♦o. ©'^5>36. PRINCETON. N. J.' - . AhDltON ALKXAmn-R MHIURV ♦ I . wiMcl. was p,fse„tod bv ■^% V Y/ V ■ -^ Ar 3r /i3S' \^ N LECTURES ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. MATTHEW DELIVERED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, WESTMINSTER, IN THE YEARS 1798, 1799, 1800, AND 1801. BV THE RIGHT REVEREND BEILBY PORTEUS, D. D. ^ BISHOP OF LONDON. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. LONDON : • PRINTED FOR SMITH AND ELDER, FENCHURCH STREET, * ** 1823. f LONDON : Printed by D. S. Maurice, Fenchurcli Street. PREFACE At the time when the following Lectures were first begun, the poUtical, moral, and religious state of this kingdom, wore a very unfavourable aspect, and excited no small degree of uneasiness and alarm in every serious and reflecting mind. The enemies of this country were almost every where triumphant abroad, and its still more formi- dable enemies at home were indefatigably active in their endeavours to diffuse the poison of dis- affection, infidehty, and a contempt of the holy scriptures, through every part of the kingdom, more especially among the lower orders of the people, by the most offensive and impious publi- cations ; while at the same time it must be ac- knowledged, that among too many of the higher classes, there prevailed, in the midst of all our dis- tresses, a spirit of dissipation, profusion, and vo- luptuous gaiety, ill suited to the gloominess of our situation, and ill calculated to secure to us the protection of Heaven against the various dangers that menaced us on every side. Under these circumstances, it seemed to be the duty of every IV PREFACE. friend to religion, morality, good order, and good government, and more especially of the ministers of the gospel, to exert every power and every talent with which God had blessed thern, in order to counteract the baneful effects of those pesti- lential writings which every day issued from the press ; to give some check to the growing relax- ation of public manners ; to state plainly and forcibly the evidences of our faith, and the genuine doctrines of our religion, the true principles of submission to our lawful governors, the mode of conduct in every relation of life which the gospel prescribes to us ; and to vindicate the truth, dig- nity, and divine authority of the sacred writings. All this, after much deliberation, I conceived could in no other way be so effectually done as by having recourse to those writings themselves, by going back to the very fountain of truth and holiness, and by drawing from that sacred source the proofs of. its own celestial origin, and all the evangelical virtues springing from it, and branch- ing out into the various duties of civil, social, and domestic life. The result was, that I resolved on discharging my share of these weighty obligations, by giving Lectures on the gospel of St. Matthew, in my own parish church of St. James, Westminster, every Friday in Lent; which, at the same time that it promoted my principal object, might also draw a little more attention to that holy but too much neglected season, which our Church has PREFACE. very judiciously set apart for the purpose of retire- ment and recollection, and of giving some little pause and respite to the ceaseless occupations and amusements of a busy and a thoughtless world. I foresaw, however, many difficulties in the under- taking, particularly in drawing together any con- siderable number of people to a place of pubUc worship, for any length of time, on a common day of the week. But it pleased God to bless the attempt with a degree of success far beyond every thing I could have expected or imagined. And as I have been assured that several even of those amongst my audience, that disbelieved or doubted the truth of Christianity, were impressed with a more favourable opinion both of its evidences and its doctrines, and with a higher veneration for the sacred writings than they had before entertained, I am willing to flatter myself that similar impres- sions may possibly be made on some of that de- scription, who may chance to cast their eyes on these pages : and that they may also tend in some degree to confirm the faith and invigorate the good resolutions of many sincere believers in the gospel. With this hope I now offer them to the world, and particularly to those whom Providence has placed under my more immediate superintendence, and to whom I am desirous to bequeath this (perhaps) last public testimony of my solicitude for their ever- lasting welfare. And whatever errors, imperfec- tions, or accidental repetitions (arising from the recurrence of the same subjects in tlie sacred nar- b Vi PREFACE. rative) the critical reader may discover in this work ; he will, I trust, be disposed to think them entitled to some degree of indulgence, when he reflects that it was not a very easy task to adapt either the matter or the language of such discourses as these to the various characters, conditions, cir- cumstances, capacities, and wants of all those different ranks of people to whom they were addressed ; and when he is also told, that these Lectures were drawn up at a very advanced period of life, and not in the ease and tranquilhty of Hte- rary retirement, but at short broken intervals of time, such as could be stolen from the incessant occupations of an arduous and laborious station, which would not admit of sufficient leisure for profound research or finished composition. LIFE OF BISHOP PORTEUS. This great and truly pious prelate, whose exemplary conduct, in the station he adorned, may be held up for the imitation of future bishops, was born at York, on the 8th of May, 1731. His parents were natives of Virginia, in North America, and both descended from good families. His mother's name was Jennings ; she was said to be distantly related to Sarah Jennings, the wife of John Duke of Marlborough : her father. Colonel Jennings, was the first of the family who settled in Virginia, and for some time acted as deputy-governor of the colony. Mr. Porteus, after having been several years at school at York, was placed at Rippon, under Mr. Hyde ; and at an earlier age than is usually the case now, was sent to Christ's College, Cambridge, and admitted a Sizar, where he soon distinguished himself by his proficiency in classical learning. In 1752, he took his Bachelor's degree, and became a successful candidate for one of the gold medals distributed as the reward of classical literature, insti- tuted by the Duke of Newcastle. On the 14th of March, 1753, he was chosen one of the esquire beadles of the university; an office he resigned on the 3rd July, Vlll LIFE OF BISHOP PORTEUS. 1755, and that year took the degree of Master of Arts. About this thne he was chosen fellow of his college, and became a resident at Cambridge. At the age of twenty-six he took orders, and was ordained deacon at Buckden, in^l757, by Dr. Thomas, then Bishop of Lincoln. On his return to the university in 1759, he was the successful candidate for the Seaton prize. The subject of the poem was " Death," which, per- haps, the recent demise of his father had rendered congenial with his feelings. It exhibits proofs that, with due cultivation, he might have claimed the honours due to a genuine poet. In 1762, he was presented to the rectory of Wittersham, in Kent, by Archbishop Seeker, v/ho at the same time appointed him one of liis domestic chaplains, when he quitted college to reside at Lambeth. In March 1764, he was presented by the Archbishop to the rectory of Rucking in Kent, and in October re- ceived from the same patron a prebend in the Cathe- dral Church of Peterborough. On the 13th of May, 1765, he was married by the Archbishop, to Margaret, eldest daughtej" of Brian Hodgson, Esquire, of Ash- bourne in Derbyshire, and in the course of the same year he was presented to the rectory of Hunton. On the 7th July, 1767, the degree of Doctor in Divinity was conferred on him, and in August, on the death of Dr. Denne, he became rector of Lambeth, with which he also held the rectory of Hunton. In August 1768, he lost his patron. Archbishop Seeker, who by his will entrusted to him, and his other chaplain Dr. Stinton, the revision and publication of his Lectures on the Catechism, his Manuscript Sermons, &c. This trust was executed in a very satisfactory manner; and, pre- fixed to the sermons published in 1770, was a very LIJFE OF BISHOP PORTEUS. IX excellent account of the venerable and deservedly esteemed author. In 1769, he had the honour of bemg appointed cliap- lain to his Majesty; and in 1773, he succeeded Dr. John Hoadley in the mastership of the hospital olSt. Cross, near Winchester, an option of Archbisaop Seeker. At length the time arrived when our amhor was to be elevated to the episcopal bench. Onjthe advancement of Dr. Markham, in January 1777, to' the see of York, Dr. Porteus, by the interposition of|the Queen, was promoted to the see of Chester, from whjnce in November, 1787, on the death of Dr. Lowth, he was advanced to the see of London ; and on the 23jd of April, 1789, in obedience to the king's express com- mand, he preached at St. Paul's on the day of thaiks- giving for his majesty's recovery. In February 1798, he commenced these admirable Lectures, which have now been before the public nearly a quarter of a century ; and which, for beauty of sen- timent, justness of reasoning, and strength of argument, cannot be surpassed. They have, through the divine blessing, tended more during that time to the advance- ment and stability of our Christian faith, than any work of the kind ever published. The man who can rise from a careful perusal of these Lectures without being convinced of the great truths of our religion, the divinity of our blessed Saviour, is an infidel indeed. The laudable anxiety evinced by the public of all ranks to attend their delivery, must have been truly gratifying to their amiable author ; particularly when convinced that his labours had not been in vain, but were the means of bringing many of his hearers to a just knowledge of those great truths he so zealously nculcated. X LIFE OF BISHOP PORTEUS. This truly Christian prelate, after acquitting himself of all the duties of his station, and leading a most ex- emplary life, expired at his palace, at Fulham, with- out a pang or a sigh, on the 13th of May, 1809; and, in obedience to his express directions, his corpse was removed to Sundridge, and there interred in a vault in the church-yard. 7he bishop was under the middle size, of a thin and a sfender frame, and in his youth is supposed to have beei very handsome. In politics he constantly voted witi Mr. Pitt, though his religious sentiments were always tolerant. The great feature of his character was benevolence, prompt, active, universal benevo- lence, founded upon the principles of the Christian religion. Though he was a sound churchman, he was not a, bigot; he loved good men of all persuasions, and wou.d often express his full conviction of meeting them in that world where the distinction of churchman and dissenter will be no more known. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. Feb. 23, 1798. Page. A Compendious View of the Sacred Writings 1 LECTURE IL March 2, 1798. Matthew ii. — The Arrival and Offerings of the Wise Men at Bethle- hem 18 LECTURE IIL March 9, 1798. Matthew m.— History and Doctrines of John the Baptist. . . 36 LECTURE IV. March 16, 1798. Matthew iv.— Former FatL— Temptation of Christ in the Wilder- ness 54 LECTURE V. March 23, 1798. Matthew iv.— Latter 'Pan.— Choice of the Apostles. Beginning of Miracles 71 LECTURE VI. March 30, 1798. Matthew v. — Our Lord's Sermon on the Mount 88 LECTURE VII. Feb. 8, 1799. Matthew vi. and vu.— Continuation of the Sermon on the Mount. 110 LECTURE VIII. Fee. 15, 1799. Matthew \ni.~Conduct and Character of the Roman Centurion. 130 LECTURE IX. Feb. 22, 1799. Matthew X. — Our Lord' s Instructions to his Apostles .... 145 LECTURE X. March 1, 1799. Matthew xii. — Observations of the Sabbath; Demoniacs; Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost 163 LECTURE XL— March 8, 1799. Matthew xnl— Nature and Use of Parables .182 LECTURE XH. March 15, 1799. Matthew xiii. contimied.^Parable of the Sower explained . . 196 CONTENTS. LECTURE XIII. Feb. 28, 1800. Pa^e. Matthew xiii. con^tttwed. — Parable of the Tares explained . . 215 LECTURE XIV. March 7, 1800. Matthew xiv. — History of Herod and Herodias. Death of John the Baptist 240 LECTURE XV. March 14, 1800. Matthew xvii. — The Transfiguration of Christ 261 LECTURE XVI. March 21, 1800. Matthew xviii. — Making our Brother to offend. Parable of the un- forgiving Servant 280 LECTURE XVIL March 28, 1800. Matthew xix. — The Means of attaining Eternal Life. Difficulty of a Rich Man entering into the Kingdom of Heaven .... 304 LECTURE XVIII. April 4, 1800. Matthew xxii. — Parable of the Marriage Feast. Insidious Questions put to Christ. The Two great Cemmandments .... 323 LECTURE XIX. Feb. 20, 1801. Matthew xxiv. — Our Lord's Prediction of the Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem 348 LECTURE XX. Feb. 27, 1801. Matthew xxiv. xxv. — Farther Remarks on the same Prophecy. Para- bles of the Ten Virgins and of the Talents. Day of Judge- ment 370 LECTURE XXI. March 6, 1801. Matthew xxvi. — Institution of the Lord's Supper. Our Lord's Agony in the Garden. Betrayed by Judas. Carried before the High Priest 391 LECTURE XXII. March 13, 1801. Matthew xxvii. — -Christ carried before Pilate ; tried; condemned; and crucified 414 LECTURE XXIII. March 20, 1801. Matthew xxvii. xxviii. — Doctrine of Redemption. Burial and Resur- rection of our Blessed Lord 435 LECTURE XXIV. March 27, 1801. Matthew xxviii. — The Mysteries of Christianity. Conclusion of the Gospel of St. Matthew, and of the Lectures 474 LECTURES. LECTURE I. It being my intention to give from this place, on the Fridays during Lent, a course of Lectures, explanatory and practical, on such parts of scripture as seem to me best calculated to inform the understandings, and affect the hearts of those that hear me, I shall proceed, without further preface, to the execution of a design, in which edification not entertainment, usefulness not novelty, are the objects I have in view ; and in which, therefore, I may sometimes perhaps avail myself of the labours of others, when they appear to me better calculated to answer my purpose than any thing I am myself capable of producing. Although my observations will for the present be confined entirely to the gospel of St. Matthew, and only to certain select parts even of that, yet it may not be improper or unprofitable to introduce these Lectures by a compendious view of the principal con- f tents of those writings which go under the general name of the Holy Scriptures. < That book which we call the Bible (that is, the LECTURE I. Book, by way of eminence) although it is comprised in one volume, yet in fact comprehends a great num- ber of different narratives and compositions, written at different times, by different persons, in different lan- guages, and on different subjects. And taking the whole of the collection together, it is an unquestion- able truth that there is no one book extant, in any lan- guage, or in any country, which can in any degree be compared with it for antiquity, for authority, for the importance, the dignity, the variety, and the curiosity of the matter it contains. It begins with that great and stupendous event, of all others the earliest and most interesting to the hu- man race, the creation of this world, of the heavens and the earth, of the celestial luminaries, of man, and all the inferior animals, the herbs of the field, the sea and its inhabitants. All this it describes with a bre- vity and sublimity well suited to the magnitude of the subject, to the dignity of the Almighty Artificer, and unequalled by any other writer. The same wonderful scene is represented by a Roman poet*, who has evi- dently drawn his materials from the narrative of Moses. But though his description is finely imagined and elegantly wrought up, and embellished with much poetical ornament, yet in true simplicity and grandeur, both of sentiment and of diction, he falls far short of the sacred Historian. Let there be light: and THERE WAS LIGHT; is an instance of the sublime, which stands to this day unrivalled in any human composition. But what is of infinitely greater moment, this history of the creation has settled for ever that most important question, which the ancient sages were never able to * Ovid. LECTURE I. 3 decide ; from whence and from what causes this world, with all its inhabitants and appendages, drew its origin ; whether from some inexplicable necessity, from a for- tuitous concourse of atoms, from an eternal series of causes and effects, or from one supreme, intelligent, self-existing Being, the author of all things, himself without beginning and without end. To this last cause the inspired historian has ascribed the formation of this system ; and by so doing has established that great principle and foundation of all religion and all mora^- lity, and the great source of comfort to every human being, the existence of one God, the creator and preser- ver of the world, and the watchful superintendent of all the creatures that he has made. The sacred history next sets before us the primae- val happiness of our first parents in Paradise ; their fall from this blissful state by the wilful transgression of their Maker's command ; the fatal effects of this original violation of duty ; the universal wickedness and corruption it gradually introduced among mankind ; and the signal and tremendous punishment of that wickedness by the Deluge ; the certainty of which is acknowledged by the most ancient writers, and very evident traces of which are to be found at this day in various parts of the globe. It then relates the peo- pling of the world again by the family of Noah ; the covenant entered into by God with that patriarch ; the relapse of mankind into wickedness; the calling of Abraham ; and the choice of one family and people, the Israelites (or, as they were afterwards called, the Jews) who were separated from the rest of the world to preserve the knowledge and the worship of a Supreme Being, and the great fundamental doctrine of the Unity ; while all the rest of mankind, even the wisest B 2 4 LECTURE I. and most learned, were devoted to polytheism and idolatry, and the grossest and most abominable su- perstitions. It then gives us the history of this peo- ple, with their various migrations, revolutions, and principal transactions. It recounts theirremoval from the Land of Canaan, and their establishment in ^gypt under Joseph : whose history is related in a manner so natural, so interesting, and affecting, that it is impos- sible for any man of common sensibility to read it without the strongest emotions of tenderness and de- light. In the book of Exodus, we have the deliverance of this people from their bondage in ^Egypt, by a series of the most astonishing miracles ; and their travels through the wilderness for forty years under the con- duct of Moses ; during which time (besides many other rules and directions for their moral conduct) they received the Ten Commandments, written on two ta- bles of stone by the finger of God himself, and deli- vered by him to Moses with the most awful and tre- mendous solemnity ; containing a code of moral law, infinitely superior to any thing known to the rest of mankind in those rude and barbarous ages. The books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuterono- my, are chiefly occupied with the various other laws, institutions, and regulations, given to this people, re- specting their civil government, their moral conduct, their religious duties, and their ceremonial obser- vances. Among these, the book of Deuteronomy (which concludes what is called the Pentateuch, or five books of Moses) is distinguished above all the rest by a con- cise and striking recapitulation of the innumerable blessings and mercies which they had received from LECTURE I. 5 God since their departure from Horeb ; by strong ex- postulations on their past rebellious conduct, and their shameful ingratitude for all these distinguishing marks of the divine favour ; by many forcible and pa- thetic exhortations to repentance and obedience in fu- ture ; by promises of the most substantial rewards, if they returned to their duty ; and by denunciations of the severest punishments, if they continued disobe- dient : and all this delivered in a strain of the most animated, sublime, and commanding eloquence. The historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, continue the history of the Jewish nation under their leaders, judges, and kings, for near a thousand years ; and one of the most pro- minent and instructive parts of this history is the ac- count given of the life and reign of Solomon, his wealth, his power, and all the glories of his reign; more particularly that noble proof he gave of his piety and munificence, by the construction of that truly magnificent temple which bore his name ; the solemn and splendid dedication of this temple to the service of God; and that inimitable prayer which he then offered up to Heaven in the presence of the whole Jewish people ; a prayer evidently coming from the heart, sublime, simple, nervous, and pathetic ; exhibit- ing the justest and the warmest sentiments of piety, the most exalted conceptions of the divine nature, and every way equal to the sanctity, the dignity, and the solemnity of the occasion. Next to these follow the books of Ezra and Nehe- miah, which contain the history of the Jews for a con- siderable period of time after their return from a cap- tivity of seventy years in Babylon, about which time the name of Jews seems first to have been applied to 6 LECTURE T. them. The books of Ruth and Esther are a kind of appendage to the public records, delineating the cha- racters of two very amiable individuals, distinguished by their virtues, and the very interesting incidents v^hich befel them, the one in private, the other in pub- lic life, and which were in some degree connected with the honour and prosperity of the nation to which they belonged. In the book of Job we have the history of a person- age of high rank, of remote antiquity, and extraordi- nary virtues ; rendered remarkable by uncommon vi- cissitudes of fortune, by the most splendid prosperity at one time, by an accumulation of the heaviest cala- mities at another ; conducting himself under the for- mer with moderation, uprightness, and unbounded kindness to the poor ; and under the latter, with the most exemplary patience and resignation to the will of Heaven. The composition is throughout the greater part highly poetical and figurative, and exhibits the no- blest representations of the Supreme Being and a su- perintending Providence, together with the most ad- mirable lessons of fortitude and submission to the will of God under the severest afflictions that can befal human nature. The Psalms, which follow this book, are full of such exalted strains of piety and devotion, such beautiful and animated descriptions of the power, the wisdom, the mercy, the goodness of God, that it is impossible for any one to read them without feeling his heart inflamed with the most ardent affection to- wards the great Creator and Governor of the universe. The Proverbs of Solomon, which come next in order, contain a variety of very excellent maxims of wisdom, and invaluable rules of life, which have no where been exceeded, except in the New Testament. LECTURE I. They afford us, as they profess to do at their very first outset, " the mstruction of wisdom, justice, judge- ment, and equity. They give sub til ty to the simple ; to the young man, knov^ledge and discretion." The same may be said of the greater part of the book of Ecclesiastes, v^hich also teaches us to form a just estimate of this M^orld, and its seeming advantages of wealth, honour, power, pleasure, and science. The prophetical writings present us with the wor- thiest and most exalted ideas of the Almighty, the justest and purest notions of piety and virtue, theaw- fullest denunciations against wickedness of every kind, public and private ; the most affectionate expostula- tions, the most inviting promises, and the warmest concern for the public good. And besides all this, they contain a series of predictions relating to our Blessed Lord, in which all the remarkable circum- stances of his birth, life, ministry, miracles, doctrines, sufferings, and death, are foretold in so minute and exact a manner (more particularly in the prophecy of Isaiah) that you would almost think they were de- scribing all these things after they had happened, if you did not know that these prophecies were confessedly written many hundred years before Christ came into the world, and were all that time in the possession of the Jews, who were the mortal enemies of Christianity, and therefore would never go about to forge prophecies, which most evidently prove him to be what he professed to be, and what they denied him to be, the Messiah and the Son of God. It is to this part of scripture that our Lord particularly directs our attention, when he says, ** Search the scriptures ; for they are they that testify of me*." The testimony he alludes to is that of the pro- * John V. 39. 8 LECTURE I. phets ; than which no evidence can be more satisfactory and convincing to any one that reads them with care and impartiality, and compares their predictions concerning our Saviour with the history of his life, given us by those who constantly lived and conversed with him. This history we have in the New Testament, in that part of it which goes by the name of the Gospels, It is these that recount those wonderful and impor- tant events, with which the Christian religion and the Divine Author of it were introduced into the world, and which have produced so great a change in the principles, the manners, the morals, and the temporal as well as the spiritual condition of mankind. They relate the first appearance of Christ upon earth ; his extraordinary and miraculous birth; the testimony borne to him by his forerunner John the Baptist ; his temptation in the wilderness ; the opening of his di- vine commission ; the pure, the perfect, the sublime morality which he taught, especially in his inimitable sermon from the Mount; the infinite superiority which he showed to every other moral teacher, both in the matter and manner of his discourses : more particu- larly by crushing vice in its very cradle, in the first risings of wicked desires and propensities in the heart; by giving a decided preference of the mild, gentle, passive, conciliating virtues, to that violent, vindictive, high-spirited, unforgiving temper, which has been always too much the favourite character of the world ; by requiring us to forgive our very enemies, and to do good to them that hate us; by excluding from our devotions, our alms, and all our other virtues, all re- gard to fame, reputation, and applause; by laying down two great general principles of morality, love to LECTURE I. y God and love to mankind, and deducing from thence every other human duty ; by conveying his instruc- tions under the easy, familiar, and impressive form of parables, by expressing himself in a tone of dignity and authority unknown before ; by exemplifying every virtue that he taught in his own unblemished and per- fect life and conversation ; and, above all, by adding those awful sanctions, which he alone, of all moral instructors, had the power to hold out, eternal rewards to the virtuous, and eternal punishments to the wicked. The sacred narrative then represents to us the high character he assumed ; the claim he made to a divine original ; the wonderful miracles he wrought in proof of his divinity ; the various prophecies which plainly marked him out as the Messiah, the great deliverer of the Jews ; the declarations he made, that he came to offer himself a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind ; the cruel indignities, sufferings, and persecutions, to which, in consequence of this great design, he was exposed ; the accomplishment of it by the painful and ignominious death to which he submitted; by his resurrection after three days from the grave ; by his ascension into heaven ; by his sitting there at the right hand of God, and performing the office of a mediator and an intercessor for the sinful sons of men, till he comes a second time in his glory to sit in judgement on all mankind, and decide their final doom of happi- ness or misery for ever. These are the momentous, the interesting truths, on which the Gospels principally dwell. The Acts of the Apostles continue the history of our religion after our Lord's ascension : the astonish- ing and rapid propagation of it by a few illiterate tent- makers and fishermen, through almost every part of 10 LECTURE I. the world, '* by demonstration of the spirit and of power;" without the aid of eloquence or of force, and in opposition to all the authority, all the power, and all the influence, of the opulent and the great. The Epistles, that is, the letters addressed by the Apostles and their associates to different churches and to particular individuals, contain many admirable rules and directions to the primitive converts ; many affect- ing exhortations, expostulations, and reproofs ; many explanations and illustrations of the doctrines delivered by our Lord; together with constant references to facts, circumstances, and events recorded in the gos- pels and the Acts ; in which we perceive such strik- ing, yet evidently such unpremeditated and undesigned coincidences and agreements between the narratives and the epistles, as form one most conclusive argu- ment for the truth, authenticity, and genuineness of both*. The sacred volume concludes with the Revelation of St. John, which, under the form of visions, and vari- ous symbolical representations, presents to us a pro- phetic history of the Christian religion in future times, and the various changes, vicissitudes, and re- volutions it was to undergo in different ages and countries, to the end of the worldf. Is it possible now to conceive a nobler, a more com- prehensive, a more useful scheme of instruction than this ; in which the uniformity and variety, so happily * See the Horae Paulinie of Dr. Paley. t A fuller and more detailed account of the contents of the several Books of Scripture may be found in Mr. Gray's Key to the Old Testament, Bp. Percy's to the New, and the Bishop of Lincoln's late excellent work on the Elements of Christian Theology. That part of it which relates to the scriptures has been lately reprinted, for the accommodation of the public at large, in a duodecimo volume, which I particularly recommend to the attention of my readers. LECTURE I. 11 blended together, give it an inexpressible beauty, and the whole composition plainly proves its author to be divine ? " The Bible is not indeed (as a great writer ob- serves*) a plan of religion delineated with minute accuracy, to instruct men as in something altogether new, or to excite a vain admiration and applause ; but it is somewhat unspeakably more great and noble, comprehending (as we have seen) in the grandest and most magnificent order, along with every essential of that plan, the various dispensations of God to man- kind, from the formation of this earth to the consum- mation of all things. Other books may afford as much entertainment and much instruction ; may gratify our curiosity, may delight our imagination, may improve our understandings, may calm our passions, may exalt our sentiments, may even improve our hearts. But they have not, they cannot have, that authority in what they affirm, in what they require, in what they promise and threaten, that the scriptures have. There is a peculiar weight and energy in t}ie7n, which is not to be found in any other writings. Their denun- ciations are more awful, their convictions stronger, their consolations more powerful, their counsels more authentic, their warnings more alarming, their expos- tulations more penetrating. There are passages in them throughout so sublime, so pathetic, full of such energy and force upon the heart and conscience, yet without the least appearance of labour and study for that purpose ; indeed the design of the whole is so no- ble, so well suited to the sad condition of humankind ; the morals have in them such purity and dignity ; the doctrines, so many of them above reason, yet so per- * Archbishop Seeker, V. vi. 12 LECTURE I. fectly reconcileable with it ; the expression is so ma- jestic, yet familiarized with such easy simplicity, that the more we read and study these writings with pious dispositions and judicious attention, the more we shall see and feel of the hand of God in them*." But that which stamps upon them the highest value, that which renders them, strictly speaking, inestimable, and dis- tinguishes them from all other books in the world, is this, that they and they only " co7itain the words of eter- nal life-\ .'" In this respect, every other book, even the noblest compositions of man, must fail us ; they cannot give us that which we most want, and what is of infi- nitely more importance to us than all other things put together, eternal life. This we must look for no where but in scripture. It is there, and there only, that we are informed, from authority, of the immortality of the soul, of a general resurrection from the dead, of a future judgement, of a state of eternal happiness to the good, and of eternal • That accomplished scholar and distinguished writer, the late Sir William Jones, chief justice of Bengal, at the end of his Bible wrote the following note; which, coming from a man of his profound erudition, and perfect knowledge of the oriental languages, customs, and manners, must be consi- dered as a most powerful testimony, not only to the sublimity, but to the di- vine inspiration of the sacred writings : " I have (says he) regularly and attentively read these holy scriptures, and am of opinion, that this volume, independently of its divine origin, contains more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more pure morality, more impor- tant history, and finer strains both of poetry and eloquence, than can be col- lected from all other books, in whatever age or language they may have been composed. " The two parts, of which the scriptures consist, are connected by a chain of compositions, which bear no resemblance, in form or style, to any that can be produced from the stores of Grecian, Persian, or even Arabian learning : the antiquity of those compositions no man doubts ; and the unstrained applica- tion of them to events long subsequent to their publication, is a solid ground of belief that they are genuine predictions, and consequendy inspired." t John vi. 68. LECTURE I. 13 misery to the bad. It is there we are made acquaint- ed with the fall of our first parents from a state of in- nocence and happiness ; with the guilt, corruption, and misery, which this sad event brought on all their pos- terity ; which, together with their own personal and voluntary transgressions, rendered them obnoxious to God's severest punishments. But, to our inexpressible comfort, we are further told in this divine book, that God is full of mercy, compassion, and goodness ; that he is not extreme to mark what is done amiss ; that he willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness, and save his soul alive. In pity therefore to mankind, he was pleased to provide a remedy for their dreadful state. He was pleased to adopt a measure which should at once sa- tisfy his justice, show his extreme abhorrence of sin, make a sufficient atonement for the sins of the whole world, and release all who accepted the terms propos- ed to them from the punishment they had deserved. This was nothing less than the death of his Son Jesus Christ, whom he sent into the world to take our nature upon him, to teach us a most holy, pure, and benevo- lent religion, to reform us both by his precepts and example ; and lastly, to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification. By him and his evangelists and apostles we are assured, that if we sincerely re- pent of our sins, and firmly believe in him and his gospel, we shall, for the sake of his sufferings and his righteousness, have all our transgressions forgiven and blotted out; shall he, justified, that is, considered as in- nocent in the sight of God, shall have the assistance of his Holy Spirit for our future conduct; and if we per- severe to the end in an uniform (though, from the infir- mity of our nature, imperfect) obedience to all the laws J4 LECTURE I. of Christ, shall, through his merits, be rewarded with everlasting glory in the life to come. Since then the utility, the absolute necessity of reading the scriptures is so great; since they are not only the best guide you can consult, but the only one that can possibly lead you to heaven; it becomes the indispensable duty of every one of you most carefully and constantly to peruse these sacred oracles, that you may thereby "become perfect, tho- roughly furnished to every good work*." They who have much leisure should employ a considerable share of it in this holy exercise, and even they who are most immersed in business have, or ought to have, the Lord's Day entirely to spare, and should always em- ploy some part of it (more particularly at this holy season) in reading and meditating on the word of God. By persevering steadily in this practice, any one may, in no great length of time, read the scriptures through, from one end to the other. But in doing this, it will be advisable to begin with the New Testament first, and to read it over most frequently, because it con- cerns us Christians the most nearly, and explains to us more fully and more clearly the words of eternal life. But after you have once gone regularly through both the Old Testament and the New, it may then be most useful, perhaps, to select out of each such pas- sages as lay before you the great fundamental doc- trines, and most essential duties, of your Christian pro- fession ; and even amongst these, to dwell the longest on such as express these things in the most awful and striking manner, such as affect and touch you most powerfully, such as make your heart burn within you, and stir up all the pious affections in your soul. But * 2 Tim. iii. 17. LECTURE 1. 15 it will be of little use to read, unless at the same time also you reflect ; unless you apply what you read to those great purposes which the scriptures were meant to promote, the amendment of your faults, the im- provement of your hearts, and the salvation of your souls. To assist you in this most important and necessary work is the design of these Lectures ; and, in the ex- ecution of this design, I shall have these four objects principally in view : First, To explain and illustrate those passages of holy writ, which are in any degree difficult and obscure. 2dly, To point out, as they occur in the sacred writings, the chief leading fundamental principles and doctrines of the Christian religion. 3dly, To confirm and strengthen your faith, by cal- ling your attention to those strong internal marks of the truth and divine authority of the Christian religion, which present themselves to us in almost every page of the gospel. 4thly, To lay before you the great moral precepts of the gospel, to press them home upon your con- sciences and your hearts, and render them effectual to the important ends they were intended to serve; namely, the due government of your passions, the regulation of your conduct, and the attainment of everlasting life. These are all of them objects of the very last im- portance ; they are worthy the attention of every hu- man being ; and they will, I think, be better attained by a familiar and practical explanation of the sacred writings, than by any other species of composition whatever. 16 LECTURE I. The plan of instruction adopted by our Blessed Lord was unquestionably the very best that could be devised. It w^as not a regular system of ethics, de- livered in a connected series of dry essays and disser- tations, like those of the ancient heathen philosophers ; but it consisted of familiar discourses, interesting pa- rables, short sententious maxims, and occasional re- flections, arising from the common occurrences of life, and the most obvious appearances of nature. All these various modes of instruction are so judiciously blend- ed and mixed together in the history of our Lord's life and conversation, delivered to us in the gospel (as all the various sorts of pleasing objects are in the un- ornamented scenes of nature), that they make a much deeper impression both on the understanding and on the heart, than they could possibly do in any other more artificial form. An exposition of scripture, then, must at all times be highly useful and interesting to every sincere dis- ciple of Christ ; but must be peculiarly so at the pre- sent moment, when so much pains have been taken to ridicule and revile the sacred writings, to subvert the very foundations of our faith, and to poison the minds of all ranks of people, but especially the middling and the lower classes, by the most impious and blasphemous publications that ever disgraced any Christian country*. To resist these wicked at- tempts is the duty of every minister of the gospel ; and as I have strongly exhorted all those who are under my superintendence, to exert themselves with zeal and with vigour in defence of their insulted * About this time, and for some years before, The Age of Reason, and other pestilent writings of the same nature, were disf=eminated through al- most every district of ihis country with incredible industry. LECTURE I. 17 religion, I think it incumbent on me to take my share in this important contest, and to show that I wish not to throw burdens on others of which I am not willing to bear my full proportion. As long therefore as my health, and the various duties of an exten- sive and populous diocese, will permit, and the exigencies of the times require such exertions, I propose to continue annually these Lectures. And I shall think it no unbecoming conclusion of my life, if these labours of my declining years should tend in any degree to render the holy scriptures more clear and intelligible, more useful and delightful; if they shall confirm the faith, reform the manners, console and revive the hearts of those who hear me ; and vindicate the honour of our Divine Master from those gross indignities and insults, which have of late been so indecently and impiously thrown on him and his religion. 18 LECTURE II. MATIHEW II. Having, in the preceding Lecture, taken a short comprehensive view of the several books of the sa- cred volume, I now proceed to the gospel of St. Matthew ; and shall in this Lecture confine myself to the two first chapters of that book*. The history of our Saviour's birth, life, doctrines, precepts, and miracles, is contained in four books or narratives called gospels, written at different times, and by four different persons, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, who were among the first converts to Christianity, and perfectly well acquainted with the facts they relate : to which, two of them were eye- witnesses, and the other two constant companions of those who were so, from whom they received immediately every thing they relate. This is better authority for the truth of these histories than we have for the greater part of the histories now extant, the fidelity of which we do not in the least question. For few of our best histories, either ancient or mo- dern, were written by persons who were eye- witnesses of all the transactions which they relate; * For some very valuable observations in some parts of this, and the third and thirteenth Lecture, 1 am indebted to my late excellent friend and patron, Archbishop Seeker. LECTURE II. 19 and there is scarce any instance of the history of the same person being written by four different con- temporary historians, all perfectly agreeing in the main articles, and differing only in a few minute particu- lars of no moment. This, however, we find actually done in the life of Jesus, which has been written by each of the four evangelists, and it is a very strong proof of their veracity. For let us consider what the case is, at this very day, in the affairs of common life. When four different persons are called upon in a court of justice to prove the reality of any parti- cular fact that happened twenty or thirty years ago, what is the sort of evidence which they usually give ? Why, in all the great leading circumstances, which tend to establish the fact in question, they in general perfectly agree. In a few other points, per- haps, they differ. But then these are points which do not at all affect the main question, which were too trifling to make much impression at the time on the memory of the observers, and which therefore they would all relate with some little variation in their account. This is precisely the case with the writers of the four gospels ; and this substantial coincidence and accidental variation has much more the air and garb of truth than where there is a perfect agreement in every the minutest article; which has too much the appearance of a concerted story. That the books which we now have under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were written by the persons whose names they bear, cannot admit the smallest doubt with any unpreju- diced mind. They have been acknowledged as such by every Christian church in every age, from the c 2 20 LECTURE II. time of our Saviour to this moment. There are allusions to them, or quotations from them, in the earliest writers, as far back as the age of the apos- tles, and continued down in a regular succession to the present hour; a proof of authenticity which scarce any other ancient book in the world can produce. They were received as genuine histories, not only by the first Christians, but by the first enemies of Christianity, and their authority was ne- ver questioned, either by the ancient heathens or Jews*. The first of these gospels is that of St. Matthew. It was written probably at the latest not more than fifteen years, some think only eight years, after our Lord's ascension. The author of it was an apostle and constant companion of Jesus, and of course an eye-witness of every thing he relates. He was called by our blessed Lord from a most lucrative occupation, that of a collector of the public revenue, to be one of his disciples and friends ; a call which he immediately obeyed, relinquishing every thing that was dear and valuable to him in the present life. This is a sacrifice which few people have made for the sake of religion, and had St. Matthew's object been the applause of men, he might have displayed the merits of this sacrifice in a light very favourable to himself. But the apostle, , conscious of much nobler views, describes this transaction in the simplest and most artless words. "As Jesus," says he, "passed forth from thence, he saw a man * Whoever wishes for further satisfaction on this most important subject, will not fail of finding it in Dr. Lardner's learned work, The Credibility of the Gospel History, where this question has been very ably treated, and the authenticity of the gospels established on the most solid grounds. LECTURE II. 21 named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom, and he saith unto him, Follow me : and he arose and followed him." The first thing that occurs in the gospel of St. Matthew, is the genealogy of Christ, in order to prove that he was descended from the house and family of David, as the prophets foretold he should be. In this genealogy there are confessedly some dif- ficulties, at which we cannot be much surprised, when we consider of what prodigious antiquity this genealogy is, going back some thousands of years ; and when we know too that several Jewish persons had the same name, and that the same person had different names, (especially under the Babylonish cap- tivity,) which is still the case in India and other parts of Asia. This must necessarily create some per- plexity, especially at such a distance as we are from the first sources of information. But to the Jews themselves at the time, there were probably no difficulties at all ; and it does not appear that they (who were certainly the best judges of the question) made any objection to this genealogy of Christ; or denied him to be descended from the family of David. We may therefore reasonably conclude, that his descent was originally admitted to be fairly made out by the evangelists, what- ever obscurities may have arisen since. Indeed it is highly probable, that this genealogy was taken from some public records or registers of the ancient Jewish families, which it is very evident from Jo- sephus that the Jews had, especially with regard to the lineage of David, and which were universally known and acknowledged to be authentic documents. 22 LECTURE II. I shall therefore only observe further on this head, that St. Matthew gives the pedigree of Joseph, and St. Luke that of Mary. But they both come to the same thing, because among the Jews the pedigree of the husband was considered as the legal pedigree of the wife ; and as Mary and Joseph were nearly related, and were of the same tribe and family, their genealogies of course must run nearly in the same line. After the genealogy of Christ, follows an account of his birth, which, as we may easily suppose of so extraordinary a person, had something in it very extraordinary. Accordingly the evangelist tells us, that "the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost : and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus (that is, a Saviour;) for he shall save his peo- ple from their sins*." This undoubtedly was a most wonderful and sin- gular and unexampled event. But it was natural to imagine, that when the Son of God was to appear upon the scene, he would enter upon it in a way somewhat different from the sons of men. And in fact we find him appearing upon earth in a manner perfectly new and peculiar to himself; in a manner, which united in itself at once the evidence of pro- phecy and of miracle. He was born of a virgin, and, what is no less wonderful, it was predicted of him seven hundred years before, that he should be so born. *' Behold," says Isaiah, "a virgin shall con- ceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name * Matt. i. 20. LECTURE II. 23 Immanuel*;" a Hebrew word, signifying God with us. What man, but a prophet, inspired of God, could have foreseen an event so completely impro- bable, and apparently impossible? What impostor would have hazarded such a prediction as this ? and, what is of still more importance, what impostor could have fulfilled it ? What less than the power of God could have enabled Jesus to fulfil it ? By that power he did fulfil it. He only of the whole human race did fulfil it, and thus proved himself to be, at the very mo- ment of his birth, what the whole course of his future life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven, further declared him to be. The Son of God. And as such he was soon acknowledged, and due homage paid to his divinity by a very singular em- bassy, and in a very singular manner. For the evan- gelist proceeds to tell us, in the beginning of the se- cond chapter, that *'when Jesus was born in Beth- lehem of Judea, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews ? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." As this is a very remarkable, and very important event, I shall employ the remaining part of this Lecture in explaining it to you at large, subjoining such reflections as natu- rally arise from it. The name of these persons, whom our translation calls wise men, is in the original jwa-yot, in the Latin language magi, from whence is derived our English word, magicians. The magi were a sect of ancient philosophers, living in the eastern part of the world, collected together in colleges, addicted to the study of astronomy, and other parts of natural philosophy, * Isaiah, vii. 14, 24 LECTURE II. and highly esteemed throughout the east, having juster sentiments of God and his worship than any of the ancient heathens ; for they abhorred the ado- ration of images made in the form of men and ani- mals, and though they did represent the Deity under the symbol of fire (the purest and most active of all material substances) yet they worshipped one only God : and so blameless did their studies and their religion appear to be, that the prophet Daniel, scru- pulous as he was, to the hazard of his life, with re- spect to the Jewish religion, did not refuse to accept the office which Nebuchadnezzar gave him, of being master of the magi, and chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon*. They were therefore evi- dently the fittest of all the ancient heathens to have the first knowledge of the Son of God, and of salva- tion by him imparted to them. The country from whence they came, is only de- scribed in St. Matthew as lying east from Judea, and therefore might be either Persia, where the principal residence of the magi was, or else Arabia, to which ancient authors say they did, and undoubtedly they easily might, extend themselves, which, it is well known, abounded in the valuable things that their presents consisted of; and concerning which the se- venty-second psalm (plainly speaking of the Messiah) says, ''The kings of Arabia and Saba (or Sabaea, an adjoining region) shall bring gifts;" and again, ''unto him shall be given of the gold of Arabia." Supposing this prophecy of the Psalmist to point out the persons whose journey the evangelist relates, it will also determine what their station or rank in life was, namely, kings, " the kings of Arabia and Saba." Of * Vide Dan. v. 11. LECTURE II. 25 this circumstance St. Matthew says nothing directly, but their offerings are a sufficient evidence that their condition could not be a mean one : and though there is certainly no proof, there is on the other hand no im- probability, of their being lords of small sovereignties, which might afford them a claim, according to the an- cient usage of that part of the world, to the name of kings. For we read in scripture not only of some small* towns or tracts that had each of them their king, but of some also which could not be very large, that had each of them several f- What number of the wise men or magi came to our Lord, is entirely unknown, and perhaps that of three was imagined for no other reason, than becr.use the gifts which they brought were of three sorts. The occasion of their coming is expressed by St. Matthew in their own words: '* Where is He that is born king of the Jews? for we are come to worship him." That a very extraordinary person was to appear under this character about that time, was a very general per- suasion throughout the east ; as not only Jewish but heathen writers tell us, in conformity with the New Testament. And that this person was to have dominion over the whole earth, was part of that persuasion, founded on predictions of the clearest import. I need produce but one, from the above-mentioned 72d Psalm, which, as I before observed, plainly relates to Christ. " All kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall do him service." There were Jews enow even in Persia, and much more in Arabia, to propagate this doctrine, and show it to be contained in their sacred books; from whence therefore the wise men may well be supposed to have received it. * Josh. X. 5. t Jerem. XXV. 20— 26. 26 LECTURE II. But their knowledge that he was actually born, must stand on some other foundation ; and what that was, themselves declare, " We have seen his star in the east*." This must plainly mean some new appearance in the sky, which they, whose profession (as is well known) led them peculiarly to the study of astronomy, had observed in the heavens. Now any appearance of a body of light in the air is called by the Greek and Latin authors a star, though it be only a meteor, that is, a transient accidental luminous vapour, neither of considerable height, nor long continuance; in which sense also the scripture speaks of stars falling from heaven-\. And such was that which the wise men saw, as will appear from a circumstance to be mentioned hereafter. Possibly indeed the first light which sur- prised them might be that mentioned by St. Luke, when the glory of the Lord descending from heaven, shone round about the shepherds, and his angel came upon them, to bring them the news of our Saviour's nativity J. For that glory, seen at a distance, might have the appearance of a star; and their seeing the star in the eas{, is not to be understood as if they saw it to the eastward of themselves ; but means, that they being eastward of Judea, saw the star, seeming proba- bly to hang over that country. Now such an uncommon sight alone, supposing their expectation of him raised (as there was then a general expectation of him) might naturally incline them to think he was come, and especially as it was a current opinion amongst persons professing skill in these mat- ters, that the shining forth of a new star denoted the rise of a new kingdom, or of a great and extraordinary * Matt. ii. 2. f Matt. xxiv. 29. Mark xiii- 25. \ Luke ii. 9. LECTURE II. 27 prince ; whence, as Pliny relates *, Augustus the Ro- man emperor said, that the comet which appeared on Caesar's death, whom he succeeded, was born for him, and that he was born in that comet ; for so it seems he expressed himself. This, I say, being a current opinion, the wise men would be apt enough to conclude, that the present star betokened the birth of that Prince, of whom (as they might easily have heard) it had been so very long fore- told, " There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel |." And it is a very re- markable circumstance, that one of the ancient com- mentators on the Timseus of Plato J, alluding to this very star, expresses himself in these words : "There is a still more venerable and sacred tradition, which relates, that by the rising of a certain uncommon star, was foretold, not diseases or deaths, but the descent of an adorable God for the salvation of the human race, and the melioration of human affairs ; which star, they say, was observed by the Chaldeans, who came to present their offerings to the new-born God §." On their arrival at Jerusalem, and making the in- quiry they came for, Herod we find was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. That so jealous a tyrant as Herod should be troubled at this event is no wonder ; and it is no less natural that the people also should be disturbed and alarmed, not knowing what the conse- quences of so extraordinary a birth might be. Herod, therefore, calls the chief priests and scribes together, and demands of them, whether it were known where THE Christ should be born; and having learnt from them, that, according to the prophet Micah, Bethlehem • Vide Plin. Nat. Hist. L. ii. Ch. 25. f Numbers xxiv. 17. + Chaicidius. § See Brucker's History of Philosophy, v. iii. p. 472. 28 LECTURE II. was th6 place appointed by Heaven, sends the wise men thither with a request that they would inform him when they had found the child, that he also might go and pay him due homage, intending all the while to destroy him, when he had obtained the requisite intel- ligence. Accordingly the wise men proceeded on their journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem; when the same luminous appearance, which they had observed in their own country, now attended them again, to their very great joy, and conducted them at length to the very house where the child was; which probably (as is common in villages) had no other house contiguous to it, and therefore might be easily marked by the situa- tion of the meteor. When the wise men came into the house and saw the child, they fell down and worshipped him, that is, bowed and prostrated themselves before him, in the eastern manner of doing obeisance to kings. Whether they designed also paying him religious adoration, or how distinct a knowledge had been given them of the nature and rank of the Saviour of the world, we cannot say; but may be sure, that what they believed and what they did was at that time sufficient to procure them acceptance with God. Indeed, according to the opinion of some ancient fathers concerning their pre- sents, their faith must have been very great. For they represent the incense, as offered to our Saviour as God; the gold to have been paid as tribute to a king; and the myrrh (a principal ingredient used in embalming) brought as an acknowledgment that he was to die for men. But others interpret the same gifts very different- ly, and take them to signify the three spiritual offerings, which we must all present to Heaven, through Jesus Christ; the incense, to denote piety towards God; the LECTURE ir. 29 gold, charity towards our fellow-creatures; and the myrrh, purity of soul and body; it being highly effica- cious in preserving them from corruption. But though either or both these notions may be piously and inno- cently entertained, yet all we know with certainty is, that in those parts of the world no one did then or does now appear before a prince, without a suitable present, usually of the most valuable commodities of his country; and that three of the principal produc- tions of the east, particularly of Arabia, were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. How the wise men were affected with the sight of so unspeakably important a person, in such mean cir- cumstances; or Joseph and Mary, and all that must flock around them, with so humble an address from strangers of such high dignity ; and what further pas- sed in consequence of this on either side, every one may in some degree imagine; but no one can under- take to relate, since the gospels do not. We are there only told, that these respectable visitors, having paid their duty in this manner, and being warned of God not to return to Herod*, " departed into their own country another way." Thus ends this remarkable piece of history, in which all the circumstances are so perfectly conformable to the manners, the customs, the prevailing opinions and notions of those times in which the narrative is supposed to have been written, that they tend greatly to confirm the truth and credibility of the sacred his- tory. I have already in going along touched slightly on some of these circumstances, but it may be useful here to draw them all into one point of view. 1. In the first place, then, the journey of these wise * Matt. ii. 12. 30 LECTURE II. men, and the object of it, namely, to find out him who was born king of the Jews, corresponds exactly to the information given by several heathen authors*, that there was in those days a general expectation of some very extraordinary personage, who was to make his Appearance at that particular period of time, and in that particular part of the world. 2. If the birth of this extraordinary personage was marked by a new star or meteor in the heavens, it was very natural that it should first strike the observation of those called the wise inetz, who lived in a country where the stars and the planets shone with uncommon lustre, where the science of astronomy was (for that reason perhaps) particularly cultivated, where it was the peculiar profession of these very magi, or wise men, and where no remarkable appearance in the hea- vens could escape the many curious eyes that were constantly fixed upon them. 3. The manner in which these wise men approached our Lord, is precisely that in which the people always addressed themselves to men of high rank and dignity. They worshipped him ; that is, they prostrated them- selves to the ground before him ; which we know was then and still is the custom of those countries. They offered presents to him : and it is well known, that without a present no great man was at that time or is now approached. These presents were gold, frankincense, and myrrh ; and these, as we have before observed, were the na- tural productions of that country whence the wise men are supposed to have come, namely, Arabia or Sabsea. Even that dreadful transaction, which was the un- * Vide Tacit. Hist. v. 1 3. Sueton. in Vita Vesp, c. 4. LECTURE II. 31 fortunate consequence of their journey, the murder of the Innocents, exactly corresponds with the character of Herod, who was one of the most cruel and feroci- ous tyrants that ever disgraced a throne, and amongst other horrible barbarities had put to death a son of his own* No wonder, then, that his jealousy should prompt him to murder a number of infants not at all related to him. All these circumstances concur to prove, that the sacred historians lived in the times and the countries in which they are supposed to have written the gos- pels, and were perfectly well acquainted with every thing they relate. Had not this been the case, they must have been detected in an error, in some of the many incidents they touched upon; which yet has never happened. 4. It is also, in the last place, worthy of remark, that every thing is here related with the greatest plain- ness, brevity, and simplicity, without any of that os- tentation and parade which we so often meet with in other authors. Thus, for instance, a heathen writer would have put a long and eloquent speech into the mouth of the wise men, and would have provided the parents of the infant with a suitable answer. He would have painted the massacre of the infants in the most dreadful colours, and would have drawn a most affecting picture of the distress and agony of their afflicted parents. But the evangelists have not en- larged on these, or any other similar topics. They have contented themselves with telling their story con- cisely and coldly, with a bare simple recital of the facts, without attempting to work upon the passions, or excite the admiration of their readers. 34 LECTURE II. received him out of their sight*." There, we are told, he sitteth at the right hand of God, making interces- sion for the sinful race of man, till he comes a second time in the glory of his Father, with all his holy an- gels, to judge the world. There has God " highly ex- alted him above all principalities and power, and might and dominion, and given him a name which is above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Fathert-" When all these circumstances are taken together, what a magnificent idea do they present to us of the humble Jesus, and how does all earthly splendour fade and die away under this overbearing effulgence of ce- lestial glory ! We need not then be ashamed either of the birth, the life, or the death of Christ, " for they are the power of God unto salvation." And if the great and the wise men, whose history we have been considering, were induced, by the appearance of a new star, to search out, with no small labour and fatigue, the infant Saviour of the world ; if they, though phi- losophers and deists (far different from the philoso- phers and deists of the present day) disdained not to prostrate themselves before him, and present to him the richest and the choicest gifts they had to offer ; well may we, when this child of the Most High is not only grown to maturity, but has lived, and died, and risen again for us, and is now set down at the right hand of God (angels and principalities and powers be- ing made subject to him) ; well may we not only pay our homage, but our adoration to the Son of God, and " Matt, xxviii. 18. Lukexxiv. 51. f Philipp- ii- 9— 11. LECTURE II. 35 offer to him oblations far more precious than gold, frankincense, and myrrh ; namely, ourselves, our souls and our bodies, " as a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto him ;" well may w^e join with that in- numerable multitude in heaven, which is continually praising him and saying ; *' Blessing, and honour, and glory be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.*" • Rev. V. 13. c2 36 LECTURE III. MATTHEW III. The subject of this Lecture will be the third chapter of St. Matthew, in which we have the history of a very extraordinary person called John the Baptist; to distinguish him from another John mentioned in the New Testament, who was our Saviour's beloved dis- ciple, and the author of the gospel that bears his name; whence he is called John the Evangelist. As the character of John the Baptist is in many re- spects a very remarkable one, and his appearance bears a strong testimony to the divine mission of Christ and the truth of his religion, I shall enter pretty much at large -into the particulars of his history, as they are to be found not only in the gospel of St. Matthew, but in the other three Evangelists ; collect- ing from each all the material circumstances of his life, from the time of his first appearance in the wil- derness to his murder by Herod. St. Matthew's account of him is as follows : "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair. LECTURE III. 37 and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts and wild honey. And there went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the regions round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan confessing their sins*." Here then we have a person, who appears to have been sent into the world, on purpose to be the pre- cursor of our Lord, to prepare the way for him and his religion, here called the kingdom of heaven, and, as the prophet expresses it, to make his paths straight. This is a plain allusion to the custom that prevailed in eastern countries, of sending messengers and pio- neers to make the ways level and straight before kings and princes, and other great men, when they passed through the country with large retinues, and with great pomp and magnificence. They literally lowered mountains, they raised valleys, they cut down woods, they removed all obstacles, they cleared away all roughnesses and inequalities, and made every thing smooth and plain and commodious for the great personage whom they preceded. In the same manner was John the Baptist in a spi- ritual sense to go before the Lord, before the Saviour of the world, to prepare his way, to make his paths straight, to remove out of the minds of men every thing that opposed itself to the admission of divine truth, all prejudice, blindness, pride, obstinacy, self- conceit, vanity, and vain philosophy ; but, above all, to subdue and regulate those depraved affections, appetites, passions, and inveterate habits of wicked- ness, which are the grand obstacles to conversion and the reception of the word of God. His exhortation therefore was, ''Repent ye;'' re- * Matt. iii. 1. 6. 38 LECTURE III. nounce those vices and abominations which at pre- sent blind your eyes, and cloud your understandings, and then you will be able to see the truth and bear the light. This was the method which John took, the instrument he made use of to extirpate out of the minds of his hearers all impediments to the march of the gospel, or, as the prophetic language most sub- limely expresses it, ''*He cried aloud to them. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the highway for our God. Let every valley be exalted, and every mountain and hill be made low ; let the crooked be made straight, and the rough places plain ; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it." What a magnificent preparation is this for the great Founder of our religion ! What an exalted idea must it give us of his dignity and importance, to have a forerunner and a harbinger such as John to proclaim his approach to the world, and call upon all mankind to attend to him! It was a distinction peculiar and appropriate to him. Neither Moses nor any of the prophets can boast this mark of honour. It was re- served for the Son of God, the Messiah, the Redeem-* er of mankind, and was well suited to the transcendent dignity of his person, and the grandeur of his design. The place which St. John chose for the exercise of his ministry was the wilderness of Judea, where he seems to have lived constantly from his birth to the time of his preaching ; for St. Luke informs usf, that "he was in the wilderness till the time of his showing unto Israel." Here it appears he lived with great austerity. For he drank neither wine nor strong drink ; a rule frequently observed by the Jews, when * Isaiah, xl. 3. 5. f Luke i, 80. LECTURE III. 39 they devoted themselves to the stricter exercises of re- ligion. And his meat w^as locusts and wild honey : such simple food as the desert aiforded to the low^est of its inhabitants. For eating some sorts of locusts was not only permitted by the law of Moses, but, as travellers inform us, is common in the east to this day. The clothing of the Baptist was no less simple than his diet. His raiment, we are told, was of camel's hair, with a leathern girdle about his loins ; the same coarse habit which the meaner people usually wore, and which sometimes even the rich assumed as a garb of mourning. For this raiment o^ earners hair was no- thing else than that saekeloth which we so often read of in scripture. And as almost every thing of moment was, in those nations and those times, expressed by visible signs as well as by words, the prophets also were generally clothed in this dress, because one principal branch of their office was to call upon men to mourn for their sins. And particularly Elias or Elijah is described in the second book of Kings as a hairy man*, that is, a man clothed in haircloth, or sackcloth (as John was) with a leathern girdle about his loins. Even in outward appearance therefore John was another Elias ; but much more so as he was endued, according to the angel's prediction, with the spiiit and power of Eliasf . Both rose up among the Jews in times of universal corruption ; both were au- thorized to denounce speedy vengeance from hea- ven, unless they repented ; both executed their com- mission with the same intrepid zeal ; both were persecuted for it : yet nothing deterred either Elias from accusing Ahab to his face, or John from rebuking Herod in the same undaunted manner. * 2 Kings i. 8. t Luke i. 17. 40 LECTURE III. But here an apparent difficulty occurs, and the sacred writers are charged with making our Lord and St. John flatly contradict each other. When the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask John who he was, and particularly whether he was Elias ; his answer was, / am not* : But yet our Lord told the Jews that John was the Elias which was to comef. How is this contradic- tion to be reconciled ? Without any kind of diffi- culty. The Jews had an expectation, founded on a literal interpretation of the prophet MalachiJ, that before the Messiah came, that very same Elias or Elijah, who lived and prophesied in the time of Ahab, would rise from the dead and appear again upon earth. John therefore might very truly say that he was not that Elias. But yet as we have seen that he resembled Elias in many striking particulars ; as the angel told Zacharias that he should come in the spirit and power of Elias; and as he actually approved himself, in the turn and manner of his life, in his doc- trine, and his conduct, the very same man to the lat- ter Jews, whicb the other had been to the former, our Saviour might with equal truth assure his disciples that John was that Elias, whose coming the prophet Malachi had in a ^o wr^^/i^e sense foretold. This dif- ficulty we see is so easily removed, that I should not have thought it worth noticing in this place, had it not been very lately revived with much parade in one of those coarse and blasphemous publications which have been dispersed in this country with so much activity, in order to disseminate vulgar infidelity among the lower orders of people, but which are now * John i. 21. t Matt. Ni 14. X Malachi, iv. 5. LECTURE III. 41 sinking fast into oblivion and contempt. This is one specimen of what they call their arguments against Christianity, and from this specimen you will judge ,of all the rest. But to return. The abstemiousness and rigour of the Baptist's life was calculated to produce very important ef- fects. It was fitted to excite great attention and reverence in the minds of his hearers. It was well suited to the doctrine he was to preach, that of re- pentance and contrition ; to the seriousness he wished to inspire, and to the terror which he was appointed to impress on impenitent offenders. And perhaps it was further designed to intimate the need there often is of harsh restraints in the heginning of virtue, as the easy familiarity of our Lord's manner and be- haviour exhibits the delightful freedom which attends the perfection of it. At least, placing these two cha- racters in view of the world, so near to each other, must teach men this very instructive lesson ; that though severity of conduct may, in various cases, be both prudent and necessary, yet the mildest and cheerfullest goodness is the completest ; and they the most useful to religion, who are able to converse among sinners without risking their innocence, as discreet physicians do among the sick, without en- dangering their health. It is remarkable, however, that whatever mortifica- tions John practised himself, it does not appear that he prescribed any thing to others beyond the ordinary duties of a good life. His disciples, indeed, fasted often, and so did many of the Jews besides; pro- bably therefore, the former as well as the latter, by their own choice. His general injunction was only*, * Matt. iii. 8. 42 LECTURE 111. *' bring forth fruits meet for repentance." When more particular directions were desired, he command- ed all sorts of men to avoid more especially the sins, to which their condition most exposed them. Thus when the * people asked him (the common people of that hard-hearted nation,) What shall we do ? — John answered, " He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." That is, let every one of you, according to his abilities, exercise those duties of charity and kindness to his neighbour, which you are all of you but too apt to neglect. The publicans or farmers of the revenue came to him, and said, " -f Mas- ter, what shall we do ?" and he said, '' Exact no more than that which is appointed you." Keep clear from that rapine and extortion of which you are so often guilty in the collection of the revenue. The J soldiers too demanded of him, " What shall we do?" his an- swer was, " Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." That is, abstain from those acts of injustice, violence, and op- pression, to which your profession too often leads you. Lewd and debauched people also applied to him, to whom, no doubt, he gave advice suited to their case. And therefore what he taught was, not ceremonial observances, but moral conduct on religious princi- ple; and without this he pronounced (however dis- gusting the doctrine must be to a proud and super- stitious people) the highest outward privileges to be of no value at all. " § Think not," said he to the Jews, " to say within yourselves, * We have Abraham to our father, and are therefore sure of God's favour, be our * Luke, iii. 10,11. t Luke, iii. 12, 13. X Ibid, iii. 14. § Malt. iii. 9. LECTURE III. 43 conduct what it may :' for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abra- ham;" is able to make the most stupid and ignorant of these heathens, whom you so utterly despise, con- verts to true religion, and heirs of the promises. Such were the doctrines which John preached to his disciples, and the success which attended him was equal to their magnitude and importance. This was plainly foretold by the angel that an- nounced his birth to his father Zacharias. " * Many of the children of Israel (said he) shall he turn to the Lord their God." Which in fact he did. For the evangelists tell us, that "there went out unto him into the wilderness, Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of himt-" The truth of this is amply confirmed by Josephus, who informs us, that multitudes flocked to him, for they were greatly delighted with his discourses^." It might naturally be expected that such extraor- dinary popularity and applause as this, would fill him with conceit and vanity, and inspire him with a most exalted opinion of his own abilities, and a sovereign contempt for any rival teacher of religion. But so far from this, the most prominent feature of his character was an unexampled modesty and humility. Though he had been styled by Malachi the messenger of the Lord, and even Elias (the chief prophet of the Jews next to Moses) he never assumed any higher title than that very humble one given him by Isaiah ; the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Far from desir- ing or attempting to fix the admiration of the multi- tude on his own person, he gave notice, from his first * Luke, i. 16. + Matt. iii. 5,6. X Joseph. Antiq. Jud. xviii. 2. Edit. Huds. 44 LECTURE III. appearance, of another immediately to follow him, for whom he was unworthy to perform the most servile offices. He made a scruple, till expressly command- ed, of baptizing one so infinitely purer than himself, as he knew the holy Jesus to be. And when his dis- ciples complained that all men deserted him to follow Christ (a most mortifying circumstance, had worldly applause, or interest, or power, been his point,) nothing could be more ingenuously self-denying than his answer; '' Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but am sent before him. He that hath the bride, is the bridegroom ; but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly. This my joy, therefore, is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that is of the earth, is earthly ; he that cometh from heaven, is above all*." Of such unaffected and disinterested humility as this, where shall we find, except in Christ, another instance ? Yet with this was by no means united what we are too apt to associate with our idea of hu- mility, meanness and timidity of spirit ; on the con- trary, the whole conduct of the Baptist was marked throughout with the most intrepid courage and mag- nanimity in the discharge of his duty. Instead of paying any court either to the great men of his nation on the one hand, or to the multitude on the other, he reproved the former for their hypocrisy in the strongest terms ; " O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come f ?" and he required the latter to renounce every one of those favourite sins which they had long indulged, and were most unwilling to part with. But what is * John, iii. 28—31. t Matt. iii. 7. LECTURE III. 45 still more, he reproved, without fear and without re- serve, the abandoned and ferocious Herod, for injuri- ously taking away Herodias, his brother's wife, and afterwards incestuously marrying her, and for all the other evil that he had done. He well knew the savage and unrelenting temper of that sanguinary tyrant; he knew that this boldness of expostulation would sooner or later bring down upon him the whole weight of his resentment. But knowing also, that he was sent into the world to preach repentance to all, and feeling it his duty to cry aloud and spare not, to spare not even the greatest and most exalted of sin- ners, he determined not to shrink from that duty, but to obey his conscience, and take the conse- quences. Those consequences were exactly what he must have foreseen. He was first shut up in prison ; and not long afterwards, as you all know, the life of this great and innocent man was wantonly sacrificed in the midst of conviviality and mirth, to the rash oath of a worthless and a merciless prince, to the licen- tious fascinations of a young woman, and the impla- cable vengeance of an old one. After this short history of the doctrines, the life, and the death of this extraordinary man, I beg leave to offer, in conclusion, a few remarks upon it to your serious consideration. And in the first place, in the testimony of John the Baptist, we have an additional and powerful evidence to the truth and the divine authority of Christ and his religion. If the account given of John in the gospels be true, the history given there of Jesus must be equally so, for they are plainly parts of one and the same plan, 46 LECTURE III. and are so connected and interwoven with each other, that they must either stand or fall together. Now that in the first place there did really exist such a person as John the Baptist, at the time speci- fied by the evangelists, there cannot be the smallest doubt; for he is mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, and all the circumstances he relates of him, as far as they go, perfectly correspond with the de- scription given of him by the sacred historians. He represents him as using the ceremony of baptism. He says that multitudes flocked to him, for they were greatly delighted with his discourses, and ready to observe all his directions. He asserts that he was a good man; and that he exhorted the Jews not to come to his baptism without first preparing them- selves for it by the practice of virtue ; that is, in the language of the gospels, without repentance. He re- lates his being inhumanly murdered by Herod ; and adds, that the Jews in general entertained so high an opinion of the innocence, virtue, and sanctity of John, as to be persuaded that the destruction of Herod's army, which happened not long after, was a divine judgement inflicted on him for his barbarity to so ex- cellent a man*. It appears then that St. John was a person, of whose virtue, integrity, and piety, we have the most ample testimony from an historian of unquestionable veracity, and we may therefore rely with perfect con- fidence on every thing he tells us. He was the very man foretold both by Isaiah and Malachi, as the fore- runner of that divine personage, whom the Jews ex- pected under the name of the Messiah. He declared that Jesus Christ was this divine person, and that he * Joseph. Antiq. 1. xviii. c. 6. s. 2. Ed. Huds. LECTURE III. 47 himself was sent into the world on purpose to prepare the way before him, by exhorting men to repentance and reformation of life. If then this record of John (as the evangelists call it) be true, the divine mission of Christ is at once established, because the Baptist ex- pressly.asserts that he was the Son of God, and that whoever believed on him should have everlasting life.* Now that this record is true, we have every reason in the world to believe, not only because a man so eminently distinguished for every moral virtue as St. John confessedly was, cannot be thought capable of publicly proclaiming a deliberate falsehood ; but because had his character been of a totally different complexion, had he for instance been influenced only by views of interest, ambition, vanity, popularity, this very falsehood must have completely counteracted and overset every project of this nature. For every thing he said of Jesus, instead of aggrandizing and exalting himself, tended to lower and to debase him in the eyes of all the world ; he assured the multitude who followed him, that there was another person much more worthy to be followed ; that there was one coming after him of far greater dignity and conse- quence than himself; one whose shoes latchet he was not worthy to unloose^ ; one so infinitely superior to him in rank, authority, and wisdom, that he was not fit to perform for him even the most servile offices. He himself was only come as a humble messenger to announce the arrival of his Lord, and smooth the way before him. But the great personage to whom they were to direct their eyes, and in whom they were to centre all their hopes, was Jesus Christ. Is this now the language of a man who sought only for * John, iii. 6; i. 34. t Mark, i. 7. Luke, iii. 16. 48 LECTURE iir. honour, emolument, or fame, or was actuated only by the fond ambition of being at the head of a sect ? No one can think so. It is not very usual surely for men of any character, much less for men of the htst charac- ter, to invent and to utter a string of falsehoods with the professed design of degrading themselves and ex- alting some other person. Yet this was the plain ten- dency and avowed object of John's declarations, and the effect was exactly what might be expected, and what he wished and intended, namely, that great numbers deserted him and followed Christ*. But besides bearing this honest and disinterested testimony to Christ, the Baptist hazarded a measure which no impostor or enthusiast ever ventured upon, without being immediately detected and exposed. He ventured to deliver two prophecies concerning Christ ; prophecies too which were to be completed, not at some distant period, when both he and his hearers might be in their graves, and the prophecy itself forgot, but within a very short space of time, when every one who heard the prediction might be a witness to its g,ccomplishment or its failure. He fore- told, that Jesus should baptize ivith the Holy Ghost and with Jire, and that he should be offered up as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind-f. These were very singular things for a man to foretel at hazard and from con- jecture, because nothing could be more remote from the ideas of a Jew, or more unlikely to happen in the •common course of things. They were moreover of that peculiar nature, that it was utterly impossible for John and Jesus to concert the matter between themselves ; for the completion of the prophecies did not depend solely on thein, but required the concur- * John, iii. 26. 30; iv. 1. t Matt. iii. 11. John, i. 29. LECTURE III. 49 rence of other agents, of the Holy Ghost in the first instance, and of the Jews and the Roman governor in the other ; and unless these had entered into a confe- deracy with the Baptist and with Christ, to fulfil what John foretold, it was not in the power of either to se- cure the completion of it. Yet both these prophecies were, we know, actually accomplished within a very few years after they were delivered ; for our Lord suffered death upon the cross for the redemption of the world; and the Holy Ghost descended visibly upon the apostles in the semblance of fire on the day of Pentecost*. It is evident then that the Baptist was not only a good man, but a true prophet ; and for both reasons, his testimony in favour of Christ, that he was the Son of God, affords an incontestable proof that both he and his religion came from heaven. 2. The history of the Baptist aflfords a proof also of another point of no small importance. It gives a strong confirmation to that great evangelical doctrine, the doctrine of atonement ; the expiation of our sins by the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross. We are often told, that there was no need for this expiation. That repentance and reformation are fully sufficient to restore the most abandoned sinners to the favour of a just and merciful God, and to avert the punishment due to their offences. But what does the great herald and forerunner of Christ say to this? He came professedly as a preacher of i^epentance. This was his peculiar office, the great object of his mission, the constant topic of his exhor- tations. *' Repent ye, and bring forth fruits meet for * Acts, ii. 2. E 50 LECTUUE III. repentance*." This was the unceasing language of **the voice crying in the wilderness." If then repentance alone had sufficient efficacy for the expiation of sin, surely we should have heard of this from him who came on purpose to preach repent- ance. But what is the case ? Does he tell us, that repentance alone will take away the guilt of our trans- gressions; and justify us in the eyes of our Maker? Quite the contrary. Notwithstanding the great stress he justly lays on the indispensable necessity of re- pentance, yet he tells his followers at the same time, that it was to Christ only, and to his death, that they were to look for the pardon of their sins. " Behold," says he, "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the worldf !" And again, "he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the Son hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on himj." Since then the expiation of sin by the sacrifice of Christ is a doctrine not only taught in the gospel itself, but enforced also by him who came only to prepare the way for it ; it is evident, from the care taken to apprize the world of it even before Chris- tianity was promulgated, how important and essential a part this must be of that divine religion. Lastly, it will be of use to observe, what the parti- cular method was which John made use of to jjrepare men for the reception and the belief of the gospel ; for whatever means he applied to the attainment of that end, the same probably we shall find the most effica- cious for a similar purpose at this very day. Now it is evident that the Baptist addressed himself, in the first instance, not to the understanding, but to " Matt. iii. 2. 8. t Luke, i. 29. X John, iii. 36. LPXTURE III. 51 the heart. He did not attempt to convince his hear- ers, but to reform them ; he did not say to them, go and study the prophets, examine with care the pre- tensions of him whom I announce, and weigh accu- rately all the evidences of his divine mission ; he well knew how all this would end, in the then corrupt state of their minds. His exhortation was, therefore, *' Repeiit ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." It was on this principle he reproved with so much severity the pharisees and sadducees who came to his baptism, whom one would think he should rather have encouraged and commended, and received with open arms. " O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth, there- fore, fruits meet for repentance*." Till you have done this, till you have purified your hearts and abandoned your sins, my baptism will be of no use to you, and all the reasoning in the world will have no effect upon you. In perfect conformity to this, Josephus in- forms us, that John exhorted the Jews not to come to his baptism, without first preparing themselves for it by the practice of virtue, by a strict adherence to the rules of equity and justice in their dealings with one another, and by manifesting a sincere piety towards God. This is the preparation he required ; and thus it is that we also must prepare men for the reception of divine truth. We must first reform, and then con- vince them. It is not in general the want of evidence, but the want of virtue that makes men infidels ; let them cease to be wicked, and they will soon cease to be unbelievers. " It is with the heart," says St. Paul (not with the head) '* that man believeth unto righte- * Matt. iii. 7, 8. ■ i: 2 52 LECTURE III. ousness*." Correct the heart, and all will go right. Unless the soil is good, all the seed you cast upon it will be wasted in vain. In the parable of the sower we find, that the only seed which came to perfection was that which fell on good ground, on an honest and a good heart. This is the first and most essential re- quisite to belief. Unbelievers complain of the myste- ries of revelation ; but we have the highest authority for saying, that iii general the only mystery which prevents them from receiving it, is the mystery of iniquity. We hear, indeed, a great deal of the good nature, the benevolence, the generosity, the humanity, the honour, and the other innumerable good qualities of those that reject the gospel ; and they may possibly possess some ostentatious and popular virtues, and may keep clear from flagrant and disreputable vices. But whether some gross depravity, some inveterate prejudice, or some leaven of vanity and self-conceit, does not commonly lurk in their hearts, and influence both their opinions and their practices, they who have an extensive acquaintance with the writings and the conduct of that class of men will find no difficulty in deciding. If however this was the decision of man only, the justness of it might be controverted, and the competency of the judge denied. It might be said, that it is unbecoming and presumptuous in any human being to pass severe censures on large bodies of men ; and that, without being able to look into the heart of man, it is impossible to form a right judge- ment of his moral character. This we do not deny. But if he who actually has that power of looking into the heart of man, if he who is perfectly well acquaint- * Kom. X. 10. LECTURE III. 53 ed with human nature, and all the various characters of men; if he has declared that meri love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil*, who will controvert the truth of that decision ? On this autho- rity then we may securely rely, and may rest assured, that whatever pretences may be set up for rejecting revelation, the grand obstacles to it are, indolence, in- difference, vice, passion, prejudice, self-conceit, pride, vanity, love of singularity, a disdain to think with the vulgar, and an ambition to be considered as superior to the rest of mankind, in genius, penetration, and discernment. It is by removing these impediments in the first place, that we must prepare men, as St. John did, for embracing the religion of Christ. These (to make use of prophetic language) are the mountains that must be made low ; these the crooked paths that must be made straight; these the rough places that must be made plain. Then all difficulties will be re- moved, and there will be a high way for our God. Then there will be a smooth and easy approach for the gospel to the understanding, as well as to the heart; there wilLbe nothing to oppose its conquest over the soul. The Glory of the Lord shall FULLY BE revealed, AND ALL FLESH SHALL SEE ITf. * John, iii. 19. f Isaiah, xl. 5. 54 LECTURE IV. MATTHEW IV.-FoKMER Part. The fourth chapter of St. Matthew, at which we are now arrived, opens with an account of that most sin- gular and extraordinary transaction, The Temptation OF Christ in the wilderness. The detail of it is as follows : " Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wil- derness, to be tempted of the devil ; and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it is written, Man shall not live by M'^^ad alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down : for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down LECTURE IV. > 55 and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.*" Such is the history given by the evangelists of our Lord's temptation, which has been a subject of much discussion among learned men. It is well known in particular that several ancient commentators, as well as many able and pious men of our own times, have thought that this temptation was not a real transaction, but only a vision or prophetic trance, similar to that which Ezekiel describes in the eighth chapter of his prophecy, and to that which befel St. Peter when he saw a vessel descending unto him from heaven, and let down to the earthf. And it must be acknowledged that this opinion is supported by many specious ar- guments, and seems to remove some considerable dif- ficulties. But upon the whole there are, I think, stronger reasons for adhering to the literal interpreta- tion, than for recurring to a visionary representation. For, in the first place, it is a rule admitted and es- tablished by the best and most judicious interpreters, that in explaining the sacred writings we ought never, without the most apparent and most indispensable ne- cessity, allow ourselves the liberty of departing from the plain, obvious, and literal meaning of the words. Now I conceive that no such necessity can be alleged in the present instance. It is true, that there are in this narrative many difficulties, and many extraordi- nary, surprising, and miraculous incidents. But the whole history of our Saviour is wonderful and miracu- lous from beginning to endj and if, whenever we meet * Matt. iv. 1 — 1 1 . f Acts, X. 10—1 6. 56 LECTURE IV. with a difficulty or a miracle, we may have recourse to figure, metaphor, or vision, we shall soon reduce a great part of the sacred writings to nothing else. Be- sides, these difficulties will several of them admit of a fair solution ; and where they do not, as they affect no article of faith or practice, they must be left among those inscrutable mysteries which it is natural to ex- pect in a revelation from heaven. This we must after all be content to do, even if we adopt the idea of vi- sion; for even that does not remove every difficulty, and it creates some that do not attach to the literal interpretation. 2. In the next place, I cannot find in any part of this narrative of the temptation, the slightest or most distant intimation that it is nothing more than a vision. The very first words with which it commences seem to imply the direct contrary. " Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Does not this say, in the most express terms, that our Lord was led, not in a dream, or trance, or vision, but was actually and literally led by the spirit into the wilderness of Judea? There is, I know, an in- terpretation which explains away this obvious mean- ing. But that interpretation rests solely on the doubt- ful signification of a single Greek particle, which is surely much too slender a ground to justify a departure from the plain and literal sense of the passage. Cer- tain it is, that if any one had meant to describe a real transaction, he could not have selected any expres- sions better adapted to that purpose than those actu- ally made use of by the evangelist ; and I believe no one, at his first reading of our Lord's temptation, ever entertained the slightest idea of its being a visionary representation. LECTURE IV. 57 3. There is an observation which has been made, and which has great weight in this question. It is this : all the prophets of the Old Testament, except Moses, saw visions, and dreamed dreams ; and the prophets of the New did the same. St. Peter had a vision, St. John saw visions, St. Paul had visions and dreams : but Christ himself neither saw visions nor dreamed dreams. He had an intimate and immediate communication with the Father ; and he, and no one else in his days, had seen the Father. The case was the same with Moses ; he saw God face to face. " If there be a prophet among you," says God to Aaron and Miriam, " I the Lord will make myself known to him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is 7iot so, who is faithful in all my house : with him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches ; and the simili- tude of the Lord shall he behold*." Now Moses, we all know, was a type of Christ ; and the resemblance holds between them in this instance, as well as in many others. They neither of them had visions or dreams, but had both an immediate communication with God. They both " saw God face to facet-" This was a distinction and a mark of dignity peculiar to those two only, to the great legislator of the Jews, and the great legislator of the Christians. It is therefore in- consistent with this high privilege, this mark of supe- rior eminence, to suppose that our Lord was tempted in a vision, when we see no other instance of a vision in the whole course of his ministry. 4. There is still another consideration which mili- tates strongly against the supposition of a visionary temptation. It was in itself extremely probable, that * Num. xii, 6 — 8. f Exod. xxxiii. 11. 58 ^ LECTURE IV. there should be a real and personal conflict between Christ and Satan, when the former was entering on his public ministry. It is well known that the great chief of the fallen angels, who is described in scripture under the vari- ous names of Satan, Beelzebub, the Devil, and the Prince of the devils, has ever been an irreconcilable enemy to the human race, and has been constantly giving the most decided and most fatal proofs of this enmity from the beginning of the world to this hour. His hostility began with the very first creation of man upon earth, when he no sooner discovered our first parents in that state of innocence and happiness in which the gracious hand of the Almighty had just placed them, than, with a malignity truly diabolical, he resolved, if possible, to destroy all this fair scene of virtuous bliss, and to plunge them into the gulf of sin and misery. For this purpose, he exerted all his art and subtilty and powers of persuasion ; and how well he succeeded, we all know and feel. From that hour he established and exercised an astonishing dominion over the minds of men, leading them into such acts of folly, stupidity, and wickedness, as can on no other principle be accounted for. At the time of our Saviour's appearance, his tyranny seems to have arrived at its utmost height, and to have extended to the bodies as well as to the souls of men, of both which he sometimes took absolute possession : as we see in the history of those unhappy persons mention- ed in scripture, whom we call demoniacs, and who were truly said to be possessed by the devil. It was therefore extremely natural to suppose, that when he found there was a great and extraordinary personage who had just made his appearance in the world, who LECTURE IV. 59 was said to be the Son of God, the promised Saviour of mankind, that seed of the woman who was to bruise the serpent's head ; it was natural that he should be exceedingly alarmed at these tidings, that he should tremble for his dominion ; that he should first endea- vour to ascertain the fact, whether this was really the Christ or not ; and if it turned out to be so, that he should exert his utmost efforts to subdue this formi- dable enemy, or at least to seduce him from his alle- giance to God, and divert him from his benevolent purpose towards man. He had ruined the first Adam, and he might therefore flatter himself with the hope of being equally successful with the second Adam. He had entailed a mortal disease on the human race ; and to prevent their recovery from that disease, and their restoration to virtue and to happiness, would be a triumph indeed, a conquest worthy of the Prince of the devils. On the other hand, it was equally probable, that our blessed Lord would think it a measure highly proper, to begin his ministry with showing a decided superiority over the great adversary of man, whose empire he was going to abolish; with manifesting to mankind that the great Captain of their salvation was able to accomplish the important work he had under- taken, and with setting an example of virtuous firm- ness to his followers, which might encourage them to resist the most powerful temptations that the Prince of darkness could throw in their way. These considerations, in addition to many others, afford a strong ground for believing that the tempta- tion of Christ in the wilderness was, as the history itself plainly intimates, a real transaction, a personal contest between the great enemy and the great Re- 60 LECTURE IV. deemer of the human race ; and in this point of view, therefore, I shall proceed to consider some of the most remarkable circumstances attending it, and the prac- tical uses resulting from it*. We are told, in the first place, that ** Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness," that is, not by the evil spirit, but by the Spirit of God, by the sug- gestions and by the impulse of the Holy Ghost, of whose divine influences he was then full. For the time when this happened was immediately after his baptism, which is related in the conclusion of the pre- ceding chapter. We are there informed, that '* Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water, and, lo ! the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him, and, lo ! a voice from heaven, saying. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased f. Then (it immediately follows) was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. In that moment of exaltation, when he was acknow- ledged by a voice from heaven to be the Son of God, and when the. Spirit of God had taken full possession * It is an ingenious observation of a learned friend of mine, that the tempta- tion of Christ in the wilderness bears an evident analogy to the trial of Adam in Paradise, and elucidates the nature of that trial in which the tempter pre- vailed and man fell. The second Adam, who undertook the cause of fallen men, was subjected to temptation by the same apostate spirit. Herein the tempter failed, and the second Adam, in consequence, became the restorer of the fallen race of the first. St. Paul, in more places than one, points out the resemblance between the first Adam and the second ; and the temptation in the wilderness exhibits a most interesting transaction, where the second Adam was actually placed in a situation very similar to that of the first. The secrets of the Most High are unfathomable to short-sighted mortals ; but it would ap- pear, from what may be humbly learnt and inferred from this transaction, that our blessed Lord's temptation by Satan was a necessary part in the divine economy towards accomplishing the redemption of mankind. tMatt. iii. 16-17. LECTURE IV. 61 of his soul, then it was that Jesus went forth under the guidance of that Spirit, in full confidence of his divine power, into the wilderness, to encounter the Prince of this world. A plain proof that this contest was a preconcerted design, a measure approved by Heaven, and subservient to the grand design, in which our Saviour was engaged, of rescuing mankind from the dominion of Satan. The place into which our blessed Lord was thus led was the wilderness, probably the great wilderness near the river Jordan, in which Jesus was baptized, and soon afterwards tempted. This wilderness is thus described by a traveller of great credit and veracity, ' who had himself seen it. " In a few hours (says this writer) we arrived at that mountainous desert, in which our Saviour was led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. It is a most miserable dry barren place, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and dis- ordered as if the earth had suffered some great con- vulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned out- ward. On the left hand, looking down into a deep valley, as we passed along we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which we were told were formerly the habitations of hermits retiring hither for penance and mortification ; and certainly there could not be found in the whole earth, ' a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. On descending from these hills of desolation into the plain, we soon came to the foot of Mount Quarantania, which they say is the mountain from whence the devil tempted our Saviour with that visionary scene of all the king- doms and glories of this world. It is, as St. Matthew calls it, an e.vceeding high mountain, and in its ascent difficult and dangerous. It has a small chapel at the 62 LECTURE IV. top, and another about half way up, on a prominent part of a rock. Near this latter are several caves and holes in the sides of the mountain, made use of an- ciently by hermits, and by some at this day for places to keep their Lent in, in imitation of that of our bless- ed Saviour*." This was a theatre perfectly proper for the prince of the fallen angels to act his part upon, and perfectly well suited to his dark malignant purposes. Here, then, after our Saviour (as Moses and Elijah had done before him) had endured a long abstinence from food, the devil abruptly and artfully assailed him with a temptation well calculated to produce a powerful effect on a person faint and worn out with fasting. " If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." But our Saviour re- pelled this insidious advice by quoting the words of Moses to the Israelites in the wilderness : " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro- ceedeth out of the mouth of Godf." That is, he that brought me into this wilderness, and subjected me to these trials, can support me under the pressure of hunger, by a variety of means, besides the common one of bread, just as he fed the Israelites in the wil- derness with manna, with food from heaven. I will, therefore, rather choose to rely on his gracious provi- dence for my support in this exigency, than work a miracle myself for the supply of my wants. This answer was perfectly conformable to the prin- ciple on which our Lord acted throughout the whole of his ministry. All his miracles were wrought for the benefit of others, not one for his own gratification. Though he endured hunger and thirst, and indigence * Maundrell. t Deut. viii. 3. Matt. iv.4. LECTURE IV. 63 and fatigue, and all the other evils of a laborious and an itinerant life, yet he never once relieved himself from any of these inconveniencies, or procured a single comfort to himself by the working of miracles. These were all appropriated to the grand object of proving the truth of his religion and the reality of his divine mission, and he never applied them to any other pur- pose. And in this, as in all other cases, he acted with the most perfect wisdom ; for had he always or often delivered himself from the sufferings and the distresses incident to human nature by the exertions of his miraculous powers, the benefit of his example would have been in a great measure lost to mankind, and it would have been of little use to us, that he was in all things tempted like as ice are*, because he would have been supported and succoured, as we cannot expect to be. Having thus failed in attempting to work upon one of the strongest of the sensual appetites, hunger, the temp- ter's next application was to a different passion, but one which, in some minds, is extremely powerful, and often leads to great folly and guilt, I mean vanity and self-importance. *' He taketh our Lord into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him. If thou be the Son of God, cast thy- self down ; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stonef." The place where our Saviour now stood was on a pinnacle, or rather on a wing of the magnificent temple of Jerusalem, from whence there was a view of the vast concourse of people who were worshiping * Heb. iv. 15. t Matt. iv. 5, 6. 64 LECTURE IV. in the area below. In this situation the seducer flat- tered himself that our Saviour, indignant at the doubts which he artfully expressed of his being the Son of God, would be eager to give him, and all the multi- tude that beheld them, a most convincing proof that he was so, by casting himself from the height on which he stood into the court below, accompanied all the way as he descended by an illustrious host of angels, anxiously guarding his person from all danger, and plainly manifesting, by their solicitude to protect and to preserve him, that they had a most invaluable treasure committed to their care, and that he was in truth the beloved Son of God, the peculiar favourite of Heaven. To a vain-glorious mind nothing could have been more gratifying, more flattering, than such a proposal as this : more especially as so magnificent a spectacle in the sight of all the Jews would probably have in- duced them to receive him as their Messiah, whom it is well known they expected to descend visibly from heaven in some such triumphant manner as this. But on the humble mind of Jesus all this had no effect. To him who never affected parade or show, who never courted admiration or applause, who kept himself as quiet and as retired as the nature of his mission would allow, and frequently withdrew, from the multitudes that flocked around him, to deserts and to mountains ; to him this temptation carried no force ; his answer was, " Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God ;" thou shalt not rush into unnecessary danger in order to tempt God, in order to try whether he will interpose to save thee in a miraculous manner; much less ought this to be done, as now proposed, for the purposes of vanity and ostentation. LECTURE IV. 65 The next temptation is thus described by St. Matthew: *' Again the Devil taketh him up into an ei'ceeding high viountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them ; and saith unto him. All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me*." It has been thought an insuperable difficulty to conceive how Satan could, from any mountain, how- ever elevated, show to our Saviour all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them. And even they who defend the literal sense of the transaction in ge- neral, yet have recourse to a visionary representation in this particular instance. But there seems to me no necessity for calling in the help of a vision even here. The evangelist describes the mountain on which Christ was placed as an exceeding high one; and the traveller ■\ to whom I before referred, describes it in the same terms. From thence of course there must have been a very extensive view ; and accordingly another writer, the Abb6 Mariti, in his travels through Cyprus, &c. speaking of this mountain, says, '* Here we enjoyed the most beautiful prospect imaginable. This part of the mountain overlooks the mountains of Arabia, the country of Gilead, the country of the Am- monites, the plains of Moab, the plain of Jericho, the river Jordan, and the whole extent of the Dead Sea." These various domains the tempter might show to our Lord distinctly, and might also at the same time point out (for so the original word J'axi/u/At sometimes signi- fies) and direct our Lord's eye towards several other regions that lay beyond them, which might compre- hend all the principal kingdoms of the eastern world. And he might then properly enough say, "■ All these • Matt. iv. 8,9. t Maundrell. F 66 LECTURE IV. kingdoms which you now see, or towards which I now point, will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and wor- ship me." This explanation appears to me an easy and a natural one. But if others think differently, it is sufficient to say, that this particular incident is not more extraordinary than almost every other part of this very singular transaction ; throughout the whole of which, the devil appears to have been permitted to exercise a power far beyond what naturally belonged to him. But whatever we may decide on this point, the na- ture and magnitude of the temptation are evident. It is no less than an offer of kingdoms, with all their glory ; all the honours, power, rank, wealth, grandeur, and magnificence, that this World has to give. But all these put together could not for one moment shake the firm mind of our divine master, or seduce him from the duty he owed to God. He rejected with abhor- rence the impious proposition made to him, and an- swered with a proper indignation, in the words of scripture, '* Get thee hence, Satan : for it is written, thou shalt woxship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve*." Upon this we are told that the devil left him, and that angels came and ministered unto him. Thus ended this memorable scene of Christ's temp- tation in the wilderness. The reasons of it respecting our Lord have been already explained ; the instruc- tions it furnishes to ourselves are principally these : 1. It teaches us, that even the best of men may sometimes be permitted to fall into great temptations, for we see that our blessed Lord himself was exposed to the severest. They are not therefore to be consi- * Matt, iv, 10,11. LECTURE IV. ■ 67 dered as marks of God's displeasure or desertion of us, but only as trials of our virtue ; as means of prov- ing (as Moses tells the Israelites) what is in our hearts, whether we will keep God's commandments or no * ; as opportunities graciously afforded us to demonstrate our sincerity, ourfortitude, our integrity, our unshaken allegiance and fidelity to the great ruler of the world. 2. Whenever we are thus brought into temptation, we have every reason to hope for the divine assistance to extricate us from danger. We have the example of our blessed Lord to encourage us. We see the great captain of our salvation assaulted by all the art and all the power of Satan, and yet rising superior to all his efforts. We see him going before us in the paths of virtue and of glory, and calling upon us to follow him. Though he was led by the spirit of God him- self into the wilderness in order to be tempted, yet the same divine spirit accompanied and supported him throughout the whole of his bitter conflict, and ena- bled him to triumph over his infernal adversary. To the same heavenly spirit we also may look for deliver- ance. If we implore God in fervent prayer to send him to us, he will assuredly grant our petition. He will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape (when we ourselves cannot Jiml one) that we may be able to bear it-f. 3. We may learn from the conduct of our Lord un- der this great trial, that when temptations assail us, we are not to parley or to reason with them, to hesi- tate and deliberate whether we shall give way to them or not, but must at once repel them with firmness and with vigour, and oppose to the dictates of our passions * Deut.viii.2. tlCor. x. 13. f2 68 LECTURE IV. the plain and positive commands of God in his holy word. We must say resolutely to the tempter, as our Lord did, " Get thee hence, Satan*;" and he will in- stantly flee from us as he did from him. 4. It is a most solid consolation to us under such contests as these, that if we honestly exert our utmost efforts to vanquish the enemies of our salvation, most humbly and devoutly soliciting at the same time the influences of divine grace to aid our weak endeavours, the unavoidable errors and imperfections of our nature will not be ascribed to us, nor will God be extreme to mark every thing that is done amiss ; for we shall not be judged by one who has no/ee/i/z^of our infirmities, but by one who knows and who pities them, who was himself in all things tempted like as we are, yet with- out sin t, and who will make therefore all due allow- ances for our involuntary failings, though none for our wilful transgressions. 5. And lastly, in the various allurements presented to our Lord, we see but too faithful a picture of those we are to expect ourselves in our progress through life. Our Lord's temptations were, as we have seen, sensual gratifications, incitements to vanity and ostentation, and the charms of wealth, power, rank, and splendour. All these will in the different stages of our existence successively rise up to seduce us, to oppose our pro- gress to heaven, and bring us into captivity to sin and misery. Pleasure, interest, business, honour, glory, fame, all the follies and all the corruptions of the world, will each in their turn assault our feeble nature; and through these we must manfully fight our way to the great end we have in view. But the difficulty and the pain of this contest will be considerably lessened * Matt. iv. 10. t Heb. iv, 15. LECTURE IV. 69 by a resolute and vigorous exertion of our povs^ers and our resources at our first setting out in life. It was immediately after his baptism, and at the beginning of his ministry, that our Lord was exposed to all the power and all the artifices of the devil, and completely tri- umphing over both, effectually secured himself from all future attempts of that implacable enemy. In the same manner it is on our first setting out in life, that we are to look for the most violent assaults from our passions within, and from the world and the prince of it without. And if we strenuously resist those ene- mies of our salvation that present themselves to us at that most critical and dangerous period, all the rest that follow in our maturer age will be an easy con- quest. On him, who in the beginning of life has pre- served himself unspotted from the world, all its con- sequent attractions and allurements, and its magnifi- cence, wealth, and splendour, will make little or no impression. A mind that has been long habituated to discipline and self-government amidst far more power- ful temptations, will have nothing to apprehend from such assailants as these. But after all, our great se- curity is assistance from above, which will never be denied to those who fervently apply for it. And with the power of divine grace to support us, with the ex- ample of our Lord in the wilderness to animate us, and an eternity of happiness to reward us, what is there that can shake our constancy or corrupt our fidelity ? Set yourselves then without delay to acquire an early habit of strict self-government, and an early in- tercourse with your heavenly protector and comforter. Let it be your first care to establish the sovereignty of reason and the empire of grace over your soul, and you will soon find it no difficulty to repel the most 70 LECTURE IV. powerful temptations. "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith; quit yourselves like men; be strong*," be re- solute, be patient ; look frequently up to the prize that is set before you, lest you be v^^eary and faint in your minds. Consider that every pleasure you sacrifice to your duty here, will be placed to your credit and in- crease your happiness hereafter. The conflict with your passions will grow less irksome every day. A few years (with some of you perhaps a very few) will put an entire end to it ; and you will then, to your unspeakable comfort, be enabled to cry out with St. Paul, '* I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that dayf." * iCor. xvi. 13. t 2Tim.iv. r, 8. 71 LECTURE V. MATniEW IV._ Latter Part. The former part of the fourth chapter of St. Matthew, which contains the history of our Saviour's tempta- tion, having been explained to you in the preceding Lecture, I shall now proceed to the latter part of the chapter, in which an account is given of the first opening of our blessed Lord's ministry, by his preach- ing, by his chusing a few companions to attend him, and by his beginning to work miracles ; all which things are stated very briefly, without any attempt to expatiate on the importance and magnitude of the subject, which was nevertheless the noblest and most interesting that is to be found in history ; an enter- prize the most stupendous and astonishing that ever before entered into the mind of man, nothing less than the conversion of a whole world from wickedness and idolatry to virtue and true religion. On this vast undertaking our Lord now entered ; and we are informed by St. Matthew, in the 17th verse of this chapter, in what manner he first an- nounced himself and his religion to the world. His first address to the people was similar to that of the Baptist, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The very first qualification he required of 72 LECTURE V. those who aspired to be his disciples was repentance, a sincere contrition for all past offences, and a resolu- tion to renounce in future every species of sin; for sin, he well knew, would be the grand obstacle to the reception of his gospel. What a noble idea does this present to us of the dignity and sanctity of our divine religion ! It cannot even- be approached by the unhallowed and the pro- fane. Before they can be admitted even into the outward courts of its sanctuary, they must leave their corrupt appetite and their sinful practices behind them. ** Put off thy shoes from off thy feet," said God to Moses from the burning bush, " for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground* T Put off all thy vicious habits, says Christ to every one that aspires to be his disciple, for the religion thou art to embrace is a holy religion, and the God thou art to serve is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot even look upon iniquity. In some of the ancient sects of philosophy, before any one could be admitted into their schools, or initiated in their mysteries, he was obliged to undergo a certain course of preparation, a certain term of trial and probation, which however consisted of little more than a few superstitious cere- monies, or some acts of external discipline and purifi- cation. But the preparation for receiving the Chris- tian religion is the preparation of the heart. The disci- pline required for a participation of its privileges, is the mortification of sin, the sacrifice of every guilty propensity and desire. This sacrifice however the great Founder of our re- ligion did not require for nothing. He promised his followers a recompence infinitely beyond the indul- " Exod. iii. 5. LECTURE V. 73 gences they were to renounce ; he promised them a place in his kingdom, a kingdom of which he was the sovereign; a kingdom of righteousness here, and of glory hereafter. Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand*. He then proceeds to select and associate to himself a certain number of persons, who were to be his assis- tants and coadjutors in the establishment and the administration of his heavenly kingdom. And here it was natural to expect, that in making his choice he should look to men of influence, autho- rity, and weight ; that, being himself destitute of all the advantages of rank, power, wealth, and learning, he should endeavour to compensate for those defects in his own person by the contrary qualities of his as- sociates, by connecting himself with some of the most powerful, most opulent, most learned, and most elo- quent men of his time. And this most undoubtedly would have been his mode of proceeding, had his object been to establish his religion by mere human means, by influence or by force, by the charms of eloquence, by the powers of reason, by the example, by the authority, by the fashion of the great. But these were not the instru- ments which Christ meant to make use of. He meant to show that he was above them all ; that he had far other resources, far different auxiliaries, to call in to his support, in comparison of which all the wealth and magnificence, and power and wisdom of the world, were trivial and contemptible things. We find there- fore that not the wise, not the mighty, not the noble, were called t to co-operate with him ; but men of the meanest birth, of the lowest occupations, of the hum- *Matt.iv. 17. t 1 Cor. 1.26. 74 LECTURE V. blest talents, and most uncultivated minds. '' As he was walking by the sea of Galilee," St. Matthew tells us, " he saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and An- drew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men; and they straight- way left their nets (that is, in fact, all their subsistence, all the little property they had in the world) and fol- lowed him. And going from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his bro- ther, in a ship, with Zebedee their father, mending their nets ; and he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him*." These were the men whom he selected for his companions and assistants. These fishermen of Galilee were to be, under him, the instruments of overthrowing the stupendous and magnificent system of paganism and idolatry throughout the world, and producing the greatest change, the most general and most important revolution, in principles, in morals, and in religion, that ever took place on this globe. For this astonish- ing work, these simple, illiterate, humble men, were singled out by our Lord. He chose, as the apostle expresses it, " the foolish things of the world to con- found the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mightyf ; that his re- ligion might not be established by the enticing words of man's wisdom, but by demonstration of the spirit ,and of power ; that our faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of GodJ." Such were the associates chosen by him who was the delegate of heaven, and whose help was from above. We may expect therefore that an impostor, * Miitt. iv. 18—22. t 1 Cor. i. 27. t 1 Cor. ii. 4, 5. LECTURE V. 75 who meant to rely on human means for success, would take a directly contrary course. And this we find in fact to be the case. Who were the companions and assistants selected by the grand impostor Mahomet ? They were men of the most weight and authority, and rank and influence, among his countrymen. The rea- son is obvious; he wanted such supports; Christ did not ; and hence the marked difference of their conduct in this instance. It is the natural difference between truth and imposture. That the power of God and not of man was the foundation on which our Lord meant to erect his new system, very soon appeared ; for the next thing we hear of him is, that he " went about all Galilee teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people*." Here then began that deajonstration of the SPIRIT AND OF POWER, which was to be the grand basis of his new kingdom, the great evidence of his heavenly mission. It is indeed probable, that the wis- dom and the authority with which he spake, and the weight and importance of the doctrines he taught, would of themselves make a deep impression on the minds of his hearers, and produce him some followers. But had he stopt here, had he given his new disciples nothing but words, their zeal and attachment to him would soon have abated. For it was natural for these converts to say to him, " You have called upon us to repent and to reform ; you have commanded us to re- nounce our vices, to relinquish our favourite pleasures and pursuits, to give up the world and its enjoyments, and to take up our cross and follow you ; and in re- * Matt. iv. 23. 76 LECTURE V. turn for this you promise us distinguished happiness and honour in your spiritual kingdom. You speak, it is true, most forcibly to our consciences and to our hearts, and we feel strongly disposed to obey your in- junctions, and to credit your promises ; but still the sacrifice we are required to make is a great one, and the conflict we have to go through is a bitter one. We find it a most painful struggle to subdue confirmed ha- bits, and to part at once with all our accustomed plea- sures and indulgences. Before then we can entirely relinquish these, and make a complete change in the temper of our souls, and the conduct of our lives, we must have some convincing proof that you have a right to require this compliance at our hands ; that what you enjoin us is in reality the command of God him- self; that you are actually sent from heaven, and com- missioned by him to teach us his will, and to instruct us in our duty ; that the kingdom you hold out to us in another world is something more than mere imagi- nation : that you are in short what you pretend to be, the Son OF God : and that you are able to make good the punishmerit you denounce against sin, and the re- wards you promise to virtue." Our Lord well knew that this sort of reasoning must occur to every man's mind. He knew that it was highly proper and indispensably necessary to give some evidence of his divine commission, to do some- thing which should satisfy the world that he was the Son of God, and the delegate of heaven. And how could he do this so effectually as by performing works which it utterly exceeded all the strength and ability of man to accomplish, and which nothing less than the hand of God himself could possibly bring to pass? In other words, the proofs he gave of his mission were LECTURE V. 77 those astonishing miracles which are recorded in the gospel, and which are here for the first time mentioned by St. Matthew, in the 23d verse of this chapter : *' And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of disease among the people." This then is the primary, the fundamental evidence of his divine authority, which our Lord was pleased to give to his followers. His first application, as we have seen, was (like that of his precursor John the Baptist) to their hearts, ** repent ye," lay aside your vices and your prejudices. Till this was done, till these grand obstacles to the admission of truth were removed, he well knew that all he could say and all he could do would have no eftect ; they would not be moved either by his exhortations or his miracles; ** they would not be persuaded though one rose from the dead*." And in fact we find that several of the Pharisees, men abandoned to vice and wickedness, did actually resist the miracles of Christ, and the resur- rection of a man from the grave ; they ascribed his casting out devils to Beelzebub ; they were not con- vinced by the cure of the blind man, and the raising of Lazarus from the dead, though they saw them both before their eyes, one restored to sight, the other to life. This plainly proves how far the power of sin and of prejudice will go in closing up all the avenues of the mind against conviction ; and how wisely our Saviour acted in calling upon his hearers to repent, before he offered any evidence to their understandings. But the way being thus cleared, the evidence was then pro- duced, and the efiect it had was such as might be * Luke, xvi. 31. 78 LECTURE V. expected; for St. Matthew tells us, that his fame went throughout all Syria; and that there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Deca- polis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan * ; that is, from every quarter of his own country and the adjoining nations. And indeed it can be no wonder that such multi- tudes were convinced and converted by what they saw. The wonder would have been if they had not. To those who were themselves eye-witnesses of his miracles, they must have been (except in a few instan- ces of inveterate depravity of heart,) irresistible proofs of his divine missidn. When they saw him give eyes to the blind, feet to the lame, health to the sick, and even life to the dead, by speaking only a few words ; what other conclusion could they possibly draw than that which the centurion did, truly this was the Son of God-\? To us indeed who have not seen these mighty works, and who live at the distance of eighteen hun- dred years from the time when they were wrought, the force of this evidence is undoubtedly less than it was to an eye-witness. But if the reality of these miracles is proved to us by sufficient testimony, by testimony such as no ingenuous and unprejudiced mind can withstand, they ought still to produce in us the firmest belief of the divine power of him who wrought them J. It must be admitted at the same time, that these miracles, being facts of a very uncommon and very extraordinary nature, such as have never happened in our own times, and but very seldom even in former * Matt. iv. 24, 2,5. t Matt, xxvii. 54. J Mr. Hume's abstruse and sophistical argument against miracles, has been completely refuted by Drs. Adams, Campbell, and Paley, LECTURE V. 79 times, they require a much stronger degree of testi- mony to support them than common historical facts. And this degree of testimony they actually have. They are supported by a body of evidence fully adequate to the case; fully competent to outw^eigh all the disadvantages arising from the great distance and the astonishing nature of the events in question. 1 . In the first place, these miracles are recorded in four different histories, written very near the time of their being performed, by four different men, Mat- thevi^, Mark, Luke, and John; twoof w^hom saw these miracles with their own eyes ; the other two had their account from them who did the same ; and affirm, that " they had a perfect knowledge of every thing they relate*." They were plain artless men, without the least appearance of enthusiasm or credulity about them, and rather slow than forward to believe any thing extraordinary and out of the common course of na- ture. They were perfectly competent to judge of plain matters of fact, of things which passed before their eyes, and could certainly tell, without the least pos- sibility of being mistaken, whether a person whom they knew to be blind was actually restored to sight, and a person whom they knew to be dead was raised to life again, by a few words spoken by their master. They were men, who, from the simplicity of their manners, were not at all likely to invent and publish falsehoods of so extraordinary a nature ; much less falsehoods by which they could gain nothing, and did in fact lose every thing. There is not therefore, from the peculiar character of these persons, the least ground for disbelieving the reality of any thing they relate. * Luke, i. 3. 80 LECTURE V. Nor is there any reason to doubt whether the writings we now have under their names are those which they actually wrote. They have been received as such ever since they were published ; nor has any one argument been yet produced against their authen- ticity, which has not been repeatedly and effectually confuted. 2. It is a very strong circumstance in favour of our Saviour's miracles, that they were related by contem- porary historians, by those who were eye-witnesses of them, and were afterwards acknowledged to be true by those who lived nearest to the times in which they were wrought ; and what is still more to the point, by many who were hostile to the Christian religion. Even the emperor Julian himself, that most bitter adversary of Christianity, who had openly apostatized from it, who professed the most implacable hatred to it, who employed all his ingenuity, all his acuteness and learning, which were considerable, in combating the truth of it, in displaying in the strongest colours every objection he could raise up against it ; even he did not deny the reality of our Lord's miracles*. He admitted that Jesus wrought them, but contended that he wrought them by the power of magic. 3. Unless we admit that the Founder of our religion did actually work the miracles ascribed to him by his historians, it is utterly impossible to account for the success and establishment of his religion. It could not, in short, to all appearance, have been established by any other means. • Julian apud Cyrillum, L. vi. viii. x. Celsus also acknowledged the truth of the gospel-miracles in general, but ascribed them to the assistance of demons, " The Christians," says he, "seem to prevail, J'ai|oiova;v Ttva'v oMOfxaa-i xai xaraxXra-Ej-t, by virtue of the names and the invocations of certain demons." Orig. contra Celsum, ed. Cantab. 1. i. p. 7. LECTURE V. 81 Consider only for a moment what the apparent condi- tion of our Lord was, when he first announced his mission among the Jews, what his pretensions and what his doctrines were, and then judge what kind of a reception he must have met with among the Jews, had his preaching been accompanied by no miracles. A young man of no education, born in an obscure village, of obscure parents, without any of those very brilliant talents or exterior accomplishments which usually captivate the hearts -of mpn : without having previously written or done any thing that should ex- cite the expectation, or attract the attention and admiration of the world, offers himself at once to the Jewish nation, not merely as a preacher of morality, but as a teacher sent from heaven ; nay, what is more, as the Son of God, himself, and as that great deliverer, the Messiah, who had been so long predicted by the prophets, and was then so anxiously expected and so eagerly looked for by the whole Jewish people. He called upon this people to renounce at once a great part of the religion of their forefathers, and to adopt that which he proposed to them ; to relinquish all their fond ideas of a splendid, a victorious, a triumph- ant Messiah, and to accept in his room a despised, a persecuted, and a crucified master: he required them to give up all their former prejudices, superstitions, and traditions, all their favourite rites and ceremonies, and, what was perhaps still dearer to them, their favourite vices and propensities, their hypocrisy, their rapaciousness, their voluptuousness. Instead of ex- terior forms, he prescribed sanctity of manners ; in- stead of washing their hands, and making clean their platters, he commanded them to purify their hearts, and reform their lives. Instead of indulging in ease G 82 T.ECTURE V. and luxury, he called upon them to take up their cross and follow him through sorrows and sufferings; to pluck out a right eye, and to cut off a right arm ; to leave father, mother, brethren, and sisters, for his name's sake and the gospel. What now shall we say to doctrines such as these, delivered by such a person as our Lord appeared to be? Is it probable, is it possible, that the reputed son of a poor mechanic could, by the mere force of argument or persuasion, induce vast numbers of his countrymen to embrace opinions and practices so directly opposite to every propensity of their hearts, to every sentiment they had imbibed, every principle they had acted upon, from their earliest years ? Yet the fact is, that he ^i^ prevail on multitudes to do so ; and there- fore he must have had means of conviction superior to all human eloquence or reasoning ; that is, he must have convinced his hearers, by the miracles he wrought, that all power in heaven and on earth was given to him, and that every precept he delivered, and every doctrine he taught, was the voice of God himself. Without this, it is utterly impossible to give any rational account of his success. In order to set this argument in a still stronger point of view, let us consider what the effect actually was in a case where a new religion was proposed without any support from miracles. That same impostor Mahomet, to v/hom I before alluded, began his mis- sion with every advantage that could arise from per- sonal figure, from insinuating manners, from a com- manding eloquence, from an ardent enterprising spirit, from considerable wealth, and from powerful con- nexions. Yet with all these advantages, and with every artifice and every dexterous contrivance to LECTURE V. 83 recommend his new religion to his countrymen, in a space of three years he made only about six converts, and those principally of his own family, relations, and most intimate friends. And his progress was but very slow for nine years after this, till he began to make use of force ; and then his victorious arms, not his arguments, carried his religion triumphantly over almost all the eastern world. It appears, therefore, that without the assistance either of miracles or of the sword, no religion can be propagated with such rapidity, and to such an extent, as the Christian was, both during our Saviour's life- time, and after his death. For there is, I believe, no instance in the history of mankind of such an effect being produced, without either the one or the other. Now of force we know that Jesus never did make use ; the unavoidable consequence is, that the mira- cles ascribed to him were actually wrought by him. 4. These miracles being wrought, not in the midst of friends, who were disposed to favour them, but of most bitter and determined enemies, whose passions and whose prejudices were all up inarms, all vigorous and active against them and their author; we may rest assured that no false pretence to a supernatural power, no frauds, no collusions, no impositions, would be suffered to pass undetected and unexposed: that every single miracle would be most critically and most rigorously sifted and inquired into, and no art left unemployed to destroy their credit and coun- teract their effect. And this in fact we find to be the case. Look into the ninth chapter of St. John, and you will see with what extreme care and diligence, with what anxiety and solicitude, the pharisees examined and re-examined the blind man that was restored to G 2 84 LECTURE V. sight by our Saviour, and what pains they took to persuade him, and to make him say, that he was not restored to sight by Jesus. " They brought," says St. John, "to the pharisees, him that aforetime was blind ; and the pharisees asked him how he had received his sight. And he said unto them, Jesus put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed and did see. A plain and simple and honest relation of the fact. But the Jews, not content with this, called for his parents, and asked them, saying, is this your son, who ye say was born blind ? How then doth he now see ? His parents, afraid of bringing themselves into danger, very discreetly answered, we know that this is our son, and that he was born blind ; but by what means he now seeth, we know not, or who hath opened his eyes we know not ; he is of age, ask him, he shall speak for himself. They then called the man again, and said to him, give God the praise; we know that this man (meaning Jesus,) is a sinner. The man's answer is admirable : Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not ; but this I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Since the world began, was it not known that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. And they answered him and said, thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us ? And they cast him out." A very effectual way, it must be confessed, of confuting a miracle ! The whole of this narrative (from which I have only selected a few of the most striking passages) is highly curious and instructive, and would furnish ample matter for a variety of very important re- marks. But the only use I mean to make of it at present is to observe, that it proves, in the clearest LECTURE V. 85 manner, how very much awake and alive the Jews were to every part of our Saviour's conduct. It shows that his miracles were presented not to persons pre- possessed and prejudiced in his favour, not to inatten- tive or negligent or credulous spectators, but to acute and inquisitive and hostile observers, to men disposed and able to detect imposture wherever it could be found. And it is utterly impossible that the miracles of Christ could have passed the fiery ordeal of so much shrewdness and sagacity, and authority and malignity, united, if they had not been carried through it by the irresistible force of truth, and of that divine power which nothing could resist. 5. The miracles of our Lord were not mere transient acts, beheld at the moment with astonishment, but forgot as soon as over, and productive of.no important consequences. They gave birth to a new religion, to a new mode of worship, to several new and sin- gular institutions, such as the rite of baptism, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the appropriation of the Jirst day of the week to sacred purposes, the es- tablishment of a distinct order of men for the celebra- tion of divine offices, and other things of the same nature. Now this religion and these institutions sub- sist to this day. And as the books of the New Testa- ment affirm that this religion and these institutions were first established, and afterward made their way by the power of miracles, they are standing testimo- nies to the truth and the reality of those miracles, without which they could never have taken such firm and deep root at the first, and continued unshaken through so many ages to the present time. The mag- nitude and permanency of the superstructure prove LECTURE V that it could not have had a less solid, a less substan- tial foundation. 6. And, lastly, when we consider the great sacri- fices made by the first converts to Christianity, parti- cularly by the apostles and primitive teachers of it ; how many deep-rooted prejudices and favourite opi- nions they gave up to it ; what a total change it pro- duced in their disposition, their temper, their man- ners, their principles, their habits, and the whole com- plexion of their lives ; what infinite pains they took to propagate it; how cheerfully they relinquished for this purpose all the ease, the comfort, the convenien- cies, the pleasures, and the advantages of life; and instead of them embraced labours, hardships, suffer- ings, persecutions, torments, and death itself; we cannot rationally suppose that such patience, resig- nation, fortitude, magnanimity, and perseverance, could possibly be produced by any less powerful cause than those evidences of divine power exhibited in the miracles of Christ; which demonstrably proved that he and his religion had a divine original, and that therefore the sufferings they underwent for his sake in the present life would be amply repaid by the glorious rewards reserved for them hereafter. When therefore we put together all these conside- rations, they can leave no doubt on any unprejudiced mind, that the account given in this chapter of the first commencement of our Saviour's ministry, and the reasons of his astonishing success, are perfectly accu- rate and true : namely, " that he went about all Gali- lee, teaching in the synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." LECTURE V. 87 And our conclusion from this must necessarily be the same with that of the great Jewish ruler, who, with a laudable anxiety to know the truth, came to Jesus by night, and addressed him in these words : " Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God : for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him* T * John iii. 2. 90 LECTURE VI. the heathen world ; and are still too much so, even to the Christian w^orld. *' There are (as a very able ad- vocate for Christianity well observes*) two opposite characters under which mankind may generally be clas- sed. The one possesses vigour, firmness, resolution, is daring and active, quick in its sensibilities, jealous of its fame, eager in its attachments, inflexible in its purposes, violent in its resentments. *' The other, meek, yielding, complying, forgiving: not prompt to act, but willing to suffer; silent and gentle under rudeness and insult ; suing for reconcilia- tion where others would demand satisfaction; giving way to the pushes of impudence; conceding and indul- gent to the prejudices, the wrongheadedness, the in- tractability of those with whom he has to deal." The former of these characters is and ever has been the favourite of the world ; and though it is too stern to conciliate affection, yet it has an appearance of dig- nity in it which too commonly commands respect. The latter is, as our Lord describes it, humble, meek, lowly, devout, merciful, pure, peaceable, pa- tient, and unresisting. The world calls it mean-spirit- ed, tame, and abject; yet notwithstanding all this, with the divine author of our religion this is the favou- rite character; this is the constant topic of his com- mendation; this is the subject that runs through all the beatitudes. To this he assigns, under all its various forms, peculiar blessings. To those who possess it, he promises that they shall inherit the earth ; that they shall obtain mercy ; that theirs shall be the kingdom of heaven ; that they shall see God, and shall be cal- led the children of God. The recommendation of this character recurs fre- * Dr. I'alcy, vol. ii. p. 30. LECTURE VI. 91 quently in different shapes throughout the whole of the sermon on the mount, and a great part of that discourse is nothing more than a comment on the text of the beatitudes. On these, and a few other pas- sages which have any thing particularly novel and important in them, I shall offer some observations. But before I quit this noble and consolatory exor- dium of our Lord's discourse, I shall request your attention to one particular part of it, which seems to require a little explanation. The parti allude to is this : ** Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The blessing, here promised to the meek, seems at first sight somewhat singular, and not very appropri- ate to the virtue recommended. That the meek of all others should be destined to inherit the earth, is what one should not naturally have expected. If we may judge from what passes in the world, it is those of a quite opposite character, the bold, the forward, the active, the enterprising, the rapacious, the ambitious, that are best calculated to secure to themselves that inheritance. And, undoubt- edly, if by inheriting the earth is meant acquiring the wealth, the grandeur, the power, the property of the earth, these are the persons who generally seize on a large proportion of those good things, and leave the meek and the gentle far behind them in this unequal contest for such advantages. But it was far other things than these our Lord had in view. By inheriting the earth, he meant inheriting those things which are, without question, the greatest blessings upon earth, calmness and composure of spirit, tranquillity, cheer- fulness, peace and comfort of mind. Now these, I apprehend, are the peculiar portion and recompense 92 LECTURE VI. of the meek. Unassuming, gentle, and humble -in their deportment, they give no offence, they create no enemies, they provoke no hostilities, and thus escape all that large proportion of human misery which arises from dissensions and disputes. If differences do unex- pectedly start up, by patience, mildness, and prudence, they disarm their adversaries, they soften resentment, they court reconciliation, and seldom fail of restoring harmony and peace. Having a very humble opinion of themselves, they see others succeed without un- easiness, without envy : having no ambition, no spirit of competition, they feel no pain from disappointment, no mortification from defeat. By bending under the storms that assail them, they greatly mitigate their violence, and see them pass over their heads almost without feeling their force. Content and satisfied with their lot, they pass quietly and silently through the crowds that surround them ; and encounter much fewer difficulties and calamities in their progress through life, than more active and enterprising men. This even tenour of life may indeed be called, by men of the world, flat, dull, and insipid. But the meek are excluded from no rational pleasure, no legitimate delight ; and as they are more exempt from anxiety and pain than other men, their sum total of hap- piness is greater, and they may, in the best sense of the word, be fairly said to inherit the eai^th^ I shall now proceed to notice such other passages of this admirable discourse, as appear to me to deserve peculiar attention and consideration. ^ The first of these is that which begins with the 2 1 st verse; *' Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgement: but I say unto LECTURE VI. 93 you, that whosoever is angry with his brother with- out a cause, shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council ; but whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." And again in the same manner at the 27th verse; "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, that whoso- ever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath com- mitted adultery with her already in his heart." I put these two instances together, because they both enforce the same great leading principle, and both illustrate one great distinguishing excellence of the morality taught by our Saviour; namely, that it does not content itself with merely controlling our outward actions, but it goes much deeper, it imposes its restraints, it places its guard exactly where it ought to do, on our thoughts and on our hearts. Our Lord here singles out two cases, referring to two dif- ferent species of passions, the malevolent and the sensual ; and he pronounces the same sentence, the same decisive judgement on both; that the thing to be regulated is the intention, the passion, the propen- sity/. Former moralists contented themselves with saying, thou shalt not kill. But / (says our Lord) go much further ; / say, thou shalt not indulge any re- sentment against thy brother, thou shalt not use any reproachful or contemptuous language towards him ; for it is these things that lead and provoke to the most atrocious deeds. Former moralists have said, thou shalt not commit adultery. But / say, let not thine heart or thine eye commit adultery : for here it is that the sin begins : and here it must be crushed in its birth. 94 LECTURE VI. This is wisdom, this is morality in its most perfect form, in its essence, and in its first principles. Every one that is acquainted vv^ith men and manners must know that our Lord has here shown a consummate knowledge of human nature; that he has laid his finger on the right place, and exerted his authority where it was most wanted, in checking the first movements of our criminal desires. Every one must see and feel, that bad thoughts quickly ripen into bad actions ; and that if the latter only are forbidden, and the former left free, all morality will soon be at an end. Our Lord, therefore, like a wise physician, goes at once to the bottom of the evil ; he extirpates the first germ and root of the disease, and leaves not a single fibre of it remaining to shoot up again in the heart. It was obvious to foresee that the disciples, and the people to whom our Saviour addressed himself, would consider this as very severe discipline, and would complain bitterly, or at least murmur secretly, at the hardships of parting with all their favourite passions, of eradicating their strongest natural propen- sities, of watching constantly every motion of their hearts, and guarding those issues of life and death, those fountains of virtue and of vice, with the most unremitting attention. But all this our divine Master tells them is indispensably necessary. All these cautions must be used, all this vigilance must be ex- ercised, all this self-government must be exerted, all these sacrifices must be made. It is the price we are to pay, (besides that price which our Redeemer paid,) and surely no unreasonable one, for escaping eternal misery, and rendering ourselves capable of eternal glory. He therefore goes on to say, in terms highly LECTURE VI. 95 figurative and alarming, but not too strong for the occasion, ** If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy v^hole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee ; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell*." Every one must immediately see that the eye to be plucked out is the eye of concupiscence, and the hand to be cut off is the hand of violence and vengeance ; that is, these passions are to be checked and subdued, let the conflict cost us what it may. This naturally leads our divine teacher, in the next verse, to a subject closely connected with one of our strongest passions ; and that is, the power of divorce. Among the Jews and the heathens, but more particu- larly the latter, this power was carried to a great extent, and exercised with the most capricious and wanton cruelty. The best and most affectionate of wives were often dismissed for the slightest reasons, and sometimes without any reason at all. It was high time for some stop to be put to these increasing barbarities, and it was a task worthy of the Son of God himself to stand up as the defender and protec- tor of the weak, of the most helpless and most op- pressed part of the human species. Accordingly he here declares, in the most positive terms, that the only legitimate cause of divorce is adultery. " It has been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement. But I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit * Matt. V. 29, 30. 96 LECTURE VI. adultery ; and whosoever marrieth her that is divorced, committeth adultery*." This has, by the experience of ages, been found to be a most wise and salutary pro- vision, and no less conducive to the happiness than to the virtue of mankind. And we are taught by the fatal example of other nations, that wherever this law of the gospel has been abrogated or relaxed, and a greater facility of divorce allowed, the consequence has constantly been a too visible depravation of man- ners, and the destruction of many of the most essen- tial comforts of the married state. The passage to which I shall next advert is the following: "Ye have heard it has been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But /say unto ^ you, that ye resist not evil ; but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also ; and if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; and whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain 'I'.' By the Mosaic law, retaliation was permitted ; an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, might legally be demanded J. Among the ancient heathens, private revenge was indulged without scruple and without mercy. The savage nations in America, as well as in almost every other part of the world, set no bounds to the persevering rancour, and the cool deliberate malig- nity, with which they will pursue, for years together, not only the person himself from whom they have re- ceived an injury, but sometimes every one related to or connected with him. The Arabs are equally implacable in their resentments ; and the Koran itself, in the case of murder, allows private revenge §. " Matt. V. 31, 32. t Matt. v. 38—41. X Levit. xxiv. 20. Deut.xix. 21. § Koran, v. 2 c. 17. p. 100. LECTURE VI. 97 It was to check this furious ungovernable passion, so universally prevalent over the earth, that our Savi- our delivered the precepts now before us. ** I say unto you, resist not evil ; but if any one smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." No one can imagine that this injunction, and those of the same kind that follow, are to be understood strictly and literally; that we are to submit, without the least opposition, to every injury and every insult that is offered to us, and are absolutely precluded from every degree of self-preservation and self-defence. This can never be intended; and the example of St. Paul, who repelled with proper spirit the insult offered him as a Roman citizen, very clearly proves that we are not to permit ourselves to be trampled on by the foot of pride and oppression, without express- ing a just sense of the injury done to us, and endea- vouring to avert and repel it. It cannot therefore be meant, that if any one, by a cruel and expensive liti- gation, should deprive us of apart of'our property, we should not only relinquish to him that part, but request him also to accept every thing else we have in the world. Nor can it be meant, that if a man should actually strike us on one cheek, we should immediately turn to him the other, and desire the blow to be repeated. This could not possibly answer any one rational purpose, nor conduce in the least to the peace and happiness of mankind, which were certainly the ob- jects our Saviour had in view ; on the contrary, it would tend materially to obstruct both, by inviting injury, and encouraging insult and oppression. Com- mon sense therefore, as well as common utility, require that we should consider the particular instan- ces of behaviour under the injuries here specified, as H 98 LECTURE VI. nothing more than strong oriental idioms, as prover- bial and figurative expressions, intended only to con- vey a general precept, and to describe that peculiar temper and disposition which the gospel requires ; that patience, gentleness, mildness, moderation, and forbear- ance, under injuries and affronts, v^^hich is best calcu- lated to preserve the peace of our own minds, as well as that of the world at large ; which tends to soften resentment and turn away wrath ; and without which, on one side or the other, provocations must be endless, and enmities eternal. All therefore that is here required of us is plainly and simply this, that we should not suffer our resent- ment of injuries to carry us beyond the bounds of justice, equity, and Christian charity; that we should not (as St. Paul well explains this passage,) recom- pense evil for evil*, that is, repay one injury by com- mitting another ; that we should not take fire at every slight provocation or trivial offence, nor pursue even the greatest and most flagrant injuries with implacable fury and inextinguishable rancour; that we should make all reasonable allowances for the infirmities of human nature, for the passions, the prejudices, the failings, the misapprehensions, of those we have to deal with; and, without submitting tamely to op- pression or insult, or giving up rights of gTeat and achiowledged importance, should always show a dispo- sition to conciliate and forgive ; and rather to recede and give way a little in certain instances, than insist on the utmost satisfaction and reparation that we have perhaps a strict right to demand. The chapter concludes with another remark- able precept, which may strictly be called a new * Rom. xii. 17. LECTURE VI. 99 commandment ; for in no moral code is it to be found, till our Lord gave it a place in his. The precept is this : " Ye have heard that it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But / say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father v^hich is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust*." So noble, so sublime, and so benevolent a precept, was never before given to man ; and it is one strong proof, among many others, of the originality of our Saviour's character and religion. The Jews were expressly commanded to love their neighbour; but this injunction was not extended to their enemies, and they therefore thought that this was a tacit permission to hate them; a conclu- sion which seemed to be much strengthened by their being enjoined to wage eternal war with one of their enemies, the Canaanites, to show them no mercy, but to root them out of the land. In consequence of this, they did entertain strong prejudices and malignant sentiments towards every other nation but their own, and were justly reproached for this by the Roman historian; **apud ipsos misericordia in promptu, ad- versus omnes alios hostile odiumf:" that is, towards each other they are compassionate and kind ; towards all others they cherish a deadly hatred. But it ought in justice to be observed, that this remark of Tacitus might have been applied, with almost equal apti- tude, both to his own countrymen the Romans, and * Matt. V. 43-45. f Tacit. Hist. v. 5. H 2 100 LECTURE VI. to the Greeks, for they gave to all other nations but themselves the name of barbarians ; and having stig- matized them with this opprobrious appellation, they treated them as if they were in reality what they had wantonly thought fit to call them. They treated them with insolence, contempt, and cruelty. They created and carried on unceasing hostilities against them, and never sheathed the sword till they had exterminated or enslaved them. In private life also, it was thought allowable to pur- sue those with whom they were at variance with the keenest resentment and most implacable hatred ; to take every opportunity of annoying and distressing them, and not to rest till they had felt the severest effects of unrelenting vengeance. In this situation of the world, and in this general ferment of the malevolent passions, how seasonable, how salutary, how kind, how conciliatory, was the command to love, not only our friends, not only our neighbours, not only strangers, but even our enemies! How gracious that injunction, "/ say unto you, love your enemies; do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despite- fully use you, and persecute you !" And how touch- ing, how irresistible, is the argument used to enforce it: **That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven ; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust!" It is remarkable, that the philosopher Seneca makes use of the same argument, not exactly for the same purpose, but for a similar one : '* If (says he) you would imitate the gods, confer favours even on the ungrateful, for the sun rises on the wicked, and the LECTURE VI. 101 seas are open even unto pirates :" and again, " the gods show many acts of kindness even to the un- grateful*." It is highly probable that the philosopher took this sentiment from this very passage of St. Matthew^ ; for no such sublime morality is, I believe, to be found in any heathen writer previous to the Christian revelation. Seneca flourished and wrote after the gospels were written, and after Christianity had made some pro- gress. Besides this, he was brother to Gallio, the proconsul of Achaia, before whose tribunal, St. Paul -was brought by the Jews at Corintht- From him he would of course receive much information respecting this new religion, and the principal characters concern- ed in it ; and from the extraordinary things he would hear of it from such authentic sources, his curiosity would naturally be excited to look a little further into it, and to peruse the writings that contained the history and the doctrines of this new school of philo- sophy. This, and this only, can account for the fine strains of morality we sometimes meet with in Seneca, Plutarch, Marcus Antoninus, Epictetus, and the other philosophers who wrote after the Christian sera, and the visible superiority of their ethics to those of their predecessors before that period. But to return. It has been objected to this command of loving our enemies, that it is extravagant and impracticable ; that it is impossible for any man to bring himself to enter- tain any real love for his enemies ; and that human nature revolts and recoils against so unreasonable a requisition. This objection evidently goes upon the supposition * Sen.deBenef. lib. 4. c. 26 and c. 28, t Acts, xviii. 12. 102 LECTURE VI. that we are to love our enemies in the same manner and degree, and with the same cordiality and ardour of affection, that we do our relations and friends. And if this were required, it might indeed be considered as a harsh injunction. But our Lord was not so severe a task-master as to expect this at our hands. There are different degrees of love, as well as of every other human affection ; and these degrees are to be duly proportioned to the different objects of our regard. There is one degree due to our relations, another to our benefactors, another to our friends, another to stran- gers, another to our enemies. There is no need to de- fine the precise shades and limits of each, our own feel- ings will save us that trouble ; and in that only case where our feelings are likely to lead us wrong, this precept of our Lord will direct us right. And it exacts nothing but what is both reasonable and practicable. It explains what is meant by loving our enemies, in the words that immediately follow : *' Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you, and persecuteyou:" that is, do woiretaliate upon your enemy ; do not return his execrations, his injuries, and his persecutions, with similar treatment; do not turn upon him his own weapons, but endeavour to subdue him with weapons of a celestial temper, with kindness and compassion. This is of all others the most effectual way of vanquishing an enraged adver- sary. The interpretation here given, is amply con- firmed by St. Paul in his epistle to the Romans, which is an admirable comment on this passage. "Dearly beloved," says he, ** avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath ; for vengeance is mine, . I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy LECTURE VI. 103 hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good*." This then is the love that we are to show our enemies ; not that ardour of affection which we feel towards our friends, but that lower kind of love, which is called Christian charity (for it is the same word in the origi- nal) and which we ought to exercise towards every human being, especially in distress. If even our enemy hunger, we are to feed him ; if he thirst, we are to give him drink; and thus shall obtain the noblest of all triumphs, "we shall overcome evil with good." The world if they please may call this meanness of spirit ; but it is in fact the truest 'magnanimity and elevation of soul. It is far more glorious and more difficult to subdue our own resentments, and to act with generosity and kindness to our adversary, than to make him feel the severest effects of our vengeance. It is this noblest act of self-government, this conquest over our strongest passions, which our Saviour here requires. It is what constitutes the highest perfection of our nature ; and it is this perfection which is meant in the concluding verse of this chapter; "Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is perfect^;" that is, in your conduct towards your enemies approach as near as you are able to that perfection of mercy which your heavenly Father ma- nifests towards his enemies, towards the evil and the unjust, on whom he maketh his sun to rise as well as on the righteous and the just. This sense of the word perfect is established beyond controversy by the parallel passage in St Luke ; where, instead of the terms made use of by St. Matthew, "Be ye there- fore perfect, as your Father which is in heaven is * Rom.xii. 19—21. t Matt. v. 48. 104 LECTURE VI. perfect," the evangelist expressly says, " Be ye there- fore merciful, as your Father also is merciful*." This then is the perfection which you are to exert your utmost efforts to attain ; and if you succeed in your attempt, your reward shall be great indeed; you shall, as our Lord assures you, be the children of the Most High]-. Having now brought these Lectures to a conclu- sion for the present year, I cannot take my leave of you without expressing the great comfort and satis- faction I have derived from the appearance of such numerous and attentive congregations as I have seen in this place. That satisfaction, if I can at all judge of my own sentiments and feelings, does not originate from any selfish gratification, but from the real interest I take in the welfare, the eternal welfare, of every one here present; from the hope I entertain that some useful impressions may have been made upon your minds ; and from the evidence which this general earnestness to hear the word of God explained and recommended aff'ords, that a deeper sense of duty, a more* serious attention to the great concerns of eternity, has, by the blessing of God, been awa- kened in your souls. If this be so, allow me most earnestly to entreat you not to let this ardour cool ; not to let these pious sentiments die away ; not to let these good seeds be choked by the returning cares and pleasures of the world. But go, retire into your closets, fall down upon your knees before your Maker, and fervently implore him to pour down upon you the overruling influences of his Holy Spirit ; to en- lighten your understandings, to sanctify your hearts, to subdue your passions, to confirm your good • Luke vi. 36. + Matt. v. 45. LECTURE VI. 105 resolutions, and enable you to resist every enemy of your salvation. The world will soon again display all its attractions before you, and endeavour to extinguish every good principle you have imbibed. But if the divine truths you have heard explained and enforced in these Lec- tures have taken any firm root in your minds ; if you are seriously convinced that Christ and his religion came from heaven, and that he is able to make good whatever he has promised and whatever he has threat- ened, there is nothing surely in this world that can induce you to risk the loss of eternal happiness, or the infliction of never-ceasing punishment. Least of all will you think that this is the precise moment for setting your affections on this world and its enjoyments ; that these are the times for engaging in eager pursuits after the advantages, the honours, the pleasures, of the present life ; for plunging into vice, for dissolving in gaiety and pleasure, for suffering every trivial, every insignificant object, to banish the remem- brance of your Maker and Redeemer from your hearts, where they ought to reign unrivalled and supreme. Surely amidst the dark clouds that now hang over us*, these are not the things that will brighten up our prospects, that will lessen our danger, that will calm our apprehensions, and speak peace and comfort to our souls. No, it must be something of a very diffe- rent nature ; a deep sense of our own unworthiness, a sincere contrition for our past offences, a prostration of ourselves in all humility before the throne of grace, an earnest application for pardon and acceptance through the merits of Him who died for us, (whose death and sufferings for our sakes the approaching * In March, 1798. lOG LECTUUE VI. week will bring fresh before our view,) an ardent desire to manifest our love and gratitude, our devotion and attachment to our Maker and our Redeemer, by- giving them a decided priority and predominance in our affections and our hearts ; by making their will the ruling principle of our conduct ; the attainment of their favour, the advancement of their glory, the chief object of our wishes and desires. These are the sentiments we ought to cultivate and cherish if we wish for any solid comfort under calamity or affliction, any confidence in the favour and protection of heaven ; these alone can support and sustain our souls in the midst of danger and distress, at the hour of death, and in the day of judgement. And how then are these holy sentiments, these heavenly affections, to be excited in our hearts? Most certainly not by giving up all our time and all our thoughts to the endless occupations, the never-ceasing gaieties and amusements of this dis- sipated metropolis; but by withdrawing ourselves frequently from this tumultuous scene, by retiring into our chamber, by communing with our own hearts, by fervent prayer, by holding high converse with our Maker, and cultivating some acquaintance with that unseen world to which we are all hastening, and which, in one way or other, must be our portion ,for ever. Many of those whom I now see before me have, from their high rank and situation in life, full leisure and ample opportunities for all these important pur- poses ; and let them be assured, that a strict account will one day be demanded of them in what manner and with what effect they have employed the talents, the time, and the many other advantages with which their gracious Maker has indulged them. LECTURE VI. 107 And even those who are most engaged in the busy and laborious scenes of life, have at least one day in the week which they may, and which they ought to dedicate to the great concerns of religion. Let then that day be kept sacred to its original destination by all ranks of men, from the highest to the lowest. Let it not be profaned by needless journeys, by splendid entertainments, by crowded assemblies, by any thing in short which precludes either ourselves, our families, or our domestics, from the exercise of religious duties, or the improvement of those pious sentiments and affec- tions which it was meant to inspire. Let me not, however, be misunderstood. I mean not that it should be either to the rich or the poor, or to any human being whatever, a day of gloom and melancholy, a day of superstiti- ous rigour, and of absolute exclusion from all society and all innocent recreation. I know of nothing in scrip- ture that requires this ; I know of no good effects that could result from it. On the contrary, it is a festival, a joyful festival ; a day to which we ought always to look forward with delight, and enjoy with a thank- ful and a grateful heart. But let it be remembered at the same time, that it is a day which God claims as his own; that he has stamped upon it a pecu- liar mark of sanctity ; and that it ought to be distin- guished from every other day, in the first place, by resting from our usual occupations, and giving rest to our servants and our cattle ; in the next, by attendance on the public worship of God ; and in the remaining intervals, by relaxations 2ind enjoyments peculiarly its own; not by quotidian tumult, noise, and dissipation; but by the calm and silent pleasures of retirement, of recollection, of devout meditation, of secret prayer, yet mingled discreetly with select society, with friend- 108 LECTURE VI. ly converse, with sober recreation, and v^^ith decent cheerfulness throughout the whole. It was to draw off our attention from the common follies and vanities of the week, and to give the soul a little pause, a little respite, a little breathing from incessant importunities of business and of pleasure, that this holy festival was instituted. And if we can- not give up these things for a single day, if we can- not make this small sacrifice to Him from whom we derive our very existence, it is high time for us to look to our hearts, and to consider very seriously whether such a disposition and temper of mind as this will ever qualify us for the kingdom of Heaven. ** Could ye not watch with me one hour ?" said our divine Master to his slumbering companions*. Can ye not give me one day out of seven ? may he now say to his thoughtless disciples. Let none of us then ever subject ourselves to this bitter reproach. Let us re- solve from this moment to make the Christian sabbath a day of holy joy and consolation ; a day of heavenly rest and refreshment; and above all, a day for the at- tentive perusal of those sacred pages which have been the subject of these Lectures, and of your most seri- ous attention. It is to be hoped, indeed, that we shall not confine our religion and our devotion to that day only ; but even that day, properly employed, will in some degree sanctify all the rest. It will disengage us (at it was meant to do,) gradually and gently from that world, which we must soon (perhaps sooner than we imagine) quit for ever ; it will raise our thoughts above the low and trivial pursuits of the present scene, and fix them on nobler and worthier objects; it will refine and purify, exalt and spiritualize our * Mark xiv. 37. LECTURE VI. 109 affections ; will bring us nearer and nearer to God, and to the world of spirits ; and thus lead us on to that CELESTIAL SABBATH, that EVERLASTING REST, for which the Christian sabbath was meant to prepare and to harmonize our souls. no LECTURE VII. MATTHEW, Chap. VI. and VII. In these two chapters our Lord continues and con- cludes his admirable discourse from the Mount. The first thing to be noticed here is a strong and repeated caution to avoid all show and ostentation in the performance of our religious duties. The three instances specified are the acts of giving alms, of praying, and of fasting. The direction with regard to the first is, " Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them, otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hy- pocrites do in the synagogues, and in the streets, that they may have glory of men ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly*." In the same manner, with regard to prayer; the rule is, " When thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the * Matt. vi. 1—4. LECTURE VII. Ill synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly*." Lastly, a similar precaution applies also to the act of fasting ; ** When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, th?.t thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in se- cret shall reward thee openly |." In all these passages the point to be noticed is a strong and marked disapprobation of every thing that looks like ostentation, parade, vain-glory, insincerity, or hypocrisy, in the discharge of our Christian duties. They show in the clearest light the spirit and temper of the Christian religion, which is modest, silent, re- tired, quiet, unobtrusive, shunning the observation and the applause of men, and looking only to the ap- probation of Him who seeth every thought of our hearts, and every secret motive of our actions. They establish this as the grand principle of action for every disciple of Christ, that in every part of his moral and religious conduct he is to have no other ob- ject in view but Wiq favour of God. This is the motive from which all his virtues are to flow. If he is actuat- ed by any other ; if he courts the applause of the world, or is ambitious to acquire, by a show of piety, a character of sanctity, among men, he may perhaps * Matt. vi. 5, 6. t Ibid. vi. 16—18. 112 LECTURE Vir. gain his point; but it is allhe will gain. He will have his reward hcpc ; he must expect none hereafter. Having made this general observation upon the whole, I shall now proceed to remark on the particular instances adduced, in order to establish the leading principle. And first, we are directed to give our alms so pri- vately, that (as our Lord most emphatically and ele- gantly expresses it) " our left hand shall not know what our right hand doeth." This evidently implies the utmost secresy in the distribution of our charity ; and this is nndoubtedly the rule we are in general to observe. But it is by no means to be inferred from hence that we are never, on any occasion, to give our alms in public. In some cases, publicity is so far from being culpable, that it is necessary, useful, and lauda- ble. In contributing, for instance, to any public cha- rity, or to the relief of some great calamity, private or public, we cannot well conceal our beneficence, or if we could we ought not. Our example may induce many others to exert a similar generosity ; and besides this there are persons in certain situations who are ex- pected to be charitable, and who should give proofs to the world that they are so. A.nd accordingly in these and in such like cases we are required to make our ** light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in hea- ven*." As far therefore as the ixason of this command goes, it is not only allowable, but our duty, to let our generous deeds be sometimes known to the world. But then we ought to take especial care at the same time that we bestow a much larger proportion of our alms in secresy and in silence; that we suffer no one " Matt. v.lC, LECTURE VII. 113 to witness our beneficence but Him who must see every thing we do, and that we have no other object what- ever in view but his approbation, and his immortal rewards. The next instance adduced to confirm the general principle of seeking the approbation not of men but of God, is that of prayer. " When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hy- pocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the sy- nagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." This passage has been made use of by some writers as an argument against all public prayer, which they say is here plainly prohibited. But for this there is not the smallest foundation. It is of private prayer only that our Lord is here speaking ; and the hypo- crites whom he condemns were those ostentatious Jews who performed those devotions which ought to have been confined to the closet, in the synagogues, and even in the public streets, that they might be no- ticed and applauded for their extraordinary piety and sanctity. But this reproof could not possibly mean to extend to public devotions in places of worship. This is evident from the comers of streets being men- tioned ; for those are places in which public devotions are never performed. But besides this, we find in scripture that public worship is enjoined as a duty of the highest importance. It made a considerable part of the Jewish religion, and the Mosaic law is filled with precepts and directions concerning it. God de- 114 LECTURE VII. clares by the prophet Isaiah, ** that his house shall be called a house of prayer for all people*." Our Sa- viour quotes these very words when he cast out those that polluted the temple; and was himself a constant frequenter of divine worship, both in the temple and in the synagogues. He taught his disciples (as we shall soon see) a form of prayer, which, though very proper to be used by any single person in private, yet is throughout expressed in the plural number, and adapted to the use of several persons praying at the same time. " If two of you," says he to his disciples on another occasion, " shall agree on earth touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven ; for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of themf." By St. Paul we are command- ed *' not to forsake the assembling of ourselves toge- ther, as the manner of some is J." And we find, that after our Saviour's ascension, his followers *' continued stedfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in prayer and supplication, praising God, and having favour with all the people §." It is therefore incontestably clear that our Saviour could not possibly mean to forbid that public worship which he himself practised and commanded. His in- tentions could only be to confine our private prayers to private places, in which we are to keep up a secret intercourse with our Maker, withdrawn from the eye of the world, and unobserved by any other than that Almighty Being to whom our petitions are addressed. The last instance produced by our Saviour is that of fasting. '* When ye fast, be not as the hypocrites " Isaiah Ivi. 7. t Matt, xviii. 19, 20. t Heb. X. 25. § Acts ii. 42. 47. LECTURE VII. 115 of a sad countenance, for they disfigure their faces that they may appear unto men to fast ; verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret ; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." There is very little necessity to dwell on this pre- cept here, for there are scarce any in these times and in this country who seem disposed to make a shoiv of fasting, or to be ambitious of acquiring a reputation for that kind of religious discipline ; on the contrary, it is by great numbers entirely laid aside, and too frequent- ly treated with derision and contempt. Yet from this very passage we may learn that it oyght to be consi- dered in a much more serious light; for although our Saviour did not command his disciples to fast whilst he was with them, yet he himself fasted for forty days. He here plainly supposes that his disciples did some- times fast ; and gives them directions how to perform that duty in a manner acceptable to God. And it ap- pears also, that if they did so perform it, if they fasted without any ostentation or parade, with a design not to catch the applause of men, but to approve them- selves to God, he assured them they should have their reivard. Before we quit this division of the chapter, we must go back a little to that admirable form of prayer which our Lord gave to his disciples, after cautioning them against all ostentation in their devotions. This prayer stands unrivall&d in every circumstance that constitutes the perfection of prayer, and the ex- cellence of that species of composition. It is concise, it is perspicuous, it is solemn, it is comprehensive,, it i2 jj(j LECTURE VII. is adapted to all ranks, conditions, and classes of men ; it fixes our thoughts on a few great important points, and impresses on our minds a deep sense of the good- ness and the greatness of that Almighty Being to whom it is addressed. It begins with acknowledging him to be our most gracious and merciful Father ; it begs that his name may every where be reverenced, that his religion may spread over the earth, and that his will may be obey- ed by men with the same ardour and alacrity and con- stancy that it is by the angels in heaven. It next en- treats the supply of all our essential wants, both tem- poral and spiritual ; a sufficiency of those things that are absolutely necessary for our subsistence; the for- giveness of our transgressions, on condition that we forgive our brethren ; and, finally, support under the temptations that assault our virtue, and deliverance from the various evils and calamities that every where surround us ; expressing at the same time the utmost trust and confidence in the power of God, to grant whatever he. sees it expedient and proper for his crea- tures to receive. The full meaning then of this admirable prayer, and of the several petitions contained in it, may perhaps be not improperly expressed in the following manner : O thou great Parent of the universe, our Creator, our Preserver and continual Benefactor, grant that we and all reasonable creatures may entertain just and worthy notions of thy nature and attributes, may fear thy power, admire thy wisdom, adore thy goodness, rely upon thy truth ; may reverence thy holy name, may bless and praise thee, may worship and obey thee. Grant that all the nations of the earth may come to LECTURE VII. 117 the knowledge and belief of thy holy religion ; that it may every where produce the blessed fruits of piety, righteousness, charity, and sobriety ; that, by a con- stant endeavour to obey thy holy laws, we may ap- proach, as near as the infirmity of our nature will allow, to the more perfect obedience of the angels that are in heaven ; and thus qualify ourselves for entering into thy kingdom of glory hereafter. Feed us, we beseech thee, with food convenient for us. We ask not for riches and honours ; give us only what is necessary for our comfortable subsistence in the several stations which thy providence has allotted to us ; and, above all, give us contented minds. We are all, O Lord, the very best of us, miserable sinners. Be not extreme, we beseech thee, to mark what we have done amiss, but pity our infirmities, and par- don our offences. Yet let us not dare to implore for- giveness from thee, unless we also from our hearts for- give our offending brethren. We are surrounded, on every side, with temptations to sin ; and such is the corruption and frailty of our nature, that without thy powerful succour we cannot always stand upright. Take us then, O gracious God, under thy almighty protection ; and, amidst all the dangers and difficulties of our Christian warfare, be thou our refuge and support. Suffer us not to be tempted above what we are able to bear, but send thy Holy Spirit to strengthen our own weak endeavours, and enable us to escape or to subdue all the enemies of our salvation. Preserve us also, if it be thy blessed will, not only from spiritual, but from temporal evil. Keep us ever by thy watchful providence, both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that, thou being in 118 LECTURE VII. all cases our ruler and guide, we may so pass through thing's temporal, as finally to lose not the things eternal. Hear us, O Lord our Governor, from heaven thy dwelling place ; and when thou hearest, have regard to our petitions. They are offered up to thee in the fullest confidence that thy goodness will dispose, and thy power enable thee to grant whatever thy wisdom sees to be convenient for us, and conducive to our final happiness. The next thing which peculiarly demands our atten- tion in this chapter is the declaration contained in the 24th verse, which presents to us another fundamental principle of the Christian religion ; namely, the neces- sity of giving the Jirst place in our hearts and our affections to God and religion, and pursuing other things only in subordination to those great objects. ** No man," says our Lord, '* can serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon*." The word mammon is generally interpreted to mean riches only ; but the original rather directs us to take it in a more general sense, as comprehending every thing that is capable of being an object of trust or a ground o{ confidence to men of worldly minds; such as wealth, power, honour, fame, business, sensual plea- sures, gay amusements, and all the other various pur- suits of the present scene. It is these that constitute what we usually express by the word world, when opposed to religion. Here then are the two masters, who claim dominion over us, God and the world ; and one of these we must serve ; both we cannot, because • Matt. vi. 24. LECTURE VII. 119 their dispositions and their commands are in general diametrically opposite to each other. The world in- vites us to indulge all our appetites without controul ; to entangle ourselves in the cares and distractions of business; to engage with eagerness in endless con- tests for superiority in power, wealth, and honour; or to give up ourselves, body and soul, to gaiety, amuse- ment, pleasure, and every kind of luxurious indul- gence. These are the services which one master re- quires. But there is another master, whose injunctions are of a very different nature. That master is God ; and his commands are, to give him our hearts; to love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength ; to be temperate in all things ; to make our moderation known unto all men ; to fix our affections on things above ; to have our conversation in heaven ; to cast all our care upon him ; and to take up our cross and follow Christ. Judge now whether it be possible to serve these two masters at one and the same time, and to obey the commands of each ; commands so perfectly con- tradictory to each other. Yet this is what a great part of mankind most absurdly attempt; endeavour to divide themselves between God and mammon, to compromise the matter as well as they can between the commands of one and the seductions of the other ; to vibrate perpetually be- tween vice and virtue, between piety and pleasure, between inclination and duty; to render a worldly life and a religious life consistent with each other; and to take as much as they can of the enjoyments and advantages of the present world, without losing their hold on the rewards of the next. Yet, in direct contradiction to so extravagant and 120 LECTURE VII. preposterous a system as this, Christ himself assures us here that we cannot serve two masters ; that we cannot serve God and mammon. Our Maker expects to reign absolute in our hearts ; he will not be served by halves ; he will not accept of a divided empire, he will not suffer us to halt between two opinions. We must take our choice, and adhere to one side or the other. " If the Lord be God, follow him ; but if Baal, then follow him*." But what then are we to do ? Are we to live in a state of perpetual warfare and hostility with that very world in which the hand of Providence has placed us, and which is prepared in various ways for our recep- tion and accommodation ? Are we never to taste of those various delights which our Maker has poured so bountifully around us ? Are we never to indulge those appetites which he himself has planted in our breasts ? Are we so entirely to confine ourselves to the paths of righteousness, as never to enter those that lead to power, to honour, to wealth, or to fame ? Are we to engage in no secular occupations, to make no provision for ourselves and our families ? Are we altogether to withdraw ourselves from the cares and business and distractions of the world, and give our- selves wholly up to solitude, meditation, and prayer ? Are we never to mingle in the cheerful amusements of society ? Are we not to indulge ourselves in the refined pleasures of literary pursuits, nor wander even for a moment into the delightful regions of science or imagination ? Were this a true picture of our duties, and of the sacrifices which Christianity requires from us; were these the commands of our divine Lawgiver, well might • 1 Kings, xviii. 21. LECTURE VII. 121 we say with the astonished disciples, " who then can be saved ?" But the God whom we serve is not so hard a master, nor does his religion contain any such severe restrictions as these. Christianity forbids no neces- sary occupations, no reasonable indulgences, no inno- cent relaxations. It allows us to use the world, pro- vided we do not abuse it. It does not spread before us a delicious banquet, and then come with a *' touch not, taste not, handle not*." All it requires is, that our liberty degenerate not into licentiousness, our amusements into dissipation, our industry into inces- sant toil, our carefulness into extreme anxiety and end- less solicitude. So far from forbidding us to engage in business, it expressly commands us not to be slothful in it f , and to labour with our hands for the things that be needful; it enjoins every one to abide in the calling wherein he was called J, and perform all the duties of it. It even stigmatizes those that provide not for their own, with telling them, that they are worse than infidels §. When it requires us " to be temperate |1 in all things," it plainly tells us that we may use all things temperately; when it directs us *' to make our moderation known unto all men^," this evidently implies, that within the bounds of mo- deration we may enjoy all the reasonable convenien- cies and comforts of the present life. But how then are we to reconcile this participation in the concerns of the present life, with those very strong declarations of scripture, ** that we are not to be conformed to this world ; that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ; that we are to take no * Coloss. ii. 21. t Rom. xii. 11.— 1 Cor. iv. 12. t 1 Cor, vii. 20. § 1 Tim. V. 8. II 1 Cor. ix. 25. f Philipp. iv. 5. 122 LECTURE Vil. thought for the morrow ; that we are to lay up trea- sures no where but in heaven ; that we are to pray with- out ceasing; that we are to do all things to the glory of God ; that we are not only to leave father, mother, brethren, and sisters, for the sake of Christ and his gospel, but that if we do not hate all these near and dear connexions, and even our own lives, we cannot be his disciples*." These, it must be acknowledged, are very strong expressions, and, taken in their strict literal sense, do certainly imply that we are to abandon every thing that is most dear and valuable and delightful to us in this life, and to devote ourselves so entirely to the contemplation and love and worship of God, as not to bestow a single thought on any thing else, or to give ourselves the smallest concern about the affairs of this sublunary state. But can any one imagine this to be the real doctrine of scripture ? You may rest assured, that nothing so unreasonable and extravagant is to be fairly deduced from these sacred writings. In order then to clear up this most important point, three things are to be considered : First, That were these injunctions to be understood in their literal signification, it would be utterly im- possible for us to continue a week longer in the world. If, for instance, we were bound to pray without ceas- ing, and to take no thought whatever for the morrow, we must all of us quickly perish for want of the com- mon necessaries of life. 2dly, It must be observed that all oriental writers, both sacred and profane, are accustomed to express * Rom. xii. 2. Jam. iv. 4. Matt. vi. 20. 34. 1 Thes. v. 17. Ephes. vi. 18. 1 Cor. X. 31. Luke, xiv. 26. LECTURE VII. 123 themselves in bold ardent figures and metaphors, which, before their true meaning can be ascertained, require very considerable abatements, restrictions, and limitations. 3dly, What is most of all to the purpose, these abatements are almost constantly pointed out by scrip- ture itself; and whenever a very strong and forcible idiom is made use of, you will generally find it ex- plained and modified by a difi'erent expression of the same sentiment, which either immediately follows or occurs in some other passage of scripture. Thus, in the present instance, when Christ says, " ye cannot serve God and mammon; therefore take no thought for your life what ye shall eat and what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on :" this is most clearly explained a few verses after in these words: "seek ye Jirst the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you*." The meaning therefore of the precept is evidently this; not that we are abso- lutely to take no thought for our life, and the means of supporting it; but that our thoughts are not to be wholly or principally occupied with these things. We are not to indulge an immoderate and unceasing anxiety and solicitude about them; for that indeed is the true meaning of the original word jw-f^tjuvaw. In our English Bible, that word is translated take no thought; but at the time when our translation was made, that expression signified only be not too careful. Our hearts, as it is expressed in another place, are not to be overcharged with the cares of this lifef, so as to exclude all other concerns, even those of religion. In the same manner with respect to pleasures, * Matt. vi. 25. 33. t Luke, xxi.34. 124 LECTURE VII. we are not forbid to have any love for them; we are only commanded not to be lovers of pleasure ?;zo?'ethan lovers of God *. When therefore it is said, ye cannot serve God and mammon, the point contended for in respect to God is not exclusive yjo^-ye^^/o;/, but exclusive dominion. Other things may occasionally for a certain time, and to a certain degree, have possession of our minds, but they must not rule, they must not reign over them. We cannot serve two masters ; we can serve but one faithfully and eifectually, and that one must be God. The concerns and comforts of this life may have their due place in our hearts, but they must not aspire to the Jird ;> this is the prerogative of religion alone ; religion must be supreme and paramount over all. Every one, it has been often said, has his ruling pas- sion. The ruling passion of the Christian must be the love of his Maker and Redeemer. This it is which must principally occupy his thoughts, his time, his attention, his heart. If there be any thing else which has gained the ascendancy over our souls, on which our desires, our wishes, our hopes, our fears, are chiefly fixed, God is then dispossessed of his rightful dominion over us; we serve another master, and we shall think but little of our Maker, or any thing belonging to him. His empire over our hearts must in short at all events be maintained. When this point is once se- cured, every inferior gratification that is consistent with his sovereignty, his glory, and his commands, is perfectly allowable ; every thing that is hostile to them must at once be renounced. This is a plain rule, and a very important one. It is the principle which our blessed Lord meant here to " 2 Tim. iii.4. LECTURE VII. 125 establish, and it must be the governing principle of our lives. Next to this in importance is another command, which you will find in the 12th verse of the seventh chapter; ** all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." As the former precepts which we have been considering relate to God, this relates to man; it is the grand rule, by which we must in all cases regulate our conduct towards our neighbour; and it is a rule, plain, simple, concise, intelligible, comprehensive, and every way worthy of its divine Author. Whenever we are deliberating how we ought to act towards our neighbour in any parti- cular instance, we must for a moment change situa- tions with him in our own minds, we must place him in our circumstances, and ourselves in his, and then whatever we should wish him to do to us. Unit we are to do to him. This is a process, in which, if we act fairly and impartially, we can never be mistaken. Our own feelings will determine our conduct at once better than all the casuists in the world. But before we entirely quit the consideration of this precept, we must take some notice of the observa- tion subjoined to it, which will require a little ex- planation. ** Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them ; for this is the law and the prophets." The concluding clause, this is the law and the pro- phets, has by some been interpreted to mean, this is the sum and substance of all religion ; as if religion consisted solely in behaving justly and kindly to our fellow-creatures, and beyond this no other duty was 126 LECTURE VII. required at our hands. But this conclusion is as great object to destroy, and to introduce vice and misery in their room. This must clearly end in his ruin, and the overthrow of his empire over man- kind. It is evident then that it is not by /ii^ assistance, but by the power of God, that I cast out devils; and if so, it is clear to demonstration that I am commis- sioned by Heaven, to teach true religion to mankind. 176 LECTURE X. I cannot quit this subject of miracles without observing what a remarkable difference there is between the sentiments of modern infidels and those of the first enemies of the gospel, respecting the miracles of Christ. The former assert, that our Saviour wrought no real miracles ; that miracles are in their own nature incredi- ble and impossible ; and that no human testimony what- ever can give credit to events so contrary to experience, and so repugnant to the ordinary course of nature. But go to those unbelievers who lived in the earliest ages of the gospel, and even to those who were eye-witnesses to our Lord's miracles, and they will tell you a very different story. They assert, that Jesus did work miracles; they acknowledge that he did expel evil spirits out of those that were possessed. They as- cribed the miracle indeed to the power of Beelzebub, not of God. But this we know to be absurdity and nonsense. The fact of the miraculous cure they did not dispute; and this at once establishes the divine mission of our Lord. To which then of these two descriptions of infidels shall we give most credit ; to those who lived near eighteen hundred years after the miracles were performed, or to those who saw them wrought with their own eyes, and though they detested the author of them, admitted the reality of his wonder- ful works? Our Lord then, continuing his conversation with the Pharisees, addresses to them, in the 31st verse, these remarkable words : " Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of" sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men : but the blas- phemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but LECTURE X. 177 whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come," Our Lord's meaning in this obscure and alarming passage seems to be this ; there is no other sin or blas- phemy which argues such a total depravation of mind, but that it may be repented of and forgiven. Even he that speaks against me, the Son of God, and is not convinced by my preaching, may yet be afterwards converted by the power of the Holy Ghost, by the miracles which he enables me and my disciples to work, and may obtain remission of his sin. But he that shall obstinately resist this last method of con- viction, (that of miracles wrought before his eyes,) and shall maliciously revile these most evident operations of the Spirit of God, contrary to the reason of his own mind and the dictates of his own conscience, such an one has no further means left by which he may be convinced and brought to repentance, and therefore can never be forgiven. From this interpretation, which is, I believe, gene- rally admitted to be the true one, it appears that there is no just ground for the apprehensions sometimes entertained by pious and scrupulous minds, that they may themselves be guilty of the sin here declared to be unpardonable, the sin against the Holy Ghost; for we see that it is confined solely and exclusively to the case before us, that is, to the crime of which the Pharisees had just been guilty, the crime of attribut- ing those miracles to the agency of evil spirits, which were plainly wrought by the Spirit of God, and which they saw with their own eyes. What confirms this interpretation is, that this crime is here called, not as is generally supposed, the sin 178 LECTURE X. against the Holy Ghost, but blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which evidently refers not to actions but to words; not to any thing done but to something said against the Holy Ghost. This being the case, it is clear that as miracles have long since ceased, and this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost relates solely to those who saw miracles performed with their own eyes, it is impossible for any one in these times to be literally guilty of this impious and unpardonable kind of blasphemy in its full extent. Our Lord then addresses himself more directly to the authors of this spiteful calumny; " Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by his fruit;" that is, be uniform and con- sistent with yourselves. If you pretend to holiness and sincerity of heart, suffer not your mouths to utter these blasphemies ; or if you persist in such beha- viour, lay aside all claim to religion, with which this obstinate malice is as inconsistent, as it is for a tree not to discover its nature by the quality of the fruit it produces. He then adds, " O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things ; for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ? A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth good things ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth evil things." The import of which words is this ; but it is impossible that you should speak otherwise than evil. You are a perverse and malicious generation, and the thoughts of men's hearts will of course shew them- selves by their words. They arise immediately from the fund within, and will necessarily discover whether it be good or bad. LECTURE X. 179 Then follows another very remarkable declaration of our Lord's in the 36th verse: " I say unto you, that every idle w^ord that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgement." From hence some have imagined, that at the day of judge- ment we shall be called to an account, and punished for every idle and unprofitable, every trifling and ludicrous w^ord that we have ever uttered in the gaiety of the heart during the whole course of our lives. If this be the case, how hard is it, will the enemies of the gospel say, in the Author of your religion, to exact from you what is utterly inconsistent with the infirmities of human nature, and which must completely destroy all the freedom, all the ease, all the cheerfulness, all the comforts of social converse, and render it necessary for every man that hopes to be saved, to seclude himself from society, and, like the once celebrated fathers of the order of La Trappe, impose upon themselves an everlasting silence ! That this must be the consequence of the sentence here pronounced by our Lord, if it is to be understood in that strict, literal, and rigorous sense, which has just been stated, and which at the first view the words seem to import, cannot be denied ; and therefore we may fairly conclude, that it is not the true meaning of the passage in question ; because we know that we do not serve a hard master, who requires more from us than our strength will bear ; but one who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who has declared, that " his yoke is easy, and his burthen light." In order then to set this text of scripture in its true light, we must look back to what had just passed; we must remember that the Pharisees had a little X 2 180 LECTURE X. before reproached our Lord with having cast out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils; and it is this calumny that he alludes to in the words before us ; for they are a continuation of that very same conversation which he was holding with the Jews. Now the words made use of by the Pharisees in the above-mentioned charge, are not merely idle, or foolish, or trifling words, they are in the highest degree malevolent, false, and wicked ; they constitute one of the grossest, most detestable, and most infa- mous calumnies that ever was uttered by man. Con- sequently by idle words our Saviour plainly meant, false, lying, and malicious words, such as those which the Pharisees had a few minutes before applied to him. In confirmation of this, it should be observed, that the language then spoken by the Jews was not their primitive tongue, but one mixed and made up of the dialects and idioms of the several nations that sur- rounded them, particularly of the Chaldeans, Syrians, and Arabians. In this, our Saviour delivered all his instructions, and held all his discourses. In this (as some learned men think) St. Matthew originally wrote his gospel for the use of the Jewish converts ; and it has been remarked, that in almost all the languages of which this miscellaneous one is made up, by idle or unprofitable words, are meant, false, lying, malicious, and scandalous calumnies. But though in the passage before us, the phrase of idle words, refers more immediately to the malignant calumny of the Pharisees against Jesus ; yet it cer- tainly includes all false, slanderous, and vindictive accusations of our neighbour; all discourse which is in any respect injurious to God or man, which is contrary to truth, to decency, and evangelical purity LECTURE X. 181 of heart. All conversation of this sort is plainly- inconsistent with the sanctity of our religion, and must of course subject us to God's displeasure here, and his judgements hereafter. And even in the literal and most obvious sense of idle words, though we are not excluded from the innocent cheerfulness of social converse, yet we must be aware of giving way too much to trifling, foolish, unprofitable, and unmeaning- talk. Even this, when carried to excess, becomes in some degree criminal ; it produces, or at least increases a frivolous turn of mind ; unfits us for the dicharge of any thing manly and serious ; and indica.tes a degree of levity and thoughtlessness, not very consistent with a just sense of those important interests, which as candidates for heaven we should have constantly present to our thoughts, nor suitable to those awful prospects into eternity which the Christian revelation opens to our view, and which ought to make the most serious impressions on every sincere believer in the gospel of Christ. 182 LECTURE XI. MATTHEW XIII. We are now arrived at the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew; in which our blessed Lord introduces a new mode of conveying his instructions to the people. Hitherto he had confined himself entirely to the plain didactic method, of which his sermon on the mount is a large and a noble specimen. But his discourses now assume a different shape, and he begins in this chapter, for the first time, to address his hearers in parables. " The same day," says the evangelist, '* went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea-side ; and great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat ; and the whole multitude stood on the shore, and he spake many things unto them in parables." The word parable is sometimes used in scripture in a large and general sense, and applied to short senten- tious sayings, maxims, or aphorisms, expressed in a figurative, proverbial, or even poetical manner. But in its strict and appropriate meaning, especially as applied to our Saviour's parables, it signifies a short narrative of some event or fact, real or fictitious, in which a continued comparison is carried on between LECTURE XI. 183 sensible and spiritual objects ; and under this simi- litude some important doctrine, moral or religious, is conveyed and enforced. This mode of instruction has many advantages over every other, more particularly in recommending virtue, or reproving vice. 1 . In the first place, when divine and spiritual things are represented by objects well known and familiar to us, such as present themselves perpetually to our observation, in the common occurrences of life, they are much more easily comprehended, especially by rude and uncultivated minds (that is, by the great bulk of mankind) than if they were proposed in their original form. 2. In all ages of the world, there is nothing with which mankind hath been so much delighted as with those little fictitious stories, which go under the name of fables or apologues among the ancient heathens, and of parables in the sacred writings. It is found by experience, that this sort of composition is better calculated to command attention, to captivate the imagination, to affect the heart, and to make deeper and more lasting impressions on the memory, than the most ingenious and most elegant discourses that the wit of man is capable of producing. 3. The very obscurity in which parables are some- times involved, has the effect of exciting a greater degree of curiosity and interest, and of urging the mind to a more vigorous exertion of its faculties and powers, than any other mode of instruction. There is something for the understanding to work upon ; and when the concealed meaning is at length elicited, we are apt to value ourselves on the discovery as the effect of our own penetration and discernment, and 184 Li:CTUKE XI. for that very reason to pay more regard to the moral it conveys. 4. When the mind is under the influence of strong prejudices, of violent^ passions, or inveterate habits, and when under these circumstances it becomes neces- sary to rectify error, to dissipate delusion, to reprove sin, and bring the offender to a sense of his danger and his guilt ; there is no vs^ay in which this difficult task can be so well executed, and the painful truths that must be told, so successfully insinuated into the mind, as by disguising them under the veil of a well-wrought and interesting parable. This observation cannot be better illustrated than by referring to two parables, one in the New Testament, the other in the Old, which will amply confirm the truth, and unfold the meaning, of the preceding remarks. The first of these which I allude to, is the celebrated parable of the good Samaritan. The Jews, as we learn from our Lord himself, had established it as a maxim, that they were to love their neighbour and to hate their enemy * ; and as they considered none as their neighbours but their own countrymen, the consequence was, that they imagined themselves at liberty to hate all the rest of the world; a liberty which they indulged without reserve, and against none with more bitterness than the contiguous nation of the Samaritans. When, therefore, the lawyer in the gospel asked our Lord, who was his neighbour? had Christ attempted to prove to him bi/ argument that he was to consider all mankind, even his enemies, even the Samaritans, as his neighbours, the lawyer would have treated his answer with contempt and disdain ; all his native prejudices and absurd traditions * Matt. V. 43. LECTURE XI. 185 would have risen up in arms against so offensive a doctrine ; nor would all the eloquence in the world, not even the divine eloquence of the Son of God himself, have been able to subdue the deep-rooted prepossessions of the obstinate Jew. Jesus therefore, well knowing the impossibility of convincing the lawyer by any thing he could say, determined to make the man convince himself, and correct his own error. With this view he relates to him the parable of the Jewish traveller, who fell among robbers, was stripped and wounded, and left half dead upon the spot ; and, though passed by with unfeeling indifference and neglect by his own country- men, was at length relieved and restored to health by a compassionate Samaritan. He then asks the lawyer, who was neighbour to this distressed traveller? It was impossible for the lawyer not to answer, as he did (not foreseeing the consequence) He that showed mercy to him; that is, the Samaritan. Here then he at once cut up his own absurd opinion by the roots. For if the Samaritans, whom of all others the Jews most hated, were, in the true and substantial sense of the word, their neighbours, they were bound by their own law, by their own traditions, and by this man's own confession, to love and to assist them as such. The conclusion was therefore. Go and do thou likewise. This then affords a striking proof ^ of the efficacy of parable in correcting strong prejudices and erroneous opinions. But there is another thing still more difficult to be subdued, and that is, inveterate wick- edness and hardened guilt. But this too was made to give way and humble itself in the dust by the force of parable ; I mean that of Nathan. There seems reason to believe that King David, 186 LECTURE XI. after he had committed the complicated crime of adultery and murder, had by some means or other contrived to lull his conscience to sleep, and to sup- press the risings of any painful reflection in his mind. This appears almost incredible, yet so the fact seems to have been ; and it shows in the strongest light the extreme deceitfulness of sin, its astonishing power over the mind of man, and the inveterate depravity of the human heart. When we see a man who had perpetrated such atrocious deeds, totally insensible of his guilt, and not discovering the slightest resemblance to his own case in the affecting and awakening story which the prophet related, it affords a striking and a melancholy proof what human nature is when left to itself, even in the best of men : even in those who, like King David, are, in the general tenour of their life, actuated by right principles, and even animated (as he evidently was) with the warmest sentiments of piety and devotion. And it demonstrates in the clearest manner the absolute necessity of that help from above in the discharge of our duty, which the Christian revelation holds out to us, and which men of the world are so apt to despise and deride as a weak delusion and fanatical imagination ; I mean the divine influences of the Holy Spirit : without which there is not a single individual here present, however highly he may think of the natural rectitude and invin- cible integrity of his own mind, who may not in an evil hour, when he least thinks of it, be betrayed by some powerful and unexpected temptation into as much guilt, and become as blind to his own situation, as was that unhappy prince of whom we are now speaking. It was indispensably necessary to rouse the sinner LECTURE XI. 187 out of this dreadful lethargy ; but how was this to be done? Had Nathan plainly and directly charged him with all the enormity of his guilt, the probability is, that either in the first transport of his resentment, he would have driven the prophet from his presence, or that he would have attempted to paUiate, to soften, to explain away his crime ; would have pleaded the strength of his passion or the violence of the tempta- tion, and perhaps claimed some indulgence for his rank and situation in life. But all these pleas were at once silenced, and his retreat completely cut off, by making him the judge of his own case, and forcing his con- demnation out of his own mouth. For after he had denounced death on the rich man for taking away the ewe lamb of the poor one, he could with no decency pretend that he who had destroyed the life of one fellow-creature, and the innocence of another, was deserving of a milder sentence. There was nothing then left for him but to confess at once, as he did, *'that he had sinned against the Lord ;" and his penitence we know was as severe and exemplary as his crime had been atrocious. It is much to be lamented that these indirect methods should be found necessary, in order to show men to themselves, and acquaint them with their real characters, especially when it is their own interest not to be mistaken in so important a concern. But the wise and the virtuous in every age have conde- scended to make use of this innocent artifice; the necessity of which is founded in the sad corruption of human nature, and in that gross and deplorable blind- ness to their own sins and follies, which is observable in so large a part of mankind. They engage with 188 LECTURE XI. warmth and eagerness in worldly pursuits, which employ their attention and excite their passions ; so that they have little time, and less inclination, to reflect calmly and seriously on their own conduct, in a moral and religious point of view. But if their thoughts are at any time forced inwards, and they cannot help taking a view of themselves, a deeper source of delu- sion is still behind. The same actions which, when committed by others, are immediately discerned to be wrong, are palliated, explained, qualified, and apolo- gized away, when we happen to be guilty of them ourselves. The circumstances in the two cases are discovered to be perfectly different in some essential point; our passions were ungovernable, the tempta- tion irresistible. In short, somehow or other, all guilt vanishes away under the management of the dexterous casuist, and the intrusion of self-condemnation is effectually precluded. Still there remains, it may be said, the admonition of some zealous friend or faithful instructor ; but zeal is generally vehement, and often indiscreet. By exciting the resentment and inflaming the anger of those it means to reform, it frequently defeats its own designs. For whoever is offended, instantly forgets his own faults, and dwells wholly upon those of his imprudent monitor. But when the veil of parable conceals for a moment from the offender that he is himself concerned in it, he may generally be surprised into a condemnation of every one that is guilty of a base dishonourable action ; and when the unexpected application, Thou art the man, comes thundering sud- denly upon him, and points out the perfect similarity of the supposed case to his own, the astonished LECTURE XI. 189 criminal, overwhelmed with confusion, and driven from all his usual subterfuges and evasions, is compelled at length to condemn himself. It was probably the consideration of these delusions, and the other reasons above assigned, which gave rise to so general and so ancient a custom of conveying moral instruction under the cover of imaginary agents and fictitious events. We find traces of it in the earliest writers ; and it was more peculiarly cultivated in the east, the region where religion and science first took theii' rise. The most ancient parables perhaps on record are those we meet with in the Old Testament ; that of Jotham, for instance, where the trees desired the bramble to reign over them*; that of Nathan f; that of the woman of Tekoah J ; in the reign of David ; and that of the thistle and the cedar of Lebanon §, by Jehoash, king of Israel. From the east, this species of composition passed into Greece and Italy, and thence into the rest of Europe; and there are two celebrated writers, one in the Greek, the other in the Roman tongue, whose fables every one is acquainted with from their earliest years. These, it must be owned, are elegant, amusing, and, in a certain degree, moral and instructive ; but they are not in any degree to be compared with the parables of our blessed Lord, which infinitely excel them, and every other composi- tion of that species, in many essential points. 1 . In the first place, the fables of the ancients are many of them of a very trivial nature, or at the best contain nothing more than maxims of mere worldly wisdom and common prudence, and sometimes perhaps a little moral instruction. But the parables of our blessed Lord relate to * Judges ix. 14. f 2 Sam. xii. 1. t 2 Sam. xiv. § 2 Kings xiv. 2. 190 LECTURE XI. subjects of the very highest importance ; to the great leading principles of human conduct, to the essential duties of man, to the nature and progress of the Chris- tian religion, to the moral government of the world, to the great distinctions between vice and virtue, to the awful scenes of eternity, to the divine influences of the Holy Spirit, to the great work of our redemp- tion, to a resurrection and a future judgement, and the distribution of rewards and punishments in a future state ; and all this expressed with a dignity of senti- ment, and a simplicity of language, perfectly well suited to the grandeur of the subject. 2. In the next place, the fables of the learned heathens, though entertaining and well composed, are in general cold and dry, and calculated more to please the understanding than to touch the heart. Whereas, those of our blessed Lord are most of them in the highest degree affecting and interesting. Such for instance are the parable of the lost sheep, of the prodigal son, of the rich man and Lazarus, of the Pha- risee and publican, of the unforgiving servant, of the good Samaritan. There is nothing in all heathen anti- quity to be compared to these ; nothing that speaks so forcibly to our tenderest feelings and affections, and leaves such deep and lasting impressions upon the soul. 3dly. The Greek and Roman fables are most of them founded on improbable or impossible circum- stances, and are supposed conversations between animate or inanimate beings, not endowed with the power of speech ; between birds, beasts, reptiles, and trees ; a circumstance which shocks the imagination, and of course weakens the force of the instruction. Our Saviour's parables, on the contrary, are all of them images and allusions taken from nature, and LECTURE XI. 191 from occurrences which are most familiar to our obser- vation and experience in common life ; and the events related are not only such as might very probably happen, but several of them are supposed to be such as actually did; and this would have the effect of a true historical narrative, which we all know to carry much greater weight and authority with it than the most ingenious fiction. Of the former sort are the rich man and Lazarus, of the good Samaritan, and of the prodigal son. There are others in which our Saviour seems to allude to some historical facts which happened in those times ; as that wherein it is said, that a king went into a far country, there to receive a kingdom. This probably refers to the history of Archelaus, who, after the death of his father, Herod the Great, went to Rome to receive from Augustus the confirma- tion of his father's will, by which he had the kingdom of Judaea left to him. These circumstances give a decided superiority to our Lord's parables over the fables of the ancients ; and if we compare them with those of the Koran, the difference is still greater. The parables of Mahomet are trifling, uninteresting, tedious, and dull. Among other things which he has borrowed from scripture, one is the parable of Nathan, in which he has most ingeniously contrived to destroy all its spirit, force, and beauty; and has so completely distorted and deformed its whole texture and composition, that if the commentator had not informed you, in very gentle terms, that it is the parable of Nathan a little disguised, you would scarcely have known it to be the same. Such is the difference between a prophet who is really inspired, and an impostor who pretends to be so. 192 LECTURE XI. Nor is it only in his parables, but in his other dis- courses to the people, that Jesus draws his doctrines and instructions from the scenes of nature, from the objects that surrounded him, from the most common occurrences of life, from the seasons of the year, from some extraordinary incidents or remarkable transac- tions. " Thus, as a learned and ingenious writer has observed*, upon curing a blind man, he styles himself the light of the world, and reproves the Pharisees for their spiritual blindness and inexcusable obstinacy in refusing to be cured and enlightened by him. On little children being brought to him, he recommends the innocence, the simplicity, the meekness, the humi- lity, the docility of that lovely age, as indispensable qualifications for those that would enter into the kingdom of heaven. Beholding the flowers of the field, and the fowls of the air, he teaches his disciples to frame right and worthy notions of that Providence which supports and adorns them, and will therefore assuredly not neglect the superior order of rational beings. Observing the fruits of the earth, he instructs them to judge of men by their fruitfulness under all the means of grace. From the mention of meat and drink, he leads them to the sacred rite of eating his body and drinking his blood in a spiritual sense. From external ablutions, he deduces the necessity of puri- fying the heart, and cleansing the affections. Those that were fishers, he teaches to be fishers of men ; to draw them by the force of argument and persuasion, aided by the influence of divine grace, to the belief and practice of true religion. Seeing the money- changers, he exhorts his disciples to lay out their several talents to the best advantage. Being among * See Bishop Law's Considerations on the Tlieory of Religion. LECTURE XI. 193 the sheep-folds, he proves himself the true shepherd of souls. Among vines, he discourses of the spiritual husbandman and vine-dresser, and draws a parallel between his vineyard and the natural one. Upon the appearance of summer in the trees before him, he points out evident signs of his approaching kingdom. When the harvest comes on, he reminds his disciples of the spiritual harvest, the harvest of true believers ; and exhorts them to labour diligently in that work, and add their prayers to heaven for its success. From servants being made free in the sabbatical year, he takes occasion to proclaim a nobler emancipation and more important redemption from the slavery of sin, and the bondage of corruption, by the death of Christ. From the eminence of a city standing on a hill, he turns his discourse to the conspicuous situation of his own disciples. From the temple before him, he points to that of his own body ; and from Herod's unadvisedly leading out his army to meet the King of Arabia, who came against him with a superior force and defeated him, a lesson is held out to all who entered on the Christian warfare, that they should first well weigh and carefully compute the difficulties attending it, and by the grace of God resolve to surmount them. In the same manner, when he delivered the parable of the sower, which we find in this chapter, and which will be the next subject of our consideration, it was probably seed time, and from the ship in which he taught he might observe the husbandmen scattering their seed upon the earth. From thence he took oc- casion to illustrate, by that rural and familiar image, the different effects which the doctrines of Christianity had on different men, according to the different tem- 194 LLCTURE XI. pers and dispositions that they happened to meet with. "Behold (says he,) a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth; and when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold." As our blessed Lord, soon after he had uttered this parable, explained it to his disciples, it is highly proper that you should have this explanation in his own words. "Hear ye, therefore (says he) the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which reeeived seed by the way-side. But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it ; yet hath he not root in himself but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by-and-by he is offended. He also that re- ceived seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word and understandeth it ; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty." LECTURE XI. 195 Such is the parable of the sower, and the explana- tion of it by our Saviour ; which will furnish us with abundant matter for a great variety of very important reflections. But as these cannot be distinctly stated and sufficiently enlarged upon at present, without going to a considerable length of time, and tres- passing too far on that patience and indulgence which I have already but too often put to the test, I must re- serve for my next Lecture the observations I have to offer on this very interesting and instructive parable. n 2 196 LECTURE XII. MATTHEW, Chap. XIII. CONTINUED. The last Lecture concluded with a recital of the para- ble of the sower, and our Lord's explanation of it ; and I now proceed to lay before you those reflections which it has suggested to my mind. In the first place then it must be observed, that this parable, like many others, is prophetic as well as in- structive ; it predicts the fate of the Christian religion in the world, and the different sorts of reception it will meet with from different men. And as this prediction is completely* verified by the present state of religion, as we see it at this hour existing among ourselves, it affords one very decisive proof of Christ's power of foreseeing future events, and of course tends strongly to establish the truth of his pretensions, and the divine authority of his religion. In the next place, it is evident that there are four different classes of men here described, which com- prehend all the different religious or irreligious charac- ters that are to be met with in the world. The first consists of those *' that hear the word of the kingdom (as our Lord expresses it) and understand it not; then Cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in their hearts. These are they (says he) LECTURE XII. 197 which received seed by the way-side." By these are meant those persons whose minds, like the beaten high road, are hard and impenetrable, and inaccessible to conviction. Of these, we all know there are too many in the world ; some who have imbibed early and deep- rooted prejudices against Christianity ; who, either conceiving themselves superior to the rest of mankind in genius, knowledge, and penetration, reject with scorn whatever the bulk of mankind receives with ve- neration, and erect favourite systems of their own, which they conceive to be the very perfection of human wisdom ; or, on the other hand, having been unfortu- nately very early initiated in the writings of modern philosophists, implicitly adopt the opinions of those whom they consider as the great luminaries and oracles of the age, receive ridicule as argument, and assertion as proof, and prefer the silly witticisms, the specious sophistry, the metaphysical subtlety, the coarse buf- foonery, which distinguish many of the most popular opponents of our faith, to the simplicity, dignity, and sublimity of the divine truths of the gospel. These are the professed infidels, or, as they choose to style themselves, the disciples of philosophy and reason, and the enemies of priestcraft, fanaticism, and super- stition. ** But besides these, there is another description of men, on whom the good seed makes little or no im- pression; these are the thoughtless, the inattentive, the inconsiderate, the trifling, the gay, who think of noth- ing beyond the present scene, and who do not consi- der themselves as in the smallest degree interested in any thing else. These men, without professing them- selves unbelievers, without formally and explicitly re- jecting the gospel, yet do in fact never concern them- 198 LECTURE XII. selves about it. It forms no part of their system, it does not at all enter into their plans of life. The former sort above described are infidels on principle ; these are practical infidels, vs^ithout any principle at all. Being born of Christian parents, and instructed perhaps in the first rudiments of Christianity, they call themselves Christians; they attend divine service, they repeat their prayers, they listen to the discourses of the preacher, they make no objections to what they hear, they question not the propriety of w^hat they are taught ; but here their religion ends ; it never goes beyond the surface, it never penetrates into their hearts, it lies on the hard beaten highway. The instant they leave the church, every idea of religion vanishes out of their thoughts ; they never reflect for one mo- ment on what they have heard ; they never consider the infinite importance of what is to happen after death ; the awful prospects of eternity never present them- selves to their minds, neither excite their hopes nor alarm their fears. " With their mouths indeed they confess the Lord Jesus, but they do not believe with their hearts unto salvation :" and although perhaps in the wide waste of a trifling insignificant life, a few worthy actions or a few solitary virtues appear, yet their affections are not set on things above, their hopes are not centered there, their views do not tend there ; their treasure is on earth, and there is their heart also. These two characters, the hardened unbeliever, and the mere nominal Christian, constitute the first class described by our Saviour in the parable of the sower. These are they which receive the seed by the way-side, where it lies neglected upon the surface, till *' the fowls of the air devour it, or the wicked one catcheth it out of their hearts ;" and there is an end LECTURE XII. 199 at once of all their hopes of salvation, perhaps for ever. Secondly : There is another sort of soil mentioned in the parable, which gives the seed at first a more favourable reception. When it falls on stony ground, it finds no great difficulty in gaining admission into a little loose earth scattered upon a rock ; it springs up w^ith amazing rapidity; but no sooner " does the sun rise upon it with its scorching heat, than it withers away for want of depth of earth, root, and moisture." What a lively representation is this of weak and unstable Christians ! They receive Christianity at first with gladness ; they are extremely ready to be made eternally happy, and suppose that they have nothing else to do but to repeat their creed, and take posses- sion of heaven. But when they find that there are certain conditions to be performed on their parts also ; that they must give up their favourite interests and restrain their strongest passions, must sometimes even pluck out a right eye or tear off a right arm ; that they must take up their cross and follow a crucified Saviour through many difficulties, distresses, and persecutions ; their ardour and alacrity are instantly extinguished. They want strength of mind, soundness of principle, and sincerity of faith to support them. No wonder then that they fall away and depart from their alle- giance to their divine Master and Redeemer. This is the second sort of hearers described in the parable, " that receive the word at first with joy; but having no root in themselves, when tribulation and persecu- tion arise because of the word, by-and-by they are offended." This refers more immediately to the first disciples and first preachers of the gospel, who were exposed, in the discharge of their high office, to the 200 LECTURE XII. severest trials, and the cruelest persecutions from their numerous and powerful enemies. Some of them undoubtedly, who had not sufficient root in them- selves, gave way to the storms that assailed them, and made shipwreck of their faith, as our Lord here foretells that they would. But others, we know, stood, firm and unmoved, amidst the most tremendous dangers, and underwent, with unparalleled fortitude, the most excruciating torments. The description which the writer to the Hebrews gives of the saints and pro- phets of old, may, with the strictest truth, be applied to the apostles and their successors in the first ages of the gospel, under the various persecutions to which they were exposed. ** They had trial of cruel mock- ings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, were destitute, afflicted, tormented*." All these bar- barities they endured with unshaken patience and firmness, and thereby bore the strongest possible testimony, not only to their own sincerity, but to the divine and miraculous influence of the religion which they taught. For it is justly and forcibly observed by the excellent Mr. Addison, that the astonishing and unexampled fortitude which was shown by innumera- ble multitudes of martyrs, in those slow and painful torments that were inflicted on them, is nothing less than a standing miracle during the three first centuries. ** I cannot," says he, " conceive a man placed in the burning iron chair of Lyons, amidst the insults and mockeries of a crowded amphitheatre, and still keep- ing his seat ; or stretched upon a grate of iron over an intense fire, and breathing out his soul amidst the * Ileb. xi. 36, 37. LECTURE XII. . 201 exquisite sufferings of such a tedious execution, rather than renounce his religion, or blaspheme his Saviour, without supposing something supernatural. Such trials seem to me above the strength of human nature, and able to overbear duty, reason, faith, conviction, nay, and the most absolute certainty of a future state. We can easily imagine that a few^ persons in so good a cause might have laid down their lives at the gibbet, the stake, or the block : but that multitudes of each sex, of every age, of different countries and conditions, should, for nearly three hundred years together, expire leisurely amidst the most exquisite tortures, rather than apostatize from the truth, has something in it so far beyond the natural strength and force of mortals, that one cannot but conclude there was some miracu- lous power to support the sufferers ; and if so, here is at once a proof, from history and from fact, of the divine origin of our religion*." There is a third portion of the seed, that falls among thorns. This wants neither root nor depth of earth. It grows up ; but the misfortune is, that the thorns grow up with it. The fault of the soil is not that of bearing nothing, but of bearing too much ; of bearing what it ought not, of exhausting its strength and nutrition on vile and worthless productions, which choke the good seed, and prevent it from coming to perfection. " These are they (says our Saviour, in the parallel place of St. Luke) which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection." In their youth perhaps they receive reli- gious instruction, they imbibe right principles, and listen to good advice : but no sooner do they go forth, * Addison's Evidences, S. 7. 202 LECTURE XI I. no sooner do they leave those persons and those places from whom they receive them, than they take the road either of business or of pleasure, pursue their interests, their amusements, or their guilty indulgencies, with unbounded eagerness, and have neither time nor incli- nation to cultivate the seeds of religion that have been sown in their hearts, and to eradicate the weeds that have been mingled with them. The consequence is, that the weeds prevail, and the seeds are choked and lost. Can there possibly be a more faithful picture of a large proportion of the Christian world ? Let us look around us, and observe how the greater part of those we meet with are employed. In what is it that their thoughts are busied, their views, their hopes, and their fears centered, their attention occupied, their hearts and souls and affections engaged ? Is it in searching the scriptures, in meditating on its doctrines, its pre- cepts, its exhortations, its promises and its threats? Is it in communing with their own hearts, in probing them to the very bottom, in looking carefully whether there be any way of wickedness in them, in plucking out every noxious weed, and leaving room for the good seed to grow and swell and expand itself, and bring forth fruit to perfection? Is it in cultivating purity of manners, a spirit of charity towards the whole human race, and the most exalted sentiments of piety, gratitude, and love towards their Maker and Redeemer? These I fear are far from being the general and principal occupations of mankind. Too many of them are, God knows, very differently employed. They are overwhelmed with business, they are devoted to amusement, they are immersed in sensuality, they are mad with ambition, they are LECTURE XII. 203 idolaters of wealth, of power, of glory, of fame. On these things all their affections are fixed. These are the great objects of their joursuit; and if any acci- dental thought of religion happens to cross their way, they instantly dismiss the unbidden, unwelcome guest, with the answer of Felix to Paul, " Go thy way for this time; when we have a convenient season, we will send for thee." But how then, it is said, are we to conduct our- selves? If Providence has blessed us with riches, with honour, with power, with reputation, are we to reject these gifts of our heavenly Father; or ought we not rather to accept them with thankfulness, and enjoy with gratitude the advantages and the comforts which his bounty has bestowed upon us ? Most assuredly we ought. But then they are to be enjoyed also with innocence, with temperance, and with mo- deration. They must not be allowed to usurp the first place in our hearts. They must not be permitted to supplant God in our afi'ection, or to dispute that pre-eminence and priority which he claims over every propensity of our nature. This, and this only, can prevent the good seed from being choked with the cares, the riches, and the pleasures of the present life. We now come, in the last place, to the seed which fell on good ground, which our Lord tells us, in St. Luke, denotes those that in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience, some an hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty. We here see that the first and principal qualification for hearing the word of God, for keeping it, for ren- dering it capable of bringing forth fruit, is an honest and a good heart ; tliat is, a heart free from all those 204 LECTURE XII. evil dispositions and corrupt passions which blind the eyes, distort the understanding, and obstruct the admission of divine truth ; a heart perfectly clear from prejudice, from pride, from vanity, from self-sufficiency, and self-conceit ; a heart sincerely disposed and ear- nestly desirous to find out the truth, and firmly resolved to embrace it v^hen found ; ready to acknowledge its own ignorance, weakness, and corruption, and " to receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save the soul." This is that innocence and simplicity and singleness of mind, which we find so frequently recommended and so highly applauded by our blessed Lord, and which is so beautifully and feelingly described when young children were brought to him that he should touch them, and were checked by his disciples. *' Suffer the little children to come unto me, (says he) and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God;" and then he adds, " Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein*." Here, in a few words, and by a most significant and affecting emblem, is expressed that temper and disposition of mind which is the most essential qualification for the kingdom of heaven. Unless we come to the gospel with that meekness, gentleness, docility, and guileless simplicity, which constitute the character of a child, and render him so lovely and captivating, we cannot enter into the king- dom of heaven ; we cannot either assent to the evi- dence, believe the doctrines, or obey the precepts of the Christian religion. Hence we see the true reason why so many men of distinguished talents have re- jected the religion of Christ. It is not because its * Markx. 11, 15. LECTURE XII. 205 evidences are defective, or its doctrines repugnant to reason ; it is because their dispositions were the very reverse of what the gospel requires ; because (as their writings evidently show) they were high-spirited, violent, proud, conceited, vain, disdainful, and some- times profligate too; because, in short, they wanted that honest and good heart, which not only receives the good seed, but keeps it, and nourishes it with unceasing patience, till it bring forth fruit to per- fection. They could not enter into the marriage feast, because they had not on the wedding garment, because they were not clothed with humility*. For, '' God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Them that are meek, shall he guide in judgement; and such as are gentle, them shall he learn his way f." But here arises a difficulty on which the enemies of our faith lay great stress, and frequently allege as an excuse for their infidelity and impiety. If, say they, the success of the good seed depends on the soil in which it is sown, the success of the gospel must, in the same manner, depend (as this very parable is meant to prove) on the temper and disposition of the reci- pient, of the person to whom it is offered. Now this temper and disposition are not of our own making : they are the work of nature ; they are what our Creator has given us. If then, in any particular instance, they are unfortunately such as disqualify us for the reception of the gospel, the fault is not ours ; it is in the soil, it is in our natural constitution, for which surely we cannot be held responsible. This plea is specious and plausible ; but it is nothing more. The fact is, that the imbecility and corruption introduced into our moral frame by the fall of our first * 2 Pet. V. 5. t James iv. 6. Psalm xxv. 9. 206 LECTURE XII. parents, is in some measure felt by all ; but undoubt- edly in different individuals shows itself in different degrees, and that from their very earliest years. Look at any large family of children living together under the eye of their parents, and you will frequently dis- cover in them a surprising variety of tempers, humours, and dispositions ; and although the same instructions are given to all, the same care and attention, the same discipline, the same vigilance exercised over each, yet some shall be, in their general conduct, meek, gentle, and submissive ; others impetuous, passionate, and froward ; some active, enterprising, and bold ; others quiet, contented, and calm ; some cunning, artful, and close ; others open, frank, and ingenuous ; some, in short, malevolent, mischievous, and unfeeling ; others kind, compassionate, good-natured, and though some- times betraying the infirmity of human nature by casual omissions of duty and errors of conduct, yet soon made sensible of their faults, and easily led back to regularity, order, piety, and virtue. Here then is unquestionably the difference of natural constitution contended for. But what is the true inference ? Is it that those whose dispositions are the worst are to give themselves up for lost, are to abandon all hopes of salvation, and to allege their depraved nature as a sufficient apology for infidelity or vice, as constituting a complete inability either to believe or to obey the gospel ? No such thing. On the contrary, it is a strong and powerful call, first upon their parents and the guides of their youth, and afterwards upon themselves, to watch over, to restrain, to correct, to amend, to meliorate their evil dispositions, and to supply by attention, by discipline, and by prayer, what has been denied by nature. It may be thought LECTURE XII. 207 hard, perhaps, that all this care, and labour, and pain- ful conflict, should be necessary to some and not (in the same degree at least) to others ; and that so marked a distinction in so important a point should be made between creatures of the same species. But is not the same distinction made in other points of impor- tance ? Are not men placed from their very birth by the hand of Providence in different situations of rank, power, wealth ? Are not some indulged with every advantage, every blessing that their hearts can wish, and others sunk in obscurity, penury, and wretched- ness ? Are not some favoured with the most splendid talents and capacities for acquiring knowledge ; others slow in conception, weak in understanding, and almost impenetrable to instruction ? Are not some blessed from their birth with strong, healthy, robust constitu- tions, subject to no infirmities, no diseases ; others weak, sickly, tender, liable to perpetual disorders, and with the utmost difficulty dragging on a precarious existence ? Yet does this preclude all these different individuals from improving their condition; does it prevent the lowest member of society from endeavour- ing to raise himself into a superior class ; does it prevent the most indigent from labouring to acquire a fortune by industry, frugality, and activity ; does it prevent the most ignorant from cultivating their minds, and furnishing them with some degree of knowledge ; does it prevent those of the tenderest and most delicate frames from strengthening, confirming, and invigorating their health, by management, by medicine, and by temperance ? We see the contrary every day ; we see all these dift'erent characters succeeding in their efforts beyond their most sanguine expectations, and rising to a degree of opulence, of rank, of power, of learning. 208 LECTURE xir. and of health, of which at their outset they could not have formed the most distant idea. And why then are we not to act in the same manner with regard to our natural tempers, dispositions, propensities, and incli- nations ? Why are we not to suppose them as capable of improvement and melioration as our condition, our fortune, our intellectual powers, and our bodily health? Why are we to allege impossibility in one case more than in the others ? The truth is, that a bad constitu- tion of mind as well as of body may, by proper care and attention, and the powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, be greatly, if not wholly, amended. And as it sometimes happens that they who have the weakest and most distempered frames, by means of an exact regimen, and an unshaken perseverance in rule and method, outlive those of a robuster make and more luxuriant health; so there are abundant instances where men of the most perverse dispositions and most depraved turn of mind, by keepmg a steady guard upon their weak parts, and gradually, but continually, correcting their defects, applying earnestly for assis- tance from above, going on from strength to strength, and from one degree of perfection to another, have at length arrived at a higher pitch of virtue than those for whom nature had done much more, and who would therefore do but little for themselves. Let us then never despair. If we have not from constitution that honest and good heart which is neces- sary for receiving the good seed, and bringeth forth fruit with patience, we may by degrees, and by the blessing of God, gradually acquire it. If the soil is not originally good, it may be made so by labour and cultivation ; but above all, by imploring our heavenly Father to shower down upon it the plentiful effusions LECTURE XII. 209 of his grace, which he has promised to all that devoutly and fervently and constantly pray for it. This dew from heaven, *'shed abroad in our hearts*," will re- fresh and invigorate and purify our souls ; will correct the very worst disposition ; will soften and subdue the hardest and most ungrateful soil, will make it clean and pure and moist, fit for the reception of the good seed ; and notwithstanding its original poverty and barrenness, will enrich it with strength and vigour sufficient to bring forth fruit to perfection. I have now finished these Lectures for the present year, and must, on this occasion, again entreat you to let those truths, to which you have listened with so much patience and perseverance, take entire posses- sion of your hearts. They are not vain, they are not trivial things, they are the words of eternal life ; they relate to the most important of all human concerns, to the most essential interests and comfort of the present life, and to the destiny, the eternal destiny, of happiness or misery that awaits you in the next. You have just heard the parable of the sower explained, and it behoves you to consider in which of the four classes of men there described you can fairly rank yourselves. Are you in the number of those that receive the seed by the way-side, on hearts as impene- trable and inaccessible to conviction as the hard-beaten high-road ? or of those that receive the seed on a little loose earth scattered on a rock, where it quickly springs up, and as quickly withers away ? or of those in whom the seed is choked with thorns, with the occupations and pleasures of this life? or, lastly, of those who receive the seed on good ground, on an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit, some * Romans v. 5. 210 LKCTURE XII. a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty? It becomes every one of you to ask yourselves this question very seriously, and to anwer it very honestly ; for on that depends the v^^hole colour of your future condition here and hereafter. There are none I trust here present, there are few I believe in this country, who fall under the first descrip- tion of professed and hardened unbelievers ; and amidst many painful circumstances of these awful and anxious times, it is some consolation to us to reflect, that the incredible pains which have been taken in a mul- titude of vile publications to induce the people of this country to apostatize from their religion, have not made that general and permanent impression on their minds which might naturally have been expected from such malignant and reiterated eff'orts to shake their principles and subvert their faith. But there are other instruments of perversion and corruption, much more formidable and more powerful than these. There are rank and noxious weeds and thorns, which grow up with the good seed and choke it, and prevent it from coming to maturity. These are, as the parable tells us, the cares, the riches, and the pleasures of this world, which in our passage through life lay hold upon our hearts, and are more dangerous obstructions to the gospel than all the speculative arguments and specious sophistry of all its adversaries put together. It is but seldom, I believe, comparatively speaking, that men are fairly reasoned out of their religion. But they are very frequently seduced, both from the practice and the belief of it, by treacherous passions within and violent temptations from without, by ''the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." These are in fact the most common, the most powerful LECTURE XII. 211 enemies of our faith. These are the weeds and the thorns that twist themselves round every fibre of our hearts, which impede the growth and destroy the fruitfulness of every good principle that has been implanted there, and form that third and most numerous class of hearers described in the parable of the sower, who, though not professed infidels, are yet practical unbelievers, and who, though they retain the form, have lost all the substance, all the power, all the life and soul of religion. It is then against these most dangerous corrupters of our fidelity and allegiance to our heavenly Master, that we must principally be upon our guard ; it is against these we must arm and prepare our souls, by summoning all our fortitude and resolution, and calling in to our aid, all those spiritual succours which the power of prayer can draw down upon us from above. It was to assist us in this arduous conflict, that the compilers of our liturgy appointed the season of Lent, and more particularly the offices of the concluding week, which, from the sufferings of our Saviour at that time, we call Passion week. It was thought, and surely it was wisely thought by our ancestors, that to fortify ourselves against the attractions of the world, and the seductions of sin, it was necessary to withdraw ourselves sometimes from the tumultuous and intoxicating scenes of business and of pleasure, which, in the daily commerce of life, press so close on every side of us ; and to strengthen and confirm our minds against their fatal influence, by retirement, by recollection, by self-communion, by self-examination, by meditating on the word of God, and, above all, by frequent and fervent prayer. To give us time for these sacred occupations, a small portion of every year has p 2 212 LECTURE XII. been judiciously set apart for them by our church; and what time could be so proper for those holy purposes, as that in which our blessed Lord was suffering so much for our sakes ? I allude more parti- cularly to that solemn week which is now approaching, and to which I must beg to call the most serious atten- tion of every one here present. In that week all public diversions are, as you well know, wisely prohibited by public authority ; and in conformity to the spirit of such prohibition, we should, even in our own families and in our own private amusements, be temperate, modest, decorous, and discreet. Think not, however, that I am here recom- mending gloom and melancholy, and seclusion from all society; far from it. This could answer no other purpose but to sour your minds and to deaden your devotions. The cheerfulness of social converse and friendly intercourse is by no means inconsistent with the duties of the week ; but all those tumultuous assem- blies, which are too strongly marked with an air of levi- ty, gaiety, and. dissipation, and may in fact be ranked in the number of 'public diversions, are plainly repug- nant to that seriousness and tenderness of mind, which the awful and interesting events of that week must naturally inspire. Let me only request you to read over, when you return home, that plain, simple, unaffected, yet touching narrative of our Saviour's sufferings, which is selected from the gospels, in the daily offices of the next week ; and then ask your own hearts whether, at the very time when your Redeemer is supposed to have passed through all those dreadful scenes for your sakes and for your salvation, from his first agony in the garden to his last expiring groan upon the cross, whether at this very time you can bring yourselves to LECTURE XII. 213 pursue the pleasures, the vanities, and the follies of the world, with the same unqualified eagerness and unabated ardour, as if nothing had happened which had given him the slightest pain, or in which you had the smallest interest or concern. Your hearts, I am sure, will revolt at the very idea, and your own feelings will preserve you from thus wantonly sporting with the cross of Christ. And if to a prudent abstinence from these things you were to add a careful inquiry into your past conduct, and the present state of your souls, if you were to extend your views to another world, and consider what your condition there is likely to be ; what reasonable grounds you have to hope for a favour- able sentence from your Almighty Judge; how far you have conformed to the commands of your Maker, and what degree of affection and gratitude you have mani- fested for the inexpressible kindness of your Redeemer ; this surely would be an employment not inconsistent with your necessary occupations, and not unsuitable to humble candidates for pardon, acceptance, and immortal happiness. Is this too great a burthen to be imposed upon us for a few days ; is it too great a sacrifice of our time, our thoughts and our amusements, to an invisible world, and a reversionary inheritance of inestimable value ? It certainly is, if the gospel be all a fabricated tale. But if it contain the words of soberness and truth ; if its divine authority is established by such an accumulation of evidence of various kinds, as never before concurred to prove any other facts or events in the history of the world, by evidences springing from different sources, yet all centering in the same point, and converging to the same conclusion; if even the few incidental proofs that have been offered to your 214 LECTURE XII. consideration in the course of these Lectures have pro- duced that conviction in your minds which they seem to have done ; v^hat then is the consequence ? Is it not that truths of such infinite importance well deserve all that consideration for which I am now contending ; and that we ought to embrace with eagerness every appointed means and every favourable opportunity that is thrown in our way, of demonstrating our attach- ment and our gratitude to a crucified Saviour, who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification, and will come once more in glory to judge the world in righteousness, and to distribute his rewards and punishments to all the nations of the earth assembled before him ? At that awful tribunal may we all appear with a humble confidence in the merits of our Re- deemer, and a trembling hope of that mercy which he has promised to every sincere believer, every truly contrite and penitent offender ! 215 LECTURE XIII. MATTHEW XIII. Continued. The Lectures of the last year concluded with an ex- planation of the parable of the sower; and imme- diately after this follows in the gospel the parable of the tares, which will be the subject of our present con- sideration*. The parable is as follows : " The kingdom of hea- ven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field ; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him. Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field ; from whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them. An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him. Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up ? But he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together unto the harvest ; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them up in bun- dles to burji them : but gather the wheat into my barn." * Matt.xiii.24. 216 LECTURE xiir. After our Lord had delivered this parable, and one or two more very short ones, we are told that he sent the multitude away, and went into the house ; and his disciples came unto him, saying, " Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them. He that sowed the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world ; the good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil : the harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the right- eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father: who hath ears to hear, let him hear." This parable well deserves our most serious conside- ration, as it giv£s an answer to two questions of great curiosity and great importance, which have exercised the ingenuity and agitated the minds of thinking men from the earliest times to the present, and perhaps were never, at any period of the world, more interest- ing than at this very hour. The first of these questions is. How came moral evil into the world ? The next is. Why is it suffered to remain a single moment ; and why is not every wicked man immedi- ately punished as he deserves ? The first of these questions has, we know, in almost all ages, and in all countries, been a constant subject of investigation and controversy among metaphysicians LECTURE XIII. 217 and theologians, and has given birth to an infinity of fanciful theories and systems, to one more particularly in our own times, by a man of very' distinguished ta- lents*; all which however have failed of solving the difficulty, and have proved nothing more than this mor- tifying and humiliating truth, namely, the extreme weakness of the human intellect, when applied to sub- jects so far above its reach, and the utter inability of man to fathom the counsels of the Most High, and de- velope the mysterious ways of his providence, by the sole strength of unassisted reason f. That those who were never favoured with the light of revelation should indulge themselves in such abstruse speculations, can be no great wonder ; but that they who have access to the original fountain of truth, and can draw from that sacred source the most authentic information on this point, should have recourse to the fallible conjec- tures of human ingenuity, and should hew out to themselves ** cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water," is a most unaccountable error of judgement, and a strange misapplication of talents, and waste of labour and of time. We are told, in the very begin- ning of the Bible, that he who first brought sin or moral evil into the world, was that great adversary of the human race, the devil, who first tempted the * Soame Jenyns. t Among the dissertations of Plutarch (which go by the name of his Morals,) there is a very curious and ingenious one, entitled infi rZv vjto tS ©h'ov SpaJs^f ri{xiefuy.iviuv, concerning those whom the Deity is slow in punishing. In this, among other just remarks, he observes, " that many things which great generals, and legislators, and statesmen do, are to common observers incom- prehensible. What wonder is it then, (says he) if we cannot understand why the gods inflict punishment on the wicked, sometimes at an earlier, sometimes at a later period? Plut. ed. Xyland. v. 2. p. 549. F. 21-8 LECTURE XIII. woman, and she the man, to act in direct contradiction to the commands of their Maker. This act of disobedience destroyed at once that innocence and purity and integrity of mind, with which they came out of the hands of their Creator ; gave an immediate and dreadful shock to their whole moral frame, and introduced into it all those corrupt propensities, and disordered passions, which they be- cjueathed as a fatal legacy to their descendants; of which we all now feel the bitter fruits, and have, I fear, by our own personal and voluntary transgres- sions, not a little improved the wretched inheritance we received from our ancestors. This is the true origin of moral evil ; and it is expressly confirmed by our Saviour in the parable before us ; in which, when the servants of the householder express their surprise at finding tares among the wheat, and ask whence they came, his answer is, An enemy hath done this^ and that enemy, our Lord informs us, is the devil ; that inveterate, implacable enemy (as the very name of Satan imports) of the human race, the original author of all our calamities, and at this moment the prime mover and great master-spring of all the wick- edness and all the misery that now overwhelm the world. To this account great objections have been made, and no small pains taken to confute, to expose, and to ridicule it. But after all the wit and buffoonery which have been lavished upon it, it may safely be affirmed, and might easily be shown, that it stands on firmer ground, and is encumbered with fewer difficulties, than any other hypothesis that has been yet proposed. But still, as I have already observed, there remains another very important question to be answered. Why LECTURE XIII. 219 is the wickedness of man, from whatever source it springs, suffered to pass unobserved and unpunished by the Judge of all the earth ? Why is not the bold offender stopped short in his career of vice and iniquity ? Why is he permitted to go on trium- phantly, without any obstacle to his wishes, to insult, oppress, and harass the virtuous and the good, with- out the least check or controul, and, as it were, to brave the vengeance of the Almighty, and set at nought the great Governor of the world? Why, in short, in the language of the parable, are the tares allowed to grow up unmolested with the wheat, to choke its vigour, and impede its growth ? Why are they not plucked up instantly with an indignant hand, and thrown to the dunghill, or committed to the flames ? This has been a most grievous '* stumbling stone, a rock of offence," not only to the unthinking crowd, but to men of serious thought and reflection in every age; and scarce any thing has more perplexed and disturbed the minds of the good, or given more encou- ragement and audacity to the bad, than the little notice that seems to be taken of the most enormous crimes, and the little distinction that is apparently made between ** the wheat and the tares, between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not." The reflections w^hich these mysterious proceedings are apt to excite even in the best and humblest of men, are most inimitably expressed by the royal Psalmist in the 73d Psalm ; where you see all the different turns and workings of his mind laid open without disguise ; and all the various ideas and sentiments that succes- sively took possession of his soul in the progress of 220 LECTURE xiir. his inquiry, described in the most natural and affecting manner. "Truly, (says he, with that piety which con- stantly inspires him,) God is loving to Israel ; even unto such as are of a clean heart : nevertheless my feet were almost gone; my treadings had well nigh slipped. And why? I was grieved at the wicked; I do also see the ungodly in such prosperity. For they are in no peril of death, but are lusty and strong. They come in no misfortune like other folk : neither are they plagued like other men. And this is the cause, that they are so holden with pride, and over- whelmed with cruelty. Their eyes swell with fatness, and they do even what they lust. They corrupt other, and speak of wicked blasphemy; their talking is against the Most High. Tush, say they, how should God perceive it; is there knowledge in the Most High? Lo, these are the ungodly. These prosper in the world, and these have riches in possession. And I said, then I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency." Sentiments such as these, are, I believe, what many good men have found occasionally rising in their minds, on observing the prosperity of the worthless part of mankind. But never were they before so beautifully and so feelingly expressed as in this passage. These complaints, however, soon pass away with men of pious dispositions, and end in meek submission to the will of Heaven. But not so with the wicked and profane. By them the forbearance of Heaven towards sinners is sometimes perverted to the very worst pur- poses, and made use of as an argument to encourage and confirm them in the career of vice. This effect is well and accurately described in the book of Eeclesi- astes ; *' because sentence against an evil work is not LECTURE XIII. 221 executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men are fully set m them to do evil*." It was to obviate these fatal consequences, as well as to give support and consolation to the good, that our Lord delivered this parable of the tares and the wheat; which will enable us to solve the arduous question above-mentioned, arising from the impunity and pros- perity of the wicked, and to vindicate in this instancy the ways of God to man. But before I begin to state and explain the reasons of that forbearance and lenity towards sinners, which is so much objected to in the divine administration of the world, I must take notice of one very material circumstance in the case, which is, that the evil complained of is greatly magnified, and represented to be much more generally prevalent than it really is. The fact is, that although punishment does not always overtake the wicked in this life, yet it falls upon them more frequently and heavily than we are aware of. They are often punished when we do not observe it ; but they are also sometimes punished in the most public and conspicuous manner. The very first offence committed by man after the creation of the world was, as we know to our cost, followed by immediate and exemplary punishment. The next great criminal, Cain, was rendered a fugitive and a vagabond upon earth, and held up as an object of execration and abhorrence to mankind. When the whole earth was sunk in wickedness, it was over- whelmed by a deluge. The abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah were avenged by tire from heaven. The tyrant Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their * Eccles. viii. 11. 222 LECTUllE XIII. rebellious companions, were buried alive in the bowels of the earth. It was for their portentous wickedness and savage practices that the Canaanite nations were exterminated by the Israelites ; and it was for their idolatries, their licentiousness, and their rebellions against God, that the Israelites themselves were repeatedly driven into exile, reduced to slavery, and at length their city, their temple, and their whole civil polity, utterly destroyed, and themselves scat- tered and dispersed over every part of the known world, and every where treated with derision and contempt. It will be said, perhaps, that these were the consequences of the peculiar theocratic form of their govei:nment, under which the rewards and the punishments were temporal and immediate, and that they are not to be expected in the present state of human affairs. Still however they are proofs, and tremendous proofs, that God is not an inattentive and unconcerned spectator of human wickedness. But let us come to our own times, and to the fates and fortunes of individuals under our observation. Do we not continually see that they who indulge their pas- sions without controul, and give an unbounded loose to every corrupt propensity of their hearts, are sooner or later the victims of their own intemperance and licentiousness? Do they not madly sacrifice to the love of pleasure, and frequently within a very short space of time, their health, their fortune, their characters, their peace of mind, and that too com- pletely and effectually, and beyond all hopes of recovery ? The instances of this are many and dread- ful, without taking into the account such flagrant crimes as deliver men over into the hands of public justice. Now what is all this but the sentence of God LECTURE XIII. 223 Speedily executed against evil works ? It may be alleged, that these are only the natural consequences of wrong conduct, and not the immediate judicial inflictions of Heaven. But who is it that has made these evils the natural consequences of vice? who but the great Author of nature? He hath purposely formed his world and his creature man in such a manner, that these penalties shall follow close upon wickedness, as di present mark of his abhorrence and detestation of it; and they fall on many offenders, both so speedily and so heavily, that till second thoughts correct the first impression, it seems almost an impeachment of his goodness that he inflicts them. Still it must be confessed that wickedness is some- times triumphant ; and so also does folly sometimes meet with success in the world ; but it is true, not- withstanding, that it labours under great disadvan- tages, and immoral conduct under still greater. The natural tendency of sin is to misery. Accidents may now and then prevent this, but not generally ; art and cunning may evade it, but not nearly so often as men imagine. But supposing the guilty to escape for a time all suflerings, and, in consequence of it, to please them- selves highly with the prudence of their choice ; yet still punishment, though slow, may overtake them at last. The blindness of such men to consequences is quite astonishing. One man evades the penalties of human laws in a few instances, and therefore concludes he shall never be overtaken by them. Another preserves his reputation for a time, and thence imagines it to be perfectly secure. A third finds his health hold out a few years, and therefore has not the least suspicion that what he is always undermining must fall at last. 224 LECTURE XIII. Now each of these may, if he pleases, applaud his own wisdom ; but every one else must see his extreme stupidity and folly. In fact, whoever commits sin has swallowed poison, which from that moment begins to operate ; at first perhaps by a pleasing intoxication, afterwards by slow and uncertain degrees, but still the disease is within, and is mortal; and, since it may every instant break out with fatal violence, it is a melancholy thing to see the person infected filled with a mad joy, which must end in heaviness and death. Vice, especially of some sorts, affects to wear a smiling countenance, and the days that are spent in it pass along for a time pleasantly enough ; but little do the poor wretches that are deluded by it reflect what bitterness they are treasuring up for the rest of life, and how soon they may come to taste it in such con- sequences, as even the completest reformation, and the strictest care afterwards, will very imperfectly either prevent or cure. After all, however, it must be acknowledged, that there are numbers of worthless and profligate men, who go on for a considerable length of time, perhaps even to the end of their days, in a full tide of worldly prosperity, blessed with every thing that is thought most valuable in this life, wealth, power, rank, health, and strength, and enjoying all these advantages with- out interruption and alloy, " coming in no misfortune like other folk, and not plagued or afflicted like other men." These, it must be confessed, are strong symptoms of happiness, if we are to judge from appearances only. But does not every one know that happiness depends infinitely less upon external circumstances than on the internal comfort, content, and satisfaction of the mind ? LECTURE XIII. 225 May I not appeal to every one here present, whether some of the acutest sufferings, and the most exquisite joys he has experienced, are not those which are confined to his own breast, which he enjoys in secresy and in silence, in his retired and private moments, unobserved by the world, and independent of all exterior show ? *' The heart only (says the wise man most truly) know- eth its own bitterness ; and a stranger doth not inter- meddle with its joy*." This then is the standard by which you must measure human happiness. You must not too hastily conclude that prosperity is felicity. In order to know whether these men are truly what they seem to be, you must follow them into their retirements, into their closets, and their couches ; and if you could then see the interior of their hearts, you would pro- bably find them objects rather of pity than of envy. Whatever they may pretend, or whatever air of cheer- fulness they may assume, it is utterly impossible that they, whose sole object is to gratify their passions without the least regard to the feelings of others; who are corrupting all around them by their conver- sation and their example, or spreading ruin, misery, and desolation over the world by their inordinate ambition ; who not only live in a constant violation of the commands of their maker, but perhaps even deny his existence, renounce his authority, and treat every thing serious and religious with derision and contempt: it is, I say, utterly impossible that these men, what- ever external magnificence or gaiety may surround them, can enjoy that peace and comfort, and content of mind, which alone constitutes real and substantial happiness, and without which every thing else is insipid and unsatisfactory. A secret consciousness * Prov. xiv. 10. Q 226 LECTURE XIII. that they are acting wrong, that they are degrading and debasing their nature, and wasting their time, in mean, unworthy, and mischievous pursuits ; frequent pangs of remorse for the irreparable injuries they have done to those whom they have betrayed or oppressed, and whose peace and comfort they have for ever de- stroyed ; a dread of that Almighty Being whom they have resisted and insulted ; a fear of death, and an apprehension of that punishment hereafter, which, though they affect to disbelieve and despise, they can- not help knowing to be possible, and feeling that they deserve ; all these reflections, which, in spite of their utmost efforts to stifle them, will very often force themselves upon their minds, are sufficient to counter- act every other advantage they possess, and to embit- ter every enjoyment of their lives. All shall look outwardly gay and happy, and all within shall be joy- less and gloomy. They shall seem to have every thing they wish, and, in fact, have nothing that affords them any genuine satisfaction, or preserves them from the internal wretchedness that perpetually haunts them. " God (as the Psalmist expresses it) gives them their hearts' desire, and sends leanness withal into their souls*;" that is, a total incapacity of deriving any true comfort from the blessings they possess. I am not here drawing imaginary pictures of misery, or describing situations, which have never existed ; I could refer you to well-known examples, which would amply confirm the truth of my assertions, and would clearly show that the prosperity of the wicked is no proof of their happiness : that external calamities and corporeal pains, acute sufferings, disease, or death, are not the only instruments of vengeance which the * Psalm cvi. 15. LECTURE XIII. 227 Almighty has in his hand for the correction of sinners ; but that he has other engines of punishment far more terrible than these; that he can plant daggers in the breast of the most triumphant libertine ; and that even when their worldly blessings are exalted, his secret dart can pierce their souls, and wring them with tortures sharper than a two-edged sword, yet invisible to every mortal eye*. It appears, therefore, that sinners are in fact much oftener and much more severely punished than we are aware ; that God is even now exercising a moral government over the world ; that he is filling them with the fruits of their own devices, and chastening them in a variety of ways, not always discernible by us ; admonishing some by gentle corrections to sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto them ; but crush- ing some by severer strokes, '* that others may hear and fear, and do no more any such wickedness f." Still however it must be owned, that punishment does not always overtake the offender either speedily or immediately ; and therefore I proceed to show, that when this is the case, there are sufficient reasons for the delay. It is obvious that every scheme which comprehends a great variety of intentions and views, cannot permit all of them to be accomplished at once, but some things, by no means to be omitted entirely, must however be postponed. Now such a complicated system is that of the government of the world, in which God may have many designs altogether unknown • " As malefactors, when they go to punishment, carry their own cross; so wickedness generally carries its own torment along with it, and is a most skilful artiticer of its own misery, filling the mind with terror, remorse, and the most agonizing reflection." Plut. ed. Xyland, v. 2. p. 554. A. f Deut. xiii. 11, Q 2 228 LECTURE XIII. to us; and of those which we know best, we are far from being judges which it is right for him to prefer, whenever they happen to interfere *. Offenders, whom ivc are impatient to see punished as they deserve, he may see it expedient, for various reasons, to spare. One of these reasons is given in the parable before us. When the servants of the householder represented to him that there was a great number of tares intermixed and growing up with the wheat, and asked whether they should not go and root them up ; his answer was. Nay; lest, while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat also with them. The meaning is, that, in the present imperfect scene of things, the virtuous and the wicked are so intermingled and so connected with each other, that it is frequently impossible to punish the guilty without involving the innocent in their sufferings. In the case of sinful nations, or any large bodies of men, this is very apparent. It may happen, that a very considerable part of a great community may be guilty of the most enormous crimes of oppres- sion, injustice, ambition, cruelty, murder, and impiety, and we are apt to call out for immediate and ex- emplary vengeance on such wretches as these. But if this vengeance was to be executed in all its extent, if this people was to be extirpated by fire and sword, or to be destroyed by famine, by pestilence, or earthquake, it is evident that great numbers of innocent persons must perish in this general wreck, and that the wheat would be rooted up with the tares. Instead therefore of censuring the dispensations of the * It is as absurd for us to blame the gods for not punishing the wicked at the time and in the manner which we think the fittest, as it would be for an ignorant clown to censure a physician for not administering the most efficacious medi- cines to his patient at those times which he, the said clown, judges to be the most proper." Plut. v. 2. p. 549. F. LECTURE XIII. 229 Almighty in these instances, we ought to praise and adore him for exercising his mercy when we should have no compassion, and for sparing the wicked lest he should destroy the righteous. But though this reasoning may be allowed in the case of guilty nations, yet it may be thought not to hold good with respect to individuals. It may be alledged, that single offenders at least may be cut oif, without doing any injury to the innocent or the vir- tuous. But is this a fact which can at all times be safely assumed ? Is the criminal, whom you wish to see chastised, a perfectly unconnected, solitary, and isolated being? Has he no wife or children, no relations, no dependents, no persons of any descrip- tion, that look up to him for protection, support, or assistance ? If he has, are you sure that all these per- sons are as worthless and as deserving of correction as himself? May they not, on the contrary, be as eminent in virtue as he is in wickedness ; or at the least, may they not be exempt from many of those flagrant sins that call for immediate and exemplary punishment? If so, would you have these innocent, and perhaps excellent persons, involved in the ruin of the great delinquent, on whom they entirely depend? Would you have the righteous Governor of the universe make no distinction in the infliction of his punishments? Should we not rather adopt the pathetic language of Abraham, when he is pleading with the Almighty for Sodom and Gomorrah? ''Wilt thou slay the righte- ous with the wicked ? That be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right*?" You see then that there may be the best and most substantial reasons for delaying the punishment of the wicked, * Gen. xviii. 25. 230 LECTURE XIII. both with respect to nations, and individuals; and that when we are rashly calling out for immediate vengeance, the Judge of all the earth is full of tender- ness and pity, and sees the best reasons for respiting even the most notorious offenders. But besides this, there are other reasons for God's forbearance towards sinners. They are sometimes, as the prophet expresses it, the rod of his anger*. He makes use of them as instruments to chastise each other, or to correct the faults of those who are much better than themselves. And it frequently happens that their punishment is only delayed, till they have completely finished the work for which they were raised up, and that then they are made to justify the dispensations of the Almighty by the awful spectacle of a conspicuous and terrifying fall. To instance only the case of one notorious offender. That miscreant, Judas Iscariot, long before he betrayed his Master, gave proofs of a most depraved and cor- rupt disposition. He was intrusted with the little stock that belonged in common to our Lord and the apostles; he kept the bag, and he robbed it. This flagrant breach of trust certainly deserved the severest punishment ; and no doubt the disciples secretly mur- mured in their hearts, and condemned their divine Master for too great lenity towards so vile a wretch. But they knew not what he knew, that he was reserved for an important, though nefarious purpose, and was to be the instrument of betraying the Saviour of the world into the hands of his murderers; a deed for which his former crimes showed him to be perfectly well qualified. When this work of darkness was done, his doom was sealed, his punishment instantly followed ; " Isaiah x. 5. LECTURE XIII. 231 and, what increased its bitterness, it was inflicted with his own hand. There is still another very important consideration, which may frequently occasion a delay in punishing even grievous offenders ; and that is, the goodness and long-suffering of God, who is not willing that any should perish, but that all should have time for repentance. He who looks into the hearts of men, may see various reasons for sparing those whom we would consign to immediate destruction. He may discern some good qualities in them which are unknown to us, some good dispositions and good principles, which have entirely escaped our observation. He may per- ceive that they have been betrayed into the crimes they have committed, more by unfortunate circum- stances, by error of judgement, by mistaken zeal, by wrong education, by the solicitation and the influence of worthless companions, than by an incurable and inveterate depravity of heart. He may see, that amidst a multitude of vile weeds, there are still some seeds of virtue remaining in their breasts, which, if duly cherished and fostered, and cultivated with care and tenderness, may produce most valuable fruits of righteousness. " He is unwilling therefore to break the bruised reed, or to quench the smoking flax*." He is unwilling to destroy what may still possibly be restored ; he is unwilling to extinguish, by severity, the faintest sparks of latent goodness. He sees, in short, that if they have time for reflection, if they have space for repentance, they will repent, and he gra- ciously gives them a respite for that purpose t- • Matt.xii. 20. t " Those offenders whom the Deity knows to be absolutely incurable, he 232 LECTURE XIII. And shall we repine or murmur at this forbearance, this indulgence of God towards sinners? Are not we ourselves all of us sinners, miserable sinners: and do we think that God treats us with too much indulgence? Is there any one here present who would be content that God should immediately, and without mercy, inflict on him the utmost punishment which his sins justly deserve? What, alas! would become of the very best of us, if this was the case ; and who could abide these judgements of the Lord ? And how then can we refuse to others that mercy of which we stand so much in need ourselves ? It is evident, and we see it every day, that men who once were profligate have in time become eminently virtuous : and what pity would it have been if extreme or untimely severity had either suddenly cut them off", or hardened them in their wickedness ! Great minds are sometimes apt to fly out into excesses at their first outset, but afterwards, upon reflection, and with proper culture, rise up to the practice of the noblest virtues. And it is mercy worthy of God to exercise, and which men instead of censuring ought to admire and adore, if he chooses the milder, though slower methods, with those who are capable of being reformed by them. These sentiments cannot be better illus- destroys ; but to those in whom he discovers some good dispositions, and a probability of reformation, he gives time for amendment. Thus by immediate punishment he corrects a few, but by sometimes delaying it he recovers and reforms many" Plut. v. 2. p. 551. CD. To this may be added another fine observation of the same author ; that God is sometimes slow in punishing the wicked, in order to teach us mortals a lesson of moderation ; to repress that vehemence and precipitation with which we are sometimes impelled to avenge ourselves on those that offend us in the first heat of our passion immediately and immoderately ; and to induce us to imitate that mildness, patience, and forbearance, which He is often so merciful as to exercise towards those that have incurred his displeasure." P. 550. F. LECTURE XIII. 233 trated than by the example of St. Paul. That illustrious apostle was we know once, as he himself confesses, the chief of sinners ;■ he was a fiery zealot, and a furious persecutor of the first Christians, breathing- out continually threatening and slaughter against them, making havoc of the Church, entering into every house, and haling men and women to prison ; and being, as he expresses it, exceedingly mad against them, he per- secuted them unto strange cities, and when they were put to. death, he gave his voice against them. In the eye of the Christian world then at that time, he must have been considered as one of the fittest objects of divine vengeance, as a persecutor and a murderer, who ought to be cut off in an instant from the face of the earth. But the great Discerner of Hearts thought otherwise. He saw that all this cruelty, great as it undoubtedly was, arose, not from a disposition naturally savage and ferocious, but from ignorance, from early religious prejudices, from misguided zeal, from a firm persua- sion that by these acts of severity against the first Christians he was doing God service. He saw that this same fervour of mind, this excess of zeal, properly informed and properly directed, would make him a most active and able advocate of that very cause which he had so violently opposed. Instead therefore of an extraordinary act of power to destroy him, he visibly interposed to save him. He was in a miracu- lous manner converted to the Christian faith, and became the principal instrument of difi*using it through the world. We see then what baneful effects would sometimes arise from the immediate punishment even of notorious delinquents. It would in this case have deprived the Christian world of the abilities, the 234 LECTURE XIII. eloquence, the indefatigable and successful exertions of this learned and intrepid apostle, whose conversion gave a strong additional evidence to the truth of the gospel, and w^ho laid down his life for the religion he had embraced. Yet notwithstanding all the reasons for sometimes delaying the punishment of guilt in the present world, it cannot be denied that there are some instances of prosperous wickedness, which cannot well be ac- counted for by any of them; and therefore, for a complete vindication of the moral government of God, we must have recourse to the cpncluding part of the parable, which will give us the fullest satisfaction on this interesting subject. To the question of the ser- vants, whether they should gather up the tares from the midst of the wheat, the householder answers, " Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat also. Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn." The harvest, our Lord tells us in his explanation, is the end of the world, at which awful period the Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall " gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear *." Here then is the great master-key to the whole of this mysterious dispensation of Heaven. God, we see, has appointed a day when every deficiency in his * Matt, xiii, 41, 42, 43. LECTURE XIII. 235 administration shall be supplied, and every seeming disproportion and inequality shall be rectified *. Even in this w^orld it appears that wickedness is punished in some measure, and to a certain degree : and we have seen that the interests of virtue itself, among other considerations, require that it should not be instantly punished to the full extent of its deserts. God is perpetually showing, even in the present life, his different regard to right and wrong, by every such method as the constitution of the world which he has created admits ; and therefore no sooner shall that world come to an end, and all obstacles to an equal administration of justice be taken out of the way, than he shall come to execute righteous judgement upon earth. " He is not slack as men count slackness f," that is, negligent and remiss ; he only waits for the proper season of doing all that hitherto remains undone. Human weakness, indeed, by a small delay of punish- ing, may lose the power of doing it for ever. *' But in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength J." Human inconstancy may be vehement and passionate at first ; then negligent and languid. The sense of an unwor- thy action that does not injure us, quickly wears out of our mind ; and if we take no immediate notice of it, we shall possibly take none at all. But we must not * " As the soul survives the dissolution of the body, (says the excellent Plutarch) and exists after death, it is most probable that it will receive rewards and punishments in a future state ; for it goes through a kind of contest during the present life, and when that is over, it will have its due recompence here- after." . 561. A. How nearly does this approach to the doctrine of the gospel, which had been promulgated near one hundred years before Plutarch wrote. But thanks be to God, what this great man thought only probable, we have the happiness of knowing to be certain. t 2 Pet. iii. 9. + Isaiah xxvi. 4. 236 LECTURE XIII. think God to be such a one as ourselves. Eternity itself will make no change in hh abhorrence of wick- edness, nor will any thing either transport him to act before his appointed time, or prevail upon him to give a respite when that time comes. The sinners of the antediluvian world, abusing the long space of one hundred and twenty years which he allowed for their repentance, perished at the end of it without mercy. The angels who fell from their first estate before this earth was created, he has reserved for torments, that shall not finally take place till it is consumed *. The same important period his infinite wisdom has marked out for the final judgement of men. And undoubtedly it maij produce advantages of unspeak- able moment thus to defer justice, with a design of rendering some chosen parts of duration memorable throughout the universe, by a more extensive and illustrious exercise of it. For it must needs make an inconceivably strong and lasting impression upon every order of beings that shall then be present at the solemn scene, to hear .the final doom of a whole world pro- nounced at once ; and to behold sins that had been committed thousands of years before, punished with the same attention to every circumstance as if they had been but of yesterday. How far off these judgements of the Lord may be, we none of us know. But with regard to ourselves, they are near, they are even at the door. The few days we have to pass in this transient scene will determine our condition for ever, and bring us into an eternal state, compared with which the continuance of tlie present frame of nature, from its very beginning, will be as nothing. Then every act of the government * Jude 6. 2 P6t. ii. 4. LECTURE XIII. 237 of God will be seen in its true light ; the imagined length of distance between guilt and its punishment will totally disappear ; and offenders will lament in vain that sentence is executed so speedily as it is against evil works. But v/ith peculiar severity will it be executed on them, who, despising the riches of that goodness which would lead them to repentance, " treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgement of God*." Upon the whole then let not either the sinner triumph, or the virtuous repine, at the apparent impu- nity or even prosperity of the wicked in the present life. To the audacious sinner we apply those most apposite and most awful words of the son of Sirach : " Say not, who shall control me for my works? for the Lord will surely avenge thy pride. Say not, I have sinned, and what harm hath happened unto me ? for the Lord is indeed long-suffering, but he will in no wise let thee go. Say not, his mercy is great, he will be pacified for the multitude of my sins ; for both mercy and wrath come from him, and his indignation resteth upon sinners. Make therefore no tarrying to turn unto the Lord, and put not off from day to day ; for suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord come forth, and in thy security shalt thou be destroyed, and perigh in the day of vengeance!." To the religious and virtuous on the other hand we say, " Fret not thyself because of the ungodly, neither be thou envious against the evil doers. Hold thee still in the Lord, and abide patiently upon him ; but grieve not thyself at him whose way doth prosper, against the man that doeth after evil counsels. Wicked doers * Rom.ii. 5. f Eccles.v. 3—7. 238 LECTURE XIII. shall be rooted out ; and they that patiently abide the Lord, those shall inherit the land*." *' Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he re- ceive the early and the latter rain. Be ye also pa- tient ; for the coming of the Lord draweth nighf ." It is not indeed always an easy task to ex'ercise this patience, when we see conspicuous instances either of individuals or of nations, notorious for their profligacy, triumphant and prosperous in all their ways. We can scarce repress our discontent, or forbear joining with the prophet in his expostulation with the Almighty, " Righteous art thou, O Lord ! yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements: Why do the ways of the wicked prosper ? Why are they all happy that deal very treacherously J ? To this we can now answer in the words of Job : " Knowest thou not this, since man was placed upon earth, that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment ? Though his excellency mount unto the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds ; yet he shall perish for ever, and they that have seen him shall say. Where is he § ?" In fact it has been proved, in the course of this in- quiry, that in such an immense and complicated sys- tem as that of the universe, there are many reasons which we can discern, and a thousand others perhaps totally unknown to us, which render it necessary that the virtuous should sufl'er a temporary depression, and the wicked enjoy a temporary triumph. But let not these apparent irregularities dispirit or discourage us: * Psalm xxxvii. 7 — 9. t James v. 7, 8. t Jerem, xii. 1. $ Job xx. 3,6, 7. LECTURE XIII. 239 for whenever the purposes of Providence in these mys- terious dispensations shall have been accomplished, every disorder shall be rectified, and every appear- ance of injustice done away. The time and the sea- son for doing this, God has reserved in his own power: and we must not presume to prescribe rules to the wisdom of the Almighty. To men excruciated with pain, every moment seems an age ; and to men groan- ing under oppression, their deliverance, if it come not instantly, may seem extremely distant. But let them not despair: in due season they shall reap, if they faint not. At the period marked out by infinite wisdom, and which it is their duty to await with patience, God shall cause his judgement to be heard from heaven, and the earth shall tremble and be still. He shall then demonstrate to the whole world " that his hand is not shortened that it cannot redeem, and that he still re- tains the power to save*." He shall prove, in a man- ner the most awful and most satisfactorily, " that verily there is a reward for the righteous, and a punish- ment for the wicked ; that doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earthy." * Isaiah, chaps, i. & ii. t Psalm Iviii. 1 1 . 240 LECTURE XIV. MATTHEW XIV. We are now, in the course of these Lectures, arrived at the fourteenth chapter of St. Matthew, which begins in the following manner : " At that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and he said unto his servants. This is John the Baptist : he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him. For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife : for John said unto him. It is not lawful for thee to have her. And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. But when Herod's birth-day was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod : whereupon he promised with an oath, that he would give her whatsoever she would ask ; and she, being before instructed of her mother, said. Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry ; nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her, and he sent, and beheaded John in the prison ; and his head was brought in a charger. LECTURE XIV. 241 and given to the damsel ; and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus." Before we enter upon this remarkable and affecting narrative of the murder of John the Baptist by Herod, it will be proper to take notice of the two first verses of this chapter, which gave occasion to the introduction of that transaction in this place, although it had hap- pened some time before. " At that time, says the Evangelist, Herod the te- trarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and he said unto his servants. This is John the Baptist : he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him." It is not easy to meet with a more striking instance than this of the force of conscience over a guilty mind, or a stronger proof how perpetually it goads the sinner, not only with well-grounded fears and apprehensions of impending punishment and vengeance, but with imaginary terrors and visionary dangers. No sooner did the fame of Jesus reach the ears of the tyrant Herod, than it immediately occurred to his mind that he had himself, not long before, most cruelly and wantonly put to death an innocent, virtuous, and holy man, whose reputation for wisdom, integrity, and sanctity of manners, stood almost as high in the esti- mation of the world as that of Jesus ; and who had even declared himself the herald and the forerunner of that extraordinary person. This instantly suggested to him an idea the most extravagant that could be imagined, that this very person who assumed the name of Jesus was in fact no other than John the Baptist himself, whom he had beheaded, and who was now risen from the dead, and was endowed \Vith the power R 242 LECTURE XIV. of working miracles, though he never performed any w^hen living. It is evident that nothing could be more improbable and absurd than these suppositions, nothing more con- trary even to his own principles ; for there is reason to believe that Herod, like most other people of high rank at that time, was of the sect called the Saddu- cees, a sect which rejected the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of a resurrection, and must therefore be perfectly adverse to the strange imagina- tion of John the Baptist being risen from the dead. Yet the fears of Herod overruled all the prejudices of his sect, and raised up before his eyes the semblance of the murdered Baptist armed with the power of miracles, for the very purpose (he perhaps imagined) of inflicting exemplary vengeance upon him for that atrocious deed, as well as for his adultery, his incest, and all his other crimes ; which now probably pre- sented themselves in their most hideous forms to his terrified imagination, pursued him into his most secret retirements, and tortured his breast with un- ceasing agonies. The evangelist having thus introduced the mention of John the Baptist, goes back a little in his narrative, to make the reader acquainted with that part of the Baptist's history which brought down upon him the indignation of Herod, and was the occasion of his death. This flagitious prince had, it seems, in the face of day, and in defiance of all laws, human and divine, committed the complicated crime of adultery and in- cest, attended with every circumstance that could mark an abandoned and unprincipled mind. He had been married a considerable time to the LECTURE XIV. 243 daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petraea, but con- ceiving a violent passion for his brother Philip's wife, Herodias, he first seduced her aifections from her hus- band, then dismissed his own wife, and married Hero- dias, during the life-time of his brother. It was im- possible that such portentous wickedness as this could escape the observation or the reproof of the holy Baptist. He had the honesty and the courage to re- proach the tyrant with the enormity of his guilt, although he could not be ignorant of the danger he incurred by such a measure ; but he determined to do his duty, and to take the consequences. The conse- quences were, *' that Herod laid hold of John, and bound him, and threw him into prison*." And un- doubtedly his wish was to have put him immediately to death, but he was restrained by two considerations. The first was, because John was held in such high esteem and veneration by all the people, that had any violence been offered to him by Herod, he was appre- hensive that it might have occasioned a general insur- rection against his government ; for we are informed by St. Matthew, that '' he feared the multitude, be- cause they counted John as a prophetf." The other reason was, that although he felt the ut- most indignation and resentment against John for the freedom he had used in reproaching him for his licen- tious conduct, yet at the same time the character of that excellent man, his piety, his sanctity, his integrity, his disinterestedness, nay, even the courage which had so much offended and provoked him, commanded his respect and veneration, and excited his fears ; for we are told expressly that Herod feared John, knowing he was a just man and an holy J. Nor is this all, he not * Matt. xiv. 3. t Matt. xiv. 5. J Markvi. 20. u2 244 LECTURE XIV. only feared John, but in some degree paid court to him. He frequently sent for him out of prison, and conversed with him, and, as the evangelist expresses it, observed him ; that is, listened to him with attention and with pleasure ; nay, he went farther still, he did many things, many things which John exhorted and enjoined him to do*. He perhaps showed more atten- tion to many of his public duties, more gentleness to his subjects, more compassion to the poor, more equity in his judicial determinations, more regard to public worship ; and vainly hoped, perhaps, like many other audacious sinners, that this partial reformation, this half-way amendment, would avert the judgements with which John probably threatened him. But the rnaiii point, the great object of John's reprehension, the in- cestuous adultery in which he lived, that he could not part with; it was too precious, too favourite a sin to give up ; too great a sacrifice to make to conscience and to God. What a picture does this hold out to us of that strange thing called human nature, of that inconsist- ence, that contradiction, that contrariety, which some- times take place in the heart of man, unsanctified and unsubdued by the power of divine grace ! and what an exalted idea at the same time, does it give us of the dignity of a truly religious character, like that of John, which compels even its bitterest enemies to reverence and to fear it ; and forces even the most profligate and most powerful of men to pay an unwilling homage to excellence, at the very moment, perhaps, when they are meditating its destruction ! In this state of irresolution Herod might probably have continued, and the fate of John have remained * Mark vi. 20. LECTURE XIV. 245 undecided for a considerable time, had not an incident taken place, which determined both much sooner per- haps than was intended. Herod, on his birth-day, gave an entertainment to the principal officers of his army and of his court ; and as a peculiar and very uncom- mon compliment on the occasion, Salome, the daugh- ter of his wife Herodias by her former husband, came in and danced before the company in a manner so pleasing to Herod and to all his guests, that the king, in a sudden transport of delight, cried out to the dam- sel, as St. Mark relates it, '* Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee." And he sware unto her, " Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, even unto the half of my kingdom*." The folly, the rashness, and the madness of such an oath as this, on so foolish an occasion, could be exceeded by noth- ing but the horrible purpose to which it was perverted by the young creature to whom it was made, or rather by her profligate instructor and adviser, her mother Herodias. Astonished and overwhelmed probably with the magnitude of such an unexpected offer, which laid at her feet half the wealth, the power, and the splendour of a kingdom, she found herself unable to decide between the various dazzling objects that would present themselves to her imagination, and therefore very naturally applies to her mother for ad- vice and direction. Most mothers, on such an occa- sion, would have asked for a daughter a magnificent establishment, a situation of high rank and power! But Herodias had a passion to gratify, stronger per- haps than any other, when it takes full possession of the human heart, and that was revenge. She had been mortally injured, as she conceived, by the Baptist, * Mark vi. 22, 23. 246 LECTURE XIV. who had attempted to dissolve her present infamous connexion with Herod. And she not only felt the highest indignation at this insult, but was afraid that his repeated remonstrances might at length prevail. She therefore did not hesitate one moment what to ask ; she gave way to all the fury of her resentment ; and without the least regard to the character or the delicate situation of her inexperienced daughter, she immediately ordered her to demand the head of her detested enemy, John the Baptist! The wretched young woman unfortunately obeyed this dreadful com- mand; and, as we are told by the evangelist, " came in straightway with haste unto the king*." She came with speed in her steps, and eagerness in her eye, and said, "Give me here John the Baptist's head in a charger." This savage request appalled even the un- feeling heart of Herod himself. He did not expect it, and was not prepared for it ; and although he was highly disgusted with John, yet, for the reasons above mentioned, he did not choose to go to extremities with him. He was therefore ejcceeding soryy, as the sacred historian informs us, to be thus forced upon so vio- lent and hazardous a measure; " nevertheless for his oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given to her." Conceiying him- self, most absurdly, bound by his oath, to comply even with this inhuman demand, and afraid lest he should be reproached by those that were around him with having broken his promise, he preferred the real guilt of murder to the false imputation of perjury, and " sent and beheaded John in prison ; and his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel, and she brought it to her mother." It is well known that it * Mark vi. 25. Matt. xiv. 8. LECTURE XIV. 247 was a custom in the East, and is so still in the Turkish court, to produce the heads of those that are ordered to be put to death, as a proof that they have been really executed. But how this wretched damsel could so far subdue the common feelings of human nature, and still more the natural tenderness and delicacy of her sex, as not only to endure so disgusting and shock- ing a spectacle, but even to carry che bleeding trophy in triumph to her mother, it is not easy to imagine; and it would scarce be credited, did we not know that in times and in countries much nearer to our own, sights of still greater horror than this have been con- templated, even by women and children, with compla- cency and with delight. Such was the conclusion of this singular transaction; and every part of it is so pregnant with useful instruc- tion and admonition, that I shall stand excused, 1 hope, if I take up a little more of your time than is usual in discourses of this nature, in commenting somewhat at large on the conduct and characters of the several ac- tors in this dreadful tragedy. And in the first place, there can be no doubt that the most guilty and the most unpardonable of all the parties concerned in this murder of an innocent and excellent man, was the abandoned Herodias. For it was she whose indignation against John was carried to the greatest length, and in the end effected his ruin. It was she who was continually importuning and urging Herod to put the Baptist to death, from which, for a considerable time, his fears restrained him. It was she who, as St. Mark expresses it, *' had a quar- rel against John, and would have killed him, but she could not*." The words translated, had a quarrel * Mark vi, 19, 248 LECTURE XIV. against him, have in the origmal much greater force and energy, iv^x^v «utw. She, as it were, fastened and hung upon John, and was determined not to let go her hold till she had destroyed him*. We here see a fatal proof of the extreme barbarities to which that most diabolical sentiment of revenge will drive the natural tenderness even of a female mind ; what a close connexion there is between crimes of apparently a very different complexion, and how fre- quently the uncontrolled indulgence of what are called the softer affections, lead ultimately to the most violent excesses of the malignant passions. The voluptuary generally piques himself on his benevolence, his hu- manity, and gentleness of disposition. His claim even to these virtues is at the best very problematical ; be- cause, in his pursuit of pleasure, he makes no scruple of sacrificing the peace, the comfort, the happiness of those for whom he pretends the tenderest affection, to the gratification of his own selfish desires. But how- ever he may preserve his good humour, when he meets with no resistaiice, the moment he is thwarted and op- posed in his flagitious purposes, he has no hesitation in going any lengths to gain his point, and will fight his way to the object he has in view through the heart of the very best friend he has in the world. The same thing we see in a still more striking point of view, in the conduct of Herodias. She was at first only a bold unprincipled libertine, and might perhaps be admired and celebrated, as many others of that description have been, for her good temper, her sensibility, her genero- sity to the poor ; and with this character she might * Hesychius explains £V6;)^£i by cynenat, sticks close to in haired or spite. Dod- dridge gives still greater force to the expression; but Parkhurst does not allow it. LECTURE XIV. 249 have gone out of the world, had no such person as John arisen to reprove her and her husband for their profligacy, and to endanger the continuance of her guilty commerce. But no sooner does he rebuke them as they deserved, than Herodias showed that she had other passions to indulge besides those which had hitherto disgraced her character; and that, when she found it necessary to her pleasures, she could be as cruel as she had been licentious ; could contrive and accomplish the destruction of a great and good man, could feast her eyes with the sight of his mangled head in a charger, could even make her own poor child the instrument of her vengeance, and, as I am inclined to think, a reluctant accomplice in a most atrocious murder. Here is a most awful lesson held out, not only to the female sex, but to both sexes, to persons of all ages and conditions, to beware of giving way to any one evil propensity in their nature, however it may be dis- guised under popular names, however indulgently it may be treated by the world, however it may be au- thorized by the general practice of mankind ; because they here see that they may not only be led into the grossest extravagancies of that individual passion, but may also be insensibly betrayed into the commission of crimes of the deepest dye, which in their serious moments they always contemplated with the utmost horror. Let us now take our leave of this wretched woman, and turn our attention for a moment to her unhappy daughter. Here undoubtedly there is much to blame, but there is also something to pity and to lament. Her youth, her inexperience, her unfortunate situation in a 250 LECTURE XIV. most corrupt court, the vile example that was con- stantly before her eyes, the influence, the authority, the commands of a profligate mother, these are cir- cumstances that plead powerfully for compassion, and tend in some degree to mitigate her guilt. Her first fault evidently was that gross violation of all decorum, and all custom too, in appearing and dancing publicly before Herod, and a large number of his friends assem- bled at a festive meeting, and perhaps half intoxicated with wine. But it is not probable that a young woman of high rank, and so very tender an age as she seems to have been, should have voluntarily taken such a step as this, or should have been able to subdue at once all the modesty and the timidity of her sex, and acquire courage enough to encounter the eyes and the obser- vations of so licentious an assembly. There can be little doubt, that she was wrought upon by the per- suasions of her artful mother, who flattered herself that this artifice might produce some such effect in the mind of Herod as actually followed. What adds great weight to this- conjecture is, that her next dreadful transgression, her singular and sanguinary request to have the head of John the Baptist presented to her, was unquestionably the suggestion of the abandoned Herodias. The sacred historian expressly informs us, that it was in consequence of being before instructed of her mother, that she made this demand. Nor is this all ; there is great reason to believe that it was with the utmost difficulty she was prevailed on to comply with the injunctions that were given her; for the original words 7r^ogiga(r0£i(ra utto iy\<; [xvit^o? ; which we translate before instructed of her mother, more strictly signify LECTURE XIV. 251 being loi^oiight upon, instigated, and impelled by her mother ; for this is the sense in which that expression is used by the best Greek writers. This supposition receives no small confirmation from the manner in which she is represented by the evan- gelist as delivering her answer to Herod. " She came straightway with haste unto the king;" she betrayed on her return the utmost emotion and agitation of mind. She had worked herself up to a resolution of obeying her mother ; and was in haste to execute her commission, lest, if any pause had intervened, her heart should relent, her spirits fail her, and she should not have courage to utter the dreadful demand she had to make. All this seems to imply great reluctance on her part, and is evidently a considerable alleviation of her crime; yet does by no means exempt her from all guilt. For although obedience to parents is a very sacred duty, yet there is another duty superior to it, that which we owe to our Maker. And whenever even a parent would incite us to any thing plainly repugnant to his laws, as was the case in the present instance, we must, though with all possible decency and respect, yet with firmness and with courage, resist the impious command, and declare it to be our decided resolution '* to obey God rather than man." The next person that claims our notice in this interesting narrative is Herod himself. We have already seen his inconsistent and undecided conduct respecting John. He had in a moment of exasperation thrown him into prison; but from a respect to his character, and fear of the consequences if he offered him any further violence, he suffered him to remain unmolested, and even frequently admitted him to his 252 LECTURE XIV. presence, and held conversations with him. And it is not improbable that after some time his resentment might have subsided, and he might have released his prisoner. But when once a man has involved himself deeply in guilt, he has no safe ground to stand upon. Every thing is unsound and rotten under his feet. He cannot say, " So far will I go in wickedness, and no farther." The crimes he has already committed may have an unseen connexion with others, of which he has not the slightest suspicion; and he may be hurried, when he least intends it, into enormities, of which he once thought himself utterly incapable. This was the case in thfe present instance. When Herod first en- gaged in his guilty intercourse with Herodias, he probably meant to go no farther. He meant to content himself with adultery and incest, and had no intention of adding murder to the black catalogue of his crimes. He had no other view but the gratification of a present passion, and did not look forward to the many evils which scarce ever fail to arise from a criminal con- nexion with a profligate and artful woman. This was the original and fruitful source of all his future crimes, and future misfortunes. He flattered himself that, not- withstanding his marriage with Herodias, he should still be master of his own resolutions and his own actions. But Herodias soon taught him a different lesson. She showed that she understood him much better than he did himself. She convinced him that his destiny was in her hands; that she held the secret wire that governed all his motions; and that she could, by one means or other, bend his mind to any purpose which she was determined to accomplish. It was hii^ intention to save John the Baptist. It was her intention to destroy him, and she did it. He had. LECTURE XIV. 253 indeed, the courage to resist her repeated solicitations that he would put John to death ; and he piqued him- self probably on the firmness of his resolution. But Herodias was not of a temper to be discouraged by a few denials or repulses. She knew that there were other more effectual ways of carrying her point. If the king could not be compelled to surrender by assault, he might be taken by stratagem and surprise. And to this she had recourse. She saw that her daughter had attractions and accomplishments which might be turned to good account, which might be made to operate most powerfully on such a mind as Herod's. She, therefore, as we have already seen, planned the project of her dancing before him on the festival of his birth-day, in the hope that in the unguarded moments of convivial mirth, he might be betrayed into some concession, some act of indulgence towards this favou- rite daughter, from which he could not easily recede. The plan succeeded even probably beyond her expec- tations. The monarch was caught in the snare that was laid for him. He made a rash promise to Salome, and confirmed that promise by an oath, that he would give her whatsoever she would ask. And when, to his infinite astonishment and grief, she demanded the life of the man whom he wished to save, instead of retreat- ing by the only way he had left, that of retracting a promise which it was madness to make, and the extremity of wickedness to perform, he was induced by a false point of honour (as worthless men fre- quently are) to commit an atrocious murder rather than violate a rash oath ; an oath which could never make that right which was before intrinsically wrong, which could never bind him to any thing in itself 254 LECTURE XIV. unlawful, much less to the most unlawful of all things, the destruction of an innocent and virtuous man. I have entered thus minutely into the detail of this remarkable transaction, because, as I have before remarked, every line of it is replete with the most important instruction; as, indeed, is the case with every part of the sacred history in the gospel, and the acts, which teach full as much by the facts they relate as by the precepts they inculcate. The moral lessons to be drawn from the passage before us, I have already pointed out in some degree as I went along ; but there are one or two of a more general import, which I shall briefly add in conclusion, and which well deserve your very serious attention. The first is, that in the conduct of life there is nothing more to be dreaded and avoided, nothing more dangerous to our peace, to our comfort, to our character, to our welfare here and hereafter, than a criminal attachment to an abandoned and unprincipled woman, more particularly in the early period of life. It has been the* source of more misery, and, besides all the guilt which naturally belongs to it, has led to the commission of more and greater crimes, than perhaps any other single cause that can be named. We have seen into what a gulf of sin and suffering it plunged the wretched Herod. He began with adultery, and he ended with murder, and with the total ruin of himself, his kingdom, and all the vile partners of his guilt. The same has happened in a thousand other instances; and there are, I am persuaded, few persons here present, of any age or experience in the world, who cannot recollect numbers, both of individuals and of families, whose peace, tranquillity, comfort, characters, and fortunes, have been completely destroyed by illicit LECTURE XIV. 255 and licentious connexions of this sort. Nor is this the worst. The present effects of these vices, dread- ful as they sometimes are, cannot be compared with the misery which they are preparing for us hereafter. The scriptures every where rank these' vices in the number of those presumptuous sins, which, in a future life, will experience the severest marks of divine dis- pleasure. The world, indeed, treats them with more indulgence. They are excused and palliated, and even defended, on the ground of human frailty, of natural constitution, of strong passions, and invincible temptations ; and they are generally considered and represented in various popular performances (especially in those imported from foreign countries) as associated with many amiable virtues, with goodness of heart, with high principles of honour, with benevolence, com- passion, humanity, and generosity. But whatever gentle names may be given to sensuality and licen- tiousness, whatever specious apologies may be made for them, whatever wit or talents may be employed in rendering them popular and fashionable, whatever numbers, whatever examples may sanction or authorize them, it is impossible that any thing can do away their natural turpitude and deformity, or avert those punish- ments which the gospel has denounced against them. They are represented there as things that ought not even to be named among Christians, as defiling the man, as warring against the soul, as grieving the spirit of God, as rendering men incapable of inheriting the kingdom of heaven, as exposing them to the indignation of Him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity*. And as if men had endeavoured in those days, as well * Ephes. V.3. Mat. XV. 18. 1 Pet. ii. 11. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10. Habak. i. 13. 256 LECTURE XIV. as in our own, to soften and extenuate and explain away the guilt of licentiousness, the apostle adds, with great solemnity and great earnestness, " let no man deceive you with va'm words ; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience*." Let every man then that pretends to be a Christian, and lives in the habitual practice of the vices here con- demned, weigh well these tremendous words. If there be any truth in the gospel, they will not be vain words ; nor will offences of this nature ever pass unnoticed or unpunished by the righteous Governor of the world. These remarks are not introduced here without rea- son. It is the peculiar prevalence of these very vices at this moment which demands such animadversions as these ; a prevalence which I infer not merely from an imaginary estimate of the low state of morals amongst us, founded on rumour, on conjecture, or misconstruction, but from facts too well ascertained, and which obtrude themselves on the notice of every observing miiid|. I mean those daring violations of the nuptial contract, and the frequent divorces result- ing from them, which seem daily gaining ground in this kingdom. This is a most melancholy and incontro- vertible proof of increasing depravity amongst us, and I am sorry to add of depravity of the very deep- est dye; for instances have not long since occurred, in which the guilt of the parties too nearly resembled that of Herod, combining the two atrocious crimes of adultery and incest ! Surely such enormities as these are enough to make us tremble, and loudly call for the interposition of the legislature, lest they bring down * Ephes. V. 6. f In the spring of the year 1800, LECTURE XIV. 257 upon us the just vengeance of an offended God. " Shall I not visit for these things ? saith the Lord : Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this*?" Another reflection arising from this short history of Herod and John the Baptist is this ; that although, in the ordinary course of divine administrations, the punishment of the vi^icked does not always overtake t\iem hcTe, but is reserved for the last awful day of account; yet it sometimes happens (as I observed in my last Lecture) that their crimes draw after them their just recompense, even in the present life. This was eminently the case of the flagitious Herod ; for besides those terrors of conscience, which, as we have seen, perpetually haunted him, which raised up before him terrific forms and agonizing apprehensions, and represented John the Baptist as risen from the dead to avenge his crimes ; we are informed by the historian Josephus, that his marriage with Herodias drew upon him the resentment of Aretas, king of Arabia Petrsea, the father of his first wife, who declared war against him, and, in an engagement with Herod's army, de- feated it with great slaughter. This, says the histo- rian, the Jew^s considered as a just judgement of God upon Herod for his murder of John the Baptist t- And not long after this, both he and Herodias were deprived of their kingdom by the Roman emperor, and sent into perpetual banishment. And it is added by another historian J, that their daughter Salome met with a violent and untimely death. Instances like this are intended to show that the Governor of the universe^ though he has appointed a distant period for the general distribution of his rewards and punishments, * Jer. V. 9. t Jos. Ant.l.wiii. c. 5. s. 1, 2. X Nicepliori. Hist.Eccles. 1. 11. p. 89. S 258 LECTUUL XIV. yet, in extraordinary cases, he will sometimes inter- pose to chastise the bold offender, to assert his super- intending providence and supreme duiianion over all his creatures, and to give them the most awful proofs, that, from his all-searching eye, no wickedness can be concealed. The remaining part of this chapter is occupied with the recital of two miracles, on which I have only to observe, that they have both of them a spiritual as well as a literal meaning, are both of a very extraordi- nary nature, and calculated to make, as they did, a most powerful impression on the minds of the spec- tators ; these were, the feeding above five thousand per- sons with five loaves and two fishes, and our Saviour's walking on the sea. The first of these had a reference to that spiritual food, that celestial manna, that bread of life, which our Lord was then dispensing in such abundance to those that hungered and thirsted after righteousness. The other was meant to encourage the great principle of faith ; of trust and reliance tipon God, in opposition, to that self-confidence, that high opi- nion of our own strength, which we are too apt to entertain, and to which St. Peter, above all the other apostles, was peculiarly liable. When therefore, in consequence of his own request, he was permitted to go to Jesus on the water, and forgetting immediately who was his guide and support, began to be afraid and to sink, and called out to his Divine Master to save him, our Lord graciously stretched forth his hand and caught him, and said unto him, " O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?" A reproof well calculated to convince him that it was not in propor- tion to his own natural strength, but according to the degree of his faith, that he must rise or sink. And LECTURE XIV. 259 what he says to Peter, he says to all who waver in their belief: " O ye of little faith, why do you doubt?" But there is another circumstance belonging to these miracles, which is of great importance ; they are very extraordinary and astonishing instances of our Lord's power over nature, and of such a kind as to admit of no possibility of being counterfeited. And according- ly we find, that although some cheats have pretended to cure diseases miraculously, and some have even attempted td raise the dead, yet no impostor I believe has ever yet been so bold as to undertake to feed five thousand people at once with five loaves and two fishes, or to walk upon the sea. And the reason is plain. It would not be very easy to persuade five thousand people that they had been plentifully fed, when in fact they had received no nourishment at all ; and it would be rather too dangerous an experiment for any man, not really supported by the hand of God, to attempt walking on the sea, when he cannot but know that the loss of life must be the inevitable consequence of it. Indeed this act has always been considered as utterly beyond all human power to achieve; accordingly /?:70 /ee/ ivalking upon water wsis an Egyptian hieroglyphic to denote impossibility. And Job represents the power of treading on the waves of the sea as a distinguished mark and attribute of the Deity*. Yet this did Jesus do; this impossibility did he accomplish : a most incontestible proof that God was with him. And in fact this miracle seems to have made a stronger impression on the minds of his disciples than any other recorded in the gospels, even than that of raising the dead ; for we are told in St. Markf, that when our Lord went up into the ship, * Job ix. 8. t Chap, vi. s 2 260 LF.CTUIIE XIV. from walking on the sea, the disciples were sore amazed in themselves beyond measure, and wondered. The words in the original are still stronger; indeed so strong, that it is impossible for the English language to express all their force. In comparison of this miracle, even that of the loaves and fishes seems to have appeared nothing in the eyes of the disciples ; for St. Mark tells us, thev considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened ; but at the act of walking on the sea, they were amazed beyond measure; they were overwhelmed and overcome with this astonishing display of divine power; they fell instantly at the feet of Jesus, and worshipped him ; and exclaimed, as every one who considers this stupendous miracle must do, ** Of a truth thou art the SoN of God !" 261 LECTURE XV. MATTHEW XVII. I SHALL now request your attention to a very remark- able part of our Saviour's history, that which is called by the evangelists his transfiguration, and which is related in the seventeenth chapter of St, Matthew. It so happens, that many years ago I turned my thoughts very much to this particular subject in the sacred writings, and ventured (though without my name) to lay my sentiments concerning it before the public. I could have wished therefore to have excused myself from repeating here any part of what I have said else- where, and to have passed over this incident unnoticed. But when I considered that this transaction is of a very peculiar and extraordinary nature ; that there are cir- cumstances attending it which cannot fail to excite the curiosity of an inquisitive mind ; that there are difficulties in it which stand in need of a solution, and conclusions to be drawn from it of considerable utility and importance ; when I considered farther, that much the greatest part of this audience had probably never seen or ever heard of what I had formerly written on this subject ; I determined not to omit so material a part of the task I am engaged in, but to give you what I conceive to be the true explanation of this interest- 262 LECTURE XV. ing event. And I novv^ feel the less difficulty in doing this, because, upon a careful review of that interpre- tation, after an interval of twelve years, I am still convinced of its truth, and have had the additional satisfaction of finding it confirmed by the authority of some learned and judicious commentators, whose opi- nions on one or two leading principles coincide with my own ; but whose observations I had not seen, (hav- ing consulted but very few expositors on the subject) when my essay went to the press. The relation of this singular transaction is given us by three out of four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and alluded to in the writings of the fourth. They all agree in the main points. There is no material variation, and not the least contradiction between them. But, as it is very natural, where different persons relate the same fact (and as indeed must generally happen where the story is not concerted among them) a few particulars are taken notice of by some which are passed over in silence by others. Saint Matthew's account of it is -as follows : " And after six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them ; and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then an- swered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make three taber- nacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them ; and behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said, this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him. And when the LECTURE XV. 263 disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. And as they came down from the mount, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. " And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes, that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias shall truly first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed: likewise also shall the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood, that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Such is the history which the evangelist gives us of the transfiguration ; and on the very first view of it, every one must see that a transaction of so uncommon and splendid a nature could not be intended merely to surprise and amuse the disciples. There must have been some great object in view; some end to be obtained, worthy of the magnificent apparatus made use of to accomplish it. Now there were, I conceive, (besides some collateral and subordinate designs,) two principal and important purposes, which were meant to be answered by this illustrious scene. The first was, to set before the eyes of the disciples a visible and figurative reipreseyitation of Christ's coming in glory to judge the world, and to reward, with everlast- ing felicity, all his faithful servants. In order to prove this, and at the same to bring to the reader's view those circumstances which preceded. 264 LECTURE XV. and in some degree gave occasion to the celestial vision, it will be necessary to look back to the chapter immediately before that in which the transfiguration is related. In the 21st verse of the sixteenth chapter we find, that Jesus then, for the first time, thought fit to give some intimations to his disciples of the strange and extraordinary scenes he was soon to pass through ; his sufferings, his death, and his resurrection; things of which, before this declaration, they seem not to have had the smallest conception or suspicion. '* From that time forth began Jesus to show to his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day*." The information, so perfectly new and unexpected to the disciples, and so destructive of all the fond hopes they had hitherto indulged, overwhelmed them with astonishment and grief. And St. Peter, whose natural warmth and eagerness of temper generally led him both to feel suoh mortifications more sensibly, and to express his feelings more promptly and more forcibly, than any of the rest, was so shocked at what he had just heard, that '' he took Jesus, and began to rebuke him, saying. Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be unto thee." Our Saviour, who saw every thing that passed in his mind, and perceived, probably, that this expostulation took its rise more from disappointed interest and ambition than from a generous concern for Iiis Master's credit and honour, gave him an immediate and severe reproof: " Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offence to me ; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." * Malt.xvi. 21. LECTURE XV. 265 He then proceeded to show, not only that he himself must suffer persecution, but that all those who would at that time come after him, and share with him the arduous and dangerous task of sowing the first seeds of the gospel, " must deny themselves, and take up their cross, and follow him." But then, to support them under those severe injunctions, he cheers them immediately with a brighter scene of things, and with a prospect of his future glory, and their future recom- pense. " The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then shall he reward every man according to his works." And he adds, " Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom." The meaning of these last words I shall inquire into hereafter. But the evident tendency of the whole passage is to prepare the minds of his disciples for the cruel treatment which both he and they were to undergo, and at the same time to raise their drooping spirits, by setting before their eyes his own exaltation, and their glorious rewards in another life. This discourse, however, he probably found had not sufficiently subdued their prejudices, and reconciled them to his state of humiliation.; and therefore he determined to try a method of impressing them with juster sentiments, which he frequently had recourse to on similar occasions ; and that was, representing to them, by a significarit action, what he had already explained by words. ' Accordingly, within a few days after the foregoing conversation, he taketh with him Peter, James, and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain (probably Mount Tabor) apart. Very fanciful reasons 266 LECTURE XV. have been assigned by some of the commentators for his taking with him only three of his disciples. But all that it seems necessary to say on this head is, that as the law required no more than two or three wit- nesses to constitute a regular and judicial proof, our Saviour frequently chose to have only this number of witnesses present at some of the most important and interesting scenes of his life. The three disciples, whom he now selected, were those that generally attended him on such occasions, and who seem to have been distinguished as his most intimate and con- fidential friends. St. John, we know, was so in an eminent degree. St. James, his brother, would, from that near connexion, probably be brought more fre- quently under his Master's notice ; and as St. Peter was the very person who had expressed himself with so much indignation on the subject of our Saviour's sufferings, it was highly proper and necessary that he should be admitted to a spectacle, which was pur- posely calculated to calm those emotions, and remove that disgust which the first mention of them had pro- duced in his mind. With these companions, then, Jesus ascended the mountain, and was transfigured before them; " and behold, there appeared Moses and Elias talking with him." They were not only seen by the disciples, but they were heard also conversing with Jesus. This is a circumstance of great importance, especially when we are told what the subject of their conversation was. St. Luke gives us this useful piece of information; he says, that " they spake of our Lord's decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." The very mention of Christ's sufferings and death by such men as Moses and Elias, without any marks of surprise or dissatis- LECTURE XV. 267 faction, was of itself sufficient to occasion a great change in the sentiments of the disciples respecting those sufferings, and to soften those prejudices of theirs against them, the removal of w^hich seems to have been one of the more immediate objects of the transfiguration. But if we suppose farther (what is far from being improbable) that in the course of the conversation several interesting particulars respecting our Saviour's crucifixion were brought under discus- sion ; if they entered at any length into that important subject, the great work of our redemption ; if they touched upon the nature, the cause, and the conse- quences of it; the pardon of sin, the restitution to God's favour, the triumph over death, and the gift of eternal life; if they showed that the sufferings of Christ were prefigured in the law, and foretold by the prophets ; it is easy to see, that topics such as these must tend still farther to open the eyes, and remove the prepossessions of his disciples ; and the more so, because they would seem to arise incidentally in a discourse between other persons casually overheard; which, having no appearance of design or professed opposition in it, would be apt to make a deeper impression on their minds than a direct and open attack upon their prejudices. But the circumstance which would, probably, be most effectual in correcting the erroneous ideas of his disciples on this head, was the act of the transfigura- tion itself, the astonishing change it produced in the whole of our Lord's external appearance. From the expressions made use of by the several evangelists, this change appears to have been a very illustrious one. They inform us, that, *'as our Saviour prayed, the fashion of his countenance was changed; 268 LECTURE XV. his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment became exceeding white and glistering; as white as snow, as white as the light, so as no fuller on earth could whiten it." Now Christ having assumed this splendid and glorious appearance at the very time when Moses and Elias were conversing with him on his sufferings, it was a visible and striking proof to his disciples, that those sufferings were not, as they imagined, any real discre- dit and disgrace to him, but were perfectly consistent with the dignity of his character, and the highest state of glory to which he could be exalted. But farther still ; Jesus had (in the conversation mentioned in the preceding chapter) told his disciples, that the Son of man should come in the glor^i/ of his Father, vv^itli his holy angels, to judge the world. The scene on the mount therefore which so soon followed that conversation, was probably meant to convey to them some idea and some evidence of his coming in glory at the great day of judgement, of which his transfigura- tion was, perhaps, as just a picture and exemplification as human sight could bear. It is, indeed, described in nearly the same terms that St. John in the Revelation applies to the Son of man in his state of glory in heaven. " He was clothed (says he) with a garment down to the foot. His head and his hair were white like wool, white as snow ; and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength." It is remarkable, that St. Luke calls his appearance, after being transfigured, his glory. St. John, who was likewise present at this appearance, gives it the same name. " We beheld his glory, as of the only begotten of the Father. '"^ And St. Peter, who was another wit- ness to this transaction on the Mount, refers to it by a similar expression. " For he received (says that LFXTURE XV. 269 Apostle) from God the Father, honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in v^hom I am well pleased*." There can hardly therefore remain any doubt, but that the glory which Chiist received from the Father, on the mountain, was meant to be a represen- tation of his coming in the glory of his Father, with his holy angels, at the end of the world ; which is one of the topics touched upon in the preceding chapter. Another thing there mentioned was our Saviour's resurrection. Of this, indeed, there is no direct sym- bol in the transfiguration : but it is evidently implied in that transaction ; because Jesus is there represented in his glorified, celestial state, which being in the na- tural order of time subsequent to his resurrection, that event must naturally be supposed to have previously taken place. But though this great event is only indirectly alluded to here, yet those most important doctrines which are founded upon it, a general resurrection, ami a day of retriOution, are expressly represented in the transfigu- ration. In the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew, Christ tells his disciples, that when " he comes in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels, he will reward every man according to his works*:" from whence it neces- sarily follows, that every man who is dead shall rise from the grave. And in confirmation of both these truths, there are two just and righteous men, Moses and Elias, who had many years before departed out of the world, brought back to it again, and represented (as we shall see hereafter) in a state of glory. That they actually appeared in their own proper persons, * 2 Pet. i. 17. t Ver. 27. 270 LEC'lURE XV. there is not the least reason to doubt. Grotius even goes so far as to affirm, that their bodies v^ere reserved for this very purpose. But there is no necessity and no ground for this imagination. For though, indeed, the sepulchre of Moses was not known, yet his body was actually buried in a valley in the land of Moab, and therefore must have seen corruption ; and as the whole transaction was miraculous, it was just as easy to Omnipotence to restore life and form to a body mouldered into dust, as to reanimate a body that was preserved uncorrupted and entire; and, indeed, was a much exacter emblem of our own resurrection. We may, however, readily admit, what some learned men have justly observed, that, Elias having been carried up into heaven without undergoing death, he was here a proper representative of those who shall be found alive at the day of judgement, as Moses is of those who ha^ died, and are raised to life again. And his appearance a second time on earth, after he had been so many ages dead and buried, must have been a convincing proof to the disciples (had they duly attended to it) of the pos- sibility of a resurrection. And what is no less important, the manner in which both Moses and Elias appeared on this occasion, afford- ed the disciples an ocular demonstration of a day of retribution, agreeably to what their Divine Master had a few days before told them, that he would reward every man according to his works. For as we are informed, that both Moses and Elias appeared also in glory ; a glory somewhat similar, we may suppose, though far inferior, to that with which Christ was invested; like him they were probably clothed in raiments of unusual whiteness and splen- dour; and the fashion of their countenances might also LECTURE XV. 271 be changed to something more bright and illustrious. Now this would be a just representation of the glorified state of saints in heaven, of those who had been re- warded according to their works. For we find those holy men, who have passed victoriously through their Christian warfare, described by St. John as clothed m white raiments'* ; and by St. Matthew, as shining forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father^ . The glory of Christ therefore on the mountain, was a symbol of his exaltation to be the judge of the earth; and the glory of Moses and Elias, was an emblem of the rewards given to the righteous in heaven. When all these circumstances are put together, they throw considerable light over the concluding part of Christ's conversation, which has not yet been noticed, Verily I say unto you. There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.X This has commonly been supposed to refer to the signal manifestation of Christ's power in the destruction of Jerusalem. But we know of no one of Christ's disciples that survived this event, ex- cept St. John ; and our Saviour here speaks of more than one. But besides this, in the 27th verse of this chapter, we are told that the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, to reward every man according to his icorks. This, undoubtedly, relates to Christ's final advent to judge the world. When, therefore, it immediately follows in the very next verse, Verily, I say unto you, that there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death till they see the Son of man coming * Rev. iii. 5. t Matt. xiii. 43. X Matthew xvi. 28 St. Mark says, " Till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power." — St. Luke, " Till they see the kingdom of God." 272 LECTURE XV. in his kingdom; is it not most natural, is it not almost necessary to understand these similar expressions as relating to the same great event ? But did Christ then mean to say here that some of his disciples should live to the day of judgement? Most assuredly not. He meant only to intimate that a few of them should, before their death, be favoured with a representatioji of the glorious appearance of Christ and his saints on that awful day. And this illustrious scene was actually displayed to three of them, about six days after, in the transfiguration on the mountain. Indeed St. Peter himself, who was present at the transfiguration, plainly alludes to it, in a manner which powerfully confirms this opinion. " We have not," says he, " followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the poiver and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." That is, our Lord's coming- in his kingdom with power and glory, and majestij, to judge the world. And how does St. Peter here prove that he will so come ? Why, by declaring that he and the two other djsciples, James and John, were eye-wit- nesses of his majesty ; that is, they actually saw him on the Mount, invested with majesty and glory similar to that which he would assume in his kingdom at the last day. " For," continues the apostle, " he received from God the Father, honour and glory, when th^re came such a voice to him from the excellent glory. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and this voice, which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with him intheholy mount*.'' This is St. Peter's own comment on the transfigura- tion, in which he expressly compares Christ's glory and majesty on the Mount, to that which he will display • 2 Pet. i. 16, 17, 18. LECTURK XV. 273 in his final advent ; and considers the former as an em- blem, an earnest, and a proof of the latter. It is then evident, I think, from the foregoing obser- vations, that the scene upon the mountain was a sym- bolical representation of Christ's coming in glory to Judge the world, and of the reivards which shall then be given to the righteous, topics which had been touched upon in Christ's discourse with his disciples six days before ; and that one great object of this expressive action, as well as of that conversation, was to reconcile the minds of his disciples to the sufferings which both he and they were to undergo, by showing that they were prepara- tory and subservient to his future glory, and their future rewards. The other great purpose of the action on the Mount was, I apprehend, to signify in a figurative manner, the cessation of the Jewish and the commencement of the Christian dispensation. It appears to have been one prevailing prejudice among the disciples, that the whole Mosaical law, the ceremonial as well as the moral, was to continue in full force under the gospel ; and that the authority of Moses and the prophets was not, in any respect, to give way on the establishment of Christianity, but to be placed on an equal footing with that of Christ. To correct this erroneous opinion, no less than to vanquish their prepossessions against the sufferings of Christ (as already explained), was the scene of the transfiguration presented to the three chosen disciples, Peter, James, and John. There are several remarkable circumstances attend- ing that event, which lead us to this conclusion. Moses and Elias must certainly be allowed to be 274 LECTURE XV. very natural and proper representatives of the Imu and the prophets. When the three disciples saw these illustrious per- sons conversing familiarly with Jesus, it probably con- firmed them in their opinion, that they were to be con- sidered as of equal dignity and authority with him ; and under this impression, Peter immediately address- ed himself to Jesus, and said, " Lord, it is good for us to be here ; and if thou wilt, let us make here three ta- bernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias." The full meaning of which exclamation was, ** What greater happiness. Lord, can we experience than to continue here in the presence of three such great and excellent persons ! Here then let us for ever remain! Here let us erect three tents, for thee, for Moses, and Elias, that you may all make this the con- stant place of your abode, and that we may always continue under the protection and government, and UNITED EMPIRE of our three illustrious lords and masters, whose sovereign laws and commands we are equally bound 'to obey !" The answer to this extraordinary proposal was in- stantly given both by action and by words. ** While he yet spake, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them : and, behold, a voice out of the cloud, which said. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him." The CLOUD is the well-known token of the divine presence under the law : many instances of it occur in the Old Testament, but more particularly at the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. On the mountain where our Saviour was transfigured, a new law was declared to have taken place ; and therefore God again appears LECTURE XV. 275 in a cloud. But there is one remarkable ditFerence between these two manifestations of the divine pre- sence. On Mount Sinai the cloud was dark and thick: " and there were thunders and lightnings, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, and all the peo- ple that were in the camp trembled'^.''' At the trans- figuration, on the contrary, the cloud was bright, the whole scene was luminous and transporting, and noth- ing was heard but the mild paternal voice of the Almighty expressing his delight in his beloved Son, These striking differences in the two appearances evi- dently point out the different tempers of the two dis- pensations ; of which, the former, from its severity, was more calculated to excite terror ; the latter, from its gentleness, to inspire love. This circumstance alone, therefore, indicated a hap- py change in the divine oeconomy ; but the gracious words which issued from the cloud most clearly ex- plained the meaning of what was passing before the eyes of the disciples, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : hear ye him." *' This is my Son, not as Moses and all the prophets were, my servants. Him, and him only, you are now to hear. He is from henceforth to be your lord, your legislator, and your king. The evangelical law being established, the ceremonial law must cease; and Moses and the Prophets must give way to Christ." With this de- claration, the conclusion of the whole scene on the mountain perfectly harmonizes. Moses and Elias in- stantly disappear, and "when the disciples lift up their eyes, they see no man save Jesus only." The former objects of their veneration are no more. Christ re- * Exod.xix. 16. T 2 276 LECTURE XV. mains alotie their unrivalled and undisputed sovereign. In support of this interpretation it may be further observed, that there w^as reason to expect about that time, some such declaration as this respecting the ces- sation of the Mosaical law. For St. Luke informs us, that the ** law and the prophets were until John ;" that is, they were to continue in force till John the Baptist had (as our Lord expresses it) restored all things, had preached those great doctrines of repentance and re- demption by the blood of Christ, by which men were restored to a right state of mind, and the favour of God ; till he had thus prepared the way for the Messiah, and publicly announced the kingdom of God; and then they were to be superseded by the Christian dispensa- tion. Accordingly, not long after the death of John, the scene of the transfiguration took place ; and this great revolution, this substitution of a new system for the old one, was made known, in that remarkable manner, to the three disciples. This secondary mean- ing here assigned to the vision on the Mount, will assist us in explaining an injunction of our Lord to his dis- ciples, for which, though other reasons have been as- signed, yet they are not, I think, altogether satisfac- tory. In the 9th verse we are told, that as they came down from the Mount, Jesus charged the disciples, saying, " Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen again from the dead." If the only intent of the transfiguration had been to represent, by an expressive action, our Lord's resur- rection and exaltation, and a future day of retribution, it is not easy to assign a sufficient reason why this in- junction of secrecy, till after his resurrection, should LECTURE XV. 277 have been given ; because he had already foretold his resurrection to his disciples*, and he also apprised them, before his death, of his coming in glory to judge the world f. It does not therefore appear, how the publication of the vision on the Mount could have been attended with any other consequence, than that of confirming what Jesus had already made known. But if we suppose that one purpose of the transfigu- ration was to typify the abolition of the ceremonial law, and the establishment of the evangelical, a plain reason presents itself for this command of keeping it for some time private; for it was one of those truths which the first converts were not able to bear. Great numbers of them, though they firmly believed in Christ, yet no less firmly beUeved that the Mosaical dispensation was still in full force. This prejudice, it is well known, continued several years after our Lord's resurrection. Mention is made " of several thousand Jews who believed, and yet were all zealous of the law." And it was the suspicion that St. Paul had forsaken, and taught others to forsake Moses, which brought his life into the most imminent dan- ger, and actually occasioned his imprisonment. No wonder then that a transaction which was designed to prefigure this very doctrine that St. Paul was charged with, and that was so offensive to the Jewish converts in general, should be thought unfit by our Lord to be publicly divulged till some time, perhaps a considerable time, after his resurrection. From the whole, then, of the preceding observa- vations, it appears, that the transfiguration of Christ was one of those emblematical actions, or figurative representations, of which so many instances have * Chap. xvi. 21. f Chap, xxv. 278 LECTURE XV. been pointed out, and at the same time very distinctly explained, and elegantly illustrated, by some of our best divines. The things represented by this significant transac- tion were : First, the future glory of Christ, a general resurrec- tion, and a future retribution. Secondly, the abrogation of the Mosaical, and the establishment of the evangelical dispensation. And the immediate purpose of these representations was, as I before observed, to correct two inveterate prejudices which prevailed among the disciples, and the Jewish converts in general. Of these, one was the extreme offence they took at any mention of the death and sufferings of Christ, which they conceived to be utterly inconsistent with his dignity. The other was their persuasion that the ceremonial law was not done away by the gospel, but that they were to exist together in full force, and to have an equal obedience paid to them by all the disciples of Christ. But though the removal of these prejudices was, as I conceive, the primary and immediate design of the transfiguration, yet there are also purposes of great utility to all Christians in general, in every age, which it might be, and probably was, intended to answer. In the first place, it affords one more additional proof of the divine mission of Christ, and the divine authority of his religion. It is one of the few occasions on which God himself was pleased, as it were, persojiallij to ii/teryose, and to make an open declaration from heaven in favour of his Son; "this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well LECTURE XV. 279 pleased: hear ye him." Two other instances only of this kind occur in the gospels; one at our Saviour's baptism, the other on his praying to his Father to save him from the sufferings that awaited him. Now these signs from heaven may be considered as a distinct species of evidence, different both from miracles and prophecies, frequently and earnestly wished for by the Jews, but not granted to them, nor vouchsafed to any one, but very sparingly, and on great and solemn occasions. But besides this awful testimony to the divine origin of our religion in general, a particular attestation was (as we have seen) given on the Mount to two of its principal doctrines, a general resurrection, and A day of retribution. The visible and illustrious representation of these in the glorified appearance of Christ, and Moses and Elias, has been already ex- plained, and is appealed to by St. Peter, who saw it, as one convincing proof, among others, that " he had not followed cunningly devised fables," when he made known "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And indeed, since these two doctrines, a resurrection, and a day of judgement, are two of the most essential and fundamental articles of our faith ; and since it was one of the chief purposes of the Christian revelation, "to bring life and immortality to light," no wonder that God should graciously conde- scend to confirm these great truths to us in so many various ways ; by words and by actions, by prophecies, by miracles, and by celestial visions. 280 LECTURE XVI. MATTHEW XVIII. The subject of this Lecture is a part of the eighteenth chapter of St. Matthew. It is evident that the disciples of our Lord were, for a considerable time, possessed with the imagination which prevailed universally among the Jews respecting their Messiah, that their Master's kingdom was to be a temporal one ; that he was at some time or other to become a prince of great power and splendour, and that they of course should enjoy the largest share of his favour, and be placed in situations of great distinc- tion and great Emolument. And this delusion had ta- ken such strong hold upon their minds, that although our Lord took frequent opportunities of combating their error, and made use of every means in his power to undeceive them, yet they still persisted in main- taining their favourite opinion ; and in the beginning of this chapter they came to Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? It appears, from the parallel passage in St. Mark, that they had been disputing by the way who should be the greatest. Our Lord knowing this, and finding that all he had said on this subject had produced no effect upon them, determined to try whether a different mode of conveying his sentiments to them might not strike their LECTURE XVI. 281 minds more forcibly. He therefore had recourse (as in the case of the transfiguration) to what may be called a visible kind of language. He took a little child, and, placing him before them, bid them con- template the innocence and simplicity, the meekness and humility which marked its countenance ; and then assured them, that unless they were converted, and became as little children; that is, unless a total change took place in the temper and disposition of their minds, unless they became as unambitious and unaspiring, as meek, as humble and contented, as little concerned about worldly honours and distinc- tions, as the child before them, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven; they could never be con- sidered as true objects of Christ's kingdom here, or be capable of inheriting the rewards of heaven hereafter. In the eye of God, true humility is a most sublime virtue ; and whoever shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Our Lord then goes on to say, " Whosoever receiveth one such little child in my name, receiveth me." That is, it is men of humble minds and meek dispositions, whom I most highly prize, and whom I most strongly recommend to the notice, the kindness, the protection of all those who are friends to me and my religion ; and so dear are men of this description to me, that I make their interests my own, and I shall consider every man who receives, and assists, and encourages them on my account, and for my sake, as receiving me. But if, instead of receiving and protecting these my humble disciples, any one should dare to injure them, he must expect the severest marks of my displeasure. " Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone 282 LECTURE XVI. were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world, because of offences ; for it must needs be that offen- ces come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." In order to comprehend the full meaning of this denunciation, it will be necessary to explain the pecu- liar meaning of the word offend. Now this expression in the present passage, as well as in many other parts of the New Testament, signifies to cause any one to fall from his faithy to renounce his belief in Christ by any means whatever; and against every one that makes use either of violence or artifice to terrify or seduce the sincere, and humble, and unsuspicious believer in Christ from his faith and obedience to his divine Master, the severest woes and the heaviest punishments are here denounced. This text of scripture therefore I would most earnestly recommend to the serious consideration of those who either are or have been guilty of this most dangerous crime ; and I would also no less earnestly caution all those who have not yet been guilty of it, to avoid, with the utmost care, every degree of it, and every approach to it. It is a crime often touched upon in holy writ, but less noticed, or at least less enlarged upon by divines and moralists than perhaps any other sin of the same magnitude. For this reason I shall enter more fully into the consideration of it than has hitherto, I believe, been usually done, and shall advert briefly to the several modes of making our brother to offend, that is, to renounce his faith in Christ, which are most common and most successful; and these are persecution, sophistry, ridicule, immoral examples, and immoral publications. LECTURE XVI. 283 With respect to the first of these, persecution ; it was, during the first ages of the gospel, and for many years after the Reformation, the great rock of offence, the chief instrument made use t)f (and a dreadful one it was) to deter men from embracing the faith of Christ, or to compel them to renounce it. But since that time we have heard little of its terrors, till they were some years ago revived, to a certain degree, in a neighbouring nation, where the various cruelties inflicted on their clergy are too well known, and cannot surely be ascribed altogether and exclusively to political causes. In our own country, it must be acknowledged, we cannot justly be charged with this species of guilt. Intolerance and persecution are certainly not in the number of our national sins. But in the next mode of making our brother to offend, that is, by grave argu- ment and reason, by open and systematic attacks on the truth and divine authority of the Christian revela- tion, in this we have, I fear, a large load of responsibi- lity upon our heads. It has even been affirmed by some, that we are entitled to the distinction of having led the way to this kind of impiety and profaneness. We have this honour given to us (for an honour thei/ esteem it) by foreign writers, and what is worst of all, we are applauded for it by such men as D'Alembert and Voltaire. To be stigmatized with thei?' praise, and for such a reason, is a disgrace indeed ; and it would be a still greater, if we could not justly disclaim and throw back from ourselves the humiliating and ignominious applause which they would inflict upon us. But this I apprehend we may effectually do. There appears to me sufficient ground for asserting, that the earliest 284 LECTURE XVI. infidels of modern times were to be found, not in this island, but on the continent. If we may credit the account given of Peter Aretin (who lived and wrote in the fourteenth century) by Moreri, and particularly the epitaph upon him, which he recites, there is reason to believe that he was an infidel of the worst species ; and Viret, a divine of great eminence among the first reformers, who wrote about the year 1563, speaks ot a number of persons, both in France and Italy, who had assumed the name of Deists, and seem to have formed themselves into a sect. But it was not till the begin- ning of the following century that any men of that description, or any publications hostile to Revelation, appeared in this kingdom. From that time indeed down to the present, there has been a regular succes- sion of anti- christian writers of various descriptions and various talents, whose uniform object has been to subvert the foundations of revealed religion, and to make their countrymen offend, and renounce their faith. The last of these was a man, who, from the lowest origin, raised himself to some distinction in the political and literary world, by his bold and impious libels against government, against religion, and the holy scriptures themselves. In these writings were concentrated all the malignity, all the shrewdness, all the sophistry of his numerous predecessors ; and from their brevity, their plainness, their familiarity, their vulgar ribaldry, their bold assertions, and artful mis- representations, they were better calculated to impose on the ignorant and uninformed, and more dangerous to the principles of the great mass of mankind, than any publications that this country ever before pro- duced. And certain it is, that having been distributed with infinite industry through every district of the LECTURE XVI. 285 kingdom, they did for a time diffuse their poison far and wide, and made a strong and fatal impression on the multitude. But, thanks be to God ! they at length providentially met with talents infinitely superior to those of their illiterate author, which, with the blessing of Heaven upon them, gave a sudden and effectual check to the progress of this mischief, and afforded a striking proof of the truth of that prophecy respecting the stability of our religion, " that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it." The next great engine of offence, by which multi- tudes have been led to renounce their faith, is ridicule. An attempt was made early in the last century to erect this into a test of truth, and it has accordingly been applied by many writers since that time to throw discredit on the Christian revelation. But by no one has this weapon been employed with more force and with more success, than by the great patriarch of infidelity, Voltaire. It is the principal instrument he makes use of to vilify the gospel ; and among the instructions he gives to his coadjutors and fellow- labourers in this righteous work, one is to load the Christian religion and the Author of it with never- ceasing ridicule, to burlesque it in every way that imagination can suggest, and to deluge the world with an infinity of little tracts, placing Revelation in the most ludicrous point of view, and rendering it an object of mirth and of contempt to the lowest of mankind. This method he strictly pursued himself; to this he bent all the powers of his mind, all the vivacity of his wit, all the fire of his imagination ; and whoever examines his writings against Christianity with care, will find that much the largest part of them are of this description. And in this he showed a 286 LECTURE XVI. thoroiiofh knowleds^e of the world. He knew that mankind in general prefer wit to logic, and love to be entertained rather than convinced; that it is much easier to point an epigram than to produce an argu- ment; that few can reason justly, but that all the world can be made to laugh ; and that whatever can be rendered an object of derision, is almost sure to be rejected without examination. Of all these artifices he has availed himself with infinite address, and we know also with fatal success. His writings have unquestionably produced more infidels among the higher classes, and spread more general corruption over the world, than all the voluminous productions of all the other philosophists of Europe put together. There is still another way of making our brother to offend, or in other words of shaking his faith in the gospel ; and that is, by exhibiting to mankind in our life and conversation a profligate example. ■ This, in the first place, gives the world an unfavour- able idea of the religion we profess. It tempts men to think either that we ourselves do not believe it, or that we suppose it consistent with the vices to which we are abandoned ; and either of these suppositions must considerably lessen their estimation both of its doctrines and its precepts. In the next place, a wicked example, as we all know, tends to corrupt in some degree every one that lives within its baneful influence ; more particularly if it be found in men of high rank, great wealth, splen- did talents, profound erudition, or popular characters. The mischief done by any notorious vices in men of this description is inconceivable. It spreads like a pestilence, and destroys thousands in secrecy and silence, of whom the offender himself knows nothing, LECTURE xvr. 287 and whom probably he never meant to injure; and wherever the heart is corrupted, the principle of faith is proportionably weakened ; for no man that gives a loose to his passions will choose to have so trouble- some a monitor near him as the gospel. When he has learned to disregard the moral precepts of that divine volume, it requires but a very slight effort to reject its doctrines, and then to disbelieve the truth of the whole. A dissolute life, then, especially in particular classes of men, is one certain way of making our brother to offend, not only in point of practice, but of belief ; and there is another method of producing the same effects, nearly allied to this, and that is, immoral publications. These have the same tendency with bad examples, both in propagating vice and promoting infidelity ; but they are still more pernicious, because the sphere of their influence is more extensive. A bad example, though it operates fatally, operates comparatively within a small circumference. It extends only to those who are near enough to observe it, and fall within the reach of the poisonous infection that spreads around it ; but the contagion of a licentious publication, especially if it be (as it too frequently is) in a popular and captivating shape, knows nd bounds; it flies to the remotest corners of the earth ; it pene- trates the obscure and retired habitations of simplicity and innocence ; it makes its way into the cottage of the peasant, into the hut of the shepherd, and the shop of the mechanic ; it falls into the hands of all ages, ranks, and conditions; but it is peculiarly fatal to the un- suspecting and unguarded minds of the youth of both sexes ; and to them its " breath is poison, and its touch is death." 288 LECTURE XVI. What then have they to answer for, v^ho are every day obtruding these publications on the world, in a thousand different shapes and forms, in history, in biography, in poems, in novels, in dramatic pieces; in all which the prevailing feature is universal philan- thro'py and indiscriminate benevolence; under the pro- tection of which the hero of the piece has the privilege of committing whatever irregularities he thinks fit; and while he is violating the most sacred obligations, insi- nuating the most licentious sentiments, and ridiculing every thing that looks like religion, he is nevertheless held up as a model of virtue; and though he may perhaps be charged with a few little venial foibles, and pardonable infirmities, (as they are called) yet we are assured that he has notwithstanding the very best heart in the world. Thus it is that the principles of our youth are insensibly and almost unavoidably corrupt- ed ; and instead of being inspired, as they ought to be, even upon the stage, with a just detestation of vice, they are furnished with apologies for it, which they never forget, and are even taught to consider it as a necessary part of an accomplished character. And as if we had not enough of this disgusting non- sense and abominable profligacy in our own country, and in our own language, we are every day importing fresh samples of them from abroad, are ingrafting foreign immorality on our own native stock, and intro- ducing characters on the stage, or into the closet, which are calculated to recommend the most licen- tious principles, and favour irregularities and attach- ments that deserve the severest reprehension and punishment. These are the several modes in which we may weaken or even destroy the moral and religious prin- LECTURE XVI. 289 ciples of very sincere Christians, or, in the words of scripture, may make our brother to offend. And whoever is guilty of givhig this offence, ought most seriously to consider the heavy punishment, and the bitter woe, which our Lord here denounces against it. There is scarce any one sin noticed by him which he reprobates in such strong terms as this : "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a mill-stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences ; for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." These are tremendous words ; but we cannot wonder that our Lord should express himself thus strongly, when we consider the dreadful consequences of spreading infidelity and im- morality among our fellow-creatures. We distress them with doubts and scruples which never before entered into their thoughts; we rob them of the most invaluable blessings of life, of that heavenly consola- tion and support which is derived from religious sentiments and virtuous habits ; of that trust and confidence in the Supreme Disposer of all things, which gives ease and comfort to the afflicted soul ; of that unspeakable satisfaction which results from a conscientious discharge of our duty ; and of that peace of God which passeth all understanding. But what is still worse, we not only deprive them of the truest comforts of the present life, but we cut off all their hopes of happiness in the next; we take from them the only sure ground of pardon and acceptance, the death and merits of a crucified Redeemer : we bar up against them the gates of heaven, into which but for us they might have entered, and perhaps consign 29Q LECTURE xvr. them over to everlasting perdition. Is not this beyond comparison the greatest injury that one human crea- ture can inflict upon another ? And does it not justly merit that severe sentence which our Lord has pro- nounced against it ? Let then every one keep at the ut- most distance from this most atrocious crime. Let every man who commits his thoughts to the public, take especial care that nothing drop even incidentally from his pen that can offend those whom our Saviour calls little children that believe in him ; that can either stagger their faith or corrupt their hearts. Let every father of a family be equally careful that nothing es- cape his lips in the unguarded hour of familiar con- verse, that can be dangerous to the religious principles of his children, his friends, or his servants ; nothing that tends to lessen their reverence for the sacred writings, their respect for the doctrines, the precepts, or the sacred ordinances of religion, or raise any doubts or scruples in their minds respecting the truth or divine authority of the Christian revelation. I men- tion these things, because even the friends of religion are sometimes apt, through mere inadvertence or thoughtlessness, to indulge themselves in pleasantries, even upon serious subjects, which though meant at the time merely to entertain their hearers, or to display their wit, yet often produce a very different eff'ect, and sink much deeper into the minds of those that are present (especially of young people) than they are in the least aware of. More mischief may sometimes be done by incidental levities of this kind, than by grave discourses or elaborate writings against religion. I have dwelt the longeron this interesting topic, be- cause few people are aware of the enormity of the sin here reproved by our Lord, of tlie irreparable injury, it LECTURE XVI. 291 may do to others, and of the danger to which it ex- poses themselves. But when they reflect, that by the commission of this crime they endanger the present peace and the future salvation of their fellow-creatures, and expose themselves to the woes which our Lord has in the passage before us denounced against those from whom these offences come, they will probably feel it their duty to be more guarded in this instance than men generally are ; and will take heed to their ways, that they offend not either with their pen or with their tongue. I now go on with the remaining part of our Lord's admonition to his disciples. After having said in the 7th verse, " Woe unto the world because of offences ; for it must needs be that offences come ; but woe to that man by whom the of- fence cometh;" he then adds, ''Wherefore, if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off and cast them from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire ; and if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ; it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire." Our Saviour here applies to the particular sin which he was then condemning, the very same words which he had used before in his sermon on the Mount with reference to the crime of adultery ; and the meaning is this : The heinous sin, against which I have been here cau- tioning you, that of offending your Christian brethren, of causing them by your misconduct to renounce their faith in me or to desert the paths of virtue, has its origin in your depraved appetites and passions ; as in; 17 2 292 LECTURE xvr. the present instance it is your ambition, your eagerness after worldly honours and distinctions, which it is to be feared will give offence and scandal to those that observe it, and may impress them with an unfavourable idea of that religion which seems to inspire such sen- timents. You must therefore go at once to the root of the evil, you must extirpate those corrupt passions and propensities that have taken possession of your hearts, though it may be as difficult for you to part with them as it would be to pluck out an eye, or tear off a limb from the body. For it is better that you should re- nounce what is most dear to you in this life, than that you should suffer those dreadful punishments in the next, which I have told you will assuredly be inflicted on all impenitent offenders, and more particularly on those who offend in the way here specified. He then returns to the main subject of his exhorta- tion : "take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones : for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven." That is, I again repeat to you, take heed that ye treat not with scorn and contempt such little children as you now see before you, or those believers in me who resemble these children in docility, meek- ness, humility, and indifference to all that the world calls great and honourable. Take care that you do not consider their welfare, their salvation, as below your notice and regard, and wantonly endanger both by giving way to your own irregular desires ; for I say unto you, that however contemptibly you may think of them, your heavenly Father regards them with a more favourable eye. He even condescends to take them under his protection, he sends his most favoured angels, those ministers of his that do his pleasure, and LECTURE XVI. 293 stand always in his presence ready to execute his com- mands, even these he deputes to guard and watch over these little children, and those humble Christians, who are like them in purity and innocence of mind. From this passage some have inferred, that every child and every faithful servant cf Christ has an angel constantly attached to his person, to superintend, direct, and protect him ; and this is the opinion of the learned Grotius himself ; whilst others only suppose that those celestial spirits, who (as we are told of Gabriel) stand before God, are occasionally sent to assist the pious Christian in imminent danger, in severe trials, or great emergencies. And hence perhaps the favourite and popular doctrine of guardian angels : a doctrine which has prevailed more or less in every age of the church, which is without question most soothing and consola- tory to human nature, and is certainly countenanced by this and several other passages of holy writ, as well as by the authority of Origen, Tertullian, and other ancient fathers and commentators. In the Psalms it is said, ** The angel of the Lord tarrieth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them*." And in the Epistle to the Hebrews^ we are told, " that the angels are all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." No one therefore that cherishes this notion can be charged with weakness or superstition ; and if it should be at last an error, it is, as Cicero says of the immortality of the soul, so delightful an error, that we cannot easily suffer it to be wrested from usj. But whatever may * Psal. xxxiv. 7. + Chap. i. 14. + The excellent Bishop Andrews has, in one of his animated prayers, a pas- sage which plainly shows that he believed this doctrine. It is as follows : " That the angel of peace, the holy guide of thy children, the faithful guard set by thee 294 LECTURE XVI. be the decision of learned men on this point, there is one thing most clearly proved by the text now before us, and confirmed by a multitude of others, and that is, the doctrine not only of a general but of a particu- lar providence, which in one way or other, whether by ministering angels, or by the all-comprehending and omnipresent eye of God himself, watches over those true disciples of Christ, who, in their tempers, disposi- tions, and manners, approach nearest to the humility, the meekness, the innocence, and the simplicity of a child. This doctrine is indeed so distinctly and explicitly asserted in various parts of Scripture, that it stands in no need of any confirmation from this particular pas- sage ; but every additional proof of so material a sup- port under the afflictions and calamities of life, must be grateful to every heart that has known what afflic- tion is. The verse that comes next in order is this : " For the Son of man is come to save that which is lost." The connexion of this verse with the preceding one is somewhat obscure, but seems to be as follows : You may think, perhaps, that man is too mean, too insigni- ficant a being, to be worthy of the ministration and guardianship of celestial spirits. But how can you entertain this imadnation, when vou know that for this creature man, for fallen and sinful man, did the Son of God condescend to offer himself up a sacrifice on the cross, and came to save that which was lost? Well then may the angels of heaven be proud to guard what their Lord and Master came to save. Jesus then goes over their souls and bodies, may encamp round about me, and continually sug- gest to my mind such things as conduce to thy glory, grant, O good Lord !" LECTURE xv;. 295 on to exemplify, by a familiar similitude, his paternal tenderness to the sons of men. " How think ye, if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and go into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the ninety and nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father that one of these little ones should perish." We are not to infer from this similitude, that God sets more value, and looks with more compla- cency and approbation on one repenting sinner, than on ninety and nine righteous persons who have uni- formly and devoutly served him. This can never be imagined ; nor would it correspond with the illus- tration. The shepherd himself does not set a greater value upon the lost sheep than he does upon those that are safe ; nor would he give up them to recover that which has strayed. But his joy /or the moment, at the recovery of the lost sheep, is greater than he receives from all the rest, because he has regained that, and is sure of all the others. The whole, therefore, that was meant to be inculcated by this parable is, that God's parental tenderness extends to all, even to the sinner that goes astray, and that he rejoices at the conversion and recovery of the meanest individual, and of the most grievous offender. This is the very conclusion, and the only one which our Lord himself draws from the parable. " Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Such then being the mercy of the Alniighty even to his sinful creatures, our Lord goes on to intimate to his disciples, that they ought also to exercise a similar 296 LECTURE XVI. lenity and forbearance towards their offending bre- thren. " If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his^ fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established ; and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church ; but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." In this passage there are evident allusions to the laws and customs of the Jews, who, for the conviction of any offender, required the testi- mony of at least two witnesses* ; and in the case of notorious and obstinate offenders, reproved them pub- licly in their synagogues. But the obvious meaning in regard to ourselves is, that even against those who have ill-treated and injured us, we should not immediately proceed to extreme severity and rigour; but first try the effects of private, and gentle, and friendly admo- nition; if that fail, then call in two or three persons of character and reputation to add weight and authority to our remonstrances ; and if that has no effect, we are then justified in bringing the offender before the proper tribunal, to be censured or punished as he deserves, avoiding all communication with him in future, except what common humanity may require even towards an enemy. These directions are evidently the dictates of that moderation, mildness, and benevolence, which characterize all our Saviour's precepts, and more par- ticularly distinguish this chapter. " Verily I say unto you," continues our Saviour, " whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be * Deut. xix. 15, LECTURE XVI. 297 loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father w^hich is in heaven ; for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." There is some difficulty and some difference of opinion with respect to the precise meaning of these verses ; but they evidently have a reference to the case of the offender stated in the preceding verses; they are addressed exclusively to the apostles ; and the most natural interpretation of them seems to be as fol- lows : Whatever sentence of absolution or condemna- tion you shall in your apostolical capacity pronounce on any offender, that sentence shall be confirmed in heaven ; and whatever even two of you shall ask in prayer for direction and assistance from above, in f rm- ing your judicial determinations, it shall be granted you; for where only two or three of you are gathered together in my name, and are acting under my autho- rity and for my glory in any case of great importance, there am I in the midst of you by my Holy Spirit, to guide, direct, and sanction your proceedings. We now come to one of the most interesting and most affecting parables that is to be found either in Scripture, or in any of the most admired writings of antiquity. In consequence of what our Lord had said in the course of his instructions on the subject of i/yw- ries, Peter came to him, and said, " Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him ? till seven times ?" an allowance which he probably thought abundantly liberal. Jesus saith unto him, *' I say not unto thee, until seven times, but until seventy times seven;" that is, this duty of forgiving injuries has no 298 LECTURE XVI. limits. However frequently you are injured, if real penitence and contrition follow the offence, a Christian is always bound to forgive. To illustrate and confirm this important duty, our Lord subjoins the following parable. "■ Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought to him which owed him ten thousand talents (that is nearly two millions, some think more than two millions, of our money.) But, forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made." This seems a most severe penalty for insol- vency; and yet it was a frequent practice among the Jews*, as we learn both from various passages of the Old Testament, and from Josephus ; and we are told by several intelligent travellers, that insolvency is one of the causes of slavery in Africa at this very hour. So perfectly conformable to fact and to the truth of his- tory is every circumstance that occurs in the sacred writings. *' The servant therefore fell down and wor- shipped him," prostrated himself at his master's feet, and in the most moving terms besought him, saying, " Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." Then the lord of that servant was moved with com- passion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants which owed him an hundred pence (a very trifling sum;) and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, " Pay me that thou owest." He assailed him with far greater violence and brutality than his lord had used towards himself for a debt of ten thousand talents. ** And his fellow servant fell * Exod. xxii. 3. Lev. xxv. 47. LECTURE XVI. 299 down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have pa- tience with me, and I will pay thee all ;" the very same supplicating attitude, the very same affecting words that he had himself made use of towards his lord ; " and he would not, but went and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow ser- vants saw what was done, they were very sorry;" sorry for the sufferings of the unhappy debtor; sorry for the disgrace brought on human nature by the un- feeling creditor; " and they came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me ; shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee ? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormen- tors till he should pay all that was due to him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Such is the parable of the unforgiving servant, which I am sure has not only been heard but felt by every one here present. It requires no comment or expla- nation ; the bare repetition of it is sufficient: indeed it cannot be expressed in any other words than its own without impairing its beauty and its strength. Not- withstanding the frequency of its recurrence in the course of our church service, there is no one, I believe, that ever hears it without emotion and delight. Amidst so much excellence as we meet with in the gospel, it is not easy to say what is most excellent ; but if I was to select any one parable of our Lord's as more in- teresting, more affecting, coming more home to the feelings, and pressing closer on the hearts of men than 300 LECTURE XVI. any of the rest, I think it would be this. Certain it is, that in all the characters of excellence, in perspicuity, in brevity, in simplicity, in pathos, in force, it has no equal in any human composition whatever. On its beauties therefore I shall not enlarge, but on its uses and its application to ourselves, I must say a few words. And in the first place I would observe, that the object of this parable is not only to enforce the duty of cultivating a placable disposition, but a disposition constantly placable, always ready to forgive the offen- ces of our brother, however frequently he may repeat those offences. For it was immediately after our Lord had told Peter that he was to forgive his brother not merely seven times, but seventy times seven, that he added this parable to confirm that very doctrine ; therefore, says he, is the kingdom of heaven like unto a certain king, &c. But then it is only upon this con- dition, that the offender is sincerely penitent, and entreats forgiveness. This is evident from the parallel passage in St. Luke, which expresses this condition : " If thy brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, say- ing, I repent; thou shalt forgive him*." Yet even this will to many people appear a hard saying, and will not very well agree with those high-spirited passions, and that keen sense of injuries, which too generally prevail, and which, instead of forgiving repeated offences, will listen to no entreaties, no expressions of contrition, even for a single one. But are you then content that your heavenly Father should deal out the 'same mea- sure to you that you mete to your brother ? Are you content that one single offence should exclude you for ever from the arms of his mercy ? Are you not * Luke, xvii. 4. LECTURE xvr. 301 every day heaping up sin upon sin; do not you stand as much in need of daily forgiveness as you do of your daily bread ; and do you think it an eixess of indul- gence, an overstrained degree of tenderness and com- passion, that your Maker should pardon you seven times a day, or even seventy times seven ? 2. In the next place I v^ould remark, that this para- ble is a practical comment on that petition in the Lord's Prayer, *' forgive us our trespasses as wq forgive them that trespass against us ;" and it shows what infinite stress our Divine Master lays on this duty of forgiveness, by the care he takes to enforce it in so many different ways, by this parable, by making it a part of our daily prayers, and by his repeated declara- tions that we must expect no mercy from our Maker, *' unless we from our hearts forgive every one his bro- ther their trespasses*." To the same purpose are those irresistible words of St. Paul: " Be ye therefore kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven youf." Let the hard-hearted unrelenting man of the world, or the obdurate unforgiving parent, advert to these repeated admonitions, and then let him, if he can, indignantly spurn from him the repenting offender entreating pardon at his feet in those heart-piercing words, '*have patience with me, and I will pay thee all." And yet it is dreadful to state, as I must do in the last place, what very little regard is paid to this pre- cept by a large part of mankind. No man, I believe, ever heard or read the parable before us without feeling his indignation rise against the ungrateful and unfeeling servant, who, after hav- ing a debt of ten thousand talents remitted to him by * Matt, xviii. 35. f Ep^*- "'• 32. 302 LECTURE XVI. his indulgent lord, threw his fellow servant into prison for a debt of an hundred pence. And yet how fre- quently are we ourselves guilty of the very same offence ? Who is there among us, that has not had ten thou- sand talents forgiven him by his heavenly Father ? Take together all the offences of his life, all his sins and fol- lies from the first hour of his maturity to the present time, and they may well be compared to this immense sum, which immense sum, if he has been a sincere peni- tent, has been all forgiven through the merits of his Re- deemer. Yet when his fellow- Christian owes him an hundred pence, when he commits the slightest offence against him, he too often refuses him forgiveness, though he fall at his feet to implore it. In fact, do we not every day see men resenting not only real injuries, but slight and even imaginary offen- ces, with extreme vehemence and passion, and some- times punishing the offender with nothing less than death ? Do we not even see families rent asunder, and all domestic tranquillity and comfort destroyed fre- quently by the most trivial causes, sometimes on one side, and sometimes on both, refusing to listen to any reasonable overtures of peace, haughtily rejecting all offers of reconciliation, insisting on the highest possi- ble satisfaction and submission, and carrying these sentiments of implacable rancour with them to the grave ? And yet these people call themselves Chris- tians, and expect to be themselves forgiven at the throne of mercy ! Let then every man of this description remember and most seriously reflect on this parable ; let him remember that the unforgiving servant was delivered • over to the tormentors till he should pay the uttermost farthing. Let him recollect that all the world approves LECTURE xvr. 303 this sentence ; that he himself cannot but approve it ; that he cannot but feel himself to be precisely in the situation of that very servant, and that of course he must at the last tremendous day expect that bitter and unansv^erable reproach from his offended Judge ; *' O thou v^icked servant! I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me ; shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant even as I had pity on thee?" 304 LECTURE XVII. MATTHEW XIX. The passage of scripture which I propose to explain in the present Lecture, is a part of the 19th chapter of St. Matthew, beginning at the 16th verse. " Behold," says the evangelist, "one came and said unto him (meaning Jesus), Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may. have eternal life ? And he said unto him. Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God : but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him. Which ? Jesu's said. Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up ; what lack I yet ? Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come and follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful ; for he had great possessions." The conversation here related between the young ruler (for so he is called by St. Luke) and our blessed Lord, cannot but be extremely interesting to every LECTURE XVII 305 sincere Christian, who is anxious about his own salva- tion. A young man of high rank, and of large posses- sions, came with great haste and eagerness ; came run- ning, as St. Mark expresses it, to Jesus; and throwing himself at his feet, proposed to him this most important question : " Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ?" This was not a ques- tion of mere curiosity, or an insidious one, as the questions put to our Lord (especially by the rulers) frequently were, but appears to have been dictated by a sincere and anxious wish to be instructed in the way to that everlasting life, which he found Jesus held out to his disciples. His conduct had been conform- able to the precepts of that religion in which he was born and educated, the religion of Moses ; for when our Lord pointed out to him the commandments he was to keep, his answer was, " all these things have I kept from my youth up;" and his disposition, also, we must conclude to have been an amiable one ; for we are told that Jesus loved him, beheld him with a certain degree of regard and affection. In this state of mind then he came to Jesus, and asked the ques- tion already stated; "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life ?" Our Lord's answer was ; " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. The young man saith unto him, which ? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no mur- der, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness. Honour thy father and thy mother: and, thou shalt love thy neigh- bour as thyself." In this enumeration, it is observable that our Lord does not recite all the ten command- ments, but only five out of those that compose what is called the second table. Now we cannot imagine that 306 LECTURE XVII. Jesus meant to say that the observation of a few of God's commands would put the young man in posses- sion of eternal life. His intention unquestionably was, by a very common figure of speech, to make a part stand for the whole ; and instead of enumerating all the commandments, to specify only a few, which were to represent the rest. " Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, and so of all the other commandments, to which my reasoning equally ap- plies." Nor does he only include in his injunction the ten commandments, but all the moral commandments of God contained in the law of Moses ; for he mentions one which is not to be found in the ten command- ments; *'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This therefore points out to the young man his obliga- tion to observe all the other moral precepts of the law. *' The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up ; what lack I yet ?" The probability is, that he flattered himself he lacked nothing; that his obedience to the moral law rendered him perfect, * qualified him to become a disciple and follower of Christ here, and gave him a claim to a superior degree of felicity hereafter. It was to repress these imaginations, which Jesus saw rising in his mind, that he gave him the following answer ; an answer which struck the young man with astonishment and grief, and which some have represented as more harsh and severe than his conduct merited. " If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come and follow me." In the parallel place of St. Mark, it is, ** Come and take up the cross and follow me." The meaning is, although God is pleased to accept graciously your obedience to the moral law, LECTURE XVII. 307 yet you must not flatter yourself that your obedience is perfect ; and that this perfect obedience gives you a 7'ight or claim to eternal life ; much less to a superior degree of reward in heaven ; far from it. To convince you how far you fall short of perfection, I will put your obedience to the test, in a trying instance, and you shall then judge whether you are so perfect as you suppose yourself. You say that you have from your youth kept the moral laws delivered to you by Moses. Now one of those laws is this, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might." If therefore you pretend to perfection, you must observe this law as well as all the rest, and consequently you must prefer his favour to every thing else ; you must be ready to sacrifice to his commands every thing that is most valuable to you in this world. I now, therefore, as a teacher sent from God, require you to sell all you have, and give to the poor, and follow me, and you shall then have treasure in heaven. The young man made no reply. He could not. He saw all his pretensions to perfec- tion, his hopes of an extraordinary reward, vanish at once. He was not disposed to purchase even treasure in heaven at the price of all he possessed on earth. He therefore went away silent and sorrowful, for he had great possessions. There is a question which I suppose naturally arises in every man's mind, on reading this conversation between the young ruler and Jesus. Does the injunc- tion here given to the young man by Jesus, relate to «// Christians in general? and are we all of us, without exception, bound to sell all that we have, and give to the poor, as a necessary condition of obtaining trea- sure in heaven? The answer is, most assuredly not. x2 308 LECTURE XVII. Our Lord's command refers solely to the individual person to whom he addressed himself, or at the most to those who at that time became disciples of Christ. I have already shown that our Saviour's object in giving this command to the young man, was probably to lower the high opinion he seemed to entertain of his perfect obedience to the law of Moses, to convince him that he was very far from that exalted state of piety and virtue to which he pretended, and that if he was re- warded with eternal life, it must be not in consequence of his own righteousness, but of the mercy of God, and the merits of a Redeemer, as yet unknown to him. But besides this, it is not improbable that the young ruler was ambitious to enlist under the banners of Christ, and to become one of his disciples and follow- ers. And at that time no one could do this whose time and thoughts were engaged in worldly concerns, and in the care and management and attendant luxuries of a large fortune. Nor was this all; every man that embarked in so perilous an undertaking, did it at the risk not only'of his property, but even of life itself, from the persecuting spirit of the Jewish rulers. When, therefore, our Saviour says to the young man, If thou wilt he perfect, that is, if thou art desirous to profess the more perfect religion of the gospel, and to become one of my followers, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and take up the cross and follow me ; he only prepares him for the great hardships and dan- gers to which eve7^y follower of Christ was theti ex- posed, and the necessity there was for him to sit loose to every thing most valuable in the present life. This command, therefore, does not in its primary meaning relate to Christians of the present times ; nor indeed to Christians at all, properly speaking, but LECTURE XVII. 309 to those who were at that time desirous of becoming so. But though in a strict and literal sense it cannot be applied to ourselves, yet in its principle and in its general import, it conveys a most useful and most important lesson to Christians in every age and in every nation; it is an admonition to them not to pique themselves too much on their exact obedience to all the divine commands, not to assume to themselves so much perfection, as to found upon it a right and a claim to eternal life ; not to rely solely on their own righteousness, but on the merits of their Redeemer, for acceptance and salvation. It reminds them also, that they ought always to be prepared to yield an implicit obedience to the commands of their Maker ; and that if their duty to him should at any time re- quire it, they should not hesitate to renounce their dearest interests, and most favourite pleasures ; to part with fame, with fortune, and even life itself; and, under all circumstances, to consider, in the first place, what it is that God requires at their hands, and to submit to it, whatever it may cost them, without a murmur. After this conversation with the young ruler, follows the observation made by our Lord, on this remarkable incident. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, '* Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again 1 say unto you. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When his disciples heard it they were amazed, saying, '' Who then can be saved ?" But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, " With men this is impos- sible, but with God all things are possible." This sentence passed upon the rich is a declaration, which, if understood literally, and as applying to all Christians 310 LECTURE XVII. of the present day, who may justly be called rich, would be truly terrifying and alarming to a very large description of men, a much larger than may at first perhaps be imagined. For by rich men must be understood, not only those of high rank and large possessions, but those in every rank of life, who have any superfluity beyond what is necessary for the decent and comfortable support of themselves and their families. These are all to be considered as rich in a greater or less degree, and this of course must comprehend a very large part of the Christian world. Does then our Lord mean to say, that it is scarce possible for such vast numbers of Christians to be saved ? This does certainly at the first view seem to be implied in that very strong expression, " that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." But it may fairly be presumed, that it was not our Lord's intention to pronounce so very severe and discouraging a sentence as this, and to render the way to heaven almost inaccessible to so very con- siderable a number of his disciples. And in fact, on a careful consideration of this passage, of the limitations and abatements necessary to be made in proverbial expressions and oriental idioms, and of the explana- tions given of it in other parts of scripture, and even by our Lord himself, it will appear that there is nothing in it which ought to inspire terror and dismay into the heart of any sincere and real Christian, be his situation ever so exalted or affluent. It must be observed then in the first place, what is exceedingly important in this inquiry, that, in its original application, this passage does not seem to have attached upon those who were then actually LECTURE XVII. 311 disciples of Christ, but upon those only who were desirous of becoming so : for consider only the occa- sion which gave rise to this reflection. It was that very incident on which we have just been comment- ing ; that of the young rich ruler whom our Saviour exhorted to sell all that he had, and take up his cross and follow him. The young man not relishing these conditions, instead of following Jesus, went away sorrowful, because he had great possessions. He therefore never was, as far as we know, a disciple of Christ ; and it was upon this that Jesus immediately declared that " a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven ;" that is, shall hardly be induced to embrace the Christian religion ; for that is fre- quently the signification of the kingdom of heaven, in scripture. What then our Lord affirmed was this, that it was extremely difficult at that time, at the first preaching of the gospel, for any rich man to become a convert to Christianity. And this we may easily believe; for those who were enjoying all the comforts and elegancies and luxuries of life, would not be very ready to sacrifice these, and submit to poverty, hardships, persecutions, and even death itself, to which the first converts to Christianity were fre- quently exposed. They would therefore generally follow the example of the rich man before us ; would turn their backs on the kingdom of heaven, and go away to the world and its enjoyments. And this in fact we know to have been the case. For it was of the lower ranks of men that our Lord's disciples principally consisted, and we are expressly told that it was the common people chiefly that heard him gladly ; and even after his death, St. Paul asserts, that not many mighty, not many noble, were called. It should seem 312 LECTURE XVII. then, that the primary objects of this declaration were those rich men to whom the gospel was then offered, and of whom very few embraced it. And as no penal law ought to be stretched beyond its strict and literal sense, I do not conceive that we are authorized to apply this severe sentence to those opulent persons who now profess themselves Christians, and to say of them that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to inherit the rewards of heaven. Still, however, as the words themselves will perhaps bear such an application, it is not impro- bable that our Lord might have an eye to rich men in future professing Christianity, as well as to the rich men of those days, who were either Jews or Heathens. But if it does relate to rich Christians at all, I have no difficulty in saying, that it must be in a very qualified and mitigated sense of the words, such as shall not bar up the gates of heaven against any true believers in Christ, or inspire terror and despair, where friendly admonition was only meant. The first thing then to be remarked is, that although the similitude here made use of, that of a camel pass- ing through the eye of a needle, implies absolute impossibity, yet according to every rule of interpreting oriental proverbs (for such this is), it means only, in its application, g7^eat difficulty. And in this sense it was actually used both by the Jews and the Arabians; and is plainly so interpreted by our Lord, when he says that a rich man &h.di\\ hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. But even in this sense the words do not apply to all rich men without distinction. For in the parallel place of St. Mark *, upon the disciples expressing their astonishment at our Lord's declaration, he immediately " Mark x. 24. LECTURE XVII. 313 explains himself by saying, How hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven : and it is after this explanation, that the pro- verbial passage follows, " it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven." We see then that those rich men only are meant, who trust in their riches, who place their whole depen- dence upon them; whose views and hopes are centered in them and them only ; who place their whole hap- piness, not in relieving the distresses of the poor, and soothing the sorrows of the afflicted ; not in acts of worship and adoration, and thanksgiving to Him from whose bounty they derive every blessing they enjoy; not in giving him their hearts, and dedicating their wealth to his glory and his service, but in amassing it without end, or squandering it without any benefit to mankind, in making it the instrument of pleasure, of luxury, of dissipation, of vice, and the means of gra- tifying every irregular appetite and passion without control. These are the rich men, whose salvation is represented by our Saviour to be almost impossible; and yet even with respect to these he adds. With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible; that is, although if we look to human means, to human strength alone, it seems utterly impossible that such men as these should ever repent and be saved ; yet to the power of God, to the over-ruling influences of the Holy Spirit, nothing is impossible. His grace shed abroad in the heart may touch it with compunction and remorse, may awaken it to penitence, may heal all its corruptions, may illuminate, may purify, may sanctify it, may bring the most worldly-minded man 314 LECTURE XVII. to a sense of his condition, and make him transfer his trust from riches to the living God. It is then to those that trust in riches that this denunciation of our Lord peculiarly applies ; but even to all rich men in general it holds out this most impor- tant admonition, that their situation is at the best a situation of difficulty and danger; that their riches furnish them v^^ith so many opportunities of indulging every wayward wish, every corrupt propensity of their hearts, and spread before them so many temptations, so many incitements, so many provocations to luxury, intemperance, sensuality, pride, forgetfulness of God, and contempt of every thing serious and sacred, that it is sometimes too much for human nature to bear ; that they have therefore peculiar need to take heed to their ways, to watch incessantly over their own con- duct, to keep their hearts with all diligence, to guard the issues of life and death, and above all, to implore with unceasing earnestness and fervour that help from above, those communications of divine grace, which can alone enable them, and which will effectually ena- ble them, to overcome the world, and to vanquish all the powerful enemies they have to contend with. They have in short their way plainly marked out to them in scripture, and the clearest directions given them how they are to conduct themselves so as to become par- takers of everlasting life. " Charge them (says St. Paul) that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the LECTURE XVII. 315 time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life*." This striking charge to the rich is pregnant with most important and wholesome counsel, and is an admirable comment on that very passage which has so long engaged our attention. It seems indeed to allude and refer to it, and points out all those distinctions which tend to explain away its seeming harshness, and ascertain its true spirit and meaning. It cautions the rich men of the world not to trust in uncertain riches : the very expression made use of by oar Lord, and the very circumstance which renders it so hard for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven. They are enjoined to place their trust in the living God. They are to be rich in a far brighter treasure than gold and silver, in faith and in good works ; and if they are, they will *' lay a good foundation against the time to come, and will lay hold on eternal life." This entirely does away all the terror, all the dismay, which our Lord's denunciation might tend to produce in the minds of the wealthy and the great : it proves that the way to heaven is as open to thejn, as to all other ranks and conditions of men, and it points out to them the very means by which they may arrive there. These means are, trust in the living God, dedication of themselves to his service and his glory, zeal in every good work, and more particularly the appropriation of a large part of that very wealth, which constitutes their danger, to the purposes of piety, charity, and beneficence. These are the steps by which they must, through the merits of their Redeemer, ascend to heaven. Those riches which are their natural enemies, must be converted into allies and friends. They must, as the scripture expresses it, make to themselves " friends of * 1 Tim. vi. 17—19. 316 LECTURE XVIT. the mammon of unrighteousness* ;" they must be rich towards God ; they must turn that wealth, which is too often the cause of their perdition, into an instrument of salvation, into an instrument by which they may lay hold, as the apostle expresses it, on eternal life. Before I quit this interesting passage, it may be of use to observe, that while it furnishes a lesson of great caution, vigilance, and circumspection to the rich, it affords also no small degree of consolation to the poor. If they are less bountifully provided than the rich, with the materials of happiness for the present life, let them however be thankful to Providence that they have fewer difficulties to contend-with, fewer temptations to combat, and fewer obstacles to surmount, in their way to the life which is to come. They have fortunately no means cf indulging themselves in that luxury and dis- sipation, those extravagancies and excesses, which sometimes disgrace the wealthy and the great; and they are preserved from many follies, imprudencies, and sins, equally injurious to present comfort and future happines's. If they are destitute of all the elegancies, and many of the conveniencies and accom- modations of life, they are also exempt from those cares and anxieties which frequently corrode the heart, and perhaps more than balance the enjoyments of their superiors. The inferiority of their condition secures them from all the dangers and all the torments of ambition and pride ; it produces in them generally that meekness and lowliness of mind, which is the chief constituent of a true evangelical temper, and one of the most essential qualifications for the kingdom of heaven. Jesus having made these observations on the conduct * Luke xvi. o. LECTURE XVII. 317 of the young ruler, who refused to part with his wealth and follow him, Peter thought this a fair opportunity of asking our Lord what reward should be given to him and the other apostles, who had actually done what the young ruler had not the courage and the virtue to do. Then answered Peter and said unto him, " Lo ! we have forsaken all, and followed thee ; what shall we have therefore?" It is true the apostles had no wealth to relinquish, but what little they had they cheerfully parted with ; they gave up their all, they took up their cross and followed Christ. Surely after such a sacrifice they might well be allowed to ask what recompense they might expect, and nothing can be more natural and affecting than their appeal to their divine Master: " Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" Our Lord felt the force and the justice of this appeal, and immediately gave them this most gracious and conso- latory answer : " Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel: and every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." Our translators, by connecting the word regeneration with the preceding words, " ye which have followed me in the regeneration," evidently supposed that word to relate to the first preaching of the gospel, when those who heard and received it were to be regenera- ted, or made new creatures. But most of the ancient fathers, as well as the best modern commentators, refer that expression to the 318 LECTURE XVII. words that follow it, " in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory;" by which is meant the day of judgement and of recom- pense, when all mankind shall be as it were regenera- ted or born again, by rising from their graves ; and when, as St. Matthew tells us in the 27th chapter (making use of the very same phrase that he does here) the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory. At that solemn hour Jesus tells his apostles that they shall also sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This is an allusion to the custom of princes having their great men ranged around them as assessors and advisers when they sit in council or in judgement; or more probably to the Jewish sanhedrim, in which the high priest sat surrounded by the principal rulers, chief priests, and doctors of the law; and it was meant only to express, in these figurative terms, that the apostles should in the kingdom of heaven have a dis- tinguished pre-eminence of glory and reward, and a place of honour assigned them near the person of our Lord himself. • Jesus then goes on to say, '* every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." It is plain, both from the construc- tion of this verse, and from the express words of St. Mark in the parallel passage, that the reward here promised to the apostles, whatever it might be, was to be bestowed in the pi^esent world ; besides which they were to inherit everlasting life. What then, it may be asked, is this recompense, which was to take place in the present life, and was to be a hundred foldl It certainly cannot be a hundred LECTURE XVIT. 319 fold of those worldly advantages which are supposed to be relinquished for the sake of Christ and his reli- gion ; for a multiplication of several of these things, instead of a reward, would have been an incumbrance. And we know in fact the apostles never did abound in worldly possessions, but were for the most part desti- tute and poor. The recompense then here promised must have been of a very different nature ; it is that in- ternal content and satisfaction of mind, that peace of God which passeth all understanding, those delights of a pure conscience and an upright heart, that affection- ate support of all good men, those consolations of the Holy Spirit, that trust and confidence in God, that con- sciousness of the divine favour and approbation, those reviving hopes of everlasting glory, which every good man and sincere Christian never fails to experience in the discharge of his duty. These are the things which will cheer his heart and sustain his spirits, amidst all the discouragements he meets with, under the pres- sure of want, of poverty, affliction, of calumny, of ridicule, of persecution, and even under the terrors of death itself, which will recompense him a hundred fold for all the sacrifices he has made to Christ and his reli- gion, and impart to him a degree of comfort, and tran- quillity, and happiness, far beyond any thing that all the wealth and splendour of this world can bestow. That this is not a mere ideal representation, we may see in the example of those very persons to whom this discourse of our Saviour was addressed. We may see a picture of the felicity here described, drawn by the masterly hand' of St. Paul, in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians : "■ We are, says he, (speaking of him- self and his fellow-labourers in the gospel) we are ap- proving ourselves in much patience, in afflictions, in 320 LECTURE XVII. necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in iabours, in watchings, in fastings ; by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righte- ousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report ; as de- ceiv^ers, and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live ; as chastened, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." We have here a portrait, not merely of patience and fortitude, but of cheerfulness and joy under the acutest sufferings, which is no where to be met with in the writings of the most celebrated heathen philosophers. The utmost that they pretend- ed to was a contempt of pain, a determination not to be subdued by it, and not even to acknowledge that it was an evil. But we never hear them expressing that cheerfulness and joy under suffering, which we here see in the apos4;les and first disciples of Christ. In- deed it was impossible that they should rise to these extraordinary exertions of the human mind, since they wanted all those supports which bore up the apostles under the severest calamities, and raised them above all the common weaknesses and infirmities of their nature; namely, the consciousness of being embarked in the greatest and noblest undertaking that ever en- gaged the mind of man, an unbounded trust and con- fidence in the protection of Heaven, a large participa- tion of the divine influences and consolations of the Holy Spirit, and a firm and well-grounded hope of an eternal reward in another life, which would infinitely overpay all their labour and their sorrows in this. LECTURE XVII. 321 These were the sources of that content and cheerful- ness, that vigour and vivacity of mind, under the se- verest afflictions, which nothing could depress, and which nothing but Christian philosophy could produce. Here then we have a full explanation of our Lord's promise in the passage before us, that every one who had forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for his name's sake, should receive a hundred fold, should receive abundant recompense in the comfort of their own minds, as described in the corresponding passage of St. Paul, just cited ; which may be considered not only as an admirable comment on our Lord's declaration, but as an exact fulfilment of the prediction contained in it. For that declaration is plainly prophetic ; it foretells the persecution his disciples would meet with in the discharge of their duty ; and foretells also, that in the midst of these persecutions they would be un- daunted and joyful. And there cannot be a more per- fect completion of any prophecy, than that which St. Paul's description sets before us with respect to this. But we must not confine this promise of our Savi- our's to his own immediate followers and disciples ; it extends to all his faithful servants in every age and na- tion of the world, that part with any thing which is dear and valuable to them for the sake of the gospel. Whoever has passed any time in the world, must have seen that every man who is sincere in the profession of his religion, who sets God always before him, and who seeks above all things his favour and approbation, must sometimes make great and painful sacrifices to the commands of his Maker and Redeemer ; and whoever does so, whoever gives up his pleasures, his interests, Y 322 LECTURE XVII. his fame, his favourite pursuits, his fondest wishes, and his strongest passions, for the sake of his duty, and in conformity to the will of his heavenly Father, may rest assured, that he shall in no wise lose his reward. He shall, in a degree proportioned to the self-denial he has exercised, and the sufferings he has undergone, expe- rience the present comfort and support here promised to the apostles ; and shall also, though not to the same extent, have an extraordinary recompense in the king- dom of heaven. Let no one then be deterred from persevering in the path of duty, whatever discouragements, difficulties, or obstructions he may meet with in his progress, either from the struggles he has with his own corrupt affections, or from the malevolence of the world. Let him not fear to encounter what he must expect to meet with, opposition, contumely, contempt, and ridicule ; let him not fear the enmity of profligate and unprinci- pled men ; but let him go on undaunted and undismay- ed in that uniform tenour of piety and benevolence, of purity, integrity, and uprightness of conduct, which will not fail to bring him peace at the last. Let him not be surprised or alarmed if he is not exempt from the common lot of every sincere and zealous Christian ; if he finds it by his own experience to be true, what an apostle of Christ had long since prepared him to ex- pect, that whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall in one way or oi\iQX suffer persecution. But let him remember at the same time the reviving and consola- tory declaration of his divine Master ; " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven." 323 LECTURE XVIII. MATTHEW XXII. I NOW pass on to the twenty-second chapter of St. Matthew, in which our blessed Lord introduces the following parable : ** The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying, tell them which are bid- den. Behold, I have prepared my dinner ; my oxen and my fathngs are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise ; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city. Then saith he to his servants. The v^edding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they could find, both bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests. Y 2 324 LECTURE XVIII. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment. And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having on a wedding garment? and he was speechless. Then said the king to his servants. Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer dark- ness ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ; for many are called, but few are chosen." The primary and principal object of this parable is to represent, under the image of a marriage feast, the invitation given to the Jews to embrace the gospel, their rejection of that gracious offer, the severe punish- ment inflicted upon them for their ingratitude and obstinacy, and the admission of the Heathens to the privileges of Christianity in their room. " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son." That is, the dispensations of the Almighty, with re- spect to the Christian religion which is called the kingdom of heaven, may be compared to the con- duct of a certain king, who (as was the custom in those times, especially among the eastern nations) gave a splendid feast in consequence of his son's marriage. And in this comparison there is a peculiar propriety, because both the Jewish and the Christian covenant are frequently represented in scripture under the similitude of a marriage contract between God and his people*. *'And he sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would not come. Again he sent forth other servants, saying. Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come unto the marriage." This • See Isaiah liv. 5. Jeremiah iii. 8. Matt. xxv. 5. 2 Cor. xi. 2. LECTURE XVIII. 325 signifies the various and repeated offers of the gospel to the Jews; first by John the Baptist, then by our Saviour himself, then by his apostles and the seventy disciples, both before and after his ascension. But all these gracious offers, the greater part of the nation rejected with scorn. They would not come to the marriage ; they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise ; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. They not only slighted and treated with contem^pt the words of eternal life, and preferred the pleasures and the interests of the present life to all the joys of heaven, but they pursued with unceasing rancour the first preachers of the gospel, and persecuted them even unto death. "But when the King heard thereof, he was wroth; and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed these murderers, and burnt up their city." This points out, in the plainest terms, the Roman armies under Ves- pasian and Titus, which, not many years after this was spoken, besieged Jerusalem, and destroyed the city, and slaughtered an immense number of the inha- bitants. This terrible devastation our Lord here pre- dicts in general terms, as he does more particularly and minutely in the twenty-fourth chapter; and he here represents it as the judgment of God on this per- verse and obstinate people for their rejection of the Christian religion, their savage treatment of the apos- tles and their associates, and their many other atrocious crimes. This punishment however is here, by antici- pation, represented as having been inflicted during the marriage feast ; though it did not in fact take place till afterwards, till after the gospel had been for some time promulgated. 326 LECTURE XVIII. " Then said he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good ; and the wedding was furnished with guests." It may be thought, perhaps, at the first view, that our Lord has here introduced a circumstance not very natural or probable. It may be imagined that at a magnificent royal entertainment, if any of the guests happened to fail in their attendance, a great king would never think of supplying their places by send- ing his servants into the highways to collect together all the travellers and strangers they could meet with, and make them sit down at the marriage feast. But strange as this may seem, there is something that ap- proaches very near to it in the customs of the eastern nations, even in modern times. For a traveller of great credit and reputation. Dr. Pococke, informs us, that an Arab prince will often dine in the street before his door, and call to all that pass, even to beggars, in the name of God, and they come and sit down to table ; and when they have done, retire with the usual form of returning thanks*. This adds one more proof to the many others I have already pointed out in the couse of these Lectures, of the exact correspondence of the various facts and circumstances recorded in the sacred writings to the truth of history, and to ancient oriental customs and manners. This part of the parable alludes to the calling in of the Gentiles or Heathens to the privileges of the gospel, " Pococke, vol. i. pp. 37 and 182. See also Diod. Sic. 1. xiii.pp. 375, 376. LECTURE XVIII. 327 after they had been haughtily rejected by the Jews. This was first done by St. Peter, in the instance of Cornelius, and afterwards extended to the Gentiles at large by him and the other apostles, conformably to what our Lord declares in another place: " Many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of God ; but the children of the kingdom (that is, the Jews) shall be shut out*." And in this gracious invitation, no exceptions, no distinctions, were to be made. The servants gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good; men of all characters and descriptions were to have the offers of mercy and salvation made to them, even the very worst of sinners; for it was these chiefly that our Saviour came to call to repentance; ''for they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sickf :" and of these, great numbers did actually embrace the gracious offers made to them; for our Lord told the Jews, "the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you J." In this manner was the wedding furnished with guests. " And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding gar- ment; and he said unto him. Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment ? and he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants. Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnash- ing of teeth: for many are called, but few are chosen." In order to understand this part of the parable, it must be observed, that among the ancients, especially in the East, every one that came to a marriage feast * Matt. viii. 11. f lb. ix. 12. t lb. xxi. 31. 328 LECTURE XVIII. was expected to appear in a handsome and elegant dress, which was called the wedding garsjent. This was frequently a white robe ; and where the guest was a stranger y or was not able to provide such a robe, it was usual for the master of the feast to furnish him with one ; and if he who gave the entertainment was of high rank and great opulence, he sometimes pro- vided marriage robes for the whole assembly. To this custom we have allusions in Homer, and other classic writers* ; and there are some traces of it in the entertainments of the Turkish court at this very dayt- It must be remarked also, that it was in a very high degree indecorous and offensive to good manners, to intrude into the festivity without this garment ; hence the indignation of the king against the bold intruder who dared to appear at the marriage feast without the nuptial garment. *' He was cast into outer darkness;" was driven away from the blaze and splendour of the gay apartments within, to the darkness and gloom of the street, where he was left to unavailing grief and remorse for th.e offence he had committed, and the enjoyments he had lost. This man was meant to be the representative of those presumptuous persons who intrude them^selves into the Christian covenant, and expect to receive all the privileges and all the rewards annexed to it, with- out possessing any one of those Christian graces and virtues which the gospel requires from all those who profess to believe and to embrace it. Nothing is more common in scripture than to represent the habits and dispositions of the mind, those which determine and * Odyss. viii. 402. Diod. Sic. 1. xiii. pp. 375, 376. f At the entertainment given by the grand vizier to Lord Elgin and his suite, in the palace of the seraglio, pelisses were given to all the guests. LECTURE xviir. 329 distinguish the whole character, under the figure of bodily garments and external habits. Thus Job says of him- self, " I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgement was as a robe and a diadem*." And again in Isaiah it is said, '*He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation ; he hath covered me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels!." In the same manner we are commanded in the gospel to put on charity, to ^e c/oMe^/ with humility ; and in the book of Revelation J, the elders are described as sitting before the throne of God clothed in ivJiite raiment. And in the nineteenth chapter there is a passage, which is a clear and beautiful illustration of that now before us: "The marriage of the Lamb is come; and to her (that is, to the Church) was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white;" and this fine linen, we are expressly told, is the righteoiistiess of saints. "And he saith unto me. Write, blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb ;" that is, of Christ the king§. This is a plain allusion to the parable before us ; and most evidently shows, that the man without the wedding garment is every man that is not clothed with the robe of righte- ousness ; every man that pretends to be a Christian, without possessing the true evangelical temper and disposition of mind, without the virtues of a holy life ; every one that expects to be saved by Christ, yet regards not the conditions on which that salvation depends; every profane, every unjust, every disso- lute man; everyone, in short, that presumes'to say, "Lord, Lord, yet doeth not the will of his Father * Job xxix. 14. t Isa. Ixi. 10. t Ch. iv. 4. $ Rev. xix. 7, 8, 9. 330 LECTURE XVIII. which is in heaven"*/' All these shall be excluded from the marriage feast, from the privileges of the gospel, and the joys of heaven, and shall be cast into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth ; for many, we are told, are called, but few are chosen ; that is, many are called upon and invited to embrace the gospel; but few, comparatively speaking, receive it, or at least conduct themselves in a manner suitable to their high and heavenly calling, so as to be chosen or deemed worthy to inherit the kingdom of heaven. I have only to observe farther on this parable, that although in its primary intention it relates solely to the Jews, yet it has, like many other of our Lord's parables, a secondary reference to persons of every denomination in every age and nation, who, through indolence, prejudice, vanity, pride, or vice, reject the Christian revelation; or who, professing to receive it, live in direct opposition to its doctrines and its pre- cepts. The same future punishment which is denounced against the unbelieving or hypocritical Jews, will be with equal severity inflicted on them. After Jesus had delivered this parable, the Phari- sees, perceiving plainly that it was directed against them principally, were highly incensed, and deter- mined to take their revenge, and endeavour to bring him into difficulty and danger by ensnaring questions. *' Then went the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples, with the Herodians, say- ing, Master, we know that thou art true, and teach- est the way of God in truth; neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person of men. * Malt.vii. 21. LECTURE XVIII. 331 Tell us, therefore, what thinkest thou ? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus per- ceived their wickedness, and said. Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute-money; and they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription ? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them. Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's. When they heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way." In order to understand the insidious nature of the question here proposed to Jesus, it must be observed, that the Jews were at this time, as they had been for many years, under the dominion of the Romans ; and as an acknowledgement of their subjection, paid them an annual tribute in money. The Pharisees however were adverse to the payment of this tribute ; and contended, that being the peculiar people of God, and he their only rightful sovereign, they ought not to pay tribute to any foreign prince whatever ; they considered themselves as sub- jects of the Almighty, and released from all obedience to any foreign power. There were many others who maintained a contrary opinion, and it was a question much agitated among different parties. Who the Herodians were that accompanied the Pharisees, and what their sentiments were on this subject, is very doubtful : nor is it a matter of any moment. It is plain from their name that they were in some way or other attached to Herod : and as he was a friend to the Roman government, they probably maintained the propriety of paying the tribute.* * Those whom St. Mark calls the Leaven of Herod, c viii. 15. St, Matthew, in the parallel passage, xvi. 5. calls Sadducees. Hence, perhaps, we may infer, that the Herodians and the Sadducees were the same persons. 832 LECTURE XVIII. In this state of things both the Pharisees and Hero- dians came to Jesus, and after some flattering and hy- pocritical compliments to his love of truth, his intre- pidity, impartiality, and disregard to powder and great- ness (calculated evidently to spirit him up to some bold and offensive declaration of his opinion) they put this question to him ; *' Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not ?" They were persuaded, that in answer- ing this question, he must either render himself odious to the Jewish people, by opposing their popular no- tions of liberty, and appearing to pay court to the em- peror ; or, on the other hand, give offence to that prince, and expose himself to the charge of se- dition and disaffection to the Roman government, by denying their right to the tribute they had imposed. They conceived it impossible for him to extricate him- self from this dilemma, or to escape danger on one side or the other ; and perhaps no other person but himself could have eluded the snare that was laid for him. But he did it completely ; and showed on this occasion, as he had done on many others, that pre- sence of mind and readiness of reply to difficult unex- 13ected questions, which is one of the strongest proofs of superior wisdom, of a quick discernment, and a prompt decision. He pursued, in short, the method which he had adopted in similar instances ; he com- pelled the Jews in effect to answer the question them- selves, and to take from him all the odium attending the determination of it. He perceived their wicked- ness, and said, '' Why tempt ye me ? Why do you try to ensnare me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute- money. And they brought unto him a penny (a small silver coin of the Romans, called a denarius). And he said unto them, Whose is this image and super- LECTURE xviir. 333 scription? And they say unto him, Caesar's." By ad- mitting that this was C2esar's coin, and by consenting to receive it as the current coin of their country, they in fact acknowledged their subjection to his govern- ment. For the right of coinage, and of issuing the coin, and giving value and currency to it, is one of the highest prerogatives and most decisive marks of sove- reignty : and it was a tradition of their own rabbins, that to admit the impression and the inscription of any prince on their current coin, was an acknowledgment of their subjection to him. And it was more particu- larly so in the present instance, because we are told that the denarius paid by the Jews as tribute-money had an inscription round the head of Caesar, to this effect; Ccesar Augustus, Judcea being subdued*. To pay this coin with this inscription, was the completest acknowledgment of subjection, and of course of their obligation to pay the tribute demanded of them, that could be imagined. Our Lord's decision therefore was a necessary consequence of their own concession. " Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's (which you yourselves acknowledge to be Caesar's) and unto God the things that are God's. And when they heard these words, they marvelled ; they were astonished at his prudence and address ; and left him, and went their way." But in this answer of our Saviour is contained a much stronger proof of his consummate wisdom and discretion than has yet been mentioned. He not only disengaged himself from the difficulties in which the question was meant to involve him, but, without enter- ing into any political discussions, he laid d-own two doctrines of the very last importance to the peace and * See Hammond, in loc. 334 LECTURE XVIII. happiness of mankind, and the stability of civil go- vernment. He made a clear distinction between the duties we owe to God, and the duties we owe to our earthly rulers. He showed that they did not, in the smallest degree, interfere or clash with each other ; and that we ought never to refuse what is justly due to Caesar, under pretence of its being inconsistent with what we owe to our Maker. On the contrary, he lays down this as a general fun- damental rule of his religion, that we ought to pay obe- dience to LAWFUL AUTHORITY, and Submit to that acknowledged and established government under which we live. The Jews had for a hundred years acknow- ledged their subjection, and paid their tribute to the Roman government ; and our Lord's decision therefore was, '' Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's." It is true that the tyrant Tiberius was then emperor of Rome, but the Jews alleged no particular grievance or act of oppression to justify their refusal of tribute ; and our Lord had no concern with any peculiar form of government.* His decision would have been the same had the Roman republic then existed. His doc- trine was obedience to lawful authority, in whatever shape that authority might be exercised. If it be con- tended that there may be extraordinary cases of ex- treme and intolerable tyranny, which burst asunder at once the bonds of civil subordination, and justify re- sistance ; the answer is, that these were considerations into which the divine Founder of our religion did not think it wise or expedient to enter. He left them to be decided (as they always must be) at the moment, by the pressing exigencies and peculiar circumstances of the case, operating on the common feelings and com- mon sense of mankind. His great object was to lay LECTURE XVIII. 335 down one broad fundamental rule, which, considered as a general and leading principle, would be most con- ducive to the peace, the comfort, and the security of mankind ; and that rule most indisputably is the very doctrine which he inculcated: obedience to LAWFUL AUTHORITY AND ESTABLISHED GOVERNMENT. In perfect conformity to his sentiments, the apostles held the same language after his death. " Submit yourselves, says St. Peter, to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake ; whether it be unto the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well*." *' Be subject to prin- cipalities and powers, says St. Paul, and obey magis- trates-\. Ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sakej. Render therefore to all, their dues, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour §." Here then we see the whole weight of the gospel and of its divine author, thrown into the scale of lawful authority. Here we see that the Christian religion comes in as a most powerful auxiliary to the civil ma- gistrate, and lends the entire force of its sanctions to the established government of every country ; an advan- tage of infinite importance to the peace and welfare of society. And happy had it been for mankind, if in this, as in every other instance, they had conformed to the directions of the gospel, instead of indulging their own wild projects and destructive theories of resist- ance to civil government, and the subversion of the most ancient and venerable institutions. Happy had it been for the Jews in particular, if they had adopted * 1 Peter ii. 13, 14. t Tit. iii. i. X Rom.xiii. 5. § Rom. xiii. 7. 336 LECTURE xviir. our Saviour's advice ; for by acting contrary to it, by breaking- out as they did soon after into open rebellion against the Romans, they plunged themselves into a most cruel and sanguinary war, w^hich ended in the entire overthrow of their city, their temple, and their government, and the destruction of vast multitudes of the people themselves. Similar calamities have, we know, in other countries, arisen from similar causes ; from a contempt of all legitimate authority, and a di- rect opposition to those sage and salutary precepts of the gospel, which are no less calculated to preserve, the peace, tranquillity, security, and good order of civil society, than to promote the individual happiness of every human being, here and for ever. The Pharisees having been thus completely foiled in their attempt to ensnare and entangle our Saviour in his talk, the next attempt made upon him was by a different set of men, the Sadducees, who disbelieved a resurrection, a future state, and the existence of the soul after death. And their object was to show the absurdity and the falsehood of these doctrines, by stat- ing a difficulty respecting them, which they con- ceived to be insuperable. The difficulty was this : *' The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, say- ing, Master, Moses said, if a man die having no child- ren, his brothers shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren : and the first, when he had married a wife, de- ceased, and having no issue, left his wife unto his bro- ther : likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh : and last of all the women died also : there- fore in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven ? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said LECTURE XVIII. 337 unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God ; for in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels in heaven. But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living." This answer of our Saviour's has by some been thought to be obscure, and not to go directly to the point of proving a resurrection, which the Sadducees denied, and which their objection was meant to over- throw. In our Lord's reply no argument seems to be advanced, nor any plain text of scripture produced to establish the doctrine of a resurrection of the body, and its reanimation by the soul. It is only contended, that as God declares himself to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the souls of those persons must still be in existence in a separate state ; because God could not be said to be the God of those who were no longer in being. This is undeniable. But how (it is said) does this prove a resurrection ? To explain this, it must be observed, that Christ's answer consists of two parts : in the first, he solves the difficulty started by the Sadducees respecting a resurrection, by telling them that it arose entirely from their not attending to the power of God, which could effect with the utmost ease what to them appeared impossible ; and from their ignorance of the state of human beings in heaven, which resembled that of angels, and required not a constant succession to be kept up by marriage. The case therefore they had stated respecting the marriage of the seven brethren with one woman was a very unfortunate one, because it happened that in heaven 338 LECTURE XVIII. there would be no such thmg as marriage; which destroyed at once the whole of that objection which they deemed so formidable. In the second part he completely subverts the false principle on which their disbelief of a resurrection and a future state was en- tirely founded. This principle was, that the soul had no separate existence, but fell into nothing at the dissolution of its union with the body. This we learn from the Acts of the Apostles*, where it is said " that the Sadducees believe neither angel nor spirit;" and from Josephus, who tells us, that the Sadducees held that the soul vanishes (as he expresses it) with the body, and rejected the doctrine of its duration after death t- It was this principle therefore which our Saviour undertook to overthrow, which he does effec- tually in the 31st and 32d verses, by showing it to be a clear inference from the words of scripture J, that although the bodies of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had long been in their graves, yet their souls had sur- vived, and were at that moment in existence. From hence it nece*ssarily followed that the soul did not perish with the body, as the Sadducees believed, but that it continued in being after death; and at the general resurrection would be again united with the body, and live fcvr ever in a future state of happiness or of misery. But though arguments may be confuted, and absur- dities exposed, the thorough-paced caviller is not easily silenced. One should have thought that the disgraceful failure of so many attempts to surprise and ensnare Jesus, would have taught his adversaries " Chap, xxiii. 8. t 2in/a. 2 A 2 356 LECTURE XIX. ** But he that shall endure unto the end, (adds our Lord in the thirteenth verse) the same shall be saved." He that shall not be dismayed by these per- secutions, but shall continue firm in his faith, and unshaken in his duty to the last, shall be saved, both in this w^orld and the next. It is, we know, the uni form doctrine of scripture, that they who persevere in the belief and the practice of Christianity to the end of their lives, shall, through the merits of their Re- deemer, be rewarded with everlasting life. And with respect to the present life, and the times to which our Saviour here alludes, it is remarkable, that none of his disciples were known to perish in the siege and de- struction of Jerusalem. Another sign which was to precede the demolition of the temple and the city of Jerusalem, was, that the Christian religion was first to be propagated over the greater part of the Roman empire, which, in the scripture, as well as by the Roman writers, was called the world. *' This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come." Then shall come what is called in the third verse, the e?id of the woi'ld; that is, the Jewish world, the Jewish state and government. And accordingly St. Paul, in his epistle to the Colossians, speaks of the gospel "being come unto all the world, and preached to every creature under heaven*." And we learn from the most authentic writers, and the most ancient records, that the gospel was preEtched within thirty years after the death of Christ, in Idumaea, Syria, and Mesopotamia; in Media and Parthia, and many parts of Asia Minor ; in Egypt, Mauritania, Ethiopia, and other regions of Africa; in * Col. i. 6. 23. LECTURE XIX. 357 Greece and Italy ; as far north as Scythia, and as far westward as Spain, and in this very island which we inhabit; where there is great reason to believe Chris- tianity was planted in the days of the apostles, and before the destruction of Jerusalem. And this, it is said, was to be, "for a testimony against them;" that is, against the Jews ; for a testimony that the offer of salvation was made to them in every part of the world where they were dispersed ; and that, by their obsti- nate rejection of it, they had merited the signal punish- ment which soon after overtook them. Our Lord then goes on to still more alarming and more evident indications of the near approach of dan- ger to the Jewish nation. " When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet*, stand in the holy place, (let him that readeth understand) ; then let them that be in Judaea flee into the mountain." The meaning of this passage is clearly and fully explained by the parallel place in St. Luke: " when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." The abomination of desolation therefore denotes the Roman army which besieged Jerusalem, and which Daniel also, in the place alluded to, calls the abomina- tion which makes desolate. The Roman army is here called an abomination, be- cause upon their standards were depicted the images of their emperor and their tutelary gods, whom they worshipped : and it is well known that idols were held by the Jews in the utmost abhorrence ; and the very name they gave them was the expression here made use of, diii abomination. The word desolation is added for an obvious reason, because tis mighty army brought ruin and desolation upon Jerusalem. * Chap. ix:. 27. 358 LECTURE XIX. This city, and the mountain on which it stood, and a circuit of several furlongs around it, were accounted holy ground; and as the Roman standards were planted in the most conspicuous places near the fortifications of the city, they are here said to stand in the holy place, or, as St. Mark expresses it, *' to stand where they ought not." And Josephus tells us, that after the city was taken, ** The Romans brought their ensigns into the temple, and placed one of them against the eastern gate, and sacrificed to them there ; which was the greatest insult and outrage that could possibly be offered to that wretched people*." When therefore this desolating abomination, this idolatrous and destructive army, appeared before the holy city, " then," says our Lord, " let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains; let him which is on the house-top not come down to take any thing out of his house, neither let him that is in the fields return back to take his clothes:" These are allusions to Jewish customs, and are designed to impress upon the disciples the necessity of immediate flight, not suflTer- ing themselves to be delayed by turning back for any accommodations they might wish for. " And woe unto them that are with child, and to those that give suck in those days ! And pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:" that is, unfortunate will it be for those who, in such a time of terror and distress, shall have any natural impediments to obstruct their flight, and who are obliged to travel in the winter season, when the weather is severe, the roads rough, and the days short; or on the sabbath- day, when the Jews fancied it unlawful to travel more than a mile or two. These kind admonitions were not * De Bell. Jud.l. vi.c. 6.s. 1. p. 1283. LECTURE XIX. 359 lost upon the disciples. For we learn from the best ecclesiastical historians, that when the Roman armies approached to Jerusalem, all the Christians left that devoted city, and fled to Pella, a mountainous country, and to other places beyond the river Jordan. And Josephus also informs us, that when Vespasian was drawing his forces towards Jerusalem, a great multi- tude fled from Jericho into the mountainous country for their security*. And happy was it for them that they did so, for the miseries experienced by the Jews in that siege, were almost without a parallel in the history of the world. *' Then," says our Saviour, " shall be great tribula- tion, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." This expression is a proverbial one, frequently made use of by the sacred writers to express some very uncommon cala- mity}", and therefore it is not necessary to take the words in their strictest sense. But yet in fact they were in the present instance almost literally fulfilled ; and whoever will turn to the history of this war by Josephus, and there read the detail of the horrible and almost incredible calamities endured by the inhabi- tants of Jerusalem, during the siege, not only from the fire and sword of the enemies without, but from famine and pestilence, and continual massacres and murders from the fiend-like fury of the seditious zealots within, will be convinced that the very strong terms made use of by our Lord, even when literally interpreted, do not go beyond the truth. Indeed Josephus himself, in his preface to his history, expresses himself almost in the very same words: "Our city, says he, of all those *DeBell. Jud. l.iv. c. 8. s. 2. p. 1193. Ed. Huds. Ex.x.l4. Joelii.2. Dan.xii. 1. Maccab. ix. 27- 360 LECTURE XIX. subjected to the Romans, was raised to the highest fehcity, and was thrust down again to the lowest gulf of misery ; for if the misfortunes of all from the begin- ning of the world were compared with those of the Jews, they would appear much inferior upon the com- parison*." Is not this almost precisely what our Saviour says, *' There shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." It is impossible, one would think, even for the most stubborn infidel, not to be struck with the great similarity of these two pas- sages ; and not to see that the prediction of our Lord, and the accomplishment of it, as described by the his- torian, are exact counterparts of each other, and seem almost as if they had been written by the very same person. Yet Josephus was not born till after our Saviour was crucified; and he was not a Christian, but a Jew ; and certainly never meant to give any testi- mony to the truth of our religion. The calamities above mentioned were so severe, that had they been "of long continuance the whole Jewish nation must have been destroyed; "except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved," says Christ, in the 22nd verse ; ** but (he adds) for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." They were shortened for the sake of the elect, that is, of those Jews who had been converted to Christianity; and they were shortened by the besieged themselves, by their seditious and mutual slaughters, and their madness in burning their own provisions. " Then," continues Jesus, ** if any man shall say unto you, Lo ; here is Christ, or there, believe it not : for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and * De Bell. Jud. Prooem. p. 955. Ed. Huds. LECTURE XIX. 361 shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that (if it were possible) they shall deceive the very elect. Be- hold, I have told you before. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, he is in the desert; go not forth : behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered together." Our Lord had already cau- tioned his disciples against believing the false Christs and false prophets who would appear before the siege, and he now warns them against those that would rise up during the siege. This, Josephus tells us, they did in great abundance ; and flattered the Jews with the hope of seeing their Messiah coming, with great power, to rescue them from the hands of the Romans*. And they also pretended to show signs and wonders ; the very words made use of by the same historian, as well as by our Lordf. And it is remarkable, that Christ here foretels, not only the appearance of these false prophets, but the very places to which they would lead their deluded followers; and these were, the *' desert, and the secret chamber." And accordingly, if you look into the history of Josephus, you will find both these places distinctly specified as the theatres on which these impostors exhibited their delusions. For the historian relates a variety of instances in which these false Christs and false prophets betrayed their followers into the desert, where they were con- stantly destroyed; and he also mentions one of these pretenders, who declared to the inhabitants of Jeru- salem, that God commanded them to go up into a * Jos. de Bell. Jud. 1. vi. c. 5. s. 2. p. 1281 . and Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. c. 6. t Jos. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 27. s. 6. p. 983, Ed. Huds. 362 , LECTURE XIX. particular part of the temple (into the secret chamber^ as our Lord expresses it) and there they should receive the signs of deliverance. A multitude of men, women, and children, went up accordingly; but, instead of deliverance, the place was set on fire by the Romans, and six thousand perished miserably in the flames, or by endeavouring to escape them*. But the appearance of the true Christ was not to be in that way ; it was to be as visible and as rapid as a flash of lightning; " for as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." It shall not be in a remote desert or in a secret chamber of the temple, but shall be rendered conspicuous by the sud- den and entire overthrow of Jerusalem, and its inha- bitants. " For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together." By the carcase is meant the Jewish nation, which was morally and judicially dead ; and the instruments of divine veng^eance, that is, the Roman armies, whose standards were eagles, would be collected together against this wicked people, as eagles are gathered to- gether to devour their prey. In the three following verses, the language of our divine Master becomes highly figurative and sublime. *' Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and * Jos. Antiq. 1. xx. c. 7. s. 6. and c. 7. s. 10, De Bell. Jud. 1. ii. c.l3. s. 4. andl.vii. c. 11. s. I.Ed. Huds. LECTURE XIX. 363 they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the one end of heaven to the other." Few people, I believe, read these verses, without supposing that they refer entirely to the day of judge- ment, many of these expressions being actually appli- ed to that great event in the very next chapter, and in other parts of Scripture ; and indeed several eminent men and learned commentators are of that opinion, and imagine that our Lord here makes a transition from the destruction of Jerusalem to the end of the world, conceiving that such very bold figures of speech could not with propriety be applied to the subversion and extinction of any city or state, however great and pow- erful. But the fact is, that these very same meta- phors do frequently in Scripture denote the destruc- tion of nations, cities, and kingdoms. Thus Isaiah*, speaking of the destruction of Babylon, says, " Be- hold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, shall not give their light ; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine." And in almost the same terms he describes the punishment of the Idumaeans f , and of Sennache- rib and his people;]:. Ezekiel speaks in the same man- ner of Egypt §; and Daniel, of the slaughter of the Jews II ; and what is still more to the point, the pro- phet Joel describes this very destruction of Jerusalem •Ch. xiii.9. t Ch. xxiv. 6. +Ch.Ii. 6. § Chxxxii. 7, 8. II Ch.viii. 10. 364 LECTURE XIX. , in terms very similar to those of Christ ; " 1 will show wonders in the heavens ; and in the earth blood and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day o the Lord shall come*. It is evident then that the phrases here made use of, of *' the sun being darkened, and the moon not giving her light, and the stars falling from heaven, and the powers of heaven being shaken," are figures meant to express the fall of cities, kingdoms, and nations ; and the origin of this sort of language is well illustrated by a late very learned prelatef, who tells us, that '' in an- cient hieroglyphic writing, the sun, moon, and stars, were used to represent states and empires, kings, queens, and nobility ; their eclipse or extinction denot- ed temporary disasters or entire overthrow, &c. So the prophets in like manner call kings and empires by the nanies of the heavenly luminaries. Stars falling from the firmament are employed to denote the de- struction of the nobility and other great men ; inso- much, that in feality the prophetic style seems to be a sjoeaking hieroglyphic^^." In the same manner, in the next verse, those awful words, " then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," seem applicable solely to the last advent of Christ to judge the world ; and yet it is certain, that in their primary signification they refer to the manifestation of Christ's power and glory, in coming to execute judge- ment on the guilty Jews, by the total overthrow of • Cli. ii.30, 31. t Bishop Wavburtou. ■T Div, Leg. 8vo ed- vol. iv.p. 175. LECTURE XIX. 365 their temple, their city, and their government ; for so our Lord himself explains what is meant by the coming of the So?i of man, in the 27th, 28th, and 37 th verses of this chapter. And when the prophet Daniel is pre- dicting this very appearance of Christ to punish the Jews, he describes him as " coming in the clouds of heaven, and there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom*." The same remark will hold with regard to the 31st verse; " he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the earth even to the other." These words, also, though they seem as if they could belong to no other subject than the last day, yet most assuredly relate principally to the great object of this prophecy, the destruction of Jerusalem; after which dreadful event we are here told that Christ will send forth his angels ; that is, his messen- gers or ministers, (for so that word strictly signifies^) to preach his gospel to all the world, which preaching is called by the prophets, " lifting up the voice like a trumpet J ; and they shall gather together his elect (that is, shallco 1 lect disciples and converts to the faith) from the four winds, from the four quarters of the earth ;" or, as St. Luke expresses it, " from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south§." Our Lord then goes on to point out the time when all these things shall take place, and thus answers the other question put to him by the disciples, " Tell us, * Dan. vii. 14. t Vid. Haggai i. 1 3. Mai. ii. 7. iii. 1 . Matt. xi. 10. Mark i. 2. Luke viii. 27. + Isaiah Iviii. 1 . § Lukexiii. 29. 366 LECTURE XIX. when shall these things be?" — *' Now learn, says he, a parable of the fig-tree : When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." The only observation necessary to be made here is, that the time when all these predictions were to be fulfilled is here limited to a certain period. They were to be accomplished before the generation of men then existing should pass away. And accordingly all these events did actually take place within forty years after our Saviour delivered this prophecy ; and this by the way is an unanswerable proof, that every thing our Lord had been saying in the preceding part of the chapter related principally, not to the day of judge- ment, or to any other very remote event, but to the destruction of Jerusalem, which did in reality happen before that genieration had passed away. ** But of that day and hour knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only." That is, although the time when Jerusalem is to be destroy- ed, is, as I have told you, fixed generally to this gene- ration, yet the precise day and hour of that event is not known either to men or angels, but to God only. This he speaks in his human nature, and in his prophetic capacity. This point was not made known to him by the spirit, nor was he commissioned to reveal it. It is supposed by several learned commentators, that the words that day and that hour, refer to the day of judgement, which is immediately alluded to in the pre- ceding verse, heaven and earth shall pass away. This LECTURE XIX. 367 conjecture is an ingenious one, and may be true ; but if it be, this verse should be inclosed in a parenthesis, because what follows most certainly relates to the de- struction of Jerusalem, (to which St. Luke in the se- venteenth chapter expressly confines it *) and cannot, without great violence to the words, be applied to the final advent of Christ. '* As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away : so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field ; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall be taken, and the other left." That is, when the day of desolation shall come upon the city and temple of Jerusalem, the inhabitants will be as thoughtless and unconcerned, and as unprepared for it, as the antediluvians were for the flood in the days of Noah. But as some (more particularly the Christians) will be more watchful, and in a better state of mind than others, the providence of God will make a distinction between his faithful and his disobedient servants, and will protect and preserve the former, but leave the latter to be taken or destroyed by their ene- mies ; although they may both be in the same situa- tion of life, may be engaged in the same occupations, and may appear to the world to be in every respect in similar circumstances. Here ends the prophetical part of our Lord's dis- course; what follows is altogether exhortatory. It may be called the moral of the prophecy, and the prac- * Luke xvii. 26, 27 ; 35,36. 368 LECTURE XIX. tical application of it not only to his immediate hearers, but to his disciples in all future ages; for this concluding admonition, most certainly alludes no less to the final judgement than to the destruction of Jeru- salem, and applies with at least equal force to both. Indeed the prophecy itself, although in its primary and strictest sense it relates throughout to the destruction of the temple, city, and government of Jerusalem, yet, as I have before observed, may be considered, and w^as probably intended by Jesus, as a type and an emblem of the dissolution of the world itself, to which the total subversion of a great city and a whole nation bears some resemblance. But with respect to the con- clusion, there can be no doubt of its being intended to call our attention to the last solemn day of account ; and with a view of its producing this effect, I shall now press it upon your minds in the very words of our Lord, without any comment, for it is too clear to re- quire any explanation, and too impressive to require any additional enforcement. '' Watch ye, therefore, for ye know not at what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and a wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season ? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Ve- rily I say unto you, that he shall make him ruler over all his goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart. My lord delayeth his coming ; and shall be- gin to sm.ite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink LECTURE XIX. 369 with the drunken ; the lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 2 B 370 LECTURE XX. MATTHEW XXIV— XXV. In my last Lecture I explained to you that remark- able prophecy respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, which is contained in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew; and by a reference to the historians who record or mention that event, I proved to you the complete and exact accomplishment of that wonderful prediction in all its parts. And this, in a common case, I should have thought fully sufficient for your satisfaction. But this proptiecy stands so eminently distinguished by its singular importance, and the great variety of matter which it embraces, and it affords so decisive, so irresistible a proof of the divine authority of our religion, that it appears to me to be well worthy of a little more attention and considera- tion. I shall therefore, before I proceed to the next chapter, make such farther remarks upon it, as may tend to throw new light upon the subject, to show more distinctly the exact correspondence of the pre- diction with the event, and to point out the very interesting conclusions that may be drawn from it. And first I would observe, that, in some instances the providence of God seems evidently to have inter- posed in order to bring about several of the events. LECTURE XX. 371 which Jesus here alludes to or predicts. Thus, in the twelfth year of Nero, Cestius Gallus, the president of Syria, came against Jerusalem with a powerful army; and, as Josephus assures us, he might, had he assaulted the city, easily have taken it, and thereby have put an end to the war *. But without any apparent reason, and contrary to all expectation, he suddenly raised the siege, and departed. This, and some other very inci- dental delays, which took place before Vespasian besieged the city, and Titus surrounded it with a wall, gave the Christians within an opportunity of following our Lord's advice, and of escaping to the mountains, which afterwards it would have been impossible for them to do. In the same manner the besieged inhabitants them- selves helped to fulfil another of our Saviour's predic- tions, that those days should be shortened; for they burnt their own provisions, which would have been sufficient for many years, and fatally deserted their strongest holds, where they never could have been taken by force, the fortifications of the city being considered as impregnable. Titus was so sensible of this, that he himself ascribed his success to God: ** We have fought," said he to his friends, ." with God on our side ; and it is God who hath dragged the Jews out of their strong holds ; for what could the hands of men and machines do against such towers as these f ?" In the next place it is worthy of remark, that at the time when our Lord delivered this prophecy, there was not the slightest probability of the Romans invading Judaea, much less of their besieging the city of Jeru- salem, of their surrounding it with a wall, of their * De Bell. Jud. 1. ii. c. 19. t Newton's Dissert, on Prophecy, vol. ii. p. 276. 2 B 2 372 LECTURE XX. taking it by storm, and of their destroying the Temple so entirely, as not to leave one stone upon another. The Jews were then at perfect peace with the Romans. The latter could have no motives of interest or of policy to invade, destroy, and depopulate a country, which was already subject to them, and from which they reaped many advantages. The fortifications too of the city were (as I have before observed) so strong, that they were deemed invincible by any human force, and it was not the custom of the Romans to demo- lish and raze the very foundations of the towns they took, and exterminate the inhabitants, but rather to preserve them as monuments of their victories and their triumphs. It could not therefore be from mere human sagacity and foresight that our Saviour foretold these events; or, had he even hazarded a conjecture respecting a war with the Romans, and the siege of Jerusalem, yet he could only have done this in general terms ; he could never have imagined or invented such a variety of minute particulars as he did predict, and as actually came to pass. It is, indeed, of great importance to observe the surprising assemblage of striking circumstances which Christ pointed out in this prophecy. They are much more numerous than is commonly supposed, and well deserve to be distinctly specified. They may be arranged under three general heads. The first consists of those signs that were to precede the destruction of Jerusalem. And these signs were, false Christs. false prophets, rumours of wars, actual wars, nation rising against nation, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, fearful sights, the persecution of the apostles, the apostacy of some LECTURE XX. 373 Christians, and the treachery of others, the preservation of Christ's faithful disciples, and the propagation of the gospel through the whole Roman world. The second head is the commencement of the siege. Under this head are specified the distinguishing standard of the Roman army, the eagle, with the images of the gods and their emperor affixed to it. The idolatrous worship paid to this standard, called the abomination, for so it was to the Jews. The planting of this standard near the holy city, and afterward in the very Temple. The desolation which the Roman armies spread around them. The escape of the Christians to the mountainous country round Jerusalem. The inconceivable and unparalleled calamities of every kind which the wretched inhabitants endured during the siege ; and the shortening of those days of vengeance on account of the Christians. The third head is the actual capture of Jerusalem by the besieging army. And here it is foretold, '•' that not one stone of its magnificent buildings should be left upon another;" that the temple, the government, the state, the polity of the Jews, should be utterly subverted ; and, lastly, that all these things should happen before the then present race of men should be extinguished. If, now, we collect together the several particulars here specified, they amount to no less than twenty-two in number. A larger detail of minute circumstances than is to be found in any other of our Lord's pro- phecies ; and all these we see actually fulfilled in the history of Josephus, and other ancient writers ; and it is extremely remarkable, that his description of the 374 LECTURE XX. siege of Jerusalem, like this prophecy, is more minutely circumstantial and more spread out into detail, than the account of any other siege that we have in ancient history. It should seem therefore as if this historian was purposely raised up by Providence to record this memorable event, and to verify our Saviour's predic- tions. And, indeed, no one could possibly be better qualified for the task than he, from his situation and circumstances, from his integrity and veracity, and, above all, from the opportunities he had of being per- fectly well acquainted with every thing he relates. He was born at Jerusalem, under the reign of the emperor Caligula, and about seven years after our Lord's crucifixion. He was of a noble family ; on his father's side descended from the most illustrious of the high priests ; and on his mother's side, from the blood royal. At the age of nineteen, after having made a trial of all the different sects of the Jews, he embraced that of the Pharisees ; and at the age of twenty-six he made a journey to Rome, to obtain from Nero the release of some* Jewish priests, who had been thrown into bonds by Felix the procurator of Judsea. He succeeded in this business ; and on his return to Jerusalem found his countrymen resolved on com- mencing hostilities against the Romans, from which he endeavoured to dissuade them ; but in vain. He was soon after appointed by the Jewish government to the command of an army in Galilee, where he signalized himself in many engagements ; but at the siege of Jotapata was taken prisoner by Vespasian, and after- wards carried by Titus to the siege of Jerusalem, where he was an eye-witness of every thing that passed, till the city was taken and destroyed by the Romans. He then composed his History of the Jewish LECTURE XX. 375 War, and particularly of the siege and capture of Jerusalem, in seven books; which he first wrote in Hebrew, and afterwards in Greek, and presented it to Vespasian and Titus, by both of whom it was highly approved, and ordered to be made public. And it is in this history that we find the accomplishment of all the several facts and events relative to the siege and the destruction of Jerusalem, which our Saviour fore- told forty years before they happened, and which have been above recited. This history is spoken of in the highest terms by men of the greatest learning and the soundest judgement, from its first publication to the present time. The fidelity, the veracity, and probity of the writer, are universally allowed; and Scaliger in particular declares, that not only in the affairs of the Jews, but even of foreign nations, he deserves more credit than all the Greek and Roman writers put together *. Certain at least it is, that he had that most essential qualification of an historian, a perfect and accurate knowledge of all the transactions which he relates; that he had no prejudices to mislead him in the repre- sentation of them ; and that, above all, he meant no favour to the Christian cause. For even allowing the so much controverted passage, in which he is supposed to bear testimony to Christ, to be genuine, it does not appear that he ever became a convert to his religion, but continued probably a zealous Jew to the end of his life. From this account it is evident, that we may most securely rely on every thing he tells us respecting the siege of Jerusalem ; and that nothing can more com- pletely demonstrate the truth of our blessed Lord's * In Prolegom. ad opus de Emendatione Temporum. 376 LECTURE XX. predictions, than the uncorrupt, impartial, and unde- signed testimony given to their completion by this justly celebrated historian. Here then we have a proof, vs^hich it is impossible to controvert, of our Saviour's perfect knowledge of future events, which belongs solely to God, and to those inspired and sent by him ; which of course establishes in the clearest manner, the divine mission of Christ, and the divine origin of our religion. The only pretence that can possibly be set up against this prophecy is, that it was not delivered by our Saviour previous to the destruction of Jerusalem, but inserted afterwards by St. Matthew and the other evangelists, subsequent to that event. This may un- doubtedly be said, and many things may be said by those whose trade is objection and cavil : but can it be said with the smallest appearance of truth? Is there the slightest ground to support it ? Most cer- tainly not. It is a mere gratuitous assertion without the least shadow of proof; and an opposite assertion is a sufficient answer to it. We deny the fact ; and call upon our adversaries to prove it, if they can : they have never so much as attempted it. Not even the earliest enemies of our faith, those who were much nearer the primitive ages, and much more likely to detect a fraud in the evangelical writers (if there were any) than modern infidels, even these never intimate the slightest suspicion that this prophecy was inserted after the event. But besides this, there are good grounds to believe, not only that the three gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where this prophecy is related, were written and published before the destruction of Jerusalem, but that the writers of them were all dead before that LECTURE XX. 377 event. It is also well known, that both St. Peter and St. Paul, who allude in their Epistles to the approach- ing ruin of Jerusalem *, (which they learned from our Lord's predictions) and who had seen and approved the gospels of St. Mark and St. Luke, were put to death under Nero, and Jerusalem was not taken till the succeeding reign of Vespasian. It should be observed farther, that although this prophecy is by far the fullest, and clearest, and most distinct, that our Lord delivered respecting the de- struction of Jerusalem, he plainly, though briefly, alludes to it in several other parts of the gospel -f. And these occasional predictions of that event are so frequent, and so perfectly agree with this larger pro- phecy, they are introduced so incidentally in the way of parables, or in answer to some question ; they arise, in short, so naturally from the occasion, and are so inartificially interwoven into the very essence and substance of the narrative, that they have every ima- ginable appearance of having formed an original part of it, and cannot possibly be considered by any good judge of composition as subsequent or fraudulent insertions » Indeed such a fabrication as this would have been the silliest and most useless fraud that can be imagined. For it is very remarkable, that the sacred writers make no use of this prophecy as a proof of our Saviour's divine powers, or of the truth of his religion. They appeal frequently to the ancient prophecies concerning him, to his miracles, and above all to his resurrection, as evidences that he was the Messiah, and the Son of * Acts ii. 19. 1 Pet. iv. 7. Phil. iv. 5. 1 Thess. ii. 16. Newton on Proph. vol. ii. p. 225. Jortin's Remarks, vol. i. p. 49. "t Matt.xxii. 1— 7; xxiii. 33— 39. Lukexix. 41— 44 ; xiii.l~5; &c. &c. 378 LECTURE XX. God ; but they never appeal to the accomplishment of this prophecy in support of those great truths, though certainly a very natural and important proof to be adduced in favour of them. But that which ought, with every reasonable man, to be decisive of the question, is this, that three of the evangelists out of four concur in giving us this pro- phecy as a part of their history of our Lord, and as actually delivered by him, at the period assigned to it, which we know was nearly forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem. Now we have no more reason to doubt their veracity in this point than in any other ; and if, on the strength of their character, on the evident marks of integrity, simplicity, and truth, which appear in every page of their writings ; and above all, if in consequence of their undergoing the bitterest sufferings as an evidence of their sin- cerity, we give implicit credit to what they tell us respecting the life, the death, the doctrines, the miracles, and the resurrection of Christ, there is the very same reason for admitting the genuineness of this prophecy. It stands on the same solid grounds of their veracity and probity as the rest of the gospel does ; and when men lay down their lives, as they did, in confirmation of what they assert, they have surely some right to be believed. We may then safely consider this prophecy as an unquestionable proof of the divine foreknowledge of our Lord, and the divine authority of the gospel ; and on this ground only (were it necessary) we might securely rest the whole fabric of our religion. Indeed this remarkable prediction has always been consi- dered, by every impartial person, as one of the most powerful arguments in favour of Christianity ; and in LECTURE XX. 379 our own times, more particularly, a man of distin- guished talents and acknowledged eminence in his profession, and in the constant habit of weighing, sifting, and scrutinizing evidence with the minutest accuracy in courts of justice, has publicly declared, that he considered this prophecy, if there were nothing else to support Christianity, as absolutely irresistible * But our Lord's predictions respecting this devoted city do not end even here. He not only foretels the entire destruction of Jerusalem, but the continuaiice of its desolation and subjection to heathens, and the dis- persion and captivity of the Jews for a long period of time. For if we turn to the parallel place in St. Luke, we shall find him expressing himself in these words, respecting the Jews and their city; *' they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall be trod- den down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled f." That is, not only vast num- bers of the Jews shall perish at the siege of Jerusalem, partly by their own seditions, and partly by the sword of the enemy, but multitudes shall also be made cap- tives, and be dispersed into all countries ; and Jeru- salem shall remain in a state of desolation and oppres- sion, trampled upon and trodden down by heathen • See Mr. Erskine's eloquent speech at the trial of Williams, for publishing Paine's Age of Reason; to which I must beg leave to add the weighty and important testimony of that most able and upright judge, Lord Kenyon, who, in his charge to the jury, on the same occasion, made this noble confession OF faith: "I am fully impressed with the great truths of religion, which, thank God, I was taught in my early years to believe ; and which the hour of reflection and inquiry, instead of creating any doubt, has fully confirmed me in."— How vain are all the idle cavils of the whole tribe of infidels put toge- ther, when contrasted with such a declaration as this from such a man '. t Luke xxi. 24. 380 LECTURE XX. conquerors and rulers, till all the Gentiles shall be converted to the faith of Christ, and the Jews them- selves shall acknowledge him to be the Messiah, and shall be restored to their ancient city. The former part of this prophecy has been already most exactly fulfilled, and is an earnest that all the rest will in due time be accomplished. The number of Jews slain during the siege was upwards of one million one hundred thousand, and near three hundred thousand more were destroyed in other places in the course of the war *. Besides these, as Josephus informs us, no less than ninety-seven thousand were made captives and dispersed into different countries, some into Egypt, some to Csesarea, some carried to grace the triumph of Titus at Rome, and the rest dis- tributed over the Roman provinces -\ ; and the whole Jewish people continue to this hour scattered over all the nations of the earth. With respect to their city, it has remained, for the most part, in a state of ruin and desolation, from its destruction by the Romans to the present time ; and has never been under the government of the Jews themselves, but oppressed and broken down by a suc- cession of foreign masters, the Romans, the Saracens, the Franks, the Mamalukes, and last by the Turks, to whom it is still subject. It is not, therefore, only in the history of Josephus, and in other ancient writers, that we are to look for the accomplishment of our Lord's predictions ; we see them verified at this mo- ment before our eyes, in the desolated state of the once celebrated city aifd temple of Jerusalem, and in the present condition of the Jewish people, not col- * Bell. Jud. 1. ii. iii. iv. vii. &c. t Josephus Bell. Jud. 1. vi. c. 9. LECTURE XX. 381 lected together into any one country, into one political society, and under one form of government, but dis- persed over every region of the globe, and every where treated with contumely and scorn. There was indeed one attempt made to rebuild their temple and their city, and restore them to their ancient prosperity and splendour. It was made, too, for the express and avowed purpose of defeating that very prophecy we have been considering; and the event was such as might be expected from the folly and presumption of the man who dared to oppose the designs of Providence, and to fight against God. This man was the emperor Julian, who, as you all know, was first a Christian, then apostatized from that reli- gion, professed himself a pagan, and became a bitter and avowed enemy to the gospel. This prince assured the Jews, that if he was successful in the Persian war, he would rebuild their city, restore them to their habitations, re-establish their government and their religion, and join with them in worshipping the great God of the universe. He actually began this singular enterprise, by attempting to rebuild their temple with the greatest magnificence. He assigned immense sums for the structure ; and gave it in charge to Alypius of Antioch, who had formerly been lieutenant in Britain, to superintend the work. Alypius exerted himself with great vigour, and was assisted in it by the gover- nor of the province. But soon after they had begun the work, dreadful balls of fire bursting out from the foundations in several parts, rendered the place inac- cessible to the workmen, who were frequently burnt with the flames ; and in this manner, the fiery elements obstinately repelling them, forced them at length to abandon the design. The account of this extraordi- 382 LECTURE XX. nary miracle we have not only from ancient Christian writers of credit, who lived at the very time when it happened, but from an heathen author of great vera- city, Ammianus Marcellinus, who wrote the history of Roman affairs from Nerva to the death of Valens, in the year 378. Though he wrote in Latin, he was a Greek by birth. He had several honourable military commands under different emperors ; was with Julian in his Persian expedition, in the year 363, and was a great admirer of that emperor, whom he makes his hero; yet acknowledges that his attempt to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem was defeated in the manner I have mentioned *. The fact is frequently appealed to by the Christians of those days, who affirm that it was in the mouths of all men, and was not denied even by the atheists themselves; and ** if it seem yet incre- dible to any one, he may repair (say they) both to 'witnesses of it yet living, and to them who have heard it from their mouths ; yea, they may view the founda- tions, lying yet bare and naked -}"." And of this, says Chrysostom, all we Christians are witnesses; these things being done not long since in our own time J. Such are the testimonies for this miracle, which are collected and stated with great force by the learned Bishop Warburton, in his work called ** Julian ;" and most of them are also admitted by Mr. Gibbon, who, in his recital of this miracle, acknowledges that it is attested by contemporary and respectable evidence ; that Gregory Nazianzen, who published his account of it before the expiration of the same year, declares it was not disputed by the infidels of those days, and that * Ammianus Marcellinus 1. xxiii. c. 1. p. 350. Ed. Valesii. t Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. 1. v. c.22. p. 632. Do. 633. B. + Chrys. adv. Judseos Orat. iii. p. 436. LECTURE XX. 383 his testimony is confirmed by the unea^ceptionable tes- timony of Ammianus Marcellinus*. I now proceed to the explanation of the next chapter, the 25th of St. Matthew ; which begins with presenting to us two parables, that of the ten virgins, and that of the servants of a great lord entrusted with different talents, of which they are called upon to render an account. As these parables contain nothing that re- quires a very particular explanation, I shall content myself, with observing, that they are designed to carry on the subject with which the preceding chapter con- cludes ; namely, that of the last solemn day of retri- bution : and ihe object of both is to call our attention to that great event, and to warn us of the necessity of being always prepared for it. Thus in the parable of the ten virgins, the five that were wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps, and when the bride- groom appeared they were ready to receive him, and went in with him to the marriage. But the five that were foolish took no oil with them; and while they went to procure it, the bridegroom unex'pectedly came, and the door was shut againt them. The application is obvious, and is given by our Lord himself in these words, "watch ye, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord cometh." In the same manner, in the parable of the talents, he that had received the five talents, and he that had received the two, did, during the absence of their Lord, so diligently cultivate and so considerably improve them, that when at length he came to reckon with them, they returned him his own again with usury, and received both applause and reward ; while that slothful and indolent servant, who had received only * History of the Roman Empire, vol. ii. p. 388. 384 LECTURE XX. one talent, and instead of improving it went and hid it in the earth, when his lord came and required it at his hands, was severely reprimanded for his want of acti- vity and exertion, and was cast out as an unprofitable servant into outer darkness. This, like the former parable, was plainly meant to intimate to us that we ought to be always 'prepared to meet our Lord, and to give him a good account of the use we have made of our time, and of the talents, whether many or few, that were entrusted to our care. After these admonitory parables, and these earnest exhortations to prepare for the last great day, our blessed Lord is naturally led on to a description of the day itself; and it is a description which for dignity and grandeur has not its equal in any writer, sacred or profane. It is as follows: " When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory : and before him shall be gathered all nations : and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats : and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand. Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom pre- pared for you from the foundation of the world : for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took ^me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee ; or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in ; or naked and clothed thee ? or when saw we "thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee; LECTURE XX. 385 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he also say unto those on his left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels : for I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye cfothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they answer him, saying. Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punish- ment; but the righteous into life eternal." Such is the description which our divine Master gives us of the great day of account ; and so solemn, so awful, so sublime a scene, was never before pre- sented to the mind of man. Our Saviour represents himself as a great and migh- ty King, as the supreme Lord of all, sitting on the throne of his glory, with all the nations of the earth as- sembled before him, and waiting their final doom from his lips. What an astonishing and stupendous spec- tacle is this! He then at one glance, which penetrates the hearts of every individual of that immense multi- tude, discerns the respective merits or demerits of every human being there present, and separates the good from the bad with as much ease as a shepherd divides his sheep from his goats. He next questions them on one most important branch of their duty, as a specimen of the manner in which the inquiry into the 2 c 386 LECTURE XX. whole of their behaviour will be conducted ; and then, with the authority of an almighty Judge and Sovereign, he in a few words pronounces the irreversible sentence, which consigns the wicked to everlasting punishment, and the righteous to life eternal. Before I press this important subject any farther on the hearts of those who hear me, I must make a few observations on the description which has been just laid before you. Tlie first is, that all mankind, when assembled before the judgement-seat of Christ, are divided into two 'great classes, the wicked and the good, those who are punished, and those who are rewarded. There is no middle, no intermediate station provided for those who may be called neutrals in religion, who are indifferent and lukewarm, who are "neither hot nor cold," who do not reject the gospel, but give themselves very little concern about it, who, instead of working out their salvation with fear and trembling, leave that matter to take care of itself, and are at perfect ease as to the event. These* men cannot certainly expect to inherit everlasting life. But they hope, probably, to be con- sidered as harmless inoffensive beings, and to be ex- empted from punishment at least, if not entitled to reward. But how vain this hope is, our Saviour's representation of the final judgement most clearly shows. They who are not set on the right, must go to the left. They who are not rewarded, are consigned to punishment. There are indeed different mansions both for the righteous and the wicked ; there are dif- ferent degrees of punishment for the one, and of reward for the other; yet still it does not appear that there is any middle or intermediate state between punish- ment and reward. LECTURE XX. 387 The next remark, and which has some affinity to the last, is, that we are to be examined at the bar of our great Judge, not merely as to our exemption from crimes, but as to our performance of good actions; substantial and genuine Christian virtues are expected at our hands. It will not be sufficient for us to plead that we kept ourselves clear from sin; we must show that we have exerted ourselves in the faithful discharge of all those various important duties which the gospel requires from us. Lastly, it must be observed, and it is an observation of the utmost importance, and which I wish to impress most forcibly upon your minds, that although charity to our neighbour, and indeed only one branch of that comprehensive duty, viz. Uberaliti) to the poor, is here specified, as the only Christian virtue, concerning which inquiry will be made at the day of Judgement; yet we must not imagine that this is the only virtue which will be expected from us, and that on this alone will depend our final salvation. Nothing can be more distant from truth, or more dangerous to religion than this opinion. The fact is, that charity, or love to man in all its extent, being the most eminent of all the evangelical virtues, being that which Christ has made the very badge and discriminating mark of his religion, is here constituted by him the representative of all other virtues; just as faith is, in various passages of scripture, used to denote and represent the whole Christian religion. Nothing is more common than this sort of figure (called a synecdoche) in profane, as well as sacred writers ; by which a part, an essential and important part, is made to stand for the whole. But that neither charity nor any other single virtue can entitle us to eternal life, is clear from the whole tenour 2 c 2 388 LECTURE XX. of the New Testament, which every where requires universal holiness of life. We are commanded *' to stand perfect and complete in «// the will of God*;" to add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity f. Here you see that charity makes only one in that large assemblage of virtues, which are required to consti- tute the Christian character. And so far is it from being true, that any single virtue will give us admis- sion into the kingdom of heaven, that St. James lays down a directly opposite doctrine, namely, that if we do not to the best of our power cultivate evert/ virtue without exception, we shall be objects of punishment, instead of reward. "Whosoever," says he, ''shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Nay, even if we endeavour to fulfil all righteousness, yet it is not on that righteousness, but on the merits of our Redeemer, that we must rely for our acceptance with God. For the plain doctrine of scripture is, that it is **the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanseth us from all sin J;" and that **by grace we are saved, through faith; and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God§." Of this, indeed, no notice is taken in our Saviour's description of the last judge- ment, and that for a plain reason, because he had not yet finished the gracious work of our redemption. He had not yet ofi'ered himself up upon the cross as a sacrifice, a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. But after that great act of mercy was performed, it is then the imiform language of the sacred writers, "that we are justified freely by the grace of God, * Col. iv. \i. t 2 Pet. i. G. \ 1 John i. 7. § Ephes. ii. 8. LECTURE XX. 38^: through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus*.'* We must therefore collect the terms of our salvation not from any one passage of scripture, but from the whole tenour of the sacred writings taken together; and if we judge by this rule, which is the only one that can be securely relied upon, we shall find that nothing less than a sincere and lively faith in Christ, producing in us, as far as the infirmity of our nature will allow, universal holiness of life, can ever make our final calling and election sure. But thus much we may certainly collect from our Lord's representation of our final judgement, that charity, or love to man, in the true scriptural sense of that word, is one of the most essential duties of our religion; and that to neglect that virtue, above all others, which our Redeemer and our Judge has selected as the peculiar object of his approbation, and as the representative of all the other evangelical virtues, must be peculiarly dangerous, and render us peculiarly unfit to appear at the last day before the great tribunal of Christ. How soon we may be summoned there no one can tell. The final dissolution of this earthly system may be at a great distance ; but, what is the same thing to every moral and religious purpose, death may be very near. It is at least, even to the youngest of us, uncer- tain, and in whatever state it overtakes us, in that state will judgement find us ; for there is no repentance in the grave ; and as we die, so shall we stand before our Almighty Judge. "Take heed therefore to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face * Rom. iii. 24. 390 LECTURE XX. of the earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man*." Luke xxi. 34, 35, 36. 391 LECTURE XXI. MATTHEW XXVI. We are now approaching the last sad scene of our Saviour's life, which commences with the 26th chap- ter, and continues in a progressive accumulation of one misery upon another to the end of St. Matthew's gospel. The 26th chapter, which will be the subject of the present Lecture, begins with informing us that two days before the great Feast of the Passover, the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, assembled together unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted that they might take Jesus by subtilty and kill him. Whilst they were thus employed, Jesus himself was in Bethany (a small village near Jerusalem) at the house of a person called Simon, whom he had cured of a leprosy; and here an incident took place which marks at once the manners of the country and the times, and places in a striking point of view the different cha- racters of the several persons concerned in it. As Jesus was sitting at meat in the house above mentioned, " there came unto him a woman, having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head. But when his disciples saw it, 392 LECTURE XXI. they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste ? for this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman ? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, where- soever this gospel siiall be preached iir the whole world, there also shall this which this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." There are in this little story several circumstances that deserve our notice. The first is, that the act here mentioned, of pouring the ointment on the head of Jesus, though it may ap- pear strange tons, yet was perfectly conformable to the customs of ancient times, not only in Asia, but in the more polished parts of Europe. Chaplets of flowers and odoriferous unguents are mentioned by several classic authors as in use at the festive entertainments both of the Greeks and Romans ; and particularly among the Jews, the custom of anointing the head seems to have been almost as common a practice as that of washing the face. For they are mentioned to- gether by our Lord in his direction to his disciples on the subject of fasting: ** But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which seeth in secret*." But there was a much higher purpose to which the effusion of ointment on the head was applied by the Jews. It was by this ceremony that Kings, Priests, and Prophets, were set apart and consecrated to their • Mall. vi. 17, 18. LECTURE XXI. 393 respective offices. And for this reason it was that our blessed Lord himself, who united in his own person the threefold character of King, Priest, and Prophet, was distinguished by the name of the Messiah, which in the Hebrew language means the anointed. It was therefore with peculiar propriety that this discriminat- ing mark of respect was shown to Jesus by the devout woman here mentioned, though she herself was proba- bly altogether unconscious of that propriety. Jesus however saw at once the piety of her heart, and the purity of her intentions, and with that sweetness of temper and urbanity of manners which were natural to him, not only accepted her humble offering with complacency, but generously defended her against the illiberal cavils of his fastidious followers. And then he added a promise of that distinguished honour which should perpetuate this meritorious act of hers to all future ages : '' Verily I say unto you, that whereso- ever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this that this woman hath done be told for a memorial of her." This we know was no vain prediction ; it has been most literally and punctually fulfilled, and we ourselves are witnesses of its comple- tion at this very moment. The next remarkable occurrence in this chapter is the institution of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper by our Saviour, when he was eating the Passover with his- disciples. The Passover was one of the most solemn and sacred feasts of the Jews. It was so called because it was established in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt, at which time the destroying angel, when he put to death the first-born of the Egyptians, passed over the houses of the Israelites, 394 LECTURE XXI. which were all marked with the blood of the lamb that had been killed and eaten the evening before in every Hebrew house, and was therefore called the Paschal Lamb. This great festival our Saviour observed with his disciples the evening before he suffered, and with them ate the paschal lamb, which was a prophetic type of himself. For he was the real paschal lamb that was sacrificed for the sins of men. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world* ; the lamb without blemish and without spot f, as the paschal lamb was ordered to bej. There can be no doubt, therefore, that the paschal lamb of the Jews was meant to be an emblem of our Lord. The slaying of that lamb pre- figured the slaying of Christ upon the cross ; and as those houses which were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb were passed over by the destroying angel, so they whose souls are sprinkled with the blood of Christ are saved from destruction, and their sins passed over and forgiven for his sake. And it is a very remark- able circumstance, that our Saviour was crucified, and our deliverance from the bondage of sin completed, in the same month, and on the same day of the month, that the Israelites were delivered from the bondage of Egypt, by their departure from that land. For the Is- raelites went out of Egypt, and Christ was put to death, on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan. I have premised thus much respecting the passover and the paschal lamb, because it will throw consider- able light on the true nature and meaning of the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper, which Jesus now institut- ed, and of which the evangelist gives the following ac- count : " When the even was come, our Lord sat down * Kev. xiii. 8. t 1 Peter i. 19. X Ex. xii. 5. LECTURE XXI. 395 with the twelve to eat the passover ; and as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, tind gave it to his disciples, and said. Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it ; for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." This is the whole of the institution of the sacred rite by our blessed Lord, as recorded in St. Matthew's gospel ; and nothing can be more evident than that when he brake the bread, and gave it to his disciples, and said, " Take, eat, this is my body;" he meant to say that the bread was to represent his body, and the breaking of it was to re- present the breaking of his body upon the cross. In the same manner, when he took the cup and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, *' Drink ye all of it, for this is my blood of the New Testament (or New Covenant) which is shed for many, for the remission of sins;" his meaning was, that the wine in the cup was a representation of his blood that was to be shed upon the cross as an expiation and atonement for the sins of the whole world. And his disciples were to eat the bread and drink the wine so consecrated, and so appropriated to this particular purpose, in grateful remembrance of what our Lord suffered for their sal- vation, and that of all mankind; for St. Luke adds these affecting and impressive words of our Saviour, This do in remembrance of me. The Lord's Supper therefore was evidently to be a solemn commemoration and recognition of the redemp- tion and deliverance of mankind by the death of Christ, as the Feast of the Passover was of the deliverance of the Israelites from the destroying angel. Nor is this all ; for as the Jews were accustomed in their peace- 396 LECTURE xxr. offerings to eat a part of the victim, and thus partook of the sacrifice ; so they would perceive that in this new institution, the eating of the bread and drinking of the w^ine was a mark and symbol of their participat- ing in the effects of this new peace-otfering, the death of Christ; whose body was broken, and whose blood was shed for them on the cross. They would also see that this supper of our Lord was from that time to be substituted in the room of the passover: and that they might have no doubt on this head, our Lord expressly declares that this was to be the case ; for immediately after the institution of this sacrament he adds, *' I say unto you, I will not