' whole of your numbers collectively the same decision of 
 ' purpose and uniformity of action, which belong amongst us 
 ' only to rare individuals. The spirit of truth and the re- 
 ' finements of the point of honour, which you cherish on their 
 ' own account, seem to pervade all your classes alike : and thus 
 ' your leaders are enabled to communicate the impulses of 
 
23i 
 
 ' their master-minds to the youngest as well as to the oldest 
 ' and most experienced man amongst you, and with equal 
 ' facility and confidence at a distance as when^ close at hand. 
 ' With us it is totally different. Our military leaders do in- 
 ' deed often exercise a wonderful sway over the minds of 
 ' those soldiers, who are immediately under their eye ; and 
 ' they can put large bodies in motion with considerable effect. 
 ' But none of these men are to be trusted at a distance : for, 
 ' as I said before, we are altogether without that confident 
 • power, by which the English not only convey their wishes 
 ' to one another, but at the same time secure the most hearty 
 ' cooperation through good report and evil report, in disaster 
 ' as well as in success, in danger, in difficulty, in temptation. 
 ' The only question with you appears to be — " What is our 
 ' duty ? " — ; and, that once ascertained, the point is pursued at 
 ' all hazards, be the personal consequences what they may. If 
 ' an Englishman at Delhi engages to meet another from cape 
 ' Comorin on such a day on the banks of the Kistna, the 
 ' promise is sure to be kept, whatever intervening circum- 
 ' stances arise, to render it the apparent interest of either or 
 ' both to depart from the engagement.' Basil Hall's Frag- 
 ments of Voyages and Travels. Vol. i. pp. 21 — 24. 
 
 To the above testimony of a native concerning India may 
 be added the following observation, relative to the temporary 
 occupation of Chusan by the British forces after the late war 
 with China. 
 
 The spectacle of a government, superior to bribes and extor- 
 tions, has been exhibited to their view. That moral power, 
 which British truth and integrity have acquired in India, more 
 than all our force of arms could alone effect, has here been es- 
 tablished in the native mind. Smith's Narrative, p. 276. 
 
232 
 
 Pp. 87, 88. It is also the source of that moral superiority, 
 ' which has at different times been observed in the protestani 
 ' states on the continent of Europe, and even in the protestani 
 • cantons of Switzerland.' 
 
 One of the latest testimonies to the truth of this statement, 
 in regard to the cantons of Switzerland is that borne by Mr. 
 Seymour in his Pilgrimage to Rome. 
 
 ' The fact must be freely acknowledged by all candid tra- 
 ' vellers, that those cantons, which are protestant, are incom- 
 ' parably more comfortable, independent, wealthy, and pros- 
 ' perous than those, which are Roman catholic. They are 
 ' incomparably more advanced in all, that constitutes modern 
 ' civilization. I have visited almost every canton ; and I am 
 ' bound in all honesty and candour, and in despite of every 
 ' charge of narrow-mindedness, or bigotry, or prejudice, to 
 ' give my testimony to the fact, that in all the comfort, the 
 ' industry, the independence, and the education, which consti- 
 ' tute modern civilization, the cantons, which are protestant, 
 ' are far in advance of those, that are Roman catholic' Sey- 
 mour's Pilgrimage t& Rome. Pp. 22. 
 
 But other travellers extend the remark further, as — 
 
 ' Voluptuousness, impurity, dishonesty, cunning, hypocrisy, 
 ' every vice prevails, and is connived at, just as popery has 
 ' the more complete sway.' Wilson's Letters from an absent 
 brother. Vol. ii. P. 312. 
 
 And an historian adds still more generally — 
 
 ' One of the few circumstances in the history of the 
 ' Roman catholic church, which has escaped all controversy, is 
 ' that of its demoralization.' Waddington's History of the 
 Church. Chap, xxviii. Sect. ii. 2. 
 
233 
 
 P. 88. The. honour, which 1ms frequently been bestowed on the 
 serpent. 
 
 It may seem extraordinary, that the worship of the serpent 
 should have ever been introduced into the world ; and it must 
 appear still more remarkable, that it should almost universally 
 have prevailed. As mankind are said to have been ruined 
 through the influence of this being, we could little expect, 
 that it would of all other objects have been adopted, as the 
 most sacred and salutary symbol, and rendered the chief 
 object of adoration. Yet so we find it to have been. Bryant's 
 new System. Vol. i. P. 473, 474. 
 
 What is scarce credible, it obtained among christians ; and 
 one of the most early heresies in the church was of this sort, 
 introduced by a sect, called by Epiphanius Ophitse, and by 
 Clemens of Alexandria Ophiani. P. 489. 
 
 P. 88. The disposition in many nations to invest the object of 
 worship with terror, and to regard him rather, as the author of 
 evil, than of good, and thence rather to propitiate his anger than 
 to solicit his favour. 
 
 The Hottentots have the worship of an evil deity, whom 
 they look upon, as the father of mischief, and the source of 
 all their plagues. It is he (say they), who teaches the 
 wicked Hottentots the cursed art of witchcraft, by which 
 (they believe) innumerable mischiefs are done to the persons 
 and cattle of the good. They therefore coax him upon any 
 apprehension of danger or misfortune with the oifering of an 
 ox, or a sheep, and at other times perform divers ceremonies 
 of worship, to wheedle and keep him quiet. Kolben's present 
 state of the Cape of Good Hope, done into English by Mr. 
 Medley, 1738. Vol. i. Chap. 8. Pp. 104, 105. 
 
234 
 
 Each country hath several spirits or devils, that are pecu- 
 liar to those places, and do domineer over them, under whose 
 subjection the people do acknowledge themselves to be : and 
 indeed it is sad to consider, how this poor people are subjected 
 to the devil ; and they themselves acknowledge it to be their 
 misery, saying their country is so full of devils and evil 
 spirits, that, unless they should adore them, they would be 
 destroyed by them. Knox's historical relation of the island of 
 Ceylon, 1681. Part iii. Chap. 3. p. 77. 
 
 I have never yet heard of a benevolent being in the wor- 
 ship, as practised in Ceylon. They are all evil, exercising a 
 most wicked and malicious influence over the affairs of men : 
 and on this account the natives are in continual fear of them. 
 Children at the hour of their birth are generally dedicated to 
 some one of these evil beings ; and it is an awful fact, that 
 in hundreds and thousands of instances the poor deluded 
 people are so anxious to place themselves and all connected 
 with them under the care and protection of the devil, that 
 their children are solemnly dedicated to him, before they are 
 born. Report of a missionary from Ceylon, printed in the 
 Christian Observer. Vol. 24. p. 187. 
 
 P. 96. All tfie philosophy of Greece appears to have been 
 engrafted upon discoveries, imported from Egypt and the east. 
 
 The whole theology of Greece was derived from the east. 
 Bryant's Dissertation upon the Helladian and other Grecian 
 writers. P. 147. 
 
 Omnis auctoritas philosophiae, ut ait Theophrastus, con- 
 sistit in beata vita comparanda : quare hoc videndum est, 
 possitne nobis hoc ratio philosophorum dare. Pollicetur certe : 
 nisi enim id faceret, cur Plato jUgyptum peragra^at, ut a 
 
235 
 
 sacerdotibus barbaris numeros et coelestia acciperet? Cur 
 ipse Pythagoras et ^gyptum lustravit, et Persarum niagos 
 adiit ? Cicero de Finibus, lib. v. 86, 87. 
 
 P. 97. They either disguised them in fiction, or reserved them 
 for the ear of a chosen few after a period of probation, or di^ 
 vided their whole scheme of doctrine into esoteric and exoteric. 
 
 It is said both of Pythagoras and Solon, that they resided 
 for some time in Egypt, where the former was instructed by a 
 sonchen, or priest of the sun: and as their theology was 
 before very obscure, he drew over it a mysterious veil, to make 
 it ten-fold darker. Bryant's Dissertation. P. 147. 
 
 OSto? rain jwa&ijTa? Sje^Xe, Kal tou; f«6V ia'anepiKohi;, roii^ Se 
 i^uTepiKOV^ iKa^etrev' tojs //.sv yap ra TeXearepa fA.a^'fijA.ara 
 eTita-Teve, role, Sc ia jJieTpiurepa. 'E&of 8^ toEto ijv map" air^, 
 eirtiSav upoo'yei ti;, jWa&)jTeuo"o/«6»0f, wiirjjaer/ceii' la visapyfflvTa, 
 Kcu TO apyipiov KaTaTiSlivai, iaippaynrfievov, napa Tp HvSlayopyi , 
 Kol tiicijA.eve iriuiiSv, ore ftey eri) rpla, ore Se meiire, Koi f/,ay^dveiv, 
 AS&(; 8e XuSrei;, c/i/o-yeTO toZ; irepoii, Kai vapafA.ei/e /ia&TjTij;, Kal 
 (TVveia'Snaro a/ia' el S' oi, aTse\a,j/.^ave to iSjov, kou cme^aK'Kero. 
 'H^lic(7e ra irpSra ircyjtv Tot; f/.aSl7jTai;. E'lTa, i'Tteihav airoii; 
 i/cayu; iiaidelai T^; tSv Xiyuv Sof]) fi-eTeTlvai, Kai Stvara; icep) 
 aarpav Ka'i fv<reai ftKo<Toiprj(ru<Tt, KaSfapovf xplyaf, tot' e/tcXei/'e 
 fSieyyeotai. Origen. i .2. 
 
 P. 97. The same explanation is probably to be given of the 
 original institution of those mysteries of Ceres, which were 
 taught under the most solemn injunctions of secrecy. 
 
 These also appear to have been originally transplanted from 
 Egypt. Diodorus attributes this importation to Erechtheus, 
 who brought a supply of corn to Athens in a famine : ' toKtoi' 
 
236 
 
 T^Of E» 'EXeuo-fH, Kai ra jii,virt'!jfia, iioffi<ra.t, //.eTeveyKovra to 
 ' irep) rovTav vo'p/xoi' if 'AtyvvTOv.' Lib. i. Sect. 1. p. 19. 
 
 Concerning these mysteries Cicero says — ' Mihi quum 
 ' multa eximia divinaque videntur Athense peperisse, atque in 
 ' vitam hominum attulisse, turn nihil melius illis mysteriis, 
 ' quibus ex agresti immanique vita exculti ad humanitatem et 
 ' mitigati sumus ; initiaque ut appellantur, ita revera principia 
 ' vitae cognovimus, neque solum cum Isetitia vivendi rationem 
 ' accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi.' Cic. de 
 Leg. 1. ii. 35. 
 
 If this be a true description of the character of those mys- 
 teries in their original design and tendency, what motive can 
 be conceived for the profound secrecy, with which they were 
 celebrated, unless it be the opposition between the doctrines, 
 there taught, and the popular superstitions of the day, and 
 the dread of personal consequences from propounding th«m 
 openly to persons, who were not prepared to understand, or to 
 receive them ? 
 
 P. 98. They introduced from the east the forgotten doctrine of 
 the souVs immortality, and engrafted upon it the fable of trans- 
 migration. 
 
 Other philosophers are said to have learned from Egypt the 
 same truth ; and thus the doctrine seems to have been often in- 
 troduced, and as often forgotten. Thus Diogenes reports con- 
 cerning Thales — ' 'Eyim Se Koi ainov irpSrov ei%eh faa-tv aSravdrov^ 
 
 Tai yjyvxdi.' L. i. cap. 3. — and yet Cicero says — ' Pherecydes 
 ' Syrius primum dixit, animos hominum esse sempiternos.' 
 Cic. Tus. 2. i. 38. 
 
 Even the fable of transmigration was not altogether ori- 
 
237 
 
 ginal with Pythagoras, having heen imported together with 
 his other doctrine from Egypt, and then modified according to 
 his own fancy. But the new and precise form, which he 
 gave to it, was his own invention. 
 
 A(0 eXeyev iavrov iiph /asv tZv Tpa'iKUV 0a?i?i.i'8)jv yeyovivcu, iv 
 
 o'j Hvfpov AijXiof, Tre/iTTToi/ Ylv^dynpav. Origen. 1. 2. 
 
 P. 99. They appear evidently to have sanctioned the plurality 
 of gods, worshipped among their countrymen. 
 
 The golden verses of Pythagoras, though not written by 
 him, may be taken, as an exposition of the moral tenets of the 
 Italic school ; and they begin with these lines — 
 ' ASsavaTovq fnev icpuxa &e<it;, vijt,^ loq hidxeivrai, 
 TZ/iot. Kai o'i^ov "OfKOV, eirciS'' ^paai dyavovf. 
 
 So also Diogenes tells us, that Pythagoras taught, n^aq 
 Steilq tfiv nojil^etp, Koi ?ipcc<riv, L. Vlii. Cap. 1, S. 19, 33. 
 
 P. 99. The unity of the Godhead had become so obscured by 
 the worship of false deities, that not one of the philosophers of 
 the heathen can be said to have held it in its purity. 
 
 It was one of the charges against Socrates, that he did not 
 regard those, as Gods, who were worshipped in the city of 
 Athens. But Xenophon defends him from this charge by 
 pleading the notoriety of his idolatry. ' ©viav te yap tpavepoi; 
 
 ' j3«(*«>.' — Mem. i. 1 ; and Plato, as is well known, illustrates 
 his sincerity in these acts by recording his last direction to his 
 friend,. Crito, to perform after his death the sacrifice of a cock, 
 which he had previously vowed to iEsculapius. 
 
238 
 
 P. 99. Some indeed held him to be a being without beginning 
 or end, a pure spirit, a subtle tether, a disposing mind, thefvrmer 
 of the universe. 
 
 Thus Diogenes Laertius attributes to Thales the apophthegm . 
 
 — ' Tlpea-^vTaroy tuv ovrav 0eo;' ayevv^rov ya,f KaWtcrrov koV/wo;* 
 
 ' moirijA/x yap &eov.' — L. 1. Cap. 1. 9; and to Anaxagoras — 
 
 ' Ylavra ^fri/Aaza ■^u oja,ov. Elra NoC;, eX^uv, aira tuKocrfiricre.' 
 L. ii. Cap, 3. 1. The following are supplied by Cicero. 
 ' Anaximenes aera Deum statuit.' De Nat. D. 1. 26. ' Speu- 
 ' sippus, vim quandam dicens, qua omnia regantur, eamque 
 ' animalem ; Aristoteles cceli ardorem Deum dicit esse. 32, 33. 
 ' Cleanthes ultimum, et altissimum, atque undique circum- 
 ' fusum, et extremum, omnia cingentem atque complexum, 
 ' ardorem, qui sether nomiuetur, certissimum Deum judicat ;' 
 37. ' Ennius hoc sublime candens, quem invoeant omnes 
 ' Jovem.' ii. 4. — : and again in the Tusculan questions — 
 
 ' Si Deus aut anim.a, aut ignis est.' Tusc. Qu. i. 65. 
 
 These descriptions indeed are quite inconsistent with the 
 prevailing polytheism, and shew the difficulties, to which the 
 philosophers were reduced in attempting to reconcile their 
 theoretical notions with the sentiments, then universal among 
 their countrymen. 
 
 P. 99 . They believed matter, or the material, from which the 
 universe is formed^ to be eternal, and to be a perpetual impedi- 
 ment to his operations. 
 
 This is distinctly taught in the Timseus of Plato, where 
 the Deity, or former of the universe, is represented, as de- 
 signing good to the utmost of his power, and with that view 
 operating upon a previously existing mass of matter, which 
 he found in confusion, and which he reduced into order. 
 
239 
 
 BouXij&c!? yaf, ©£o«, aya^a jjiev mdvfa, fXavfov Be (xtjSe'v ehai 
 Ka-ra Hvafitv, ovra 8>) irav, oa-ov ^v opaTOH, itapaXaPav, <iv% 
 
 airh yjyayev e/c t^? arag/a;. — 
 
 And again — 
 
 TauTa S^ navia tote, ravrri icefVKOTa ef avayKiji;, o To2 
 KaXXiVrou T6 Kai apl(nov drifAtovpyoi ev T(i~; yiyvofievoii; vapeXd//,- 
 pavev, 711/iKa tov aiiTapKrj Te ko,] tov TeXearaTov &co» eysvva, xpu/^evof 
 jAsv rati ic€p) ravta otTian; iiir,pero^iTaii, to Si ei reKTaivojWej'o? 
 iv 7[a(Ti ToT; ycyvojwevoi; auTo;' 8(o 8^ j{j)^ 8u' a'lTi'a; eiSij Sio^i'^EtrSrai, 
 TO ;!*€V dyayKaToy, to Sc Sreioir, 
 
 Pp. 99, 100. Others again taught the mystical doctrine, 
 which is still perpetuated in the Brahminical superstition of 
 India, that God is himself the universe, pervading it, as the 
 mind animates the body, so, that every particle of matter is not 
 so much the creature of God as a part of his substance. 
 
 Munduiri, et hoc, quod nomine alio ccelum appellare libuit, 
 cujus circumflexu teguntur cuncta, numen esse credi par est, 
 seternum, immensum, neque genitum, neque interiturum un- 
 quam. Plin. Hist. Nat. 1. ii. c. 1. 
 
 Principio coelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, 
 Lucentemque globum lunse, Titaniaque astra 
 Spiritus intus alit, totamque, infusa per artus. 
 Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. 
 
 Virg. ^n. vi. 724—727. 
 A brahmin commenced a long oration, the substance of 
 which was to shew, that as every thing had proceeded from 
 God, so every thing must finally return to, and be absorbed 
 in him. Missionary Reg. 1835. p. 205. 
 
 Absorption into the divine essence is a doctrine, common (I 
 
240 
 
 believe) to Plato and the Brahmins, and probably borrowed 
 from the magi. Asiatic Researches. Vol. vi. p. ISO. 
 
 P. 100. Plato amidst much metaphysical speculation and 
 much conjectural dogmatism has frequent flashes of a fine con- 
 ception concerning Deity. 
 
 Besides speculating on the nature and origin of soul, and 
 various other questions of a metaphysical nature, which are 
 proper subjects of investigation, Plato pronounces dogmati- 
 cally upon the succession of the gods, and the laws, affecting 
 the transmigration of souls. Of the extent, to which he 
 carries his disposition to speak with precision on things beyond 
 the boundaries of human knowledge the following is a spe- 
 cimen. Having given a fanciful description of the original 
 formation of human souls, each of which has its appropriate 
 star, he proceeds to shew how it will fare with them accord- 
 ing to their respective merits : ' xai o /*e» ei tw Tipoo-ijRovTa 
 XpoMv ^levi;,' (such is the direction of the forming God) ' iraXm 
 eii Trjii Tiu ^vym/AOv vopfvSfeU o'lKiitriv atrrpov, ^Uv eidai/Mua Kal 
 sw^Stij e'foi' o-paX«»; Se toi/tmi', eli yvvaiKOi (pvtriv iy tJ ievrepf 
 y&ii(T€t /*6Ta;8aXoj' /itij itavoy.evo( re iy toi/'toj; cii KaKiai, Tpoiroy 
 ov KaKjjvotTO, Kara t};v o/ioioTijTa r^? toS T/Joirou yfyfa€ti'{; etq riva 
 lOiaiTqy aei jiira^aXoi ^ripem fjlaiv.' Plato Tim. and again 
 in the Phsedrus he says — ' '0? /*e» dy ItKaiai it'xydyTi, diAetvovof 
 //.olpai; lieraXanBdyei, o; S' ay dhiKui;, x^'S'"""'' ^'^ f*'" 7^? '^'' 
 auTO, oSrcv ?K€i 1) ^"Xh EfafTtJ, ovK dfiKte'irat izay i»,vpluv' ov 
 yap itTepovrai irpo toa-ovrov xpoyov, irX^ ^ tov fLXoa-ofijo-ayrcK; 
 aSoXa?, ^ iraiiepaa-T'^a-ayroi; fAe-ra piXoirof I'as. AStoi; 8e TfjT'iI 
 iteploia TTi xikieral, lay eXavrat Tfi; iff^^i Tov ^/ov toutov, 
 oiVa vlepu^iittai, Tfjo-jjjXioiTTp erei dvip^ovrai. 'Ai Se aXXai, 
 Sray tw it/jStoi/ jS/ov reXetiTijo-BO-i, Kplcreitx; eTupjOJ" Kfi&elirai 8e, 
 
241 
 
 ' iff roipavov rival toitov oto t^; S/kij; Kovpc^eitrai, iidyona-ii/ 
 ' ag('«; oS €v avSrpii'itov el^t e^lnKrav jSi'ou. TjS' Se jjAfOO-T^j 
 
 ajifatefai, afiKyaij/.tvai cTfi K'A^pucnv re Ka) atpecrtv ToS Set/TEfou 
 ' ^iiti, alpovurai, ov av eSffXi) Ikj^itt)). "EvSra Ka» eij ^ryjplov ;S<ov 
 
 af&pawivij if-ux^ a^(«(i/eiTaj, Ka» e/c &ij^iou, 2? wore avSrpuiroq ^v, 
 ' itaXiv 6i'? avS'jja'Troi'" o£ yap ? ye ji*^irOT6 iSouo-a t^v aX^jSreiav eij 
 ' ToSe ^5«< TO (TX^iAa.' 
 
 These and other unsubstantial speculations he pursues into 
 particulars, as if he were describing realities, and not imagina- 
 tions ; and it is in the midst of these, that there often occur 
 scintillations, as it were, of a nobler conception concerning 
 the nature and attributes of the Deity, and of the worship, 
 due to him, as for instance — 
 
 ' Aeyuiiiv S?;, 81' ?iv ttva alrlay ysveirni /cai to nan To'8e 
 ' fuvio-Ta? ^vvsa-riia-ev. 'AyaSfoq ijV aya&p $£ o£Sei; itep) oiievli; 
 ' oiSciroTC iyyiyvSTai p&ovo;.' Plat. Tim. 
 
 Yet perhaps the most magnificent description of the at- 
 tributes of Deity to be found in heathen writings, if the unity 
 of the Godhead, which might seem to be implied in it, were 
 not denied in all the surrounding context, is that attributed to 
 Socrates by Xenophon. ' rvjoaij to S-erov, on Tca-otlrov kou 
 
 ' ToiovTov cerTjv, «<r&' af/^a irdyTO. op^v, Ka) icdvTa aKoieiv, Ka) icay- 
 ' rdxm icapelvai, Ka) ajiaitdivruv eir(|iteXe~(r&a;.' 'AiroiKvijft. C. 4. 
 
 P. 100. Plato invents a theogony of his own creation, and as- 
 cribes the government of the world rather to the agency of inter- 
 mediate diemons than to the sole authority of one all-seeing and 
 all-pervading God. 
 
 Thus, having attributed the production of the world to the 
 goodness of the Deity, he intimates, that this supreme arti- 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 ficer was not able to accomplish all the good, that he de- 
 signed. He therefore represents him, as beginning by a 
 tentative process in the formation of the world to create first 
 one nature, then another, observing, before he advanced to a 
 second operation, the effect of the first, and then, vfhen he 
 had finished the work according to his own idea, delegating 
 the management of the universe, which he had fabricated, to 
 other inferior deities, that he might retire, as it would appear, 
 into the solitude, in which he had dwelt before : Ka) i //.h 8-^, 
 
 aicayra zottjTa bianx^aq, lj/.eyeii h rf iavrov KCtrk t^wok ?)&£». 
 
 Plat. Tim. The arrangement of his subordinate deities is, as 
 follows, first Heaven and Earth : from them descend Ocean and 
 Tethys, from them again Phorcys, Saturn, and Bhea, and in the 
 fourth degree Jupiter, Juno, and all that later family of gods. 
 These indeed are no other than the fabulous gods of Hesiod 
 and Homer. The novelty consists in setting a supreme ori- 
 ginator over them, and yet leaving to these inferior divinities 
 the management of the world. 
 
 P. 100. The supreme being, however described, was left by 
 the ancient philosophers on a solitary throne, unencumbered with 
 the cares, and unconcerned about the proceedings of the world. 
 
 It is difficult to make any statement upon these matters, 
 which insulated passages might not be brought to disprove. 
 The quotation, just made from Xenophon, is opposed to it. 
 Again Aristotle says in one place — ' Ei -ri? imjAsXeta ruv 
 ' avSfpaiitvav iiro SfeSv yti/etai, uavef inKe!, kou elij av elXoyo* 
 
 ' xaiftm T€ avTohi r$ apiffro) ' — Nic. Eth. X. 8 ; which seems to 
 imply an active superintendence of human affairs. Yet in the 
 same chapter all practical interference on their part seems to 
 be excluded, as unworthy of their superior nature : and there- 
 
243 
 
 fore the regard for human virtue, here attributed to them, must 
 be confined to complacency of observation, and not extended 
 to active protection, Sa-re ^ mi ©eoS evipyeia, iA,aKapioTijTi Itatpi- 
 pova-a, &£a(»)TiKij av eii). So unwilUng are the philosophers to 
 disturb his equanimity with cares of government, and therefore 
 provide him with an honorable retreat, otium cum dignitate, 
 in which he may indulge those vast conceptions, which alone 
 are supposed to be worthy of him. Yet there are passages, in 
 which Aristotle, when arguing the necessity of a first cause, to 
 account for the phaenomena of nature, seems to speak of that 
 first cause in terms, that differ from either of these represen- 
 tations, as if it were not the will of an intelligent being, but 
 rather some immutable principle, having no other efficacy 
 than that of setting the universe in motion. ' Efee/j olv ai'S/o; 
 
 ' ^ KiVtjITl^, aiS/oV Kai TO KiVOVV llTTai TT^StOV, 61 IV, €1 Sf ItT^itXI, 
 
 ' irXeia ra a'l'Si'a. E» ie fiSXT^av tj TioXKa, Koi irevepiKO'i/.epOC ij 
 ' dmlpa Sei' voju/^eiv. 'iKavoy 8e, kcc) el tv, o, irpwTov tuv aKtv/iruii , 
 ' d'idlov ov, stTToii TOK »XXo(5 apx)] Ktyqtriu^.' Arist. Phys. ii. 6, 4. 
 
 p. 101 , The very tenet of the souVs immortality, notwithstand- 
 ing the pretension of Plato to demonstrate it by an argument, 
 which will equally prove its eternity, was doubted, or disbelieved. 
 
 The argument of Plato is clearly, that the soul is self- 
 moved, or without external impulse, and that whatever is self- 
 moved, can have neither beginning, nor end. ' 'ASsavaTm Se 
 
 ' icefaafA.inv ToE up' kavrov KHiiiv[/,evov, ij/u^?? oia[a,)i re Kat Xoyoi' 
 ' TouTov avTov T(< Xsyiu)/, ovK alffy^uveiTat' noiv yap (tSiaiz, a> jA.ep 
 ' egaS'ev to Kive7(rStai, a^v^of, ^8e tviaSfev airtji e^ avTov, e|tti(i«j{ov, 
 ' «5 TavTiii oto-ij; fvaeui Tpvxiji. "El 8' e<rrt toCto ovtus e%av, [i\ 
 ' aKKo Ti elvai to a^TO kavro Kivovv ij >/"'%')>'. if avdyKijq &ytviirav 
 
 ' Tc Koii d^avaTov if'fx^ «" «").' Plat. Phsedrus. 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 Another argument, which is attributed to Socrates in the 
 Phsedo, though said to be delivered under the solemn expec- 
 tation of death, and on the very eve of his execution, is still 
 less satisfactory, and even sophistical : for it is deduced from 
 the use of language, and applied to the properties of things ; 
 for, because things, which are called by one name, must lose 
 that name, when a contrary quality has been applied to them, 
 as that, which is hot, cannot be called hot, when something 
 cold has been added to it, or as an odd number cannot by 
 addition be made even, (for then it would cease to be what it 
 is), so the soul, which gives life to the body, cannot itself be 
 held to be susceptible of death. After such an argument it 
 can be no matter of surprise, if one of those, who listened to 
 it, should still retain his scepticism. ' 'AKXa- iA,iv ' (? S' o? o 
 ^t[ji[/.tai;) ' o^S * ocvro^ ej^w 6t*, otitj amtna BK ye Tav Xeyoi^evav' 
 ' vno i/.(VTOi ToE /AeyE&ou; ictp) av oi Xoyoi ttV/, ko.) t^v aj'&fair/njj' 
 ' daSfifeHCv arj/xa^av, dvayKai^Ojji,a.i dtiicrria.v f tj e%etv icocp ijAOUn^ 
 ' Tctfl ray elp'/ii/.ei/ijv.' Phsedo, 56. 
 
 A simpler demonstration is offered by Cicero, that what- 
 ever possesses the powers, which we find to belong to the 
 soul, as life, thought, and reason, is divine, and consequently 
 eternal. ' Quicquid est illud, quod sentit, quod sapit, quod 
 ' vivit, quod viget, coeleste et divinum est ; ob eamque rem 
 ' seternum sit, necesse est.' Cic. Consol. and Tusc. Q. i. 66. 
 
 On the other hand, if the expectation of immortality is to 
 rest upon the eternal pre-existence of the human soul, Cicero 
 has in another passage of the same book stated the converse 
 of that proposition in terms, which are at least equally 
 natural and reasonable. ' Natura vero sic se habet, ut quo 
 ' modo initium nobis rerum omnium ortus noster afferat, sic 
 ' exitum mors. Ut nihil pertinuit ad nos ante ortum, sic 
 ' nihil post mortem pertinebit.' Tusc. Q. i. 91. 
 
245 
 
 There is another argument for the iinmortahty of the soul 
 on rational principles, advanced hy A.ddison. ' Can we helieve ' 
 (says he,) • a thinking heing, that is in a perpetual progress 
 ' of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfec- 
 ' tion, after having just looked abroad into the works of its 
 ' creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, 
 ' wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and 
 ' in the beginning of her inquiries ? Would an infinitely wise 
 ' being make such glorious creatures for so mean a purpose ? 
 ' Can he delight in the production of such abortive intelli- 
 ' gences, such short-lived reasonable beings ? ' Spectator, 111. 
 
 This indeed is very nearly the same line of reasoning, 
 which Cicero attributes to Cato, in his treatise on old age. 
 ' Sic mihi persuasi, sic sentio, quum tanta celeritas animorum 
 ' sit, tanta memoria prseteritorum, futurorumque prudentia, 
 ' tot artes, tantee scientise, tot inventa, non posse earn naturam, 
 ' quse res eas contineat, esse mortalem. Nemo unquam mihi, 
 ' Scipio, persuadebit, aut patrem tuum, PauUum, aut duos 
 ' avos, PauUum et Africanum, aut Africani patrem, aut patruum, 
 ' aut multos prsestantes viros, quos enumerare non est necesse, 
 ' tanta esse conatos, quae ad posteritatis memoriam pertinerent, 
 ' nisi animo cernerent, posteritatem ad se pertinere,' De 
 Sen. 78, 82. 
 
 Few however will be satisfied with such assumptions and 
 anticipations, when they lay claim to the character of proof. 
 Accordingly the mass of mankind were not convinced by any 
 such reasoning of the point intended to be estabhshed. 
 
 Of this Cicero himself has furnished a remarkable proof 
 in his oration for Cluentius, where in arguing, that a man, 
 who had been assassinated, had himself sustained no harm 
 from the loss of life, he uses language, clearly founded on 
 
246 
 
 the presumption, that his hearers were universally sceptical 
 on the subject of future rewards and punishments. • Quid 
 ' tandem illi mali mors attulit ? Nisi forte ineptiis ac fabulis 
 ' ducimur, ut existimemus ilium apud inferos impiorum sup- 
 ' plicia perferre, ac plures illic offendisse inimicos quam hie 
 ' reliquisse, a socrus, ab uxorum, a fratris, a liberum poenis 
 ' actum esse prsecipitem in sceleratorum sedem atque regio- 
 ' nem : quae si falsa sunt, id, quod omnes intelligunt, quid ei 
 ' tandem aliud mors eripuit prseter sensum doloris ? ' Pro A. 
 Cluentio. 171. 
 
 But we find Tacitus, even after, or in the time of the 
 apostles, representing this tenet, as a peculiar dogma of the 
 Jews. ' Animas prselio aut suppliciis peremptorum teternas 
 ' putant.' Hist. v. 5. — : and even Seneca in his consolatory 
 letter to Marcia says — ' Mors omnium dolorum et solutio est 
 ' et finis, ultra quam piala nostra non exeunt, quae nos in 
 ' illam tranquiUitatem, in qua, ante quam nasceremur, jacui- 
 ' mus, reponit.' Consol. ad Marciam, cap. 26. 19. Hence 
 naturally arose the too common sentiment — 
 
 ' Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 
 ' Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum 
 ' Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.' 
 Virg. Georg. ii. 490—492, 
 
 There are some splendid passages indeed, interspersed in the 
 writings of the ancient philosophers, of a contrary tendency, 
 as for example — 
 
 ' Omnia tamen sunt faciliora quam peccati dolor, qui et 
 ' maximus est, et seternus.' Cic. Ep. ad Atticum, xi. 15. 
 
 ' ElVef it ^pnxij d^dvaroi, iitiif.iUia.ii 8^ Mrai otx imp toS 
 ' Xpovov tok'tou liivoi, iv ^ na^iivjKev to t,fiV, aXX' ticep rm wavTO?, 
 
247 
 
 ' a/AeXijo-Ei.' Plat. Phaedo. 57. 
 
 But the state even of their own minds upon the subject 
 may be fairly gathered from that remark, which Cicero re- 
 presents, as made to him by his hearer, in the Tusculan ques- 
 tions. ' Nescio quo mode, dum lego, assentior. Quum 
 
 • posui librum, et mecum ipse de immortaUtate animorum coepi 
 
 • cogitare, assensio omnis ilia elabitur.' Tusc. Q. i. 25 : and 
 again he introduces Cato in his old age, as giving, after all the 
 glowing anticipations, quoted above, the amount of his own 
 convictions in these words — ' Si in hoc erro, quod animos 
 ' hominum immortales esse credam, libenter erro, nee mihi 
 ' hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo. Sin, 
 ' mortuus, ut quidam minuti philosophi censent, nihil sen- 
 ' tiam, non vereor, ne hunc errorem meum mortui philosophi 
 ' irrideant.' De Sen. 86. 
 
 In fact, notwithstanding all the ingenious reasoning, which 
 has been spent upon this question, the immortality of the soul 
 is incapable of distinct proof, except from revelation : for, if 
 it be allowed, that the human soul was created by the will of 
 an omnipotent being, the same power, which created it out of 
 nothing, can reduce it to nothing again ; and, although many 
 presumptive arguments may be collected, to shew, what that 
 will is, it is impossible, that it should be discovered, unless he 
 himself has been pleased to reveal it. 
 
 P. 102. Cicero has counted up a great variety of opinions on 
 the chief good. 
 
 After a detailed exposition of these differences, he reduces 
 them to six, and then to three, as follows — 
 
 Sex igitur hoe sunt simpliccs de summa bonorura malorumque 
 
248 
 
 sententise, duse sine patrono, quatuor defense. Junctae autem 
 et duplices expositiones summi boni tres omnino fuerunt ; nee 
 vero plures, si penitus rerum naturam videas, esse potuerunt. 
 Cic de Fin. v. 20. 
 
 E. 102. One sentiment however was common to most of them, 
 that all evil is a counteraction of the design of nature, and that 
 consequently/ whatever is contrary to human happiness is un- 
 natural. 
 
 Ip«a naturse ratio est lex divina et humana, cui parere qui 
 velit, (omnes autem parebunt, qui secundum naturam volent 
 vivere,) nunquam committet, ut alienum appetat, et id, quod 
 alteri detraxerit, sibi assumat. Etenim multo magis est se- 
 cundum naturam excelsitas animi et magnitudo, itemque comi- 
 tas, justitia, liberalitas, quara voluptas, quam vita, quam 
 divitise ; quae quidam contemnere et pro nihilo ducere, com- 
 parantem cum utilitate communi, magni animi et excelsi est ; 
 detrahere autem alteri sui commodi causa magis est contra 
 naturam quam mors, quam dolor, quam csetera generis ejusdem 
 Cic de Oif. iii. 23, 24. 
 
 Deinde qui alteram violat, ut ipse aliquid commodi conse- 
 quatur, aut nihil se existimat contra naturam facere, aut magis 
 fugiendam censet mortem, paupertatem, dolorem, amissionem 
 etiam liberorum, propinquorum, amicorum, quam facere cui- 
 quam injuriam. Si nihil existimat contra naturam fieri homi- 
 nibus violandis, quid cum eo disseras, qui omnino hominem 
 ex homine toUat ? Sin fugiendum id quidem censet, sed et 
 multo ilia pejora, mortem, panpertatem, dolorem, errat in eo, 
 quod uUum aut corporis aut fortunse vitium animi vitiis 
 gravius existimat. iii. 26. 
 
 Si hoc natura prsescribit, ut homo homini, quicumque sit. 
 
249 
 
 ob earn ipsam causam, quod is homo sit, consultum velit, 
 iiecesse est secundum eandem naturam omnium utilitatem 
 esse communem : quod si ita est, una continemur omnes et 
 eadem lege naturae ; idque ipsum si ita est, certe violare alte- 
 rum lege naturae prohibemur. Varum autem primum. Verum 
 igitur et extremum. iii. 27. 
 
 P. 103. Plato has introduced some particulars, which are not 
 only visionary, but unnatural, and subversive of all true morality. 
 
 In the dialogue on laws, the exposure of children under 
 certain circumstances is directed ; and in the republic women 
 were to be held in common, and the children consequently not 
 to know their own parents, but to be regarded and educated, 
 as thfe children of the state, whereby all the best affections of 
 nature would be stifled and annihilated. 
 
 P. 104. The excess, to which they carried this speculative 
 principle, deprived it of all moral efficacy. 
 
 Fuit enim quidam summo ingenio vir, Zeno, cujus inven- 
 torum eemuU stoici nominantur. Hujus sententise sunt et 
 prsecepta ejusmodi, sapientem gratia nunquam moveri, nun- 
 quam cujusdam delicto ignoscere ; neminem misericordem esse, 
 nisi stultum et levem; viri non esse neque exorari, neque 
 placari ; solos sapientes esse, si distortissimi sint, formosos, 
 si mendicissimi, divites, si servitutem serviant, reges. Cic. 
 Or. pro Murena. 61. 
 
 The extravagance of these sentiments easily exposed them 
 to ridicule. 
 
 Ad summum sapiens uno minor est Jove, dives. 
 Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum, 
 Prsecipue sanus, nisi quum pituita molesta est. 
 
 Hor. Ep. i. 1. 106—108. 
 
250 
 
 P. 105. Their fundamental principle was, that human perfec- 
 tion consists in living according to nature. 
 
 Butler defends this maxim in the first three of his fifteen 
 sermons, preached at the EoUs chapel, which, as he himself 
 states in a preface, ' were intended to explain what is meant 
 • by the nature of man, when it is said, that virtue consists in 
 ' following, and vice in deviating from it, and by explaining to 
 ' shew, that the assertion is true.' p. vii. 
 
 In order to illustrate this position, Butler observes, that 
 ' it is from considering the relations, which the several appe- 
 ' tites and passions in the inward frame have to each other, 
 ' and above all the supremacy of reflection or conscience, that 
 ' we get the idea of the system or constitution of human 
 ' nature.' p. x. 
 
 There seems reason to regret, that in thus treating of the 
 proper nature of man the learned and excellent author has not 
 adverted to the fact of the fall. He speaks of the system or 
 constitution of human nature, as if it were one and unchanged, 
 instead of having fearfully degenerated. It is the property of 
 vines to produce grapes. But, if a thousand years ago some 
 disease had befallen all the vines in the world, such as in one 
 night a f(?w years ago befel many of the planes in this country, 
 and if the effect of that disease had been, that all the vines, 
 then existing, and all, that have since been propagated from 
 them, instead of grapes produced a poisonous berry, few 
 persons would now say, that it is the nature of vines to 
 produce grapes. So it must be admitted, that the nature of 
 man has been changed by the fall, and must be changed 
 again, before it can be what it ought. 
 
 It is true, that in speaking of man's constitution even now 
 
251 
 
 wc must take into our view, as Butler contends, the power and 
 office of conscience. But what, if conscience itself be defiled ? 
 and saint John tells us, that the conscience of the unbelieving 
 (that is of all unconverted men) is defiled. Will such a 
 conscience lead to right action ? No. Conscience itself must 
 be purified, Heb. ix. 14., before it can discharge its proper 
 duty. 
 
 Thus there is still wanting in the definition a distinction 
 between human nature, as it was, and human nature, as it is. 
 Accordingly, when Butler says, that ' man may act according 
 ' to that principle or inclination, which for the present happens 
 ' to be strongest, and yet act in a way disproportionate to, 
 • and violate his real proper nature,' Sermon ii. p. 37, it is 
 evident, that his real proper nature, if rightly understood, 
 is not such as that nature is now, but such as it was, before 
 he fell. The doctrine of Butler indeed is, that a man acts 
 according to his nature, not when he acts according to the 
 dictates of blind, unreflecting passion, but when he follows 
 each propension, which actuates him, only so far as that in- 
 ternal monitor, his conscience, will direct and approve : and 
 undoubtedly, if conscience were enlightened, and the different 
 principles and actuating motives of the mind were brought 
 under subjection to it, this would be true. But this is to 
 suppose a state of things, which has never existed since the 
 fall : for neither has any man been found to act uniformly in 
 conformity to what Butler calls the supremacy of conscience, 
 nor consequently does conscience itself, being too much under 
 the corrupting influence of unruly desire, though it retain 
 power to reprove and correct, always teach rightly what is the 
 duty of man. Saint Paul for instance thought with himself, 
 that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of 
 
252 
 
 Jesus ; and many a man, acting under no other guidance, 
 than that of his natural conscience, would see no evil in reta- 
 liation, or revenge, if confined within moderate limits ; nor 
 indeed would conscience ever in our present lapsed condition, 
 without instruction from the word and illumination from 
 the grace of God, elevate our views to a true conception of the 
 divine law, to love God with all our powers, and our neigh- 
 bour, as ourselves. This then is his real, proper nature, 
 when all his inclinations act in harmony, and when there is 
 not only conscience to control them all, but the known and 
 acknowledged law of God to enlighten the conscience : and 
 such was the primitive condition of our nature, a condition, 
 now unhappily changed, and not to be restored, till help is 
 obtained from above, and divine grace, acting through faith in 
 a redeemer, has anew directed all the dispositions of our 
 nature into their right channel. 
 
 On the impracticability of making Conscience the supreme 
 arbiter of human conduct the remarks of Dr. Whewell are 
 decisive. ' If Conscience ' (says he) ' be the supreme judge 
 ' of right and wrong, whose conscience is to be taken ? If 
 ' that of the individual, what crimes have not been committed 
 ' with a tranquil conscience, and even for conscience' sake ? 
 ' If that of the human species, how is it to be found among 
 ' the conflicting moral judgments of different persons, nations, 
 ' and ages ? ' — : and he then lays down this just position in 
 conclusion. ' Conscience, though according to Butler she has 
 ' a natural authority over Appetite, Desire, and Affection, 
 ' has not a supreme authority, but is herself subject to the 
 ' supreme rule, which injoins all virtue and duty, and which is 
 ' in reality the law of God.' Whewell's Preface to Butler's 
 three Sermons, pp. xiv — xvi. 
 
253 
 
 P. 107. Aristotle describes the condition of those, who have 
 not yet attained the mastery over themselves. 
 Arist. Nic. Eth. i. 13. 
 
 P. 107, 108. The short answer, given by both these sects of 
 philosophers, is — 'By discipline and education. 
 
 The works of Plato on the republic, and on laws, and the 
 treatise of Aristotle on political science, are all written with 
 this view, the general scheme of both philosophers being thus 
 expressed by the latter in the last chapter of his ethics. 
 
 ' Ae? S^ TO ))&o; itfoviiafxeiv Tia; oiVeiov rij? dfetVji;, (m^yov to 
 
 ■ Kohiiii, Kou Sujrj^epaJvoi/ to alo'xpov. 'Ek vsov Se osyojiy^; ipSl'lJs 
 ' rvxilv w/)o? aperriv xaXeicov, ;M^ two to(o:;to(5 zpafeyra po/jiOK;' 
 ' TO yap a-afpivui 5^" "«' naptipiKU^ oix ^Si' to?; woXXoi?, aXXeci 
 ' re Kal viniq' Sio vijAOtq Sel TtTajj&ai r^v rpixpijv koI tss liti- 
 ' rrjievfAccTa' ovk etrtai yap 'Kvitiipa, awq^'/i yevof/.eya. Oix 
 ' ixavov ds 'KTinq, viov^ ovTaf, rpcf^i xal i'HifieXetai; rvx^'i" o/i&^f, 
 ' orXX' Bveihii, Kai dy^paSfei/Taq, ieT einrriieveiv avra, Kai e&Z^eo'S'au, 
 ' Ka] Tiep) ravra deoi/AeSf' ay vo/xoif, Kal oXa; 8^ nep) itavTa toy 
 ' fitoy' 01 yap 'sroXXoi dydyKfl jwaXXoy ^ Xoyj) Tref&afjjoBtri, Ka) 
 ' '^ijf/.louf ^ Tp KoKu' hiiirep o'Uytat tike;, tov; vo/AoSreToEi'Ta; 8eiv 
 ' f*'v iiapaKakeiy in) Trjy dptt^v, Ka) irpoTpeicetr^ai toE kcuXoS 
 
 ■ X^P^"} "! v'JraKovo'OiA.ivuv ray eicieiKay toT? €&e3"j icpoijyoviAeyai, 
 ' diceiStoZn he, Ka) dfve<Trepoif ovtri, Ko\dtreii T£ Ka) rtjiuptai; 
 
 evniSfeyai, toii? 8' ayiaTOvf oXa? e^opl^eiV ^ov jjiiv yap imetKvj 
 Kai vpli TO KaXoy ^uyra, Tp Xoyp wci&afXijircfK, to* Se favkoy, 
 ijooyrjf apeyojieyoy, XiJirjj Ko\d'i^e(T^at, aaitep il'7co^6yioy' Sio Ka) faai 
 oeiy Toif Toiailrai; ytyeaSlai "Kima^, at /AaXttrra ivayrtovyrat raXi; 
 ' dyavSufvaif i]doyati;. EJ S aiv, Ka^airep ciftjTai, to» e<TOjji.(voy 
 ' dya^ov rpapvjyai KaXSf het, Ka) e&iir&ijj/ai, eTS^' oSra? iy eViT-zj- 
 
254 
 
 0€i;/xa(nv iicieiKeat ^^v, Kal ft^re aKOVTa, j«ijt£ ikcvTa, mpdiTei^ 
 Ta favXa, lavra §£ ytyvon' av jSioVjUevoi; Kara rivA vovy Koi 
 
 TO io-;jDfo», oCSt TO dvayKolav, oiill S^ oXw? ij l»o; avSpo?, /*Jj 
 ^aa-iKfuq ovTo;, ^ tivo? toioiJtou, o 8e vo'fw; ava.yKa.axiK^v ex^i 
 MvafAtv, Xoyoe bv diro tii/o; p^oMja-ea? Ka\ voS' Kai tSv f«cv 
 av^fUTCuv ix^patmv<ri toi!? eKuvTiou/tci'iit); TaT; if/Aai^, k$v ofSsZi 
 avTo OfUiTtv, a 8e jojKo;, oi!k eVriv luayp^q, rdrTuii to ticietKef' — : 
 
 and, as a sequel to these remarks, he thus announces his ui^ 
 tended pohtical work. 
 
 HapaXnoVTUv ovv itfatifuv aveftivijron to mp) T^f vafAo^iciaq, 
 ' avToli iin<rKs4'aa-Sfat jaoXKov j3e'XT(oy i'cra?, Kal oXa? 8^ irtpl 
 ' TioXiTefflsj, oitwi ei{ ivvajAiv ij nep) to, av^paittva (piXotrofla 
 
 ' TeXftaStri.' Arist, Nic. Eth. x. 9. 
 
 P. 108. T%fl!^ aW our efforts should be directed to the object 
 of enabling men to feel pleasure and pain on the right occasions. 
 
 This sentiment is propounded by Plato in the second book 
 of his dialogue on laws, where he represents it, as the direct 
 object of a good education to train the children of the state 
 
 axTTe filer e ill, jA,iv, a xp)] fiKretVy ct&ii; i^ apx^i [Ji'fX?' "^^Xovf, trrcpyeiv 
 Se, a xp^ a-rfpyetv. — : and from him Aristotle quotes it, saying — 
 ' Ae~ ^x^"' ''""> Ei'^^S ^^ I'f'i'V, a; o TiXaTov f'^criv, aare ;^a/f eiv 
 ' T€ Ka) \viie~ii^a't o~? hi.' Nic. Eth. ii. 3. — : and in another 
 place he reiterates the same doctrine, saying — ' AoxeT Se koI 
 
 ' wpo; T^» Tou ij&oi'; apeT)iii jXtyKnov eivat to jjaijsfiv 0(; Sei, 'kcu 
 ' jMauv a 86(' Siare/vej yap Tavia Sta iravToq toS jS/ou. Nic. 
 Eth. X. ] . 
 
 This attempt to regulate the affections is one, that lies at 
 the basis of all true morality, and even approaches towards 
 the evangelical principle of making the tree good, that its 
 
255 
 
 fruit may be good likewise. It occurs to me here to mention, 
 that Dr. Whewell, in the masterly preface to his edition of 
 Butler's three sermons, already referred to, has hardly done 
 justice to Aristotle in saying, that he ' appears to make an 
 ' external end the sovereign guide of action,' Preface, p. xxxv ; 
 for Aristotle's efiSaifiov/a, which we translate for want of a 
 more exact word happiness, is an eVepyeia 4'^x^'!- 
 
 P. 109. That we should then strive to give a new elevation 
 to our nature, 
 
 'AiKata yap Koi &vhpela Koi ta aXKa Ta Kara ra; apera^ mpof 
 aXX^Xov; icpdrrojjtev ei/ trvvaXXdyficccri xal y^pelat^ Koi icpd^eiTi irav- 
 To/at{, ev T6 Tor? wa&eo-j to itpiicov iKatrrtji iiaT'^povvreq. TaJira 
 S' ilvat (palverai ndvra ai/^pwniKa. Arist. Nic. Eth. X. 8. 
 
 Xprj he ov Kara Tob; 'napatvovvTai; avStpu'ttiva fpovelv, Sv^pwrrov 
 tvTa, oi/8i &vJiTi Tav ^r/jtov, aW if" oirov htixerai dira^ayar/^eiv, 
 Ka\ aitavra iroiel* irpoi to ^S" "'*''■» '^o KpdrKrm ruv h air^. 
 
 X. 7. 
 
 P. 109. Epicurus taught, that nature points to enjoyment, as 
 the height of perfection. 
 
 This is a doctrine, which almost necessarily follows from a 
 rejection of all accountableness to a supreme being, and a 
 confinement of human interests to the present scene. If in 
 such circumstances human life be destitute of enjoyment, 
 there is nothing to make compensation for the loss. Yet 
 even then the enjoyment of life will not be found in intem- 
 perance : and accordingly Epicurus taught his followers to 
 look for it in a sober use of the means within their reach, 
 and a cultivation of those mental resources, which minister 
 to the highest enjoyment. 
 
256 
 
 In the account, given of him by Diogenes, his disciple, he 
 speaks of t^ itefi SicSv ,oaia, piety to the gods, much in 
 the style of compliance with popular superstition, which was 
 common with the philosophers, and says — ' KpeTrTov ^v r^ 
 
 nefi &eSv jxiJ&j) KcnaKoKov^ttv, tj t^ tSv fvtrmSv iljiao^ivg 
 lovUitiv.' X. 27, 133, 134. 
 
 His principal tenet is thus explained : — ' T^v ^Soy^x afy^/^v 
 
 x.a) TeXo? Xcyojitei' eoai roS //.ciKaplui ^S"' tou/'tj/v yap ayaSfov 
 itfatov Kou TvyytviKov hyvu/iey, Ka) airo ratirvK KaTap^ifie^a. 
 nastif alpeaeu^ kou- fvy^^, Koi iir) rai/rijv KcnavTufiev, ui Kaviti, 
 TS) ira&ei tcav ayoiSsov Kptvovrei;' Koi iice) irpcSrov aya^ov rovTO 
 Kal ir^jfA^vToy, 5ia rovTO Koci ov iraa'av yjhovvjv alpov^e^a, aW' 
 iiTTiy ore noXXaq ijdovaf iittp^atvojAtVjQTav icXiiov ^j«l» ts ivfrxepli; 
 Ik taituv eirijTat, Koi ico'K'Koiq aX'yijSovosf ^Soi/bv KjielTTouj yof/.i^ofAei', 
 ETTciSav j/,ii^av ijiMv ^8o»^ irafaKoXouSrj , iroXlv y^pomv ijio/xe/vao-i tdi; 
 aXyifilyai;. "Otciv ovv Kiyufnev ijioyvjv ts'Xo; imd^xav, oii raf 
 rSv a(Turuv rfiovaq Kcu Ta( tSv ip omoXav(rei KiiiJi.evai Xcyo/^ev, 
 «{ TiV£{, ayvooEvTa;, Kai oi^ o/AoXo'yoiJyTe;, iij KaKcSi £/c8e%<i- 
 /^evof voj^i^offiv, aXXa to /i'J'J'e aXytTx «aTa ira/ia, jKijte 
 rapdrrea^lat Kata J'UjjV (TwyelfOKTc;' irv/ji.'jref^Kairi yap al apeta) 
 ra %riv ^Se'a;, ««( to ^jj'v tjSta; TOtVoiv eo-tiv axupia-Tou,' X. 27, 
 128—132. 
 
 P. 110. He deduces from it lessons of self-denial and self- 
 devotion for the general good, which are certainly above the 
 level, not indeed of gospel-morality, but of the professed morality 
 of many, who call themselves christians. 
 
 I allude chiefly to the question, agitated in the third book 
 of the oflfices, whether a person, entering a besieged city under 
 the pressure of famine with a cargo of corn, is at liberty to 
 conceal his knowledge of the fact, that other vessels are be- 
 
257 
 
 hind, similarly freighted, and to take advantage of that igno- 
 rance, that he may raise the price of his goods ; and this 
 question is after full discussion determined on the high prin- 
 ciple, that we ought to consider what is for the public good, 
 as superior to our private advantage ; ' ex quo intelligitur, 
 ' quoniam juris natura fons sit, hoc secundum naturam esse, 
 ' neminem id agere, ut ex alterius prsedetur inscientia.' Cic. 
 de Oif. iii. 72. 
 
 P. 111. Except in some occasional sentiment, which breathes 
 a moral grandeur above the tone of their practical system. 
 
 ' Terence is the man, who seems to have copied human nature 
 ' with most exactness. Yet his citizen of universal benevolence, 
 ' whom he draws with so much life in that masterly stroke — 
 
 " Homo sum. Humani nihil a me alienum puto " — , 
 
 ' is the same person, who commands his wife to expose her 
 ' newborn daughter, and falls into a passion with her for 
 ' having committed that hard task to another, by which 
 ' means the infant escaped death.' Warburton's divine Lega- 
 tion, Book 1. Sect. 4. 
 
 The following are specimens of a similar character, occur- 
 ring either in argumentative writings, or in familiar corres- 
 pondence. 
 
 ' lUud effici, quodquibusdam incredibile videatur, sit autem 
 ' necessarium, ut nihilo sese plus quam alterum diligat.' Cic. 
 de Leg. i. 34. 
 
 ' Omnia tamen sunt faciliora quam peccati dolor, qui et 
 ' maximus est, et seternus.' Cic. Ep. ad Att. xi. 15. 
 
 ' Animi' labes nee diuturnitate evanescere, nee amnibus 
 ' ullis elui potest.' Cic. de Leg. ii. 24. 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 'Mea mihi conscientia pluris est quam omnium sermo.' Cic. 
 Ep. ad Att. xii. 28. 
 
 P. 112. The Brahminical notion, that the mind of man is a 
 part of the deity, into which it is again absorbed after death. 
 
 Their fundamental tenets are, that nothing exists abso- 
 lutely, but God, that the human soul is an emanation from 
 his essence, and, though divided for a time from its heavenly 
 source, will be finally reunited with it, that the highest possi- 
 ble happiness will arise from its reunion, and that the chief 
 good of mankind in this transitory world consists in as per- 
 fect an union with the eternal spirit as the encumbrances of a 
 mortal frame will allow. Sir W. Jones's Disc. vi. 2. 
 
 By means of self-righteous asceticism they hope to be de- 
 livered from the grosser elements, which form the compound 
 being, man, and to be assimilated to, and at length finally 
 absorbed into the immaterial substance of the holy Buddh. 
 This is the grand hope of Buddhism. This is the only stim- 
 ulus to present exertion, which it offers. The material part 
 of man is to be purged away ; and after transmigration through 
 certain stages of animal life, more or less numerous in pro- 
 portion to the guilt or merit of the individual, the soul is at 
 last taken into the deity, and becomes a part of Buddh him- 
 self. Smith's Narrative, ch. 13. p. 185. 
 
 P. 112. The Persian magians, who worshipped the sun, as the 
 purest emblem of Deity, yet regarded Light and Darkness, as 
 two independent powers, contending for empire. 
 
 Diogenes says of them, Sua /car" avTov^ ehai df^aq, ayaSsiv 
 taliAova, Koi kukov hal/Mva, Kal rS j/,ev ovoj/,a eivai Zet; ko,] 
 ' fl/io/xairSi)?, Tj) Se "AiSij; ««( 'Afafiaviaq. Diog. Prooem. 6. 
 
259 
 
 Their chief doctrine was, that there were two principles, 
 one of which was the cause of all good, and the other the 
 cause of all e-vil, (that is to say God, and the devil), that the 
 former is represented hy light, and the other by darkness, as 
 their truest symbols, and that of the composition of these two 
 all things in the world are made. The good God they name 
 Yazdan, and also Ormuzd, and the evil God Ahraman. The 
 former is by the Greeks called Oromasdes, and the latter 
 Arimanius. Prideaux's Old and new Testament connected. 
 Part 1. Book 3. Pp. 252, 253. 
 
 P. 113. That the Deity is envious of human happiness, and 
 that consequently he must be appeased hy surrendering some 
 portion of that happiness, to save the remainder. 
 
 The story of Amasis in Herodotus will here occur to the 
 reader, who advised Polycrates to throw away the most valu- 
 able of his possessions, in order to propitiate the envy of the 
 Deity, who might otherwise be jealous of his uninterrupted 
 prosperity ; on receiving which advice Polycrates is said to 
 have cast a seal, set with precious stones, an elegant work of 
 art, on which he set a high value, into the sea. 
 
 P. 113. They are gross idolaters. 
 
 The Chinese know nothing of any spiritual substance, dis- 
 tinct from the material, such as God, angels, and the rational 
 soul. Navarette's Account of the empire of China. 1 704. B. 5 . 
 
 In almost all Chinese towns there are shops for the sale of 
 idols of all kinds and price, from a few cash to a very large 
 sum. Fortune's Three years' wanderings. Ch. ix. p. 178. 
 
 We entered an idol shop, where idols of every pattern and 
 quality were procurable, the price varying from several dollars 
 
 S 2 
 
260 
 
 each to the low sura of six cash, equal to about one farthing. 
 The licensed permission of the mandarins to pursue the voca- 
 tion of idol-maker, was visibly depicted on a sign-board in 
 the shop. On another board was a notice, that precious 
 Buddhas were there manufactured, or repaired. A large 
 number of idols of every shape and in every stage of manu- 
 facture were lying around. Another idol manufactory had 
 the sign suspended over the door — ' The golden Buddha shop.' 
 These shops were to be seen at every quarter of a mile, and 
 presented groups of images. Smith's Narrative. Ch. 26. 
 pp. 393, 394. 
 
 P. 114. It generates in all its adherents a contempt or hatred 
 for all, who reject it, and a proud confidence in their own accep ■ 
 tance with the Deity on the mere ground of their being the 
 family, for -which Mahomet will make intercession. 
 
 "Who can doubt of this effect, when such passages are found 
 in the koran itself as these, which follow ? 
 
 ' As to those, who fight in defence of God's true religion, 
 ' God will not suffer their works to perish. He will guide 
 ' them, and will dispose their heart aright ; and he will lead 
 ' them into Paradise.' Sale's Koran, Ch. 47. p. 410. 
 
 ' God hath purchased of the true believers their souls and 
 ' their substance, promising them the enjoyment of Paradise 
 ' on condition, that they fight for the cause of God. Whether 
 ' they slay, or be slain, the promise for the same is assuredly 
 • due by the law, and the gospel, and the koran.' Ch. 9. p. 164. 
 
 ' How will it be with the unbelievers, when we shall bring a 
 ' witness out of each nation against itself, and shall bring thee, 
 ' O Mahomet, a witness against these people ? In that day 
 ' they, who have not believed, and have rebelled against the 
 
261 
 
 ' apostle of God, shall wish the earth was levelled with 
 ' them.' Ch. 4. p. 66. 
 
 P. 115. Its practical influence is destroyed by his mistaken 
 notions of the character of God, whom he describes, as rather a 
 contemplative <md intellectual being, who sees and knows all 
 things, and interferes with none, than as a moral governor, and a 
 righteous judge. 
 
 This is the more remarkable, since he seems in some passages 
 to describe him, as upholding the universe by his divine 
 power. Thus, when speaking of a state, which was too large 
 for human management, he says — ' 'O Se X/av Imf^dWuv 
 ' apt^iMi ov Suvarai /ietix^iv ra^nx;' Beiai; yap 8^ toSto Suxa/tes); 
 
 ' cpyoK, riTif Ka] ToSe avvex^' to way.' Pollt. vii. 4. Yet he else- 
 where teaches, that the blessedness of the Deity consists in 
 intellect, rather than in action : for after excluding all the 
 actions, which are performed among men, as unsuitable to 
 his divine perfection, he asks — ' Ta S^ ^Sv-n, nv ispamtv 
 ' af^fiij/t,ivif, €T< Se fidXXov to3 iroiciv, Ti Xci'ireTosi, itXyjV Sfeuplai ; 
 ' utTte ii ToE ©eoS ivefyeia, /naKccpiOTiiTi itafifmira, ^eufi)tiKri Hv 
 
 • eS>i.' Nic. Eth. X. 8. 
 
 Pp. 119, 120. The question, often agitated, was not simply, 
 whether the soul of man be immortal, but also, whether it sur- 
 vive the body for a time, whether that be the case with the souls 
 of all men, or only with those of the great and distinguished, 
 and whether, if it continue to exist, it do not necessarily follow, 
 that its condition must be improved after death. 
 
 On the simple question of the immortality of the soul, as 
 has been already shewn, the minds of the ancient philosophers 
 were necessarilv much at a loss. 
 
262 
 
 This is the representation of the case by Cicero. ' Sunt, 
 ' qui discessum animi a corpore putent esse mortem. Sunt, 
 ' qui nullum censeant fieri discessum, sed una auimum et 
 ' corpus occidere, animumque cum corpore extingui. Qui 
 ' discedere animum censent, alii statim dissipari, alii diu per- 
 ' manere, alii semper. Harum sententiarum, quse vera sit, 
 ' Deus aliquis viderit! Quae verisimillima, magna qusestio 
 ' est.' Cic. Tusc. Qu. i. 18, 23. 
 
 Then there were some, who thought, that immortality, or 
 a continued existence of the soul for some time after death, 
 was the privilege of a few. Tacitus for example introduces 
 his fine apostrophe to Agricola, with this expression of doubt. 
 ' Si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore extinguuntur 
 ' magnse animse.' Tac. Agr. 46. Cicero also says of the 
 stoics — ' Stoici, diu mansuros aiunt animos, semper negant' — : 
 and he thus reports the opinions of ancient philosophers, 
 ' mortem non interitum esse, omnia toUentem atque delentem, 
 ' sed quandam quasi migrationem commutationemque vitae, 
 ■ quae in claris viris et foeminis dux in ccelum soleret esse, in 
 ' caeteris humi retineretur, et permaneret tamen.' Tusc. Qu. 
 i. 77, 27. 
 
 Those however, who held the immortality of the soul, held 
 also, that, except in the case of the worst of men, its condition 
 must be improved by death. Thus Cicero says again — ' Mors 
 ' aut meliorem, qnam qui in vita, aut certe non deteriorem 
 ' est allaturastatum.' Fragm. in Lact. iii. 19. — and again, — 
 ' M. Dasne, aut manere animos post mortem, aut morte 
 ' ipsa interire ? A. Do vero. M. Quid, si maneant ? A. 
 ' Beatos esse concedo. M. Si intereant ? A. Non esse mise- 
 ' ros, quoniam ne sintquidem.' Tusc. Qu. i. 25. — and lastly — 
 ' Mors aut plane neghgenda est, si omnino extinguit ani- 
 
263 
 
 ' munij aut etiam optanda, si aliquo eum deducit, ubi sit 
 ' futurus seternus. Atqui tertium certe nihil inveniri potest.' 
 De. Senect. 66. ' Nam, si supremus ille dies non extinctio- 
 ' nem, sed commutationem afFert loci, quid optabilius ? ' Tusc. 
 Qu. i. 117. 
 
 So far indeed did the idea prevail, that death, if it be 
 not an annihilation, must be an improvement of existence, 
 that many were tempted by it even to the commission of 
 suicide, as we are told in the following passage — 
 
 ' A malis igitur mors abducit, non a bonis, verum si quse- 
 ' rimus. Hoc quidem a Cyrenaico Hegesia sic copiose dispu- 
 ' tatur, ut is a rege, Ptolemseo, prohibitus esse dicatur ilia in 
 ' scholis dicere, quod multi, his auditis, mortem sibi ipsi con- 
 ' sciscerent.' Tusc. Qu. i. 83. 
 
 P. 120. When the question was asked by any heathen philoso- 
 pher — ' What is the chief good, or what the happiness of man ? ' — 
 the question was asked and answered with reference to the pre- 
 sent life exclusively. 
 
 Thus, even when the strongest statements were made, that 
 virtue alone was to be desired for its own sake, the meaning 
 was, that even in this life the dignity of our nature is best coji- 
 sulted by the promotion of virtue, and that the sufferings of a 
 good man are compensated not by a future revpard, but by 
 the present consciousness of integrity. 
 
 P. 120. Hence sprang the inquiry, so often made, and so 
 variously determined, whether any man can be pronounced happy 
 before his death. 
 
 Aristotle has a whole chapter, ^filled with the perplexities, 
 arising out of this question ; and he at length determines it 
 
264 
 
 thus. ' Ti oi/i' KaXiiei Xeyeiv ei/baijAova rov kut' afeTrjV zeXeiav 
 
 ptitia-ofxe^ov oStu, koi reXeuTi](ro*Ta Kara Xoyov ; eircjSi} to |«eX- 
 Xoi/ a^avES ^fiji/' t^v iitaijAOviavte Tiho^ Kai riXnov ti^ejAev itavT-g 
 icavTCix;. Ei 8' oiitw, //.aKaplovf fiev kpovfteu tuv ^wituv, 0T5 bicdp^ei 
 Ka) tiTcap^ei tA Xep^Srei/Toi, jMaKapi'sv? 8f, a{ avSrpdicov^.' Arist, 
 
 Nic. Eth. i. 10. 
 
 Solon on the other hand decides, that no one can be pro- 
 nounced happy till the end of life, because until that hour his 
 fortunes are incomplete. He even seems to make the happi- 
 ness of man to consist in external prosperity : for he repre- 
 sents the happy man thus — ' "Awtjpo? he eo-Tj, avova-o^, oma^ri^ 
 ' KaKuv, etiraif, eieiSij;. E> Se irpo; Toi/Toio-i cTi TfXcuTijcrei rov 
 ' j3/ov efi, oSro; oXj9i(i; KeKk'/jaBai a^ioi; etrri' •np'iv 8' av TeXeuTijo-j), 
 ' hitiaryfh, //.yjii Ka\c€iii ku oXJ3iov, aXX' eirv^ea,' Herodot. 
 
 Clio. 32. 
 
 Throughout all this discussion there is an absence of all 
 reference to a future state, as an element in the constitution of 
 human happiness. 
 
 P. 121. The principles of human virtue were founded on a 
 calculation of what is conducive to the welfare of society, to the 
 present interests of the human race, and not to the will of the 
 Deity. 
 
 This is a code of morals, which has been adopted into the 
 christian system by Paley, but with this important distinction, 
 that, acknowledging the will of the Deity to be the founda- 
 tion of human duty, he infers that will from the conduciveness 
 of any action to the welfar* of society. 
 
 Accordingly he lays down this position, as the foundation of 
 
265 
 
 his whole system. — ' The method of coming at the will of 
 
 • God concerning any action by the light of nature is to in- 
 ' quire into the tendency of the action to promote or diminish 
 ' the general happiness. This rule proceeds upon the pre- 
 ' sumption, that God almighty wills and wishes the happiness 
 ' of his creatures, and consequently, that those actions, which 
 ' promote that will and wish, milst be agreeable to him, and 
 ' the contrary.' Paley's Principles of moral and political phi- 
 losophy. Book ii. Ch. 4. p. 65. 
 
 Then with respect to what constitutes human happiness he 
 says — ' Any condition may be denominated happy, in which 
 ' the amount or aggregate of pleasure exceeds that of pain ; 
 ' and the degree of happiness depends upon the quantity of this 
 
 * excess : and the greatest quantity of it, ordinarily attainable 
 ' in human life, is what we mean by happiness, when we in- 
 ' quire or pronounce, what human happiness consists , in.' 
 Booki. Ch. 6. pp. 20, 21. 
 
 This indeed is proposed, as a method of coming at the will 
 of God by the light of nature, which may possibly appear 
 superfluous to those, who possess the light of revelation. But 
 then Paley observes, that ' the scriptures commonly presup- 
 ' pose in the persons, to whom they speak, a knowledge of 
 ' the principles of natural justice,' and therefore ' do not 
 ' supersede the use of the science, of which we profess to 
 ' treat.' Book i. Ch. iv. p. 8. He therefore tests scriptural 
 injunctions by the same method : for he says — ' The mis- 
 ■ chief of drunkenness, from which we are to compute the 
 ' guilt of it, consists in the following bad effects' — , Book iv. 
 ch. 2. p. 7., as if the guilt of disobeying a divine command 
 were not an evil in itself, but could be measured by the bad 
 effects, which we perceive to flow from disobedience. 
 
266 
 
 But an admirable confutation of the doctrine, that utility, 
 or condueiveness to the temporal interests of mankind, is the 
 measure of virtue, may be found in Butler's Dissertation on 
 Virtue, recently republished by Dr. Whewell at the end of 
 his three Sermons on human nature : nor need any thing be 
 added to the force and beauty of his conclusion. ' The hap- 
 ' piness of the world is the concern of him, who is the lord 
 ' and the proprietor of it ; nor do we know what we are about, 
 ' when we endeavor to promote the good of mankind in any 
 ' ways, but those, which he has directed.' p. 67. 
 
 P. 121. ' VFe are not born' (says a heathen moralist) 'for 
 ' ourselves alone, but for our families, and for our country.' 
 Cicero de Off. i. 22. 
 
 P. 151. Jn how many instances has this unity been incul- 
 cated, as if it conslkted merely in an external confederacy under 
 one earthly head / 
 
 The following is a description of church-unity by a bishop 
 and vicar apostolic of the pope. ' This original and great 
 ' church is, and ever has been one, first in her faith and terms 
 ' of communion. The catholics, if properly interrogated, will 
 ' confess their belief in one comprehensive article, namely this 
 ' — " I believe whatever the holy catholic church believes, 
 ' and teaches." Nor is it in her doctrine only, that the catho- 
 ' lie church is one and the same. She is also uniform in what- 
 ' ever is essential in her liturgy. Lastly a regular, uniform, 
 
 * ecclesiastical constitution and government, and a due subor- 
 
 * dination, are undeniably evident in the catholic church, and 
 ' in her alone. Each single catholic in point of ecclesiastical 
 ' oeconomy is subject to his pastor, each pastor submits to 
 
267 
 
 ' his bishop, and each bishop acknowledges the supremacy 
 ' of the successor of saint Peter." Milner's End of religious 
 controversy. L. 19. pp. 129 — 131. 
 
 P. 151. How often have we known the mere act of baptism 
 relied upon, as a sufficient test of discipleship, without due re- 
 gard to that work of the holy spirit, which alone constitutes a 
 true christian ! 
 
 The intricate questions, arising out of the practice of infant 
 baptism, do not fall within the compass of the present inquiry ; 
 which relates to the progressive work of sanctification, a work, 
 of which unconscious infants are incapable, though, if their 
 baptism is to avail them everlastingly, they must become the 
 willing subjects of it in due time. It is the doctrine however 
 of the Roman church, that the sacraments contain the grace, 
 which they signify : and therefore it enacts — 
 
 ' Siquis dixerit, per ipsa novse legis sacramenta ex opere 
 • operato non conferri gratiam, anathema sit !' Concilii Tri- 
 dentini canones et decreta. Sess. vii. De sacramentis. Can. 8. 
 
 P. 152. Have we not known these gracious promises tied 
 down to the literal and carnal expression of them ? 
 
 ' Semper hsec fides in ecclesia Dei fuit, statim post consecra- 
 ' tionem verum domini nostri corpus, verumque ejus sanguinem 
 ' sub panis et vini specie una cum ipsius anima et divinitate 
 ' existere, sed corpus quidem sub specie panis, et sanguinem 
 ' sub vini specie.' Cone. Trid. Sess. xiii. De eucharistia. 
 Cap. 3. 
 
 The profane use of this sacrament is indeed in some mea- 
 sure guarded against by a canon. 
 
 ' Ne tantum sacramentum indigne, atque ideo in mortem et 
 
268 
 
 ' condemnationem sumatur, statuit atque declarat ipsa sancta 
 ' synodus, illis, quos conscientia peccati mortalis gravat, quan- 
 ' tumcunque etiam se contritos existiment, habita copia confes- 
 ' sons, necessario prsemittendam esse confessionem sacramen- 
 ' talem.' Sess. xiii. De eucharistia. Can. 11. 
 
 Yet it will be seen, that this only relates to mortal sin, 
 and the application of the pretended sacrament of penance, 
 not to that habitual self-examination, which saint Paul repre- 
 sents, as the necessary and proper precursor to our eating of 
 that bread and drinking of that cup. 
 
 P. 153. How often do we find the mere succession from the 
 apostles insisted on, as the single and sufficient evidence of an 
 evangelical ministry ! 
 
 The catholic falls in with a number of very strong passages, 
 in which our blessed saviour, not content with promising a 
 continuance of his doctrines (that is to say the continued ob- 
 ligation of faith upon man), also pledges himself for their 
 actual preservation among them. He selects a certain body 
 of men. He invests them not merely with great authority, 
 but with power, equal to his own. He makes them a promise 
 of remaining with them, and teaching among them even to 
 the end of time. This succession and body of persons, con- 
 stituted to preserve those doctrines of faith, appointed, as the 
 successors of the apostles, having the guarantee of Christ 
 teaching among them for ever, is what he calls the church. 
 From the moment he is satisfied, that Christ has appointed 
 a succession of men, whose province it is by the aid of a 
 supernatural assistance to preserve inviolable those doctrines, 
 which Christ has delivered, from that moment whatever these 
 men teach is invested with that divine authority, which he 
 
269 
 
 had found in Christ through the evidence of his miracles. 
 Wiseman's Third Lecture. Pp. 63, 64. 
 
 P. 155. Another sacrifice has been instituted, and the ancient 
 superseded institution revived, called the sacrifice of the mass. 
 
 Fatemur, nullum aliud opus adeo sanctum ac divinum a 
 Christi fidelibus tractari posse quam hoc ipsum tremendum 
 mysterium, quo vivifica ilia hostia, qua Deo patri reconciliati 
 sumus, in altari per sacerdotes quotidie immolatur. Cone. 
 Trid. Sess. xxii. De celebratione missse Decretum. 
 
 P. 155. TTie Platonic doctrine of purgatory, and the Brahmi- 
 nical system of penance have been introduced into the church. 
 
 These are two methods of expiation for sin, to be under- 
 gone, one in this world, and one in another ; and, scripture 
 being altogether silent about either of them, they are rightly 
 traced to the original, here ascribed to them. ' There can be 
 ' no doubt' (says bishop Kaye in his Ecclesiastical History 
 of the second and third centuries, p. 348.,) ' that the notion 
 • of a purification, which is necessary to the soul, before it 
 ' can be admitted to the happiness of Heaven, is of Platonic 
 ■ origin.' The only difference is, that the purgatory of Plato 
 was to he undergone in a succession of penal transmigrations, till 
 the offences, which caused them, should be obliterated, and the 
 penance of the Brahmins is voluntary, whereas in the Romish 
 church the purgatory is more terrible, and the penance is 
 dictated by the priest. These fictions among a pagan com- 
 munity in the absence of better instruction might possibly 
 have an useful tendency. But in the christian church they 
 amount to a denial of the perfect atonement, which has been 
 wrought once for all by our gracious redeemer on the cross. 
 
270 
 
 P. 155, 156. Nor have men been unwilling to elevate the 
 christian priesthood into a character, with which the scriptures 
 have not invested it. 
 
 Sacrificium et sacerdotium ita Dei ordinatione conjuncta 
 sunt, ut utrumque in omnilege extiterit. Quum igitur in novo 
 testamento sanctum eucharistise sacrificium visibile ex Domini 
 institutione catholica ecclesia acceperit, fateri etiam oportet, in 
 ea novum esse visibile et externum sacerdotium. Cone. Trid. 
 Sess. xxiii. De ordine Cap. 1. 
 
 This deviation from the sobriety of scriptural truth began 
 early in the church ; and the frequent substitution of Upevi 
 for itpea-pvTepoi in the writings of the fathers is an indication 
 of it. How striking is the contrast between saint Paul's 
 description of the office and character of a bishop, from that 
 of Chrysostom ! 
 
 Ej ti? imiTKOii^i ipiyirat, KaKov epyov iirifyvi/,ei. AeT ovv riv 
 eirio'KO'jcov aveiriX'/jiTTtiu eivai, fjua^ yvvctiKoi; aytpa., vrj^dXioy, 
 aafpova, KOa'j/.iov, fiXo^evov, SiSaKTfKo'v, /*^ tiaponov, //.ri ttX^ktijv, 
 aXX' tVieiK?, aiA,ax<iv, aipikdpyvpov, toS iS/ou oikou KaXS^ ttpo'itTTajievov, 
 
 ft^, Tii^a&fJC, 6(« KpijAa 6fMrco»]T«S iiaBoXov. 1 Tim. ni. 1 — 6. 
 
 "OTaii Se eKKXTjO-laf mpaa-T'tivai Se'i), Koi ^v^Sv ewi/ieXeiaf 
 itunev^rinai too-ou'twv, itatra jt,sv ^ yvvaiKeia (piaii vapaxapeha 
 T^ jWeycS'ei Tov ttpa.yy-a.To^f Koi ayhpmy B« to irXeov' ay€a^ti)(ray 0£ 
 ei? [Aeiroy oi iroXXtp rip i/.itpf •nTi.foyeKTOvyre; dicavrav, Ka] too-ovtov 
 i^p'^XoTepoi ray aXXay Kara t^v t^; >f"'%^; oi/Tc; aper^y, ha-oy Toti 
 iiayrog eS:yovq 'Efipaiaiy Kara to toS <r«jWaT(i; fteye&o? o Saot^X, 
 fjiaXXov ie Ka) woXXp irXeoi/' j«^ yap jjloi jA.iy<iy vitepuiAia^ ivravSra 
 5»jTei'ir&w //.itpoy, aXX, Oaij icpoi ra aXoya -cav .XoyiKCjy dySrpaitay rj 
 dta^opaj TOcovTOVTov iroif/.€yo<; Kal ray TroiiJt-atyot/.€yci>v e^rra ro f/.€(royt 
 ha jA,)] Ka) itXEov T( eiTra. Chrysost. mep) icOsio-m''?? . lib. il. 
 
271 
 
 P. 156. That tissue of fraud and delusion, which makes the 
 intention of the priest of more value in the administration of 
 a sacrament than the faith of the communicant, 
 
 ' Siquis dixerit, in ministris, dum sacramenta conficiunt et 
 ■ conferunt, non requiri intentionem saltern faciendi quod facit 
 ' ecclesia, anathema sit ! ' Cone. Trid. Sess. vii. De sacra- 
 mentis in genere. Can. 11, And the awful consequence, 
 which results from it, is thus acknowledged by Bellarmine, 
 where he says concerning every communicant — ' Neque potest 
 ' certus esse certitudine fidei, se percipere verum sacramentum, 
 ' quum sacramentum sine intentione ministri non conficiatur, 
 • et intentionem alterius nemo videre possit.' Bellarm. Tertise 
 controversise generalis controversia secunda. Lib. iii. Cap. 8. 
 
 P. 156, 157. These exaggerated notions of the sanctity, ad- 
 hering to a particular profession, or to particular places, and 
 times, and forms, have led other persons by a natural recoil to 
 explode all forms. 
 
 The chief leaders among the puritans entertained a strong 
 aversion to the vestments, worn by the English clergy in the 
 celebration of divine worship. As these habits had been 
 made use of in the times of popery, and seemed to renew the 
 impressions, that had been made upon the people by the 
 Romish priests, they appeared to the puritans in no other 
 light than as the ensigns of Antichrist. Mosheim's Eccl. 
 Hist. Cent. xvi. Sect. 3. Part 2. ch. 2, 18. 
 
 They found moreover much subject of affliction and com- 
 plaint in the rites and ceremonies, that were imposed by the 
 order of the queen and the authority of her council. Among 
 these were the festivals or holidavs, that were celebrated in 
 
272 
 
 honour of the saints, the use of the sign of the cross, more 
 especially in the sacrament of baptism, the nominating god- 
 fathers and godmothers, as sureties for the education of 
 children, whose parents were still living, and the doctrine, 
 relating to the validity of lay-baptism. "With respect to set 
 forms of prayer, although they did not go so far as to insist 
 upon their being entirely abolished, yet they pleaded for a 
 right to every minister of modifying, correcting, and using 
 them in such a manner as might tend most to the advance- 
 ment of true piety, and of addressing the Deity in such 
 terms as were suggested by their inward feelings, instead 
 of those, that were dictated by others, ch. 19. 
 
 P. 157. To dissipate the substance of religion by diluting it 
 into a mere moral system without an atonement, without a divine 
 saviour, without a sanctifying spirit. 
 
 Scarcely had that happy revolution in the state of religion 
 taken place, when a set of men, fond of extremes, and conse- 
 quently disposed to look upon, as erroneous, whatever had 
 hitherto been taught and professed in the church of Rome, 
 began to undermine the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and the 
 other truths, that are connected with it, and proposed reduc- 
 ing the whole of religion to practical piety and virtue. 
 John Campanus, a native of Juliers, disseminated at Wittem- 
 berg and other places various tenets of an heretical aspect, 
 and taught among other things, that the Son was inferior to 
 the Father, and that the holy Ghost was not the title of a 
 divine person, but a denomination, used to denote the nature 
 of the Father, and of the Son. A doctrine of a similar kind 
 was propagated in the year 1530 in Switzerland, Augsburg, and 
 among the Grisons by a person, whose name was Clau- 
 
273 
 
 dius. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. xvi. Sect. 3. Part 2. Ch. 
 4,3. 
 
 P. 161. We find frauds and falsehoods, if committed for 
 pious ends, or holy purposes, to be not only tolerated, but de- 
 fended by many of the early fathers. 
 
 An elaborate defence of fraud,, when used for a righteous 
 purpose, is given by Chrysostom, to cover his own deceit 
 towards Basil, which finishes thus. 
 
 K6%^));Ke*o; aS(Ka{, ou% o /*£&' iyiovi yvtcfirii tovro iioiSv' Ka\ 
 iioX\akif awajijo-af Seoi/, Kai to, /jkiyiirra Sioj Ta^Tij? ufeKrjiTai tij? 
 
 airaTtj&evTa elpyatraro. Chrysost. iief) Ufiuirav'ljf, I. i. 
 
 P. 161. We too often find credit taken for pretended miracles, 
 and currency given to som£ of those legends, connected with the 
 relics of martyrs, which have since defaced the character of the 
 church. 
 
 I perceive in the language of the fathers, who lived in the 
 middle and end of the second century, something, which 
 betrays, if not a conviction, at least a suspicion, that the 
 power of working miracles was withdrawn, combined with 
 an anxiety to keep up a belief of its continuance in the 
 church. They aifirm in general terms, that miracles were 
 performed, but rarely' venture to produce an instance of a 
 particular miracle. Those, who followed them, were less 
 scrupulous, and proceeded to invent miracles, very different 
 indeed in circumstances and character from the miracles of the 
 gospel, yet readily believed by men, who were not disposed 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 nicely to examine into the evidence of facts, which they 
 wished to be true. Kaye's Eccl. Hist. Pp. 100, 102. 
 
 P. 161. The prayers of those, who had faced the danger of 
 martyrdom, or devoted themselves to the seclusion of a hermitage, 
 were thought of more efficacy than personal faith and repentance. 
 
 The veneration, that was paid to both martyrs and con- 
 fessors, became in process of time a support to superstition, 
 an incentive to enthusiasm, and a source of innumerable evils 
 and abuses. Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. 1. Part 1. Ch, 5. 10. 
 
 P. 161. The superstitious m^rit also, which was attached to 
 the act of baptism, led many who professed and called themselves 
 christians, to defer it till the end of life. 
 
 If indeed the bare act of baptism absolves the baptized 
 person from the guilt of all past sin, original and actual, it is 
 impossible to get rid of the consequence, that it is wise to 
 defer that act as long as it can be forborne with prudence, a 
 consequence, so contrary to the free command of the saviour 
 to go and baptize all nations as to discredit the principle, 
 which involves it. 
 
 P. 166. It is the accredited doctrine of that church, that man 
 may merit grace. 
 
 Siquis dixerit, hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona 
 Dei, ut non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita, autipsum 
 justificatum bonis operibus, quae ab eo per Dei gratiam et 
 Jesu Christi raeritum, cujus vivum membrum est. Sunt, non 
 vere mereri augmentum gratiae, vitam eeternam, et ipsius vitae 
 seternse, si tamen in gratia decesserit, consecutionem, atque 
 
275 
 
 etiam glorise augmentum, anathema sit ! Cone. Trid. Sess. 
 Ti. De Justificatione. Can. 32. 
 
 Pp. 166, 167. That the earthly governors of the church have 
 power to wield the prerogative of Heaven in the pardon of trans- 
 gression. 
 
 ' Dominus noster, Jesus Christus, e terris ascensurus ad 
 ' coelos, sacerdotes, sui ipsius vicarios, reliquit, tanquam prae- 
 ' sides et judices, ad quos omnia mortalia crimina deferantur, 
 ' in quae Christi fideles ceciderint, quo pro potestate clavium 
 ' remissionis aut retentionis peccatorum sententiam pronunti- 
 ' ent.' Cone. Trid. Sess. xiv. De poenitentia. Cap. 5. ' In 
 • articulo mortis omnes sacerdotes quoslibet poenitentes a qui- 
 ' busvis peceatis et eensuris absolvere possunt.' Cap. 7. 
 
 Such is the claim, asserted by the council. The following 
 is a recent exercise of it by the pope. ' Xeo, episcopus, servus 
 ' servorum Dei, universis Christi fidelibus, prsesentes literas in- 
 ' specturis, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Potuimus 
 ' nobis vobisque omnibus gratulari, advenisse annum benigni- 
 ' tatis Domini, annum magni jubilsei, quo infinitus ille thesaurus 
 ' meritorum salvatoris nostri et sanctorum ejus, nostrse dispen- 
 ' satioui divina miseratione concreditus, per nostyse humilitatis 
 ' ministerium iterum erat reserandus. Datum Romse apud 
 ' sanctum Petrum anno incarnationis dominicse 1845, 8vo 
 ' calendas Januari, pontificatus nostri tertio.' 
 
 P. 167. That justification is not a boon, granted to a penitent 
 sinner, hut a benefit, to be earned by intrinsic holiness of life, or 
 instead of that by conformity to the rules of the church. 
 
 Justificatio ipsa non est sola peccatorum remissio, sed et 
 sanctificatio et renovatio interioris hominis per voluntariam 
 
 T 2 
 
276 
 
 susceptionem gratise et donorum, unde homo ex injusto fit 
 Justus, et ex inimico amicus, ut sit hseres secundum spem 
 ■vitse seternae. Cone. Trid. Sess. De justificatione vi. Cap. 7. 
 
 P. 167. Some even among ourselves have countenanced several 
 of these errors. 
 
 Their very first aggression must be upon that strange con- 
 geries of notions and practices, of which the Lutheran doctrine 
 of justification is the origin and representative. Whether any 
 heresy has ever infested the church, so hateful and unchris- 
 tian as this doctrine, it is perhaps unnecessary to determine. 
 None certainly has ever prevailed, so subtle, and extensively 
 poisonous. British Critic. No. 64. p. 390. 
 
 After baptism there is no plenary pardon of sins in this life 
 to the sinner, however penitent, such as in baptism was once 
 vouchsafed to him. Granting, that a certain, fixed, temporal 
 penalty attached to every act of sin, in such case it would be 
 conceivable, that as the multitude of christians did not discharge 
 their total debt in this life, so some extraordinary holy men 
 might more than discharge it. Such are the prophets, apostles, 
 martyrs, ascetics, and the like, who have committed few sins, 
 and have undergone extreme labours and sufferings, voluntary 
 or involuntary. This being supposed, the question rises, 
 what becomes of the overplus : and then there seems a fit- 
 ness, that what is not needed for themselves should avail for 
 their brethren, who are still debtors. Tracts for the Times. 
 No. 79. 
 
 Union of the whole church under one visible government 
 is abstractedly the most perfect state. British Critic. No. 59. 
 p. 2. 
 
 The power of making the body and blood of Christ is 
 
277 
 
 vested in the successors of the apostles. Froude's Remains 
 V. 1. p. 326. 
 
 There is both continually recurring sacrifice, and human 
 priesthood under the gospel. British critic. No. 62. p. 277. 
 
 The mysterious virtue, the transforming, invigorating effi- 
 cacy, which the natural elements acquire through the act of 
 consecration. British critic. No 59, p. 39. 
 
 Is it not quite a conceivable hypothesis, to say the very least, 
 that holy and mortified men, whose conversation was in Hea- 
 ven, may have entertained feelings of devotion and love, ex- 
 eraph gratia towards the blessed virgin, which no human 
 language can at all adequately express, and yet, that their 
 feeling towards our lord should be altogether different in 
 kind, and indefinitely stronger in degree ? British Critic. 
 No. 64. pp. 410, 411. 
 
 P. 1 78. The readiness to substitute a correct apprehension of 
 the doctrine of justification hy faith for the actual life of a chris- 
 tian. 
 
 Nothing can more painfully illustrate the difficulties, which 
 our fallen nature encounters in the cultivation of a religious 
 life, than the fact, that, while some persons are prevented from 
 pursuing it by a want of knowledge, the very possession of that 
 knowledge seems to be an impediment to others. As the Jew 
 rested in the possession of the law without being led by it, so 
 many christians, having discovered the way of life, are con- 
 tented with that discovery, and pursue it no further. It is im- 
 possible to conceive a more painful contrast than that of the 
 restless earnestness and laborious search, with which some 
 persons, who are troubled in conscience, will devote their whole 
 time and faculties and property to the discovery of the truth. 
 
278 
 
 with the unconcern and apathy, which is too often manifested, 
 where the truth has been long known and familiar. This is 
 very much what the apostles complain of, when they so often 
 press those, who have the Ught, to walk in it. Gal. v. 25; 
 Eph. V. 8. 1 Thess. v. 5, 6. 1 John i. 6, 7 ; ii. 8—11. The 
 change from darkness to light is so great, that those, who have 
 reached it, are tempted to think, that no further danger is to 
 be apprehended, although they ought to know, that the light 
 is only given them, that by walking in it they may avoid the 
 dangers, and attain the blessedness, which the light of truth 
 discovers. The late Mr. Alexander Knox appears to have 
 been so impressed with this distinction, that he insists on the 
 necessity of two different classes of ministers, one to enlighten, 
 another to establish, one to awaken, and another to guide, 
 the two processes being aUke necessary to the complete salva- 
 tion of a sinner. Perhaps, perceiving the second process to 
 be the most neglected, and yet the most essential to a con- 
 verted man, he may have given a greater prominence to it in 
 writings, intended chiefly for the use of persons, who possessed 
 the light, and were desirous to walk in it, than he would have 
 done in addressing the unconverted. But I cannot think him 
 justly amenable to the censure, passed on him by Mr. Gar- 
 bett, where he says — ' The vvev/iariKvi o/iefj? is quite dormant, 
 ' till awakened by grace. In the philosophical system of Mr. 
 ' Alexander Knox that fine intellect assigned too prominent a 
 ' place to the same faculty in the natural mind.' Bampton 
 Lectures. Prel. L. 2. V. 1. Pp. 107, 108. ; and again in 
 reference to the sentiment, that the blood of Christ is his 
 obedience, he says — ' There is too great an approach to this 
 ' mode of speaking, and apparently of thinking, in Mr. Alex- 
 ' ander Knox's works.' P. 1 14. 
 
279 
 
 The point, which Knox has labored with so much earnest- 
 ness, though occasionally perhaps with some degree of hyper- 
 criticism, according to the disposition to refine, which character- 
 izes all his writings, appears to me a matter of first importance 
 to the true notion of practical Christianity ; and it is one cause 
 of the lax notions and defective practice of some well-disposed 
 christians, that they are led, not avowedly perhaps, but prac- 
 tically to believe all, that is necessary to their salvation, to have 
 been already done for them, or, if any thing further is neces- 
 sary to be wrought in them, that it will infallibly be wrought 
 before the consummation of their destiny at the last day, and 
 that they have only to wait for it with patience. Now it is 
 clear, that saint Paul himself, though christian peace was pos- 
 sessed by him as eminently as by any other mortal, yet was 
 never satisfied even with his own great attainments, but pressed 
 eagerly forward, as if his actual salvation depended upon his 
 making still greater progress in grace than he had hitherto 
 reached, and as if a failure in that object of pursuit would 
 even involve his becoming a castaway. The real work of 
 faith is rehance not only on what Christ has already done for 
 us all on the cross, but on his readiness also to do all the 
 remainder, and to form in us, even while on Earth, that 
 divine image and likeness, which sin has obliterated, pro- 
 gressively indeed, and therefore for a time imperfectly, if we 
 will only come to him for it in the way of his appointment, 
 and follow his promised guidance. It is hereunto, that saint 
 Paul labore.d in behalf both of himself and others, striving 
 according to his working, who wrought in him mightily. This 
 was that, which required so much wisdom in him, to present 
 every man perfect in Christ Jesus, because Christ, formed in 
 them, constituted their personal hope of glory : and thus it 
 
280 
 
 becomes every christian, who would fulfil all the good pleasure 
 of his lord's goodness, and the work of faith with power, 2 
 Thess. i. 1.1., to watch from day to day his remaining corrup- 
 tions, not with faintheartedness, as if he doubted his lord's 
 graciousness and power, but with firm confidence, that, while 
 he yields to his direction, he, who has begun a good work in 
 him, will perform it unto the end, that so, advancing from 
 faith to faith, and from grace to grace, he may have the wit- 
 ness in himself, that he believeth in the son of God unto life 
 everlasting. With these feelings he will be earnest in his 
 christian course, desiring to add to his faith virtue, and every 
 other quality, which may adorn his calling, and assure his 
 heart before God : and it is the want of this perception of what 
 is necessary to be done on our part, after obtaining the light 
 of salvation, that occasions the languor of christians, and 
 the confidence, with which men rely on the blood of Christ, 
 without laboring to bring forth fruit, and to ripen in 
 christian grace. The attainment of imputed righteousness 
 is the commencement of the christian course. The attainment 
 of inherent righteousness should be the incessant object of 
 our subsequent pursuit and hope. If Christianity had its per- 
 fect work, the christian church would present a very difi'erent 
 aspect from what it doe's, and would stand out in brighter 
 colours and bolder relief from the world around. Its labour 
 of love would be sustained by a principle of self-denial 
 and self-government ; and the description of the Thessalonian 
 converts would be more generally applicable—' Your faith 
 • groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all 
 ' toward each other aboundeth.' 2 Thess. i. 3. 
 
 P. 183. How is it possible, thai we should carry into effect 
 
281 
 
 this, or any other evangelical precept, while we remain in doubt, 
 whether our sins are indeed blotted out ? 
 
 Bellarmine denies the possibility, or at least the safety of 
 such a conviction as this, because it implies a certainty of our 
 own grace; and he contends, 'non expedire, ut homines babeant 
 ' ordinarie certitudinem de propria gratia : ' for which position 
 he produces the following authorities and reasons. ' S. Gre- 
 ' gorius scribit, lib. 9. moralium, cap. 17. — " Si scimus, nos 
 " gratiam habere, superbimus," — , et ipse Dominus, Luc. 18. 
 ' per parabolam phariseei et publicani ostendit, eos, qui se 
 ' justos esse confidunt, facile se cseteris anteponere, eosque 
 ■ despicere. " Non sum " (aiunt) " sicut cseteri hominum, 
 " velut hie publicanus." Contra autemignoratio huj us seereti 
 ' humilitatem conservat, et auget.' Tertise Controversise Gen. 
 ' Con. ii. prima, de justificatione impii. 1. iii. c. 8. 
 
 But the comdction, here referred to, rests not on a persua- 
 sion of our own grace, but on a belief of the Lord's covenanted 
 mercy. He has proclaimed an universal amnesty for human 
 offences ; and we come, to lay claim to it. This implies, not 
 that we have any desert, by which we may lay claim to the 
 amnesty. It impUes on the contrary a sense of our guilt, 
 because otherwise we should have no need to apply for it. 
 Neither can it lead us to despise others, because the same 
 mercy, which is offered to us, is offered to all. The only dif- 
 ference is, that we feel our need of it, which many do not ; 
 and therefore surely our conviction is more favorable to 
 humility than theirs. The very point, the distinctive and 
 characteristic feature in our lord's description of the pharisee, 
 is, that he despises others ; which it is impossible, that we 
 should do, while we only believe in our lord's mercy, but not 
 in our own fitness for it. Our conviction is, not that he re- 
 
282 
 
 ceives us in particular, but that he receives every one, who 
 comes to him ; and this persuasion is essential to our coming 
 to him with that thankful, humble, confiding spirit, which lays 
 hold of his promises, and makes them the foundation of a 
 renewed life and conversation. 
 
 P. 191. We find the apostle, Paul, himself lamenting, that 
 there was still sin in his members. 
 
 In the passage, here referred to, from the seventh chapter to 
 the Romans, saint Paul is by many understood to speak not 
 in his own person, but in the assumed character of a carnal, or 
 unconverted man. The apostle appears to me to have guarded 
 his language against that construction by the introduction of 
 the words, a^To; iyu, in the last clause of it ; in addition to 
 which the following statements, which occur in the course of 
 his argument, seem to be quite inconsistent with that hypo- 
 thesis. ' To will that, which is good, is present with me. I 
 ' would do good. I delight in the law of God in the inward 
 ' man. With the mind I serve the law of God.' This is not 
 the language of an unconverted man ; and the profession 
 throughout is of the same character, being that of a man, 
 who knew what was right, and strove to follow it, but found a 
 countervailing principle in that corrupt nature, which he in 
 common vrith all of us inherited from Adam, and which con- 
 tinually thwarted those better inclinations, which were im- 
 planted in him by the grace of God. Hence he constantly 
 speaks of himself, not only here, but in other epistles, as 
 maintaining a warfare, following after what he had not yet 
 attained, and attributing all his successes to Christ, dwelling 
 in him, just as he here attributes his failure to sin, dwelling in 
 him, till at last, when he could say — ' I have finished my 
 
283 
 
 ' course,' — he was enabled to say also — ' I have fought a good 
 ' fight.' It may be objected to this exposition, that he him- 
 self says at the beginning of the passage — ' I am carnal ' — , 
 an assertion, which may be thought as incompatible with a 
 state of grace, as those, which I have before quoted, are with 
 a state of unconverted nature. But the purest christian is 
 still carnal in part ; every human being is one, who has been 
 sold, TCinfa.jA.ivo^, under sin ; and the apostle limits his confession 
 to the depraved appetites of his original nature, as contra- 
 distinguished from those, in which he served the law of God, 
 by the parenthetical phrase — ' In me (that is in my flesh) 
 ' dwelleth no good thing.' In fact, though he felt the motions 
 of the flesh, warring in his members against the law of his 
 mind, yet this latter was the law, which he deliberately fol- 
 lowed ; and therefore, with whatever impediments from within, 
 he still walked, he still determined his course, and made pro- 
 gress in it, not after the flesh, but after the spirit. 
 
 P. 199. That process is indeed most justly called hy Scougal 
 the life of God in the soul of man, and by Horsley the mysteri-' 
 ous commerce of the believer's soul with the divine spirit. 
 
 The former phrase is the title of a valuable tract, published 
 by the Society for promoting christian knowledge. The lat- 
 ter occurs amidst an enumeration of some of the peculiar 
 doctrines of revelation, ia a Charge, delivered to the clergy of 
 the diocese of St. David's in 1790. 
 
 THE END. 
 
PBINTBD BY 
 
 L. Seeley, Thames Ditton, Surrey.