LIBRARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 No. Case, ^ S^ 
 BR 45 .B35 1821 
 
 A 
 
 Hampton lectures 
 
y 
 
THE 
 
 MORAL TENDENCY 
 
 OF 
 
 DIVINE REVELATION 
 
 ASSERTED AND ILLUSTRATED, 
 
 IN 
 
 EIGHT DISCOURSES 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAR MDCCCXXl, 
 
 At the Lecture founded by 
 
 THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. u.c;;c-7 L 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 BY TJTE 
 
 REV. JOHN JONES, M. A. 
 
 OF JESUS COLLEGE, 
 ARCHDEACON OF MERIONETH, AND RECTOR OF LLANBEDR. 
 
 It 
 
 Kara, rov KoXia-ayra, vfAat; "AFION, kou avToi ''AFIOI iv itdcr^ aj/a- 
 crfo<pn yev^Ovire. I Petr. i. 15. 
 
 OXFORD, 
 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR. 
 
 SOLD BY J. PARKERj OXFORD j AND MESSRS. RIVINGTON, ST. 
 
 PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON. 
 
 1821. 
 
TO 
 
 THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 AND REVEREND 
 
 THE VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
 AND 
 
 HEADS OF COLLEGES 
 
 IN 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 THESE LECTURES, 
 
 PREACHED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT, 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY THEIR 
 
 FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
EXTRACT 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 REV. JOHN BAMPTON, 
 
 CANON OF SALISBURY. 
 
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates 
 
 " to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Uni- 
 " versity of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and 
 " singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to 
 " the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned; that 
 "is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor 
 " of the University of Oxford for the time being shall 
 " take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits there- 
 " of, and (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary de- 
 " ductions made) that he pay all the remainder to the 
 " endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be 
 " established for ever in the said University, and to be 
 " performed in the manner following : 
 
 " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in 
 " Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the 
 " Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room 
 " adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours of 
 " ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach 
 " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at 
 " St. Mary''s in Oxford, between the commencement of 
 " the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third 
 *' week in Act Term. 
 
 a3 
 
vi EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTONS WILL. 
 
 " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of the 
 " following Subjects — to confirm and establish the Chris- 
 " tian Faith, and to confute aU heretics and schismatics 
 *' — upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures — 
 " upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fa- 
 " thers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive 
 " Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour 
 " Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost — 
 " upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as compre- 
 " hended in the Apostles'* and Nicene Creeds. 
 
 " Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Di- 
 *' vinity Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within 
 " two months after they are preached, and one copy 
 " shall be given to the Chancellor of the University, and 
 " one copy to the Head of every College, and one copy 
 " to the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one copy to 
 " be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expense of 
 " printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of the 
 " Land or Estates given for establishing the Divinity 
 " Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid, 
 ** nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed. 
 
 *' Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be 
 " qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, un- 
 *' less he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at 
 " least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cam- 
 " bridge ; and that the same person shall never preach 
 *' the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice.*" 
 
xHE following Discourses will be found 
 somewhat longer, as they come from the 
 press, than they were as delivered from the 
 pulpit. They now appear, with a few al- 
 terations, as they were originally composed. 
 Whether in thus retaining what I had at 
 first written, I have judged wisely or not, 
 is freely submitted to the reader's deci- 
 sion ; but to myself it appeared necessary 
 to the due illustration of my design. 
 
 In the present state of theological con- 
 troversy, there are two opposite errors, 
 against which I would seriously warn the 
 young student to be upon his guard. The 
 first is, a disregard to the obligations of 
 
 morality, arising from an injudicious zeal 
 
 a 4 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 to magnify the grace of the Gospel ; the se- 
 cond is, an apparent lessening of the value 
 of that grace, by assigning too much weight 
 to human virtue in the attainment of sal- 
 vation. And in order effectually to pre- 
 vent both these errors, it seems necessary 
 to lay down the two following principles, 
 as axioms, to which the mind may always 
 recur in judging of the opinions which are 
 offered to its acceptance. First, that the 
 obligation of man to serve God in all the 
 duties of piety, righteousness, and sobriety, 
 is eternal and indispensable, bound upon 
 him at his creation by the law of his nature, 
 and not to be infringed or diminished at 
 any subsequent period of his existence : 
 secondly, that ** eternal life is the gift of 
 *' God through Jesus Christ," to which no 
 man has any claim of merit, and of which, 
 whoever becomes a partaker, owes his par- 
 ticipation of so great a benefit solely to the 
 \uulcserved mercy of God electing him to 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 so inestimable a blessing. When these two 
 principles have been well fixed in the mind, 
 they will, I conceive, tend greatly to pre- 
 serve the young theologian from any mate- 
 rial mistake in the disputes which now di- 
 vide the Christian world, which indeed al- 
 ways have divided it, and which, from their 
 importance, will in all probabiHty continue 
 to disturb it, till we see in " the consum- 
 " mation of all things" the perfect justice 
 and consistency of all the Divine proceed- 
 ings. 
 
 I have on this occasion purposely ab- 
 stained from the use of those names of dis- 
 tinction, which are so much abused by all 
 parties among us, and which frequently 
 conceal an utter ignorance of the matters 
 in debate, and are too often mere terms of 
 mutual and uncharitable reproach. I would 
 beg leave indeed to recommend it as a very 
 useful help to correct thinking, that every 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 point of doctrine should be considered as 
 it is in itself; that it should not be called 
 by this name or the other; but being ac- 
 curately stated, and clearly defined, that 
 it should be brought in its own precise 
 sense to the test of God's word, and re- 
 ceived or rejected according to its agree- 
 ment or disagreement with that infallible 
 standard. This would at least prevent all 
 rash censures, and the adoption of crude, 
 half-formed opinions. At present, 1 am 
 apprehensive, that much mischief is occa- 
 sioned by the want of this particular inves- 
 tigation. Young men, hearing frequently 
 the condemnation of certain opinions un- 
 der a certain name, and carrying away per- 
 haps little besides the name, think them- 
 selves quite sure of the truth, provided they 
 keej) at a sufficient distance from the errors 
 which the world in general has attached to 
 that name; while in fact of the opinions 
 themselves they know little, and must con- 
 
PREFACE. xi 
 
 tinue to know little, till they have been 
 better instructed in the elements of theolo- 
 gical learning, and more largely and deep- 
 ly versed in that which is peculiarly the 
 study of divinity. 
 
 If, by the blessing of God, the ensuing 
 work should be so far of use, as to give any 
 candidate for the holy ministry, or any one 
 of my younger brethren, a more correct 
 view of the design and tendency of the sa- 
 cred oracles, it will be an ample reward for 
 the time and pains I have bestowed upon 
 it, in circumstances not altogether suited 
 for such an undertaking : if not, it shall be 
 my earnest j)rayer to the Almighty, that 
 they may meet with a better guide of their 
 opinions, and be preserved by some better 
 means from falling into errors, too preva- 
 lent not to be dangerous, and too danger- 
 ous not to fill every friend of truth and vir- 
 tue with alarm. 
 

 ni ii 
 
 T S. 
 
 f^'V^ 
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 Preliminary remarks on Divine Revelation as the 
 only certain source of Religious Instruction. Design and 
 tendency of that instruction ; and the particulars stated, 
 in which that tendency is proposed to be illustrated. 
 
 Psalm Ixxiv. 22. 
 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause : remember how the 
 foolish man reproacheth thee daily. Page 1, 
 
 SERMON II. 
 
 Right ideas of the nature of God essential to the pu- 
 rity of Religion. God's nature essentially holy^, and so 
 represented in Scripture, and the history of the Divine 
 proceedings therein contained. 
 
 Levit. xix. 2. 
 Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, 
 and say unto them, Ye shall be holy : for I the Lord 
 your God am holy. P» 43. 
 
 SERMON III. 
 
 Man created holy, and, as far as his place in the crea- 
 tion required, perfect. His duty and his nature clearly 
 adapted to each other, and therefore a knowledge of the 
 one conducive to a better understanding of the other. 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Happiness and holiness inseparably united by the origi- 
 nal law of his creation. 
 
 Gen. i. 27. 
 So God created man in his own image, in the image of 
 God created He him, 81 . 
 
 "sermon IV. 
 
 Sin alone caused the misery of man : no appearance 
 in Scripture of any decree, which made the fall of man 
 necessary : the difficulty of conceiving the consistency 
 of Divine Prescience with the contingency of future 
 events attempted to be removed; and the position, that 
 God is less offended by sin in some than others, refuted 
 and exposed. 
 
 Isaiah lix. 2. 
 
 But your iniquities have separated between you and your 
 God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He 
 will not hear. 125. 
 
 SERMON V. 
 
 No restoration to Divine favour without a restoration 
 to holiness : this proved by the express declarations 
 and provisions of Scripture, as well as by the example of 
 those who have been most distinguished by the appro- 
 bation of God. 
 
 Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without ichich no 
 man shall see the Lord. 173. 
 
 SERMON VI. 
 Means supplied by Revelation for effecting the moral 
 improvement of man, ample; considered under four 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 heads ; first, instruction in words ; secondly, symbolical 
 institutions; thirdly, moral discipline; and fourthly, the 
 sanctifying influences of God's Holy Spirit. 
 
 Ephes. iv. 8 — 12. 
 When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, 
 
 and gave gifts unto men For the perfecting of 
 
 the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying 
 of the body of Christ, 227. 
 
 SERMON VII. 
 
 Objections, arising from the misconception of some 
 Gospel doctrines, stated. The doctrine of Salvation by 
 Faith considered, and proved to be in no degree repug- 
 nant to the Moral Tendency of Revelation. Mistakes 
 in the statement of this doctrine rectified. 
 
 Heb. xi. 1. 
 
 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 
 dence of things not seen. 287. 
 
 SERMON Vlll. 
 
 Doctrine of Election : inquiry, whether it be a Scrip- 
 ture-doctrine or not. Election to be understood in 
 two senses. Character of the doctrine as represented in 
 Scripture favourable to good morals : errors respecting 
 it stated and removed. 
 
 2TiM. ii. 19. 
 
 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having 
 
 this seal, TJie Lord knoweth them that are his, and, Let 
 
 every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from 
 
 iniquity, - 343. 
 
S E R M O 
 
 Psalm Ixxiv. 22. 
 
 Arise, O God, plead thine own cause : remember 
 how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. 
 
 XHAT it has pleased Almighty God to 
 reveal his will to mankind, '^ at sundry 
 *' times and in divers manners ^/^ is a truth 
 clearly proved by the most direct evidence, 
 of which such a subject is capable. He 
 who denies this must, to be consistent with 
 himself, disbelieve every thing which is not 
 an immediate object of his senses. To him 
 the page of history is a blank. All the im- 
 portant records of past ages, all the bright 
 examples of virtue which they exhibit, and 
 all the clear warnings against vice, which 
 they hold out in the various instances of its 
 punishment, are to him as if they were 
 
 a Heb. i. 1. 
 
2 SERMON I. 
 
 not; they neither enlighten his nnderstand- 
 ing nor interest his affections. Nay, even 
 modern events, and the eminent characters 
 of the age in which he lives, are to him 
 equally lost. His ideas are alike confined 
 in space as in time. Rejecting, as he does, 
 credible testimony, the only evidence of 
 which past actions and remote occurrences 
 are capable, he is necessarily circumscribed 
 within the narrow sphere of his own unas- 
 sisted observation ; he knows nothing, at 
 least in reason he should not profess to 
 know any thing, beyond that poor pittance 
 of information with which his own eyes 
 and ears and hands supply him ; and being 
 himself but the creature of a day, he must 
 inevitably perish in an unprofitable igno- 
 rance, uninstructed by the wisdom of his 
 ancestors, and having no hope of benefit- 
 ing his posterity. Useless alike to all his 
 kind, he sinks, unblessing and unblessed, 
 into the fathomless abyss of perdition. 
 Few indeed, if any, of those, who have 
 perversely withstood the evidence of reve- 
 lation, have chosen to be thus consistent 
 with themselves; they have claimed a right, 
 
SERMON I. 3 
 
 most unfairly, of acting in regard to reli- 
 gion by a different set of principles^ from 
 those which guide men in the ordinary 
 affairs of life ; and the gross inconsistency 
 of this conduct has proved, that their ob- 
 jection to revealed religion was derived 
 from a source which had little connection 
 with the deficiency of its evidence. They 
 were '^ partial'" in their minds; and while 
 they admitted upon slight grounds what 
 their inclination was not averse to*^, they 
 would not allow any weight to the strong- 
 est testimony, when brought in support of 
 what they had already looked upon with 
 an unfavourable eye. The same evidence 
 has been in one case received without hesi- 
 tation, and in another, to which it was 
 equally applicable, rejected with inflexible 
 pertinacity. A strange perverseness this, 
 
 ^ Quae est igitur ista philosophia, quae communi more 
 in foro loquitur, in libeliis suo? Cicero De Fin, lib. ii. 
 24. iv. 8. 
 
 c James ii. 4. 
 
 ^ Bishop Wilkins's Principles of Natural Religion, 
 p. 20, &c. Dr. Webster's Discourse on the Duty of 
 Preaching the whole Law, in Weekly Miscellany. But- 
 ler's Analogy, p. ii. c. 6. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 SERMON I. 
 
 surely, and a present proof, how mucli the 
 human mind has fallen from its original 
 uprightness and integrity ! For looking at 
 the subject independently of all testimony 
 in its favour, Divine Revelation seems to be 
 peculiarly entitled to a ready admission 
 into the mind of man, because nothing 
 seems more natural, than that God should 
 make some revelation of himself. Sup- 
 posing that he is, and that he stands in the 
 relation of a Creator to mankind, it follows 
 as a necessary consequence of that relation, 
 that man derives from Him all the faculties 
 which he possesses, and owes Him all the 
 duty which by his nature he is capable of 
 performing. There can therefore be no 
 difficulty in conceiving, that He, who en- 
 dued the soul and the body with every 
 sense and every power, should be able to 
 reveal his Will to the work of his own hands 
 in any way which to Him may appear best: 
 nor ought there to be any greater difficulty 
 in allowing, that what has appeared best 
 to Him must be best in itself. And as the 
 probability of a Revelation is thus easily 
 admissible in regard to God, so with re- 
 
SERMON I. 5 
 
 spect to man, there is, from his very na- 
 ture and condition, a clear necessity for 
 some divine interference in his behalf As 
 a creature, he is, no doubt, bound to per- 
 form any duty which his Creator may re- 
 quire of him. But how shall he know what 
 that duty is ? By a revelation of some sort, 
 most assuredly, though it should not im- 
 mediately appear in what form or by what 
 instrument the necessary communications 
 have been made. For whether we sup- 
 pose, that correct notions of duty were ori- 
 ginally impressed upon the mind, and be- 
 came manifest as the reasoning power ac- 
 quired strength and maturity ; or acknow- 
 ledge, what is much more probable, that 
 instruction in righteousness was imparted 
 immediately from heaven by the audible 
 voice of a Divine Teacher, it would be 
 equally Revelation, equally derived from 
 the Almighty Father of mankind, and a 
 direct manifestation of his Will by Himself. 
 If indeed man be considered as an inde- 
 pendent being, if he have received nothing 
 from any higher power, and owe no duty 
 to any above him, we may readily grant, 
 
 B 3 
 
6 SERMON I. 
 
 that as no revelation would be necessary, 
 so none would be rationally credible. But 
 that any, who acknowledge a God, and that 
 man is his creature, dependent upon Him 
 and bound to Him in every possible sense 
 and manner, should yet make a difficulty 
 of believing, that the Will, which he is form- 
 ed to obey, has been revealed to him, is 
 indeed most unaccountable ; such men 
 should end the climax of their folly in the 
 madness of Atheism. What the Will of God 
 is, can surely be known with certainty only 
 from God himself; and as in whatever way 
 it may please Him to make it known it 
 must be acknowledged to be a revelation, 
 this must necessarily remove all antecedent 
 objections on this subject, and leave any 
 particular form of revelation as capable of 
 being proved by suitable evidence, as any 
 other matter in which mankind are con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The question then in fairness does not 
 appear to be, whether God has or has not 
 revealed his Will to man ; it is evident that 
 He has, because there is seen an absolute 
 necessity that He should, and because there 
 
SERMON I. 7 
 
 is no assignable reason why He should not: 
 but, amongst all the revelations which pre- 
 tend to be derived from Him, which is in 
 truth entitled to the respect and obedience 
 due to a direct communication from the 
 Fountain, no less of Wisdom than of Pow- 
 er. That there are many which lay claim 
 to this character is obvious ; rather indeed 
 is it matter of historical record, that all 
 forms of religion profess to found them- 
 selves on the sanction of a supernatural au- 
 thority. And why so? Because the au- 
 thors of these different forms, though whol- 
 ly unconnected with each other, yet con- 
 spired to mock and delude those who con- 
 fided in them ? No ; but because they 
 knew % that the mind of man, either from 
 natural constitution, or from traditionary 
 instruction, admitted most readily the ne- 
 cessity of God's interference in guiding his 
 creatures to the attainment of religious 
 truth. And, in fact, the very existence of 
 pretended revelations is a clear proof that 
 there must have been one that was true. 
 
 e Bishop Wilkins, p. 346. Dr. Rogers on the Ne- 
 cessity of a Divine Revelation, Sermon i. p. 22. 
 
 B 4 
 
8 SERMON I. 
 
 However humiliating it may be to human 
 ingenuity, and however common it is to 
 talk of human inventions, it is yet indis- 
 putable, that man is not capable of in- 
 venting^ any thing of which there is not 
 some real prototype existing in nature. He 
 cannot form the most distant conception 
 of what a sixth sense would be; nor, had 
 he been endued with four only, could he 
 have had the least notion of the fifth. He 
 may now indeed exercise those faculties, 
 which by the help of a little self-flattery 
 may be called inventive, and he may join, 
 in forming the creatures of his fancy, the 
 five senses which he possesses into many 
 monstrous combinations, or by bestowing 
 them partially, present to his mind's eye 
 numerous objects with defective organs : 
 but he can do no more than copy what has 
 been laid before him ; however strange and 
 out of nature the whole may be, the parti- 
 culars will be found mere imitations of 
 
 ^ I use the word invejiting here not in its strict sense 
 of discovering what exists, but according to tlie more lax 
 idea, annexed to it in common conversation, for the 
 production of something which never existed before. 
 
SERMON I. 9 
 
 what he has become acquainted with, by the 
 ** hearing ear and the seeing eye^," which 
 his Maker has bestowed upon him. This 
 is the utmost stretch of human ingenuity ; 
 but to form an idea, which shall be per- 
 fectly new in all its parts, as well as in its 
 complex character, is an effort beyond its 
 power. When therefore any idea is re- 
 ceived by the mind of man, we may be 
 certain, that there is something in exist- 
 ence answerable to that idea, not perhaps 
 taken as a whole, but as to the parts of 
 which it is composed. The combinations 
 themselves are often the most monstrous 
 and absurd that can be conceived, but the 
 particulars are mere copies from real na- 
 ture. Thus nothing could be more vile or 
 unnatural than the representations of the 
 Deity, which were made in the times of 
 heathen ignorance, and which indeed must 
 be wholly referred to human depravity or 
 diabolical suggestion ; but the parts of this 
 impious combination had a real existence 
 in nature, or man could never have put 
 them together. Had there been no God, 
 
 s Prov. XX. 12. 
 
10 SERMON I. 
 
 the idea of a God had never obtained in 
 the world ^ ; and what is more, even of the 
 reptile, by which he was so unworthily re- 
 
 h Cud worth's Intellect. System, c. iv. p. 6JM. " But 
 " some Atheists will yet further reply, that there is a 
 ^'feigning power in the human soul, whereby it can 
 " frame ideas or conceptions of such things, as actually 
 " never were nor will be, as of a Centaur or of a golden 
 " mountain : and that by such a feigning power as this, 
 " the idea of God, though there be no such thing ex- 
 " isting, might be framed. And here we deny not, but 
 " that the human soul hath a power of confounding 
 " ideas and things together, which exist severally and 
 '' apart in nature, but never were nor will be in that 
 " conjunction ; and this indeed is all the feigning power 
 " that it hath. For the mind cannot make any new co~ 
 " gitation, which was not before, but only compound 
 " that which is. As the painter cannot feign colours, 
 '' but must use such as exist in nature ; only he can va- 
 ** riously compound them together, and by his pencil 
 " draw the figures and lineaments of such things as no 
 '^ where are ; as he can add to the head and face of a 
 '' man, the neck, shoulders, and body of a horse. In 
 '* like manner that more subtle painter or limner, the 
 " mind and imagination of man, can frame compounded 
 *' ideas of things which no where exist, but yet his 
 " single colours notwithstanding must be real ; he can- 
 " not feign any cogitation which was not in nature, nor 
 " make a positive conception of that which is abso- 
 " lutely nothing, which were no less than to make no- 
 " thing to be something, or create something out of 
 " nothing.'' 
 
SERMON I. 11 
 
 presented, man could have had no notion 
 by the mere exercise of his own ingenuity. 
 It is therefore most evidently clear, that 
 false religions and pretended revelations 
 prove the existence of a true religion, de- 
 rived from a real revelation, because man 
 could never have invented either. He 
 could copy indeed, and unhappily he could 
 corrupt and pervert, but he could not in- 
 vent; and had it never pleased God to re- 
 veal Himself, no idea of a revelation would 
 ever have been formed by men. And this 
 should teach them, if they had any mo- 
 desty or humility, not only to receive with 
 thankfulness those higher communications 
 of divine truth with which the word of God 
 abounds, but to read with reverence the 
 accounts of those instructions in things of 
 a more familiar nature, which may now 
 appear not so suitable to the Majesty of 
 the Omnipotent. If at any time we are 
 offended with these things, the cause of 
 offence is in ourselves, in our own pride 
 and ignorance. We have now enjoyed the 
 glorious light of the Gospel for so long a 
 time, we have been so long accustomed to 
 
12 SERMON I. 
 
 the arts and refined conveniences of social 
 life, that we do not appreciate as we ought 
 the difficulty of their first introduction a- 
 mongst a race of degenerate beings. When 
 we read, that the Almighty made a cover- 
 ing to hide the nakedness of his polluted 
 creature, we do not perhaps always feel the 
 value of this divine condescension. Judg- 
 ing from the subsequent history of the hu- 
 man race, we may fairly conclude, that 
 our unhappy parents, though at the time 
 not insensible of the disgrace they had in- 
 curred, would soon have learned to acqui- 
 esce in their debased condition, and to 
 '^ glory in their shame." Guilt made them 
 fear to face their Almighty Creator; but 
 habit would have made vice familiar, and 
 the restraints of modesty and conscience 
 would have lost their hold upon their 
 minds. Fallen from their high estate of 
 purity and perfection, they would most 
 probably, if left to themselves, have sunk 
 into a savage wildness, and herded with the 
 brutes that surrounded them. The mercy 
 of God alone preserved them from fur- 
 ther degradation ; the mercy of God alone 
 
SERMON I. 13 
 
 taught them to recover in some degree that 
 decency, which a sense of sin no longer 
 permitted them to preserve on the terms of 
 their original creation. It was indeed little 
 to be expected, that he, who in his first 
 strength of righteousness and perfection 
 could not withstand the allurement of sin, 
 should in his weakness and pollution invent 
 the means of his own recovery. Nor would 
 any one of his descendants ever have suc- 
 ceeded any better. To improve upon an 
 idea of which we are already in possession, 
 and originally to strike out that idea, are 
 two very different things ; and though it 
 should be granted, that some of the more 
 eminent among the children of Adam have 
 done something not altogether despicable 
 in the former, in the latter they have con- 
 fessedly done nothing. In fact, nothing 
 was left them to do. Revelation has ever 
 been the sole source of truth ', while false- 
 hood owes its being to the perversions and 
 the wanderings of human ingenuity. Not 
 only the sacred records of revelation itself, 
 
 ' Octav. p. 52. Lactant. De Origine Erroris. 
 
14 SERMON I. 
 
 but profane history assures us of this ; the 
 march of all true knowledge •" is traced with 
 clearness and certainty from those coun- 
 tries which were properly the cradle of the 
 human race. Thence it was derived at first, 
 and thence was the renovation of it sovight 
 when it had been lost or obscured by the 
 degeneracy of man. And this is a proof 
 that man was originally perfect ; because 
 the nearer he is traced to his original in 
 time and place, the more free he seems to 
 be from falsehood and from sin. Left to 
 himself, it is clear, that in his present con- 
 dition he has a continual tendency to de- 
 generate, and gradually to sink to a level 
 with ^^ the beasts that perish^" both in 
 knowledge and practice. The further he 
 has been removed from the sources of com- 
 munication with his Maker, the weaker 
 have been his impressions of right and 
 wrong, and the more gross his conceptions 
 
 ^ Josephus contra Apion. Dr. Cudworth's Intel- 
 lectual System, p. 308. and particularly his account of 
 the Egyptian Learning, p. 311. See also Bryant's Pre- 
 face to Observations on the Plagues of Egypt. 
 
 ' Psalm xlix. 1:^*. 
 
SERMON I. 15 
 
 of the Deity. Every succeeding generation 
 added something to the corruption of their 
 fathers, and diminished something from 
 the purity of their religious principles. It 
 was only by those manifestations of his 
 will, which the Almighty made from time 
 to time, and by which He recalled his crea- 
 tures to their allegiance, when they had 
 rebelled against his authority, and wander- 
 ed from his fold, that mankind were pre- 
 vented from losing every trace of their ori- 
 ginal uprightness. That he did thus fre- 
 quently recall them, an attentive perusal 
 of the records of past ages will sufficiently 
 evince. The Scripture history marks with 
 great precision™ the several occasions on 
 
 ^ Prideaux's Connection, anno 277 and 68. See also 
 a Sermon on the Fulness of Time, by the Rev. W. Clea- 
 ver. Amidst all the confusion and obscurity in which 
 the ancient history of nations is involved, this however 
 is evident, that the Greeks, who became so famous for 
 learning, derived their first instructions in that learning 
 from foreign sources. The rudiments of knowledge 
 were imported from Egypt and Phoenicia into the 
 country, which afterwards affected to consider the rest 
 of mankind as barbarous, and thither did all those 
 travel in search of wisdom, who wished to attain any 
 profound acquaintance with the nature and origin of 
 
16 SERMON I. 
 
 which our heavenly Father interfered to 
 check the progress of depravity, and to 
 
 things. At home they met with nothing that bore 
 the stamp of genuine antiquity. The assertion of Jo- 
 sephus against Apion is indisputable, and to an extent 
 beyond what he has stated : Davrcov 8= vBoiTocrri <jyzl6v l<m 
 'nxq avTolg rj 'Ttegi tou (ruyypa^siv raj IcTTopiuc eTTi/XcXsia, ra 
 fjievroi 'Ko.p AlyvTTTloig rs xa) 'KocxZocioig xu) <I>Oiv<^<V ecu yap 
 vvv r)ixag hxslvoig (rvyxctTuXeysiv avTo) Sry^rouflsv OfjioKoyoiKriv 
 ap^ociOTixTYiv T£ xoi) fLOVifxcjoTuTYiv £%6tv T^j iJiVr}[jLrig Tyjv TTocputo- 
 ffiv. Though when they did begin to cultivate literature 
 they excelled all that went before them among the phi- 
 losophers of the heathens, yet, as they began late, so 
 was it evident that they had been indebted to masters 
 and instructors. The learned Dr. Cudworth has traced 
 the progress of philosophical opinion and historical re- 
 cord among the Pagan literati with prodigious industry 
 and success, and the result of his researches clearly 
 proves, that knowledge had the same origin as the hu- 
 man race itself. Orpheus, Thales, Pherecydes, and Py- 
 thagoras, were the great instructors of the heathen world 
 in theology and morals, and they had been themselves 
 instructed by those who went before them. It is pue- 
 rile to consider these as the inventors of the truths 
 they taught, merely because Pagan history, confessedly 
 so novel and imperfect, cannot trace them higher. 
 What real truth they had, they derived from their better 
 taught forefathers; the mixture of error was the work 
 of later times. And the same is to be said of the E- 
 gyptian Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus. He delivered, 
 amongst much rubbish of human error, much solid 
 truth, which had come down to him from those who 
 knew God, and the spiritual excellency of his nature : 
 
SERMON I. 17 
 
 prevent a forgetfulness of Himself among 
 men ; nor did He give up any part of them 
 
 but because they, who wrote of this eminent instructor, 
 could not penetrate the obscurity in which his history 
 was involved, it does not follow that he invented the 
 instructions ascribed to him : it might as well be sup- 
 posed, on the same ground, that he was the father of 
 mankind. The real source of truth among the heathens 
 was tradition, handed down from father to son, and com- 
 mencing after the flood with Noah, who was righteous 
 before God, and knew the attributes of his Maker; the 
 real source of error was the grossness of the human 
 mind after its corruption, and its continual tendency to 
 clothe the object of its worship in flesh, and thus make 
 it subject to sense. On this ground, the mixture of 
 truth and error in the Pagan mythology is most plainly 
 accounted for; whereas any hypothesis, which would 
 assign the invention of truth to human ingenuity, after 
 it had been lost, is directly in the teeth of all the his- 
 tory with which we are acquainted. As far as that his- 
 tory goes, it traces the progress of knowledge accurate- 
 ly, and when it stops, its silence ought not to be sup- 
 plied by vague conjecture. When therefore the ancient 
 fathers prove, that the earliest and best philosophers 
 maintained the unity of the Godhead, and had worthy 
 ideas of His spirituality and omnipotence, their inten- 
 tion is to show that the objection to Christianity as a 
 new religion was unfounded, that truth was before 
 error, and that nothing but human depravity had intro- 
 duced confusion, disorder, and falsehood into that know- 
 ledge which had been originally imparted to man. It 
 is indeed wonderful to think, how the idea of one Al- 
 mighty God kept possession of men's minds even in 
 
 C 
 
18 SERMON I. 
 
 '' to a reprobate mind"/' till it appeared 
 clearly, that " they did not like to retain 
 
 the midst of all their gross superstitions. Minucius 
 Felix and Lactantius assure us however that so it was. 
 " Eloquar quemadmodum sentio," says the former, 
 " magnitudinem Dei qui se putat nosse, minuit; qui 
 ^^ non vult minuere, non novit : nee nomen Deo quae- 
 " ras. Deus nomen est : illic vocabulis opus est, cum 
 " per singulos propriis appellationum insignibus multi- 
 
 *' tudo dirimcnda est Aufer additamenta nominum 
 
 " et })crspicies ejus claritatem. Quid quod omnium de 
 " isto habeo consensum ? Audio vulgus, cum ad coelum 
 " man us tendunt, nihil aliud quam Deum dicunt, et 
 " Deus magnus est, et Deus verus est, et si Deus dede- 
 '' rit : vulgi iste naturalis sermo est, an Christiani con- 
 " fitentis oratio ? — Audio poetas quoque unum patreni 
 " divilm atque hominum prsedicantes. — Recenseamus, 
 " si placet, disciplinam philosophorum, deprehendes 
 *' eos, etsi sermonibus variis, ipsis tamen rebus in banc 
 
 " unam coire et conspirare sententiam Sit Thales 
 
 " Milesius omnium primus, qui primus omnium de coe- 
 " lestibus disputavit : idem Milesius Thales rerum ini- 
 " tium aquam dixit, Deum autem eam mentem quae ex 
 *^ aqua cuncta formaverit. Eho, altior et sublimior 
 " aqufe et Spiritus ratio quam ut ab homine potuerit in- 
 ^' veniri ; a Deo traditum, Vides philosophi principalis 
 " nobiscum penitus opinionem consonare." It seems 
 extraordinary that this point should not have been more 
 attended to than it appears to have been ; for the occa- 
 sions on which Almighty God interfered to spread or 
 to preserve a knowledge of himself in the world are very 
 observable. The call of Abraham was within such a 
 
 " Rom. i. 2S. 
 
SERMON I. 19 
 
 ^^ Him in their knowledge." And reason 
 surely would teach us, that it must be so. 
 
 time after the flood as to be a powerful check to the 
 idolatry which could then be only commencing, and a 
 correction of such moral delinquencies as were begin- 
 ning to be prevalent among men. That in his age there 
 was a knowledge and a fear of the One Supreme God, 
 of sufficient power to restrain the commission of sin, is 
 evident from his intercourse with the kings of Gerar 
 and Egypt; and the sojourning of himself, his son Isaac, 
 and his grandson Jacob, with their descendants, in the 
 latter country, was admirably adapted to prevent that 
 knowledge and fear from being so soon lost. Egypt was 
 then probably more advanced in learning than any part 
 of the world, and it was to become afterwards the school 
 of learning to those, who to this day continue the mas- 
 ters of mankind in human literature. It was then 
 surely a proof of Divine goodness and providence, that 
 his first interference after the deluge should be so ar- 
 ranged as to make that country in a great measure the 
 theatre in which the instruments of that interference 
 had so long their abode, and on which were displayed 
 so many of the miracles which were necessary for its 
 support. Egypt, knowing Almighty God in the days 
 of Abraham, must have been wholly without excuse, 
 if, after the miraculous salvation of the country by Jo- 
 seph, it had lost all knowledge of Him in the time of 
 Moses. And it is probable that it had not 5 for though 
 the heart of the King was hardened, yet many among 
 his subjects, and especially the priests, might have re- 
 tained something of that better theology. But if it had, 
 the miracles of Moses were well calculated to impress 
 them with a holy awe, and to revive the memory of 
 
 C 2 
 
20 SERMON I. 
 
 If man was originally made by God, it 
 must be no less true, that he was originally 
 taught by the same Divine Being. And 
 He who at first taught man, and endowed 
 him with the capacity of understanding 
 what he was taught, could alone restore 
 his knowledge, if at any time he should 
 have lost or corrupted it. Men of learning, 
 in their disquisitions on this subject, have 
 
 what they had so unworthily forgotten. But it was 
 not with Egypt alone that the Jewish nation had inter- 
 course, nor was that country alone enlightened by its 
 prophets. All the great monarchies of the world were 
 brought in contact with the people of God ; and if they 
 would not learn their wisdom, it was not for want of 
 the means of being acquainted with it. The captivity 
 of Israel made the God of Israel known by several spe- 
 cial edicts to the nations and languages that owned the 
 sway of the Assyrian and Persian kings. The meeting 
 of Alexander and the High Priest Jaddua is related at 
 large by Josephus, lib. xi. c. 8. Not long after this, a 
 Greek translation was made of the Old Testament at 
 Alexandria, and might have got into general use by the 
 resort of learned men to the court of Ptolemy Philadel- 
 phus. By the Romans the Jewish polity and religion 
 might have been thoroughly examined, had not their 
 pride made them contemn a people confined to so small 
 a territory ; though the reverse experienced by their ce- 
 lebrated Pompey, after his sacrilegious entrance into 
 the Jewish Temple, might have taught them that the 
 God of the Jews was the Ruler of the world. 
 
SERMON I. 21 
 
 sometimes appeared to forget, that man is 
 a creature, and a dependent creature ; and 
 have seemed to argue about his natural 
 powers, as if he had something of his own 
 which he had not received. But it re- 
 quires, one would think, but little acute- 
 ness to discern, and little modesty to ac- 
 knowledge, that a mere creature can only 
 be that which its Creator has been pleased 
 to make it; and experience too sadly 
 proves, that what man has of his own is 
 only vice and ignorance. Unrestrained by 
 law, and undisciplined by education, and 
 unenlightened by a revelation of his Maker's 
 Will, he would be carried away by his pas- 
 sions, and fall an easy prey to the vilest 
 affections. When the heathen poets made 
 the first the golden age of the world, they 
 did well ; or rather, they retained with some 
 fidelity the tradition which informed them, 
 that man's original state was one of right- 
 eousness, purity, and peace, and that hav- 
 ing fallen from that state, he afterwards be- 
 came continually worse, immersed in deeper 
 ignorance, and more entirely lost to every 
 better feeling of his nature. 
 
 c 3 
 
22 SERMON I. 
 
 If this then be a just account of the state 
 of man ; if he must, as a creature, have ori- 
 ginally derived all his knowledge in reli- 
 gion and morals from the instructions of 
 his Creator; and if it plainly appears, as it 
 surely does, that the Almighty has all along 
 prevented his total depravity, and assisted 
 his recovery by frequent manifestations of 
 his Will; it must doubtless be acknowledged 
 to be both his interest and his duty to at- 
 tend to those manifestations, and to endea- 
 vour, as much as in him lies, rightly to un- 
 derstand and faithfully to follow their di- 
 rections. For it is evident, in this view, that 
 the manifestation of the Divine Will is the 
 only sure guide to man, whereby he may 
 recover his lost uprightness, and be re- 
 stored to his lost happiness. And it is 
 evident also, that the purpose of God in 
 making such a manifestation was thus to 
 guide him. To perform the Will of God 
 was his first duty as a creature ; and as the 
 performance of that duty was an indispens- 
 able condition of his retaining the happi- 
 ness with which he had been endowed, there 
 could not be a more imj)ortant object to 
 
SERMON I. 23 
 
 him than to know what that Will was, on 
 his obedience to which so much depended. 
 How to please Almighty God, was to man, 
 while he retained any thing like a due sense 
 of the relation in which he stood to his 
 Maker, the most concerning question that 
 could occupy his mind. And upon this 
 momentous question his Creator never left 
 him in doubt; he afforded him from the 
 first the most satisfactory information as to 
 the conduct which would alone be accept- 
 able in his sight. Man was, in the strict- 
 est propriety of speech, '' taught of God %" 
 taught what he was to do in order to obey 
 the law of his Creator, and to secure his 
 own happiness. Had he strictly attended 
 to the instructions which he received, he 
 would have fulfilled his duty, and preserved 
 himself The performance of his duty was 
 necessary to that preservation ; and the Al- 
 mighty, by teaching him the one, had af- 
 forded him the means of securing the 
 other. But the great point to be considered 
 is this ; that when God condescended to 
 teach man, what He taught him was his 
 
 o John vi. 45. 
 C 4 
 
24 SERMON I. 
 
 duty, the rules which he was bound to ob- 
 serve, and the precepts to which his obe- 
 dience was necessary. To man indeed this 
 was the best knowledge, because it was the 
 best means of securing his happiness ; and 
 God has especially commended it to his 
 attention by making it the great object of 
 his own gracious instructions. Divine Re- 
 velation has ever had a moral tendency ; 
 it has ever had for its object, either to re- 
 tain man in his original uprightness, or to 
 recover him from the pollution he had con- 
 tracted. It never was a mere communica- 
 tion of speculative science, nor an arbitrary 
 imposition of useless precepts ; it had ever 
 a regard to practical duty, to form the 
 manners of man so as best to advance his 
 improvement in piety and virtue. This 
 point is capable of the clearest demonstra- 
 tion by impartially examining that Revela- 
 tion, which alone is supported by evidence, 
 and which alone is worthy of support, in 
 which God himself has condescended to 
 ^* plead his own cause," and to repel the 
 ** reproaches of the foolish," the insinua- 
 tions of the crafty, and the daring blasphe- 
 
SERMON I. 25 
 
 mies of shameless depravity. It is my pre- 
 sent intention to enter upon that examina- 
 tion, and to show, by an induction of parti- 
 culars, that it was plainly the design of the 
 Almighty, in revealing his Will to man, to 
 teach him the way of righteousness, and to 
 direct him to walk therein, to deter him 
 from vice, and to show him how inconsist- 
 ent it is, not only with the obedience due 
 to his Creator, but with his own nature, 
 with the perfection for which it was design- 
 ed, and of which it was capable. This in- 
 deed is so obvious, and the declarations to 
 this effect in sacred writ are so frequent 
 and so express, that it may seem perhaps 
 to require some apology for my presuming 
 so far upon the patience of my present 
 hearers, as to introduce before them a view 
 of this subject, the plainness and simplicity 
 of which, the least exercised in theological 
 studies must at once perceive and acknow- 
 ledge. Would to God that such were in- 
 deed the case ! would to God that there 
 were no occasion to insist, in the way of 
 controversy at least, upon the necessity of 
 obedience to the Divine Law, and to illus- 
 
26 SERMON I. 
 
 Irate the moral tendency of God's word ! 
 But man continually bears the strongest 
 testimony to the account of his fall, by 
 corrupting and perverting every good with 
 which the Divine Mercy has entrusted him. 
 It might appear no doubt an unreasonable 
 thing in speculation, to suppose, that any 
 man or set of men could so far mistake or 
 pervert the intentions of God, in his com- 
 munications to the human race, as not to 
 confess, that they must be designed to cor- 
 rect what is amiss, and to improve what is 
 right amongst them, and that no less in 
 moral practice than in matter of opinion. 
 The holiness of God, his immaculate pu- 
 rity and perfect righteousness, might have 
 been a sufficient security, that nothing 
 coming from Him could do less than pro- 
 mote the same holiness and purity and 
 righteousness amongst his creatures, as far 
 as they were capable of following the hea- 
 venly pattern He should set before them. 
 Even had there been no express declara- 
 tion in favour of these virtues, and no ex- 
 press precept to enjoin them, still a Reve- 
 lation from Him, who is infinite as well in 
 
SERMON I. 27 
 
 truth and righteousness as in power, would 
 of necessity have been stamped with a clia- 
 racter conformable to that of its Author. 
 But when it is considered, that every page 
 of that Revelation teems with attestations 
 to the indispensable necessity of virtue; 
 when it is plainly told us, that as essential 
 holiness is the perfection of God, so a de- 
 rived holiness is the perfection of man ; 
 when in the history of our unhappy degra- 
 dation we see clearly, that sin alone caused 
 a separation between man and his Maker, 
 and that there can be no restoration to His 
 favour without a restoration to holiness; 
 and when we meditate with due attention 
 upon the means, which have been supplied 
 both in the Law and the Gospel, for the 
 effecting of that restoration, it must appear 
 an extraordinary proof of human weakness 
 or wickedness, should a Revelation thus 
 circumstanced not be understood as impos- 
 ing the strongest obligation to rectitude of 
 conduct in every possible respect. Yet so 
 it has been. Neither the flaming sword 
 set to guard the Tree of Life, nor the 
 burning terrors of Sinai, nor the clear 
 
28 SERMON I. 
 
 though mild declarations of the Preacher 
 on the Mount, have been able to secure the 
 revelations of Heaven from being made sub- 
 servient to the errors and the vices of men. 
 Scarcely indeed is there any error or any 
 vice, which has not at one time or other 
 sought to sanction its enormity by some 
 unhappy perversion of revealed truth. Doc- 
 trines have been taught, as contained in 
 the Book of God, completely at variance 
 with all moral obligation, and at once de- 
 rogatory to His righteousness, and subver- 
 sive of human virtue. This is attested by 
 the whole current of that history which 
 has informed us of the manner in which 
 man has received the instructions of his 
 Maker, and which in truth is frequently 
 nothing but an account of the various mis- 
 representations to which the sacred Oracles 
 have been subjected since they were first 
 promulgated to the world. The ingenious 
 subtleties of philosophy, and the wild fic- 
 tions of poetic fancy, were equally employ- 
 ed in polluting that small stream of tradi- 
 tionary instruction, which, had it run clear, 
 would have given men a correct, though a 
 
SERMON I. 29 
 
 faint view of their origin and their duty. 
 But the philosophers and the poets of Pa- 
 ganism may perhaps be excused, from the 
 difficulties by which they were surrounded; 
 a greater guilt and a greater misery must 
 assuredly fall upon those, who have cor- 
 rupted even the plainest testimonies of 
 God's written word. The scepticism of the 
 Sadducee, and the hypocrisy of the Phari- 
 see, the uncleanness of the Nicolaitan, the 
 ungovernable anarchy of the early Ana- 
 baptist, and the direct encouragement to 
 wickedness afforded by the principles of 
 the Antinomian, together with those ever 
 varying shades of error by which vice would 
 fain conceal some part of its deformity, 
 seek each of them to support itself by a 
 pretended regard to that word, which, in 
 its design and in its form, is most clearly 
 opposed to them all. But unhappy as this 
 is, it ought neither to surprise nor disturb 
 us. The cause is deeply seated in the hu- 
 man heart, and in that corruption with 
 which it is so evidently tinctured. Man has 
 so much of his original uprightness remain- 
 ing in him, that with Religion generally he 
 
30 SERMON I. 
 
 feels himself inclined to close, as that which 
 is most congenial to the natural impressions 
 of his mind. Perhaps there is no man, 
 however little he may appear to respect 
 Religion in his conduct, who has not yet 
 some idea of it in his own mind, on which 
 he relies, as giving him a hope, faint indeed 
 and undefined, of ultimate reconciliation 
 with his Maker. A naked barefaced de- 
 nial of all obligation to regard God in any 
 way or degree, is a pitch of depravity to 
 which the soul of man rarely attains, and 
 from which it is naturally abhorrent. But 
 though some sense of Religion be thus rea- 
 dily entertained by the mind, it is no less 
 obvious, that it entertains as readily a host 
 of tumultuous passions and unruly appe- 
 tites, which demand gratification without 
 control, and whose gratification is utterly 
 inconsistent with a real regard to religious 
 truth. What then is to be done.^ How 
 shall the mind, thus pressed on both sides 
 by duty and passion, preserve itself in tran- 
 quillity, without positively renouncing the 
 one or the other? It might be supposed, 
 that with the express declarations of Scrip- 
 
SERMON I. 31 
 
 ture against vice, and the strong feeling of 
 the mind itself in favour of Religion on the 
 one hand, and the violent cravings of pas- 
 sion on the other^ the soul must at once 
 resolve, either to give up the indulgence of 
 its appetites, or boldly deny the faith that 
 restrains them. The fact is quite the re- 
 verse. Men in general will do neither ; and 
 they have done neither from the time when 
 their first parent introduced sin into the 
 world by transgressing the commandment 
 of his God. They will neither part with 
 their Religion, nor restrain their appetites ; 
 but they will exert their best skill and abi- 
 lity to make them agree, and, by every art 
 of sophistical ingenuity, pervert the prin- 
 ciples of faith, and defile the very sources 
 of morality. Hence the various forms of 
 superstition and fanaticism ; hence the op- 
 posing sects of heathen philosophers ; hence 
 the subtle refinements of those ^' blind 
 ^^ guides, who could strain at a gnat, and 
 ^' swallow a camel^:" hence the sceptical 
 doubts of Christians, who would gladly ex- 
 cuse to themselves the sin they have a mind 
 
 P Matth. xxiii. 24. 
 
32 SERMON I. 
 
 to commit, whilst they know that the plain- 
 est declarations of the Law, and the clear- 
 est doctrines of the Gospel, forbid it. Men 
 will have a religion ; it is natural to them 
 as creatures, and relieves that feeling of 
 dependence of which they cannot be insen- 
 sible, and it is their only solace in distress : 
 but they will not restrain their passions ; 
 these must be gratified, while they have any 
 means of gratifying them, and nothing can 
 be admitted which would insist upon that 
 restraint as a necessary part of Religion. 
 It cannot therefore be surprising, if, under 
 such circumstances, we see the world over- 
 spread with perversions of the truth. They 
 owe their origin to those efforts of the hu- 
 man mind, by which it endeavours to dis- 
 cover some method of hiding from itself 
 the visible contrariety between religion and 
 vice. It wishes for both ; and it exerts all 
 the energy and all the talent it possesses, to 
 make them compatible. Not that this is a 
 deliberate act, of which the mind is sensible 
 at the time : far otherwise : it labours as 
 nuich at first to deceive itself, and is as 
 unhappily successful in that deceit, as it 
 
SERMON I. 33 
 
 can ever afterwards be in deceiving others. 
 The whole is the pitiable fruit of its cor- 
 ruption; of that unhappy perversion, which 
 gave to the baser appetites of our nature 
 the mastery over the nobler faculties of our 
 souls. But however pitiable it may be, 
 and however necessary it is thus to trace 
 error to its source in a self-deceived mind, 
 it is altogether without excuse in those to 
 whom a Divine Revelation has been com- 
 municated. Corruption cannot in any case 
 be admitted as a plea for vice ; much less, 
 when it sets itself in opposition to the de- 
 clared Will of God, and perverts the very 
 means which have been appointed for the 
 cure of itself. But this is the situation of 
 all, who have been called by the mercy of 
 God to the knowledge of the Gospel. In 
 that Gospel the Will of God has been re- 
 vealed in such clear terms, " that he may 
 " run who reads "^ ;" and no one who reads 
 can doubt what it is that God would have 
 him " do and believe to his soul's health'." 
 If indeed we wish to form a right judgment 
 of ourselves or our duty, it is to the word 
 4 Habbak. ii. 2. • Baptismal Service. 
 
 D 
 
34 SERMON I. 
 
 of God we must have recourse. It alone 
 teaches us our true condition, and discloses 
 with infalHble certainty the source of all 
 our errors and all our vices. And the end 
 for which it does so is not to upbraid us 
 with our infirnnties, or to supply us with 
 an apology for our sins, but by discovering 
 the nature and the cause of our disease, to 
 apply to it that remedy which will most 
 effectually eradicate it from our souls, and 
 by restoring us to our original innocence, 
 reinstate us in our original happiness. That 
 this is really its design, will appear, I trust, 
 in the course of the following Lectures ; a 
 design, which, if it can be illustrated in any 
 degree as it deserves, will so prove the 
 Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation, and 
 so enforce the necessity of obeying the pre- 
 cepts as well as believing the doctrines of 
 the Gosj^el, as to leave no room to hope, 
 that a sound faith can ever be consistent 
 with vicious practice. 
 
 A right understanding of this matter is 
 of vast consequence to all. I presume not 
 to think that I can add any tiling to the 
 conviction of those who liave already ex- 
 
SERMON I. 35 
 
 amined the subject with superior abilities 
 and better opportunities; but to the young 
 amongst us, and especially to those who, 
 like myself, may be destined to labour in 
 the humble but viseful sphere of Parish 
 Priests, I may perhaps be permitted to 
 say from experience, that it is of incalcu- 
 lable importance for them to form their 
 opinions on this great point with the nicest 
 discrimination, the most perfect impartial- 
 ity, and the most patient accuracy of in- 
 vestigation. Upon them and their future 
 exertions the welfare of Christ's Church 
 will, under God, mainly depend ; and in 
 order to promote that welfare in the most 
 effectual manner, it is necessary that they 
 should be not only circumspect in conduct, 
 but correct in opinion, and fortified with 
 such clear views of faith and doctrine, and 
 possessed with such sound principles of 
 moral duty and obligation, as may enable 
 them to resist the seductions, to repel the 
 attacks, and to detect the fallacies, by which 
 heresy endeavours to diffuse its poison 
 through the system of Religion, and to en- 
 list in its cause the worst passions of the 
 
 D 2 
 
86 SERMON I. 
 
 Iiuman heart. For thev will in vain endea- 
 voiir to make a salutary impression on 
 those who may be committed to their 
 charge, and who must in a great degree 
 look to them for the guidance of their opi- 
 nions, and for instruction in their duties, un- 
 less their own notions are formed with care, 
 and deeply impressed upon their minds. 
 If, indeed, it were an object becoming a 
 Minister of the Gospel, to lay himself out 
 merely to please men, and to gain the good- 
 will of his hearers, it might not be so indis- 
 pensable that he should be thoroughly in- 
 structed in the Religion he is to teach. To 
 catch the applause of an untaught or an 
 ill-taught multitude, is neither very difficult 
 nor very worthy of ambition. And on no 
 subject is it more easy than on Religion. 
 Religion is an object of interest to every 
 unsophisticated mind, and its being so is a 
 proof of its truth. But in proportion to its 
 importance is its liability to perversion. It 
 is capable of being viewed in two lights ; 
 both perfectly correct in themselves ; and, 
 when properly placed with respect to each 
 other, both jointly forming the basis of all 
 
SERMON I. 37 
 
 the real virtue and real hapjMuess that are 
 to be found amongst men : but when dis- 
 united, or disarranged, leading often to as 
 great a portion of wickedness and misery. 
 And it is against this disarrangement that 
 the public teachers of Religion should be 
 upon their guard. They should be guided 
 in the course of their instructions by the 
 course of Revelation itself; they should 
 ever make " the Law the Schoolmaster," 
 to prepare their people for " Christ'." That 
 this will not be the most popular method 
 of proceeding may be readily granted ; but 
 the Minister of the Gospel must seek for 
 truth, not popularity. To declare, indeed, 
 the glad tidings of salvation, to proclaim 
 mercy to sinners, and to represent the blood 
 of Jesus as an atonement for the worst 
 crimes of the most abandoned profligates, 
 is a task which may at once gratify the 
 feelings of the Preacher, and excite both 
 the admiration and gratitude of his hear- 
 ers : but it may not always be safe either 
 for the one or the other. No man will ap- 
 
 s Galat. iii. 24. 
 D 3 
 
38 SERMON I. 
 
 ply the consolations of Religion, with a 
 irood conscience, to himself or others, who 
 has not weighed well its obligations. He 
 who would effectually lay hold of the pre- 
 cious promises of the Gospel, must be first 
 duly instructed in the principles of moral 
 duty, and thoroughly convinced that he 
 is himself bound to adhere to them. It is 
 in this way that the instructions of Revela- 
 tion have been arranged. The first lesson 
 it teaches us is our real condition as crea- 
 tures, and the duty which results from that 
 condition. On our unhappy fall, indeed, 
 and to prevent the despair to which that fall 
 would of itself naturally lead, it pleased the 
 Almighty to make an intimation of mercy, 
 which gave a distant prospect of final re- 
 storation to his favour ; but the complete 
 development of that mercy was reserved 
 to those times, which in Scripture are em- 
 phatically called the ''last\" The inter- 
 mediate space was filled up with awful de- 
 nunciations against wickedness, and awful 
 examples of its punishment; that when the 
 
 * Isaiah ii. 2. Heb. i. 2. 
 
SERMON I. 39 
 
 hour of mercy should arrive, the world, if 
 possible, might be prepared to receive it 
 with gratitude, but too well disciplined to 
 abuse it to licentiousness. It is thus alone 
 that the glad tidings of the Gospel can 
 now be proclaimed without danger. No- 
 thing is more true, than " that Christ came 
 '' to save sinners";" and nothing is more 
 obvious, than that this great truth is capa- 
 ble of the most shocking abuse. The sin- 
 ner, who would really be benefited by it, 
 must approach it with that due prepara- 
 tion, which a right knowledge of God and 
 of himself can alone enable him to make. 
 He, who knows God and himself, will ac- 
 knowledge without difficulty his obligation 
 to obey the Law of God ; and he will be 
 well aware, that from such obligation no 
 subsequent dispensation can ever release 
 him. As the creature of God, he must be 
 bound to obey His commands as long as 
 he continues in existence. When there- 
 fore to such a person a prospect is opened 
 of obtaining pardon for his manifold trans- 
 gressions through Jesus Christ, he will be 
 
 u 1 Tim. i. 15. 
 D 4 
 
40 SERMON I. 
 
 in no danger of perverting that pardon to 
 unworthy purposes ; he will receive it with 
 gratitude, as a dispensation of unmerited 
 mercy, but he will not deceive himself with 
 an idea, that because it relieves him from 
 fear of vengeance for his past crimes, it 
 therefore gives him a licence for future ir- 
 regularity. He knows that this is impos- 
 sible ; he knows that he is under an indis- 
 soluble bond to obey the Law of God ; and 
 that though the Almighty may forgive him 
 his sins, that forgiveness can never dimi- 
 nish his obligation to obedience. Such a 
 man, while he heartily thanks God for his 
 mercy, vvill never abuse that mercy ; will 
 never think that it lets him loose from his 
 duty, or changes the relation in which he 
 stands to his Creator. And if the future 
 Pastor of the Church would preach the 
 truth in Jesus, without danger of leading 
 his people into error, it is thus that he must 
 prepare himself. He must be thoroughly 
 instructed in the whole system of Revela- 
 tion ; he must begin where that begins ; 
 he must trace it in its course, and mark 
 the steps by which the Divine dispensations 
 
SERMON I. 41 
 
 have been advanced and developed; and 
 he must not apply that last healing unction 
 of God's goodness in Christ, till it can be 
 done without the infringement of sound 
 morals, and without diminishing the au- 
 thority and obligation of the Law of God. 
 
SERMON II. 
 
 Levit. xix. 2. 
 
 Speak unto all the congregation of the children 
 of Israel, and say unto them^ Ye shall he holy : 
 for I the Lord your God am holy. 
 
 As the existence of a Supreme Being, the 
 Creator and Governor of the universe, is 
 the foundation of all Religion, so to the 
 purity of that Religion nothing is more in- 
 dispensable, than that men should have just 
 and honourable conceptions of Him, whom 
 they acknowledge as their God. It is un- 
 questionable, that men will serve God ac- 
 cording to their ideas of his nature ""; and 
 
 a Lactantius De Justitia^ p. 358. Nee est difficile do- 
 cere, cur Deorum cultores, boni et justi esse non pos- 
 sunt. Quomodo enim sanguine abstinebunt, qui colunt 
 cruentos deos, Martem et Bellonam ? quomodo aut pa- 
 rentibus parcent, qui expulsorem patris sui Joveai, aut 
 natis ex se infantibus, qui Saturnum ? quomodo pudici- 
 
44 SERMON II. 
 
 it is vain to expect, that if those ideas are 
 either mean or impure, the Religion pro- 
 duced by them should have any elevation 
 of sentiment or any holiness of practice. 
 For what is Religion ? Is it not that duty, 
 or the rule of that duty, which men are 
 bound to perform to Almighty God } It is 
 therefore of the essence of Religion, that it 
 be offered to the Supreme Being in the 
 form which may be thought most accept- 
 able to Him ; and that form will obviously 
 be thought most acceptable, which comes 
 nearest to men's ideas of his nature. This 
 is undeniable. It is indeed the rule which 
 
 tiam tuebuntur, qui colunt deam nudam et adulteram et 
 quasi apud deos prostitutam ? quomodo se a rapinis et 
 fraudibus abstinebunt, qui Mercurii furta noverunt, do- 
 centis, non fraudis esse decipere sed astutise? quomodo 
 libidines coercebunt, qui Jovem, Herculem, Liberum, 
 Apollinem, caeterosque venerantur, quorum adulteria et 
 stupra in mares et fcEminas, non tantum doctis nota 
 sunt, sed exprlmuntur etiam in theatris atque cantan- 
 tur, ut sint omnibus notiora? Possuntne inter haec ju- 
 sti esse homines, qui etiam si natura sint boni^ ab ipsis 
 tanien Diis erudiantur ad injustitiam? Ad placandum 
 enim Deum, quem colas, iis rebus opus est, quibus il- 
 ium gaudere ae delectari scias. Sic fit, ut vitam colcn- 
 tium Dcus pro qualitate nominis sui formet; quoniam 
 religiosissimus est cultus imitari." 
 
SERMON II. 45 
 
 guides men continually in their conduct 
 one towards another. If favour is to be 
 sought, or gratitude to be expressed, the 
 request and the expression will be so framed, 
 as to be most agreeable to him, to whom 
 they are to be presented. His bias will be 
 marked, and his partialities studied; and 
 from them it will be determined how he 
 can be most successfully approached. Man 
 is quite the same being in Religion as in 
 the common aifairs of life; the object of 
 his attention is changed, but he is actuated 
 by the same motives, and guided by the 
 same reasoning. Religion does not eradi- 
 cate his passions, or plant in him other pas- 
 sions than those which he natvu^ally possess- 
 es, but it restrains them within those bounds 
 beyond which they were not originally in- 
 tended to pass, and directs them into that 
 channel in which they were originally in- 
 tended to run : it does not endue him with 
 a reason different in kind from that which 
 belongs to his nature, but it enlightens and 
 purifies the faculties of his soul, and thus 
 makes him capable of better and larger 
 views. As therefore in seekincc the favour 
 
46 SERMON II. 
 
 of his fellow-creature, he will do so. in 
 the manner which he conceives may be 
 most agreeable to him, so in seeking the 
 favour of God, he will act precisely upon 
 the same principles. He will approach the 
 Almighty with that offering of duty with 
 which he thinks such a Being will be best 
 pleased ; and in petitioning for those bene- 
 fits which he may hope to receive from 
 Him, he will take care so to frame his pe- 
 tition, as to render it most likely to be well 
 received. But hovr shall he judge of this ? 
 How can he form any opinion as to what 
 is likely to be acceptable to God ? Most 
 assuredly he will form his opinion on this 
 question of Religion as he would on any 
 similar question in his common affairs ; he 
 will form it according to the ideas he en- 
 tertains of the Being whom he is to ap- 
 proach. Were he to address a fellow-crea- 
 ture, we have seen, he would consider his 
 character, whether open and benevolent, or 
 dark and churlish ; whether a friend to vir- 
 tue and justice, or easily induced to over- 
 look any instance of moral delinquency. 
 And thus will he judge of God also, and of 
 
SERMON II. 47 
 
 the service by which He may be best pro- 
 pitiated, according to the ideas he has con- 
 ceived of his nature and attributes. If 
 those ideas are pure and elevated ; if they 
 represent the Almighty to his mind, as a 
 Being holy, just, and good, perfectly right- 
 eous, and inflexible in truth, and with whom 
 no iniquity can find acceptance ; such ideas 
 cannot fail to produce a correspondent 
 effect upon the service that may be offer- 
 ed; he who thinks thus of God must serve 
 Him, if he serve Him at all, in a manner 
 some way answerable to these ideas. No 
 man could be so lost to common sense, as 
 deliberately to offer an impure sacrifice to 
 Him, who according to his own opinion 
 was in his very nature essentially opposed 
 to impurity ; he could neither hope to ob- 
 tain his future favour, nor acceptably to 
 express his own gratitude for past benefits, 
 by addressing Him in a manner which He 
 must necessarily abhor. But if, on the 
 other hand, different notions be entertained 
 of this Supreme Being; if He be repre- 
 sented to the mind as subject to passion, 
 and delighting in what is mean and vile; 
 
48 SERMON II. 
 
 if He be thought capricious and cruel, un- 
 just and deceitful, and not free even from 
 the baser appetites of men, what kind of 
 worship, and what kind of service, is likely 
 to be offered to such a Being? Surely, as 
 is the God, so will be his rites, and such 
 will be his votaries. They who serve a 
 cruel God will serve him in a cruel man- 
 ner; and it cannot be imagined, that any 
 one who thinks that the Supreme Governor 
 of the world is not averse to injustice or 
 deceit, can have any real inducement to be 
 honest, or possess any sincere regard for 
 truth. Representing Him to his own mind 
 as Supreme in power alone, which He uses 
 for the more ample gratification of his 
 own passions, he will draw near to Him in 
 the way most likely to produce an imme- 
 diate, though temporary, effect upon so 
 capricious a Being ; he will bend the knee 
 before him with all the meanness of abject 
 flattery, or sacrifice to his fancied rapacity 
 the most costly of his possessions; he will 
 " give the fruit of his body for the sin of 
 '' his soul^" though lie can have little in- 
 
 i' Micali vi. 7. 
 
SERMON II. 49 
 
 ducement to give up the sin itself, while 
 he conceives that the God he worships is 
 not free from impurity. 
 
 And not only does reason assure us, that 
 so it must be, but the best authenticated his- 
 tory informs us, that so it has been. When 
 the nations at large had in a great mea- 
 sure lost the knowledge of the true God, 
 and had multiplied to themselves such 
 counterfeit deities as best accorded with 
 the degeneracy into which they had fallen, it 
 is well known, that such as were their gods, 
 such were also their worship and service. 
 Those inhuman rites, in which innocent 
 and tender infants were sacrificed to the 
 daemons of superstition; those detestable 
 mysteries, in which carnal pollution was 
 inculcated and practised as a ceremony of 
 religion % show sufficiently to what a savage 
 barbarity, and to what shocking impurity, 
 Religion itself will degenerate, when the 
 object to which it is offered is miscon- 
 ceived and misrepresented. The heathen 
 deities were men in every respect, except 
 that they were supposed to be endued with 
 
 c Minuc. Felic. Octavius, p. 62, &c, 
 E 
 
50 SERMON II. 
 
 larger powers ; they delighted in festivities, 
 they ate, they drank, they slept, and were 
 a pattern to their votaries in every thing 
 but virtue. Heaven, as the seat of these 
 deities, seems to answer exactly to the pa- 
 radise of Mahomet, the gods of idolatry 
 appearing to be what the followers of that 
 false prophet hope to arrive at. Supersti- 
 tion, whether ancient or comparatively mo- 
 dern, is in fact still the same, founded in 
 the same erroneous conceptions of the 
 deity, and tinctured with the same alloy 
 of human passion. Whether the scene be 
 laid^ in the temples of Greece, of Rome, 
 
 d Parkhurst in wip, V. Herodotus, lib. ii. Livy, lib. 
 xxxix. 8j 9. and Maurice's Indian Antiquities. Lactant. 
 De falsa Religione, p. 79, 80, &c. But this reproach 
 of heathenism is acknowledged and notorious. And its 
 being so, affords, I think, a satisfactory reason, why, in 
 the decree which was passed in the First Council at Je- 
 rusalem, fornication was mentioned among those things 
 which at first sight seem only prohibited for a time : 
 among " pollutions of idols, things strangled, and blood;'* 
 things in themselves indifferent, and only necessary to 
 be abstained from, when they were made a part of hea- 
 then idolatry. That the main object of that decree was 
 to guard Christians against any thing like an approach 
 to a participation in the rites of Paganism, is obvious 
 from the other particulars specified. But that object 
 
SERMON 11. 51 
 
 or of India, it is equally a scene of barba- 
 rity and uncleanness, the work of dege- 
 nerate man in the service of a degraded 
 god. And wherever gross conceptions of 
 
 could not have been said to be effectually secured, nor 
 that the best means of securing it had been adopted, had 
 " fornication" not been particularly mentioned among the 
 articles prohibited. For this " fornication'' was, among 
 the heathens, a sacred rite, part of their religious ser- 
 vice; and, as the most seducing part, it was most neces- 
 sary that the new converts to Christianity should have 
 every possible warning to avoid it. Though therefore 
 fornication, as an infringement of the moral law, was 
 generally forbidden throughout the Gospel, and was for 
 ever condemned as displeasing to God, and an object of 
 his vengeance, yet, as connected with the rites of Pa- 
 ganism, it was proper that it should be specified among 
 those things which were to be avoided on account of 
 their being so connected. Nor does it really occasion 
 any difficulty, that the prohibition of some of those 
 things was temporary; because the prohibition of for- 
 nication itself, as a ceremony of heathenism, was tem- 
 porary, inasmuch as the abolition of those ceremonies 
 would do away this reason for the prohibition. Forni- 
 cation is not now forbidden In Christian countries on 
 account of its being a rite of idol worship, but because 
 it is a transgression of God's Law; nor is it in any de- 
 gree less a transgression of that Law, because the tem- 
 porary reason upon which it was prohibited in the Je- 
 rusalem decree is now ceased. See Warburton on this 
 text, who appears greatly to have magnified its diffi- 
 culty. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 SERMON 11. 
 
 the Deity shall obtain, there will imme- 
 diately follow, unless their operation be 
 checked by some external circumstances of 
 restraint, a correspondent pollution of Re- 
 ligion. Even the pure faith of our imma- 
 culate Redeemer has not been able to pre- 
 serve all its professors from this unhappy 
 corruption, as is too sadly attested by the 
 disgusting narratives of some Romish le- 
 gends, and the no less disgusting Hcen- 
 tiousness of libertine reformers ^ Idolatry 
 has indeed been ever attended with impu- 
 rity ; and when the Israelites were charged 
 with adultery, on account of their worship- 
 ping of images, there is no doubt that, 
 though the language be figurative as ap- 
 plied to idolatry, the crime was in the 
 transgressors attended with a literal in- 
 fringement of the rules of chastity. And 
 what can be more natural ? What is idola- 
 try, but an attempt to subject the spiritual 
 essence of the Godhead, not only to the 
 infirmities of humanity, but to all the pas- 
 
 c Medc's Paraphrase on St. Peter's Prophecy, p. ii. 
 c. 2. and Sleidan's Commentaries, book xi. Spencer de 
 Lcgibus Hebraeorum, lib. ii. c. 3. 
 
SERMON II. 53 
 
 sions and the vices to which we feel our- 
 selves obnoxious ? Having once degraded 
 our Creator from his throne in heaven, and 
 brought Him to a level with our senses, 
 we have little difficulty in supposing, that 
 his pleasures must be the same as ours, 
 and that He must delight in what we find 
 agreeable to ourselves; till at la&t our ideas 
 of Him are sunk in the lowest carnality and 
 the most debasing superstition. 
 
 Such and so great is the importance, 
 that men should be impressed with just, 
 pure, and elevated notions of God. With- 
 out this, it is in vain to expect that purity 
 of Religion can be preserved ; and it will 
 be one infallible mark, whereby to judge 
 of the moral tendency of any religious 
 system, to ascertain what are the notions 
 which it inculcates respecting the Divine 
 Nature. In this every pretended revela- 
 tion has failed, the obscurity or grossness 
 of its communications betraying plainly 
 the source from which they were derived ; 
 and showing, by the deformity of the copy, 
 that the prototype was man in all his sin 
 and infirmity : and it is in this, that the 
 
 E 3 
 
54 SERMON II. 
 
 true Revelation is preeminently excellent 
 and divine. The God, who has indeed 
 been pleased to reveal the knowledge of 
 Himself from heaven, and to provide for 
 the transmission of that knowledge in writ- 
 ten documents of undoubted authenticity, 
 is essentially a holy God, and He is perfect 
 in holiness; this is his name, and, if I may 
 so speak, this is his character. By holi- 
 ness^ is meant peculiarly a separation from 
 
 f See Parkhurst and Cocceius. Vitringa in Isaiam vl. 
 3. has some excellent observations on this subject. 
 How great a blessing it is to be thus clearly and accu- 
 rately informed upon this important point will easily 
 appear to any unprejudiced mind. That the opinions of 
 heathen philosophers were vague and uncertain respect- 
 ing God and religion, we have the acknowledgment of 
 perhaps the most extensively learned man amongst them ; 
 for he had the advantage of the labours of all those who 
 had gone before him, and he had made use of them. 
 But what was the result ? Who can tell, at this day, 
 what was that man's real opinion ? He confesses, that 
 upon this subject the best informed disagreed more 
 than upon any other whatever; that it was a most diffi- 
 cult and obscure question, and afforded a good argu- 
 ment in favour of the academic maxim of withholding 
 assent from uncertain things. The very being of God 
 is stated as matter of doubt, though there are some very 
 forcible arguments, in the most beautiful language, in 
 support of that position; and Cicero himself seems so 
 
SERMON II. 55 
 
 everything that can in any way defile; and 
 perfect holiness is a perfect freedom from 
 
 far to have made up his mind. But when the speakers 
 in that interesting dialogue (De Natura Deorum) come 
 to the point of quales Dii dnt, they are confessedly in- 
 volved in an impenetrable obscurity and irretrievable 
 confusion. Their forms, their institutions, their mode 
 of living, are points clearly beyond the decision of the 
 philosophers; and it is matter of doubt to them, whether 
 their gods interfere in human affairs at all or not. And 
 these points are clearly undecided, after all the investi- 
 gation bestowed upon them by the most able inquirers 
 of that time. True, there are some splendid sentences. 
 " Quid enim potest esse," says one, " tarn apertum 
 " tamque perspicuum, cum coelum suspeximus, coele- 
 ^^ stiaque contemplati sumus, quam esse aliquod numen 
 " prsestantissimae mentis, quo haec regantur ?" To a 
 Christian soul these words convey a clear and sublime 
 idea of the Supreme Being, whom he knows and serves; 
 and they do so, because he knows Him from other 
 sources; but the person who spoke those words had 
 no such distinct meaning when he uttered them. For 
 what does he say afterwards ? " Cum talem esse deum 
 " certa notione animi praesentiamus, primum ut sit 
 " animans, deinde ut in omni natura nihil eo sit prse- 
 '^ stantius, ad banc prtesensionem notionemque no- 
 " stram nihil video quod potius accommodem, quam 
 " ut primum hunc ipsum mundum, quo nihil fieri ex- 
 " cellentius potest, animantem et deum judicem !'* And 
 are these the precious instructions which are to set 
 aside the divine oracles ? Elegant they are, and that 
 they were not correct was the misfortune rather than 
 the fault of those who delivered them ; but the man, 
 
 E 4 
 
56 SERMON II. 
 
 any the least possible mixture of what is iu 
 any degree impure. Thus the word " holy/' 
 
 who can prefer them to the inestimable revelations of 
 divine truth, has in fact no sincere regard for that reve- 
 lation, and knows not the value of sound instruction in 
 religion. 
 
 An eloquent Father, who had diligently studied and 
 understood the writings of the Roman philosopher, at 
 least as well as any of his modern admirers, and was as 
 sensible of the charms of his language and the acuteness 
 of his mind, was led by that study to a very different 
 view of this subject. He saw plainly, that however 
 able this great author might be as to the discovery of 
 error in the opinions of others, he had no certain truth 
 on which his own mind could rest with satisfaction. 
 *' Quid prodest," says he, " ad vulgus et ad homines 
 " imperitos hoc modo concionari, cum videamus etiam 
 " doctos et prudentes viros, cum religionum intelligant 
 " vanitatem, nihilo minus tamen in iis ipsis, quae dam- 
 '' nant, colendis, nescio qua pravitate perstare ? Intel- 
 " ligebat Cicero falsa esse, quae homines adorarent : 
 " nam cum multa dixisset quae ad eversionem religio- 
 " num valerent, ait tamen non esse ilia viilgo disputandaf 
 " ne susceptas publice reUgiones dispiitatio talis ejcstin- 
 " o-uat. Quid de eo facies, qui cum errare se sentiat, 
 
 ^' ultro se ipse in lapides impingat? Quid igitur pro- 
 
 '' fuit vidisse te veritatem quam nee defensurus esses 
 
 " nee secuturus? Tmpugnatae sunt igitur a pruden- 
 
 " tioribus falsfe religiones, quia sentiebant esse falsas; 
 " sed non est inducta vera, quia qualis aut ubi esset, 
 *' ignorabant. Itaque sic habucrunt, tanquam nulla 
 " essct omnino, quia veram non potcrant invcnire : et 
 " CO modo inciderunt in crrorcm multo majorem, quam 
 
SERMON II. 57 
 
 as applied to men, signifies their being set 
 apart and consecrated to the service of 
 
 " illi qui falsam tenebant. Nam isti fragilium cultores, 
 " quamvis sint inepti, quia coelestia constituant in rebus 
 *' corruptibilibus atque terrenis, aliquid tamen sapientise 
 " retinent ; et habere veniam possunt, quia summum ho- 
 " minis officium etsi non reipsa tamen proposito tenent ; 
 *' siquidem hominum atque mutorum vel solum vel certe 
 '' maximum in religione discrimen est. Hi vero quanto 
 " fuerunt sapientiores, quod intellexerunt falsse religio- 
 '' nis errorem, tanto facti sunt stultiores quod esse ali- 
 '' quam veram non putaverunt. 
 
 ^' Summa rei haec est : imperiti et insipientes falsas 
 
 " religiones pro veris habent, quia neque veram sciunt 
 
 " neque falsam intelligunt ; prudentiores autem, quia 
 
 " veram nesciunt, aut in iis, quas falsas esse intelli- 
 
 " gunt, perseverant, ut aliquid tenere videantur; aut 
 
 " omnino nihil coiunt, ne incidant in errorem ; cum 
 
 " idipsum maximi sit erroris, vitam pecudum sub figura 
 
 '' hominis imitari. Falsum quidem intelligere est qui- 
 
 " dem sapientise, sed humanae, ultra hunc gradum pro- 
 
 " cedi ab homine non potest. Itaque multi philoso- 
 
 *' phorum religiones, ut docui, sustulerunt; verum au- 
 
 " tem scire divinse est sapientise : homo autem per se 
 
 ^' ipsum pervenire ad banc scientiam non potest, nisi 
 
 " doceatur a Deo. Ita philosophi, quod summum fuit 
 
 '' humanse sapientise adsecuti sunt, ut intelligerent quid 
 
 "non sit; illud adsequi nequiverunt, ut dicerent quid 
 
 " sit. Nota Ciceronis vox est, Utinam tam facile vera 
 
 " invenire possem, quam falsa convincere.'' Lact. De 
 
 Origine Erroris. 
 
 I shall not pursue this subject further; but I cannot 
 help contrasting the different views and sensations of 
 
58 SERMON II. 
 
 God ; and though in this case it often has 
 no more than a relative meaning, yet that 
 arises, not from the intention of Him for 
 whose service they are separated, but from 
 the infirmity of man, who fails in properly 
 fulfilling that intention. When men are 
 separated to the service of the Almighty, 
 that very separation implies and requires a 
 renunciation of every thing that can offend 
 the purity of Him before whom they then 
 more immediately stand. I mention this 
 now merely to state the idea of holiness as 
 a freedom from whatever can pollute, a 
 separation from every thing impure. Such 
 is our imperfection, that we cannot unfold 
 our conceptions of the attributes of God 
 
 Lucretius and St. Paul upon this momentous question. 
 The former exclaims, 
 
 O miseras hominum menteis ! O pectora coeca ! 
 Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis 
 
 Degitur hoc aevi, quodcunque est ! 
 
 and there he stops in despair. The latter, as to him- 
 self, has nearly the same expression of misery, but 
 checked and corrected by a feeling of support and com- 
 fort, which gave him the most animating assurance of 
 hope : TaXotiTrMpog eyoo avSpconos' rig fxs pucsron ex too (Tm- 
 ju^aroc Tou Qavurou tovtov ; Ku^apKTTw too 0£a; 5ia 'IrjcroD Xpi- 
 (TToD ToD Kypjou ^/jtwv. Rom. vii. 24, 25. 
 
SERMON 11. 59 
 
 without the use of terms, which can be ex- 
 plained only by their bearing on human 
 institutions. The holiness of God, and the 
 holiness of man, even when real, are in- 
 deed at an infinite distance from each other; 
 but it is only by considering the latter, and 
 opening the signification of the term by 
 which it is expressed, that we come to have 
 a clear idea of the former. Thus we learn, 
 that as holiness implies the separation of 
 man from every thing unclean to the ser- 
 vice of his Creator, it must in the Creator 
 himself import an absolute freedom from 
 the least shadow of impurity. And in this 
 sense we may truly say, that holiness is the 
 perfection of God ; for as it signifies a total 
 exclusion of every thing that can defile, 
 and as every aberration from rectitude does 
 defile, so it must necessarily comprehend 
 in its idea every moral perfection that the 
 mind of man can possibly conceive. Jus- 
 tice, benevolence, and truth, are essentially 
 included in the holiness of God, because 
 iniquity and oppression and falsehood de- 
 file as much as carnality itself It is a fre- 
 quent accusation of the cruelty and injus- 
 
60 SERMON II. 
 
 tice of the Israelites, that " the land was 
 "■ defiled with blood^/' the blood of inno- 
 cent victims unjustly shed by violence and 
 oppression. When therefore holiness is 
 put alone as the distinguishing perfection 
 of the Almighty, it must not be conceived 
 as implying spiritual purity alone, but as 
 comprehending all the moral attributes of 
 the Deity; and when in the text we are 
 commanded to be holy, because God is 
 holy, we are not to suppose that we can 
 at all answer the end of this precept, if we 
 attempt to separate truth and righteous- 
 ness from piety and purity. God there- 
 fore, who is perfect in holiness, is perfect 
 also injustice, truth, and goodness; and it 
 is then we have correct ideas of his nature, 
 when we conceive all his moral perfections 
 to be equally essential and coexisting in 
 the same infinite force, and the same inde- 
 fectible splendour. 
 
 It will become us therefore to consider 
 with deep attention, how clearly and inva- 
 riably this character of holiness is ascribed 
 
 g Ps. cvi. 38, 39. Is. lix. 3. Sam. iv. 14. Ez. ix. 9. 
 Numb. XXXV. 33. 
 
SERMON 11. 61 
 
 to Almighty God in the Scriptures of truth, 
 and how strongly the moral tendency of 
 the Divine Revelation therein contained is 
 enforced and illustrated by this circum- 
 stance. Without this, we shall neither un- 
 derstand ourselves, nor can we properly re- 
 present to others, the God whom we adore, 
 or the Religion which we profess. 
 
 The numerous texts both of the Old and 
 New Testament, in which the holiness of 
 God is asserted, will readily occur to the 
 minds of those who now hear me, and it 
 must be unnecessary to specify or produce 
 them. The Scripture does indeed in such 
 unequivocal terms represent the Almighty 
 as " the righteous Lord, who loveth right- 
 *^ eousness and hateth iniquity^;'' who 
 ^' hath respect to the humble and meek, 
 " but resisteth the proud and contentious','' 
 and whom none can be permitted to be- 
 hold but '^ the pure in heart ^/' that its de- 
 lineation of the Divine attributes must at 
 oilce be admitted as in the highest degree 
 just and moral. Nor ought it to be dis- 
 
 ^ Psalm xi. 5 — 7. ^ Psalm cxxxviii. 6. Prov. iii. 34. 
 James iv. 6. ^^ Matlh. v. 8. 
 
62 SERMON II. 
 
 missed without reflection ; it should be 
 traced to its consequences, and suffered to 
 produce its adequate effect upon our opin- 
 ions as to other points of rehgious behef 
 and practice. For as it is most certain, 
 that such as our opinion of God is, such 
 will be, not only our regard for his service, 
 but the complexion and character of that 
 service, it is of the last importance that the 
 idea of God's holiness should be well and 
 deeply impressed upon our minds. And 
 it can be so impressed only by considering 
 carefully and attentively that explanation 
 of this great subject which is presented to 
 us through the whole body of Scripture. 
 I say the whole, because that alone can 
 give us any adequate idea of God's moral 
 character as displayed in the government 
 of mankind. Of that government, which 
 has for its object the state of man in this 
 world and the next, the Scripture may be 
 considered as the history ; a history, as far 
 as we are concerned to know it, complete, 
 if taken together, and completely illustrat- 
 ing the Divine economy of providence and 
 grace, but if contemplated in parts, liable 
 
SERMON 11. 63 
 
 undoubtedly to the errors and misconcep- 
 tions of all partial views. But looking at 
 the whole of the Divine proceedings, from 
 the first creation of man to his final admis- 
 sion to the New Jerusalem, we shall see 
 clearly, that our Almighty and Omniscient 
 Maker has exhibited throughout in the 
 brightest colours the portraiture of his own 
 righteousness, has acted from beginning to 
 end, as we would say, upon moral prin- 
 ciples, and stamped every transaction with 
 the impress of his unfailing integrity. 
 '^ When the morning stars sang together, 
 '* and the sons of God shouted for joy V' 
 because a new world had sprung up at the 
 command of the Almighty, they had reason 
 to exult and to praise its all-wise Creator. 
 His new creation was fair and lovely ; for 
 it was formed in righteousness and inno- 
 cence ; and as yet no taint of sin had in- 
 fected its purity, or embittered its happi- 
 ness. All was unmixed joy, because all 
 was unmixed goodness. Upon every thing 
 in creation was written " Holiness to the 
 ** Lord*"'," and upon every thing He be- 
 
 ' Job xxxviii. 7. "^ Exod. xxviii. 36. 
 
64 SERMON II. 
 
 stowed the fulness of his Divine blessing. 
 And the blessing was bestowed upon the 
 creature because it was good. The good- 
 ness indeed was derived from the same 
 source as the blessing, and therefore it is 
 no doubt true, that in thus rendering his 
 own creatures happy, the Almighty reward- 
 ed in them his own gifts of grace and good- 
 ness. But He who gave both, decreed that 
 they should always go together; and, in 
 conformity to his own essential holiness 
 and ineffable happiness, decreed that de- 
 rived happiness should be attached also to 
 derived holiness. And this He declared, 
 before that derived holiness had been im- 
 paired by sin, announcing to man in the 
 very first communication of his Will, that 
 the loss of his integrity would be attended 
 with the loss also of the blessings which he 
 enjoyed. The promises and the threaten- 
 ings, the rewards and the punishments of 
 God, were from the beginning thus clearly 
 annexed to innocence and guilt respective- 
 ly : while his favour was confined exclu- 
 sively to the former, his displeasure was as 
 plainly denounced against the latter. And 
 
SERMON 11. 65 
 
 when, by the unhappy fall of our first pa- 
 rents, guilt did contaminate a world which 
 the voice of its Omniscient Creator had 
 before pronounced perfectly '^ good"," the 
 change which had been threatened imme- 
 diately followed. Its Almighty Governor 
 could not withhold the punishment, which 
 his infinite justice necessarily awarded to 
 the guilty. The world had become wick- 
 ed; and it was requisite to show, that the 
 unavoidable consequence of wickedness 
 was misery. The honour of God's attri- 
 butes required this vindication of their es- 
 sential rectitude; his righteousness and ho- 
 liness demanded to be cleared from the 
 imputation of favouring the introduction 
 of sin into the world. And they were vin- 
 dicated before men and angels. The agents 
 in this unhappy transgression of Divine 
 law were put under a curse proportioned 
 to their several degrees of guilt, and ba- 
 nished from the presence of God, who is 
 the only source of good, natural and moral. 
 The whole creation was made subject to 
 <c vanity *"'' on their account; no longer 
 
 n Gen. i. 31. » Rom. viii. 20. 
 
 F 
 
66 SERMON II. 
 
 preserved in its original integrity, no longer 
 constant in its motions or productions, no 
 longer wearing the same uniform appear- 
 ance of peace and harmony, but obnoxious 
 to decay, and perpetually fluctuating ; de- 
 ceiving the hopes of man with delusive pro- 
 mises of enjoyment, and alarming his fears 
 with portentous threatenings of ruin and 
 devastation ; and affording to the wisest of 
 human preachers, who had tried and ex- 
 amined the best of its proffered advantages, 
 cause to exclaim at last, that all was '^ va- 
 '' nity and vexation of spirit p," unsound 
 and hollow, unstable and uncertain. 
 
 But if God on the very first departure 
 from virtue took care thus to vindicate his 
 own attributes, He has taken no less care 
 to manifest that vindication, and to support 
 it, in the whole of his transactions with 
 mankind, through all their generations from 
 Adam to the present day. In profane his- 
 tory indeed this is not so distinctly seen ; 
 because, though the interference of Divine 
 Providence was often displayed in a very 
 remarkable manner, yet the compilers of 
 
 P Eccles. i. 14. 
 
SERMON 11. 67 
 
 that history, being mere uninspired men, 
 and ignorant besides of true theology, could 
 not interpret the providential bearing of 
 the events which they recorded; and there- 
 fore the particular instances of God's ha- 
 tred of vice and regard for virtue are not 
 always brought so clearly under our notice. 
 And yet, whoever shall read, with a mind 
 properly disposed and duly prepared by 
 moral tuition, even this account of the rise 
 and progress, the decline and fall of the 
 various empires, which one after another 
 have exercised dominion on the earth, will 
 see and acknowledge, that they rose by 
 virtue, and fell by vice ; thus affording a 
 plain attestation, that there is a God who 
 ruleth in the heavens, and that that God is 
 just. This appears plain even on a super- 
 ficial view of the records of mankind, as 
 exhibited by the ordinary historians of hu- 
 man affairs. Nor will it lessen the weight 
 of this testimony to God's moral govern- 
 ment, and the manifest interference which 
 it implies in favour of moral rectitude, to 
 say, that the success and failure of these 
 nations was rather the natural result of 
 
 F 2 
 
68 SERMON II. 
 
 their virtue and vice respectively, than any 
 reward or punishment assigned by the judg- 
 ment of God. For allowing this in a cer- 
 tain degree, yet must it be acknowledged 
 by all who own any providential superin- 
 tendance, that it was the ordinance of God 
 which originally appointed this natural con- 
 nection between virtue and prosperity on 
 the one hand, and vice and adversity on 
 the other. It should ever be remembered, 
 that both natural and moral good take their 
 rise from the same source, and therefore it 
 was to be expected that they should flow 
 in one united stream. But however true it 
 is, that virtue is generally attended with 
 ultimate success, and vice for the most part 
 involved in ruin and destruction, still it is 
 evident, that in this world it is not always 
 and invariably so, which it would be, if the 
 one necessarily resulted from the other. 
 Originally, no doubt, this connection was 
 certain and infallible, and the immutable 
 justice of the Divine intention will at last 
 be made apparent to the universe ; but the 
 truth is, sin has brought difficulty and con- 
 fusion into every thing that concerns the 
 
SERMON 11. 69 
 
 present state of man. When human virtue 
 ceased to be perfect and steady, human 
 happiness became broken and inconstant. 
 It is this, that by its own real fluctuations 
 has introduced seeming inequalities into 
 the proceedings of Divine Providence. God 
 might fairly address the whole race of men 
 as He once addressed the house of Israel ; 
 '' Are not my ways equal .^ are not your 
 *' ways unequal P?" Surely it must be con- 
 fessed, that the ways of man, even when 
 he endeavours to order them aright, are 
 most evidently '' unequal," and therefore 
 he should neither be surprised nor offend- 
 ed, if, being thus unsteady in his integrity, 
 he is rewarded with a success that partakes 
 of his own defectibility. Rather should he 
 bless God for his mercy, in thus conde- 
 scending to notice a being so little worthy 
 of his regard, and who had so justly merit- 
 ed his displeasure ! The imperfection and 
 unsteadiness of human virtue must be frank- 
 ly acknowledged by the stoutest advocate 
 for the excellency of our nature ; and it 
 must be clear, that imperfect and unsteady 
 
 P Ezek. xviii. 29. 
 F 3 
 
70 SERMON II. 
 
 virtue can claim no precise reward from a 
 God, who is Himself perfectly and uni- 
 formly just: a point this, which should, I 
 think, be considered more than it is. In 
 discussing the dispensations of Providence % 
 authors sometimes appear to argue, as if 
 men were perfectly virtuous or entirely vi- 
 cious, and therefore that God is bound to 
 reward the one, and punish the other, ac- 
 cording to the strict measure of merit and 
 demerit. Alas ! if the Almighty had pro- 
 ceeded in this way, and weighed the claims 
 of nations and individuals in the balance of 
 the heavenly sanctuary, no flesh could have 
 lived before Him, much less could any 
 man or society of men have claimed a re- 
 ward for their merits. If God had reward- 
 ed only that virtue to which a reward was 
 due. He could have found no object of his 
 bounty among the sons of men. In con- 
 descending to extend his care over the de- 
 scendants of a fallen creature, and to en- 
 courage their feeble endeavours at a con- 
 
 <l Sherlock on Providence, who has with great clear- 
 ness vindicated the justice and holiness of God's go- 
 vernment of the world. 
 
SERMON 11. 71 
 
 formity to his Will, by bestowing upon 
 them some marks of his approbation, the 
 Omnipotent Creator exercised a mercy 
 and a forbearance to which the creatures 
 themselves were no way entitled. The 
 source of that forbearance we must seek 
 elsewhere : but impartial reason will tell 
 us, that if an almighty and all-righteous 
 God is pleased to bestow any token of his 
 favour upon the imperfect virtue of those, 
 who have otherwise incurred his displea- 
 sure by transgression, it must proceed from 
 his mercy, not their right, from his com- 
 passion, not their merit. And yet that He 
 was just, he showed clearly, by giving, in 
 general, success to virtue, and crushing, 
 sooner or later, the attempts of vice; though 
 He still reserved to Himself the right of 
 marking the imperfection of human inte- 
 grity, by stamping its reward with the same 
 unsteadiness and imbecility. 
 
 But it is in the pages of Divine truth 
 that the holiness and righteousness of God 
 are seen in their own unclouded splendor, 
 and free from that obscurity, which more 
 or less attends all the reasonings of men 
 
 F 4 
 
72 SERMON II. 
 
 on the ways of their Almighty Creator. 
 There we have the history of his proceed- 
 ings given by Himself, and He has fre- 
 quently condescended to assign the reasons 
 upon which those proceedings were found- 
 ed ; and in both is contained the most sa- 
 tisfactory and undeniable demonstration of 
 his righteousness. We have already had 
 occasion to remark, how this was exempli- 
 fied in the original happiness of the world, 
 and its subsequent misery. It is equally 
 visible, as the stream of the sacred history 
 descends. In that first awful crime, which 
 followed the corruption of our nature, and 
 so strongly attested it by the barbarous shed- 
 ding of a brother's blood, God showed at 
 once, and in a manner which ought to have 
 conveyed the knowledge of his justice to 
 every subsequent generation, that cruelty 
 and malice and envy should find no favour 
 with Him. The cry of murdered inno- 
 cence was heard in the court of heaven, 
 and its call for vengeance received instant 
 attention ; the wretched perpetrator of so 
 foul a crime was marked with a brand of 
 eternal infamy, and banished from the pre- 
 
SERMON II. 73 
 
 sence of his Maker. The death which he 
 had deserved was indeed delayed, that by 
 the sight of one upon whom the wrath of 
 heaven had so visibly rested, the repetition 
 of this dreadful offence might, if possible, 
 be for ever prevented among the sons of 
 men. 
 
 But visible and awful as this visitation 
 was, and known as it must have been to 
 the descendants of this wretched object of 
 Divine indignation, it yet failed of its effect; 
 it failed to correct the innate depravity of 
 the human heart, or to stop the torrent of 
 iniquity which flowed from that polluted 
 source. As men multiplied upon earth, 
 iniquity abounded more and more; the in- 
 crease of the one kept pace with the in- 
 crease of the other. And could a right- 
 eous God bear with it, or did He bear with 
 it? Not only the Scripture of truth, but 
 the scattered remnants of tradition among 
 the heathen, and the face of visible nature 
 at the present day, assure us, that He did 
 not; that the world, which He himself had 
 made, and blessed because it was good, 
 He cursed and destroyed because it was 
 
74 SERMON II. 
 
 wicked. But as He was just in this de- 
 struction of the wicked, so He was no less 
 just in the preservation of a remnant, who 
 were not unworthy of his favour. Amidst 
 the general wreck of every thing that was 
 good in man, He found one individual who 
 had held fast his integrity, who at least 
 might be considered as comparatively right- 
 eous, and to whom the mercy of God 
 might be extended without impeachment 
 of his justice. Him therefore He preserv- 
 ed, and with him He again made a cove- 
 nant, and to him He again gave a law, by 
 which, if it might be, his posterity might 
 be taught the true line of the«r duty, and 
 might avoid those crimes of barbarous cru- 
 elty, and those foul stains of abominable 
 carnality, which had brought upon their 
 ancestors a punishment so awfully destruc- 
 tive. But even this failed. Human cor- 
 ruption broke through every restraint, and 
 triumphed in contempt of the Div^ine mer- 
 cy, and in defiance of Divine justice. A- 
 gain iniquity increased with the increase of 
 mankind ; and again it became necessary, 
 that a check should be given to the spread- 
 
SERMON II. 75 
 
 ing evil by some peculiar demonstration of 
 the Divine displeasure. The confusion of 
 tongues at the building of Babel, and the 
 dispersion and disunion which followed ; 
 the call of Abraham, which seemed to im- 
 ply at least a temporary rejection of the 
 rest of mankind ; the destruction of Sodom 
 and Gomorrah by the immediate interpo- 
 sition of heaven, and no less the saving of 
 Lot, because he was righteous, by so re- 
 markable a distinction of his case from the 
 mass of those who deserved to perish ; the 
 deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt, 
 with their subsequent government and dis- 
 cipline in the land of Canaan and in Baby- 
 lon ; and still more clearly, the whole scheme 
 of the Gospel in all its parts and in all its 
 bearings; exhibit throughout our Almighty 
 Maker as governing his creatures on the 
 plainest principles of moral righteousness ; 
 indicating his own holiness by the clearest 
 expressions of his hatred to sin ; and be- 
 stowing upon the imperfect virtue of men 
 those marks of his approbation, which 
 might assure them, that the only way to 
 please Him and to secure his favour was 
 
76 SERMON II. 
 
 by a sincere obedience to his Law, and by 
 the cultivation of that virtue which his Law 
 was intended to teach and to enforce. 
 
 Such then are the strong lines, in which 
 Almighty God has written the character of 
 his own holiness in the Scripture of truth. 
 If I have succeeded at all in giving a just 
 view of this subject, it will appear of the 
 last importance, that it should be correct- 
 ly understood. To know God is the first 
 thing in Religion; and to know Him aright 
 we must conceive of Him as He is. But 
 not only is this necessary to a speculative 
 knowledge of the Deity, it is essential to a 
 due performance of his worship, and of all 
 the duties which are required at our hands. 
 As we think of God, so likewise shall we 
 think of his service, and of the necessity of 
 our serving Him at all. Human ingenuity 
 is quick enough in discovering any defect 
 in the foundations of Religion, however 
 slow it may be in comprehending its doc- 
 trines, or admitting its precepts. It is ever 
 on the watch for an excuse for its own er- 
 rors, or some countenance to its corrupt 
 propensities. If therefore God be so re- 
 
SERMON IL 77 
 
 presented, as to afford any the least pre- 
 tence for supposing, that He may be satis- 
 fied with a service less pure or less punctu- 
 ally performed than He has himself de- 
 clared irr his word; if any thing of human 
 weakness or human caprice be attributed 
 to Him ; if it be imagined, that while to 
 some He is so merciful as to overlook their 
 worst transgressions, to others He is so 
 cruel as to punish their slightest failings 
 with eternal damnation ; whoever has im- 
 bibed any of these sentiments will undoubt- 
 edly make use of them to quiet his con- 
 science in the commission of sin, and ex- 
 cuse to himself the neglect of his duty. 
 How it can happen, that with so much 
 clear and positive information to the con- 
 trary, any notions of this kind should be 
 entertained among Christians, may well be 
 matter of astonishment and regret. Chris- 
 tians are, in strict propriety, the children 
 of light, and it shines around them with 
 meridian splendor; but we know, that the 
 light may shine in a dark place, and that 
 the darkness will not comprehend it. We 
 do not err for want of the means of know- 
 
78 SERMON 11. 
 
 ledge, certainly; but what then? The greater 
 our means are, the greater is the sin ot our 
 error. And that we do err is beyond ques- 
 tion. We profess to serve a Holy God, 
 and yet we hope to please Him without 
 holiness. The Revelation which He has 
 made of his Will, and in which He has 
 stamped in visible characters the impress 
 of his own integrity, is yet so far misunder- 
 stood and misrepresented, as to become to 
 many, not what its Divine Author intend- 
 ed it, an instrument of making them better, 
 but a mean of lulling the conscience asleep, 
 of healing its wounds slightly, and speaking 
 peace to the sinner, when there is no solid 
 ground of peace to his mind. Though the 
 Almighty has declared in express terms, 
 that He is a God of righteousness, purity, 
 and holiness; though in all his dealings 
 with mankind He has, by his promises and 
 threatenings, by his rewards and punish- 
 ments, shown the most unequivocal hatred 
 of vice, and the most sincere regard for vir- 
 tue ; yet are there those who will not see, 
 that his Revelation is designed for the mo- 
 ral improvement of man, but chaw from it 
 
SERMON 11. 79 
 
 excuses for their sin, and apologies for their 
 iniquity. But surely, under whatever dis- 
 guise this error may be concealed, it can 
 arise from nothing but a love of sin, che- 
 rished and indulged in the heart. The cha- 
 racter of Divine Revelation is too strongly 
 marked to admit of any but a wilful per- 
 version of its truths in support of criminal 
 conduct. It has some things which possi- 
 bly we cannot understand ; but it has no- 
 thing, which an honest man can mistake 
 as showing any favour to vice. The God, 
 whom it reveals, is revealed as infinitely ho- 
 ly, just, and true ; and the Religion, which 
 it teaches, partakes of the same holiness, is 
 invested with the same mantle of justice and 
 the same robe of purity. Coming from the 
 fountain of goodness, and professing to lead 
 men thither, it must, in reason, and it does, 
 in fact, carry with it no small portion of 
 the goodness from which it emanated, and 
 has in all its provisions a direct tendency 
 to plant and to cherish a love of real virtue 
 in those who duly receive and faithfully 
 obey its instructions. 
 
SERMON III. 
 
 Gen. i. 27. 
 
 So God created man in his own image, in the 
 image of' God created He him. 
 
 We have already seen how absolutely 
 necessary it is, in order to form correct 
 ideas of Religion, that we should have 
 proper notions of that Supreme Being to 
 whom religious service is due : it is in the 
 next place of great importance to under- 
 stand the nature of man"", by whom that 
 
 ^ Since writing this Discourse, I have had an oppor- 
 tunity of consulting the learned Bishop Bull's Treatise 
 on the State of Man before the Fall. The reader will 
 of course find there much valuable matter, with the opin- 
 ions of the ancient Fathers, laboriously collected; but 
 I cannot help thinking that the excellent author has 
 admitted some distinctions suited rather to our present 
 than our original condition. Where all was from God, 
 and not yet impaired by man's sin, it seems difficult to 
 understand the difference between natural and superna- 
 tural. 
 
 G 
 
82 SERMON III. 
 
 service is to be paid ; to know, with as 
 much precision as can be attained, what 
 are his propensities and capacities, what 
 are his relations, what the end of his be- 
 ing, and how he is fitted to answer that 
 end. For as the duty of every creature 
 must be suited to the capacities and pro- 
 pensities with which it has been really en- 
 dowed by its Maker, so those capacities 
 being known will materially assist us in as- 
 certaining the duty. And to comprehend 
 this in any satisfactory degree, it is requi- 
 site that we should be inforuied of his ori- 
 gin. For that only is the true nature of 
 man, as of every other being, with which 
 he was originally invested by the hand of 
 Him, who bestowed his existence upon 
 him. If in any thing that nature has been 
 corrupted or depraved ; if it has been in 
 any degree weakened in its powers, or dark- 
 ened in its perceptions, if its propensities 
 have been perverted, or its affections de- 
 based, the change thus unhappily pro- 
 duced, though it unfits man for the per- 
 formance of his duty, can by no means be 
 allowed to contract the extent of that duty, 
 
SERMON III. 83 
 
 or diminish the obligation to its discharge. 
 The duty which God imposed, because He 
 had given man powers commensurate to 
 its performance, cannot be lessened merely 
 because man has by his own fault lost those 
 powers. And therefore all reasoning from 
 capacities so weakened, and propensities 
 so perverted, will infallibly lead into error, 
 or stop short of the truth. For the true 
 measure of man's duty being that which is 
 commensurate to his real nature, and his 
 real nature being that alone with which he 
 was impressed at his original creation, any 
 delineation of his duty, which is formed 
 from a view of his impaired powers and 
 debased affections, must come far short of 
 a just representation of what he is required 
 to do, that he may answer the end of his 
 being. And hence we may see clearly the 
 reason^ why some modern writers on ethics, 
 
 b Conybeare's Defence of Revealed Religion, p. 248, 
 &c. where the learned Bishop shows the defectiveness 
 and obscurity of the scheme of moral duties which he is 
 considering. But I must take leave to observe, that, 
 defective and obscure as it may be^ it clearly discovers 
 the source from which all that is valuable in it was de- 
 rived. For it lays a clear foundation of morals in reli- 
 
 G 2 
 
84 SERMON 111. 
 
 who have been willing to set aside the au- 
 thority of Scripture, and to deduce the rule 
 
 gion; a thing which none of the philosophers, much 
 less the common herd of mankind, were able to do be- 
 fore the promulgation of Christianity. That is most 
 true, which the learned Calmet has remarked in his 
 preface to the Book of Wisdom, that " in the writings 
 " of the heathen philosophers it has but little concern 
 " or connection with religion and the practice of real 
 «« virtue." " Plato," says Lactantius, " multa de uno 
 " Deo locutus est, a quo ait constitutum esse mundum, 
 " sed nihil de religione." And how did it happen, that 
 this author did that, and represented it as so easy to be 
 done, which that prince of philosophers could not do ? 
 Common sense and common honesty, and a very small 
 share of modesty, would have compelled him to own, 
 that he owed his better success in the delineation of 
 man's duty to the better instructions he had received. 
 He had been catechised in the Christian religion, how- 
 ever much he might affect to despise it, and there he 
 had learnt that piety was the basis of morals ; there he 
 had learnt to make that threefold division of human 
 duty which the Apostle had plainly explained to the 
 disciples of Christ, but which no mere master of philo- 
 sophy had ever presumed to attempt. It was only when 
 h XP'-P^i '^^^ 0cOi) Yi awTYjpiog 67r£(p(xvY} •Kuo'iy avSf'UJTroigy that 
 the (TMi^govc/og xa) Sixa/cof xa» svas^oos ^rjcroofxev sv tm vuv alwvi 
 was clearly established as the rule of human life. Now 
 that it is revealed, it is no doubt level to the compre- 
 hension of the meanest understanding amongst us ; but 
 we may safely say, that the highest would never have 
 discovered it : because, in fact, after the knowledge of 
 the true God was lost, and with it the knowledge of 
 
SERMON IIL 85 
 
 and obligation of morals from reason alone, 
 have yet had better success in their at- 
 
 man's duty as obedience to a divine law, moral duty 
 and religion never were again united till their union 
 was revealed in the Gospel. And this is a point of 
 great importance, not merely to prove the value and 
 necessity of revelation to those who are disposed to re- 
 ject it, but to teach an useful lesson also to those who 
 really have an esteem for that revelation, and who are 
 inclined to represent themselves as the only persons 
 who have a proper regard for its truths. Such a feeling 
 is, I fear, in full operation at this particular time. The 
 plain declarations of the Gospel, though upon the most 
 important points of religion and morals, seem to be con- 
 sidered as beggarly elements; the great improvement 
 which it has wrought in the world by the establishment 
 of a pure worship, by improving the laws and institu- 
 tions of society, and by providing for the stated and 
 public instruction of all orders of men in the Christian 
 Church, is looked upon as nothing; it is looked upon 
 as nothing, that the ignorance and impurity and bar- 
 barity of idol service has been exchanged for a clear 
 knowledge of God, and of the worship by which He can 
 be most acceptably and suitably served. The Gospel is 
 considered as something beyond all this ; something 
 that addresses itself almost exclusively to the feelings, 
 and of which sober information is scarcely reckoned any 
 part at all. " Hence," as the late Bishop Randolph 
 judiciously remarked, " has it been asserted, that the 
 '' Gospel was first preached on a certain day in a parish, 
 " where to his own certain knowledge every duty of a 
 *' Minister of the Gospel had been regularly performed 
 " by a diligent conscientious Clergyman long before." 
 
 G 3 
 
86 SERMON III. 
 
 tempts than their heathen predecessors. 
 The Scriptures, which they have so pre- 
 
 But that conscientious diligence in duty was nothing, as 
 it did not satisfy a certain craving for enthusiastic novel- 
 ty; and it was no proof that the Gospel had been before 
 introduced into that parish, that God was purely wor- 
 shipped, that pure morals were taught, and that the 
 supports and comforts of religion were largely and regu- 
 larly administered. And yet it was undeniable, that 
 this change was owing to the Gospel; and had the ad- 
 vantage been novel, it would have been acknowledged, 
 but having been long enjoyed, it ceased to excite re- 
 gard, and obtained not the gratitude it deserved. But 
 this error is nourished and promoted by another cause. 
 In the writings of the Apostles and first teachers of 
 Christianity, glorious things are said of the change 
 which was wrought in the world by the promulgation 
 of Gospel truth. The knowledge diffused by the Gos- 
 pel is light, the ignorance of heathenism is darkness, 
 and those who turned from Paganism to the profession 
 of Christianity, are said to pass from darkness to light. 
 The effects produced by the rites and institutions of the 
 Gospel are described as powerfully operating upon the 
 minds and affections of those who were admitted to 
 them, and effecting an immediate and visible distinction 
 between believers and unbelievers. The Church of 
 God, in which they were placed by these means, is re- 
 presented as a society of elect and sanctified beings, 
 and contrasted strongly with the world of sinners, in 
 which all who did not profess Christianity were in- 
 cluded. And at that time the contrast was striking. 
 On the one side were the worshippers of heathen idols, 
 immersed in all the pollution of that impure service, 
 
SERMON 111. 87 
 
 sumptuously endeavoured to depreciate, 
 have supplied them with all the advantages 
 they possess. And this they have done, 
 not merely by presenting them with a more 
 perfect scheme of duty ready drawn up to 
 their hands, but by informing them what 
 was the true original constitution of man. 
 
 ignorant of the true God, and involved in all the wick- 
 edness which that ignorance cherished ; on the other 
 were the disciples of Jesus, taught clearly every branch 
 of their duty, and supplied with the most powerful mo- 
 tives to the discharge of it : and it was scarcely possible 
 to speak in terms too strong of the marked distinction 
 between them. But to argue from this, that the same 
 distinction is to be looked for between the members of 
 the same Church ; to talk of one part of that Church as 
 involved in darkness and sin, and the other as alone en- 
 joying the benefit of Gospel light, is to abuse the lan- 
 guage of the Apostles, and apply it to a state of things 
 to which they themselves never intended to apply it. 
 If any error has crept in, it ought no doubt to be ex- 
 posed and corrected ; but it should never be said, that 
 baptized persons, who have been admitted into the 
 Church of Christ by the way which He himself has pre- 
 scribed, are not Christians, nor that his Gospel is not 
 preached, where its truths are publicly delivered in his 
 own words, where a belief in it is at least professed, 
 and where its institutions are regularly observed. Such 
 conduct is neither decent nor just, and it is extremely 
 ungrateful, as setting little value upon all the good that 
 Christianity has done in the world. 
 
 G 4 
 
88 SERMON III. 
 
 Understanding this, and being taught in- 
 fallibly the relation in which mankind stand 
 to their Creator, they were enabled to com- 
 pile from the principles with which they 
 were thus supplied such a system of moral 
 instruction, as might appear to be the pro- 
 duct of their own unassisted reason. Per- 
 verse and ungrateful men, who could thus 
 abuse the light of Revelation, and make 
 the gift of God subservient to their own 
 vanity ! The ancient philosophers proceed- 
 ed upon wiser and honester principles ; 
 and if from the deficiency of their religious 
 knowledge they failed in their delineations 
 of human duty, they were free from the 
 crime of perverting or corrupting the ora- 
 cles of God. Looking at mankind as they 
 appeared to them in their condition at that 
 time, and combining the few principles of 
 moral instruction, which they had derived 
 from their predecessors, with their own ex- 
 perience of what conduced to the happi- 
 ness and improvement of their species, 
 considered either as individuals or as united 
 in society, and examining those springs and 
 motives of action, which by consulting their 
 
SERMON III. 89 
 
 own breasts they found most powerfully to 
 influence the human heart and affections, 
 they framed with much acuteness and much 
 labour some tolerable scheme of useful dis- 
 cipline, by which the passions of men might 
 be restrained, their reason improved, their 
 happiness advanced, and the peace of so- 
 ciety secured. And in so doing they have 
 deserved for ever the gratitude of posterity. 
 They did what they could "" to make men 
 
 ^ It is of great importance, that the real use and va- 
 lue of ancient classical learning should be correctly un- 
 derstood. As an elementary study, under proper direc- 
 tion, it is excellent. It teaches the true method of writ- 
 ing and speaking with perspicuity, elegance, and force ; 
 it enlarges the intellectual faculties, by exercising them 
 freely upon subjects deeply interesting to the human 
 mind; it abounds in noble sentiments, and shows us, 
 by precept and example, that the best part of mankind 
 have always been on the side of virtue. But if, beyond 
 this, we take the teachers of heathen philosophy as our 
 masters in religion and morals, and permit their sub- 
 tlety and their eloquence in any degree to diminish our 
 regard for the plain but profound enunciations of holy 
 writ, and to make us less attentive to that way of sal- 
 vation which it has revealed, and which is to be found 
 in it alone, we are clearly guilty of the most egregious 
 folly, by preferring the uncertain speculations of men to 
 the infallible oracles of God; speculations which are 
 
90 SERMON III. 
 
 wiser and better ; and to this day, those 
 who read their works with minds properly 
 disposed, will become wiser and better by 
 the perusal. Not that they contain any 
 thing which we can now want to direct 
 us in our duty, but that the reading of 
 them is an useful exercise of our reason, 
 and tends in a peculiar manner to unfold 
 the faculties of our minds; and those who 
 are best exercised in the moral discussions 
 which they contain, and have most nearly 
 examined the historical facts upon which 
 they are founded, will be best prepared to 
 understand those results of the highest rea- 
 son which the Scripture lays before us : I 
 call them the results of reason, because 
 they appear so to us ; though it must be 
 confessed, that the expression does not ex- 
 actly suit the nature of the Divine com- 
 munications. The Scripture delivers the 
 most important truths in the plainest terms, 
 and most frequently in the concisest form. 
 And that it does so is one great proof of 
 its authenticity. The distinction between 
 
 only therefore valuable, because in some instances they 
 harmonize with those oracles. 
 
SERMON III. 91 
 
 divine and human knowledge ought to be 
 marked and confessed. The excellence of 
 man in the best use of his reason would be 
 degradation to the Deity. God does not 
 reason ; He, from whom every thing pro- 
 ceeds, knows every thing without investi- 
 gation and without an effort. And what 
 He thus knows, He declares with author- 
 ity; He does not prove it to be true; it 
 is therefore true, because He has announced 
 it. Whatever He declares, bears on its 
 very face the stamp of divinity and of truth. 
 And it is impossible not to observe this 
 distinguishing characteristic in all the dis- 
 courses of our blessed Redeemer. He 
 never appears to reason on the highest 
 truths which He utters ; the conception of 
 them never seems to cost Him the sem- 
 blance of an effort ; his mind sees intuitive- 
 ly the most exalted mysteries of heaven, and 
 the deepest recesses of the earth. And He 
 speaks of them accordingly, with the calm- 
 ness of one to whom they were familiar, 
 and of whom it might be said in our lan- 
 guage, that they rather presented them- 
 selves to his mind than that He sought 
 
92 SERMON 111. 
 
 after them. That this was indeed a mark 
 of Divinity will perhaps appear with yet 
 greater probability, if we consider, that even 
 the Apostles, though inspired, and infalli- 
 bly assured of the truth of what they deli- 
 vered, do not deliver it in the same way ; 
 they reasoned and argued, and did not 
 think themselves entitled to neglect the or- 
 dinary method of producing conviction in 
 the minds of their hearers. St. Paul is 
 acknowledged, and deservedly, to be the 
 most acute and profound of reasoners ; but 
 what was his excellency, even as an in- 
 spired Apostle, was below the dignity of 
 his Master. But though it thus pleased 
 God and his Son, and it became Them, to 
 declare the truth in short and clear revela- 
 tions of their Will"^, yet if man will inquire 
 into the reasons of that truth, and analyse 
 its parts, he can do so only by the most la- 
 borious exertions of his mind ; and imless 
 his mind be previously and duly disciplined, 
 
 ^ Quae quidem tnidita sunt breviter ac nude; nee 
 enini decebat alitor ut cum Deus ad honiiiieni loquere- 
 tur, argumentis adsererct suas voces. Dc falsa Sapi- 
 entia. 
 
SERMON III. S3 
 
 he will be in imminent danger of falling 
 into error, of wresting to his destruction 
 what was intended for his salvation. Even 
 if men were content to receive the merciful 
 admonitions and kind directions of Al- 
 mighty Wisdom, as they ought, without 
 question or cavil ; if they would obey them 
 without reluctance, and rest in them with- 
 out dispute, it would still be necessary to 
 call upon them to exercise their reason, 
 that they might be prepared to compre- 
 hend the principles of revealed truth ; and 
 to appreciate duly the value of the instruc- 
 tion thus graciously communicated. But 
 the restlessness of human nature has never 
 suffered it so to be; and therefore even 
 Apostles were obliged to enter into much 
 subtlety of argument, and to require of 
 their disciples, that they should always be 
 ready to ^^give a reason of the hope that 
 "is in" them. We must therefore ever be 
 content to defend our holy Religion after 
 the manner of men, and after the manner 
 of men must we endeavour to understand 
 it. The plainest dictates of Divine truth 
 are, as I said, the results of the highest 
 
94 SERMON III. 
 
 reason ; and to comprehend and make use 
 of them, it is necessary that our reason 
 should be improved, as far as it can be, by 
 all the means with which Divine provi- 
 dence and grace have supphed us. 
 
 With regard then to what is intended to 
 form the main feature of this Discourse, 
 the original nature and constitution of man, 
 nothing can be plainer, nothing can be 
 more simple, and in that plainness and 
 simplicity nothing can be more dignified, 
 than the manner in which the matter of 
 fact, contained in my text, is stated; 
 ^^ God created man in his own image, in 
 ^* the imaae of God created He him." Yet 
 plain and simple as it appears when thus 
 revealed, it is what the mere reason of man 
 could never have discovered. The origin 
 assigned by some to the human race is too 
 absurd to be confuted •"; though it may 
 
 ^ The Epicurean account is no more than this : — 
 Crescebant uteri terrte radicibus apti. 
 But the learned author of the Intellectual System gives 
 the following report of the opinion of Aristotle himself. 
 " Aristotle in his book of the Generation of Animals 
 " writeth thus: iUp) rrjj touv a.vQpM%(jov xx) TSTpccTTO^cov yevs- 
 '^ (Tsu)^, UTioXa^Oi TiC av, ewsp eylvovTO ttots yYiyevsi^, oxTTrfp 
 
SERMON III. 95 
 
 serve one useful purpose of teaching us 
 humility, by showing us the degradation 
 
 <pU(n TIVE§, ^UO TpOTTCJOV yiVSd^Ui rOV BTSpOV' Yl yocp CJO$ (TxcoAyj- 
 
 xog (rvvKTToiiJi,evou to Trpwrov, y; h^ mmv. If men and four- 
 footed animals were ever generated out of the earth, 
 as some affirm, it may be probably conceived to have 
 been one of these two ways, either that they were 
 produced as worms out of putrefaction, or else formed 
 in certain eggs, growing out of the earth. And then 
 after a while he concludes again ; Emsp yjv tjj uqx^ '^^^ 
 yevscrscog iradi rolg ^oooic, evXoyov SueTv tovtmv slvui tyjv sts- 
 gixr that if there were any beginning of the genera- 
 tion of all animals, it is reasonable to think it to have 
 been one of these two forementioned ways. It is 
 well known, that Aristotle, though a Theist, else- 
 where asserteth the world's eternity, according to 
 which hypothesis of his, there was never any first 
 male nor female, in any kind of animals ^ a thing ut- 
 terly repugnant to our human faculties, that are never 
 able to frame any conception of such an infinity of 
 number and time, and of a successive generation from 
 eternity. But here Aristotle himself seems staggering 
 or sceptical about it : if men were ever generated out 
 of the earth; and, if there were any beginning of the 
 generation of animals. As he doth also in his Topics 
 propound it for an instance of a thing disputable; 
 UoTspov 6 xoa-fjLog ccUiog y} ou, whether the world were 
 eternal or no ? He ranking it amongst those Ttsp) cLv 
 Xoyov jxjj e_p(^o/Aev ovtoov [j^syaXcov, those great things for 
 which we can give no certain reason, one way nor 
 other. Now, saith he, if the world had a beginning, 
 and if men were once yriysvsHs, or avTox^ovsg, earth- 
 born, then must they have been, in all probability. 
 
96 SERMON III. 
 
 to which our uninformed intellect may be 
 reduced. And if others reasoned better by 
 considering man as a creature, yet were 
 they completely at a loss as to the truth of 
 his original formation ; how or when he 
 was made, with what capacities endowed, 
 or for what end, were questions on which 
 their discussions, whatever ability they 
 might display, could lead to no satisfactory 
 conclusion. Nor could it be otherwise. 
 When they lost the tradition of their ori- 
 gin, or at least when it became so con- 
 
 " generated as worms out of putrefaction, or else out 
 " of eggs; he supposing, it seems, those eggs grown out 
 " of the earth. But the generality of Atheists in Ari- 
 " stotle*s time, as well as Theists, denying this eternity 
 " of the Mundane System, as not so agreeable with 
 " their hypothesis, because so constant and invariable 
 *^ an order in the world from eternity hath not such an 
 " appearance or semblance of chance, nor can be easily 
 *' supposed to have been without the providence of a 
 ^' Perfect Mind presiding over it, and senior to it (as 
 " Aristotle conceived) in nature though not in time; 
 " they therefore in all probability concluded likewise, 
 " men at first to have been generated one of these two 
 '' ways, either out of putrefaction or from eggs, and 
 *' this by the fortuitous motion of matter, without the 
 " providence or direction of any Deity." Intell. Syst. 
 p. 688. 
 
SERMON III. 97 
 
 fused as to afford no certain light, they 
 could only consider man as he then was, 
 and reason from the view thus afforded 
 them as to the source from which he came, 
 and the constitution with which he was 
 first endowed. And when they did begin 
 to analyze our common nature, what a 
 mass of irreconcileable contradictions must 
 they have found it ! When they reflected 
 upon the higher powers of the mind, and 
 its wonderful capacity of meditation and 
 discourse ; when they observed the work- 
 ings of conscience, approving what was 
 right, even in defiance of the will and affec- 
 tions, and correcting the aberrations of the 
 heart, even in the midst of prosperity and 
 enjoyment, they were ready to conclude, 
 that a being possessed of such noble quali- 
 ties of mind was himself the god of this 
 lower world. But on the other hand, when 
 they saw this same being a slave to the 
 basest passions, breaking through the re- 
 straints which his own internal monitor 
 wovild have imposed upon him, wallowing 
 in every carnal indulgence with more than 
 brutal greediness, not only giving the reins 
 
 H 
 
98 SERMON III. 
 
 to his appetites beyond the bounds of mo- 
 deration, but making his reason the pander 
 of those very appetites it was appointed to 
 control, by the discovery of means to sti- 
 mulate the overcharged powers of the body, 
 it was scarcely possible for them not to 
 place him below the meanest of the brute 
 creation. It was not therefore to be won- 
 dered at ^5 that under such circumstances 
 
 f The excellent Pascal, in demonstrating the supe- 
 riority of the Christian religion from the satisfactory so- 
 lution it gives to all the contrarieties of human nature, 
 has stated this point with great force. " Shall it be," 
 says he, " the religion of those philosophers, who pro- 
 " posed no other good but what they would have us 
 '' find in our own persons ? Is this the true and sove- 
 *' reign good ? Or have these men discovered the reme- 
 *' dy of our evils ? Was it a proper method for the cure 
 ^' of man's presumption thus to equal him with God ? 
 " On the other hand, have those succeeded better in 
 " restraining our earthly desires, who would bring us 
 '^ down to the level of beasts, and present us with sen- 
 " sual gratifications for our real and universal happiness? 
 '^ ^ Lift up your eyes to God,' said those of the former 
 *' tribe, ' beliold him who has stamped you with his 
 " image, and has made you for his worship. You have 
 " not only a capacity of being like him, but wisdom, if 
 '^ you follow its directidhs, will even render you his 
 *^ peers.' While those of the latter herd cried with no 
 *' less earnestness, ' Cast down your eyes to the ground, 
 " base worms of the earth as you are ; and look on the 
 
SERMON III. 99 
 
 they should have found it difficult to come 
 to any conclusion at all ; that their best 
 reasoning should have ended in vague con- 
 jecture ; and that while some raised him to 
 heaven on account of the faculties of his 
 soul, others confined him entirely to the 
 earth, whence alone the greater part of 
 mankind seemed to derive their highest 
 gratification. One short sentence of Divine 
 truth has dispelled all this darkness, and 
 at once cleared a way for overcoming all 
 the difficulties, and reconciling all the ap- 
 parent contradictions in which the subject 
 has been involved. We are not now left 
 to reason upwards from man to his Maker, 
 
 *^ beasts^ your goodly partners and fellows.' What then 
 ^* is to be the fate of man? Shall he be equal to God ? or 
 " shall he not be superior to the beasts ? How frightful, 
 ^' how shocking a distance this ! What shall we be 
 ^* then ? What religion shall instruct us to correct at 
 once our pride and our concupiscence ? What reli- 
 gion shall disclose to us our happiness and our duty; 
 together with the infirmities, which stop us in so de- 
 '^ sired a course, the proper help of those infirmities, 
 ^' and the means of obtaining this help ? Let us hear 
 " what answer we receive upon the whole inquiry from 
 '^ the wisdom of God, speaking to us in the Christian 
 " Religion.'' Pascal's Thoughts, p. 34, 35. See also 
 p. 38, 43, 44, 45. 
 
 S 2 
 
 (C 
 
 a 
 
100 SERMON 111. 
 
 and trace his origin and his duty through 
 all the mass of corruption in which the 
 ruins of his nature were buried ; but hav- 
 ing been told in plain terms how he was 
 made, and what was his primary constitu- 
 tion, we are enabled to see clearly with 
 what perfect justice such a creature may 
 be required to perform what his Creator 
 has enjoined him. Knowing his origin, 
 we know his relations, his capacities, and 
 the duties which must necessarily result 
 from them. Not that we are left to collect 
 this by the exertions of our own reason, 
 even with the help of the information thus 
 conveyed to us. Thank God, our duty is 
 plainly detailed to us in the Scriptures, 
 and great is the cause we have to rejoice 
 that it is so. Man in his present state has 
 so great a disinclination to the performance 
 of his duty, that he is little to be trusted in 
 drawing its details, even when furnished 
 with the knowledge necessary for the task. 
 The still defective schemes^ of those who, 
 
 g Conybeare as above. Dialogue on the Strength 
 and Weakness of Human Reason. Dr. John Ellis's ex- 
 cellent Treatise on the Knowledge of Divine Things. 
 
SERMON III. 101 
 
 with all their acknowledged advantages, 
 have made the attempt, in order to demon- 
 strate the sufficiency of human reason for 
 the conduct of human life, prove with evi- 
 dence enough how inadequate are the abi- 
 lities of men to the accomplishment of this 
 important work. Still the knowledge of 
 man's original frame and constitution sup- 
 plies us with a clear view of the end for 
 which he was designed, and consequently 
 of his obligation to perform all that, what- 
 ever it might be, which was requisite to 
 the attainment of that end. And not only 
 so, but this knowledge teaches us hkewise 
 that he was endued with powers commen- 
 surate to his duties. But this important 
 information we derive with certainty*" from 
 that Revelation alone, which God himself 
 has been pleased to make and to preserve 
 in the sacred writings of the inspired teach- 
 ers of the human race; and if that inform- 
 ation tends directly to prove, that man was 
 formed for the undeviating pursuit of what 
 is just and good, it tends also in the same 
 
 ^ Lactantius treats largely and ably of this in liis 
 book, De Origine Erroris. 
 
 H 3 
 
102 SERMON III. 
 
 degree to demonstrate, that the Revela- 
 tion, in which it is contained, is most clear- 
 ly and decidedly moral in its form and de- 
 sign. The original constitution and situ- 
 ation of man is therefore, viewed in this 
 light, a point of great importance in the 
 consideration of human duty. For we must 
 always keep in mind, that whatever was 
 the nature of man as he came at first from 
 the hands of his Maker, and whatever duty 
 he was by that nature intended and en- 
 abled to perform, the extent and obligation 
 of that duty cannot be diminished by any 
 effects, which, under a change of circum- 
 stances, may appear not so entirely to co- 
 incide with the faculties or dispositions of 
 the human mind. Undoubtedly at first, 
 and in the intention of their benevolent 
 Creator, the dvity and the well-being of all 
 his creatures were most intimately united ; 
 and whenever they discharged what by 
 their nature they were bound to perform, 
 they promoted at the same time the im- 
 mediate happiness of that nature. But a 
 change in their nature would necessarily 
 produce a change in this adaptation. If 
 
SERMON III. 103 
 
 indeed the change were for the better, and 
 made by their Creator himself, as the range 
 of their duty would be enlarged, so the 
 sphere of their enjoyment would be ex- 
 tended in proportion ; but if it were for the 
 worse, and wrought by their own weakness 
 or wickedness, though their duty would 
 continue the same, as being imposed by 
 Him who gave them their existence, and 
 originally adapted their duty to the mode 
 of that existence, it might on such a change 
 prove the source of uneasiness and diffi- 
 culty. The nature being deteriorated, and 
 the duty still continuing in its primitive 
 excellence, they would no longer coincide 
 exactly with each other; and while the per- 
 formance would require greater exertion, 
 its beneficial effects would not be so imme- 
 diately apparent, and might upon occasion 
 seem contrary to the immediate interest of 
 the individual. Possibly this point may not 
 have been so much considered as it ought 
 to be. It does not follow, that because 
 we at present find some duties difficult, and 
 attended with inconvenience either to our 
 interest or inclination, that therefore we 
 
 H 'I 
 
104 SERMON III. 
 
 are not under a natural obligation to per- 
 form them. When God Almighty imposed 
 the duty, He imposed it upon a nature 
 which He himself had so formed, as to be 
 both capable of what He enjoined, and as- 
 sured of finding its happiness directly ad- 
 vanced by the performance. For the na- 
 ture which God gave man was a perfect 
 nature; and if it was perfect, it was neces- 
 sarily possessed of all those capacities which 
 were required to attain the end of its crea- 
 tion. And thus we come to see the im- 
 portance of ascertaining in what this per- 
 fection of man consisted, and how closely 
 the knowledge of his real nature is con- 
 nected with the knowledge of his duty. 
 What that nature is, can only be learnt 
 from examining the contents of my text. 
 We are there told, that '' God made man 
 *' in his own image." Now to be made 
 '* in the image of God" will be understood 
 at once as implying some resemblance to 
 Him, the being in some sense or degree 
 like Him. But in what this resemblance 
 consisted has been made an object of in- 
 quiry, and some slight differences of opin- 
 
SERMON III. 105 
 
 ion have obtained respecting it ; or rather 
 indeed learned and ingenious men, view- 
 ing this, like many other subjects, in every 
 possible way, have indulged themselves in 
 assigning any point of resemblance, which 
 appeared to have some plausibility of in- 
 terpretation. These it would be of little 
 advantage to examine. The main point 
 is clear. When we have correct notions 
 of God himself, we cannot easily mistake 
 as to what we are principally to under- 
 stand, when man is said to be made in his 
 image, and to be like Him. Holy Scrip- 
 ture informs us, that God is a Spirit, that 
 He is perfect in goodness, and that amongst 
 his attributes his justice and his wisdom 
 are eminently conspicuous. From this it 
 follows, that any resemblance to God must 
 be spiritual. Whatever excellence the body 
 of man might have been originally endow- 
 ed with, whatever of beauty or strength he 
 might possess, it was not with respect to 
 these he was said to be made in the image 
 of the Almighty. They were no doubt the 
 gift of his Maker, and his strength might 
 in some sense be supposed to shadow out in 
 
106 SERMON III. 
 
 the lord of this lower world that incontrol- 
 lable Power, which held, and had a right to 
 hold, all things in obedience to its com- 
 mand. But in this, other animals, possess- 
 ing a still larger share of natural strength, 
 though not invested with dominion, might 
 seem to surpass their delegated Master. 
 It was the spirit within, that gave him his 
 decided superiority ; it was because the 
 Father of spirits had breathed into his nos- 
 trils the breath of life, and made him a 
 living soul, that he, rather than they, was 
 said to be made in the Divine image. This 
 must be acknowledged. Without entering 
 into any critical disquisition of terms, it is 
 obvious to remark, that if by the expres- 
 sions, '* breathing the breath of life, and 
 " man's becoming a living soul," be meant 
 no more than his being endowed with a 
 principle of animal existence, every animal 
 that breathed was as much a living soul as 
 man ; and we must conclude, that though 
 we are told with great solemnity and pre- 
 cision, how the Almighty himself commu- 
 nicated the principle of life to his last and 
 chief work, yet no more is intended by this, 
 
SERMON III. 107 
 
 than when the earth and the sea are com- 
 manded to produce every living thing ac- 
 cording to its kind. It is impossible to ac- 
 cede to an interpretation so cold and de- 
 fective. When we consider the simplicity 
 and conciseness of the sacred narrative ; 
 when it appears evident, upon the very face 
 of the history, that no more has been said 
 than is absolutely necessary for giving the 
 information intended, it is not to be con- 
 ceived, that so particular a mark of dis- 
 tinction described in such precise terms 
 should have no particular meaning. It is 
 against the very form and character of sa- 
 cred writ. Fair and just reasoning would 
 induce us rather to conclude, that as the 
 account of God's bestowing a soul upon 
 man was thought worthy of a particular 
 detail, that detail was designed to show, 
 that the soul of man was of a very different 
 nature from the animal life of brutes, that 
 it was derived from a higher source, endow- 
 ed with different and higher faculties, and 
 intended to answer higher and nobler ends. 
 It was, when '' God breathed into man the 
 ^' breath of life, and he became a living 
 
108 SERMON III. 
 
 ** soul," that he received the impress of 
 his Maker's image, the image of that Su- 
 preme Being, who, as He had himself no- 
 thing material, could not by any thing ma- 
 terial be resembled. Man, as formed from 
 the dust of the earth, was a mere lump of 
 figured clay ; and though the erectness of 
 that figure might seem to give him some 
 external advantages over the beasts that 
 surrounded him, yet this advantage did 
 not alter his nature, he still continued a 
 being entirely material, and could not rise 
 above the earth from which he was taken. 
 But when He, who cannot be conceived of 
 aright, unless He is acknowledged to be a 
 Pure Spirit, is said to breathe upon man, 
 and upon that breathing man became a 
 living soul, it is impossible not to see, that 
 whatever was then conveyed was also pure 
 spirit, and in its original purity carried 
 with it the image of its Maker. In truth, 
 it does not appear how this part of the sa- 
 cred history can be considered as adequate- 
 ly understood or duly appreciated, unless 
 it be admitted to convey to man the know- 
 ledge of his real nature as consisting of an 
 
SERMON III. 109 
 
 immortal soul, breathed by God himself 
 into a body which his infinite wisdom had 
 prepared for it, and in which it was intend- 
 ed to exercise the noble faculties with which 
 it was endowed. When we reflect upon 
 the many subtle questions connected with 
 this subject, it will appear surely a point of 
 sufficient importance to be noticed in the 
 account of the creation. It was certainly 
 most useful for man to be informed of the 
 origin of this frame of things of which he 
 finds himself a part, and to know precisely 
 whence this curious body, in which he ex- 
 ists, was derived. But if this was useful, if 
 it was useful for him to be told, that God 
 Almighty formed his body out of the dust 
 of the earth, surely it must be confessed, 
 that it was of the last importance that he 
 should not be ignorant what kind of a 
 creature he was ; whether, like the brutes 
 around him, he had only an animal life, or 
 whether there was within him any higher 
 principle of existence, any nobler and purer 
 and more spiritual essence, to mark him as 
 a being of a higher class. But unless in 
 this particular account, the history of the 
 
no SERMON III. 
 
 creation does not precisely inform ns, that 
 man has a soul as well as a body. Though 
 when he is said to have been made in the 
 image of God, we must necessarily sup- 
 pose, that the image intended was spi- 
 ritual, yet this only makes it more proba- 
 ble, that somewhere in the narrative of his 
 origin he would be informed, as well of the 
 descent of his spiritual part from heaven, 
 as that his material part was taken from 
 earth. And that he was told it here, no 
 considerate person can, I think, permit 
 himself to doubt. The immortality of the 
 soul, as necessarily resulting from its spi- 
 ritual nature, was, with whatever alloy of 
 error, and whatever uncertainty of opinion, 
 very generally maintained in the world'; 
 and no more rational source can be assign- 
 ed for such a general reception of this great 
 truth, than that it was handed down among 
 those traditionary notices which descended 
 to heathens as well as Jews from the com- 
 mon father of the human race, and which, 
 as far as they were true, rested on the 
 same basis of primeval revelation as the 
 
 ' Cudworth's Intel!. Syst. p. 20, 21, &c. 
 
SERMON III. Ill 
 
 more accurate detail of the inspired histo- 
 rian. 
 
 But the image of God thus stamped 
 upon the soul of man must be considered 
 as not merely making him a spiritual be- 
 ing. We have seen, that the perfection of 
 God is holiness, and that amongst his mo- 
 ral and communicable attributes his wis- 
 dom and righteousness are always displayed 
 in Scripture with peculiar care and effect. 
 No being therefore can be like Him, who 
 is not in some degree holy as He is, and 
 endued also with a portion of his wisdom 
 and justice. God is indeed essentially holy, 
 and infinitely wise and just ; and therefore 
 the holiness and wisdom and justice of every 
 creature must be for ever infinitely below 
 those attributes of the Divine nature ; but 
 man could not with any accuracy have 
 been said to be like God, unless he had in 
 his original constitution a portion of that 
 holiness and justice. And not only so; 
 but he would not have been a perfect be- 
 ing, unless he had been so far a partaker 
 of them as was necessary for his rank and 
 place in the creation. Man therefore by 
 
112 SERMON 111. 
 
 being made in the image of God, was made, 
 not only a spiritual, but a moral being; and 
 as he was endowed with all that perfection 
 which his situation required, he was so far 
 morally perfect as to be capable of under- 
 standing and performing all those duties, 
 which either the obligation arising from his 
 nature, or the immediate command of his 
 Creator, might impose upon him. The very 
 attributes of God therefore, and the asser- 
 tion that man was made like God, con- 
 vince us at once, that the being, whose 
 formation is thus described, must, in his 
 original constitution, and in the intention 
 of his Maker, be possessed of an enlarged 
 capacity, and great goodness of disposition; 
 that he must have on his mind such im- 
 pressions of rectitude, and such perceptions 
 of duty, as were ready to exert themselves 
 in act whenever opportunities of action 
 should occur. It would seem that thus 
 much is necessarily implied in the image 
 of God. It is strange to observe how some 
 conmientators seem afraid of investing our 
 first parent, as he came from the hands of 
 tlie All-wise and All-powerful source of 
 
SERMON III. 113 
 
 every moral and intellectual capacity, with 
 a common portion of reason and under- 
 standing''; almost denying him the use of 
 speech, though we are so expressly told, 
 that the Almighty freely conversed with 
 his creature, and freely imparted to him 
 all the knowledge of which he stood in 
 heed. Let us beware how we pervert the 
 oracles of God by our own vain conjec- 
 tures, or detract from their truth by a de- 
 nial of any part of their plain communica- 
 tions. Open infidelity is scarcely worse than 
 the vanity which tempts men, not merely 
 to bring down divine truth to the level of 
 their own understanding, but to make it 
 square with their own systems. This has 
 always been, and always will be, a fruitful 
 source of error, and can only be guarded 
 against effectually by taking the Scripture 
 itself for our guide in its clear and obvious 
 meaning. And in this instance that mean- 
 ing appears obvious enough. The moral 
 attributes of God are clearly those of which 
 
 ^ See the learned Dr. Jonathan Edwards's Preserva- 
 tion against Socinianism, in which this subject is most 
 ably illustrated. 
 
 I 
 
114 SERMON III. 
 
 such a creature as man is most capable of 
 partaking, and which are in themselves 
 most evidently communicable; and as he 
 is said to be made in the image of God, it 
 is essential to his very make and constitu- 
 tion, that he should be an intellectual and 
 a moral being. 
 
 But if the moral character of man, and 
 the intention of his Creator to employ him 
 in moral acts and duties, be thus evident 
 from the very history of his origin, it is no 
 less evident from the situation in which he 
 was placed, and the task which was assign- 
 ed him, at his first entrance on life. His 
 immediate employment was to '' dress the 
 ^^ garden," which the Almighty had not 
 disdained to plant for him ; to pay an at- 
 tentive regard to her, who had been formed 
 to assist him in all the work he might have 
 to perform ; and to exercise that superin- 
 tendence over the inferior creatures, which 
 is plainly implied in the dominion assigned 
 him. The performance of these duties re- 
 quired, not care and anxiety indeed, (for 
 while every creature retained its original 
 perfection, it moved with unerring recti- 
 
SERMON III. 115 
 
 tude,) but diligence and attention ; such 
 as might teach man, that he was from the 
 first intended to be an industrious creature, 
 and not a mere indolent consumer of the 
 fruits, which had been prepared for his sub- 
 sistence. To " dress the garden'' plainly 
 implies so much ; and it is certainly no di- 
 minution of the Divine goodness or wis- 
 dom, that the earth was endued with such 
 a vigorous fertility as to require the hand 
 of man to restrain the luxuriance, and to 
 correct the wanderings, of a too abun- 
 dant produce. No doubt the Almighty 
 could, and the Omniscient knew how to 
 have suited the produce to the precise 
 wants of his creatures ; but as He willed it 
 to be otherwise, so, as far as we can see, 
 we must acknowledge that his Will coin- 
 cided with his Wisdom. As He intended 
 man to be an industrious creature, and as 
 He knew that employment would be con- 
 ducive to his happiness. He so arranged 
 his circumstances as to supply him with an 
 occupation, which might engage his atten- 
 tion and call for his exertion, and form an 
 elegant relaxation for his mind. But this 
 
 I 2 
 
116- SERMON III. 
 
 was not all he had to do. In the partner 
 of his duties and enjoyments, he had an ob- 
 ject whereon to bestow his social affections, 
 and so to exercise himself in the cultivation 
 of those affections, as to be prepared for 
 the time, when the promised increase of his 
 race would call for a very enlarged practice 
 of his social duties. To the various crea- 
 tures below him, he had in charge to be- 
 have as a gracious lord and master; and he 
 was expressly fitted for this dominion by an 
 acquaintance with their various natures and 
 propensities. The whole terrestrial system, 
 animate and inanimate, at that time con- 
 fined within bounds comparatively narrow, 
 lay before him, in which he might trace 
 and adore the footsteps of his Maker. But 
 he was not left to trace them alone, per- 
 fect as he was. His Creator was his In- 
 structor, and taught him as well the nature 
 of his situation as the duties which belong- 
 ed to it. That He conversed with him, we 
 know ; and can we doubt, that He, who 
 made him such as he was, and made him 
 for wise ends, informed him what those ends 
 were, and how best he might answer them ? 
 
SERMON III. 117 
 
 It is in religion alone that a doubt so un- 
 reasonable would be admitted. The whole 
 account of God's placing man in Paradise 
 clearly implies, in the fairest construction 
 of its terms, that He taught him what he 
 was to do there. In one instance this is 
 necessarily acknowledged, since we are told 
 in so many words, that God gave man a 
 law for the trial of his obedience. But it 
 is made a question, whether this law was 
 moral or positive, as I conceive with little 
 necessity. That there is a distinction be- 
 tween moral and positive duties, considered 
 in themselves, will readily be granted ; but 
 it should be observed at the same time, 
 that the principle of obedience is moral, 
 even when the matter of the duty is posi- 
 tive. For what is that principle.^ Is it not 
 submission to the command of one, who 
 has an acknowledged right to our service ? 
 And if that principle be not founded in 
 moral obligation, it is in vain to inquire 
 for the basis of human duty. Then is order 
 and government, however pure and how- 
 ever correct, an unnatural restraint upon 
 human liberty, and the command of God 
 
 I 3 
 
118 SERMON III. 
 
 himself might be neglected or transgressed 
 without remorse, could his power be con- 
 trolled or his knowled";e evaded. But the 
 moral nature and tendency of this com- 
 mand may be evinced from its very matter. 
 The fruit, which was prohibited, was not 
 without its allurements and attractions. It 
 was fair to the sight, and inviting to the 
 palate, and powerfully excited curiosity 
 by its promise of enlarging the bounds of 
 knowledge, and opening wider scenes of 
 contemplation to the understanding. It 
 acted therefore as a test of obedience, not 
 merely as the subject of a divine prohibi- 
 tion, but as proving whether man could re- 
 strain within the prescribed limits those 
 appetites of mind and body, to the undue 
 indulgence of which it afforded a tempta- 
 tion. Now in what can the moral perfec- 
 tion of man be supposed to consist, if not 
 in this, that all his appetites and passions 
 be kept under proper subjection, and re- 
 strained by the dictates of reason within 
 the known line of his duty? What is tem- 
 perance, but the due regulation of appetite, 
 in respect to the quantity and quality of 
 
SERMON III. 119 
 
 food ? What is the best guard of conti- 
 nence, but turning away the eye, that it 
 may not behold vanity ? Vanity, which is 
 seducing because it is fair^ and therefore 
 vain, because it is deceitful and destruc- 
 tive ! When God Ahnighty therefore order- 
 ed man to abstain from eatin«: of the Tree 
 of Knowledge, He imposed upon him the 
 moral duty of keeping his appetites and 
 passions in due order; and forbade him to 
 indulge either his eye or his palate beyond 
 what the necessities of nature required, or 
 its real enjoyments permitted. But this 
 prohibition had respect to the regulation 
 of his mind, no less than his body. God 
 had condescended to teach him every thing 
 which it was necessary for him to know. 
 He knew his Almighty Maker, and the 
 duty which he owed Him ; he knew him- 
 self, and his ability to perform that duty; 
 and knowing this, he knew every thing 
 that could possibly contribute to his hap- 
 piness. There was indeed a dark and 
 gloomy sphere, the knowledge of which his 
 Creator did not impart to him, and with 
 which it was not intended that he should 
 
 I 4 
 
120 SERMON III. 
 
 ev^er become acquainted. What then was 
 the duty, the moral duty of man in such 
 circumstances ? To acquiesce, doubtless, 
 in the will of Him, who best knew what 
 was most conducive to his real happiness 
 and real improvement. Be it granted, 
 that he felt within himself an appetite of 
 knowledge, which, when excited by an ob- 
 ject sufficiently alluring, became a danger- 
 ous curiosity. To preserve the moral health 
 of his mind, it was certainly requisite, that 
 he should prevent this desire of knowledge, 
 which was given him for improvement, 
 from either becoming so immoderate in 
 degree, as to involve him in distracting dif- 
 ficulties, or by fixing upon improper ob- 
 jects, to withdraw him from the contempla- 
 tion of that to which his nature was suited, 
 and by attending to which he would be- 
 come indeed wiser and better. 
 
 It must then surely be confessed, that 
 the whole arrangement of man's situation 
 
 cry 
 
 in Paradise, and the particular prohibition 
 which was laid upon him there, had an im- 
 mediate tendency to preserve unimpaired 
 the moral perfection with which he was 
 
SERMON III. 121 
 
 originally endowed, and in which the ex- 
 cellence of his nature consisted. For in 
 this he was like God his Creator; and he 
 could hope to retain that likeness only so 
 long as he did not lose the integrity of his 
 mind, or pollute the purity of his body. 
 The perfection of man was his resemblance 
 to God in goodness; and to retain that re- 
 semblance in its primitive vigour was at 
 once his highest duty and his nearest in- 
 terest. But it is impossible to close this 
 part of our subject without observing, what 
 has not been sufficiently observed, that the 
 first of moral duties is obedience to the 
 plain command of Almighty God. For if 
 moral duty be that to which we are bound 
 by the nature of the relations in which we 
 stand to the various objects around us, no- 
 thing can be clearer, than that the relation 
 in which we stand to our Creator de- 
 mands from us the most implicit reliance 
 on his word, and the most perfect submis- 
 sion to his Will. To the work of his hands 
 He has assuredly the right of assigning 
 what portion He pleases ; and it must be 
 acknowledged, that He knows best what 
 
122 SERMON III. 
 
 will best suit a creature, all whose endow- 
 ments and capacities are derived from 
 Himself. When therefore He forbade man 
 to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, He laid 
 him under a moral obligation of obeying 
 the will of his Creator; an obligation, 
 which he could not deny or transgress, 
 without infringing the relation in which he 
 stood to Him, from whom his very being 
 was derived. And not only so ; but his 
 belief or disbelief of God's word was in- 
 volved in his obedience or disobedience to 
 his command. For He who knew all the 
 recesses of the human heart, and under- 
 stood ev^en the nature of that evil from 
 which He was essentially free, had said ex- 
 pressly, that the transgression of his com- 
 mand would be followed by wretchedness 
 and death. A regard to the Divine vera- 
 city therefore, and respect for that truth 
 which can never be separated from the Di- 
 vine nature, imperiously called upon man 
 to believe the warning he had received, 
 and in that belief never to have risked the 
 loss of his innocence and happiness, by 
 carelessly neglecting or presun)ptuously 
 
SERMON III. 123 
 
 contemning the word of his God. And it 
 will for ever call upon him in the same 
 manner. In vain will he boast, that he 
 was made in the image of the Almighty, if, 
 by distrusting or disregarding the admoni- 
 tions of his Maker, he shows that his mind 
 is alienated from divine truth, and no longer 
 retains the impress of divine goodness. 
 
SERMON IV. 
 
 Isaiah lix. 2. 
 
 But your iniquities have separated between you 
 and your God, and your sins have hid his face 
 from you, that He will not hear. 
 
 What is here asserted by Isaiah of the 
 Israelites in particular, is true of the whole 
 race of mankind ; the cause of that sepa- 
 ration which took place between God and 
 his creatures was in each case the same ; 
 and wherever it continues, it continues for 
 no other reason. To this the whole con- 
 text of Revelation bears witness. When 
 the frame of this world was finished, and 
 all its inhabitants placed in their respective 
 situations, the eye of its Creator rested on it 
 with satisfaction, and his voice pronounced 
 it good ; for as his benevolence had first 
 moved Him to give his creatures being, so 
 the same benevolence prompted Him to 
 make that being a source of happiness and 
 
126 SERMON IV. 
 
 enjoyment. This was proof sufficient of 
 his good-will towards them ; and as there 
 could be in him ^' no variableness, neither 
 " shadow of turning %" as '^ his gifts have 
 ^' ever been without repentance^" on his 
 part, the cause, for which his favour was 
 withdrawn, must be sought, not in Him, 
 but in the creatures themselves. God, 
 whom our Liturgy represents as ^' hating 
 '* nothing that He has made%" and of 
 whom an infallible authority assures us, 
 that He '' has no pleasure in the death "^'^ 
 or misery of any individual of our species, 
 neither restrained the current of his boun- 
 ty, nor poured upon man the vial of his 
 wrath, from any indisposition to his welfare. 
 Far otherwise : He made him to be happy, 
 and He wished him to be happy. That 
 garden, called emphatically the garden of 
 delight % in which He placed him, and 
 which He had condescendingly planted for 
 his use, was designed by his Almighty 
 
 a James i. 17. Bishop Bull has explained this text 
 with great felicity and elegance. See Harmon. Apost. 
 p. 501, &c. 
 
 ^ Rom. xi. 29. ^ Collect in Commination Service. 
 
 ^ Ezek. xviii. 23—32. <- See Parkhurst in ny. 
 
SERMON IV. 127 
 
 Father to afford him every comfort which 
 his soul could desire, and left in fact no 
 reasonable desire unsatisfied. But, not- 
 withstanding this clear manifestation of the 
 Divine Will, notwithstanding all the ca- 
 pacity of happiness with which man was 
 endowed, and all the provision which was 
 made for supplying that capacity with 
 proper materials to work upon in the am- 
 plest manner, a change, we know, did 
 take place, and man was condemned to 
 misery by the same Almighty Creator, 
 who formed him at first, and formed him 
 for happiness. The cause of this change 
 is assigned by Revelation in the plainest 
 and most intelligible terms; and in assign- 
 ing that cause, it is consistent with itself 
 from beginning to end. And well would 
 it be for the peace and the virtue of man, 
 if he could rest contented with this plain 
 declaration of the truth ; and, instead of 
 employing himself in forming schemes and 
 systems of subtle but perverse ingenuity, 
 consider, with the attention it deserves, the 
 important moral lesson which that truth 
 is calculated to teach him. But the cu- 
 
128 SERMON IV. 
 
 riosity which was so fatal to our first pa- 
 rents, still ojoerates with unabated violence 
 in many of their descendants, and it is 
 unhappily aided in its efforts by an auda- 
 city and a presumption, which could have 
 place only in minds that have lost in a 
 great degree a proper sense of the Divine 
 Majesty. Thus men, in searching for the 
 reason which induced the Almighty to 
 change his measures towards their race, 
 have dared to scrutinize the councils of the 
 Most High, and to trace out those awful 
 footsteps, which He himself has declared 
 to be inscrutable^. But human pride can- 
 not bear that there should be any thing 
 above its reach, and, what is worse, it can- 
 not bear that the blame of its unhappiness 
 should be laid upon itself It must not 
 only undertake to elucidate the whole coun- 
 sel of God, and bring all his designs and 
 actions to the level of its own capacity, but 
 in doing so, it has not scrupled to make as- 
 sertions which bring into question the con- 
 sistency of his attributes. Assuming the 
 Omniscience and Omnipotence of God as 
 s Psalm Ixxvii. U>. 
 
SERMON IV. 129 
 
 the basis of their reasoning, they have 
 dared to limit his proceedings within such 
 narrow bounds as their own minds could 
 reach. All his designs must coincide with 
 their plan ; and whatever their arguments 
 may have appeared to evince, that the Al- 
 mighty must necessarily have decreed. But 
 it requires surely no great measure of hu- 
 mility to acknowledge, that what we know 
 only in part, we should be careful not to 
 decide upon with presumption. " Known 
 '^ unto God,'' certainly, '^ are all his works 
 '' from the beginning ^" and all his inten- 
 tions are ever present to his mind, with all 
 the means necessary for carrying them into 
 effect ; nor can there ever be any incom- 
 patibility between one part of the Divine 
 economy and another. But though all 
 God's works and intentions are thus known 
 to Himself, it does not follow that they are 
 known to man ; nor can they be known 
 any further than it has pleased God to re- 
 veal them. All the reasonings of man re- 
 specting them therefore must be conti- 
 nually liable to error, because he is only 
 
 h Acts XV. 18. 
 K 
 
130 SERMON IV. 
 
 acquainted with them in part ; and when 
 from that part he forms a system, to which 
 the whole must be reduced, he is guilty, 
 surely, of a most audacious invasion of 
 God's peculiar province. As far as the 
 express declarations of Scripture lead us, 
 so far, no doubt, we may safely go in the 
 doctrine of the Divine decrees ; but the 
 first step we take on this ground beyond 
 those declarations is one of inextricable dif- 
 ficulty, and in which our ultimate failure is 
 inevitable. But it is not a step of difficulty 
 only, it is one of danger also ; as it will al- 
 most unavoidably lead us into the sin of 
 offending the Majesty of our Creator, by 
 defacing the purity of his word. We shall 
 run the risk of charging Him with designs 
 which he abhors, and, by attributing to Him 
 actions unbecoming his justice, incur the 
 guilt of dishonouring his name and nature. 
 Thus in the point which we are now consi- 
 dering, the change of God's proceedings 
 towards our first parents. Men of daring 
 minds' have reasoned upon it, till they 
 
 i The reader will find an account of the Supralapsa- 
 rian and Sublapsarian schemes, with the articles of the 
 
SERMON IV. 131 
 
 have nearly removed the cause from them- 
 selves to their Maker; and by deducing all 
 
 latter as settled at the Synod of Dort, in Heylyn's Quin- 
 quarticular History, p. 522, &c. 591, and 614. See also 
 Nichols. Defens. Eccl. Angl. But it will be useful for 
 him to weigh well the opinion of the learned Bishop 
 Sanderson upon these endeavours to pry into the mys- 
 teries of God's decrees ; an opinion the more valuable, 
 because he had himself at one time been induced to 
 think well of the Sublapsarian method. '^ In 16*25 a 
 *' Parliament being called, wherein I was chosen one of 
 " the Clerks of the Convocation for the diocese of Lin- 
 " coin, during the continuance of that Parliament 
 (which was about four months, as I remember) there 
 was some expectation that those Arminian points, 
 the only questions almost in agitation at that time, 
 " should have been debated by the Clergy in that Con- 
 " vocation : which occasioned me, as it did sundry 
 *' others, being then at some leisure, to endeavour by 
 " study and conference to inform myself as thoroughly 
 '' and exactly in the state of those controversies as I 
 " could have opportunity, and as my wit would serve 
 '' me for it. In order whereunto, I made it my first 
 '' business to take a survey of the several different opin- 
 " ions concerning tlie ordering of God's decrees, as to 
 " the salvation or damnation of men ; not as they are 
 " "Supposed to be really in Mente Divina, (for all his de- 
 '^ crees are eternal, and therefore coeternal, and so no 
 priority or posteriority among them,) but quoad no- 
 sti'um infelligendi rnodiim, because we cannot conceive 
 or speak of the things of God but in a way suitable 
 to our own finite condition and understanding : even 
 as God himself hath been pleased to reveal himself to 
 
 K 2 
 
132 SERMON IV. 
 
 things from his absoUite and irreversible 
 decree, have at once destroyed every moral 
 
 " us in the holy Scriptures by the like suitable con- 
 " descensions and accommodations. Which opinions, 
 -*' the better to represent their differences to the eye, 
 " WW quasi intuitu, for their more easy conveying to the 
 " understanding by that means, and the avoiding of 
 " confusion and tedious discoursings, I reduced into 
 " five schemes or tables, much after the manner as I 
 " had used in pedigrees, (a thing which I think you 
 " know I have very much fancied, as to me of all others 
 " the most delightful recreation,) of which schemes 
 '^ some special friends, to whom I showed them, desired 
 
 " copies Having all these schemes before my eyes 
 
 '^ at once, so as I might with ease compare them one 
 " with another, and having considered of the conve- 
 " niences and inconveniences of each, as well as 1 could, 
 '^ I soon discovered a necessity of quitting the Sublap- 
 " sarian way, of which I had a better liking before, as 
 *' well as the Supralapsarian, which I could never fan- 
 " cy." Dr. Hammond's Pacific Discourse, p. JO, 11. 
 To this it will be useful to add his opinion of Dr. 
 Twisse's hypothesis, as it is, I believe, still in much 
 esteem with many, and in particular with the more rigid 
 maintainers of predestination amongst my own coun- 
 trymen. " Not many years after, to wit, A. D. 1632. 
 " out cometh Dr. Twisse's Vindiciae Gratiae, a large 
 " volume, purposely writ against Arminius. And then, 
 " notwithstanding my former resolution, I must needs 
 " be meddling again. The respect I had for his person 
 " and great learning, and the long acquaintance 1 had 
 '' with him at Oxford, drew me to the reading of that 
 " whole book. But from the reading of it (for I read 
 
SERMON IV. 133 
 
 motive to obedience, and annihilated the 
 moral guilt of transgression. The plain 
 
 '^ it through to a syllable) I went away with many and 
 '' great dissatisfactions. Sundry things in that book I 
 " took notice of, which brought me into a greater dis- 
 " like of his opinion than 1 had before. But especially 
 " these three : first, that he bottometh very much of his 
 ^' discourse upon a very erroneous principle, which yet 
 " he seemeth to be so deeply in love with, that he hath 
 '* repeated it (1 verily believe) some hundreds of times 
 " in that work 5 to wit, this, (that whatsoever is first in 
 " the intention, is last in execution, et e converso.) 
 ^' Which is an error of that magnitude, that I cannot 
 " but wonder how a person of such acuteness and sub- 
 *' tlety of wit could possibly be deceived with it. All 
 " logicians know, there is no such universal maxim as 
 " he buildeth upon. The true maxim is but this : Finis 
 ^' qui primus est in intentione, est ultimus in executions 
 '' In the order of final causes, and the means used for 
 '' that end, the rule holdeth perpetually : but in other 
 *' things it holdeth not at all, or but by chance, or not 
 " as a rule and necessarily. Secondly, that foreseeing 
 ^' such consequences would naturally and necessarily 
 " follow from his opinion, as would offend the ear of a 
 *' sober Christian at the very first sound, he would yet 
 " rather choose, not only to admit the said harsh conse- 
 " quences, but professedly endeavour also to maintain 
 ^' them, and plead hard for them in large digressions, 
 '' than to recede in the least point from that opinion 
 " which he had undertaken to defend. Thirdly, that 
 " seeing, out of the sharpness of his wit, a necessity of 
 " forsaking the ordinary Sublapsarian way, and the Su- 
 " pralapsarian too, as it had diversely been declared by 
 
 K 3 
 
134 SERMON IV. 
 
 and simple and instructive account of 
 Scripture gives us a very different view of 
 the matter; and one which will imjness 
 us with higher ideas of God's righteous- 
 ness, and with juster notions of our own 
 condition, with a deeper sense of the hei- 
 nousness of sin, and a conviction, that the 
 connection between happiness and virtue 
 was never violated from any cause but the 
 
 " all that had gone before him, (for the shunning of 
 " those rocks, which either of those ways must unavoid- 
 *' ably cast him upon,) he was forced to seek out an 
 *' untrodden path, and to frame out of his own brain a 
 '' new way, like a spider's web wrought out of her own 
 " bowels, hoping by that device to salve all absurdities 
 " that could be objected; to wit, by making the glory 
 ** of God, as it is indeed the chiefest, so the only end of 
 " all other his decrees, and then making all those other 
 " decrees to be but one entire coordinate medium con- 
 " ducing to that one end, and so the whole subordinate 
 '' to it, but not any one part thereof subordinate to any 
 " other of the same. Dr. Twisse should have done well 
 " to have been more sparing in imputing the studiiim 
 " partiiim to others, wherewith his own eyes, though of 
 " eminent perspicacity, were so strangely blindfolded, 
 " that he could not discern how this his new device, 
 " and his old dearly beloved principle, like the Cadmean 
 " Sparti, do mutually destroy the one the other." Dr. 
 Pierce's Letter to Isaac Walton, prefixed to his Life of 
 Bishoj) Sanderson. 
 
SERMON IV. 135 
 
 transgression of the law of God. In this 
 account we hear nothing of any Divine de- 
 cree; we have no hint, nor the most dis- 
 tant intimation, that the fall of a poor de- 
 luded being was necessary to the manifes- 
 tation of God's glory; but every part of 
 the narration tends directly and in the 
 clearest manner to assure us of this im- 
 portant truth, that the only reason of God's 
 withdrawing his favour from his creatures 
 was the commission of sin on their part. 
 In all that passed between man and his 
 Creator previous to his transgression, there 
 was nothing to be seen but unmixed bene- 
 volence and the most liberal bounty, a con- 
 stant attention to his wants, and, to speak 
 after the manner of men, an anxious de- 
 sire to promote and to secure his real hap- 
 piness. It was no vacillation of purpose, 
 much less was it any insincerity of design *", 
 
 k The learned Dr. Hammond^ in his Sermon on 
 Ezek. xviii. 31. sets himself vigorously to oppose this 
 error, at once dishonourable to God and injurious to 
 man. *^ Amongst all other prejudices and misconceits 
 " that our fancy can entertain of God, I conceive not 
 '' any so frequent or injurious to his attributes, as to 
 *' imagine him to deal double with mankind in his 
 
 K 4 
 
136 SERMON IV. 
 
 which stopped the flow of the Divine boun- 
 ty. God ever was and ever will be the 
 
 " word; seriously to will one things and to make show 
 " of another; to deliver himself in one phrase, and rc- 
 " serve himself in another. It were an unnecessary 
 " officious undertaking to go about to be God's advo- 
 " cate, to apologize for him, to vindicate his actions, or, 
 " in Job's phrase, to accept the person of God. Our 
 " proceedings will be more Christian, if we take for a 
 " ground or principle, that scorns to be beholden to an 
 *' artist for proof, that every word of God is an argu- 
 " ment of his ivill, every action an interpreter of his 
 '* word. So that howsoever he reveals himself, either in 
 " his Scripture or his works, so certainly he wisheth 
 " and intends to us in his secret counsels. Every pro- 
 *^ testation of his love, every indignation at our stub- 
 " bornness, every mercy conferred on us, and that not 
 " insidiously, but with an intent to do us good, are but 
 " ways and methods to express his will ; are but rays 
 " and emissions and gleams of that eternal love which 
 " he exhibits to the world.'' Again, a little further on 
 in the same discourse, he assures us, that " there is no 
 " one conceit that engages us so deep to continue in 
 " sin, that keeps us from repentance, and hinders any 
 *' seasonable reformation of our wicked lives, as a per- 
 " suasion, that God's will is the cause of all events. 
 *' Though we are not so blasphemous as to venture to 
 " define God the author of sin, yet we are generally in- 
 *' clined for a fancy, that because all things depend on 
 " God's decree, whatsoever we have done, could not be 
 " otherwise; all our care could not have cut off one sin 
 " from the catalogue. And so being resolved, that 
 " when we thus sinned, we could not choose, we can 
 
SERMON IV. 137 
 
 same, and all his promises to man are yea 
 and amen ; but though God is thus immu- 
 tably good, man was not endued with the 
 same unalterable character of integrity. If 
 he changed therefore, he could not expect 
 that God should treat him as before. The 
 very immutability of the Divine nature 
 made that impossible. Had the Almighty 
 continued to man after his sin the same 
 kind and degree of favour as He had shown 
 him while he preserved his integrity, it 
 might have been argued that God's regard 
 for integrity was not immutable. The real 
 nature of God's immutabihty is sometimes 
 misunderstood and misrepresented. It does 
 not consist in this •, that whatever God has 
 once promised. He must of necessity fulfil, 
 however altered the circumstances of the 
 case may be, but in a firm adherence to 
 his promises, supposing the circumstances 
 
 " scarce tell bow to repent for such necessary fatal 
 " misdemeanors ; the same excuses which we have for 
 " having sinned formerly, we have for continuing still, 
 " and so are generally better prepared for apologies than 
 " reformation." Sixth Sermon, p. 80 — 87. 
 
 ^ Archbishop Sharp's Sermon on the Profitableness 
 of Prayer. 
 
138 SERMON IV. 
 
 continue such as his promise contemplated. 
 It is argued by some, because we are told 
 in Scripture, that ^' the gifts of God are 
 *' without repentance," therefore when 
 they have been once given, they can never 
 be withdrawn. The absurdity of this rea- 
 soning is palpable enough, and experience 
 perpetually disproves it. There is no gift 
 of God which is not capable of being abus- 
 ed, and which has not actually been abused, 
 and upon that abuse recalled. In the gifts 
 of fortune and of health, this is seen every 
 day ; and there is certainly nothing in Scrip- 
 ture to prevent our saying, that the same 
 holds true of the gifts of grace. All '' God's 
 '' gifts are," doubtless, '^ without repent- 
 '' ance," as far as His own gracious will 
 and divine benevolence are concerned ; and 
 the text is thus a full assurance, that they 
 will never be withdrawn from any unstea- 
 diness in His kind intentions towards us. 
 Of this we may be certain ; and therefore 
 we may rely with perfect security on the 
 promise thus made us of divine supj)ort 
 and protection. But this promise, though 
 it assures us of the inunutablc good will of 
 
SERMON IV. 139 
 
 God to those who have been once the ob- 
 jects of his favour, does by no means se- 
 cure them against a change in themselves : 
 it does not secure them against the effects 
 of their own presumption or carelessness 
 or folly; and should that presumption or 
 folly lead them to abuse the gifts of God, 
 either by neglect or transgression of His 
 commands, they must not plead the im- 
 mutability of the Divine nature in bar of 
 the forfeiture to which they have subjected 
 themselves. This is clearly and express- 
 ively exemplified in the address of God to 
 old Eli "', and in the proceedings respect- 
 ing his family. On this occasion the Al- 
 mighty acknowledges a change in his pro- 
 ceedings, and assigns the reason of that 
 change. '^ The Lord God of Israel saith, 
 
 * I said indeed that thy house, and the 
 ' house of thv fathers, should walk before 
 ' me for ever : but now the Lord saith, 
 ' Be it far from me ; for them that honour 
 
 * me I will honour, and they that despise 
 ' me shall be lightly esteemed." The real 
 
 immutable purpose of God is contained in 
 ^ 1 Sam. ii. 30. 
 
140 SERMON IV. 
 
 the last words, that He would bestow his 
 regard upon those who faithfully served 
 and obeyed Him : and therefore all his 
 promises are to be understood with this 
 implied condition, that the objects of his 
 favour continue such, as to make the be- 
 stowing his bounty upon them not incon- 
 sistent with His unalterable resolution, to 
 maintain a discernible difference '' between 
 ^' him that serveth God and him that serv- 
 '^ eth him not"/' It would have been in 
 vain for Eli to have pleaded, and he was, 
 with all his faults, too good a man to have 
 pleaded, that God had promised an eternal 
 priesthood to his father's house : for though 
 He had so promised, and his promises were 
 always inviolably observed, yet the fulfil- 
 ment was not to be expected, unless the 
 circumstances remained the same as when 
 the promise was made. It was therefore 
 no capriciousness on the part of the Al- 
 mighty, no change of purpose in Him, 
 which induced Him to withdraw his favour 
 from Eli's house ; but because the sons of 
 Eli were sons of Belial, and because it was 
 
 n Malachi iii. 18. 
 
SERMON IV. 141 
 
 impossible, and totally incompatible with 
 the Divine justice, that the sons of Belial 
 should continue priests of the Most High 
 God. An awful consideration this, my re- 
 verend brethren, but founded on the un- 
 moveable basis of eternal truth ! But if it 
 be peculiarly awful to us, as exemplified in 
 this instance, it applies to all with undi- 
 minished force, when it is considered, how 
 clearly the same truth was promulgated in 
 God's method of proceeding with the fa- 
 ther of the human race. To him the Al- 
 mighty appeared as a gracious Creator, 
 bestowing upon his mind and body the 
 choicest of his gifts, and supplying him in 
 the most ample manner with all that he 
 could want, or ought to have desired. And 
 nothing of all the happiness he enjoyed 
 was bestowed upon him grudgingly, but 
 with that free bounty which assures the re- 
 ceiver, that his benefactor wishes him to 
 enjoy and retain what he has. Free how- 
 ever as this bounty was, and entire as vvas 
 the good will of Him from whom it flow- 
 ed, it was held by a condition ; a condition 
 so indispensable, that its infringement was 
 
142 SERMON IV. 
 
 necessarily to be followed by the forfeiture 
 of all that had been granted. The grant 
 was liberal and graciously designed ; but it 
 was declared beforehand, that a positive 
 penalty would be inflicted on transgres- 
 sion. And the declaration was calculated to 
 teach, not only Adam himself, but all his 
 descendants for ever, that the gifts of God 
 are bestowed upon the condition of their 
 not being abused ; and that the withdraw- 
 ing them, on their being abused, is no proof 
 of variableness on God's part, but results 
 necessarily from that regard to justice and 
 integrity which is essential to the Divine 
 nature. When therefore in any particular 
 instance they are withdrawn, the cause 
 should be sought, not in God, but man ; for 
 though the withdrawing them be the act of 
 the Almighty, yet the reason of that act is 
 always grounded upon some delinquency 
 in the creature. Thus the sin of man was 
 the sole cause of his misery ; the sole cause 
 of his being driven from the enjoyment of 
 unmixed good, and what compelled his 
 benevolent Creator to hide His face from 
 him. And is it possible to conceive any 
 
SERMON IV. 143 
 
 thing better calculated to impress the hearts 
 of all men with an utter detestation of every 
 kind and degree of sin, than this short his- 
 tory of its ruinous effects, in the very out- 
 set of Divine Revelation ? This plain nar- 
 rative, perplexed by no sophistical difficul- 
 ties, is surely entitled to our most attentive 
 consideration. For when we reflect, what 
 was the state of things before this root of 
 bitterness was introduced among them ; 
 when we view the peace and happiness and 
 blessed harmony of every thing in heaven 
 and earth, and see the Almighty himself 
 smiling in benevolence upon the pure en- 
 joyments of his creatures ; and yet that all 
 this was changed at once into gloom and 
 wretchedness the moment sin was com- 
 mitted; it is impossible not to discern the 
 detestable depravity and insufferable pollu- 
 tion of what could thus defile and deface 
 the works of an All-wise and Omnipotent 
 Creator. It is stamped at once as odious 
 in the sight of God, and ruinous to man. 
 And it must surely be acknowledged, that 
 the Revelation, which thus commences with 
 a detail of the sad effects of sin, in destroy- 
 
144 SERMON IV. 
 
 ing the fair fabric of human happiness, does 
 lay a strong basis of moral instruction, by 
 showing, in an instance calculated to in- 
 terest the whole race of man, that the com- 
 mission of sin cannot consist with his well- 
 being. It originally deprived the creature 
 of his Maker's favour, and it must for ever 
 contiime to be offensive to that essential 
 righteousness, which belongs to the immut- 
 able nature of God. Like him, who un- 
 happily improved upon his father's wick- 
 edness by imbruing his hands in a brother's 
 blood, it bears upon its front an eternal 
 mark of infamy, that all the descendants of 
 the first transgressor might, if they would, 
 avoid what had been so fatal to him. And 
 the mark is this, that it was the sole cause 
 of all the misery and corruption that ever 
 did or does torment and pollute the world. 
 If we ask, what introduced pain and suffer- 
 ing and death into a system of things which 
 had a good God for its Author, the Scrip- 
 ture tells us, it was sin. It does not per- 
 plex us with metaphysical subtleties, or 
 presumptuous inquiries into the Divine de- 
 crees ; it lays before us a plain matter of 
 
SERMON IV. 145 
 
 fact; and in that fact gives us the clearest 
 proof, which the plainest understanding, if 
 honest, may comprehend and appreciate, 
 that man was made wretched by trans- 
 gression ; and that to this we owe all the 
 doubts and difficulties, the external alarms 
 and inward fears, by which we are distract- 
 ed, and all the more immediate evils of 
 poverty, disease, and want, whereby we 
 are constantly assailed. But not only are 
 those tormenting disorders, by which our 
 bodies are frequently excruciated, to be 
 referred to sin as their cause; death and 
 dissolution have no other origin. The pe- 
 naltv, which God threatened before trans- 
 gression. He did not denounce till it had 
 been fully incurred. The Apostle is ex- 
 press, that '^ by sin death entered into the 
 "- world'' ;" and if so, it is fair to conclude, 
 that had sin never appeared, death would ne- 
 ver have had any power to disunite the soul 
 and body of man. How great an evil death 
 was, when thus first introduced, and how 
 much it broke in upon and disorganized 
 the natural constitution of our being, may 
 
 « Rom. V. 12. 
 L 
 
146 SERMON IV. 
 
 yet be collected from the repugnance, with 
 which every mind, not entirely lost to the 
 better feelings and better hopes of that 
 nature, entertains the idea of dissolution. 
 Those better feelings working within us 
 show, that death had no hold on man's 
 original frame, and made no part of God's 
 original purpose in regard to him. Of this 
 lamentable depravation of the human sys- 
 tem it may be said with truth, as our Sa- 
 viour said upon another occasion, '^ An 
 ^' enemy hath done this p." It was indeed 
 the work of an enemy. The Almighty him- 
 self had called myriads of creatures into a 
 happy existence, and well deserved to be 
 considered and adored as their best friend 
 and benefactor; but sin, which is in every 
 sense the opposite of the Divine purity, 
 sought to annihilate the creation of God, 
 and reduce to nothing the beings whom 
 He had endowed, not with life and sensa- 
 tion only, but with the nobler faculties of 
 reason and understanding. And as far as 
 the Almighty Creator permitted this poi- 
 son to operate, it did introduce into his 
 
 P Matth. xiii. 28. 
 
SERMON IV. 147 
 
 works that which was most directly con- 
 trary to his purpose. Where He made, sin 
 destroyed ; where He had bestowed health 
 and vigour, sin brought sickness and imbe- 
 cility; where God had conferred life, sin 
 deprived the creature of the precious gift, 
 and involved him in all the horror of appa- 
 rent destruction. 
 
 Nor does it by any means make death 
 less an evil, that some men, of depraved 
 minds and correspondent conduct, affect 
 to consider it as an advantage, and endea- 
 vour to persuade themselves and others, 
 that it is indeed an eternal destruction of 
 soul and body. For why do they affect so 
 to consider it, and why do they endeavour 
 so to persuade men? Because they know 
 what their wickedness has deserved, and 
 they feel alarmed by those anticipations of 
 future punishment, which their minds, being 
 originally made for immortality, most na- 
 turally and readily entertain. Were there 
 no fear of hell, and no conscience to tell 
 the abandoned sinner how he has deserved 
 that hell, abandoned as he is, he would 
 yet abhor annihilation. But " yielding his 
 
 L 2 
 
148 SERMON IV. 
 
 '' members as instruments of unrighteous- 
 " ness unto sin%*' and plainly told by the 
 word of God, that no impenitent sinner 
 can go to heaven, he would gladly labour 
 for a conviction, tliat either the only place 
 to which he can go has no existence, or 
 that he himself will not exist to go thither. 
 Yet let this sinner have but one ray of 
 hope, that he may possibly escape the pu- 
 nishment which he fears, and that, although 
 life should be extended beyond the grave, 
 it may not necessarily be extended in mi- 
 sery, and death will again appear to him, 
 as it is, an evil, and his soul will grasp with 
 fervor the prospect of continued existence. 
 But though it should be otherwise, though, 
 in such as these, the voice of nature should 
 be stifled by the overwhelming burden of 
 their transgressions, what right have they 
 to be heard upon a question of this kind, 
 whose sentiments are the result, not of na- 
 tural feeling, but of a superinduced habit 
 of vice? It is their wisdom, no doubt, to 
 choose annihilation rather than eternal tor- 
 ment. Let the better and larger part of 
 
 q Rom. vi. 13. 
 
SERMON IV. 149 
 
 mankind be heard ; let the feelings of those 
 be consulted, as a fair specimen of what is 
 really natural to the human heart in its 
 wishes on this subject, whose minds are 
 most free from the bias of evil affections 
 and bad habits, and who can look with 
 least dread upon the opening of a scene, 
 which, when once opened, shall never have 
 a close. They will tell you, without hesi- 
 tation, that, as the love of life is natviral to 
 man, so the hope of the soul's surviving a 
 temporary dissolution of the body is con- 
 solatory to their hearts, and their best sup- 
 port under all the varied calamities of a 
 life, too full of misery to be the final abode 
 of such as endeavour to serve a good God. 
 That it is a world of misery, though still 
 abounding in proofs of its Maker's benefi- 
 cence, common experience too clearly de- 
 monstrates ; it is demonstrated even by the 
 fleeting nature of the good it contains, and 
 above all, by that fatal inroad upon man's 
 original destination, which compels him, 
 when he has just learned to live, to relin- 
 quish the scene in which the lessons of his 
 experience and wisdom would be, to ap- 
 
 L 3 
 
150 SERMON IV. 
 
 pearance, most usefully practised. But 
 death has obtained an uncontrollable do- 
 minion over the sons of men ; and this do- 
 minion the Scripture attributes to sin, and 
 sin alone : it never intimates, in the most 
 remote degree, that there was any other 
 cause for disturbing the harmony of God's 
 works, or any other inducement for the 
 Almighty to change his measures towards 
 the creature whom He had so distinguish- 
 ed by his bounty. That Apostle, whose 
 authority has been used with an unwar- 
 rantable freedom in prying into the mys- 
 tery of the Divine decrees, is clear and ex- 
 plicit in asserting, that the misery of man 
 has been caused by his sin alone; his plain 
 and unequivocal declarations are, that 
 " death entered into the world by sin," 
 and that '* the wages of sin is death '.'^ 
 His high and ennobling ideas of the Divine 
 justice would not allow him for a moment 
 to suppose, or to give any countenance to 
 the supposition, that when man lost his 
 happiness, he incurred that loss by any 
 thing but his own misconduct. In this 
 
 "" Rom. vi. 23. 
 
SERMON IV. 151 
 
 view his expression is very remarkable ; he 
 calls '^ death the wages of sin." Wages 
 are that which has been deserved; to which 
 there is in fact a claim by contract, and 
 for which adequate work has been done. 
 And when he puts man's unhappy fall upon 
 this footing ; when he asserts broadly, that 
 death, and all the various ills which harass 
 our race from their cradle to their grave, 
 are what man has merited by his own act, 
 it is impossible to conceive, how he could 
 express in stronger terms, that human de- 
 pravity was the sole cause of human mi- 
 sery. 
 
 Still those, who presumptuously endea- 
 vour to '* be wise above what is written,'^ 
 are not satisfied. They read, that our Sa- 
 viour Jesus was ^' the Lamb slain from the 
 ** foundation of the world %'' and that his 
 faithful servants were '^ chosen in Him be- 
 ^' fore the foundation of the world*;" and 
 upon their own interpretation of these pas- 
 sages they proceed to construct a system, 
 a great part of which rests upon nothing 
 but their own gratuitous assumption. Be 
 
 s Rev. xiii. 8. * Eph. i. 4. 
 
 L 4 
 
152 SERMON IV. 
 
 it, that the Omniscient, foreseeing the fall 
 of his creature, did provide a remedy for 
 that fall even before it had taken place : 
 what then? Because His mercy was prompt 
 to devise means by which the total destruc- 
 tion of man might be prevented, is it just 
 or reasonable or decent to conclude, that 
 any part of that destruction was owing to 
 His decree? No such decree appears in 
 Scripture ; and we may therefore fairly 
 aver, that it has existed onlv in the ima- 
 ginations of those, who, upon so awful a 
 subject, have too much indulged their own 
 fancied infallibility. The ground upon 
 which so audacious a charge w^as made 
 ought surely to have been, not only firm, 
 but prominently conspicuous ; which in 
 this instance is far from being the case. 
 Their argument rests upon this, that what- 
 ever God foresees. He must therefore have 
 decreed : and why so ? Because the under- 
 standing of these men cannot reconcile the 
 foresight with the contingency of future 
 events. Where will human arrogance stop? 
 If these men cannot understand and re- 
 concile all the aj)parcnt difficulties of the 
 
SERMON IV. 153 
 
 Divine proceedings, does it follow, that the 
 Almighty himself cannot? Or is it too hu- 
 miliating to acknowledge, that the ^' judg- 
 *' ments" even of the Omniscient are, ac- 
 cording to the declarations of his word, 
 " unsearchable, and his ways past finding 
 '' out"?" As to all mere difficulties, in re- 
 conciHng one part of those ''judgments" 
 with another, this answer ought in every 
 case to be sufficient; that where we see 
 but a part of God's proceedings, it does 
 not become us to decide dogmatically upon 
 the whole. Receiving each separately with 
 a full assurance of faith, as God has been 
 pleased to reveal it, we should rely upon 
 His wisdom and justice, that at last every 
 thing will appear consistent, and perfectly 
 consonant to the purest benevolence and 
 the most exact equity. But is there, in 
 truth, any weight in the observation itself? 
 Is there that difficulty in conceiving the 
 foreknowledge of future events to be con- 
 sistent with their contingency? This sub- 
 ject requires certainly to be treated with 
 the greatest caution and prudence ; but I 
 " Rom. xiv. 33. 
 
154 SERMON IV. 
 
 cannot help thinking, that it is capable of 
 a fair illustration from the ordinary trans- 
 actions of life. Let us suppose a person 
 placed in such circumstances as set before 
 him two objects for his choice, but do not 
 compel him to choose either : in this case 
 it will be allowed that he is under a neces- 
 sity, either of choosing the one or the 
 other, or of rejecting both. Now it does 
 not appear, what possible constraint it 
 would put upon his freedom to suppose, 
 that a superior Being might know assured- 
 ly, whether, if he chose at all, he would 
 choose the one object or the other, or whe- 
 ther he would reject them both. Nor would 
 the difficulty appear to be in any degree 
 increased, if, supposing this Being to be the 
 Supreme Ruler and Governor of the world, 
 we should further conceive Him, in the 
 certain foreknowledge of this person's 
 choice or rejection, to provide that neither 
 the one nor the other should interfere with 
 the course of his providence or the bounty 
 of his grace. Are not men, who have the 
 care of others, obliged to act thus fre- 
 quently, though they can only proceed on 
 
SERMON IV. 155 
 
 such probabilities as their minds are capa- 
 ble of attaining? Fathers and guardians, 
 making provision for those vmder their 
 charge, endeavour, according to the shrewd- 
 est conjectures they are able to form of 
 their future conduct, so to secure their 
 welfare as best to guard them against mis- 
 carriage, and afi^ainst utter ruin in case thev 
 should miscarry ; but was it ever supposed, 
 that their doing so affected the free-will of 
 their wards or children ? And even if they 
 could have certainly foreseen what the con- 
 duct of their wards would be, and as cer- 
 tainly have made provision in conformity 
 with that foreknowledge, what greater re- 
 straint would this increase of knowledge 
 have laid upon the freedom of those, with 
 respect to whose conduct, or the effects of 
 whose conduct, it was exercised? In this 
 instance it will be granted, perhaps, that it 
 would lay no such restraint ; but if not in 
 this, there seems to be no sufficient reason 
 to say, that it would in any other what- 
 ever. Let us view in the same light the 
 case before us. There can be no doubt, 
 that God Almighty did, before He made 
 
156 SERMON IV. 
 
 man, or placed him in Paradise, know, as- 
 suredly ", that, being placed there, he would 
 
 ^ A very clear view of Divine Praescience is to be 
 found, 1 think, in Dr. Hammond's Three Letters on 
 that subject. " Whatsoever,'* says he, " is seen, or 
 *' (which is all one in an infinite Deity) foreseen by 
 ^' God, is thereby supposed to have, in that science of 
 '^ his, an objective being : if it were not, or did not 
 " come to pass, it should have no such objective being; 
 *^ if it have, it is thereby evidenced to be seen by him, 
 " who was, is, and is to come, and so, being infinite, is 
 " equally present to all, and equally sees and knows all 
 " from eternity. What therefore you conclude, as it is 
 " most agreeable to this, so it is most true, that God 
 " knows all things as they are; such as come to pass 
 "contingently, he knows to come contingently; and 
 " from thence I undeniably conclude, therefore they are 
 
 " contingent For it is evident, by the prophecies 
 
 " of Judas, &c. that God long before foresees sins, which 
 *' are as certainly contingent, and not decreed or de- 
 " creeable by God. If therefore any that write against 
 ^' the Remonstrants go about to retort their arguments, 
 '' and conclude from their acknowledgments of God's 
 '' Praescience what is charged on their adversaries doc- 
 '' trine of predetermination, I conceive it is but a boast, 
 '« that hath not the least force in it, predetermination hav- 
 " ing a visible influence and causality on the object, but 
 " eternal vision or praevision being so far from imposing 
 " necessity on the thing to be, that it supposes it to be 
 " already from the free choice of the agent, and that 
 " being of it is, in order of nature, before its being seen. 
 " God's seeing or foreseeing hath no more operation or 
 " causality of any kind on the object, than my seeing 
 
SERMON IV. 157 
 
 transgress the command of his Maker, and 
 in consequence of that transgression incur 
 
 *' your letter bath caused your letter. You wrote free- 
 " ly, and now 1 see it; and that being supposed, it 
 " is infallibly certain that you have written, and that 
 '' you cannot not liave wTitten. And just so it is in 
 " respect of God. Only I am finite, and so is my 
 '' sight ; I see few things, and those only which are 
 ^' present; but God being infinite sees all ab injinito, 
 " that are never so long hence future." Letter I. p. 99. 
 The second and third are taken up in answering objec- 
 tions, but so as powerfully to illustrate the general sub- 
 ject. The foresight of Adam's fall, and the consequent 
 appointment of a remedy for that fall, are thus satisfac- 
 torily commented upon. " Let us instance once for all 
 '' in Adam : it is certain he fell, and in him all his pos- 
 " terity : did not God foresee or know this, till the 
 " effect told it him ? Then how was Christ given in de- 
 " creto divino, before the creation of the world ? I hope 
 ^' you will not say, he was not so given, when the 
 
 " Scripture is in many places so express for it, and 
 
 " when God's decrees are ab eterno, and so especially 
 ^* this, the foundation of all the rest, of those that con- 
 *• cern our salvation. For if he decreed Christ before 
 " the creation, then he foresaw there would be need of 
 '^ him; if so, then he foresaw Adam's fall; and then 
 " why may he not have foreseen all other men's sins, 
 " all contingent future events, of which he is no more 
 " the author, and of which there is no more necessity 
 ^^ that the free agents should act them, than there was 
 " that Adam should sin before he was created. I pray 
 " consider this, and it will do your whole business." 
 Letter III. p. 137, &c. To this I shall only add what 
 
158 SERMON IV. 
 
 the threatened penalty. This is undeni- 
 able. Man being placed in the garden of 
 
 the excellent author has quoted with so much effect 
 from Origen's Piiilocalia. " For the chapter in Ori- 
 *^ gen's Philocalia it cannot be but you must have noted 
 ^' in it, the weight that he lays on the prediction of Ju- 
 ^' das's treason, the general resolution, that exua-Tov tmv 
 *^ s(rofji.svwv TTpo TToAXou OiScv 6 0=of y5VYi(rQ[xe\>ov, every thing 
 " that is future, God sees it will come to pass, and yet 
 " ou TTooyvovc TTuvTcov a.iTio$ 7rpo=yva)(T [xsvoov, the foreknower 
 " is not the cause of all that are foreknown, citing from 
 '' Susanna 42, 43. that God is xpvrrTMv yvu)a-Tr,c, 6 sl^wg to. 
 '' TrtxvTo. Tzqh ysvsasoog avTcvv, the knower of secrets, that 
 *' knows all things before they are : then he proposes 
 '* the question, YIw; 7rgoyvcjo(rTOu ovrog e^ alcLvoc tou 0:oD ttso] 
 '* Twv v<p' txtx<TTOu 7rpixTTS(rStxi voixitpixivonv, TO e(p' YftjAv crco^s- 
 ** rai, how God from all eternity foreknowing those 
 *^ things that are thought to be done by every man, our 
 " free-will may be retained. Which he treats against 
 " the heathen, that say God's foreknowledge takes away 
 " all praise and dispraise, &c. ; and maintain it just as 
 " you do, as you will see, if you compare your and their 
 " arguing. Now to these his answer is, that God from 
 " the beginning of the creation of the world, nothing 
 *' being without a cause, ent%ops6sTcii tco vm exuaTov twv 
 " ha-ofxevctiv opcov, by the progress of his mind through all 
 " things that are future, sees them, that if this be, that 
 *' will follow, &c. and so j(A5%p» rsKovg TrpaypiocTcjov, pro- 
 " ceeding to the end of things, he knows what shall be. 
 " Which he doth express to show, that he sees the de- 
 " pendence of all things, not from his own will, who by 
 " knowing them, as it follows, causes them not, but in 
 ** a concatenation of hiuiian acts and choices; as when 
 
SERMON IV. 159 
 
 Eden, and forbidden to eat of a particular 
 fruit, was under a necessity of obeying or 
 disobeying the Divine command ; one or 
 other he must do; for however free his 
 choice might be between the two, he could 
 not do both. Which he would ultimately 
 do was, we grant, known to his Creator 
 from the first, though not to himself; but 
 why such knowledge in the Creator should 
 have any influence upon the choice of the 
 creature, there does not appear any assign- 
 able reason. Not to know the issue of the 
 trial, to which man was put, would have 
 
 '' by temerity one walks inconsiderately, and meeting 
 " with a slippery place falls, which he that sees is no 
 '^ way the cause of his fall, saith he, adding, that God 
 '^ foreseeing o-Trolog bq-tch exao-ro^, how qualified every one 
 " will be, sees also the causes that he will be so ; mean- 
 " while his foreseeing is not the cause of their being 
 " what they are, but though strange, saith he, yet it is 
 ** true, TO s(y6ix.svov aTriov toD rojavSe shai tjjv Trsp) avTou 
 Trg6yvca<nv, the thing future is the cause that such a 
 foreknowledge is had of it ; for it doth not, because 
 it was foreknown, come to pass, but because, ejxsAAe 
 sasaQoii, it was to come to pass, it was known." 
 P. 144, &c. This seems plain and unexceptionable ; and 
 I cannot help thinking, that any unprejudiced person 
 would receive much satisfaction from a careful perusal 
 of these Letters. 
 
160 SERMON IV. 
 
 been indeed a diminution of God's Omni- 
 science, but to know it does not seem in 
 any manner or degree to have trenched 
 upon man's original liberty. The state- 
 ment is plain and simple. God Almighty 
 knew what man would do, though he was 
 left perfectly free to do as he pleased. And 
 what difficulty is there in conceiving this ? 
 in conceiving, that He, who is Supreme in 
 Wisdom and in Power, should see before- 
 hand, what any one of his creatures will do 
 under any circumstances whatever? Nor 
 does it in any way increase that difficulty 
 to be informed, that our Merciful Father, 
 thus foreseeing the fall of his unhappy 
 creature, provided even before his fall the 
 means of saving him ; that there was an 
 expiation provided for sin, even before the 
 sin itself was committed. All this displays 
 in the brightest manner the goodness and 
 the wisdom of God, but it does not in the 
 least abridge that liberty with which our 
 first parent was endowed ; it makes him 
 not in any degree less a free agent, and 
 consequently in no degree less responsible 
 for his actions. It exhibits to us in co- 
 
SERMON IV. 161 
 
 lours, that ought to excite ovir highest love 
 and gratitude and veneration, the watchful 
 benevolence, and, if I may so say, the an- 
 xious good-will of our heavenly Father, in 
 all the care He took to prevent the ill 
 effects of our miscarriage; but it rests the 
 blame of that miscarriage, and all its dread- 
 ful consequences, upon the unconstrained 
 commission of sin by Adam and Eve, and 
 the choice which they freely made of disre- 
 garding the prohibition they had received. 
 But there is another points connected 
 
 y The monstrous error here alluded to is of long 
 standing in the world. Dr. Hammond thus exposes it. 
 " It was a fancy of the Stoics, mentioned by Plutarch, 
 " TTsp) TtavTu xdTopQovv Tov u(7Tsiov, that a wisc man could 
 " do nothing amiss, that all that he did was wise and 
 " virtuous. And they that will have men saved and 
 " damned by a Stoical necessity, nowadays, may bor- 
 " row this fancy of the Stoics also ; but Homer, saith 
 " he, and Euripides, long since exploded it. I am sure 
 " St. Paul will fairly give any man leave, that takes 
 " himself to be in a good estate now, to fear a bad be- 
 
 " fore he die The Valentinian having resolved 
 
 " himself to be TrveujxaTmo^, spiritual, confessed indeed 
 " that other men must get some store of faith and works 
 ^' to help them to heaven, kuvTov Ss [xyj SeTo-fia* S<« to <p6(rsi 
 *' TTvsu/xaTJxov shui, Irenaeus ; but they had no need of ei- 
 " ther, because of their natural spiritualness ; that which 
 " is spiritual cannot part with its spiritual hypostasis, 
 
 M 
 
162 SERMON IV. 
 
 with this subject, which, though in some 
 respects it may appear more properly to 
 
 " whatever it do or suffer, no more than gold by a sink 
 *' can lose its lustre; or the sun-beams be defamed by 
 " the dunghill they shine on. They commit all manner 
 " of impurity, saith he, and yet they are o-Trfp/xara en Ao- 
 " y^^, seeds of the election, the seeds, indeed, deep set 
 " in the earth, that take root downward, but never bear 
 " fruit upward ; tliey never spring at all, except it be 
 " towards hell, nor sprout any branch or stalk of works, 
 " unless it be of darkness. These, forsooth, have grace, 
 " ISjoxttjtov, as their proper possessions, all others but 
 *^ to use ; and so it seemed, for they of all others made 
 " no use of it. There was anotlier like fancy in the 
 " same Irenseus, of Marcus and his followers, that by 
 " the aTToKuTgc/ca-ic, a form of baptizing that they had, 
 *' they were become uUcnu rw xcjtJ, invisible to the 
 "judge; then, if ever they were apprehended, it were 
 " but calling to the motlier of heaven, and she would 
 " send the helmet in Homer, that they should presently 
 " vanish out of their hands. Thus have men been be- 
 " fooled by the Devil to believe, that their sacred per- 
 " sons could excuse the foulest acts, and, as it was said 
 " of Cato, even make crimes innocent ; thus have some 
 " gotten the art of sinning securely, nay, religiously. 
 
 " But I hope all these fancies have nothing to do, 
 
 *' but to fill up the catalogues in Irenseus and Epipha- 
 
 " nius pr^y God, there be no evidence of them 
 
 " scattered here and there among hasty, ignorant, over- 
 " weening Christians." vSermon viii. p. 125, &c. The 
 good man's charity seems to have got the better of his 
 well-grounded suspicions ; a later writer saw cause to 
 warn his readers in strong terms against what was too 
 
SERMON IV. ' 163 
 
 belong to the doctrine of Election, which 
 shall be considered hereafter, yet, as it re- 
 lates to the nature of sin, and would seem 
 
 acceptable to flesh and blood, not to have a great effect 
 upon morals. " If at any time," says he, "thou hearest 
 " men teach, that all the sins of God's children are 
 " mere infirmities, venial sins, or that God beholdeth 
 " no sin in the justified, but looketh upon them always 
 " as he looketh upon his Son, in whose face he behold- 
 " eth them as persons all fair and pure ; or that God is 
 " the mover and provoker of men to their sins, and so 
 " the true author of them ; or that all men's actions, 
 '^ good and bad, are predetermined, so as they cannot 
 ^' do more good than they do, nor commit fewer sins 
 '' than they do ; or that God will rouse him when he 
 " fiilleth into a sleep of sin, and if he belong to his 
 " election, drive him home again into a good way, will 
 " he, nill he, and make him repent; if, I say, thou 
 " hearest any deliver these doctrines, and with great 
 " confidence too, as main evangelical truths, and such 
 " as must be preached for the comfort of God's chil- 
 " dren, 
 
 " Hsec tu, Romane, caveto, 
 " thou, whoever thou art, that wouldst live godly in 
 ^' Christ Jesus, avoid them. For they are auroxara- 
 " xptTCi, doginata, opinions that carry their condemna- 
 " tion in their forehead. A man will easily, if he be not 
 "forestalled with prejudice, at the first sight of them, 
 " perceive whence they come, and whither they go, and 
 " what they tend to, even to the setting open a wide 
 " sluice to all manner of sin and profaneness." Hoard's 
 Soul's Misery. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 SERMON IV. 
 
 to render it less odious in the sight of God, 
 and less destructive to man than it really 
 is, cannot be overlooked in this place : it 
 would indeed, could it be maintained, ef- 
 fectually destroy that moral bearing of Di- 
 vine Revelation for which we are contend- 
 ing. The point is this. It has been as- 
 serted, that sin is not so displeasing to God 
 in some persons as in others; by which it 
 would appear, that it is not sin which the 
 Almighty hates, but the persons by whom it 
 is committed : for while some fall under his 
 heaviest displeasure for their wickedness, 
 others, though guilty of the same wicked- 
 ness, find no diminution of his favour. 
 This is a doctrine so broadly immoral, so 
 derogatory to God's justice, and holding 
 out such bold encouragement to transgres- 
 sion, that one is at a loss to conceive, how 
 any man possessed of common sense could 
 maintain an opinion so palpably pernicious 
 in its consequences : and yet it has been 
 asserted, that David was as much in the 
 favour of God, when he murdered Uri- 
 ah and committed adultery with his wife, 
 as when he best preserved his integrity. 
 
SERMON IV. 165 
 
 Thank God, this is not Scripture! The 
 matter is there represented in a very dif- 
 ferent light. The message of the Prophet 
 to the offending King was any thing rather 
 than an assurance of Divine favour. True, 
 he was on his confession, and the contri- 
 tion impHed in that confession, reprieved 
 from the death to which as an adulterer 
 the Law would have condemned him ; but 
 he was told expressly, that for this sin 
 *^ the sword should never depart from his 
 ^' house %" and the subsequent history is 
 one unhappy detail of the incest, rebellion, 
 and murder, in which his wretched family 
 were involved, and to which he had given 
 too much encouragement by his own fla- 
 grant example. The sin of David was not 
 unpunished; it was not unmarked by the 
 wrath and vengeance of a Most Just God, 
 whom he had highly and grievously offend- 
 ed. He was indeed spared that extreme 
 and irremediable misery which his crime in 
 itself deserved; he was not cut off in his 
 sin, and doomed to irreversible damnation : 
 and if we examine the circumstances of his 
 
 z 2 Sam. xii. 9. 
 M 3 
 
166 SERMON IV. 
 
 case, we may perhaps collect, with great 
 probability, the reasons which made him a 
 fit object of the Divine mercy, even when 
 he had become obnoxious to the Divine 
 justice. The sin of David was not a pre- 
 sumptuous sin ; it was not committed in a 
 cool defiance of the authority, or a medi- 
 tated contempt of the Law of God. He 
 fell indeed, and he foully fell, in the hour 
 of temptation ; but he did not seek that 
 temptation, he did not previously contrive 
 the means of illicit enjoyment, or endea- 
 vour to stifle the rising qualms of con- 
 science by the adoption of Atheistic prin- 
 ciples; he forgot his duty, but he did not 
 deny that he was under an obligation to 
 perform it. And this is a point of great 
 importance. He, who sins deliberately, 
 who seeks occasions of unlawful indulg- 
 ence, even when they do not offer them- 
 selves, who urges his passions beyond even 
 their natural violence by artificial excite- 
 ments, and makes it his study to justify all 
 this, by destroying in his own mind or in 
 others those principles of religion and mo- 
 rality, which can alone check and correct 
 
SERMON IV. 167 
 
 the unruly propensities of our nature : he, 
 who does this, though not guilty of murder 
 or adultery, is yet in the crimes he does 
 commit, a bolder transgressor of God's 
 Law, and a more flagrant contemner of his 
 authority, than David in the darkest mo- 
 ment of his deepest guilt. For this man 
 destroys the very basis of all duty to God, 
 all order in society, and all personal re- 
 straint. He, who pushes a stone from the 
 upper part of a building, does indeed de- 
 face its beauty, and endanger himself and 
 his neighbour; but he, who insidiously 
 saps the foundation, while he pretends per- 
 haps to admire the edifice itself, takes the 
 most effectual means of burying the whole 
 in ruin, and rendering its reerection hope- 
 less. And this should teach us to treat 
 with less regard those pretensions to good 
 morals, which have been made by some 
 modern professors of Atheistic opinions. 
 Such pretensions are in general hollow and 
 false ; but even where they are supported 
 by some external regard to decency, they 
 deserve little respect, and can by no means 
 be admitted in alleviation of the crime of 
 
 M 4 
 
168 SERMON IV. 
 
 eradicating the very principles of virtue. 
 He, who teaches immorality, will never 
 want willing hearers ; and it is too much 
 to expect, that when a man has by his 
 writing or speaking done all in his power 
 to remove every restraint from the com- 
 mission of sin in others, he should be al- 
 lowed any thing like a claim to moral cha- 
 racter in himself. It must no doubt be 
 granted, that King David was in the com- 
 mission of his enormous crimes a high 
 transgressor of the most sacred duties of 
 moraUty ; but guilty as he was, compared 
 to him who preaches unrighteousness, and 
 yet shelters his baseness under a deep veil 
 of hypocrisy, or defies reproof by a shame- 
 less profession of infidelity, right reason 
 must acknowledge, that he was a fit and 
 becoming object of the Divine mercy. The 
 mercy, that was extended to David there- 
 fore, is no encouragement to sin. He was 
 a sinner, but not a hardened sinner. If 
 he was eminent in crime, he was also no 
 less eminent in contrition. The tears which 
 he shed, the groans which he uttered, the 
 unqualified acknowledgment which he made 
 
SERMON IV. 169 
 
 of his own criminality, show, that he was 
 far from seeking to justify his conduct, or 
 hide from himself or others its shocking 
 turpitude and depravity. And let it be 
 observed, that the remission of the most 
 awful part of the punishment was not an- 
 nounced to him, till he had made that ac- 
 knowledgment. Till he made it, his mind 
 indeed bore witness to the truth of that 
 assertion in Scripture, that '^ the wicked 
 ^' are like the troubled sea""." This he 
 himself tells us ; for he describes with a pe- 
 culiar pathos, in more than one of his pe- 
 nitential exercises, the deep anguish and 
 excruciating torment which he felt, while 
 he ^' kept'' an obstinate ^^ silence^" on the 
 subject of his guilt. But even when he 
 had confessed his guilt, though his own 
 mind regained its wonted tranquillity, yet 
 the Almighty took care that His treatment 
 of David should be to no man an apology 
 for transgression. He vindicated in the 
 clearest manner the purity of His own at- 
 tributes, and gave an eminent proof of his 
 eternal detestation of sin, and of the con- 
 
 a Isaiah Ivii. 20. ^ Psalm xxxii. 3, 4, 5. ' 
 
170 SERMON IV. 
 
 sequences whicli are for ever annexed to it 
 by the order of liis providence. The un- 
 happy King was punished, severely and 
 signally, by the rebellion of his darling son, 
 by the general profligacy of his children, 
 and by those various miseries which a pro- 
 fligate and wicked family must necessarily 
 cause to a father^ who has any spark of a 
 father's tenderness remaining in his heart : 
 and how mvist those miseries have been 
 aggravated by the reflection, that his own 
 example had contributed to cherish the 
 wickedness which occasioned them ? 
 
 The doctrine of our text then stands clear 
 of all exception. Iniquity alone has caused 
 the separation between man and his Maker: 
 nothing else did, and nothing else could 
 have made God regard his creatvire with 
 any thing but unmixed love and benevo- 
 lence. The history of our fall makes this 
 clear; and in making this clear, it proves 
 most plainly, that the revelation contained 
 in our Scriptures was intended to impress 
 men with a conviction, that sin ever was 
 and ever will be odious in the sight of 
 God ; that He will in every instance visit 
 
SERMON IV. 171 
 
 it, sooner or later, with those marks of his 
 displeasure, which its own depraved nature 
 and its opposition to his will deserve ; and 
 that, as it originally compelled Him to de- 
 prive man of his favour, so it will be for 
 ever attended with the same effect, and in- 
 evitably bring down upon the impenitent 
 sinner the wrath and indignation of hea- 
 ven. 
 
SERMON V. 
 
 Heb. xii. 14. 
 
 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, witfiout 
 which no man shall see the Lord, 
 
 This is one of those plain texts of Scrip- 
 ture, which, if they were better considered 
 and better obeyed, would do more for the 
 improvement and happiness of society than 
 all the controversial subtleties, which have 
 ever employed the pens of polemics. Peace 
 and holiness united, would alter, not the 
 appearance only, but the real condition, 
 both of individuals and communities ; they 
 would at once put an end to disorder and 
 confusion, by restraining or eradicating 
 those '' lusts which war in men's members %'^ 
 and which experience, no less than the au- 
 thority of God's word, assures us are the 
 
 a James iv. 1. 
 
174 SERMON V. 
 
 original source of all the '^ wars and fight- 
 *' ings" among them. But important as 
 the cultivation of peace always is, (and it 
 never was more important than in these 
 days of ours,) it does not fall in with my 
 present purpose to press this part of the 
 subject upon your consideration ; it is the 
 latter branch of the text, to which I beg to 
 draw your attention, as another proof of 
 the Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation, 
 contained in the explicit assertion, that 
 ^' without holiness no man shall see the 
 " Lord." And how direct a proof it is, 
 cannot but be allowed upon an impartial 
 examination of the matter. 
 
 We have already seen, that man was 
 originally holy; that as such he was put in 
 possession of undisturbed happiness ; and 
 that he lost that happiness solely by the 
 commission of sin, the transgression of his 
 Maker's law. It comes therefore naturally 
 to be inquired, in the next place, whether 
 there is any hope of a restoration to that 
 happiness; and if there be, upon what con- 
 ditions and by what means it may be at- 
 tained. And upon I he (irst view of the 
 
SERMON V. 175 
 
 subject, taken in connection with what has 
 been already stated, it would seem in the 
 highest degree probable, that as man lost, 
 his happiness in consequence of losing his 
 holiness, he could have no well-grounded 
 hope of being restored to the one, unless 
 he were first restored to the other. The Al- 
 mighty did from the beginning annex the 
 loss of happiness to the loss of holiness, and 
 by so doing seemed to establish so necessary 
 and indissoluble an union between them, 
 that no descendant of Adam could ever 
 expect to be happy without being holy. 
 If he looked back to his own origin, he 
 would see, that while his forefather conti- 
 nued innocent, he continued in the enjoy- 
 ment of the Divine favour; but the mo- 
 ment he permitted himself to be seduced 
 from his obedience, he was involved in 
 wretchedness and miserv. Seeins; then that 
 pain and suffering had entered the world 
 by sin, and that sin was the sole cause of 
 their introduction, it would be natural to 
 conclude, that before the effect could be 
 removed, it would be necessary to remove 
 the cause ; and that while the dominion of 
 
176 SERMON V. 
 
 sin continued, it would be in vain to ex- 
 pect that pain and suffering should cease 
 to afflict the sons of men. Affliction 
 through life, in various shapes and various 
 degrees, and at last the closing of that life 
 itself in death, were the appointed lot of 
 humanity from the time when it depraved 
 that holy image of God in which it was 
 formed ; and unless some means were de- 
 vised to restore that image, there could 
 appear surely little hope of regaining the 
 happiness, which was therefore lost, because 
 that image had been depraved. Thus it 
 would be natural to reason, supposing we 
 had no further information upon the sub- 
 ject than what we have already consider- 
 ed ; the history of man's creation and fall 
 being calculated to impress upon our minds, 
 in a very forcible manner, that holiness 
 and happiness are inseparably connected ; 
 that the loss of the former must inevitably 
 be attended with the loss of the latter; 
 and that, if we would again be happy, we 
 mvist first endeavour to be holy. But thanks 
 be to God, we are not left to our own rea- 
 soning upon this im[)ortant point ! It is 
 
SERMON V. 177 
 
 agreed by all, who admit the authority of 
 the Revelation contained in the Old and 
 New Testament, that they develope the 
 plan and the means of man's restoration to 
 unalloyed and uninterrupted happiness. 
 Respecting that plan, and those means, 
 there are indeed many and weighty dis- 
 putes ; but no one, calling himself a Chris- 
 tian, will deny, that the end of that great 
 scheme, which the Scriptures unfold, is the 
 salvation of man ; his salvation from that 
 penalty of death and damnation to which 
 he was made subject on account of sin, 
 and his restitution to the hope of a blessed 
 immortality by his reinstatement in the 
 Divine favour. But it will surely be well 
 worth our while to inquire, whether the 
 scheme thus unfolded holds out the hope 
 of such a reinstatement, independent of a 
 restoration to holiness, or whether it does 
 not insist upon this restoration as necessary 
 in the first place, before that hope can be 
 reasonably entertained. For it cannot be 
 denied, that to a plain understanding the 
 determination of this question, one way or 
 other, would appear to affect very mate- 
 
 N 
 
178 SERMON V. 
 
 rially the moral character of the Revelation 
 itself, and either much to lessen or greatly 
 to enhance its moral bearing on the con- 
 duct of those who receive it. If in this in- 
 quiry it should be seen, that the scheme of 
 man's restoration to God's favour, as it is 
 laid before us by the authorized expound- 
 ers of the Divine Will, requires no purifica- 
 tion of his mind, and no amendment of his 
 manners ; if it holds out a prospect of his 
 attaining to a happiness beyond what he 
 originally enjoyed in Paradise, without his 
 having that holy image renewed in his soul, 
 by which he was distinguished when first 
 placed in that garden of delight; if it re- 
 presents the face of God as turned to him 
 in mercy, without any demand of better 
 obedience on his part; the inconsistency 
 of such a mode of proceeding, with all that 
 had gone before in the intercourse between 
 man and his Maker, could not but be 
 strongly felt. God had banished his crea- 
 ture from Paradise, and from his own im- 
 mediate presence, because he had sinned : 
 and could it be supposed possible, that He, 
 whose attribute is Immutability, could again 
 
SERMON V. . 179 
 
 receive this creature to his favour, while 
 he continued in the very sin for which He 
 had at first banished him from his pre- 
 sence ? It is necessary, no doubt, in argu- 
 ing from the Divine attributes, to proceed 
 with the utmost caution and reserve, not 
 merely because our notions of right and 
 wrong, of just and unjust, are not com- 
 mensurate to the Divine proceedings, but 
 because, as was before observed, we see 
 only a part of those proceedings, and can- 
 not therefore judge accurately of their bear- 
 ing upon the whole. But where God him- 
 self has been pleased to reveal his Will ex- 
 plicitly, and not only to state what mea- 
 sures He has adopted, but the reason of 
 those measures, there we may with greater 
 assurance affirm, what is or is not consist- 
 ent with the essential character of the Dei- 
 ty. Thus, when we are told that God de- 
 prived man of his happiness in the enjoy- 
 ment of his favour on account of his trans- 
 gression, we may infer, without much dan- 
 ger of error, that he cannot be restored to 
 that favour while he persists in the very 
 course by which he originally forfeited it. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 SERMON V. 
 
 This consequence appears to follow so ne- 
 cessarily from the consideration of God's 
 unchangeable nature, and the very idea of 
 consistency and truth, that it cannot be 
 denied without an evident contradiction to 
 the plainest principles of sober reasoning. 
 If man was unfit for Paradise, because he 
 sinned, he must have continued unfit for it 
 as long as he continued to sin ; and there- 
 fore it became absolutely necessary, that, 
 before he could hope for a restoration to 
 his lost happiness, he should obtain a re- 
 storation of his lost holiness. In what way 
 this was to be accomplished, or how little 
 able he was to accomplish it himself, are 
 not now in question ; we are only inquiring 
 whether it was not indispensably necessary, 
 for the very vindication of the Divine at- 
 tributes, that it should be done. That it 
 vi^as, our reason, when fairly consulted, 
 cannot deny; for if sin was a sufficient 
 cause for excluding man from Paradise, 
 when placed there by the munificence of 
 his Creator, it must be for ever a just 
 ground for his exclusion when he had been 
 thrust out of it by the justice of his of- 
 
SERMON V. 181 
 
 fended God. Man was placed in Paradise 
 holy ; he was turned out when he sinned ; 
 and he cannot be readmitted, till he be 
 some way or other made holy again. And 
 to this the plain declarations of holy Writ 
 bear testimony in the fullest and clearest 
 manner. The text is peculiarly explicit : 
 '' No man shall see the Lord without holi- 
 '^ ness." Such is the express proposition 
 which the words contain ; and it is impos- 
 sible to have a more direct proof of any 
 point, than is afforded by this simple and 
 straightforward assertion to the truth for 
 which we are contending. It will readily 
 be allowed, that to '' see the Lord," means 
 to be admitted to a participation of that 
 eternal bliss and glory, which our Lord 
 Jesus Christ now enjoys at the right hand 
 of his Father, and a share in which He has 
 promised to bestow upon his faithful fol- 
 lowers. It is that beatific vision, in the en- 
 joyment of which the soul is filled with all 
 the happiness of which it is capable. Thus 
 it is said, that '' the pure in heart shall see 
 ^' God^," meaning, that they shall partake 
 
 b Matth. V. 8. 
 N 3 
 
182 SERMON V. 
 
 'of those heavenly '' pleasures which are at 
 ^^ His right hand for evermore'." And 
 the propriety of this mode of expression is 
 evident. God is the fountain of all good 
 whatever; and therefore the nearer any 
 creature is permitted to approach Him, 
 the higher must be its enjoyment of what 
 is really conducive to its well-being. To 
 be driven from his presence is misery ; to 
 be admitted to it is supreme felicity; and 
 as to know God is the perfection of know- 
 ledge, so to see Him is the summit of en- 
 joyment. But if so, then the text is a plain 
 assertion, on the authority of the Holy Spi- 
 rit, that this happiness is not to be attained 
 by any one who has not first attained the 
 holiness which it clearly requires. '^ With- 
 '' out holiness no man shall see the Lord ;" 
 and as every man lost that holiness by the 
 corRTption contracted by his forefather, 
 and still more by his own transgression of 
 the Divine Law, it follows necessarily, that 
 there must be a restoration to holiness be- 
 fore there can be a restoration to happi- 
 ness. For the text is express, that holiness 
 
 ^ Rom. xvi. 1 1 . 
 
SERMON V. 183 
 
 must be attained; that there can be no ad- 
 mission into heaven without it; and that to 
 hope for such admission, without this in- 
 dispensable quahfication, would be the 
 «:rossest self-deceit. 
 
 CI? 
 
 But this important truth, important in 
 every respect, not in itself only, and its im- 
 mediate consequences, but in its influence 
 upon the entire cast and character of man, 
 does not rest upon any single text, how- 
 ever explicit, nor even upon an accumula- 
 tion of texts, nor upon the inferences de- 
 duced from them; it forms rather the great 
 leading idea which runs through the whole 
 of Revelation, upon which the plan itself 
 is made to turn, and to which all its pro- 
 positions and declarations directly tend, as 
 to their ultimate object. It appears in that 
 first gracious announcement, by which the 
 Almighty, remembering mercy in the midst 
 of his just wrath '^, declared to man, that 
 he should yet get the better of his adver- 
 sary, and obtain in his turn a triumph over 
 him. The triumph of Satan over Adam 
 consisted in this, that he had seduced him 
 
 d Psalm Ixxviii. 38, 39. 
 N 4 
 
184 SERMON V. 
 
 from the service of his Maker, and made 
 him wretched by making him sinful. The 
 promised victory, which should rescue him 
 from the power of the deceiver, implied 
 clearly, that the mischief, which he had 
 occasioned, should in some way or other 
 be repaired ; and as that mischief consisted 
 primarily in destroying man's original holi- 
 ness, and that Divine image in which he 
 was created, it could not be effectually re- 
 paired, unless by the restoration of that 
 image. The first work of the Devil, as con- 
 nected with our race, was drawing them 
 into sin ; and as long as they continued 
 sinful, so long did his work continue to 
 prosper; nor does there appear any way, by 
 which his success could be disputed, or his 
 defeat be manifested, but by reinstating man 
 in that condition of purity and innocence 
 from which he had seduced him by per- 
 suading him to sin. The promise there- 
 fore, that this success should not continue, 
 and that the time would come when the 
 defeat of our adversary should be made 
 evident, would not seem to be fulfilled, 
 unless the pollution which he had intro- 
 
SERMON V. 185 
 
 duced into our nature by sin were purified, 
 and the image of God restored in the soul 
 of man. If the triumph of the Devil con- 
 sisted in the destruction of human happi- 
 ness by the introduction of sin, his defeat 
 must necessarily require the renewing of 
 that happiness by the removal of sin, and 
 the reproduction of the holiness which it 
 had polluted. And thus it would appear, 
 that the very first intimation of mercy, 
 which conveyed to our forefather a hope 
 of pardon for his guilt, conveyed at the 
 same time an intimation no less clear, that 
 the corruption which had been infused into 
 him should be purified, and the holiness 
 he had lost should be restored. Pardon to 
 the transgressor, without a removal of the 
 cause whence his transgression proceeded, 
 would leave to him, who is the adversary 
 of God and man, more than half his tri- 
 umph ; it would leave him the horrid satis- 
 faction of knowing that the poison, which 
 he had conveyed into the human mind, 
 had not been expelled, but was still in full 
 force ; while the mercy, which had rescued 
 man from punishment without cleansing 
 
186 SERMON V. 
 
 him from guilt, would seem to insinuate, 
 that God could behold iniquity "^ without 
 abhorrence. That alone would be a com- 
 plete triumph, that alone would answer 
 the promise, that the '^ serpent's head^'' 
 should be '' bruised," which should demo- 
 lish his whole work, by not only pardoning 
 the object of his treachery, and reinstating 
 him in happiness, but by expelling that 
 venom which had contaminated his soul, 
 and the renewing of its original upright- 
 ness and integrity. But if this view of the 
 subject be correct, if it be proper to say, 
 that the promised triumph over the author 
 of our sin and misery would be incomplete, 
 unless both the sin and the misery were 
 removed, then it is evident, that the Di- 
 vine Revelation, whose authority we admit, 
 does in its very outset inculcate the neces- 
 sity of our moral renovation; it lays this 
 with the very first basis of human salva- 
 tion, and makes the same promise, which 
 gives us a hope of deliverance from punish- 
 ment, the assurance also of our being de- 
 livered from the power and the guilt of sin. 
 
 e Hab. i. 13. <"Gen. iii. 15. 
 
SERMON V. 187 
 
 Thus deeply is the principle of man's re- 
 storation to integrity rooted in our holy 
 religion ; thus early was it intimated, that 
 before he could again '' see that Lord/' 
 from whose presence he was banished, he 
 must regain the holiness he had lost. 
 
 But this principle is not confined to the 
 commencement of Revelation ; it is uni- 
 formly kept in view, and uninterruptedly 
 maintained, throughout the whole scheme 
 of our religion. In the Law and in the 
 Gospel it is prominently conspicuous ; and 
 even before the direct promulgation of ei- 
 ther, the example of those holy men, who 
 are said to have been peculiarly acceptable 
 to Almighty God, proves clearly, that it 
 was their integrity which made them ac- 
 ceptable. Thus it was in the case of E- 
 noch, a case remarkable for this, that he 
 was received to the enjoyment of heavenly 
 bliss, without paying that penalty to which 
 the sons of Adam became subject on his 
 transgression. But if it be asked, why he 
 escaped it, we are directed by the word of 
 truth to answer, on account of his holiness; 
 he " walked with God," and therefore '« God 
 
188 SERMON V. 
 
 '' took him^.'' That the phrase of " walk- 
 " ing with God," means leading a Hfe of 
 pecuHar integrity and holiness, requires no 
 proof; it is understood at once as imply- 
 ing some preeminent excellence of charac- 
 ter. To ^^ walk with God" must signify 
 either to be admitted to a more familiar 
 intercourse with Him, or to be conformed 
 in an especial manner to his Will ; and in 
 either case it will convey to us the idea of 
 a more than ordinary sanctity. He who 
 is admitted into God's more immediate 
 presence, cannot but be supposed in a 
 high degree holy. But that the latter is 
 the real meaning of the phrase appears 
 from this, that it is a description of his 
 manner of living while in this world; the 
 mode of expression evidently conveying 
 this sense, that he walked with God here, 
 and therefore God took him to Himself in 
 heaven. He was a pattern of purity, de- 
 votion, and righteousness; and it was in- 
 tended to exhibit him as such, and to show 
 by his example how acceptable these graces 
 were to the Almighty. It is thus that St. 
 
 g Gen. V. 22, 24. See Patrick in loc. 
 
SERMON V. 189 
 
 Paul interprets this passage, when he says, 
 that Enoch had an assurance of his having 
 pleased God^; that assurance being no- 
 thing else but this testimony to the uniform 
 piety of his life. It is in the same phrase 
 that the Almighty himself condescended to 
 speak, when He said to Abraham, '^ Walk 
 '' before me, and be thou perfect';" inti- 
 mating, that he would then be " perfect," 
 when he lived as in the immediate presence 
 of God, and with an undeviating regard to 
 his Will. 
 
 The example of Enoch then is calcu- 
 lated to impress us, in a very forcible man- 
 ner, with the excellence and value of a 
 holy life, to teach us what manner of per- 
 sons they are, upon whom the especial fa- 
 vour of God can be expected to descend. 
 For this holy man was exempt from the 
 common lot of humanity ; that death, which 
 reigned in general without control, was not 
 allowed to visit him with its agonies or 
 terrors. And why ? Because he had walk- 
 ed with God; because he had ever lived 
 under a sense of the Divine presence ; be- 
 
 h Heb. xi. 5. ' Gen. xvii. J. 
 
190 SERMON V. 
 
 cause he had ever confoniied himself to 
 the Divine Will, and never allowed his 
 passions to rebel against the Law of his 
 God; therefore God took him. He took 
 him to himself; and thus gave the world a 
 lesson, which the plainest understanding 
 might comprehend, that, if they wished to 
 recover that original glory and happiness 
 which Adam lost, they must seek it by 
 earnest endeavours after the recovery of 
 that integrity and holiness, to which the 
 delights of Paradise were annexed, and 
 to which alone they were adapted. But 
 though this example of antediluvian virtue 
 is so remarkable in itself, and in its reward, 
 as to deserve to be thus prominently pro- 
 duced and contemplated, this important 
 question by no means depends upon the 
 force of any individual example whatever. 
 The necessity of holiness in all, who would 
 approach God, or hope for his favour, is a 
 principle which pervades, as I have already 
 said, the whole, both of the Law and the 
 Gospel. It will be proper to consider each 
 separately and distinctly. 
 
 The Law then does most clearlv, in all 
 
SERMON V. 191 
 
 its declarations and by all its pitDvisions, 
 insist upon this, that they who wish to 
 draw near to God, must be careful to 
 cleanse and to purify themselves from every 
 thing that is in any degree polluted ; it pro- 
 ceeds throughout upon the principle, that 
 nothing unholy can be permitted to appear 
 before God. This principle is exemplified 
 in the very first interview, if I may so 
 speak, between the Almighty and the per- 
 son to whom He was about to give a com- 
 mission as his delegated messenger to his 
 people. '* Put off thy shoes from off thy 
 '' feet; for the place whereon thou stand- 
 " est is holy ground ^," was an address 
 intended, doubtless, to impress upon the 
 mind of Moses, as it was well calculated to 
 do, the pure and immaculate nature of 
 that Great Being, who was not only holy 
 in himself, but required an answerable ho- 
 liness in all who were admitted to his pre- 
 sence. The principle thus established, in 
 the first intimation of his appointment to 
 the future Legislator, was steadily and uni- 
 formly maintained. When the people of 
 
 ^ Exod. iii. 5, 
 
192 SERMON V. 
 
 Israel were pronounced to be ^^ a peculiar 
 " treasure^" to God, they were at the same 
 time denominated '' an holy nation ;" they 
 could not be the one without being the 
 other; they could not be ^'peculiar" to 
 God, and belong more nearly to Him than 
 the other nations of the earth, unless they 
 were sanctified, and distinguished above 
 others for the purity of their morals and 
 the ardour of their piety. The Law of God 
 could not even be received by any but holy 
 men. When it was now about to be deli- 
 vered, and Mount Sinai was to be enve- 
 loped in that overpowering splendor, which 
 was no less pure than it was awful, the 
 people are charged to keep at a due dis- 
 tance, lest their uncleanness should 'offend 
 that Holy Being who condescended to ad- 
 dress them ; the priests were commanded 
 to sanctify themselves with peculiar care, 
 as they were the appointed intercessors for 
 their people ; and Moses and Aaron alone 
 were thought worthy to come up unto the 
 Lord, because they alone were invested 
 with the holiness indispensably required in 
 
 ' Exod. xix. b, G. 
 
SERMON V. 193 
 
 those who were to stand before the Al- 
 mighty. In Aaron, indeed, as the head of 
 the priesthood, this necessity was exempH- 
 fied in a very striking manner. He was 
 set apart, or consecrated to his office by a 
 most solemn and imposing ceremony, cal- 
 culated to inspire awful sentiments of the 
 preparation requisite to appear before the 
 Deity with acceptance ; to teach man, that 
 being a Holy God, He could be served 
 only by holy persons. To this was direct- 
 ed all the care bestowed upon his different 
 vestments, but above all upon that pro- 
 minent part of them, which, on "a plate of 
 *^ pure gold," bore this remarkable inscrip- 
 tion, '' Holiness to the Lord*"." This 
 plate, thus inscribed, was to be ^Valways" 
 upon Aaron's " forehead," when he pre- 
 sented the hallowed gifts of the children of 
 Israel, that by this emblem of holiness 
 their iniquity might be covered, and they 
 themselves might *^ be accepted before the 
 " Lord." But the sanctity thus required 
 to render the service of the Tabernacle ac- 
 ceptable, was not confined to the persons 
 
 m Exod. xxviii. 36—38. 
 o 
 
194 SERMON V. 
 
 of those who officiated ; it was extended 
 also to the time and place in which that 
 service was to he performed. The Sab- 
 hath was a holy day, the Tabernacle was a 
 holy house, and all the vessels and instru- 
 ments employed were invested with the 
 same sacred character. If it be said, as no 
 doubt it may, that all this was merely ty- 
 pical and relative, the assertion to a cer- 
 tain extent cannot be denied. It cannot 
 be denied, that all these things were not 
 really and inherently holy, some of them 
 not being capable of that spiritual purity 
 which seems to be required, and others 
 falling miserably short of it. But though 
 the holiness required in this legal service 
 was thus typical and relative, as well from 
 the defectiveness of the Law itself, as from 
 the infirmity of the subjects to whom it 
 was addressed, yet even in this defective 
 condition, it showed the necessity of a real 
 holiness to all who would approach God 
 in a manner really acceptable. When it 
 was required, that every thing, which was 
 consecrated to God's service, should be in- 
 vested with a holy character, it was inti- 
 
SERMON V. 195 
 
 mated clearly, that holiness, in the sense in 
 which it was capable of it, was necessary 
 to every creature before it could presume 
 to appear before its immaculate Creator ; 
 and though by its nature it might not ad- 
 mit of true spiritual holiness, yet as far as 
 it could be made holy, it was necessary 
 that it should. This lesson was taught even 
 by the meanest vessel, which was conse- 
 crated to a holy use. And if the priests 
 themselves did not learn that lesson ; if 
 they contented themselves with an external 
 sanctity, and rested in the mere letter of 
 their Law without improving it to that spi- 
 ritual sense, of which it was capable ; if, 
 serving in an earthly tabernacle, and look- 
 ing only to the visible glory it contained, 
 they extended not their views to that hea- 
 venly abode, where alone the real presence 
 of God was to be enjoyed ; it must be said, 
 without reserve, that they misunderstood 
 and misused those numerous emblematic 
 purifications which were enjoined them. 
 Strictly speaking, the Law in itself perfect- 
 ed nothing"; it was temporary in its na- 
 
 " Heb. vii. 19. 
 O 2 
 
196 SERMON V. 
 
 ture, and therefore defective in its opera- 
 tion". It was founded on temporal hopes 
 
 o See J. Smith's Select Discourses. Bull. Harm. 
 Apost. D. P. c. X. sect. 8. It would go a great way to- 
 wards settling many important points of controversy, 
 and removing the very causes from which they arise, if 
 the real nature of the Mosaic dispensation were duly 
 examined and thoroughly understood. That it was in- 
 tended only ad interim, as an intermediate and tempo- 
 rary institution, the Apostle very clearly intimates ; and 
 if so, there seems little difficulty in allowing, that it was 
 founded per se on temporary sanctions. But it does 
 not follow, because in that dispensation temporal success 
 was made the reward of virtue, and temporal adversity 
 the punishment of vice, and because an earthly Canaan 
 was held out as the land of promise, that therefore 
 those, who lived under it, knew nothing of any other 
 rewards or punishments, or did not carry their views to a 
 higher scene of things. Nothing is clearer than that 
 the great truths of religion had been originally commu- 
 nicated to the fathers of the human race. The excel- 
 lent Chrysostom takes notice of this ; and remarks it as 
 a sign of God's peculiar regard for the eminent charac- 
 ters of the first ages of the world. Ka\ yap, says he, 
 Toj Nwe xa) TOO ^Afigococfx, xix) toI; eyyovoi^ toI^ exelvou x.a.) tm 
 
 'Ito/S ov <^Kx ygu(ji[xaTa)V disXiysTO, aX\* uvro^ ?<' kctvTOv, 
 
 xuSapuv svgl(rxoov wjtoov tyjv diavoiuv. It was not therefore 
 necessary to the Mosaic dispensation, strictly so called, 
 and as it related to the Jewish polity, that it should in- 
 culcate expressly all the general principles of religion, 
 which, having been previously promulgated, might have 
 been sufficiently known ; but noticing them only inci- 
 dentally and obscurely, that it should address itself to 
 
SERMON V. 197 
 
 and supported by temporal sanctions ; not 
 that the holy men, who lived under the 
 
 the establishment of such a community as might answer 
 the end which it immediately had in view. But though 
 Moses was not the minister of the Gospel, it does not 
 follow that he was ignorant of its leading truths, or 
 that he abstained from occasionally intimating those 
 truths in his writings. To say, that it made no part of 
 his plan as the Lawgiver of the Jews, is one thing, and 
 to say that it is nowhere to be found in his writings, is 
 another. When therefore an ingenious and learned 
 writer asserted, that the doctrine of a future state made 
 no part of the Law of Moses, the assertion need not 
 have alarmed the best friend of revelation ; it was capa- 
 ble of a sound interpretation by a proper distinction of 
 terms. But when in support of his hypothesis he deem- 
 ed it necessary to alter the received arrangement of the 
 sacred writings, and urged that hypothesis as an argu- 
 ment against the early date assigned to the Book of 
 Job, he forgot, surely, that God had freely conversed 
 with man previous to the Divine Legation of Moses. 
 This case, when fairly stated, proves quite the contrary 
 to what the learned author wished to establish. For a 
 due regard to the revealed history of man would induce 
 us to conclude, that the earlier any author wrote before 
 the promulgation of Christianity, the clearer would be 
 his ideas of religious truth ; as far, I mean, as unin- 
 spired knowledge could carry him. And it should al- 
 ways be remembered, in considering this question, that 
 the promise, the evangelical promise of salvation through 
 Christ, had been made expressly to Abraham four hun- 
 dred and thirty years before the giving of the Law. If 
 therefore any descendant of his was ignorant of it, or 
 
 O 3 
 
198 SERMON V. 
 
 Mosaic dispensation, were ignorant of a 
 future life, or uninfluenced by its prospects, 
 but that the Law of Moses, considered by 
 itself, did not and was not intended to 
 '^ bring life and immortality to light p." It 
 was added, as the Apostle informs us, be- 
 cause of transgressions, as a proper mode 
 of discipline to restrain in some degree the 
 corruption of men, till the time came for 
 the full display of div ine truth. It was not 
 therefore to be wondered at, if in some of 
 its ordinances it rather obscurely and figu- 
 ratively intimated the '' holiness, without 
 ^' which no man shall see the Lord," than 
 expressly and plainly insisted upon it. In 
 fact, as the learned Dr. Hammond has 
 well remarked % " the Law had a twofold 
 
 did not believe it, it was not for want of revealed in- 
 struction respecting it. 
 
 P 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
 n Practical Catechism, p. 8, 9. Thus also the learn- 
 ed Mede, with his usual force and perspicuity. " For 
 " the better understanding of this, we must know what 
 " a covenant is, and what are tlw kinds thereof. A cove- 
 " nant is, as it were, a bargain between God and man, 
 " wherein God promises some spiritual good to iis, so we 
 " perform some duty unto Jiim, if not, then to incur ever- 
 ^f lasting jmnishment. This covoiant is of two sorts; 
 
SERMON V. 199 
 
 ^' aspect ; on one side it represented to its 
 '' observers that original law and first cove- 
 
 " the one is called the Covenant of Works, the other 
 " the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of fVorks is, 
 '' wherein God on his part makes us a promise of eter- 
 " nal life, if we on our part shall perform exact obe- 
 " dience unto his Law; otherwise to be everlastingly 
 " condemned, if we fail. The Covenant of Grace or of 
 '' the Gospel is, wherein God on his part promises us 
 " sinners Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer, if we 
 " on our part shall believe on him with a lively and 
 " obedient faith ; otherwise to be condemned. The 
 " Covenant of Works God made with man at his crea- 
 " tion, when he was able to have kept the conditions he 
 " required ; but he through his disobedience broke it, 
 " and so became liable to death both corporal and spi- 
 " ritual. And though the Covenant of Grace then took 
 
 "place yet was the former Covenant of Works still 
 
 '* in force, until Christ, who was promised, should come 
 " in the flesh. And therefore was this covenant re- 
 ** newed under Moses with the Israelites, when the 
 " Law was given in Horeb, as Moses says, Deut. v. 2. 
 " The Lord made a covenant with us in Horeb. For all 
 ^' the time, under the Law, the open and apparent cove- 
 " nant was the Covenant of Works, to make them the 
 " more to see their own misery and condemnation, and 
 " so to long after Christ, who was yet to come, and at 
 " whose coming this obligation should be quite can- 
 " celled: yet, nevertheless, with this open covenant there 
 " was a secret and hidden covenant, which was the Co- 
 '^ venant of Grace; that they might not be altogether 
 " without the means of salvation whilst Christ yet tar- 
 " ried. This truth is plain, Galat. iii. 17? &c. where 
 
 o 4 
 
200 SERMON V. 
 
 '* nant which God made with Adam in Pa- 
 '' radise, and which demanded unsinning 
 " obedience; and on the other it carried the 
 '* mind forward to that second covenant of 
 '' mercy, in which, as the terms of acceptance 
 *^ would be less rigid, so the means of fulfil - 
 ^' ling them would be more ample and more 
 " efficient." But viewed in either light, it 
 still taught the same lesson of God's hatred 
 of sin and love of integrity. In its moral 
 precepts, rightly understood, it deserved 
 clearly the character given it by St. Paul of 
 '* holy, just, and good"^;" and if from the 
 
 '^ the Apostle affirms, that the Covenant of Grace in 
 '* Christ was four hundred and tliirty years afore the Law 
 *' was given, and that therefore the Law could not disannul 
 " it, or make it of none effect ; but that tJie Law (so he 
 " calls the Covenant of Works) was only added to it be- 
 '' cause of transgressions, until the blessed seed should 
 " come, ver. 19. and that it might be a schoolmaster to 
 " bring us unto Christ, ver. 24. For in the moral Law 
 " of God, under whose curse they stood bound, they 
 " might as in a glass see their sin, their guilt, their 
 " want of righteousness ; and in their ceremoiiies and 
 " sacrifices they might again, as in shadows of heavenly 
 " things, behold the means of their reconciliation, 
 " through his blood who was to be slain and offered to 
 « God for them." Disc. XLV. Works, p. 251. 
 ^ Rom. vii. 12. 
 
SERMON V. 20] 
 
 weakness of man it failed to make him like 
 itself, it must yet have impressed him with 
 a sense, that the God, who gave so good a 
 Law, and insisted upon its being obeyed, 
 was himself good, and could take delight 
 in nothing but what was just. And even 
 in its typical institutions, it was designed 
 evidently to carry the mind beyond itself, 
 and to impress it with higher and purer 
 ideas. All its ablutions, and all its sacri- 
 fices; all its sacramental rites, and all the 
 care which it prescribed before any sacred 
 work should be entered upon, proceeded 
 upon this plain principle, that God could 
 not be approached without preparation ; 
 and that the preparation required was in- 
 tended to remove what was displeasing to 
 Him, and to supply what was approved in 
 his sight. However these rites may be con- 
 ceived to be merely ceremonial, and how- 
 ever confined in their eff'ect, still they were 
 calculated to instruct those who used them 
 in this truth, that the God whom they ap- 
 proached was a Holy God, and required 
 holiness of some kind or other in those 
 who presumed to draw near to Him. Their 
 
202 SERMON V. 
 
 notions of that holiness might be gross and 
 carnal, but some notion they must have 
 had, that the Being, who commanded them 
 so carefully to cleanse themselves before 
 they appeared in his presence, was in his 
 nature essentially and peculiarly pure, that 
 He hated sin and delighted in goodness. 
 Every thing they heard and saw tended to 
 inspire them with this idea. His people 
 were a holy people; his priesthood was a 
 holy priesthood, set apart for his service 
 by much and solemn preparation ; his house 
 was a holy house, and even in that house, 
 though the whole of it was holy, yet the 
 part which was honoured by the more im- 
 mediate display of the Divine glory was 
 distinguished by a correspondent increase 
 of sanctity. In every step which men took 
 towards God, they were called upon to pu- 
 rify themselves, and the nearer any one 
 was permitted to approach to Him, the 
 greater was the necessity of his being 
 cleansed from sin, and the cfreater was the 
 holiness with which it was necessary he 
 should be invested. All this might no doubt 
 be suffered to pass away without effect; 
 
SERMON V. 203 
 
 but it cannot be denied, that one clear 
 principle is distinctly marked throughout, 
 that the holiness of God's nature is dis- 
 played in a striking manner, and that the 
 lesson is again and again inculcated, that 
 no man can come to Him acceptably with- 
 out in some degree participating in his ho- 
 liness. 
 
 But if this be evident in the Law, which, 
 being temporary in its very nature, was 
 not '' able to make the comers thereunto 
 '^ perfect'," it is pressed upon us with ten- 
 fold force by that holy Gospel, which com- 
 pleted the revelation of God's will to man. 
 Under this dispensation, the necessity of 
 holiness to acceptance with God is set be- 
 fore men in the fullest and clearest man- 
 ner : it commences with a demand, that all 
 who would receive it should duly and dili- 
 gently prepare themselves, and its con- 
 summation is declared to be the perfection 
 of holiness ^ 
 
 The commencement of the Gospel, in 
 our present view of the subject, must be 
 
 s Heb. X. 1. 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. vii. 1. 1 Tim. i. 5. Tit. ii. 14. 
 
204 SERMON V. 
 
 dated from the first appearance of John 
 the Baptist, as the authorized forerunner 
 of our Saviour: for though from our Lord's 
 own declaration, that ^* the least in the 
 *' kingdom of heaven was greater than 
 '' John"," we may conclude justly, that 
 John himself was not in that kingdom, yet 
 will it assist us materially to vmderstand 
 the nature of the Christian dispensation, 
 and the important ends it was intended to 
 answer, if we can first thoroughly compre- 
 hend the kind of preparation which was 
 necessary for admission into it. John was 
 expressly the preacher of that preparation. 
 And what was it ? What was its nature, 
 what its object, and what its effect ? The 
 preaching of the Baptist was in few and 
 simple terms ; he called upon men to re- 
 pent, to perform a duty which in its nature 
 required a change of mind and purpose, 
 which had for its object to turn man from 
 the pursuit of sin, and the only genuine 
 effect of which was amendment of life and 
 manners. And he called them to perform 
 this duty, because '' the kingdom of hea- 
 
 " Matth. xi. 11. 
 
SERMON V. 205 
 
 '' ven was at hand'';" intimating plainly 
 enough, that if they would enter into it, 
 and hope to participate in its advantages, 
 they must previously repent. But the Bap- 
 tist's call to repentance, as a duty neces- 
 sary before admission into the kingdom of 
 heaven, showed clearly what kind of a 
 kingdom it was intended to be. Repent- 
 ance did in its nature imply the renuncia- 
 tion of sin; and as this renunciation was 
 to be made previous to men's entering into 
 the announced kingdom, as sin was thus 
 peremptorily required to be deposited at 
 the very entrance into the Chvirch of Christ, 
 it was a plain declaration, that the design 
 of Him, who was about to found that 
 church and kingdom, was to exclude from 
 it all sin and wickedness. That such was 
 his design, men might judge with sufficient 
 assurance from the message which pre- 
 ceded his approach ; for it is thus that they 
 judge of each other's intentions in their 
 worldly undertakings. If, when men in- 
 vite their followers to join them, they de- 
 mand any specific preparation, we can 
 
 X Matth. iii. 2. Luke iii. 16', 17- 
 
206 SERMON V. 
 
 form, without much risk of error, an ade- 
 quate idea of their ultimate purposes. It 
 is by the proper application of the same 
 principles of common sense, that we shall 
 most accurately judge of the truths of Re- 
 ligion also. It is not by the use of reason, 
 but by the indulgence of self-conceit, that 
 the human mind falls into error. Reason 
 is the lamp of God in the soul of man ; 
 and though this, like all the gifts bestowed 
 upon men, may be abused, yet we can no 
 more judge without the exercise of our rea- 
 son, than we can see without opening our 
 eyes. The fair deductions of reason are 
 equally important, and can no more be 
 deviated from with impunity, in matters of 
 religion, than in the affairs of common life. 
 And thus must we come to a correct deci- 
 sion on the case before us. When we ga- 
 ther from all the previous arrangements, 
 that the intention of our Lord was to ex- 
 clude sin from his kingdom, we are by no 
 means at liberty to neglect this mode of 
 arriving at the truth, or to lessen the weight 
 of argument which it affords; in other 
 things we should acknowledge its validity. 
 
SERMON V. 207 
 
 and we are bound to acknowledge it here. 
 Let it be impartially considered, and its 
 force cannot but be allowed. God Al- 
 mighty sent his Messenger before his Son 
 to prepare men for being received into his 
 kingdom : and how did he prepare them ? 
 Did he call upon them to get wealth or 
 power, or even learning itself, as a qualifi- 
 cation for being admitted? No: he called 
 upon them to do nothing but to quit their 
 sins; in every other respect he left them 
 as he found them, whether rich or poor, 
 whether learned or unlearned, whether hisrh 
 or low : they might come in all points as 
 they were, except that they must not bring 
 their sins with them : these were decidedly 
 inadmissible ; and whatever men might be, 
 yet if they did not renounce their sins, into 
 the kingdom of heaven they could not 
 come. And is it possible to conceive any 
 method better calculated to impress men 
 with a deep sense of the holy nature of 
 that kingdom, than this of declaring, that 
 no sin, and no man adhering to sin, could 
 be received into it? Extreme inattention 
 could alone be insensible to the weight of 
 
208 SERMON V. 
 
 this argument, and hypocrisy alone could 
 elude it. Sin and holiness are directly op- 
 posed to each other, and where sin was ex- 
 pelled, there it nivist follow of course, that 
 holiness and integrity would be paramount. 
 And here it is impossible not to remark 
 the unity and consistency of all the Divine 
 proceedings. We hav^e before seen, that 
 man lost Paradise by falling into sin ; and 
 now that a dispensation was clearly an- 
 nounced, by which a way was to be made 
 for his return to the happiness he had lost, 
 the very first step, which is taken for his 
 restitution, is to inform him, that he must 
 renounce sin before he can have any hope 
 of being reinstated in the Divine favour. 
 The introduction of sin was the introduc- 
 tion of misery ; and unless that sin was re- 
 moved, the misery must still continue to 
 be felt. However merciful God was, how- 
 ever inclined to pity and relieve his fallen 
 and unhappy creature, still his own essen- 
 tial nature continued the same, and his 
 hatred of sin could neither be changed nor 
 diminished. Man was banished from his 
 presence because he sinned ; and while he 
 
SERMON V. 209 
 
 adhered to sin, he could not be readmitted 
 into his presence. The Divine counsel 
 continued immutable in this, that no ini- 
 quity could be admitted into his kingdom; 
 and though a way was now about to be 
 opened, by which sinful man might regain 
 his Maker's favour, yet even before that 
 way was fully revealed, it was clearly and 
 expressly and decidedly declared, that it 
 would be incompatible with a perseverance 
 in any kind of transgression. But that not 
 a shadow of doubt might remain on this 
 subject, that no one should have the least 
 pretence for making the mercy of the Gos- 
 pel an excuse for his wickedness, the Au- 
 thor of that Gospel, and the Founder of 
 that kingdom of which the Baptist had an- 
 nounced the approach only, commenced 
 his own preaching precisely in the same 
 way. His call was to repentance ; and He 
 did not hesitate to say, that to make that 
 call was one great end of his coming into 
 the world "". This was the first step in his 
 system of Religion : till this was taken, no 
 advance whatever could be made. He, 
 
 z Matth. ix. 13. 
 
210 SERMON V. 
 
 who came to deliver man from the fatal 
 effects of his sin, made it his first care to 
 deliver him from the sin itself The first 
 Adam brought it into the world"; the se- 
 cond began his great work of restoration 
 by absolutely forbidding its intrusion into 
 his kingdom. And as He did himself, so 
 He ordered his disciples to do. The twelve 
 Apostles, on their first mission, " went out, 
 '' and preached that men should repent^." 
 St. Peter, when asked what they should do 
 who wished to be saved, exhorted them to 
 '^ repents" St. Paul, immediately on his 
 conversion, was '^ not disobedient to the 
 " heavenly vision ;" and the proof that 
 he was not disobedient was this, that he 
 ^' showed" to all whom he addressed, " that 
 " they should repent and turn to God, and 
 '' do works meet for repentance^." Thus 
 fully and expressly does ovir Lord insist by 
 Himself, by his forerunner, and by his A- 
 postles, upon the necessity, that all, who 
 would come to Him for salvation, should 
 first renounce sin, should turn from dark- 
 
 a Rom. V. 12. ^ Mark vi. 12. c Acts ii. 38. 
 
 ^ Acts xxvi. 18, 19, 20. 
 
SERMON V. 211 
 
 ness and from the power of Satan, under 
 which they and their forefathers had fallen 
 by transgression, to the service of God and 
 obedience to his laws. Should it appear to 
 any person, that I insist too much upon so 
 plain a proposition as the necessity of re- 
 pentance, I beg to observe, that were this 
 one point clearly and duly enforced, it 
 would strike at the root of many errors 
 and misconceptions, as to the doctrines of 
 the Gospel, and more particularly as to the 
 manner of stating and explaining them. 
 For if a renunciation of sin be necessary, 
 even before our profession of Christianity ; 
 if it be required as an indispensable quali- 
 fication, even at the very threshold of the 
 Christian temple ; and if, till we get rid of 
 this incumbrance, we are not even admis- 
 sible into the list of Christ's soldiers and 
 servants, then certainly no doctrine can be 
 true, and no interpretation can be correct, 
 which does in any degree or any manner 
 encourage a continuance in sin, or make 
 the conscience easy while it does continue 
 in it. Since we are plainly told to leave 
 our sins behind us at our entrance into the 
 
 p 2 
 
212 SERMON V. 
 
 Christian Church, any attempt to make the 
 faith taught in that Church consistent with 
 an adherence to sin, must be a most gross 
 misrepresentation of the truth, and a most 
 criminal abuse of Divine instruction. 
 
 Clear however and important as this is, 
 the necessity of holiness to final acceptance 
 with God does by no means rest upon it. 
 Repentance being laid as the foundation, 
 the superstructure of Christian virtue is 
 then to be commenced. Our Lord him- 
 self declares expressly, that his Law was 
 more spiritual, more holy, and more ex- 
 tended, than even the most precise expla- 
 nations of duty which had been delivered 
 before^; it required greater purity, and 
 searched deeper into the thoughts of men, 
 and took a larger range in its injunctions. 
 When the Psalmist tells us, that " the Law 
 *' of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
 *^ soul;" and that '^ the commandment of 
 " the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes^;" 
 he speaks by a kind of anticipation of that 
 
 e Matth. V. 20. 
 
 ^ Psalm xix. 8. and Bishop Sherlock's elegant Com- 
 ment. 
 
SERMON V. 213 
 
 sanctifying of the Spirit, which the Gospel 
 would command and produce in all its 
 faithful professors, and which it did pro- 
 duce in himself, and in '^ all them that 
 " looked for redemption in Jerusalem^." 
 The Revelation made by Christ, being the 
 consummation of all previous intimations 
 of the Divine Will, was also the fulness of 
 truth and the perfection of morals. In this 
 sense and with this view the Author of our 
 Religion declares, that no empty profes- 
 sions of attachment to his person^, no com- 
 plimentary addresses, no hypocritical at- 
 tempts to substitute words for actions, would 
 be acceptable to Him, or entitle those who 
 used them to a share in the salvation which 
 He announced. He demanded of all his 
 followers, sincere uniform obedience in 
 thought, word, and deed to the Will of his 
 Father: He demanded of them, that they 
 should do that Will ; not that they should 
 know it merely, not that they should ad- 
 mire it, not that they should praise it ; but 
 that they should do it; that it should be 
 the rule of their actions, and the guide of 
 
 s Luke ii. 38. h Matth. vii. 21. 
 
 P 3 
 
214 SERMON V. 
 
 their lives; that whatever it forbids them, 
 from that they should refrain; whatever it 
 enjoins them, that they should perform. 
 And this not externally, but internally; not 
 only in the outward act, but in the inward 
 intention. The Will of God revealed in 
 the Gospel is designed to regulate the af- 
 fections, to correct the temper, to keep 
 the passions within due bounds, and direct 
 them to proper objects, and to give its pro- 
 fessors '' a clean heart and a right spirit." 
 It is thus that it is to be done. For St. 
 Paul tells us, that '' the Will of God is our 
 " sanctification," and that " we should 
 ^' possess these vessels of ours in honour;" 
 because we are '' called to holiness \" The 
 Apostle indeed in this place confines his at- 
 tention to one particular instance of duty, 
 but the ^' sanctification," which he informs 
 us is the express " will of God," and the 
 " holiness," to which he says we are '^ call- 
 ^' ed," are to be understood certainly as 
 extending to all the affections of the soul, 
 and as requiring in them all a due order and 
 purity. But it would be unpardonable not 
 
 > 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4—7. 
 
SERMON V. 215 
 
 to remark the force of the Apostle's ex- 
 pression, we are "called to holiness:" in 
 modern language we should express the 
 same idea by saying, that holiness was our 
 profession. It is thus we say, that divinity 
 is the profession of a clergyman, that me- 
 dicine is the profession of a physician, and 
 that arms are the profession of a soldier : 
 and it is readily understood and allowed, 
 that whatever is a man's profession, to that 
 he is bound to devote his time and atten- 
 tion, and in that it is expected he has made 
 a proficiency. And precisely in this sense 
 does the Scripture represent holiness to be 
 the profession of a Christian ; not merely 
 that his profession is a holy profession, but 
 that the very object and essence of the 
 profession itself is holiness. To this Christ- 
 ians are called, this is their business, this 
 they are to cultivate continually, this is the 
 mark to which all their endeavours should 
 be directed. Sin thev renounced at their 
 very entrance on this profession ; and hav- 
 ing renounced sin, they were prepared to 
 commence the practice of holiness : so well 
 is the business of our moral improvement 
 
 p 4 
 
216 SERMON V. 
 
 arranged, so clearly is the intention of the 
 Gospel to secure that improvement set be- 
 fore us, if we would but attend to its plain 
 intimations ! And not only by plain inti- 
 mations and the clearest inferences is this 
 improvement required from us, but by ex- 
 press and positive injunctions. Our Lord 
 bids us "be perfect ''." His great Apo- 
 stle made it his own practice, by the use of 
 suitable means', to purify continually the 
 remaining corruptions of his nature, and 
 '' forgetting the things behind, to reach 
 " forth unto those before °';" and his earn- 
 est advice to his followers is, that they 
 should " cleanse themselves from all filthi- 
 '* ness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holi- 
 ** ness in the fear of the Lord"." St. Peter 
 leaves this as his last injunction, '' Grow in 
 *' grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord 
 '^ and Saviour Jesus Christ''." All these 
 expressions clearly imply, that it is a Christ- 
 ian's duty to endeavour after improvement 
 in those virtues which the Gospel requires 
 of him ; that he ought diligently to prac- 
 
 k Matt. V. 48. > 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. "^ Philip, 
 
 iii. 13. "2 Cor. vii. 1. o 2 Peter iii. 18. 
 
SERMON V. 217 
 
 tise them, and make it his object to fix in 
 his mind such habits as are most conform- 
 able to piety and goodness. It is by such 
 conduct alone that man is taught to hope 
 for the attainment of that happiness which 
 the Gospel sets before him. As he lost 
 Paradise by sin, so he is plainly told, that 
 he can only recover it by holiness p. And 
 that beloved disciple, to whom was reveal- 
 ed the various fortunes of the Christian 
 Church, and who had a view of that final 
 consummation of all things, which should 
 place one part of mankind in the glory of 
 the New Jerusalem, and consign the other 
 to the lake of fire and brimstone, has been 
 commissioned so to instruct us respecting 
 our ultimate destination, as to make it im- 
 possible for any man to expect future hap- 
 piness without present holiness. His de- 
 scription of the New Jerusalem, and of 
 those who shall be admitted into it, is pre- 
 cise and perspicuous. He declares expli- 
 citly, that '' there shall in no wise enter 
 '' into it any thing that defileth, neither 
 *' whatsoever worketh abomination, or 
 
 P Matth. XXV. 46. 
 
218 SERMON V. 
 
 " maketh a lie^^:" nothing unclean, no- 
 thing contrary to the purity and the truth 
 of God. Those alone who have paid a due 
 attention to the injunctions of the Gospel, 
 those alone who have obeyed the Will of 
 God, by seeking to fulfil it in the sanctifi- 
 cation of their souls and bodies, shall be 
 allowed to pass the barriers of this holy 
 city. " Blessed," says the inspired Apo- 
 stle, (and he knew the mind of his be- 
 loved Master,) '' blessed are they that do 
 '' his commandments, that they may have 
 " right to the Tree of Life, and may enter 
 '' in through the gates ^" And thus we see, 
 with a clearness that can admit of no doubt 
 or cavil, that when the gates of that happy 
 abode, which were shut against our first 
 parent on account of his transgression, were 
 again to be thrown open, it was especially 
 provided, that they should be opened upon 
 the same principle upon which they were 
 shut, a regard to moral truth and virtue, . 
 hatred to sin, and love to goodness. The 
 attributes of God are ever the same ; He 
 is ever holy, just, and good ; and as his 
 
 fi Rev. xxi. 27. ^ Rev. xxii. 14. 
 
SERMON V. 219 
 
 displeasure is excited against sin alone, so 
 his favour can only be extended to such as 
 have renounced iniquity, and have honestly 
 endeavoured, to the utmost of their povver, 
 to cultivate the righteousness and integrity 
 which alone He loves. 
 
 There is howev^er a question, which it 
 would be improper altogether to overlook 
 on this occasion, and the decision of which 
 is indeed of great importance. It is this : 
 Is the holiness, for which we have been 
 contending, and which has been proved to 
 be so necessary to our acceptance with 
 God, an inherent or an imputed holiness ? 
 If it be the latter, its being insisted upon 
 so much in the holy Scriptures will not 
 prove the moral tendency of the Revelation 
 they contain. But that it is a real inhe- 
 rent holiness, infused into the soul, and is- 
 suing out in substantial virtue, is clear 
 from this, that it is capable of improve- 
 ment by exercise and practice, and that it 
 is said to consist in the conformity of our 
 thoughts, words, and actions to the Will of 
 God. For this plainly implies svich an in- 
 ternal quality of the mind, as not only af- 
 
220 SERMON V. 
 
 fects the character, but regulates the life, 
 and gives the tone to our feelings and af- 
 fections. It is the kingdom of God within 
 us. The doctrine of imputed righteous- 
 ness is supported certainly by great names, 
 and has been adopted by good men ; and 
 as it was understood by them may perhaps 
 be capable of a sense not inconsistent with 
 sound morality. But it is capable also of 
 an interpretation pernicious in itself, and 
 most dangerous in its tendency. In the 
 sense in which it is really to be found in 
 Scripture, it means precisely that justifica- 
 tion by which Almighty God is pleased, 
 for Christ's sake, to account one, who was 
 a sinner, a righteous man on his repent- 
 ance. But when it is said, that the right- 
 eousness of Christ is wholly imputed to us, 
 an assertion is made, for which as there is 
 no ground' in the word of God, so is it ap- 
 
 s On this subject the learned Grabe, in his Annota- 
 tions on Bishop Bull's Harm. Apost. has the follow- 
 ing excellent observations. " Si id velint," says he, 
 " Deum justitiam Christi imputare fidelibus in remis- 
 ** sionem peccatorum, ita ut praeterita criinina et prae- 
 " sentia delicta quasi j)ro non factis habeantur, dicunt, 
 '^ quod S. ScriptuFcfi congruum et a ratione non est 
 
SERMON V. 221 
 
 parently inconsistent with the whole scheme 
 of our redemption, inconsistent with the 
 
 *' alienum : ast si justitiam Christi a fidelibus ita 
 
 " apprehend! ac a Deo ipsis ita imputari contendant, ut 
 " propria eorum justitia formaliter fiat ac ex ea justi a 
 " Deo pronuntientur, turn istud asserunt quod sanee ra- 
 
 " tioni repugnat, et in S. Scriptura nuspiam doce- 
 
 " tur." Annot. in D. prior, cap. iii. p. 416. But the 
 Bishop himself, in his Examen Censurae, p. 557- has 
 largely and satisfactorily illustrated this important ques- 
 tion. " De justitia Christi nobis imputata primo in 
 " loco agendum est. Atque primum de phrasi ipsa, 
 " qua justitia Christi nobis imputari dicitur, inquiren- 
 " dum. 1. Certum est, locutionem illam in Scripturis 
 " nusquam occurrere. 2. JEque manifestum est, ipsam 
 '' in plerisque iisque nobilissimis Ecclesiarum Reforma- 
 '' tarum Confessionibus omnino desiderari. De impu- 
 " tatione justitiae Christi ne ygv quidem reperias, vel 
 " in nostra Confessione, vel in Augustana, Argenti- 
 " nensi, Wirtenbergica, Bohemica, Belgica, &c. Qui 
 " igitur in alterutra harum Ecclesiarum vivit, is vi sub- 
 " scriptionis suae non tenetur istiusmodi locutionem 
 " amplecti ; sed liberum ei est disquirere, quatenus 
 " phrasis ilia Scripturis et rectse rationi congruat aut 
 ^' disconveniat. 3. Observandum est, phrasin illam pes- 
 " sime congruere cum locutione Scripturae notissima, 
 " qua fides dicitur homini in justitiam imputari, Rom. 
 « iv. 3, 5, 6, 22, 23, 24. Nam locutio ilia sensu alio 
 " accipi non potest, quam hoc, quod Deus in Evangelio 
 " fidem nostram (nempe S<' ayotTrris Inqyovi^sv-fiv, ut Pau- 
 " lus ipse se explicat) pro justitia nostra reputat, et 
 " proemio remunerandam censet. Non itaque justitia 
 " Christi, sed fides nostra, nobis imputatur in justitiam. 
 
(( 
 
 C( 
 
 222 SERMON V. 
 
 very sacrifice Christ himself made for sin 
 upon the cross, and with the sanctifying 
 
 " Quare ? An propter rei ipsius dignitatem? Absit: sed 
 " propter solam Jesu Christi satisfactionem meritoriam, 
 " qua e Deo impetravit, ut sub hac conditione justitise 
 " ac salutis fieremus participes. Itaque juxta Scriptu- 
 " ras justitia Christi proprie id non est (N. B.) quod 
 '' iniputatur, sed id propter quod imputatur nobis fides 
 " nostra in justitiam. 4. Denique apprime notandum, 
 (quod dudum observavit vir doctissimus,) phrasin, qua 
 Christi justitia nobis imputari dicitur, si rigide acci- 
 piatur, consistere non posse cum ilia, quae propriam 
 ^' et genuinam Ecclesiarum Reformatarum sententiam 
 '^ exprimit, qua nempe justitia nobis imputari dicitur 
 " propter Christi meritum et obedientiam. Nam si 
 ^* utrumque in vigore velimus verum esse, necesse est 
 " dicamus justitiam Christi nobis imputari propter justi- 
 *' tiam Christi ; quae locutio manifestam in se habet ukv- 
 ^' poXoylav. Sed de phrasi satis 5 de re ipsa jam videbi- 
 " mus. 
 
 '' Catholica doctrina est, fidem, pcenitentiam, spem, 
 '^ dilectionem, caeterasque virtutes et bona opera nostra, 
 " nequaquam per se aut merito suo ad id valere ut quis 
 " justificetur, hoc est, a peccatis suis prius commissis 
 *' absolvatur, a Deo tanquam Justus tractetur, ipsique 
 '' ad salutem vitamque aeternam gratus acceptusque ha- 
 ^' beatur; sed illud totum unice deberi meritoriae Jesu 
 " Christi satisfactioni, utpote qua sola gratiosum foedus 
 '^ (quod JEvangelium vocatur) impetratum ac sancitum 
 " fuerit, juxta quod sub aequissimis illis conditionibus, 
 ^' justificationis ac salutis participes fieri possimus. Ita 
 *' Ecclcsia nostra. Art. 11. Justi coram Deo reputamur, 
 " non propter opera aut merita nostra, sed tantum propter 
 
SERMON V. 223 
 
 influence of the blessed Spirit. For if the 
 righteousness of Christ be so imputed to 
 
 ^* merifa Domini ac Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, &c. Ita 
 " confessiones omnes a nobis paulo ante commemoratse. 
 " Neque aliud voluerunt confessiones (quae paucissi- 
 " mae sunt) in quibus phrasis ilia, justitia Christi no- 
 ^^ bis imputatiir, kutu Ae^*v reperitur. Audi Gallicanae 
 " Confessionis verba. Art. 18. ' Credimus totam justi- 
 " tiam nostram positam esse in peccatorum nostrorum 
 *' remissione, quae sit etiam, ut testatur David, unica 
 " nostra felicitas. Itaque caeteras omnes rationes, qui- 
 " bus homines existimant se coram Deo posse justificari, 
 " plane repudiamus ; omnique virtutum et meritorum 
 " opinione abjecta, in sola Jesu Christi obedientia pror- 
 '' sus acquiescimus; quae quidem nobis imputatur, turn 
 " ut tegantur omnia nostra peccata, tum etiam ut gra- 
 " tiam coram Deo nanciscamur.' Ubi eatenus tantum 
 ^'justitiam Christi nobis imputari dicunt, ut propter 
 " ipsam nos peccatorum remissionem consequamur, 
 
 " Deoque ad salutem gratl et accepti habeamur Sed 
 
 ^' palam est, te locutione ilia, qua Christi justitiam no- 
 " bis imputari dicis, longe aliud voluisse. Quippe sta- 
 " tuis, justitiam Christi ita nobis imputari, ut revera 
 '' nostra fiat, nosque ipsam in Christo praestitisse a Deo 
 " censeamur; unde fit, ut ex ilia justitia ipsi perfecte 
 " justi, hoc est, ab omni peccati non modo poena sed et 
 '^ culpa, immunes proprie denominari possimus." He 
 then proceeds to show, in the most convincing manner, 
 the many ill consequences that necessarily follow from 
 this doctrine, and how inconsistent it is with some of 
 the plainest and most important positions of Christian 
 truth. I shall only add a short but forcible sentence, 
 quoted by Dr. Grabe, from a writer whom he frequently 
 
224 SERMON V. 
 
 us ; if his perfect and unsinning obedience 
 be so made ours, as to enable us to stand 
 before the tribunal of God, clothed in the 
 panoply of his perfection, then is it difficult 
 to conceive what need there could have 
 been for any sacrifice at all. His obedi- 
 ence was perfect, and certainly required no 
 atonement for any defect, much less for 
 any transgression ; and if that obedience 
 be completely ours, then we are as little in 
 need of any propitiation to reconcile us to 
 the Almighty. And again, with regard to 
 the sanctification of the Spirit : how can 
 he, who is already perfect, receive any ad- 
 dition, much less any correction, even from 
 the Holy One himself? The idea of per- 
 fection certainly excludes both the one and 
 the other. But the righteousness described 
 and required of us in Scripture admits of 
 both, and we are commanded to labour 
 for both ; and therefore we may fairly con- 
 commends, Gul. Forbes; in considerationibus pacificis et 
 modestis de Justificatione. *' Per Christi justitiam nobis 
 ** sic imputatam verissima Dei sestimatione aeque justi 
 *' censemur et sumus quam ipse Christus ; quod Chri- 
 ** stianae aures vix ferre possunt." 
 
SERMON V. 225 
 
 elude, that as it is not absolutely perfect, it 
 is not the righteousness of the immaculate 
 Jesus imputed to us, but a righteousness, 
 such as we are capable of, wrought in us 
 by the good Spirit of grace, improved by 
 our own earnest endeavours to cooperate 
 with his holy inspirations, but accepted, 
 because still defective, through the sole 
 merits and intercession of our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Q 
 
SERMON VI. 
 
 Ephes. iv. 8 12. 
 
 When he ascended up on high, He led captivity 
 
 captive, and gave gifts unto men For 
 
 the perfecting of the saints, for the work of 
 the ministry, for the edfying of the body of 
 Christ. 
 
 X HE Moral Tendency of Divine Revela- 
 tion having been proved from the holiness 
 which it represents as essential to God, 
 from the original perfection of man, from 
 the loss of happiness through sin, and from 
 the necessity of his restoration to right- 
 eousness before he can be restored to hap- 
 piness, it remains to be seen, whether it has 
 provided any means for attaining the ob- 
 ject, upon which it appears so largely to 
 insist. And that it has done so in the 
 most ample manner will be evident from 
 an inspection of the particular instances, 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 SERMON VI. 
 
 in which its care in this respect is conspi- 
 cuous. 
 
 The means provided by Revelation for 
 the moral improvement of man, may be 
 considered as fairly arranging themselves 
 under the following heads : religious and 
 moral instruction in words ; external em- 
 blematic signs, which, if understood at all, 
 must be understood as shadowing out and 
 requiring internal purity ; direct moral dis- 
 cipline ; and, above all, the sanctifying in- 
 fluences of God's Holy Spirit. All these 
 are expressly supplied by the Revelation 
 which we receive as Divine ; and whatever 
 their success or failure may be in eradicat- 
 ing vice or producing virtue, the Revela- 
 tion, which provides them, must be ac- 
 knowledged to have for its design the com- 
 plete destruction of the former, and the 
 effectual support of the latter. 
 
 With regard then to the first mean of 
 moral improvement, we have this character 
 of it given us by St. Paul, to enable us to 
 judge of its intent and efficacy : '' All 
 " Scripture,'' says he, " is given by inspi- 
 ^' ration of God, and is profitable for doc- 
 
SERMON VI. 229 
 
 " trine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 
 " struction in righteousness : that the man 
 '^ of God may be perfect, thoroughly fur- 
 ^' nished unto all good works'"/' And that 
 this character is to be extended to the Old 
 Testament as well as the New, is clear 
 from this, that the Apostle commands Ti- 
 mothy to " continue" in those " things" 
 which he had " learned," not only from 
 himself, as his evangelical instructor, but in 
 those also which he had imbibed from the 
 holy Scriptures, in which he had been con- 
 versant from his childhood^. But the only 
 Scriptures in which Timothy could have 
 been conversant from his childhood, were 
 the Scriptures of the Old Testament, no 
 other writings being then extant under that 
 character; and consequently it was for his 
 early proficiency in them, that he was 
 commended by St. Paul. To them there- 
 fore must belong that property of useful 
 instruction, which all Scripture is here de- 
 clared to possess, and of them it must be 
 confessed, that they have the power of 
 ^' correcting" what is wrong, and enforc- 
 
 ^ 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17- ^ 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15. 
 
 Q 3 
 
230 SERMON VI. 
 
 ing what is right. And not only to the 
 Law as delivered by Moses, and the au- 
 thoritative instructions of the Prophets, 
 who succeeded him, must this character be 
 extended, but to all those previous intima- 
 tions of God's Will, by which, though not 
 written at the time, the Almighty was 
 pleased to instruct the earlier inhabitants 
 of the world in their duty to Himself. 
 These, when recorded by the inspired pen- 
 men, become parts of that Scripture, which 
 is described as so profitable for the im- 
 provement of man, and must be considered 
 as equally the objects of the Apostle's re- 
 commendation as the Law or the Prophets 
 precisely so called. Thus all the injunc- 
 tions of God to Adam, all the denuncia- 
 tions against antediluvian wickedness, and 
 all the encouragements to antediluvian vir- 
 tue, all the promises and precepts deliver- 
 ed to Noah, and the covenant into which 
 the Almighty graciously entered with this 
 his chosen servant, must be received as so 
 many Divine lessons, prepared for our use, 
 and designed for our improvement, by the 
 express appointment of our Maker. Every 
 
SERMON VI. 231 
 
 command and every example, whether be- 
 fore the Law or under the Law, must be 
 viewed in the same light; and forming, with 
 what followed in the yet clearer enuncia- 
 tions of the Gospel, one consistent and 
 complete system of heavenly wisdom for 
 the benefit of man. And what a treasure 
 of wisdom it is, when viewed in this its 
 own comprehensive light, will be confessed 
 by every one who has studied it with at- 
 tention ; and it will be confessed also, that 
 it is a powerful instrument of making men 
 at once wiser and better. He, who has 
 read the holy Scripture with due care, 
 may even now be truly said to have been 
 '' taught of God%" to have been instruct- 
 ed in his duty, religious and moral, by 
 Him, whose Law is the rule of rectitude, 
 and who best knows, both what it is fitting 
 for us to do, and what is our abihty to do 
 it. I make use of the expression, religious 
 and moral duty, because it is one which 
 has generally obtained; though it does not 
 seem either quite correct in itself, or alto- 
 gether unproductive of ill effects'^. For 
 *^ Isa. liv. 13. ^ Conybeare's Defence, p. 59, &c. 
 
 Q 4 
 
232 SERMON VI. 
 
 undoubtedly the first and highest moral 
 obligation to man is that by which he is 
 bound to serve and obey his Maker; this 
 is his most important moral relation, the 
 source and foundation indeed of all the 
 other relations by which he finds himself 
 bound. Whatever may be supposed as the 
 basis of moral duty, by those who would 
 attempt to form a system of ethics inde- 
 pendent of Religion ; however it may be 
 founded upon the fitness of things, and their 
 relation to each other ; still the relation of 
 man to that Almighty God, from whom 
 his being was derived, must precede every 
 other in time and in dignity, and it must 
 ever be most fit, that to Him the first duty 
 should be paid. The distinction therefore 
 which has been admitted in terms between 
 Religion and Morality, does not rest upon 
 this, that the nature of man's obligation to 
 observe the one is different from his obli- 
 gation to observe the other; both rest upon 
 the same eternal basis of immvitable truth. 
 But the distinction has obtained on ac- 
 count of the difference of objects to which 
 the duty is referred by this difference of 
 
SERMON VL 233 
 
 expression, religious duty having God for 
 its object, and moral duty being confined 
 to the performance of what we owe to our 
 fellow-creatures and ourselves. And this 
 difference of expression has arisen, 1 con- 
 ceive, from adopting, somewhat more than 
 Christians ought to have done, the ideas 
 and the language of heathen moralists. 
 With them, unhappily, religion and morals 
 had little to do with each other. Ignorant 
 as they were of the true origin of things, 
 ignorant as they were of the unity and spi- 
 rituality of the Godhead, and of that Om- 
 niscient superintendence which He con- 
 stantly exercises over the affairs and ac- 
 tions of men, thev could not found their 
 morals on their religion ; and therefore it 
 was excusable in them to consider these 
 two sets of duties as no less distinct in the 
 source of their obligation, than in the ob- 
 jects to whom they were addressed. But 
 in those, to whom the oracles of Divine 
 truth have been communicated, it is not so 
 becoming to make this separation even in 
 appearance. To them the best source of 
 sound morals is pure religion ; and though, 
 
234 SERMON VI. 
 
 for the sake of a more clear consideration 
 of eacli part of so important a subject, it 
 may be allowable to introduce svich dis- 
 tinctions, yet it should never be forgotten 
 by any one, who knows the origin of man, 
 and whence he derived his being, that reli- 
 gion is no less deeply bound upon him by 
 the very constitution of his nature, than 
 the duties which are more commonly call- 
 ed moral. The true distinction of human 
 duty, and under which it can be most con- 
 veniently and properly discussed, is that 
 which the Apostle has authoritatively laid 
 down as the complete rule of human life. 
 Godliness, righteousness, and sobriety, com- 
 prise the sum and substance of what man 
 is required to do in order to please God, 
 to satisfy his fellow-creatures, and in the 
 best possible manner to secure his own 
 health of body and peace of mind. But 
 when the Apostle thus enumerates the parts 
 of our duty, he does not intimate any dif- 
 ference as to the source or degree of our 
 obligation to perform them. He rests the 
 whole, as his Divine Master did before 
 him, upon the declared Will of God, that 
 
SERMON VI. 235 
 
 Will demanding at once, and with equal 
 strictness, piety, justice, and temperance. 
 And this surely is the only true source, the 
 only certain foundation, of all human duty 
 and all moral obligation. God, who made 
 man, knew best what he was made for; 
 and therefore whatever his Creator im- 
 posed upon him as duty, that, we may be 
 satisfied, he as a creature was best fitted to 
 perform. This seems sufficiently evident : 
 but did it want confirmation, it would be 
 found abundantly in an examination of 
 that Divine Word, in which the Will of 
 God has been announced. That Word is 
 throughout clear and precise in delineating 
 and enforcing the duty of man. The re- 
 presentation which it makes of the state of 
 man after the fall is such indeed as to 
 show, that the unhappy effects of the cor- 
 ruption introduced by sin spread rapidly 
 and widely over the world ; but it is such 
 also as to indicate plainly, that they, who 
 thus opposed the Will of God, and trans- 
 gressed his precepts, knew, or might have 
 known, the impropriety of their conduct. 
 God had not left them '' without a wit- 
 
236 SERMON VI. 
 
 ^' ness''" to testify what conduct He re- 
 quired at their hands. When Cain slew 
 his brother, he knew well that he was trans- 
 gressing the law of God. When Lamech 
 dared to give an example of polygamy, he 
 could not be ignorant that '' from the be- 
 '^ ginning it was not soV When it is 
 said, that *' Enoch walked with God," we 
 are assured by the Apostle, that he was 
 acquainted with both the faith and practice 
 which were necessary to please his heaven- 
 ly Father. Thus also, as we descend in 
 the history of mankind, we find many holy 
 men in the line of Seth ; and the blameless 
 integrity of Noah is conspicuously display- 
 ed. He was a preacher of righteousness, 
 and it is most probable that there were 
 others before him : but certainly he, who 
 had been a preacher of righteousness be- 
 fore the flood, would not fail, after so sig- 
 nal an instance of the Divine vengeance on 
 transgression, to enforce and inculcate the 
 same righteousness, when he was the sole 
 and absolute monarch of the world. If the 
 descendants of Noah were not righteous, it 
 
 <■ Acts xix. 17. f Mcitth. xix. 8. 
 
SERMON VI. 237 
 
 was not for want of knowledge, nor for 
 want of Divine Revelation. Their father 
 and their king was the commissioned he- 
 rald of heaven; and they must have known, 
 not only what they were required to do, 
 and from what they were required to re- 
 frain, but the reward also which would be 
 conferred upon obedience, and the punish- 
 ment by which transgression would be vi- 
 sited. When we are told by St. Paul, that 
 because Enoch pleased God he must have 
 had faith, we are, I presume, entitled to 
 conclude, that when Noah is called a 
 preacher of righteousness, he was informed 
 of the sanction, by which that righteous- 
 ness would be best secured and enforced. 
 It is, I think, impossible to conceive, that 
 Noah was ignorant of the great leading 
 doctrines, which teach man to consider this 
 life as a passage to another. When we re- 
 collect, that God established his covenant 
 with him, and that however limited that 
 covenant might be, it must yet be under- 
 stood to embrace that gracious promise 
 which gave man the first hope of ultimate- 
 ly obtaining the victory over his enemy. 
 
238 SERMON VI. 
 
 and which hope was now necessarily con- 
 fined to his descendants, it seems in the 
 highest degree probable, that some intima- 
 tion, however obscure, of the redemption 
 to be wrought in the fulness of time must 
 have been communicated to this second 
 father of the human race. And this it is 
 necessary to observe, because, if this view 
 of the subject be correct, it will account 
 naturally and satisfactorily for all those 
 remnants of religion and righteousness, 
 with all those apparent anticipations of a 
 more perfect revelation, which lie scattered 
 in the compositions of those who lived un- 
 der the Law, and through the whole mass 
 of the heathen mythology. This will be a 
 reason, why, though in the letter of the 
 Mosaic dispensation the sanction of future 
 rewards and punishments be not expressly 
 provided, yet in that very Law there were 
 clear intimations of a future and eternal ex- 
 istence. These intimations, as well as the 
 rules of a more perfect morality, were an- 
 tecedent to that Law, which, coming in as 
 a temporary measure, was in itself ground- 
 ed upon temporary views and principles. 
 
SERMON VI. 239 
 
 Preceding generations had been supplied 
 with information of a purer and more spi- 
 ritual nature, but they had lost it through 
 corruption. This must be granted : for 
 even in the days of Abraham, and in the 
 land of Canaan, where the manners of the 
 inhabitants became afterwards so abomi- 
 nable, there was a regard had to the sacred 
 rite of wedlock, over the history of which 
 a Christian of the present day must blush 
 with shame, and almost weep with sorrow. 
 And this instance of regard for virtue was 
 exhibited four hundred and thirty years 
 prior to that awful promulgation of the Di- 
 vine Will on Mount Sinai. Upon what 
 then could it be founded, but upon that 
 knowledge of right and wrong, which Noah 
 was enabled to hand down in his instruc- 
 tions to his posterity. It was when this in- 
 struction began to fail and lose its effect, 
 and there was a rapid degeneracy spreading 
 over the face of the globe, that the Al- 
 mighty again made a public declaration of 
 his Will, and took measures to secure its 
 more permanent establishment in the world. 
 The Ten Commandments were delivered 
 
240 SERMON VI. 
 
 with a solemnity calculated to inspire the 
 whole human race with awe. In them, 
 properly understood, were contained the 
 principles of human duty in all its branch- 
 es; but as those principles were expressed 
 in few words, they became capable of ex- 
 pansion or contraction, according to the 
 mind and disposition of him, who was call- 
 ed upon to observe them. Interpreted 
 largely and liberally, they restrained every 
 unworthy passion, and enjoined the best 
 morals from the best motives ; but consi- 
 dered merely in the letter, they would seem 
 to respect only the outward actions of men, 
 or to restrain those appetites alone, which 
 lead to injustice and oppression. And ac- 
 cordingly we find, that many who lived 
 under that Law contented themselves with 
 a bare submission to its direct command, 
 while others, of better and more enlarged 
 minds, acknowledged the necessity of in- 
 ward purity and rectitude of mind^. It 
 must be confessed, indeed, that the Jewish 
 Law permitted many things which were 
 inconsistent, not only with the purer prin- 
 
 § Psalm xli. 10. 
 
SERMON VI. 241 
 
 ciples afterwards promulgated in the Gos- 
 pel, but with the earlier institutions of hu- 
 man society. Polygamy, concubinage, and 
 divorce, were allowed to the Israelites, 
 though our Saviour tells us plainly, that 
 such allowance was contrary to God's Will, 
 and Lamech appears to have been the first 
 who transgressed the original institution of 
 marriage. Still, though the Jewish Law 
 was thus imperfect, in condescension to the 
 hardness of their hearts to whom it was 
 given, yet illustrated as it was, by the 
 preaching of the Prophets, and by the ordi- 
 nances which accompanied it, as well as by 
 the previous instructions which had been 
 imparted to the world, it served in an ad- 
 mirable manner to keep alive in men a due 
 sense of religion, and a regard to moral 
 equity and justice. We indeed, by the light 
 of the Gospel, see its imperfection ; but 
 its value before that happy period, when 
 ^' the glory of Israel and the light of the 
 '^ Gentiles" appeared, we do not perhaps 
 so justly appreciate. And yet the Law and 
 the Prophets are by no means a dead letter 
 to us, even as means of moral instruction. 
 
 R 
 
242 SERMON VI. 
 
 Our Saviour took care, and it was neces- 
 sary that he should take care, to inform 
 his followers, that He came not to destroy 
 either^': not to destroy, that is, to dissolve 
 or diminish any moral obligation, which 
 they could fairly be understood to impose, 
 but to support their authority, by fulfilling 
 in his own person their injunctions and 
 predictions, as far as they concerned Him- 
 self, and laying his disciples under a strict 
 charge to observe them, in that more libe- 
 ral and enlarged sense in which He had 
 expounded them. The word fidjil is cer- 
 tainly capable of a double meaning, either 
 implying that our Saviour would Himself 
 fulfil the Law by his obedience to all it re- 
 quired, or that He would, by his fuller in- 
 structions, supply its deficiencies. And the 
 difficulty in assigning its precise significa- 
 tion, in the place we are examining, arises 
 from the consideration, that in either sense 
 the assertion is true. But there is this to 
 
 h Matth. V. 17. Grot, de Jure B. et P. lib. i. cap. ii. 
 vi. 3. Hammond's Pract. Cat. p. 118, &c. Bull's Harm. 
 Apost. p. 424. Collier's S. Interpret, vol. i. p. 231. and 
 vol. ii. p. 32. 
 
SERMON VI. 243 
 
 be observed in favour of the latter inter- 
 pretation, that it accords better with what 
 goes before. The former part of the asser- 
 tion is, that Christ did not come to destroy 
 or dissolve the Law or the Prophets : but 
 if He so fulfilled them as to relieve his fol- 
 lowers from any submission to their com- 
 mands, though He did not destroy them 
 as to himself, yet as to them, He certainly 
 put an end to their authority. But that 
 this was not his intention is clear from the 
 strong terms, in which He afterwards re- 
 probates the man, who should dare to in- 
 culcate any thing like a disregard to the 
 Law, and from the pure and spiritual in- 
 terpretation which He proceeds to give of 
 all its moral precepts. Our Lord knew 
 well, '^ for He knew what was in man','' 
 how eagerly those, who were sensible of 
 their guilt, would embrace his proffers of 
 mercy, while many would yet be far from 
 willing to forsake the sins by which that 
 guilt had been contracted. He therefore 
 took care to be explicit on this head ; and 
 while, according to his gracious office, He 
 
 » John ii. 25. 
 R 2 
 
244 SERMON VI. 
 
 preached '^ liberty to the captives, and the 
 " opening of the prison to them that were 
 ** bound ^/' He declared, in the plainest 
 terms, that He loosened no tie of duty, and 
 gave no licence to transgress the Law of 
 God. So far from that, He told his dis- 
 ciples, at the very time that He was ex- 
 plaining to them the nature of his king- 
 dom, that " unless their righteousness ex- 
 '^ ceeded the righteousness of the Scribes 
 " and Pharisees, into that kingdom they 
 '^ could not enter ^" But if the righteous- 
 ness of the disciples was to exceed the 
 righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, 
 it was undoubtedly to do so by a better 
 and purer observance of the Law. The 
 Scribes and Pharisees, however blameable 
 in their morals, were yet well acqviainted 
 with the holy Scriptures, and professed an 
 implicit deference to their contents; they 
 sat in Moses's seat, and were the author- 
 ized teachers of the people. They were 
 therefore qualified in an eminent degree to 
 expound the precepts of their Law; and 
 though they erred in many of their inter- 
 im Isaiah Ixi. 1. 1 Mattli. v. 20. 
 
SERMON VI. 245 
 
 pretations, yet in insisting upon the obli- 
 gation to observe the Law itself, as a rule 
 of duty, they were sufficiently rigid. On 
 this account they had, amongst their coun- 
 trymen, a high character of sanctity and 
 integrity. This character indeed, when 
 subjected to the deep scrutiny of our Sa- 
 viour's Omniscience, could not stand the 
 test ; yet to those, who did not see its se- 
 cret defects, it was a standard of exemplary 
 obedience. When therefore our Lord told 
 his disciples, that their *^ righteousness" 
 must exceed that of the Scribes and Phari- 
 sees, He gave them clearly to understand, 
 that He was so far from letting them loose 
 to the indulgence of any vicious propen- 
 sity, as to require them to surpass in the 
 practice of true virtue the exactest pattern 
 which their country afforded. The Phari- 
 sees were, no doubt, in many ways deserv- 
 ing of censure for their hypocrisy and de- 
 ceit ; but the command of Christ was this, 
 that even in that part of their character, in 
 which they were really praiseworthy, and 
 in that very righteousness for which they 
 had more credit than they deserved, his 
 
 R 3 
 
246 SERMON VI. 
 
 followers were bound to surpass them. If 
 the Pharisees made a show only of observ- 
 ing the precepts of the holy Law they had 
 received, the disciples of Jesus were to ob- 
 serv^e and obey them in sincerity and truth. 
 And here it is impossible not to remark the 
 difference between our Saviour's preach- 
 ing, and that of some who would now be 
 deemed the most zealous advocates of his 
 Gospel. These latter tell their followers, 
 that they must cast away the burden of 
 their righteousness before they can effec- 
 tually believe to salvation. Alas ! it is a 
 burden, which most of the sons of Adam 
 may carry with ease. But whatever it be, 
 our Divine Master no where requires his 
 followers to part with any thing that is 
 really good in themselves. He requires 
 them to cast away their vices, but their vir- 
 tues they may safely keep. It is so far 
 from his wish in any degree to lessen or 
 obscure these, that He delivers the most 
 express orders, and the most useful direc- 
 tions, for their improvement. He confirms 
 the authority of the Law, and both enlarges 
 and purifies its interpretation. And in do- 
 
SERMON VJ. 247 
 
 ing so, as He gives the clearest proof of his 
 desire, that all who profess his faith should 
 be distinguished by the excellence of their 
 moral conduct, so He takes from them 
 every pretence for a vicious life on the plea 
 of ignorance. Whatever obscurity might 
 have clouded the earlier revelations of Di- 
 vine truth, and however the Divine wis- 
 dom thought it right to condescend for a 
 time to the failings of men, yet since the 
 light of the Gospel has dispelled the shade 
 of intellectual night, and the Son of God 
 has declared, that the liberty, formerly al- 
 lowed, can no longer be permitted, it must 
 be acknowledged without reserve, that 
 there can now be no doubt with respect 
 either to the obligation or extent of duty. 
 The precepts which enjoin it, and the in- 
 structions which describe it, when atten- 
 tively examined by men of unprejudiced 
 minds, are too authoritative for contradic- 
 tion, and too plain for subterfuge. To 
 worship God in sincerity and in truth, to 
 do justice to our fellow-creatures, and 
 treat them with the same kindness as we 
 should think it reasonable to expect for our- 
 
 R 4 
 
248 SERMON VI. 
 
 selves, and to keep our passions and affec- 
 tions in that due order which constitutes 
 sobriety of conduct, these things are so 
 palpably prominent, so conspicuously dis- 
 played in the Scriptures, that he who does 
 not see them must be wilfully and obsti- 
 nately blind. No man, who is able to read 
 his Bible, can say, that his duty to God 
 and man is not plainly and explicitly taught 
 him. Nor is it only taught him : it is 
 bound upon him by the most awful sanc- 
 tions. His fears are awakened by the most 
 alarming menaces, his hopes are excited 
 by the most alluring promises of which his 
 nature is capable. Throughout the whole 
 of Revelation, the wrath of God is clearly 
 denounced against sin, and his favour as- 
 signed as the reward of obedience : and 
 though it may not always be so plain un- 
 der the Mosaic dispensation, whether those 
 threats and promises do in the letter reach 
 to the rewards and punishments of a future 
 life, or are to be confined to those of the 
 present, yet, as it is evident that a know- 
 ledge of that future life was prior to the 
 Law of Moses, and niany under it enter- 
 
SERMON VI. 249 
 
 tained better hopes than any which an 
 earthly Canaan could afford ; it is not pos- 
 sible to conceive, but that those threats 
 and promises must have been all along un- 
 derstood as referring to a prospect far be- 
 yond the bounds of this terrestrial sphere. 
 But however that be, to us every thing is 
 plainly revealed. We are told, in terms 
 which cannot be mistaken, and the force 
 of which cannot be lessened by any diffi- 
 culties arising from other considerations, 
 that God has appointed ""' a day in which 
 He will judge the world ; that the persons 
 to be judged are all the men and women 
 who have ever lived from the creation of 
 Adam, to that last hour when the trumpet 
 of the Archangel shall call the dead from 
 their graves " ; and that what these persons 
 shall be judged for is, the general tenor 
 and particular circumstances of their con- 
 duct during their abode upon earth". Our 
 Saviour tells us, that this judgment will 
 apply, not to actions alone, but to words p 
 and thoughts also, and that according as 
 
 m Acts xvii. 3]. n Rom. xiv. 10—12. ^ 2 Cor. 
 V. 10. P Matth. xii. 33, 34—37. Heb. iv. 12. 
 
250 SERMON VI. 
 
 each man's life shall appear upon this last 
 examination, so will his final doom be fixed 
 for ever. " The wicked shall go into ever- 
 '^ lasting punishment, and the just into life 
 '' eternal;" this is the sentence which each 
 sort of men, respectively, is to look for, on 
 the word of Him who will judge them : 
 and he, who will diminish the force of this 
 unequivocal declaration, by any attempt 
 at metaphysical subtlety, may, by the same 
 subtlety, blot out of the Book of God eve- 
 ry precept and every sanction it contains. 
 
 But not only do the clear precepts and 
 explicit sanctions of Revelation promote 
 the moral improvement of man ; this prin- 
 ciple is so interwoven in its design, that its 
 very external institutions are all directed 
 to the same important object "i. Under the 
 
 'J Spencer De Leg. Prolegomena. Conybeare's Def. 
 p. 199. Butler's Analogy, p. 215, &c. Writers, who 
 would set aside Revealed Religion as unnecessary, have 
 sometimes indulged themselves in scoffing at its rites 
 and ceremonies, as mere outward observances, of little 
 value and little efficacy; with what small pretensions to 
 trutli or just reasoning, any man of impartial reflection 
 may easily see. But it is more deplorable, to observe 
 some of the friends of Revelation uniting with its cne- 
 n)ies in an attempt to lower the character of its ordi- 
 
SERMON VI. 251 
 
 Law and under the Gospel this direction is 
 conspicuous. 
 
 The first institution of this kind under 
 the Law was Circumcision. That this out- 
 ward rite imphed, and was intended to 
 teach, the necessity of inward purity, seems 
 clear from the allusion which was made to it 
 by Moses himself. " Circumcise therefore/' 
 says he, '' the foreskin of your heart, and 
 " be no more stiffnecked'." Now, unless 
 the Israelites had been previously inform- 
 ed, that circumcision had a moral tenden- 
 cy, unless they had been taught, that it 
 implied and required an improvement of 
 the mind, they could scarcely have com- 
 prehended what Moses meant by com- 
 manding them to ^'circumcise their heart." 
 If the action was purely external, and the 
 rite itself had no further signification, it 
 would have been difficult for them to con- 
 ceive in what sense their Leader used the 
 
 nances; and that they should not see, that to lower 
 those ordinances, which derive all their value from Re- 
 velation, tends directly to the dishonour of that Reve- 
 lation, and to the diminution of its credit and utility. 
 r Deut. X. 16. 
 
252 SERMON VI. 
 
 expression ; but supposing them to have 
 already learned, that the outward ceremo- 
 ny was symbolical of an inward effect upon 
 the sovil, that the act, which purified the 
 body, was intended also to represent and 
 to enjoin the purity of the heart, they 
 would have readily comprehended what 
 Moses required, when he commanded the 
 heart to be '' circumcised." They would 
 have referred to the mind what in the let- 
 ter seemed to apply to the body alone; and 
 from the external rite, wovild have learnt 
 to cut off those impure and rebel passions, 
 which so continually excited them to trans- 
 gress the Law of God. But if this allusion 
 seems not clear enough to warrant the mo- 
 ral import and bearing of this rite, another 
 expression, in the same book, will put it 
 beyond a doubt. It is there said, that '' the 
 '' Lord their God would circumcise their 
 '^ heart, and the heart of their seed ^" But 
 how, and for what purpose ? By so purify- 
 ing and correcting their minds, as to make 
 them '' love the Lord their God with all 
 " their heart and with all their soul." This 
 
 ^ Deut. XXX. f). 
 
SERMON VI. 253 
 
 evidently was a spiritual effect, produced 
 in a spiritual manner upon a spiritual sub- 
 ject. Why then was the act, by which this 
 moral purification was effected, called the 
 circumcision of the heart? Surely no bet- 
 ter and no other reason can be assigned, 
 than that the outward rite, to which this 
 term was immediately applied, was under- 
 stood to be of a symbolical nature ; and 
 therefore, though circumcision denoted in 
 the letter an external act, yet as that ex- 
 ternal act was understood to imply a cor- 
 respondent effect upon the mind, the latter 
 was as properly called circumcision as the 
 former. And this figurative language was 
 so well understood, and appears so gene- 
 rally to have obtained, that it has happen- 
 ed in this instance, as in many others, that 
 the metaphorical expression has sometimes 
 set aside that which was more proper and 
 peculiar. Thus when Moses pleaded his 
 being unqualified, for want of eloquence, 
 to deliver the children of Israel, he said, 
 he was of " uncircumcised lips*;" and thus 
 also when Jeremy would call upon those 
 
 t Exod. vi. 12—30. 
 
254 SERMON VI. 
 
 of a later day to cast off tlieir sins by re- 
 pentance, he tells them to '' circumcise 
 '^ themselves to the Lord"." In both these 
 examples, though they differ in the precise 
 object to which it is applied, yet the use of 
 the term for something beyond its obvious 
 meaning is evident. But it could not have 
 thus passed into common use as a figura- 
 tive expression, if it had not been previ- 
 ously and generally understood, that the 
 rite from which it was derived had, and 
 was intended to have, a moral signification 
 and a moral efficacy, in correcting the pas- 
 sions and improving the affections of those 
 for whom it was ordained. 
 
 The moral nature and tendency of the 
 first initiatory rite under the Law being 
 thus established, that of all those which 
 follow will probably be admitted without 
 dispute. The principle being recognized 
 at the very commencement of the system, 
 will readily be acknowledged to pervade 
 and give a character to the whole. All 
 the washings and all the purifications en- 
 joined by the Law, must thus be under- 
 
 " Jereni. iv. 4. 
 
SERMON VI. 255 
 
 stood as having a further and a better 
 meaning than the mere cleansing of the 
 body. The distinction of clean and un- 
 clean meats, though we cannot now assign 
 the reason of each particular prohibition, 
 and the exclusion from society of those who 
 were afflicted with the loathsome disease of 
 the leprosy, may on this principle be fairly 
 considered as means of more effectually 
 recommending mental purity. Thus also, 
 when it is forbidden to wear " a garment 
 " mingled of linen and woollen''," and to 
 ^' plough with an ox and an ass together y," 
 a clear intimation appears to be given of 
 the value of simplicity, consistency, and 
 order. But above all, the numerous sacri- 
 fices by which approach was to be made to 
 the throne of the Almighty, and by which 
 alone remission was to be obtained for their 
 various transgressions, were calculated to 
 impress them deeply with a sense of God's 
 utter abhorrence of all iniquity. The great 
 yearly expiation, by which the High Priest 
 made an atonement for himself and for all 
 the people, and even for the holy sanctu- 
 X Deut. xix. 19. y Deut. xxii. 10. 
 
256 SERMON VI. 
 
 ary, must have excited in every well-dis- 
 posed mind the most awful ideas of the 
 Supreme Being. For how great must be 
 the purity, how sacred the majesty, how 
 ineffable the holiness of Him, before whom 
 things the most venerable amongst men 
 could not be accepted without an atone- 
 ment ? 
 
 But if the emblematical institutions of 
 Religion, under the Law, thus tended to 
 the moral improvement of those who ob- 
 served them, their spiritual signification and 
 efficacy is, under the Gospel, striking and 
 conspicuous. The Gospel does indeed in 
 a peculiar manner teach man to worship 
 God '^ in spirit and in truth \" Its ex- 
 ternal ordinances are few and simple, biit 
 they are on that account worthy of the 
 greater attention, and deserve the more 
 profound regard. Strictly speaking, and 
 considered separately from that public wor- 
 ship and profession which under some form 
 or other is common to all religions, they 
 are but two ; though there is one more, of 
 so high antiquity, and, when properly ad- 
 
 ^ John iv. 23. 
 
SERMON VI. 257 
 
 ministered of such peculiar force and effi- 
 cacy, that no man, who has any regard for 
 primitive Christianity, can do less than give 
 it a place among the best institutions of 
 the best ages of the Church. Yet it will 
 be considered perhaps with more propriety 
 under the next head of our inquiry. But 
 the two rites of Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper are of themselves sufficient to set 
 in the strongest light the tendency of the 
 Gospel to promote by its symbols the mo- 
 ral improvement of its professors. At pre- 
 sent ^ we consider them only as rites, the 
 observance of which tends directly to im- 
 press men with the importance and neces- 
 sity of purity and virtue. The first repre- 
 sents, in a very lively manner, the inward 
 purification of the mind. It is a rite in- 
 deed of great simplicity, requiring only the 
 washing of water, either by sprinkling or 
 immersion. But it is a washing : and it is ill 
 understood, if it be not allowed to imply 
 an answerable cleansing of the soul. He 
 
 * Having in another place endeavoured to shew the 
 spiritual efficacy of Baptism, that view of the subject is 
 here purposely omitted. 
 
 S 
 
258 SERMON VI. 
 
 surely must have a mean opinion of the 
 Christian Rehgion, who can think that the 
 Author of that Rehgion, insisting as He 
 did upon real substantial virtue, in contra- 
 diction to a mere formal compliance with 
 external regulations, would establish any 
 rite that was entirely void of spiritual ap- 
 plication. The washing was external, in 
 condescension to the infirmities of those 
 for whose use it was intended ; but the real 
 value of the ceremony, as a part of Chris- 
 tian Religion, is felt in the truth, with which 
 it represents the washing of the soul from 
 the foulness of sin, and the lesson which it 
 inculcates on the necessity of inward pu- 
 rity. St. Peter tells us plainly, that it is 
 not the outward act, in which the essence 
 of the rite consists. '^ It is not," says he, 
 *' the putting away the filth of the flesh, 
 ^* but the answer of a good conscience that 
 ^' saves us*";" that answer, by which, when 
 the candidate for Baptism was brought to 
 the font, he renounced his sins, and made 
 a solemn promise of future obedience. It 
 was then of the essence of this rite, and 
 
 ^ 1 Peter iii. 21. 
 
SERMON VI. 259 
 
 what gave a saving force and effect to its 
 application, that he who received it should 
 enter into a firm engagement to ^^ cease to 
 *' do evil, and learn to do well''." Having 
 been initiated into the Christian Religion 
 by this ceremony, he was considered as *' a 
 '' new creature "^Z' He had put off " the 
 ^' old man," whose character was that of a 
 slave to '' deceitful lusts," and by putting 
 on the '' new man" had devoted himself 
 to that " righteousness and holiness," by 
 which the new creature of the Gospel was 
 to be distinguished. It is impossible there- 
 fore not to see and allow, that this rite of 
 our Religion has an immediate tendency to 
 promote the moral improvement of man. 
 
 In the other holy symbol of our faith this 
 tendency will be yet more evident, as its 
 direct design is to make the man in Christ 
 perfect, and unite him to his Saviour by a 
 holy bond of peace and charity. For what 
 is it? what is its form, and what is its ob- 
 ject ? It is a commemoration of the death 
 of Christ ; that death, by which He made 
 
 c Isaiahi. 16, 17- 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. V. 17. Galat. vi. 15. Rom. vi. tlirougbout. 
 
 S 2 
 
260 SERMON VI. 
 
 atonement for sin, and suffered in his own 
 person the penalty which sin had incurred. 
 And is it possible to conceive any thing 
 better calculated to excite an abhorrence 
 of that sin, in every mind that has the least 
 particle of generosity, than to contemplate 
 an affecting representation of those suffer- 
 ings, of which sin alone was the source and 
 the cause ? If, when we approach the sa- 
 cred table, on which bread is to be broken 
 and wine poured out, we ask why this is 
 done? the answer is, that it is in remem- 
 brance of the Son of God, whose body was 
 torn upon the cross, and his blood spilled 
 upon the ground. If we inquire further, 
 why and how it could be necessary that 
 the Son of God should be subjected to so 
 much ignominy and suffering.^ the answer 
 must asfain be, that the sins of men had so 
 far offended their righteous and Almighty 
 Creator, that nothing less than the blood 
 of his own Son, nothing less than the sacri- 
 fice of his precious life, could make satis- 
 faction to the Divine Justice for the trans- 
 gression of the Divine Law. And can there 
 be a man, with any thing of the feelings of 
 
SERMON VI. 261 
 
 a man, whose conscience will not be awak- 
 ened by such a representation as this ? If 
 there be in him any moral sense at all, any 
 capacity of distinguishing between right 
 and wrong, and of judging correctly what 
 is the duty and what the happiness of a be- 
 ing constituted as he finds himself to be, 
 he cannot but be roused by such a scene 
 to consider seriously his own condition. 
 It was not possible, that the Almighty 
 Himself could mark his detestation of sin 
 more strongly than by the sacrifice of his 
 Son. And can any man think himself at 
 liberty to continue in that, against which 
 Almighty God has thus awfully declared 
 his anger ? Is it to be supposed, that any 
 one can be permitted to do that wilfully 
 and obstinately, which excited the wrath 
 of God " against his shepherd, and against 
 '^ the man that was his fellow \^" We are 
 not now considering the effect of Christ's 
 death in the pardon procured for the sin- 
 ner ; that is a distinct question : but the 
 proof, which it affords, of God's hatred to 
 sin, and the lesson which it gives us of his 
 
 ^ Zacb. xiii. 7. 
 s 3 
 
262 SERMON VI. 
 
 determination not to suffer the transgres- 
 sion of his Law to go unpunished. And 
 in this view the commemoration of that 
 death must be allowed surely to teach that 
 lesson most expressly. Even while the pe- 
 nitent sinner rejoices in the consolation, 
 which the remembrance of Christ's sacri- 
 fice affords him, he cannot but be sensible 
 that the sin, which caused that sacrifice, 
 must be stamped with the hatred of God, 
 in proportion to the costliness of the sacri- 
 fice itself 
 
 But further : he, who is admitted to the 
 table at which these sacred symbols are 
 administered, is admitted to an union ^ with 
 Christ and with God. And what ought to 
 be the character of him who is admitted to 
 this union ? what should be his preparation 
 for it, and what his deportment after it? 
 He has surely but to consider the holy na- 
 ture of that union, to be convinced, that 
 before he can presume to hope for it, he 
 nuist, to the best of his power, and by 
 
 f The reality of this union I now take for granted, 
 having on another occasion endeavoured to prove it at 
 large. 
 
SERMON VI. 263 
 
 every means in his power, purify himself 
 " from all filthiness of flesh and spirit V' 
 and endeavour to attain all those pious, 
 devout, and sanctified dispositions, which 
 may best fit him to receive so great a be- 
 nefit, and supply him with the '^ marriage 
 " garment required by God in holy Scrip- 
 " ture*'/' And when he has been admit- 
 ted to so high an honour, when he has 
 been made '' one with Christ, and Christ 
 '^ with himV he can doubtless be at little 
 loss to ascertain what conduct it becomes 
 him to pursue. Being united with Christ, 
 the Will of Christ should be his ; and as 
 that Will is clearly delivered in the inspired 
 volume, which He enabled his faithful ser- 
 vants to compose and transmit to posterity, 
 it must be his clear duty to conform to 
 every precept it contains, to comply with 
 all its injunctions, and to pay a willing and 
 ready obedience to all its positive ordi- 
 nances. But all those precepts, all those 
 injunctions, and all those ordinances, either 
 enforce the discharge of our moral duty in 
 
 s 2 Cor. vii. 1. h Exhort, to Conim. ' Third 
 
 Exhort. 
 
 S 4 
 
264 SERMON VI. 
 
 direct terms, or are proposed as means and 
 helps for its better performance; and there- 
 fore the rite, which so plainly binds us to 
 observe them, must be acknowledged to 
 have an immediate efficacy in furthering 
 the moral improvement of all who are per- 
 mitted to partake of it. 
 
 We come now in the third place to con- 
 sider the moral discipline which Revelation 
 has established in the world, and which 
 may be clearly seen to pervade the whole 
 system of Divine government, which Re- 
 velation has opened to our view. This sys- 
 tem commenced when our first parents 
 were expelled from Paradise, to earn their 
 bread by the sweat of their brow, and to 
 be subjected to all the distress and cala- 
 mity which sin had introduced ; being ne- 
 cessary to check the progress of vice, and 
 designed doubtless in a great degree to 
 correct its ill effects. Natural evil is cer- 
 tainly not understood as it ought to be, 
 unless it is considered both as the punish- 
 ment and correction of moral depravity. 
 Experience may teach us that it is so, and 
 the Psalmist assures us that he found it so; 
 
SERMON VI. 265 
 
 *' Before I was afflicted/' says he, '^ I went 
 *'' astray, but now have I kept thy word ^^ 
 The natural evil, which he suffered, had a 
 happy effect in checking the moral evil, by 
 which he had been led astray from truth 
 and righteousness. And that it had this 
 corrective tendency ', not only in its effect, 
 but in the design of God, he seems to ac- 
 knowledge, when he says, that '' it was 
 " good for him to be afflicted;" it was a 
 proof of the Divine goodness towards him, 
 that he had been called by these means 
 from his wanderings in the paths of vice. 
 When therefore we are told in the records 
 of Revelation, that in the earlier ages of 
 the world Almighty God visited his crea- 
 tures with severe marks of his displeasure, 
 and ordained indeed throughout the uni- 
 
 k Psalm cxix. 67. 
 
 ^ The real nature and vast importance of this disci- 
 pline will not be understood, unless it is traced to its 
 origin in the condition of man, and the method, which 
 God has been pleased to adopt in cherishing his virtues 
 and eradicating his vices, during his state of probation 
 on earth. Particular means and particular instances of 
 discipline are founded upon this. See Butler's Anal, 
 p. 132, 140. 
 
266 SERMON VI. 
 
 verse, that wickedness should ahiiost inva- 
 riably be attended with its appropriate pe- 
 nalty of suffering, we should look upon the 
 whole of this as intended by the great 
 Creator and Governor of the world to cor- 
 rect, if it might be, the mischiefs which sin 
 had introduced into his works. When they 
 came from his Almighty hands, they were 
 all pronounced good, naturally and mo- 
 rally good ; but when they ceased to be 
 good in the latter sense, sound discipline 
 required that their natural goodness shovild 
 cease also. It was necessarv, that those 
 who infringed the moral integrity of the 
 creation, should be made to feel the wick- 
 edness and the folly of their conduct, by 
 the consequences of pain and distress with 
 which it was accompanied, and should be 
 restrained in their career of vice, by seeing 
 that the further they advanced in depravi- 
 ty, the further they would adv^ance in mi- 
 sery. But though this discipline ought 
 thus to be considered as pervading the 
 whole system of nature, and though the in- 
 stances of Divine vengeance upon sin, re- 
 corded in Scripture before the exodus of 
 
SERMON VI. 267 
 
 the Israelites, are clear exemplifications of 
 that system, yet at present our attention 
 must be confined to that which was esta- 
 blished under the Law, and which subsists, 
 or ought to subsist, under the Gospel. 
 
 The nature of that discipline which was 
 established under the Law, and to enforce 
 which was the object of so many of its in- 
 stitutions, is thus set before us by Moses. 
 Thou shalt remember," says he, " all 
 the way which the Lord thy God led 
 thee these forty years in the wilderness, 
 
 to humble thee, and to prove thee 
 
 and He humbled thee and suffered thee 
 to hunger, and fed thee with manna, 
 which thou knewest not, neither did thy 
 fathers know; that He might make thee 
 know, that man doth not live by bread 
 only, but by every word that proceed- 
 eth out of the mouth of the Lord"'." 
 That there was a moral disciphne here is 
 obvious : the means of effecting it were af- 
 fliction and suffering, relieved by the mira- 
 culous interposition of heaven : and the 
 object was to teach them, first, a due sense 
 
 m Deut. viii. 2, 3. 
 
268 SERMON VI. 
 
 of their dependence upon God's provi- 
 dence ; and next, a due observance of his 
 laws. It had been begun indeed, as we 
 have seen, in much earlier times; those who 
 were called to an especial share of God's 
 favour being called also to undergo an 
 especial share of that discipline which might 
 best render them worthy of it. Abraham, 
 the friend of the Almighty, was exercised 
 with peculiar trials ; and from the time of 
 his being called to that high honour, led a 
 wandering and unsettled life. The Patri- 
 archs, his successors in the Divine bless- 
 inof, were his successors also in the disci- 
 pline to which he had been subjected. 
 Moses himself, who was admitted to a 
 nearer approach to the Almighty than any 
 other of the sons of men, and who, as the 
 type of the Messiah, occupies a peculiar 
 place in the records of Scripture, was tried 
 and exercised, both as a preparation for his 
 high office, and during his continuance in 
 it. And the principle, which was thus ex- 
 emplified in his own life, and that of the 
 Patriarchs his predecessors, was transferred 
 into the body of his Law. The assignment 
 
SERMON VI. 269 
 
 of natural evil as corrective of moral obli- 
 quity, could only be the immediate ordi- 
 nance of Him who had the powers of na- 
 ture at his disposal, and by Him alone 
 could such a system be administered. But 
 as He willed that some part of his power 
 and authority should be exercised by those, 
 whom He appointed to rule over his peo- 
 ple, so he willed likewise, that in the pu- 
 nishment of vice and encouragement of 
 virtue they should adopt some means cor- 
 respondent to those, with which He Him- 
 self administered the affairs of the world. 
 Civil and ecclesiastical government is clear- 
 ly intended to supply to mankind, in some 
 degree, by the substitution of human in- 
 struments, that necessary control of bad 
 men, and protection of the good, which the 
 Almighty does not think right to provide 
 for by the immediate exertion of his own 
 power. In both cases the governor is " the 
 ^' minister of God for the punishment of 
 " evil doers, and for the praise of them 
 " that do well"." Even under that part 
 of the Jewish economy, which has been 
 
 n 1 Peter ii. 14. Rom. xiii. 4, 5, 6. 
 
270 SERMON VI. 
 
 most properly called a Theocracy, God 
 did not govern without an authorized re- 
 presentativ^e. There was always an eccle- 
 siastical ruler in the person of the High 
 Priest, who, in the absence of any civil 
 appointment, possessed and exercised both 
 branches of the supreme power. Gene- 
 rally, but at considerable intervals, the 
 temporal branch was placed in the hands 
 of a judge, appointed either for life or for 
 the accomplishment of some particular pur- 
 pose. But in whatever way the govern- 
 ment was dispensed, certain it is, that a 
 moral discipline was established ; that there 
 were laws promulgated for the regulation 
 of manners, and powers conferred for the 
 enforcing of obedience. And that these 
 laws were of a moral nature is too appa- 
 rent to be disputed. For though many of 
 them to us now may seem to command or 
 forbid what is of little importance, yet in 
 the then state of the world it is easy to 
 conceive, that there might have been very 
 good reasons for their enactment. The 
 great object at that time was to preserve 
 among men a true sense of Religion, to 
 
SERMON VI, 271 
 
 prevent them from running into idolatrous 
 superstitions, and to keep them firm in the 
 belief of One God, and of his superintend- 
 ing providence. We have already proved, 
 that the first moral duty of man, as a cre- 
 ated being, is to conform his actions to the 
 Will of his Creator. When therefore all 
 the world were madly giving themselves up 
 to the basest superstitions, and in a blind 
 admiration of the meanest creatures for- 
 getting the God that made them, it must 
 have been the first object of a wise disci- 
 pline to restrain those, who were placed 
 under it, from following so corrupt an ex- 
 ample, from being carried away by the 
 overwhelming cvirrent of a wide-wasting 
 flood of corruption. This, if well consi- 
 dered, would, I presume, enable us to judge 
 better of some parts of the Jewish dispen- 
 sation. To preserve principles should be 
 the prime object with him, who wishes to 
 preserve sound morals; and as the being 
 of God, with an acknowledgment of his 
 attributes, is the very source and basis of 
 integrity, it was in the highest degree ne- 
 cessary that this point should be secured 
 
272 SERMON VI. 
 
 with the greatest care and attention. We 
 should not therefore be surprised, if in 
 some lesser instances the Divine goodness 
 condescended to the infirmity of those over 
 whom its superintendence was exercised ; 
 if, as our Saviour tells us, some things 
 were permitted ^' for the hardness of their 
 '' hearts *"," which to us, enlightened by 
 the Gospel, appear inconsistent with good 
 morals, and which the Author of that Gos- 
 pel pronounced to be against the original 
 constitution of human society. God was 
 pleased to treat his creatures according to 
 their weakness; not to exact of them that 
 which was precisely best, but the best of 
 which their circumstances would admit. 
 While the main point of preserving the 
 knowledge of God among men was secured, 
 and they were restrained from paying that 
 honour to heathen vanities which was due 
 to Him alone, some indulgence was grant- 
 ed them in matters of practice. It is on 
 this principle that some characters stand 
 prominent in Scripture, who are yet by no 
 means free from imputations on their mo- 
 
 o Mark x. 5. 
 
SERMON VI. 273 
 
 rals. David himself was called the man 
 after God's own heart; not that he was 
 without faults, far from it ; but because he 
 had ever adhered steadily to that first prin- 
 ciple of loyalty to the King of heaven, on 
 which all morals and all religion are ulti- 
 mately founded. And his example proves 
 the value of this principle ; a message from 
 his God recalled him at once from the er- 
 ror of his ways. Others, his successors, 
 who cast off all regard for true religion, 
 sunk deeper and deeper into vice, till they 
 were lost in irretrievable wickedness. Even 
 his son Solomon, distinguished as he was 
 by the Divine favour, was so far corrupted 
 by his fall into idolatry, as to make it at 
 this day a question whether he ever re- 
 turned to a better mind. If therefore the 
 laws of the Jewish polity, both in Church 
 and State, and the sanctions by which 
 they were supported, were framed with the 
 view of preserving in the world a regard 
 for the one true God, as the sole object of 
 their worship and obedience, it must be 
 acknowledged, that it was an object wor- 
 thy of their care. It was the point about 
 
274 SERMON VI. 
 
 which there was then the greatest danger 
 of error ; and it was that point, respecting 
 which an error would be attended with the 
 most fatal consequences. While this was 
 preserv ed entire, other deviations might be 
 corrected as circumstances would best al- 
 low ; but if this was impaired or corrupted, 
 the very source of religion was polluted, 
 and nothing could be looked for but a 
 hopeless degeneracy. But though the dis- 
 cipline established in the Jewish Church 
 was thus directed mainly to the preserva- 
 tion of the first principles of religion, yet 
 was it by no means confined to this one 
 point. It provided carefully for the ob- 
 servance of many important particular du- 
 ties. The Decalogue itself, even in its lite- 
 ral acceptation, secured effectually the main 
 points of piety, of justice, and sobriety : 
 and whoever will read with attention the 
 instances P, in which the Israelites were re- 
 quired to exert themselves actively for the 
 benefit, and to abstain religiously from the 
 injury, of their neighbours, will possibly 
 see cause to blush at the deficiency of 
 
 g Exod. xxi. xxii. xxiii. 
 
SERMON VI. 275 
 
 Christian practice, when compared with a 
 rule, the defects of which Christians have 
 undoubtedly the means of detecting. 
 
 The superior light of the Gospel will 
 however have been bestowed upon men to 
 little purpose, if its only effect should be 
 to teach them to observe the defects of a 
 preceding dispensation. If we have more 
 and better light, we are required assuredly 
 to live by a better and more accurate rule. 
 And nothing can be clearer in point of 
 fact, than that the discipline originally esta- 
 blished and intended to be kept up in the 
 Christian Church, was every way answer- 
 able to the improved rule of religion and 
 morals with which it was supplied. The 
 purity of the Gospel code has been ac- 
 knowledged by those who had little regard 
 for the Gospel itself; and the purity of its 
 discipline was designed to preserve the due 
 administration of the laws it had promul- 
 gated. Whatever may have been the dis- 
 putes about it, and whatever may be in 
 the present day the difficulty of exercising 
 it**, there is no point in the Gospel plainer 
 ^ This, I am aware, is tender ground, and I therefore 
 
 T 2 
 
276 SERMON VI. 
 
 than this, that a discipline was established 
 in that society, which is called the Church 
 
 tread it lightly. But no true lover of Christ's Church 
 can do less than lament deeply and unfeignedly the 
 palpable ill effects which have resulted from its want of 
 discipline. Many causes have been assigned for the 
 divisions and distractions in which we are involved ; but 
 speaking from observation as a Parish-Priest, I should 
 say, that to no one are they so much owing, as to a re- 
 laxation of the bonds which unite men in ecclesiastical 
 society. Our people, being at liberty to leave the 
 Church or frequent it, at their own discretion or ca- 
 price, do not feel any tie of communion sufficiently 
 strong between themselves and their pastors ; by leav- 
 ing us they seem to lose nothing, as they can resume 
 their station at their own pleasure. It may be said, 
 that the evil is irremediable. Perhaps it is, but it need 
 not be made worse. At all events, those who have any 
 power to prevent its increase, would do well to consider 
 the following passage in Eusebius, on an occasion of a 
 similar nature. No/xov IxTrejXTre* (Licinius) SjaxsAeuojxevov, 
 |U,>)Sa/x.TJ fXYilauicag oiKXr^Koig STTixoivcuvsiv tov§ STna xo'ttouCj fxy] 8* 
 e7rj8)jju,=7v OLVTm s^=lvotl rivi t^ too TrsXctg Ixx^ijcr/a* jxyj^s ys <t\jv- 
 o^ovs Yj (SouXui xa) ^lucKs^sis Trsp) twv MktitsKoov froiiiaQai' to 
 8* ^y apa 7r^o<p«cr/$ TYjg xuS' yj[xu)V e7rr,gsloig' )j yoig 7ruga(3ixivQV- 
 
 TU§ 70V VOfJ^OV I'X^py^V UTtO^OLKKsd^OLl TlfJ^WpiO.' V} TTSlSxp^OVVTUg TCO 
 
 TToipotyyeKfJiixTif irapoiXusiv exxXYio-ictg Qsaixous' aAXwj yoip ou 8y- 
 varov roL [jisyocXcc twv crxs[X[xixTW)f '^ Sia avvodcov xocTopQcoaocQ-Qai, 
 De Vita Const, lib. i. cap. 51. It does indeed frequently 
 happen, that the wickedness of the world leaves con- 
 scientious men but a choice of difficulties in the dis- 
 charge of their duty; yet the difficulty of a duty can 
 never be admitted as an excuse for its neglect ; other- 
 
SERMON VI. 277 
 
 of Christ. That society was never intend- 
 ed to consist of a number of scattered 
 members, professing indeed a certain com- 
 mon set of opinions, but united by no ex- 
 ternal bond, and subject to no common 
 government. It was in every respect a so- 
 ciety regularly constituted, having a regu- 
 
 wise the primitive Christians were little to be admired 
 for the firmness with which they endured sufferings, ra- 
 ther than renounce their faith, or defile the purity of the 
 Gospel. Discretion is, no doubt_, an excellent thing, and 
 forbearance is a necessary duty ; but the soundest dis- 
 cretion, and the most enduring forbearance, cannot re- 
 quire nor admit any sacrifice of principle. If however 
 neither past error can be retrieved, nor the progress of a 
 debilitating system be prevented, the matter must be 
 referred to Him who knows what is best, and will in 
 his own good time provide it. In the mean time it will 
 become the friends of truth to arm themselves with 
 that faith and patience which will be their best support, 
 should the Almighty, according to the idea of an an- 
 cient Father, excite against his own servants the vio- 
 lence of their adversaries, " ut devotionem ac fidem 
 " suorum vel probet vel corroboret, donee pressurae ver- 
 " beribus diffiuentem corrigat disciplinam,^' See Dr. 
 Marshall's Penitential Discipline, and Cave's Primitive 
 Christianity. Those, who have not the means of pro- 
 curing, or the leisure for perusing, works of larger and 
 deeper research, will find a correct and impressive view 
 of the discipline of better times in the excellent Nel- 
 son's Treatise on the Fasts of the Church of England. 
 
 T 3 
 
278 SERMON VI. 
 
 lar external form, by which members were 
 to be admitted; binding them, when ad- 
 mitted, to the performance of certain ex- 
 ternal duties, and placing the whole under 
 the control and management of those, to 
 whom the charge was committed in a given 
 way by the Founder of the society Him- 
 self. If this be not clear, there is nothing 
 clear in the Bible. The promises of the 
 Gospel are all made to members of a so- 
 ciety, and not to men in their individual 
 capacity. Into this society those alone are 
 to be admitted, who are willing to make 
 certain stipulations, and to profess certain 
 tenets; and those are to be excluded, who 
 either refuse at first to make such stipula- 
 tions, or depart from the stipulations they 
 have made. Our Saviour's directions on 
 this head are plain and precise. One great 
 object of his endeavours, for the reforma- 
 tion of mankind, was to unite them toge- 
 ther in mutual love and good will ; and in 
 order the better to attain this object, he 
 commanded, that if any disagreement 
 should arise between the members of his 
 society, whicli they could not settle in a 
 
SERMON VI. 279 
 
 private manner, they should apply to the 
 Church for a final determination ^ But 
 unless the Church was a visible society, 
 they could not have known where to ap- 
 ply, and unless it had authority to decide 
 upon the questions brought before it, they 
 would have applied in vain. The applica- 
 tion however was not intended to be in vain ; 
 for he, whose authority cannot be disputed, 
 said expressly, that the party which would 
 not be concluded by the authority of the 
 Church, should be excluded from its pale, 
 and no longer suffered to enjoy its privi- 
 leges. The authority, thus directed to be 
 exercised in a particular instance, we know, 
 was exercised in others. St. Paul possess- 
 ed and exerted the power of arranging the 
 order of public worship in the Church of 
 Corinth ; and by the same power he com- 
 manded that the incestuous person should 
 be excommunicated for his crime, and re- 
 admitted on his repentance'. And this 
 exercise of authority pervaded the whole 
 svstem of Christian communion. The mem- 
 bers of the Church were subject to the su- 
 
 r Matth. xviii. 15 — 20. « I Cor. v— x. xi. 
 
 T 4 
 
280 SERMON VI. 
 
 perintendence and inspection of the Go- 
 vernors of the Church : their duties were 
 enjoined them, and they were required to 
 perform them, not only as accountable to 
 God at the last day, but as liable also to 
 the censure of those who were appointed 
 to '' watch over their souls*,'' and to see 
 that the care of those souls was not neg- 
 lected. The great Apostle of the Gentiles 
 is very precise in his orders to this effect, 
 not only directing his people what they 
 should do themselves, but with whom they 
 should be on terms of intimacy : he Avrites 
 to them, and he writes to them as one who 
 expected to be obeyed, that they should 
 not '' company with fornicators, drunk- 
 *' ards, railers, or extortioners." Nor was 
 it intended, that the authority thus plainly 
 exercised by this great Apostle should be 
 considered as residing in him personally, 
 or terminating on his removal. His direc- 
 tions to Timothy and Titus are decisive 
 proofs to the contrary. But particularly 
 at his affecting interview with the Elders 
 of Ephesus, he himself declares, that this 
 
 t Heb. xiii. 17- 
 
SERMON VI. 281 
 
 power and its due exercise were necessary 
 to the preservation of the Christian com- 
 munity in faith and virtue. " Take heed," 
 says he, '^ to yourselves, and to all the 
 ^« flock over which the Holy Ghost hath 
 ^^ made you overseers, to feed the Church 
 
 ** of God For I know this, that after 
 
 *' my departing shall grievous wolves come 
 *^ among you ; . . . . also of your own selves 
 *' shall men arise, speaking perverse things, 
 *' to draw away disciples after them. There- 
 '' fore watch"." They were required then 
 by this charge, which St. Paul left as his 
 last legacy among them, to take care of, 
 and to keep a vigilant eye over, all the 
 members of that part of the Church which 
 was entrusted to their hands : they were 
 to feed them as shepherds do their flocks, 
 guarding them from the attacks of wolves, 
 and keeping them within those inclosures, 
 in which they would be most secure ; they 
 were to watch continually, according to the 
 pattern the Apostle himself had set them, 
 and they were to leave no means unem- 
 ployed to prevent their people from falling 
 
 " Acts XX. 28—31. 
 
282 SERMON VI. 
 
 into any corruptions in practice, or any 
 perversions of the faith. All this surely 
 implies, as much care, so a competent au- 
 thority to make that care effectual ; and 
 the whole was clearly designed to render 
 those, who embraced the doctrine of the 
 Gospel, as eminent for the purity of their 
 morals as for the sovmdness of their reli- 
 gious principles, and the accuracy of their 
 religious knowledge. 
 
 There remains yet to be considered, the 
 best and most powerful mean of correcting 
 the aberrations of our hearts, and restrain- 
 ing the violence of our passions ; but it is 
 happily as plain as it is important, and has 
 indeed unavoidably entered into the whole 
 of our previous inquiry. In the last pas- 
 sage of Scripture, which has been the sub- 
 ject of our reflections, we are told, that 
 " overseers were set over the Christian 
 '' Church by the Holy Ghost;" implying 
 evidently, as indeed is clear from other 
 places, that the Church was in some pecu- 
 liar manner put under the personal super- 
 intendence of the Spirit of God. Our Lord 
 said explicitly, that when He left the world, 
 
SERMON VI. 283 
 
 the Holy Ghost, as the Comforter or Ad- 
 vocate of his people, should supply his 
 place "". The ways and degrees in which 
 it has pleased Him to exercise this his gra- 
 cious office, are represented as various. 
 One, we have seen, was the appointment 
 of proper persons to take the external ma- 
 nagement of the society. Another very emi- 
 nent exertion of his power was the mental 
 illumination, by which the first preachers 
 of the Gospel were enabled, in a miracu- 
 lous manner, to understand and to com- 
 municate the great mysteries of faith, and 
 that " demonstration of the Spirit y,'^ by 
 which their authority was supernaturally 
 attested and supported. Each of these di- 
 rectly tended to the improvement of man- 
 kind. But that holy Being, who first gave 
 life to the world, has condescended to la- 
 bour still more immediately for the resto- 
 ration of his rational creatures ; and by 
 shedding his gracious influence on their 
 hearts, to support their infirmities, to keep 
 
 X John xvi. 7 — 15. See Archbishop Sharpens Three 
 admirable Discourses on the Advocation of the Spirit. 
 y 1 Cor. ii. '1. 
 
284 SERMON VI. 
 
 them back from sin, and to incite them to 
 virtue. That such an operation is ascribed 
 to the Spirit of God in the Gospel, is as 
 clear as words can make it. We have seen 
 that even under the Law it was more than 
 intimated, and was, no doubt, frequently ob- 
 tained. The circumcision of the heart could 
 be effected by Him alone, to whose eye 
 the heart was open, and whose influence 
 could penetrate its deepest recesses. But 
 the Gospel is emphatically, in its promul- 
 gation and its effects, the work of the Spi- 
 rit of God. It is our Lord's unqualified 
 declaration, that to all, who would ask% 
 his Father would grant this most precious 
 gift of his grace. St. Paul tells us, that 
 Christians '' live by the Spirit ""," and that 
 because they do so, they should also '^ walk 
 *' by the Spirit:'^ and still more unequivo- 
 cally, if possible, that the fruits of the Spi- 
 rit are all the virtues by which the human 
 mind can be adorned, or human society 
 made happy. They alone are the ^' sons 
 '^ of God," who are '* led by the Spirit of 
 '^ Godb." Led by him: how? By that 
 
 ^ Luke xi. 13. * Gal. ii. 20. and v. 25. ^ Rom. viii. H. 
 
SERMON VL 285 
 
 powerful, but silent influence, by which 
 He effectually works upon their souls, and 
 enables them to '' perfect holiness in the 
 ^' fear" and the love of God. 
 
 The means then which Revelation has 
 supplied for the attainment of moral inte- 
 grity are ample, and in addition to the 
 other points we have considered, may be 
 allowed perhaps to prove, in the most sa- 
 tisfactory manner, that the direct tendency 
 of that Revelation is to make mankind bet- 
 ter, to encourage virtue, and to suppress 
 vice, and that in fact all its provisions and 
 all its institutions are plainly designed to 
 advance and secure this great object. When 
 we are told expressly, as in the text we are 
 told, that our blessed Saviour ^^ gave gifts 
 ^' unto men," not to make them easy in 
 their sins, or to puff them up with a vain 
 conceit, or to amuse them with false hopes; 
 but ^^for the edifying of the body of Christ," 
 and that all the members of that body, 
 *' speaking the truth in love, might grow 
 ^^ up unto Him in all things" that are " ho- 
 '^ nest, just, and pure%" it certainly can- 
 
 c Philip, iv. 8. 
 
286 SERMON VI. 
 
 not be consistent with that truth, or agree- 
 able to the intentions of its Author, that it 
 should ever be made a cloak to hide the 
 deformity of sin, or to speak peace to those, 
 of whom God himself has emphatically as- 
 sured us, that, while they continue *' wick- 
 " ed,'' they can have " no peace "^^ and no 
 hope. 
 
 d Isaiah Ivii. 21. 
 
SERMON VII. 
 
 Heb. xi. 1. 
 
 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, 
 the evidence of things not seen, 
 
 I^LEARLY as we may seem to have 
 proved, from a view of the leading features 
 of Revelation, that its tendency is to im- 
 prove the moral condition of mankind, 
 there are however some doctrines of the 
 Gospel, which, as they have been occa- 
 sionally taught and represented, would ap- 
 pear to be not altogether consistent with 
 the position we have been endeavouring to 
 establish. I propose, in the two remaining 
 Discourses, to consider the two most pro- 
 minent of these, and to examine whether, 
 as they are laid down in the Scripture it- 
 self, they do in any degree diminish the 
 obligation or lessen the importance of mo- 
 
288 SERMON VII. 
 
 ral duty. The first is the doctrine of sal- 
 vation by Faith alone; the second, that of 
 Election to eternal life ; points these of the 
 last importance certainly, but which, I have 
 persuaded myself, are so far from having 
 an unfavourable aspect upon sound morals, 
 that they are the surest principles upon 
 which a firm superstructure of sound mo- 
 rals can be raised. 
 
 Let us consider then, in the first place, 
 the important doctrine of salvation by 
 Faith. 
 
 It ought undoubtedly to be confessed at 
 once, and confessed with the utmost humi- 
 lity and gratitude, that the only hope, 
 which the sons and daughters of Adam can 
 have of salvation, is founded on the sole 
 merits of Jesus Christ. And this being ac- 
 knowledged as the basis of our reasoning 
 on this subject will show us plainly, how 
 faith becomes that qualification of the mind 
 to which the business of salvation is main- 
 ly attributed. It might indeed be remark- 
 ed, and the remark would appear to be of 
 weight, if followed up to its due conse- 
 quences, that to be ''justified by faith,'' 
 
SERMON VII. 289 
 
 and to be ultimately '' saved by faith/' are 
 not expressions of precisely the same mean- 
 ing. In general ^'justification" in Scrip- 
 ture stands for that acceptance of a guilty 
 person before God, by which on the re- 
 mission of his sins he is accounted as right- 
 eous, as if in fact those sins had never 
 been committed, and as if the person him- 
 self had invariably obeyed the Law of God. 
 But this remission is constantly represented 
 to have taken place at the first profession 
 of the Christian faith by a convert, and 
 on his first admission into the Christian 
 Church by Baptism ^ : and consequently 
 the justification, which is equivalent to, or 
 coincident with, this remission, must ap- 
 pear to have been granted at the same 
 time. This is the light in which it is viewed 
 in the Articles and Homilies of our Church, 
 which speak of works following justifica- 
 tion as being both acceptable to God and 
 necessary to our final salvation ^ ; and con- 
 sequently justification itself is considered 
 
 ^ See Barrow on Justification. 
 
 b Art. XI. and XII. and Horn, on Salvation. 
 
 U 
 
290 SERMON VII. 
 
 as something distinct from and antecedent 
 to final salvation. But further: even the 
 word " saved" itself does not always mean 
 to be admitted to eternal happiness. As to 
 be "justified" stands for being acquitted 
 from previous guilt, so to be " saved" 
 stands for being rescued from the present 
 power and influence of those sins, in which 
 while men continue, they are considered 
 sunk in hopeless perdition ^ In both cases 
 reference is made apparently more to the 
 past condition of men, than to the certainty 
 of their future prospects. The "justified" 
 of Scripture are they whose past sins have 
 been forgiven; the "saved" of Scripture 
 are generally they, who having been res- 
 cued from the ruinous course of life they 
 were pursuing, are placed in a better and 
 a safer way, freed from their former errors, 
 and delivered from their former dangers. 
 What may be the ultimate result, may 
 possibly rest upon other considerations, 
 and mainly upon their conduct under the 
 
 c Vide Parkhurst in a-di^u) et aoo^oij^svoi. Cebetis Tabula, 
 ct Cicero de asotis, De Fin. ii. 7> 8. 
 
SERMON VIL 291 
 
 more favourable circumstances in which 
 they have been thus mercifully and gra- 
 ciously placed. 
 
 But to wave this, which yet seems en- 
 titled to great attention, and taking salva- 
 tion by faith alone in the sense of ultimate 
 and final admission into heaven at the day 
 of judgment, it will not be difficult to see 
 how this should be, and to demonstrate its 
 consistency with the undiminished force of 
 moral obligation under the Gospel. The 
 basis of human Salvation is the oblation of 
 that Lamb, who was '' slain from the foun- 
 ^' dation of the world '^;" the satisfaction 
 made by Jesus Christ in our nature to the 
 offended justice of his Father, by which 
 through the shedding of his most precious 
 '' blood He obtained eternal redemption 
 " for us^" This is our protection against 
 the punishment we have deserved, this is 
 our assurance of regaining the happiness 
 our first parents had forfeited ^ But the 
 
 d Rev. xiii. 8. ^ Heb. ix. 12. 
 
 f Dr. Edwards's Preservative, second part ; and Gro- 
 tius de Satisfactione, so often recommended and quoted 
 by him. 
 
 U 2 
 
292 SERMON VII. 
 
 question vvill be, how we are to get an in- 
 terest in the protection and assurance thus 
 obtained for us by another person? It will 
 be readily confessed, that this must de- 
 pend upon the will of that person himself, 
 and that it must rest with him to say, how 
 and in what way and on what terms, if any, 
 an interest may be acquired in the benefits 
 he has procured. But one thing is certain, 
 that the very first step towards the appli- 
 cation of this benefit to us, as far as it de- 
 pends on any act of ours, must be our be- 
 lieving it : for till we believe it, it cannot 
 in truth with respect to us be said to have 
 any existence. It would appear then in 
 reason most probable, that if it were pro- 
 posed to confer this benefit upon men on 
 any conditions, the first of them would be, 
 that they shovild give credit to the proposal 
 itself Till they did this, it would be im- 
 possible that it should have any effect, 
 either on their understanding or their af- 
 fections. The advantage to be obtained is 
 not one of immediate possession, but to be 
 hoped for hereafter ; and the means, by 
 which it is to be obtained, are such as 
 
SERMON VII. 293 
 
 derive their efficacy from the character 
 and authority of Him who supplies them ; 
 and His character and authority are to he 
 admitted upon such evidence as they are 
 capable of. The Gospel then, when it 
 proposes to us the attainment of eternal 
 happiness as the free gift of God in Christ, 
 does very naturally require that we should 
 in the first place believe what it asserts, 
 and faith becomes almost of course the 
 first principle by which we take an interest 
 in its contents. It is indeed, and must be, 
 the first principle by which we take any 
 interest in religion at all. Religion com- 
 prehends the homage and the duty which 
 we owe to an invisible God, and the bless- 
 ings and benefits which we hope for from 
 Him. When therefore we " believe that 
 ^' He is, and that He is a rewarder of them 
 ^' that seek hims," this is purely an act of 
 faith, and such an act as is most properly 
 represented by the Apostle to be the very 
 foundation of all religious feeling and ser- 
 vice. He defines it with great accuracy in 
 the text, and then tells us, that it is by 
 
 s Heb. xi. 6. 
 U 3 
 
294 SERMON VII. 
 
 this faith '^ we understand the worlds were 
 " framed by the word of God." For it " is 
 ^' the evidence of things not seen." Faith 
 and sight are in Scripture strongly con- 
 trasted ^. What our sight informs us of, we 
 know by our own experience ; what we re- 
 ceive by faith, we believe upon the testi- 
 mony of another. Religion establishes an 
 intercourse between man and his Maker, be- 
 tween a being enveloped in flesh and blood, 
 and a pure Spirit, of whose mode of exist- 
 ence he cannot form the remotest concep- 
 tion. And what can be a more necessary 
 basis of such an intercourse than that man 
 should be prepared, not only to believe 
 that the Being, whom he cannot see, 
 exists, but to admit also the truth of every 
 declaration He may make, and the pro- 
 priety of every order He may give? Un- 
 less this basis be laid, the intercourse be- 
 tween them cannot proceed a step fur- 
 ther; unless man rests with implicit confi- 
 dence on the veracity of his Creator, he 
 can have no communion with Him what- 
 ever. No threatening would excite terror, 
 
 I' 2 Cor. V. 7. 
 
SERMON VII. 295 
 
 no promise would inspire hope, no precept 
 would secure obedience, unless faith was 
 established as the basis of an undoubting 
 reliance on the word of God. Want of 
 faith must at once separate the creature 
 from the Creator, because it is the want of 
 that without which there can be no con- 
 necting link between them. Atheism is the 
 destruction of Religion, because it is the 
 destruction of that faith upon which Reli- 
 gion is built. '^ No man hath seen God at 
 '^ any time';" and if he believes his exist- 
 ence, he must believe it upon such evi- 
 dence as, however ample and sufficient in 
 itself, is yet to be embraced by faith. The 
 folly of those, who will believe nothing but 
 what they have themselves seen, is indeed 
 clear enough ; for their sentiments are at 
 variance with the very nature and constitu- 
 tion of man, who is obliged to act perpe- 
 tually in all the affairs of life upon what he 
 believes to be true, though he has never 
 had any sensible experience of it : but this 
 folly is inconsistent with the very being of 
 religion. Here a man must act upon the 
 
 i John i. 18. 
 U 4 
 
296 SERMON VII. 
 
 principle of faith, or he cannot act at all. 
 It is according to the depth or shallowness 
 with which this principle is fixed in the 
 mind, that a man's character is religious 
 or profane. If the being and attributes of 
 God be embraced with so firm a belief as 
 to be in a manner present to the soul; if a 
 deep conviction be produced in the heart, 
 not only that God is, but that He is wise, 
 good, and powerful, and that He exerts 
 that wisdom and goodness and power in 
 regulating the affairs of men, in protecting 
 the innocent and punishing the guilty, and 
 in bestowing upon all many proofs of his 
 benevolence and bounty ; if a man be so 
 impressed with a persuasion, that God 
 rules in all the kingdoms of the earth, as to 
 seek support in distress from a reliance on 
 His providence, and to be restrained in 
 prosperity by a fear of His displeasure, that 
 man feels within himself, and manifests to 
 others by his conduct, that he is under 
 the influence of a principle, which as it 
 places God always before him, so it binds 
 him to consider the will of God in all his 
 designs and actions. But if by a more en- 
 
SERMON VIL 297 
 
 larged information and a better understand- 
 ing, both of God's government and of his 
 own destination, he looks beyond the pre- 
 sent life, and perceives, that though his 
 body must be consigned to corruption, yet 
 that his soul survives, and that both shall, 
 at some future time, partake of eternal 
 happiness or misery, according as their 
 conduct has been in this period of their 
 existence, it cannot be but that the belief 
 of so concerning a truth must have a cor- 
 respondent effect upon his sentiments and 
 practice. It is nearly self-evident, that 
 where such a belief is sincere, and taken 
 up upon consideration, and brought fre- 
 quently before the mind by meditation, it 
 must have a practical efficacy. The only 
 thing that throws a doubt upon it is this, 
 that as professed atheists have ever been 
 few in number, so those who profess a be- 
 lief in religion have always been a large 
 majority of mankind. If then it were true, 
 that faith is so powerful a principle of good 
 conduct, it might have been expected, that 
 since the greater part of men have ever pro- 
 fessed some religious principles, the moral 
 
298 SERMON VII. 
 
 state of the world would have been better 
 in all ages than impartial history has been 
 able to represent it. The complaint is an 
 old one, and whether new or old, it were 
 devoutly to be wished that it could be 
 proved to be false. But it must be grant- 
 ed, that through all the several forms of 
 religion which have obtained among men, 
 the conduct of their followers has generally 
 been a discredit to the principles they pro- 
 fessed. Even the mythology of heathen- 
 ism, gross as it was, taught some lessons of 
 integrity which its disciples failed to prac- 
 tise^; and, as far as it was corrupt, it 
 owed that corruption to the degeneracy 
 of those through whose hands it passed. 
 But what does this prove .^ that faith is 
 an inefficient principle of conduct.^ No: 
 but that faith, like every other principle, 
 can only act in proportion as its influence 
 is admitted. If it be admitted in its own 
 genuine strength and force, its effects will 
 be proportionately powerful and permanent; 
 but if it be admitted partially and with re- 
 serve, its influence will be partial, weak, 
 
 ^ De Fin. lib. iv. 5. 
 
SERMON VII. 299 
 
 and fluctuating. The inequality then, 
 which has been observed, and which can- 
 not be denied, though it must be deeply 
 lamented, between the professions and the 
 practice of those who call themselves friends 
 of religion, does not in any degree prove 
 the inefficacy of faith as a principle of good 
 morals ; but it proves, that men admit the 
 principle of religious belief into their minds 
 partially, and with reserve. It might be 
 supposed indeed, and they who have wish- 
 ed to found an argument against religion 
 on the misconduct of its followers, have 
 generally chosen to suppose it, that when 
 men profess any particular system of reli- 
 gion, they embrace entirely all the prin- 
 ciples it contains ; but every man, who 
 knows any thing of human nature, knows 
 that the very reverse is the case. The dif- 
 ferent degrees and different manners, in 
 which the truths of religion are admitted 
 into the mind, are varied beyond calcula- 
 tion, according to the diff^erent tempers and 
 complexions of men. Faith in too many 
 instances is made to take its hue from the 
 soul which receives it, instead of giving to 
 
300 SERMON VII. 
 
 that soul its own colour. With many, even 
 among ourselves, in the sunshine of Gospel 
 light, the belief of that Gospel amounts to 
 no more than this, that they do not disbe- 
 lieve it : as to having any one of its truths 
 firmly fixed in the mind, upon a due con- 
 sideration of its weight and importance, 
 that is a degree of regard, which they have 
 not yet paid to a religion, on which they 
 would appear to place all their hopes. But 
 what effect can be expected from such a 
 reception of religion as this.^ Not to disbe- 
 lieve a truth, and to beheve it, are surely 
 two very different things ; and though it 
 should be granted, that the former possess- 
 ed little power to influence the heart and 
 affections, it would not follow that the lat- 
 ter was equally inefficient. In such in- 
 stances it has in fact not been tried ; of 
 positive faith there has in truth been none ; 
 and consequently whatever may be the in- 
 consistency between their conduct and the 
 religion they profess, that inconsistency 
 must be charged upon the hardness of their 
 hearts, in which faith in fairness cannot be 
 said to have entered at all. But even when 
 
SERMON VII. 301 
 
 it has been admitted, it is often admitted 
 partially. The mind of man has many se- 
 cret recesses, many complicated folds, many 
 turnings and windings, in all of which some 
 errors have been harboured, and some cor- 
 ruptions have been cherished. Faith, if 
 received into a mind wholly surrendered to 
 its operation, will induce a willingness to 
 correct all these errors, and to discard all 
 these corruptions. But experience tells us, 
 that it is often otherwise. It must not ad- 
 vance beyond certain limits. So far it shall 
 come, and no farther. It shall be allowed 
 perhaps to inspire one with a bigotted zeal 
 for some one truth, or what he conceives 
 to be truth ; it shall restrain in another 
 some one corrupt propensity, which is not 
 indeed the ruling passion of his soul ; and 
 it shall excite a third to some exertion (the 
 least disagreeable to the bent of his mind) 
 in favour of his own peculiar notions : but 
 it shall not rule without control in all the 
 secret recesses of the heart ; it shall not ex- 
 plore its windings, or expose the deceitful 
 complication of its folds. And because it 
 is not allowed to do its office with effect, 
 
302 SERMON VII. 
 
 must the fault be charged upon its want of 
 power and efficacy? In such a charge there 
 would be as little reason as justice. It is 
 not the principle that is weak, but a cor- 
 rupt heart, that will not submit to its ope- 
 ration. 
 
 But there is another source of the appa- 
 rent inefficiency of faitli, and one, which, 
 as it applies peculiarly to the faith of the 
 Gospel, it well becomes us to examine with 
 attention. It has been generally admitted, 
 that a true faith in the Gospel will neces- 
 sarily produce integrity of life, as necessa- 
 rily as ''a good tree" produces '^ good 
 " fruit ^;" and it must be acknowledged, 
 that this is the clear doctrine of our Arti- 
 cles and Homilies. If this be true, it is an- 
 other pregnant proof, how directly Divine 
 Revelation tends in all its parts to promote 
 good morals. And when properly explain- 
 ed, nothing is more easily demonstrated 
 than the truth of this proposition. A true 
 faith will assuredly produce a good life. 
 But what is a true faith ? The very epithet 
 '' true" shows, that faith may be of differ- 
 
 1 Matth. vii. 17. 
 
SERMON VII. 303 
 
 ent kinds, and that what may be affirmed 
 correctly of one kind, may not be properly 
 applicable to another. Though then it be 
 right to say, that a true faith will always 
 show itself in its effects upon the moral 
 conduct of man, yet it is possible for one 
 who appears to have some kind of faith to 
 continue in the practice of many things 
 that are wrong. Nor can it be denied, 
 that this doctrine, well founded as it is in 
 itself, has been so represented as to pro- 
 duce the very worst effects. Because a 
 true faith must be productive of sound mo- 
 rals, therefore it has been commonly taught, 
 that faith, however qualified, will be at- 
 tended with the same good effects. It has 
 not been sufficiently considered, that a true 
 faith cannot exist without a competent 
 knowledge of the articles which it ought to 
 embrace, nor yet without a competent ac- 
 quaintance with the rule of fife. If faith 
 be understood to signify a hearty concur- 
 rence in all revealed truth, nothing is more 
 certain, than that it will, where genuine, 
 purify the affections and rectify the morals ; 
 but if it be put by itself for belief only, in- 
 
304 SERMON VII. 
 
 dependent of knowledge, it ought cautious- 
 ly to be observed, in what sense it is that 
 faith is necessarily productive of a good 
 life. An error on this point may be at- 
 tended with the most lamentable conse- 
 quences, and it is attended with such con- 
 sequences every day. Ignorant men are 
 told by men nearly as ignorant as them- 
 selves, that faith must necessarily bring 
 forth the fruit of holy living ; and when 
 they have once persuaded themselves that 
 they have this faith, they are satisfied that 
 their lives must be good, because they are 
 possessed of the faith from which a good 
 life is said necessarily to spring. But, un- 
 happily, they are not taught in what the 
 real efficacy of faith, taken by itself, con- 
 sists, nor yet the necessity of knowledge to 
 direct the operations of their faith. Hav- 
 ing faith, they are supposed to have every 
 thing ; whereas, in fact, they have not the 
 materials upon which a true faith can be 
 built. Their feelings are excited, but their 
 ignorance is not removed. The method 
 of proceeding ovight to be quite the re- 
 verse ; their ignorance should be removed, 
 
SERMON VII. 305 
 
 before their feelings are addressed at all. 
 Faith and knowledge have each its sepa- 
 rate use and efficacy in the business of reli- 
 gion. They may indeed either be consi- 
 dered as united, or viewed distinctly in 
 their several aptitudes and capacities. The 
 ancient writers, and the Fathers of our own 
 Church, always joined them together, in- 
 tending invariably, when they speak of the 
 power and efficacy of a true faith, such a 
 faith as was duly grounded upon a know- 
 ledge, not only of the articles to be believ- 
 ed, but of the duties to be performed'". 
 And with this correct view of the subject 
 before them, they had ever a proper regard 
 for the Law of God as the rule of life, and 
 took pains that it should be duly opened 
 and explained to the people. Hence their 
 anxiety to provide sound elementary in- 
 struction both in faith and morals. And it 
 is from a different and erroneous view, 
 that those elementary instructions, which 
 the pious care of our learned ancestors has 
 bequeathed to us, have with many high 
 
 "^ Mede's Discourses, 25, and 26. Hammond's Prac- 
 tical Catechism. Bull's Harmon. Apost. Barrow's Ser- 
 mons, and Patrick's Parable of the Pilgrim. 
 
 X 
 
306 SERMON VII. 
 
 pretenders to faith in the present day fallen 
 into discredit and disuse; that we see so 
 many crude attempts to set aside that ex- 
 cellent compendium, which men of real at- 
 tainments value in proportion to the at- 
 tainments they possess. It is therefore pos- 
 sibly the best way, under existing circum- 
 stances, and to counteract the bearing of 
 existing errors, to consider these two prin- 
 ciples separately; and assigning each its 
 own weight and importance, to discern pre- 
 cisely their respective influences on the 
 question before us. 
 
 It is clear then, that in order of time a 
 certain degree of knowledge must precede 
 any degree of faith. Thus no man could 
 be expected to believe the existence of 
 God, unless he were first informed that 
 God exists, nor to place any reliance on 
 His attributes of power, or wisdom, or 
 goodness, unless he had first learned that 
 those attributes belonged to Him. Faith 
 in the Gospel presupposes certainly a know- 
 ledge of the Gospel. Our Lord himself 
 clearly and kindly admits this, in his reply 
 to the blind man ", whom He had restored 
 
 " John ix. 35, 36, 37. 
 
SERMON VII. 307 
 
 to sight. When He had asked this man, 
 whether he " beheved on the Son of God," 
 and had received an answer which implied 
 his willingness to believe, but at the same 
 time confessed his ignorance as to the ob- 
 ject on whom his belief should be placed. 
 He acknowledged the reasonableness of 
 this excuse for not believing, by removing 
 the ignorance which occasioned it. His 
 not knowing the Son of God was a suffi- 
 cient apology for his not believing on Him ; 
 it was then only belief became a duty, be- 
 cause then only it became possible, when 
 he was informed who the Son of God was. 
 But the knowledge, which is necessary be- 
 fore our belief can be that true faith which 
 will produce a good life, must reach be- 
 yond the mere articles to be believed ; it 
 must bring us acquainted with the rule of 
 duty, and teach us not the credenda alone, 
 but the agenda likewise of our religion. 
 For faith, however sincere, is not the rule 
 of life; and before it can produce its ade- 
 quate effect upon any man's morals, even 
 when it has been honestly admitted into 
 his mind, he must hav^e been previously in- 
 
 X 2 
 
308 SERMON VII. 
 
 structed, as well in what he is to practise, as 
 in the opinions he should entertain. And 
 here it is that the great error has been 
 committed. Because faith united to know- 
 ledge has been confessed, and justly, an in- 
 fallible source of pure morals, faith without 
 knowledge has been supposed capable of 
 producing the same effect. And the mis- 
 take has arisen from this, that the real ope- 
 ration of faith in the moral improvement 
 of man has not been properly discrimi- 
 nated. What then is that operation, and 
 wherein consists the real power of faith in 
 this important business? When the under- 
 standing has been duly enlightened, both 
 as to the objects of belief and matters of 
 practice, it is the office of faith to excite 
 the will and the affections to embrace what 
 is proposed to them, and to obey what is 
 enjoined them. Faith, though not itself 
 the rule of life and manners, is yet the 
 most powerful motive from which obedi- 
 ence to that rule can proceed. Know- 
 ledge, though it informs us accurately what 
 we are to do, and lays before us the rea- 
 sons why we should do it, is yet but a weak 
 
SERMON VII. 309 
 
 motive to action. Thus it may tell us, that 
 a life of profligacy and debauchery is dis- 
 pleasing to Almighty God, and that He 
 will punish with eternal damnation all who 
 continue in it; but if there be not some 
 other principle to infuse a spirit into this 
 information, and give it a hold upon our 
 affections, no adequate effect will follow. 
 But when by faith we really embrace this 
 great truth as interesting to ourselves ; 
 when we do indeed believe, that God is a 
 righteous Judge, and will execute venge- 
 ance upon the transgressors of his laws, 
 then are our minds supplied with a motive 
 sufficiently strong to excite our fears, and 
 by those fears to withdraw our affections 
 from evil. Faith places us, in a manner, in 
 the presence of the Almighty, and being 
 truly '' the evidence of things not seen," 
 brings them with so lively a representation 
 before our mind's eye, that we feel them 
 with an impression little short of that, 
 which immediately strikes upon our senses. 
 And thus we see with what truth and pro- 
 priety the fruit of good living is attributed 
 to faith. Even in this view, considered 
 
310 SERMON VII. 
 
 only as the motive of obedience, it will rea- 
 dily be acknowledged the leading principle 
 of virtuous conduct; and as men constantly 
 attribute their actions to that which formed 
 the motive whence they proceeded, faith 
 being in effect the sole motive of a good 
 life, is entitled to be considered as its sole 
 parent and cause. But in stating this great 
 doctrine, it is necessary to be particularly 
 on our guard against the introduction or 
 encouragement of error. Rightly under- 
 stood, it is not only true in itself, but of 
 great efficacy and power to make men bet- 
 ter in every respect; to increase their piety 
 towards God, to make them more abun- 
 dant in benevolence towards their fellow- 
 creatures, and more guarded in every per- 
 sonal indulgence : but it is liable also in 
 ignorant and undisciplined minds to great 
 abuse, to become, instead of the motive to 
 obedience, the deadly soporific, whereby 
 the conscience is lulled into a fatal secu- 
 rity. And because it is so, because many 
 who pretend to more than ordinary faith 
 are found to possess less than ordinary mo- 
 rality, the value of the principle itself is 
 
SERMON VII. 311 
 
 depreciated, and that, from which alone 
 true morality can proceed, is reviled, as be- 
 ing in its result unfavourable to real inte- 
 grity of manners. But why so? Not be- 
 cause it is in itself, or in any consequences 
 fairly deduced from it, contrary to sound 
 morals, but because in one respect ignorant 
 men mistake it, and in another, perverse 
 men misrepresent it. Faith, justly stated, 
 is the surest basis of the fear and the love 
 of God, and of unfeigned good will to 
 man. 
 
 Still it may be objected, that though 
 faith, considered in this general view, may 
 be proved not only not unfavourable to 
 virtue, but directly productive of it, the 
 main difficulty is by no means solved. The 
 faith of the Gospel is of a very different 
 nature, and has a different object from that 
 which we have been describing, and does 
 in very express terms exclude the coopera- 
 tion of morality in the business of salva- 
 tion. To this I might answer, in the words 
 of the blind man in St. John, when ques- 
 tioned by the Pharisees respecting his mi- 
 raculous cure, '' Why, herein is a marvel- 
 
 X 4 
 
312 SERMON VII. 
 
 *' lous thing," that it is agreed by the most 
 zealous advocates of faith that it is neces- 
 sarily productive of a good life, and yet 
 that this necessary produce of faith should 
 be considered as a matter of little import- 
 ance by some of those advocates them- 
 selves. But let us reflect a little. Is it in- 
 deed true, that the faith of the Gospel is in 
 its nature and object difl^erent from that 
 which we have been describing, and on 
 which religion itself is ultimately founded. 
 The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews 
 appears to have thought otherwise. In the 
 text he gives us a definition of faith, and 
 in the following verses he reckons up many 
 instances in which that faith was exempli- 
 fied; Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham. 
 In all these the faith which is so much ex- 
 tolled was a powerful motive to obedience. 
 In Abel it showed itself in a conformity to 
 the ordinances of God ; in Enoch it sprang 
 up in that pious walking, which qualified 
 him so eminently for exemption from the 
 common lot of humanity ; in Noah it sub- 
 dued all doubts which could have arisen as 
 to the probability of an universal deluge, 
 
SERMON VII. 313 
 
 and induced him to prepare for a danger, 
 of which no symptom appeared ; and in 
 Abraham it produced such a ready submis- 
 sion to the will of his heavenly Father, as 
 to make it at this day a question, whether 
 we should most admire the faith which 
 gave rise to the obedience, or the obedi- 
 ence which resulted from the faith. What 
 a pity it is, that the wit or the folly, the 
 piety or the perverseness of man, should 
 ever have been employed in separating two 
 things, to the union of which Almighty 
 God has vouchsafed his most decided ap- 
 probation, by calling him his friend, in 
 whom they were most intimately joined. 
 And that this faith, thus productive and 
 thus operative on the life and manners of 
 those who possessed it, was indeed of the 
 same nature as the faith of the Gospel, ap- 
 pears from the observation with which the 
 Apostle concludes his catalogue of these 
 ancient worthies ; '^ and these all having 
 ^' obtained a good report through faith, re- 
 
 '^ ceived not the promise, that they 
 
 *' without us should not be made perfect.'' 
 In this observation the sacred writer plainly 
 
314 SERMON VII. 
 
 inckides himself and the other followers of 
 Christ under the same description as the 
 ancient professors whom he had been enu- 
 merating; and of whom he had indeed said 
 before, that they *^ confessed themselves 
 " strangers and pilgrims on the earth," that 
 they '« sought a better country," and that 
 *' God was not ashamed to be called their 
 " God." The faith of these eminent men 
 was then of the same nature as the faith 
 now required of Christians ; and when we 
 read of them, that their faith produced a 
 ready compliance with the Will, and a 
 prompt obedience to the commands of 
 God, we may conclude without fear of er- 
 ror, that our faith, to be genuine, must 
 produce the same compliance, and be dis- 
 tinguished by the same obedience. 
 
 But yet the objection is not answered. 
 St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 
 seems so decidedly to determine, that Chris- 
 tians are saved by faith without works'", 
 that it seems difficult after all to find any 
 |)lace for good morals, or any need of them, 
 in the business of salvation : and if so, the 
 
 'Ti Galut. ii. 16. 
 
SERMON VII. 315 
 
 moral tendency of Revelation must be given 
 up at last, in defiance of all the evidence 
 to the contrary that its own records con- 
 tain. Let us however bring this matter 
 also to the test of a fair examination. Is 
 it probable, that St. Paul, than whom no 
 writer in the whole Bible is more earnest 
 in the reprobation of vice, or more ani- 
 mated in the recommendation of virtue, 
 should so state any doctrine as to discou- 
 rage integrity of life, or be inconsistent with 
 moral obligation } It would appear not. 
 He tells us expressly, that it was part of his 
 commission, as an Apostle, to '^ open men's 
 ^' eyes, and to turn them from Satan to 
 '' God," and to ^' show them the necessity 
 *' of doing works meet for repentance"." 
 He insists frequently and forcibly upon the 
 appointment of Christ as '' Judge of the 
 '' world," who will at the last day assign 
 every man his portion according to the 
 " deeds done in the body"":" he says plain- 
 ly, that '' tribulation and anguish will be 
 '' upon every soul of man that doeth evil, 
 '' but glory, honour, and peace to every 
 
 n Acts xxvi. 18—20. '' Acts xvii. 31. 2 Cor. v. 10. 
 
316 SERMON VII. 
 
 ** man that worketh goodP;" and he warns 
 his hearers affectionately not to deceive 
 themselves with any false hopes "^^ that sin 
 can ever escape the vengeance of God. 
 " Knowing the terror'*" of the Lord, he 
 says, that he endeavours to persuade men 
 to avoid its effects, by forsaking those ini- 
 quities and impurities, against which it is 
 clearly denounced. He tells us of himself, 
 that so far from living in an easy security, 
 satisfied that his faith would save him with- 
 out care or exertion, he was anxious and 
 watchful, guarding with much solicitude 
 against being hurried away by the impetu- 
 osity of passion, and using all the means 
 which appeared best adapted to keep his 
 soul and body in that state of temperance 
 and sobriety', which in his opinion the 
 Gospel peremptorily required. Yet he does 
 say, '' that a man is justified by faith with- 
 «' out the deeds of the Law^" Certainly : 
 but of what Law does he speak, and what 
 was the drift of his argument.^ Nothing 
 can be plainer to those, who will read his 
 
 P Rom. ii. I), 10. n I Cor. vi. 9. Galat. vi. 7. 
 
 f 2 Cor. V. 1 1. M Cor. ix. 27. ^ Rom. iii. 28. 
 
SERMON VIL 317 
 
 Epistles to the Romans and Galatians with 
 attention, (and to be understood they must 
 be read with great attention,) than that 
 the Law, against the efficacy and sufficiency 
 of which the Apostle there argues, is the 
 Law of Moses, considered, not as a rule of 
 life capable of being attached to any dis- 
 pensation, but as a complete method of 
 salvation in itself As a rule of life he 
 grants, that it was " holy, just, and good"," 
 and so far from encouraging sin, that it 
 was by it alone man was enabled to distin- 
 guish between right and wrong. But how- 
 ever good it was as a rule of life, as a me- 
 thod of salvation it was wholly inefficient, 
 not so much by its own defect, as by the 
 infirmity of man, who could not fulfil its 
 injunctions. It taught him what was right, 
 but it did not enable him to perform it; it 
 shewed him the perniciousness of sin, but 
 it did not restrain the passions by which he 
 was enticed to commit it. It was like a 
 beacon-light to an exhausted traveller, 
 pointing with great accuracy to the road 
 he should pursue, but affording him no as- 
 
 u Rom. vii. 12. 
 
318 SERMON VII. 
 
 sistance whereby the strength he had lost 
 might be recovered, or its want supplied. 
 By such a Law therefore it was impossible 
 that any man should be justified; it was 
 unavoidable that he must be condemned : 
 for as the Law demanded obedience, and 
 obedience was not in his power, on the 
 terms of such a Law he covild not but 
 perish. The comparison then that is insti- 
 tuted by the Apostle is not between the 
 Law as requiring obedience, and Faith as 
 setting men free from obedience, but be- 
 tween the Law as a method of salvation 
 independent of a Redeemer, and Faith as 
 a method of salvation through a Redeemer. 
 And what difficulty is there in this ? what 
 difficulty is there in seeing and acknow- 
 ledging that ^' by the deeds of the Law" 
 thus considered, no man could be saved or 
 justified ? For the demand of the Law was 
 unsinning obedience, and " every one" was 
 declared " cursed, that continued not in 
 '' all things which were written in the book 
 *' of the Law to do them^." But as no 
 man did continue in them, it was an in- 
 
 X Galat. iii. 10. 
 
SERMON VII. 319 
 
 evitable consequence, that by them no man 
 could be justified : no man could be justi- 
 fied by a Law which required obedience, 
 when he neither did nor could perform that 
 obedience. But then how does this prove, 
 that the faith of Christ as preached in the 
 Gospel does not require sound morals? 
 Because we are become " dead to the Law 
 " by the body of Christ ^Z' and He hath 
 set us '^free from that yoke of bondage""." 
 What then ? Is it from observing the Law 
 as a rule of life, or from trusting in it as a 
 method of salvation, that Christ hath set 
 us free? From the latter surely, and not 
 from the former. The question debated 
 between the Judaizers and St. Paul was 
 this, whether they would be saved by the 
 Law or by Christ ; not whether they would 
 be saved with or without holiness. The 
 contrast was between the Law and the 
 Gospel, considered as independent of each 
 other ; and nothing can be more fallacious 
 or unfounded, than the argument which 
 has been attempted to be drawn from St. 
 Paul's reasoning against the Law in this re- 
 
 y Rom. vii. 4,5,6. 7- Galat. v. 1. 
 
320 SERMON VII. 
 
 spect, to the exclusion of holiness and in- . 
 tegrity as necessary conditions of the Evan- 
 gelical Covenant. The Apostle himself 
 never proceeds upon such an idea ; he 
 never uses any thing that looks like such 
 an argument from one end of his writings 
 to the other : he never opposes the faith of 
 Christ to the obedience of Christ : he never 
 opposes the belief of the Gospel to the 
 works which that Gospel plainly and pe- 
 remptorily enjoins. If he sets us free from 
 one law, he is careful to place us immedi- 
 ately under another ; knowing well, for no 
 man knew our nature better, that human 
 passion needed little encouragement in its 
 career of licentiousness, and could be re- 
 strained only by a bond, the breach of 
 which would incur the displeasure of Al- 
 mighty God. He announces therefore the 
 '' Lawof faith ^" and 'Uhe Law of Christ''" 
 as binding upon Christians ; and when he 
 tells them, that they are ^* made free from 
 *' the law of sin and death," he tells them 
 also, that their pardon was obtained, not 
 without law, but through that ^^ Law of the 
 
 a Rom. iii. 27. b Galat. vi. 2. 
 
SERMON VII. 321 
 
 ^^ spirit of life/' under which they came as 
 disciples of '^ Jesus Christ." And for what 
 does he say that they came under that 
 Law ? That '^ the righteousness of the 
 '' Law/^ that very righteousness, which the 
 Law could not produce before, because it 
 " was weak in the flesh," might now be 
 fulfilled in them. How? By their profess- 
 ing a faith which required no righteousness 
 and no obedience .^ No : but by their 
 '^ walking" themselves, " not after the flesh, 
 '' but after the spirits" Will it then be 
 said, that '^ the Law of the spirit of life" is 
 less binding, or that it enjoins less purity 
 or integrity of manners, than '' the law of 
 '^ sin and death ?" Will it be said, that he, 
 who asserts our being delivered from the 
 one in order to be placed under the other, 
 intended in any degree to lessen our sense 
 of moral obligation, or to enfeeble our en- 
 deavours after moral improvement? If it 
 be, it cannot be considered otherwise than 
 as a foul aspersion upon the brightest star 
 that ever illumined the Christian Church. 
 No man can abuse his authority to traduce 
 
 c Rom. viii. 1^ 2, 3, 4. 
 Y 
 
322 SERMON VII. 
 
 the Christian faith as unfriendly to recti- 
 tude of morals, unless he does it wilfully 
 and perversely. He has guarded his argu- 
 ment against misconception in every pos- 
 sible way : he has asserted the necessity of 
 real holiness in mind and manners in the 
 clearest and most forcible terms : he has 
 told us again and again, that when he talks 
 of our being freed from the Law, he does 
 not mean being freed from obligation to 
 obedience, but from inevitable and neces- 
 sary condemnation ; he does not mean that 
 we should cease to serve God, but '^ that 
 '^ we should serve in newness of spirit, and 
 ^' not in the oldness of the letter'';" '^ in 
 " newness of spirit," that is, with renovated 
 minds, with sanctified hearts, and a vigour 
 of performance proportioned to the in- 
 creased knowledge and power with which 
 we have been endowed. If, after this, he is 
 still held up as the abettor of licentious- 
 ness, if his words are misrepresented as 
 weakening the sanctions of law, and making 
 it less necessary for the Christian Minister 
 to call men to repentance and obedience, 
 
 '^ Rom. vii. G. 
 
SERMON VII. 323 
 
 and to prove that the Christian faith itself is 
 the most powerful motive to that obedi- 
 ence, it is in vain for any man to hope by 
 guarding his expressions to prevent their 
 misapplication and abuse. His warning 
 voice however cannot be urged in vain 
 upon the attentive and unprejudiced hear- 
 er : and when he entreats us earnestly and 
 affectionately to '^ let no man deceive us 
 " with vain words%" as if sin could ever 
 be committed with impunity under any 
 dispensation, we cannot do less than ac- 
 knowledge, that if we ever are so deceived, 
 it is not for want of being admonished 
 against the arts of the deceiver; it is not 
 that we are not put upon our guard ; but 
 that we choose to attend to a misrepresent- 
 ation of the Apostle's doctrine, rather than 
 to his own express declaration. 
 
 It was impossible, in considering our pre- 
 sent subject, not to advert to and examine 
 the discussion, into which the Apostle had 
 occasion to enter with the Judaizing Chris- 
 tians of his day, and which has been so 
 much perverted to the injury of the Chris- 
 
 e Eph, V. 6. 
 Y 2 
 
324 SERMON VII. 
 
 tian Church ; though 1 fear, that I have in 
 so doing transgressed in some degree the 
 plain rule of Christian preaching set down 
 by the same great Apostle in his Epistle to 
 Titus. He there tells this primitive Bishop, 
 whom he does not disdain to call his part- 
 ner, that he should avoid '' strivings about 
 ^* the Law as improfi table and vain ;" and 
 should bend his chief endeavours to render 
 the converts to Christianity conspicuous 
 for purity, piety, soberness, and integrity. 
 *' These things" he desires him to '' affirm 
 ^' constantlv, that thev which have believed 
 *' in God might be careful to maintain good 
 ^Mvorks;" and for this reason, because 
 ^' these things are good and profitable 
 ^' unto men^" I trust however that our 
 inquiry has not trenched greatly upon the 
 spirit of this direction : it is a direction 
 certainly, which not only warrants, but re- 
 quires the Christian Minister to pay much 
 of his attention to the practical duties of 
 his religion, and the obligation imder which 
 the professors of that religion lie to per- 
 form them. So far should they be from 
 
 ' Titus iii. 8, 9. 
 
SERMON VII. 325 
 
 considering the Christian faith hostile to 
 works of righteousness and integrity, and 
 what is commonly called morality, that the 
 faith itself should be considered and repre- 
 sented as adding greatly, both to the obli- 
 gation of obedience, and the vigour with 
 which it is to be discharged, as at once 
 binding it on the conscience, and exciting 
 the mind to observe it. For who were they, 
 who were to be exhorted to a careful per- 
 formance of good works ? Not such as 
 knew nothing and cared nothing about the 
 faith of Christ, and trusted for salvation to 
 their own exertions; but '^ they who had 
 ^' believed in God;'" they who had been 
 converted to Christianity, and were already 
 possessed of the faith, about which we are 
 inquiring: they were required, because they 
 had that faith, to shew in their lives and 
 manners its purifying effect and sanctify- 
 ing influence. Their faith was to be a mo- 
 tive to their obedience ; because they be- 
 lieved, therefore they were to be called 
 upon for the performance of good works. 
 And indeed how could it be otherwise.^ 
 Divesting ourselves as much as possible of 
 
 Y 3 
 
326 SERMON VII. 
 
 controversial feeling, and looking at the 
 Gospel of Christ as a divine scheme for the 
 salvation of man, nothing surely can be 
 more excellently contrived to deter him 
 from sin, and incite him to virtue, to en- 
 courage and to enable him for the dis- 
 charge of all those duties, in the perform- 
 ance of which both his perfection and his 
 happiness consist. The eternal Son of God 
 did indeed graciously condescend to unite 
 himself with the debased and enfeebled 
 and lost race of Adam, that being capable 
 of suffering in that nature which had in- 
 curred the wrath of God by sin. He might 
 by his suffering make an atonement for the 
 transgressions of his brethren. And it is 
 most assuredly by the merit of this atone- 
 ment, that the gate of mercy has been 
 thrown open to mankind, that there is any 
 hope of acceptance with God, and any re- 
 fuge from his indignation. Of this hope 
 we become partakers by faith, and believ- 
 ing in sincerity the revelation, which Jesus 
 Christ has made of the way of salvation, 
 we attain by that way a prospect of life and 
 innnorlality. Jesus Christ is cujphalically 
 
SERMON VII. 327 
 
 our Saviour : and as " there is none other 
 " name given unto man whereby he may 
 " be saved ^/' so by believing on that name 
 an assurance of being saved is afforded 
 him. But let the consequences of this be 
 well weighed. We believe on Christ as 
 our Saviour. And if we do so, can we 
 with any decency refuse to receive Him in 
 any other character in which He is repre- 
 sented, either in the prophecies which fore- 
 told his coming, or the histories which have 
 recorded his actions? Surely not: if we 
 pretend to rely upon Christ for salvation, 
 we must surrender ourselves to Him with- 
 out reserve. The more free his salvation 
 is, the less we have been able to contribute 
 to it ourselves, the more are we bound to 
 follow his will in preference to our own, 
 and to attend to Him in whatever way He 
 may require our attention. Now nothing 
 can be clearer than that the character of 
 Christ as our Saviour is not understood, 
 unless he be distinctly recognized in his 
 three offices, as our Priest, our Prophet, 
 and our King. Too frequently, and by 
 
 '6 Acts iv. 12. 
 
 y 4 
 
328 SERMON VII. 
 
 those who would seem to preach the Chris- 
 tian faith most correctly, the salvation 
 wrought by Christ is attributed to his 
 priesthood only, and the attention confined 
 exclusively to the sacrifice He offered on 
 our behalf. God forbid, that the value of 
 that sacrifice should ever be diminished or 
 obscured : but he who hopes to be bene- 
 fited by what Christ did as a Priest, must 
 undoubtedly receive his instructions as a 
 Prophet, and obey his laws as a King. We 
 rely upon the merits of Christ's passion for 
 remission of our sins, and final acceptance 
 with God. Granted. And shall we, who 
 look for so inestimable a benefit from his 
 sufferings, neglect what He has taught, and 
 transgress what He has commanded ? What 
 would this be in common life, in the inter- 
 course of man with man, but base deliision 
 and hypocrisy : and shall it be called sanc- 
 tity in religion ? Common sense forbids it : 
 and it must never be forgotten, that com- 
 mon sense enters as much into the deter- 
 minations of religion, as into the every day 
 business of the world. The rules of its de- 
 cision are precisely the same in this case as 
 
SERMON VII. 329 
 
 in the ordinary transactions of life; and 
 what would be deceitful in a bargain with 
 men, is deceitful in a covenant with God. 
 When therefore we look to Christ for the 
 pardon of our sins, with what face can we 
 do so, unless we are willing to receive and 
 to obey all that He has revealed, and all 
 that He has commanded ? If we really 
 believe in Jesus Christ, we must surely be- 
 lieve in Him as the word of God presents 
 Him to us ; we must receive Him entirely 
 as He is there delineated ; and we cannot 
 hope to be benefited by one part of his 
 character, unless we pay equal respect to 
 every other. We cannot be allowed to 
 pick and choose here, as it may suit our 
 fancies or our purposes. Many and de- 
 plorable are the errors which have arisen 
 from attempts of this kind; but they are at- 
 tempts to which the Scripture gives no 
 countenance. Christ is there described in 
 his three important offices; and as He is 
 there described, so must we receive Him. 
 It is in his whole character that He is the 
 adequate object of our faith. We must 
 not, with the Socinian, accept him as a 
 
330 SERMON VII. 
 
 Teacher only, however high we may es- 
 teem Him in that respect : we must not, 
 with the mad enthusiasts of former days, 
 withdraw our obedience from human au- 
 thority, under pretence of paying exclusive 
 homage to the Majesty of Jesus : nor yet 
 can we be permitted, with those who pro- 
 fess a better creed, to make the Gospel 
 which he preached consist only of one ar- 
 ticle, though that one article be indeed the 
 very basis of our hopes. If we would be- 
 lieve in Christ without fraud, we must re- 
 ceive the whole Gospel which He preached. 
 But what is the whole Gospel ? Does it 
 consist of promises only ? Does it contain 
 nothing but a declaration, that God for 
 Christ's sake will pardon our sins? If so, 
 we may no doubt confine our belief to this 
 point alone. But that it is not so, every 
 man, who will read the Gospel with his 
 eyes open, cannot but perceive and ac- 
 knowledge. The Gospel abounds in moral 
 instructions and moral declarations. It con- 
 tains the most awful denunciations against 
 sin, and the most animating encourage- 
 ments to virtue. Almost every page of it 
 
SERMON VII. 331 
 
 presents us with some precept of our Sa- 
 viour's, that very Saviour on whom we pro- 
 fess to rely; enjoining us to cultivate piety, 
 justice, and sobriety ; or some menace, 
 threatening the worst of punishments to 
 such as should transgress the laws of God. 
 Are these precepts and these threatenings, 
 thus interwoven into the very body of the 
 Gospel, uttered by Jesus Christ himself, 
 and most solemnly sanctioned by his au- 
 thority, no part of the Gospel? Is it no 
 part of the Gospel, and is it no point of 
 belief required by that Gospel, that there 
 will at the last day be a general resurrec- 
 tion both of the just and unjust; that Je- 
 sus Christ has been expressly appointed by 
 Almighty God to judge the whole race of 
 men at that day, and that He will assign 
 them their several portions according to 
 their behaviour in this life ? Is this re- 
 vealed, or not ? And if it be revealed, was 
 it recorded, that it should be believed or 
 not? '^ Jesus Christ," we are told, " brought 
 " hfe and immortality to light through the 
 '' Gospel*";" and if life and immortality 
 
 ii 2 Tirn. i. 10. 
 
332 SERMON VII. 
 
 were brought to light through the Gos- 
 pel, they must surely be prominent parts 
 of that Gospel ; and, in believing the Gos- 
 pel, we must be called upon especially to 
 believe these parts of it. But a belief of a 
 judgment to come, in which every man's 
 portion will be assigned according to his 
 works, and of an immortality which will 
 make that portion eternal, cannot be un- 
 attended with some powerful effects upon 
 the life and manners of those who sincerely 
 embrace it : it must operate strongly in re- 
 straining the commission of evil, and incit- 
 ing to the practice of virtue. 
 
 Thus then, I trust, it appears, that the 
 doctrine of Faith, properly understood, is 
 so far from being unfavourable to sound 
 morals, that it will be found the most effi^ 
 caciovis principle upon which sound morals 
 can be inculcated. But then it must be 
 properly understood. The Gospel is a noble 
 system of great and important truths ; and 
 in order to comprehend it, all those truths 
 must be considered. And not only so : 
 there are many things necessary to be 
 known previous to our entering upon the 
 
SERMON VII. 333 
 
 Gospel itself. This all men, who have re- 
 flected upon the subject, readily adnnt. 
 The being of God, his providential govern- 
 ment of the world, the obligation of man 
 to obey His laws; these are all truths 
 which the Gospel, strictly taken, supposes 
 to be already known from preceding reve- 
 lations ; at least our Saviour himself, who 
 was sent more expressly to the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel, proceeds upon the 
 supposition of their being known and ac- 
 knowledged as direct sources of duty. 
 When He preached his Gospel, He preach- 
 ed it certainly as an improvement of moral 
 knowledge, and as a more perfect deline- 
 ation of duty to God and man ; but not as 
 in any degree relaxing the bonds of any 
 previous moral obligation. And to make 
 his intention in this respect clear, the mode 
 of preaching adopted by him, who was 
 especially commissioned to carry the Gos- 
 pel among such as had lost the knowledge 
 of the true God, is admirably calculated. 
 He could not preach Christ, the Son of 
 God, to those who did not know God him- 
 self: he could not offer remission of sins 
 
334 SERMON VII. 
 
 to men who were not yet convinced that 
 they had any sins to be remitted. He be- 
 gan then with instructing them in the first 
 principles of all religion ; with teaching 
 them to know that Almighty Being', who 
 made and governs the universe, and to 
 whom all their obedience was due. He 
 bent his first endeavours to turn the isfno- 
 rant heathens fi*om the vain idols they had 
 hitherto served, to that living God, ft'om 
 whom as they derived all they had, so to 
 Him they ought to have directed all their 
 worship and service. Being thus instructed, 
 they would be prepared for the mercies of 
 the Gospel ; they would see that the life 
 they had hitherto led was directly in viola- 
 tion of their dutv to their Creator, and that 
 it became them well to repent in dust and 
 ashes ; and they would receive with thank- 
 ful hearts those glad tidings, which assured 
 them, that though they had sinned, they 
 had '* an Advocate with the Father," who 
 would effectually plead their cause, and 
 obtain their pardon. But they would not 
 
 'Acts xiv. 15. xvii. 22. xxvi. 18. The speech at Athens 
 deserves to he tlioroughly studied. 
 
SERMON VII. 335 
 
 so far mistake this pardon as to think, tliat 
 because it secured them from the punish- 
 ment of their past transgressions, it set them 
 more at Hberty to disregard the obh'gations 
 of duty in their future conduct. Their pre- 
 vious instruction would prevent this error. 
 Having been taught, that, by their former 
 idolatry and immorality, they liad robbed 
 God of his honour, and transgressed his 
 laws, they could not think, that the Gos- 
 pel, which laid its foundation in explaining 
 their duty to the Almighty, and calling 
 upon them to repent of their sins, could 
 intend in any manner to weaken their ob- 
 ligation to that duty, or make it safer for 
 them to follow their sins. How differently 
 do many preach the Gospel at present ! 
 Looking only at one point in that Divine 
 Revelation, and considering the rest as of 
 little use and importance, and requiring no 
 preparation of previous knowledge in their 
 hearers, they tell them at once, to '' be- 
 '' lieve in Jesus Christ and they shall be 
 " saved ^" And they tell them a great 
 and interesting truth : but those, who hear 
 
 k Acts xvi. 31. 
 
336 SERMON VII. 
 
 it, are not always qualified to understand 
 it. They have not yet been long enough 
 the disciples of the Baptist, to make them 
 fit for the Mightier Teacher, who suc- 
 ceeded him : they have not yet sufficiently 
 understood the nature of repentance, to be 
 capable of receiving with safety the par- 
 don of their sins : they have not sat long 
 enough in the lower form of moral dis- 
 cipline, before they are pressed on to the 
 higher mysteries of evangelical truth. It is 
 astonishing to think, that when Almighty 
 God judged it necessary to send an au- 
 thorized messenger before the face of his 
 Son, to prepare his way, and to declare 
 that the preparation required was to con- 
 sist in repentance, any man can so far 
 mistake the nature of the Gospel as to 
 imagine, that the remission it promises can 
 in any case be applied without repentance. 
 But this is not the only fault that has been 
 committed. The faith itself is not ex- 
 plained ; the character of Christ is not 
 opened : even his own precepts, his own 
 laws, his own threatenings are not made a 
 part of his own Gospel. Faith confined to 
 
SERMON VII. 337 
 
 one article of the Christian creed is made 
 the whole of religion ; and those, who dare 
 to urge the injunctions of the Gospel, and 
 the commandments and the laws of God, 
 are condemned as the enemies of God and 
 of Christ, defamers of the Gospel, and 
 teachers of a morality with which the 
 power and the purity of faith cannot con- 
 sist. The unkindness of this reflection we 
 cannot but lament, but its justice we can 
 never allow. Its absurdity is indeed palpa- 
 ble enough. None certainly have a greater 
 regard for the faith of the Gospel, and 
 none show that regard in a more becoming 
 manner, than they who press upon their 
 hearers with an earnestness, answerable to 
 their own conviction, the necessity of 
 ^^ adorning that faith by denying all un- 
 ^^ godliness and worldly lusts, and living 
 '^ soberly, righteously, and godly ^" in this 
 our pilgrimage upon earth. Laying their 
 foundation deep in the first principles of 
 all religion, in the knowledge of God and 
 his attributes, and the moral obligations 
 thence arising, and applying the gracious 
 
 1 Titus ii. 10, 11, 12. 
 Z 
 
338 SERMON VII. 
 
 consolations of faith to calm and encou- 
 rage the awakened conscience, they take 
 the best method to build up the man of 
 God, and prepare him by the practice of 
 virtue here for the enjoyment of happiness 
 hereafter. 
 
 But still it will be asked, is not this to 
 set up our own righteousness, to claim 
 heaven as the reward of our own merit, 
 and to reject the justification procured for 
 us by the atonement of Jesus Christ? 
 There is not surely a more deplorable in- 
 stance, or a more prominent proof, of the 
 corruption of our common nature, than 
 this accusation, which is brought by one 
 set of Christ's ministers against another. 
 That true faith will effectually bring forth 
 the fruit of good living is our common te- 
 net. But because one part of us think it 
 necessary to insist largely upon moral obli- 
 gation, and upon the distinction, which 
 the Gospel itself assures us will at the last 
 day be made between the righteous and 
 the wicked, between '' him that serveth 
 '* God and him that serveth Him not," 
 we are condemned by another set of men 
 
SERMON VII. 339 
 
 as destroying the faith, and erecting a 
 system of salvation independent of Jesus 
 Christ. But let us mark their inconsistency 
 in this accusation. They would be offend- 
 ed, and many of them, I firmly believe, 
 would be justly offended, if we said, that 
 they did not observe the rules of integrity 
 prescribed by the Gospel in discharging 
 their duties to God and man. But with them 
 this attention to duty is the necessary fruit 
 of faith, the sign whereby it is seen that 
 they have that faith, the proper expression 
 of their gratitude to God for having distin- 
 guished them by so excellent a gift. And 
 why should it not be so with us.'* why 
 should not our endeavours, if honest and 
 sincere, to obey the precepts of the Gos- 
 pel, be blessed with as consolatory a hope 
 of acceptance at the throne of Grace, and 
 be as well thought of in the Church of 
 Christ ? No : in us it is formality, external 
 decency, heathen morality, and little better 
 than a deistical rejection of our Saviour. 
 Is this " charity ?" Is this that heavenly 
 virtue, placed by St. Paul above faith and 
 hope, which ^^ envieth not, vaunteth not 
 
 z 2 
 
340 SERMON VII. 
 
 ^* itself, is not puffed up;" which ^'bear- 
 *' eth all things and believeth all things'";" 
 and therefore would be very unlikely to 
 discredit the assertion of those, who, while 
 they insist upon the necessity of obedience 
 to the precepts of Christ, insist upon it as 
 a part of His Gospel, and as the offspring 
 of that very faith, for the maintenance of 
 which we are all equally concerned. Let 
 us beware, lest that come upon us, which 
 St. Paul threatened to the Galatians; *^ If 
 ^* ye bite and devour one another, take 
 *' heed that ye be not consumed one of 
 *•' another"." There are enemies enow 
 about us, ready to take advantage of our 
 miscarriages, enemies to the faith, and 
 enemies to the morality of the Gospel ; 
 some, who hate the first, because they will 
 not submit to the latter ; and others who 
 deny the latter, because they would make 
 the former a cloak for their sins. Aminst 
 both we must preach the necessity of true 
 faith and pure morals : we must show how 
 these two parts of the Gospel are neces- 
 sarily united ; and in order to show it ef- 
 
 "^ I Cor. xiii. " Gal. v. 15. 
 
SERMON VII. 341 
 
 fectually, the subject must be fully con- 
 sidered and thoroughly explained. The 
 Gospel must not be confined to a single 
 point, but every point must be brought 
 forward, placed in its proper light, and as- 
 signed its due importance. The mind must 
 be gradually opened to receive it, must un- 
 derstand its own various relations, and be 
 taught to feel its own wants and weak- 
 nesses. It will then be prepared to receive 
 the Gospel in its perfection and integrity, 
 and to appreciate the value of Faith ac- 
 cording to its own just weight, as a prin- 
 ciple at once assuring us of pardon for our 
 former transgressions, and exciting us ef- 
 fectually to make earnest and vigorous en- 
 deavours after future obedience. 
 
 Z 3 
 
SERMON VIII, 
 
 2 Timothy ii. 19. 
 
 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth 
 sure, having this seal, The Lord hnoweth them 
 that are his, and, Let every one that nameth 
 the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 
 
 There yet remains one point of great 
 importance, which may appear not alto- 
 gether consistent with the view we have 
 taken of the bearing and tendency of Re- 
 velation, and that is the doctrine of Elec- 
 tion. To the consideration of this doctrine 
 I approach certainly with much diffidence, 
 and with an unfeigned desire of submitting 
 whatever I may say upon it to the superior 
 judgment and better information of those 
 before whom I speak. It should seem inr 
 deed, that every man ought to come to the 
 exaniination of this subject with a mind 
 
 z 4 
 
344 SERMON VIII. 
 
 entirely free from any prejudice, on one 
 side or the other. For what is the very 
 matter of this question? It is not a point 
 of human duty, either to the Creator, or 
 those who are partakers with us of the same 
 dependence upon his Will ; but it is an act 
 of the Almighty himself, a determination 
 of his unerring wisdom, respecting which 
 we are called upon to deliberate. It surely 
 becomes us then to deliberate with caution, 
 with temper, and with moderation, and 
 with a full purpose not to transgress the 
 bounds of Christian charity. 
 
 For in regard to this subject it must be 
 confessed at once, that we can know no- 
 thing but what it has pleased God to re- 
 veal in his Word; and we shall be in dan- 
 ger, by indulging even in the best exercise 
 of our reason, of falling into some degree 
 of error. Not that the clear deductions of 
 reason can ever lead to error, where the 
 subject is completely before it; but be- 
 cause in this case, where the inquiry relates 
 to an act of God's infallible wisdom and 
 sovereign Will, our reason cannot be in 
 possession of all the circumstances upon 
 
SERMON VllL 345 
 
 which that act proceeds. Our recourse 
 therefore, in order to come to a satisfac- 
 tory conclusion upon this point, must be, 
 I conceive, exclusively to the declarations 
 of God's holy Word. There, by a patient 
 investigation, we must endeavour to dis- 
 cover the intent and purpose of our hea- 
 venly Father ; and whatever on such an in- 
 vestigation that purpose shall appear to be, 
 to that we must assuredly adhere. In the 
 following discourse it is proposed to consi- 
 der, whether there be really such a doc- 
 trine as that of Election in the Scripture 
 itself; if there be, what representation is 
 there made of its character and tendency ; 
 and lastly, what effect that character may 
 have, either to encourage or discounte- 
 nance sound morals and pure religion. 
 
 First then, is the doctrine of Election in 
 Scripture or not ? The doctrine of Election 
 may be understood in two ways ; either as 
 the choosing out of mankind some indi- 
 viduals or communities for the enjoyment 
 of peculiar advantages temporal or spiritual 
 in this world, or the selecting some indi- 
 viduals as partakers of eternal happiness in 
 
346 SERMON VIIL 
 
 the next. With regard to Election in the 
 first sense, there will be little difficulty in 
 allowing, that many instances of it occur 
 in the historical records of holy Writ. The 
 Jewish nation in general were chosen as 
 God's peculiar people, distinguished by 
 peculiar marks of his favour, endowed with 
 a superior knowledge of his Will, invested 
 with superior privileges, and placed under 
 the more immediate protection of the com- 
 mon Father of mankind. And this favour 
 they enjoyed, because they were the elect 
 people of God, *^ the children of Jacob, 
 <^ his chosen ones%" called indeed the 
 " children of God himself, who were an 
 *^ holy people to Him, and whom He had 
 *^ chosen above all the nations that were 
 ^* upon the earth ^," Nothing certainly 
 can be more evident, than that the Israel- 
 ites became God's people by his freely 
 choosing them as such. It was the uncon- 
 strained favour of the Almighty which se- 
 parated them from the rest of the descend- 
 ants of Adam, and formed them into that 
 remarkable community which had the high 
 a 1 Chron. xvi. 13. ^ Deut. xiv. 1, 2. 
 
SERMON VIII. 347 
 
 honour of being called peculiarly His. A- 
 braham was selected when he was in the 
 midst of an idolatrous people, and most 
 probably an idolater himself, but evidently 
 in such circumstances, as without this Di- 
 vine interference, would have involved his 
 posterity in an irretrievable ignorance of 
 the true God. The only effectual check to 
 the rapid degeneracy, which was corrupt- 
 ing and debasing the whole race of man, 
 was that act of free mercy on the part of 
 our compassionate Creator, whereby He 
 determined to rescue one family at least 
 from the state of sin and wretchedness into 
 which the rest were rapidly falling, and into 
 which they, if left to themselves, must also 
 have inevitably fallen. But that they were 
 not left to themselves was no act of theirs ; 
 it was the merciful hand of God, unthought 
 of and uncalled for, which raised them up 
 from their unhappy condition, while their 
 brethren around them were in comparison 
 passed by, unheeded and unassisted. A- 
 round the fathers of this favoured tribe 
 the Omnipotent was pleased to throw a 
 shield of defence which no danger could 
 
348 SERMON VIII. 
 
 penetrate, and to command all, among 
 whom they came, that they should '' do 
 ^* his prophets no harm," nor presume to 
 " touch his anointed''." He exercised them 
 indeed by many and various trials, but He 
 still conducted them in safety, till He 
 placed them in that holy land, which his 
 sovereign Will had marked out so long be- 
 fore as their destined habitation "*. And 
 here He maintained them for many re- 
 volving years as his own people, honoured 
 with the more immediate symbols of his 
 Divine presence, and objects in an especial 
 and extraordinary manner of his peculiar 
 care and providence. Though subjected 
 like their neighbours to the vicissitudes 
 of adversity and prosperity, they were yet 
 preserved as ^^ the people of God:" nei- 
 ther tyrannical oppression, nor deceitful 
 circunjvention, nor the cruellest persecu- 
 tion, could effect their destruction. Com- 
 paratively weak and few in number, they 
 still existed, and existed as '^ the chosen" 
 of the Almighty, in defiance of those over- 
 whelming revolutions, which had overturn- 
 <^ 1 Chron. xvi. 22. ^ Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, 10. 
 
SERMON VIII. 349 
 
 » 
 
 ed the mightiest eaipires, and scarcely left 
 the record of their names among men. 
 But when the fuhiess of time came, this 
 nation, so long favoured, was in a manner 
 discarded by the same unfettered decision 
 of Divine wisdom, which had first called it 
 to a state of such remarkable distinction : 
 '' the kingdom of God was taken from 
 ^^ them, and given to another people%" and 
 that people became thus the Elect of the 
 Almighty. This will be readily acknow- 
 ledged. Christians are frequently distin- 
 guished by this title in the writings of the 
 New Testament. Our Saviour tells his dis- 
 ciples plainly, that He '^ chose them^;" and 
 St. Paul is very express, that God had 
 ^' chosen those," who from the Gentiles 
 were " called unto the adoption of chil- 
 '* dren^." And in truth, it is evident from 
 the circumstances in which those Gentiles 
 were at the time, that it must have been 
 so; and as evident from the mode in which 
 the Gospel was propagated among them, 
 that so it was. Of all the nations in the 
 world at that time, except the Jews, the 
 
 <= Matth. xxi. ^43. f John xv. 16—19. g Eph. i. 4, 5. 
 
350 SERMON Vm. 
 
 prophetic description of Isaiah was per- 
 fectly correct, that God ^' was found of 
 " them that sought Him not;" and that 
 the sole means by which they knew any 
 thing of Him was, that He sent his mes- 
 sengers to say, " Behold me, behold me," 
 unto such, as till then, '' were not called 
 '^ by his name^." In conformity with this 
 idea, the Apostles generally address their 
 Epistles to the Elect, meaning thereby be- 
 yond a doubt all those, who whether sin- 
 cerely or otherwise, whether with persever- 
 ing integrity or vacillating infirmity, had 
 made an open profession of the Christian 
 Faith, and been admitted into the Christian 
 Church. On the rejection of the Israel- 
 ites these became the chosen ones of God, 
 and the Church in which they were col- 
 lected, as one united community, was his 
 peculiar kingdom. The establishment of 
 this kingdom amongst men, and the calling 
 of any particular nations or individuals into 
 it, was entirely the act of Almighty God, 
 under the direction of his wisdom, and ac- 
 cording: to the determination of his Will'. 
 
 »^ Isaiah Ixv. 1. ' Acts ii. 39. 
 
SERMON VIII. 351 
 
 All Divine Revelation is the free gift of 
 God, and He has therefore a right to be* 
 stow it when and where, in what degree 
 and in what manner, may seem to Him 
 best. What man has from himself, in his 
 present state of imbecility and corruption, 
 is a continual tendency to degenerate; and 
 if at any time that tendency is retarded by 
 the communication of better knowledge, 
 and the infusion of a better spirit, it is his 
 duty to receive both as the unmerited boun- 
 ty of his heavenly Father. When therefore 
 the Patriarchs of the Jewish nation were 
 called from the degradation of idolatry, 
 and when the Gentiles had first the glad 
 tidings of the Gospel imparted to them, in 
 either case the proceeding emanated en- 
 tirely from the free grace of Almighty God. 
 Had He left them to themselves, they would 
 never have inquired for Him ; and there- 
 fore that they ever knew Him, and knew 
 how to serve Him acceptably, resulted from 
 His goodness, not theirs ; from His com- 
 passionate regard for them, not their love 
 and veneration for Him. In bestowing these 
 his gifts and blessings therefore, God pro- 
 
352 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ceeded, as He had an undoubted right to 
 do, in the way which to Himself appeared 
 best ; selecting freely, though according to 
 his wisdom, such objects as He thought 
 proper to distinguish by marks of his espe- 
 cial favour. Those, who came into the 
 Christian Church, did not come till they 
 were called ; and those only were called 
 whom the Omniscient thought proper to 
 call. Of this we have one or two remark- 
 able instances. St. Paul was on one occa- 
 sion '* forbidden to preach in Asia; and 
 *^ when he assayed to go into Bithynia, the 
 '^ Spirit suffered him not^." But he had 
 an especial direction to go and '^ preach in 
 *' Macedonia;'' his heavenly Master judg- 
 ing it best, that his labours should then be 
 bestowed upon that particular portion of 
 the globe. The Macedonians were thus 
 elected at that time in preference to the 
 Asians and Bithvnians, for wise reasons no 
 doubt; but still they were elected, accord- 
 ing to the predetermination of Him, who 
 had a right certainly to distribute his own 
 gifts as He pleased. It may perhaps not 
 
 ^ Acts xvi. 6—10. 
 
SERMON VIII. 353 
 
 be impossible, in the course of our inquiry, 
 to obtain some insight into the reasons of 
 this election : at present I only remark, 
 that they were preferred, and preferred by 
 the express order of the Holy Ghost. And 
 this is a point which ought to be consider- 
 ed. Christianity is at this day confined to 
 a small portion of the world. While some 
 enjoy the splendor of that meridian light 
 which the Gospel diffuses, others are in- 
 volved in impenetrable darkness. And what 
 reason can be assigned, why we of this na- 
 tion, for instance, shovild be so highly fa- 
 voured as we are in the preaching of God's 
 pure word, while others are wholly igno- 
 rant of its blessed contents, but that it has 
 pleased God to impart it to us.^ When we 
 look back to the state of our ancestors, ei- 
 ther in one part of the island or the other, 
 we see nothing but the most barbarous 
 idolatry ; and from that idolatry nothing 
 has rescued us their descendants, but the 
 communication of better knowledge by the 
 diffusion of Gospel light among us. It is 
 not surely because we are better than our 
 fathers, or that we could by our own inge- 
 
 A a 
 
354 SERMON VIII. 
 
 nuity have detected their errors, that we 
 possess a more perfect knowledge of God, 
 and purer ideas of his service, than they : 
 had we been left to ourselves, we should 
 undoubtedly have been immersed in the 
 same ignorance, and disgraced by the same 
 barbarity of manners. That we are Christ's 
 therefore, and thus amongst God's elect, 
 in that sense of the word which we are 
 now considering, is owing entirely to our 
 being called out of our state of degeneracy 
 by those, who were first commissioned to 
 instruct us. Almighty God chose us as 
 objects of his bounty and benevolence. It 
 is the effect of that choice, that we have 
 amongst us a Christian Church, and that 
 by means of the light derived from this 
 lamp of Divine truth our minds are en- 
 larged, our affections purified, our manners 
 amended, our laws ameliorated, and the 
 whole system of our social intercourse con- 
 ducted upon purer and belter principles. 
 Nothinsr of all this has been brought about 
 by our own unassisted exertions. It was 
 the goodness of God, that sent his appoint- 
 ed servants to sow amongst us the seed of 
 
SERMON VIII. 355 
 
 that heavenly knowledge, which is now in- 
 deed so common as to be little esteemed, 
 but which would never have been acquired 
 had it not been bestowed : and it is the 
 harvest, which has arisen from that seed, 
 to which the most enlightened among us 
 are indebted for their intellectual eminence, 
 and to which the countrv itself is indebted 
 for every thing it can boast of, in rational 
 piety and moral integrity. 
 
 But it may be said, that all this is little 
 to the purpose. It may be readily acknow- 
 ledged, that there is an Election of some 
 nations rather than others to the external 
 privileges and advantages of the Gospel, 
 and even to that superiority of attainments 
 which usually attends those external privi- 
 leges : but the real point of inquiry does 
 not hinge upon this. An Election of some, 
 whether nations or individuals, rather than 
 others, to the use of better means of im- 
 provement in this world may be granted, 
 and yet it will not follow, that there is any 
 Election of individuals to eternal happi- 
 ness in the world to come. Certainly not. 
 But still, it is not only expedient, but ne- 
 
 A a 2 
 
356 SERMON VIII. 
 
 cessary, that this Election of nations and 
 individuals should be remarked, for two 
 reasons : first, because this is clearly the 
 account which the Scripture gives us of the 
 Divine proceedings; secondly, that we may 
 not forget from what source we have de- 
 rived the advantages we enjoy. These ob- 
 servations will teach us, that there is a 
 sense in which the doctrine of Election is 
 a Scripture doctrine; that it is consistent 
 with the Divine wisdom and goodness to 
 choose when and where the blessings of 
 Revelation shall be communicated ; that 
 as the Jews were formerly, so Christians 
 are now, the Elect people of God, and that 
 they owe this distinction to the free grace 
 of Him who called them. Those therefore 
 who admit this truth, will be careful not to 
 overrate the powers of their own minds, 
 even while they exercise themselves with 
 diligence and indvistry in the due improve- 
 ment of the talents they have received ; 
 they will arrogate nothing to themselves, 
 as if they either had or could have merited 
 the preeminence they enjoy ; they will have 
 no difficulty in acknowledging, that they 
 
SERMON VIII. 357 
 
 have derived it from God's free, undeserved 
 bounty, and that as they obtained it, so 
 they are entitled to it only as the elect 
 people of God, upon whom it has been his 
 good pleasure to bestow it. And acknow- 
 ledging this, they will be better prepared 
 to inquire, with temper and impartiality, 
 whether there be not a yet more peculiar 
 sense in which the doctrine of Election is 
 to be received; whether in fact, as nations 
 and individuals owe the advantages they 
 possess of superior knowledge and more 
 abundant assistance to their being elected 
 to such advantages, individuals do not in 
 like manner owe the salvation of their souls 
 to the free and unmerited Election of God. 
 This part of the question, it must be con- 
 fessed, is at once important and difficult; 
 important, as it so nearly touches our eter- 
 nal interests; and difficult, because it has 
 been the subject of so much irreconcileable 
 contention. But perhaps it will be found, 
 that the difficulty has arisen less from the 
 doctrine itself, than from the manner in 
 which it has been treated. By many, the 
 two senses of Election have been confound- 
 
 A a 3 
 
358 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ed ; and passages of Scripture, which be- 
 long exclusively to that sense in which all 
 Christians are said to be God's Elect, have 
 been adduced to prove the truth of the 
 doctrine as applied to the eternal condition 
 of individuals. Thus it is, that St. Paul 
 has been supposed so great an advocate for 
 this point of faith. Possibly this Apostle 
 may have some few observations, which 
 seem to apply immediately to personal E- 
 Icction, but the general drift of his argu- 
 ment, when closely examined, will be found 
 to lie in quite a different direction. That 
 argument will never be understood, unless 
 it be considered with a strict regard to the 
 occasion which gave rise to it. All writ- 
 ings indeed, to be understood, require to 
 be so considered, but the writings of St. 
 Paul demand this kind of attention in a 
 peculiar manner. As far as they relate to 
 doctrinal difficulties, they almost invariably 
 turn upon some point in controversy be- 
 tween himself and his countrymen, respect- 
 ing the permanence and necessity of their 
 Law as the only acceptable method of sal- 
 vation, and upon their own claim to be 
 
SERMON VIII. 359 
 
 exclusively the Elect people of God. It is 
 this latter point that he is stating, when he 
 enters so much at large in several of his 
 Epistles, particularly in those to the Ro- 
 mans, the Galatians, and the Ephesians, 
 upon the question of God's Election. And 
 he states it thus. The Jews maintained, 
 that God Almighty was in a peculiar sense 
 the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; 
 and that as they were the direct descend- 
 ants of those Patriarchs, He was conse- 
 quently their God, and they his people, in 
 the same peculiar manner, and that this 
 peculiar relation between Him and them 
 was to continue unimpaired for ever. This 
 appears clearly to be the claim put in on 
 their part ; and the Apostle answers it, by 
 the following plain observations. It is grant- 
 ed, that God Almighty was peculiarly the 
 God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 that the Jews, as their descendants, were 
 God's peculiar people : but how did it hap- 
 pen to be so ? Was it not by the free choice 
 which Almighty God made of those Pa- 
 triarchs, and of their descendants after 
 them.^ Was not this choice quite uncon- 
 
 A a 4 
 
360 SERMON VIII. 
 
 strained ? Might not the Almighty, had 
 He so pleased, have chosen any other fa- 
 mily out of the mass of mankind ? When 
 He called Abraham from amongst his idol- 
 atrous countrymen, was it not an act of his 
 sovereign Will ? Had the Patriarch any 
 right to this distinction? When the bless- 
 ing of the Covenant was given to Jacob in 
 preference to his elder brother, was it not 
 so given because the Omniscient Creator of 
 the universe, according to his own all-wise 
 purpose, judged it best that it should be so 
 given? It was a free gift, and therefore 
 surely to be bestowed according to the un- 
 restrained will of the Giver. The Election 
 of the Jews therefore to be God's peculiar 
 people was clearly owing to the good plea- 
 sure of Him, who had so chosen them ; 
 they had no right, no claim to this distinc- 
 tion ; it flowed entirely from the unmerited 
 bounty, the unconstrained beneficence of 
 their heavenly Father. What then ? Be- 
 cause God had once freely chosen them to 
 be his people, had He forfeited the right, 
 either of rejecting them again, or of be- 
 stowing his favour upon any other nation ? 
 
SERMON VIII. 361 
 
 Could He be kind to none else, because He 
 had been kind to them ? And had He, by 
 his gracious condescension and liberal boun- 
 ty to the Jews, given them a right to inter- 
 fere with his proceedings, when he chose to 
 show the same condescension and the same 
 bounty to others ? Certainly not : though 
 such is the nature of man, that he is ever 
 ready to construe the possession of any 
 blessing, how freely soever it was bestowed 
 at first, not only into something of an ex- 
 clusive claim, but into a proof also that he 
 has something of merit whereby he has de- 
 served it. And thus the Jews argued; 
 they had been God's Elect, and therefore 
 they had for ever a right to be exclusively 
 considered as his Elect. But the Apostle 
 shows them, that the argument lay com- 
 pletely the other way ; it proved precisely 
 the reverse of what they supposed. Hav- 
 ing demonstrated in the clearest manner, 
 that Almighty God did at first choose the 
 Israelites out of his own free will, and that 
 as the Sovereign Lord of the universe He 
 had a right to bestow his favours where 
 He pleased, and to choose to himself what 
 
362 SERMON VIII. 
 
 people He pleased, he proves plainly, that 
 the very argument, which the Jews ad- 
 duced to support their exclusive claim, was 
 most directly against any exclusive claims 
 whatever. For surely, if God Almighty had 
 freely chosen the Jews, without any claim 
 on their part to be so chosen, it was per- 
 fectly competent for the same Supreme 
 Authority to choose any other people, at 
 any time and in any manner He pleased. 
 It was the free grace of the Giver that ex- 
 tended the Divine bounty to them, and the 
 same free grace might certainly extend the 
 same bounty to others. The Jews were an 
 example, that those who had no right to 
 God's goodness, might yet be partakers of 
 that goodness; and St. Paul endeavours to 
 convince them, that they should have been 
 taught, by the liberality of their heavenly 
 Father to themselves, to see the probability 
 of the same liberality being ultimately ex- 
 tended to others their fellow-creatures ; at 
 least they should have been taught to ac- 
 knowledge, that He had a right thus to ex- 
 tend his liberality, whenever his wisdom 
 might judge it expedient. He had been 
 
SERMON VIII. 363 
 
 kind and gracious to them when they little 
 deserved his grace and kindness, and there- 
 fore He might assuredly be as kind and 
 gracious to others, though they had no 
 merit to deserve it. What then is the ob- 
 ject of the Apostle's argument ? The ex- 
 tension clearly of the Divine mercy to the 
 Gentiles as well as the Jews. He is argu- 
 ing, and with that force which is so pecu- 
 liar to him, against the narrow, partial, and 
 contracted view, which the majority of his 
 countrymen had taken of the Divine pro- 
 ceedings. He maintains indeed, what every 
 rational Christian must maintain in the 
 fullest extent, the right of Almighty God 
 to bestow his blessings when and how and 
 upon whom He pleased, because no hvi- 
 man being whatever had any claim to his 
 bounty ; but he makes use of this right, 
 not to contract the limits of Divine boun- 
 ty, but to enlarge them ; not to confine the 
 issues of Divine goodness within the nar- 
 row circle of his own tribe or country, but 
 to extend it as far as the wisdom of God 
 might see fit that it should reach. It is for 
 the enlargement of God's Election there- 
 
364 SERMON VIII. 
 
 fore that the Apostle is arguing; and if 
 this view of his reasoning be correct, as I 
 am persuaded it is, he who has been usu- 
 ally cited as the great advocate for a re- 
 striction of the Divine blessings, will be 
 found to plead powerfully for that enlarge- 
 ment. And would to God, that Christians 
 in this and the preceding ages had imbibed 
 something of the same enlarged spirit ! 
 Then we should use this precious doctrine 
 of Election, not to condemn, but to com- 
 fort each other ; not to contract, but to ex- 
 pand the bounds of the Divine mercy ; not 
 to bolster up our pride, by exclusive claims 
 to the bounty and protection of the Al- 
 mighty, but in humility to confess, that as 
 we have ourselves no right to that bounty, 
 and yet hope for it, so it may possibly be 
 extended to many, who, though externally 
 less favoured, may be perhaps ultimately 
 not less entitled to it than we : then would 
 our minds be enlarged and not narrowed 
 by reading, that " God hath concluded all 
 ^' in unbelief, that He might have mercy 
 ''upon air." So far indeed is St. Paul 
 
 1 Rom. xi. SiJ. 
 
SERMON VIIL 365 
 
 from affording any support to that self- 
 flattering conceit, which would confine the 
 free grace of an all-bounteous Benefactor 
 to one small corner of the world, or one 
 little party in the countless multitudes of 
 the human race, that there is no idea which 
 he seems more to detest, than the notion 
 of setting bounds to the goodness of God. 
 He is an advocate certainly for God's right 
 to bestow that bounty as He pleases, but 
 he opposes strongly every attempt on the 
 part of man to arrest its current, or to set 
 up any exclusive claim to its blessings. 
 
 Still, though the doctrine of Election is 
 thus clearly inculcated and largely illus- 
 trated by the Apostle, it may be doubted, 
 whether his view of the subject took in the 
 Election of individuals to eternal happiness: 
 it seems to be confined in a great degree to 
 a consideration of the Divine proceedings 
 with respect to a communication of the 
 means of salvation, rather than of salvation 
 itself And if so, what has been observed 
 will refer only to Election in the first sense. 
 But there are some passages certainly which 
 seem to go further. In the first sense we 
 
366 SERMON VIII. 
 
 have seen, that all the Jews were the elect 
 people of God ; and that all Christians, all 
 members of Christ's Church, are his elect 
 people now. But it is plain that our Sa- 
 viour himself makes a distinction between 
 the members of his Church ; and shows, 
 that all who are equal partakers of its ex- 
 ternal privileges, will not be equal partakers 
 of those ultimate advantages, for the attain- 
 ment of which that Church was established. 
 In one remarkable instance, and on one 
 remarkable occasion. He is very explicit in 
 declaring a difference between an election 
 to the outward advantages of the Gospel, 
 and an Election to its final blessings. Judas 
 Iscariot was equally an Apostle with the 
 other eleven; our Lord had chosen him. 
 Yet he was a bad man, and Jesus Christ 
 knew that he would continue a bad man. 
 '' Have I not chosen you twelve," says he 
 in one place, ^^and one of you is a devil"?" 
 And in another, " I speak not of you all : I 
 «' know whom I have chosen : but that the 
 '' Scripture might be fulfilled, He that eat- 
 '' eth bread with me hath lifted up his 
 
 "^ John vi. 70. 
 
SERMON VIII. 367 
 
 '' heel against me"." The word ''chosen" 
 in these two passages seems to be used in 
 two different senses : in the first it refers to 
 the office of an Apostle ; in the second, to 
 the attainment of ultimate happiness in the 
 kingdom of the Messiah. And it is very 
 remarkable, and deserves our most serious 
 attention, that our Saviour, in this latter 
 instance, assigns the reason why Judas Is- 
 cariot was chosen to be an Apostle. There 
 was a deed to be done, which none but a 
 very bad man would do ; a deed, which 
 while it was a cause of unutterable woe to 
 the perpetrator, was yet necessary to the 
 redemption and salvation of mankind. For 
 the perpetration of this deed Judas was un- 
 happily fitted by the corruption of his own 
 heart ; and he was chosen an Apostle, that 
 by betraying his Master the Scripture might 
 be fulfilled, which foretold that He should 
 be betrayed. But our Lord thinks it ne- 
 cessary to vindicate his own Omniscience 
 by declaring, that though He chose such a 
 man. He was not for a moment imposed 
 upon by his hypocrisy : He knew what he 
 
 " John xiii. 18. 
 
368 SERMON VIII. 
 
 was, and He knew what he would do. And 
 the same knowledge, it must be granted, 
 that He has of all who ever have belonged 
 to his Church, or who ever will belong to 
 it. He '' knows his sheep ''" in all quarters 
 of the world ; He knows whom He has 
 chosen. When St. Paul was dispirited by 
 the opposition of his countrymen at Co- 
 rinth, the Lord by a vision exhorted him 
 not to be '' afraid, but to speak, and not 
 '' hold his peace, because He had much 
 '^ people in that city p." Of the people 
 thus said to be His by our Lord himself, it 
 is impossible to conceive, but they were of 
 the number of those sheep, whom He knew 
 to be ready to hear his voice, to become 
 his faithful followers, and truly to believe, 
 and steadily to obey his word. But of 
 these, as of others, that must no doubt be 
 true, which our Saviour says of his first 
 disciples, '' Ye have not chosen me, but I 
 'Miave chosen you"*.'' The commence- 
 ment of that union into which believers 
 are admitted with their Saviour, is founded 
 in his call, not in their independent endea- 
 
 ^ John X. 14. P Acts xviii. 9, 10. i John xv. 16'. 
 
SERMON VIII. 369 
 
 vours. He came to seek and to save that 
 which was lost ; but in order that it might 
 be saved, it was necessary that He should 
 first seek it. And on this account He so 
 repeatedly tells us, that ^^no man can come 
 ^' unto Him, except God draw him ^ ;" that 
 they that "are of God hear God's words';" 
 that He *^ hath chosen his disciples out of 
 " the world^;" that they "are given him 
 " of his Father, and that of those who were 
 *^ so given Him, it was his Father's good 
 " pleasure that none should be lost, but be 
 " raised up again at the last day"." To 
 the eye of our Redeemer not only was 
 the whole scheme of redemption open, 
 but all the objects also, to whom that 
 scheme would be ultimately beneficial, were 
 known. When therefore our Saviour speaks 
 of his " Elect people %" and of those " for 
 " whom the kingdom of heaven was pre- 
 " pared y;" when He makes a distinction 
 between " the good seed which was sown 
 " by himself, and the tares which were 
 
 r John vi. 44. ^ John viii. 47- ^ John xv. 19. 
 
 " John vi. 37—39. xvii. 6. ^ Matt. xxiv. 24. Luke 
 xviii. 7. y Matt. xxv. 34. 
 
 B b 
 
370 SERMON VIII. 
 
 "sown by his enemy^;" and when he 
 draws a line of separation between ^' the 
 " children of light and the children of the 
 '' world*;" He must be understood, I con- 
 ceive, to intimate, that the final result of 
 the plan of redemption was all before God, 
 and that in consequence every thing was 
 arranged so as best to carry that plan into 
 effect. Nothing could happen which was 
 not provided for; nothing could happen 
 which would not ultimately further the 
 purpose of Almighty God. And on ex- 
 amination it will appear, that all the Apo- 
 stles deliver themselves in accordance with 
 this idea. We have already seen, that the 
 general argument of St. Paul has been mis- 
 stated, as if he designed to narrow the li- 
 mits of God's mercy : and yet there are a 
 few passages which seem to go clearly to 
 the establishment of the doctrine of per- 
 sonal Election. Two of these are remark- 
 able. In the first he enters a caveat a- 
 gainst being misunderstood in speaking of 
 the rejection of his countrymen. Never 
 did the love of country and of countrymen 
 
 z Matt. xiii. 27, 28. ^ Luke xvi. 8. 
 
SERMON VIII. 371 
 
 burn with a purer flame than in the bosom 
 of St. Paul. For their sakes lie would 
 himself have been content to have lost the 
 high station which he held in the Church 
 of Christ. And though he was compelled 
 to admit, that they had been generally re- 
 jected, and upon their rejection the Gen- 
 tiles had come in, yet he maintains that 
 ^' blindness had happened to them in part'* 
 only, and that there was still '' a remnant 
 '^ according to the election of grace •"." To 
 support this, he adduces a very observable 
 instance from the earlier history of his na- 
 tion. In that general apostasy of the king- 
 dom of Israel, when Elias, an eminent pro- 
 phet of God, complained, that he was left 
 alone of all his true servants, God tells him, 
 that whatever might appear to him. He 
 had yet reserved to himself '' seven thou- 
 " sand men %" even in the seemingly uni- 
 versal corruption of the times. These were 
 his Elect ; these were they, over whom his 
 protecting arm had been thrown in a pecu- 
 liar manner, and to whom had been vouch- 
 safed the peculiar graces of his Holy Spirit. 
 
 ^ Rom. xi. 5 — 25. ^ 1 Kings xviii. 19. 
 
 B b 2 
 
372 SERMON VIII. 
 
 This must be granted; for nothing less 
 could have preserved them from over- 
 whelming oppression ; and from a cormp- 
 tion that the prophet thought was univer- 
 sal. And from this exception to the great 
 apostasy at that time, the Apostle takes 
 occasion to illustrate the state of his coun- 
 trymen in his own days. Though the Jews 
 did very generally reject the Messiah, yet 
 there were a few, who gave the world a 
 pattern of faith and obedience worthy the 
 long race of pious ancestors from whom 
 they were descended. But these were they 
 whom God foreknew, the '' remnant ac- 
 " cording to Election," whom, amidst all 
 the calamities and all the vices of the na- 
 tion, it pleased Him to save, by the espe- 
 cial protection of his providence, and the 
 especial direction of his grace. 
 
 Another passage in which the Apostle 
 seems clearly to intimate, that the eye of 
 God rests with peculiar attention upon 
 those who shall finally be admitted to the 
 mansions of eternal happiness, is that of 
 which my text forms a part. St. Paul is 
 giving Timothy directions to shun as much 
 
SERMON VIIL 373 
 
 as possible all unprofitable disputation : and 
 in order to shew how easy it was to be led 
 into error by indulging in a captious and 
 cavilling spirit, he instances Hymenaeus and 
 Philetus. These men had persuaded them- 
 selves, that what was delivered by the preach- 
 ers of the Gospel, as to the resurrection, 
 did not refer to a state of eternal existence 
 after this life, but to some change wrought 
 in believers here : and in consequence of 
 this opinion, had, it is probable, not only 
 fallen into a damnable heresy, but into 
 great impurity of manners. But, says the 
 Apostle at the close of this account, '' the 
 " Lord knoweth them that are his;" and, 
 " In a great house there are not only ves- 
 '^ sels of gold and silver, but also of wood 
 " and earth ; and some to honour, and 
 '' some to dishonour." Which we cannot, 
 1 conceive, fairly understand in any other 
 than the following sense : that though Hy- 
 menaeus and Philetus had been admitted 
 into the Church of Christ, and so seemed 
 to be of the number of God's elect people, 
 yet the all-seeing eye of the Omniscient 
 distinguished clearly between them and 
 
 B b 3 
 
374 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the sincere disciples of his Son ; He knew 
 they were not his, and He knew precisely 
 who were his, though mixed up in external 
 communion with such men as these. 
 
 The doctrine then of God's Election, 
 not only of communities to the outward 
 privileges of the Gospel, but of individuals 
 to a final participation of everlasting hap- 
 piness, seems to be plainly intimated in 
 these different passages of Scripture. It is 
 perhaps rather intimated than directly as- 
 serted ; (for the proofs usually adduced in 
 its support out of the writings of St. Paul 
 have in truth little to do with the question;) 
 and the reason may be, that as it relates to 
 an act of God's Sovereign authority, and 
 not to a branch of human duty, a mere in- 
 timation was sufficient to elucidate that au- 
 thority. What it is absolutely necessary 
 for us to believe or to do in order to our 
 salvation is absolutely and plainly com- 
 manded ; but the indisputable right of the 
 Almighty to dispose of his creatures as to 
 Him might seem best, could bear to be ob- 
 scurely expressed without a risk of being 
 diminished. Still the intimations of this 
 
SERMON Vm. 375 
 
 doctrine, particularly in the declarations of 
 our Saviour himself, are so strong and 
 striking, as to leave no room to doubt, that 
 if any individual of the human race be 
 saved, he will owe his salvation to the free 
 grace of God, electing him to a happiness 
 to which his best qualifications are not ade- 
 quate, and bestowing upon him a gift to 
 which his best services do not entitle him. 
 
 In the second place we are to inquire 
 what representation is made in Scripture 
 of the character and tendency of this doc- 
 trine. And upon a due examination it 
 will appear most evident, that this cha- 
 racter and tendency is clearly and dis- 
 tinctly moral ; it will appear, that the Elec- 
 tion of God is in every instance parallel to 
 moral duty, and coincident with moral in- 
 tegrity. For who are they, who in Scrip- 
 ture are represented as being elected ? Are 
 they not those who are most eminently 
 distinguished for religion and virtue ? Are 
 they not those, upon whom the most up- 
 right Judge among men, had he the be- 
 stowing of eternal happiness, would most 
 assuredly confer it ? Such are the men, 
 
 B b 4 
 
376 SERMON Vlll. 
 
 whom the Scripture represents as being 
 distinguished by the divine favour : the 
 meek and unoffending Abel, the pious 
 Enoch, the upright Noah, the faithful A- 
 braham. These men were certainly elected 
 to enjoy a very eminent share of the divine 
 beneficence, but they were as certainly 
 adorned with a virtue far superior to those 
 who were not so distinguished. Though 
 they did not merit the free grace which 
 was bestowed upon them, yet the record of 
 their actions shows, that they were men of 
 different feelings, different views, and dif- 
 ferent inclinations from those amongst 
 whom they lived. The sacrifice of Abel 
 was a sacrifice of faith ; while his brother's 
 offering was that of one, who owed grati- 
 tude indeed, but did not need pardon. 
 The life of Enoch was devoted to the ser- 
 vice of God with a steadiness of resolution, 
 that all the seductions of antediluvian de- 
 bavichery could not shake. Noah certainly 
 owed his preservation from death to his 
 '' having found favour in the sight of 
 " God;'' but the promptitude with which 
 he received the (hvine conununications, 
 
SERMON VIIL 377 
 
 and acted upon them, showed, that he had 
 upon his mind a deep sense of the power 
 of his Maker, his indefectible truth, and 
 all-perfect justice. The same must be ac- 
 knowledged of him, who was the father of 
 the faithful. Had the divine mercy not 
 interfered, he would in all human proba- 
 bility have sunk into the idolatry which 
 had nearly overspread the world ; his pos- 
 terity certainly shewed by their subsequent 
 conduct, that they would have been the 
 willing slaves of the most degrading super- 
 stition. But when he was called, his ready 
 faith, and no less ready obedience, proved 
 what manner of man he was. In the se- 
 verest trials he never shrunk from his duty, 
 though by his timidity on one or two oc- 
 casions it is apparent, that his obedience 
 could not always have been without an ef- 
 fort. 
 
 Again, in that general corruption in the 
 kingdom of Israel, who are they, who were 
 distinguished by God's particular care and 
 protection ? Who are they, whom He says 
 He had " reserved'' to himself.^ Not those 
 
378 SERMON VIII. 
 
 who had yielded to the prevailing wicked- 
 ness of the times, but those, who, unknown 
 to the world, but seen and marked by 
 their heavenly Father, had kept themselves 
 untainted by the corruption around them. 
 It was to them, who continued true to 
 their God, that the peculiar care of God's 
 providence was extended. But let us come 
 to the declarations of our Saviour himself. 
 Who are they, whom He pronounces to 
 be the Elect of his Father ? Those who 
 obeyed his call to repentance, who believed 
 in Him, not only as the Saviour, but as the 
 authorized Teacher of the world, and were 
 ready to show their love to Him by keeping 
 His commandments : such are they, whom 
 He pronounces Elect. No man who 
 takes his idea of Election from the deli- 
 neation of it by Jesus Christ, will ever 
 judge it to be consistent with wickedness; 
 he will never conceive it possible, that an 
 impenitent sinner can have reason to hope 
 for acceptance as an elected saint. The 
 Pharisees, who claimed a peculiar relation 
 to God, as the descendants of Abraham, 
 
SERMON VIIT. 37» 
 
 were pronounced by our Lord '' the chil- 
 ^' dren of the devil^:" why? Because they 
 were hypocrites and liars. The "branches," 
 which '' the husbandman takes away/' 
 are unfruitful branches; those, which are 
 " purged" that they '^ may bring fortli 
 *' more fruit%" are such as have brought 
 forth some already. Of whom does He 
 say, that they shall '' see God ?" Who- 
 ever they are, surely they are the Elect. 
 But they are ^Hhe pure in heart V^ men 
 whose honest integrity of principle exerts 
 itself in a life of righteousness and piety. 
 They who are highest in God's favour, are 
 highest also in moral character. 
 
 But against this it will be said, that in 
 some instances surely notorious sinners 
 have been apparently preferred to those, 
 who were recommended by at least great 
 external decency of conduct : it was said 
 by our Saviour himself, that ^^ publicans 
 '' and sinners would go into the kingdom 
 '^ of heaven before the Scribes and Pha- 
 '^ risees^." But had the reason why he 
 
 '1 John viii. 44. e John xv. 2. f Matt. v. 8. 
 
 £ Matt. xxi. 31. 
 
380 SERMON VIII. 
 
 said so been observed, this instance would 
 hardly have been adduced to support the 
 notion, that immorality was any recom- 
 mendation to the favour of God. The 
 publicans and sinners were therefore ac- 
 cepted, because they repented, when a call 
 to repentance was given them : the Pha- 
 risees were therefore rejected, because they 
 did not on the same call repent of their 
 hypocrisy. Yet will it be urged that there 
 is one example at least which will be al- 
 lowed to hold out some hope even to the 
 greatest of sinners, that they may yet be 
 numbered among God's Elect children. 
 St. Paul, it must be acknowledged, was a 
 " chosen vessel^," and an eminent *' pat- 
 " tern'" of the free mercy of the Almighty 
 to the worst of men. He was so : but in 
 stating the case of St. Paul, two great mis- 
 takes have been committed. First, be- 
 cause St. Paul is said to be an elect vessel 
 to carry the name and faith of Jesus Christ 
 to the Gentiles, it is taken for granted, 
 that he was elected to eternal happiness. 
 I have myself no doubt that he was, but 
 
 h Acts ix. 15. « iTim. i. 16\ 
 
SERMON VIII. 381 
 
 the Scripture no where says so ; it speaks 
 only of his election as an Apostle. He 
 himself never speaks of his election : on 
 the contrary, to the very moment almost 
 of his being '^ offered/' he speaks of him- 
 self as only striving after that which he had 
 not yet attained ; and as using every means 
 in his power, that neither the machinations 
 of the Devil, nor the violence of his own 
 passions, might draw him aside from the 
 path of rectitude, and deprive him at last 
 of a share in the happiness of heaven. But 
 there is another very material mistake as to 
 the character of St. Paul. It has been re- 
 presented as that of "the chief of sinners," 
 and it has been supposed that this repre- 
 sentation has been made on St. Paul's own 
 authority. That St. Paul has ever called 
 himself "the chief of sinners^" is very 
 questionable: it is rather to be under- 
 stood that he was the first of sinners, in 
 whom Jesus Christ chose to show a pre- 
 eminent pattern of his amazing forbearance 
 and mercy. For it is very observable, that 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. i. 15. See Ostervald's Causes of the Present 
 Corruption of Christians, P. i. p. IGO. 
 
382 SERMON VIII. 
 
 in all other places where St. Paul has occa- 
 sion to speak of his conduct before his con- 
 version to Christianity, he insists with great 
 boldness upon his integrity; that he had 
 lived in all good conscience before God ; 
 and that his manner of life from his youth 
 was such as he had no reason to be a- 
 shamed of. He had been indeed a " blas- 
 ^^ phemer and a persecutor;" and it was 
 natural, that when by the grace of God 
 he came to see his errors, he should feel 
 acutely the enormity of his crime: but 
 even at the very time when he is acknow- 
 ledging that crime, and magnifying the 
 mercy of Christ in forgiving him, he is far 
 from saying that the crime itself was any 
 recommendation to the mercy. The view 
 he takes of his own case is very different. 
 He says he obtained mercy certainly, and 
 no man had a higher feeling of gratitude 
 for that mercy than he; and he censures 
 severely his own obstinacy in persevering 
 to oppose what he now saw to be the 
 truth : but he does not accuse himself of 
 sins which he knew he had not committed, 
 nor does he intimate that his beine: a sin- 
 
SERMON VIII. 383 
 
 ner was the cause of his obtaining mercy. 
 What he asserts is, that because he did 
 what he did in ignorance, not from cruel 
 or hypocritical motives, but from a sincere 
 though mistaken zeal for God's honour, 
 therefore he obtained mercy. The Apo- 
 stle's honesty and integrity then, so far 
 from being an obstacle to his call to Chris- 
 tianity, was that which made him a fit ob- 
 ject of the Divine favour. Without that fa- 
 vour he would indeed have been lost eter- 
 nally. His honesty, however unimpeached, 
 would not have saved him, had he conti- 
 nued to persecute the faithful servants of 
 God : but the honesty of his heart and the 
 integrity of his life were so acceptable to 
 Him who searcheth the heart, that He 
 would not let that man perish for want of 
 better light, who. He knew, wanted no- 
 thing but light, to serve Him with an up- 
 right mind. The example of St. Paul then 
 is so far from being against the coincidence 
 of election and morality, that it greatly 
 confirms and illustrates it. 
 
 Another very remarkable instance to the 
 same purpose is that of Cornelius the Cen- 
 
384 SERMON VIII. 
 
 turion. The piety and integrity and the 
 charity of this man are recorded in so pro- 
 minent a manner, as to afford no room for 
 (hspute. His prayers and his ahiis had 
 come up and been accepted before the 
 throne of God. And on account of these, 
 for so the word of truth is pleased to say \ 
 an express revelation was made to this 
 good man of the way, in which he should 
 be informed, how effectually to secure the 
 salvation of his soul. 
 
 Examples indeed of this kind might be 
 produced in great numbers ; but it is suffi- 
 cient for the illustration of the subject to 
 have dwelt upon the few which have been 
 mentioned ; all concurring to assure us, 
 that the best recommendation to the fa- 
 vour of God is piety and integrity of life ; 
 and that those alone are likely to be num- 
 bered among his Elect, who, either by con- 
 trition for past faults, or by a diligent care 
 to avoid faults, shovi^, that they have a due 
 sense of moral obligation, and a deep feel- 
 ing of the obedience they owe to their 
 Creator. But did we want anv further con- 
 
 • Acts X. 4, 
 
SERMON VIII. 385 
 
 firmation, we should find it in the plain de- 
 claration of the text. We are there told of 
 a " Seal/' which belongs to that '^ founda- 
 '' tion of God," upon which all hopes 
 of salvation must be built. That Seal 
 has two inscriptions; one asserting God's 
 knowledge and observance of those whom 
 He has pleased to denominate '^ his/' the 
 other clearly indicating the character that 
 must distinguish all, who would cherish a 
 well-grounded hope that they are of that 
 number. And what is that character ? 
 That they should " depart from iniquity ;" 
 that they should renounce every thing evil 
 in principle and practice, and consequent- 
 ly, that they should devote themselves to 
 the service of Christ in godliness and vir- 
 tue. I say consequently, because the active 
 mind of man will necessarily be occupied 
 either well or ill ; because it would be ab- 
 surd to suppose, that the Apostle was 
 recommending that wretched indolence 
 which is the parertt of every thing that is 
 bad ; and because our Lord has expressly 
 declared, that ^^ every tree that bringeth 
 '' not forth good fruit shall be cut down 
 
 c c 
 
386 SERMON VIII. 
 
 *' and cast into the fire""." When there- 
 fore the Seal of God's Elect is said to have 
 this inscription, " Let every one that nam- 
 '' eth the name of Christ depart from ini- 
 *' quity," the meaning is, that he should 
 not only ^' cease to do evil, but learn to do 
 '^ well ;" that he should not only abstain 
 from vice, but practise virtue. 
 
 The coincidence then of God's Election 
 and moral integrity of conduct is, I con- 
 ceive, conspicuous and decided; and no 
 man has the least shadow of ground to 
 suppose himself an object of the former, 
 who does not in his life prove himself un- 
 der the influence of the latter. '^ The foun- 
 " dation of God" indeed '' standeth sure;'^ 
 no violence can shake it, no fraud can un- 
 dermine it ; and upon this foundation the 
 faithful Christian may build a steadfast 
 hope of acceptance with his Maker; but 
 not unless it has the right seal, nor unless 
 that seal has both its inscriptions. As it 
 would be extreme folly to rest our claim to 
 heaven upon a presumptuous estimate of 
 our own merit, so will it little better avail 
 n» Matt. vii. 19. 
 
SERMON VIII. 387 
 
 us in a feigned humility to rely upon a fan- 
 cied election of our persons. Election and 
 obedience are indissolubly united by the 
 will and word of God ; and he who endea- 
 vours to " put them asunder," endeavours 
 to do that which will inevitably terminate 
 in his own destruction. Whatever raptures 
 of devotion a man may be favoured with, 
 whatever feelings he may experience, how- 
 ever ardent his zeal, and however strong 
 his faith, still if he have not this mark,, if 
 he do not *^ depart from iniquity," he is 
 not one of God's Elect. He has not built 
 upon the ^^ right foundation ;" the basis of 
 his house is not '' the rock of ages"," but 
 ^'the sand" upon the sea-shore; and when 
 ^^ storms" arise against it, and its stability 
 is to be tried, it will be swept away like the 
 chaff before the wind ^ He alone can hope 
 to stand without dismay before the tribu- 
 nal which must assign him his portion for 
 eternity, who acknowledging that he has 
 no reliance upon any thing but the free 
 mercy of God in Christ, yet makes it his 
 endeavour to show that he has not received 
 
 " Is. xxvi 4. margin. « Matt. vii. 26. 
 
 C C 2 
 
388 SERMON VIII. 
 
 the grace of the Gospel in vain, by follow- 
 ing its directions, obeying its precepts, and 
 conforming himself in truth and sincerity 
 to all its holy ordinances. 
 
 The way then is now clear for taking 
 into consideration the last point which was 
 proposed, the effect namely, which the 
 character of this doctrine given in Scrip- 
 ture may have either in discountenancing 
 or encouraging sound morals and pure 
 religion. That it cannot discountenance 
 them must be evident at once, because we 
 have seen that our Saviour invariably 
 unites God's Election with departure from 
 evil and conversion to holiness. Indeed 
 were we allowed to reason upon this sub- 
 ject, we might naturally conclude from the 
 attributes of God himself, that all, whom 
 He elected, must be endued with piety 
 and virtue ; that a God perfectly good and 
 holy could choose for the objects of his 
 peculiar favour those alone, who had some 
 portion at least of that righteousness which 
 was essential to Him. But as it is unneces- 
 sary, so it is not altogether safe, to build 
 any thing on our reasoning with respect to 
 
SERMON VIII. 389 
 
 this question. When, however, the Scrip- 
 ture is so express, that '' without holiness 
 " no man shall see the Lord ;" and when 
 it is said in direct terms, that ^^ nothing un- 
 *' clean shall enter into the New Jerusa- 
 ^' lem," it is impossible to admit that any 
 doctrine delivered in Scripture can have 
 the most distant tendency to encourage 
 any but the purest morals. Be it, that the 
 Elect alone shall ultimately be partakers 
 of the Divine mercy. What then } When 
 we are told by Him, who is ordained to as- 
 sign every man his portion at the last day, 
 that the ^* righteous^' only shall have a 
 share in the happiness of heaven p, is it not 
 clear, that the righteous and the elect must 
 be the same persons, and that none can be 
 elect, who are not also righteous? When 
 again we are informed by him who '' was 
 " caught up into the third heaven ^" that 
 '' no fornicator or adulterer, no thief or 
 <^ drunkard, no reviler or extortioner" 
 shall inherit the kingdom of God, but they 
 alone who are '' washed, and sanctified, 
 " and justified," not only " in the name of 
 
 P Matt. XXV. 46. q 2 Cor. xii. 4. 
 
 C C 3 
 
390 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ^* the Lord Jesus," but " by the Spirit of 
 ^' God%" we must be blind, if we do not 
 see, and worse than blind if we do not 
 acknowledge, that a clean heart and pure 
 hands, upright intentions and correspond- 
 ent actions, are indispensable to those, 
 who look to being accepted by their hea- 
 venly Father. If no fornicator and no 
 drunkard, if no reviler and no extortioner 
 can be admitted into heaven, it is clear 
 that neither fornicator nor drunkard, nor 
 reviler nor extortioner, can be among the 
 Elect of God. 
 
 Yet it must be confessed that this doc- 
 trine has been abused to the support of 
 opinions and practices at once detestable 
 before God and most destructive to man. 
 And what doctrine of the Gospel has not 
 been abused .^ Even its purity and spiritu- 
 ality have been wickedly wrested to coun- 
 tenance the vilest carnality; and its very 
 charity has been converted into an engine 
 of robbing the honest of their property, to 
 feed the rapacity of the ruffian. Human 
 corruption can pollute the very sanctuary 
 
 r 1 Cor. vi. i), 10, 11. 
 
SERMON VIII. 391 
 
 of the Almighty. While ^Ho the pure all 
 ^' things are pure," and tend to make 
 them yet more pure; to 'Hhem that are 
 " defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, 
 ^' but even their mind and conscience is 
 *' defiled^;" and where the mind and con- 
 science are defiled, they will defile every 
 thing with which they come in contact. 
 Even that faith itself upon which all our 
 hopes depend; that precious '^ faith" by 
 which alone ^' the just" themselves ^' shall 
 '' liveV' even that has been abused, not 
 only to the dishonour of God's Law, but 
 in defiance of the authority of that very 
 Saviour, on whom it affects to be placed. 
 Nothing therefore of this kind should dis- 
 turb us, nor should it be any prejudice 
 against a Scripture doctrine that it has 
 been mistated and misrepresented. No 
 doctrine of Scripture can really be at va- 
 riance with the moral law of God, as He 
 has himself revealed it ; though the specu- 
 lations of men, both in regard to this law it- 
 self, and to the other truths of Revelation, 
 may often be altogether irreconcileable. 
 
 s Titus i. 15. tRom. 1.17. 
 
 C C 4 
 
392 SERMON VIII. 
 
 And thus it has happened in the present 
 case. The Election of God runs parallel 
 with obedience to his Law; but the elec- 
 tion of man has deviated widely from that 
 line. It has introduced into this subject 
 the most unhappy errors, and the most 
 perplexing intricacies. But the principal 
 of them, and the causes possibly whence 
 others may have arisen, will be compre- 
 hended, I presume, in the consideration of 
 the three following mistakes : 
 
 Election has been represented, first, 
 as being irrespective ; secondly, as being 
 known to the individuals elected, previous 
 to and independent of their obedience to 
 the precepts of the Gospel; and thirdly, 
 as affording ground to suppose, that grace 
 once conferred will never be withdrawn. 
 
 That irrespective Election, that is, Elec- 
 tion without regard to the differences of 
 moral character amongst men, is not the 
 doctrine of Scripture, has appeared, I 
 should hope, from the instances already 
 produced. From observing those indivi- 
 duals, who in this world seemed most 
 largely to have shared the favour of God, 
 
SERMON VIII. 393 
 
 and who on that account may be supposed 
 most hkely to have been received into his 
 mercy in heaven, we may collect with as- 
 surance, that the Almighty, in selecting 
 the objects of his particular regard, had re- 
 spect to their moral character, to the ho- 
 nesty and integrity of their hearts. If they 
 were distinguished by the peculiar favour 
 of God, they were clearly better qualified 
 than others to be so distinguished. Nor 
 does this in any manner or degree diminish 
 the freedom of God's grace, or put a con- 
 straint upon his proceedings. All, it is 
 confessed, were unworthy of his benevo- 
 lence ; all had incurred his displeasure, 
 and were obnoxious to punishment for 
 their sins. None therefore had any right 
 to his favour, none had any claim to his 
 regard ; and if that favour were bestowed 
 upon any, it would be bestowed by the 
 free bounty of God. But though all were 
 unworthy, it does not follow that all were 
 equally unworthy ; though all were ob- 
 noxious to punishment, it does not follow, 
 that the guilt of all was the same either in 
 kind or degree. And yet further : even 
 
394 SERMON VIII. 
 
 where the guilt was equal, and even in 
 cases where one man had committed 
 crimes of a deeper dye and a more atro- 
 cious character than another, yet the dis- 
 position might be better in one than an- 
 other; the more guilty might be sooner 
 and more deeply touched with a sense of 
 his criminality, than the one who had 
 sinned less perhaps, but had never repent- 
 ed of his sin. The circumstances of men 
 likewise are so incalculably various, that in 
 all their bearings they can be known only 
 to the eye of the Omniscient. Thus the 
 same sins are not always attended with the 
 same guilt in different men ; for they may 
 have been committed under such very dif- 
 ferent circumstances, as to render one a 
 fit object of rigid justice, and the other of 
 grace and mercy. Even in our confined 
 view the seducer and the seduced are in- 
 volved in very different degrees of guilt, 
 though both partakers of the same actual 
 crime. But to God all the varieties of cha- 
 racter, all the advantages and disadvan- 
 tages of education, all the difficulties of 
 situation, and all the trials to which men 
 
SERMON VIII. 395 
 
 have been respectively exposed, are com- 
 pletely known, and justly and mercifully 
 weighed. Of the great body of men, thus 
 wholly undeserving of his goodness, He 
 chooses certainly those whom He thinks 
 proper; but He always thinks proper to 
 choose those who, under all circumstances, 
 are the fittest objects of his choice. It 
 might be presumed indeed, that a holy and 
 wise God would do so ; and were men as 
 humble as they ought to be, it would be 
 a sufficient proof of the rectitude of the 
 choice, that Almighty God had made it. 
 That rectitude we shall, one day, no doubt, 
 see clearly ; and even now, as far as we do 
 see, it is plainly discernible. Good cha- 
 racter is neither an obstacle to the favour 
 of our Maker, nor is it overlooked in the 
 bestowing of that favour. Of this, I think, 
 we have an opportunity of judging in two 
 very remarkable instances ; I mean, Judas 
 Iscariot and St. Peter. Both sinned griev- 
 ously ; they renounced their Saviour after 
 all the kindness He had shown them, and 
 all the instructions He had given them. 
 But while one was left to perish in his ini- 
 
396 SERMON VIII. 
 
 quity, the other was saved by the gracious 
 extension of the Divine mercy on his be- 
 half. Had that mercy not been extended, 
 there is no doubt that Peter must have pe- 
 rished as well as Judas. Our Saviour tells 
 us, that Satan had desired to have all the 
 Apostles to '^ sift them like wheat," and 
 that their preservation was owing to his 
 intercession ^ That intercession alone, it 
 must surely be acknowledged, rescued Pe- 
 ter from sharing in the perdition of Isca- 
 riot; but it must be acknowledged also, 
 that there is in the characters of the two 
 men, as delineated in Scripture, a plain 
 and striking difference. The character of 
 Iscariot was that of a close designing hy- 
 pocrite; one, who steadily kept his eye on 
 his own interest, and pursued it, without 
 either regard to the means by which his 
 object was to be obtained, or any feeling 
 of compunction for the injustice of which 
 he might be guilty ; one, who never suffer- 
 ed his passions to get the better of that 
 self-command which was necessary for the 
 accomplishment of his purpose, except pcr- 
 
 t Luke xxii. 31, 32. 
 
SERMON VIII. 397 
 
 haps once, when he lost an opportunity of 
 converting to his own use a sum of money, 
 which the piety of Mary had expended on 
 the person of her Redeemer. How differ- 
 ent from this was the character of St. Pe- 
 ter! Perfectly honest and straight- forward, 
 free from even the appearance of guile, 
 warmly attached to his Master, and re- 
 quiring rather to be checked than encou- 
 raged in his zeal for his service, he devoted 
 himself to that service without reserve, with 
 an entire purpose of steadfastly adhering 
 to it, and without any self-interested views 
 of avarice or ambition. But the warmth 
 of his temper betrayed him into indiscre- 
 tion and difficulty ; and though his pur- 
 pose was honest, yet while he at one time 
 pursued it with too much heat, he was lia- 
 ble, from the very constitution of his na- 
 ture, to fall into an equal depression at an- 
 other. But the great point of contrast be- 
 tween these two men is this; that though 
 both sinned, and sinned deeply, yet the 
 one sinned coolly and deliberately, and 
 from the influence of a temptation despi- 
 cably small ; the other fell through weak- 
 
398 SERMON VIII. 
 
 ness, and from the fear of a great and im- 
 minent danger. The one was a h^'pocrite, 
 decidedly hardened in vice; the other was 
 honest though weak, upright in his pur- 
 pose, though unstable in its execution. 
 Here then was surely a great moral differ- 
 ence of character; and though it was un- 
 doubtedly not such as could claim even a 
 discharge from punishment at God's hand, 
 yet we see, in point of fact, that the Elec- 
 tion did light upon the person whose cha- 
 racter was best upon the whole. Though 
 it was an unmerited, it was not an irre- 
 spective Election ; and, I believe, it will be 
 found, upon a due examination of every 
 other instance as well as this, that the doc- 
 trine of irrespective Election has no founda- 
 tion in the word of God, that it is an inven- 
 tion of man, not a revelation from heaven. 
 
 Another source of error on this subject 
 has been the notion, that the individuals 
 elected may know their election previous 
 to and independent of their obedience to 
 the precepts of the Gospel. How this great 
 error came first to be entertained it is dif- 
 ficult to say, but most decidedly there is 
 
SERMON VIII. 399 
 
 no ground for it in Scripture. There is, 
 no doubt, in that Scripture frequent men- 
 tion of the Elect, of the children of God, 
 of the heirs of salvation ; and it is said 
 plainly, that God knows them ; but it is 
 nowhere said, that they are known to man. 
 We live in this world by faith and hope, 
 not by knowledge; but if we know pre- 
 cisely beforehand what our condition in the 
 next world will be, then we live by know- 
 ledge, and not by faith. Faith and hope 
 may certainly be sometimes weaker, and 
 sometimes stronger, and they may be con- 
 stantly weaker or stronger in some than 
 others ; and according to the state of our 
 faith and hope, our anticipations of future 
 happiness may be either more or less live- 
 ly : but an actual knowledge of our future 
 lot is inconsistent with the very nature of 
 our present condition. And in point of 
 fact, it does not appear that any one of 
 those, of whom we have the best reason to 
 think that they are now in heaven, was as- 
 sured of his Election before his actual ad- 
 mission into the abode of just men made 
 perfect. Even St. Paul, whose example 
 
400 SERMON VIII. 
 
 and whose doctrine are so often quoted in 
 sujDport of this opinion, never speaks of 
 himself as sure of his final acceptance, till 
 he could say at the same time, that his dis- 
 solution was at hand. Before that, he al- 
 ways represents himself as anxious about 
 his salvation, as labouring to secure it, as 
 watchful lest the wiles of Satan should rob 
 him of his reward. But supposing in this 
 single instance it could be made out, which 
 it cannot, that St. Paul knew himself to be 
 elected to everlasting life, what would this 
 be to us? Would it follow, that because 
 St. Paul, who was the authorized messen- 
 ger to bear the name of Christ to the Gen- 
 tiles, who was empowered to prove and 
 support his commission by the most stu- 
 pendous miracles, who was guided by the 
 Holy Spirit into all necessary truth, and 
 was carried ^* up to the third heaven, and 
 '^ there heard unutterable things;" would 
 it follow, that because such a man was fa- 
 voured with an assurance of salvation, to 
 support him in all his labours, his suffer- 
 ings, and his difficulties, therefore every 
 . ordinary Christian was to expect the same 
 
SERMON VIII. 401 
 
 thing? Not surely in any thing like fairness 
 of reasoning. But after all, what does the 
 declaration of the Apostle amount to, when 
 he was about to leave the world, and look- 
 ed to the crown of righteousness that was 
 prepared for him? Does he rest his as- 
 surance of this crown on his Election ? No : 
 but looking back upon his exertions in the 
 cause of the Gospel, upon the fight he had 
 fought, upon the course he had finished, 
 and upon the faith he had kept, he exults, 
 as any good man in his circumstances 
 might exult, at the prospect of that re- 
 ward, " which the righteous Judge would 
 '* give him at the day of retribution,. . . . 
 " and not to him only, but to all who love 
 ^* His appearing"." What is there here, 
 upon which any man can build a presump- 
 tuous assurance of his own final accept- 
 ance ? Nothing. When he has fought the 
 good fight with St. Paul, when he has fi- 
 nished his course, and at the end of that 
 course can say that he has kept the faith, 
 then indeed his hope may rise into exulta- 
 tion, like St. Paul's, and the Spirit of God 
 
 " 2 Tim. iv, 6, 7, 8. * 
 
 Dd 
 
402 ^ SERMON VIII. 
 
 will approve it; but his eternal portion 
 must remain to be assigned by that Judge 
 whom the Almighty has appointed. 
 
 There is yet another misconception on 
 this subject, upon which a brief examina- 
 tion must be bestowed. An opinion has 
 been grounded upon this doctrine, that 
 grace once given will never be withdrawn, 
 and where Faith has once existed, it can 
 never fail. This opinion is directly contrary 
 to the plain declarations and plain examples 
 of Scripture. True it is, that the faith of 
 the Elect will never fail, and that the grace 
 given to them will ultimately prevail. But 
 who are the Elect ? We have seen already, 
 that however they may be known to God, 
 they are not known to man, and that it is 
 inconsistent with the very condition of man 
 here to know his own election. Though 
 therefore the faith of the Elect will not fail, 
 yet as no man can know certainly of him- 
 self whether he be elect or not, no man 
 can know certainly whether his faith may 
 not fail ^. And it is to such a state as this 
 that all the exhortations and admonitions, 
 X See Launcelot Ridley on Ephesians. 
 
SERMON VIII. 403 
 
 all the promises and threatenings of the 
 Gospel are addressed ; that is, to the real 
 condition of man in this world, a condition, 
 in which no one can hope to stand firm 
 in faith or obedience, without care, atten- 
 tion, and diligence. Ezekiel tells us plain- 
 ly, of a '^ righteous man,'' who, forsaking 
 his righteousness and dying in iniquity, 
 perished in that iniquity y. Our Saviour 
 says, that some, in whom the good seed 
 had been sown, suffered it to be caught 
 away by the devil, some lost it by the fear 
 of persecution, some permitted it to be 
 choked by the cares and the deceitfulness 
 of riches; while they alone retained it, who 
 cherished it so as to bring forth abundant 
 fruit ^. Yet it was the same seed in all, 
 and sown by the same hand. But St. Paul 
 is most express on this subject, exhorting 
 the Christians of his day to take " example" 
 by the Jews, and not to, fall by the same 
 pattern '' of unbelief'' :" and warning them 
 earnestly, that '' if after they were made 
 " partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had 
 
 y Ezekiel xviii. 24. ^ Mark iv. 14 — 20. 
 
 '^ Heb. iv, 11. 
 
 r)d 2 
 
404 SERMON VIII. 
 
 '* tasted the good word of God, and the 
 *' powers of the world to come, they should 
 '' fall away, it was impossible to renew 
 ^' them again by repentance^." That they 
 might fall away was therefore, in the Apo- 
 stle's mind, not an impossible thing; it was 
 a danger against which he thought fit to 
 warn them, and therefore it was a danger 
 to which he thought them exposed. 
 
 These errors being thus removed from 
 the doctrine under consideration, the doc- 
 trine itself will be found to have nothing in 
 it that can in any degree have an unfa- 
 vourable effect upon morals and religion; 
 rather, as it is represented in Scripture, it 
 will be seen to tend directly to their sup- 
 port and encouragement. It is to this pur- 
 pose that our Lord himself and his Apo- 
 stles apply it. St. Paul tells us to " work 
 " out our salvation with fear and trembling," 
 for this reason, becavise " God works in us 
 '' to will and to do of his good pleasure';" 
 that is, because God by his Spirit puts 
 into our hearts good designs, and gives us 
 strength to execute them, therefore we 
 
 b Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. c PhiHp. ji. 12, 13. 
 
SERMON VIII. 405 
 
 should exert ourselves with a correspond- 
 ent*energy on our part, lest this Divine fa- 
 vour should have been bestowed upon us 
 in vain. St. Peter exhorts us to '^ make our 
 '^ calling and election sure"^;'' that is, be- 
 cause we are called and elected, therefore 
 we should be careful so to improve this fore- 
 taste of the Divine mercy, so to make use of 
 this talent committed to our charge, as not 
 finally to lose that glory and happiness, to 
 which it was intended to lead. St. Peter 
 here uses the words ^' calling and election," 
 in the same sense, for that vocation by 
 which those he was addressing became 
 Christians, and his object was to prevail 
 upon them by diligence in the practice of 
 virtue, to take care that this external elec- 
 tion might not fail of being ratified by the 
 decision of Christ. But the vise to be made 
 of this doctrine, as an encouragement to 
 pure religion and sound morals, is best il- 
 lustrated by our Saviour himself The hu- 
 man mind is ever curious to pry into the 
 secrets of futurity, and from this infirmity 
 the first disciples were not exempt. They 
 
 d 2 Peter i. 10. 
 D d 3 
 
406 SERMON VIII. 
 
 therefore asked their Master, what was the 
 number of those who should be sat^ed. 
 That He knew they were convinced; for 
 they had often heard Flim talk in a way, 
 which made it evident that eternity was 
 open to his view. But what was his an- 
 swer? Not such as to gratify their curio- 
 sity; not such as to give even themselves 
 an assurance that they were in the num- 
 ber; but an earnest and awakening ex- 
 hortation, that no care, no pains, no in- 
 dustry should be wanting on their part, to 
 do what v\^as required of them. '' Strive^'' 
 says He, ''to enter in at the strait gate: 
 ^' for many, I say unto you, shall seek to 
 " enter in, but shall not be able'." His 
 answer is at once a reproof to their curio- 
 sity, and an awful admonition against se- 
 curity. They had heard Him frequently 
 talk of the Elect, and who so likely to be 
 those Elect as they; and perhaps in this 
 question some little expectation might lurk 
 of a gratifying assurance in their favour. 
 But their Lord thought fit to give their 
 n)inds another bent, and, instead of a cer- 
 
 «= Luke xiii. 23, 24. 
 
SERMON VIII. 407 
 
 tain promise of personal safety, which might 
 cherish their indolence, to command them,- 
 and in them all who should believe by their 
 means, to remember, that the only way to 
 obtain a share in the blessings of the Gos- 
 pel, the only way to make their calling and 
 election, as inheritors of the kingdom of 
 heaven, sure, was to be eminently diligent, 
 and honestly punctual in the performance 
 of their puty. 
 
 D d 4 
 
APPENDIX TO SERM. VIII. 
 
 With regard to the important doctrine of 
 God's Election, I know nothing, in a small com- 
 pass, better calculated to teach the young stu- 
 dent both to think and speak with a becoming 
 modesty and with all attainable accuracy upon 
 this delicate subject, than the opinion delivered 
 by the learned Bishop Andrews on the Lambeth 
 Articles, and his " Censura Censurse D. Barreti 
 " de certitudine salutis." I have therefore re- 
 printed both these Tracts, together with a short 
 account of the origin of those Articles, from a 
 copy annexed to a Defence of the Articles of the 
 Church of England by Dr. John Ellis, formerly 
 Rector of Dolgelly, in the county of Merioneth. 
 An account of Barret and the proceedings against 
 him will be found in Heylin's Quinquarticular 
 History, p. iii. c. 20. p. 6l8. If the young stu- 
 dent will take the trouble of carefully comparing 
 the Lambeth Articles with our XVI. and XVII. 
 he will be impressed, I think, with a strong sense 
 of the difference between the soberness of truth 
 and the presumption of error; and will attain 
 
410 APPENDIX TO SERMON VIII. 
 
 perhaps a more correct idea of the genuine pur- 
 port of the last controverted article, than he can 
 receive from the laboured expositions of decided 
 partisans on either side. 
 
ARTICULI LAMBETHANI: 
 
 ID EST, 
 
 I. Articulornim LamhetlicB exhibitonim Historia. 
 
 II. Articidi de PrcEdestinatione, et annexis capltibus a 
 D. IVldtakero Lambethce propositi. 
 
 III. lidem prout ab Episcopis Tlieologisque concepti et 
 admissi. 
 
 IV. Lanceloti Andrews tov hccju Wintoniensis Episcopi^ 
 de Synodo oblatis Articulis judimmi ; una cum ejusdem 
 Censura Censurce D. Barreti, de Certitudine Salutis. 
 
 Articulorum Lambethae exhibitorum Historia. 
 
 XN Academla Cantabrigiensi illustria sunt duo munera 
 Theologica; alterum vocatur Regium, Henricum VIII. 
 autorem praeferens : alterum a Margareta, matre Hen- 
 rici VII. institutum, ab ejus nomine appellatur. 
 
 Accidit, ut eodem tempore Theologiam docerent, in 
 Regio Whitakerus, et in D. Margaretae, Petrus Bare. 
 Whitakerus, vir rarse eruditionis (ac proinde magnum 
 allaturus momentum^ quocunque se tulisset) diu in Pa- 
 trum lectione versatus, tandem^ sen quia affinitate de- 
 lapsus erat^ in familiam Genevensibus magistris addic- 
 tiorem, sive alia quacunque de causa, totum se istis par- 
 tibus dedit. 
 
 Atque inter alias sententias quae Calvini et Bezae au- 
 thoritate maxime nituntur, urgere coepit dogma abso- 
 liitcB Prcedestinat'ionis ; tale scil. quod majorem hominum 
 partem a Christi redemptione et gratia sufficienti ex in- 
 tentione Dei et Christi penitus excludit. Et quasi pa- 
 rum cruda esset baec sententia, si in massce corruptee 
 consideratione consisteret, ipse ad massam incorruptcun 
 
 =* Prima ejus uxor fuit D. Culverwelli filia, mercatoris Bnrdif^aleusis, 
 sed Angli ct Loiidinousis. Secunda fuit 1). Fcuucri rclicta, illius Fcu- 
 ncri qui tarn atrocitcr dobacdiatus est in Statum Ecdesiasticum Angli- 
 canum et professionc Miiii^tcrii proptcrea abiit. 
 
412 Articidonim LamhethcE 
 
 voluit assurgere, Augustinum culpans hoc nomine, quod 
 dixisset ; Prcedestinationis caiissam quceri et non inveniri: 
 re])robatio)iis vero caussam qucBri et inveyiiri. Reproba- 
 tionem vero banc factam in massa nondiim comipta di- 
 cebat Whitakerus non esse pure negativam, sed affirma- 
 tionem includere. Hoc enim esse dccretwn et volun- 
 tatem Dei, quo homines tarn multi in exitium ruant 
 aeternum. 
 
 At Petrus Baro, forsan et ante re perpensa, certe istis 
 Whitakeri paradoxis incitatus ut in omne hoc argu- 
 mentum diligentius inquireret, inter opiniones diversis- 
 simas, nullam putavit esse probabiliorem ea, quam in 
 Germania Melanchthon, in Dania Hemmingius, in 
 Frisia Snecanus defenderunt: sc\\. Jidei prccscientiam 
 ordine statuit priorem PrcBdestinatione, quomodo sen- 
 sisse ac docuisse Patres veteres ante Augustinum, ip- 
 sumque adeo Augustinum priusquam cum Pelagio con- 
 tenderet, testes faciebat ipsos Patres et Bezam id ipsum 
 confitentem. 
 
 Prcedestinationis controversiam sequebantur aliae duae 
 (si tamen duae dicendee sint, cum altera alteram post se 
 necessario trahat) 1. de amissione graticB; 2. de certitii- 
 dine ac securitate salutis. Amitti miex A\xm Jidem et gra- 
 tiam justificantem statuebat Baro, negante Whitakero. 
 Certitudinem ponebat spei iWeyhic Jidei, et absolutam non 
 conditionatam, 
 
 Aperuit autem banc suam sententiam Baro turn prse- 
 cipue, cum Jonam Prophetam interpretaretur. 
 
 Cum Professorum disputatio (ut fit) juventutem diu 
 in partes traxisset, Whitakerus tandem Londinum pro- 
 fectus, Whitgiftum Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem ad- 
 it : monet concuti Pelagiano dogmate Academiam, et 
 ni mature obviam eatur, apertum dissidium, nee prae- 
 sentius ullum remedium, quam ut Theses 9. quas ipse 
 conceperat, Antistitum aliquot judicio comprobatse Can- 
 tabrigiam mitterentur. 
 
 Ita autem erant conscriptae Theses, ut prudentiam 
 viri facile agnosceres verborum tenore exquisito, qui 
 posset etiam a non mediocriter dissidentibus, pacis stu- 
 dio approbari, ab ipso autem facilllmc postea ad sufe 
 scntcnticc confirmationem traherotur. Fit conventus 
 
eochibitonim Historia. 413 
 
 Antistitum, et Theologorum baud magno numero, 
 mense Novembri An. Dom. 1595. et cum in tarn per- 
 plexo argumento non eadem omnibus placerent, dis- 
 putatur aliquandiu. Ultimo forte die aberant unus et 
 alter^ qui a Whitakeri sententia longissime dissidebant : 
 ita prsevaluere alii. Et Whitgiftus^ princeps ejus con- 
 ventus, etsi Whitakeri dogmata minime probabat^ facili- 
 tate tamen et metu discordise, cum suam probare aliis 
 non posset, factus est ipse alienee sententise accessio. 
 Non tamen eisdem verbis probatse Whitakeri asser- 
 tiones, quibus ipse proposuit, sed ita mutatee voces quae- 
 dam et phrases, ut dissidentis ab ipso judicii magna ves- 
 tigia appareant. 
 
 Transmissai Cantabrigian! hae Theses ; et Whitakerus 
 victorem se ferens, parta facile sine adversario palma, 
 intimum Reginse Consiliis et autoritatis in Regno pri- 
 marise virum^^ cui et in Academiam peculiaris compe- 
 tebat inspectio, convenit, atque ei, quid in Conventu 
 gestum sit, narrat, ipsasque Theses, ita ut ab Episcopis 
 probatse erant, ostendit. 
 
 At magnus ille vir (qua erat prudentia) facile intelli- 
 gens, periculosas esse definitiones in controversiis adeo 
 decertatis, vehementer factum hoc omne improbavit; 
 dixitque effecturum ut ejus au tores consilii sui poeni- 
 teret. Nee fefellit promissi fidem. Reginam quippe 
 convenit, ac gravi oratione demonstrate in his quae ad 
 statum religionis pertinent, per Anglias leges neminem 
 posse nisi ex autoritate Reginse, et quidem accedente 
 Parliamenti consensu, quicquam decernere : neque id 
 frustra institutum. Magnum enim esse in animos hu- 
 manos regnum Religionis, et facillime eo obtentu in 
 partes iri et factiones. At nunc paucos Theologos ausos 
 decreta facere de gravissimis quaestionibus, super quibus 
 multis jam a seculis inter eruditissima ingenia conveniri 
 nunquam potuerit. Neque obscurum quo tenderent 
 qui hoc impetrassent : nam eos ita existimare atque do- 
 cere, Quicquid gereretur rerum humananim, bonum id ma- 
 lumve esset, id omne constringi lege immiitabilis decreti ; 
 ipsis quoqiie horninum voluntatibns heme impositam neces- 
 sitatenn, ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent. 
 
 »' D. Burl. Acad. Cant. Cancel]. 
 
414 Articulornm Lambethco 
 
 Quae si vera (inquit) sunt, Domina Augustissima, frus- 
 tra ego aliique fideles imtjestatis tucc ministri, quid in re 
 quaque opus sit facto, quid ex usu futurum sit et Regni 
 et tuo, suspensa diu consilia versamus, cum de his quaB 
 eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio. 
 Regina et ipsa commota, Archiepiscopum acciri jubet et 
 (ut erat citra majestatis dispendium festiva) magnas 
 (inquit) te opes congerere audio (Whitgifte) et vis me, 
 ut opinor, divitem facere. Ille quid sibi vellet sermo 
 tarn inopinatus non satis intelligens, opes (inquit) sunt 
 non nimis magnse, sed tamen quantsecunque sunt (Do- 
 mina) tuas crede. Tu vero (inquit Regina) officiose te 
 loqui existimas, at ego quod offers jam meum esse Regni 
 legibus contendo, incidisti enim in ^ Prcemiodre. Tum 
 de assertionibus Lambethanis disserere incipit. Archi- 
 episcopus jam tandem videns quo Regina tenderet, non 
 banc (ait) suam Collegarumque mentem fuisse^ ut quic- 
 quam sine publica autboritate decernerent, aut soli Ca- 
 nones facerent, sed pacis consilium a se Professoribus 
 datum, ne privata certamina in malum publicum erum- 
 perent. Aderant Reginas Consiliarii qui VVhitgiftum 
 urgent acriter; in ipsoConventu peccatum, quod incon- 
 sulta Regina indictus esset, et paci rectius consuli po- 
 tulsse, si judicium sibi integrum servassent Antistites. 
 Et quorsum missas Cantabrigiam Assertiones Episco- 
 porum, nisi ut Canonis quandam praeferrent speciem. 
 Adeone molestum semel convenire Reginam de negotio 
 tot per dies disceptato ? Deinde ad quaestionem de Fato 
 prolabuntur, et dogma (ut ipsis videbatur) bonis mori- 
 bus, reique publiccE adversum graviter exagitant. Exitus 
 hie fuit, ut facti inconsulti veniam precaretur Archiepis- 
 copus, ac promitteret Cantabrigiam se scripturum, ut 
 premerentur Lambethana? Assertiones, ne qua in pub- 
 licam notitiam emanarent. Quod et praestitit. Sed 
 multo post (ut videtur) repertum inter Whitakeri sche- 
 das, aut alibi, exemplum effecit, ut autoribus invitis lioc 
 opus prorumperet. 
 
 *= Est Preemunire lex Angliae vetns, a Richardo, ut croditnr, secnudo 
 sancita, quae vctat ecclesiasticos homines plus sibi autlioiitatis anogaro, 
 quam retrni moribus ipsis doboatur; hac addita poena, ut qui contra 
 faxit career! mancipetur, quamdiu princi'pi placeat ; bona tisco addi- 
 cantur. 
 
exhibitormn Historia. 41 5 
 
 Post factas has Assertiones Baro et in professione et 
 in sententia mansit ; Whitakerus vita ereptus est paucis 
 post Lambethanum Conventum diebus. Baro deinde 
 elapso triennii spatio (nam vetere institute in illius le- 
 ctura triennalis est professio) professione abiit, et in 
 privata se studia recondidit. 
 
 Post illos duosj inter quos contentio orta erat, pro- 
 fessor Regius factus est eruditissimus vir Joannes Overal. 
 Is banc secutus est dicendi rationem, quae statuit Gra- 
 tiam siifficientem offerri singidis hominibus, et Christum 
 pro singulis mortuum: in omni bono prior es esse gratica 
 partes, posteriores liberi arbitrii a gratia informata ; sed 
 gratiam operari 7nodis inexplicabilibiis, non tamen ad actus 
 singidos naturalem in modiim determinando : gratiam vero 
 justificantem, cum peccatis capitalibus ante actam pceni- 
 tentiam non consist ere. 
 
 Ad Prcedestinationis difficileni admodum controver- 
 siam quod attinet, ita sibi temperabat, ut nee priorem, 
 nee posteriorem Augustini sententiam damnaret; quip- 
 pe quas judicaret ipse non admodum hostiliter inter se 
 dissidere; praesertim cum ipse Augustinus post ortum 
 cum Pelagio certamen scripserit^ eadem se tunc credere 
 quseolim credidisset, cum Manichaeos oppugnaret, neque 
 tarn sententiam se nunc mutasse, quam loquendi genus. 
 
 Quid postea regnante illustriss. Jacobo anno 1603. in 
 Hamptoniensi Curia actum sit, edito ea de re D. Bar- 
 lovii libello, palam est. Namque ibi D. Reynoldus et 
 qui cum ipso contra Episcopos constitere, inter caetera 
 quae ad puritatem Ecclesiae Anglicanse pertinere vehe- 
 menter existimabant, et illud postularunt, ut Assertiones 
 Lambethanae Confessioni insererentur. Minime vero 
 hoc impetrarunt, judicante Rege, ejusmodi definitioni- 
 bus parum ad pacem profici. 
 
 Articuli de Praedestinatione et annexis capitibus 
 a D Whitakero Lambethae propositi. 
 
 I. Deus ab aeterno praedestinavit quosdam ad vitam, et 
 quosdam ad mortem reprobavit. 
 
416 Articuli a D. Whitakero LamhetlKB propositi, 
 
 II. Caussa efficiens prsedestinationis non est praevisio 
 fidei, aut perseverantiae, aut bonorum operum, aut ul- 
 lius rei quae insit personis praedestinatis, sed sola, ab- 
 soluta et simplex voluntas Dei. 
 
 III. Praedestinatorum praefinitus et certus est numerus, 
 qui nee augeri nee minui potest. 
 
 IV. Qui non sunt praedestinati ad salutem, necessario 
 propter peccata condemnabuntur, 
 
 V. Vera, viva et justificans fides, et spiritus Dei sancti- 
 ficans non exstinguitur, non excidit, non evanescit in 
 lis qui semel ejus participes fuerunt, aut totaliter aut 
 finaliter. 
 
 VI. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide justificante praeditus, 
 certus est certitudine fidei, de remissione peccatorum 
 suorum et salute sempiterna sua per Christum. 
 
 VII. Gratia sufficiens ad salutem non tribuitur, non 
 communicatur, non conceditur universis horainibus, 
 qua servari possint, si velint. 
 
 VIII. Nemo potest venire ad Christum nisi datum ei 
 fuerit, et nisi Pater eum traxerit : et omnes homines 
 non trahuntur a Patre ut veniant ad Filium. 
 
 IX. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscu- 
 jusque hominis servari. 
 
 H(B omnes propositiones aut aperte positcB sunt in libro 
 Articuhrum, et semper in Ecclesia nostra approbatce. fue- 
 runt; aut ex Articulis necessaria consecutione deduci pos- 
 sunt. 
 
 Articuli LamhetlicB propositi Articuli Lambethcc propositi 
 
 prout a CI. V, D. Whita- prout ah Episcopis reli- 
 
 kei'o in ipsius autographo quisque Theologis concepti 
 
 concepti, Episcopis aliis- sunt, et de sensu, quo ad- 
 
 que Theologis Lambethce missisunt. 
 proponebantur, 
 
 I. I. 
 
 Deus ab cBterno prcedesti- Admissus est hie Articu- 
 
 navit qnosdam ad vitam, et lus totidem verbis. Nam si 
 
 quosdam ad morton repro- per primum (quosdam) in- 
 
 bavit, telligantur credentes ; per 
 
 secundum (quosdam) incre- 
 
Artiadi quo sensu a Theologis admissL 417 
 
 dulif lis hie non intenditur : sed est verissimus Arti- 
 cuius. 
 
 II. II. 
 
 Caiissa efficiens prcedesti- Caussa movens aut effi- 
 nationis non est pY£evis'io Ji- ciens prsedestinationis ad 
 dei, ant perseveranticB, ant vitam non est prcBvisio fidei 
 bonornm operum, ant idlius aut perse verantise^ aut bo- 
 rn qu(B insit personis prce- norum operum, aut alius 
 destinatis, sed sola et abso- rei, quae insit personis prae- 
 Inta et simplex voluntas Dei. destinatis ; sed sola volun- 
 tas beneplaciti Dei. Addi- 
 tur in hoc secundo Articulo a Lambethanis l^ Movens. 
 2° Ad vitam, 3° mutatur [sola, absoluta et simplex volun- 
 tas Dei] in [sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei ;] idque non sine 
 justa ratione. Caussa enim movens prsedestinationis ad 
 vitam J non est fides, sed meritum Christi, cum Deus ser- 
 vandis salutem destinavit non propter^dem, sed propter 
 Christum. Moventis vocabulum proprie merito conve- 
 nit : meritum autem est in obedientia Christi, non in 
 fide nostra. Additur [ad vitam^ quia licet prsedesti- 
 nationis ad mortem caussa sit prcevisio infidelitatis et im- 
 poenitentiae, adeoque alicujus rei quae insit personis 
 prsedestinatis ad mortem; tamen nulla est caussa prse- 
 destinationis ad vitam, nisi sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei. 
 Juxta illud Augustini; Prcedestinationis caussa qucsritur 
 et non invenitur ; reprobationis vero caussa qucBritur et in- 
 venitur ; [absoluta et simplex voluntas Dei] majus quid- 
 dam dicit, quam sola voluntas beneplaciti. Nam et con- 
 ditionalis voluntas est beneplaciti, et vult Deus nos recte 
 facere, si nos velimus ejus gratiae non deesse ; et pla- 
 cuit Deo servare singulos homines, si crcderent. 
 
 III. III. 
 PrcBdestinatorum prcefi- In hoc Articulo nihil mu- 
 
 nitus et certus est numerus, tatur : verissimus enim est 
 qui nee augeri nee minui si de prsescientia Dei intel- 
 potest, ligatur quae nunquam falli- 
 
 tur. Non enim plures vel 
 pauciores servantur quam Deus prsesciverit. 
 
 IV. IV. 
 
 Qui non sunt prcedestinoti In hoc Articulo nihil mu- 
 ad salutem, necessario pro- tatur: verissimus enim est; 
 
 E e 
 
418 Articuli quo sensu 
 
 pter peccata condemnabun- quia statult Deus non re- 
 tur, inittere peccata nm creden- 
 
 tibus. Quod si ita, banc 
 Thesim et priorem interpreteris, ut et peccata et damna- 
 tionem necessitate quadam ex ipsa praedestinatione de- 
 ducas atque ex ea fluere existimes, aperte Augustino, 
 Prospero, Fulgentio &c. contradicis, et cum Manichieis, 
 Deum peccati autorem necesse est facias, 
 
 V. ' . V'. . 
 
 Vera, viva etjiistijicans fi- Vera, viva et justificans fi- 
 des et Spiritus Dei sanctifi- des et Spiritus Dei sanctifi- 
 cans non exstinguitur, non cans non exstinguitur, non 
 excidit, non evanescit, in iis excidit5non evanescit,ine/e- 
 qui semel ejus participes ctis aut totaliter, aut Jinali- 
 fuerunt, aut totaliter aut fi- ter. In autographo Whita- 
 naliter. keri verba erant : [in iis qui 
 
 semel ejus participes fuerunf] 
 pro quibus a Lambetbanis substitutasunt [in electis'\ sensu 
 plane alio et ad mentem Augustini ; cum ilia in auto- 
 grapho sint ad mentem Calvini. Augustinus enim opi- 
 natus est, Veram Jidem qucB per dilectionem operatur, per 
 quam contingit adoptioy justijicatio et sanctijicatio, posse 
 et intercidi et amitti : Jidem vei'o esse commune donum 
 electis et reprobis, sed perseverantiam electis propriam, 
 Calvinus autem, Veram et justijicantem Jidem solis sal' 
 vandis et electis contingere, Et CI. V. D. Overal defen- 
 dit et in Academia et in Conventu Hamptoniensi jusfj^- 
 catum, si incidat in graviora peccata, antequam pceniten- 
 tiam agat, in statu esse damnationis : ibique contraria 
 sententia quae statuit, justificatum, etiamsi in peccata 
 graviora incidat, justijicatum tamen manere, a Regia Ma- 
 jestate damnata est : ita in hoc articulo nihil minus 
 quam Whitakeri sententia probata est. 
 
 VI. VI. 
 
 Homo verejidelis, id est, Homo vere fidelis, id est, 
 fide justificante prcBditus, Jide justificante praeditus, 
 certus est, certitudine fidei, certus est pleropJioria Jidei 
 de remissione peccatorum de remissione peccatorum 
 saorum et salute sempiterna suorum et salute sempiter- 
 sua per Christum. na sua per Christum. Ni- 
 
 hil hie mutatur, nisi quod 
 
a Theologis admissi, 419 
 
 pro [certitudine] substituitur vox Grcpca [plerophoria.] 
 Quidam autem ex theologis voluerunt, pro Jidei ple- 
 rophoria, reponi spei plerophoriam : verum eorum absen- 
 tia cum transigeretur negotium, effecit ut maneret vox 
 Jidei quam scripserat Whitakerus. Voce autem plero- 
 phoricB usi sunt, quia non designat plenam et ahsolutmn 
 certitudinem, qualis est scienticB vel principiorum Jidei, 
 (cum fides sit talium rerum, quarum non est evidentia 
 vel certa scientia) sed minorem quendam certitudinis 
 gradum, quippe cum etiam in judiciariis etjorensibus pro- 
 bationibus usurpetur. 
 
 Verissimus est hie articulus, si de certitvdine prcEsen- 
 thi status intelh'gatur; aut et'iam Juturi, sed conditionata. 
 Credit enim fidelis se credere, et credit credentem serva- 
 tum iri; credit etiam perseveraturum se; sed non una 
 omnino et eadem certitudine : quia certitudo hsec partim 
 nititur Dei promissionibus, qui nos tentari ultra vires 
 non patitur; partim pii propositi sinceritate, qua pro 
 tempore futuro nos Deo obedientiam praestituros sancte 
 in nos recipimus. 
 
 Alioqui si hie sensus aflfingitur assertion! ; hominem 
 certitudine eadem, qua Christum credit mortuum et esse 
 mundi Salvatorem, credere debere, se esse servandum, 
 sive Electum, repugnaret haec assertio Confessioni Regis 
 Edvardi, in qua legitur; Decretum prcBdestinationis in- 
 cognitum est : et Augustino ; Prcedestinatio apud nos, 
 dum in prcBsentis vitcB periculis versamur, incerta est. De 
 Civit. Dei, lib. ii. cap. 12. et alibi; Justi, licet de sucB 
 perseveranticB prcemio certi sint, tamen de ipsa perseveran- 
 tia reperiu7itur incerti. 
 
 VII. VII. 
 
 Gratia sufficiens ad salu- Gratia salutaris non tri- 
 tem non tribuitur, non com- buitur, non communicatur, 
 mumcatur, non conceditur non conceditur universis 
 universis hoyninibus, qua ser- hominibus, qua servari pos- 
 vari possint, si velint. sint, si velint. Pro [gra- 
 
 tia sufficienti ad saluteni] 
 quod erat in Whitakeri autographo, substituerunt Lam- 
 bethani \_gratiam salutarem'] ut plane appareat loqui eos 
 de ea gratia, quae est actu ultimo salutaris sive actu effi- 
 cax, seu quae per se (non addita nova gratia) salutem 
 
 E e 2 
 
420 Articuli quo sensu a Theologis admis^i. 
 
 operatur. Haec quidem non conceditur, sed ne offertur 
 univcrsis, cum sint plurimi (utpote Pagani &c.) quibus 
 Evangelium nee interna nee externa voce praedicetur. 
 Ergo ilia verba [qua servari possint si velint] intelligenda 
 sunt de potentia proxima et immediata. Nam si de po- 
 te)itia remotiore intellexissent, frustra induxissent vocem 
 graticc siifficientis, quae sufficiens appellari solet, non 
 quod sit efficax, vel per se actu operetur salutem, sed 
 quod sufficiens sit ad salutem ducere, modo bomo non 
 ponat obicem. Et heec Augustini et Prosperi fuit sen- 
 tentia, qui gratiam saltern parciorem, occultioremque om- 
 nibus datam aiunt, et talem quidem quae ad remedium 
 sufficeret. Unde Fulgentius ; Quod non adjuvantur qui- 
 dam a gratia Dei, in ipsis caiissa est, non a Deo. 
 VIII. VIII. 
 
 Nemo potest venire ad In hoc Articulo nihil 
 Christum nisi datum ei fue- mutatum : non omnes tra- 
 rit, et nisi Pater eum traxe- huntur tractu ultimo. Sed 
 rit : et omnes homines non qui negat omnes trahi tra- 
 trahuntur a Patre ut veni- ctu remotiore tollit opitula- 
 ant ad Filium, lationem illam generalem, 
 
 sive commune auxilium quo 
 omnium hominum corda pulsari dicit Prosper. Tractum 
 autem Theologi Lambethani non intellexerunt (cum 
 Whitakero) determinationem physicam irresistibilem : sed 
 divinam operationem (prout communiter in conversione 
 hominis operatur) quae naturam voluntatis liberam non 
 tollit, sed ad bonum spirituale idoneam primo facit, de- 
 inde et ipsam bonam facit. 
 
 IX. IX. 
 
 Non est positum in arbi- In hoc quoque nihil mu- 
 
 trio aut potestate uniuscu- tatum : verissimum enini 
 
 jusque hominis servari, est, salutem nostram esse 
 
 primario non in nobis, sed 
 a gratia prcBveniente, excitante, concomitante, et subse- 
 quente in omni opere bono; secundario ab arbitrio et vo- 
 luntate hominis consentiente atque acceptante. Nulla 
 potestas est arbitrii ad bonum spirituale, nisi gratia non 
 modo tollat impedimenta, sed et vires suppeditet. Non 
 est ergo jjositum in arbitrio primitu^'i et potissimum ; imo 
 nullo modo in arbitrio est positum, ut homo quilibet quo- 
 
Episc, Wintoniensis de Articulis Judicium. 421 
 
 libet momento ad salutem possit pervenire. At vero 
 esse aliquam aliquando in arbitrio potestatem gratioi sub- 
 ordinatam et gratice consentientem^ nemo inficias iverit, 
 qui Augustinum audiverit : Dum tempus est, (Inquit) 
 dum in "nostra potestate est opera bonafacere : et alibi, de 
 poenis inferni loquens; Majus est (inquit) quod timere 
 debes, et in potestate liabes ne eveniat tibi. 
 
 Reverendissimi tov iraw doctissimique Patris Lan- 
 celoti Wintoniensis (qui ipse ejusdem pars ma- 
 gna fuit) de Synodo oblatis a D. Whitakero 
 Articulis Judicium. 
 
 Quatuor priores Articuli de Praedestinatione sunt et 
 Reprobatione : quarum ilia ab Apostolo dicitur "12 (iaSogl 
 haec a Propheta, Abyssus multa, Rom. xi. 33. Psal. 
 xxxvi. 6. 
 
 Ego certe (ingenue fateor) sequutus sum Augustini 
 consilium : mysteria haec quae aperire non possum, clau- 
 sa miratus sum, et proinde, per hos 16 annos, ex quo 
 Presbyter sum factus, me neque publice neque privatim 
 vel disputasse de eis, vel pro Concione tractasse. Etiam 
 nunc quoque malle de eis audire, quam dicere. Et qui- 
 dem cum lubricus locus sit, et habeat utrinque pericu- 
 losa prcBcipitia, cumque loci Paulini (unde fere eruitur) 
 inter dva-voYirct ilia (de quibus Petrus) semper sint habiti : 
 cumque nee multi in Clero sint, qui ea dextre expedire, 
 et perpauci in populo qui idonei illius auditores esse 
 possint; suaderem, si fieri possit, ut indiceretur utrin- 
 que silentium ; nee ita passim et crude proponerentur a 
 quibusque ut assolet. Certe multo magis expedire ar- 
 bitror, ut doceatur populus noster salutem suam quae- 
 rere in manifestis vitae sanctae et fideliter institutae (quod 
 et Petrus suadet) quam in occultis consilii divini: cujus 
 curiosa nimis inspectio vertigines et scotomata generare 
 potest et solet ; aedificationem certe in angustis ingeniis 
 vix solet. Sed tamen rogatus sententiam meam de his 
 Articulis, idque a Dominatione Tua cui non parere Re- 
 ligio fuit, sic paucis respondeo. 
 
 E e 3 
 
422 Episc, fVintoniensis 
 
 Ad 1 . quo asserititr Prcedestinatio, 
 
 Esse apud Deum in aeterna ilia sua (sive prcBScientia 
 dicere libeat, sive) scientia, qua videt quae non sunt tan- 
 quam ea quae sunt, prcBdestinatos quosdam, quosdam re- 
 probos, extra controversiam esse arbitror. Scripturse ver- 
 ba sunt, -Trgo xaTa/3oA>5$ xoo-fxov, id est, ab aeterno scilicet 
 elegisse Deum nos ; et cum elegisset praedestinasse, 
 Eph. i. 4, 5. Elegisse autem Ik tov xoo-fxouj de mundo, 
 Joan. XV. 19. Quare non omnes in mundo elegisse, sed 
 quosdam, alioqui enim Electio non foret. Quos vero 
 non elegit et eligendo approbavit (ut electlonis natura 
 fert) reprobasse. Et Scriptura verbis utitur uTroiQeiv, re- 
 jiciendi, Rom. xi. 2. u7ro^oKi[xa^eiv, reprobandi, Heb. xii. 15, 
 
 Tantum ne utrobique par ratio videatur, et eadem 
 praedestinandi ratio, eadem reprobandi; si hoc plene 
 non constet, cuperem addi; Jliter prcBdestinatos illos, 
 nempe pei' Christum, Eph. i. 5. Aliter hos reprobatos, 
 nempe propter peccatum. 
 
 Ad 2. quo PrcBdestinationis Cau^sa expUcatur. 
 
 Verissimum Dei per Prophetam verbum est : Tan- 
 tummodo in me auxilium tuum: id est, nee a quoquam 
 auxilium nisi a me, nee a me quicquam nisi auxilium : 
 verissimum et Apostoli ; Qins discernit ? id est, a Deo 
 solo habere nos quo a reliquis discernimur. 
 
 Sed tamen de particula ilia [sola voluntas beneplaciti^ 
 quaeri potest, 
 
 Primo includatne Christum, an secludat : id est, sitne 
 actus praedestinandi actus absolutus, an relatus ? 
 
 Quod ad me, existimo relatum esse: nee uUam esse 
 Dei euSox/av Iv ocv^gwiroig, id est, voluntatem, qua bene- 
 placitum sit ei in hominibus, nisi in filio in quo suSoxrjo-c, 
 nee vel ante vel sine intuitu Christi praedestinari quen- 
 quam. Sed (ut habent sacrae Scripturae) Christum pri- 
 mo '7rposyv(ji)a-[j,£vov prcESciium, 1 Pet. i. 2. deinde in eo nos, 
 Rom. viii. 29. Christum primo ogKrQsvTo. prcudestinatum, 
 Rom. i. 4. deinde per eum nos, Eph. i. 5. Non autem 
 priore loco nos, (uti nonnullis vldetur) posteriore ilium, et 
 propter nos, Neque enim praedestinari posse nos e\; vlo- 
 Sea-locv, ad adopiionem Jiliorum, nisi m filio naturali; neque 
 praedestinari nos posse, ut conformes simus imagini filii, 
 •nisi filius primo statuatur, cujus imagini conformemur. 
 
de Artkulk judicium, 423 
 
 Quare et huic quoque Articulo cuperem addi beneylaci- 
 tum Dei in Chris to. 
 
 Deinde quaeri potest secuiido ; includatne prcBScien- 
 tiam Dei voluntas hfec sola beneplaciti, an excludat ? 
 Ego certe nullo modo existimo divellenda haec, nempe 
 prcBScire et prcedestinare, sed (quod Apostoli faciunt) 
 conjungenda. Neque hie vero audeo praecipitare sen- 
 tentiam meam, aut damnare Patres, qui fere omnes se- 
 cundum prcBvisam Jidem, et eligi et praedestinari nos as- 
 serunt. Id quod vel Beza ipse fatetur in xi. ad Rom. 2. 
 edit. 2^. .Patres hie nullo modo audiendi, qui ad prcevi- 
 sionem hoc referunt. In quo tamen (ut mihi videri so- 
 let) potius de serie et ordine, quo utitur Deus in actu 
 praedestinandi, loquuntur, quam de caussa prsedestina- 
 tionis. Quam seriem alii aliter^ ad suum quisque cap- 
 turn, Solent texere: Patres in ea mihi sententia videntur 
 fuisse; Electionem nullam fore nisi if a texatur ; Deum 
 primo diligere Christum, dehi nos in Christo ; quod Apo- 
 stolus dicit; Gratificare nos in dilecto; (Eph. i. 6.) 2^ 
 gratijicatos sic, gratia donare etjide, 3^ sic donatos atque 
 ita a reliquis discretos eligere, 4° Electos prcedestinare. 
 
 Certe Electionis hoc natura postulat, quae nulla omni- 
 no existente differentia inter eum qui eligitur et eum 
 qui rejicitur, nee esse nee cogitari potest: sic CEcume- 
 nius ex Graecorum sententia, p. 323. EIttcov xara sKXoyrjv, 
 edsi^sv OTi xa» lis<p=pov uXKy}Koov : ouh)^ yuq sxXsysTCii STsgov 
 ocTT sTspou el i^Yj T< uvTov ^icc\\uG-(roi. Sic Augustinus ad 
 Sim pi. i. 2. Non tamen Electio pr(Ecedit justificationeni 
 (scil. praevisam,) sed Electionem justificatio. Nemo enim 
 eligittir nisi jam distans ah illo qui rejicitur : unde quod di- 
 ctum est. Quia elegit nos Deus ante mundi constitutionem, 
 non video quomodo sit dicendum nisi prcEScientia. 
 
 Neque secus Scholastici : Thom. Prima Q. 23. Art. 
 4. Prcedestinatio prcESUpponit Electionem., et Electio dile- 
 ctionem. Nempe primo fecit eligendos, dein elegit, 
 dilexit ut daret ; elegit quae dedit. Nee alia mihi mens 
 videtur reverendissimi Eboracensis ; sic enim ille. Quid 
 in Jacoho dilexit Deus ah (Bterno, cum nihil boni fecisset ? 
 certe quod suum, quod ipse erat illi daturus. 
 
 Certe Apostolus ipse non veretur in negotio hoc 
 conjungere IS/av TrpoQsaiv et ^oQHaotv x^^'v; atque hoc Trpo 
 
 E e 4 
 
424 £pisc, Hintonienais 
 
 ^povMv alwvioov ; cum sc. hSsiact ilia %ap<? non nisi in prce- 
 scientia esse potuit, cum cBtenio scilicet proposito Dei, ip- 
 sam quoque gratiam quam se daturum praevidit ante 
 tempora secidaria. 
 
 Neque incommodum inde ullum, (ut mihi vldetur) 
 si Deus ut corouat in nobis dona sua, sic eligat in nobis 
 dona sua; nempe quae prime diligendo dedit, quo post 
 sic data eligeret. Atque ita cum dilectio, quae est actus 
 gratify qua Deus discernit^ tum Electio, quae est actus 
 judicii, qua sic discretes seligit, utraque conservantur. 
 Atque hoc modo manebit Electio. 
 
 Recentiorum enim series ilia omnem plane Electionem 
 tollit ; qua Deus ponitur homines nee in ulla 7nassa ex- 
 istentes^ nee ullo modo per sua dona discretes, primo 
 actu et eo absoluto, simul et semel, hos quidem addicere 
 saluti, illos vere perditioni sempiternae : post quam ad- 
 dictionem, quis Electioni locus esse possit non intell)go_, 
 aut quomodo ilia ipsa addictie Electio dici possit. 
 
 Sed h^ec tota qusestio (uti dixi) de ordine petius est, 
 quo procedit Deus ad captum nostrum, qui ex parte 
 cognescimus, quam de caussa quoad actum ipsum, qui 
 unus est in Deo et simplicissiinus ; vel si de caussa, non 
 de primi actus caussa intelligi debet, sed de caussa quoad 
 integrwn effectum (ut loquuntur) in prcedestinando. 
 
 Quaeritur sit ne actus integralis (conceptu nostro) ex 
 variis actibus constans, an primus ille solus? Et si plures 
 et varii, quis ordo, quae series actuumf 
 
 Praedestinatio qucB sine praescientia non potest esse, non 
 est nisi honorum operum. Aug. de Praedest. Sanctorum 
 cap. 10. Electi sunt ante mundi constitutionem, ea prcB- 
 destinatione in qua Deus sua futura facta prcBscivit. Idem 
 ibid. cap. 17. 
 
 ^71 quisquam dicere audebit Deum non prcrscisse, quibus 
 esset daturus ut crederentf De bono perseverantice 14. 
 
 Ista igitur sua dona quibuscunque Deus donat, procid- 
 dubio donaturum se esse prcescivit, et in ma prcescientia 
 prcEparavit, cap. 17. 
 
 Si nulla est praedestinatio quam defendimus, non prcBSci- 
 untur a Deo ; prcBSciuntur autem, fol. 23. 
 
 HcBC igitur (dona) quce poscit a Domino, ct semper ex 
 quo esse ccepit Ecclesia poscit^ ista Deus vocatis suis da~ 
 
de Articulis Judicium. 425 
 
 tiirum se esse prcescivit, ut in ipsa prcedestinatione jam de~ 
 derit. ib, 
 
 Ad 3. de Numero certo. 
 
 Sunt ipsa Augustini verba initio cap. 3. de Cor. et 
 gra. Eorum qui prcBdestinati sunt, ita certus est numerus, 
 ut nee addatur iis quisquam, nee minuatur. 
 
 Et Ambrosius de voc. lib. ii. cap. ult. De plenitudine 
 membrorum corporis Christi prcescientia Dei, qucefalli non 
 potest, nihil prodidit ; et nullo detrimento minui potest sum- 
 ma prcecognita atque in Christo ante secula cBterna prcee- 
 lecta : certissimum oiim est, scientiam divinam certissimam 
 esse, nee J'alli posse : novisse autem Domiyium qui sunt 
 ejus. 
 
 Ad 4. 
 
 Qui non est inventus scriptus in libro vitce (i. e. praede- 
 stinatus) missus est in lacum ignis, Apoc. xx. ver. ult. id 
 est, damnatus est. Damnatus autem proculdubio pro- 
 pter peccata sua. Quis enim hoc negabit ? 
 
 Atque id necessario (si sic loqui placeat;) sed necessi- 
 tate ex hypothesi, non absoluta. Id est (ut Articulus ipse 
 se explicat,) propter peccata^ ideoque quia peccarunt. 
 Non autem ideo quia non sunt prssdestinati. 
 
 Quanquam ego (quod et Patres et Scholastici sedulo 
 faciunt) terminis his [necessitatis] et [necessario] absti- 
 nendum censerem ; et pro iis [certo] vel [sine dubio] 
 substituenda : vitandas enim, quoad ejus fieri potest, 
 xuivo(p(jovla$. 
 
 Ad 5. de Amissione Fidei et Spiritus. 
 
 Certe nemo unquam dixerit (credo) Fidem in Electis 
 
 Jinaliter excidere. Ilia vero non excidit. Sed quod non 
 
 excidat hoc habere existimo a natura subjecti sui, non 
 
 sua; ex privilegio personce, non rei. Atque hoc propter 
 
 Apostatas, quibus vitio dari non debet, quod excidant a 
 
 fide quae vera et viva nunquam fuit. 
 
 An vero Spiritus Sanctus ad tempus auferri aut ex- 
 tingui possit, existimo quaeri adhuc posse ; fateor haerere 
 me. 
 
 De Fide. 
 
 Tu stas fide, noli altum sapere, sed time : alioquhi ex- 
 cidois et tu ; quomodo non irrisorium prcEcepttim, si non 
 possit excidere ? 
 
426 Episc. Wintoniensis 
 
 1 . Cavete ne errore abdiicti excidatis propriajinnitate, Sec. 
 
 2. Videte ne quis deficiat a gratia Dei Excidistis 
 gratia, qui in lege. Gal. v. 4. 
 
 3. Spiritum Sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. Psal. li. 13, 
 
 4. Spiritum nolite extinguere ; quomodo non irrisoricB 
 praeceptiones et orationes hae si nuUo modo excidere a 
 firmitate Jidei, aut dejicere a gratia possimus, si nuUo 
 modo Spiritus auferri aut extingid posset ? 
 
 Etsi noil sum nescius et hoc ipsum [Non posse amitti 
 totaliter] exponi posse sic, ut in totum prorsus vel penitus 
 amitti nequeut etsi tota amittatur ; id est, ita amitti, ut 
 non sit locus revertendi unde exciderunt. 
 Ad 6. de Certitudine Salutis, 
 
 Existimo qua certitudine certus quis est, se vere Jide- 
 lem esse, aut se fide justificante praeditum, eadem certum 
 , esse de salute sua per Christum. Puto autem earn po- 
 tius esse TrXijpo^op/a-/ spei: (de qua ad Heb. vi. 11.) quam 
 fidei: et (si una voce exprimendum sit) 'TrsTrolST^cnv potius 
 quam 'k'kttiv. Non enim eandem certitudinem haberi 
 posse de eis enuntiatis, quae conditionem in se continent, 
 quam nos praestare oportet ut verae sint, ut [qui credit 
 invocat] vel, [si credas invoces,'] quam de iis quae non 
 sunt conditionatcB, sed mere categoricce, ut [De^is est om- 
 nipotens] sed minor em ; quae tamen non haesitet, sed as- 
 sensum suum ad alteram partem contradictionis deter- 
 minet. 
 
 M 7- de Collatione GraticB. 
 
 Gratiam salutarem non existimo conferri omnibus ; 
 sed offerri tamen omnibus, hoc ipso quod prcevice quae- 
 dam ad eam dispositiones non solum offeixintur, sed etiam 
 conferantur omnibus ; quibus illi nisi deessent, ipsa quo- 
 que salutaris gratia illis conferretur. Tribui, communi- 
 cari, concedi, si relativce voces sunt, et acceptionem im- 
 plicent, verum est : sed si relationem non includant, sed 
 ex parte Dei ofFerri ; vel Deum paratum esse vel praesto 
 ut concedat ac communicet; sic (existimo) omnibus 
 tribui. 
 
 Offerri itaque et praesto esse Deum ut conferatur; per 
 homines autem ipsos stare, quod oblata non conferatur. 
 Non enim gratiam nobis, sed nos illi deesse. 
 
 August, de Gen. contra JIanich. I. 3. Jstud lumen 
 
de Articulis Judicium. 427 
 
 non irrationahilium animalium oculos pascit ; sed pura 
 corda eorum qui Deo credunt, et ah amove visibilium rerum 
 et temporalium, se ad ejus prcecepta servanda convertunt. 
 Quod omnes homines possunt si velint, quia illiid lumen 
 omnium hominum, &c. 
 
 Ad 8. 
 
 Vere dicitur^ A^eminem venire ad Filium,nisi trahatur : 
 et omnes non trafii ut veniant ad Filium, id est, ita trahi 
 ut veniant: sed et illud addendum: quod vel non tra- 
 hantur omnes, vel non sic trahantur, causam e,^se dissolu- 
 tam ipsorum hominum voluntatem, non absolutam volun- 
 tatem Dei. 
 
 M 9. 
 
 Non est positum aut in lihero arbitrio cujusquam, nisi 
 per Filium liberato ; aut in potestate ullius, nisi data illi 
 desuper, servari. 
 
 Materia hujus litis futura est, quisque ut afFectus est, 
 utque animum habet, voculam aliquam pertrahet ad 
 opinionem suam ; si desit, supplebit de sensu suo. Ego, 
 quod ab initio suasi, etiamnum suadeo, fidele utrinque 
 silentium. 
 
 Atque heec de Prcedestinatione et Reprobatione. Sed ita 
 tarnen, ut sententiam et hac in re et de ipsis Articulis me- 
 que ipsum per omnia Gr. Pr. CensnrcE submissum velim. 
 
 Censura Censurae D. Barreti de Certitudine Sa- 
 lutis. 
 
 Neminem tanta Jirmitate suffultum, &c. ut de salute sua 
 debeat esse securus. Ita D. Barret: Jubetur retractare 
 sic ; Jide justificatos &c. debere de salute sua certos esse 
 et securos. 
 
 1. Certos non debuit addi : non enim negaverat ille, 
 nee quisquam (credo) sani cerebri. Sane retractare non 
 debuit quod non asseruit, nee verbum interponi cujus in 
 Articulo nulla mentio. 
 
 2. Securum esse debere quemquam de salute minus 
 commode dictum. Certe verba ilia concionatoris cen- 
 suram effugere poterant : leviter enim immutata, verba 
 sunt Leonis, sic enim ille , (dicente namque Paulo : 
 
428 Censiira Censurce 
 
 Qui Stat, videat ne cadat :) nemo est tanta Jlrmitate suf- 
 fidtns lit de stabiUtate sua debeat esse securus. Ser. 5. de 
 Quadr. Sane parcendum fuerat, si non illi, saltern 
 Leoni. 
 
 I . Sententiam vero cur minus probem faciunt haec : 
 locus in Censura citatus nihil ad rem. Nempe debere 
 justificatos securos esse. Locus est, Rom. v. 1. Fide jus- 
 tificati pacem habemus erga Deum : certe : pacato igitur 
 animo licet esse nobis, at non securo ; quippe nee pax 
 ipsa secura est. Nam et nobis prima cura incumbit, 
 pax hsec ut vera sit : Multi eiiim sanant contritionemjilicc 
 mece dicentes, pax, pax, et non est pax, dicit Deus, Jer. vi. 
 H. et Ezek. xiii. 10. Deinde si vera sit, secunda cura 
 incumbit^ ne per violatas a nobis conditiones pacis, au- 
 feratur a nobis denuo^ Deo ipso dicente, (Jer. xvi. 15.) 
 Abstuli pacem meam a populo wto, nempe misericordiam. 
 meam, &c. 
 
 Atque ut securis nobis esse non licet, quia pacem ha- 
 bemus ; ita neque quia stamus in gratia, sive per fidem. 
 Stanti enim in gratia curandum quod dicit Apostolus, 
 Heb. xii. 15. Videte ne quis vestrilm de/iciat a gratia 
 Dei. 
 
 Stanti autem per fidem, curandum quod idem dicit, 
 Rom. xi. 20. Tu fide, sive per fidem stas : noli altum 
 sapere, sed time. Et quod alibi, 1 Cor. x. 16. Qui stare 
 se putat, videat ne cadat. Qute verba Apostoli ab Au- 
 gustine et Bernardo usurpantur contra securitatem. 
 Aug. de bono persever. cap. 8. Bern. Ser. 1. de Septuages. 
 
 2. Sacrae literae nusquam securitatem suadent, quin 
 potius eam vocem malam in partem accipiunt : quasi 
 enim ab ea abstinendum sit, notantur ab Apostolo, qui 
 eam usurpant ; Cum dicent homines, pax et securitas, su- 
 perveniet iis repentinus interitus, 1 Thes. v. 3. Quare 
 tanquam mali ominis declinandam censeo. 
 
 3. Neque vocis ratio magis favet. Securus enim ex- 
 cludit curam et non haesitationem tantum. Revera enim 
 aircB opponitur securitas. Atqui jubemur a Spiritu 
 Sancto omnem curam subinferre ; et cupere se dicit 
 Apostolus (Fleb. vi. II.) ut unusquisque nostrum ean- 
 dem solicitudinem ad finem usque ostendat. 
 
 4. Rci vero ipsi (nempe securitati) rcpugnare vidctur 
 
D. Barreti. 429 
 
 conditio turn vitae Christianse, quae militia est; turn 
 vitae humansB^ quae tentatio est super terram : quarum 
 neutra securitatem fert^ quin perpetuam potius curam et 
 solicitudinem, turn orandi, ne in tentationem indu- 
 camur, turn considerandi nos ipsos ne et nos tentemur: 
 idque etiam iis qui spiritiiales sunt. Gal. vi. 1, 
 
 5. Perpetuse illae Christi et Apostolorum voces, vigi- 
 late, attendite, cavete, tentate vos, probate vos, &c. excu- 
 tiendae securitati sunt omnes, non ingenerandae. Quid 
 enim aliud sonant voces hae, quam ne sitis securi? Nee 
 voces modo, sed etiam sententiae. Paulus : Cum thnore 
 et tremore operamini salutem vestram, 2 Phil. 14. Petrus; 
 In thnore incolatus vestri tempore conversamini, 1 Pet. i. 
 17. Joannes; Tene quod habes,ne alius accipiat coronam 
 tuam, Apoc. iii. 20. Quae omnes id agunt ut cum fide 
 retineatur et timor, ne certitudo degeneret in securitatem. 
 
 Certe D. Petrus cum jubet, Satagite ut certam red- 
 datis Electionem vestram, ut nos eniti vult ad certitudi- 
 nem, ita statuere videtur satagere quemque rerum sua- 
 rum ut eo tandem perveniat : quasi is summus sit gradus 
 in vita hac, et satis sit, imo praeclare nobiscum actum 
 sit, si eo aspirare liceat. 
 
 7. Neque vero quoad certitudinis gradum plane ae- 
 quandus videtur praesentis vitae status cum statu futurjje, 
 sed distinctio aliqua retinenda, cum ultra securitatem 
 nihil sit. Quare sit hoc ipsum [securitate frui~\ peculiare 
 iis qui defuncti jam sunt, et sttivIkiov illud Apostoli can- 
 tarunt ; Ahsorpta est mors in victoriam. Nos vero hie 
 in terris militantes^ contenti certitudine, cedamus gradu 
 hoc sum mo securitatis, et relinquamus eum Ecclesiae in 
 coelis triumphanti, quae sola secura est. 
 
 8. Male autem semper successit iis qui ita se certos 
 autumabant ut etiam securi fuerint; Davidi suum non 
 movebor, Psal. xxx. 6. Petro suum etsi omnes, non ego. 
 Melius multo iis, qui ita certi ut tamen soliciti. Jobo : 
 Scio quod Redemptor mens vivit, &c. cap. xix. 25. Et, 
 Hcec mihi spes reposita est in sinu meo : et, tamen verebar 
 omnia opera mea, c. ix, 28. Paulo; Certiis sum quod ne- 
 que mors, Slc. Rom. viii. 38. Et, Tamen castigo corpus 
 meum, ne quo modo cum aliis prcedicaveiv, ipse reprobus 
 efficiar, I Cor. ix. 27. 
 
430 Censura Censurce 
 
 9. Tametsi quod affertur de carnali et spirituali securi- 
 tate, frigidum plane sit, cum pari ratione, et de prae- 
 sumptione, et de superbia loqui liceat; nempe per xutu- 
 Xpw^v abusive sc'iWcet', tamen etiamsi sic mollire liceat, 
 etiam atque etiam videndum est, quid seculi nostri et 
 populi indoles postulet ista de re doceri; et an expediat, 
 his praesertim moribus atque his temporibus, frigescenti 
 hominum curae atque conatui bene operandi, per istius- 
 modi Theses frigidam sufFundere, et quasi certitudo pa- 
 rum sit, securitatem inculcare : cum (ut recte Gregorius) 
 Securitas sit mater negligentice ; cumque non solum ex 
 trepidatione nimia (ut in Caino) sed saepe etiam (ut in 
 Saulo) ex nimia spe desperatio. 
 
 10. Ultimo, a recepto in Ecclesia loquendi genere, 
 non censeo recedendum ; qui fere (cum Leone supra ci- 
 tato) sentiunt; Non posse nos nee debere de salute se~ 
 euros esse, 
 
 Augustinus, Concil. x. c. 32. Et nemo securus esse 
 debet, in ista vita, qucR tota tentatio nominatur, ut qui 
 fieri potuei'it ex deteriore melior, non fiat etiam ex meliore 
 deterior, 
 
 De bono persev. c. 8. Deus autem melius judicavit 
 miscere quosdam non per sever aturos certo numero sancto- 
 rum suorum, ut quibus non expedit in hvjus vitce tentatione 
 securitas, non possint esse securi. 
 
 Ibid. c. 22. Quoniam de vita ceterna, quam filiis pro- 
 missionis promisit non mendax Deus ante tempora ceterna, 
 nemo potest esse securus, nisi cum consummata fuerit ista 
 vita, quae tentatio est super terram ; sed faciet nos perse- 
 verare in se usque in ejus vitce finem, cui quotidie dicimus; 
 ne 710S inferos in tentationem. Sic concionari docet Au- 
 gustinus. 
 
 Ep. 12. ad Prob. Unde minim, videii potest, cum sis 
 secundum hoc seculum, nobilis, dives, taut ce familice mater, 
 et ideo licet vidua, non tamen desolata, quomodo occupa- 
 verit cor tuum prcecipueque vendicaverit orandi cura. Nisi 
 quia prudenter intelligis, quod in hoc mimdo et in hac vita 
 nulla anima possit esse secura. Et paulo post ; A^am et- 
 si sibi quisque, nemo alteri notus est ; tamen nee sibi quvi- 
 que ita notus est, ut sit de sua crastina conversatione se- 
 curus. 
 
D. Barrett. 431 
 
 Chrysostomus, in verba : Si quomodo apprehendam : 
 died me in ipsum credidisse et potentiam resurrectionis 
 ejus, et consortem passionum ejus factum esse, et conform- 
 atum morti ejus, veruntamen post ista omnia nondum se- 
 curus sum. Et paulo post Horn. 7- in Ep. ad Philip. 
 Si ergo qui tanta passus est, si qui persecutionem tulit, si 
 qui mort'ificationem, habebat nondum securus fuit, quid di- 
 cemus nos f 
 
 Ambrosius in Psal. 37- N^isi forte sic intelligamm ; 
 quod etsi innocens quisque sit, tamen securus esse non pos- 
 sit, cui sunt adversus gravissimos hostes quotidiana certa- 
 mina. 
 
 Hilarius in Psal. 137- Nullu7n diem Justus quisque sine 
 metu transiglt : yieque anxia semper erga se Jides securi 
 temporis otium recipit ; scit enim omnes dies insidiarwn 
 sibi plenos, &c. 
 
 Gregorius Epist. 186. ad Gregoriam. Inutilem rem 
 postulasti, quia secura de peccatis Jieri non debes, nisi cum 
 jam in die vitce tuce ultimo plangere eadem peccata minime 
 valebis. 
 
 Bernardus Epist. 107- ad Thorn. Beverl : De qua ta" 
 men perceptajam suimet ex parte notitia, interim glorietur 
 quidem in spe, nondum tamen in securitate. Bernardo 
 enim securitas in excessu est, et opponitur timori in de- 
 fectu. Vide Ser. in Cantic. 11. 
 
 Fideles de Praedestinatione perseverantiaque sua in- 
 certos esse per omnem vitam, probat Augustinus. 
 
 In de corrupt, et gratia, cap. 13. initio fere. 
 
 Contra Articulos sibifalso impositos Artie. 12. 
 
 In Epistola 107. 
 
 In de bono perseverantice cap. 13. baud longe ab initio. 
 
 In de civitate Dei, lib. 11. c. 12. 
 
Published hy the same Author, 
 
 I. Three Sermons on the Efficacy of the Christian Sa- 
 
 craments. 
 
 II. Eight Discourses in Welsh on the Liturgy. 
 
 III. A Sermon preached at an Ordination held by the 
 Right Reverend William Lord Bishop of Bangor, 
 A.D. 1800. 
 
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