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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
FREDERIC THOMAS BLANCHARD ENDOWMENT FUND
t-r
BISHOP WARBURTON'S
WORKS.
VOLUME THE FIFTH:
CONTAINING
SERMONS and DISCOURSES
O N
VARIOUS SUBJECTS and OCCASIONS,
Vol. V.
T II E
WORKS
OF THE
RIGHT REVEREND
WILLIAM WARBURTON,
LORD BISHOP OF GLOUCESTER.
IN SEVEN VOLUMES.
VOLUME THE FIFTH.
LONDON,
PRINTED BY JOHN NICHOLS: AND SOLD BY T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND.
MDCCLXXXVIII.
iv CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
SERMON III.
THE LOVE CF GOD AND MAN.
i Ep. John iv. ver. 12. If a Man fay ', I love God, and hateth his Brother, he is a Liar ; for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath feen, how can he love God whom he hath notfeen? p. 42.
SERMON IV.
THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN.
Proverbs xvii. ver. 5. Whofo mocleth the Poor reproacheth his Maker, p. 53.
SERMON V.
THE CHARACTER AND OFFICE OF THE MESSIAH.
i Cor. i. ver. 30.
Jefus Chrif who, of God, is made unto us Wifdom and Righteoufnefs ; and Salification and Redemption, p. 61.
SERMON VI.
THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MESSENGERS OF THE
GOSPEL.
Matth. x. ver. 16.
Bt hold I fend you forth as Sheep in the midjl of Wolves : Be ye there- fore wife as Serpents, and hannlfs as Doves, p. 96.
SERMON VII.
-THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MESSENGERS OF THE
GOSPEL.
Matth. v. ver. 16. Let your Light fo fine before Men, that they may fee your good Works,
unit glo ijy your Father which is hi Heaven, p. 106.
SER-
CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME. v
SERMON VIII.
THE EDIFICATION OF GOSPEL RIGHTEOUSNESS.
2 Peter, i. ver. 5, 6, 7.
5. Giving all Diligence, add to your Faith, Virtue; and to Virtue, Know/edge ;
6. And to Knowledge, Temperance ; and to Temperance, Patience ; and to Patience, Godlinefs ;
7. And to Godlinefs, Brotherly-kindnefs ; and to Brotherly-kindnefs^ Charity, p. 123.
SERMON IX.
OF CHURCH AUTHORITY.
Matth. xvii. ver. 9, 10. Call no Man your Father upon the Earth : for one is your Father which is in Heaven. Neither be ye called Mafers : for one is your Maflery even Chrif, p. 144.
SERMON X.
OF CHURCH AUTHORITY.
Matth. xxvli. ver. 2, 3.
The Scribes and P bar fees ft in Mofes's feat. All, therefore, what- foever they bid you cbferve, that obfrve and do : but do not ye after their Works : for they fay and do not, p. 157.
SERMON XI.
OF CHURCH COMMUNION.
Luke ix. ver. 49.
And John anfivered and f aid, Mafer, we faw one cafling out Devils in thy Name ; and we forbad him, becaufe he folloivetb not with us. And Jefus faid unto him, Forbid him not : for he that is not againjl us is for us, p. 1 70.
SER-
vi CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
SERMON XII.
OF CHURCH COMMUNION.
Ephef. iv. ver. 3.
I befcech you, that ye walk worthy of the Vocation wherewith ye are called — endeavouring to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace, p. 180.
SERMON XIII.
THE INFLUENCE OF LEARNING ON REVELATION.
Luke xviii. ver. 8. — When the Son of Man comet h, Jhall he find Faith on the Earth?
p. 190.
THREE SERMONS preached and published on the
occasion of the late REBELLION, in MDCCXLV.
and a DISCOURSE on the NATURE of
the MARRIAGE-UNION, p. 205—279.
S E R M O N I.
occasioned by the unnatural rebellion.
Preached and Publiihed in the Month of November 1745, while the Rebel-army was in England.
1 Ep. Peter ver. ii. 17. Fear God, Honour the King, p. 217.
SERMON II.
on the general fast day, dec. 18, 1745. Preached and publiihed while the Rebel-army was in England.
Joel ii. ver. 20.
I will remove far off from you the Northern Army, and will drive him into a hand barren and deflate, p. 221.
A Defence of the preceding Difcottrfe, p. 233.
SER-
CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME. vii
SERMON III.
Preached on the Thankfgiving-day, for the Suppreffion of the late Unnatural Rebellion, in 1746.
2 Cor. iii. ver. 17. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty, p. 241.
SERMON IV.
ON THE NATURE OF THE MARRIAGE UNION.
Matth. xix. ver. 6. What God hath joined together, let no Man put a J under, p. 263.
Postscript to the Sermon on the Marriage Union, p. 276.
SERMONS and DISCOURSES on VARIOUS SUBJECTS and OCCASIONS, p. 281—542.
Dedication to Lady Mansfield, 1766, p. 283. SERMON I.
NATURAL AND CIVIL EVENTS THE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD's
MORAL GOVERNMENT.
Preached at Lincolti's-Inn-Chapel, on the firfr. public Faft-day after the Calamity of Lifbon, 1755.
Luke xiii. ver. 1, 2, &c.
There were prefent, at that Jeafon, fome that told him of the Gali- leans, ivhofe Blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices.
And Jijus anfwering, faid unto them, Suppoje ye that thefe Galileans •were Sinners above all the Galileans becaufe theyfufferedfuh Things f
I tell yen, nay : but . . . epent, ye fall all likewife peri/h.
Or thofe eighteen, upon -johom the Tower of Siloam fell, and few them, th/nk ye that they were Sinners above all Men that dwelt in ferufalem?
1 iellyou, nay ; but except ye repent, ye fall all likewifeperif, p. 285.
SER-
viii CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
SERMON II.
Preached before the Right Honourable the Houfe of Lords,
January 30, 1760.
Ifaiah xix. ver. 13, 14.
The Princes of Zian are become Fools, the Princes of Nop h are de- ceived, they have aljo fednced Egypt The Lord hath mingled a
pervcrfe Spirit in the Mldjl thereof, p. 299.
SERMON III.
Preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gofpel in Foreign Parts, on Friday, February 21, 1766.
Revelation of St. John, x. ver. 11.
And he f aid unto me, Thou mujl propBefy again, before many Peoples, and Nations, and Tongues, and Kings, p. 319.
SERMON IV.
ANSWER A FOOL ACCORDING TO HIS FOLLY.
Prov. xxvi. ver. 4, 5. Anfwer not a Fool according to his Folly, left thou alfo be like" unto him. Anfwer a Fool according to his Folly, left he be wife in his own Conceit, p. 339.
SERMON V.
Preached before the King, in Lent, 1761. Proverbs, xiv. ver. 9. Fools make a Mock at Sin, p. 2S5'
SERMON VI.
Preached before the King in Lent, in 1765.
1 Cor. ix. ver. 24.
Know ye not that they which run in a Race, run all ; but one recei-
veth the Prize? So run that ye may obtain, p. 367.
SER-
CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME. ix
SERMON VII.
SALVATION BY FAITH ALONE.
Matth. xxii. ver. 12. And he fold unto him, Friend, how cameji thou in hither, not fraying a Wedding Garment ? And he was fpeechJefs, Thai the King f aid to his Servants, Bind him Hand and Foot, and take him away.—
P- 377- SERMON VIII.
THE BENEFITS OF HERESY.
i Cor. xi. ver. 19.
There mnjl be alfo Hercjies amongft you, that they which are approved may be made made manifejl among Jl you, p. 389.
SERMON IX.
Preached at Briftol, Nov. 29, 1759; being the Day appointed for Public Thankfgiving, for Victories obtained by the Britim Arms.
Ezekiel xxxvi. ver. 22.
For thus faith the LORD GOD, I do not this for your Sakes, 0 H:ufe of Ifrael? "But for my Holy Name Sake, p. 401.
SERMON X.
THE FALL OF SATAN.
Matth. iv. ver. 24. And they brought unto him all fick People, that were taken with divers Difefes and Torments, and thofe which were pojjejjed ix. Devils, and Lunatics, and he healed them, p. 41 j.
Vol. V. b DI3-
xli CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH VOLUME.
SERMON V.
TRUE CHRISTIANS, THE SALT OF THE EARTH.
Preached before the King, March 12, 1769.
Matth. v. ver. 13.
Te are the Salt of the Earth. But if the Salt have lofi its Savour, •wherewith Jliall it be fait ed? It is from thenceforth good for nothing but to be cafl out, and to be trodden under Foot, p. 534.
A RATIONAL ACCOUNT of the NATURE and END of the SACRAMENT of the LORD'S SUPPER.
p- 543— i82-
A CHARGE to the CLERGY of the DIOCESE of GLOUCESTER, 1761 ; p. 583—597.
DIRECTIONS for the STUDY of THEOLOGY,
■p. 599. — 615.
THE
THE
PRINCIPLES
O F
NATURAL and REVEALED
RELIGION
OCCASION ALLY
OPENED and EXPLAINED;
I N A
COURSE of SERMONS
Preached before the
HONOURABLE SOCIETY
O F
LINCOLN'S INN. By the Rev. Mr. WARBURTON, Preacher to the Society.
Vol. V. R
[. a ]
To the Worfhipful the
Mafters of the Bench
O F
The Honourable Society
j O F
LINCOLN' S INN.
TH E following Difcourfes were preached, and are now pub- lished,-with a view of vindicating Religion from the infults of Libertines, and the indifcretions of Enthufiafts. Nor will fo fair a purpofe be at all fullied by the motive I had for this addrefs : which was, only to acknowledge, in the raoft grateful manner I was able, my obligations to the Bench for the honour done me, at the iaft vacancy, in the generous offer of the Preacherihip of the Society; as well as for Your confrant civilities to me ever hnce I was honoured with the charge. Thefe Difcourfes, therefore, fuch as they are, are humbly offered to You, by,
Gentlemen,
Tour mojl obliged and faithful Servant,
\\ . W ■ ARBURTON.
B 2
6 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
Sectary, who all agree to give that name to their own opinions. While Truth, if indeed we allow its exiftence, ftill wanders at large, and unacknowledged. Nor does it feem worth while to realize and fix her abode : for thofe things which Nature intended for general ufe, are plain and obvious, and within the reach of every man."
Sentiments like thefe charadterifed the ruler of an Afiatic pro- vince, who had heard fo much of Truth in the fchools of philofo- phy, and to fo little purpofe. Pilate, therefore, rinding a Jewifh Sage talk of bearing ivitnefs to the truth, the pretended office of the Grecian Sophifts, concluded him to be one of their mimic Follow- ers. For it was now become fashionable amongft the learned Jews to inlift themfelves into one or other of thofe fchools. Thus the famous Philo was an outrageous Platonifr. : and Jefus calling him- felf a King, this, and what was generally known of the purity and feverity of his morals, probably made Pilate coniider him as one of the Stoical wise men, who alone was free, happy, and a King ;
Liber, honoratus, pulcher, Rex denique Regum.
Now, as on the one hand, the character of the Greek philofo- phy, which was abftracted and fequeftered from civil buiinefs, made Pilate conclude, that the miniftry of Jefus had nothing dan- gerous or alarming ; i'o, on the other, its endlels enquiries and quarrels about Truth, and which of the Sects had it in keeping, made men of the world, and efpecially thofe whofe practice de- clined the te^ of any moral fyftem whatibever, willing to be per- fuaded, and ready to conclude, that this boafted Truth, which pre- tended to regulate and direct human conduct, was indeed no better than a fanciful and (hifting viiion.
This, I prefume, was the light in which Pilate considered the Saviour of the world. Had he fufpected Jeius for the founder of a public Religion, to be erected on the definition of the eftablifned wornSip of the Empire, the jealouiies of the Roman Court, fince
the
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. 7
the change of the Constitution, had doubtlefs made this fervile minifter of power very attentive and officious to fupprefs it ill its birth.
But a religion, vvhofe object was the Truth, was at this time fo unknown a thing, that a Pagan Magiftrate could have no con- ception of it, but as of a new feci of philoibphy. All the Reli- gions then in credit had for their object, inflead of Truth, public utility; And for their means, inflead of Creeds and formulas of faith, only pompous rites and ceremonies. So that if this corrupt Politician did, indeed, regard the doctrine of Jefus as a new Reli- gion, it was luch a one as fome modern Statelmen have been faid to form of it ; a fort of divine philofophy in the mind; from which, it is true, the governments and politics of this world have little to apprehend. For it was not till Paul reafoned of rigbteoujhefs, tem- perance, and judgment to come, that Felix trembled. And had the Gofpel, at this time, been reprefented to Pilate on its practical fide, it is probable that he, as any other Statefman, had been in the fame condition. But Such can hear talk of the Truths of God un- moved and unimproved, who tremble at his judgments, and an- ticipate the terrors of his vengeance.
But if the ill ufage of Truth by the Philofbphers could fo difguft the Politician of old, as to make him indifferent to an acquaintance of this importance ; What, mult, we think, will be her treatment amongft modern Statefmen, whofe views are neither more pure nor more generous ; and whofe penetration, perhaps, does not go much beyond the bufy men of antiquity j when they fee her fo freely handled by thofe amongft us, who call themfelves her Miuifrers, and profels to confecrate her to the fervice of Religion ? Amongft fuch, I mean amongft the active, no lefs than amongft the idle part of the fafhionable world, Pilate's queftion is become proverbial, when they would infinuate that Truth, like Virtue, is nothing but a Name.
" What is this Truth, fay they, of which the world has heard fo much talk, and hath received fo little information ? You boaft
of
8 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
of it, as the Guide of life, yet ftill its refidence remains unknown. Which would tempt one to fufpect, that either there is no fuel) thing ; a thing eflentially different from falfehood ; or that its na- ture is too fine and fubtile for the grofler intellect of man to com- prehend. But above all, what is that Gospel Truth, which its Minifters, in their very attempts to recommend, are wont fo much to difcredit and abufe ? We do not mean that dim Specter or Phantafm of it, which hath fo long haunted and poflefl'ed the Schools ; but, that which you call, its brighteft Subftance, as it fits inthroned in the hearts of the Faithful. How miierably is this fhaken, not only by the diflentions of its Friends, but by every the {lighted effort of its Enemies ! And while objections to Religion lie plain and level to the capacities of the vulgar ; the lblutiou of them requires the utmoft ftretch of parts and learning to excogi- tate ; and equal application and attention to comprehend. From all this (fay they) we are naturally led to conclude, That the Gofpel- doctrines are no truths ; or at leaft truths of no general concern ; lince they are neither uniformly held by thole who are employed to teach them ; nor iubjetl to the examination of fuch as are en- joined to receive them."
Something like this, I apprehend, may be the private fentiment of thofe who have more decently difcarded all care and concern about the things of religion.
And as it cannot be denied but that men's acquired paffions and appetites have concurred with the conftitutional weaknefs of hu- man nature to form thefe conclufions againfr. Truth ; and elpecially that beft part of truth, Religion ; Charity feems to call upon us to <.Vtc<\ and hf open the general caufes which have given birth to men's prejudices againft both.
I, And firft, with regard to Truth in the abftract ; the various hindrances to its diicovery ; and mens' backwardnels to acquieice in it, when found.
The
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. 9
The principal and fureft. ftep towards the poffeffion of the Good we feek, is our love and affection for the object. This quickens our induftry, and fharpens our attention. So that the love of truth hath been always recommended by the Mafters of wifdom as the bed means of fucceeding in the purfuit of it. There is hardly any one who fufpects he wants this Love : and yet, How few are there whom their confidence does not deceive ! We miftake the love of our Opinions for the love of Truth, becauie we iuppofe our own opinions true : and yet, for the moil part, they have been received upon credit; and confequently are much more likely to be falfe. Hence, this imaginary love of Truth proves, in fact, little better than the love of Error: and the affections, being now mifplaCed, thev are a greater impediment to us in the purfuit of Truth than if we had no affections at all concerning; it.
How then ihall we know when we have this lover for ltill it is neceflary we mould have it, if we would follow Truth to any good purpofe. It is difficult to defcribe what every man muff, feel for himielf ; and yet as dangerous to truft only to our feelings, when the object is fo eafily miftaken. However, When we let out in fearch of Truth as of a ftranger, and not in fearch of arguments to fupport our familiar opinions ; when we poflefs ourfelves in a per- fect indifference for every thing but known and attefted Truth ; totally regardlefs of the place from whence it comes, or of that to which it feems to tend ; when the mind, I fay, is in this iitua- tion, no one, I think, can fairly dilpute the reality of its attach- ment.
1. But our appetites rarely fuffer us to obferve this ftrict and rigid conduct. We feek the gratification of our humour even in the laws which fhould correct it. Hence fo many various systems of morality, to fuit every man's proper frame of mind, and bent of conftitution. The indolent, the active, the fanguine, the fleg- matic, and laturnine, have all their correfpondent Theories. Now, inquirers of this turn muft needs be admirably qualified for the difcovery of Truth ! While juft as one or other of the com- Vol. V. C plexious
io SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
plexions carries him, the man is drawn by a ftrong, though hidden impulfe, into the very centre of his congenial fyftem. And what will be the iffue ? His concern, from henceforth, is not the trial, but the fupport of his opinions ; which can be no otherwife pro- vided for than by keeping the arguments in favour of them always in view, and by ftriving to forget whatever feems to have a lefs indulgent afpecl.
2. Prejudices miflead the inquirer no lefs than his paffions. He venerates the Notions he received from his forefathers : He refts in them, upon the authority of fuch whofe judgment he efteems ; or, at leafr, wifhes them well, for the fake of the honours and profits he fees attached to the profeffion of them. Nay, he can perfuade himfelf to patronize what he has once chofen, for reaibns ftill more remote from the conclufions of common fenfe. He likes them becaufe they are old ; becaufe they are new ; for being plain and fimple ; for being fnblime and myfterious ; for being followed by the Few ; for being followed by the Many ; in a word, on a thoufand other accounts, with which Truth hath no manner of concern. But this muft never be forgotten, that, let Prejudice drive from what quarter it will, it is lure to make fhipwreck of the Underftanding, thus flattered and betrayed.
But then bad as this is, Since this too is certainly the cafe, that the impediments in the purfuit of Truth are not effential but acci- dental ; we may well account for our miftakes in fetting out, the ilownefs of our advance, and the rubs and oppofitions in our paf- fhge, without having recourfe to any fceptical conclufions in favour of the incomprehenfible nature of Truth, or the inacceffible filia- tion in which* the eternal Author of all things hath placed her. For is this any reafon, that becaufe fome Truths are fo deep that our hafte and impatience will not iuffer us to found them ; others fo difguifed that our diflipation will not allow us the attention necefiary to difcover them ; and others again io fufpected that our prejudices difpofe us to rejedl them ; That becaufe fome errors are represented fo plaufibly as to look like Truth; others feem fo
com-
Serm. T. The Nature and Condition of Truth. it
commodious as to be wifhed Truth ; and others again appear fo fafhionable as to ufurp all the prerogatives due unto it ; Is this, I fay, any reafon for fober men to conclude, that either there is no difference between what We call Truth and Falfehood ; or that the difference is fo infenfible that it will not ferve us for a diftinc- tion ? Our very Senfes, in many cafes, our Reafon in more, and our Hearts in almoft all, will convince us of the contrary.
II. We come next to confider the objections to religious truth.
I. And firft, with regard to the Minifters of Religion, their paffions and their prejudices. It is rather to be lamented than objected to us, that confecration to the fervice of heaven will not exempt good men from the frailties of humanity. As to the bad, indeed, if it does not aggravate their crimes, at leaft it renders them more fcandalous : and, in general, when the matter is of high concernment, the paffions both of good and bad are always, from the common impotence of our nature, proportionably inflamed. Miftaken conftancy, or irregular zeal, makes this man tenacious of received opinions : and the obliquer affections of avarice or am- bition make that man reverence fuch as are eftablifhed. Opposition, likewife, will make both but too much difpofed to obtrude what they fufpect to be falfe ; and to fecrete what they know to be true. This draws them ftill further from the road of Truth, while all they feek is to be at diftance from one another's Parties and Opi- nions. So long, therefore, as thefe interefts prevail, the plaineff. Truths will be difputed, and the moif notorious Errors patronized and fupported ; the obfcureft Principles preferred to the cleareft, and the fubtileft conclulions take place of the mofl fimple.
2. Inveterate errors concerning the nature and end of God's written word, errors long fince fanctified by time and autho- rity, are another fource of thole difgraces to which Revelation is become fubject. The Gofpel is i'o commonly honoured with the name of Truth ; and holy Scripture in general fo frequently re-
C 2 commended
i2 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
commended for its capacity of leading us into all truth, that men have been apt to regard it as a treafury of Science ; and to apply to their Bible for all the principles of human knowledge. And under this delufion, the vain inquirer, to cover the difhonour of a fruit- lefs iearch, hath always had recourfe to that exhauftlefs fund, the human Imagination ; which is ever then moft extravagant when Reafon is at greateft diftance. How miferably, for inftance, hath the Mofaic account of the Creation been diihonoured by the wild and jarring expofitions of men devoted to this or that feci: of Phi- losophy or Mysticism ! Platonifts, Materialifts, Cartefians, Che- mifts, Cabalifts, and all the impure fry of phyiical, philological, and ipiritual Enthufiafts, have found their peculiar whimfies fup- ported, and made authentic, in the firft and fecond chapters of the book of Genesis !
How, again, have the Jewifh Law and the Gospel of Jefus been abufed by Slaves and Rebels ; or by fuch as were ready to become either ; to find, in one, the Divine Right of Kings ; and, in the other, the Supremacy and Dominion of the Church !
But amidft all the folly and mifchief attending this perverfion of the Bible, in fupport of human fyftems of Philofophy and Politics, had men only reflected, that, though Scripture be laid to be written to make us wife, it is added — unto falvaiion * ; they would have fought for the principles of natural and civil know- ledge amongft their proper Profeflbrs : and have ftudied Scripture only to inveftigate that wifdom which is from above j and isfrjl pure, then peaceable + : a wifdom, which, at the fame time that it enlightens the Judgment, rectifies the Heart; and fo takes away -all ground of contention both from a perplexed head and a bigotted temper. "
111. But the thing which, moft of all other, indifpofes fcepticat men to the truths of Revelation is, '* That the fmall remain of
* 2 Tim. chap. iii. 15. f Jam. chap. jii. 17.
Scripture-
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. 13
Scripture-Truth which the friends and ministers of Religion have left unimpaired, lies a prey to its enemies : obvious (they fay,) to a thoufand objections ; and every objection level to the ca- pacity of the Vulgar : while the iolution of them not only requires the beft abilities to frame and draw out, but the clofeft attention likewife to comprehend."
Now, as this is fuppofed to affect both the nature of Truth in general, and the character of the Gofpel in particular, we fhall conlider it in either light.
1. All objections to Truth muft needs be founded in falie judg- ment : Falie judgment proceeds from ignorance, or a fuperficial view of things : But this ignorance is the proper allotment of the Vulgar ; So that, what ariies from thence, as referring to, and con* {"on ant with their capacities, cannot but make a quick and eaiy im- preflion. On the contrary, the folution of thefe difficulties muft needs be formed on a true judgment of things. This judgment fp rings from a profound view of Nature. But fuch a view requires- a large detail : and the mutual connections and dependencies of things, a ftrict examination : hence the necefiity of time to acquire,, and of attention to comprehend. Thefe different properties in Ob- jections and Solutions are fo conftant and notorious:, that the eafe of questioning foolifhly, and the difficulty of anfwering wifely, is become proverbial.
Henee we collect, that even admitting Revelation to be true, it would be necefl'arily attended with the disadvantages here objected to it.
2. In vindication of the character of the Gospel it may be re- plied, That it is one thing to underftand the meaning of a truth delivered in a proportion, and another, to comprehend all the rea- ■ fons on which that truth is founded. The firft of thefe is all that is necessary for man to know: For when God vouchsafed the revelation of himfelf to the world, he annexed saving faith to the knowledge and acceptance of clear and fimple proportions, fuch as thefe, that Jefus is the MeJJiab, the Redeemer of mankind.
They
14. SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
They miftake his Gofpel, and alter the terms of his Covenant, who put falvation upon the evidence to be given of the necessity of a Saviour. The learned Divine, we prefume, is able to fatufy all ferious inquirers, in both thefe particulars : But if the reafoning which proves the latter, exceed the capacity of the mere Vulgar, it derogates nothing from Revelation ; fince the knowledge of that matter makes no part of the terms of our ialvation. All, that man can wilh mould be indulged him, in confideration of his na- tural infirmities, is indulged him : For the utmoft he could deiire is, that the Truths, which come propofed to him from God, be- plain and confident ; and accompanied with Credentials from the lender. Agreeably hereto, the fundamental doctrines, which the Chi iftian religion objects to our belief, are the exiftence of one God, the Creator ; and his moral government of the world ; that Jefus is the C'hrift, the Son of God, fent by his Father to redeem man- kind from (in and mifery, and to reftore them to eternal life, by the facrifice of himfelf upon the crofs; and that the Holy Spirit is the fanctiner and enlightener of all thofe who walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called. Propolitions of the utmoft clear - neis and precifion. Nor is the evidence of their original lefs Am- ple or intelligible ; fuch as the Miracles performed, and the Prophe- iies fulfilled, in atteftation of them.
So admirably fitted for the grofs body of mankind, is this Reli- gion, both in its genius and promulgation ! No abfurd incredibility in Nature, propofed ; no blind fubmiiTion to Authority, required. The doctrines, as clear as they are pure, equally folicit the Under- standing and Affections ; and are adapted to fatisfy the Reafon, at the fame time that they allure the Will. In a word, inforced with that power ana1 conviction as makes it difficult for an ingenuous mind to reject them, though under cover of that civil (but criminal) difmiffion of the Roman Governor.
IV. But then, " If thefe fundamental articles of the Gofpel- co- venant were contrived by divine Wifdom, with fuch fimplicity and
plainneis,
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. 15
plainnefs, How came they, it will be afked, to be fo delivered as to afford occafion for the inquifitive to ftart a thoufand curious queftions, which have no other tendency than to perplex and ob- fcure them." To this, we beg leave to fay, that, though, indeed, facred Scripture, as far as it refpe&s the eflentials of the Chriftian faith, be exceeding clear and fimple, yet it does, at the fame time, contain many profound, and even impenetrable myfteries. Myf- teries, however, which no lefs manifeft the adorable wiidom, than the open doctrines do the abounding goodnefs of our all-gracious Mafter.
The Gofpel is a Covenant or Tranfa&ion of God with Man. The immenfe diftance between the Parties contracting muft needs make the feveral parts of the covenant very dimmilar. So that, if from Man's nature and fituation we may expecf, that, when God vouchfafes to direeVus by a revelation of his Will, all his commands will be brief, evident, and full ; we muft, on the like reafoning, conclude from the nature of the other contracting Party, the God of the univerfe, that when he vouchfafes to inftruiff Man in the revelation of his Truth, there will be fome things in the Covenant of Grace, which will partake of the fublime ocfcurity of its Author.
It was the fame God who framed the Chriftian Oeconomv and the Newtonian Syftem. Why therefore fhould it be matter of ob- jection to the former, and not to the other, that there are many things furpaffing human comprehenfion in both ? Is the dodlrine of Grace more ftupendous than the velocity of Motion given to Light ? Or is the incarnation of the Son of God more aftonifhin^ than the leaft poflible quantity of Matter fufficient to make a World ? If therefore the Newtonian philofophy (which is built on Science) hath revealed and demonftrated the powers of Nature amidft all that darknefs; how can we doubt of feeing God in his Gofpel, though iurrounded with the impenetrable depths of in- finity ? In a word, I think we might as reaibnably conclude againft the divine original of the Gofpel, if there were no traces of fuch
myfteiious
16 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
myfterious parts, as if there were only fuch. An unclouded fplen- dor, and undiluted obfcurify, equally difcrediting the Works and Difpenfations of Heaven.
But, of the dark parts of Revelation there are two forts : one, which may be cleared up by the ftudious application of well-improv- ed talents ; the other, which will always refide within the fhadow of God's throne, where it would be impiety to intrude.
However, neither the one nor other make part of the eflential doctrines of our Faith. The impenetrable nature of the latter totally unfits them for objects of religious belief; aud the difficult compreh-iiition of the former unfits them for becoming objects of the People's. But as it is this fort only which can afford any reafonable ground to the objection before us, we fhall be a little more particular.
The Goipel pfofeffes itfelf to be the completion of one entire Syftem, advancing by a gradual progrefs, through various Ages and People, from the Creation of man to his Redemption. A Difpen- fation of this character cannot but be contrived and conducted on principles of the fublimefl: wifdom. So that as, on the one hand, the knowledge of the relations of the parts to one another; and their various coiucidencies, and mutual operations, to produce, ei- their their diftinct, or their united effects, will be extremely difficult; fo, on the other, the attainment of this knowledge will be neceffary, if we afpire to that full and comprehenfive idea of Religion, which can alone enable us to detect and fatisfy the doubts and cavils of Infidelity.
Now, in this confifts the ratio and eflential grounds of the Gof- pel-doctrine ; of which, one would think, the only ifliie mould be credit, and glory to the Chriftian Faith. But unadviied inquirers exploring the depths of infinite Wifdom without modefty and re- verence, have given a handle to licentious men to turn thefe proofs, explored improperly, and imprudently inforced, into an argument againft the divine original of Revelation. And this pretence mak- ing its appeal to the ignorance of the Vulgar, is greedily embraced.
In
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition o/Trutu. 17
In the mean time, the folution of the cavil demanding an enlarged view of God's moral Oeconomy, acquired by the right application of general knowledge, well digefted, we need not wonder, that a better underflanding than commonly falls to the fliare of the People is required to enable us to fee the force of fuch reafoning.
But is this general incapacity any real objection to the truth of our Religion ? By no means. It is perfectly agreeable to our ideas of God's moral attributes, that he mould inform men of his Will; that he fhould deliver to them a rule of action, accompanied with the ianctions of a Law : It is as conformable to our ideas of Man's relation to his Maker, that he mould receive and obferve this Law. Reafon, indeed, expects that the delivery of it be attended with thefe conditions, That the proportions in which it is contained be clear and intelligible ; the truths in which it is conveyed, agreeable to the nature of things ; and the pretentions of thofe intrufted with its propagation, confirmed by iuperior power. Along with this Law is proclaimed the free gift of a general blefling; which the Giver might beftow at his pleafure, as well in one reafonable way as in another.
Has man any more to expect before he vouchfafes to accept this free blefling, or condefcends to be governed by this equitable Law ? Reafon fays, No. But Paflion and Prejudice ftand out. " We want, they cry, to be informed how we came to ftand in need of this Salvation. We want to be inftructed in the ratio or eflential grounds of the doctrine propounded."
Now if divine Wifdom had not thought fit to complv with fo bold and infolent a demand, Could we aceufe him of being want- ing to his favourite Man ? Surely we could not. Yet God hath been gracioully pleafed to humour our caprice. He hath laid open the depth and riches of his Syftem fo fully, as to enable thoie, who are duly qualified with human knowledge, to iatisfy thefe demands, and to explain the why of his Oeconomy of Redemption.
Will this content us .: By no means. " The folution, it is ** laid, is founded in fuch principles of fpeculative fcience as the
Vol. V. D " Peo] '
18 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
" People can never comprehend." But for this, there is no re- medy. The fault, if there he any, lies not in the mode of the re- ligious Difpenfation, but in the nature of Truth itfelf : Which re- quires much attention of the bed gifted and beft improved under- ftanding to penetrate to its general principles. Would you have the eternal nature of things altered to gratify your prejudices ? Truth, no more than its Author, can fink to the level of your ig- norance ; but You, by a proper cultivation of your reafon, may rife to Truth, may reach its fublimeft heights, its reiidence near the footftool of the Almighty.
" This attempt, you fay, the ftation and condition of the people will never fuffer them to make ; they have, neither leifure to learn, nor opportunities to philofophife." — Be content then with thofe fimple principles, and plain arguments for Religion, explained above : and have the candour and honefty to own, that, if you want knowledge to judge of the anfwers of the learned, to infidel objections; you want it equally to judge of the objections them- felves ; which, therefore, fhould never indifpofe you to what you do underftand ; Principles, which conftitute thofe effential articles of faith by which you muft be faved. And if the higher and more intricate truths of Religion exceed your capacity, be allured (if for no other reafon than this) that you may be fafely ignorant of them. In the concerns of life, about which, men are generally more in earneft than in the affairs of Religion, you take the con- clufions of Science upon truft, and erect them into principles : You navigate, you build, you ftate accounts, and truft to the ma- thematician for the ratio of thofe rules by which you work and at- tain your pu+pofe.
But to this you will fay, " It is true, indeed, that in the com- mon affairs of life, men go on upon truft ; but then uniform ex- perience fhews, they are in no danger of being deceived ; for the conftant fuccefs attending the operations, thus conducted, affures them, that the rules by which they act are deduced from prin- ciples of Truth." — And is that Faith and Obedience, which
conftitut
Serm. I. "The Nature and Condition cf Truth. io
conftitute us the Difciples of Chrift, lefs uniformly produ&ive of good ? Did Faith ever violate civil peace ; or Obedience impair domeftic felicity ? In vain you tell us of that frantic Zeal, of that dire Superftition, which have fet whole Kingdoms \\\ a flame, and defolatcd private Houfes. The firft mifchief they always do is to corrupt Faith and Obedience : and after this, to charge upon thefe, the evils caufed by their deiTroyers, is adding mockery to injufticc.
And here let me obferve, that the Founders of our holy Faith were in this, as in all other parts of their conduct, truly admirable. What they chiefly in lifted on to the People at large, was the Be- lief of a few fimple propolitons, as necelfary to Salvation. When they addreffed themfielves to fuch Particulars who were fitly qua- lified and rightly difpofed, fuch who have heads to diftinguiih, and hearts to chufe the right, they as warmly recommend Examina- tion, to fearch the Scriptures, and to try ail things. Yet the only ufj a late writer could find in lb fage and generous a conduct was to turn it to abufe, in a piece of profane drollery, called Chrijlia- nity not founded on argument. An egregious exploit ! and worthy the Author's charitable views ; the mock confolation of Fanatics, and the fly merriment of Sceptics and Unbelievers.
But now, we are ftopt fhort and told, that all our pains might have been well fpared ; for that the neceflity of thefe profound de- fenfes, fo much embroiling the learned and embarralfing the Vul- gar, doth not arife from the nature oi truth, but from the folly or knavery of its Advocates. " It is aftonifhing (fays the Ob- " jector) how Divines could take fo much filly pains to eftablifh " myftery on metaphyfics, revelation on philofophy, and matters " of fact on abftract reafoning. A Religion founded on the autho- 44 rity of a divine Million, confirmed by prophefies and miracles, " appeals to fact : and the fadts muft be proved as all other facts, " that pafs for authentic, are proved. If they are thus proved, '« the Religion will prevail without the affiftance of fo much pro-
D 2 «« found
2o SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
" found reafoning*." To which I reply, That, had this charge on the Divines been well founded, the objection would yet have been uncandid and difmgenuous. For who were they that drew fhe Divines into metaphyfics, philofophy, and abftract reafoning, but thefe Objectors themfelves ? And on what occafion, but this? — The advocates of Revelation did not want to be told that a " Reli- " gion founded on the authority of a divine Million, and confirmed " by prophefies and miracles, appeals to fads," and was to be proved by human evindence : P'or in reality, by Facts they had already proved it : And with fuch force and Evidence, that unbe- lievers were driven from their Objections to the Facts, and reduced to take refuge in Philofophy — " You prefs us with fads (fay they) and the teftimony of antiquity : fupports too (lender to bear the un- natural load of Revelation ! A thing impofiible in itfelf, as it oppofes the eitablifhed order of Providence : A thing impoffible under the Bible reprefentation of it, as feveral paffages in that book directly oppofe our common notions of God's Attributes." — In this ftrait, what was to be done, but either to confefs the force of the objection ; or, by the aid of that metaphyfics, philofophy, and ab- Jlratl reafoning, which the laft objection appeals to, and which the other condemns, to fhew its futility and weaknefs. For the con- stitution of nature cannot be explained without metaphyfics ; and the Attributes of God cannot be confronted with his fuppofed com- mands, without the ufe of abftract reafoning. And yet, for fub- mitting to this neceffity, for undergoing this drudgery, the Di- vines are upbraided, ridiculed, and turned into contempt. And by whom ? By the very men who occafioned the diftrefs, and defied them to get out of it.
Nor is this the worft. The Divines are reprefented as applying their " metaphyfics, philofophy, and profound reafoning, to pro- " phefies and miracles." How grofs the mifreprefentation ! They had more wit, they had more honefty (I fpeak not here, nor does
* L. B's Letters concerning the fhidy and ufe of Hiftory.
the
Serm. I. T/je Nature and Condition of Truth. 21
the Objector, of two or three crack-brained vifionaries), than to take fo much filly pains. They applied this reafoning as became them; not to matter of fact, but of right. It was pretended, that God could not give a Revelation ; that he could not lelect a chofen People ; that he could not accept a vicarious atonement. And againfl thefe bold aflertions, the Chriftian Divine directed all the force and evidence of true Philolbphy. — With what iuccefs, the lateft pofterity fliall tell with gratitude.
V. But it is not only from what lies hid, but from what hath been difcovered, that the enemies of our Faith can raife objections to its difcredit. If, in thefe later times, it hath been pretended, that a more rational idea of God's difpenfations hath been propofedj if the various genius, the comparative excellence, the mutual de- pendence, the reciprocal illuftrations of the feveral Parts, and the • gradual progrefs of the Whole towards perfection, have been in- vestigated with a penetration, folidity, and precifion unknown to thofe ages which time alone hath taught us to efteem venerable ; if, I fay, this hath been pretended; We are then alked, " How it came to pafs, that Truths, fo fublime and ufeful, mould have lain hid till now ; When the light of the Spirit was fent lb early, and had illuminated the Church fo long ? How it came to pafs, they were denied to the bell: times ; and, after a long courfe of ages, referved as a reward for the very word?"- — And when they have alked this, to difcredit old truths ; they can, in order to in- creafe the prejudices againfl: them, join with bigots, how inconfi- ftently foever, to decry the new.
To this objection, it is fufficient to reply, That the promife and gift of the Spirit may be considered either as it concerned the firft propagators of the Word ; or as it concerned the teachers and hearers of it ever fince. As to the immediate difciples of Chrilt, there is no doubt of their being abundantly inlightened for the work of their miniftryj whether it was in making converts, in founding churches, or in compofing thofe occafional instructions, by which
Christians
22 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN,
Chriflians of all ages may improve the current benefits they re- ceive from the affiflance of the fame Spirit. — And that affifrance is the fecond point we are to coniider.
Now the endowment of Grace is, in this refpect, jufl the fame with every common endowment of Nature ; of little advantage without our co-operation ! God hath given men hands and feet, to procure good and to avert evil. But the benefit does not operate like a charm ; it is to our dextrous application of the members that we owe all the advantages arifing from their ufe. So it is in the free-gift of the Spirit : it was bellowed upon us to enlighten the Understanding, to affift the Judgment, and to redrefs the diibrders of the Will. But if either we refufe to exert thefe faculties, or will direct them to improper objects, the ufe and efficacy of Grace mull furely be defeated. Thefe reflections will enable us to give a reafonable account how it might happen, that very important truths, concerning God's moral Difpenfations, may have remained hid for ages, and yet be referved (to the greater glory of his Gof- pel in its greatefl need), for the diicovery of thefe worfe and latter times.
This fuppofed ordonance, in the ceconomy of Grace, may receive credit from what is confefTed to have happened in the ceconomy of Nature.
The power, wifdom, and goodnefs of the Author of the Syflem to which we belong, is fo clear and evident from every obvious configuration of Matter furrounding us, that it cannot efcape the notice of the mofl inattentive, or lie concealed from the mofl igno- rant. Hence a God, the Maker, Preferver, and Governor of the world, is the concurrent voice of Nature.
Now Creation and Government, from which the morality of human actions is deduced, are the great principles of natural Religion. So that God could not be laid to have been wanting in the diicovery of himielf to the lowefl of his reafonable creatures. Yet though the obvious marks of his Power, Wifdom, and Gcod- nefs, thus obtrude r.hemfelves upon all men ; it is certain that a
well-
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. zj
well-directed ftudy, in the contemplation of the great book of Na- ture, opens to us fuch ftupendous wonders of his Power, fuch awful fcenes of his Wiidom, and fuch inchanting profpedts of his Goodnefs, as exceed all conception of the unlettered and unin- itrucled Spectator. Some faint tafte of thefe beauties, the more Inquifitive enjoyed very early : But their fuccefibrs, by too much indulging to speculation, and allowing too little to experi- ence, inftead of finding a real, invented an infinite variety of ideal Worlds ; all as difhonourable to the Author of Nature as diitant from his Truth. At length, men grew wifer by the follies of thofe who went before them ; and a different method of ftudying Nature was invented and purfued ; in which Fancy was excluded, . and Fact only allowed for a folid ground of phyfical progreffion. From this time, Science advanced ; the veil of Nature was drawn alide ; and her facred Myfleries expoled to the open admiration of all men.
This was the cafe in the Syftem of Nature. The Syffem of Grace feems to run exactly parallel.
The great principles of Revealed Religion are Faith and Obe- dience : And thefe are clearly and fully taught in the Gofpel ; and are alone fufficient to make men wife unto falvation. But we fhould greatly derogate from God's Moral government, not to fup- pofe it abounding with the like myfterious wonders as the Natural. And to the ftudy of thefe, there were more calls, and much better opportunities. The knowledge of God's moral Difpenfation is the duty of every man; and more efpecially of the Minifters of Reli- gion : So that partly on account of the importance of the fubject ; , partly to enable us to oppofe ourfelves to the malice and fophiftry of the enemy; but principally in obedience to the command, to Jiudy the Scriptures ; it has, from the firfl ages of Chriftianity down to thefe times, been one of the principal occupations of the Learned. Yet what through unfavourable circumftances in the Civil and Literary world ; what through the bias of inveterate prejudices; but, above all, from the oblique interefts and turbulent pafiions of
the
24 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
the inquirers themfelves ; the various fyftems of Religion, invented by Divines, and which all pretend to find in Scripture, have dis- honoured the Redemption of mankind near as much as thofe of the Philoibphers had difhonoured the Creation of the univerfe : till here, as in the other cafe, the fame fpirit of prudence and fobriety, which taught men the true method of treating the things of Na- ture, by a careful ftudy of the volume of creation, led them into the right way of treating the things of God, by a careful ftudy of the volume of Redemption. So that if, in -thefe times, the advances in the knowledge of God's Will mould haply prove as consider- able as thofe in the difcovery of his Works, it will not be befide a reaionuble expectation ; as fimilar means are always likely to produce fimilar effects.
We have placed thefe correfpondent hiftories of the progrefs of the human mind, hi Nature and Grace, thus near one another, that, by comparing the parts of them together in the fame view, we may fee whether there be any objections to the truth of new dtfcoveries in religious matters that do not equally hold againft the truth of new difcoveries in natural ; of which, for their newnefs alone, no man ever yet entertained the leait iufpicion.
Fiift, then, as to God's primary difcovery of his Nature in the great book of Creation, compared to the difcovery of his Will in the volume of his written word, we may obferve his goodnefs in cither cafe to be equally confpicuous. In the former, a man need but open his eyes to fee the Divinity in every object ; in the lat- ter, he who rum may read the means and method of his own Sal- vation : In neither, is any thing wanting, that is neceflary, to in- ftruct the mftft ignorant in their dependance, and their duty. For further information in the works and ways of Providence, God wifely referved it for the reward of the manly and virtuous improve- ment of the Uuderftanding.
It is true, in fact, that throughout a vafl feries of ages, neither of thefe Inquirers made any very confiderable advances in real
know-
Serm. I. The Nature and Condition of Truth. 25
knowledge. : but it is as true, that the impediments, in both cafes, proceeded not from any difficulties in the nature of the things in- quired after, but from the wrong methods employed in the fearch. Inftead of endeavouring to find out the real conflkution of things from the frame of God's works, as they are objected to our fenfes ; or the nature of Revelation from the ftudy of the word, as conveyed to us in Scripture ; they invented imaginary Syftems out of their own {lender flock of Nothing ; and then, by wrefting and dif- torting, forced Nature and the Bible to father this fhadowy and fpurious iflue.
But both Divines and Philofophers, when they became con- vinced of their follies, and, in confequence of that convidion, proceeded with more modefty, as well as better fenfe, to renounce their fanciful Hypothefes, and to erect Theories on the real confti- tution of things, Both, I fay, made great advances in natural and religious truth.
Thefe two important ftudies, therefore, being alike circum- flanced, and having run the fame fortune, demand, in all reafon, the fame judgment to be paffed on their pretences.
But, alas ! we are not accuflomed to be thus equitable. One of the principal fources of human errors is the drawing different con- clusions from the fame principles.
It is confeffed, that the book of Nature is fo plain and clear, that every fentence names and reveals its Author : that if lefs ob- vious Truths have lain a long time concealed, it was men's own fault, in adhering to a perverfe method of inquiry ; and that when afterwards a better was invented, and they began to apply it with more care and fobriety, knowledge opened and enlarged itfelfpro- portionably : while the fudden blaze of light which followed, was fo far from making Truth fulpec~ted, that it diffipated all thofe doubts which had before been held of its obfeure and, equivocal nature.
Vol. V. E But
26 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
But now if we turn from Phyfical to Religious inquiries, we (hall find, that the very contrary inference hath been drawn from all the fame circumftances. Becaufe men had been long unfuc- cefsful in the difcovery of the higher truths of Religion, not only thefe, fo lately found and fo difficultly comprehended, but even the moil obvious principles, early delivered and generally received, have been rendered doubtful and fufpected.
But there is another fort of Men, the pretended friends indeed of Religion, who, from too great reverence for things eftablimed, have joined with fuch as have too little, in decrying all novelties in religious matters.
Thefe Men, abhorring the vanity to be thought wifer than their forefathers, have in exprefs terms declared their difpleafure at making what they call experiments in Religion.
Divines, it is true, have long difputed how experiments in Reli- gion fhould be made. Some would employ Scripture alone; others were for taking in Fathers and Councils ; and a third fort for ap- plying raillery and ridicule to the procefs. But, till of late, every man was for fome experiment or other. For what is making expe- riments but (as we have jufl: (hewn) illuftrating Revelation by new arguments arifing from new difcoveries made in the order, fitnefs, and harmony of the various difpenfations of Religion amongft themfelves, jufl as Philofophers (of whom the word is borrowed) unfold nature by new difcoveries made, from repeated trials, in the contents of bodies.
No experiments in Religion is indeed the Language of Statefmen (for in fome things bigotry and politics agree, as extremes run eafily into one another by their very attempts to keep at diftance), becaufe, according to the Politician's Creed, Religion being ufeful to the ftate, and yet only a well-invented fiction, all experiments, that is, all enquiries into its truth, naturally tend, not to con- firm, but to unfettle this neceffary fupport of civil Government.
But,
Serm. I. The Nature an d Condition of Truth. 27
But, for one who believes Religion to come from God to be frighted with the danger of experiments, is to take his friend for his enemy, the moil ridiculous of all panic terrors.
One might reafonably afk fuch a one how it comes to pafs that experiments, of fo fovereign ufe in the knowledge of Nature, mould be calculated to make fuch havock in Religion ? Are not both the works of God ? Were not both given for Man's contemplation ? Have not both, as proceeding from the common Mafter of the Univerfe, their depths and obfcurities ? And doth not the un- folding the myiteries of moral government tend equally, with the difplaying the fecrets of the natural, to the advancement of God's glory, and the happinefs of Man ? In a word, had no experiments been made in Nature, we had ftill flept in the made, or wandered in the labyrinth, of School Philofophy; and, had no experiments been made in Religion, we had £1111 kept blundering on in the rugged and dark paths of School-divinity.
To end as we began, with the inftruction afforded by my text*. What realbn feems to require of us is this ; That if yet we know not the Truth, we mould feek it of thole who do: and if the plain and limple principles of it will not ferve our turn, but that we will needs philofophize, and demand a reafon for every thing, that at leaft we flay for an Anfwer ; and ftay, too, till we under- ftand it, before we venture to pronounce the Religion of our country to be nothing but a mere human impofition.
E a SER-
C 28 ]
SERMON II.
GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT.
PSALM cxliv. ver. 3.
Lord, what is man, that thoutakest knowledge of him ? Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him ?
THUS the holy Prophet, feized with a facred horror at an Universe ftretched out through the immenfity of boundlefs Space ; and with a rapturous gratitude for that Good- ness who has graced his favourite Man with fo tender and fo in- timate a regard. *
Meditations of this kind are, indeed, moir. obvious and affect- ing. The Religionist and the man of the world have equally employed them to reduce Humanity to its juft value; though for very different purpofes ; the firft, to excite religious gratitude in others ; the fecond, to encourage himfelf in an impious Na- turalism.
When the Religionift compares this fmall Spot of earth to the whole of its Syftem ; and fees a number of primary and fecondary
planets,
Serm. II. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 29
planets, habitations like his own, if he may judge by probable ana- logy, rolling round with it, and performing their various revolu- tions about one central fire, the common fource of light and warmth to all, He is abafhed at the mean and diminilhed rank his own world bears in this folemn and auguft aflembly.
When, by the aid of improved Aftronomy, he compares this fubaftral oeconomy with the fyftems of the fixed liars ; every one of which reigns a Sun, directing and influencing the revolutions of its attendant planets ; and fees that, as the Earth is but a point compared to the orb of Saturn, fo the orb of Saturn itfelf grows dimenfionlefs when compared to that vail extent of fpace which the ftellar-folar Syftems poffcfs and occupy ; This Lord of the cre- ation fhrinks fuddenly from his height, and mingles with the lowed croud of unheeded and undiffinguifhed Beings.
But when, by the further aids of fcience, he underftands, that a new Hoji of Heaven, too remotely ftationed for the naked fight to draw out and review, hath been made to ifTue into day ; each of which mining Grangers is the Leader of a troop of others, whofe borrowed luftxe, too weakly reflected, no affiftance of art can bring forward ; and that ftill, when fenfe flops fhort, fcience pur- fues the great difcovery, and reafon carries on the progrefs through, the mighty regions of boundlels fpace ; the fatigued imagination, tracing fyftem after fyftem, as they rife to light in endlefs fuccef- fion, turns frightened back upon itfelf, and overwhelms the labour- ing mind with terror and aftonifhment : whence, it never can dis- engage itfelf till it rifes on the wings of Faith, which bear this humbled creature from himfelf, and place him before the thione of God; where he fees the myfteries of that Providence laid open, whofe care and bounty fo magnificently provides for the meaneff. oi his creatures.
Thus pioufly affected is the Religionifl: with the facred horrors of this amazing fcene; an univerfe ftretched out through the wide regions of fpace, and terminated on all fides by the depths of infinity.
But
3o SERMON'S AT LINCOLN'S INN.
But let us turn now to the Man of the world, whom this view of things, rather degrades than humbles. Calmly contemplative in the chair of falfe fcience, he derides the miftaken gratitude of the benighted Religionift ; a gratitude rifing not on reafon, but oil pride. " For whether, fays he, we confider this earth, the man- fion of evil, or man its wretched inhabitant, What madnefs is it to fuppofe, that fo fordid a corner, and fo forlorn an occupant, can be the centre of God's moral government ? What but the lunacy of felf-love could make this fliort-lived reptile, (huffled hither as it were by Fate, and precarioufly fuftained by Fortune, imagine him- felf the diftinguifhed care, and the peculiar Favorite of Heaven ? As well, fays he, might the blind inhabitants of an ant-hill, which chance had placed on the barren frontier of an extended Empire, flatter themlelves with being the firft object of their monarch's po- licy, who had unpeopled thofe mighty deferts only to afford room and fafety for their buly colonies. The moft, that reafoning pride can t^mpt us to prefume is, that we may not be excluded from that general providence, governing by laws mechanical, and, once for all, imprefled on matter when it was firft harmonized into fyfiems. But to make God the moral, that is, the clofe, the minute and immediate infpector into human actions, is degrading him from that high rank in which this philofophy of inlarged crea- tion hath lo fitly placed him : and returning him to the people, traveled to the mortal fize of local Godfhip : under which idea, the iuperftitious vulgar have been always inclined to regard the Maker and Governor of the World."
Thus widely diftant are the conclufions of the philofopher, from the fentiments of the religious man.
But who are the inlarged thinkers, and on which fide reafon de- clares, it is the purpofe of this diicourfe to inquire : Where, we trull, it will be found, that Man notwithftanding the vaft diftance between him and his Creator, is indeed the fubject of God's moral government, jnft as inftindt prompts him to hope, and religion di- rects him to believe.
I. If
Serm. II. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 3i
I. If from the difference of intrinfic dignity, and native worth in the Creature, we can conclude aught concerning the proportioned degrees of nearnefs in which it ftands to its Creator, we (hall be forced to give the place of honour to Mind above Matter.
We are dazzled with the pomp and fplendor of a vifible Creation : and the auguft forms of material things hinder us from difcerning the dcfpicable qualities of that fubftance out of which they are fafhioned. But view this fubftance well, and we mail find, that what philofophers call the inertness of Matter, a quality effen- tial to it, places it in the very lowelr. elafs of what we can conceive of Being. So that were it not for the virtue of attraction, a thing foreign and extrinfic to it, Matter would be totally unfit for all the known purpofes of its Creation,
To make Matter, therefore, any way confiderable, its accumu- lated bulk muff, fupply for its inherent bafenefs. And yef the bell: Philofbphy, proceeding on geometric principles, hath inform- ed us, that pombly all the folid matter in the univerfe may be comprized within a narrownefs of limit* ffill more aftonifhing than even that immenfity through which we find it dilated and. expanded.
Thus Matter carries in it no further marks or notice of a cre- ating Hand, than an aptitude of falling back into nothing on the- withdrawing the influence of that power which brought it into
* See Newton's Opt. p. 243. Oclavo Edition. — " The Sagacity of our au» " thor [Newton] (fays Dr. Pemberton, in his excellent View, &c.) has difcovered a " method by which — the leafl portion of matter may be wrought into a body of any •' affigned dimenfions how great foever, and yet the pores of that body none of then* "- greater than any the fmalleft magnitude propofed at pleafure ; notwithftanding which, " the parts of the body fhall fo touch, that the body itfelf fliall be hard and folid.. " Which (hews that this whole Globe of Earth, nay all the known bodies in the univerfe 14 together, as far as we know, may be compounded of no greater a portion of folid '• matter than might be reduced into a Globe of one inch only in diameter, or evea " lefs." View of Six lfaac' Newton's Philofophy, p. 355, 356.
being,
32 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
being. While, on the contrary, a rational Mind prefents us with the ftrongeft and brighteft image *, it is poffible for a Creature to reflect of its Creator. It partakes of that divine virtue, the power of agency within itfelf. It has a capacity of imagination to turn its regard from the prefent, to the paft and future ; an ability of judgment to examine and reftify the informations of fenfe ; and a freedom of Will to give morality to all its thoughts and actions.
But befides this obvious fuperiority of Mind over Matter in the nature of their effences ; there is as fenfible a difference in the ends of their Creation, or in the effects produced by the exertion of their feveral qualities. The material world was made but for the fake of the intellectual ; and confequently it is not to be fuppofed, that moral Government, which regards the end, fhould be neglect- ed; while natural Government, which concerns only the means, fhould ingrofs the whole of the Ruler's attention. With refpect to the effects produced, Mind will, here again, have the fame advantage ; moral ritneffes having a greater intrinlic excellence than natural : for Matter being devoid of confeioufnefs, the end of the Natural is only good effected ; while the end of the Moral is good felt and enjoyed.
Mind, therefore, cannot but engage the care of Providence ; which is confefled to fuperintend the movements of that Matter, whofe combinations ultimately regard only mind and Intelligence.
But what makes faftidious reafon fo averfe to the idea of God's moral government, when it fo eafily admits his Natural, is that in this latter cafe, fyftems are thought to be fuftained and kept in order only by the general laws of mechanifm, imprefled on Matter at its Creation ; or by certain powers lodged within it, to mold it into form, to pufh it into motion, and to give the true bias to its operations : fo that here, the Deity works neither immediately nor particularly, but leaves every thing to the government of thofe ge-
* Gen. chap. i. ver. 26.
neral
Serm.II. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 33
neral Laws, or at leaft to the adminiftration of that fecondary power, or Plaftic Nature, which fuperintends the execution of his Laws : while he himfelf, the fovereign Lord of Being, defcends not from his high eftate, nor fuffers his fupremacy to be degraded by a minute attendance on every particle of body ; or polluted by an intimate contact with grofs impure materiality. On the other hand, they fee, moral government muft be conducted on different principles. For it's fubjett being free agency, and it's object the direction of the effects which fuch an agency produced), the atten- tion of the Deity muft be in (rant, immediate, and particular ; the relations of Mafter and Servant, of Lord and Subject, neceflarily implying the moft clofe and conftant intimacy.
But what fnall we fay, if the indifpofition to God's moral go- vernment, on account of this difference, be a mere prejudice ? An indifpofition not derived from Nature, but the falfe explanations of it's phenomena, obtruded on us by vain fyftem- makers ? Indeed, this fuppofed difbnce and reparation of the great Artift from his Work, after having once fet the Machine a-going by the firft im- preflion of his general Laws, is the gratuitous conciufion of a talk- ing Philofophy : The later, and more correct inquiries into the material fyftem, on the unerring experience of the Newtonian phy- fics, have clearly difcovered, that God is intimately prefent to every particle of Matter, at every point of Space, and in every in- ftance of Being. For a vis inertia, or refiftance to the change of it's prefent ftate, being an efleutial quality of Matter, and in- confiflent with any motive, force, or power in that Subftance, all thofe effects commonly afcribed to a certain qflence refiding in it, fuch as gravity, attraction, elafticity, repulfion, or whatever other tendencies to Motion are obferved in Matter, are not powers natu- rally belonging to it, or what can poffibly be made inherent in it. So that thefe qualities, without which, Matter would be utterly unfit for ufe, muft needs be produced by the immediate influence of the firft Caufe, inceflantly performing, by his almighty finger, Vol. V. F the
34 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
the minuted: office in the Material Oeconomy ; working Hill near us, round us, within ua, and in every part of us.
If, then, in the Natural government of the world, the immedi- ate, the incefiant influence of the workman on his work in general, through all itsfyftems up to the whole; and, in particular, through all its lefTer portions down even to the minutefr. atom, be neceflary to enable Matter to perform its functions ; there is no reafon to revolt againil that clofe connexion neceffarily fuppofed between the Creator and Creature, in God's Moral government ; or to wonder that the order of Rationals mould be honoured with the fame imme- diate prefence, the fame degree of nearnefs and intimacy, with which the Godhead vifits the whole inanimate creation.
II. Hitherto, we have endeavoured to affirm the reality of God's Moral government here below, by confiderations drawn from the nature of the Creature. Let us now turn to the Creator ; and fee if thofe things which human reafon difcovers of his attri- butes do not farther contribute to eftablifh this important truth.
But we have been told, and with airs of fuperior knowledge, that thefe pretended attributes, as they are commonly fpecified, and dif- tinguiihed into natural and moral, are a mere human fiction ; in- vented, by aid of analogy, from the actions, paffions, and qualities obfervable in man : And that the fimple nature of Deity is one uniform perfection ; of which, infinity being the bafe, we can have no diftinct idea or conception.
To this, it will be fufficient to reply, That it is indeed true, that thefe fpecific attributes, from which we deduce all our know- lege of the Nature and Will of God, are formed on analogy, and bear relation to ourfelves. But then, we fay, fuch attributes 'are not on that account the lefs real or efiential. The light of the Sun is not in the orb itfelf what we fee it in the Rainbow. There it is one candid, uniform, perfect blaze of glory : Here, we fepa- rate its perfection, in the various attributes of red, yellow, blue, purple, and what elfe the fubtile optician fo nicely diftinguiihes.
But
Serm.II. GOD'S MORAL GOVE&NMENT. 3S
But flill, the folar-light is not lefs real in the rainbow, where its rays become thus untwifted, and each differing thread diftinctly feeii, than while they remain united and incorporated with one another, in the Sun. Jult fo it is with the divine Nature : It is one limple individual perfection in the Godhead himfclf : But when refracted and divaricated, in palling through the human Mind, it becomes Power, Juftice, Mercy; which are all feparately and ade- quately reprefented to the Underftanding.
I lhall venture, therefore, to conlider the divine perfection, as thus reduced and unfolded to human contemplation, under the name of Attributes, without any fear of miltaking fhadows for Realities.
And here, I fay, that the Natural attributes of the Deity, con- fidered as Creator and Lord (and with thefe relations only, the Religionilr. has to do) ma) be comprifed in thole of power and wis- dom : His Moral, in thofe of justice and goodness.
Now I hold, that though the idea of his natural attributes be as clear, in the abllract, as that of his moral ; yet the idea of his moral attributes is, in the concrete, more adequate than that of his natural*.
The reafon fecms convincing. The moral relation in which we ftand to God, as free Agents, is juft the fame whether man exifts alone, or whether he be but a link in the chain of innumerable orders of Intelligences iurrounding the whole Creation. Hence
* What is here faid may enable us to form a proper judgment of the following cenfure. — " I would not fay, God governs by a rule, that we know, or ir.ay know, " as we!! as he, and upon our knowledge of which he appeals to men for the juftice of " his proceedings towards there ; which a famous Divine hath impioufly advanced in " a pretended Dano-franon of bit being and attributes. God forbid ! But this I may " fay, that God does always that which is fittest to be done. And that this fitnefs, " whereof neither that prefumptuous dogmatitt was, nor any created being is, a com- " petent Judge, rcfuits from the various natures and mare various relations oft/tings. Sa
■ at of Creator of ail Systems, by which thefe tsaturis and relation; are confituted, " he prijcnlcd to himl'elf tit rule viliJj fo ffilpws3 as Governor of every System of " I! iNG." — Lord Boliagbroke's Idea of a Patriot King, printed 1749, p. 94.
F 2 we
36 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
we muft needs have a juft and full knowledge of our duty to him, and of his difpofition towards us : On which knowledge is founded, the exactnefs of our conceptions of his Moral attributes, his jus- tice and goodness. But the natural, relation in which we, or any of God's creatures, ftand towards him, as Material Beings, is not the fame, when confidered fimply, as when a portion of a de- pendent andvconnecled Whole. Becaufe, whenever fuch a Whole exifts, the harmony and perfection of it muft fir ft of all be con- fuited. This harmony arifeth from the mutual fubferviency and union of its parts. But this fubferviency may require a miniftration of government, with regard to certain portions of matter thus allied, different from what might have followed had thofe portions flood alone ; becaufe that precife difpofition, which might be fit in one cafe, might be unfit in the other. Hence we who know there is a Whole, of which our material fyftem is a part, and yet are totally ignorant both of its nature and extent, can have but a very confufed idea pf that phyfical relation in which we ftand towards God. So that our conceptions of his natural Attributes, his power and wisdom, which are founded on that idea, muft, in the con- crete, be proportionably vague and inadequate.
Shall we, then, confide in that information which our lefs ade- quate ideas of God's power and wifdom afford us of his natural government ; and yet reject that which our more adequate ideas of his juftice and goodnefs give us of his moral government ? We underftand both, and rightly, as affuring us that he prefides both in the one and in the other Oeconomy. But let us not forget, that this information is conveyed to us with very different degrees of clearnefs and precifion. A difference, on the fide of moral govern- ment above natural, in proportion as our knowledge of God's moral attributes is lefs vague and inadequate than our knowledge of his natural.
III. Thus far from a feparate confideration of the Creator and his works. Let us fee, in the laft place, whether the fame Truth may not be further fupported from a joint view of both of them together. The
Serm.II. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 37
The idea of an immenfly extended Univerfe tempts weak rea- fon, deluded by fenfe and narrowed by prejudice, to fufpect that this point of fpace, in which man exifts, may well efcape a bufied Ruler, who lias innumerable Worlds upon his hands. We do not reflect, that the fame reafoning, which leads us to conclude that a point of fpace may be overlooked in God's providence, piercing through infinite extenfion, would lead us to conclude, that there may be points of time, throughout infinite duration, which like- wife efcaped his attention. Yet the abfurdity of this, we feel : Why not then of the other ? The reafon is, becaufe the portions of Time rife only in fucceflion ; whereas all the parts of fpace exift together.
But this immensity, in which bewildered man confiders him- felf as abforbed and loft, will, on due reflection, evince the very contrary to what it is brought to prove. Were Creation not thus widely extended, the infinity of its Author might perhaps leem lets evident. And how far the influence or power of a Being not infinite might reach would be yet more uncertain. But a boundlefs creation fhews its Author to be infinite: So that the remaining queftion concerning the extent of Providence will amount to this, Whether an infinite Being can extend his care to every the minuteft portion of an Univerfe to which we can fet no bounds. A queftion which will hardly deferve an anfwer.
" But (fay thefe objectors) the moral fyftem wants one eflential mark of divine fuperintendence, which is Order ; and this the natural very eminently bears. The Sun keeps its firft appointed ftation ; the Planets perform their accuftomed revolutions ; each Element preferves its diftinct properties ; and all nature concurs to produce that harmony, with which things fet out, when God honoured his riling Creation with the attribute of Good. But Man deflected early from his primeval righteoufnefs, and felt the mife- ries of a depraved fyftem ere he had fully tafted the bleflings whiofi flow from the rectitude of the Will, and from the even balance of
4
the Affections. And what he fo early loft, Time has never yet been
able
38 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
able to reftore ; fo that he is likely to continue the fame forlorn abandoned creature throughout the whole of his exiftence."
But thefe Objections are as vague as they are ftale. We have been accuftomed to talk at random of the Order of natural things; and we fufFer ourfelves to aggravate the disorders of the Moral.
We can judge but very imperfectly of the whole of the material fyfiem. For how fmall is the portion of Body objected to our view! and how fleeting the period of time allotted for our ftudy !
We fee indeed, perpetual peace and concord in our own folar World ; but we know little of the aftral fyftems, innumerable and remote. And the little we do know gives caufe of fufpicion that all there is not fo regular and conftant, as analogy to what we find here, would tempt us to conclude. New ftars have fuddenly fhone out ; and have as fuddenly difappeared : Phenomena, which look either like eccentric ftarts in the Courfes of thofe bodies, or deftrudtive revolutions in their Natures. Nor are we without fome appearances in our own Syftem, to give countenance to thefe fuf- picions in the more remote. Perhaps the Ring of Saturn may be no other than a lefs irregular fragment of a crufhed and broken Globe. The wounds, our own Earth hath formerly received, are yet deep and ghaftly ; which though fkinned over by time and human culture, are feen, by thofe who pry the leaft beyond its furface, to bear all the marks and memory of a ruined world.
But to turn from thefe fuppofed flaws and maims in fome of the parts, to the acknowledged perfections of the general Syftem. Its order and harmony, it muft be owned, fpeak moft fully to the fuf- taining power of its Lord and Mafter : vet thofe who have pene- trated deepeft into its nrryfteries * have difcovered rooted evils and growing diibrdcrs, fcarce lenfible, indeed, at prefent5 but what, in
* — " While Cornets move in very eccentric orbs in all manner of pofitions, blind " rate could never make all the planets move one and rhc fome way in orbs concentric; " fome incoiftdcrable irregularities excepted, which may have arijen from the mutual aflions of " Comets and Planets upon one another ; and which will be apt to iucreafe till this fyfiem wants a " reft .'' Newton's Opt. 4th edit. p. 378.
time,
Serm.II. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 39
time, and without the intervening hand of its Maker, will render the frame of nature altogether unfit for the purpofes of its general deftination.
It is true, it may be faid, " That thefe proceed flowly and infen- fibly, while moral difordcrs infe£t at once, and ruih like a torrent over the fair bofom of Creation."
The thing perhaps is too true : but the inference is unjuft. This difference is not to be afcribed to a contrary conduct in the Gover- nor, but to the contrary natures of the fubje&s.
Paflive Matter being totally inert, its refiftance to the Laws im- prefied upon it muft be extremely weak : and confequently the diforders arifing from that refiftance, proportionably flow and un- heeded : while that active felf-moving principle, the Mind, flies out at once from the centre of its direttion, and can, every mo- ment, defied!: from the line of truth and reafon. Hence moral dif- orders began early, became prefently exceflive, and have continued through all ages to difturb the harmony of the Syftem.
Nor are the different methods employed by Providence, for the reform of either fyftem, lefs diffinguifhable, than the different qualities of Mind and Matter, which occafioned fo wide a diftance in the progrefs of their feveral diforders : as may be feen by com- paring them together. From whence it will appear that the difor- der and the reform of that diforder, in either fubjedt, are wifely proportioned to one another.
When the inertnefs of matter hath occafioned irregularities in the corporeal fyftem, it hath no ability in itfelf to redrefs them. They muft go on, though flowly, from bad to worfe, till difabled nature calls upon the hand of God for an extraordinary reforma- tion.
Eut Mind, is ever applying remedies to its own diftempers. Firft, by the check put to them by the ftimulation of oppofite pafiions and affecYions ; for the appetites are inceffantly defeating one another's natural tendencies, and perpetually producing con- trary effe&s. So avarice reftrains luxury j felf-intereft withholds
injuftice ;
4o SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
injustice ; and floth quenches ambition : So revenge and hatred procure public juStice ; treachery often prevents a national deStruc- tion ; and envy and opposition to power produces a fage and cau« tious administration.
Thus the jarring interests of corrupt paflion keep moral evil within moderate bounds, and give time and opportunity to the mind to recover the government and direction of itfelf ; in the re- gulation of the appetites and reformation of the will : And this is the Second way the mind has of procuring remedies for its own dift.empers.
in thele different methods of reforming either fyftem, the divine goodnefs is equally displayed ; only his power is more vifibly exer« ciSed in the one, and his wil'dom in the other. When blind Matter deviates, as nothing but the conducting hand of God can bring her back into the road of Nature, lb the force attending that reduction is (o far from impairing her effential virtue that it heals and reStores it. But the like intervention with a rational Agent would impinge upon his freedom. God has therefore lb admirably contrived, in the difpofition of his moral SyStem, that it Should be able to reStore itfelf; by making its very diforders contribute to its reform, in the check the vitious paSfions give to one another's ope- rations ; and in the opportunities with which time Supplies the Mind, to afiume its native fovereignty, for the carrying on the reformation.
Thus we fee God's government in morals becomes as confpicuous as in natural things : For, the difpofmg caufes and effects in fuch a manner as to make vice defeat its own end, no lefs manifests the attention of inTinite wifdom, than the aiding matter to produce its proper destination, is fitted to difplay infinite power.
But to perceive the force of what is here faid, we muft remem- ber, that moral government conSiSts of twop/jRTs; The one, a Proviiion to prevent evil, and to Support good ; The other, a des- tination of reward and punifhment, ailigned in due proportions to the agents of either : Our fubject concerns the firft part only : The
Second
Serm.IT. GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT. 41
fecond is to be explained on other principles ; and is not within the limits of this Difcourfe.
To conclude, The fober inquirer will not be difpleafed to find at length, that the objections to God's moral Government fpring from the weaknels of our faculties, and the prejudices attending our fituation ; joined to a corrupt vanity which makes human reafon the meafure of all things : and that this Philofophy, which bears fuch a (hew of inlarged and fuperior knowledge, {lands on the nar- row bottom of ignorance, and as it rifes in vanity, increafes in abfurdity.
To humble human reason is the work of true Religion, and, if not the end, is always the iflue, of found Philofophy : but to debase human nature is the low aim of impietv, and the dar- ling project of corrupt manners. Providence laid open Hie know- ledge of his works to excite our gratitude, and ftrengthen our at- tachment to their Author. What the philofopher laid of the know- ledge of owfehes may be well applied to the knowledge of the uni- verfe. " Let us not imagine it was given merely to humble human arrogar»ce : One great purpofe of it was to imprefs upon dur hearts a fenfe of the divine goodnefs towards man *." To turn this know- ledge, therefore, to a brutal debafement of our nature, or a phiio- fophic oblivion of our Lord and Matter, is the loweft depravity of an intelligent Being. In a word, if reafon and piety have no weight, let natural flume deter us, when we can never merit this diirincVion, at leaft from dishonouring the grace by irreverent cavils at the difpenfation.
* Illud ?'a*'5» tr-.aurlt noli piiiarc ad arrogantiam rnituiendatn fohurt etTo difturn, va- rum etiam ut bona pnoltra uoiimus. Cic.
Vol. V, O SER-
{ 4* J
in ir
SERMON III.
THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN.
i Ep. JOHN iv. ver. 20. If a Man say, I love God, and hateth his Brother, he
IS A LIAR ; FOR HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER WHOM HE HATH SEEN, HOW CAN HE LOVE GoD WHOM HE HATH NOT SEEN ?
TH E fuperior excellence of the Gofpel- morality above all other fummaries of human conduct, whether preached up as a Religion by Priefts ; inforced for Law by the founders of So- ciety ; or recommended under the name of Philosophy by the Matters of wifdom ; is now fo generally feen and acknowledged, that even the -enemies of Revelation have been forced to confefs, It is as well in perfection as in purity, as well in public ufe as in private, truly worthy the original it aiTumes.
An advantage which the Minifters of our holy Religion have, with great judgment, taken all occafions to inforce, and with equal folidity to explain.
But
SEiw.Iir. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 43
But there is another circumftance in this divine Oeconomy which carries the honour of it ftill higher, as dire&ly tending to prove, That the Gofpel-morality which is fo worthy of God, had, in truth, God for its immediate Author. And this perhaps may not have been infifled on with the frequency and attention which fo im- portant a matter fcems to require.
The circumftance I mean is, that profound and enlarged know- ledge of human nature, which the Apoftles difcover in their man- ner of recommending moral duties. In this difpenfation, thefe weak and fool'ifo in/lruments, in the hand of Providence, have foiled and difgraced the boafted wifdom of Greece and Rome : and in that very way wherein their wifdom molt excelled ; in fliort and de- tached precepts, compofed for the conduct: of human life by men ftudious to reduce their long laborious fearches after happinefs into weighty and compendious aphorifms *.
But before I proceed to explain the words of my text, which afford fo illuftrious an example of this truth, I fliall conlider, in general, the occalion of them.
The life, the fpirit of Chriftian Religion is univerfal benevo- lence. Agreeably to this, we may obferve, That the firit founders of the Churches, let the occafion be what it would, whatever Dilcipline they cftabliihed, whatever Doctrine they inforced, what- ever vice or Herefy they ftigmatized, or whatever grace or virtue they recommended, Charity was the thing ftill prefent with them, and always in their care. Charity, the bond of perfeBnefs^ the end of the commandment \ that etherial principle, which, like the elaftic fluid of the Philofophers, animates, connects, and enables the whole Syftem of intelligent nature.
The beloved Diiciple of our Lord particularly, who may be well fuppofed to know bis Majlers will, feems to have written the Epiftle, from whence i take my text, with no other deiign than to recommend this firft of Virtues, Charity*, at a feafon toa,
* 'pipala £$*yjz aZuprniponvTa, Fl.it. in Prot,lg.
G 2 when,
44 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
when, as Herefies were fpringing up apace, fome modern The- ologifts would be apt to think he might have employed his time and talents to more advantage. And indeed one might aik, and fcarce abfurdly, why fo very much upon Charity, in an age when the followers of the Lamb had fo few inducements to pollute it ? For the Faith being yet chafte from the proftitutions of the Schools, and the Hierarchy uncorrupted by the gifts of Conftantine, the Church laboured neither under Bigotry nor Ambition, the two fatal incentives of uncharitable Zeal. But the reply is eafy. It was the providence of that prophetic fpirit which fet before them the image of thofe miferable times, When iniquity Jloould abound, and the love of many fl.ould wax cold : and they were willing to bear witnefs, and to record their teftimony againft the future vio- lators of the bond of perfeElncfs. For 1 can by no means enter into the refinements of him who difcovered that Jefus and his followers might preach up love and charity the better to enable a fet of Church politicians, fome ages after, to tyrannize over thofe whom the en- gaging founds of benevolence and brotherly love had intrapped into obedience *.
Befides, this is not delivered like a temporary direction : it is not barely recommended : the reafon, on which it ftands, is given
* cl Terrors alone, though accompanied with miracles and prodigies of whatever «' kind, are not capable of raifing that fincere faith and abfolute reliance which is re- " quired in favour of the divinely authorifed Inftructor and fpiritual Chief. The " affection and love which procures a true adherence to the new religious foundation, " mud depend either on a real or counterfeit goodnefs in the religious, founder. M Whatever ambitious fpirit may infpire him ; whatever favage zeal or perfecuting " principle may lye in referve, ready to difclofe itfelf when authority and power is " once obtained ; the firft fcene of do&rine, however, fails not to prefent us with the " agreeable views of Joy, love, meckntfs, gentle nefs, and moderation.— Charity and Bro- " tberly love are very engaging founds ; but who would dream that out of abundant Cha- " rity and brotherly love fhould come fteel, fire, gibbets, rods, &c." Chara&eriflics, vol. iii. p. 114, 115, ed. 4th. But the general premifes are as falfe as the particular inference is abfurd. Mahomet did raife that fincere faith and abfolute reliance, amongft his followers, by terrors alone, and without that ajfeBion and love employed by the founder of Chriftianiry,
with
Serm.III. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 45
with it ; a reafon founded in the nature of things, and fupported by the very order of Providence. If a man fay, I love Gody and hateth his Brother, he is a liar : for he that loveth not his Bro- ther whom he hath feen, how can he love God whom he hath not feen ? An argument, which, for its unaffe&ed fimplicity, a mo- dim Freethinker will be tempted to defpife ; and yet would pretend to admire, had it come from Plato or Cicero.
But fomc, perhaps, may like the reafoning not the worfe for its being evangelical : and fuch will bear with me while I attempt to illuftrate its fuperior force and beauty.
The argument is founded in the true theory of the rise and pro- gress of the social affections ; of which the following account may afford us fome imperfect notion.
An endeavour to preferve its Being makes part of the eflential conftitution of every created thing. Hence, in the Inanimate, a refiftance to outward force ; in the Animate, a purfuit or an abhor- rence of what is helpful or hurtful ; and, in Man, that firft and ftrongeft paffion of his nature, self-love; from whence all the other appetites derive their force, and to which they direct their aim. Its ufe is to affift the heart to awaken Virtue, and to pufh out and develope the great principle of Benevolence.
It is true, indeed, that Benevolence, ariiing from this fource, at firft runs thick and turbid ; but, as it holds its way, it refines ; it purifies and expands its current, till it hath loft all memory of its low original.
For the paffion of felf-love, aided by the kindred appetite of na- tural affection, foon makes an effort to move outward ; and looking forward with an inffinclive-tendernefs on our offspring, it is taught to turn its regard, as far back, with rational-gratitude on our Parents. And though the former be loving ourfelves as repre- fented in others ; and the latter, only loving others as represented in ourfelves ; yet the principle of Benevolence being now awakened, it begins, from this moment, to defert its origine : it extends itfelf to our remoter relatives ; and, in a little time, takes in every con_
nectioo.
46 s SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
nection of domefKc life. And, thus continuing to enlarge and widen, by fuch time as it grows impatient of reftraint, the wants and re- liefs, the fervices and protection, which exercife its virtue in this inferior ftate, enable it to form ideas of a nobler Community, and to trace the out-lines and image of a Society. This produceth another effort, and of a more exalted kind ; the object of benevolence being no longer an individual, but a whole.
From this time the focial paflions make large advances ; and Benevolence, improved and ftrengthened even by the felfifh {cnfe of mutual wants, and the experienced means of mutual relief, extends its influence and efficacy through the whole community of thofe who need, or can impart, afliftance : and thus, on the natural plan of domeftic- connections, erects that artificial regimen called Civil-fociety. So that, as before, Benevolence advanced from par- ticular to general ; it now rifeth ftill higher, from private to rubLic. And thus, having a Community for its object, it wins and truly deferves its name : Self-love being now abforbed in the nobleft of all focial.paflions, the love of our Country; which the Roman Patriot, in a philofophic annlylis of its generation and conftituent parts, rightly defines to be that which " includes all " other focial affections *."
Thus doth self-love, under the varying appearance of natural- affection, domeftic relation, and the connections of focial habitude, at firft work blindly on, obfcure and deep in dirt ; but, as it makes its way, it continues rifing, till it emerges into light; and then, fuddenly expiring, haves behind it the Faireft iflbe ; which, nobly foroetful of its low beginning, advances on the fteps of Virtue, till it reaches to Religion.
For the interefts of mere animal life being well fecnred in this firft progrefs to Benevolence ; the Mind, which hitherto only cared for the Body, begins to make provifion for itfelf ; and, having laid
* Chari funt Parentei, chari L>ierif Propiixjui, Famliiares; fed omr.es omnium Cha. riutei Patbia una complcxa eft. Cic.
in
Serm. HI. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 47
in for the other's wants and weaknefs, attends, in good time, to' its own fuperior dignity and importance.
And now, placed on fo fair an eminence, as the love of our Country, and its fight purged and defecated from the grofs re- . mains of cvanefcent Self-love, it goes on widening its views, till it hath taken in the whole race of Mankind ; confidered but as one Policy, or rather, Family; connected by the equal participa~ tion of one common nature ; and lupported by the confequent right of one common meafure ; and therefore the endeared object of one general benevolence.
Thus domestic life, which firft produced Civil-fociety, and then gave birth to this more generous and enlarged community, at length brings Benevolence round again into itfelf, as to its full and final completion, by drawing the whole race of mankind into one common Family.
But, in the courfe of this progrefs, the Mind, as it widens, be- coming fatigued and dazzled by its intenfe folicitation of this grow- ing Whole, hath frequent need, at its feveral ftages, to catch at and to reft in partial objects.
Hence the origine of Friendship *, the folace and fplendor of private life ; which while we are advancing towards that only
* " Private Friendjbip, and Zeal for the Public and our Country, are virtues purely volua- " tary in a Chriftian. They are no ejjintial parti of his Charity. He is not fo tied " to the affairs of this life ; nor is he obliged to enter into Inch engagements with this " lower world, as are of no help to him in acquiring a better." Charafteriflics, 4th ed. vol. i. p. 98, 99. The Fhilofophy of this remark is like the candor. For if (as we fhall now fee) no one can acquire the love of God without having love or be- nevolence to man ; fo neither can this benevolence (which certainly is not a virtue purely ■voluntary in a Chriftian) be acquired, without having had private Frivndjbip and zeal for tie Public and our Country. The reafon is the fame in both cafes : the road to the more general ftages of benevolence lying, all the way, through the raore parti- cular. Engagements, therefore, with this lower world, (to ufe the language of the noble Writer) are (contrary to his conclufion) of great help to us in acquiring a better, — But when Chriftian Charity had been repreftnted as not fpringing from Virtue, it was no fuch bold abufe of the public indulgence to endeavour to perfur.dc us, that t lie Chriftian Faith is not founded in Arguments
adequate
48 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
adequate object of human attachment, a Whole teacheth us by t the way all our journalary duties to Particulars.
Having thus endeavoured to explain how all the virtues of hu- manity arife, and have their fource, from the gradual expanfion of the great principle of Benevolence : we come, in the next place, to couiider, how, in its further advances to perfection, Religion itfelf emergeth from it.
In all the objects of love and benevolence, the attractive quality is good. And this connexion being made by the nature and con- ltitution of things, the greater the apparent good, the ftronger mufl the pafllon grow. Now when the whole human race is confidered by us as the object of our love ; The fteps by which we are led to this high advance in benevolence, fuch as Man's origine, his common nature, and the dependence of the happinefs of the indi- vidual on the ipecies, carry us naturally higher ; to feek the nrft caufe of i'o orderly and well-regulated an effect. An inquiry, which terminates in the Author of this, and of all other good : Whom, as fuch, we are forcibly drawn to purfue, and to afpire after; and in the contemplation of whole nature and attributes we find at laft the supreme and sovereign good: from whence, as we fay, all other good arife th, and in which they are all contained. He, therefore, challengeth our iupreme and lbvereign love ; which never ceaieth to advance and enlarge itielf, till it end in an union with him.
And thus the laft great effort of benevolence produceth what we call, Religion ; whofe end all agree to be Happiness.
This is the true account of the rife and progrefs of universal love : which, as it regards man, our holy faith calls Charity ; as it regards God, Piety.
But there were in the apoftolic times, and will be in all times, a fort of men who are for catching at the rewards of faith without undergoing this long, but pleafing labour of love ; and whofe fran- tic aim is to make a facrilegious divorce between Charity and Piety. Tbefe men afiume to themfelves great merit in loving God, while
they
Serm. III. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 49
they treat their Brother with contempt and cruelty. But what fays the Apoftle, in my text ? Provoked at their hypocrify, he ftrips ofF the mafk, and brands them with the odious name of Liars: a name, in Scripture language, of the mod opprobrious import ; as given to Impoftors of all kinds ; and implying in it every thing corrupt both in moral and religious practice. If a man (_fays St John) fav, I love God, and hateth his Brother, he is a liar. For he that lovclh Hot his Brother ivhom he hathfeen, how can he love God whom he hath not fcen ? The force and beauty of which realbning the foregoing account, of the rife and progrefs of Benevolence, will enable us to underiland.
" You Dretend, fays the Apoftle, to love God, though you hate your Brother. Vain and fallacious ! The love of every object be- gins, like all our other pafiions, from felf-love : Thus we love our- lelves, by reprefentation, in our Parents, and in our OfFipring : it extends to our remoter relatives ; and fo on, through the whole vi- cinage, to every fellow-member of the Community. And now, felf-love refined by reafon, and iublimed by virtue, begins to lofe its nature, and defervedly to take another name. Our Country next claims our love : we then extend it to all Mankind ; and never reft till we have, at length, fixed it on the moft amiable of all objects, the great Author and Original of Being.
This is the courfe and progrefs of human love; gradually rif- ing from the individual to the whole : as unlike, in its progrefs as in its purity, to the divine benevolence ; which, in gracious aid of its Creatures, takes a different courfe : for, (bringing from the Whole, it (breads znd expands itielf through every moral iyftem, till it cbfps pad embraces the Individual.
And now (purfuesthe Apoftle) I reafon thus, Can you, mifrakeu man ! who are not yet arrived at that inferior ltuge of benevolence, the love of your Brother, -m'o'jvi you have fecn, that is, whom the fenie of mutual wants, and the experience of mutual relief, amongft the joint partakers of one common nature, might teach you to love, can you pretend to have attained the top and iummit of this
H rtue,
5o SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
virtue, the love of God, whom you have not feen, that i,s, whofe wonderful oeconomy, in the fyftem of creation and government, which makes him fo amiable, you appear to have no conception of; You, who have not yet learnt, that your own low fyftem is fupported on the great principle of benevolence. Fear him, flatter him, fight for him, as you blindly dread his power, you may : But, to love him, as you know not his nature, is impofTible."
This is St. John's fimple reafoning. From whence I conclude for the divinity of that Spirit which could infufe fo much fublime knowledge into the pen of a rude unlettered fifherman.
Nor does it lefs recommend the excellence of our holy Religion than the wifdom of this its Minifter : for what could give us a higher idea of Chriftianity than its making the love of man the previous ftep, the only way of acquiring, that happy frame of mind, divinely tempered with the love of God; which fits us for what is the end and completion of all religion, the poffeflion of his Spirit ?
But this doctrine, which explains the connection between the love of God and man, has ftill a further ufe. It keeps our holy Faith pure from Superstition, Bigotry, and Fana- ticism : the three worft difhonours to which Religion is ex- pofed.
1. For divine love thus produced, and rifing on the know- ledge of God's nature, will keep religious worfhip free of Super- stition, will preferve it from all barbarous and abject ceremonies; and from all felfifh and uncharitable devotion. It will remove from God's fervice all flavifh dread of his anger for the neglect of ac- tions indifferent ; and all childifh hope of atoning for violated mo- rality by the performance of others, equally indifferent.
2. This love, ftanding on the foundation of human benevo- lence*, whofe object is God's rational creation, will exclude all the Bigotry of falfe Zeal, which, for God's fake, is ever ready to de- folate the earth. For now, no one can be fo abfurd to imagine,
that
Serm.III. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 51
that the means of perfe&irig the fruit of faith, which is the love of God, is by making the root of charity, benevolence to man. lam aware, how certain propagators of the Faith, fometimes the dcfpicable tools of others' impotency, but as often the viler flavcs of their own ambition, have endeavoured to hide their corrupt pal- fions under the thin covering of a Schodl-diltincYion. While they would perfuade us, that it is pure charity to man which thus fac- tioufly engages them in, what they call the cause of God : and that what plain honeif. men ftyle a want of Charity, when they infult the fame, the fortune, or the perfon of their Brother, is the very height of this princely virtue, a Charity for his foul — So, indeed, it may be of the Hangman's Charity, who waits for your Clothes. But St. John's, or St. Paul's, it could not be. It could not be that Charity which was not eafily provoked, which thought no evil; bore all things, hoped all things, believed all things. A Charity, which begins in candor, infpires good opinion, and refts in the tem- poral welfare of our Brother.
3. But the deceitfulnefs of the heart is ingenious in expedients to elude the commandments of God. And when Bigotry, by its coarfe and butcherly violations of Charity, hath fufficiently dif- credited its own meafures, Fanaticism, with equal rage, though with fomewhat a milder afpedl, Heps in to diveft us of our huma- nity, under pretence, to aflimilate it to the divine nature, by an- nihilating all love of the Creature, and refolving every other affec- tion into the pure unmixed love of God ; as if the lead: portion of benevolence, communicated to our Brother, was a robbery to our Maker. The fumes of fpiritual madnefs dilable thefe men from feeing lb far into the order of things as to underitand, that till we can throw off the condition of related Beings, as well as the paffion of humanity which refults from it, our fellow-crea- tures will always have a claim to our benevolence. In compaf- fion therefore to fuch, Holy Scripture has provided a flill ealier inftruction than this negative precept of my text, by the addition
Vol. V. H 2 of
52 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
of the pofitive command, That he who loveth God, love his Brother also *.
Such then is the Religion which Jefus came into the world to teach. Whofe foundation being laid in the love of our Brother, provides for our peace and confolation here ; and whofe fuperftruc- ture terminating in the love of God, fecures and eftablifhes our hap- pinefs hereafter.
* i John iv. 21.
SERMON
C S3 ]
SERMON IV.
THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN.
PROVERBS xvn. ver. 5. Whoso mocketh the Poor reproacheth his Maker,
OF all the truths, for the direction of our conduct, with which this royal treafury of ancient wifdom abounds, there is none fuller either of profitable ufe or profound fcience than this contained in my text ; which fo feverely cenfures all expreflions of contempt towards thofe whom Providence has thrown below us on the diftrefsful ftage of human life.
And, as we muft firfl: clear our corrupt nature from this rank- nefs, before we can attempt to cultivate that immortal amarant of paradice, Christian love and benevolence ; it may not be improper to mew the reafon and explain the ufe of the wise man's divine aphorifm, Whofo mocketh the Poor reproacheth hh Maker. As much as to fay, " He who maketh the Poor the obje£l of his con- tempt and ridicule, on account of thofe difaftrous circumfhnces
which.
54 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
which attend the want of the goods of fortune, tacitly condemns and reproaches the wife and gracious order of Providence."
But it may not be amifs, previoufly to confider, In what ftate it is, that man becomes the object of this criminal mockery to his fel- low-creature. It is plain, it cannot be in that where he lives unci- vilized. For there, the diftincYions between rich and poor, whereon the infolence of wealth formeth thofe odious comparifons, which conclude in the contempt of penury, have hardly any place; that fordid condition, which, now contrafted to pomp and gran- deur, is become the fubject of opulent fcorn, being there fo ge- neral as to admit no room for an unfavourable diftinction : But, an univerfal parity, like darknefs, blots out all difference between ho- nourable and mean. Nay, fhould the civilized beholder be dif- pofed to regard with contempt the wants and miferies of this irate, it would not be the criminal contempt forbidden in my text : be- caufe the ftate of nature is not that in which Providence intended we fhould remain ; as appears by the large affiftance imparted to us, to free ourfelves from the diftrefies of it. So that if, by a fhameful indolence, man fhould neglect to improve thofe advan- tages, the fordid circumftances, infeparable from an uncivilized condition, would have no claim to be exempted from fcorn and mockery: and, conlequently, however Charity might fuffer, Providence was not infulted.
It is only in Society, therefore, that the Poor become fubjecl to this outrage. And, in this ftate only, the outrage becomes im- piety. For Civil regimen, by inventing and improving the ac- commodations of life, and by fecuring, to the owner, what is fo invented and improved, changeth the natural equality of conditions amongft men ; atid introduceth that invidious diftinction of Poor and Rich ; made far more bitter from the infolence of Wealth, than the envious longings of Poverty. For it is the vicious caprice of Riches to be impatient under a rivalfliip in the advantages of fortune, and yet, at the fame time, infenfible to the diftrenes, and
con-
Serm.IV. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 55
contemptuous to the condition of thofe who have never flriven with them for any of thofe advantages.
So that there is no circumftance in the diftrefles of want, but what infulting wealth can make the fubject of its mockery. To fome, their narrow Minds, their grofs conceptions, their unim- proved talents, are fruitful fources of contempt and merriment. Others, who cannot rife fo high in their difcoveries, can yet find matter of mirth in their impropriety of phrafe, their unpolifhed manners, their ill air, and unformed figure. Nay to fuch excefs of corruption have unbleft Riches brought their pofleflbrs, that fome can make that very sordidness itfelf, that miferable cloath- ing of poverty, a fubject for their fcorn and ridicule. So that whe- ther it be for want of thole advantages of mind and perfon which their poverty difabled them from procuring, or whether it be for that very poverty itfelf, they are fure never to efcape the inhumanity of unfeeling wealth.
Bow how highly criminal thefe infults are, my text now leads me to confider.
As Society is the only means of procuring the accommodations, and preferving the dignity, of our animal and reafonable nature ; and as this nature is endowed with appetites and qualities which make it feek, and fit it for Society ; we rauft needs conclude, Society to be, what Scripture informs us it is, the Ordinance of God. Now it is eflential to this Society, that the goods of fortune be unequally diftributed ; To the end, that fome be goaded on by want to feek their relief in new inventions and improvements, which, tending to the better commodity of life, are objective to the public good ; and that others be enabled by abundance, and difpofed by the love of eafe and pleafure, to promote and encou- rage thofe endeavours. For were the goods of fortune to be equally divided, fuch a diftribution would foon return us to the Irate of un- improved nature, by taking off thofe fpurs to induftry, the rewards attending the improvements of focial life.
Again,
56 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
Again, as an unequal distribution was required to anfwer the ends of civil community, fo the various tempers, talents, and ap- petites of men were admirably fitted to introduce, and framed to perpetuate this inequality.
Hence, we conclude, That thefe different flations in Society were marked out and difpofed by the peculiar ordinance of Providence: For he, who decrees the end, mud: needs be fuppofed to direct, the means conducive to it.
But admitting this to be the cafe, it muft needs follow, that he who makes any of thefe conditions of life the fubject of his fcorn and mockery, reproaches the juftice and goodnefs of the Director of the fyftem. For that man can never be faid to be treated with a common degree of goodnefs, who is thruft into fuch a ftation as makes him the object of reafonable contempt to his fellow-creature; a creature of the fame fpecies, and who has no imaginable preten- iions to better treatment from the juftice of their common mafter.
We muft needs, therefore, fubfcribe to the doctrine of the text, That no greater infult can be offered to the wifdom, the juftice, or the goodnefs of God, than by looking down with defpite and mockery on the poverty of our diftrefled brethren.
Yet vile as this mockery is, the frequent practice hath made it fo unheeded, that we fee it committed daily without fuffering our- felves to be affected with that averfion and abhorrence, fo juftly due unto it. Hence the ferious admonition of the wife man ; who, the better to affift our humanity in the free exercife of its natural feel- ings, awakens religion, by branding the vice as an impiety : in every deliberate a£t of which is comprifed all that is mod criminal in our degenerate and corrupt nature.
This fpecies Of impiety in particular, contains the bafeft ingra- titude towards God, and inhumanity to our Brother : Which, including the violation of all our relations as reafonable creatures, finks us below the very beafts themfelves.
And can there be a worfe ingratitude towards the great Difpofer of all things, than for man to make any ftation in Society the
ol je<ft
Serm.IV. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 57
object of his contempt ? Society, which God himfelf ordained for the advancement of human happinefs ! and which can be only procured by means of thole various degrees and fubordinations, pro- ductive of that condition, which we impiouily make the matter of our fcorn. Is this a fitting return for the care and kindnefs of that Mafter, who drew us from a llate of lavages, who led us to a life of civility, and hath put it in our power to improve the blefhngs of Providence, and the endowments of reafon, mod fuitably to the dignity of our nature !
We may reflect, likewife, that we, who thus offend, do by the peculiar indulgence of Heaven, reap all the benefit of Society ; while thofe we injure are fo circumftanced as to bear all the incle- mencies and hardfhips of it ; a burthen, which weighs the heavier on them, as it is borne alone. And yet if we look into ourfelves and them, and compare what we find on either part, we fliall dif- cover nothing which could difpofe the righteous Judge of ail the earth to decree a ftate of eafe and affluence for us, and condemn them to indigence and labour. Nay, were we not blinded by felf-love, we fhould foon find, in this defpifed quarter, men whofe under- Itandings and honefly, whofe piety and diligence, whofe care and affection for their families, whofe confeientious fubmiffion and obedience to authority, might well enable them to difpute, and qualify them to carry the ftation of honour, from their Betters.
But how deteftable muff this ingratitude appear, when we reflect further, That thefe low ftations, the object of our fcorn, \ ordained for no other civil purpofe than to fupport us in that dif- ti notion of abundance, from the wanton abufe of which arifes all this guilt of contempt which fo juiily fubjects the offender to God's righteous judgment. So that we carry our impiety to fuch a height, when we mock the poor , that we even reproach our Maker with the very bleffings which, at their expence, he heaps upon ourfelves.
And this leads me to the fecond point, the inhumanity to our Brethren. Inched the very consideration S^ which upbraid our in- gratitude to our Maker, expofe our inhumanity to ihe Poor. For
Vol. V. I can
58 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
can any thing be more inhumane than, when the ftations of So- ciety are thus neceffarily unequal, and when Providence has thrown our lot amongft the few who reap in eafe the accommodations of it, at the expence of multitudes, who had as good a claim to that distinction ; Can any thing, I fay, be more inhumane than to treat their lefs happy condition with outrage and contempt ? A condition, from which no fuperiority of nature, no advantage of intellectual, or merit of moral endowments, nothing but the eftabliShed order of things, hath exempted us, or Subjected them.
If to this, we add (as hath been juft obferved), that their low condition was eftabliihed to fupport us in the proud distinction of abundance, it muft greatly inflame our guilt, and increafe our con- fufion. For to the Poor it is, that we are immediately, and almoft folely, indebted for every advantage of eafe and pleafure, which improved and refined fociety affords (advantages which we are but too apt to efteem the principal bleffings of fociety) ; it being by their inceffant toil that the elegances of polite and fafhionable life are pro- cured for us. While all the reward They have, for becoming benefactors to the Great and Wealthy, is but the hard and fcanty fuftenance of a miferable Being. A Being only lefs miferable than That, which the infolent Rich-man himfelf muft have been con- tent to drag, in a life unaffifted by the fweat and ingenuity of the Labourer and Artificer. For were it not for the inceffant drudgery of the Poor, we mould foon be brought back again, even amidft our largeft accumulations of fortune, to a condition of diftrefs which would foon wipe out all that odious circumftance of infolent companion, from whence arifes this mean, this vile, this unmanly contempt for the lower ftations of our fellow-citizens.
But what is atbne fufficient to ftrike us. with horror at fo wretched an inhumanity, is the confideration of thofe numerous diforders of body, thofe Maladies, to which a reftlefs application of all their faculties for the fupplial of our imaginary, and therefore endlefs wants, perpetually Subjects the induftricus Poor. How, by toiling in purfuit of commodities, they themfelves are never to enjoy, Some
are
Sexm.IV. THE LOVE OF GOD AND MAN. 59
are confined to the peftilential damps of mines ; and Others ex- pofed to the rage of elementary, and folar fires : Thefe doomed to ftruggle with the various inclemencies of diftempered air : and Thole, to undergo the rotten vapours of fenny waters, or the cor- rofive humidity of the ocean : Here a too fedentary occupation viciates the torpid fluids : and there, a too violent deftroys the overftretched tone of the folids : The baleful materials employed, or worked upon, often ftrike the artift with acute diflempers ; and the manner or method of working as often draws on chronical : Co that the (hop of the artificer may be truly called the vvarehoufe of Death. The maladies, which (warm fo thick and conltant in it, have even afforded matter for the charitable Phyfician to compofe diftincl works of the Difeafes of Artificers * : Where we find the diffempers of each Labourer to be as numerous as the Tools he works with ; and as peculiar as the materials he employs.
Such then is the nature of the crime fb feverely condemned in my text ; and iuch the circumftances which !o deeply aggravate it. The ferious confideration of thefe things will be abundantly fuf- ficient to confound the pride of Opulence, and (name the Rich man into thole duties to God and his Brother, which his Station more indifpenfably requires ; that very circumftan.ee which, to the dilhonour of human nature, he hath fullered to miflead him into fo fcandalous a violation of both.
This falutary humiliation will lead him eafily back into the road of Piety and Charity. He will grow warm with gratitude to his Maker, and foften with compaflion for his brother. But gratitude and compaflion, which flop at acknowledgments and commiferation, are as great an infult on God and Alan, as that more open mock condemned in my text.
The only acceptable way, of teflitying our repentance, in an im- pious age fo forward to cavil at the ordinance of Providence, is to difcharge thofe duties which have a natural tendency to vindicate its ways, God hath given us every encouragement, to perform them.
* Beinardini Ramazini Do moiljis Artificum.
I 2 He
6a> SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
He hath put it in the power even of miferable man, and how great is that honour ! to juftify the oeconomy of his fyftem : For the faithful difcharge of what our various relations to our Fellow-crea- tures require of us, will repair all thofe deformities of defect and excefs, which nature or fortune is for ever calling over the fair face of Creation. For what is it (in the opinion of impious men) that fo greatly difcredits the difpenfations of Providence, but that ftate of mifery to which the bulk of mankind is condemned, in order to fup- port the Few in the full tide of wantonnefs and riot ? Would the Rich once begin to think themfelves the difpenfators of Providence for the Poor, Impiety would foon be forced to confefs, that the goods of fortune, though unequally divided, were yet wifely and gracioufly admiuiftered : All men would fee, that the pouring down wealth on high ftations was only a facred depofite to fupply the wants and diftrefles of the low : Wants very wifely impofed, as a neceflary means of producing thofe accommodations which Man's improved nature indifpenfably requires.
This, and this only, can atone for the enormity condemned in my text. This will fupport the Order, and is confequently the beft vindication of the Oeconomy, of Providence ; which wants nothing to render it as refpectable to the world, as it is illuftrious in itfelf, but this reafonable compliance to the common dictates of Humanity and Religion.
SER-
[ tfi ]
SERMON V.
THE CHARACTER AND OFFICE OF THE MESSIAH.
i C O R. I. 30.
Jesus Christ who, of God, is made unto us wisdom and righteousness ; and sanctification and redemption.
IN thefe memorable words, the Apoftle, Paul, hath given us a full and exa£t Character of the Perfonage of the holy Jesus, and of the nature of that Religion he was fent to propagate amongft Men.
Wifdom and Rigbteoufnefs defcribe a Messenger fent from God with the publication of the eternal Law of Truth and Right : and Santtificaiion and Redemption denote the Messiah foretold, who was to atone for man's tranfgreffions, and to reftore him to his loft Inheritance.
Thefe two important matters, the flrfl of which refpedls the worker ; and the fecond, his work; I propofe to make the fubjecl: of the following Difcourfe.
I. The-
62 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
I.
The Jews, at the time of Chrift's advent, were in full expecta- tion of their long promifed Mefliah. So that St. John tells us, the multitude on their being miraculoufly fed by Jefus, cried out, this is of a truth /^Prophet that Jhould come into the world*. And indeed, this judgment was fuch a one as the People are gene- rally wonttopafs; crude, undigested, and made up of a mixture of truth and falfhood. It was true, and they argued rightly, that the worker of this miracle was a Prophet sent from God. But it was falfe, and they were too hafty in concluding, that This was the proper proof of his being the Prophet foretold in their facred volumes. For though one of the marks of this Prophet (as it muft be one of every meffenger fent immediately from God), was the working Miracles ; yet there were many other circum- ftances, refpecling both his time and perfon, which were to unite in that Character, before he could be faid, to be, of a truth, that Prophet that Jhould come into the ivorld.
This, therefore, on the whole, muft pafs for a popular prejudice in favour of the Son of God ; but yet a Prejudice : Lefs unreafon- able, indeed, than many, they prefumed to entertain againft him : As when they thought an idle Proverb fufficient to controvert the ftrongeft evidence of his Mefliah- character. Can any thing good come out of Nazareth, faith Nathanael, an Ifraelite in whom there was no guile fj but, as appears from hence, a great deal of foolifh preju- dice.
The two great Prophets of God, placed by him at the head of each of his Difpenfations, were Moses and Jesus. In this they differed, thatMofes bore thefimple Character of a divine messen- ger ; Jefus, the more complex one of a divine messenger fore- told. For, though the deliverance of the feed of Abraham was predicted in the facred records along with the deliverance of the
* Chap. vi. 14. f John i. 46, 47.
feed
Serm.V. The Charatler and Office of the Messiah.' 63
feed of Adam ; yet as the firft was only a type and prelude of the other ; it was not Mofes the deliverer of the Jews, but Jefus the deliverer of mankind, the finiiher of God's great work of redemp- tion, who had the diftinguifhed honour of being foretold ; as well by intimation in a myfterious ritual, as by a more open declaration in the oracles of the Law and the Prophets.
However, the preliminary ground of credence was the fame, in both ; namely, that the dottrines they taught were worthy of God. This worth confifts in their Truth, and in their Impor- tance.
1 . No fahhood can iffue from the fountain of Truth. What- ever therefore pretends to come from God, which contradicts our common notions of his Being and attributes, muft of necefiity be condemned for an impofture, notwithstanding any appearance of extraordinary power in the propagator of fuch doctrines. And fhould an Impofture happen to be attended with thefe circum- ftances of power, it could not be fairly deemed an imputation on God's goodnefs, fmce the holy fpirit hath foretold, that deceivers mould come with lying miracles, almoft of force to draw afide the very elect them/elves ; and fmce, againft the illuf.ons of thefe de- ceivers, God hath given us fo fure a teft and criterion as are the common notions concerning his Being and Attributes.
2. Nor is it, in the fecond place, a fufficient ground of cre- dence, that what is thus taught be fimply true. It muft be truth of importance. Such as in its immediate tendency refpedts the good of man, and in its ultimate, the glory of God. Thefe are the neceflary qualities of fuch doctrines as we efteem worthy the ex- traordinary patronage of Heaven.
This then, may be called the preliminary ground of Credence, but not the Credential itfelf. An important Truth is indeed worthy of God. But neither the Truth, nor the importance of it, fhews that it had God for its immediate Author. Becaufe it is im- poflible to meafure the bounds of human capacity, or to afcertain what progrefs an improved understanding may make in the dis- covery
€4 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
covery of divine and moral truths. We have been told indeed, but by men of no great authority, " That the proper credentials of a divine miffion are the truth and importance of the dodTrrine pro- pofed." But in this, they are neither ingenuous nor ferious. They hold no extraordinary Revelation at all. So that this is only one of their disguised sentences: which, like moll: others from the fame quarter, is conveyed under an equivocal expreffion, confound- ing common fpeech, and making truth and divine truth the fame thing.
The proper Credential, therefore, of a MefTenger from God is the power of working miracles. A fort of evidence fitted to the capacity of all men. For the difference between true and falfe miracles, that is, between what we mould admit and what we fhould reject, does not confift in the firfl's being the finger of God ; and the other, the operation of a finite Being : for then, man, who knows lb little of the material and intellectual world, would have no criterion to diftinguiih between the true and falfe : But the dif- ference con fids in this, That true miracles are fuch as are worked in confirmation of doctrines worthy of God ; and falfe, fuch as aim to fupport doftrines unworthy of him. Our fecurity for the firft conclufion is the goodnefs and juftice of God, which will never fuffer us (I do not mean the good in difHnclion to the bad, which is a low and foreign confideration, but mankind in general), to be brought into a fituation where no human means can be found to prevent our falling into error. Our fecurity for the fecond, is the certainty that immoral doclrines could never come from God ; and the uncertainty what power other agents may have to produce ap- pearances contrary to the common courfe of nature.
This feems to be the true notion of a Miracle, as it fubjecls all which pretend to that character, to the decifion of human judg- ment ; every man being able to diftinguiih between what is done in confirmation of doclrines worthy of God, and what is done to fupport do&rines unworthy of him. As on the other hand, that which defines a Miracle to be the immediate work of God, muft needs
be
Serm. V. Character and Office of the Messiah. 6$
be a falfe notion of it, becaufe it would render the Credential of Miracles an infufficient fecurity, by reducing us to an inability of diftinguiihing between the true and the falfe.
On the whole, then, we conclude, that Miracles are the full Credential of a simple Messenger from God ; fuch as we fuppofe Moses to be.
But, now, fomething more is neceflary to eftablilh the compli- cated Character of a Messenger foretold, fuch a one as Jesus challenged to himfelf.
It is not enough for fuch a Character that he works the moft amazing Miracles ; unlefs, at the fame time, he be found to have thofe various marks upon him which belong to the Meflenger fore- told. For having affumed botli parts of the prophetic Character, and united them in his own perfon, he is no longer at liberty to disjoin and prove them fingly : fo as that, when by miracles he hath eflabliihed the Character of a divine Meflenger, this will re- main unfhaken, though he mould fail in proving himfelf, by other evidence, the Meflenger foretold. For not only all falihcod is in- congruous to a divine million, but is diffbciable with all truth. Whatever fupernatural evidence, therefore, is produced by fuch a perfonage, comes in equally in attestation of both parts of his Character ; and if it fail in one, cannot be made to fuppoit the other.
Now Miracles can be no proof of his being the Meflenger fore» told, when his peribn, actions, and fortunes agree not, in all cir- cumtlances, with the prophetic defcriptions of that Meflenger. For Miracles cannot change times and places ; or make that to be, which is not, and that not to be, which is.
From hence, therefore, we draw this fecond conclufion, " that Miracles were not the full, or only, Credentials of Jefus, who was a Meflenger foretold." There needed another kind of evidence to eftablifh his pretenfions : and that was, that he exa&ly anfvvered to the defcription of the predicted Messiah, or, in other words,
Vol. V. K that
66 SERMONS AT LIN COLN'S INN.
that he accomplifhed the Prophecies concerning him. And this we fay he did in the ampleft manner.
But now it may be afked, " Were his Miracles of no ufe to efta- blifli his Meffiah- Chat-after?"
The anfwer will lead us to the fecond part of what we are to fpeak to : The nature of thofe ancient prophecies which foretell the promifed Meffiah of the Jews.
We have obferved that the office of this Meffiah was to compleat and perfect God's great work of Redemption ; to which, all his various difpenfations to mankind were directed. As therefore Jefus was the fmifher of the whole Oeconomy, it is natural to fup- pofe that neither the worker nor his work would be forgotten under any of thofe difpenfations. This is indeed the fact : He is remembered under all of them, though in a manner conformable to the fpecific nature of each. Thus, when he is revealed to Adam, the reprefentative of human kind, he is fpoken of as the deftroyer of their fpiritual enemy who mould bru'fe the head of the Serpent * : when promifed to the Patriarchal family, he is reprefented as the glory and bleffing of their Race, the Shi/oh, to whom /Jjottld be the gathering of the people \. And when to the Mofaic Republic ; as a Prophet and Lawgiver like to its firft founder];. So that in all thefe graphical descriptions, though the drawing was the fame, yet as the colouring was different, this would be one fource of obfcurity.
Again, as each difpenfation was preparatory to what fucceeded, the relation between the type and antitype occafioned the prophe- cies concerning the fucceeding difpenfation to be intermixed with others refpedting the fortunes of the prefent. Thus, for inftance, the fpiritual victories of the Meffiah are intermixed with the tem- poral deliverances atchieved under the Jewiffi Leaders. And this is another fource of obfcurity.
* Gen. iii, 15. f Gen. xlix. 10.
$ Deut. xviii. 15,
Laftly,
Serm. V. The Char after and Office of the Messiah. 67
Laftly, the Chriftian Difpenfation is in its nature entirely oppo- fite to the Jewifh ; and yet the prophetic account of it is conveyed under ideas altogether appropriate to the Law. But this, by the wifeft defignation of Providence. One important part of Jefus* his office was to break down the partition-wall between Jews and Gentiles, to extend the privilege of being the felect people of God to all the race of Adam, to free his countrymen from the bondage of the ceremonial Law, to teach all men the worfhip of God in fpirit and in truth ; in a word, to change temporal bleffings into eternal. But, at the time of making thole predictions, the Mofaic fyftem had not run out half its courfe : and i'o was not to be ex- poled to popular contempt by an information that it was only the harm "rudiment of one more eafy and perfect. Now an "exact and plain defcription of the Meifiah's office, which would have told the people this fecret, mult needs have indifpofed them to the reverence due to their Law. A myfterious repofe, therefore, was to be caft over thefe living Oracles, which Ihould prefent no more to the dull conceptions of the People, than a large increafe of bleffings, to be procured in the age to come, by fome mighty Deliverer. And the expedients employed. for this purpofe be°.r the cleared marks of the divinity of their Author.
The firft. was in the Expression ; by reprefenting thofe fpirU tual blellings figuratively, under the carnal terms of the Law. Civil peace, national triumphs, and worldly plenty, to denote religious rectitude, victory over fin and death, and large effufion of the Holy Spirit.
Tiie feeond expedient was in the Sense. For it being necef-
y to the carrying on the general fcheme of Providence, of which the Mofaic inftitution fo confiderable a part, that the
various fortunes and illuftrious deliverers under this difpenfation fhould, from time to time, be foretold for the confolation of thofe to whom the prophecy was delivered ; and for the trufl: and con- fidence of posterity which fhould fee it fulfilled ; for this end, I
, the Holy Spirit made ufe of thefe intenno. ■ ents for typ
K a and
68 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
and fymbols of the fufFerings and victories of the Meffiah, the final object of Prophecy. This all-wife contrivance, of Providence pro- duced what Divines call the secondary sense of Prophecy*. And of this fpecies is the body of thofe predictions which relate to the Meffiah.
Thefe two expedients therefore are another fource of myfterious obfcurity.
What now are the inferences which muft be drawn from the nature of ancient Prophecy, as here explained ? They are thefe.
i. That the only reafonable way of eftabliihing the evidence rifing from it, is to fet the various predictions together, to compare them with one another, and to illuftrate what is obfcure in this Prophecy with what is clear in that ; to reconcile the feeming dif- cordancy in particular parts by the order, union, and harmony which refults from the general ceconomy of the whole.
2. The fecond inference is, that even after all the advantages gained by the ufe of this method, there will ftill remain many obfcu- rities in particular prophecies, which human wit alone will never be able to remove or clear up.
But, in contradiction to the firft inference^ we have been lately told, " That Prophecies are to be confidered and inforced like Mi- racles, fmgly and independently, as fo many diftinct arguments : and that to confider them in a chain, and as having a mutual connection with one another, is a fanciful and romantic fyftem, which deferts the foundation laid by the Evangeliits for their ex- planation f."
* See Div. Leg. 'Book vi. feft. 6-
f — " The Evangelifts applied them [the Prophecies] fingly and independently on each " other, to this or that occafion, as fo many different arguments for the general truth " of the Gofpel. — He [the Bp. of L.J feems to have rejected the whole evidence of " Prophecy as it was underftood and applied by the Apoftles and Evangelifts ; and to " have fubftituted, in its place, a romantic fyftem or fanciful chain of antediluvian " Predictions." — Dr. Middleton's Examination of the Bp. of London's Difcourfe con- cerning the ufe and intent of Prophecy, p. 5, 8.
But
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 69
But the Objector feems not fufficiently to have confidered the very different natures of thefe two extraordinary interpofitions of Providence, in fupport of its difpenfations, Miracles and Prophecies.
Single Miracles refer to no Whole or Syftem. Each is indepen- dent of another, and hath its own entire evidence in itfelf. If we confider a miracle, as in the object of the performer, it is fim- ply the credential to a divine miflion : if we confider it as directed to its fubject, it is a difplay of the wifdom, the jufricc, or the goodnefs of th;it Being by whofe power it is performed. And in either cafe, it carries its evidence along with it, and receives no aid or addition from without. Indeed, it would be abiurd to feek it in any other place. For, put the miracles as near together as you will, and embody them as clofely as you can, the fironger will give no fupport to the weaker. When Jefus rebuked* the winds and the waves, and a calm enfued ; If any one fhould pre- tend, that the quiet naturally followed the emotion, and was not the immediate effect of divine power, the urging his walk upon the Sea -j- would not remove the objection. So again, when Peter J raifed Dorcas from the dead, Should an unbeliever fay, me was only in a fwoon, the urging the restoration of Lazarus, after he had been dead four days §, w-ould hardly filence the cavil. The reafon is plain, and the fame in both cafes. The fimilar Miracles had no dependance on one another.
The Prophecies on the contrary, though, like the Miracles, they may be confidered fingly and apart ; and the peculiar object of many of them be clearly fixed from their owry evidence ; vet the truth of the greater part, and the fulleft conviction in all, arife from their being {cen in one view, and confidered as a dependent, con- nected, and entire Whole ; becaufe the general object of all is one complcat Difpenfation, confifting of various and fubordinate parts,
* Matth.viii. 26. t Matth. xiv. :(•.
\ Ads ix. 41. § John xi. 39.
which
7o SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
which reflect mutual light and add mutual luftre to one another. Hence the clearer Prophecies muffc always communicate of their evidence to the more obfcure. Thus if any one mould doubt over what part of God's moral difpenfation the Meffiah mould reign, whether the Jewifh or Evangelic, when he is prophefied of in the words — Tet have Ifet my King upon my holy Hill of Zion * ; he may be fully fatisfied by the Prophecy of Jeremiah : Behold the day is come, faith the Lord, that I will make a new Covenant with the houfe of Ifrael, not according to the covenant that I made with their Fathers, &c. But — / will put my Law into their in- ward parts, and write it in their Hearts -j-.
And the reafon of this difference is evident ; The fubjecl: of pro- phecies is one ; and the fuhject. of miracles are many.
In oppofition therefore to (o plain a truth., it would be idle to tell us, " That Jefus and his Difciples employed the Prophecies fingly and independently on each other, to this or that occafion, as fo many different arguments for the general truth of the Gofpel." We own they may be thus employed : and when they are fo, they are confidered under the nature of Miracles, and urged, as the ob- jector well expreffes it, for the general truth of the Gofpel. But what then ? If, becaufe there are fome prophecies plain and clear enough to fraud alone, on the principles of thofe to whom they were ad- dreffed, and therefore the Evangelifts have put them into that por- tion ; muft the dark and obfcure ones, which require the aid of others to fupport them, be treated in the fame manner ? Are we not rather to conclude that their different circumftances require a different management ? This is fo far from deferring the founda- tion of the Evangelifts J, that it is profecuting divine knowledge upon the fame principles. Thefe very Evangelifts employ fugle maxims of morality, independent on each other. But is this any
* Ff.ilm. ii. 6. + Chap, xxxi. }i,
% " It is certain there was no occafion toddert that foundation vvhich the Evan* " gelifts had laid, and to take refuge in a precarious fyftem," Exaro, of the Dp. of
Lond. p 24.
proof
Serm. V. The Characler and Office of the Messiah. 71
proof that there is 110 fyftem of morals : Or that our urging thofe truths fyftematically, and under all their dependencies, which the Evangelifts propofed fingly and without connection, is a deferring the foundations of the Go/pel ?
Would you have the whole truth ? it is this ? The fitteft way of conveying inftruction to the People, whether prophetical or moral, was to urge their verities fingly and independently. For long deductions and chains of reafoning were unfuitable to the ca- pacities of thofe with whom Jefus and his difciples were concerned. But Jyjlematical and political Divines (as they are here called) were engaged with Philofophers and Free-thinkers. And the fitteft way of urging Prophecies and moral truths to fuch, was to propofe them fyftematically and in a chain. For it had been pretended that cer- tain Scripture-prophecies have no fupport from fact ; and that certain Gofpel-precepts have no foundation in reafon.
2. We come now to the fecond confequence refulting from the nature of Prophecy. And this is, that there will be ftill many difficulties in particular Prophecies, which mere human wit, with all the affiftance of fcience, will never be able to remove.
And here comes in the anfwer which we promifed to give to the queftion " concerning the ufe of Miracles to eftablifh the Meffiah- Character ?"
And this we fhall venture to make in the affirmative; and to declare, that they are of great ufe.
It hath been already obferved, that no miracles are fufficient to prove thofe Prophecies to relate to Jefus, which, on the logical rules of interpretation, can be plainly fhewn to relate only to another : becaufe Miracles cannot make that to be true, which is falfe.
Cut the conclufion is very different in matters which human wifdom muft leave for ever in doubt ; and which, on account of the obfcure delivery of the Prophecy, Reafon finds itfelf unable to refolve. In this cafe, the word of an infallible Interpreter (and fuch we muft efteem him who is endowed with the power that Jefus
exercifed)
72 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
exercifed) hath all the authority requifite to decide in doubtful queftions. Human wifdom cannot refolve which of two things was in the Speaker's meaning: but the wifdom rending in that. Ao-ent, to whom God hath imparted the knowledge of ail divine myfteries, can refolve it ; and the Miracles of Jefus {hew that this knowledge was communicated to him.
And Authority hath here the force of the mofr. convincing evidence. Common reafon, in the affairs of civil life, hath always directed men to the like folution, In all their doubts they have recourfe to fuperior wifdom. On this, they regulate their con- duct, and reft fatisfied in the fecurity of its decifion. The Autho- rity in queftion, to fix the fenfe of doubtful Prophecies, differs only in this, that the evidence of the refolved truth is unfpeakably great- er, as divine wifdom exceeds human.
And we have the fame fecurity (infinite Goodnefs), that we fball be kept from error, when Miracles are employed to fix the fenfe of doubtful Prophecies, as when more generally applied to fup- port the character of a divine Meffenger. Miracles being a fpecies of evidence which reafon direcls us to confide in, as well in one cafe as in the other.
With regard therefore to Prophecies thus circumfhnced, we fay, that the authority of a worker of miracles may be fitly applied to (hew, that he is of a truth that Prophet that fiould come into the iv or !d.
So that we fee, licentious writers, from Porphyry down to Col- lins, have mifemployed their pains in proving, " That the Pro- phecies which are find to concern the Meffiah are io indeterminate, that, on the common rules of interpretation, we can never apply them with certainty rather to him than to any other Jewifh Deli- verer." For was it true, as it certainly is not, all that could be inferred from thence is only this, That fuch Prophecies conclude nothing in favour of a particular application, till the obfeurities, ariling from the intermediate manner in which they are delivered, be removed. There are fome obfeurities which no human lights
can
Srrm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 73
can penetrate, but there are none fo impervious but mull give way to the divine.
It i3 the proper refort, therefore, of fuperior wifdom to decide this doubtful queftion, and tell us, to whom fuch Prophecies belong.
And muft not He, who infpired the Oracle, know of whom he made the prediction ? For it was the fame fpirit who call a myfte- rious veil over Truth in the Jewi(h Prophecies, and became ma- nifeft in the Christian Miracles. Thus much thefe licentious wri- ters themfelves will be forced to own, while they reafon, as they do here, on the fuppofition of real Prophecies, and only pretend to bring in queftion their received meaning.
On the whole, therefore, we conclude, That to clear up doubtful Prophecies by the application of Miracles, 'm a fpecies of evidence which determines the judgment with as perfect atVurance as if the prediction had been conceived in the plaineft terms of grammar, and in the directeft: propofitions of logic.
But the mifrake lay here, The enemies of our Faith faw clearly enough that Miracles could not eftablifh a fenfe of Prophecies in op- pofition to all human rules of interpretation ; and therefore con* eluded that Miracles had no influence on Prophecy at all. This was too hafty. They law in what cafe the authority of Mhac : was excluded ; but they would not fee where it came in j and fo, becaufe a Miracle could not do every thing in eftablifhing the Me£ fiah-chara£ter, they would fuller it to do nothing.
But let us leave the perverfity of men, to adore the good Provi- dence of God; whofe Power, in the ufe of Miracles, is fo admi- rably fitted to iupply and clear up the defects and oblcurities, which bis Wisdom fuffered to remain in the Prophecies,
11.
Having explained and vindicated the Chara&er of this Inft great Meffenger of God; the fubjccT: leads me to confider the nature and genius of the Religion he was fent to propagate amongft men. So that having Ceen the Truth of his Million, wo may now underftand the Use and Necessity of his Work.
Vol. V. ••
74 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
St. Paul, in the words of my text, hath marked out thofe eflen- tial qualities which diftinguim the Character and Office of Jefus from all olher, whether true or pretended, Meffengers from God. Jefus Chriji, fays he, is made unto us, Wifdom and Righteouf- nefs ; and Sanflif cation and Redemption. Now as this was addrefled both to the Gentile and Jewifh converts in the. Church of Corinth, it is contrived to (hew, in one view, how Chriftianity hath re- formed the depravities of Paganism, and fupplied the deficiencies of the Law.
This beautiful fummary of Gofpel-bleffings (for now we turn from the Worker to his work) is fo artfully adapted to the Writer's views and purpofes, as will deferve a particular explanation.
And here let me previoufly obferve, That though the Wifdom and Right eoufnefs, — the SanBif cation and Redemption, here mention- ed, be each refpective to the whole race of mankind ; yet the Gentiles are more particularly concerned in the Wisdom and Righteousness; and the Jews in the Sanctification and Re- demption. In explaining, therefore, thefe four eflential offices in the Meffiah-characler, I mail confider each of them as referring diftindtly and particularly to the One or other of thefe two great divifions of the religious world.
I, And firfl, concerning the reformation of the Gentiles, by Gofpel Wifdom and Righteoufnefs.
i . Jefus Chrift, faith the Apoftle, is made unto us, Wisdom. That is, He was made Wifdom unto the Gentile world by inftrucT:- ing it in the knowledge of the true God ; his nature and attributes : And by explaining the relation in which man ftands to his Maker. A Wisdom, -which, at this time, the Gentiles greatly wanted : moft of them being deftitute of that knowledge ; and all, without exception, ignorant of that relation.
The early defendants of Noah foon loft the revealed knowledge of their Creator. Which though indeed revived by an extraordi- nary difpenfation of Providence, was however confined within the
gates
Serm. V. The ChardHer and Office of the Messiah. 75
gates of a fingle family : While the reft of mankind, partly by too great a confidence in that unfaithful guardian of Truth, Tra- dition ; and partly from too little attention to their better inftruc- tor, Reason, fell into the moft fenfelefs Idolatries.
For living at firft fcattered abroad in independent tribes, their grofs, untutored minds could rife no higher than to the fenfible caufes of good and evil : the molt considerable of which being the elements and heavenly bodies, Thefe became the fir ft object of their worftiip and veneration. And having experienced them to be, fome- times, the authors of health and plenty ; and fometimes again, of peftilence and famine, they from thence began to entertain an opi- nion of good and evil Demons.
But being now collected into Bodies, and formed into Commu- nities ; the hidden fupplial of all the wants of life, which followed, was i'o fenfibly underftood, that -mistaken gratitude took anot] channel, and turned as Strongly on their deceaied Lawgivers, the generous procurers of this their improved condition ; whom they foon venerated and exalted into Gods.
But as civil life introduced and encouraged the culture of the mind as well as body ; both the firft, and fecond mode of worftiip were, from their manifeft abfurdities, in danger of falling under the popular contempt. To prevent this mifchief, the. Legislator diverted the fteddy attention to either, by confounding them toge- ther ; making elementary and Hero-worshif reprefentative of one another; and then laying on a new cover over both, by the invention of a third fpecies of idolatry, symbolical of the oth two. But a further account of this matter, and how the two ori- ginal and Simple forms produced that more monftrous compound j in which, firft of all, brutes, and then, frocks and ftoues w worftiipped ; — from what accidents of error, from what contri- vances of fraud, theSe prodigies arofe, which hath Since given fo much exerciSe to the I u ', all this is without imits of the
t difcourfe*. Let it fuffjee to obfervc, that St, Paul hath not
* >cc The Divine Legation, Book ', .
i . Z aggra-
76 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
aggravated the cafe, where, in his Epiftle to the Romans, he fays, that the Gentile world had changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beaBs, and creeping things*.
This was the condition of the Pagan world in general. And though, from time to time, fome thinking men arofe amongft them of a more enlarged understanding than the common, who, as the fame Apoftle obferves, could, from the vi/ib/e things of a created world, infer the eternal power and Godhead of its Author +; yet even thefe, as he adds, when they knew God, glorified him net as God | j never fo much as once attempting to introduce his wor- ship to any People or Nation amongft whom they lived, or where they had the greateft credit. So that the one true God, though known in moft places, was no where publicly worshipped but in t the land of Judaea only.
This- leads me to the fecond point, " The univerfal ignorance in the Gentile world, of the relation in which man ftands to his Crea- tor." The Philofophers and Lawgivers had concurred in a general opinion (the abfurdity of which is fufficiently expofed by the fuc- cefs of the Hebrew Sage and Legiflator in a different conduct) that to teach publicly the knowledge, or to eftablifh nationally the wor- fhip of the one true God, would be of great difiervice to fociety ; and had therefore kept all confideration of him inclofed within the veil of their mysteries. And further, to hide from their own conferences the fraud and prevarication of fuch a meafure, they hrft brought thofe whom they had intruded with that knowledge, and afterwards, themfelves to believe, That the Fir^t cause was an extra-mundane Being, too excellent, as well as too remote, to be approached, a!*d addrefled to, in the firft inftance. On which ac- count, they faid, he had delegated the government of the world to inferior Deities, his fubftitutes ; and had made Them the imme- diate objects of religious woifhip. In cultivating this fuperftition
* Chnp. i. ver. 23. f Ver. iq. \ Ver. ji.
they
Serm. V. The Character and Office tf 'The Messiah. 77
they found another advantage : it gave a (hew of reafon to that fenfelefs Polytheifm whofe rife and progrefs we havejuft defcribed : and, at the fame time, fcreencd it from the approaches of over- curious inquirers. But then it could not fail of producing very fatal miftakes concerning the clofe and near relation in which man (lands towards God.
All this (hews how expedient it was for the happinefs of Man- kind, that yefus (hould be made, unto us, wifdom ; when the mpft enlightened teachers of it amongfl the Gentiles prof effing themfehes to be wife became fools, by their not glorifying him as God whom they had clearly discovered to be the only true one.
Let us now fee the need the Jews had of this wifdom ; for though, as was faid, it be principally objective -to the ftate of the Gentile world, yet it hath its after-view to the followers of the Law ; who wanted, likewife, though not in the fame degree, the aid of evangelic wifdom. For the Character of a national, tutelary Deity, under which, God had been pleafed to affume the patronage of their idolatrous Forefathers in Egypt; the Form of their civil conditution, which was Theocratical ; and the Genius of their ceremonial worfhip, which was fitted, through the groffnefs of their prejudices, to fecure the great end of their feparation, prefer- vation from idolatry ; all thefe, I fay, concurred, amongft a per- verfe people, to beget wrong notions of the Attributes of God; as if They ftood by nature, or adoption, in a nearer relation to him than the reft of their fellow-creatures ; being chofen for the objects of his fpecial care, on account of fome inherent excellence; or at leaft for fome fecret fondnefs which God had, and would indulge, for the illuftrious race of Abraham. Vain notions, and of dan- gerous confequence ! which, though they received no real fupport from Mofes and the Prophets, were yet, by length of time, fo rooted and interwoven in the paflions and affections of that people, as to need a new Law to weed them out.
And thus was Jefus indeed made Wifdom both to Jew and Gen- tile ; by inftrudting the ignorance of the one, and reforming the
error
-8 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
error of the other, in that fupreme fpecies of Wifdom, the know- ledge of the true God.
2. The advantages of his being made, unto us, Righteoussness, come next to be confidered.
As the ignorance of, and miftakes concerning, the first Cause were fo univerfal in the Gentile world, it can hardly be fuppofed that the ltate of Virtue was in any very good condition amongft. them. And in fact, we find that their Morality was neither Spe- culatively folid, ' nor practically fincere.
The fitnefs of fome actions and the unfitnefs of others are dis- coverable from the natural Relations and effential difference of things. And this fitnefs and unfitnefs are further Supported by a moral Sense, or an inflinftive approbation of good, and diflike of evil. Eut ftill, the proper ground of moral obligation is the Will of God: Becaufe all obligation implies an obliger ; and moral fitnefs is only a rule to direct us to the will of the obliger ; nor is the moral fenfe any other than his arbitrary imprefiion, to difpofe the human will to a conformity with the divine. The Will of God, therefore, is the real ground of obligation ; or that which properly maketh man accountable for his actions*.
Now this only folid foundation of morality the Gentile world always wanted : and indeed, while under the ignorance and mif- takes mentioned above, could not but want. For their falfe Gods having, as muff needs be, from the private views and intrigues of the Priefts their interpreters, many different and contrary Wills, thefe could never be made the ground of a confident morality : and the true God being efteemed an extramundane Being, who left his Government to others, afforded no Will at all, for this purpoie. So that their only recourfe for inftruclion and practice was to the moral Sense, and natural Relations of things; which, though they might prefent a fpecious fyftem to the underftanding, had not weight or authority to incline the Will +•
,ee Divine Legation, Book I. Se&. 4. f See Divine Legstion ns above,
For
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 79
For their practice of Virtue (to come to the fecond point) was as impure as it was unftable. In morals, Example hath the ftrongeft influence : and this influence increafeth in proportion to the dignity of the fubject in which it is found. The Example of the Deity, therefore, which inforceth itfelf on a principle of Religion, muft needs have the ftrongeft and wideft influence. But the actions of the Pagan Gods, recorded in their facred ftories, were fo immoral as could not but highly corrupt the practice of their worfhippers. And Antiquity informs us, that in truth it did fo.
Nor fhould a moral caufe of this degeneracy from Virtue be for- gotten. St. Paul affures us that God, for their puniftiment in not retaining him in their knowledge, gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do thofe things that arc not convenient. Hence, as he tells us, they were filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wicked- nefs, covetoufnefs, malicioufnefs *, &c. The account goes on, in fo black a catalogue of vice, as fufficiently fhews that, at the time J ejus Chrijl was made unto us righteoufnfs, the Pagan world was funk into the loweft ftate of mifery and corruption.
Nor were the Jews themfelves fo found, in thefe particulars, as not to want this great phyfician of the Soul. And what was faid of the Wifdom is true of the Righteoufnejs, mentioned in my text ; it hath a fecondary reference to the chofen People. For, the wrong notions they had conceived of the God of their fathers, and of the relation in which they ftood to him, had much viciated and de- formed their focial virtue. They confined the precept of loving their Brother to the defendants of their fraternal Tribes : and nep-- le&ed and defpifed the reft of the fons of Adam; who, becaufe ritually unholy and prophane, were deemed to be naturally unre- lated to them. A Principle which made them as unfaithful fub- jecls, when for their crimes they were fentenced to the yoke of the Gentiles, as they were mercilefs neighbours while independent and more powerful ; neither rendering to Ccefar the things which were
* Rom. chap. i. ver. 28, & feq.
Cafars ;
go SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
Gafar's ; nor to God the things which at all times he principally required of them — to do jufly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before him*. This, and other errors which their falfe Traditions had introduced, and which fome original compliances with the hardnefs of their hearts had occafionally countenanced, made Jefus tell his followers, that, unlefs their Righteousness foould exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharifees, they Jhould in no cafe enter into the kingdom of Heaven -f.
From what hath been faid then it appears, that Jefus, as he Is made unto us, wifdom and right eoufnefs, is to be confidered under the Charc.6r.er of a Messenger sent from God, to inftruct men in the ways of Religion and Virtue. How much fuch a one was wanting, we have endeavoured to fhew in a fair reprefentation of the uate of both, at the time of his coming.
II. But this was not the whole of his Character. He was a Messenger foretold ; as appears, and is infinuated from what is further faid of him, That he was made unto us Sanft'ification and Redemption,
To fuch as are unacquainted with the prefent ftate of Theology amongft us, it may perhaps feem ftrange that 1 mould flop, in this place, to obferve, that Santlification and Redemption are as true and efiential offices in the Character of Jefus, and as extenfive to Man- kind, as the V/ifdom and Righteoufnefs afligned unto it. But there are fome amongft us, who give a figurative fenfe to the latter at- tributes in my text; and in reality confine the character of Jefus to that of a Meflenger fent from God, to inftruct the world in truths of religious Wifdom, and moral Righteoufnefs,
But to fuppofe, that when the Son of God is faid to be made wifdom and righteoufnefs, we muft underftand by it that he really taught men Wifdom and Righteoufnefs ; and yet, when he is faid to be made fanflificaiion and redemption, he did not really fanclify and redeem ; but that, by inftru&ing men in a more pure and perfect;
* Micah, chap, vi. ver. 8. f Matt, chap, v. ver, 20.
worfhio
Serm. V. Ihe Char after and Office of the Messiah. 8i
worfhip, he only excelled all the imaginary ; and abrogated all the carnal fanclijications and redemptions, both of Jews and Gen- tiles j to fuppofe this, 1 fay, is the higheft violation of all rational interpretation : and gives us a meaner idea of the eternal Son of God than a Pagan Sophift would have entertained of him on hear- ing St. Paul's firft fermon at Athens. But this perverfity can be charitably accounted for no otherwife than from a violent difguft thefe men have taken at fome current explanations of the dodirine of Redemption ; fitter indeed to difcredit, than to confirm or recommend this fundamental principle of our holy Religion. But this is a matter which requires a different treatment. I (hall conlider it in its proper place * ; and now proceed with the fubject before us.
I have obferved, that as Wijdom and Righteoufuefs were principally addrefled to the Gentiles ; fo Sanclif cation and Redemption were di- rected to the Jews. But, as a regard to the Jewifh people was not excluded in the former ; fo neither was a regard to the Gentiles ex- cluded in the latter.
It is eafily feen why the reprefentation of Jefus's being made unto us Wifdom and Right eoufnefs is particularly addrefled to the Gentiles « They moft wanted thofe bleflings. Nor is it more difficult to ap- prehend why the reprefentation of his being made unto us Sa?tclifica- tion and Redemption is particularly directed to the Jews : for in their cuftody were depofited the living Oracles, which explain that ftate and condition of man, from whence arifes the necefiity of Sanclifi- cation and Redemption.
I. But let us confider the words as they lye in order. f{fns Chrifl (fays the Apoftle) was made unto us Sanctification ; that is, heftincli/ied, or made us holy.
It was a received opinion in the ancient world that human nature had contracted a ftain or pollution : and that not only particular purifyings, but alfo fome general Sancliji 'cation was neceflary to put man in a capacity of being refiored to the favour of the Deity.
* Divine Legation, Book IX,
Vol. V. M Whether
82 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
Whether this Opinion arofe from the remains of a Tradition con- cerning the Fall ; or from every man's confcious feeling of his own diforders ; or whether both concurred to its eftablifhment, is very uncertain. However it had that tone of the voice of Nature, Univerfality. And though it gave occafion to infinite fuperftitions in the rituals of national luftrations, yet the necemty of fome real Simplification feems fairly to be deduced from it.
When God, therefore, feparated the Jewifli people, the firft object of their Legislator's miniftry was to render them pure and holy. And as by reafon of the inveteracy of their prejudices, and the groflnefs of their appreheniions, the real means of purifying human nature were to be conveyed under the cover of fuch rites and ceremonies as were then in ufe amongft men ; fo becaufe the common way of making a people holy, was to adopt them into the protection of a tutelary God ; and of rendering particulars clean, was by ablutions and other cathartic rites ; the Almighty was pleafed to affume the titles of their national God, and regal Governor ; and to inftitute, in the offices of his worfhip luftrations, and expiatory facrifices, as well for particulars as the Community. On thefe ac- counts it is that he tells them, Ye J hall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests, and an holy nation* : for the regal and facerdotal were the two peculiar characters of ancient fanttity.
But the Law having only a fiadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, could never make the comers thereunto ferfeB t : therefore the true SanSlification of mankind was referved for the miniftry of Jefus ; when being collected together into one people, under his government as Lord; and received into his pro- tection by the j 'unification of faith in him as Messiah, they became a royal Priesthood and an holy nation\, as the Apoftle calls them, alluding to the title given to the Hebrews byMofes; and transferring it to the Christian Church in a completory fenfe, as it was applied to the Jewiih, in a typical.
* Exod. chap. xix. ver. 6. f Heb. chap. x. ver. i.
% i Pet. chap. xi. ver. 9.
But
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 8?
But a matter of fo high importance as the completion of God's religious difpenfations, in the final SanSiif cation of mankind, will deferve a fuller explanation.
When the Sanclifier (whofe character and office cannot well be confidered feparately) was accufed, by thofe who traverfed his miniftry, of purpofing to overturn the eftablifhed Religion, he anfwered, Think not that I am come to dejlroy the Law and the Pro- phets. 1 am not come to dejlroy , but to fulfil *. How he executed this commiffion, in the character of Sanctifier, we are now to confider.
Under the old Law, God was pleafed to take upon himfelf the office of King ; he afligned the office of Priest to Aaron; and that of Prophet, to Mofes ; the Priefr. being the Mediator or Advocate for men to God; and the Prophet the Messenger of God to Men. Now the Mefliah taking all thefe offices on himfelf; and uniting them in his own Perfon, did, in the truefr. and exa&eft fenfe, fulfil the Law and the Prophets. For by the Law and the Prophets is meant the whole of the Jewifh. difpenfation, as delivered by Mofes, and explained and illuftrated by thofe holy men, whom God, from time to time, raifed up to govern and inflruct his people.
This Inftitution confided of three parts; the Political, the Ceremonial, and the Moral, under which was contained the Spiritual.
i. The political part was a Theocracy. The purpofes of this extraordinary form of government, as they related to the carnal adminiftration of the Mofaic Oeconomy, I have confidered elfe- where +• But the fpiritual end was to introduce the dominion of the Son, which was to be extended to all mankind. The Prophets, the interpreters of the Law, whom, as well as the Law itfelf, Jefus tells us, he was fent to fulfil, in.'orm us at large, how this
* Matt. chap. v. ver. 17.
f See Divine Legation, Book V. Se£t. 2.
M 2 peculiar
84 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
peculiar regimen was to become an univerfal blefling. Firft by the refignation of the Theocratic dominion to the Son * ; and fecondly, by extending that dominion over' the whole race of mankind +. Thus the Median fulfilled both what the genius of the Law and the infpiration of the Prophets foretold of him ; as it concerned the government political. And in fo doing he affumed the title of King of the Jews.
2. The fecond divifion of the Mofaic Law was the ceremonial: a ceremonial, which heavily loaded every part of God's worfhip with multifarious and irkfome rites. Now though the common condition of humanity declares that this duty, efpecially the public part of it, can never be decently or properly difcharged without the aid of fome exterior ceremonies; yet the minute obfervance of fo complicated a Ritual tends rather to ftifle than to invigorate the fpirit of devotion. We may therefore reafonably conclude, that thefe things, which have no moral worth or value inherent in them, were not inftituted on their own account, but for the fake of fome occafional good they were found capable of producing. And of this, we have clear intimations in the writings of the Prophets. They frequently tell us that the ceremonial Law was of no ufe or value in itfelf ; but that, the thing in which God moft delighted, was the moral Law of righteoufnefs \. If then the Jewifh Ritual was of fo flight account with the Inftitutor himfelf, it may be reafonably alked how it came to be fo minutely delivered and fo fcrupuloufly exacted in his fervice ? In this likewife the Prophets will inftruct us. It was impofed to reftrain a headftrong people from Idolatry, to which they were violently and obftinately car- ried § : and, for that purpofe, it had a perpetual reference to the then reigning Tuperftitions. But as this fecurity from idolatry (confidering them as a People) was for the fake of preferving a
* Ifaiah ix. 6, 7. t Ibid, chap, xi. 10.
\ Amos chap. v. 2\, & feq. Micah chap. vi. 7, 8. § Jerem. chap. vii. 22, 23. Ezek. chap. xx. 24, 25.
found
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 85
found and pure foundation for the future difpenfation. of which, This was only the rudiments, it pleated the divine wifdom that the ceremonial Law mould not only be directed againft thoie fuperfti- tions, but mould likewife be typical of all the great parts of that future difpenfation : and whoever examines the ceremonial Law with the care and attention fo important a ftudy requires, will confefs that both one and the other were equally in the intention of the Law-giver *.
The ultimate end therefore of thefe rites being to prefigure the death and fufferings of (Thrift, He may, with a peculiar propriety, be allowed to call himlelf the fuljiller of the Ceremonial Law. It being incomplete and deftitute of its final purpofe, till Jefus had performed the whole of that miflion which the ceremonial Law, by prefiguring, had predicted. And when that was once performed, the Types of courfe were to ceafe. Now thefe types confifting of various kinds of facrificial rites, Jefus by offering up himfelf on the crofs for the fins of mankind, as was foretold by the Prophets, eminently fulfilled the ceremonial Law, in quality of Priest.
3. The laft and nobleft branch of the Jewifh Law was the Moral : which inftructs man in all his relations, whether to his common nature, to God, or his fellow-creatures. This, though delivered pure by Mofes, and according to the truth of things, did yet, like the two other branches (as we have feen above) need the maiter-band of this divine Teacher : who, in delivering to mankind a more perfect fyftem of moral duty as was predicted of him f, difcharged the office of Prophet, or of a Mejfenger from God 5 as in that of Priest he difcharged the office of the Mejfenger fore- told.
But under the moral, as we have faid, was comprifed the fpirl- tual. And it was this which was more peculiarly the prophetic office : whofe bufinefs it was not only to give to every part, in
* See Divine Legation, Book IV. Sect. 6. T Ifaiah, chap. xi. 5. Chap. xlii. 1, 4.
this
26 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
this oeconomy, its due rank ; but to foretel the future fortunes of all ; How the Political fhould be extended ; the Ceremonial ful- filled ; and the Moral, purified and exalted.
Thus we fee, from the nature, end, and condition of this political, ceremonial, and moral ceconomy, that Jefus was the fulfiller of the haw ; and, from his doing this in the very manner the infpired men of old predicted, that he was likewife the fulfiller of the Pro- phets*. Hence he became truly and properly the Sanctifica- tion of the People of God : and through them, of the whole Church ofChriJl.
This is that aggregate or corporate holinefs to which the Gentile -nations blindly afpired ; and of which/ the Jewifh people had gained only the fhadow.
But, beiides this general SanSlification ; which, as we have {hewn, is the immediate office of the Son; there was a particu- lar, by which each individual was cleanfed and purified ; and this was performed through the miniftry of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, whom Jefus, on his leaving the world, had promifed to fend upon the faithful, to remain with them for ever +• Who, by the effufion of divine grace fhed abroad in their hearts, effects that purity of mind, which all other ritual modes of private luftration tried at in vain, or at beft did but typically reprefent.
Now both thefe purifications, the aggregate and particular, make together, that true SanSlif cation, of which Jefus is faid in my text to be the author, and beftower on mankind.
We have obferved that SanSlif cation and Redemption are addreffed to the Jews primarily; as Wifdom and Right eoufnefs are to the Gentiles. But as the former graces had a fecondary reference to the Jews, fo the latter, as we fhall now fee, have the fame reference to the Gentiles.
* See Divine Legation, Book VI. feet. 6. •fr John xiv, 16. Chap. xvi. 7.
The
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 87
The want of a Sanclifier in the Pagan world was ftill more urgent and deplorable than in the Jewifh. For the Gentiles having re- ceived Demons for their tutelary Gods, and devoted themfelves to unclean fpirits by their national worfhip, the Public was become, in the faddefl fenfe Of the word, prophane. And, by adminiftring their demonic rites in all the unnatural and exorbitant practices of murder and uncleannefs, Particulars were become in the highefl: degree impure.
Thus Gentile impiety and pollution being at its height, and the Jewifh holinefs and purity exterior only, and imperfect, there was a preffing Necessity o£ Jefus's being made unto us, Sanctification.
2. But this was not the ultimate benefit beftowed on man, through the miniftry of Jefus. SanSiif cation was only preparatory to a greater bleffing : and, like the wedding-garment in the parable, a habit of dignity given to appear in before the Lord our Redeemer.
For, in the laft place, the Apoftle tells us, he was made unto us, Redemption.
Amongft the many gracious difpenfations of God to Mankind, the Mofaic hiftory informs us of one, in which the depth of the riches both of his Wifdom and Knowledge claims our more particu- lar admiration. And this is the free gift of Immortality to the firft man ; and, through him, to his Pofterity, on the eafy condition, we find, annexed unto it : which Adam having too eafily violated, he and his whole race returned into a ftate of mortality and corruption.
From this bondage under death and fin, God, in his infinite mercy, decreed to deliver us. And the condition of a remitted for- feiture being as abfolutely in the breaft of the Remitter, as the con- dition on which the blefling was originally conferred ; he was pleafed, it mould be done by one man's willingly offering himfelf to death for an atonement for all. That as by one man's difbbe- dience many were madefinners ; fo by the obedience of one fiould many be made righteous *.
* Roman*, chap. v. 19,
How
88 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.
How agreeable this fuccinct. account of Man's Fall and Resto- ration is, to what the beft and mod received philofophy teacheth us both of God and Man, fhall be couiidered at large in a fitter place *.
This future Redemption of the world had been promifed, even from the time of the Fall, to the holy men of old, in terms more or lefs obfcure, as beft fitted the difpenfation under which the prediction was delivered. The Chofen People had a more defined image of it in their typical redemption from the flavery of Egypt, and their admiflion to the temporal bleflings of the land of Canaan. It was ftill more circumftantially figured in their public ritual, through the miniftration of expiatory facrifices, performed with many ceremonies plainly defcriptive of the great facrifice on the Crofs, for the fpirkual Redemption of mankind.
This people, then, muft hear with conviction, and, as many of them as were unprejudiced, muft confefs with pleafure, that Jefus Chriji, by being made unto us Redemption, was the true com- pletion of the Law and the Prophets.
Nor was this bleffing of Redemption without a fecondary refer- ence to the ftate and condition of the Gentiles ; whofe Religion was not merely ineffectual, like the Jewifh, to redeem them from the chains of death and fin, but fuch as had brought them under the more difgraceful bondage of fubjection to the Devil, thofe wicked fpirits, whom they worfhipped and adored as their patron Gods.
This was the condition both of Jews and Gentiles, when the Mefliah came to fet men free. And here let it be obferved, in ho- nour of thofe two Characleriftic miracles, the raifing the dead, and the cajling out devils, that the one elegantly defigned his office of redeeming the Jews from the power of the grave, and the other his office of freeing the Gentiles from the tyranny of Demons. The beauty in this difpofition of the ceconomy was too ftriking to be paffed over in filence : Othenvife, I think, even this moderated
* Divine Legation, Book IX.
ufe,
Sermt. V. the Char after and Office of the Messiah. 89
life, of fpiritualizing the miracles, mould be forborn ; as fanciful and precarious. We can conceive no otherwife of the miracles of a divine Perfon coming from God, let the peculiar mode of his difpenfation be what it will, than that they fhould be objective to the corporal infirmities of men. Now between thefe and their fpiritual diforders, there is, by their common qualities of want and diftrefs, fo much fimilitude and fo natural an analogy, as affords no ground of reafonable fuppofition, that one was a deiigned or pro- phetic reprefentation of the other.
Thus have I endeavoured to fhew, which was the main purpofe of this difcourfe, That fefus is made unto us, Sanclification and Re- demption, in as true and real a fenfe as he is our Wifiom and Righ- teoufnefs. Nor is this a matter of fmall moment. The teaching Wifdom and Righteoufnefs made his miflion expedient : but the beftowing Sanclification and Redemption made it necessary.
To inftruct the world in the knowledge of one God, and in the practice of moral virtue, was, without doubt, putting us into the road of the divine favour ; and making our attainment of the fu- preme good more eafy and expeditious. But God, whofe mercies are over all/ his works, and who, in this very revelation, hath in- formed us, that from thofe to whom little is given, much will not be required *, would have received his miferable creatures to his mercy, in what condition foever he had fuffered them to remain, if fo be they had taken care to make the beft ufe of the little that was afforded them.
But Sanclification and Redemption do more than fhew us into the road of God's favour: They reftore us to the free privilege of Lifk and Immortality ; which man having forfeited, by a breach of the condition on which it was bellowed, had no pretence to re- claim; fo that whenever it was reftored, it might be given on fuch conditions as the alt-gracious Donor fhould think fit to impofe. It is reftored : and the conditions are Faith in, and Obedience to,
* Luke xii. 48.
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a crucified Saviour ; who, by this facrifice of himfelf, became the Sandiification and Redemption of mankind. The confequence is, that thefe are not only ufeful and expedient for procuring God's favour, but abfolutely necejfary for our recovery of life and immor- tality.
This is placing Christianity on its proper bafis, a foundation of real ftrength and folidity.
But when the prefumption of men tempts them to disjoin what God hath put together, not only the benefits of that union are loft, but other various, and unthought-of evils arife, which fubject the religious oeconomy, thus abufed, to every kind of injury ; dis- honouring the Author of our Faith ; and expofing the Chriftian profeflion to perpetual infults.
This was never more unhappily verified than in the cafe be- fore us.
i. For he who confiders Jefus only in the light of a Republifher of the Law of nature, can hardly entertain a higher opinion of the Saviour of the world than fome have done of Socrates, whom Erafmus efteemed an object of devotion, and many a good Protef- tant hath thought to be divinely infpired. For was not Socrates, by his preaching up moral virtue, and by his dying to bear witnefs to the unity of the God, made, to the Grecian people, and (by means of their extended commerce of politenefs) to the reft of mankind, ivifdom and Righteoufnefs ? And what more did Jefus ? for, according to the principles of this paganized Chris- tianity, his titles of Messiah and Redeemer are reduced to mere figurative and accommodated terms. But thefe bold extremes men ran into through their ignorance of the nature of thofe prophe- cies which foretel his advent; and the abfurdity of thofe fyftems, which pretend to explain his office.
2. As this Theology degrades Jefus to the low condition of a Grecian Sophift ; fo it renders his Religion obnoxious to the infults of every daring Impoftor.
He
Serm. V. The Character and Office of the Messiah. 91
He was fent, fay thefe new Doctors of the Church, to teach mankind the worfhip of the true God, and the practice of moral righteoufnefs *.
" This will be readily allowed, replies an underftanding Maho- metan f : And on this very principle, we hold, that when Jefus had done his office, and mankind had again relapfed, into anti- chrijlian Idolatry and Polytheifm, as before into Pagan, God fent our prophet, who worked the like fudden and fenfible reforma- tion in the north-east, that your Prophet did in the north- west."
What reply now will our rational Divine make to this apology for Ismaelism ?
All he has to fay is, " That Jefus and his Apoftles have every where intimated, that his Gofpel is the laft of God's dif- penfations ; on the terms of which our final doom is irrevocably to be decided : fo that all future pretenders to the like office and character muff needs be efteemed impoftors."
But here a Deist would come in, and take advantage of our dif- trefs ; for it is to be obferved alike of all thefe fhifting defences of fanciful, and unfcriptural fyftems, that they only fupply new arms
* A celebrated Frenchman, who writes on all fubje&s indifferently, and perhaps, knew better what he was about than thefe Divines, goes frill further, and affirms, That Chriftianity is not only no more than the Religion of nature perfected, but that;'/ could not pojfibly be any more. — " Notre Religion revelee n'eft meme, et ne M pouvoit etre, que cette Loi naturelle perfectionnce." Dtfcoursfur It Theifmc, par M. de Voltaire.
+ The Alcoran teaches, that Jefus did not fuffcr on the crofs. Yet Mahomet de- nied our Saviour's Divinity. Why then fuch averfion to the pajfwn P Evidently for this reafon, the doctrine of redemption followed; and that compleated the fc heme of revelation, and (as wc (hall fte) fliut out the Impoftor's pretences. M. Otter, a very intelligent traveller, of the Academy Royal of Infcriptions, tells us of a conference he had with a learned Perfian. The Mahometan faid, they reverenced all our facred writ- ings, except St. Paul's — quih re/pcilent tous, exceptc Saint Paul. [Voi ige en Turque et en Perfe, vol. i. p. 22.] Why was this exception? On the fame principle: becaufe St. Paul is full of the doctrine of Redemption ; explains the Chriftian fyflem by it; and makes the whole Faith depend upon it.
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to the various adverfaries of our faith ; A Deift, I fay, would be ready to reply, " That it is indeed true that Jefus hath declared his own Miflion to be the last : but that this is the artful expedient of every pretended Meffenger from Heaven, in order to perpetuate his own fcheme, and to obviate the danger of an antiquated au- thority. The Impoftor, Mahomet himfelf, hath done the fame. He, who here obtrudes his armed pretentions upon us, hath fecured the duration of his fenfual Religion by the very fame contrivance : A thing, in his ideas, fo much of courfe, that he did not even objecl: to Jefus's ufe of it, who had employed it be- fore him ; and for no other purpofe than to cut off his, and all following pretentions to the like character. On the contrary, he avowed and maintained the general truth of the Nazarite's com- mifiion. Now (purfues the Deift) a method employed by a con- ferred impoftor is taken up with an ill grace by the defender of true religion. But I draw a further confequence (fays he) againft the Gofpel, from this reprefentation of Chriftianity. For if the preach- ing of moral truth and righteoufnefs were the whole of Jefus's character and office, then his miflion did not anfwer its purpofe, the lafting reformation of mankind, in the knowledge of God, and in the practice of virtue : lince the world foon fell back again into the flate from which Jefus had delivered it ; as appears from the hif- tory of the times in which Mahomet appeared, and the advantages he made of that degeneracy."
Thus fubjected to the infults and injuries of every kind of im- poftors, who fet upon deluding the credulous, either by invent- ing new Revelations or by decrying the old, do thefe Republishers expofe the holy faith of Jefus : That faith which, we are told, was founded on a rock, impregnable to the aflaults of men and demons ; to the fophifms of infidelity, and the preftiges of impofture ! And fo, indeed, it is, if we will take it as we find it ; if we will receive it as it came from above ; if we will preferve it pure and entire as it was delivered to the Saints, the redemption
of
Serm. V. The Char after and Office of the Messiah. 95
OF THE WORLD, BY THE SON OF GoD, IN THE VOLUNTARY SA- CRIFICE OF HIMSELF UPON THE CROSS.
This fecures * the character of Jefus from the infults of falfe pretenders ; and his Gofpel from the injuries of falfe reafoners.
For, firft of all, if Jefus did, indeed, redeem mankind, and reftore them to their loft inheritance, the fcheme and progress of re- velation is compleated : which beginning at the lapse, naturally and neceflarily ends in the reftoration and recovery of life and i im- mortality by the death and paflion of our Lord. Christianity considered in this view (and in this view only Scripture gives it us to confider) foon detects all the artful pretences of im- pofture ; and fecures its own honour by virtue of its very effence : the great fcene of providence being now clofed, in a full comple- tion of its one, regular, entire, and eternal purpofe.
Secondly, if. Jefus indeed redeemed mankind, then did he nei- ther preach nor die in vain : it not being in man's power, with all his malice and perverfenefs, to defeat or make void the great purpofe of his Coming. For though one part of his Mimon was to inftruct. the world in Wifdom and Righteoufnejs, which it was in man's power to forget and neglect. ; yet, what is chiefly effential in his character, and peculiar in his office, the Sanftijication and Redemption of the world, man could not fruftrate nor render ineffectual : For it is not in his power to make that to be undone which is once done and perfected.
The faftidious Caviller therefore hath employed his pains to very little purpofe in attempting to difcredit Revelation from this topic. His laboured difcourfes on the moral ftate of the world, before and fince the coming of Chrift, are quite befide the queftion. For, though, where the comparifon is fully and impartially ftated, I will venture to fay, the advantage will be found to lie on the fide of our Religion : yet fuppofing the truths preached by Jefus, and
* See Div. Leg. Book IX. where the conformity of this Doctrine to right reafon and the nature of things is evinced at large,
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the affiftance given by the Holy Spirit, have not much improved the oeneral morals of mankind ; How does this tend to the difcre- dit of the Gofpel ? unlefs the Gofpel can be proved to have no natu- ral tendency to make men better ? But this is fo defperate an un- dertaking, that, I believe, infidelity will hardly be perfuaded to encraoe in it. Indeed the contrary is fo true, that, as I have (hewn elfewhere, when you lay together the ftate of Pagan and Christian virtue, one manifeft and effential difference is found between them ; which is this, That in the Gentile world, men often a&ed wrong upon principle; in the Chriftian always against principle *. Now, not to infift upon the neceflary re- ftraint this muft be upon vice; it plainly demonftrates the natu- ral tendency of the Gofpel- truths to make men virtuous, and, to inforce them with a ftronger impulfe, did not fuit the ge- nius of a rational religion, whofe objects was free agency.
But the proper anfwer to this idle cavil is taken, as we fay, from the topic before us. Inftruction of the world in Wijdom and Rlgh- ieoufnefs was but the fecondary end of Chrift's miflion. The firft and primary, was to become its fane? ifc at ion and redemption ; the one muft needs be common to every revelation coming from God ; the other is peculiar to the chriftian : and this, as we have (hewn, cannot pofTibly be fruftrated, or rendered ineffeclual.
To conclude from all that hath been faid : As we mould not affect. to pry into the nature of thofe things which God hath been pleafed to withhold from our fearch, and to cover with the facred veil of Myftery ; fo neither mould we reject, a Truth, exprefly deliver- ed, becaufe we may not fully comprehend all the reafons on which it (rands. In a word, as we (hould not venture to go on where the fileuce of Scripture directs us to (lop ; fo neither mould we prefume to flop where, with fo loud a voice, it commands us to go on.
Men have been made fufficiently fenfible of the mifchiefs at- tending the -firft of thefe indifcretions, the being wife above what
* Div. Leg. Book iv. § 2.
is
Serm. V. The Character and Office of The Messiah. 95
is written: I have here endeavoured to fhew, that the other, the being wife against what is written, is not attended with fewer inconveniencies. What then remains but to chufe the middle way, the way to become wife unto fahation ; and, neither, in practice or fpeculation, to add to, nor to diminish from, the word of God ?
Let us therefore religioufly adhere to the do&rine of my text in its juft extent, That Jefus Chriji, of God, is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification and redemp- tion.
SER-
[ 9* ]
SERMON VI.
THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MESSENGERS OF THE GOSPEL.
MATTH. x. ver. 16.
Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as
DOVES.
SUCH was the direction given by our bleffed Lord to his Dif- ciples, when he fent them out to preach the glad tidings of the
Go/pel.
The Character of the Chriftian Miflion is denoted in thefe words, Behold J. fend you forth asjheep : — And the Condition of an unbelieving World in the following, I fend you in the midjl of wolves. Though the Faith was to be propagated only by the mild meafures of perfuafion, yet even this would provoke the wolf/h difpofition of the powers of darknefs, to put in ure all the iniquitous contri- vance of fraud and violence for its fuppreflion.
Their
Serm. VI. 'the Character, &c. of the Mejengers of the Go/pel. 97
Their provident Matter, therefore, in the concluding words of my text, delivers them a rule for the innocence and prudence of their own conduit. Be ye therefore ivife as ferpents, and harmlefs as doves. A direction equally reflecting their private and their pub- lic Character. Whereby, the firft might correfpond with the dignity of their office ; and the other, with the objects of their care. So that, as men, the human virtues j as miffionaries, the social are recommended to their practice : and both, under the familiar images of the ferpent's vvifdom, and the innocence of the dove.
What thefe human virtues are, the allufion in the figurative ex- pression will dilcover : What the facial, mutt be determined by the occation of the precept. %
Be ye therefore (fays the blefied Jefus) wife ai ferpents and 'harmlefs as doves. A direction, conveyed in two proverbial payings, whofe import the Difciples perfectly underttood.
The firtt alludes to a vulgar fuperftition of the ancient world, which gave credit to certain artifts, who pretended to the power of rendering ferpents innoxious by the force of charms, and incanta- tions. The men who traded in this impofture, in order to hide their frequent mifcarriages, made the people believe that fome of thefe ferpents had gotten a trick as good as their own ; which was to Jhut their ears to their inciiantments. This counterplot was as readily believed, as the other's magic power, in an age, when every thing was well received, which excited the hearer's admiration. Hence the proverb of the deaf adder that jtobpeth her ears ; which.re- fufeth to hear the voice of the charmer, c'larm he never fo fweetly : by which, Moralifts would infer the wifdom and fafety of abttaining from unlawful pleafures.
The lecond, of being harmlefs as doves, alludes to as ancient and as fanciful an error of the Naturalitts, that the dove is without a gall ; or, at leatt, bears it not within *.
* "A»J{* fti ij£ov1» X0?1''v «^W$"«5) <*** »P £7!fa Htxpixitot » ftjevljc [Atyvarlioi mifir^i' £,<•>„ ygxtpSeit, i'^,tf<ra» t* otti&ios 058*. h ixitmi; ya.% tw x0^' 'X,tm Horapolliiiis Hierogl. 1. ii. c. 48.
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The whole of this monition therefore, to the difciples in their private character, implies, That they mould learn to abftain from all unlawful, unmanly and intemperate pleafures ; and to fupprefs in themfelves all the fentiments of rage, anger, and revenge. The ferpent's wifdom being directed againft the concupiscible paflions, as the dove's innocence is againft the irascible : and both to- gether make one general precept for the fubjedtion of our brutal nature to the rational : in which confifts the exercife of the human virtues.
Could any thing be more harmlefs than this method of propa- gating religion ? Could any thing be more holy than the manners of its propagators ? What regard to the rights of men, to the Laws of fociety, was enjoined to the Offerers of the Gofpel ! What neglect of the interefts of flefh and blood was required of the Receivers of it ! Truth was the lafting foundation on which Jefus erefted his Church : and Virtue the living principle which was to actuate its members.
Indeed the purity of his intentions and the rectitude of his mea- fures are fo evident from the evangelic hiftory of his life and death, that the moft ftubborn infidel is ready to clear him of frau- dulent impofture, and to centre all his fufpicions in a well-meaning Enthusiasm.
This is the laft miferable refuge of obftinate impiety. And the order of the difcourfe, which now brings us to confider the precept of the text, as it refpects the meflengers of Jefus in their public capacity, will enable us to expofe it in all its nakednefs>
Be ye therefore wife as ferments, and harmlefs as doves. Where- fore ? becaufe they were fent forth as Jhcep in the midf of wolves ; that is, unarmed and defencelefs amidft the powers of the Prince of this world. The virtues, recommended to them under their public capacity, were, we fee, objective to thefe powers ; and therefore, of the focial kind ; and confifted in prudence and juftice ; as the other, recommended to them in their private capacity, and objec- tive to themfelves, were of the human ; and confifted in temperance
and
Serm. VI. The Character, &c. of the Mejfengen of the Gofpel. 99
and forbearance. And here let me obferve, in honour of God's word (which mould be the principal end of all difcourfes from this place), the mutual connexion and reciprocal influence, which the two parts have on one another. The human virtues were to re- commend their Mission ; and the focial, to recommend their Per- sons. But to proceed.
If Jefus had been an Enthufiaft, there was no time when the fanatic ipirit would fo forcibly have broken out as at this juncture ; the critical juncture of fending his difciples abroad to convert the world. An Enthufiaft, poflefled with the high glory of propagat- ing and eftablilhing a new religion, to arife and be denominated from himfelf, would have his fpiritual paflions kindled and inflamed to their utmoft bearing, at that important moment of commencing his enterprife.
But the words of Jefus upon this occafion befpeak their Author to be perfectly cool, and collected within himfelf. Behold, I fend you as Jheep in the inidf of wolves.
Let us reflect upon them with attention. Though I am not alto- gether of opinion with thole who coniider the premonition (to which the words of my text allude) fo frequently repeated by Jefus to his followers, of the various perlecution that awaited the profefiion of his Gofpel, as the cleareft evidence of his prophetic ipirit : be- caufe I think a common oblerver of the ftate and genius of the then prevailing iu perflations might eafily forefee what would be the early fate of a Religion fupported by no other powers than thofe of Reafon and Grace, when it openly oppofed its truth and purity to a world funk deep in error and corruption. Yet fo far muff, always be con felled, that this ferious attention to the event would not have made part of the Character of a heated and inflamed En- thufiaft. When we find, therefore, the founder of our holy religion calmly attentive to the reception his Doctrine was likely to meet with from the People, and provident of the treatment his Ser- vants were fure to receive from the Magiftrate, we muft needs conclude that he then poflefled himfelf in that dignity of repofe,
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under a comprehenfive view of his fcheme which became a great Prophet, fuperior to all the infirmities as well as chances of hu- manity.
But his provifion for his faithful fervants did not flop at the fa- lutary warning here given unto them. When he had hinted at the treatment of the world towards them, Behold I fend you forth asfieep in the midfi of wolves, he directs what mould'; be their con- dud to the world; Be ye, therefore, wife asferper.ts, and harmlefs as doves. A diredion which none under the influence of a fanatic fpirit would be either forward to give, or fond to fee obierved. For religious Enthufiafm, as we know by fad experience, places its chief glory in defpiiing human prudence, and in violating and tram- pling upon human peace.
Its two great ftates or ftages are the Sufferings and the Tri- umphs of its deluded Inftruments. And, in both, this hot and firey fpirit fatally hurries them into the moft mjfchievous extremes.
At the new birth of a vifionary Sett, which is generally the fuf- ferin°- ftate of Enthufiafm, thofe under its influence are apt to give great advantages to their oppofers, and to bring as great difcredit on themfelves. And all for want of this wifdom of the ferpent ; for want of ufing thefe means of human prudence which both rea- fon and nature urge and dictate to us, for the fupport of our opi- nions, and for the prefervation of our perfons.
The method Enthufiafm chufes to employ in propagating its te- nets is the reverfe to this wifdom of the ferpent ; as we may fee by comparing the practice of modern Enthufiafts with that of the great Apoftle of the Gentiles ; who had formed his conduct on this monition of his Matter. He became all things to men, that he might gain fome * : They comply in nothing, through a vifionary fervour to gain all. St. Paul, with this allegoric picture of wifdom before his eyes, was polite, artful, and infinuating ; always on the watch to take honeft advantages of every principle, and practice
* i Cor. ix. 23.
Of
Serm. VI. The Character y&c. of the Mongers of the Gofpel. 101
of his adverfaries ; in order the more effectually to recommend the Gofpel of Jefus to their favour *. The Fanatic is ftubborn, rude, pofitive, and overbearing. So far from being difpofed to turn the beft fide of his adverfaries' wrong opinions forward, the better to fet off his own, that he' is ever prompt to mifreprefent their right ones : and abhors the temptation of fuffering you to be of his Faith ; unlefs you exprefs it in his own words, and allow him all his confequences. And miftaking the precept of being at enmity •with the world for an averfion to men as well as principles, he helps forward an unjuft perfecution from the public, when he mould be reconciling particulars to his pretended million.
Nor is his conduct lefs extravagant now it concerns the care of his perfon, than before, in the recommendation of his opinions. Part of the iv if dom of the ferpent confifts, as Jefus elfewhere ex- plains it, in prudently evading the fury of our enemies ; fo that when they perfecute us in one city, we may fly to another + ; a point of prudence, which St. Paul, on many occafions, as tempe- rately as fuccefs fully put in practice \. And when the fame pru- dence directed him to withftand the Magifixate's Fafces, it was not as a Teacher of truth, but as a Citizen of Rome §. But neither precept nor example is fufficient to moderate the fervors of fanatic zeal. So that having ftirred up the people to mifchief, and pro- voked the magiftrate to injuftice, he clofeth the fceiie, without either the Confeffor's merit, or his Matter's pafiport, in ru filing with prefumptuous confidence on the flames.
This then being the native hue and complexion of powerlefs Enthufiafm, Is it poflible to believe, that He who, in the direction of being wife as ferpents, difcredited and condemned all this ex- travagance of conduct, could himfelf be an impotent Enthuliaft ?
But let us next fee the vifage Enthufiafm puts on when it is now become triumphant, and has gotten the People in its train. If,
* Afts xvii. f Matt. x. 23.
X Afts ix. 25. xiv. 6. xvii. 10. xxiii. 17. xxv. II. § Adts xvi. 37. xxii. 25.
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in its fuffering ftate, it haply wore the face of patience and for- bearance, it now (hews, by the fudden change of countenance, that it efteemed them the virtues rather of the time than of the perfon. For when Power hath changed hands, and the magistrate is come over to its fide, it is ever ready to turn the fame authority againft others which had been fo abufively employed againft itfelf. And if haply it contents itfelf to ftay the flower iflue of the more artful and clandeffiue methods of difcouragement and wholefome feverities, yet if thefe do not fucceed againft differing opinions, it falls with the quicker appetite on the more direct and open meafures of violence and oppreffion.
Now the unbeliever will be forced to own, that Jefus, with only the common provifion which a great genius can never be without, might fairly forefee, that a Religion fo pure, fo reafonable, fo ufe- ful to mankind, againft which there was nothing to oppofe but the abfurdities and mifchiefs of Paganifm, muft, by the ufe of common prudence in the propagation of it, notwithstanding the op- pofition which was as eafily forefeen, at length become fuperior and triumphant. So that an Enthuiiaft, who had left inftructions how his Minifters fhould aft when that time came, would naturally direct them to exert all their zeal ; to demolifh the high places, to cut down the groves, to flay the falfe prophets with the fvvord, and to eftablifh a perfect uniformity. For there is nothing in which the fanatic fpirit fo delights to riot as in the abufiVe application of the rules and principles of one of God's difpenfations to another, though of a genius directly oppofite.
On the other hand, our ever-blefled Mafler, who not only fore- fa w, but predicted the progrefs and fuperiority of his Gofpel, re- ftrains his minifters from all ambitious politics, and unjuft violence, in the lingle precept of being harmlefs as doves. For while they ob- ferved this rule, and preferved this character, they could never aim at ufurping on the State, or tyrannizing in the Church : But would leave the Magiftrate his fword ; would leave the People their confcience ; and be content to remit the religious fate of Kingdoms
to
SerM. VI. The Character , tic. of the Mejfengers of the Gofpel. 103
to the wife providence of God ; who in his own good time will bring all men to the knowledge of his Truth.
Thus hath the holy Founder of our Faith digged up, by the very roots, the whole fyftem of Impofture. He has qielled the wildnefs of the Fanatic in the command to be wife as Jerpcnts ; he hath checked the ambition of the Enthufiaft in the command to be harmlefs as doves : fo that the unbeliever muft either acquit him of thefe affections, or muft retract what he feemed fo willing to allow him, the greatnefs of his talents and abilities. For, if we will cre- dit thefe men, The great fupport of his Character was a well- directed enthufiafm : and yet he effectually contrived to damp its influence at that very crifis when an Enthufiaft would have let loofe his genius, and given it the utmoft force and moment.
It is feen, that in this account of a well-directed Enthufiafm, I have fuppofed it to confift of an equal mixture of Extravagance and Art : the firft betraying itfelf in the ftruggle, and the laft in its application of the fruits of victory. And whatever inconfiftence there may appear to be in this reprefentation, I apprehend the fault lies only in the contradictions of our corrupt nature.
It is commonly indeed fuppofed, that the more wild and extra- vagant a fanatic temper is, the more clear it muft needs be of all fraud and artifice : But Both reafon and experience are ready to fhew us our miftake.
Fanaticifm is a fire, which heats the mind indeed, but heats without purifying. It ftimulates and ferments all the paffions ; but it rectifies none of them : and thus leaving the appetites unfubdued ; pride, vanity, and ambition, infinuate themfelves into the impo- tent and difordered mind, under the difguife of purity, holinefs, and perfection. And while they are at work, Religion, which lent them thefe more honeft appellations, will be fo far from curb- ing the owner in the ufe of oblique means, that the ftrongeft in- fluence of fanaticifm will be naturally directed to pufh him upon them, as the beft inftruments for the ready introduction of what he calls the truth.
Nor
104 SERMONS AT LINCOLN'S INN.