m 
 
W^tr^ 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 ■/. 4 
 
 I 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/worksofwilliamma04maso 
 
THE 
 
 WORKS 
 
 OF 
 
 WILLIAM MASON, MA, 
 VOL. IV. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 SERMONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS. ESSAY ON THE 
 
 MEANING OF THE WORD ANGEL, AS USED BY ST. 
 
 PAUL. EXAMINATION OF THE PROPHECY IN THE 
 
 24th CHAPTER OF ST. MATTHEW. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 On Christian Compassion. 
 
 Preached before his present Majesty at St, James's Chapel, Sept. 
 26, 1762. 
 
 John xi. 35. 
 
 Jesus wept - -55 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 
 On Christian Courtesy. 
 
 Preached before his Majesty's Household, at St. James's Chapel, 
 March 13, 1769. 
 
 1 Peter iii. 8. 
 
 Be pitiful, be courteous. - 69 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 On Christian Independence. 
 
 Preached as a Lent Sermon in St James's Chapel, March 16, 1768 ; 
 and in York Cathedral the same year, Aug. 29th. 
 
 1 Cor. vii. 23. 
 
 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of 
 men. - - 81 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 On the Christian Duty of Glorifying God, in sequel to the for- 
 mer Discourse. 
 
 Preached in York Cathedral, Sept. i, 1768. 
 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
 
 Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your 
 body, and in your spirit, which are God's. - 93 
 
 SERMON IX. 
 On Christian Patriotism. 
 Preached in York Cathedral. 
 Romans ix. 3. 
 
 I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my 
 brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 105 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMON X. 
 On Christian Benevolence. 
 Romans xiii. 8. 
 
 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. 121 
 
 SERMON XI. 
 
 On the Progressive Assistance of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Preached at St- James's before his Majesty's Household, Lent, 
 March 24, 1771. 
 
 2 Peter iii. 18. 
 
 Growing-race. - • - 133 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 On the Effects of the Divine Spirit, in sequel to the former 
 
 Discourse. 
 
 Romans xv. 13. 
 
 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believ- 
 ing, that you may abound in hope through the power of 
 the Holy Ghost. - - 14T 
 
 SERMON XIII. 
 
 The Rule of Honour, a principle too imperfect to regulate 
 
 Christian action. 
 
 Preached before the late King at Kensington, Oct. 28, 1759, and at 
 St. James's Chapel, before his present Majesty, March 1, 1767. 
 
 Galat. i. 10. 
 
 Do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please 
 men? for if I yet pleased men, 1 should not be the servant 
 of Christ. - - - 161 
 
 SERMON XI V\ 
 
 God, the universal and equal Father of all Mankind. 
 
 Preached in York Cathedral, 27 January, 1788. On the African 
 Slave Trade. 
 Acts xvii. 28. 
 
 For we also are his Offspring. - 1T5 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 SERMOX XV. 
 On the prophetical tendency of Christ's discourse with Nicodemus. 
 
 Preached at York Cathedral on Whitsunday, 1773. 
 St. John iii. 8. 
 
 The wind hloweth where it listeth,and thou nearest the 
 sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it coraeth and 
 whither it goeth ; so is every one that is born of the 
 Spirit. - - - 191 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 On the Duty of avoiding Bad Company, iustanced in that of 
 
 Gamesters. 
 
 Ephesians v. 16. 
 
 Redeeming the time because the days are evil. 203 
 
 A Conjectural Essay, in which the meaning of the word 
 Angel, as sometimes used by St. Paul in his Epistle to his 
 Grecian Converts, is attempted to be ascertained. 217 
 
 An Examination of the Prophecy, contained in the 24th 
 Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel. - - 24T 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 1 1 5, last line note, dele present ; also de\e present, p. 238, 1. 1 . 
 232, — 2, between not and conceive add /. 
 234, — 6, for has read hath 
 250, — 13, between two and distinct add specific. 
 257, — 1, for the right read /us right. 
 266, — 1, for all tribes read a// f/?e tribes 
 266, — 7 of annotations, for of vengeance read 0/ his 
 vengeance. 
 
ON THE 
 
 USE OF THE WORLD, 
 
 AS PERMITTED BY 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 VOL. IV. B 
 
SERMON I 
 
 1 Cor. vii. 31. 
 
 USE THIS WORLD AS NOT ABUSING IT, FOR THE 
 
 FASHION OF THIS WORLD PASSETH AWAY. 
 
 Oerious and speculative persons have, in all ages, (amid 
 their general researches after truth) made the use and 
 value of the world a principal object of their considera- 
 tion, in order that they might proportion their esteem for 
 it to its real and intrinsic worth ; and the importance of 
 the subject authorised their pains ; for as this material 
 world is the place allotted for our present abode, it is in- 
 cumbent upon us that, next to forming right conceptions 
 of that Supreme Being who placed us here, we should 
 form right conceptions of that system of beings in which 
 we are placed. Yet it must be confessed that, however 
 diligent men may have been in searching after the truth 
 on this question, their opinions have been various, and 
 their conclusions sometimes contradictory. It would be 
 no unentertaining disquisition (were this the proper place 
 
 * The following Sermons were all printed by the Author, but 
 none of them were published by him except the 14th. 
 
[43 [Sermon I. 
 
 for it) to trace Philosophy through her several schools of 
 antiquity, and to observe how, in each of them, she incul- 
 cated a different doctrine upon this point. Here we 
 should find the haughty Stoic, wrapt in the idea of his 
 own internal virtue, treating the world with disregard 
 and indifference ; while the churlish Cynic, from his real 
 or pretended abhorrence of external vice, spurns it with 
 contempt and detestation. Here the grave disciple of 
 Pythagoras, looking upon it as an august drama, in which 
 he is to perform various, and some important parts, 
 beholds it with veneration and awe : and there the care- 
 less pupil of Epicurus, fancying it but a trifling farce, 
 soon to be closed by the curtain of death, selects the most 
 agreeable scenes he can find in it for his enjoyment, 
 passing over the rest with a careless disregard. But, 
 without searching into antiquity for instances of this 
 dissimilitude of opinion, we may find them (where it will 
 be more to our purpose to find them) amongst the 
 speculative part of our own age. 
 
 By this term I would be understood to mean such 
 persons as employ their studies in the search of moral and 
 religious truths, and, in consequence of that search, form 
 to themselves different modes of practical conduct. To 
 separate these into their several classes, would be not 
 only to enumerate all the sects into which Christianity is 
 unhappily divided, but also to distinguish between the 
 more unhappy, and almost as numerous, degrees of 
 
Sermon I.j [ 5 ] 
 
 Scepticism and Infidelity; a task on both parts alike dis- 
 agreeable and unnecessary. But it may not be amiss 
 slightly to examine the extremes of both, and to give, in 
 a contrasted view, the tenets and practice of two parties 
 the most opposite to each other, that of enthusiastic 
 Bigotry, and sceptical Free-thinking. This, perhaps, 
 with the assistance of the rule in the text, will lead us 
 to discover that opinion which the rational Christian 
 ought to maintain. — To begin with the enthusiastic 
 Bigot. 
 
 Gloomy ideas of God and nature, early imbibed with 
 the rest of the prejudices which attend an ill-tutored 
 infancy, or caught afterwards from the cant of some wild 
 enthusiast, have taught him to behold every object 
 around him in the darkest and most unpleasing point of 
 view; the beauties which arise from the simplicity of 
 nature, or from the symmetry of art; the curious 
 researches of abstract reasoning, or the creative efforts of 
 the imagination, have no charms to attract his soul : 
 " Vanity of vanities ! all is vanity !" That aphorism of 
 Solomon, ill understood, is his favourite tenet, his per- 
 petual exclamation : and what, from texts of the Old 
 Testament he finds occasion thus to stigmatize with the 
 title of Vanity, he quickly learns from texts of the New, 
 equally misapplied, to brand with the name of Sin. 
 Thus the most innocent pleasures are immediately con- 
 verted into unpardonable crimes; and not content to 
 
[ 6 ] [Sermon I. 
 
 abstain from them himself, he expects that the rest of 
 mankind should do the same ; and those who do not he 
 is ever ready, with much self-complacency, to condemn 
 to everlasting reprobation. 
 
 Where a mind is enveloped by so dark a gloom of 
 prejudice, we must in vain seek for any of the gentle, 
 the humane, the social qualities in its composition. It 
 is not to be expected that the man who finds nothing 
 amiable or useful to himself in the system of Nature, 
 should ever endeavour to render himself an useful or 
 amiable part of it : and, in fact, we find that persons of 
 this sort generally seclude themselves from the rest of 
 the world, and contract all their interests as much as may 
 be towards their own centre; nay, their very charity 
 takes the same confined cast, and parcels itself out in 
 small, unmeaning, ineffectual alms ; without any thing 
 of the true, masculine, diffusive nature of Christian bene- 
 volence, which extends itself from individuals to families, 
 from families to our country, from our country to the 
 whole race of mankind. 
 
 By the lines which I have sketched out of this cha- 
 racter, I would not be thought to describe every Bigot or 
 Enthusiast, for of these there are various and almost 
 infinite degrees ; my meaning was to shew the effects of 
 this temper in its extreme; and I should wish to he 
 understood in the same manner with respect to what I 
 
Sermon I.] [ 7 ] 
 
 am going to speak of that very opposite character, the 
 sceptical Free-thinker. 
 
 Dubious as he is (or as he endeavours to make him- 
 self) of every thing both prior and posterior to his own 
 existence, he thinks it the wisest thing he can do, to 
 bound all his views within the period of that existence : 
 and having examined into the visible face of Nature, 
 though he cannot conclude himself placed in a system of 
 complete felicity and perfection, yet, as the portion of 
 good in it seems superior to the portion of evil, he con- 
 cludes it to be the production, either of some fortunate 
 concourse of atoms, or else of some benevolent being, 
 who meant him to be as happy in it as the general system 
 would allow ; in consequence of this, his principal rule 
 of conduct is to do whatever may promote his present 
 happiness ; and therefore he uses indiscriminately what- 
 ever object he can meet with, which his reason, but more 
 frequently his passions, persuade him is conducive to that 
 end. If he fortunately happens to have so much consti- 
 tutional coolness, as not to hurry him into pleasures, 
 which tend immediately to weaken his rational, or impair 
 his sensitive faculties, his situation is for some time not 
 unflattering :* yet Satiety too soon commences : Invention 
 
 * We have seen a recent instance of this in the life and cha- 
 racter of the late Mr. David Hume, whose ruling passion, if we 
 may trust his own Memoirs, seems to have been a love, I will not 
 say of fame, but of literary celebrity; which appears to have been 
 
[ 8 ] [Sermon L 
 
 is called in to remove it : but, as Invention cannot long 
 supply new amusements without borrowing aid from 
 Luxury, that aid is quickly demanded; and Luxury, 
 having led her deluded follower through all the wilds of 
 vanity and of folly, leaves him at length to himself, to 
 drag out the remainder of a dissipated life, goaded by the 
 stings of a guilty conscience, or at best burning with a 
 fever of unsatisfied desires. 
 
 How different, how contradictory are these two cha- 
 racters ? The Bigot foolishly imagines that all the variety of 
 beauties and blessings which God has scattered through 
 the material universe, are so many snares which Satan 
 makes use of to trepan his soul into the pit of destruction : 
 the Infidel as foolishly persuades himself that these are 
 the only blessings and beauties that he was formed 
 capable of enjoying. One refuses to taste the whole- 
 somest draught of pleasure, as if tinged with the deadliest 
 poison; the other snatches her intoxicating cup, and 
 drinks of k even to its foulest dregs. In a word, the 
 former deems the world his prison ; the latter, his 
 Paradise. 
 
 There needs little argument, I imagine, to convince us 
 
 so very strong in him, that he could even find gratification for 
 his vanity, in the applause which French vroraen of quality gave 
 to his metaphysical talents. This passion, probably, did much 
 towards preventing him from falling into any of the grosser 
 vices. 
 
Sermon I.] [ 9 J 
 
 that the principles which lead to both these extremes in 
 conduct, are fallacious. Let us see then if we cannot, 
 by the assistance of the text, discover a rule that may 
 lead us to the rational medium. 
 
 But here I am well aware that the context does not 
 permit me to take the words in the light of an inspired 
 precept ; for they are delivered only in an answer to 
 certain questions proposed to St. Paul by the Corinthians, 
 which answer seems to refer, in the way of prophetical 
 forecast, to the approaching persecution under Nero.* 
 Yet, though delivered by St. Paul, in his own person, "and 
 not by commandment of the Lord," we may certainly 
 infer from them a permission to use the world, pro- 
 vided we observe the restriction of not abusing it ; and 
 this consistently with the whole tenor of Revelation, 
 which, teaching us that we are placed in the world as in 
 a state of probation, necessarily implies that we ought 
 to use it, and take a regular trial in it; otherwise we do 
 all in our power to prevent it from being such a state, 
 (a consideration, which at once confutes all the doc- 
 trines of monastic seclusion). But w r e find that the 
 Apostle cautions us to be very circumspect and prudent 
 in the use of it, because human events are in such per- 
 petual fluctuation ; our stay here so very precarious \ and 
 our entrance upon another world so near and so certain. 
 
 * See Mr. Locke's Comment on the place. 
 
[ 10 ] [Sermon I. 
 
 All which, I suppose, St. Paul means when he urges 
 the reason in these terms, c: because the fashion of 
 this world passeth away :" For if by this expression he 
 only meant, that its final dissolution would speedily 
 be accomplished, and left us to infer that all our powers 
 of perception would be dissolved with it, it might seem 
 of little consequence whether we abused the world or no. 
 The generality of mankind would certainly range even 
 to the utmost boundaries of sensuality, and think them- 
 selves justified by reason in so doing ; " let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die," would then be the fun- 
 damental rule in every rational system of ethics. 
 
 But as this sense of the words is repugnant to the ex- 
 press doctrines of Him, who brought life and immortality 
 to light through the Gospel, we must conclude the 
 Apostle's meaning to be, that the uncertainty of our 
 duration here, and the assured belief of a future state of 
 rewards and punishments hereafter, are the only reasons 
 to induce us to keep a strict watch over ourselves in this 
 important point ; important indeed only as it refers to 
 that future state, yet on that account surely of the last 
 importance. 
 
 Let this consideration therefore prompt us to make 
 such a liberal, manly, and rational use of the world, that 
 it may serve all the great and generous purposes (and 
 many they are) to which virtue and religion can adapt 
 
Sermon I.] [ 11 ] 
 
 it : let us use it as persons who have a right and pro- 
 perty in the good things which it contains : yet let us so 
 use it as not to diminish the sum of happiness we find 
 in it : but by every social and charitable art endeavour 
 to increase the proportion. Let us look upon it with a 
 complacency and satisfaction similar to that of its high 
 Creator when he formed it, and though, since that origi- 
 nal formation, it may have lost much of its real perfection, 
 yet we shall still see that it is good. Good for exercising 
 our rational faculties, and for improving them ; good for 
 calling forth all the latent virtues in our bosoms, and 
 for increasing them. Its past history will furnish us 
 with numerous examples worthy our imitation : its pre- 
 sent condition will afford us many occasions to exhibit 
 those examples in our practice. The successes we may 
 meet with in it, may give us ample scope for manifesting 
 our gratitude to that God from whom they were derived. 
 The calamities which may befall us, will give us room 
 to exercise the no less meritorious talents of resignation 
 and patience. Nay, the very vices and temptations with 
 which it abounds may, in avoiding them, employ our 
 prudence, and in opposing them, exercise our fortitude. 
 
 For purposes great and beneficial as these, may the 
 rational Christian use the world; and to such purposes 
 he who uses it may rest assured that when the fashion 
 of this world passeth away, the fashion of another and a 
 better shall commence, which shall not pass away; 
 
[12] [Sermon I. 
 
 where he shall be rewarded with eternal happiness, and 
 admitted to it by this gracious approbation of his 
 Redeemer and his Judge, "Well done, thou good and 
 faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
ON THE 
 
 SELF-SATISFACTION 
 
 WHICH RESULTS FROM THE 
 
 PRACTICE OF MORAL DUTIES. 
 
1 15 ] 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Pro v. xiv. 14. 
 
 THE GOOD MAN SHALL BE SATISFIED FROM 
 
 HIMSELF. 
 
 Human wisdom seems to concur with divine in ac- 
 knowledging the truth of this assertion, having given us 
 a common proverb, similar to this of the text, cc That 
 Virtue is its own reward/' And, indeed, if a very high 
 degree of internal satisfaction did not result from the 
 practice of moral duties, the state of good men in this 
 life would be far from eligible : placed, as we are, in a 
 world where the success of our actions is seldom certain, 
 and sometimes seemingly fortuitous, if no pleasure arose 
 from the actual energy (as we may call it) of virtue, it 
 is to be feared the distant hopes of future recompense 
 would scarce counterbalance the present pangs of disap- 
 pointment and distress. Thus much is certain, that 
 mankind would lose one cogent motive to goodness, and 
 that which, perhaps, of all others, operates most power- 
 fully on ingenuous and noble dispositions. 
 
[ 1C ] [Sermon II. 
 
 We see, therefore, it has pleased the mercy of the 
 Almighty graciously to annex a kind of innate principle 
 of delight and satisfaction to every virtuous and moral 
 action, and to every vicious one the contrary sensation 
 of abliorrence and disgust : so that as the good man is~ 
 satisfied from himself, the bad man is dissatisfied from 
 himself; as Virtue is its own reward, so is Vice its own 
 punishment; and this independently of contingencies, 
 independently of the good or bad success with which the 
 event of their several actions is attended. 
 
 But it may be observed upon this subject, that as there 
 is a possibility of carrying some sorts of virtue to an 
 excess, so it is still more possible to carry the self-ap- 
 probation which results from them to even a culpable 
 extreme. It is possible, nay it veiy frequently happens, 
 that actions, but moderately virtuous, produce in the 
 agent an immoderate degree of complacency and self- 
 esteem. Hence arise pride, vanity, contempt of others, 
 inordinate self-love, and a train of such like vices, which 
 more than eclipse the original virtues from which they 
 sprung. 
 
 Two sects of antient philosophers, the Stoics amongst 
 the Greeks, and the Pharisees amongst the Jews, afford 
 us pregnant instances of the truth of this assertion ; who, 
 though both of them zealous in the practice of virtue, 
 though the one placed happiness in absolute rectitude of 
 
Sermon II.] [ 17 J 
 
 action, and the other (which amounted to the same 
 thing) in scrupulously adhering to the dictates of the 
 Mosaical law; yet we know the haughtiness of Stoicism 
 hecame proverbial, and that Pharisaical righteousness 
 was deemed hypocrisy by a judge who could not err, 
 even by Christ himself. 
 
 And that this should frequently be the case, is obvious 
 from the imperfection of our common nature ; obvious 
 too from the very essence of virtue, which is calculated 
 to refine and elevate the soul, to exalt its conceptions, 
 and to stimulate the creature to an imitation of its 
 Creator. When therefore Virtue, thus in her own nature 
 addicted to high pursuits, chances to obtain the ascen- 
 dency in a mind naturally lofty and aspiring, it is apt 
 sometimes to stretch beyond its pitch, and to carry the 
 soul into extremes that even border upon vice. Reason 
 indeed has it in its power to put a check upon these 
 luxuriances ; but reason, on these kind of dispositions, 
 has seldom its due influence : for such a person is ever 
 apt to make comparisons between himself and others, 
 who either really have not, or he fancies have not, made 
 so great advances in moral perfection as himself. Self- 
 love also joining the inquisition, the sentence becomes 
 extremely partial. Pride, arrogance, and contempt, there- 
 fore, necessarily spring from the contemplation. Hence, 
 like the presumptuous Jew in the parable, the vain- 
 glorious moralist becomes too apt to thank his God, that 
 
 VOL. IV. C 
 
[ 18 ] [Sermon II. 
 
 he is not like other men ; to exalt his own good works, 
 and to aggravate tiie faults of his neighbour, whose single 
 virtue of humility is yet more acceptable in the sight of 
 God, than the ostentatious parade of all his own put 
 together, and the sinner goes home to his house justified 
 rather than the other. 
 
 To remedy these defects, Revelation comes to our 
 assistance, and employs several of its divine precepts in 
 regulating and reproving this over-weening arrogance. 
 It teaches every man to think not more highly of him- 
 self than he ought to think ; and assures us that after we 
 have done our best, we are yet but unprofitable servants. 
 
 But it may be urged, " Is not this carrying matters 
 very far on the other hand ? Does not this destroy all 
 the self-satisfactiun v\hich the text teaches us results 
 from virtue and holiness ? Do not the words of Christ 
 seem to contradict the words of Solomon ; and in effect 
 inculcate this very opposite doctrine, that even the best 
 man ought to be dissatisfied with himself, since he is 
 told, that after he has done his best, he is yet but an 
 unprofitable servant ?" 
 
 In answer to this, it need only be replied, that this 
 doctrine refers rather to the perfections of God than the 
 imperfections of man. Nothing can be a more un- 
 doubted truth, than that to a Being so infinitely perfect 
 
Sermon II.] [ 19 ] 
 
 as the Almighty Creator of the universe, the best of our 
 imperfect service can afford no kind of profit or advantage : 
 but how true soever this be, though man is unprofitable 
 to his Maker, he is not therefore unprofitable to himself, 
 or to his fellow-creatures. No surely. By regulating 
 and restraining his passions, he may secure his own hap- 
 piness; by acts of humanity and charity, he may increase 
 the happiness of society; and by adding to these true 
 Religion and Piety, he may be sure of procuring the 
 favour of his God, not indeed because he is profitable 
 unto him, but because he is an useful member of that 
 universe which is the work of God's hands. The doc- 
 trine therefore thus understood, we see, is far from abridg- 
 ing that satisfaction and pleasure which arises from 
 virtuous sensations or actions ; it only inculcates humi- 
 lity and godly diffidence of ourselves : Virtues which, 
 when once rendered habitual to our minds, so as it were 
 to become a part of our rational nature, and to constitute 
 the frame and temper of our souls, tend perhaps more 
 than any other to increase and establish that tranquillity 
 of soul, without which it cannot possibly taste any ge- 
 nuine, unpolluted satisfaction. 
 
 Hence, though we allow that because the doctrines 
 and precepts of Christianity inculcate a more perfect 
 scheme of morality, and require more arduous efforts of 
 holiness and godly zeal than any human system can pre- 
 tend to, the Disciple of Christ ought not to be so easily 
 
[ 20 ] [Sermon II. 
 
 satisfied with himself, as other moralists have generally 
 heen ; yet we still assert, that if he conscientiously per- 
 severes in the path of duty prescrihed to him hy his 
 Redeemer, going on from grace to grace, as he com- 
 mands him, he has no cause to be dissatisfied with him- 
 self; on the contrary, his religion will contribute various 
 comforts, which mere morality can never furnish, supe- 
 rior degrees of happiness and delight to those that spring 
 from common virtuous habits, and naturally good incli- 
 nations. 
 
 . This I shall endeavour to make evident in the sequel 
 of this discourse, and to prove, that if the good man has 
 reason to be satisfied from himself, the good Christian 
 has reason to be much more so. 
 
 It has heen frequently said, and Infidelity delights 
 itself much in the assertion, that amongst all the various 
 systems of antient philosophy, there is one so perfect, 
 when considered as a jscheme of morality, that it even 
 supersets Chris\ianiu itself. The morality I mean is 
 that of the Stoics. I shall then fore attempt to draw a 
 short comparison between the apathy, or unfeeling for- 
 titude, w hich was a fundamental doctrine in that school, 
 and the virtues of patience and humility, which make so 
 caphai a part of the religion of Christ : if therefore it 
 can be made to appear that these latter are more agree- 
 able to our frame and constitution, and more productive 
 
Sermon II.] [ 21 ] 
 
 of internal peace and comfort than the other, the con- 
 clusion will be that Christianity is much more calculated 
 to promote the satisfaction which results from virtue, 
 than that philosophy which is deemed, and perhaps 
 justly, the best which the world was acquainted with 
 before life and immortality were brought to light by the 
 Gospel. 
 
 It is well known that the leaders of the sect of which 
 I am speaking endeavoured to persuade their followers, 
 that whatever was external to the mind was totally below 
 its regard ; that the interests of hody and soul were en- 
 tirely independent one of another; and therefore that 
 whatever pain or calamity might be inflicted on the 
 body, was, or ought to be, unfelt by the soul, which, 
 fortified within itself, was absolutely incapable of being 
 affected by any thing from without. Natural evils there- 
 fore were held in contempt, and treated with disdain, as 
 enemies incapable of doing the wise man any detriment. 
 Hence the soul acquired such a supercilious haughti- 
 ness, that, not content to suffer with constancy, the 
 Stoic pretended not to suffer at all, but to be as invul- 
 nerable to evil as the Deity himself. Let us hear, in 
 full proof of this fact, the wild apostrophe which one of 
 these philosophers puts into the mouth of God himself, 
 whom he supposes thus to address his ideal sages : 
 (i Since," says he, " I could not place you in a system 
 " of beings in which you might be out of the reach of 
 
[-22 ] [Sermon II- 
 
 <( natural evils, I armed you against them all : Bear 
 <c them therefore with fortitude, by this means you have 
 H an advantage even over the Deity himself. He indeed 
 " is beyond the sense of evils, but you are above the 
 *' sense of them."* 
 
 Let us turn from a philosophy, capable of inspiring 
 such absurd sentiments, to take a short view of that 
 patience and resignation which Christianity substitutes 
 in their stead. Let us behold the humble and sincere 
 follower of the patient Jesus, suffering the extremity of 
 evil, yet feeling it, and owning that he feels it ; but at 
 the same time supported by that submissive reliance on 
 the Almighty power, without whose permission he knows 
 no pain can be inflicted upon him ; and who only suf- 
 fers it to be inflicted, that the sufferer may be benefited 
 by it : he goes through the trial with a constancy and 
 tranquillity ; a joy that strikes his persecutors with ad- 
 miration and with reverence. It is not that he pretends 
 to stifle his groans through fear of dishonouring his holy 
 profession $ but it is the holiness of that religion he pro- 
 fesses which stifles those groans, by the lively hopes and 
 pious confidence which it inspires j it is not that he 
 despises his persecution, because he thinks himself more 
 
 * Quia non poteram yos istis (roalis) subducere, amnios ves- 
 tros ad\ersus omnia armavi. Ferte fortiter : hoc est quo Deum 
 antccedatis; illc extra patientiam malorum est, vos supra pati- 
 entiam. Seneca de Procidentia, cap. vi. 
 
Sermon II.] [ 23 ] 
 
 holy than his persecutors, but because he knows he can 
 endure no persecution so threat as that which a far holier 
 person than himself, his Master and his Redeemer, suf- 
 fered for his sake. Thus, in the severest trials he gains 
 that ascendency over his own passions winch secures him a 
 victory over all his sufferings ; and though he feels his 
 sorrows like a man, yet, by bearing them like a Christian, 
 he is sure to rise from the conflict more than conqueror. 
 
 A very little consideration will indeed soon convince 
 us that no virtues, except those of resignation and humi- 
 lity, are able to maintain the soul in a state of peace and 
 satisfaction when the enemy oppresses him, and when 
 malignity and injustice on all hands assail him. Was he 
 to endeavour to surmount the injury by despising it, he 
 must feel his bosom tormented with the uneasy sensations 
 of disdain and contempt. Was he to strive to return the 
 injury by revenging it, he would then become a prey to 
 the turbulent passions of anger, hatred, and revenge ; but 
 by humility and patience he prevents the bad effects of 
 them all, and preserves a tranquillity of soul that exalts 
 him far above all his enemies. Whac an innocent, what 
 a happy artifice is this, (says an eloquent writer*) which 
 the Gospel grace teaches us? without prompting us to 
 assume an ill-placed arrogance, or to affect a false insen- 
 sibility; it bids us only humble ourselves before our 
 
 * See M . Fontenelle's Discourssur la Patience^vom which, also, 
 some sentiments in the preceding paragraph are taken. 
 
[ 24 ] [Sermon II. 
 
 Creator to become superior to our fellow- creatures ; bids 
 us only reverence him in the instruments that he employs, 
 to be proof against the rudest and severest strokes with 
 which those instruments can assail us. 
 
 As this is undoubtedly true, with what zeal ought we 
 to endeavour after these virtues, from which, and which 
 alone, we see all true internal satisfaction and content- 
 ment arise ? How constantly ought we to shew that dutiful 
 submission to the divine will ; that patient forbearance 
 of one another ; that humble distrust of our own merits, 
 which only will make us acceptable to God, useful to 
 society, and happy in ourselves ? These are duties pecu- 
 liarly Christian, and duties also which peculiarly promote 
 that self-satisfaction which the text teaches us results 
 from the practice of virtue. Do we want any motives 
 stronger than this inward happiness to induce us to the 
 practice of these duties ? strong as that motive is, we do; 
 daily experience proves that we do; and therefore our 
 holy religion is ready to afford them. Its benign Author, 
 solicitous every way to draw us to himself, though chiefly 
 by cords of love, has not left other methods unemployed. 
 To humane and benevolent dispositions, naturally inclined 
 to practise virtue for its own intrinsic excellence, he has 
 only to describe that excellence, and to. shew its con- 
 comitant satisfactions. To minds that sympathize less 
 with this moral pleasure, he holds forth the palm of a 
 future reward, in order to encourage them boldly to run 
 
Sermon II.] [ 25 ] 
 
 the race that is set before them. And, lastly, to others 
 of a more obdurate cast, who neither perceive the beauty 
 of Virtue, nor feel respect to the recompenee of her pro- 
 mised rewards, he lifts up the rod of divine vengeance, and 
 thunders forth the denunciation of future punishments : 
 thus, giving a triple sanction to his doctrine, he means, 
 that by it the whole race of mankind should become 
 virtuous here, and, in proportion as they become virtuous, 
 become happy, both here and hereafter. That those to 
 whom Virtue seems not its own reward at present, the 
 hopes of a future reward may inlist under her banners ; 
 and that those whom neither present nor future rewards 
 can influence, the dread of punishment may force into 
 felicity. 
 
 But as this last is, of all others, the meanest motive to 
 obedience that a man, much more a Christian, can act 
 upon, it is to be hoped that the love of virtue, joined to 
 the love of the Author of virtue, will afford us a far 
 nobler principle of action : thus shall we live as men, 
 convinced of the truth of that elevated sentiment of St. 
 John, with which I conclude this discourse : c * There is 
 no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear, because 
 fear hath torment : he that feareth is not made perfect 
 in love/'* 
 
 To this perfection of love, grant, O blessed Lord, that 
 
 * 1 John iv. 18. 
 
[ 26 ] [Sermon II. 
 
 we may all aspire; so that, being satisfied with well doing 
 here, we may be found acceptable in thy sight hereafter, 
 through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ thy 
 Son our Saviour. Amen. 
 
ON THE 
 
 CONNECTION 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 RELIGION AND LIBERTY. 
 
[29] 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 2 Cor. iii. — Part of the 17th verse. 
 
 WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 JThe liberty of the Gospel dispensation, in contra- 
 distinction to the burthensome ritual of the Jewish 
 worship, is that to which St. Paul immediately points in 
 this passage. Yet it is the peculiar excellency of the 
 inspired writings, that they abound more than any other 
 with general truths ; and that too in places directed to a 
 partial purpose. This excellency however, great as it is, 
 has been frequently over-looked, and more frequently 
 misapplied. For, divest these kind of aphorisms of their 
 context, and the sectarist is ever more ready to make 
 them speak the sense of his own creed, than the general 
 dictates of Christianity. Thus, in the text before us, the 
 Quietist, taking the Spirit of the Lord to mean that 
 preternatural impulse, which he believes has a sensible 
 operation within his own bosom, fancies himself freed by 
 it from every bond of moral obligation. In like manner 
 the Fanatic, in the last century, actuated by the same 
 
[ 30 ] [Sermon III. 
 
 enthusiastic principle, imagined himself set at liberty 
 from all the ties of civil obligation. The one turning the 
 grace of the Lord into lasciviousness, the other into 
 licentiousness. But to leave these forced constructions 
 under that load of absurdity, which Enthusiasm only can 
 digest, we shall find that if, by the Spirit of the Lord, we 
 understand the influence of true Religion; and by 
 Liberty, the advantages of Civil Freedom, the text will 
 convey to us a most important general truth, which will 
 naturally be explained under the two following pro- 
 positions : 
 
 I. That, in any civil establishment where the liberty 
 and property of individuals are best secured, the 
 people cannot enjoy that happiness which results 
 from their liberty, unless they be a religious as well 
 as free people.. 
 
 II. That a land of liberty is the only one favourable to 
 the true cultivation of this religious principle. 
 
 By the former of these we prove that, " Where the 
 spirit of the Lord is there only is Liberty :" by the latter, 
 that, where Liberty is, there ought to be found the spirit 
 of the Lord. 
 
 I. 
 
 It has been said, * That there is a nation on the globe, 
 the very fundamental object of whose constitution is 
 
Sermon III.] [ 31 ] 
 
 political freedom :* I need not intimate to this audience 
 where the nation is to be found, they will instinctively 
 perceive, and feel a happy glow from the perception, that 
 it is not far from every one of them. They will there- 
 fore readily allow, that, if the British constitution cannot 
 provide for the happiness of individuals without the aid 
 of Religion, no other in the world can. With reference 
 therefore to the Liberty of Great-Britain, may I have 
 leave to pursue my argument ? It will, I hope, receive 
 additional force from employing this medium, it will 
 bring the truth home to our own business and bosoms, 
 and become the more convincing, in proportion as it is 
 the more interesting and engaging. 
 
 a Political Liberty'' is justly defined, <c to consist in 
 that tranquillity of mind which results from a conscious- 
 ness of self-security. In order to produce which, it is 
 necessary that the mode of government be such, that no 
 single citizen in it can stand in dread of another."f 
 This is peculiarly the case of our happy establishment, 
 in which this self-security is so perfect, that public credit 
 rests on no other basis than the stability of private pro- 
 perty. Where therefore there can be no oppression, one 
 should imagine there can be no distress : and in fact, 
 politically speaking, there can be none; that is, none 
 that can arise from the constitution itself. If there be 
 
 * L'Esprit des Loix, Liv. xi. chap. 5th. 
 t L'Esprit des Loix, Liv. xi. chap. 6th. 
 
[ 32 ] [Sermon III. 
 
 any, it must spring from another cause ; a cause, which, 
 alas, it is not very difficult to investigate ; it must arise 
 from the baneful influence of private vices; and till 
 these be proved not only public but private benefits, (to 
 the latter of which Infidelity has not yet ventured to 
 extend her mock demonstration) we may safely rest our 
 cause on the good old Stoical doctrine, that " every 
 degree of vice induces a proportionable degree of slavery." 
 A doctrine which has received additional force and 
 vigor from the Gospel itself. It would be endless to 
 quote the particular passages ; and indeed where vice is 
 considered in the extreme, so as to occasion a total 
 dissoluteness of manners, the shameful servitude that at- 
 tends it, is too apparent to need a proof from that high 
 authority. Let us rather examine into its effects when 
 it is countenanced by fashion, reckoned among the re- 
 finements of civil life, and when it puts on so plausible 
 an appearance as, in many instances, to pass, with the 
 young and unwary, for an innocent, if not a laudable, 
 amusement. 
 
 Let us first take the case of Gaming, which, while 
 pursued at proper intervals, and restrained to moderate 
 sums, may perhaps, in persons of fortune, be amongst 
 the most harmless of their pleasures. But how seldom 
 is it kept within these limits ; how soon does it become 
 a habit ? and when it is such, is even Avarice itself a 
 more rigorous, a more tyrannical master ? Ask any man, 
 
Sermon III.] [ 33 ] 
 
 who has suffered it to get the ascendency in his breast 
 if he has not often felt the innate love of liberty recoil 
 against it ? If he answers ingenuously, he will confess 
 how often it has forced him into the worst company, the 
 worst hours, the worst behaviour ; to the wasting of his 
 health, the killing of his time, the degradation of his 
 rank, the impoverishment of his fortune. Beset with 
 debts of honour, how often to satisfy these has he been 
 obliged to postpone satisfying the debts of justice : when 
 he is in this situation, I would ask, what i^ become of his 
 Liberty as a Briton ? I would ask if he still feels himself 
 that manly, free, independent being which he was origi- 
 nally by 1 is birth-right ? and which no alteration in the 
 constitution, no tyrant, but one within his own bosom, 
 has either influenced or opprest ? 
 
 In like manner might the man of Gallantry be in- 
 terrogated. He who, descending as little as possible 
 from his dignity as a man, mixes a degree of sentiment 
 with his sensual appetites, and, in the indulgence of 
 them, preserves some delicacy of taste, and decorum of 
 manners. I speak not of the profligate debauchee ; the 
 instance would be too gross, the proof too glaring for my 
 purpose : for in this more polished character we shall 
 find flaws enough to abate its lustre ; and be soon con- 
 vinced that these pursuits have a direct tendency to ser- 
 vitude, even in cases ( which are but rare) where they 
 avoid infamy. There is a neighbouring Nation, the 
 
 VOL. IV. D 
 
[ 34 ] [Sermon III. 
 
 fundamental principle of whose constitution is said to be 
 Honour, as ours is Liberty. In that country it is well 
 known how long and how universally the spirit I am 
 speaking of has reigned, nor are the ill effects of it less 
 notorious : for is it not there ever diverting the stream 
 of Honour from running in its direct course ? and might 
 it not, if equally prevalent here, have the same prejudi- 
 cial influence on the ampler tide of our Liberty? But, 
 leaving this question undecided, I would ask if there is 
 not something in the very nature of these pursuits in- 
 compatible with the dignity and freedom of man ? Does 
 it not, sometimes, tempt him to be the seducer of that 
 innocence of which God constituted him the protector ? 
 Does it not, at other times, debase him into a station the 
 very reverse of that which nature intended him to fill 
 in the system of creation, and of that which policy or- 
 dained him to hold in the order of civil society ? This 
 consideration, exclusive of more cogent arguments that 
 might be drawn from religion, is sufficient to shew that 
 this passion can never be safely indulged, but when 
 sanctified by the laws of God and our country, and 
 when a sympathy of accordant hearts is legitimated by 
 the nuptial union. This only can prevent one party 
 from becoming a slave, because this only can fix the 
 other a friend ; for, whatever the heat of fancy may 
 suggest, reason assures us that no alliance can be durable 
 which is not founded on mutual and equal interest. 
 
Sermon III.] [ 35 ] 
 
 The same sort of reflections might, with propriety, be 
 extended to many other vices which fashion terms plea- 
 sures, and which luxury is ever apt to introduce into 
 opulent communities. But the instances already pro- 
 duced prove sufficiently what was at first asserted, that 
 every degree of vice carries with it a proportionable de- 
 gree of slavery, and consequently prevents us from en- 
 joying the full benefit of those civil blessings which our 
 constitution enables us to enjoy. Is it then necessary to 
 add, that we ought to oppose to these temptations, the 
 prudent reserve and rational self-denial which our holy 
 religion directs us to employ; and that, laying aside 
 every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, 
 we endeavour to run liberally and manfully the race 
 which is set before us ? 
 
 We have the greatest encouragement to do this from 
 the equitable form of government under which we live ; 
 which, as it rightly entitles this nation to be styled a Land 
 of Liberty, will appear, in examining the second proposi- 
 tion, to be more favourable to the true cultivation of this 
 religious principle than any other : so much so, that 
 where liberty is, there ought to be found the spirit of the 
 Lord. 
 
 II. 
 
 It ought to be found there especially, because in such 
 states as have liberty for the basis of their constitution, 
 there only can the spirit of the Lord be found uncon- 
 
[ 36 ] [Sermon III. 
 
 strained; and though the community may agree in 
 adopting and giving to some one mode of faith, the 
 sanction of a legal establishment, yet there only can be 
 felt the happy effects of a legal toleration. With every 
 other form of government experience has proved that it 
 is inconsistent; while in this, it becomes a necessary 
 principle: for it would be a contradiction in terms to 
 call that nation free, where the minds of men are en- 
 slaved : and enslaved they must be, where opinion is 
 made subject to penalty and persecution. 
 
 And yet, in this state of toleration, it maybe objected 
 that the Church of Rome is excepted from the general 
 indulgence; but surely this exclusion is perfectly con- 
 sistent with the most extensive freedom of religious sen- 
 timent, nay, perhaps it may appear even necessary to its 
 very existence ; for, as in the case of civil liberty, her 
 preservation demands that a civil restraint shall be 
 placed on the efforts of tyranny ; so in the case of reli- 
 gious liberty, it is essential to the extent of toleration, 
 vigilantly and vigorously to restrain a religion whose 
 leading principle is an universal intolerance.* It is only 
 the will to enslave, that is in either case deprived of the 
 power, or, according to the inspired prediction of our 
 Gospel freedom, it is only " captivity that is led captive. "f 
 
 * See Mr. Locke's first Letter on Toleration. 
 + Psalm Ixviii. 13. 
 
Sermon III.] [ 37 ] 
 
 How far this principle of toleration, thus intimately 
 connected with the spirit of liberty, ten is to promote the 
 interests of true religion, will become evident from the 
 following considerations. 
 
 1. As we have already proved that there subsists an 
 inseparable union between the spirit of the Lord and 
 Civil Liberty, so we may, from the whole tenor of history, 
 stand assured, that there subsists a similar connection 
 between Religious and Civil Slavery. The spiritual and 
 temporal usurpers upon the rights of mankind, joined in 
 one common interest, will mutually contribute to each 
 others purposes ; and where the secular arm has been 
 made, or has voluntarily extended itself to be the exe- 
 cutioner of ecclesiastical censures, and to force opinions 
 upon mankind, it is natural to believe that unlimited 
 obedience will be imposed as a religious tenet; that a 
 dissent from this doctrine will be construed into im- 
 piety; and consequently that, in proportion as inordinate 
 power is able to supersede the spirit of the Lord, all 
 liberty to pronounce or even to inquire into his genuine 
 dictates, will be restrained. Fear will generate a servile 
 acquiescence, and hypocrisy, a vice, of all others, the 
 most destructive to morality, the most abhorrent to the 
 religion of Christ, will contribute its despicable artifices 
 to conceal the real sentiments of the heart, or to feign 
 an adherence to principles that it abhors. 
 
[ 38 ] [Sermon IIL 
 
 The advantages therefore derived to true religion from 
 toleration are evident; it takes from men every plausible 
 pretext for deviating from the truth ; for what need of 
 concealing our real principles, or affecting to embrace 
 those we think false, can subsist, when our honest pro- 
 fessions are freed from civil censure ? 
 
 2. As toleration prevents hypocrisy, it also greatly 
 promotes the spirit of meekness and Christian forbear- 
 ance. For, by taking away all power of applying secular 
 force, it allows spiritual contention to use only its natu- 
 ral weapons, reason, persuasion, and argument. Zeal in 
 a religious cause is ever warmer than in any other, and 
 consequently more apt to fly out into insult and outrage. 
 Under such an impulse every advantage the law gives, 
 the bigot is ready, with much acrimony, to take, and to 
 vindicate the cause of Christ, by methods which every 
 page of his Gospel condemns. An established toleration 
 prevents this effectually, and, by preventing it, intro- 
 duces candour and peace in its room. It is true it can- 
 not do this immediately. Prejudices, especially such as 
 concern religion, to be destroyed perfectly, must be 
 rooted out leisurely ; and, in this salutary work, if tole- 
 ration operate slowly, it still operates surely; introducing 
 one Christian virtue after another, till in the end it 
 establishes that universal charity which is its highest aim, 
 and most beneficent intention. 
 
Sermon III.] [ 39 ] 
 
 3. It does this by permitting a liberty of debate, and 
 a freedom of religious inquiry : both which, if, from the 
 spirit of controversy, they at first occasion unwarrantable 
 heat, are, at length, productive of the best and most 
 peaceable consequences : for, by these, new truths are 
 struck out ; inveterate errors destroyed ; doctrines which 
 ignorance held diabolical are often proved harmless, if 
 not rational ; and others, which the same ignorance held 
 sacred, are shewn to be contradictory and absurd. Thus 
 by degrees the minds of men are enlarged, the hearts of 
 different sects opened one to another, a ad when neither 
 have been made proselytes, both have been made friends, 
 learning a lesson, the hardest for the zealot to learn, and 
 which toleration only can teach, that there may be found 
 honest men in every persuasion. Hence we see (to 
 recur to ourselves) that as Persecution, the blackest fiend 
 that ever rose from hell to obstruct the Gospel of light 
 and immortality, has for a long time been expelled from 
 these happy nations, if universal charity has not yet ap- 
 peared in its place, we must look elsewhere for the 
 reason than in any defect of our constitution. We must 
 look for it in the obliquity of our own hearts, in the 
 general depravity of our manners : for I am well aware, 
 that to all which has been said, an objector may reply, 
 " Does the nation, established on this principle of liberty, 
 excel as much in piety and virtue ? Is it really as reli- 
 gious as it is free ; and, if it be not, does not that one 
 contradictory fact confute all this general theory V It 
 
[ 40 ] [Sermon III. 
 
 does so. Yet surely it is still in our own power to make 
 it not contradict it. It is in our own power to make the 
 civil advantages we do possess, productive of those reli- 
 gious advantages we do not possess. It has been shewn 
 what these are, and they have been proved to be impor- 
 tant enough to demand our election ; nay, to inflame our 
 ambition in the pursuit of them, if we are ambitious to 
 be what our laws entitle us to be, Freemen and Britons ; 
 names we can never truly glory in, the privileges of 
 which we can never fully enjoy, unless we be also sin- 
 cere Christians. Let us reflect on this truth more parti- 
 cularly at this important season, when our gracious 
 Sovereign is about to confirm to us these our natural 
 rights by the sanction of a solemn oath taken upon the 
 Gospels of Christ.* Let therefore those Gospels, which 
 give the awful sanction, be looked upon by us all with 
 love and veneration. Let the sacred truths they contain 
 be diligently consulted and conscientiously practised. 
 By these shall we be instructed to fear God, and honour 
 the King ; two Christian duties which will not fail, we 
 may justly hope, to make us happy under the reign of a 
 Prince, whom the genius of our constitution leads us to 
 consider, not only as the Guardian of our Liberties, 
 but also under the more august title of Defender of 
 our Faith. 
 
 * This Sermon was preached at St. James's Chapel before his 
 present Majesty, the Sunday immediately preceding his Coro- 
 nation. 
 
INFIDELITY AND ENTHUSIASM, 
 
 EQUALLY AVERSE FROM 
 
 RATIONAL ENQUIRY. 
 
[43] 
 
 SERMON IV 
 
 Acts, Chap. xvii. Verse 11th and part of the 12th. 
 
 THE JEWS OF BEREA WERE MORE NOBLE THAN THOSE 
 IN THESSALONICA, IN THAT THEY RECEIVED THE 
 WORD WITH ALL READINESS OF MIND, AND SEARCHED 
 THE SCRIPTURES DAILY, WHETHER THOSE THINGS 
 WERE SO. THEREFORE MANY OF THEM BELIEVED. 
 
 1 he preceding verses^ of this chapter, acquaint us with 
 the ill reception which St. Paul and his doctrine met 
 with at Thessalonica. He went thither into the Jewish 
 synagogue, and for three sabbath days reasoned with 
 them out of the Scriptures, concerning the nature and 
 efficacy of the sufferings of Christ, and of his resurrec- 
 tion from the dead. Some of the Jews were converted 
 by his arguments, and several also of the devout Greeks ; 
 but those Jews who believed not stirred up the populace 
 assaulted the house of Jason, and in the end drove Paul 
 and Silas out of the city. The only reason they gave 
 for this conduct was, that the preachers had done con- 
 trary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another 
 king, one Jesus. A plain proof, that they were merely 
 
[ 44 ] [Sermon IV. 
 
 moved by prejudice and envy, and had not in the least 
 attended to the Apostle's doctrine ; otherwise the cruci- 
 fied Saviour, whom he preached, could never have been 
 supposed to be set up by St. Paul, as a rival of the 
 earthly empire of Caesar. The character of the Jews of 
 Berea, as described in the text, is a fine contrast to 
 these; I shall therefore beg leave to enlarge a little on 
 the particulars of it. 
 
 First, We are told that they were more noble than 
 the former, " In that they received the word with all 
 readiness. * And what greater proof can a man give of 
 a noble and ingenuous disposition, than that of lending 
 a ready unprejudiced attention to any person who offers 
 new arguments to be examined, new doctrines to be 
 ascertained ? How liable is the generality of mankind to 
 be misled by appearances, and biassed by old preposses- 
 sions ? How apt to reject even truth itself, unheard, if it 
 come either unexpectedly, or unsupported by personal 
 authority ? Novelty indeed has its charms, but these only 
 when it clashes with no favourite passions, or does not 
 counteract any established opinions ; but if this happen, 
 disgust generally arises, and the doctrine, and he who 
 delivers it, are treated with ignominy and contempt. 
 Not such was the behaviour of the Bereans to St. Paul ; 
 they heard him readily, and therefore without partiality : 
 and though he asserted several things contrary to their 
 preconceived notions, yet as they found he did not 
 
Sermon IV.] [ 45 ] 
 
 merely assert them, but pretended, at least, to have 
 scripture authority to found them upon, they had too 
 much nobleness of mind to reject his doctrines, before 
 they had tried them by that sacred touchstone, and found 
 whether they bore its test. 
 
 Hence we may observe, secondly, that though they 
 received the Apostle's doctrine with all that calmness and 
 impartiality which is inherent in ingenuous minds, they 
 did not assent to it with that blind temerity which prevails 
 only on weak ones. While their candor led them to lend 
 him a due attention, their prudence prompted them to 
 give all he said a strict examination : willing to reject 
 nothing that had reason and argument for its support, 
 they were yet resolute to try whether all he offered was 
 thus supported : and, as the Apostle had pointed out to 
 them on what foundation his system was built, and had 
 appealed to their own inspired w r ritings for the truth of 
 all he asserted, they studied those writings daily and with 
 indefatigable attention, to discover whether " these things 
 were so;" the result of this search, we find, was favourable 
 to the Apostle's doctrine, for many of them therefore 
 believed. 
 
 If I have justly explained the sense of the text, the 
 three following propositions will seem naturally to arise 
 from it : 
 
[ 46 ] [Sermon IV. 
 
 I. That, in our enquiries after truth, all opinions ought 
 to be heard with readiness, and received with candor, 
 freedom, and impartiality ; 
 
 II. That diligence should be used in the search after 
 truth, and the arguments on both sides scrutinized 
 with accuracy and precision ; 
 
 III. That the truth of the Christian religion demands 
 this test, and receives advantage from it. 
 
 These propositions may, perhaps, seem to a Christian 
 audience, to have too much the nature of self-evidence 
 and axiom, to require a formal proof; yet as, in the pre- 
 sent age, the Enthusiast on the one hand, and the 
 Libertine on the other, are apt to proceed in a manner 
 diametrically opposite to them, I shall take the liberty 
 to address them both in their turn on these two points. 
 
 I. And, first, I would ask the Enthusiast, if he be not 
 at all times too apt to condemn, under the opprobrious 
 denomination of worldly wisdom, that species of religious 
 enquiry, which is employed in fixing the great objects of 
 our faith and practice upon just and rational foundations ? 
 If he be not too prompt to despise, and even reprobate, 
 the learned labours of some of the best and wisest of his 
 species, when employed on this important task, and, 
 
Sermon IV.] [ 47 ] 
 
 without meaning it, to take part with the infidel, and to 
 imagine Christianity not founded on argument ? I would 
 ask him if sometimes, on the bare assertion of the over- 
 heated leader of his sect, he has not been led to brand 
 many respectable persons with peculiar heretical names, 
 at the same time without so much as understanding the 
 meaning of the terms he employed for their reprobation ? 
 I would question him, whether he has not, at one time, 
 taken the unintelligible jargon of some mad mystic for 
 divine sublimity ; at another, the vulgar cant of some 
 illiterate fanatic, for apostolical simplicity ? Again, with 
 respect to the writers or preachers, whom he either con- 
 demns or approves, I would enquire what degree of exami- 
 nation he has bestowed on their several doctrines ; has he 
 read their works attentively, or listened to their discourses 
 calmly and dispassionately ? That he reads the Scriptures 
 I will readily allow, but does he read them in their order, 
 observe the connection of their parts, and thence deduce 
 the true meaning of the whole ? Are not a few detached 
 passages, separated from their context, and consequently 
 too often from their meaning, sufficient grounds for those 
 opinions which he had before fancied true ; and if he 
 receive these from his favourite preacher, delivered with 
 a sanctimonious look and fanatical tone, do they not come 
 to him with a force of conviction, which makes all ether 
 explications of their sense in his eyes heretical, if not 
 damnable ? 
 
[ 48 ] [Sermon IV. 
 
 But not to multiply questions, which I apprehend 
 would be difficult on his part to answer, I will only ob- 
 serve to such persons as have not caught the too common 
 contagion, that if they would preserve themselves free 
 from it, they should search the Scriptures, for the whole 
 truth, as it is in Jesus ; they should consider the general 
 tenor of his revelation of himself to mankind, taking to 
 their assistance, in this important enquiry, such com- 
 mentators, and only such, as have had this enlarged object 
 in their view; and uniformly neglecting those, who, 
 dilating on particular points for partial purposes, tend 
 only to multiply strife and debate, and instead of mending 
 the heart and ministering to good morals, too frequently 
 mislead the judgment, and make shipwreck of that faith 
 which they pretend to pilot into the very harbour of 
 Truth. 
 
 II. Perhaps more than enough has been said against a 
 class of deluded persons, who rather deserve our pity than 
 our reproof. I turn secondly to a very different species 
 of men, to persons whose want of candor proceeds not so 
 much from their want of judgment, as from their want 
 of using it ; whose partiality and prejudice arise, not from 
 any natural defect of the head, but from an acquired per- 
 version of the heart : these are they whom the politeness 
 of a neighbouring nation call Strong-thinkers, and on 
 whom the courtesy of England has bestowed the no less 
 
Sermon IV.] [ 49 ] 
 
 noble appellation of Free-thinkers : and, perhaps, there 
 was a time when they deserved part, if not the whole of 
 the title, because they really thought, and thought too for 
 themselves : but, if we may trust the assertion of a sensible 
 living French writer, by no means ill inclined to the sect' 
 and one whose writings have even suffered in the cause, 
 it is greatly to be feared that the preset race of them is 
 much degenerated; for, struck with the very frivolous 
 turn of the age, and that ready carelessness with which 
 men are apt to take every opinion upon trust, this author 
 cannot help observing that " Infidelity is now become a 
 species of Faith with the generality of the world."* A 
 species of faith most certainly ; for can that man be said 
 to be an infidel on any other principle, who attends only 
 to the discourse, and reads only the works of unbelievers ; 
 nay, who generally saves himself this latter trouble, and 
 takes the bare word of Scepticism with all readiness, even 
 without examining in its works whether " these things be 
 so ?" Were it insinuated to these persons that both sides 
 of the question ought to be examined, that would be, in 
 other words, advising them to read their Bible, and there- 
 fore, I am afraid, an ineffectual counsel : yet thus much 
 surely might be expected from them, that they should 
 form their infidel tenets into some sort of system, so as 
 
 * L'autorite est le grand argument de la multitude, et l'in- 
 credulite, disoit un hoinrae d'esprit, est une espece de Foi pour 
 la plus part des gens. 
 M. d'Alembert de l'Abus de la Critique en matiere de Religion. 
 
 VOL. IV. E 
 
[ 50 ] [Sermon IV. 
 
 to be able to give a consistent account of the want of 
 hope that is in them ; which, instead of being able to 
 effect, they rest perfectly self-satisfied, if, furnished with 
 a few scraps of common-place ridicule, they can silence 
 those arguments by a loud laugh, the force of which they 
 are unable to elude, even by a plausible sophism. And 
 here we may congratulate together the Enthusiast and 
 Infidel of the present age, who have both of them learned 
 so concise and commodious a way of arriving at their 
 opposite ends; a method absolutely unknown to their 
 predecessors, who, either from modesty or simplicity, 
 never thought it possible to become adepts in their pro- 
 fession, without much previous probation, and the patient 
 sufferance of either corporal or mental pain. Thus, for 
 instance, before the Bigot of former times believed 
 himself worthy to receive any miraculous illumination 
 from above, he uniformly underwent the severest process 
 of bodily mortification, consisting of all those watchings, 
 fastings, and flagellations, which the austerity of his 
 ghostly father thought proper to inflict. The Infidel too, 
 with equal patience, submitted to the fatigue of much 
 dry reading, and thought it necessary to confuse his ideas 
 with much logical quibble and puzzling ratiocination, 
 before he presumed to set up for himself, and to boast 
 publicly that he was emancipated from priestcraft and 
 popular error. At present we see all this absolutely un- 
 necessary, it is now equally easy for a sinner to become 
 a saint, and a dunce to become a deist : an over-heated 
 
Sermon IV.] [ 51 ] 
 
 imagination on the one hand, and no imagination at 
 all on the other, is all that is necessary to complete the 
 metamorphosis : And this is so very true on the Infidel 
 side, that one would imagine infidelity not only a species 
 of faith, but a species of instantaneous illumination, 
 since otherwise it is hard to find out how some people 
 come to the possession of it. This parallel, it must be 
 owned, brings the fashionable libertine into what he will 
 call low company ; but would he claim a title to higher, 
 it behoves him to enter upon a course of study and re- 
 flection, for which his dissipated head and corrupt heart 
 are, it is to be feared, but ill qualified. Nothing, how- 
 ever, is so self-evident, as that thinking is an art ne- 
 cessary to be learned, previous to free-thinking; and 
 whether the gay circle of his amusements and pleasures, 
 not to say of his vices, will leave him time for so fati- 
 guing an employment, seems to be a matter extremely 
 problematical. 
 
 But from you, my brethren, here met together at a 
 season which our ecclesiastical establishment has ap- 
 pointed to be employed in a more peculiar attention to 
 the ofhces of religion, and consequently to the study of its 
 truth, and who, I doubt not, are convinced of the utility, 
 if not the absolute necessity of appropriating certain 
 portions of your time to both these important purposes ; 
 possessed, as I trust you are, not only of that candour and 
 impartiality, the want of which has been shewn to be the 
 
[ 52 ] [Sermon IV. 
 
 origin of bigotry and superstition, but endued also with 
 those faculties of attentive reflection, which are the best 
 securities against Infidelity and Libertinism -, from you 
 let me assure myself of better things : Let me trust that 
 you will examine both the internal and external evi- 
 dences of the faith once delivered to the Saints as accu- 
 rately as you are able ; and then let me venture to 
 pronounce that you will own Christianity not only de- 
 mands such a test, but receives advantage from it. 
 
 III. This was the third proposition which I said re- 
 sulted from the text ; its truth was exemplified in the 
 Jews of Berea ; we may therefore not unreasonably ex- 
 pect that our holy religion will prove equally acceptable 
 to all other inquirers, who shall bring with them the 
 same good qualities to the trial : Suffer me, therefore, to 
 employ the few remaining moments, in exhorting to so 
 important an inquiry. 
 
 First, From the object itself, which, the Scripture 
 tells us, is no less than that of our eternal salvation ; a 
 weighty point, and what surely demands our deepest 
 consideration. Does the Infidel controvert this ? Does 
 he assert that the duties of mere morality, deduced 
 by the light of nature from the reason of things, will 
 secure to us this inestimable blessing ? Let us compare 
 the ethical systems of the best of his philosophers, with 
 that laid down in the Gospel ; let us see which is the 
 
Sermon IV.] [ 53 ] 
 
 most perfect in its parts, which has the surest founda- 
 tion, the fullest sanction : But till we have done this, let 
 us beware how we enlist ourselves under his banners, or 
 engage in so dangerous a party. 
 
 Secondly, The rank we hold in the chain of created 
 beings, affords another motive for entering upon this 
 important task : Beings as we are, dependent on a God, 
 from whose free gift we hold the glorious faculty of 
 reason ; a gracious God who seems, by the method in 
 which he has revealed himself to us, to expect we should 
 use that faculty in discovering the truth of his revela- 
 tion. But the Enthusiast denies this, and tells us that he 
 demands a blind submission of our reason ; that he re- 
 quires it to be absorbed in implicit uninquiring faith. 
 We ought therefore to inquire what is the truth on this 
 weighty subject ; and, happily for us, the Scriptures, 
 where only it is to be learned, are open to our inquiry. 
 If therefore we are by them permitted to try all things, 
 in order to find out and to abide by that which is right, 
 let us not vainly imagine we ought to quench the light, 
 which alone can enable us to make the trial. 
 
 Lastly, Let me enforce the necessity of this investi- 
 gation from our particular situation as Englishmen ; as 
 the free subjects of a Protestant Prince, who governs us by 
 laws, which, be it ever remembered, receive their sanction 
 and vitality from that religion, the firm belief of which 
 
[ 54 ]' [Sermon IV. 
 
 must be admitted into our bosoms, before their authority 
 can have its genuine influence over our actions. Under 
 such a government, therefore, how necessary is it to be 
 fully established in the true faith, in order to avoid In- 
 fidelity, which weakens the springs of government, and 
 Fanaticism that destroys them. The last century is 
 pregnant with examples of both these evils ; for when 
 Enthusiasm took the lead in opposing the oppressive 
 measures of the first Charles, what but anarchy resulted 
 from the opposition ? And when Infidelity, imported 
 with other French fopperies, by the second Charles, 
 trampled on the ruins of demolished Fanaticism, what 
 but Popery and arbitrary power followed in her train ? 
 Soon, indeed, did the mercy of the Almighty deliver us 
 from the then impending ruin, and long has the same 
 mercy preserved us in the purest state of civil and reli- 
 gious freedom. Let us then, with all thankfulness to 
 the great Author, from whom every good and perfect 
 gift cometh, stand fast in that liberty in which Christ 
 hath made us free, and be not entangled again in that 
 yoke of bondage, which Enthusiasm on the one hand, 
 and Infidelity on the other, mutually concur to fasten on 
 the human mind. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN COMPASSION. 
 
[57] 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 John xi. 35. 
 
 JESUS WEPT 
 
 1 h e Son of God shed tears ; not those which spring 
 from partial or private grief, but generous, social, sym- 
 pathetic tears ; for it is well known that this effusion of 
 his divine tenderness was poured forth only a few mo- 
 ments before he exerted his miraculous power in raising 
 Lazarus from the dead ; when, meeting the afflicted 
 sisters and relations of his deceased friend, and behold- 
 ing the extremity of their distress, he instantly caught 
 the soft infection, and lamented that calamity as a man, 
 which he was about to relieve as a God. The Jews, it 
 is true, who were spectators of the solemn scene, im- 
 puted these tears to the tenderness of private friendship. 
 
 " Behold," say they, " how he loved him." And 
 
 in their circumstances, surely, the reflection was natural, 
 but the event points out to us another cause ; for why 
 should he weep at the death of a person, however dear 
 to him, who, by his divine prescience, he knew would 
 so shortly be restored to life and his society ? No, it was 
 
[ 58 ] [Sermon V. 
 
 the distress of his afflicted disciples and friends that 
 opened the sacred fountains of his sorrows ; with these 
 he " groaned in spirit, and was troubled ;" with these 
 he " wept." It was even more than this : it was a sym- 
 pathy with the afflictions of mankind in general, ever 
 liable, from the common causes of mortality, to have 
 their breasts wounded with sorrows of this piercing sort, 
 without alleviation, and without redress. May not we 
 (if we can do it without presumption) suppose that some 
 such benevolent reflections as the following, at that 
 moment, arose in his compassionate mind ? 6( How 
 ec many, alas ! how many ofxmy future followers, like 
 (C these, believing in my name, and having the same 
 ci pious confidence in my power, shall hereafter, like 
 " these, be afflicted, and in the same dreadful degree, at 
 ci a time when I, their Saviour and their friend, am re- 
 u moved from this terrestrial scene of things ? They 
 " shall call upon me, when the general laws of my 
 i( Father's Providence forbid me to answer : They shall 
 " weep, when I must not dry their tears. Present as I 
 ec now am with these children of affliction, consoling 
 iC those sorrows with my pity, which I shall shortly re- 
 " move by my power, to whom shall they fly for comfort 
 s \ and succour in my absence ? Who then shall heal the 
 cc wounds of groaning friendship, of brotherly, filial, or 
 c< conjugal affection ? Be the tears, I now shed, their 
 <( future balm : Let my disciples yet unborn feel their 
 " salutary influence. Faith shall apply them still fresh 
 
Sermon V.] [ 59 ] 
 
 " to their bosoms, and they shall rest assured, that he, 
 " who once wept with their afflicted brethren upon earth, 
 " shall ever compassionate their own calamities in 
 « Heaven/' 
 
 This apostrophe, I presume, will be allowed strictly 
 consonant to the character of the Divine Speaker : But 
 not to indulge myself farther in a mode of speaking, 
 which some persons may think unusual in discourses 
 from this place, I proceed to observe, that as Christ was 
 born into the world, not only to redeem men from sin 
 by his sufferings, but to instruct them in holiness by his 
 example; that example ought uniformly and strictly to 
 direct our practice in every station of life to which it can 
 be applied. 
 
 Apply we it then at present to the case of consolation 
 in general, and see how false the tenets of those men 
 are, who would engraft on our holy Religion, the mean, 
 the unfeeling, the unmanly principles of Stoicism ; who, 
 with a supercilious brow, a dry eye, and a callous heart, 
 declaim to their afflicted brethren that all grief is sinful ; 
 that it argues a distrust of God's providence, and that 
 the greatest earthly calamity ought to be of no moment 
 to him, who has a firm belief in the promises of Revela- 
 lation, and sure hopes of a blessed Eternity. — To this, 
 and more than this, it is surely sufficient to reply, that 
 Jesus wept, and, by mixing his tears with those of the 
 
[ 60 ] [Sermon V- 
 
 distressed, gave them his sanction ; fully authorizing 
 them to feel those sorrows like men, which his precepts 
 and example would teach them to bear as Christians. 
 
 That private grief may be indulged to a very blame- 
 able extreme is not indeed to be denied, but the sorrows 
 to which the text refers are of the more social and gene- 
 rous kind, and such as it is therefore almost impossible 
 to carry to excess. — The more intimately we enter into 
 the afflictions of our fellow-creatures, and the closer we 
 assimilate our feelings to theirs, the nearer we approach 
 the sacred pattern set before us. Compassion, therefore, 
 in the largest and most absolute sense, being certainly 
 a principal part of Christian perfection, it may not be 
 amiss to employ the sequel of this discourse in pointing 
 out some of the principal causes which prevent our be- 
 holding, in this nation, so many amiable examples of it 
 as might earnestly be wished for, not only by every ad- 
 vocate for his Religion, but by every lover of his Country. 
 
 These impediments may be reduced to four articles. 
 The common motives to public charity ; 
 The selfishness of enthusiastic zeal ; 
 The prejudices of party ; 
 And the folly of fashion. 
 
 I. It has been generally allowed, even by writers who 
 have professedly satirized the manners of the times, that 
 
Sermon V.] [ 61 ] 
 
 a want of humanity and charity cannot justly be placed 
 in the list of our national vices. The many noble struc- 
 tures, which have of late arisen for the relief of maladies 
 and miseries of every species, have been justly quoted as 
 proofs of our public humanity. This being an ac- 
 knowledged truth, will it not be thought a strange paradox 
 to assert, that these very institutions, proofs as they are 
 of the point for which they are produced, are not equally 
 so of our private sympathy and compassion ? What ! it 
 is said, do not compassion and charity go hand in hand 
 together ? Is not the former always productive of the 
 latter? It were to be wished it was so; but, alas! a 
 very little reflection will convince us that precedent, 
 caprice, and ostentation too frequently take the lead in 
 these matters. To figure in a list, to direct our inferiors, 
 or preside at a committee, are motives to which we may 
 (without any breach of candour) impute much of this 
 apparent benevolence. Besides this, how often does the 
 plausibility of self-deceit persuade persons, that if they 
 allot out of their annual income a due portion to the 
 support of these public charities ; nay, if they even 
 bequeath to that use a competent sum after their decease, 
 the debt of Christian humanity and compassion is amply 
 discharged. That society is benefited by such donations 
 is not to be questioned ; nor would I be suspected of in- 
 sinuating any thing against their decided utility : They 
 are, in a national view, an honour to our country. All 
 that is to be feared is, that, amongst individuals, a care- 
 
[ 62 ] [Sermon V. 
 
 less contribution to them is sometimes substituted for 
 that nobler species of charity, which has its foundation 
 in sentiment, and by which the heart of the donor is 
 softened, and the moral qualities of it improved. Now, 
 nothing is a clearer point in Christian morals than that 
 all the virtues, which are peculiar to the Gospel system, 
 have a double tendency ; and, while they promote the 
 welfare of the community, advance the moral perfection 
 of the agent. The man, therefore, who in the act of 
 charity, feels not his heart accompany his hand, and his 
 pity prompt his generosity, may be assured that the 
 spirit of the duty is wanting, and that, in the nervous 
 phrase of St. Paul, his beneficence, with respect to him- 
 self, is merely as " sounding brass," and " a tinkling 
 cymbal." 
 
 II. A second great impediment to the effects of 
 genuine compassion, is that peculiar species of enthu- 
 siasm, at present so prevalent amongst us, the funda- 
 mental tenet of which, separating, as it does, Faith from 
 good Works, leads directly to the most selfish and most 
 contracted motives of action. This effect it produces 
 two ways ; first, by prompting the religious zealot to 
 attempt working out his own salvation by means only of 
 devotion abstracted from all secular concerns, which, 
 though a duty occasionally necessary, cannot be so at all 
 times, because were it constantly practised, it would 
 prevent the exercise of all our more active moral duties ; 
 
Sermon V.] [ 63 ] 
 
 and secondly, by impressing his imagination ( which 
 these devotional acts have overheated) with higher ideas 
 of his own sanctity, than are compatible with that 
 charity, with which he ought to treat his less sanctified 
 neighbour. In a word, it leads him to distinguish the 
 world into only two classes, that of Saints and of Sinners; 
 and when these classes are once formed in his imagina- 
 tion, it is easy to ascertain to which of them only he will 
 extend his compassion, and which he will (as indeed he 
 is very apt with much self-complacency to do) consign 
 to eternal damnation. But neither the place I am in, 
 nor the audience I am before, make it necessary to dwell 
 upon the bad effects of a delusion, which has its chief 
 influence on the lower class of the people : I proceed 
 rather to shew that the prejudices of Party are as great 
 an obstruction to the exertion of this virtue. 
 
 III. By Party, I would be understood to mean, that 
 blind and unscrupulous attachment to one or more falli- 
 ble mortals like ourselves, which leads us to support 
 and defend all their measures indiscriminately, and even 
 to take a pride in so doing, as believing that thereby w T e 
 preserve an uniformity and steadiness of character. This 
 pride, like the enthusiastic species before mentioned, 
 necessarily narrows the humane affections extremely, 
 induces contempt for those who have enlisted themselves 
 under other leaders, and absolute hatred for those who, 
 even on very justifiable motives, have deserted their own. 
 
[ 64 ] [Sermon V. 
 
 Our own history, like that of all other free nations, teems 
 with so many instances of the ill effects of this species of 
 political partiality, that I may be well spared from in- 
 sisting farther on so glaring a truth. It may be to more 
 purpose if I intimate to those who read, and even see 
 instances of this pest of society with abhorrence, that 
 they ought to take good care not, on this account, to fall 
 into that cold indifference and base neutrality, which 
 they may think can only secure them from becoming 
 party zealots, and this even in times which may call for 
 the exertion of every patriotic principle. Genuine Pa- 
 triotism (however the sacred word may be abused) is a 
 very different thing from Party Spirit : it is that spirit only 
 which I am here condemning, and in which, I trust, I 
 am joined by every freeborn Englishman, and every 
 loyal subject. 
 
 IV. The last cause I shall mention, is the folly of 
 fashion, which shews itself so generally in that vain 
 affectation of foreign manners, and that mean mimicry, 
 by which persons of rank and fortune condescend to adopt 
 the taste of a neighbouring nation, whose mode of life is 
 totally artificial, refined far beyond the bounds of plain 
 sense and genuine simplicity, and consequently, of all 
 others, the least worthy to be imitated by Protestants and 
 Britons. From hence it is, that, among other pernicious 
 consequences, arise those false and fanciful distinctions 
 in the orders of civil society, which are the greatest 
 
Sermon V.] [ 65 ] 
 
 obstruction to mutual benevolence, and diametrically 
 opposite to the genius of our free Constitution. The just 
 and natural titles to pre-eminence, which a noble birth, 
 a liberal education, or an opulent fortune carried along 
 with them, were all that our wiser ancestors either knew 
 or regarded. Fashion and taste at present usurp the 
 place even of the best of these qualifications. Thus an 
 ideal distinction arises in social life, which every man 
 forms for himself, or borrows from a fantastic original, 
 and whoever corresponds not with it, is treated with 
 ridicule, or consigned to contempt. Hence, therefore, 
 as the religious Fanatic limits his benevolence to the 
 pale of his own sect, the fashionable Fanatic ( for he 
 deserves no better title) confines his, if he has any, to 
 his own modish circle. The rest of the world are, in the 
 estimation of his heart, just what they are in his polite 
 phrase, (t People absolutely unknown, vulgar, and little 
 better than savages." No wonder then that the dis- 
 tresses of such creatures should never come within the 
 sphere of his compassion, when his taste puts even their 
 existence below his notice. 
 
 Instead of these prejudices, these follies, come into 
 our bosoms, and there perpetually reside, Humanity, 
 thou loveliest, thou most exalted of all the virtues ! 
 Come that masculine vigor of sentiment joined to 
 that heart-felt fervor of social love, which, not con- 
 tented with relieving the miseries of the wretched, is 
 
 vol. iv. F 
 
[ 66 ) [Sermon V. 
 
 proud to feel, to share, and to console them. The 
 benign Author of our Being, we know, has affixed a 
 melancholy kind of pleasure to these sensations, which 
 far exceeds the giddy raptures of sensual delight; and 
 the natural tendency of the human soul to indulge itself 
 in these sympathetic sorrows is so strong, that to be- 
 hold even fictitious spectacles of distress, and to sympa- 
 thize with them, has, by all cultivated nations, been held 
 one of the noblest of their amusements : insomuch that 
 the best philosophers have concluded such represen- 
 tations tended to exalt and refine the heart, by purging 
 it of its selfish passions, and by inducing in their stead 
 the more humane and delicate affections.* However this 
 be, we may safely assert, that this great theatre of the 
 world abounds with real objects of pity and compassion 
 sufficient to give the generous breast continual exercise 
 for all its most benevolent powers. In these pleasing 
 
 * Aristotle's well-known definition of Tragedy here alluded 
 to, has been very variously commented upon; but the sense 
 followed is that which M. Kapin gives to it, " Le Philosophe 
 " (says he) avoit reconnu deux dtfauts importans a regler dans 
 " l'Homme, VOrgueil et la Durete, et il trouva le remede dans 
 " la Tragedie." See Reflexions sur la Poetique, Sec. 17th. His 
 whole explication of the passage is too long to be here quoted ; 
 but In defence of it let me be permitted to observe, that Aris- 
 totle by no means asserts that Tragedy purges all the passions, 
 but those only which are allied lo terror and pity, as the words &' 
 i\iu y.cci (poQa niQciwHaa. rr,v tujv rot&Vtn ttcc^jxccIuv kccScc^o-u plainly 
 indicate: an inattention to this distinction, has occasioned 
 much misconception of the Philosopher's meaning. — See Arist. 
 Poet. Sect. 6. 
 
Sermon V.] [ 67 ] 
 
 duties of humanity the poorest amongst us may emulate 
 the richest ; for all of us have hearts to pity, tongues to 
 console, eyes to weep for the distresses of our brethren, if 
 we have not abilities to relieve them. Let us then, as 
 the servants of one God, subjects of one King, professors 
 of one Faith, exemplify by our actions the happy effects 
 of such an intimate union : let us be kindly affectionate 
 one unto another ; rejoice with those that rejoice ; weep 
 with those that weep ; love as brethren, extending the 
 still encreasing circle of our Christian good-will from 
 individuals to our country, from our country to the 
 whole race of mankind. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN COURTESY. 
 
[71 ] 
 
 SERMON VI 
 
 1 Peter iii. 8. 
 
 .1 he two virtues, which the Apostle here exhorts us to 
 cultivate, have this essential difference, that the former 
 is a natural principle, the latter an acquired hahit. They 
 may act, therefore, independently of one another, and in 
 fact they frequently do so ; yet it seldom, if ever, hap- 
 pens that they have even their own inherent efficacy, 
 when they are thus disunited. Ou this account the in- 
 spired writer recommends them both together to our 
 cultivation, intimating at the same time, in the order of 
 his phrase, which is the superior of the two, and which, 
 therefore, ought first and principally to be practised. 
 
 Following the same order, I shall first endeavour to 
 discover why the principle of pity or compassion was 
 made a part of our moral constitution : and this appears 
 to have arisen from the ever-powerful exertion of that 
 principle by our benevolent Creator. He gave it, in his 
 mercy, to man, to remedy the slow, and oftentimes the 
 
[ 72 ] [Sermon VI- 
 
 defective, steps which his reason would take towards 
 relieving the wants of his fellow-creatures. He ordained 
 it to be a strong and active passion, powerfully to impel 
 us to this salutary business. He bad it act not only 
 powerfully, but suddenly ; to precede reason, and even 
 sometimes to over-rule it. The many unavoidable mi- 
 series and accidents to which human life is subject, 
 made this necessary, in order that, in cases of exigency, 
 Compassion might bring that assistance in good time, 
 which Reason would lend too late. This then is the 
 final cause of pity. And have we not reason to bless 
 the Giver of all good, that a passion so disinterested, so 
 amiable, so pleasurable was implanted in our nature ? 
 Surely we have ; since hereby those actions, which 
 would otherwise only have had the consciousness of rec- 
 titude, and a distant hope for their present reward, in 
 common with many other duties of life, become, even in 
 their immediate exertion, the purest sources of satisfacr 
 tion and delight. 
 
 But the other virtue of courtesy or affability arises not 
 so much from our original feelings, as from a rational 
 and well-weighed experience of its utility to ourselves 
 and to society. Pity may he called (as it certainly is) a 
 quality of the heart ; courtesy is rather a quality of the 
 head. The one, we have seen, acts before reason, and 
 frequently against it ; the other is generally under the 
 direction, and never appears in opposition to it : for if 
 
Sermon VI.] [ 73 ] 
 
 courtesy becomes extreme, and consequently irrational, 
 it ceases to be that manly mode of behaviour which gives 
 a generous attention to the tempers, inclinations, and 
 even foibles of our friends and fellow-citizens. It ceases 
 to be the thing for which it was meant, to accommodate 
 us to society, by teaching us to overlook all pardonable 
 defects in others, and by prompting us to disclaim all 
 unjust superiority in ourselves. It degenerates into that 
 spirit, or rather want of spirit,, which complying with 
 every fashionable vice, and ridiculing every unfashion- 
 able virtue, impudently assumes the name of politeness, 
 and that indifference and indiscriminate approbation of 
 good and bad, which passes with the world for the very 
 height of urbanity. Genuine courtesy is the reverse of 
 all this. It is true, it is ever ready to comply, ever 
 prompt to approve; but it will comply only with what 
 is honourable ; it will approve only what reason assures 
 it is worthy of approbation. It teaches us to please 
 others, not merely that others may please us, hut that 
 we also may be pleased with ourselves ; and it teaches 
 us too that we cannot be thus pleased if we degrade our 
 own dignity. It is, therefore, a capital security against 
 every thing that is derogatory to truth and virtue, since 
 by such derogation we do a violence to our convictions 
 and feelings, we act uncourteously to conscience, our 
 faithful monitor, our internal friend. 
 
 Such then are the merits of courtesy separately consi- 
 
( 74 ] [Sermon VI. 
 
 dered. Let us now see the use of it when it is joined, 
 as the Apostle tells us it should be, with compassion or 
 pity. 
 
 This being a natural passion, acts upon us (if we do 
 not, as, alas ! some too often do, harden our hearts 
 against it) like all other natural passions, instantly and 
 vigorously: We have only to yield ourselves up to our 
 feelings whenever a fit object presents itself (and, heaven 
 knows, in such a world as ours such objects are by no 
 means unfrequent), to perceive its full impulse : but this 
 impulse may be violent ; so much so perhaps, that the 
 very object of the passion may be disgusted with its 
 violence, and take that for an insult which arose from 
 the most benevolent of all sensations. Hence then 
 arises the necessity of using every conciliatory aid of 
 courtesy or address. She, and she only, can adapt the 
 means to the end. The rude impetuous zeal of the one 
 has constant occasion to be softened by the winning 
 manners of the other : for if Pity makes an offering at 
 the shrine of Misery; if she offers it ungraciously, it will 
 be accepted with disdain; since even Misery may be 
 disdainful, and is usually most pardonable for being so. 
 In cases of this kind, therefore, Affability is of the great- 
 est use and assistance to Compassion : But in all cases 
 Compassion is much more so to Affability, insomuch that 
 we may lay this down as an axiom, that if courtesy is 
 not founded upon pity, it hardly deserves the name of a 
 
Sermon VI.] [ 75 ] 
 
 virtue. Hence, therefore, the Apostle gives pity the 
 precedence, because we must be pitiful before we can be 
 truly courteous. 
 
 " We must be pitiful before we are courteous |" I 
 repeat it, my brethren, because it is an important truth 5 
 and, like all other important truths, in this dissipated 
 age, almost universally disregarded. It makes no part 
 of the system of education which forms our youth; it 
 makes no part of the practice of our maturest manhood. 
 If we are taught either of these qualifications, it is only 
 a kind of mechanical courtesy that we are taught, and 
 that merely to excuse us from exercising our compas- 
 sion, and to conceal our want of that and every other 
 humane virtue. Thus taught, and thus practised, we 
 may be assured it never acts powerfully enough to de- 
 stroy any part of our self-interest ; but leaves this 
 meanest of all our passions its full sway and dominion 
 over us ; insomuch that whenever an object of real com- 
 passion offers itself to our view, she will retain the power 
 still to check the native impulse of commiseration, by 
 urging " that there may be fraud and imposture in the 
 case ;" " that charity begins at home 5" u that it is every 
 person's first and chiefest concern to take care of self;" 
 and a thousand such-like arguments avowed by the small 
 vulgar, but not less practised by the great. I say not, 
 however, that our compassion should be lavished indis- 
 criminately : I only say, that when we behold such an 
 
[76] [Sermon VI. 
 
 object as strongly awakens it, we may safely, and ought 
 therefore readily to yield ourselves up to its guidance; 
 nor on account of one or two, or even a thousand in- 
 stances of misplaced or misapplied benevolence, harden 
 our hearts to a constant disuse of this virtue. Ought we 
 not rather perpetually (for almost perpetual objects of 
 our commiseration present themselves to our view) to 
 give a courteous attention at least to those children of 
 affliction, whom sickness, pain, hunger, or extreme po- 
 verty so manifestly have distressed, that they call on our 
 pity either to afford them immediate relief ourselves, or 
 to put them in a way to be relieved by the charitable 
 institutions of their country ? Can we find any cause to 
 treat them otherwise till they be proved actual impos- 
 tors ? Will the bare suspicion of imposture authorize our 
 disdain and contumely ? Will even actual imposture in 
 them excuse a barbarity of behaviour in ourselves ? It 
 is true, that in this case they may deserve to be punished, 
 and it may be our duty to bring them to punishment : 
 But let not private ill-treatment anticipate the severities 
 of public justice : Let not individuals presume summa- 
 rily to decide where the laws of their country would 
 deliberately inquire ; and let that judicial sentence alone 
 be inflicted, which those laws only are competent to, 
 inflict. 
 
 I am but too well aware that the spirit of those our 
 necessary laws, which, affixing a certain poor's rate for 
 
Sermon VI.] [ 77 J 
 
 the relief of miserable individuals, lays it as a parochial 
 tax on the more opulent part of the community, greatly 
 contributes to advance the evil here complained of 5 and 
 though, perhaps, it be beyond the wisdom of human 
 legislation to apply an effectual remedy, yet, while the 
 evil subsists, it behoves the Christian Preacher to admo- 
 nish his audience, that the payment of a legal duty, as 
 this is, to the state, by no means absolves them from the 
 practice of that universal benevolence commanded by 
 the Gospel ; much less does it vindicate them in treat- 
 ing those unhappy men, who are supported by such 
 public tribute, with insolence and outrage. Certain it is 
 that this succedaneum for private charity (as it is thought 
 to be by many), added to that mock courtesy, already 
 reprobated, which neither springs from nor accompanies 
 compassion, has a lamentable tendency to divest the 
 heart of all its benevolent sensations. Blessed be God, 
 it cannot totally obliterate them, because he has made 
 them a part of our nature; yet, surely, they too fre- 
 quently weaken their benign efficacy. 
 
 Were it necessary to add any thing more in reprobation 
 of that substitute for real courtesy, which I have said so 
 fatally co-operates with that which lessens private cha- 
 rity, I would farther observe, that all the fantastic rules 
 and modes of it are borrowed from a foreign country never 
 famous for its compassion, and which has given a recent 
 instance of the vant of it, by endeavouring to deprive a 
 
[ 78 ] [Sermon VI. 
 
 free nation of almost its only blessing, and at length 
 succeeding in the barbarous attempt :* I would add too, 
 that the fantastic modes thus borrowed, are made still 
 more so by an awkward imitation : what wonder then 
 that humanity and unaffected generosity, which once 
 were the distinguishing virtues of an Englishman, should 
 be seldom seen amongst us ; and if seen, unhonoured ; 
 nay, perhaps, ridiculed and despised; while those only are 
 deemed patterns of politeness, directors of taste, masters 
 of true breeding, who have transferred into themselves 
 the manners I speak of, yet are at best only imperfect 
 translations of a futile and affected original. 
 
 Where shall we find a remedy for this depravation, 
 this corruption of the moral character ? Where, but by 
 looking up to better archetypes, and by imitating examples 
 more worthy of our emulation : Shall I, for this purpose, 
 refer you to the sages, the heroes, the citizens of anti- 
 quity, who, by making Greece and Rome virtuous, made 
 them also prosperous and happy ? Shall I point out to 
 you those patriarchs and prophets of the Jewish nation, 
 which the hand of inspiration has delineated in such 
 striking colours ? No — I will rise higher than these ! I 
 will hold forth to your contemplation that perfect exem- 
 plar of pity, courtesy, and every benevolent affection^ 
 
 * This was preached (as the annals of the times will show) 
 just after the French had reduced Corsica to their dominion. 
 
Sermon VI.] [ 79 ] 
 
 the meek, the humble, the suffering Jesus : Jesus, the 
 author of your salvation, the finisher of your faith. Be- 
 hold then his pity breaking forth in the tears of genuine 
 patriotism, and bewailing those calamities which infi- 
 delity and irreligion had brought upon his devoted 
 country. Behold it falling in the dews of genuine ten- 
 derness over the grave of Lazarus, his departed friend. 
 Admire that pathetic instance of true courtesy he after- 
 wards gave, when, forgetting the burthen of the cross 
 which he then bore, and on which he was shortly to 
 suffer the most excruciating of torments, he cried out to 
 the women, who lamented him, " Daughters of Jeru- 
 salem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for 
 your children." Lastly, revere the divine efficacy of both 
 these virtues united when sublimed into charity, and 
 exerted in the agony of death ; they breathed a prayer 
 for his murderers, and fervently exclaimed, " Father, 
 forgive them, for they know not what they do." Here, 
 then, let us conclude, and silently adore what it would 
 be almost impiety if we attempted to applaud ; yet let 
 us strive to imitate, in manner and in kind, virtues which 
 we can never attain to in degree : for we know that he 
 was given for an example that we should follow his 
 steps : Let us then have (as he had towards us) fervent 
 charity one towards another : that charity which our 
 holy Religion assures us never faileth, since it compre- 
 hends not only the two virtues which have now been 
 
[ 80 ] [Sermon VI. 
 
 recommended to your practice, but includes also every 
 tender sentiment that the human mind is constituted to 
 feel, every benevolent action that the human power* 
 have an ability to perform. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 VOL. IV. G 
 
[83] 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 1 Cor. vii. 23. 
 
 YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE J BE NOT YE THE 
 SERVANTS OF MEN. 
 
 J n the chapter preceding this, it is observable that the 
 Apostle draws another conclusion from the same pre- 
 mises : " Ye are bought," says he, " with a price, there- 
 fore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are 
 God's." These two passages seem to have a reference 
 to one another; I shall, therefore, have them both in 
 my view in the following discourse. The former propo- 
 sitions, as I have said, are in both arguments the same, 
 and, as addressed to the people of Corinth, allude, with 
 propriety, to the custom common in that city, with the 
 rest of Greece, of dealing in slaves ; connected, there- 
 fore, together, they will admit the following paraphrase : 
 " God has purchased you with the precious blood of 
 his Son ; but the nature of the purchase, the price given, 
 and the dignity of the purchaser are such, that you must 
 not look upon yourselves as bought to serve and obey 
 him in such a manner as might fulfil the duty you owe 
 
[ 84 ] [Sermon VII. 
 
 to a human master. You must do more than this, you 
 must glorify him j that is, you must improve your moral 
 faculties, and advance them to as high a pitch as your 
 nature is capable of reaching, in order to render your- 
 selves fit servants of such a master, whose sole property 
 you are, by a double title, not only by the right of crea- 
 tion, but redemption. This being the point of view in 
 which you are to look upon yourselves with respect to 
 your Maker, take heed that you do not depreciate your- 
 selves by any mean servility to your fellow-creatures ; 
 but in your commerce with the world preserve that spirit 
 of freedom and independence which is your birth-right 
 as men, and which is not lessened but improved by your 
 becoming Christians." 
 
 On a presumption that what I have here delivered is 
 a just and consonant explication of the Apostle's mean- 
 ing, which, according to his usual manner, he has ex- 
 pressed with a nervous conciseness, I hope it will appear 
 from the sequel of this discourse, how incapable any 
 man is of promoting the glory of God, who suffers him- 
 self to be drawn into a state of worldly dependence, and 
 who either servilely submits to the unjust commands, or 
 meanly adopts the fashionable vices, of those whom 
 fortune only has made his superiors. 
 
 For the dependence which I would condemn, and 
 which the Apostle certainly means, when he exhorts his 
 
Sermon VII.] [ 85 ] 
 
 converts not to become the servants of men, is by no 
 means that natural one which results from our mutual 
 wants, and without which civil society could not subsist ; 
 nor yet that unnatural one which mankind have in all 
 ages, from external causes, been obliged to submit to ; 
 but that which still more debases human nature, and is 
 more abhorrent to it, which arises from an internal defect 
 in individuals, and that of the worst kind, a defect not of 
 the head but of the heart. 
 
 That the Apostle excludes that kind of dependence 
 which arises from external causes in the present case, is 
 clear from the verse immediately preceding the text. 
 " Art thou called, being a servant, care not for it, but if 
 thou may be made free, use it rather." As if he had said, 
 Liberty is indeed such an inestimable blessing, that every 
 man must of necessity prefer it to slavery; yet if thou 
 hast the misfortune to be reduced to that condition, do 
 not, now that thou art become a Christian, repine at thy 
 lot, because it is one of the principal duties of Chris- 
 tianity to be resigned and patient, even in the most 
 calamitous of situations. It is plain, therefore, that this 
 kind of servitude, though an unnatural state, as many 
 glorious defenders of the rights of mankind have irre- 
 fragably proved, is not that which the Apostle means; 
 neither can it possibly be that natural state of mutual 
 support and subordination, which is of the very essence 
 of civil society, because, St. Paul, if he could exhort his 
 
[86 ] [Sermon VII. 
 
 convert to be content in a state of absolute slavery, would 
 surely never prompt him to break those easy, those useful 
 bonds which connect him to an equal and equitable 
 government. It is not to be doubted, therefore, but that 
 he confines bis meaning to tbat abject servility which 
 self-interest produces in a bad heart, the offspring of 
 which are all those dishonourable actions that degrade a 
 man below humanity, and are consequently incompatible 
 with that divine dispensation, which was meant to purify 
 his nature, and make him capable even of glorifying his 
 God. 
 
 Nevertheless, the man who is mean enough so far to 
 degrade his own dignity, is usually cunning enough to 
 produce passages of misapplied Scripture to justify that 
 meanness; nay, even to change it to a virtue, and to 
 pretend that what unenlightened Reason may deem a 
 despicable blemish, Revealed Religion holds forth to our 
 imitation as a Christian Grace. It is even to be feared 
 that some pious persons have so far deceived themselves 
 in this matter, as to believe that when they acted servilely 
 they only acted humbly, and thought themselves intitled 
 to a beatitude for being poor in spirit, when in fact they 
 were only mean in spirit, and void of honour. Certain it 
 is, that the history of mankind affords us many lamentable 
 instances of this defection from common honesty in the 
 public actions of persons whose private conduct was irre- 
 proachable; a defect which I would rather impute to 
 
Sermon VII.] [ 87 ] 
 
 self-deception than hypocrisy \ and indeed in many cases 
 the piety, and even seventy of their lives, seems fully to 
 justify that candid imputation. 
 
 As, therefore, many estimable characters in other 
 respects have been found deficient in this, it may not be 
 amiss, briefly, to ascertain what Christian Humility is, 
 and how we may be so poor in spirit as to obtain the 
 kingdom of heaven, without descending to that meanness 
 of heart which is only calculated to procure the good 
 things of the world. 
 
 If we examine this virtue as it existed not only in our 
 blessed Saviour, but also in his Apostles, and I know of 
 no fairer medium through which to view it, we shall find 
 that its features were bold, open, and even intrepid ; that 
 no worldly compliance, no mean adulation, no venal pro- 
 stitution ever entered into its composition. The lowest 
 estimation of self, the humblest submission to the will of 
 God, the most compassionate condescension to the wants 
 and even weaknesses of mankind, were its engaging 
 characteristics ; but these ever accompanied with a su- 
 preme contempt of vice and the abettors of vice; a 
 contempt not only inwardly felt, but publicly avowed. 
 Against these they ventured to launch their just indig- 
 nation, not only in the Synagogue, but even before the 
 Sanhedrim : yet were these men, like their divine 
 Exemplar, meek and lowly of heart 5 they intimately felt 
 
[ 88 ] [Sermon VII, 
 
 their own nothingness, they ingenuously confessed it; 
 they knew that they were only unprofitable servants ; but 
 they knew too that they were the servants not of men but 
 of God ; and that they should be still more unprofitable 
 to the God who had purchased them with so inestimable 
 a price, if they submitted to man, from whom they could 
 only receive the wages of iniquity. In a word, they knew 
 that whoever served Mammon could never serve, much 
 less glorify God. Thus we see that any other humility 
 than that which the founders of our holy faith exercised, 
 was incompatible with the cause they maintained, and 
 contrary to their allegiance to the Captain of their salva- 
 tion, under whose banners they fought : I would ask if 
 it is not as much so at present ? No man will privately 
 think the negative, though he may not chuse publicly 
 to declare his sentiment. He will say, perhaps, that 
 humility, carried to a culpable excess, is by no means 
 the most prevalent fault of the present age ; that on the 
 contrary, licentious abuse and libellous ribaldry have 
 spread such a factious spirit amongst the body of the 
 people, that we have greater reason to apprehend danger 
 from seditious practices than servile compliances, It is 
 indeed a confessed and a melancholy truth, that we live 
 in times very similar to those which St. Jude has, with 
 so much energy of expression, described : i: We live 
 amongst men who not only defile the flesh, but despise 
 dominion, and speak evil of dignities ;*' but we live too 
 amongst men who, like the former, " walking after their 
 
Sermon VII.] [ 89 ] 
 
 own lusts, have men's persons in admiration because of 
 advantage." We see the Apostle gives the origin of both 
 these characters to a depravity of heart ; which of them 
 is of the most pernicious consequence to the community, 
 far he it from me to determine. The disquisition were as 
 idle as that which has so often and so vainly exercised the 
 wits of the learned, endeavouring to ascertain whether 
 Atheism or Superstition has the most baneful tendency. 
 All extremes are in their very nature baneful. True 
 virtue ever resides in a medium between both ; and like 
 the orb that enlightens the heavens, is then brightest 
 when most distant from that common darkness out of 
 which it rises, and into which it declines. 
 
 What this medium is in the present case, the sequel 
 of this discourse shall be employed in describing : I will 
 endeavour to draw the principal outlines of that most 
 glorious, most exalted of characters, that of the sincere 
 Christian who endeavours to glorify his God, while he is 
 the useful, the loyal subject of his Prince; and who, 
 without being the servant of men, is yet a friend to 
 mankind, and an honour to his country. 
 
 Convinced by the sacred pages which so frequently 
 inculcate this awful truth, that he has here no continuing 
 city, he makes it his principal business to secure himself 
 a mansion in that which fadeth not away, a house eternal 
 in the heavens ; equally convinced that his continuance 
 
[ 90 ] [Sermon VII. 
 
 here (however short or long its duration) is an important 
 space of time, which ought to be employed in those 
 practical duties which become a moral Agent and a 
 social Being, and that his very hope of happiness here- 
 after depends upon his practice of those duties here ; he 
 does not, like the monastic bigot, seclude himself from 
 society, or refuse to act that part in the world which his 
 sphere of life authorises him to perform. As a child of 
 Light, he walks in the light, yet this without ostentation, 
 and frequently when malice itself cannot suppose him to 
 be ostentatious; for he may live in times when to be 
 singularly good, may, for its very singularity, be the 
 object of general ridicule ; when the noblest virtues may 
 be unfashionable and almost opprobrious; nevertheless, 
 he will venture to exercise the most unfashionable of 
 them all, he will even dare to be a patriot : unheated by 
 party rage, despising personal and private emolument, 
 let the torrent of faction or corruption be ever so general, 
 he will still inviolably preserve his loyalty as a subject, 
 his liberty as a man, as a Briton ; he will guard the con- 
 stitution of his country against every assault, both of 
 sedition and seduction ; will try to prevent every breach 
 that either enemy may endeavour to make in it; will try 
 to repair those breaches, even when he fears they are 
 irreparable. 
 
 Thus will that Christian act whose birth or fortune 
 necessarily leads him to appear in public life; but the 
 
Sermon VII.] [ 91 ] 
 
 poorer and more private Christian will not act a part less 
 meritorious : he will exert the same virtues ; though they 
 cannot shine forth with the same lustre, they will not, 
 therefore, be the less pure, nor perhaps the less useful : 
 for although we have melancholy proof that servility is by 
 no means confined to the lower stations of life, yet we 
 must necessarily expect to find that persons in this class 
 will be the most liable to become servile : and the reason 
 is obvious : Ambition and Faction well know, that with- 
 out their assistance they can neither of them attain their 
 infamous purposes; how zealous they are to employ them 
 is visible from the base means which they use to procure 
 them ; and penury is not perhaps always sufficiently able 
 to resist the powerful temptation. He, therefore, who re- 
 fuses to be the tool of either, and who resolutely preserves 
 his integrity, be he the poorest peasant, the meanest 
 mechanic, I will be bold to say that he does more than 
 fear, he glorifies his God ; he does more than honour, he 
 loves his King ; and by doing both, does all in his power 
 to promote the happiness of his country. His example 
 (let not the sneer of riches and pride mock at the w T ord, 
 for a poor man may set an example) will be of the greater 
 importance, as it will be more capable of general imita- 
 tion. It is not in the power of every person to act 
 heroically, but it is in the power of every person to act 
 honestly; and if the hero himself does not in this emulate 
 the peasant, he may, if he pleases, call himself a hero, 
 his flatterers too may call him so, but impartial posterity 
 will not fail to give him a very different appellation. 
 
[ 92 ] [Sermon VII. 
 
 But enough has been said to excite your meditation 
 upon a subject on which the limits of this discourse will 
 not suffer me further to enlarge : I trust there is no oc- 
 casion for it ; some vices are of such a kind as barely to 
 mention them is sufficient to make ingenuous miuds 
 detest them ; and such, surely, are all those which spring 
 from a venality of soul, and tend to enslave us in the sense 
 of St. Paul's precept, when he bids us not to become the 
 servants of men ; the mean, the mercenary servants of 
 corrupt masters, who would not, let us assure ourselves, 
 wish for such service, were not they themselves the 
 servants of Sin, nor try to enslave others, were not they 
 themselves already entangled in the yoke of bondage. 
 
ON THE 
 
 CHRISTIAN DUTY 
 
 OF 
 
 GLORIFYING GOD 
 
 IN SEQUEL TO THE FORMER DISCOURSE. 
 
[95] 
 
 SERMON VIII. 
 
 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
 
 ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify 
 god in your body, and your spirit, which are 
 god's. 
 
 In the foregoing discourse I connected this text with 
 another in the same Epistle, in which the learned Apostle 
 draws a different conclusion from the same premises ; by 
 a paraphrase of them, taken together, I endeavoured to 
 shew the relation which each of the conclusions had with 
 the other, and how they mutually resulted from those 
 premises ; but the limits usually assigned to discourses of 
 this kind would not permit me to enlarge on the two 
 precepts conveyed by these conclusions with equal 
 latitude : I therefore chose to take the negative injunc- 
 tion of the Apostle first under consideration, though it 
 stands last in the arrangement of the Epistle, and shall 
 now discourse on the positive one. My reason for this 
 was, that I considered the duty of glorifying God as a 
 precept more peculiarly belonging to the Christian scheme 
 ©f morals than the other ; which, though founded (as we 
 
[ 96 ] [Sermon VIII. 
 
 have seen) on the greatest of all Christian principles, and 
 receiving a superadded importance from that principle, 
 is yet in itself a duty which mere morality was sufficient 
 to inculcate, and which indeed it had done amongst the 
 best sects of Gentile philosophers. Innumerable instances 
 of this truth might easily be drawn from the writings of 
 the Stoics in particular ; the contempt in which they held 
 the time-serving and dependent person was almost with- 
 out bounds, yet I believe it would be difficult to find 
 amongst their dogmas, one which prescribes the practice 
 of virtue for the sake of glorifying God ; indeed this 
 practice led them necessarily from their principles only 
 to glorify themselves, and this they did to so great an 
 excess, that their boastings on this head frequently verge 
 on impiety.* 
 
 Being therefore authorised, as I think I am, to call this 
 doctrine in the text a divine one, and taught only by 
 Revelation, I have thought proper to reserve it for a later 
 consideration, as being a duty of the greatest importance, 
 and from which almost all our other duties as Christians 
 may be deduced ; because the momentous consideration 
 of our being purchased by so inestimable a price as the 
 blood of Christ, ought not only to induce us to be above 
 becoming the servants of men (in the sense I have already 
 explained) but above becoming the servants of sin ; or, 
 
 * See one instance of this from Seneca, quoted in a note to 
 Sermon II. p. 22. 
 
Sermon VIII.] [ 97 ] 
 
 in other words, to be above the pollutions not only of 
 the world, but of our own natural passions and vicious 
 inclinations. 
 
 Indeed it is for this latter purpose that St. Paul, in this 
 place, uses so cogent an argument ; but it is observable 
 that he uses a term here not analogous to the other. In 
 that case he says negatively, be ye not the servants of 
 men ; but in this he does not say affirmatively, be ye the 
 servants of God ; he employs one of a much higher sig- 
 nification, he bids us glorify him. This seems to require 
 an illustration ; and I think the best method of giving it 
 will be by a short comparative view of the difference 
 there is between every degree of human servitude, and of 
 that which relates to the service due from man to the 
 Deity ; for I conceive, from this essential difference, the 
 duty inculcated in the text arises, and that it was on this 
 account St. Paul used the peculiar term in question. 
 
 First, Absolute servitude, amongst individuals, in a 
 state of human society, is merely productive of benefit or 
 advantage to the superior party. The slave reaps nothing 
 from the alliance (if it may be so called) but mere sub- 
 sistence; and even this subsistence may properly enough 
 be considered as promoting the master's emolument, 
 when we reflect that without it he would not be enabled 
 to answer the end for which his master purchased him, 
 and consequently would to him be a useless purchase, 
 
 VOL. IV. H 
 
[ 98 ] [Sermon VIII. 
 
 Secondly, Limited servitude admits of mutual ad- 
 vantages ; for here the inferior is supposed to be hired, 
 not bought, and consequently to earn the wages of his 
 labour ; in this case, therefore, each party receives mu- 
 tual benefit, in a degree indeed that cannot be distinctly 
 ascertained, yet, clearly from the nature cf the contract, 
 a benefit which is intended to be mutual. 
 
 These are evidently the facts in the two only suppose- 
 able cases we can put respecting individuals, and what 
 is true in these cases, is also true in the two modes of 
 civil government similar to them. The despotic form is 
 solely calculated for the benefit of the tyrant; the milder 
 and mixed monarchical one produces mutual advantages, 
 as well to the subject as the sovereign ; and even the 
 aristocratic or republican modes of government, in which 
 there is no distinct head, but where power and subjec- 
 tion frequently fluctuate, are yet intended in their origin, 
 and are calculated in some degree (if not very ill exe- 
 cuted) to promote the common welfare of the whole 
 political body. 
 
 In this advantage either to one or both of the parties 
 it is that the specific difference between the service of 
 man to man, and of man to God seems to consist ; for 
 we have seen that there is no kind of human government 
 where the benefit accrues solely to the subordinate part, 
 or where those who are governed receive an advantage 
 
Sermon VIII.] [ 99 ] 
 
 exclusive of those who govern : Whereas, in that subor- 
 dinate relation in which man stands towards his Maker, 
 the benefit accrues entirely to himself, because it Is cer- 
 tain that God cannot be benefited of any, even the best 
 of his services ; for though mere morality may inculcate 
 the duty of our serving God to the utmost of our power, 
 yet it is manifest, that by thus serving him we only pro- 
 mote the true interest of ourselves. It is clear, that by 
 acting as under the inspection of an all-good Being, we 
 take the surest means of avoiding such vices as have an 
 immediate tendency to injure our own temporal happiness; 
 that the farther we estrange ourselves from the practice 
 of such virtues as natural reason teaches us can only be 
 approved by such a master and inspector, the more we 
 divest ourselves of that internal satisfaction which arises 
 from a well-spent life and a peaceful conscience ; and 
 that the more we give the reins to any of our passions, 
 the more we abridge our true liberty, and fall under the 
 worst species of tyranny ; in a word, it is clear that to 
 lead a life of innocence is the only means of living a life 
 of happiness. 
 
 But an objector, though he admits this to be true, will 
 yet be ready to ask the following very obvious question : 
 " If no service we can render the Deity can possibly 
 " benefit him, how can any thing that we do glorify 
 iC him ? Are we not as incapable of increasing his glory 
 " as his happiness?'' I am, on my own part, ready to 
 
[ 100 ] [Sermon VIII. 
 
 allow, that no satisfactory answer can be made to this 
 objection on the principles of natural religion or mere 
 Deism ; but 1 have said before, that the doctrine in view 
 is purely Christian ; that it rests solely on the authority 
 of divine revelation, and is among those peculiar dogmas 
 which unassisted reason neither ever did or could pos- 
 sibly teach, and which, therefore, are only to be found 
 in the writings of inspiration ; but in these writings the 
 phrases so frequently occur of giving glory to and of 
 glorifying God, that he must cease to be a Christian who 
 rejects this doctrine from his belief or practice : It is his 
 business, therefore, only to investigate what that doctrine 
 means, and this he can do, so as to obtain a complete 
 notion of it, by comparing the passages in which it is 
 there mentioned with one another. The result of such 
 an inquiry, I apprehend, will be the following conclu- 
 sion : 
 
 That although man, in an absolute sense, be incapable 
 of adding any thing to God's glory, yet, in a limited 
 sense, he is authorized by the whole tenor of divine re- 
 velation to presume that he is formed with powers to 
 glorify him, because God has endowed him with moral 
 faculties, which, if fully improved and rightly exerted, 
 may relatively contribute to that perfection of the mate- 
 rial universe, which is the work of the Almighty, and 
 which, when he had made it, he declared to be good, 
 and consequently capable of being no inconsiderable 
 
Sermon VIII.] [ 101 ] 
 
 theatre of his glory. In this theatre man is taught that 
 he is appointed to act a part of no small importance, 
 because he is divinely informed that " God made him a 
 little lower than the angels, to crown him with glory 
 and honour;" which two attributes, we may justly con- 
 clude, consist in the superiority he has over the inferior 
 part of the creation, or, as the context expresses it, in 
 God's having u given him dominion over the works of 
 his hands, and put all things in subjection under his 
 feet." 
 
 If then he is a Being constituted to receive so great a 
 degree of what may be called transmitted glory, he has 
 it surely in his power to reflect it back in some degree 
 on its divine Original.* If a capacity of doing evil, 
 whether natural or acquired, has given him a power of 
 polluting this created system by his vices, a capacity of 
 doing good, under the influence of divine grace, renders 
 him capable of adorning the same system by his virtues, 
 and able not only to lessen the sum of moral evil, but to 
 increase that of moral good ; and, if so, to do his part in 
 polishing that now obscured mirror, which God set up 
 to reflect his own purity and holiness, and which we 
 
 * It seems to be on this principle that our blessed Saviour 
 himself exhorts his disciples to the practice of public and exem- 
 plary -virtue: " Let your Light so shine before men that they 
 " may see your good works ;" for why ? " That they may glo- 
 " rify your Father which is in Heaven." 
 
 Mat. chap. y. ver. 16. 
 
[ 102 ] [Sermon VIII. 
 
 presume, from Scripture, would ever have reflected 
 these attributes brightly, but for the incidental stains 
 with which our fa!! n nature bas sullied it. He who 
 believes that Scripture which teaches him that " man 
 was made in the image of God/' will not controvert 
 these positions ; and will consequently admit, that in 
 the relative sense here explained, he is capable of per- 
 forming the duty which the Apostle in this text exhorts 
 him to perform, to glorify God in his body and his spirit, 
 which are God's. 
 
 They are God's, says St. Paul : Both the body and 
 spirit of man is his property ; and w r hy ? because he has 
 purchased them with a price, the inestimable price of 
 his Son's blood. And for what purpose has he purchased 
 them? The context will tell you; to make them the 
 temple of his own Holy Spirit. These, my brethren, you 
 will allow, are reasons of the last, the most stupendous 
 importance; reasons which the sincere Christian takes 
 into his deepest consideration, and on which he uni- 
 formly founds his practice. He knows that to serve his 
 God, in any sort, the precepts which he has given him 
 must be punctually observed. But obedience, he knows, 
 would be his duty, if he only served an earthly master : 
 He, therefore, endeavours to make the spirit, by which 
 God dictated those precepts, his own, and so to act as if 
 they originated in his own bosom, making all those 
 actions proceed from choice, not command, and to flow 
 
Sermon VIII.] j\ 103 ] 
 
 from that best of motives, as well as most pleasurable of 
 sensations, genuine unadulterated gratitude. 
 
 This then is the temper and genius by which the real 
 Christian endeavours to serve his Maker; this is what 
 revelation means when it instructs us to glorify him ; 
 that is, to do every thing with that great end only in 
 view, and to assimilate ourselves as much as human in- 
 firmity will suffer us to the Divine Nature ; to be pure 
 as God is pure, holy as he is holy : pure and holy in the 
 same manner, though we know it is impossible to be 
 holy and pure in the same degree. To consider our- 
 selves as dear unto him, because restored and redeemed 
 by him ; which consideration, authorized by this and 
 innumerable other passages of holy Scripture, must be 
 the surest means of securing us from that outward de- 
 filement with which the sins of impurity and intemper- 
 ance affect the body, and that inward one by which the 
 violent and brutish passions debase the soul : but this is 
 not all, it will be a constant, effectual, and active spur 
 to our ambition, that heavenly ambition which stimulates 
 us to proceed from grace to grace, till we attain the 
 exalted summit of Christian perfection. 
 
 He who aspires to such an exalted character will have 
 a perfect conviction that he cannot perform this duty of 
 glorifying God, if he ever submits to become the servant 
 of man, in the sense which my former discourse was 
 
[ 104 ] [Sermon Vlft, 
 
 employed in explaining ; nor will he be less convinced 
 if he suffers his own inordinate passions to get the as- 
 cendant over him, which St. Paul in this chapter cau- 
 tions him to avoid, that he will be equally incapacitated 
 from performing it. He must know and believe, that 
 God dwelleth in him, and that he is the temple of his 
 Holy Spirit, before he can presume that he performs this 
 duty acceptably. These are strong terms, but they are 
 St. Paul's, and they may be understood in a manner 
 divested of all enthusiasm, and as not implying any mira- 
 culous inward feeling of the fact (a sensation frequently 
 fallacious, always to be suspected) ; for to know this 
 truth he has only to know that he has sincerely repented 
 of his sins, and that he stedfastly purposes to avoid them 
 in future. These are acts of the will, previous to any 
 expectation of divine grace, and without which we can- 
 not hope to be endowed with such a blessing; but where 
 this will operates we have full assurance from revelation 
 that the Holy Spirit will co-operate with it, so that we 
 may perfectly know that God dwelleth in us ; that we 
 are the temple of the Holy Ghost, and that therefore 
 we are capable of glorifying God in our body and our 
 spirit, which are God's. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM. 
 
[ 107 ] 
 
 SERMON IX 
 
 Romans ix. ... 
 
 I COULD WISH THAT MYSELF WHILE ACCURSED FROM 
 CHRIST, FOR MY BRETHREN MY KINSMEN ACCORDING 
 TO THE FLESH. 
 
 It is difficult, perhaps, to determine precisely what the 
 Apostle here means by the terms, accursed from 
 Christ ; we may, however, be assured that they do not 
 necessarily imply absolute and final reprobation; neither 
 the circumstances of the case, nor the character of the 
 writer require us so to interpret the expression. It is 
 probable that he meant, by thus speaking, to declare he 
 was willing to give up the peculiar and extraordinary 
 privilege conferred upon him, of having been miracu- 
 lously converted to the Christian faith, and rely on the. 
 uncovenanted mercy of the Almighty for a season, if, by 
 such a temporary resignation, all his countrymen might 
 become converts, and be put instantly into possession of 
 those inestimable blessings which, by that conversion, 
 they would be enabled to procure. St. Paul, we know, 
 had been a zealous persecutor of the church of Christ ; 
 
[ 108 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 and we know too, that when he made this declaration, 
 he was its strenuous defender. In this latter situation, 
 therefore, though he must believe that there was no 
 other name under heaven, save that of Jesus, by which 
 mankind could be saved, it does not follow that he should 
 draw the severe conclusion, which some have done, that 
 those, who, through want of due opportunity of convic- 
 tion, believed not in his name, should be finally con- 
 demned : He knew the mercy of his Maker, and the 
 merits of his Redeemer to be infinite, and might there- 
 fore well hope, that if he was at present removed from 
 the state of divine favour, in which he had been by 
 miracle placed, he might afterwards obtain it again by 
 the common means of conviction offered to all men, and 
 be graciously renewed by the same Spirit, less manifestly, 
 indeed, yet not less effectually given, so as in due time 
 to receive the full privileges of Christian adoption.* 
 
 * This explanation of the text was given me many years ago, 
 in conversation, by Dr. Warburton, very nearly in the words I 
 have used, and I hope the veneration in which 1 hold his cha- 
 racter, and the honour, which I shall always esteem it, of being 
 ranked amongst his friends, does not mislead me, when I prefer 
 the sense which he thought the right one of this passage. How- 
 ever, to save the reader the trouble of referring to two com- 
 mentators on this epistle, of great and deserved note, Mr. Locke, 
 and Mr. Taylor of Norwich, I shall here inform them that the 
 former explains it thus: " I wish the destruction and extermi- 
 " nation to which my brethren are devoted by Christ, might be 
 " executed on me;" and the latter thus, " I could even wish 
 "that the exclusion from the visible Church of Christ, which 
 " will happen to the Jewish nation, might fall to my share." 
 
Sermon IX.] [ 109 ] 
 
 It is in this milder and chastised sense, that I would 
 chuse to understand this wish of the Apostle : thus 
 understood, though his zeal may appear less passionately 
 fervent, yet it still breathes the highest degree of social 
 affection, disinterested benevolence and, let me add, of 
 genuine Patriotism, on which account I have selected 
 it as the theme of my present discourse. But before I 
 enter upon the subject, I would observe, to the honour of 
 our holy religion, that the text before us is one amongst 
 many others thatr might be produced in confutation of 
 a very ordinary objection which Infidelity brings against 
 the Christian system of morality, pretending it to be 
 defective, because some of the social virtues, such as 
 friendship, public spirit, love of our country, and the 
 like, are not found particularly inculcated in any of the 
 apostolical writings. We may allow the Infidel safely 
 enough, that the identical terms are not to be found 
 there; but yet we assert that he must be as blind as he 
 is captious, if he cannot perceive that the spirit of the 
 virtues themselves breathes in every page of them, with 
 the most exemplary and affecting fervency;* and did no 
 
 Many other explanations of this expression are to be found in 
 theological writers, but in whatsoever way it either has been, 
 or can be interpreted, it is clear that St. Paul was willing to un- 
 dergo a very great calamity for the benefit of his countrymen, 
 and therefore the text is certainly a good foundation to rest that 
 duty upon, which it is the business of this discourse to recom- 
 mend and inculcate. 
 
 * The objection with respect to friendship, has been most 
 
[ 110 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 part of their writings remain, except the noble descrip- 
 tion of Christian Charity, which St. Paul gave to the 
 Corinthians, he must own that in this alone, which is 
 the very bond of moral perfection, they are all compre- 
 hended. 
 
 Having premised this, I proceed rather to describe 
 than define the duty in question. 
 
 By Patriotism or public spirit, I mean that active and 
 fervent passion to promote the real welfare of our coun- 
 try, which, superior to all the narrow and mistaken views 
 of self-interest, superior to the call of party, or even of 
 private friendship, prompts a man strenuously to support 
 those measures, and those alone, which his maturest 
 reason convinces him are most likely to be of service to 
 it, and as resolutely to oppose whatever may tend to its 
 disadvantage. Yet active and fervent as I have called 
 this passion, I ever suppose it to be under the control of 
 right and of justice, for I cannot admit the boldest claim 
 of heroism itself to come under this predicament, when 
 it exerts itself in a false cause, and has not a principle 
 superior to personal courage to excite its action. But, 
 when guided by this, and when the prosperity of the 
 community clearly demands it, it cannot exert itself too 
 
 ably and elegantly refuted by Dr. Porteus, Bishop of Chester, in 
 his 18th Sermon: and this without depreciating the duty, but 
 jiving it its due place and importance in the moral scale. 
 
Sermon IX.] [ 111 ] 
 
 strongly, not even when, ready to pay the sacrifice of its 
 best blood, it marches undismayed to the very gates of 
 death. And, by rating this virtue so high, I certainly do 
 not over-rate it, since we have seen by the text, that 
 the Apostle was willing to risk advantages infinitely 
 superior to temporal existence, if by such means he 
 might procure for his rejected countrymen the certain 
 assurance of eternal salvation. 
 
 We have, therefore, all reason possible to affirm, that 
 the virtue thus understood, is a part, and a principal one 
 too, of the general duty of a Christian, as the love of our 
 country, by necessarily including all the relative affec- 
 tions of domestic life, carries us the very next step to 
 universal benevolence. The heathen moralist, indeed, 
 thought, that it solely comprehended the entire system 
 of social duties ; but where shall we find the precept of 
 the love of all men, or perfect philanthropy cogently in- 
 culcated, without having recourse to the sacred code of 
 Revelation ? 
 
 Yet how high soever this duty may be placed, either 
 on a moral or Christian scale, it is a certain and melan- 
 choly truth, that it was never less cultivated in this 
 country than by the present age, and in no other ever 
 made the subject of so much indiscreet and indecent 
 ridicule. Many causes may have contributed to this, too 
 many indeed to be here enumerated, and some of a kind 
 
[ 112 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 incompatible with that cautious reserve imposed by long 
 prescription on the English preacher.* Yet there are 
 two which, if duly adverted to, will fully account for the 
 inauspicious phenomenon. 
 
 I. The first is that gigantic spectre of Prodigality, 
 which to a political eye, purged from every film of party 
 and prejudice, is the very harbinger of national destruc- 
 tion. But I leave this vice, in a public sense of the 
 term, to be ascertained and reprobated by persons in 
 public life, and skilled in the mysteries of public finance. 
 Any private observer, like myself, is," however, compe- 
 tent to mark the excess, to which, in the course of a 
 very few years, it has been carried by our once-opulent 
 individuals, and every new day teems with new instances 
 to prove its increasing prevalency, and to show the 
 havock it has made in some of the wealthiest, the no- 
 blest, and, until blasted by its malign influence, the most 
 honourable families in the kingdom. To give this vice 
 the name of luxury would be dignifying it with too re- 
 spectable a title ; for luxury, prejudicial as it is in the 
 end to a state, frequently connects itself with taste and 
 elegance, fosters the arts, and sometimes patronizes 
 science ; but Prodigality is ever the blind dupe of capri- 
 cious Fashion. Let Fashion then give the word, and to 
 
 * It is a curious problem, and of difficult solution, " why th© 
 " French and English pulpits have for more than a century dif- 
 M fered go much in this point." 
 
Sermon IX.] [113] 
 
 what excesses can she not lead her deluded votaries > 
 even in a single hour of midnight gaming, to dissipate 
 that fortune which the laudable frugality of many an 
 ancestor had combined to accumulate, who in the mean 
 time had past through life with hospitality and splendor. 
 What is the dreadful event of this ill-fated hour ? A 
 whole succeeding life either of servile dependency, or 
 vain despondency; for such a prodigal, though, with 
 respect to his inutility, he may resemble his brother in 
 the Gospel, and cannot dig, yet he comes often beneath 
 him in point of spirit, to beg he is not ashamed. 
 
 But it may be urged that Prodigality is not always 
 accompanied by a love of play, and when either it is, or 
 is not, it will not follow that the public spirit of the in- 
 dividual must necessarily be diminished by it. — To this 
 objection I have already answered in part, by shewing 
 that a shattered fortune naturally induces dependency ; 
 and I need only add, that if it is not very probable that 
 a person unpossessed of what he thinks a competency, 
 should be able to exhibit any extensive degree of this 
 virtue, it is still less to be expected from the man who 
 has reduced a splendid fortune to that very moderate 
 pittance, which, when compared with what he originally 
 possessed and expended, must appear to him a state of 
 indigence. Hence those eternal intrigues and solicita- 
 tions for pensions and places, and that aim for being 
 supported by a public he has rendered himself unable to 
 
 VOL. IV. I 
 
[ 114 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 support. But, when gaming is taken into the account, 
 I am bold to affirm that this vice is, of all others, the 
 most repugnant to the virtue in question : It has both 
 its immediate origin and end in absolute selfishness ; for 
 what other motive can I have for risking a considerable 
 part of my fortune on the chance of a die, against either 
 an equal or unequal part of that of any other, but the 
 mean wish of gaining his property by his ill success in 
 the fortuitous contest. Is it, or can it be imagined, that 
 he who habitually aims to obtain, under the auspices of 
 a lucky moment, that which, when obtained, will tend 
 to make its loser miserable, is possessed of any genuine 
 philanthropy, or, if he had any sparks of it originally, 
 that he will not by the infamous practice soon totally 
 extinguish them I* 
 
 * It is said that those who play for the enormous suras to 
 which I allude, do it, not from a selfish motive, but only on 
 account of the inexpressible pleasure they feel by having their 
 passions strongly agitated. What the pleasure is that requires 
 such strong agitation, I am happily a stranger to, and cannot 
 therefore controvert a sensation which I never felt; but I can- 
 not help suspecting it to be a species of exstacy which they hold 
 in common with the highwayman about to rob a coach ; his 
 sensations, methinks, must be the more exquisite of the two, 
 because he risks the more on his success. The other, by only 
 putting his fortune instead of life to the hazard, can be sup- 
 posed to feel butan inferior agitation of spirits, yet great enough, 
 perhaps, if he loses, to stimulate him afterwards to experience 
 the still superior gratification I have mentioned, of which, in 
 lower life than that to which I am now alluding, instances ar« 
 by no means unfrcquent. 
 
Sermon IX.] [ 115 ] 
 
 But to return to Prodigality, of which this vice, we 
 will allow, is but occasionally a concomitant. It may 
 surely be affirmed that in proportion as it abridges the 
 affluence of an individual, it must tend to abridge his 
 means of being serviceable to the community in every 
 point where a free and independent spirit is requisite for 
 that service ; to act for it in a subaltern way then is the 
 utmost he can hope to do, even with the most generous 
 and public spirited intentions ; and on the many addi- 
 tional temptations he will have in such circumstances to 
 act for self alone, it is not necessary further to insist. 
 
 II. I proceed now to touch upon that second topic, 
 which I have said is another capital cause of this virtue's 
 being less cultivated at present than, in a state like ours, 
 the welfare of it undoubtedly requires \ and this is the 
 pernicious fashion, increased of late to an extreme de- 
 gree, of sending our youth so very early, and also so very 
 generally, on foreign travel. Formerly this was 
 thought a necessary ingredient only in the education of 
 our principal nobility, or most antient and honourable 
 families ; now it is extended to the youths of the most 
 moderate pretensions, either as to birth or fortune. The 
 consequences of this folly are every day more and more 
 apparent amongst us,* for, from these premature pere- 
 
 * See many of these acutely remarked upon, under the per- 
 sonated character of Mr. Locke, in two most masterly and elo- 
 quent dialogues of Dr. Hurd, the present Bishop of Worcester, 
 
[ 116 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 grinations a habit of thinking and of acting is acquired, 
 of all others the most abhorrent to the genius of our free 
 constitution, for they see, in the despotic governments 
 through which they pass, and especially in that frivolous 
 nation where they principally sojourn, that between the 
 gentlemen and the peasant there is no respectable me- 
 dium ; they therefore (as extreme youth is apt to do) 
 rashly conclude that there ought not to be any medium 
 whatever, and therefore that the men of commerce and 
 the substantial yeomanry, who constitute the very sinews 
 of the state, should be severed from it, as merely trou 
 blesome excrescences. Hence they are apt to treat them 
 with contemptuous behaviour, and to forget that respect, 
 which, in due degree, man owes to man, and which no 
 elevation of birth, no distinction of title, no talents, 
 either natural or acquired, ought to exempt any English- 
 man from paying to his fellow-citizen. But this evil 
 goes still further, it gives them a secret predilection for 
 those modes of arbitrary government which they have 
 found would emancipate them from the fatigue of court- 
 ing popularity, and which, according to the refinement 
 of their notions, and that careless inattention which con- 
 stitutes their politeness, might seem to level them too 
 
 amongst which, that pernicious consequence, here noticed, is 
 somewhat glanced at, p. 89 and 149. Moral and Political Dialogues , 
 Vol. 3d. Ed. III. To have done more than hint at it would have 
 appeared to be a kind of anachronism, and have injured the cos- 
 tume of the piece, because in the time of Mr. Locke, the con- 
 tinent was not so universally visited as it has been of late years. 
 
Sermon IX.] [ 117 ] 
 
 much with the vulgar, and debase their urbanity. This 
 fixes them in an opinion, which many of them would at 
 a proper opportunity perhaps not scruple to avow, that 
 it is better to rise to distinction and consequence at the 
 decisive nod of a despotic prince, than by the united 
 suffrages of a free people. 
 
 Before 1 conclude, I would aim to obviate one very 
 general excuse, which many men of the best moral and 
 religious principles are apt to make for the neglect of 
 this duty, and for the unwillingness they have to exert 
 their talents in their country's service, when any emer- 
 gency calls for such exertion. On such an occasion, 
 with a sigh and a look, in which it is difficult to ascer- 
 tain whether pity or contempt predominates, they say, 
 (( that the whole body of the people are now become so 
 " abominably corrupt, that this wretched country ex- 
 " hibits so many of those symptoms of a rapid decay 
 " which have appeared in other great states as harbin- 
 " gers of their dissolution, that to hope to stem that 
 " torrent of vice, which must so soon inevitably over- 
 " whelm us, would be an attempt as rash to engage in, 
 <e as difficult to accomplish. All therefore that reason 
 " and common sense dictate to them is to sit quiet, each 
 " man under his own vine, or under his own fig-tree, 
 " and, if the one does not cease to blossom and the 
 " other to give its increase while he remains tenant of 
 16 their shade, it is all that he has to wish for, and more 
 " than he has reason to hope." 
 
[ 118 ] [Sermon IX. 
 
 To persons of this turn of thinking I would only take 
 the freedom to set before them the example of the great 
 Apostle, from whom I have borrowed my text, and beg 
 leave to ask them whether the present state of English- 
 men, bad as I allow it to be, can be conceived worse 
 than that of the Jews, when he breathed this patriotic 
 wish for that nation. To that profligacy which their 
 own historian * has acknowledged and even painted in 
 the blackest colours, he was a witness, and his own ex- 
 perience then shewed him with what acrimony they 
 persecuted the disciples, and reprobated the doctrine of 
 that divine teacher, whom, about twenty years before, 
 they had ignominiously crucified : the Spirit of prophecy 
 had also assured him that their fate was determined, and 
 that for this and their other blasphemies and crimes, 
 they would soon be nationally exterminated. Yet, not- 
 withstanding this; notwithstanding he had been pecu- 
 liarly appointed by Heaven, not their Apostle, but that 
 of the Gentiles, he still could never forget that they 
 were his countrymen, or conquer " that heaviness, that 
 " continual sorrow in his heart" " for his brethren, his 
 " kinsmen in the flesh ; M nor could he ever remit his 
 zeal for both their temporal and eternal welfare, by 
 endeavouring to convince them of their errors, and 
 restore them to the divine favour. 
 
 When the persons I am now speaking to have well 
 weighed all this, when they have duly contemplated 
 * Josephus. 
 
Sermon IX.] [ 119 ] 
 
 St. Paul's character in this amiable, this affecting light, 
 I should hope they would be convinced, that to despair 
 of the public weal, even under the most unfavourable 
 circumstances, is not only a pusillanimous, but an un- 
 christian disposition, and that the apathy and supineness 
 which they dignify with the name of prudence, argues a 
 want of one of the noblest, as well as most beneficent 
 sensations that can actuate the human soul. 
 
ON 
 
 CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE. 
 
[ 123 ] 
 
 SERMON X 
 
 Romans xiii. 8. 
 
 OWE NO MAN ANY THING, BUT TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. 
 
 Ihere is no passage in Holy Scripture (though no 
 book abounds with more passages of the kind) in which 
 the duty of benevolence and love of our neighbour is put 
 in a stronger light, and recommended to our practice on 
 more rational grounds, than in this short but compre- 
 hensive sentence. Suffer me to attempt an explanation 
 of its full meaning : it will require a pretty long para- 
 phrase to explain it compleatly, but the inferences 
 deducible from it are of so great importance to our well- 
 being, both here and hereafter, that I trust the present 
 time cannot be better employed than in enlarging upon it. 
 
 My brethren, says St. Paul to his converts the Romans, 
 and what he delivered to them is equally applicable to 
 every Christian society at this day, be strict observers of 
 the rule of right in all your dealings, which you cannot 
 be, if you strive by unnecessary delays, or any more 
 sinister arts, to hinder any person whatever from receiving 
 
[ 124 ] [Sermon X. 
 
 those dues which, either by the laws of your country, by 
 private compact, or on account of obligations received^ 
 he is authorised to require at your hands. 
 
 Your civil rulers require of you certain taxes, tribute, 
 or customs, by the receipt of which they are enabled to 
 answer the demands and support the dignity of govern- 
 ment, and by that means secure to you those great 
 national blessings of liberty and peace. 
 
 Your ecclesiastical teachers, according to their legal 
 establishment, are authorised, in like manner, to require 
 of you a certain proportion of the produce of your lands, 
 by your due payment of which they may be capable of 
 leading that life of learned leisure, which may qualify 
 them to give you good spiritual instruction, to preserve 
 you from heresy and error, and to ground you in those 
 right principles of religion, which make your prayers and 
 praises to God a fit and reasonable service. 
 
 You require of one another, by those particular agree- 
 ments which the laws of your country give you a right of 
 making, certain rates and contributions for various neces- 
 sary purposes. By the regular discharging of which the 
 welfare of your separate community is promoted, and the 
 comforts and conveniencies of life are increased. 
 
 Whatever therefore is required of you, for all or any of 
 
Sermon X.] [ 125 ] 
 
 these good ends, if it be demanded equitably, pay it 
 freely, and by this means acquit yourselves of that part of 
 your duty which, as subjects or as citizens, you owe to 
 your country. 
 
 As private persons, in your mutual traffic and nego- 
 ciations with one another, it will necessarily happen that, 
 whatever your stations or situations in life are, you must 
 incur debts, and stand accountable to one another for 
 certain goods and commodities received, for labour done, 
 or for money borrowed. The common course of the 
 world, and the very nature of society make this necessary. 
 When St. Paul therefore directs you to owe no man any 
 thing, he cannot be supposed to mean this in a strict and 
 absolute signification. No certainly; he only means, 
 that you are not to incur debts wantonly, nor keep in 
 debt needlessly. That you are not to borrow, when you 
 have neither intention nor ability to repay, and that you 
 are always to repay whenever the exigencies, or even the 
 inclination of the lender demands a restitution. This is 
 his meaning, and all that a cool and rational interpretation 
 can deduce from the expression. 
 
 But there is one debt, my brethren, which the Apostle 
 tells you, that you can never discharge. You must always 
 be paying it, and yet still continue as much in debt as 
 ever. No independent, opulent, or exalted situation in 
 life can, or ought, to prevent you from being as deeply in 
 
[ 126 ] [Sermon X. 
 
 debt in this point, as the poorest and most necessitous of 
 your fellow-creatures. No commutation, no substitution 
 or mode of exchange, can excuse you from being respon- 
 sible in person in this point, and from being ready to pay 
 it on any, on every occasion where it is demanded, nay 
 even where it is not demanded ; neither is it the hope of 
 being repaid that must prompt you to lend in this case ; you 
 must lend, even where this return is not to be hoped for. 
 Do I keep you in suspence ? No : you are all aware that 
 this debt is the debt of Christian love : that debt of good- 
 will and benevolence which you owe to your neighbour; 
 that debt which St. Paul means when he bids you i( owe 
 a no man any thing but to love one another :" when he 
 tells you that " love worketh no ill to his neighbour," 
 and that " love is the fulfilling of the law." 
 
 This then being the full and compleat meaning of the 
 text, let us examine into the reasons on which it is 
 founded, and why this exertion of Christian love is a debt 
 of that kind, which can never be paid so fully as to 
 absolve us from any further payment of it ; but must be 
 always owing, though we are constantly employed in 
 discharging it. 
 
 The first reason is founded on the relation in which we 
 stand to Almighty God. The innumerable benefits which 
 we daily and hourly receive at his hands demand the 
 constant tribute of our love, affection, and gratitude ; but 
 
Sermon X.] [ 127 ] 
 
 we have no way of expressing this love, affection, and 
 gratitude, so effectually as by acts of kindness and bene- 
 ficence to our fellow-creatures : and in confirmation of 
 this truth we have the express declaration of St. John, 
 who says, that a If a man say he loveth God and hateth 
 " his own brother, he is a liar ; for he that loveth not his 
 " brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God 
 " whom he hath not seen ?" He concludes, therefore, 
 that this commandment comes immediately from God, 
 that whoso loveth him should love his brother also. Now, 
 if we conceive that we can ever repay our Maker suffi- 
 ciently for all his mercies to us, we say in effect that this 
 love which we owe to him may cease ; than which there 
 surely cannot be a more impious assertion. But if we 
 ought constantly to express this love towards him, we 
 ought constantly to express it towards our brethren, 
 because it is his commandment that divine and human 
 love should constantly go together, and his declaration 
 that one cannot exist or be acceptable in his sight with- 
 out the other. „ 
 
 The force of the next reason depends on the frame and 
 constitution of human nature, which is so replete with 
 wants and weaknesses, consisting indeed of various kinds, 
 yet distributed in pretty equal proportion among the 
 species, that it is, morally speaking, impossible for us to 
 be independent one of another. The community in 
 which we happen to be born gives us laws to obey, duties 
 
[ .128 ] [Sermon X 
 
 and stations to fulfil ; and however high our rank may 
 be, dependence in some sort is annexed to it, insomuch 
 that even He who is vested with sovereign power must 
 acknowledge himself protected by, and consequently de- 
 pendent upon, those very laws which it is his office to 
 dispense. Besides this ; intellectual talents and bodily 
 strength are distributed so differently by Providence 
 amongst mankind, that they seldom if ever exist together 
 perfectly in the same person, and the methods by which 
 they are respectively improved are so opposite, that it is 
 hardly possible they should ever unite together in any 
 extraordinary degree. Thus the man who improves his 
 reasoning faculties by hard study and application to his 
 books, generally weakens his nerves and impairs his 
 strength by his sedentary habits ; and the man who keeps 
 his bodily vigour and health in perfection by a laborious 
 and active way of life, having seldom either opportunity 
 or inclination to improve his understanding, is usually as 
 deficient in matters which require a thinking head, as the 
 other is in those which require an unwearied arm. Both, 
 therefore, have occasion constantly to apply, each to the 
 other, for assistance : and if brotherly love be cold, and 
 refuse that assistance, they must both sit down dissatisfied 
 and unhappy, for they are equally imperfect beings, and 
 can neither of tbem do separately that which, when 
 united, they might effect, with mutual ease, satisfaction, 
 and pleasure, by a combination of understanding and 
 strength. 
 
Sermon X.] [ 129 ] 
 
 The last reason consists in the very nature of the 
 principle itself, and of those intrinsic properties, without 
 which it ceases to be the thing which we mean by the 
 terms we use to define it. 
 
 Now, were benevolence a passive principle that con- 
 tented itself with being, what the word imports, only a 
 well-wishing, not a well-doing quality, it might not be 
 required to be in constant use and exertion. But when 
 used to denote Christian Love and Charity, and to have 
 the same meaning with these terms, it implies a strenu- 
 ous and unwearied exercise of one of the most active 
 faculties of the human soul, which is better, perhaps, 
 expressed by the term Beneficence ; and for this we have 
 the authority of St. Paul, when he describes charity as 
 never failing, but constantly exerting itself, in bearing 
 all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and 
 enduring all things. Our charity must therefore be 
 commensurate with our life ; it must act so long as we 
 act, for if it ever faileth, it ceaseth to be charity, because 
 we see that the Apostle tells us, it is one of its essential 
 properties never to fail or cease from acting. 
 
 On these three reasons, therefore, deduced from our 
 relation to God, the frame and constitution of our nature, 
 and the definition of the virtue itself, we build this im- 
 portant conclusion, that the debt of Charity or Benevo- 
 lence to our neighbour is a debt which we must take 
 
 VOL. IV. K 
 
[ 130 ] [Sermon X. 
 
 all opportunities of paying him, and of which we must, 
 only close the payment when death closes our eyes. 
 Then, and then only, can we he said to have paid him 
 fully what we owe him ; till then the current account 
 of our Benevolence, to use the mercantile phrase, I trust 
 not improperly, must be kept open ; for in this com- 
 merce and negociation of Christian Love, the debtor and 
 the creditor perpetually change places, or rather they 
 are both constantly debtors, since both of them equally 
 owe a debt they in this world can never discharge. It is 
 at the general audit on the last day that this account 
 will be finally and impartially stated. It will then be 
 seen who has regarded this precept of St. Paul, and who 
 has not : who has been punctual in paying not only his 
 debts of honour and of justice, but of charity and of love, 
 and who, neglecting to pay both, has died insolvent, not 
 from a defect in his purse, but a defect in his heart ; 
 not from a want of oeconomy, but from a want of 
 humanity; died owing every thing, even the love which 
 he oweth to his neighbour. Dreadful catastrophe ! but 
 let us turn our contemplations from it. Let us revert to 
 the former of these characters, and picture in our imagi- 
 nation (inadequate as the sublimest exertions of that 
 faculty are to the purpose) the glorious state of that just 
 man made perfect, and to the perfection of whose spirit 
 we are sure the benevolence he practised in this life 
 must have so amply contributed; of that just man who, 
 not content, during his state of probation here, to regu- 
 
Sermon X.] [ 131 ] 
 
 late his actions by the precise bounds of right and equity, 
 which the rules of mere morality have prescribed, had 
 stept beyond them, and followed this more enlarged 
 notion of Christian justice, which considers Benevolence 
 as a constant debt, and charity as an unceasing obliga- 
 tion; of that just man who has let his head and his 
 heart go together in the strenuous exercise of this duty 
 of Christian love ; nay, who has suffered his heart to take 
 the lead, and, warmed with the full fervors of pious 
 zeal, has considered it as that immense debt of endless 
 gratitude* which he owes to his Maker. Of such a man 
 what must be the beatified state ? May we not assure 
 ourselves that a soul actuated by so divine a principle 
 here on earth, must, of all other beings, be best prepared 
 to participate the joys of heaven ? Are we not certain 
 that the habitual exertions of those virtues which soften 
 the calamities of mortality are the surest qualification 
 for enjoying the blessings of immortality ? What those 
 blessings are Revelation has not specifically defined; 
 but we have all possible reason to conclude that what- 
 ever promotes our truest happiness in the present state 
 
 * The expression is taken from Milton, Par. Lost, Book iv„ 
 1. 57, where describing the specific properties of such heavenly 
 gratitude, the sublime Poet uses the following terms : 
 
 A grateful mind 
 By owing owes not, but still pays, at once 
 Indebted and discharg'd. 
 beautifully intimating that the very act of payment remunerates 
 him that performs it. 
 
[ 132 ] [Sermon X. 
 
 of things, cannot be of a nature either foreign or dis- 
 cordant from that which will constitute our happiness in 
 future. If, therefore, gratitude to our Maker and love to 
 our fellow- creatures, acting reciprocally in the same 
 bosom, and uniting there together to produce the divine 
 fruits of unfeigned piety and disinterested Benevolence, 
 are attended with the most pleasurable sensations in our 
 present state of existence, we may be perfectly convinced 
 that the same sensations, elevated and sublimed to a 
 degree of rapture far beyond our loftiest conceptions, 
 will be experienced by the truly righteous in the sight 
 of that God who, as St. John emphatically describes 
 him, is himself Love. 
 
ON THE 
 
 PROGRESSIVE ASSISTANCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
[ 135 ] 
 
 SERMON XI 
 
 2 Peter iii. 18. 
 
 GROW IN GRACE. 
 
 1 he word Grace has various meanings in the New 
 Testament, which not being sufficiently attended to, and 
 ascertained, have occasioned, and still continue to occa- 
 sion, much altercation, and are the cause of several gross 
 and fundamental errors, both in theory and practice. 
 Sometimes it means a gift or favour, which Almighty 
 God gives to man out of his pure liberality, and which 
 man on his part has done nothing to merit ; thus, when 
 by creation he gave us existence, and when by redemp- 
 tion he restored to us our forfeited immortality, both 
 these gifts were, and are properly denominated, the 
 Grace of God. 
 
 In other places it means spiritual gifts, communicated 
 miraculously to particular persons for some great and im- 
 portant purpose -, thus various graces were given to the 
 Apostles, as the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, and 
 the like, in order to enable them the more successfully 
 
[ 136 ] [Sermon XL 
 
 to execute their mission, and propagate the divine truths 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 Grace is also very frequently put to signify that inward 
 assistance which the Holy Spirit of God communicates 
 to the sincere believer of his Son, in all times and places, 
 enlightening his understanding, rectifying his will, and 
 becoming that comforter to his soul which was promised 
 by Christ to be sent to the faithful, after he was with- 
 drawn from them, and to continue its salutary opera- 
 tions to the end of the world. 
 
 The last sense of the word Grace which I shall 
 mention, and which seems to be the meaning of the 
 Apostle in the text before us, is the practice of Christian 
 virtue, or our improvement in holiness ; for at the very 
 conclusion of his Epistle, as his last and most important 
 exhortation, as a recapitulation of all that he had said be- 
 fore, he calls upon his Converts to grow in Grace and in 
 the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; as if he had 
 said, endeavour, my Brethren, to improve yourselves in 
 all those good qualities which become your Christian 
 profession ; make yourselves acquainted with the life, ac- 
 tions, and character of your blessed Master and Saviour; 
 and endeavour, as far as in you lies, to imitate the per- 
 fections of Him, your great Exemplar, who was given 
 unto you as a pattern, that you might follow his steps. 
 
Sermon XL] [ 137 ] 
 
 But here it must be carefully observed, that when the 
 word Grace is put, as it is here, for Christian Virtue, it 
 always includes the former signification of the word, and 
 implies also the assistance of God's Holy Spirit to make 
 that virtue acceptable, or in any sort efficacious. It is a 
 fundamental article in the creed of a sincere Christian, 
 that he can do nothing himself as of himself; but that 
 his sufficiency is from God. It is this only that can se- 
 cure him from spiritual pride and self-presumption. 
 Moral Virtue, as practised in the heathen world, always 
 produced one or both of these bad qualities. The arro- 
 gancyof the Stoics (though undoubtedly the best Moralists 
 among the various sects of Gentile philosophy) is even 
 proverbial, and the reason is evident ; supposing, as they 
 did, that the human mind was of itself capable of attain- 
 ing to the very height of moral perfection, they would 
 naturally take the merit of every moral action entirely to 
 themselves, and in consequence become the more vain 
 in proportion as they were the more virtuous. It is God 
 that worketh in me to will and to do of his good pleasure, 
 says the humble spirit of the disciple of Christ ; when I 
 have done my best, my very best, without his assistance 
 I am an unprofitable, I am worse, I am a presumptuous 
 servant. How different, how very different this language 
 from that of philosophy and vain deceit : how much 
 more becoming the mouth of fallible man ! 
 
 We must therefore understand the word Grace in the 
 
[ 138 ] [Sermon XL 
 
 text to be the end of which the assistance of the Holy- 
 Ghost is the means, namely, that perfection of holiness 
 without which no man shall see the Lord. 
 
 But it must he again carefully observed that no in- 
 stantaneously miraculous assistance is here meant, nothing 
 similar to the visible communication of the Spirit as it 
 fell upon the immediate Disciples of Christ on the day of 
 Pentecost: for that miracle was wrought for a great 
 and peculiar purpose ; and ceased accordingly when 
 the occasion for it ceased, that is, when the Gospel was 
 so sufficiently promulged that natural means were ad- 
 equate to its farther propagation. But if this kind of 
 Grace were here meant, the Apostle would not exhort us 
 to grow in it, but would rather have advised us passively 
 to pray for it, because the term grow, as imperatively used 
 in this place, necessarily implies some effort of our own, 
 which effort, though it will indeed prove ineffectual without 
 the Divine aid, yet appears necessary to be made on our 
 part, in order that God, on his part, may be graciously 
 pleased to afford us that assistance ; and this, as I have said, 
 plainly appears from the very word which St. Peter uses on 
 this occasion : for to grow, when the term is applied to 
 any thing which relates to the operations of our minds, 
 becomes a figurative and metaphorical expression, and 
 therefore can only be understood by referring it to its 
 original, primary, and natural meaning. The growth, for 
 instance, of our own bodies, or any other corporeal 
 
Sermon XI. ] [ 139 ] 
 
 substance, capable of increase and extention, we all 
 know is a gradual and progressive property, which, though 
 governed by different laws in different material sub- 
 stances, is yet in all of them a work of some certain time, 
 and limited to some certain dimensions. To consider our 
 own bodies, we know that several years elapse between in- 
 fancy and manhood, during which our frame proceeds to 
 its limited bulk by gradual and imperceptible intervals. 
 In like manner the improvement of our mental faculty 
 (which metaphorically we call its growth) has its time 
 for accomplishment, and proceeds through the several 
 degrees of education even more gradually than our per- 
 sons do to their full stature, insomuch that the body has 
 for some years attained to its utmost size before the un- 
 derstanding can be said to have reached its proper 
 standard ; indeed the understanding, if duly cultivated, 
 and not impaired by any external accident or bodily 
 distemper, can scarce be said to have any limit or boun- 
 dary short of its existence, unless indeed the infirmities 
 of old age, which may be rather considered as bodily 
 maladies, are taken into the consideration. This then 
 being the case, I would ask why are we to expect that 
 our growth in moral or Christian perfection should be 
 more quick and sudden than in bodily or mental im- 
 provement ? We infer immediately from the text, that 
 Grace is a quality which increases: why then should we 
 not believe that it is a quality which increases (as the 
 analogy we have pointed out leads us to do) not suddenly, 
 
[ 140 ] [Sermon XI. 
 
 but by just gradations; not instantaneously, but by a 
 regular and rational progression ? For this opinion we 
 have the authority of various passages of Scripture be- 
 sides that of the text ; for the contrary, we have only 
 the unsupported assertions of a tribe of hot-brained 
 Enthusiasts. 
 
 The first passage which I shall quote in proof of the 
 doctrine which I here deliver, is taken from St. Paul's 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, where, after enumerating the 
 various benefits conferred by Christ upon his Church, 
 such as sending unto them Evangelists, Prophets, Apos- 
 tles, and Pastors, he declares the gracious end to be this, 
 ie that they may all come in the unity of the faith and of 
 the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." 
 Here we see the metaphor which he uses is exactly the 
 same with that which we have explained, namely bodily 
 growth, " the measure of the stature and full dimensions 
 of Christ," which he justly considers as the highest de- 
 gree of intellectual perfection, and plainly tells us how 
 we are to arrive at through the medium and different 
 gradations of faith and knowledge; which clearly inti- 
 mates that St. Paul understood this arrival to the growth, 
 stature, and fulness of Christ to be a work of time and 
 gradual progressive improvement. Another text directly 
 apposite to our present purpose is that well known climax 
 of St. Peter, in which he gives us, link by link, that 
 
Sermon XL] [ 141 ] 
 
 chain of successively dependent moral qualifications 
 which the Christian ought to join to his faith, in order 
 to arrive at the perfection of holiness : " Add/' says he, 
 <e to your 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; for (con- 
 tinues he) if these things be in you and abound, they 
 make you that you shall be neither barren nor un- 
 fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; 
 therefore give diligence to make your calling and 
 election sure/' On this passage I will only make the 
 following remark; that it is plain, since the Apostle 
 thus exhorts us to add one virtue after another (as here 
 specified) in order that we may not be barren or un- 
 fruitful in revealed knowledge; and since he admo- 
 nishes us to give diligence to make our election sure, he 
 certainly means that Christian perfection has this in 
 common with human science, that we must apply our- 
 selves to the study, and habituate ourselves to the prac- 
 tice of it, if we would become real proficients in it, 
 taking moral virtue, as St. Paul speaks of the law, to be 
 our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ : If we do this 
 with diligence, constancy, and perseverance, it is then, 
 and then only, that we can hope for the assisting grace 
 of God ; it is then only that his Holy Spirit will help 
 our infirmities, not by over-powering our own natural 
 faculties, not by destroying and over-ruling the freedom 
 
[ 142 ] [Sermon XL 
 
 of our will ; but by co-operating with our endeavours, 
 and furnishing us with convenient and effectual aids for 
 our farther improvement. Thus St. Paul tells us the 
 Manifestation of the Spirit is given to. every man to 
 profit withal, which, though spoken by him of the ex- 
 ternal and miraculous Manifestation of the Spirit com- 
 municated to the first Christians, is yet no less true of 
 that general yet unseen operation of the same Spirit, 
 which still strengthens the faith, perfects the good works 
 of every sincere follower of Jesus, and is equally to him 
 the Paraclete, the Comforter of his soul, the insurer of 
 his salvation, as he was to those immediate disciples of 
 Christ on whom he visibly descended. 
 
 And now if I have justly, and according to the true 
 tenor of Scripture, explained the meaning of the text, it 
 will behove such of my audience, as are convinced of the 
 truth of my explication, to show that they are so by a 
 conformity of belief and practice in the following parti- 
 culars : 
 
 First, then, they will not wait in an ill-grounded ex- 
 pectation till an instantaneous illumination of the Holy 
 Ghost, in a sensible and miraculous manner, operates 
 upon their souls to reform and regenerate them, as some 
 persons pretend they have experienced ; but, on the 
 contrary, they will endeavour strenuously, by avoiding 
 all appearance of evil, and by practising every thing that 
 
Sermon XL] [ 143 ] 
 
 is praise-worthy and of good report, to make their bosoms 
 a fit receptacle for that best and purest of all inhabitants, 
 who only can fit them for an admission into those blessed 
 mansions where nothing that defileth can enter. 
 
 Secondly, They will not despair if, in the course of 
 these virtuous endeavours and sincere pursuits of moral 
 improvement, they should be impeded, by the manifold 
 surrounding temptations, from running the race set be- 
 fore them ; but, in case of any lapse, will, by sincere 
 repentance, (and its sincerity can only be shewn by im- 
 mediate reformation,) endeavour to atone for what they 
 have done amiss, and make their present remorse for 
 their crime a safeguard against their committing it in 
 future. 
 
 Thirdly, They will be frequent in imploring the divine 
 Mercy to send them that heavenly Comforter whom 
 he has promised to send to the faithful in all ages of 
 the world, that is to all possessed of that true Chris- 
 tian humility, which feels and owns the want of his 
 assistance ; yet will they ever accompany these prayers 
 and supplications with a zealous, diligent, and un- 
 ceasing endeavour to discharge those very duties for 
 which they implore the assistance of the Divine power, 
 being assured that if they do not on their own part 
 constantly strive to work out their own salvation, the 
 grace of God, or, in other words, the operation of his 
 
[ H4 ] [Sermon XI. 
 
 Spirit, will not be superadded to make their less stre- 
 nuous endeavours effectual; and for this plain reason, 
 because they have not striven to carry them so far as it 
 was in their own natural power to carry them. 
 
 Lastly, They will resolve to grow in grace from the 
 present moment. They will not continue in sin that 
 grace may abound ; God forbid that they should : but, 
 convinced from the passages of Scripture here adduced, 
 that the influence of the Holy Spirit proceeds progres- 
 sively and gradually, keeping pace with their own moral 
 endeavours, they will not delay those endeavours, not 
 even for a moment. They will never flatter themselves 
 that if, on any future day, they shall determine to com- 
 mence a temporary course of mental abstraction, accom- 
 panied by severe acts of external contrition, abstinence, 
 and mortification, this grace will be shed upon them in 
 so abundant a manner as to occasion a total change in 
 their tempers, inclinations, and passions. On the con- 
 trary, knowing how intimate a connection there is be- 
 tween the mind and the body, they will be wisely cautious 
 of making any extreme experiments on the latter, lest, 
 by so doing, they should irreparably injure the former. 
 They will be fearful (and both the past and present his- 
 tory of Enthusiasm will give them too good cause to be 
 so) that such corporeal exertions and severity may, while 
 they produce an imaginary regeneration in the fancy, 
 occasion a real degeneracy of the understanding. And, 
 
Sermon XL] [ 145 ] 
 
 finally, being fully convinced that the service which 
 their God requires from them is a reasonable service, 
 they will take the greatest care possible to keep the light 
 of Reason, which that God has given them, clear and 
 undisturbed, that so the light of his Holy Spirit may 
 mingle its divine flame with it, and produce every salu- 
 tary effect which the Scriptures, rightly understood, have 
 promised to the true Believer, as the fruits of its blessed 
 illumination. 
 
 VOL. IV. 
 
ON THE 
 
 EFFECTS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DIVINE SPIRIT. 
 
 IN SEQUEL TO THE FORMER DISCOURSE, 
 
t 149] 
 
 SERMON XII. 
 
 Rom. xv. 13. 
 
 :now the god of hope fill you with all joy and 
 peace in believing, that you may abound in 
 hope through the power of the holy ghost. 
 
 In the preceding discourse I endeavoured to prove, from 
 scriptural authority, that, by gradual and progressive 
 steps only, the Christian is to expect that divine assist- 
 ance, which, in numberless passages of the sacred writ- 
 ings, is denominated grace, and, in others, the operation 
 of the Holy Spirit ; in the present, I shall attempt to 
 show what are the first and principal effects of this 
 blessed communication from above upon the mind of 
 that believing individual, to whom the mercy of the 
 Almighty is pleased to impart it. 
 
 But, before I do this, I think it necessary to enlarge 
 somewhat upon the causes for which this assistance from 
 on high was originally given, and on those also for which 
 it has since been continued to the faithful through every 
 succeeding age of the Gospel dispensation. 
 
[ 150 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 Upon the primary or original cause, it is needless here 
 much to insist : all my audience, I take it for granted, 
 sufficiently understand from the writings of the Evan- 
 gelists, that this instance of divine henevolence was 
 manifested, on the day of Pentecost, to the disciples of 
 our blessed Lord, in a miraculous and visible manner, 
 very soon after his ascension, and this for the purpose of 
 illuminating their minds with the fulness of revealed 
 knowledge, and inspiring their tongues with all the 
 powers of different languages, in order that they might 
 be enabled to propagate the Christian Faith, not only 
 more expeditiously, but also more universally, and to fix 
 it on that permanent basis, of external and internal evi- 
 dence, on which it now stands, and by which it is 
 enabled to rise triumphant against the united attacks of 
 the world, the flesh, andVthe devil. 
 
 But on the second cause, on that less visible, yet not 
 less certain, communication of the same blessed Spirit, 
 which continues to be imparted to all sincere Christians, 
 and which co-operates with their own strenuous endea- 
 vours to perfect them in holiness, I shall take the liberty 
 to be more particular, and, by examining what human 
 nature is, shall try to explain why this supernatural as- 
 sistance becomes for that great purpose necessary to it ; 
 and hence by an easy consequence, deduce the reason 
 why it was promised, and wherefore it continues to be 
 communicated. 
 
Sermon XII.] [ 151 ] 
 
 Man is generally defined to be a rational and free agent, 
 and were this definition compleat, did nothing but free- 
 dom of will and rectitude of reason predominate in his 
 composition, there is no doubt but that the intrinsic 
 beauty of virtue, added to its apparent utility, would 
 induce him uniformly to act according to the precise 
 rules of moral rectitude ; for his reason would sufficiently 
 point out to him what these rules are, and his freedom of 
 will would invariably prevent any hesitation in his incli- 
 nation to observe them. But he has passions also which 
 demand gratification ; passions which, so far from being 
 subservient to his reason, are frequently beyond its con- 
 trol, and almost always in opposition to its dictates. 
 This the sacred Author of the Christian system of morals 
 knew full well, and adapted his divine plan accordingly. 
 He was perfectly aware that neither the abstract fitness 
 of things, the innate sense of right and wrong, nor even 
 the will of God itself, would be, to creatures thus com- 
 pounded of passion as well as reason, of sufficient obli- 
 gation to secure their obedience. He had therefore 
 recourse to a variety of other motives, which collectively 
 might have force adequate to his beneficent end ; might 
 restore them to their Maker's favor ; and, by his own 
 superadded merits, render them worthy heirs of eternal 
 salvation. What these motives were I shall, with all 
 possible brevity, enumerate. 
 
 First, Our gracious Redeemer was pleased to confirm 
 
[ 152 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 the truth of his mission by a series of great, and, to us, 
 well-attested miracles; all of which, by their beneficial 
 tendency, were calculated to convince mankind that he 
 was a teacher sent from God, and sent on the most benign 
 and affectionate errand. 
 
 Secondly, He delivered to them a system of morality 
 infinitely more perfect than any with which the world 
 had been before acquainted, and this he inforced by the 
 purity of his own practice, leaving us at once a rule and 
 a consonant example that we should, by both, be enabled 
 to conform to his will. 
 
 Having thus by miracles attested the truth of his mis- 
 sion, and by his precepts and practice delineated the 
 whole of our duty, it might seem that here his moral 
 dispensation was sufficiently established; but far more 
 than this the Divine Wisdom thought fit to add, in order 
 the more effectually to answer the gracious designs of his 
 providence : for, 
 
 Thirdly, He was pleased to inforce these his precepts 
 by the greatest of all possible sanctions, by the doctrine 
 of future rewards and punishments; yet lest these re- 
 wards, thus viewed through the distancing perspective of 
 futurity, might not have their true influence upon our 
 hopes, nor these punishments their full effect upon our 
 fears ; lest the present solicitations of our senses, the 
 
Sermon XII.] [ 153 ] 
 
 pressing impetuosity of our passions, should make even 
 these high motives inefficacious (and, surely, a very slight 
 acquaintance with the obliquity of human nature will 
 convince us that this was far from improbable) the Divine 
 Mercy was, 
 
 Fourthly, Most graciously pleased to promise unto 
 every sincere and humble believer the assistance of grace 
 from above ; of that effectual communication of his own 
 Holy Spirit, which aiding, without superseding the 
 natural powers of our reason ; directing, without impell- 
 ing, the freedom of our will, might powerfully help us 
 in subduing every inordinate affection, enable us to har- 
 monize every faculty of our souls, and bring them to that 
 pitch of moral concord which God intended them to 
 possess at their original constitution. 
 
 Thus, by a short deduction of revealed truths, we have 
 been able clearly to discover the great purpose for which 
 this assistance of the blessed Spirit of God was promised 
 to the faithful followers of his Son. Our own imperfec- 
 tions, occasioned by the depravity of our appetites, and 
 the supreme perfection of the Christian plan of morals, 
 rendered somewhat more than a merely good inclination 
 necessary to attain to that height of holiness, unto which 
 Christ expected his disciples to aspire; without such 
 divine aid, our progress towards Christian perfection 
 would be rendered difficult, if not impossible ; but with 
 
[ 154 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 it, it becomes easy and certain. Hence we see, that 
 although the Gospel precepts, considered as a rule of 
 morality, and the cogency of their sanction, viewed under 
 the idea of a Divine Law, might not have been sufficient 
 to insure our obedience, (and this too, though a more 
 excellent rule cannot be conceived, nor a more cogent 
 sanction promulged) yet, when to these are added the 
 assisting efficacy of Divine Grace, the triple cord of 
 Almighty Mercy, by which God is pleased to draw us 
 unto himself, becomes strong and compleat; for thus 
 " receiving the spirit of adoption, we become heirs of 
 " God, and joint-heirs with Christ in his everlasting 
 " kingdom/' * 
 
 I proceed now, by the assistance of the text, to point 
 out the principal effects of this Divine Grace upon the 
 mind of that Christian, to whom the mercy of the 
 Almighty is pleased to impart its salutary influence ; and 
 these (though couched in the form of a benediction) the 
 Apostle has clearly declared to be Joy, and Peace, and 
 Hope; all of which must however be founded in Faith, 
 because it is u in believing" only that he bids us to 
 expect that these three blessings will, through the power 
 of the Holy Ghost, continue for ever to be imparted. 
 
 And that Faith must and ought to have this prece- 
 dence, seems almost self-evident. It possessed it, we 
 are assured, amongst the first Christian converts. In 
 
Sermon XII.] [ 155 ] 
 
 Natural Religion, we know that he who cometh to God, 
 must first, not only believe in his existence, or u that he 
 is," but also in his power and benevolence, " that he is 
 a rewarder of those who diligently seek him." In like 
 manner Revealed Religion requires us to believe, " that 
 God sent his Son into the world to redeem us from the 
 power of death and of sin." In this fundamental truth 
 we must necessarily place our confidence, before any 
 effect of that Holy Spirit can descend upon our souls. 
 But when our faith is thus firmly established, and upon 
 its best ground, that external and internal evidence which, 
 as a cloud of witnesses, the Gospels bring to its confir- 
 mation, then, and then onty, are we to expect its first 
 hallowed effect, divine joy, or, in the phrase of the text, 
 to receive from the God of Hope, through the power of 
 the Holy Ghost, joy in believing. 
 
 That such joyfulness should be the first offspring of our 
 Faith, no Christian can be surprized at, when he considers 
 what inestimable blessings Faith gives him to expect; 
 when, by Faith alone, he is enabled to see that life and 
 immortality which the Gospel has brought to light, and 
 his restoration by a second Adam, to that eternity of 
 existence of which he was deprived by the lapse of the 
 first Adam ; what then should hinder him, on the first 
 impulse of the belief in this unmerited favour, to be 
 exceeding glad of such great salvation ? 
 
[ 156 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 That Peace should be the immediate successor of this 
 Joy, even the Peace of God surpassing all human under- 
 standing, is a blessing equally natural, and congenial with 
 that which precedes it ; for the whole tenor of Christ's 
 revelation of himself to mankind proves him to be, what 
 the Holy Scriptures emphatically style him, the Prince 
 of Peace ; a Prince who has put away far from us the 
 enmity that was between the Creator and the creature : 
 nothing further therefore need be said as to the congruity 
 of such a succession of these two spiritual blessings. But 
 that Hope should come last in gradation is not, perhaps, so 
 immediately obvious, and yet the Apostle has placed it thus 
 in the Holy Triad. I can easily conceive that an objector 
 might form the following specious argument against such 
 an arrangement : " St. Paul says, in another place, that 
 ce Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence 
 " of things not seen : if this be true, Faith necessarily 
 " supersedes, or at least includes, Hope ; why then, if 
 " we are already possessed of the substance, should we be 
 u solicitous about the shadow ?" 
 
 In answer to this, it is proper to enquire what Hope is, 
 and that question will be best resolved, by putting it in 
 comparison with its direct opposite, Fear, of which the 
 author of the book, entitled the Wisdom of Solomon, has 
 given us one of the best definitions that I think is to be 
 met with in any moral writer : " Fear/' says he, " is 
 
Sermon XII.] [ 157 ] 
 
 " nothing else than the betraying of the succours which 
 " Reason offereth."* And if so, we may with the same 
 accuracy define Hope, in general, to be nothing else than 
 a strengthener of those succours which Reason offereth ; 
 and, Christian Hope in particular, of those succours 
 which Faith offereth : for as Faith must be founded on 
 reasonable grounds, so that which succours the one, must 
 of necessity support the other ; hence, therefore, we may 
 confidently assert, that the Apostle has very justly put 
 Hope the last in his climax of spiritual blessings. We 
 may also answer this objection in another manner, and 
 affirm, that as Faith may exist without works, so also may 
 it exist without Hope, in which we may predicate of the 
 latter, as St. James did of the former, that it will be dead 
 as to any beneficial effect : for instance, a man may 
 believe, and that strongly, that Jesus Christ came into 
 the world to save sinners ; yet he may also believe him- 
 self to be so extremely sinful, that, on the sincerest 
 repentance, he cannot hope personally to partake of that 
 salvation. Here then, by a want of hope, the salutary 
 effect of his Faith will be destroyed, and, to his own par- 
 ticular, his belief will profit him nothing ; but when, by 
 the assistance of the God of Hope, this blessed attribute 
 is added to Faith, in such abundance as it is here pro- 
 mised, and as St. Paul himself experienced, then, though 
 acknowledging ourselves, as he did, to be the chief of 
 sinners, we are yet secured, as he was, from despair by 
 * Chap. xyii. 12. 
 
[ 158 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 the power of the Holy Ghost, from whence that Hope 
 flows with an unremitting stream. 
 
 Thus, by analyzing the text, I have endeavoured to 
 point out, not only what are the principal effects of this 
 grace of God upon the mind of the true believer, but also 
 to shew in what gradation he is to expect its internal 
 operations ; and if I have done this in a satisfactory 
 manner, what must my audience think of those gloomy 
 enthusiasts, who abounding, as they arrogantly profess 
 that they do, with extraordinary manifestations, and sen- 
 sible impulses of the same Holy Spirit, impress the minds 
 of their affrighted followers with nothing but images of 
 horror and despair. For if, as we have seen, Divine Joy 
 be the first symptom of this heavenly operation in the 
 breasts of the faithful, how little must that teacher seem 
 to be possessed of it, who chooses only to communicate 
 to others the very opposite sensations of melancholy and 
 chagrin ? Full as questionable are his pretensions to the 
 second blessing of Divine Peace, when he is ever prompt 
 to make invidious distinctions between Gospel and carnal 
 Preachers, saintly and sinful hearers, and thereby to sow 
 the seeds of religious dissension amongst his brethren. 
 Still less can we suppose that he abounds with the last of 
 these spiritual qualities, Divine Hope, when he denies 
 the smallest pittance of it to all persons who do not think 
 precisely as he does, concerning certain abstruse doctrinal 
 points, which have been variously understood from the 
 
Sermon XII.] [ 159 ] 
 
 very first ages of the Church, and will probably remain 
 disputable to the very last.— But here I restrain myself, 
 well aware, that, when the fire of enthusiasm is once 
 kindled, all remonstrances are ineffectual; to apply to 
 minds thus overheated the calm dictates of common 
 sense, is to throw oil upon flame, and to increase its fury; 
 nevertheless, to persons yet untainted with this too com- 
 mon contagion, reflections of this kind may not be with- 
 out their use; it becomes, therefore, the regular 
 Preacher sometimes to employ himself in this preven- 
 tative exercise ; to these persons, therefore, and with 
 this benevolent intention, they are at present, with all 
 due deference, addressed. 
 
 Yet when I address myself to such sober, yet sincere 
 Christians, surely I may be permitted to proceed further. 
 Yes, my Brethren, with that becoming energy which 
 the important subject inspires, I will exhort you all 
 seriously and earnestly to implore, from the fountain of 
 never-ceasing mercy, those real those inestimable bless- 
 ings, which true faith and unfeigned piety is fully 
 warranted to expect from the communication of this 
 Holy Spirit; for think not, because those extraordinary 
 illuminations which the Enthusiast fancies, and which 
 the Hypocrite pretends he is possessed of, are vain and 
 fallacious, that therefore all hope of assistance from 
 above is dubious and uncertain : be assured that He is 
 faithful who promised that assistance; and therefore, 
 
[ 160 ] [Sermon XII. 
 
 that his blessed Spirit is not far from every one of us : 
 Rise therefore established in this Faith ; Rise to that 
 exalted pitch of Christian perfection which your Maker 
 and your Redeemer command you to attain to, and to- 
 wards which attainment they promise you an aid so 
 necessary, so salutary, and so effectual : Reflect on the 
 blessings which are by that means conveyed to you, joy, 
 peace, and hope, blessings which, in a human sense, 
 furnish the most solid satisfaction that mortality can 
 aspire to : What are they then in a divine sense ? What 
 are they when that joy is sublimated far beyond any 
 temporal delight; that peace beyond all terrestrial 
 tranquillity 5 that hope far beyond the expectance of the 
 most refined sublunary gratifications. Do they not then 
 become those blessings of which the angels themselves, 
 and the spirits of just men made perfect, participate in 
 heaven ? Blessings which are the principal jewels in the 
 crown of immortality, and which reflect the ineffable 
 radiance of the Divinity itself. 
 
THE 
 
 RULE OF HONOUR 
 
 A PRINCIPLE TOO IMPERFECT 
 TO REGULATE 
 
 CHRISTIAN ACTION. 
 
 vol. it. M 
 
[ 1C3] 
 
 SERiMON XIII. 
 
 Galat. i. 10. 
 
 DO I NOW PERSUADE MEN OR GOD ? OR DO I SEEK TO 
 PLEASE MEN ? FOR IF I YET PLEASED MEN, I SHOULD 
 NOT BE THE SERVANT OF CHRIST. 
 
 Ot. Paul, we see, here puts two questions with respect 
 to his own apostolic character, which may, at first sight, 
 seem to take somewhat from the likeness of a moral 
 pourtrait which he has elsewhere drawn of himself, and 
 in which a principal feature was a solicitude to adapt 
 his behaviour so much to the world, as to endeavour by 
 it to be all things to all men ; to the Jews, a Jew ; and 
 to the Greeks, a Greek. Yet this is easily reconciled 
 to the text, if we recollect, from the true and general 
 idea we have of his life and conversation, that he ever 
 made his complacency to mankind subservient to his 
 duty to God, that he regarded such complacency only 
 so far as it added to his power of observing that duty, 
 and pleased men, not seeking his own profit, but that, 
 as an apostle and servant of Christ, he might forward the 
 
[ 164 ] [Sermon XIII. 
 
 conversion of sinners, and, by the very justifiable arts of 
 general urbanity and particular civility, u save some." 
 
 This being granted, we may hence infer that the very 
 rule which St. Paul laid down for his own conduct in 
 his peculiar situation, may, and ought to be the general 
 rule which all men should follow, even on the most 
 common occasions ; and that an attention to the laws 
 (as they may be called in civilized states) of society, 
 should be regarded, when such laws are not in opposi- 
 tion to the laws of God and of Christ ; but that when- 
 ever they are in the least so, the former should be slighted 
 and the other religiously observed. Obvious, however, as 
 this truth is, and notwithstanding that divine aid which 
 Revelation has graciously dispensed to natural reason, 
 many Philosophers have placed their obligations to 
 morality on foundations foreign from that of the duty 
 of pleasing God ; and either finding their convenience 
 in allowing greater latitude to their behaviour, or 
 aiming at the character of superior talents and reputa- 
 tion, either drawn away by a love of singularity, or misled 
 by a vain veneration for antiquity, they have invented 
 or adopted different systems, and have endeavoured, with 
 incredible industry, to reconcile them to men's minds, 
 and to propagate them as universal truths. 
 
 That this should be the case in the Pagan world, is 
 not indeed much to be wondered at : The false and im- 
 
Sermon XIII.] [ 165 ] 
 
 perfect conceptions they had of the nature of the Deity, 
 necessarily misled them in this point. It is true, they 
 believed that the divinities they worshipped had power 
 to punish and to reward them. They endeavoured there- 
 fore to appease them by sacrifices, and to propitiate them 
 by vows ; but to please them by a life conformable to 
 their will, and, by so doing, to arrive at moral perfection, 
 neither did nor could possibly enter into their imagina- 
 tions. Indeed, if it had, they would have found it diffi- 
 cult to frame any uniform system of conduct upon it 
 that could have pleased such a variety of deities, since 
 we know there was scarce a single vice which was not 
 patronized, scarce a single virtue which was not repro- 
 bated by one or other of that fancy-formed mob of beings. 
 
 Since, therefore, they could not ascertain that a life of 
 purity and virtue was acceptable to their gods, their religion 
 could never inspire them with virtue or purity. Accord- 
 ingly we find it consisted chiefly in the due observance 
 of certain rites and ceremonies, a belief in the Divine 
 Existence, and the necessity of submitting to its decrees. 
 Their Philosophers finding in this no just basis for mora- 
 lity, were under a necessity of recurring to other princi- 
 ples, and of founding the obligation to moral duties on 
 Virtue, either for its own intrinsic excellence and beauty, 
 or because it best contributed to the ease aud pleasure 
 of life, or else because it was the surest means of support- 
 ing what it constituted the dignity of human nature - 3 
 
[ 166 ] [Sermon XIIL 
 
 those who wished to place it on a still more permanent 
 foundation, perhaps added the only immortality of which 
 they had any adequate idea, that of fame and reputation 
 with future ages. 
 
 I say not this to derogate from the merit of these phi- 
 losophic worthies ; many of them deserve the admiration, 
 some even the love of all posterity; nevertheless the 
 want of the religious principle has left a weakness in 
 their reasonings, and visibly eclipsed that glory which a 
 love of truth and a habit of virtue had spread over their 
 illustrious characters. 
 
 Equally various, and equally imperfect have been 
 many of the systems of modern moralists, insomuch that 
 it would be almost an endless task to point out the false 
 and flimsy arguments of all those pretended champions 
 of freedom, and vindicators of the rights of reason, who, 
 expelling Religion from their plan of Ethics, endeavour 
 to support man in the severest conflicts, by declaiming to 
 him upon the dignity of his nature ; to shield him against 
 the allurements of pleasure, even by interposing Pleasure 
 herself; or who, giving him Prudence for a guide, 
 pretend to secure him by her direction alone, from all 
 the open as well as secret attacks of Error and of Vice. 
 
 Yet there is one of these principles of action which 
 may, with propriety here, be examined 5 a principle that, 
 
Sermon XIII.] [ 167 ] 
 
 under the most specious appearance, has insinuated itself 
 into a more general reception than any other, particularly 
 with the active and polite part of the world, with the 
 men of business and the men of pleasure : a principle, 
 which, it must be confessed, when under the rule and in- 
 fluence of Religion, is capable of doing the greatest ser- 
 vice to the cause of Virtue; but which, when setting up 
 itself in opposition to her, becomes the most uncertain, 
 the most fallacious of all other guides. 
 
 I speak of honour, the insufficiency of whose influ- 
 ence upon morality, will appear from considering how 
 liable it is to be perverted by self-interest ; by our 
 irascible passions ; by the spirit of party ; and by the 
 spirit of FASHION. 
 
 1 . The law of Reputation, if I may so call it, or those 
 rules of behaviour to which we must conform, if we 
 would keep on good terms with the world, maintain the 
 character of an honest man, or claim the privileges of a 
 gentleman, is what may justly be termed the sanction of 
 Honour ; and in this respect, it is allowed, it pretends to 
 imitate the religion it would supplant, in that it teaches 
 us to fulfil certain engagements, to ratify certain con- 
 tracts, and to perform certain acts of equity, which 
 written constitutions, and the course of civil justice, 
 neither do oblige us to, nor can take within their cogni- 
 zance : but it varies very materially from it, in that its 
 
[ 163 ] [Sermon XIII. 
 
 tests and obligations of right and wrong are of a different 
 nature and authority. The test of right which Religion 
 gives us is that of its being pleasing to God ; that which 
 Honour, of its being pleasing to men. The one certain 
 and lasting as the truth and unchangeableness of God 
 himself; the other mutable and unsettled as the caprici- 
 ous humour of mankind. The obligations and sanctions 
 of Religion are in like manner the favour and protection 
 of an all-wise, all-powerful Being ; of Honour, the mere 
 good opinion of our foolish and weak fellow-creatures. 
 Thus, therefore, as the religious man is, in the language 
 of Scripture, said to walk before God, the man of Honour 
 may be said to walk before men ; the one under the eye 
 of an omniscient Being who spieth out all his ways ; the 
 other before a short-sighted observer, whose inspection 
 he may continually elude, continually impose upon. 
 Here then self-interest begins her operations, and 
 insinuates to the pretender to Honour, that, whatever 
 deviations from virtue he makes secretly, he may make 
 justifiably. That if he saves appearances, he saves his 
 reputation, since reputation consists only in appearances. 
 That by whatever unjust or dishonourable means he 
 procures for himself either power, riches, or pleasure, he 
 need only conceal the means safely to accomplish the 
 end. That as the assessors of his conduct are liable 
 to be imposed upon, it behoves him indeed to be discreet 
 in his impositions upon them ; yet, whenever his Interest 
 calls one way, and his Honour the other, he may safely 
 
Sermon XIII.] [ 169 ] 
 
 follow the former, if he can so manage (which he fre- 
 quently may) as not to seem to discard the latter. 
 
 i 
 
 2. We grant, nevertheless, that there are natures noble 
 and generous enough to be above the influence of so 
 groveling a passion as self-interest : but are there natures 
 cool and philosophic enough to be proof against all other 
 passions, to be beyond the impulse of revenge, jealousy, 
 and anger ? If there are not, let us consider how imper- 
 fect a restraint, how weak a chain the principle of 
 Honour is able to cast on any of these stronger passions. 
 But need we consider this ? Alas, no ! We know that 
 Honour rather breaks than binds the chain in many in- 
 stances : that to some, even of the most violent passions, 
 she not only gives the license of the rein, but adds also 
 the impulse of the spur. We know that, though indeed 
 she lays an arrogant claim to the strictest observances of 
 equity, and in some respects carries this into the nicest 
 refinements, yet in others she admits, nay prompts the 
 most affecting of injuries. We know that the man of 
 Honour, in gratification of his revenge, nay, sometimes 
 even of his vanity, has brought ruin on families, which 
 justice, humanity, nay which particular obligations and 
 gratitude, admonished him to favour and to protect. We 
 know, and we cannot mention it without horror, that, 
 misled by this principle, he thinks it sometimes lawful, 
 nay even necessary, to take up the dismal alternative^ 
 either of robbing his nearest and best friend of life, or 
 
[ 170 ] [Sermon XIII. 
 
 rushing himself upon death, on the one hand without just 
 
 cause, on the other without any preparation. 
 
 * 
 
 3. The spirit of party is also a third cause of per- 
 verting this principle, and frequently more than even 
 our self-interest or our passions ; and this ought here to 
 be insisted upon as the peculiar unhappiness of our own 
 age and nation : for it is very obvious what a degree of 
 reputation may be procured and even secured by boldly 
 inlisting ourselves in any particular interest ; how many 
 vices may be palliated, and how many virtues rendered 
 unnecessary by the strength of this merit alone ; that to 
 be steady in our political connections, whether they be 
 wrong or right, is the consummate test of Honour with 
 the persons on whose side we engage. Hence it some- 
 times becomes dishonourable not to concur in particular 
 actions which our conscience, which our reason revolts 
 against, if the general welfare of the party in which we 
 have inlisted ourselves require our concurrence. Hence, 
 by the touch of political alchymy, Vice is converted into 
 Virtue, Virtue into Vice ; and hence that species of "mo- 
 rality becomes only current which bears the stamp of our 
 particular party upon its surface. 
 
 4. But Honour has also another antagonist to struggle 
 with, who almost constantly subdues and leads her in 
 triumph, and this may be termed the spirit of fashion. 
 For it has ever been the case in all kingdoms and nations 
 
Sermon XIII.] [ 171 ] 
 
 of the world, that at different times, different virtues and 
 vices have had the ascendency, and observed a continual 
 gradation of rise, progress, and decline. Thus the reign- 
 ing virtue and the reigning vice are terms of universal 
 use and application. Every . generation has had both 
 peculiar to itself, nor is our own an exception in either. 
 
 If this fact be allowed, it will necessarily follow from 
 it, that the man of Honour may give into some vices 
 without either infringing upon the rules of his principle, 
 or danger of incurring its penalty, the loss of the world's 
 good opinion : he may be sure to find advocates enough 
 for his immorality, provided it be the species of immo- 
 rality in vogue : nor can he fear to be excluded, on that 
 account, from what is called the best company. Persons 
 of his own turn will countenance him from self-interest ; 
 others will pardon him for his other virtues : and the few 
 who are really too good to be quite so candid, may yet 
 charitably impute his defects to the force of ill example 
 and perverted custom. Thus as reputation is the sanc- 
 tion of Honour j and as the commission of almost every 
 vice has, at different times and in different countries, 
 ceased to be disreputable, we may fairly conclude that 
 Honour on this account alone is too weak and uncertain 
 to found a steady principle of moral action upon it; 
 much more so when considered with the other reasons 
 we have before mentioned, and which prove it not only 
 to be the dupe of Fashion, but the slave of Party ; not 
 
[ 172 ] [Sermon XIII. 
 
 only an incentive to some of our most hurtful passions, 
 but a tool to the meanest of them all, our self-interest. 
 
 If such be Honour, let us not rely on so fallacious a 
 guide ; yet at the same time let us not discard her : 
 weak though she be as a leader, she is still a good asso- 
 ciate ; an associate capable of promoting the interests of 
 Virtue, because necessary to the well-being of society; 
 but this only when under the rule and influence of Reli- 
 gion. If therefore Religion go before, Honour will be 
 sure to follow after. He that walketh before God up- 
 rightly can never walk before men dishonourably. He 
 that but strives to be perfect in the sight of his Creator, 
 may well hope to be so in the sight of his fellow- creatures ; 
 or, if blinded by prejudice, or prompted by malevolence, 
 those fellow-creatures should either despise or condemn 
 him, yet with a resolution and dignity peculiar to his 
 character, he triumphs not more in subduing his own 
 passions than in bravely bearing up against the passions 
 of his adversaries; not more in despising imaginary 
 dangers than in resisting real temptations. Conscious of 
 his dependence on an Almighty protector, and adorned 
 with a humility and modesty resulting from a just sense 
 of that dependence, he breathes nothing but universal 
 love and benevolence to mankind : hence, neglecting his 
 particular for the sake of general utility, he feels his self- 
 interest absorbed in public spirit ; his blind and tumul- 
 tuous passions converted into the affectionate and rational 
 
Sermon XIIL] [ 173 ] 
 
 fervors of Christian charity ; he knows no party but the 
 party of his crucified Redeemer ; no fashion which the 
 folly of this world prescribes to him ; a world, the very 
 wisdom of which he knows is but foolishness with his 
 God. 
 
 Such is the man who endeavours to please God ; such 
 the character which that God declares to be well-pleasing 
 in his sight. — To which that we may all with true 
 Christian earnestness aspire, God of his infinite mercy 
 grant through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
GOD 
 
 THE 
 
 UNIVERSAL AND EQUAL FATHER 
 
 OF ALL 
 
 MANKIND. 
 
The following is the only Sermon in this Volume which has 
 been previously published: It was occasionally preached in York 
 Cathedral, on Sunday the 27th of January, 1788, to promote a 
 Petition to Parliament, then under signature, for the Abolition 
 of the African Slave-Trade ; and was printed at the request 
 of Sir William Milner, Bart, then Lord Mayor, and of the Gen- 
 tlemen of the Corporation of the City of York, to whom it was 
 inscribed. 
 
t W] 
 
 SERMON XIV. 
 
 Acts xvii. 28. 
 
 FOR WE ALSO ARE HIS OFFSPRING. * 
 
 J h i s quotation from a Greek, and consequently a 
 heathen Poet, the eloquent Apostle of the Gentiles con- 
 descended to use, when he was endeavouring to convert 
 the greatest masters of human wisdom, from the greatest 
 proof of human folly, the worship of idols ; when he was 
 asserting the unity of that supreme first cause, which they 
 so little understood, as to erect an altar to him under the 
 appellation of the unknown God. This universal source 
 of life, breath, and all created beings, he declares to 
 them, i( made of one blood, all men to dwell on the face 
 C( of the earth," and determined, by his divine Prescience, 
 both the times of their existence, and the bounds of 
 their habitation. 
 
 Of these two fundamental truths, upon which not only 
 natural but revealed religion is founded, the existence 
 of a first cause, and the deduction thence of all created 
 
 * Te ya,^ yjm ysvos taptv. Auatus. 
 VOL. IV, N 
 
[ 178 ] [Sermon XIV. 
 
 beings, it is clear from the text that the heathens them- 
 selves were apprised, though they failed to draw from 
 them that consequence, which, of all others, seems the 
 most natural, that created beings, of the same species,- 
 must of necessity possess the same inherent rights; and 
 that the human species, in particular, being, as the 
 Apostle phrases it, of the same blood, had all of them 
 the same pretensions to the equal blessings of nature, 
 being formed by the same hand, and endued with the 
 same faculties for enjoying pleasure, and suffering pain ; 
 that though the place or climate in which they happened 
 to be born, and the time of their birth, or, to speak more 
 accurately in the words of St. Paul, u the times which 
 " God had appointed them, and the bounds of their 
 " habitation/' might occasion some accidental difference 
 as to the cultivation of those faculties, and the modes of 
 those pleasures and pains, yet the original capacity for 
 all of them was still the same ; and that all being alike 
 human creatures, there was neither gift nor faculty be- 
 stowed on the nature of humanity that belonged of right 
 more to one than another of the human species. 
 
 To the divine mission of St. Paul nothing was more 
 necessary than the establishment of this primary truth ; 
 he was the professed Apostle of the Gentiles, and under 
 that charact* r had as many prejudices to overcome, as 
 if, like St. Peter, he had only been the Apostle of the 
 Jews and their proselytes. The Jews, deeming them- 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 179 ] 
 
 selves the peculiar people of God, we know, bad the 
 strongest objection imaginable to a Messiah who was to 
 save or redeem any nation except their own ; and the 
 Greeks, who held all nations but theirs to be barbarians, 
 were full as unlikely to embrace a faith to be held in 
 common, not only with the Jews, but the rest of a bar- 
 barous world : the doctrine which exhorted all men, 
 wherever situated, to embrace one common salvation, 
 was therefore as little suited to the pretensions of the 
 one as to the pride of the other. 
 
 But though St. Paul, by proceeding upon this funda- 
 mental truth, and thence deducing the doctrine of an 
 universal Redeemer, disseminated the Gospel so far, as 
 to make the success of his preaching a miracle almost 
 equal to any performed by his divine master, insomuch that 
 Infidelity has been put to its utmost subterfuges to inva- 
 lidate its force ; yet this truth itself, this necessary infe- 
 rence from the Gospel, that all men are the offspring of 
 God, was not, either by himself or his successors, so far 
 established in a refractory world as to make it an uni- 
 versal rule of moral action ; nay, we have it still to 
 lament that it is as little attended to at this present 
 hour, as it was when the Apostle first preached it to the 
 Athenians. The distinction between Greek and Barba- 
 rian has indeed ceased, or rather names and scenes are 
 shifted, and the Greeks are now become, in the eyes of 
 the more civilized nations in Europe, themselves barba- 
 
[ 180 ] [Sermon XIV. 
 
 rians ; yet every distinct European state, in proportion 
 as it acquires a real, or even an assumed pretension to 
 superior civilization, is too apt to impute to the rest of 
 the world a proportional degree of barbarity, and conse- 
 quently, whatever they may think, they are sometimes 
 inclined to act toward them, as if they were not of the 
 same sacred original. Nor is this much to be wondered 
 at, when we reflect that the same false notion prevails 
 amongst individuals of the same" nation : Every acciden- 
 tal advantage, which either birth, riches, or education 
 gives, becomes nutriment to this over-weening pride, 
 and equally leads the possessors of them to behave to 
 those who want such casual advantages, as if they de- 
 rived their existence from two different sources. 
 
 But there is one enormous prejudice of this kind, 
 which, for a long series of years, has infected the Eu- 
 ropean part of the globe, not only individually but 
 nationally ; a prejudice which Christianity has almost 
 universally failed to eradicate, I mean that futile, but 
 at the same time horrible, opinion, which, resting itself 
 on argument that can go no deeper than the very 
 surface and tincture of the skin, has led many, who yet 
 call themselves Christians, to treat beings of the same 
 divine origin with themselves, even worse than they 
 think themselves permitted to treat the beasts that pe- 
 rish : Beings that have immortal souls like themselves, 
 enshrined in a body which, though it has a variation of 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 1S1 ] 
 
 complexion, has hardly any in form or in feature. This 
 more than Pagan prejudice I should think myself wor- 
 thily employed in execrating through the remainder of 
 this discourse, did I not foresee, with heart-felt satisfac- 
 tion, that wiser and better heads than my own are about 
 to endeavour, by the best and most legal means, at a 
 demolition of the evil, by putting a stop to that mer- 
 chandize — dreadful term ! when employed to signify the 
 traffic which men make of men, which has so long been 
 the worst of disgraces to the name of Christians and of 
 Britons. 
 
 But were I to enter the lists against those, and, to the 
 reproach of human nature itself, some there are who 
 vindicate what they call the Slave Trade, and who, 
 by the very term they use, do enough to make every 
 benevolent breast receive their arguments with detesta- 
 tion, I should think that I profaned the sanctity of this 
 place, that I disgraced the dignity of my subject, which 
 is no less than the great cause of humanity; I should 
 think that I surrendered the principles of Christianity, if 
 I condescended to answer any of their political reason 
 ings ; or even deigned to take into consideration the 
 advantages which accrue from the permission, or the 
 disadvantages which might result from the prohibition 
 of this inhuman barter. Still more should I think that 
 I did dishonour to myself, as a preacher of the Gospel 
 of Christ, if, with all the insipid coldness of a common 
 
[ 182 ] [Sermon XIV. 
 
 moralist, I should for a moment allow the intellectual 
 faculties of the African man to be naturally inferior to 
 those of the European, and then philosophically argue, 
 that as plants may be meliorated and become more vigo- 
 rous by transplanting them into a richer soil, so it might 
 be possible, by the culture of education, to improve the 
 intellects even of an African Savage.* 
 
 * That the natural inferiority of their understanding make* 
 the Negroes incapable of receiving such culture, will hardly be 
 admitted by any true Christian, who considers that the Apostle 
 Philip was sent, by a divinely appointed raesseuger, to meet the 
 Ethiopian Eunuch at Gaza in the Desert, and there baptize him 
 (See Acts viii. 26.) We are told here that this personage, the 
 Treasurer of Queen Candace, had before believed in the Divine 
 Unity, and was on his journey to worship at Jerusalem, where 
 he had probably been before admitted by the Jews, as a pro- 
 selyte of the gate. We find too that he was sufficiently skilled 
 in Hebrew literature to read the sublime poetry of Isaiah, and 
 that he was peculiarly chosen of God to be one of the first con 
 verts to Christianity, his conversion being placed in order of 
 time before that of Saul. Such a believer will certainly thence 
 infer, that as God is no respecter of persons, he has made no 
 distinction in his gifts to the Human Species. In prosecuting 
 this disquisition further, men of letters may perhaps be led to 
 investigate an opinion of a very late French writer, M. Volney, 
 who in his Travels into Syria and Egypt (I quote from the Eng- 
 lish translation of them, Vol. I. p. 81) has, amongst some other 
 historical reasons, adduced a passage from Herodotus, who be- 
 lieves that as the Colchi were an antient colony from Egypt, they 
 were, like the Egyptians, actually Negroes. The words of the 
 Father of History are, olvlos $1 f'txao-a T»?<5e, xa* on ^iNxyx^cis tlo-i 
 xau *XoT;ix is - Liber "• ca l K 104 ' " T hat, like them, they have 
 black skins and frizzled hair." The reflection which the learned 
 traveller makes on this is so very apposite to the general doc- 
 trine of my discourse, that it is on that account I have chiefly 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 183 ] 
 
 Far from myself, far from all who should either write, 
 preach, or think upon the subject with the spirit of 
 those Gospels in their minds, be so tame, so unani- 
 mated a mode of treating the subject. If ever Eloquence 
 was in its place, here might it exert its utmost force, 
 without a fear of misleading Reason, or of acting too 
 powerfully upon the passions. If ever Argumentation, 
 or Logic, can be useless or misapplied, it is here they 
 must be so, because they would be employed in the 
 
 quoted it. " This historical fact affords to philosophy an inte- 
 " resting subject of reflection. How are we astonished when 
 " we behold the present barbarism and ignorance of the Copts 
 '* descended from the profound genius of the Egyptians, and the 
 " brilliant intelligence of the Greeks; when we reflect that to 
 " the race of Negroes, at present our Slaves, and the object of 
 " our extreme contempt, we owe our Arts, Sciences, and even 
 " the very use of Speech ; and when we recollect that in the 
 " midst of those nations, who call themselves the friends of 
 " Liberty and Humanity, the most barbarous of Slaveries is jus- 
 " tified, and that it is even a problem whether the understanding 
 " of Negroes be of the same species with that of White Men!" 
 P. 83. 
 
 But as the instance of one individual is with me, and perhaps 
 will be with the generality of my readers, sufficient to decide 
 on this question, let me, lastly, quote the letters of poor Igna- 
 tius Sancho, as a sufficient proof not only of African capacity, 
 but of true humanity. This man received the principal advant- 
 ages resulting from European culture in a great family, in which 
 he was many years a menial servant, but which I should be ;ipt 
 to think not the best school, did 1 not at the same time reflect 
 that the most noble head of that family must (I speak from 
 knbwledge of the late Duke of Montagu's innate benevolence) 
 have uniformly set him the best of all examples. — See the Pre- 
 face to Sancho's Letters. 
 
[ 184 ] [Sermon XIV, 
 
 refutation of self-evident falsehood. If ever the true 
 genius of Christianity, which is then hest exerted when 
 it gives glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 
 good will towards men, can be urged with superior effi- 
 cacy to this its twofold purpose, it must be in reprobating 
 a practice which derogates from the glory of that God, 
 and spreads destruction, carnage, and tyranny over a 
 great part of that species of beings born to be rational, 
 and capable, by good treatment, of being highly so, 
 and which he has dignified with the title of his off- 
 spring. 
 
 But even from the last and best of these assistances, 
 the inspired writings themselves, it seems unnecessary to 
 borrow aid on this occasion. Those of my hearers, who 
 are least versed in their sacred pages, must have learned 
 from them this plain, yet important truth, that they ought 
 to do to others as they would wish others should do to 
 them ; and they must be ignorant indeed if they do not 
 deduce from that divine rule this direct consequence, 
 that as they would not themselves wish to be Negro 
 Slaves, so they ought to wish, and, as far as possible, 
 endeavour to free every Negro from the bonds of slavery. 
 
 This matter then being so very obvious to every un- 
 derstanding, I will venture to turn my discourse to a 
 topic, from which I conceive it .possible, yet barely possi- 
 ble, that some little prejudice may arise against thifr 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 185 ] 
 
 most benevolent attempt, resulting from the place, time> 
 and persons whence the humane idea originated. It com- 
 menced first, as is well known, in that part of America 
 which was very lately subject to the crown of Great- 
 Britain, and soon after the time when its inhabitants 
 ceased to be our fellow-subjects, but not to be our fellow 
 Christians. To descend more minutely into particulars 
 (endeavouring at the same time cautiously to avoid any 
 expression that might tend to awaken the least spark of 
 jealousy) it began, I believe, first in the state of Pen- 
 sylvania, wherein a religious sect had long been esta- 
 blished, which, for certain singular notions and habits that 
 they adopted, the dissolute court of Charles the Second 
 had called by an opprobrious name. But whatever might 
 then, or may now be justly objected to these notions, or 
 to any enthusiastic tenet of theirs, which we hold to be 
 unscriptural, I have yet the boldness to assert, that, as 
 good subjects and good citizens, the conduct of this 
 Society has long made them respectable at. home -, the 
 discreet management of their own poor has made them 
 even an object of emulation. It is true, that the simpli- 
 city of their manners, and of their deportment, may in- 
 cur the contempt of the falsely polite, and the ridicule 
 of frivolous and unfeeling fashion ; yet such ridicule and 
 ■such contempt, I am persuaded, they will contentedly 
 bear, if they can only gain, what is surely their due, 
 that attention to the example they have set, which, 
 despising every idle prejudice, may lead all denomina- 
 
[ 186 ] [Sermon XIV. 
 
 tions of Christians heartily to concur in that righteous 
 cause which they hegan disinterestedly, have pursued 
 steadily, and seem to proceed in successfully; insomuch 
 that, did the sobriety of their sect suffer them to glorify 
 themselves before men, they might say with honest con- 
 fidence, M We are employed on a godly matter, a matter in 
 " which he, whom the Papacy has called the Most Chris- 
 €t tian, and he whom he has called the Most Catholic 
 " King, might be proud to join us. Thou also, of all others, 
 " mightest be proud to join us, who, inheriting by suc- 
 " cession that title of Defender of the Faith, which the 
 " same spirit of Antichrist first conferred on a * tyrant, 
 " holdest it now by the best of all human charters, the 
 " united suffrages of a free and a Protestant people." 
 Thus might these plain men express a bold, but at the 
 same time a most just sentiment; and there is no doubt 
 but that one of these Monarchs would, if directed only 
 by the dictates of his own heart, be ready to join them. 
 — But the wisdom of our Constitution, by setting limits 
 to his power, has, in this peculiar case, set limits to his 
 humanity. — He cannot, and, I trust, he would not wish 
 to say, " I will by my own individual authority put an 
 (( absolute prohibition on this unchristian traffic." But 
 he might and would justly say, " To the petitions of my 
 ie people, I will lend a ready ear; to the determinations 
 
 * Henry VIII. to whom Pope Leo X. gave this title as a re- 
 ward for a defence of the Papal Power and Tenets which the 
 King had written againt Luther. 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 187 ] 
 
 " of my parliament I will afford a joyful sanction." May 
 he not be deprived of that joy ! for who but the King of 
 a free, as well as a Protestant nation, should have the 
 glory of leading the other potentates of Europe on so 
 god-like an enterprize ! May he not be deprived of that 
 glory ! May the voice of his parliament be unanimous in 
 the cause ; in that cause may the petitions of his people 
 be strenuous, urgent, and universal ! 
 
 To the universality of such petitions I have the plea- 
 sure to find that the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor 
 of this antient city, and the worshipful the Aldermen 
 have, like some other corporate bodies in the kingdom, 
 judiciously contributed their assistance ; and hence it is 
 reasonably to be inferred, that the gentry, clergy, and all 
 other its inhabitants will follow their laudable example. 
 But laudable is too feeble an epithet on this occasion, it 
 is moral Patriotism !* it is Christian Heroism ! 
 
 Having said this, I have only to apologize for myself, 
 
 * This epithet is somewhat hazarded; I would be understood 
 to mean by it, that as patriotism itself only signifies the love of 
 our country, so with this addition, the term indicates a love of 
 mankind under the idea of one common family. Natural religion 
 teaches this, but Revelation goes farther, it bids us to love and 
 do £ood to all men as brethren ; to endeavour therefore to give 
 freedom to Slaves, because they are our brethren, I denominate 
 Christian Heroism. Revelation goes farther still, and considers 
 Christians, one with another, as limbs or members of one body, 
 the head of which is Christ the Lord. See Ephes. passim. 
 
[188 ] [Sermon XIV. 
 
 on having addrest you so long in a stile and manner 
 somewhat unusual in discourses from this place. Let the 
 peculiarity, as well as the importance of the subject plead 
 my excuse. But if the manner in which I have treated 
 it, should not be thought improper ; if it should only be 
 thought well intended, let me have reason to hope that 
 what I have said may, when this great question comes 
 before the Parliament, induce my present audience to 
 join in the public prayer of our Church with peculiar 
 fervour, that Almighty God ". would be pleased to direct 
 (C and prosper all their consultations to the advancement 
 " of his glory, the good of his Church, the safety, honour, 
 c( and welfare of our Sovereign and his kingdoms :" for 
 what can be more for the advancement of God's glory 
 than the emancipation of whole nations from the worst 
 of slavery ? What more for the good of his Church, than 
 the almost certain introduction of. innumerable tribes of 
 free-men, then only capable of becoming good and prac- 
 tical Christians, into its sacred pale ? * What more for 
 
 * To prove this assertion fully would require a separate dis- 
 course. So far as civilization is concerned in the question, it has 
 been well discussed by the masterly pen of a Warburton,ina ser- 
 mon delivered to the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign 
 parts, IT 66. See his fV oris published by the Bishop of fVorcester. 
 ■ — I wish however to refer my readers to a very curious letter 
 from the Indians in the back settlements of America, printed by 
 the Society in the account of their proceedings that same year. 
 In that letter the Savages, in their rude yet energetic manner, 
 request English working tools as well as English missionaries to 
 be sent to theni; whence the learned Bishop very sagely infers, 
 
Sermon XIV.] [ 189 ] 
 
 the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his 
 kingdoms, than the utter abolition of that execrable 
 commerce, which has been so long the disgrace of every 
 king, of every nation that have permitted it ? A com- 
 merce, which, if longer persisted in, may draw down the 
 vengeance of an offended God to visit, not only Great 
 Britain, but all Europe, with every calamity which they 
 justly deserve who even connive at the destruction, or 
 permit the captivity, of his offspring. 
 
 that civilization should always either precede or accompany 
 conversion. 
 
 How much the benevolent intention of the Society above- 
 mentioned has been impeded, if not absolutely prevented, not 
 only by the Slave-seller but the Slave-buyer, may be gathered 
 from a most judicious discourse of the present Bishop of Bangor, 
 preached before that Society in the jear 1787, which I earnestly 
 recommend to the reader, as he will there find arguments against 
 the Slave-Trade, that will make him ample amends for any defi- 
 ciency of them in these few and hastily-written pages. 
 
ON THE 
 
 PROPHETICAL TENDENCY 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRIST'S DISCOURSE 
 
 WITH 
 
 NICODEMUS. 
 
[ 193 ] 
 
 SERMON XV 
 
 St. John iii. 8. 
 
 THE WIND BLOWETH WHERE IT LISTETH, AND THOU 
 HEARESTTHE SOUND THEREOF, BUT CANST NOT TELL 
 WHENCE IT COMETH AND WHITHER IT GOETH ', SO IS 
 EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 1 h i s is part of the remarkable conversation, which our 
 Saviour held with the Pharisee, Nicodemus ; and a text 
 usually cited by those persons who hold the doctrine of a 
 new-birth in a literal sense, and suppose that Christian 
 regeneration is a certain miraculous impulse communi- 
 cated in a sensible manner, by the Holy Ghost, to such 
 peculiar favorites of Heaven, as are supposed to constitute 
 the elect. In consequence of which, they believe that 
 without some such self-convincing circumstance, which 
 they denominate an internal feeling, no Christian can be 
 assured that he is in a state of Grace, that his Salvation 
 is secured, or his Sins pardoned. 
 
 Now, as this opinion has frequently been productive of 
 the worst consequences, and led its mistaken adherents 
 
 VOL. IV. O 
 
[ 194 ] [Sermon XV. 
 
 through every degree of enthusiasm up to absolute mad- 
 ness, it may not be amiss to examine whether the text 
 in question affords any foundation for such a doctrine. 
 I shall therefore compare it with the context, and after 
 reciting the dialogue, of which this verse is a portion, 
 shall examine the several parts of it distinctly, in order 
 to find out the true scope and meaning of the whole : the 
 only rational way, that I know of, to clear up a difficulty, 
 either in the Scriptures, or any other species of writing. 
 
 This person, a man of note and consequence amongst 
 the Jews, by sect a Pharisee, and a leader, as is believed, 
 not only in the Synagogue, but the Sanhedrim, came 
 privately to Jesus by night, to confess to him that he 
 believed him to be divinely commissioned, on the best 
 evidence, the evidence of miracles : " Rabbi (says he) 
 " we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for 
 " no man can do these miracles that thou doest, unless 
 ie God be with him.'' This beginning seems to be pre- 
 paratory to a question he was about to put to him, which, 
 it is highly probable, was the principal cause of his 
 coming, and of desiring this private conference with him, 
 namely, to know, after acknowledging him to be a Pro- 
 phet, whether he was the very Prophet, the promised 
 Messias, that temporal deliverer from whom he, and the 
 rest of his nation, expected such peculiar civil advantages. 
 This, I say, seems to be the question intended, by the 
 manner in which Jesus interrupts him, answering (as 
 
Sermon XV.] [ 195 3 
 
 was customary with him on many other occasions) the 
 question, before it was directly asked : " Verily, verily, 
 " I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he can- 
 u not see the kingdom of God." Now the kingdom of 
 God and the kingdom of the Messias, were then, and 
 have since been always allowed to be terms of the same 
 import. The Jewish Ruler would, therefore, naturally 
 understand by this declaration, that no man could confess 
 the Messias, or enter into his kingdom, without being 
 born again. He did so; and, taking the term literally, 
 thus exprest his astonishment — " How can a man be 
 " born again, when he is old ? Can he enter a second 
 u time into his mother's womb, and be born ?" Jesus 
 seeing his error, condescends now to explain himself 
 further, and to inform him that he spake not literally 
 but figuratively. u Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except 
 iC a man be born again of water, and of the spirit, he 
 " cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now the 
 Pharisee would undoubtedly understand the first part of 
 this sentence, to mean Baptism, because that rite or ordi- 
 nance had already been practised, and was clearly enough 
 exprest in being " born again of water." But, as this 
 conversation was held with him, before the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost, the subsequent terms of being " born of the 
 " spirit" must, of necessity, at the time be dark and 
 enigmatical. Jesus therefore only dilates upon this latter 
 part, and in these words, " that which is born of the flesh 
 " is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit ; 
 
[ 196 ] [Sermon XV. 
 
 " marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born 
 " again 3" as if he had said, I do not mean that ye shall 
 be born again in an earthly or corporeal sense, but in a 
 divine and spiritual one. You suppose grossly that I 
 speak of your being born again of your natural mother, 
 whereas I mean that you shall be born again of a super- 
 natural and heavenly comforter, which shall come upon 
 you like " the wind which bloweth where it listeth, and 
 " thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 (i whence it cometh, and whither it goeth ; so is every 
 (i one that is born of the spirit. " Thus I would chuse to 
 connect the text with the context, as words plainly pro- 
 phetical of the descent of the Holy Ghost, as it happened 
 on the day of Pentecost, which we now commemorate, 
 when it " came suddenly on the disciples like a rushing 
 " mighty wind, and filled the house where they were 
 " sitting." 
 
 A late excellent writer,* when developing the true 
 idea of Prophecy, justly observes, that a considerable 
 degree of obscurity may be reasonably expected to attend, 
 and indeed usually does attend, all divine predictions on 
 their first delivery. And this, we see, was the case when 
 the Prophecy under our present consideration was de- 
 livered. Nicodemus did not understand it, and " an- 
 " swered and said, How can these things be?" Jesus 
 
 * Vide Dr. Hurd's Introduction to the Prophecies, &c. — 
 Sermon 3d, page 55. 
 
Sermon XV.] [ 197 ] 
 
 replied, ei Art thou a Master in Israel and knowest not 
 "these things?" Art thou so little conversant in those 
 prophetical writers, (thou, who, as a Ruler in that very 
 nation to whom their prophecies relate, oughtest to make 
 them thy principal study,) art thou so ignorant as not to 
 know that this spirit will be poured out in that universal 
 manner, which Isaiah and others of thy prophets have 
 predicted. But if thou art, I am not : " Verily, verily, I 
 (C say unto thee, we speak what we do know, and testify 
 u what we have seen, and ye believe not our witness." 
 As if he had said, I know all this from experience, and 
 am a living evidence of its truth, for when I was born 
 again of water, by John's Baptism, I was also born again 
 of the Spirit, by the heavens opening, and the Holy 
 Ghost suddenly and visibly descending upon me ; yet ye 
 receive not my witness ; if I have told you of earthly 
 things, or facts * done upon earth (for this is the literal 
 version of the original phrase) and ye believe not, how 
 shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things. These 
 words, I think, clearly imply the following meaning : I 
 tell you only of an event, miraculous indeed, yet which 
 will soon appear on this earth, and has already appeared 
 at my own baptism. If, therefore, you can neither 
 believe, nor comprehend this, how incredulous would 
 you be, if I opened to you the whole heavenly scheme of 
 man's redemption, and my mediation ? This hitherto no 
 man knows, (for it is not yet compleated) except he, who 
 
 * Ta iinyticc rot, lirovpocviot. 
 
[ 198 ] [Sermon XV. 
 
 u to perfect it, u for no man hath ascended into heaven, 
 " but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of 
 " Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the 
 " Serpent in the Wilderness, even so must the Son of 
 (( Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him 
 " should not perish, but have eternal life." Here again 
 (which I think greatly corroborates my interpretation of 
 the text) Jesus delivers a second prophecy concerning his 
 crucifixion, inveloped in the same figurative language 
 with the former ; which, though clearer to us at present, 
 would certainly be equally obscure to the hearer, at the 
 time it was delivered, with that which preceded it. For, 
 as he could, then, have no expectation that Christ would 
 be crucified, the image of the Serpent being lifted up 
 would give him no idea of that peculiar event. After the 
 fact had happened, it would, indeed, strike him with the 
 fullest measure of conviction ; and so, also, after the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost, the other prophecy would ap- 
 pear equally evident; and, as he was probably an eye 
 witness of both these events, it would not be, till after he 
 had seen both, that he would find his question fully 
 answered, or be convinced that Jesus, whose miracles 
 had before declared him to be a Prophet, was the real 
 Messias and Son of God. 
 
 Through the whole, therefore, of this remarkable con- 
 versation, it seems to have been the intention of our 
 Blessed Saviour to give Nicodcmus that kind of intelli- 
 
Sermon XV.] [ 199 ] 
 
 gence concerning himself, and his divine mission, which 
 would only be understood, when that mission was com- 
 pleated, and this, conformably to his behaviour on all 
 similar occasions ; for, to have declared in express terms, 
 that he was the Messias or King of the Jews, would, at 
 this time, have been premature, when speaking to a ruler 
 of that nation, and a declaration winch, as it might have 
 interfered with the great end of his coming into the 
 world, we know, he avoided making, till he came before 
 Pilate to receive his final sentence ; when, as what he 
 then said amounted to an acknowledgment of the charge 
 brought against him, it was more likely to ensure that 
 death which he came to suffer for our sake.* On the 
 present occasion, therefore, he prudently chose to wrap 
 the two principal events of his mission in prophetical 
 language, yet at the same time took care to express them 
 in such precise and exact figures, that there could not be 
 the least doubt of their meaning after the events, which 
 they predicted, had come to pass. For what could more 
 plainly delineate Christ's crucifixion than the symbol of 
 
 * I recollect only one exception to his reserve on the subject 
 before his trial, and that was in his conversation with the woman 
 of Sychar, at Jacob's well, (See John, chap. iv. v. 26,) when, on 
 her barely mentioning the Messiah, he declared to her in express 
 terms " I am he;" and this seems to have been the reason : — He 
 knew that such an open declaration made to her could be 
 attended with no consequence of this kind, or be used in testi- 
 mony by those who would accuse him before Pilate; because, 
 as the Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans, they would not 
 on that occasion use Samaritan evidence. 
 
[ 200 ] [Sermon XV. 
 
 the Serpent lifted up by Moses in the Wilderness ? Or 
 what more elearly describe the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost, than these words, w the wind bloweth where it 
 " listeth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst 
 " not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." For 
 this was the very mode and manner in which the Holy 
 Spirit " came upon the disciples, as a rushing mighty 
 (c wind." Every man, therefore, who was born of the 
 spirit (so exact is the analogy) on the day of Pentecost 
 heard this sound in the manner thus foretold ; and it 
 was then, and not till then, that the Kingdom of God 
 was (in Gospel phrase) seen, or entered into ; for all 
 Interpreters of that Gospel agree, that the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost was the miracle which sealed the great 
 Charter of our Salvation, and that, until this important 
 moment, the wonderful scheme of man's redemption 
 was not com pleated. 
 
 I here finish my interpretation of the text : and if, on 
 mature reflection, it appears to be a true one, the follow- 
 ing inferences are not only naturally deducible from it, 
 but tend to confirm it. 
 
 First, It is evident that in consequence of this prophecy, 
 during the apostolic age, if not some time after, this 
 miraculous manner of being born again of the spirit, 
 must constantly have followed the sacrament of Baptism : 
 And the history of the time shews that it did so : Nay, 
 we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that, in one particu- 
 
Sermon XV.] [ 201 ] 
 
 lar instance, it even preceded Baptism. This was in the 
 case of the first Gentile Converts, in the house of Cor- 
 nelius, where, " while Peter was yet preaching, the 
 " Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the word :" 
 Insomuch that the Apostle cried out, " Can any man 
 " forbid water that these should not be baptized, who 
 " have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" So 
 true was the prediction of Jesus, that at the commence- 
 ment of the reign of Messias, which he expressed to 
 Nicodemus by the terms of seeing or entering into the 
 Kingdom of God; every man should be thus born again 
 of water and of the spirit ! 
 
 The second inference is, that, when Christianity was 
 so far propagated in the world, as to be able to pro- 
 ceed and extend itself without a sensible display of the 
 divine power, this sudden method of being born of the 
 spirit must cease with the gift of tongues, and the rest of 
 the extraordinary miracles, employed for that moment- 
 ous purpose. The text, therefore, in question, gives no 
 shadow of support to that enthusiastic notion, which 
 some have entertained of Christian Regeneration, because 
 as we have seen, it was intended to be prophetical of the 
 descent of the Holy Ghost, on the Day of Pentecost, 
 and in the Apostolical age of the Church ; and hence 
 we conclude that no person can expect to be born again 
 of the spirit thus miraculously at present, unless he ex- 
 pects this to happen in the very manner in which it fell 
 
[ 202 ] [Sermon. XV. 
 
 on the Apostles, which few, if any, Enthusiasts have 
 been over-heated enough to pretend. 
 
 Lastly, we infer, that, by taking away this single text 
 from those many other, which support the real Doctrine 
 of Christian Regeneration, we only take from it what 
 frequently has been, and still would be, liable to lead 
 many well disposed believers into error ; and by placing 
 it among the prophetical evidences of the truth of Christ's 
 mission, we strengthen that great argument of the 
 credibility of our holy religion. However this be, that 
 renovation of the spirit stands still on firm scriptural 
 ground, which, on the authority of St. Paul, and all 
 other inspired writers, every good Christian is to expect 
 will be superadded, by the grace of God, to his own sin- 
 cere endeavours. He is only forbidden (if this interpre- 
 tation of the text be the true one) to expect that this 
 will come upon him in a sensible manner, " like the 
 wind, which blowcth where it listeth, and of- which he 
 fancies that he hears the sound, but cannot give any 
 rational account whence it cometh, or whither it goeth.'' 
 
ON 
 
 THE DUTY 
 
 OF AVOIDING 
 
 BAD COMPANY 
 
 INSTANCED IN THAT OF 
 
 GAMESTERS. 
 
[ 205 ] 
 
 SERMON XVI. 
 
 Ephesians v. 16. 
 
 REDEEMING THE TIME, BECAUSE THE DAYS ARE EVIL. 
 
 1 h i s is one of the many texts in Scripture, (particu- 
 larly in St. Paul's Epistles) which, by being thus 
 separated from its context, has been thought to inculcate 
 a very different precept from that which the writer 
 originally intended. It has been made to signify that we 
 ought, by reforming our past conduct, to redeem the 
 time misspent^ and employ what remains to a better pur- 
 pose. In this sense it has frequently been taken as a 
 Theme for inculcating so important a Christian Doctrine, 
 the practice of which is indeed the only way by which 
 true repentance can be ascertained, or known by its 
 fruits. Yet, notwithstanding this, I am apt to think that 
 no text of holy Scripture ought to be wrested from its 
 primary meaning, even for so good a purpose as I allow 
 this to have been ; because such a liberty, taken with a 
 profane writer, would be unjustifiable ; with an inspired 
 one, therefore, it must be blameable. 
 
[ 206 "J [Sermon XVI. 
 
 Now, that St. Paul meant by the term he has here 
 employed, to convey a precept very different from that 
 which I have mentioned, the following observations, I 
 think, will make very evident : — His Christian converts 
 both at Ephesus and at Colosse, (for to the Colossians he 
 addresses the same precept in the very same terms) 
 lived in two idolatrous regions, and therefore were 
 equally obliged, in the common intercourse of Society, 
 to converse with the Pagan inhabitants ; He therefore 
 advises them to walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as 
 wise, withdrawing from the market or concourse of the 
 world (for that is the literal version of the Greek word) 
 as much of their own time as possible, because the days 
 were evil ; intimating by these latter words, that the 
 corrupt conversation of their neighbours, the heathens, 
 might injure the purity of their newly-acquired Christian 
 morals ; and that this is the true meaning of the passage 
 in contemplation, will appear evident from comparing 
 it with the parallel one, in the Epistle to the Colossians, 
 the 4th chapter, and 5th verse, where he says, according 
 to our common translation, — " VYalk in Wisdom to- 
 (i wards them that are without, that is, who are not 
 " Members of the Christian Congregation, redeeming 
 " the time:'' Here using the very same Greek verb, for 
 the same purpose he had before done, when writing to 
 the Ephesians. 
 
 If any thing more be necessary to prove that this is 
 
 no 
 
Sermon XVI.] [ 207 ] 
 
 novel or unauthorised translation of the word, I shall 
 quote a passage in the Prophet Daniel, in which the 
 same Greek verb, used by the Seventy Interpreters, is 
 expressed by our English translators of it in this sense : 
 It is in that part of the history where King Nebuchad- 
 nezzar (with an absurdity common to tyrants) blames 
 his Chaldean Magicians, because they were not able to 
 interpret a Dream, which himself had forgot. il I know," 
 says he, " of a certainty that you would gain time, because 
 ci the thing is gone from me." — And besides this, I do not 
 believe there are any passages, either in the New Testa- 
 ment or the Septuagint, where this term (so seldom 
 occurring in either) might not be so rendered with 
 advantage.* 
 
 Taking, therefore, the text now explained to convey 
 this meaning, I shall attempt to shew that the precept 
 it contains, though delivered by St. Paul to a particular 
 
 * Mr. Locke, in his note upon the text, explains it thus: "That 
 " theEphesians should carefully avoid the Pollutions so familiar 
 " among the Gentiles they lived with, yet to take care by their 
 " prudent carriage not to give them any offence." He saw 
 therefore plainly that the common translation was wrong, because 
 it did not connect with what went before or after it, but he seems 
 not to have attended to the precise meaning of the original word 
 i%a.yopd&, to take out of the forum. The verb occurs again in 
 St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, and is translated by redeem, 
 but in both these places it might have been rendered, " Christ 
 " has taken us away, or withdrawn us from the Curse of the Law." 
 chap iii. p. 14, and "to withdraw them that were under the 
 Law," chap. iv. v. 5. 
 
r 208 ] [Sermon XVI. 
 
 set of Christians, in a particular situation, prescribes a 
 general caution to all others with respect to their con- 
 duct, as Members of Society ; it warns them to scruti- 
 nize into the prevailing habits and fashions of the age 
 in which they live, and to be more free or more reserved 
 in giving up their own time to a general intercourse 
 with the world, in proportion as they conceive such in- 
 tercourse favourable or prejudicial to what ought ever 
 to be deemed the one thing needful, the Salvation of 
 their own Souls. 
 
 St. Paul, with the authority of an Apostle, declared to 
 the Ephesians, that the days were evil, at the time when 
 he wrote to them. An Expositor of his doctrines, may at 
 least venture to ask his audience, whether they think 
 the times they live in are good ; and this question, put 
 either at the present period, or at any interval prior to 
 it, since St. Paul's time, would be sure of being answer- 
 ed in the negative ; but a general declaration that the 
 days are evil, is not that with which I would content 
 myself, for in every age there appears to have been, as in 
 the present, some particular evil, vice, habit, or fashion, 
 which is predominant, and takes the lead of all others. 
 From those, therefore, who are notorious for it, this 
 Apostolic Precept admonishes us to withdraw ourselves 
 as much as possible, and not bring our own time to so 
 bad a market. The Ephesian and Colossian Christians, 
 we find, living amongst Idolaters, could not wholly absent 
 
Sermon XVI.] [ 209 ] 
 
 themselves from their Society : St. Paul therefore ad- 
 monishes them to walk circumspectly among them, and 
 with wisdom, and to barter no more of their own time 
 with them than the common necessary offices of Society 
 might require. He, who was all things to all men, that 
 hy all means he might gain some, would not carry his 
 caution to the extreme, and prohibit them from ever 
 mixing in their company. He wished indeed that in 
 their conversation with them, their discourse should 
 always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that is, with 
 Christian purity of sentiment ; but were they to with- 
 draw entirely from their society, he well knew that so 
 austere and imprudent a conduct would at least tend to 
 provoke the unconverted Heathen to reject the Gospel, 
 if not to persecute those who had already embraced it. 
 
 These things premised, and the true meaning of the 
 text united with its context, being, I presume, fully 
 established, I shall employ the remainder of this dis- 
 course in reprobating one enormous vice, which makes 
 these our days peculiarly evil ; and though, in the de- 
 formed countenance of the age, many other very dis- 
 gusting lineaments may be conspicuous, yet it seems to 
 me to have one leading, prominent, and predominant 
 feature. This, then, I boldly pronounce to be the vice of 
 Gaming, the true delineation of which will amply fill 
 up the remainder of the time allotted to the perform- 
 ance of my present office. 
 
 VOL. IV. P 
 
[ 210 ] [Sermon XVI. 
 
 To do this with some degree of method : I first shall 
 enlarge upon its almost Universal Prevalency ; secondly, 
 on its pernicious consequences to Society ; and lastly, 
 shall dissuade my audience, not only from practising this 
 Vice themselves, but from mixing in the society of those 
 persons who are peculiarly and grossly addicted to it. 
 
 First, that Gaming, and this for the highest sums, has 
 encreased in this Kingdom enormously of late, and in- 
 fected almost the whole body of the People, I believe 
 is a truth to which all who hear me will give a ready 
 assent : It will be confessed, even by many, who have 
 incurred its guilt. I use the strong term Guilt, because 
 I hold it to be a crime, and that of a very deep dye. If I 
 am told that it is no breach of any of the commandments, I 
 answer that it violates two of them : one in the second, 
 the other in the first table ; for surely that God, who pro- 
 hibits every man from coveting his neighbour's property, 
 cannot look with a favourable eye on him, who, though 
 he stakes his own, (which yet is not always the case) 
 does it with the wish of gaining, by the blind means of 
 chance, the property of another man. The danger or 
 hazard which he himself incurs, by no means alters the 
 motive which induces him to run this risque ; but when 
 we find that this same motive leads him to triumph in his 
 neighbour's ruin, we must give it a higher place in the 
 list of immoralities than even Avarice itself, for Avarice 
 contents itself with hoarding its own, not in going further, 
 
Sermon XVI.] [211] 
 
 by coveting its neighbour's wealth, thereby to encrease 
 its hoard : But covetousness, an Apostle says, is Idolatry, 
 and, if so, it is forbidden by the second command- 
 ment, as well as the tenth; and though perhaps the 
 term he employs may mean Avarice only, yet the two 
 vices are so nearly allied, that what is affirmed of the 
 one, may justly be predicated of the other. 
 
 But is the Gamester really avaricious ? Is he not 
 usually found to be the greatest of Spendthrifts ? I an- 
 swer, that it is from amongst the younger of the Tribe 
 only, that examples of extravagance can generally be 
 produced. The seeds of avarice have been early sown 
 in their breasts, and, if in that new, prolific, and effer- 
 vescing soil, other vices and passions productive of ex- 
 travagance happen (like annual weeds) to flourish for a 
 season, yet the original plant is all the while striking 
 deep root, exerting its perennial powers, and in the end 
 not only overshadowing but eradicating all the others. 
 Shew me the grey-headed Gamester who expends his 
 money liberally, and not for the mean purpose of draw- 
 ing into his company the unexperienced in play, whom 
 he may be able to dupe by his superior skill, and I will 
 allow him to be an exception, though a very rare one, 
 to this general truth. 
 
 In past times, particularly during the dissolute reign 
 of Charles the Second, we allow that this vice had much 
 
[ 212 ] [Sermon XVI. 
 
 more than sufficient prevalency ; yet though it was then 
 authorised by the example of the Monarch, it never ex- 
 tended itself much beyond the higher circles of the 
 world; but now, though far from being supported by 
 such a supreme royal sanction, we find it almost equally 
 practised by every rank of mankind— It descends from 
 the nobleman to his steward, from the steward to the 
 tradesman ; from the landlord to his tenant; nay, from the 
 master to his groom, Even the softer sex (I would hope 
 from a desire of being fashionable, rather than from a 
 worse motive) have usurped the more masculine office of 
 opening banques for that species of play, where mere 
 chance, and no degree of skill, assures them on calcula- 
 tion, that they must in the end be the gainers, and that 
 the over-shooting wheel of Fortune must ultimately roll 
 its treasures into their own laps. If flagrant instances of 
 this and every other kind of ruinous gambling are happily 
 not to be found here, go to the Metropolis, and behold 
 there, temples to this blind goddess erected in every 
 street, nay even in those from which they ought in all 
 decency to be excluded, those which lead to the Royal 
 Palace. There may be repeated what a celebrated Latin 
 satyrist said to his dissolute contemporaries in Rome, 
 " Lo, you have exalted Fortune into a goddess, and placed 
 " her in heaven," for such a situation, it is to be feared, 
 is the only heaven of which many of her present votaries 
 have any conception; and let not this insinuation be 
 thought either uncharitable or even uncandi - because. 
 
Sermon XVI.] [ 213 ] 
 
 while it leads me naturally to the second division of my 
 subject, and to treat of the pernicious effects of this vice 
 on Society, it points out a truth to your meditation, by 
 which that insinuation is well supported : The truth I 
 would inculcate, is this — That Gaming, of all other vices, 
 tends from its very nature to withdraw the mind from 
 heavenly affections, to indispose it towards the serious 
 performance of religious duties, and even prompts and 
 encourages the open violation of that capital duty, the 
 holy observance of the Lord's day, a day far beyond the 
 practice of former times, desecrated by this profane mis- 
 use of it. On this account many well-intentioned 
 Christians have instituted Schools, and they are become 
 numerous throughout the kingdom, in which children 
 are taught at once the rudiments of learning, and also by 
 early habits to hold that sacred day in reverence through 
 life, in which they first imbibed such instruction ; and 
 happy would it be, if not only the infant poor, but the 
 infant rich could be benefited in a similar way ; for it is 
 certain, that with respect to this point, their parents 
 generally educate them in a manner little likely to teach 
 them a proper reverence of the Sabbath, if they do not 
 pervert their tender minds by the force of a contrary ex- 
 ample. It is therefore, I fear, rather to be wished than 
 hoped, that from these institutions much general good 
 may result, or that in the Prophet's phrase, the next race 
 " will not rise up in their fathers' stead, a generation of 
 " sinful men." The blessing of God, which I devoutly 
 
[ 214 1 [Sermon XVI. 
 
 implore, may do more than we have reason to expect, yet 
 this truth may be hinted, that labour merely human is 
 usually lost, when it attempts to cleanse an impure rivulet 
 through all its filthy channels, if it cannot begin at its 
 putrid fountain head. The time would fail me were I to 
 expatiate on all the destructive consequences to National 
 Prosperity, with which this vice is replete. If it did no 
 more than lead to irreligion, and diminish that righteous- 
 ness which exalteth a nation, it would surely do more 
 than enough, but it leads also to most flagrant acts of in- 
 justice : Hence it is that the small vulgar, in order to 
 recover the little they have lost by play, yet perhaps their 
 all, infest our streets, our highways, and even our houses, 
 with their almost public depredations ; and hence it is, 
 that the great, in order that they may punctually pay 
 what they (by a strange perversion of the word) call debts 
 of honour, withhold from their despairing tradesmen their 
 debts of justice ; and hence, finally it is, that in all ranks 
 and degrees of this fraternity, we hear of such repeated 
 instances of desperation, which prompts them to inflict 
 death upon their own bodies, and worse than death upon 
 their souls, by perpetrating the horrid crime of Self- 
 Murder. 
 
 After what has been said, a very few words need only 
 be added — to exhort my audience, not only to avoid the 
 practice of this vice themselves, but even the company of 
 those who arc notoriously addicted to it \ for as its per- 
 
Sermox XVI.] [ 215 ] 
 
 nicious tendency has been shewn, it will readily be inferred, 
 that as no society is more dangerous, so all time is much 
 worse than wasted which is passed in the company of 
 professed gamesters. The precept of St. Paul therefore 
 applies to us at present as strongly as it did to those to 
 whom it was at first addressed. These, our modern idola- 
 ■ ters, it is true, are not so fully established by the law of 
 the land, as the worshippers of the great goddess Diana 
 were at Ephesus • we need not walk therefore so circum- 
 spectly before them as might have been necessary for the 
 first Christian converts, since there is as little dread of 
 their persecution, as, I fear, there is hope of their conver- 
 sion : All they can do is to call us uncivilized, unsocial, 
 and what they think worst of all, unfashionable beings. 
 But be it our brief answer to boast we are Christians ; 
 that we will patiently abide their censure ; that we will 
 rather follow the example of our suffering Saviour, than 
 of those who cast lots upon his vesture, the only game- 
 sters on Scriptural record, with whom those of our day can 
 be brought either into parallel or competition. 
 
 Let then all those who have attended to me, and on 
 whom this discourse may have made a due impression, 
 join with me in that virtuous, as well as pious wish, so- 
 aptly conveyed in the words of the Patriarch Jacob, " O 
 u my soul come not thou into their Secret ; unto their 
 '*' Assembly, mine Honour be not thou united." 
 
CONJECTURAL ESSAY, 
 
 EH WHICH THE MEANING OF THE WORD 
 
 ANGEL, 
 
 AS SOMETIMES USED BY ST. PAUL IN HIS EPISTLE TO 
 
 HIS GRECIAN CONVERTS, IS ATTEMPTED TO BE 
 
 ASCERTAINED. 
 
[ 219 ] 
 
 CONJECTURAL ESSAY, &c. 
 
 It is a decided point among theological writers, that in 
 the three first chapters of the Apocalypse St. John means 
 by the term Angels of the Churches their respective 
 principal Christian ministers ; and the learned Mosheim, 
 in his Ecclesiastical History, Saee. Prim. Pars II. cap. 2. 
 sec. ii. tells us, that this term was used by the early Chris- 
 tians previous to Episcopus. His words are as follow; 
 ec At quum crescentibus Ecclesiis numerus et Presbyte- 
 " rorum ac Ministrorum cresceret, necessitas ipsa flagi- 
 ci tabat, ut Presbyterorum Collegio unus Vir gravitate 
 " ac prudentia prsestans praeponeretur. Is primum An- 
 u gelus (Apoc. ii. et iii.) postea a praecipua muneris 
 " parte Graeeo nomine Episcopus dicebatur." But he 
 quotes no authority for this, except St. John : only 
 we have reason to suppose, that as he mentions Epi- 
 scopus singly as a Greek title, he thought Angelus de- 
 rived elsewhere, which in fact it was, being a translation 
 into Greek from the Hebrew. It is certain, however, 
 that St. Paul did not so use the term, except, perhaps, 
 in one particular text, when w T riting to Timothy, con- 
 cerning which I shall express my doubts hereafter; 
 
[ 220 ] 
 
 neither does the learned German tell us whence this 
 title was derived. We have, however, as I have said, 
 good reason to helieve, that its meaning was of Jewish 
 extraction. For Dr. Lightfoot informs us in his Hebrew 
 and Talmudical Exercitations (after much learned ex- 
 plication of the order observed in the Synagogues) " that 
 " there were three who bore the magistracy and were 
 
 " properly and with good reason called A^urwoiycoyoi, 
 " Rulers of the Synagogue. Besides these, there was 
 (C the public Minister of it, who prayed publicly, and 
 " took care about the reading of the law, and sometimes 
 " preached, if there was not some other to discharge the 
 " office. This person was called Shelliach Zibbor, the 
 " Angel of the Church, and the DDJ3 jm, Chaza?i, or 
 " Bishop of the Congregation. Hence he concludes, 
 " that the names of Angels of the Church, and the 
 " Bishops, which belonged to the Ministers of the Sy- 
 " nagogue, were the very same/' Vol. II. p. 133. 
 Jennings also, in his Lectures on Godwin's Moses and 
 Aaron, Vol. II. p. 55, speaks fully to the like purpose. 
 On these authorities, therefore, we have good reason to 
 conclude, that in the Christian Churches, to which the 
 inspired Evangelist delivered his Prophecies, this title of 
 distinction had been adopted from the Jewish Synagogues 
 then interspersed throughout Asia, and that Ephesus, 
 Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and 
 Laodicea applied it to those chief Ministers in their 
 several Christian congregations. That the Jews of this 
 
[221 ] 
 
 aera had taken the term or title from the later Prophets 
 seems equally certain from the following passages, in 
 which the Seventy interpreters have rendered the origi- 
 nal word -jn^d by AyyzXoq, which signifies Angel or Mes- 
 senger. Thus the Prophet Haggai, ch. i. v. 13, calls 
 himself Ayyocio; ocyyiXog Ku^ix, which our English ver- 
 sion rightly renders by the term Messenger. By Malachi 
 it is used to denominate a Priest, or High-Priest, cap. ii. 
 v. 7» AyyzXo> Kvgw iravToxgoflofos tfiv. Of the whole 
 verse our translators give the following version, " The 
 " Priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should 
 " seek the law at his mouth, for he is the Messenger of 
 (i the Lord of Hosts." The same Prophet, in the next 
 chapter, verse 1, has this expression, tJa, tfccnroreWu rov 
 ayyzXov px, &c. the prophetic title of John the Baptist, 
 and as such quoted by our Saviour himself, Matt. ch. xi. 
 v. 12. From all this, therefore, we have reason to think, 
 that the title given as above was not only of an antient 
 date, but that it prevailed also in the Apostolic time 
 throughout Asia, and was a title which the Greeks gave 
 to those principal personages among the Jews, who pre- 
 sided in the Synagogues held in their different regions. 
 Nor will this appear an improbable, though a novel con- 
 jecture, to those, who consider that titles of distinction 
 or honour are constantly translated by different nations 
 into their own vernacular idiom. To give a familiar 
 instance or two ; were an English Bishop to travel into 
 Italy, he would there be called II Signor Vescovo ; and 
 
[ 222 ] 
 
 in France, before their absurd abolition of titles, Mon- 
 seigneur l'Eveque, and vice versa here in England. I 
 see therefore no reason why the Greeks, in such of their 
 cities where Jewish Synagogues were established, as at 
 Corinth, Colosse, &c. might not call the officiating 
 Minister by a Greek title, which exactly corresponded 
 with his Hebrew appellation. 
 
 St. Paul, however, as we have said, did not so use it ; 
 but when speaking of the principal Ministers in the 
 Christian Churches employed the title Episcopus in its 
 stead. Yet I am apt to think, that when he spoke of 
 the Ministers of the Jewish Synagogue, he applied 
 AyyiXog in its primary Hebrew sense, and that as he 
 wrote his Epistles in the Greek language, he used that 
 translation of the Hebrew *]i*bn (which literally signifies 
 a Messenger) as the Gentile converts (whom he ad- 
 dressed) had before adopted it in common conversation 
 to express the profession of such Jews, who presided over 
 the Synagogues dispersed in their different cities. To 
 make this conjecture more probable, I shall produce and 
 translate certain texts, confessedly difficult, in St. Paul's 
 Epistolary Writings to his Grecian Converts according 
 to this idea. And if, after my subsequent Comments on 
 each passage, their respective difficulties appear to be 
 entirely, or in a great measure, removed, I will venture 
 to hope for the Reader's candid acceptance of my 
 attempt. 
 
[ 223 ] 
 
 I. 
 
 1 Corinthians vi. 3. 
 
 Ova QiSotri on bt,yyi\x<; xoivupw ', priliyt (^ioormx ; 
 
 Common Version. 
 " Know ye not that we shall judge Angels ? how much 
 " more things that pertain to this life }" 
 
 Proposed Version. 
 " Know ye not that we shall judge the Ministers of 
 ie the Synagogue ? How much more temporal matters, 
 " or things pertaining to this life/' 
 
 It is universally allowed, that in the passage, of which 
 this verse makes a part, the Apostle is blaming the 
 Christians at Corinth for referring their temporal disputes 
 to the decision of any persons, save those of their own 
 fraternity, and more especially for not referring to such 
 amongst them as were distinguished for their superior 
 sanctity. It is also generally supposed, that they had 
 incurred this Apostolic censure for having applied on 
 these occasions to the Gentile tribunals ; but I am 
 rather inclined to think that he here means the Jewish ; 
 because this censure follows that, which he had just 
 before passed on their behaviour concerning a case of 
 incest (" that one should have his father's wife") which, 
 he says, was a crime not so much as named among the 
 
[ 224 ] 
 
 Gentiles, and which therefore they probably had referred 
 or might mean to refer, to the chiefs of the Synagogue, 
 then established at Corinth. However this be, the 
 version I have given above will not be affected by it ; 
 and this I proceed now to support. 
 
 Mr. Locke, in his paraphrase, explains the text thus : 
 <c Know ye not that we Christians have power over evil 
 w spirits ?" Yet as the future tense, and not the present, 
 is here used by St. Paul, " Know ye not that we shall 
 " judge (xMXfxsv) Angels," a judgment hereafter, put in 
 opposition to present temporal concerns, seems mani- 
 festly indicated. Mr. Locke, however, when he adopted 
 his interpretation, must have been satisfied that there 
 was no authority from any of the declarations of Christ, 
 recorded in the Gospel, to believe that men should here- 
 after judge good Angels, and therefore supposed that 
 evil ones, over whom the Apostles had a present power, 
 were the beings here meant. But we know that our 
 blessed Saviour said to the twelve (Matt. xix. 28) " Ve- 
 " rily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me 
 i( in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on 
 " the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
 " thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ;" which 
 declaration, though thought by some divines to be deli- 
 vered in a figurative * and Eastern mode of expression, 
 
 * Amongstthese is the latest commentator, my excellent friend 
 Mr. Gilpin ; yet still he agrees with me in thinking that St. Paul 
 
[ 225 ] 
 
 appears to me to be the very text, to which St. Paul here 
 alludes, and which certainly affords him a pertinent ar- 
 gumentum ad homines, on the occasion. Let us view 
 it in that form. " Why, ye Christian converts, will ye 
 " go to Law before unbelieving Judges ? You have been 
 " taught that the Saints of your Community are to judge 
 (e the Chiefs of the Jewish Synagogue, who will make a 
 ic leading part of the twelve Tribes at the last day. If 
 " then these Saints are to be vested with so high an au- 
 " thority hereafter, why will you apply at present to any 
 " inferior Court of Judicature, be it either Jewish or 
 " Heathen to decide on your temporal concerns ? w 
 Whether any argument more to St. Paul's purpose could 
 be found, were we to take Mr. Locke's interpretation, I 
 must leave my reader to determine. It is, however, 
 certain, that the majority of Commentators, who pre 
 ceded this most sagacious interpreter, have like him, 
 without adverting to the consideration of the future tense, 
 explained the text in a similar manner : Amongst there 
 is D. Calmet, who adds, " Quelques uns croient que sous 
 " le nom d'Anges on insinue ici les mauvais Pr&tres 5" 
 and refers to St. Chrysostom's confutation of that opi- 
 nion, which led me to examine the passage ; it is to be 
 
 here refers to Christ's declaration in the Gospel; for in a note 
 on this text, he says " See Matt. ch. xix. v. 28, where I have 
 " supposed the expression of Christ judging the world to be 
 " figurative ; this however hinders not why St. Paul might no^ 
 " here allude to it as an enforcement of his argument." 
 
 VOL. IV. Q 
 
[ 226 ] 
 
 found in Ep. ad Corinth. Homily 16th. The Father's 
 words are rms svlxvSa, <px<ri, th$ u^ixq xivtlrErSxi, which 
 corroborates what I have asserted in my Introduction, 
 that the term AyysXo; was applied both to Jewish and 
 Christian spiritual Ministers, and was well known to be so 
 even in the fourth century. This his confutation clearly 
 admits ; for it only calls the interpretation, not the term, 
 in question. St. Chrysostom's arguments themselves are 
 much too scholastic for my comprehension. Those, 
 who choose to weigh their force, may find them in the 
 Benedictine edition of his Works, Vol. iO, p. 139, my 
 principal reason for adducing this passage being only to 
 shew that an interpretation similar to mine had been 
 entertained by certain persons in the early ages of the 
 Church. 
 
 Having said thus much concerning this single and 
 solitary text, I would wish my Readers not to decide 
 peremptorily on its propriety, till they have examined 
 those that frllow it. It is my hope, that they give one 
 another that mutual support, which any of them singly 
 would necessarily want, and like the separate stones in 
 a building when united afford stability to the whole. 
 
[ 227] 
 
 II. 
 
 1 Corinthians xi. 10. 
 
 Aioc rovro o(p£i\Ei n yvw s%ov<rioiv z%iw an m; Ki<pa.\n$) 
 Six rag a,yy£\ov$. 
 
 Common Version. 
 <c For this cause ought the Woman to have power on 
 u her head, because of the Angels." 
 
 Proposed Version. 
 " For this cause ought the Woman to have power on 
 " her head, because of the Ministers of the Syna- 
 « gogue." 
 
 This text is confessedly one of the most difficult in 
 St. Paul's Epistles. It contains two expressions, both 
 of which have, perhaps, never been satisfactorily ex- 
 plained. The former b^ovg-iocu £%tw tin rv\$ xz<poc\vi<; 
 does not come within the scope of my present conjec- 
 tures. I take it to mean, what is universally adopted, 
 " that a Woman when appearing in a Christian congre- 
 (( gation ought to have her head covered, if not veiled ;" 
 and as such I quit it. It is the reason why, hoc mq 
 KyyiXxq, w T ith which I am at present concerned; and 
 this, I think, neither has, or ever will be satisfactorily 
 explained, if ayyiXxs be translated Angels, that is, 
 celestial Beings. 
 
[ 228 ] 
 
 The learned Selden (so far as we may depend upon 
 the anonymous publication entitled his Table Talk) ex- 
 plained the vulgar translation thus : " The Greek Church 
 " held an opinion grounded upon Genesis, chap. vi. — 
 " The Sons of God saw that the Daughters of Men 
 " were fair, and that therefore Angels fell in love with 
 a Women. This fancy St. Paul discreetly catches, and 
 " uses it as an argument to persuade them to mo- 
 "desty."* 
 
 I suppose few of my readers, if any, will be more 
 satisfied with this interpretation than I am. Mr. Locke 
 certainly was not, because with his usual candour he 
 owns, that he does not understand the passage ; and yet 
 Seidell's Table Talk was a book familiar to him, as he 
 has quoted a passage from it in his Introduction to his 
 Paraphrase on St. Paul's Epistles. Dr. Taylor, the Dis- 
 senting Minister at Norwich, thought that the passage 
 was inexplicable, if the common version of the word 
 was retained : he therefore in a supplemental note to 
 his Commentary on the Romans, translates \t, according 
 
 * In my edition of this entertaining little Book, printed for 
 Tonson, 1716. See Article Women. One part of this quotation 
 is in the first paragraph, and the other in the very last. It is 
 apparently a blunder of the first transcriber, rather than an error 
 of the press. The book itself, though containing much curious 
 matter, seems to have been an injudicious compilation of some 
 dull person, who was frequently admitted to the great Selden's 
 table. 
 
[ 229 ] 
 
 to its primary sense, Messenger ; and somewhat ingeni- 
 ously supposes, that the Christian converts sent Messengers 
 (ccyyzXoi) occasionally to inspect the conduct of those 
 female Christian assemblies, in which n^EjSuIiJW or Pres- 
 byteresses presided. He gives indeed sufficient autho- 
 rities for the existence of such assemblies, but rests the 
 office of Messengers sent for this purpose merely on the 
 probability of the thing, which " is what, from its ap- 
 ct parent utility, one might easily persuade ourselves of." 
 His hypothesis, therefore, though plausible, is not sup- 
 ported by absolute historic authority. 
 
 Le Clerc too, I find from a note of Dr. Benson * (for 
 I have not his works before me) was as much dissatisfied 
 with the word, when translated AngeU, as any other 
 scriptural critic ; and says (after a long note, which Dr. 
 Benson thinks full of groundless conjectures) " that if 
 ie any old copy read hoc, rag ocvSpatg instead of ocyysXag, 
 " he should have no manner of doubt about this place, 
 " whatever others thought." By which it is clear, that 
 he believed St. Paul's meaning was, that Women ought 
 to be veiled in the Congregation out of respect to the 
 men :f on which Benson remarks, " Now, if we under- 
 
 * See Benson's Paraphrase on 1 Timothy— note on chap. ii. 
 V. 8. p. '252. 
 
 t Dr. Jeremy Taylor, in his Liberty of Prophesying, makes a 
 passing conjecture founded on an alteration of the text, very 
 similar to this. He would suppose that St. Paul gives this counsel 
 u by reason of the companies of the young men there present j" 
 
[ 230 ] 
 
 " stand by Angels, the men who presided in the Churches, 
 " there will be no occasion for Le Gere's different read- 
 " ing." We find, therefore, that Benson would understand 
 Christian Presidents by AyysXoi, which is much nearer 
 the mark, though from what I have advanced in my 
 Exordium, by no means so probable as that which sup- 
 poses Ministers of the Jewish Synagogue to be the per- 
 sons spoken of in this place. The translation which I 
 have produced, and which I proceed now to defend, I 
 freely own is supported by no better evidence than that 
 probable one, which I have produced in my prefatory 
 pages. If it amounted to absolute historical evidence, I 
 should not have entitled these Disquisitions Conjectures ; 
 yet the probability is surely enhanced, when we consi- 
 der, that in a Grecian city, in which there must have 
 been some Jewish Synagogues (for it is highly worthy 
 of remark, that St. Paul when in this very city of Co- 
 rinth, converted and baptized Crispus, the chief of one 
 of tbem *) and therefore still more probable that the in- 
 habitants of it, learning that the Jews gave a name of 
 distinction in Hebrew to these chiefs which exactly 
 
 therefore he omits one of the y's and reads ha. rovs ayttes. 
 Now a.yikn certainly signifies a numerous congregation; butthen 
 more alteration must be made in the text, for ayystes is mascu- 
 line, ayiKn feminine. Therefore (putting the young men out of 
 the question) Dr. J. Taylor should have redde ha, las a.yi\as y 
 and translated it simply the congregations y which, if admissible, 
 would certainly give a better sense than Selden's. 
 * See Acts, chap. 18. v. 8. 
 
[ 231 ] 
 
 corresponded with their Greek term AyysXosy would 
 apply it to them, for the sake of such distinction ; espe- 
 cially when we know that the Jews had so very small a 
 variety of distinct appellatives in use among themselves. 
 And I think this probability will amount almost to a 
 certainty, when we find (which we shall do as we pro- 
 ceed) that the word thus translated will explain more 
 than this and the former text in St. Paul's Epistles ; 
 which, respecting the latter, neither the common one 
 endeavoured to be explained by Selden, the term Mes- 
 senger substituted by Taylor, the conjectural emenda- 
 tion of Le Clerc, or the supposition of Benson will be 
 found able to do : though, amongst all these, I think^ 
 that of Benson the most plausible. I shall therefore 
 only add, to corroborate my idea on the present case, that 
 St. Paul, if he here be allowed to speak of the Ministers 
 of the Synagogues exclusively, whether converted or 
 not, will speak in perfect consistency with his general 
 conduct, that of avoiding to give offence to all men ; 
 and more particularly to Crispus, who after conversion 
 must have attended those Christian congregations, which 
 the Apostle was in this passage employing his prudence 
 to regulate \ one error of which was the practice of suf- 
 fering women to appear, and even to speak without 
 having their heads veiled ; a practice very repugnant to 
 the Jewish custom, which, we know, even at this day 
 subsists, a separation being made in their Synagogues 
 between the male and female part of their assembly. 
 
[ 232 ] 
 
 Having therefore said so much in defence of this ver- 
 sion, I should pass on to a third text, did not conceive 
 that an objection may be put to what I have already 
 asserted in the following manner. 
 
 If the Greeks translated Ayye\o$, a Minister or Chief 
 of the Synagogues, why does St. Luke, and the other 
 three Evangelists, when mentioning such a personage, 
 never use that term, but either oc^ia-vvocyuyo^ or some 
 other similar word ? 
 
 I answer that the Evangelists, and St. Luke in parti- 
 cular, are historians. They address themselves prima- 
 rily to the Jews, though with a view certainly of giving 
 the future Christian converts equal information. Where 
 as St. Paul is an author of a different description. He 
 writes to particular Greek congregations, in the Episto- 
 lary form, and therefore uses such terms as they have 
 adopted in their own language to express those in He- 
 brew, for which they needed an equivalent expression. 
 The term AyytXog, as used in a Christian sense, denot- 
 ing celestial Beings, was by no means so familiar to 
 them (before conversion at least) as in its primary sig- 
 nification Messenger, and therefore we find when he 
 writes to his Greek converts, and has occasion to men- 
 tion the word as implying a celestial Being, he seldom 
 or ever introduces it without some phrase, or epithet of 
 distinction, as " an Angel of light," — an " Angel of 
 
[ 233 ] 
 
 u God,"—." Mighty Angels," — u the voice of an Arch- 
 " angel," &c. &c. It is also observable, that when he is 
 mentioning a Messenger, he avoids using the primary 
 term, but rather AjrofoXot;, as in the 2d Cor. chap. viii. 
 ad finem, when he speaks of certain Messengers whom 
 he had sent to Corinth to receive donations for the 
 Saints at Jerusalem, who were certainly not of the 
 twelve, no more than Epaphroditus was, whom, when 
 writing to the Philippians, he calls an Apostle rather 
 than an Angel. This, I say, is his usual practice in his 
 addresses to the Greeks ; but in the Epistle to the He- 
 brews, where this term occurs more frequently, than in 
 all his other Epistles conjunctively, he uses the word in 
 the Christian sense simply without explanation, having 
 no doubt of its being sufficiently familiar to the Jews, 
 to whom the Old Testament had thoroughly explained 
 it. All this premised, I think I may venture to produce 
 my next text, which, I hope, the same version will 
 clearly elucidate. 
 
[234] 
 
 III. 
 
 Colossians ii. 18. 
 
 $gY}<rx£ioc tuv AyytXoov, a pr) Eoogotxsv f/x,€«Ifuw^ eikvi 
 <p\j(mfji.ivoq orttTO t» voo$ ry\q (roc^Kog au7». 
 
 Common Version. 
 " Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a 
 " voluntary humility, and worshipping of Angels, in- 
 (i truding into those things which he has not seen, vainly 
 f* puffed up by his fleshly mind." 
 
 Proposed Version. 
 " Let no man beguile you of your reward, in a 
 " voluntary humility, (or submission) to the superstition 
 " of the Ministers of the Synagogue, intruding into those 
 " things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by 
 " his fleshly mind. 
 
 That 3"£n<rxeia is used in either a bad or a good sense ; 
 either for idolatrous and superstitious, or true and genuine 
 worship, is so certain that I shall not make a parade of 
 borrowed erudition to defend my using it here in its bad 
 one. My principal concern is to shew, that the same in- 
 terpretation which I have given to AyysXog in the two 
 foregoing texts, clears this of much obscurity. 
 
[ 235 ] 
 
 This, I think, will be allowed by those who strictly 
 examine the whole chapter referred to, and particularly 
 attend to it, v. 16, to its conclusion. They will find that 
 St. Paul is exhorting his Gentile Converts to assert their 
 Christian liberty, and emancipate themselves from the ob- 
 servances of every part of the Jewish ceremonial. Meats, 
 Holy-days, New-Moons, and the Sabbath are directly 
 mentioned. But who can point out any other passage in 
 our Apostle's writings, in which he mentions the worship 
 of Angels, amongst those Jewish Ordinances, either en- 
 joined by Moses, or sanctioned by tradition, which he so 
 frequently warns his converts against practising ? Calmet 
 indeed, in his note on the text, says, " that certain Jews 
 did worship them." Clemens of Alexandria, he further 
 adds, cites a very antient book entitled The preaching of 
 St. Peter, which accuses the Jews of paying religious 
 worship to Angels, and Archangels, and even to Months, 
 and the Moon. Celsus reproaches them with the same 
 superstition. Tertullian says that Simon and Cerinthus 
 preferred the mediation of Angels to that of Jesus 
 Christ. Josephus and, after him, Porphyry affirm that 
 the Essenians in their profession engage themselves by 
 oath to preserve faithfully the names of the Angels, and 
 the books of their sect. Nevertheless I cannot help 
 thinking, that if this heresy had been common in St. 
 Paul's time, we should have found it reprobated in more 
 places than in this single passage.* I know too that there 
 
 * Since I wrote my explication of this text, I have seen a 
 
[ 236 ] 
 
 was an old heretical sect among Christians who worshipped 
 Angels, as thinking the Son of God too superior a Being 
 to be addressed, except through such inferior mediators ; 
 that these persons were called AyyzXixoi, or Angelists, 
 and that the Council of Laodicea condemned that heresy, 
 of which Theophylact quotes the Canon. But this heresy 
 must have arisen long after the time of St. Paul. The 
 learned Mosheim gives us good reason to think that there 
 was no Council, properly so called, till about the middle 
 of the second century, and the Council of Laodicea was 
 certainly not held before the fourth, though the precise 
 year is uncertain. I may therefore surely with confidence 
 assert, that no such superstitious worship of Angels could 
 exist at the time when the Apostle wrote this Epistle either 
 in Colosse, or any of the Jewish or Christian Congrega- 
 tions throughout Greece. That many Judaizing Christians, 
 and also Ministers of the Synagogue resided in that city, 
 
 pamphlet lately published by the very learned Mr. Bryant, 
 intitled Observations on a Controverted Passage of Justin Martyr 
 at the end of which the text in question is commented upon : 
 when I was surprised to find that the word GeXwv, for which he 
 would substitute eaSwx, is the only difficulty that he finds in the 
 passage, and which he allows " does not affect the context" (see 
 page 23). It therefore certainly does not affect my interpre- 
 tation of the word AyysXuv, which interpretation, if inserted in 
 his own paraph rase, would be found to accord with itfull as well, 
 if not better, than by the doctrine of Angel worship, a doctrine, or 
 heresy, which I am persuaded, was never held by any Jew, nor 
 indeed by any Gentile converted to Christianity in St. Paul's time, 
 however it might be imputed to Christians in the subsequent 
 century, when Justin Martyr flourished. 
 
[ 237 ] 
 
 I think, there can be no manner of doubt. Therefore if 
 we consider St. Paul as persuading his Converts, not to 
 be deceived by men, who would wish them so far to 
 humble themselves in a voluntary manner to the obser- 
 vance of Holy-days, New-Moons, particular Meats, &c. 
 &c. which the Jewish Ministers prescribe, in superstiti- 
 ous adherence to the ceremonial part of the Mosaic Law 
 now abrogated by Christ, the whole passage has a clear 
 and just meaning, perfectly consistent with St. Paul's 
 instructions to the Galatians, of which indeed this chapter 
 is a kind of synopsis. If any thing more be wanting to 
 prove this to be the true interpretation of this text, I will 
 only add, that the repetition of rwrrEivo^ofrvvm in the 23d 
 verse seems to tie down the whole passage to one precise 
 purpose, that of disregarding the Judaizing seducers of 
 the time, and to this only. 
 
 So far then a new, yet the same version of one word 
 has enabled me to give an easy and intelligible sense to 
 three distinct, and allowedly very difficult passages in the 
 learned Apostle's writings, which, I may be bold to say, 
 could not have been done by the application of any other 
 term, instead of that common one, which our translation 
 has made use of. I am not so anxious about my next 
 trial of its efficacy, or so sanguine in my hopes of its 
 being generally approved, because the version, as it now 
 stands, is capable of a good Evangelical interpretation, 
 and of which a fine one mav be found in the XX. Sermon 
 
[ 238 ] 
 
 of the present Bishop of Worcester, preached at Lincoln's 
 Inn on the following text. 
 
 IV. 
 
 1 Timothy iii. 16. 
 
 Koci ofjt.o\oyisfjt.zvoo<; pzya, s?i ro rr\q zv<ri&£iot<; [avgIyioiov. 
 Geo? t(pocvsguQr\ £1/ <ra£»a, sJWaicoS^ zv 7tv£Uju,o1j, ootySy 
 otlyzXo^j Mv\gvx$'n zv t^vzaiv^ z7n^z\)Bn zv xo<t[aoo, auzXn^m 
 iv §ofy\. 
 
 Common Version. 
 " And without controversy great is the mystery of god- 
 <e liness : God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the 
 " Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, 
 " believed on in the World, received up into Glory." 
 
 Proposed Version. 
 And without controversy great is the mystery of god- 
 liness : God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the 
 Spirit, seen of the Chiefs or Ministers of the Synagogue, 
 preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, 
 received up into Glory. 
 
 My reasons for thinking that this interpretation of the 
 Greek word may be here preferable to that in our present 
 version are the following : 
 
 1. AyyzXois is here introduced singly, unaccompanied 
 with any appropriating phrase or epithet, such as, seen 
 
[ 239 ] 
 
 by the holy or heavenly Angels, &c. whereas St. Paul's 
 usual, if not constant custom, was thus to fix the mean- 
 ing of the term in his Epistles to tie Gentiles, though 
 he found no necessity, as I observed before, to do so when 
 writing to the Hebrews. 
 
 2. A gradation or climax seems to have been intended 
 by the Apostle in this delineation of the mystery of god- 
 liness, from Christ's manifestation in the flesh, and recep- 
 tion into Glory ; or, in other words, from the time of his 
 incarnation to his ascension : and if so,his being (e seen of 
 " Angels," would have been a circumstance' more appo- 
 sitely introduced immediately after the manifestation, 
 that is, in the second step of the climax, than where it 
 now stands : For that our Saviour was seen of Angels 
 immediately after his nativity, as well as throughout his 
 mission, there can be no doubt. This reason however I 
 should not much insist upon, did I not think it 
 strengthened by a third \ 
 
 3. Which is, that in the place where it now stands it 
 is clearly opposed, according to my interpretation, to the 
 next which immediately follows, seen by the Jews, 
 preached to the Gentiles ; so that the whole will clearly 
 admit the following paraphrase,— "Without doubt great 
 <f is the mystery of our Holy Faith : God was made appa- 
 " rent in a human body, and proved to be so by the 
 " Holy Spirit, through which he worked such stupendous 
 <*' miracles, seen by the chiefs of the Jewish nation, but 
 
[ 240 ] 
 
 " only seen, for they believed not, though they saw such 
 " miraculous credentials of his Divinity : he was then 
 " preached unto the Gentiles by me Paul, and other 
 " Apostles ; in consequence he was believed to be the 
 " Messiah through the whole Roman empire ; and lastly 
 " he was received up into heaven." 
 
 I would not however have it thought that I should have 
 offered to apply my interpretation of the word to the text 
 in question, had I not found that in three much more 
 difficult ones, I had applied it to a good purpose. If then 
 even here it conveys as true a Gospel sense, and is as 
 consistent with Christ's ministration, as the common one, 
 making at least equally a part in the Apostle's account 
 of the mystery of godliness, it collaterally tends to sup- 
 port those which have been produced before it. I have 
 said that I did not think my alteration of the version here 
 essential ; and I know of no commentator except 
 Benson, who wished to change the passage. But he, 
 after translating AyytXoig Messengers, puts it as a quaere, 
 that it might mean the Apostles themselves : a quaere 
 which, I fancy, my reader, after what I have written 
 concerning the other texts, will not think incumbent on 
 me to answer in a controversial manner ; and less so, if 
 he reads the Doctor's note. See Benson's Paraphrase on 
 Six Epistles of St. Paul, p. 27 S. 
 
 I proceed now to consider another text, and apply to it 
 the same mode of interpretation, with a view rather to 
 
[241 ] 
 
 corroborate the arguments I have employed on the three 
 first versions, than to aim at an establishment of this new 
 sense, exclusive of the old one. For I do not think that 
 this, which I have now to offer, is of more importance 
 than the last. Both of them only tend to shew, that one 
 and the same alteration of the present version in these 
 two last, is equally natural and easy with the three prin- 
 cipal ones. 
 
 V. 
 
 1 Timothy v. 21. 
 
 AlX[ACCPTVpO(Jt.Cil iVbiTTiOV Ti? <S>SH KOt.1 K.VPIX 1*1(73 XpifiSj 
 
 xat roov SKXiKJoov AyyzXuv, ivoc towtoc, (pvXcc^n<; %w£K 
 7rpoxpi^.<xlo;j jurjJsv ttoioov xoctoc. 7tpo(TxXktiv. 
 
 Common Version. 
 " I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 " and the elect Angels, that thou observe these things 
 " without preferring one before another, doing nothing 
 " by partiality." 
 
 Proposed Version. 
 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and those elect Converts, the Ministers of the Synagogue, 
 that thou observe these things without preferring one 
 before another, doing nothing by partiality. 
 
 The two usual interpretations of the phrase elect 
 Angels in this text are, that St. Paul here means either 
 
 VOL. IV. R 
 
[242 ] 
 
 those celestial Spirits, who are considered as the peculiar 
 guardians of the Christian Church, or the seven Angels, 
 who stand before the throne of God mentioned in the 
 Revelations. 
 
 To every explanation of this sort I venture to make the 
 following objections. 
 
 1. The interpretation of presiding Angels has no au- 
 thority, unless we suppose St. John at the beginning 
 of the Apocalypse to mean celestial beings, when he 
 speaks of the Angels of the seven Churches, a supposition 
 •now universally deemed erroneous. 
 
 2. The epithet elect is never given to such beings 
 either in St. Paul's writings, or in any passage in the 
 New Testament. 
 
 3. The usual epithets are holt/, heavenly, or the like, 
 which might seem most proper here to have been given 
 them, the epithet elect being universally applied in the 
 apostolic writings to that part of mankind, who had 
 been made converts to the Christian Faith ; insomuch 
 •that it is frequently used singly to denote the chosen, 
 without a substantive. 
 
 4. We have no ground from Scripture to affirm, that 
 God elected Angels, or raised them to any superior degree 
 
[ 243 ] 
 
 above that, in which he had originally created them. He 
 might, and indeed did, select or single them out for 
 some peculiar purpose; as when he sent Gabriel to 
 Mary, &c. &c. &c. But it would be contrary to the usual 
 Scriptural Phraseology to call them on this account 
 elect. Thus St. Jude, when he speaks of the rebel Angels, 
 tells us that " they kept not their first estate." Hence 
 we conclude, that they were created what they were, as 
 Archangels or otherwise at the beginning, and that the 
 different angelic Hierarchies suffered no posterior change, 
 except that of falling from their respective dignities. - 
 
 My own interpretation I thus endeavour to defend. 
 
 In my note on the 2d number I observed that Crispus 
 was a converted Chief of the Synagogue, resident at 
 Corinth, and thence deduced an argument that it was 
 with a view not to offend converts of such consequence 
 that St. Paul commanded women to veil their heads 
 when they appeared in a Christian congregation, con- 
 sisting of Jewish as well as Gentile proselytes ; and I 
 think it also highly probable that in the text before us, 
 St. Paul added these personages to the solemn charge, 
 which he gave to Timothy, not to ordain Ministers, or 
 give any promotion or office in the Church without ob- 
 serving the strictest impartiality ; because such men, of 
 all others, would be the most offended, if they observed 
 him culpable in this discharge of his Pastoral function. 
 
[ 244 ] 
 
 I have said also before, that St. Paul, when he used 
 the term AyytXo;, accompanied it with an epithet, when 
 meaning celestial beings, especially in his Epistolary- 
 correspondence with his Gentile converts, but less, if at 
 all so, when writing to those of Jewish extraction. Thus, 
 in the last number, writing to Timothy, he uses it 
 without an epithet, seen of angels, because, though he 
 takes it in what I would call the Ethnical sense as a 
 word which they had translated and adopted from the 
 Hebrew, and not as meaning a heavenly Being, he knew 
 Timothy, being a Jew, would rightly understand it : yet 
 in this place he accompanies it with one, viz. exXsktos, 
 chose?i, i. e. because converted, to difference his mean- 
 ing from the former, where the term AyytXog predicates 
 an unconverted person, as I have there mentioned. I 
 therefore incline to think, that to understand the passage 
 thus is more easy and pertinent than either of the former 
 explanations. 
 
 But if we rest upon MosheinTs authority as quoted in 
 the introductory part of this Essay, and believe with him 
 that the title of Angel preceded that of Bishop in the 
 early Christian Church, as denoting a principal personage 
 in the congregation, and in the same sense, in which St. 
 John decidedly uses it ; then it might seem no impro- 
 bable conjecture, that St. Paul, in the text before us, uses 
 it in the same identical sense. It appears however from 
 the preceding chapter, that Bishops either were, or 
 
[ 245 ] 
 
 were to be, elected in the Church of Ephesus, because 
 the Apostle there specifies what sort of character the 
 person ought to have, who was elected into that office, 
 and as he does not say more than that "if a man desireth 
 the office of a Bishop, he desireth a good thing/' it 
 might favour Mosheim's opinion, that Bishops were 
 posterior in point of time of election to AyysXot, and that 
 probably St. Paul permitted Timothy then, for the first 
 time, to elect them. Yet as St. Paul wrote his Epistles 
 many years before St. John wrote his Apocalypse, and as 
 the former never applies the term AyyiXog to a Christian 
 congregational President, my opinion is that in this text, 
 as in all the former, he rather means a President of the 
 Jewish Synagogue ; though here one who is converted 
 to Christianity, and therefore of greater consequence and 
 authority than a common Jew, who had held no such 
 office in that Synagogue, from whence he had seceded 
 before he became a member of the Christian Fraternity. 
 
AN 
 
 EXAMINATION 
 
 PROPHECY, 
 
 CONTAINED IN THE 24th CHAPTER OF ST. MATTHEW'S 
 GOSPEL. 
 
[ 2-19 ] 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 It will, perhaps, be supposed from some things advanced 
 in the following pages, that the Author is among those, 
 who reject all double senses in their explication of 
 Scripture. But he is far from being of their opinion. 
 He thinks that many things in the Mosaic writings and 
 those of the Jewish Prophets admit, nay, even demand 
 such a two-fold interpretation. But he thinks also that 
 this mode ought to be very cautiously, if ever used, when 
 the prophecies delivered by Christ, or his Apostles are 
 the subjects of investigation ; and for this reason : The 
 Books of Moses, part of the Psalms and Prophecies, 
 clearly .refer to what the Jewish oeconomy was only a 
 type or shadow of, and therefore are to be applied to 
 their reality, the Christian dispensation. But in the 
 code of this final dispensation we find few Prophecies 
 except this in question, which were ever construed to 
 have a double sense ; for even the Apocalypse ( so far 
 as he understands Mr. Mede's Synchronisms) has only 
 been interpreted to convey one sense in different and 
 distinct visions. He thinks therefore that a double 
 meaning should in this prophecy be sedulously avoided, 
 because it is expressly said in it, that all things shall be 
 fulfilled in the generation, in which it was delivered : 
 
[ 250 ] 
 
 and therefore when it is now evident that only one of 
 them has been fulfilled, though the other has been sup- 
 posed by some divines to be predicted in the same place 
 and words, the Infidel has but too good grounds to re- 
 ject the whole as a fiction. 
 
 There is another thing in these pages, which seems 
 to require previous explanation. It is where a distinction 
 is made between the Prophetic and Parabolic Style. The 
 author well knows that the term 7ra^a€oX» is very fre- 
 quently used in Scripture for Prophecy, and even (as in 
 the Book of Job) for a mere speech or answer : but he 
 knows too that a Parable and a Prophecy are two distinct 
 things, and are always delivered in Scripture by two modes 
 of expression. The Prophetic Style is marked chiefly by 
 its strong hyperbolical figures and glowing metaphors. 
 The Parabolic, on the contrary, by the most familiar 
 images; divested of every thing that may be termed 
 rhetorical and sublime. Invention it has in a great 
 degree (as being of the nature of Apologue or Fable) 
 and that oftentimes truly poetical. 
 
 The Author thought he perceived this difference 
 between two parts of our Saviour's discourse to his Dis- 
 ciples on the Mount of Olives, and therefore he used 
 these terms of distinction on an occasion, where such 
 distinguishing terms seemed to him to elucidate his 
 general subject. 
 
[251 ] 
 
 AN 
 
 EXAMINATION, &c. 
 
 1 h e Design in these sheets is to prove, that the Pro- 
 phecy of our Saviour refers entirely and exclusively to 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, and not to the end of the 
 World : which, if proved, refutes the grand objection of 
 Infidelity, founded on these words at the conclusion of 
 this Prophecy, " Verily, verily, this generation shall not 
 pass away before all these things be fulfilled. " 
 
 I begin with stating the occasion of its delivery, which 
 arose in the Temple, when his Disciples were admiring 
 its superb architecture, and were told by Jesus in a 
 general way, that the time approached when it would be 
 totally destroyed. This raised their curiosity to know the 
 precise time ; therefore immediately after, when he was 
 retired to the Mount of Olives, ee His Disciples came 
 unto him privately, saying, Tell us when shall these 
 things be ; and what shall be the sign of thy coming, 
 and of the end of the World? " Matthew, ch. 24, v. 3. 
 
 St. Mark agrees with St Matthew perfectly as to the 
 occasion and place, but puts the Question differently — . 
 
[252] 
 
 u And as he sat upon the Mount of Olives over against 
 the Temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew, came 
 unto him privately saying, Tell us when shall these things 
 be ? and what shall be the sign, when all these things 
 shall be fulfilled." Mark, ch. 13. v. 3. 
 
 In like manner St. Luke : " And they asked him, say- 
 ing, Master, but when shall these things be ? and what 
 sign shall there be when these things shall come to 
 pass?" ch, 21. v. 7« By St. John this Prophecy is not 
 recorded. 
 
 On comparing the three passages above, we find that 
 it is only in the first, that two Questions are put ; the 
 one concerning the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 the other of the end of the World. A sign is asked for 
 in them all, but in St. Matthew only a sign of their 
 Blaster's coming is mentioned. And accordingly in that 
 Evangelist the sign of the Son of Man's coming is 
 mentioned, as well as his coming in the clouds of 
 Heaven : but in the two others the sign of the Son of 
 Man is omitted, but his coming in the clouds with power 
 and great glory inserted. 
 
 We see, therefore, though there is a general harmony 
 in the accounts of the three Evangelists, yet that the 
 narrative of St. Matthew is the most circumstantial, and 
 therefore principally to be attended to. Indeed it appears 
 
[253] 
 
 to me, that it would be a very easy thing to interpret 
 either of the two other accounts in an exclusive sense) as 
 relating merely to the destruction of Jerusalem, and that 
 it is even impossible to give them any further meaning. 
 For in them one question only is asked, and therefore (as 
 just reasoning leads us to expect) only one answer is 
 given. But in St. Matthew's narrative two questions are 
 asked; not only that which relates to Jerusalem, but 
 that which relates to the end of the world : and to both 
 these, I hope to shew that two distinct answers are 
 given ; not indeed in the place where, according to the 
 general notion, the answers are prophetically blended 
 together, but distinctly and separately. Yet only so 
 separated as to have a manifest connexion with one 
 another in the same discourse, and to the same persons, 
 and from the mouth of the same divine teacher. 
 
 If I succeed in this attempt, there will be found no 
 occasion to alter our own version, and to suppose with 
 Bishop Newcome and others, that <rvflz\uoc tb ocmvqs 
 means the end of the (Mosaic) age : for this very phrase 
 occurs in chapter 13, v. 39 of the same Evangelist; 
 where Christ explaining the parable of the sower, says, 
 " the harvest is the end of the ivorld" And again 
 chapter 28, v. 20, where taking his final leave of his 
 disciples, our Saviour says, " I am with you always, even 
 " unto the end of the world-" in which two places, the 
 exactitude of our translation speaks for itself. The Greek 
 
[ 254 ] 
 
 terms therefore neither can, nor ought to be wrested to 
 a more confined and partial meaning in the present 
 passage. 
 
 These things being premised, I now venture to give it 
 as my opinion, that this second question is not answered 
 before we come to the 31st verse of the 25th chapter, 
 and that the three Parables, which intervene between the 
 42d verse of the 24th chapter, and the Prophecy just 
 mentioned, (the two former of which inculcate the duty 
 of watchfulness, and the third the improvement of the 
 talents) are delivered by our Blessed Saviour as cautionary 
 precepts, resulting from the uncertainty of the time of 
 the destruction of Jerusalem ; which, though confined 
 within the limits of one generation, the precise time 
 could not be determined. To this the first Parable of 
 the Householder evidently points, as well as the second of 
 the ten Virgins : and the immediate purpose of the third 
 also seems to be that of inculcating to his hearers the 
 necessity of their being zealous in the use of the talents 
 committed to them, viz. the supernatural powers given 
 them of propagating the Gospel during the interval be- 
 tween his ascension, and their flight from Jerusalem. I 
 say this seems the immediate purpose ; for it is to be re- 
 membered, that all this passed in one private conference 
 between our Lord and Peter, James, John, and Andrew. 
 I am however far from insinuating, that they have not a 
 general import and inculcate truths, which it will behove 
 
[ 255 ] 
 
 all Christians to attend to, and precepts which all Chris- 
 tians ought to practise till the consummation of all things. 
 For it is an excellence common to all our Saviour's dis- 
 courses, that those which are delivered on a particular 
 occasion, and even for a private purpose, extend much 
 further, and are, if not always, yet generally of universal 
 import. There is also a peculiar beauty in the present 
 chain of parables. They arise one from another in a re- 
 markable climax. The first the most simple — the second 
 more varied in point of imagery — and the third so arti- 
 ficially (if I may so say) contrived by concluding with the 
 unprofitable servant's being cast into outer darkness, as to 
 introduce the parabolical, as well as the prophetical ac- 
 count of those judicial sentences to be pronounced on the 
 wicked, as well as the righteous, at the end of the world. 
 I call it " parabolical account;" because it is delivered 
 more in that stile, than in the other. The separation of 
 the sheep and the goats — the addresses to each concern- 
 ing clothing the naked, visiting the prisoners, all being of 
 the parabolic species of writing, and herein very different 
 from the high figurative stile, which occurs in the pro- 
 phetic delivery of an answer to the first question. It is 
 indeed this very different mode of describing the advent 
 of Christ to destroy Jerusalem, and his second advent to 
 judge mankind at the end of the world, on which I found 
 my opinion, that the former cannot possibly include the 
 latter. Let the two passages be placed one against the 
 other, to make this more apparent. 
 
[256] 
 
 The description of the Son of Man coming to 
 destroy Jerusalem, and separate his elect (believers) 
 from the unbelieving Jews. 
 
 Matt, chapter 24. v. 30. 
 " And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in 
 " heaven,* and then shall the tribes of the earth (or land) 
 " mourn. And they shall see the Son of Man coming in 
 " the clouds with power and great glory." 
 
 31. u And he shall send his Angels with a great sound 
 " of a trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from one 
 u end of heaven to the other." 
 
 The description of the Son of Man coming to 
 judge the righteous and the wicked on the last day. 
 
 Matt, chapter 25th. 
 Verse 31. u When the Son of man shall come in his 
 M glory, and all the holy Angels with him ; then shall he 
 " sit upon the throne of his glory. 
 
 32. " And before him shall be gathered all nations \ 
 " and he shall separate them one from another, as a 
 u shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats. 
 
 * Here, according to the prophetic manner, the sign and 
 coming of the Son of Man is vested in clouds ; and his power 
 and great glory, how strongly soever exhibited, is not personally 
 exhibited ; and whathedoesis done by the ministration of Angels, 
 to gather together only his elect. 
 
t 257 J 
 
 33. a And he shall set the sheep on the right hand, 
 " and the goats on the left. 
 
 34. " Then shall the King say to them on his right 
 6i hand, Come, ye blessed children," &c. &c. 
 
 Here, in parabolic phrase, he comes personally with 
 his holy Angels, and appears sitting on the throne of his 
 glory — takes upon himself the office of separating the 
 righteous from the wicked, under the parabolic images of 
 sheep and goats. 
 
 If then these two descriptions were given as declaratory 
 of one and the same event, viz. the end of the world, we 
 must be obliged to think, that the former was expressed 
 in terms very incompatible with the latter, and with all 
 the other various passages in the New Testament, which 
 relate to the last day, and a future judgment. Whereas, 
 if we confine the meaning of the Prophecy to the gather- 
 ing together of Christians, and saving them from that 
 destruction, which Christ's coming at that time was to 
 bring on the devoted Jews, the description is in such a 
 sense full and complete. If we extend it to the other, it 
 becomes inadequate and defective. Besides, it seems 
 highly improbable, that, if the divine speaker meant it so 
 far to extend, he should have given this second descrip- 
 tion so immediately after the first, with which, as we have 
 already shewn, it is so closely connected by the three 
 
 VOL. IV. S 
 
[ 258] 
 
 parables, which intervene : all of which inculcate truths 
 peculiarly to be attended to by his apostolic hearers, 
 who had been told, that though the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem was to be compleated in that generation, in which 
 they then lived, the time when could not be ascertained* 
 no more than that of Christ's second coming in cvvrtXeix 
 m ocmvqs to judge the world. 
 
 It must however be confessed, that these two passages 
 in the Prophecy — " Then shall they see the sig?i of the 
 " Son of Man coming, and Then shall they see the Son 
 " of Man," (which latter seems to imply the actual sight 
 of him still more directly,) are strong indications, that he 
 would appear personally at the time. Yet when we 
 know, that he did not so appear, and that among the 
 many signs and prodigies, which were then seen, and 
 which Josephus has recorded, none of them were under- 
 stood by either Jews or Christians to be a personal ap- 
 pearance, the true believer will conclude, from the event, 
 that his power only was manifested, and the glory, with 
 which he was invested, was still shrouded in clouds, in 
 the same manner, as when he led the Israelites through 
 the wilderness : and will therefore agree with me, that 
 the omission of clouds in the description, of what can be 
 construed in no other sense than that of the last day, is 
 no weak foundation for believing, that he was enshrined 
 in them, when he came to take vengeance on the Jewish 
 
[ 259 ] 
 
 nation, for which they have the authority of a prophetic 
 expression used by all the three Evangelists, in which this 
 passage occurs. 
 
 I come now to a more close examination of the Pro- 
 phecy, of which I mean not to give a perpetual comment, 
 because this seems unnecessary : but rather to prove, in 
 a series of Annotations, that every circumstance mentioned 
 in it may justly be applied to the first question, asked by 
 the Apostles, but by no means to the second. 
 
 Matthew 24. v. 3. And as he sat upon the Mount of 
 Olives, the disciples come unto him privately, saying, 
 Tell us, when shall these things be ? and what shall be the 
 sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? 
 
 4. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed, 
 that no man deceive you. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 Verse 3. From this to the ISth nothing occurs, which 
 is not clearly prophetic of what was to happen between 
 the time of his ascension into heaven, and the beginning 
 of the siege. 
 
 Every expositor, I believe, agrees in this. In Bishop 
 Newcome's Observations on our Lord's conduct, as a 
 Divine Instructor, this matter is treated copiously. See 
 page 185. 
 
[ 260 ] 
 
 5. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am 
 Christ ; and shall deceive many. 
 
 6*. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, see 
 that ye be not troubled : for all these things must come 
 to pass, but the end is not yet. 
 
 7. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom 
 against kingdom : and there shall be famines and pesti- 
 lences and earthquakes in diverse places. 
 
 8. All these are the beginnings of sorrows. 
 
 9. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and 
 shall kill you : and ye shall be hated of all nations for my 
 name's sake. 
 
 10. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray 
 one another, and shall hate one another. 
 
 11. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall de- 
 ceive many. 
 
 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of 
 many shall wax cold. 
 
 13. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same 
 shall be saved. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 Verse 13. The end, o nXog, clearly means the end of 
 the Jewish calamities. If the text means, that every 
 person who endures to the end of the world were to be 
 saved, this would be a strange declaration in this place ; 
 but that he who continues a true believer in Christ, shaU 
 
[261 ] 
 
 14. And this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached 
 in all the world, for a witness unto all Nations : and 
 then shall the end come. 
 
 15. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of 
 Desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet, stand in 
 the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand.) 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 not be included in the general wreck of Jerusalem, is 
 perfectly consistent with the context. 
 
 14. The Gospel of the kingdom means here not a 
 general conversion to Christianity, but that it shall be 
 preached and known to be a Religion universally. It was 
 preached at Rome before Titus laid siege to Jerusalem. 
 The ivliole worldis one of those hyperbolical expressions, 
 like for ever, denoting only a large extent, either of 
 place or time, common to Prophecy. It frequently meant 
 Rome and the Roman Empire. 
 
 15. See Bishop Newcome on the verse, where he ex- 
 plains the time of the abomination of Desolation to be 
 that, when Titus made his first three encampments 
 round the City : and the abomination to be the appear- 
 ance of the statues of the Heathen Deities, which the 
 Romans carried on their standards. The Holy Place he 
 believes to mean the precincts of the City; these, as 
 well as the City itself, being accounted holy. In proof 
 of this he quotes Maccabees, ch. 10, ver. 11, where it 
 
[ 262 ] 
 
 16. Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the 
 mountains. 
 
 17. Let him which is on the house-top, not come 
 down to take any thing out of his house. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 appears to be declared so by King Demetrius, u Let 
 Jerusalem also be holy and free, ivith the borders there- 
 of." However this be, the next verse 
 
 16. Manifestly proves that it relates to Jerusalem, and 
 not to the end of the world, when it says, " Let them, 
 which be in Judaea, flee to the mountains," i. e, when 
 Jerusalem is besieged. So that whatever may he the 
 precise meaning of the abomination of Desolation, it 
 is sufficient for us to consider it in the prophetic way, in 
 which Daniel used it, and in which Christ repeated it. 
 
 17. From this to the 27th verse nothing occurs that 
 does not exclusively predict what would happen to the 
 emigrants from Judaea, as well believers, as others. All 
 of them in such circumstauces would look to a deliverer, 
 and false ones might mislead them, as history informs 
 us was the case. These verses, therefore, are only ad- 
 monitions to Christ's then elect, for whose sake, he says, 
 that those days of calamity should be shortened. We 
 w*ell know (God be blessed) that there have since been 
 days which deserve not that name ; and yet the end of 
 the world is not come ; therefore, as the completion of 
 
[ 263 ] 
 
 18. Neither let him which is in the field return back 
 to take his clothes. 
 
 19. And woe unto them that are with child, and to 
 them that give suck in those days. 
 
 20. But pray ye, that your flight be not in the winter, 
 neither on the sabbath-day. 
 
 21. For then shall be great tribulation, such as was 
 not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor 
 ever shall be. 
 
 22. And except those days should be shortened, there 
 should no flesh be saved : but for the Elect's sake those 
 days shall be shortened. 
 
 23. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is 
 Christ, or there ; believe it not. 
 
 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false pro- 
 phets, and shall shew great signs and wonders, insomuch 
 that (if it were possible) they shall deceive the very 
 Elect. 
 
 25. Behold I have told you before. 
 
 26. Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, Behold, he 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 Prophecy fails in this particular, but holds good with 
 respect to the destruction of Jerusalem, we seem autho- 
 rized to assert, that the divine Prophet did not in this 
 place allude to the end of the world. 
 
r 264] 
 
 is in the desert, go not forth ; Behold, he is in the secret 
 chambers ; believe it not. 
 
 27. 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. 
 
 28. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the 
 eagles be gathered, together. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 27. I do not think that the similitude of the lightning 
 necessarily means, that Christ's coming should be sud- 
 den; but that the effects of it should be extensive 
 through all the land of Judaea. It is to be observed, 
 that this verse is the first in which his coming {-rtx^ix) 
 is mentioned ; and it is mentioned in conjunction with 
 the coming of the Romans, who were to be the Ministers 
 of his vengeance. 
 
 28. This coming of the Romans is, in my opinion, 
 clearly marked by the eagles gathered together, in allu- 
 sion to the Roman standard. I know some divines, 
 among whom is Mr. Gilpin in his late Exposition, are of 
 a different opinion ; but to me this verse appears to be 
 in the true prophetic style; neither too clear for the 
 time in which, or for the persons to whom it was deli- 
 vered; nor too obscure to be fully developed by the 
 event, that is, when the Prophecy was accomplished. 
 
[ 265 ] 
 
 29. 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. 
 
 30. And then shall appear the sign of the Son of 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 29. That is, the tribulation prior to that day, on 
 which the siege commenced : for to those prior days 
 every part of our Saviour's speech has hitherto referred. 
 And now, as might be expected, his style rises into that 
 highly figurative one which, from the hyperboles em- 
 ployed, is a specimen of what is justly called prophetic 
 writing, and which Isaiah and the greater Prophets had 
 heretofore used to describe the fall or rise of nations, or 
 any other great temporal event. Concerning the usual 
 prophetic terms, and their explanations, to which the 
 Jews were accustomed, much might here be quoted from 
 various divines. It is sufficient here to quote Bishop 
 Hurd's ninth Sermon on the Style of Prophecy in gene- 
 ral; and his sixth on Christ's second coming; that part 
 particularly, which treats of this identical Prophecy, 
 though I am sorry to find, that he disagrees with me, 
 when he says, " I know that this Prophecy admits a 
 (i secondary sense." See Sermon VI. p. 171. 
 
 30. If the sign of the Son of Man be taken literally, 
 it may be construed to mean those celestial prodigies 
 
[ 266 ] 
 
 Man in heaven : and then shall all tribes of the earth 
 mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the 
 clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. 
 
 31. 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 one end of heaven to the 
 other. 
 
 32. Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when his 
 branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know 
 that summer is nigh. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 attendant on the siege, of which Josephus is full, and 
 which are also recorded by Tacitus in the fifth Book and 
 thirteenth Chapter of his History. But as Christ speaks 
 here in the prophetic and figurative style, heaven may 
 mean the capital, and the tribes of the earth the dis- 
 persed Jews throughout Judaea ; and the sign the ap- 
 pearance of the Roman army, the ministers of vengeance. 
 However this may be, it is clear, that the imagery can 
 have no similitude to the last day, or day of judgment ; 
 for here he comes not to judge, but to destroy his ene- 
 mies, and save his Elect. This has been noted before, 
 when the difference of the two accounts was pointed 
 out in the preliminary remarks. 
 
 31. This verse is in the high prophetic style, and with 
 this verse it ceases, and in the next descends to the 
 parabolic. 
 
[267] 
 
 33. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, 
 know that it is near, even at the doors. 
 
 34. Verily [ say unto you, This generation shall not 
 pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 34. No artifice of interpretation can make these words 
 imply any thing either more or less than what they do : 
 they expressly declare, that " this generation (the gene- 
 (i ration in which he was speaking) shall not pass away, 
 " till all these things be fulfilled." Now, if this pro- 
 phecy, as far as it has gone, has a double sense, if it has 
 predicted the last day, as well as the destruction of Jeru- 
 salem, what can we say to it, except that it was only 
 particularly a true Prophecy. One part of which Infi- 
 delity itself must allow to have been fulfilled ; yet the 
 other part the firmest believer dares not say has been so, 
 because many generations have passed away, and the 
 last day is not yet come. All these things, therefore, 
 have not been fulfilled. On that account, it is of the 
 highest importance to those, who would vindicate the 
 truth of Christianity, as I have here attempted to do, to 
 hold that this prophecy relates only to the first question 
 asked by the Apostles, " When shall these things be?" 
 and to seek for an answer to their second in the remain- 
 ing part of Christ's discourse, where I have shewn they 
 may be sure to find it ; not indeed fully answered no 
 
[268] 
 
 35. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words 
 shall not pass away. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 more than the former was, and this for the reason given 
 afterwards in the 36th verse. But before I comment 
 on that, I must here observe that Dr. Clarke thinks it to 
 be an extraordinary ingenious conjecture of Grotius's to 
 make n/x^oc exeivy, that day, in verse 36, opposed to 
 rxvla. roc 7rocfl» 3 all these things, in verse 34, and would 
 have the sense to be " the destruction of Jerusalem shall 
 " be presently, but the last day of Judgment is known 
 u to none but God." And Dr. Benson, who seems to 
 favour this conjecture (See his Introduction to his Para- 
 phrase on St. Paul's Ep. p. 30), though he does not 
 allow of a double sense in this, or indeed in any Pro- 
 phecy, thinks it would be a more just division of the 
 chapters, if the 25th of St. Matthew began at the 36th 
 verse of the 24th. For my own part, I am a friend to 
 no divisions of chapters whatever, as I think they have 
 but too frequently perplexed the meaning of the New 
 Testament- writers, and particularly in this place ; where 
 one individual discourse of our Saviour with four Apos- 
 tles privately, is frittered into two portions so very inju- 
 diciously. Neither can I admit the conjecture of so 
 celebrated a critic as Grotius in this place, to be more 
 than ingenious. It would scarcely have been true, even 
 
[ 269 ] 
 
 36, But of that day and hoar knoweth no man, no. 
 not the Angels of Heaven, but my Father only. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 if instead of rocvjx 7tocvtoc, tregvi had been added to ypsgot, 
 and the translation of " But of that other day knoweth 
 te no man/' &c; for though some subsequent passages 
 might be construed as relating to the day of judgment, 
 as the time of Noah before the flood (see v. 3S, 39) yet 
 there are others that will not, as v. 40, 41, where two 
 men shall be in a field, and two women grinding at a 
 mill, of which one of each shall be taken and one left ; 
 which, as I have said in another note, contradicts the 
 subsequent description of the last judgment, where all 
 shall be gathered together, and all separated by Christ 
 himself. Yet I am ready to allow, that the general and 
 repeated admonitions to watchfulness, which are conti- 
 nued through the rest of his discourse, sometimes in 
 direct precepts, at others by parabolic inference, intro- 
 duce his answer to the second question as pertinently, 
 as his caution against deceivers and false Messiahs was 
 introductory to the first : and that both these introduc- 
 tions, though delivered only to the four Apostles, were 
 meant to be of universal use and application to all 
 Christians in all ages. Yet to declare one tru^h directly, 
 but in such a manner that another truth may be deduced 
 from it consequentially, is a distinction, which should 
 
C 270] 
 
 37. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of Man be. 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 always be attended to, and in no place more accurately 
 than in the whole of this most important discourse. To 
 explain myself still more clearly, by one historical in- 
 stance, where thousands might be adduced. In the time 
 of Crom well's usurpation, when Fifth Monarchy men and 
 other fanatics were so much abroad, the cautionary ad- 
 vice at the exordium of this discourse ought to have 
 been as much attended to by Christians of the time, as 
 it was primarily by the Apostles, to whom it was deli- 
 vered. Yet nobody will say, that the Prophecy had in 
 a double sense any allusion to that turbulent period of 
 English history. 
 
 3G. The divine Prophet here declares, that the pre- 
 cise time and season of the destruction of Jerusalem is 
 known to no man, no, not the Angels, &c. If then this 
 declaration was made by Christ, when speaking only of 
 what may be called, great as it was, but a mere local 
 circumstance, when compared with that most moment- 
 ous one, the general judgment of all mankind, the 
 Apostles had all reason previously given them to believe, 
 that to their latter question no direct answer could be 
 given; and that they must rest satisfied, as in the 
 
[271 ] 
 
 38. For as in the days that were before the flood, they 
 were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in mar- 
 riage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 former case, with a general description only of the two 
 events. 
 
 But we must not quit this verse without observing a 
 remarkable difference in the three Evangelists, as they 
 appear in the parallel places. That of St. Matthew, as 
 above, says " the time is known to the Father only" 
 St. Mark adds, that it is known not to the Angels in 
 heaven, neither to the Son, but to the Father only, 
 eh. xiii. v. 32. In St. Luke, the whole sentence is 
 omitted. The words of St. Mark, therefore, have given 
 a handle to Socinians and others to question the fore- 
 knowledge of the Son. But, I think, their arguments 
 will have little weight with those, who consider how 
 frequently Christ speaks to his Disciples with a refe- 
 rence to his humanity only. It would be well, however, 
 for the collators of MSS. of the Greek Testament, to 
 examine whether the words in St. Mark ovSs o vios 
 are not an interpolation. I mention this in passing, 
 though the text in no way affects my argument. 
 
 37. The Prophecy being finished, I shall here only 
 give a general note on* what occurs between this and 
 
[ 272 ] 
 
 89. And knew not until the flood came and took them 
 all away ; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man 
 be. 
 
 40. Then shall two be in the field ; the one shall be 
 taken, and the other left. 
 
 41. Two women shall be grinding at the mill: the 
 one shall be taken, and the other left. 
 
 42. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your 
 Lord doth come." 
 
 ANNOTATIONS. 
 
 v. 43, and observe that this sequel, as it may be called, 
 has occasioned the general suspicion, that the last judg- 
 ment was here treated of, as well as the destruction of 
 Jerusalem. But what can the words " One person to 
 " be taken, and the other left," &c. have to do with the 
 last judgment, where all are to be taken and judged, 
 and none to be left ? But when we understand them as 
 descriptive of those who shall escape from the horrors 
 of the siege, viz. of emigrant believers and unbelievers 
 promiscuously endeavouring to save themselves, it be- 
 comes naturally descriptive of what must and did happen 
 in that temporary confusion. 
 
 4 1 . Here, after inculcating the duty of watchfulness 
 to his Apostles, their Divine Master enforces it by those 
 Parables, which have already been so sufficiently noticed, 
 as here to require no further comment. 
 
[273] 
 
 I have therefore only to add the following short infer- 
 ences, by way of recapitulation. 
 
 1st. 
 
 Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed within the 
 time of that generation, in which the Prophecy was 
 delivered; therefore so far the Prophecy is undeniably 
 true. 
 
 2dly. 
 
 The Son of Man did not come to judge the world in 
 that generation ; because we know, that he has not yet 
 come for that purpose ; therefore the Prophecy w r as not 
 given as predictive of that event. 
 
 3dly. 
 The Son of Man did not appear personally at the time 
 of the destruction of Jerusalem, nor did he then say, 
 that he would judge the righteous and the wicked ; 
 therefore his advent for that purpose must be declared, 
 if at all, in some other place. But, 
 
 4thly. 
 He did declare that he would thus come, and made 
 this declaration in one and the same conversation, which 
 he had with his Apostles. He declared too, that his 
 appearance would be personal, sitting on his throne, and 
 separating the righteous from the wicked, and that seve- 
 rally he would pronounce sentence on each : therefore 
 
 VOL. IV. T 
 
[274] 
 
 he has given distinct answers to both the Apostolic 
 questions ; so that the former cannot be supposed to in- 
 clude the latter, without implying a palpable and quite 
 unnecessary tautology. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : printed by W. Bulmer and Co. 
 Cleveland-row, St. James's. 
 
SHORTLY WILL BE PUBLISHED, 
 By T. Cadell and W. Davies, Strand, 
 
 A NEW EDITION OF THE WORKS OF THE 
 RIGHT HON. JOSEPH ADDISON, with Notes, by 
 the late Richard Hurd, D. D. Lord Bishop of Wor- 
 cester. Elegantly printed in six volumes, octavo, and 
 illustrated with a Portrait of Mr. Addison, from an 
 original Picture by Dahl. 
 
 A NEW EDITION OF THE WORKS OF 
 THOMAS GRAY, Esq. containing his Poems, Letters, 
 &c. with Memoirs of his Life and Writings, by the late 
 Rev. W. Mason, M. A. Elegantly printed in octavo. 
 
 Also the following Works lately published. 
 
 THE POETICAL WORKS OF THE LATE 
 CHRISTOPHER ANSTEY, Esq. with some Account 
 of the Life and Writings of the Author, by his Son, 
 John Anstey, Esq. in one volume, elegantly printed in 
 quarto, adorned with numerous Plates, price 31. 3s. 
 in boards. 
 
 THE WORKS OF RICHARD OWEN CAM- 
 BRIDGE, Esq. including several Pieces never before 
 published; with an Account of his Life and Character, 
 by his Son, George Owen Cambridge, M. A. Preben- 
 dary of Ely. Elegantly printed in one Volume quarto, 
 and illustrated with numerous Engravings, price 31. 3s. 
 in boards. 
 
 N. B. A few copies on Royal Paper may be had, 
 price 41. 4s. in boards. 
 
Works lately published by T. Cadell and W. Davies. 
 
 SAUL, A POEM, IN TWO PARTS, by WILLIAM 
 SOTHEBY, Esq. elegantly printed in 4to, price 18s. 
 in boards. 
 
 CONSTANCE DE CASTILE, A POEM, IN TEN 
 CANTOS, by the same, in 4to, price 11. 5s. in boards. 
 
 THE CRUSADERS, OR THE MINSTRELS OF 
 ACRE, a Poem, in six Cantos, 4to, 12s. in boards. 
 
 THE TRIUMPHS OF TEMPER, A POEM, by 
 WILLIAM HAYLEY, Esq. 6s. in boards. 
 
 THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY, WITH SOME 
 OTHER POEMS, by SAMUEL ROGERS, Esq. with 
 Wood-Cuts, 10s. 6d. in boards. 
 
 N. B. A few copies on large paper, 15s. in boards; 
 also a very few copies are printed on India paper, 21. 2s. 
 in boards. 
 
 THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION, by 
 MARK AKENS1DE, M. D. To which is prefixed, a 
 Critical Essay on the Poem, by Mrs Barbauld ; wiih 
 •Plates, 7s. in boards. 
 
 THE ART OF PRESERVING HEALTH, by 
 JOHN ARMSTRONG, M. D. To which is prefixed, 
 a Critical Essay on the Poem, by Dr. Aikin ; with 
 Plates, 7s. in boards. 
 
 POEMS, SACRED AND MORAL, by THOMAS 
 GISBORNE, M. A. with Plates, 7s. in boards. 
 
 WALKS IN A FOREST j or Poems descriptive of 
 Scenery and Incidents characteristic of a Forest at dif- 
 ferent Seasons of the Year, by Thomas Gisborne, 
 M. A. with Plates, 7s. in boards. 
 
ssm