^A-" (Rmmll Winivmit^ yilr«g BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME | PROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND | THE GIFT OF Henrg M. SaQ^ | 1891 ..1^1. A...x.d:./.;^..a Cornell University Library BR45 .B21 1806 Sermons preached before the University o olin 3 1924 029 180 657 III Cornell University Library The original of tliis bool< is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029180657 SERMONS PREACHED BEFOKE THE UNIVERSITY- OF OXFORD, IN TriE YEAR MDCCCVI. AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN ^MPTON, M, A. LATE CANON OF'^ALISBUrV. BY JOHN BROWNE, M. A. iATE FELLOW OF C. C. C. OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR: Sold by J. Paekeb, Oxford; and F. C. and J. Rivikgton, Londo*. I8O9. EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE LATK REV. JOHN BAMPTON, , CANON , OF SALISBURY I give and bequeath my Lands and f Eftates to the Chancellor, Mafl-ers, and Scholars "of the Univerfity of Oxford for ever, ta have *' and to hold all and lingular the faid Lands or •' Eftates upon truft, and to the intents and pur- *' pofes hereinafter mentioned; that is to fay, I *' will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of " the Univerfity of Oxford for the time being Ihall *' take and receive all the rents, iffues, and pro- •' fits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and *' neceflary deductions made) that he pay all the " remainder to the endowment of eight Divinity *' Lefture Sermons, to be eftablifhed for ever in *' the faid Univerfity, and to be performed in the *' manner following : " I diretfl and appoint, that, .uj^om the firft "Tuefday in Eafter Term, a Ledliwei be yearly " chofen [ xlv ] " chofen by the Heads of Colleges oftly, and by " no others, in the room adjoining to the Print- " ing-Houfe, Ipetween the hours of ten in the " morning and twd in the afternoon, to preach " eight Divinity Ledlure Sermons, the year fol- *' lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the " corrimencement of the lafl; month iriXentTerm, " and the end of the third week in Aft Term. " Alfo'I diredl and;appoirit, thaf^tjie eight Di- " vinity Lefture Sermons fliall be preached upon " either of the following Subjedls^ — to confirm *' and eftablifh the Chriftian Faith, and to con- " futb all heretics and fchi|fmatics-^— upoa the di- »' vine Authority of the holy Scriptvjres — upon " the authority of the writings of the primitiy.e ■♦« Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the pri- " ipitivre jChurch — upon the Divinity of our "Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift-^upon the JUi- •* viiiity of the Holy, Ghoft— upon the Articles '*« of the Chriftian Faith, as comprehended in the " Apoftles' and Nicene Creeds. *' Aifo I diredl, that thirty copies of the eight "Divinity Lefture Sermons fhall be always *' printed, within two months after they are •' predched, and one copy fliall be given to the " Chancellor of the Univeriity, and one copy to " the Head of every College, and one copy to the "Mayor of the city of Oxford, and pne copy to " be piat into the Bodkian Library j and the ex- > • "pence C XV 3 " pence of printing them fliall be paid out of the " revenue of the Land or Eftates given for efta- *' blifhing the Divinity Ledture Sermons ; and " the Preacher fliall not be paid> nor be entitled " to the revenue, before they are printed. " Alfo I direft and appoint, that no perfon <* fhall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec- " ture SermonSj unlefs he hath taken the Degree " of Mafter of Arts at leaft, in one of the two " Univerfities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that ^« the fame perfon fliall never preach the Divi- '^ nity Lefture Sermons twice." ADVERTISEMENT. Much and fevere illnefs is the only apo- logy which the Author has to offer for the late appearance of thefe Ledures : but he is juftly apprehenlive that the fame apo- logy will not be admitted for the imperfect ftate in which they are now prefented t® the public. SERMON I. Rev. i. 8. / am Alpha and. Omega, the beginning and the ending, faith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almightj. J. HESE words have been ufually produced as a llriking and irrefragable proof of the eternity, and confequentlj the divinity of the perfon of Jefus Chrift. They are evi- dently fpoken by him, and of himfelf, and their meaning is fo obvious, and at the fame tinle fo direct to this point, that every dif- paffionate and unprejudiced enquirer mull, on reading them, feel their force, and acqui- efce in their teftimony. " I cannot forbear " recording it," fays a dilTenting Divine, eminent for his candour and erudition, "that " this; text has done more than any other in B " the a SERMON I. " the Bible towards preventing me from " giving into that fcheme which would " make our Lord Jefus Chrifl: no more than " a deified creature." Indeed it is difficult to conceive how any religious fyfl;em, which derogates from the eternal glory and god- head of our blefl^ed Redeemer, can ftand for a moment before fo plain and authoritative a declaration of holy Scripture. The Soci- nian writers have in general either avoided taking any notice of the palTage at all ; or, when it has been urged againfl; them, have refufed to underfland it in its moft literal and legitimate fenfe, but have attempted to fix a new meaning upon it, lefs contradic- tory to their own preconceived opinionis ; and fome few, more adventurous than their fellows, have gone the daring length of de- nying the genuinenefs of the book in which it is to be found. Again, they are ufed to denote the infinite duration of the kingdom of Chrifl:, confi- dered in his peculiar charader of the Re- deemer of mankind. All power over this world, together with the inhabitants there- of, was given to him, whilfl: it exifled only as SERMON I. 3 as an idea (fo to fpeak) in the Divine mind, and he will continue to exert this power to all eternity. The context more particularlj points to that tremendous exercife of the kingly authority of Chrift, when he fliall come in his glory to judge the world/at the laft day. The text is therefore a preparatory declaration of his ability in that day to re- ward his faithful fubje(3;s, and to punifli the difobedient and rebellious. Thirdly, thefe words have been made ufe of to illuftrate the general uniformity and conliftence of the Divine government. Chrifl the power, the wifdom, and the goodnefs of God, is from everlafting to ever- lalling. Thefe ^attributes have been invari- ably exercifed fince the beginning of the world for the improvement and the happi- nefs of mankind ; in a vvay moll confiftent with themfelves, moft fuitable to the pecu- liar circumftances of the human race, and moft conducive to the furtherance of the purpofes of God, when he firft called man into exiftence. Whatfoever is done on earth, he doeth it himfelf. All his dealings with his creatures, however various they B 2 might 4 SERMON I. might be in their manner and circumftances, yet as proceeding from him " who changeth " not," who is " Alpha and Omega, the be- " ginning and the ending," are referable to one fixed and immutable principle, and di- reded to the fame beneficial end. He was in the Patriarchal and Mofaic revelations; he i^ in the Chrifliian ; he will he in every future difpenfation of grace and mercy to the final confummation of all things. Thefe three feveral applications of this in- terefting paffage are neither contradidlory to, nor indeed much different from> one an- other. They eafily unite, and flow towards the fame point. For if we believe in the' eternity of the perfon of Jefus Chrifl:, it will readily follow, that his kingdom alfo over his creatures endureth for ever, and that the government of his kingdom is ever uniform and confiflent, as being adminiftered bv that unchangeable Wifdom, which feeth and knoweth all things, to which the pafl: and the future are as the prefent; by that Good- nefs which has an univerfe for its fphere of adion, and that Power which nothing in heaven or in earth can withftand. When SERMON I. 5 When we furvey the works of God in the vilible creation, our attention is immediately and forcibly arrefted by the vaft v.ariety of fcenes which nature prefents to our view. We behold matter, infinitely diverfified as to form, and endued with various powers, from man, who connedls the material with the fpiritual world, down to that clafs of beings which indifl:in6lly marks the tranlition from ahimal to vegetable life. On obferving, more accurately the feveral fundlions of the differ- ent orders of creatures, we perceive them all harmonizing to one great end, the general good of the whole ; an end which demon- ftrates that all things are ordered by an infi- nitely wife Intelligence. Thus we fee the wifdom of the Creator exhibited in various manners ; its appearances are diverfified, but it is the diverfity of wifdom. Amid the end- lefs variety of the Creator's works, the dif- ferent manners in which he has treated the feveral objects of his creation, the different ■powers with which he has entrufted them, and the different laws by which he has willed their energies to be reflirained — every thing is adminiftered accordiiig to the mofi: B 3 per- 6 SERMON I. perfect otder and confiftency : the harmony of his operations is never for a moment in- terrupted ; and, however diflimilar in other relpedls, bear equally imprefled upon them the ftamp of perfed: and infinite wifdom. So that whilft we exclaim with the Pfalmiflr, " O Lord, how manifold are thy works !" we are conftrained with him alfo to ac- knowledge, " in wifdom hall thou made ^' them all," The fame uniformity of wifdom, in as great a diverfity of operation, mull alfo cha- rafterize the Divine government, when ex- ercifed over the moral and political world. But the conclufion in this cafe does not open upon us fo ealily and diredlly as in the other : the means by w^hich we arrive at it are lefs obvious and certain ; and our con- virion is frequently lefs obvious and com- plete. The eye of the common oblerver may take in the beauty and order of the vi- lible creation, and remark the traces of a wife and benevolent defign fo evident in every part of it. Thefe are palpable things ; they Hand prominent, and force themfelves upon the notice of the moll hally and fuper" ficial SERMON I. 7 ficial enquirer. That a defign equally wife and benevolent ad-uates the moral govern- ment of Gqd, it were a want of pietj to doubt : but this is in general only difcover- able by long and painful inveftigation : it is feen lefs clearly and diflinftly : in fome cafes and, by many comprehenfions it is not dif- coverable at all : and though we conclude that " the Lord is righteous in all his ways, " and holy in all his works," yet in fuch in- ft9,nees the conclulion is drawn rather from the analogy of the natural world, than from any fa6ls difcoverable by us in the moral. Here, to the unenlightened peafon of man, the greatell irregulai Jes and diforders will ap- pear to prevail. We fhall difcover, upon a curfory and confined view, very little of that harmony, and order, and conliftence, which we are enjoined to connedl with all the ope- rations of the will and power of God. On the contrary, the hifiory of mankind pre- fents, with a continued picture of conflict and confufion, an unceafing repetition of ftruggle and oppolition between principles apparently heterogeneous anfi hoftile. -We behold empires rifing intq height and fplen- B 4 dor. 8 SERMON I. dor, and again iinking into decay and ruin : " like waves in the ocean, they fucceffively " rife and difappear ; one for a moment lifts " up its head and towers above the reft, but " 'is fuddenly overwhelmed and abforbed by " the fuperior force of another, which per- " haps ftays but for a Ihort time, then falls, " and is feen no more." And all this, to mortal views, appears neither to proceed from adequate caufes, nor to have any ob- vious tendency to ends worthy of the wif- doih and goodnefs of Him who made and who governs the univerfe. At fome particular periods, more Special- ly thofe which it is the province of ancient hiftory to defcribe, the political ftate of the world feems to be haftily verging to an uni- verfal monarchy : but thefe mighty empires, which threaten to fwallow up all the reft, are fuddenly broken to pieces themfelves ; and thefe- changes are feldom or never ef- fected without great and lignal defolation, nor ufually unaccompanied with heavy and lafting calamities : and the common reader, on furveying the fcene of havoc and deftruc- tion which the hiftory of mankind prefents him SERxMON I.^ 9 him with, the crimes which feem to be al- moft neceffary to the eredion of great and ex tenlive empires, and the evils which for a time at lead are the copfequences of their difmemberment, will be inclined to confider the world, inftead of being govern€d and di- rected by a fupreme Intelligence, as being left rather to become the fport of the paf- lions and caprices of men. And as in the revolutions of ftates and empires, fo in the lefs prominent and lefs ftri king features of the hiftory of mankind, a diftribution ^equally if not more confufed and irregular is apparent. We continually mark the progrefs apd .the triumph of evil, we regret the late appearance, and, to our feeble comprehenfion, the fcanty difpenfa- tion of good; and, in Ihort, whoever furveys with merely hutnan eyes the confufions and diforders of which the hiftory as w^ll as the life of man is fo full, will be fometimes tempted to imagine either that the Deity is infenfible to the miferies of his creatures, or, like the gods of Epicurus, he is totally indif- ferent to their moral condudl. We read that Alphonfo X. of Caftile, who was lo SERMON I. was a prince much addided to the, ftudy of aftronomy, at a time when the true fyftem of the heavens was not at all underllood, found himfelf fo much embarrafled by the endlefs complications of the Ptolomaic Al- magell, and fo little able to reconcile the many contradictions between that and the vilible order of the heavenly motions, that he prefumptuoufly declared, " had the Al- " mighty confulted him before he laid the " foundations of the univerfe, he could have " taught him a much more limple and con- *• venient mode of conllrudiion." The child- ilh arrogance and daring impiety of this fpeech are fufficiently evident and difguft^ ing : and yet when men take upon them- felves to arraign the moral government of God, on account of fome irregularities and diforders which they feem to have difco- vered both in the manner and the meafure of his dealings with mankind, their prefump- tion will be found hardly inferior to that of Alphonfo. He blindly transferred to the works of God thofe perplexities and contra- diftions which were alone chargeable upon his own imperfed views, and the erroneous fyftem SERMON I. II fyftem which then prevailed, and continued to prevail for a conliderable time afterwards. Had he lived in times more favourable to the growth and cultivation of every branch of natural fcience, and had he been able to furvey the Simplicity and order of this part of the Almighty's works, as they are ex- plained in a more excellent fyftem, it is but common charity to hope that fo daring a fentiment would never have efcaped his lips, nor had place for a moment in his thoughts ; that he w^ould have been as pious and as humble, as he certainly fhewed himfelf to be prefumptuous and profane. And in like manner it requires the illumination of re- vealed wifdom to enable men to take in all the excellence and beauty of the moral dis- tributions of God ; otherwife they will ap- pear to them as confufed and diforderly as the Ptolomaic conftru6lion of the heavens did to him. From the earli'eft- periods of time, when the human mind, abftra<3:ed from the imme- diate cares and concerns of life, began to in- veftigate theological queftions,^thefe appa- rent irregularities and'diibrders in the moral govern- 12 SERMON I. government of God have occafioned much perplexity and error. The common expe- rience of men could not but alTure them both of the exiftence and of the extensive prevalence of evil. The original idea of an almighty Creator had been handed down to them by tradition ; and to this it was eafy and natural for them to add the ideas of fu- preme goodnefs and wifdom. But they could not look around them without obferv- ing a diftribution more irregular than they could well conned: with thofe ideas. Nor were they at any time without fome no- tions, however vague and unrefined, of the eflential and necefTary difference of human actions, and of the unalterable obligation to do good, and to abllain from doing evil : and hence they were obvioufly led to hope that a correfponding difference would be made in the diftribution of worldly pains and pleafures, according to the different cha- rader of men's moral condudt. But, on the contrary, they obferved the good and the evil things of life to be indifcriminately fcat- tered about without any dired and imme- diate .reference to the merits or demerits of thofe SERMON I. 13 V tliofe to whofe lot they fell : the rudeft and moft hafty fketch they could draw of human life, fliewed them virtue languifliing in a dungeon, and vice wantoning in the lap of profperity, or feated on the throne of power. Mankind were as yet too much children in underftanding to connect a wide and com- prehenfive furvey of the purpofes and ope- rations of God : their attention was confined to the objects immediately before them, and according to the complexion of thefe, with- out going any farther, their conclufions were determined. It would have been to very little purpofe to tell them, that the evils obfervable in the general appointment of worldly things were fuch in appearance only; that they were mercies in difguile, and that they were intended and really calcu- lated to produce a greater portion of good than could, according to the eftablilhed or- der of things, have been produded in any other manner. Such a doctrine would hard- ly have been intelligible to them ; the evils of which they complained were immediate and fenlible, but the good was remote and indiftind. From their notions of a future HSLtC, 14 SERMON I. jftate, if any fuch they had, they might have concluded, that fuch a ftate was intended to redify the diforders arid irregularities of the prefent ; to reward the fufFerings of virtue upon the earth, and to punifti the excefles of vice. But Hill this did not efteftually re- move every uneafy icruple of the Ipecula- tive enquirer; and, to be completely fatisfied, he had to learn a leflbn which the mind of man was not then fufEciently ftrengthened to bear, the expedience and neceffity of thefe feeming evils, their conformity to the wifdom of God, and their ftrid; fubfervience to the eternal purpofes of his gbodnefs. " Shall a man receive good at the hands " of God, and fliall he not receive evil alfo ?" was the pious exclamation of the fuffering and patient Job. But this topic of confola- tion, taken by itfelf, is defective, inafmuch as it is drawn from the power only of God, without applying to his other attributes of wifdom and goodnefs, which are equally ef'- fential to his nature, and equally if not more interefting to our comforts. Knowing as we do the immenfe diftance at which we are placed from our Almighty Creator, and our SERMON L 15 our nothingnefs in his eyefight, we are con- llrained to acquiefce in any exercife of that unlimited power which he poffefles over his creatures. " Shall a man contend with God, " or the fon of man, which is but dufl: and " allies, Hand before him ?" By fuch reafon- ing, founded only upon one attribute of the divine Being, his power, and their utter ina- bility to withftand it, men may learn to prad:ile relignation, a fuUcn and Stoical re- fignation to thofe operations of the Divine will which interrupt or interfere with their own earthly gratifications. But how differ^- ent from fuch a difpofition is the pious and grateful reSgnation of the Chriftian under affliftioris. Living at a more mature period of the human intelledl, and having his mind enlightened by the cheering fplendor of a more excellent fyftem of religious know- ledge, he can difcern the wifdom and the goodnels of God, conftantly and invariably attending the works of his power: Being given to know thoroughly the nature and intention of his prefent ftate of exiftence, he readily fubmits himfetf to every trial with which his Almighty Father fhall fee fit to vifit i6 SERMON I. vifit him. He endures afflidions with firm- nefs, yea even with cheerfulnefs, as well knowing the wife and gracious purpofes for which thefe affli6liQns are fent unto him ; to wean him from a world which is not to be his reft, but to Which he is by nature and habit too much attached ; to purify his mind from all grofs and fenfual affedlions ; to quicken in him thofe graces which are the peculiar ornaments of the Chriftian cha- racter, and to call into vigorous adlion the many excellent virtues which alone can ren- der him a worthy inhabitant of thofe blefled regions, where pain and forrow Ihall be re- membered no more, and where "this his " light affliction, which is but for a moment, " fliall work out for him a far more exceed- " ing and eternal weight of glory." The diforders and irregularities apparent in the moral government of the world, whether affeCling the fortunes of ftates or the condition of individuals, were obferved before th^ey could be clearly explained or fa- tisfaClorily accounted for. The unaffifted reafon of men could not account for them conliftently with the idea of one fupremely power- SERMON r. 17 powerful, wife and good Being. They ob- ferved in their own minds a continued ilniggle and conteft between good and evil principles, and transferred that idea to the univerfe. And hence arofe the llrange and degrading dodrine of two powerful and in- dependent Beings, who feparately exercifed their contradictory influence over the natu- ral and moral world ; the one the author of order and happinefs to the human race, the other delighting to promote confufion and unhappinefs. In the earlier ages of the world, and during the infantine imbecihty of the powers of the human mind, we are not furprifed that fuch an expedient Ihould be reforted to. The idea was the moll ob- vious, perhaps, of any which could then prefent itfelf to them upon the fnbje6l ; and it feemed, according to the narrow views they had as yet been able to take of the di- vine operations, to offer the readieft folution of a difficulty with which they had begun to be embarrafled. That it Ihould have been adopted by men in after ages, whom expe- rience had fupplied with a larger liock of materials to work upon, who had fuch infi- c nitely i8 SERMON I. nitely greater adrantages from the more ex- panded ftate of the mental faculties, and who had been admitted^ to behold the mani- fold wifdom of God in the Gofpel of his Son, is a circumftance much more extraor- dinary, and much lefs excufable. But this fcheme, like all other attempts to explain, on human principles, the nature, attributes, and government of God, intro- duces greater difficulties than thofe which it ' pretends to folve. This is no place to com* bat at large a doctrine fo often and fo ably refuted. Suffice it to obferve, l . that it was derogating from the perfe6lions of the Di- vine Being, to fuppofe that there was any power independent of his dominion, capable of difturbing his counfels and impeding his operations. Such a doftfine mull neceflarily tend to weaken the reverence of the pious believer, and to deftroy the confidence which he repofes in the powerful proted;ion of his heavenly Creator ^ it mull therefore, if adopted, have an unfavourable elFed; upon his moral charadter, and confequently it cannot be true. Again, it bears a contradic- tion upon the face of it ; and, 3. it is con- futed SE^RMON I. 19 "fUted by the order of the natural world, We fee there an apparent conteft between good and evil : but the evil never predomi- nates ; it is only an inftrument in the han4 of God for the promotion of the general good ; and by its agency thus diredled is the yfual courfe of the world maintained, The defolating ftorms of winter prepare the way for the niore fruitful feafons of the year : in fhort, every natural evil is more than counterbalanced by j-lts ponfequent pro- duidion of good ; like the difcords in a mu- fiical compolition, which are only fo far dif- tinguifhable, as they heighten the generaj effedl, and render it more gratifying an4 complete. The inference then is obvious : if God fo dired the viciffitudes of the natu- ral world, as that they fliall ferve to the continual advantage of his creatures, how much more muft his power, be thus benefi- cially exefcifed in dire6ling the revolutions of the moral and politicsl WPrW ! This is q. point indeed, as we have ihen already, not fo eafily afcertained as the other; but when-^ ever it can be afcertained, in ever fo few in- ftances, and even with an inferior dggree of c 2 cer- 20 SERMON I. certainty), we cannot but feel an increafe of reverence and gratitude towards the Al- mighty Governor of all things. For though every a6t of Omnipotence is performed with equal facility, and the Almighty can call an univerfe into exiftence, as eafily as he can affign its proper place and office to the fmallell particle of matter, yet to human ap- prehenlion the power and the wifdom of God will appear to be much more wonder- faWy difplayed in cauling the different views> the jarring interefts, and the difcord- ant paffions of men to work together to ef- fe6l his eternal purpofes, than in governing the inanimate or the brute creation. That the wifdom and the goodnefs of, God have been thus continually employed lince the creation of the world, that they will be thus employed as long as the world endureth, is an awful and important truth, which Revelation, and Revelation alone, could have unfolded to us. This is the only key which opens to us the internal fprings that govern the great machine of the uni- verfe ; and this to the candid and impartial reafoner furnilhes no mean argument of its authority SERMON I. 21 authority and divine origin. When we ex- amine the hiftoiy of the world without a reference to the purpofes of God, as they are to be colletfted from Revelation, we per- ceive nothing but a confufed heap of events, interefting perhaps to thq Ipeculative poli- tician, who loyes to inveftigate the ifnmedi- ate caufes of the rife and fall of empires, but which prefent not the progrefs of any regu- lar and uniform plan for the amelioration of mankind, nor any well-connejSled view of the purpofes of that Being who created the^ world, and whofe power is therefore con- ceived to be continually employed in pro- moting its welfare and improvement. The heathen hillorians, whom we admire fo much and fo juftly for the beauty and brilliancy of their language, the acutenefs of their reniarks, the profundity of their re- flections, and the accurate minutenefs with which they have iavefligated the fources of national prolperity and greatnefs, or the caufes which more or lefs directly contri- buted to the downfall of Hates and kit^- doms,, yet prefent us with no views of this fort. It is the work of man which they de- c 3 fcribe. 24 SERMON I. fcribe, and not the work of God ; the ope- ration of human caufes and for human pur- pofes, and not the agency of divine wifdom and power for the general benefit of man- kind. Their details may be ufeful in a hu- man point of view, as we may learn from them what modeM)f human condud; has mod frequently contributed to the advance- ment of nations, and what have been, the ufual immediate occaliohs of their downfall ; and as long as human nature continues in its prefent ftate, the inftrumentality of thefe will ever be the fame. But we mull guided by the light of Revelation, are enabled to difcei'n, in all their diverfities of form and manner, a conflant and uniform reference to one great end, worthy of the wifdojn and benevolence of the Moll High. Indeed it will not be furpriling if, after all our re- fearches, there fhould be fome difficulties which we are not yet enabled to folve, and fome links of the golden chain fufpended from his footllool, which are Hill invifible to us, SERMON I. 27 us, and will continue to be fo till we Ihall be admitted into his prefence> and ftiall fee and know him even as we are known. But we fhall be able to difcover enough to know that his opferations are always in harmony with his perfections, and to learn a cheerful and pious fubmiffion to every difpenfation of his j)rovidence. ' In the vail field of the hiftory of God's dealing^ with his creatures, amid the count- lefs variety of objen^s which are there pre- fented to our view, there are fome which claim a more particular attention, on ac- count of their more immediate connection with the prefervation and eftablilhment of true religion ; and to exhibit thefe in their connexion with, and their fubferviency to, fuch an exalted and benevolent purpofe, will be the bulinefs of the following Lec- tures.' ' - The Almighty haS made ufe of a vaTiety of means f6r the effecting of this purpofe : but that variety is the variety of wifdom, and ftriCtly reconcileabte with the uni- fortuity of his defign ; which was by no hafty a8 SERMON I. hafty and extraordinary methods, by no vio- lations of the order of things which he had previoufly ellabhfhed, but by continued dif- cipline, and through progreffive llages of improvement, to lead the human race gra- dually forward to the great end of their cre- ation : and the Ipiritual nutriment with which he fupplied them was varied, accord- ing as they advanced from the weaknefs of childhood to the ftrength and ftature of the full-grown man. Accordingly as he ad- drefled his people at fundry times, fo we read that it was alfo in divers manners, fuit- able to the progreffive ftate of their moral and intelled:ual faculties at each particular period. And hence we obferve a very great and flriking difference in the doctrines which he revealed to his people in different ages, in the moral duties which he prefcribed to them, in the mode of worfhip which he ex- acted of them, and in the evidences on which their belief in him was to be founded : and it would be no very difficult tafk to prove, that in every inflance the means which he made ufe of were in their kind and SERMON I. 29 and in their degree moil fitted to produce the effed; intended, agreeably to the original plan by which all his dealings with his crea- tures appear to have been governed. It is evidently requifite that fpeculative truths Ihould be proportioned to the facul- ties of thofe by whom they are enjoined ; and that modes of conduct Ihould have a fi- milar adaptation to the moral powers of thofe to whom they are enjoined. This is a rule which is never violated in any part of the divine difpenfations, Chriftians under the Gofpel have more fublime do6lrines re- vealed to them than any that are to be found in the Patriarchal or Molaic fyflems ; they are farther advanced in the fcale of in- telled;ual improvement : and if we are re- quired to make greater facrifices of worldly inclination than were exafted of the ancient people of God, let it be remembered, that the Golpel holds out more animating mo- tives to our obedience, and promifes us much higher and nobler rewards, than they either knew or could duly ellimate. The frequent and familiar intercourle which the Patriarchs appear to have had with 30 . SERMON I. with their Maker, and the copious detail and minute fpecification of duties enjoined to the IfraeHtes, have been the occalion of much farcaftic remark and profane derifion to the unbeUever, who has negledred to con- lider the many exigences of human nature at that early period, the pecuHar charadler of the people to whom thefe revelations were made, and the extenlive purpofes of benevolence to be anfwered by them. Infidel writers feem in general to have fallen into the miftake, that mankind in the earlier ages of the world were upon the fame level, in point of intellectual ftrengthi with their defcendants in thefe latter times, without conlidering the advantages which thefe mull have over the former, in confe- quence of long experience, and a variety of other caufes. Were they jullified in flich a fuppofition, their objedions to many parts of the Bible hiftory would have a degree of force not eafy to be withftood. But when we have learned that there has been an in- fancy of the fpecies analogous to that of the individuals of whom it is compofed, and that the infancy of human Nature required a dif- SERMON I. 31 a different mode of treatment from that which was fuitable to its advanced flate, all cawfe of- obJ€