1823-

THE
MORAL TENDENCY OF
DIVINE REVELATION
ASSERTED AND ILLUSTRATED,
IN
EIGHT DISCOURSES
PREACHED BEFORE THE
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD IN THE YEAR MDCCCXXl,
At the Lecture founded by
THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A.
CANON OF SALISBURY.

BY THE
REV. JOHN JONES, M. A.
OP JESUS COLLEGE,
ARCHDEACON OF MERIONETH, AND RECTOR OF LlANBEDR.

Kara, rov KalKvroaiTa vpSf AriON, kcu aim) "AITOI iv vaai\ ava-
a-rfdtyfi yevrfitfre. I Petr. i. 15.

OXFORD,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR.
SOLD BY J. PARKER, OXFORD j AND MESSRS. R-IVINGTON, ST.
PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE, LONDON.
1821.

"¦A pd so

TO
THE RIGHT REVEREND
AND REVEREND
THE VICE-CHANCELLOR AND
HEADS OF COLLEGES
IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
THESE LECTURES,
PREACHED BY THEIR APPOINTMENT,
ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED
BY THEIR
FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT
THE AUTHOR.

EXTRACT

FROM
THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
CANON OF SALISBURY.

 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates
" to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Uni-
" versity of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and
" singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to
" the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that
"is to say, I will and appoint that the Vice-Chancellor
" of the University of Oxford for the time being shall
" take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits there-
" of, and (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary de-
" ductions made) that he pay all the remainder to the
" endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be
" established for ever in the said University, and to be
" performed in the manner following :
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in
" Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the
" Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room ,
" adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours of
" ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach
" eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at
" St. Mary's in Oxford, between the commencement of
" the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third
" week in Act Term.
a3

vi EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON'S WILL.
" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity
" Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of the
" following Subjects — to confirm and establish the Chris-
" tian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics
" — upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures —
" upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fa-
" thers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive
" Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour
"- Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost —
" upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as compre-
" hended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Di-
" vinity Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within
" two months after they are preached, and one copy
" shall be given to the Chancellor of the University, and
" one copy to the Head of every College, and one copy
" to the Mayor of the city of Oxford,' and one copy to
" be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the expense of
" printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of the
" Land or Estates given for establishing the Divinity
" Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid,
" nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.
" Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be
" qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, un-
" less he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at
" least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cam-
" bridge ; and that the same person shall never preach
" the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

PREFACE.

THE following Discourses will be found
somewhat longer, as they come from the
press, than they were as delivered from the
pulpit. They now appear, with a few al
terations, as they were originally composed.
Whether in thus retaining what I had at
first written, I have judged wisely or not,
is freely submitted to the reader's deci
sion ; but to myself it appeared necessary
to the due illustration of my design.
In the present state of theological con
troversy, there are two opposite errors,
against which I would seriously warn the
young student to be upon his guard. The
first is, a disregard to the obligations of
morality, arising from an injudicious zeal
a 4

viii PREFACE.
to magnify the grace of the Gospel ; the se
cond is, an apparent lessening of the value
of that grace, by assigning too much weight
to human virtue in the attainment of sal
vation. And in order effectually to pre
vent both these errors, it seems necessary
to lay down the two following principles,
as axioms, to which the mind may always
recur in judging of the opinions which are
offered to its acceptance. First, that the
obligation of man to serve God in all the
duties of piety, righteousness, and sobriety,
is eternal and indispensable, bound upon
him at his creation by the law of his nature,
and not to be infringed or diminished at
any subsequent period of his existence :
secondly, that " eternal life is the gift of
" God through Jesus Christ," to which no
man has any claim of merit, and of which,
whoever becomes a partaker, owes his par
ticipation of so great a benefit solely to the
undeserved mercy of God electing him to

PREFACE. ix
so inestimable a blessing. When these two
principles have been well fixed in the mind,
they will, I conceive, tend greatly to pre
serve the young theologian from any mate
rial mistake in the disputes which now di
vide the Christian world, which indeed al
ways have divided it, and which, from their
importance, will in all probability continue
to disturb it, till we see in " the consum-
" mation of all things" the perfect justice
and consistency of all the Divine proceed
ings. I have on this occasion purposely ab
stained from the use of those names of dis
tinction, which are so much abused by all
parties among us, and which frequently
conceal an utter ignorance of the matters
in debate, and are too often mere terms of
mutual and uncharitable reproach. I would
beg leave indeed to recommend it as a very
useful help to correct thinking, that every

x PREFACE.
point of doctrine should be considered as
it is in itself; that it should not be called
by this name or the other; but being ac
curately stated, and clearly defined, that
it should be brought in its own precise
sense to the test of God's word, and re
ceived or rejected according to its agree
ment or disagreement with that infallible
standard. This would at least prevent all
rash censures, and the adoption of crude,
half-formed opinions. At present, I am
apprehensive, that much mischief is occa
sioned by the want of this particular inves
tigation. Young men, hearing frequently
the condemnation of certain opinions un
der a certain name, and carrying away per
haps little besides the name, think them
selves quite sure of the truth, provided they
keep at a sufficient distance from the errors
which the world in general has attached to
that name; while in fact of the opinions
themselves they know little, and must con-

PREFACE. xi
tinue to know little, till they have been
better instructed in the elements of theolo
gical learning, and more largely and deep
ly versed in that which is peculiarly the
study of divinity.
If, by the blessing of God, the ensuing
work should be so far of use, as to give any
candidate for the holy ministry, or any one
of my younger brethren, a more correct
view of the design and tendency of the sa
cred oracles, it will be an ample reward for
the time and pains I have bestowed upon
it, in circumstances not altogether suited
for such an undertaking : if not, it shall be
my earnest prayer to the Almighty, that
they may meet with a better guide of their
opinions, and be preserved by some better
means from falling into errors, too preva
lent not to be dangerous, and too danger
ous not to fill every friend of truth and vir
tue with alarm.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.
Preliminary remarks on Divine Revelation as the
only certain source of Religious Instruction. Design and
tendency of that instruction ; and the particulars stated,
in which that tendency is proposed to be illustrated.
Psalm lxxiv. 22.
Arise, O God, plead thine own cause : remember how the
foolish man reproacheth thee daily. Page 1.
SERMON II.
Right ideas of the nature of God essential to the pu
rity of Religion. God's nature essentially holy, and so
represented in Scripture, and the history of the Divine
proceedings therein contained. Levit. xix. 2.
Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel,
and say unto them, Ye shall be holy : for I the Lord
your God am holy. P. 43.
SERMON III.
Man created holy, and, as far as his place in the crea
tion required, perfect. His duty and his nature clearly
adapted to each other, and therefore a knowledge of the
one conducive to a better understanding of the other.

xiv CONTENTS.
Happiness and holiness inseparably united by Jhe origi
nal law of his creation. Gen. i. 27-
So God created man in his own image, in the image of
God created He him. 81.
SERMON IV.
Sin alone caused the misery of man : no appearance
in Scripture of any decree, which made the fall of man
necessary: the difficulty of conceiving the consistency
of Divine Prescience with the contingency of future
events attempted to be removed ; and the position, that
God is less offended by sin in some than others, refuted
and exposed. Isaiah lix. 2.
But your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He
will not hear. 125.
SERMON V-
No restoration to Divine favour without a restoration
to holiness: this proved by the express declarations
and provisions of Scripture, as well as by the example of
those who have been most distinguished by the appro
bation of God. Heb. xii. 14.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no
man shall see the Lord. 173,
SERMON VI.
Means supplied by Revelation for effecting the moral
improvement of man, ample; considered under four

CONTENTS. xv
heads ; first, instruction in words ; secondly, symbolical
institutions; thirdly, moral discipline; and fourthly, the
sanctifying influences of God's Holy Spirit.
Ephes. iv. 8—12.
When he ascended up on high, He led captivity captive,
and gave gifts unto men. ...... For the perfecting of
the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying
of the body of Christ. 227.
SERMON VII.
Objections, arising from the misconception of some
Gospel doctrines, stated. The doctrine of Salvation by
Faith considered, and proved to be in no degree repug
nant to the Moral Tendency of Revelation. Mistakes
in the statement of this doctrine rectified.
Heb. xi. 1.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi
dence of things not seen. 28J.
SERMON VIII.
Doctrine of Election : inquiry, whether it be a Scrip
ture-doctrine or not. Election to be understood in
two senses. Character of the doctrine as represented in
Scripture favourable to good morals : errors respecting
it stated and removed. 2 Tim. ii. 19.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his, and, Let
every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from
iniquity. 343.

SERMON I.

Psalm lxxiv. 22.

Arise, O God, plead thine own cause : remember
how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily.
J.HAT it has pleased Almighty God to
reveal his will to mankind, " at sundry
" times and in divers manners3," is a truth
clearly proved by the most direct evidence,
of which such a subject is capable. He
who denies this must, to be consistent with
himself, disbelieve every thing which is not
an immediate object of his senses. To him
the page of history is a blank. All the im
portant records of past ages, all the bright
examples of virtue which they exhibit, and
all the clear warnings against vice, which
they hold out in the various instances of its
punishment, are to him as if they were
a Heb. i. 1.

2 SERMON I.
not; they neither enlighten his understand
ing nor interest his affections. Nay, even
modern events, and the eminent characters
of the age in which he lives, are to him
equally lost. His ideas are alike confined
in space as in time. Rejecting, as he does,
credible testimony, the only evidence of
which past actions and remote occurrences
are capable, he is necessarily circumscribed
within the narrow sphere of his own unas
sisted observation ; he knows nothing, at
least in reason he should not profess to
know any thing, beyond that poor pittance
of information with which his own eyes
and ears and hands supply him ; and being
himself but the creature of a day, he must
inevitably perish in an unprofitable igno
rance, uninstructed by the wisdom of his
ancestors, and having no hope of benefit
ing his posterity. Useless alike to all his
kind, he sinks, unblessing and unblessed,
into the fathomless abyss of perdition.
Few indeed, if any, of those, who have
perversely withstood the evidence of reve
lation, have chosen to be thus consistent
with themselves; they have claimed a right,

SERMON I. 3
most unfairly, of acting in regard to reli
gion by a different set of principles'5 from
those which guide men in the ordinary
affairs of life ; and the gross inconsistency
of this conduct has proved, that their ob
jection to revealed religion was derived
from a source which had little connection
with the deficiency of its evidence. They
were "partial0" in their minds ; and while
they admitted upon slight grounds what
their inclination was not averse tod, they
would not allow any weight to the strong
est testimony, when brought in support of
what they had already looked upon with
an unfavourable eye. The same evidence
has been in one case received without hesi
tation, and in another, to which it was
equally applicable, rejected with inflexible
pertinacity. A strange perverseness this,
b Quas est igitur ista philosophia, quae communi more
in foro loquitur, in libellis suo? Cicero De Fin. lib. ii.
24. iv. 8.
c James ii. 4.
d Bishop Wilkins's Principles of Natural Religion,
p. 20, &c. Dr. Webster's Discourse on the Duty of
Preaching the whole Law, in Weekly Miscellany. But
ler's Analogy, p. ii. c. 6.
B 2

4 SERMON I.
surely, and a present proof, how much the
human mind has fallen from its original
uprightness and integrity ! For looking at
the subject independently of all testimony
in its favour, Divine Revelation seems to be
peculiarly entitled to a ready admission
into the mind of man, because nothing
seems more natural, than that God should
make some revelation of himself. Sup
posing that he is, and that he stands in the
relation of a Creator to mankind, it follows
as a necessary consequence of that relation,
that man derives from Him all the faculties
which he possesses, and owes Him all the
duty which by his nature he is capable of
performing. There can therefore be no
difficulty in conceiving, that He, who en
dued the soul and the body with every
sense and every power, should be able to
reveal his Will to the work of his own hands
in any way which to Him may appear best:
nor ought there to be any greater difficulty
in allowing, that what has appeared best
to Him must be best in itself. And as the
probability of a Revelation is thus easily
admissible in regard to God, so with re-

SERMON I. 5
spect to. man, there is, from his very na
ture and condition, a clear necessity for
some divine interference in his behalf. As
a creature, he is, no doubt, bound to per
form any duty which his Creator may re
quire of him. But how shall he know what
that duty is ? By a revelation of some sort,
most assuredly, though it should not im
mediately appear in what form or by what
instrument the necessary communications
have been made. For whether we sup
pose, that correct notions of duty were ori
ginally impressed upon the mind, and be
came manifest as the reasoning power ac
quired strength and maturity ; or acknow
ledge, what is much more probable, that
instruction in righteousness was imparted
immediately from heaven by the audible
voice of a Divine Teacher, it would be
equally Revelation, equally derived from
the Almighty Father of mankind, and a
direct manifestation of his Will by Himself.
If indeed man be considered as an inde
pendent being, if he have received nothing
from any higher power, and owe no duty
to any above him, we may readily grant,
b 3

6 SERMON I.
that as no revelation would be necessary,
so none would be rationally credible. But
that any, who acknowledge a God, and that
man is his creature, dependent upon Him
and bound to Him in every possible sense
and manner, should yet make a difficulty
of believing, that the Will, which he is form
ed to obey, has been revealed to him, is
indeed most unaccountable; such men
should end the climax of their folly in the
madness of Atheism. What the Will of God
is, can surely be known with certainty only
from God himself; and as in whatever way
it may please Him to make it known it
must be acknowledged to be a revelation,
this must necessarily remove all antecedent
objections on this subject, and leave any
particular form of revelation as capable of
being proved by suitable evidence, as any
other matter in which mankind are con
cerned. The question then in fairness does not
appear to be, whether God has or has not
revealed his Will to man ; it is evident that
He has, because there is seen an absolute
necessity that He should, and because there

SERMON I. 7
is no assignable reason why He should not:
but, amongst all the revelations which pre
tend to be derived from Him, which is in
truth entitled to the respect and obedience
due to a direct communication from the
Fountain, no less of Wisdom than of Pow
er. That there are many which lay claim
to this character is obvious ; rather indeed
is it matter of historical record, that all
forms of religion profess to found them
selves on the sanction of a supernatural au
thority. And why so? Because the au
thors of these different forms, though whol
ly unconnected with each other, yet con
spired to mock and delude those who con
fided in them ? No ; but because they
knew e, that the mind of man, either from
natural constitution, or from traditionary
instruction, admitted most readily the ne
cessity of God's interference in guiding his
creatures to the attainment of religious
truth. And, in fact, the very existence of
pretended revelations is a clear proof that
there must have been one that was true.
e Bishop Wilkins, p. 346. Dr. Rogers on the Ne
cessity of a Divine Revelation, Sermon i. p. 22.
B 4

8 SERMON I.
However humiliating it may be to human
ingenuity, and however common it is to
talk of human inventions, it is yet indis
putable, that man is not capable of in
venting* any thing of which there is not
some real prototype existing in nature. He
cannot form the most distant conception
of what a sixth sense would be; nor, had
he been endued with four only, could he
have had the least notion of the fifth. He
may now indeed exercise those faculties,
which by the help of a little self-flattery
may be called inventive, and he may join,
in forming the creatures of his fancy, the
five senses which he possesses into many
monstrous combinations, or by bestowing
them partially, present to his mind's eye
numerous objects with defective organs :
but he can do no more than copy what has
been laid before him ; however strange and
out of nature the whole may be, the parti
culars will be found mere imitations of
f I use the word inventing here not in its strict sense
of discovering what exists, but according to the more lax
idea, annexed to it in common conversation, for the
production of something which never existed before.

SERMON I. 9
what he has become acquainted with, by the
" hearing ear and the seeing eyes," which
his Maker has bestowed upon him. This
is the utmost stretch of human ingenuity ;
but to form an idea, which shall be per
fectly new in all its parts, as well as in its
complex character, is an effort beyond its
power. When therefore any idea is re
ceived by the mind of man, we may be
certain, that there is something in exist
ence answerable to that idea, not perhaps
taken as a whole, but as to the parts of
which it is composed. The combinations
themselves are often the most monstrous
and absurd that can be conceived, but the
particulars are mere copies from real na
ture. Thus nothing could be more vile or
unnatural than the representations of the
Deity, which were made in the times of
heathen ignorance, and which indeed must
be wholly referred to human depravity or
diabolical suggestion ; but the parts of this
impious combination had a real existence
in nature, or man could never have put
them together. Had there been no God,
s Prov. xx. 12.

10 SERMON I.
the idea of a God had never obtained in
the world h ; and what is more, even of the
reptile, by which he was so unworthily re-
fa Cud worth's Intellect. System, c. iv. p. 694. " But
" some Atheists will yet further reply, that there is a
"feigning power in the human soul, whereby it can
" frame ideas or conceptions of such things, as actually
" never were nor will be, as of a Centaur or of a golden
" mountain : and that by such a feigning power as this,
" the idea of God, though there be no such thing ex-
" isting, might be framed. And here we deny not, but
" that the human soul hath a power of confounding
" ideas and things together, which exist severally and
" apart in nature, but never were nor will be in that
" conjunction ; and this indeed is all the feigning power
" that it hath. For the mind cannot make any new co-
" gitation, which was not before, but only compound
" that which is. As the painter cannot feign colours,
" but must use such as exist in nature ; only he can va-
" riously compound them together, and by his pencil"
" draw the figures and lineaments of such things as no
" where are ; as he can add to the head and face of a
" man, the neck, shoulders, and body of a horse. In
" like manner that more subtle painter or limner, the
" mind and imagination of man, can frame compounded
" ideas of things which no where exist, but yet his
" single colours notwithstanding must be real; he can-
" not feign any cogitation which was not in nature, nor
" make a positive conception of that which is abso-
" lutely nothing, which were no less than to make no-
" thing to be something, or create something out of
" nothing."

SERMON I. 11
presented, man could have had no notion
by the mere exercise of his own ingenuity.
It is therefore most evidently clear, that
false religions and pretended revelations
prove the existence of a true religion, de
rived from a real revelation, because man
could never have invented either. He
could copy indeed, and unhappily he could
corrupt and pervert, but he could not in
vent; and had it never pleased God to re
veal Himself, no idea of a revelation would
ever have been formed by men. And this
should teach them, if they had any mo
desty or humility, not only to receive with
thankfulness those higher communications
of divine truth with which the word of God
abounds, but to read with reverence the
accounts of those instructions in things of
a more familiar nature, which may now
appear not so suitable to the Majesty of
the Omnipotent. If at any time we are
offended with these things, the cause of
offence is in ourselves, in our own pride
and ignorance. We have now enjoyed the
glorious light of the Gospel for so long a
time, we have been so long accustomed to

12 SERMON I.
the arts and refined conveniences of social
life, that we do not appreciate as we ought
the difficulty of their first introduction a-
mongst a race of degenerate beings. When
we read, that the Almighty made a cover
ing to hide the nakedness of his polluted
creature, we do not perhaps always feel the
value of this divine condescension. Judg
ing from the subsequent history of the hu
man race, we may fairly conclude, that
our unhappy parents, though at the time
not insensible of the disgrace they had in
curred, would soon have learned to acqui
esce in their debased condition, and to
" glory in their shame." Guilt made them
fear to face their Almighty Creator; but
habit would have made vice familiar, and
the restraints of modesty and conscience
would have lost their hold upon their
minds. Fallen from their high estate of
purity and perfection, they would most
probably, if left to themselves, have sunk
into a savage wildness, and herded with the
brutes that surrounded them. The mercy
of God alone preserved them from fur
ther degradation ; the mercy of God alone

SERMON I. 13
taught them to recover in some degree that
decency, which a sense of sin no longer
permitted them to preserve on the terms of
their original creation. It was indeed little
to be expected, that he, who in his first
strength of righteousness and perfection
could not withstand the allurement of sin,
should in his weakness and pollution invent
the means of his own recovery. Nor would
any one of his descendants ever have suc
ceeded any better. To improve upon an
idea of which we are already in possession,
and originally to strike out that idea, are
two very different things; and though it
should be granted, that some of the more
eminent among the children of Adam have
done something not altogether despicable
in the former, in the latter they have con
fessedly done nothing. In fact, nothing
was left them to do. Revelation has ever
been the sole source of truth ', while false
hood owes its being to the perversions and
the wanderings of human ingenuity. Not
only the sacred records of revelation itself,
' Octav. p. 52. Lactant. De Origine Erroris.

U SERMON I.
but profane history assures us of this ; the
march of all true knowledge" is traced with
clearness and certainty from those coun
tries which were properly the cradle of the
human race. Thence it was derived at first,
and thence was the renovation of it sought
when it had been lost or obscured by the
degeneracy of man. And this is a proof
that man was originally perfect ; because
the nearer he is traced to his original in
time and place, the more free he seems to
be from falsehood and from sin. Left to
himself, it is clear, that in his present con
dition he has a continual tendency to de
generate, and gradually to sink to a level
with " the beasts that perish1" both in
knowledge and practice. The further he
has been removed from the sources of com
munication with his Maker, the weaker
have been his impressions of right and
wrong, and the more gross his conceptions
k Josephus contra Apion. Dr. Cudworth's Intel
lectual System, p. 308. and particularly his account of
the Egyptian Learning, p. 311. See also Bryant's Pre
face to Observations on the Plagues of Egypt.
1 Psalm xlix. 12.

SERMON I. 15
of the Deity. Every succeeding generation
added something to the corruption of their
fathers, and diminished something from
the purity of their religious principles. It
was only by those manifestations of his
will, which the Almighty made from time
to time, and by which He recalled his crea
tures to their allegiance, when they had
rebelled against his authority, and wander
ed from his fold, that mankind were pre
vented from losing every trace of their ori
ginal uprightness. That he did thus fre
quently recall them, an attentive perusal
of the records of past ages will sufficiently
evince. The Scripture history marks with
great precision™ the several occasions on
m Prideaux's Connection, anno 277 and 63. See also
a Sermon on the Fulness of Time, by the Rev. W. Clea
ver. Amidst all the confusion and obscurity in which
theancient history of nations is involved, this however
is evident, that the Greeks, who became so famous for
learning, derived their first instructions in that learning
from foreign sources. The rudiments of knowledge
were imported from Egypt and Phoenicia into the
country, which afterwards affected to consider the rest
of mankind as barbarous, and thither did all those
travel in search of wisdom, who wished to attain any
profound acquaintance with the nature and origin of

16 SERMON I.
which our heavenly Father interfered to
check the progress of depravity, and to
things. At home they met with nothing that bore
the stamp of genuine antiquity. The assertion of Jo-
sephus against Apion is indisputable, and to an extent
beyond what he has stated : Ylavruiv Se veteran/) o-^eSot/ l<rn
•naq auTol; y Trsgi tou <ruyypa0Eiv Taj Joropiaj liripeXeta, t«
/xeWoi nap AiytHJTi'ojj re xa.) XaX^aioi; xa) <£>aivii;iv' lea yap
vvv ^ju-a; sxelvoig (rvyxaraXkysiv auro) SvjttovQsv bpoXoyoutriv
apyaunarrp re jcai jtiovi/xcoTaTijv £%siv 7% \MviW; t^v ¦jrapaSo-
eriv. Though when they did begin to cultivate literature
they excelled all that went before them among the phi
losophers of the heathens, yet, as they began late, so
was it evident that they had been indebted to masters
and instructors. The learned Dr. Cudworth has traced
the progress of philosophical opinion and historical re
cord among the Pagan literati with prodigious industry
and success, and the result of his researches clearly
proves, that knowledge had the same origin as the hu
man race itself. Orpheus, Thales, Pherecydes,"and Py
thagoras, were the great instructors of the heathen world
in theology and morals, and they had been themselves
instructed by those who went before them. It is pue
rile to consider these as the inventors of the truths
they taught, merely because Pagan history, confessedly
so novel and imperfect, cannot trace them higher.
What real truth they had, they derived from their better
taught forefathers; the mixture of error was the work
of later times. And the same is to be said of the E-
gyptian Thoth, or Hermes Trismegistus. He delivered,
amongst much rubbish of human error, much solid
truth, which had come down to him from those who
knew God, and the spiritual excellency of his nature :

SERMON I. 17
prevent a forgetfulness of Himself among
men j nor did He give up any part of them
but because they, who wrote of this eminent instructor,
could not penetrate the obscurity in which his history
was involved, it does not follow that he invented the
instructions ascribed to him : it might as well be sup
posed, on the same ground, that he was the father of
mankind. The real source of truth among the heathens
was tradition, handed down from father to son, and com
mencing after the flood with Noah, who was righteous
before God, and knew the attributes of his Maker ; the
real source of error was the grossness of the human
mind after its corruption, and its continual tendency to
clothe the object of its worship in flesh, and thus make
it subject to sense. On this ground, the mixture of
truth and error in the Pagan mythology is most plainly
accounted for; whereas any hypothesis, which would
assign the invention of truth to human ingenuity, after
it had been lost, is directly in the teeth of all the his
tory with which we are acquainted. As far as that his
tory goes, it traces the progress of knowledge accurate
ly, and when it stops, its silence ought not to be sup
plied by vague conjecture. When therefore the ancient
fathers prove, that the earliest and best philosophers
maintained the unity of the Godhead, and had worthy
ideas of His spirituality and omnipotence, their inten
tion is to show that the objection to Christianity as a
new religion was unfounded, that truth was before
error, and that nothing but human depravity had intro
duced confusion, disorder, and falsehood into that know
ledge which had been originally imparted to man. It
is indeed wonderful to think, how the idea of one Al
mighty God kept possession of men's minds even in
c

18 SERMON I.
"toa reprobate mindn," till it appeared
clearly, that " they did not like to retain
the midst of all their gross superstitions. Minucius
Felix and Lactantius assure us however that so it was.
" Eloquar quemadmodum sentio," says the former,
" magnitudinem Dei qui se putat nosse, minuit; qui
" non vult minuere, non novit : nee nomen Deo quse-
" ras. Deus nomen est : illic vocabulis opus est, cum
" per singulos propriis appellation um insignibus multi-
" tudo dirimenda est  Aufer additamenta nominum
" et perspicies ejus claritatem. Quid quod omnium de
" isto habeo consensum ? Audio vulgus, cum ad ccelum
" manus tendunt, nihil aliud quam Deum dicunt, et
" Deus magnus est, et Deus verus est, et si Deus dede-
" rit : vulgi iste naturalis sermo est, an Christiani con-
" fitentis oratio ? — Audio poetas quoque unum patrem
" divum atque hominum prsedicantes. — Recenseamus,
" si placet, disciplinam philosophorum, deprehendes
" eos, etsi sermonibus variis, ipsis tamen rebus in hanc
" unam coire et conspirare sententiam  Sit Thales
" Milesius omnium primus, qui primus omnium de cce-
" lestibus disputavit : idem Milesius Thales rerum ini-
" tium aquam dixit, Deum autem earn mentem quae ex
" aqua cuncta formaverit. Eho, altior et sublimior
" aquae et Spiritus ratio quam ut ab homine potuerit in-
" veniri ; a Deo traditum. Vides philosophi principalis
" nobiscum penitus opinionem consonare." It seems
extraordinary that this point should not have been more
attended to than it appears to have been ; for the occa
sions on which Almighty God interfered to spread or
to preserve a knowledge of himself in the world are very
observable. The call of Abraham was within such a
n Rom. i. 28.

SERMON I. 19
" Him in their knowledge." And reason
surely would teach us, that it must be so.
time after the flood as to ,be a powerful check to the
idolatry which could then be only commencing, and a
correction of such moral delinquencies as were begin
ning to be prevalent among men. That in his age there
was a knowledge and a fear of the One Supreme God,
of sufficient power to restrain the commission of sin, is
evident from his intercourse with the kings of Gerar
and Egypt; and the sojourning , of himself, his son Isaac,
and his grandson Jacob, with their descendants, in the
latter country, was admirably adapted to prevent that
knowledge and fear from being so soon lost. Egypt was
then probably more advanced in learning than any part
of the world, and it was to become afterwards the school
of learning to those, who to this day continue the mas
ters of mankind in human literature. It was then
surely a proof of Divine goodness and providence, that
his first interference after the deluge should be so ar
ranged as to make that country in a great measure the
theatre in which the instruments of that interference
had so long their abode, and on which were displayed
so many of the miracles which were necessary for its
support. Egypt, knowing Almighty God in the days
of Abraham, must have been wholly without excuse,
if, after the miraculous salvation of the country by Jo
seph, it had lost all knowledge of Him in the time of
Moses. And it is probable that it had riot ; for though
the heart of the King was hardened, yet many among
his subjects, and especially the priests, might have re
tained something of that better theology. But if it had,
the miracles of Moses were well calculated to impress
them with a holy awe, and to revive the memory of
C 2

20 SERMON I.
If man was originally made by God, it
must be no less true, that he was originally
taught by the same Divine Being. And
He who at first taught man, and endowed
him with the capacity of understanding
what he was taught, could alone restore
his knowledge, if at any time he should
have lost or corrupted it. Men of learning,
in their disquisitions on this subject, have
what they had so unworthily forgotten. But it was
not with Egypt alone that the Jewish nation had inter
course, nor was that country alone enlightened by its
prophets. All the great monarchies of the world were
brought in contact with the people of God ; and if they
would not learn their wisdom, it was not for want of
the means of being acquainted with it. The captivity
of Israel made the God of Israel known by several spe
cial edicts to the nations and languages that owned the
sway of the Assyrian and Persian kings. The meeting
of Alexander and the High Priest Jaddua is related at
large by Josephus, lib. xi. c. 8. Not long after this, a
Greek translation was made of the Old Testament at
Alexandria, and might have got into general use by the
resort of learned men to the court of Ptolemy Philadel-
phus. By the Romans the Jewish polity and religion
might have been thoroughly examined, had not their
pride made them contemn a people confined to so small
a territory ; though the reverse experienced by their ce
lebrated Pompey, after his sacrilegious entrance into
the Jewish Temple, might have taught them that the
God of the Jews was the Ruler of the world.

SERMON I. 21
sometimes appeared to forget, that man is
a creature, and a dependent creature ; and
have seemed to argue about his natural
powers, as if he had something of his own
which he had not received. But it re
quires, one would think, but little acute-
ness to discern, and little modesty to ac
knowledge, that a mere creature can only
be that which its Creator has been pleased
to make it; and experience too sadly
proves, that what man has of his own is
only vice and ignorance. Unrestrained by
law, and undisciplined by education, and
unenlightened by a revelation of his Maker's
Will, he would be carried away by his pas
sions, and fall an easy prey to the vilest
affections. When the heathen poets made
the first the golden age of the world, they
did well ; or rather, they retained with some
fidelity the tradition which informed them,
that man's original state was one of right
eousness, purity, and peace, and that hav
ing fallen from that state, he afterwards be
came continually worse, immersed in deeper
ignorance, and more entirely lost to every
better feeling of his nature.c 3

22 SERMON I.
If this then be a just account of the state
of man ; if he mustj as a creature, have ori
ginally derived all his knowledge in reli
gion and morals from thei instructions of
his Creator ; and if it plainly appears, as it
surely does, that the Almighty has all along
prevented his total depravity, and assisted
his recovery by frequent manifestations of
his Will ; it must doubtless be acknowledged
to be both his interest and his duty to at
tend to those manifestations^ and to endea
vour as much as in him lies, rightly to un
derstand and faithfully to follow their di
rections. For it is evident, in this view, that
the manifestation of the Divine Will is the
only sure guide to man, whereby he may
recover his lost uprightness, and be re
stored to his lost happiness. And it is
evident also, that the purpose of God in
making such a manifestation was thus to
guide him. To perform the Will of God
was his first duty as a creature ; and as the
performance of that duty was an indispens
able condition of his retaining the happi
ness with which he had been endowed, there
could not be a more important object to

SERMON I. 23
him than to know what that Will was, on
his obedience to which so much depended.
How to please Almighty God, was to man,
while he retained any thing like a due sense
of the relation in which he stood to his
Maker, the most concerning question that
could occupy his mind. And upon this
momentous question his Creator never left
him in doubt ; he afforded him from the
first the most satisfactory information as to
the conduct which would alone be accept
able in his sight. Man was, in the strict
est propriety of speech, " taught of God °,"
taught what he was to do in order to obey
the law of his Creator, and to secure his
own happiness. Had he strictly attended
to the instructions which he received, he
would have fulfilled his duty, and preserved
himself. The performance of his duty was
necessary to that preservation ; and the Al
mighty, by teaching him the one, had af
forded him the means of securing the
other. But the great point to be considered
is this; that when God condescended to
teach man, what He taught him was his
0 John vi. 45.
C 4

24 SERMON I.
duty, the rules which he was bound to ob
serve, and the precepts to which his obe
dience was necessary. To man indeed this
was the best knowledge, because if was the
best means of securing his happiness; and
God has especially commended it to his
attention by making it the great object of
his own gracious instructions. Divine Re
velation has ever had a moral tendency;
it has ever had for its object, either to re
tain man in his original uprightness, or to
recover him from the pollution he had con
tracted. It never was a mere communica
tion of speculative science, nor an arbitrary
imposition of useless precepts ; it had ever
a regard to practical duty, to form the
manners of man so as best to advance his
improvement in piety and virtue. This
point is capable of the clearest demonstra
tion by impartially examining that Revela
tion, which alone is supported by evidence,
and which alone is worthy of support, in
which God himself has condescended to
" plead his own cause," and to repel the
" reproaches of the foolish," the insinua
tions of the crafty, and the daring blasphe-

SERMON L 25
mies of shameless depravity. It is my pre
sent intention to enter upon that examina
tion, and to show, by an induction of parti
culars, that it was plainly the design of the
Almighty, in revealing his Will to man, to
teach him the way of righteousness, and to
direct him to walk therein, to deter him
from vice, and to show him how inconsist
ent it is, not only with the obedience due
to his Creator, but with his own nature,
with the perfection for which it was design
ed, and of which it was capable. This in
deed is so obvious, and the declarations to
this effect in sacred writ are so frequent
and so express, that it may seem perhaps
to require some apology for my presuming
so far upon the patience of my present
hearers, as to introduce before them a view
of this subject, the plainness and simplicity
of which, the least exercised in theological
studies must at once perceive and acknow
ledge. Would to God that such were in
deed the case ! would to God that there
were no occasion to insist, in the way of
controversy at least, upon the necessity of
obedience to the Divine Law, and to illus-

26 SERMON I.
trate the moral tendency of God's word !
But man continually bears the strongest
testimony to the account of his fall, by
corrupting and perverting every good with
Which the Divine Mercy has entrusted him.
It might appear no doubt an unreasonable
thing in speculation, to suppose, that any
man or set of men could so far mistake or
pervert the intentions of God, in his com
munications to the human race, as not to
confess, that they must be designed to cor
rect what is amiss, and to improve what is
right amongst them, and that no less in
moral practice than in matter of opinion.
The holiness of God, his immaculate pu
rity and perfect righteousness, might have
been a sufficient security, that nothing
coming from Him could do less than pro
mote the same holiness and purity and
righteousness amongst his creatures, as far
as they were capable of following the hea
venly pattern He should set before them.
Even had there been no express declara
tion in favour of these virtues, and no ex
press precept to enjoin them, still a Reve
lation from Him, who is infinite as well in

SERMON I. 27
truth and righteousness as in power, would
of necessity have been stamped with a cha
racter conformable to that of its Author.
But when it is considered, that every page
of that Revelation teems with attestations
to the indispensable necessity of virtue;
when it is plainly told us, that as essential
holiness is the perfection of God, so a de
rived holiness is the perfection of man ;
when in the history of our unhappy degra
dation we see clearly, that sin alone caused
a separation between man and his Maker,
and that there can be no restoration to His
favour without a restoration to holiness;
and when we meditate with due attention
upon the means, which have been supplied
both in the Law and the Gospel, for the
effecting of that restoration, it must appear
an extraordinary proof of human weakness
or wickedness, should a Revelation thus
circumstanced not be understood as impos
ing the strongest obligation to rectitude of
conduct in every possible respect. Yet so
it has been. Neither the flaming sword
set to guard the Tree of Life, nor the
burning terrors of Sinai, * nor the clear

28 SERMON I.
though mild declarations of the Preacher
on the Mount, have been able to secure the
revelations of Heaven from being made sub
servient to the errors and the vices of men.
Scarcely indeed is there any error or any
vice, which has not at one time or other
sought to sanction its enormity by some
unhappy perversion of revealed truth. Doc
trines have been taught, as contained in
the Book of God, completely at variance
with all moral obligation, and at once de
rogatory to His righteousness, and subver
sive of human virtue. This is attested by
the whole current of that history which
has informed us of the manner in which
man has received the instructions of his
Maker, and which in truth is frequently
nothing but an account of the various mis
representations to which the sacred Oracles
have been subjected since they were first
promulgated to the world. The ingenious
subtleties of philosophy, and the wild fic
tions of poetic fancy, were equally employ
ed in polluting that small stream of tradi
tionary instruction, which, had it run clear,
would have given men a correct, though a

SERMON I. 29
faint view of their origin and their duty.
But the philosophers and the poets of Pa
ganism may perhaps be excused, from the
difficulties by which they were surrounded ;
a greater guilt and a greater misery must
assuredly fall upon those, who have cor
rupted even the plainest testimonies of
God's written word. The scepticism of the
Sadducee, and the hypocrisy of the Phari
see, the uncleanness of the Nicolaitan, the
ungovernable anarchy of the early Ana
baptist, and the direct encouragement to
wickedness afforded by the principles of
the Antinomian, together with those ever
varying shades of error by which vice would
fain conceal some part of its deformity,
seek each of them to support itself by a
pretended regard to that word, which, in
its design and in its form, is most clearly
opposed to them all. But unhappy as this
is, it ought neither to surprise nor disturb
us. The cause is deeply seated in the hu
man heart, and in that corruption with
which it is so evidently tinctured. Man has
so much of his original uprightness remain
ing in him, that with Religion generally he

30 SERMON I.
feels himself inclined to close, as that which
is most congenial to the natural impressions
of his mind. Perhaps there is no man,
however little he may appear to respect
Religion in his conduct, who has not yet
some idea of it in his own mind, on which
he relies, as giving him a hope, faint indeed
and undefined, of ultimate reconciliation
with his Maker. A naked barefaced de
nial of all obligation to regard God in any
way or degree, is a pitch of depravity to
which the soul of man rarely attains, and
from which it is naturally abhorrent. But
though some sense of Religion be thus rea
dily entertained by the mind, it is no less
obvious, that it entertains as readily a host
of tumultuous passions and unruly appe
tites, which demand gratification without
control, and whose gratification is utterly
inconsistent with a real regard to religious
truth. What then is to be done? How
shall the mind, thus pressed on both sides
by duty and passion, preserve itself in tran
quillity, without positively renouncing the
one or the other? It might be supposed,
that with the express declarations of Scrip-

SERMON I. 31
ture against vice, and the strong feeling of
the mind itself in favour of Religion on the
one hand, and the violent cravings of pas
sion on the other, the soul must at once
resolve, either to give up the indulgence of
its appetites, or boldly deny the faith that
restrains them. The fact is quite the re
verse. Men in general will do neither; and
they have done neither from the time when
their first parent introduced sin into the
world by transgressing the commandment
of his God. They will neither part with
their Religion, nor restrain their appetites ;
but they will exert their best skill and abi
lity to make them agree, and, by every art
of sophistical ingenuity, pervert the prin
ciples of faith, and defile the very sources
of morality. Hence the various forms of
superstition and fanaticism ; hence the op
posing sects of heathen philosophers; hence
the subtle refinements of those " blind
" guides, who could strain at a gnat, and
" swallow a camel p:" hence the sceptical
doubts of Christians, who would gladly ex
cuse to themselves the sin they have a mind
P Matth. xxiii. 24.

32 SERMON I.
to commit, whilst they know that the plain
est declarations of the Law, and the clear
est doctrines of the Gospel, forbid it. Men
will have a religion ; it is natural to them
as creatures, and relieves that feeling of
dependence of which they cannot be insen
sible, and it is their only solace in distress :
but they will not restrain their passions ;
these must be gratified, while they have any
means of gratifying them, and nothing can
be admitted which would insist upon that
restraint as a necessary part of Religion.
It cannot therefore be surprising, if, under
such circumstances, we see the world over
spread with perversions of the truth. They
owe their origin to those efforts of the hu
man mind, by which it endeavours to dis
cover some method of hiding from itself
the visible contrariety between religion and
vice. It wishes for both ; and it exerts all
the energy and all the talent it possesses, to
make them compatible. Not that this is a
deliberate act, of which the mind is sensible
at the time : far otherwise : it labours as
much at first to deceive itself, and is as
unhappily successful in that deceit, as it

SERMON I. 33
can ever afterwards be in deceiving others.
The whole is the pitiable fruit of its cor
ruption; of that unhappy perversion, which
gave to the baser appetites of our nature
the mastery over the nobler faculties of our
souls. But however pitiable it may be,
and however necessary it is thus to trace
error to its source in a self-deceived mind,
it is altogether without excuse in those to
whom a Divine Revelation has been com
municated. Corruption cannot in any case
be admitted as a plea for vice ; much less,
when it sets itself in opposition to the de
clared Will of God, and perverts the very
means which have been appointed for the
cure of itself. But this is- the situation of
all, who have been called by the mercy of
God to the knowledge of the Gospel. In
that Gospel the Will of God has been re
vealed in such clear terms, " that he may
" run who reads q ;" and no one who reads
can doubt what it is that God would have
him *' do and believe to his soul's health1."
If indeed we wish to form a right judgment
of ourselves or pur duty, it is to the word
q Habbak. ii. 2. r Baptismal Service.
D

34 SERMON I.
of God we must have recourse. It alone
teaches us our true condition, and discloses
with infallible certainty the source of all
our errors and all our vices. And the end
for which it does so is not to upbraid us
with our infirmities, or to supply us with
an apology for our sins, but by discovering
the nature and the cause of our disease, to
apply to it that remedy which will most
effectually eradicate it from our souls, and
by restoring us to our original innocence,
reinstate us in our original happiness. That
this is really its design, will appear, I trust,
in the course of the following Lectures; a
design, which, if it can be illustrated in any
degree as it deserves, will so prove the
Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation, and
so enforce the necessity of obeying the pre
cepts as well as believing the doctrines of
the Gospel, as to leave no room to hope,
that a sound faith can ever be consistent
with vicious practice.
A right understanding of this matter is
of vast consequence to all. I presume not
to think that I can add any thing to the
conviction of those who have already ex-

SERMON I. 35
amined the subject with superior abilities
and better opportunities; but to the young
amongst us, and especially to those who,
like myself, may be destined to labour in
the humble but useful sphere of Parish
Priests, I may perhaps be permitted to
say from experience, that it is of incalcu
lable importance for them to form their
opinions on this great point with the nicest
discrimination, the most perfect impartial
ity, and the most patient accuracy of in
vestigation. Upon them and their future
exertions the welfare of Christ's Church
will, under God, mainly depend ; and in
order to promote that welfare in the most
effectual manner, it is necessary that they
should be not only circumspect in conduct,
but correct in opinion, and fortified with
such clear views of faith and doctrine, and
possessed with such sound principles of
moral duty and obligation, as may enable
them to resist the seductions, to repel the
attacks, and to detect the fallacies, by which
heresy endeavours to diffuse its poison
through the system of Religion, and to en
list in its cause the worst passions of the
d 2

36 SERMON I.
human heart. For they will in vain endea
vour to make a salutary impression . on
those who may be committed to their
charge, and who must in a great degree
look to them for the guidance of their opi
nions, and for instruction in their duties, un
less their own notions are formed with care,
and deeply impressed upon their minds.
If, indeed, it were an object becoming a
Minister of the Gospel, to lay himself out
merely to please men, and to gain the good
will of his hearers, it might not be so indis
pensable that he should be thoroughly in
structed in the Religion he is to teach. To
catch the applause of an untaught or an
ill-taught multitude, is neither very difficult
nor very worthy of ambition. And on no
subject is it more easy than on Religion.
Religion is an object of interest to every
unsophisticated mind, and its being so is a
proof of its truth. But in proportion to its
importance is its liability to perversion. It
is capable of being viewed in two lights;
both perfectly correct in themselves ; and,
when properly placed with respect to each
other, both jointly forming the basis of all

SERMON I. 37
the real virtue and real happiness that are
to be found amongst men : but when dis
united, or disarranged, leading often to as
great a portion of wickedness and misery.
And it is against this disarrangement that
the public teachers of Religion should be
upon their guard. They should be guided
in the course of their instructions by the
course of Revelation itself; they should
ever make " the Law the Schoolmaster,"
to prepare their people for " Christ8." That
this will not be the most popular method
of proceeding may be readily granted ; but
the Minister of the Gospel must seek for
truth, not popularity. To declare, indeed,
the glad tidings of salvation, to proclaim
mercy to sinners, and to represent the blood
of Jesus as an atonement for the worst
crimes of the most abandoned profligates,
is a task which may at once gratify the
feelings of the Preacher, and excite both
the admiration and gratitude of his hear
ers : but it may not always be safe either
for the one or the other. No man will ap-
s Galat. iii. 24.
D 3

38 SERMON I.
ply the consolations of Religion, with a
good conscience, to himself or others, who
has not weighed well its obligations. He
who would effectually lay hold of the pre
cious promises of the Gospel, must be first
duly instructed in the principles of moral
duty, and thoroughly convinced that he
is himself bound to adhere to them. It is
in this way that the instructions of Revela
tion have been arranged. The first lesson
it teaches us is our real condition as crea
tures, and the duty which results from that
condition. On our unhappy fall, indeed,
and to prevent the despair to which that fall
would of itself naturally lead, it pleased the
Almighty to make an intimation of mercy,
which gave a distant prospect of final re
storation to his favour ; but the complete
development of that mercy was reserved
to those times, which in Scripture are em
phatically called the "last*." The inter
mediate space was filled up with awful de
nunciations against wickedness, and awful
examples of its punishment ; that when the
' Isaiah ii. 2. Heb. i. 2.

SERMON I. 39
hour of mercy should arrive, the world, if
possible, might be prepared to receive it
with gratitude, but too well disciplined to
abuse it to licentiousness. It is thus alone
that the glad tidings of the Gospel can
now be proclaimed without danger. No
thing is more true, than " that Christ came
" to save sinners";" and nothing is more
obvious, than that this great truth is capa
ble of the most shocking abuse. The sin
ner, who would really be benefited by it,
must approach it with that due prepara
tion, which a right knowledge of God and
of himself can alone enable him to make.
He, who knows God and himself, will ac
knowledge without difficulty his obligation
to obey the Law of God ; and he will be
well aware, that from such obligation no
subsequent dispensation can ever release
him. As the creature of God, he must be
bound to obey His commands as long as
he continues in existence. When there
fore to such a person a prospect is opened
of obtaining pardon for his manifold trans
gressions through Jesus Christ, he will be
u 1 Tim. i. 15.
D 4

40 SERMON I.
in no danger of perverting that pardon to
unworthy purposes ; he will receive it with
gratitude, as a dispensation of unmerited
mercy, but he will not deceive himself with
an idea, that because it relieves him from
fear of vengeance for his past crimes, it
therefore gives him a licence for future ir
regularity. He knows that this is impos
sible ; he knows that he is under an indis
soluble bond to obey the Law of God ; and
that though the Almighty may forgive him
his sins, that forgiveness can never dimi
nish his obligation to obedience. Such a
man, while he heartily thanks God for his
mercy, will never abuse that mercy ; will
never think that it lets him loose from his
duty, or changes the relation in which he
stands to his Creator. And if the future
Pastor of the Church would preach the
truth in Jesus, without danger of leading
his people into error, it is thus that he must
prepare himself. He must be thoroughly
instructed in the whole system of Revela
tion; he must begin where that begins';
he must trace it in its course, arid mark
the steps by which the Divine dispensations

SERMON I. 41
have been advanced and developed; and
he must not apply that last healing unction
of God's goodness in Christ, till it can be
done without the infringement of sound
morals, and without diminishing the au
thority and obligation of the Law of God.

SERMON II.

Lev it. xix. 2.
Speak unto all the congregation of the children
of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy :
for I the Lord your God am holy.
AS the existence of a Supreme Being, the
Creator and Governor of the universe, is
the foundation of all Religion, so to the
purity of that Religion nothing is more in
dispensable, than that men should have just
and honourable conceptions of Him, whom
they acknowledge as their God. It is un
questionable, that men will serve God ac
cording to their ideas of his nature3; and
a Lactantius De Justitia, p. 358.. Nee est difficile do-
cere, cur Deorum cultores, boni et justi esse non pos-
sunt. Quomodo enim sanguine abstinebunt, qui colunt
cruentos deos, Martem et Bellonam ? quomodo aut pa-
rentibus parcent, qui expulsorem patris sui Jovem, aut
natis ex se infantibus, qui Saturnum ? quomodo pudici-

44 SERMON II.
it is vain to expect, that if those ideas are
either mean or impure, the Religion pro
duced by them should have any elevation
of sentiment or any holiness of practice.
For what is Religion ? Is it not that duty,
or the rule of that duty, which men are
bound to perform to Almighty God ? It is
therefore of the essence of Religion, that it
be offered to the Supreme Being in the
form which may be thought most accept
able to Him ; and that form will obviously
be thought most acceptable, which comes
nearest to men's ideas of his nature. This
is undeniable. It is indeed the rule which
tiam tuebuntur, qui colunt deam nudam et adulterant et
quasi apud deos prostitutarn ? quomodo se a rapinis et
fraudibus abstinebunt, qui Mercurii furta noverunt, do-
centis, non fraudis esse decipere sed astutiae? quomodo
libidines coercebunt, qui Jovem, Herculem, Liberum,
Apollinem, cseterosque venerantur, quorum adulteria et
stupra in mares et fceminas, non tantum doctis nota
sunt, sed exprimuntur etiam in theatris atque cantan-
tur, ut sint omnibus notiora? Possuntne inter haec ju-
sti esse homines, qui etiam si natura sint boni, ab ipsis
tamen Diis erudiantur ad injustitiam ? Ad placandum
enim Deum, quem colas, iis rebus opus est, quibus il
ium gaudere ac delectari scias. Sic fit, utvitam colen-
tium Deus pro qualitate nominis sui formet ; quoniam
religiosissimus est cultus imitari."

SERMON II. 45
guides men continually in their conduct
one towards another. If favour is to be
sought, or gratitude to be expressed, the
request and the expression will be so framed,
as to be most agreeable to him, to whom
they are to be presented. His bias will be
marked, and his partialities studied; and
from them it will be determined how he
can be most successfully approached. Man
is quite the same being in Religion as in
the common affairs of life; the object of
his attention is changed, but he is actuated
by the same motives, and guided by the
same reasoning. Religion does not eradi
cate his passions, or plant hi him other pas
sions than those which he naturally possess
es, but it restrains them within those bounds
beyond which they were not originally in
tended to pass, and directs them into that
channel in which they were originally in
tended to run : it does not endue him with
a reason different in kind from that which
belongs to his nature, but it enlightens and
purifies the faculties of his soul, and thus
makes him capable of better and larger
views. As therefore in seeking the favour

46 SERMON II.
of his fellow-creature, he will do so in
the manner which he conceives may be
most agreeable to him, so in seeking the
favour of God, he will act precisely upon
the same principles. He will approach the
Almighty with that offering of duty with
which he thinks such a Being will be best
pleased; and in petitioning for those bene
fits which he may hope to receive from
Him, he will take care so to frame his pe
tition, as to render it most likely to be well
received. But how shall he judge of this?
How can he form any opinion as to what
is likely to be acceptable to God ? Most
assuredly he will form his opinion on this
question, of Religion as he would on any
similar question in his common affairs ; he
will form it according to the ideas he en
tertains of the Being whom he is to ap
proach. Were he to address a fellow-crea
ture, we have seen, he would consider his
character, whether open and benevolent, or
dark and churlish; whether a friend to vir
tue and justice, or easily induced to over
look any instance of moral delinquency.
And thus will he judge of God also, and of

SERMON II. 47
the service by which He may be best pro
pitiated, according to the ideas he has con
ceived of his nature and attributes. If
those ideas are pure and elevated ; if they
represent the Almighty to his mind, as a
Being holy, just, and good, perfectly right
eous, and inflexible in truth, and with whom
no iniquity can find acceptance ; such ideas
eannot fail to produce a correspondent
effect upon the service that may be offer
ed; he who thinks thus of God must serve
Him, if he serve Him at all, in a manner
some way answerable to these ideas. No
man could be so lost to common sense* as
deliberately to offer an impure sacrifice to
Him, who according to his own opinion
was in his very nature essentially opposed
to impurity ; he could neither hope to ob
tain his future favour, nor acceptably to
express his own gratitude for past benefits,
by addressing Him in a manner which He
must necessarily abhor. But if, on the
other hand, different notions be entertained
of this Supreme Being; if He be repre
sented to the mind as subject to passion,
and delighting in what is mean and vile;

48 SERMON II.
if He be thought capricious and cruel, utir
just and deceitful, and not free even from
the baser appetites of men, what kind of
worship, and what kind of service, is likely
to be offered to such a Being ? Surely, as
is the God, so will be his rites, and such
will be his votaries. They who serve a
cruel God will serve him in a cruel man
ner; and it cannot be imagined, that any
one who thinks that the Supreme. Governor
of the world is not averse to injustice or
deceit, can have any real inducement to be
honest, or possess any sincere regard for
truth. Representing Him to his own mind
as Supreme in power alone, which He uses
for the more ample gratification of his
own passions, he will draw near to Him in
the way most likely to produce an imme
diate, though temporary, effect upon so
capricious a Being ; he will bend the knee
before him with all the meanness of abject
flattery, or sacrifice to his fancied rapacity
the most costly of his possessions ; he will
" give the fruit of his body for the sin of
" his soulb," though he can have little in-
b Micah vi. 7.

SERMON II. 49
ducement to give up the sin itself, while
he conceives that the God he worships is
not free from impurity.
Arid not only does reason assure us, that
so it must be, but the best authenticated his
tory informs us, that so it has been. When
the nations at large had in a great mea
sure lost the knowledge of the true God,
and had multiplied to themselves such
counterfeit deities as best accorded with
the degeneracy into which they had fallen, it
is well known, that such as were their gods,
such were also their worship and service.
Those inhuman rites, in which innocent
and tender infants were sacrificed to the
daemons of superstition; those detestable
mysteries, in which carnal pollution was
inculcated and practised as a ceremony of
religion0, show sufficiently to what a savage
barbarity, and to what shocking impurity,
Religion itself will degenerate, when the
object to which it is offered is miscon
ceived and misrepresented. The heathen
deities were men in every respect, except
that they were supposed to be endued with
c Minuc. Felic. Octavius, p. 62, &c.
E

50 SERMON II.
larger powers ; they delighted in festivities,
they ate, they drank, they slept, and were
a pattern to their votaries in every thing
but virtue. Heaven, as the seat of these
deities, seems to answer exactly to the pa
radise of Mahomet, the gods of idolatry
appearing to be what the followers of that
false prophet hope to arrive at. Supersti
tion, whether ancient or comparatively mo
dern, is in fact still the same, founded in
the same erroneous conceptions of the
deity, and tinctured with the same alloy
of human passion. Whether the scene be
laidd in the temples of Greece, of Rome,
d Parkhurst in ilHp. V. Herodotus, lib. ii. Livy, lib.
xxxix. 8, 9. and Maurice's Indian Antiquities. Lactant.
De falsa Religione, p. 79, 80, &c. But this reproach
of heathenism is acknowledged and notorious. And its
being so, affords, I think, a satisfactory reason, why, in
the decree which was passed in the First Council at Je
rusalem, fornication was mentioned among those things
which at first sight seem only prohibited for a time :
among " pollutions of idols, things strangled, and blood;"
things in themselves indifferent, and only necessary to
be abstained from, when they were made a part of hea
then idolatry. That the main object of that decree was
to guard Christians against any thing like an approach
to a participation in the rites of Paganism, is obvious
from the other particulars specified. But that object

SERMON II. 51
or of India, it is equally a scene of barba
rity and uncleanness, the work of dege
nerate man in the service of a degraded
god. And wherever gross conceptions of
could not have been said to be effectually secured, nor
that the best means of securing it had been adopted, had
" fornication" not been particularly mentioned among the
articles prohibited. For this 'f fornication" was, among
the heathens, a sacred rite, part of their religious ser
vice; and, as the most seducing part, it was most neces
sary that the new converts to Christianity should have
every possible warning to avoid it. Though therefore
fornication, as an infringement of the moral law, was
generally forbidden throughout the Gospel, and was for
ever condemned as displeasing to God, and an object of
his vengeance, yet, as connected with the rites of Pa
ganism, it was proper that it should be specified among
those things which were to be avoided on account of
their being so connected. Nor does it really occasion
any difficulty, that the prohibition of some of those
things was temporary; because the prohibition of forr
nication itself, as a ceremony of heathenism, was tem
porary, inasmuch as the abolition of those ceremonies
would do away this reason for the prohibition. Forni
cation is not now forbidden in Christian countries on
account of its being a rite of idol worship, but because
it is a transgression of God's Law ; nor is it in any de
gree less a transgression of that Law, because the tem
porary reason upon which it was prohibited in the Je
rusalem decree is now ceased. See Warburton on this
text, who appears greatly to have magnified its diffi
culty.
E 2

52 SERMON II.
the Deity shall obtain, there will imme
diately follow, unless their operation be
checked by some external circumstances of
restraint, a correspondent pollution of Re
ligion. Even the pure faith of our imma
culate Redeemer has not been able to pre
serve all its professors from this unhappy
corruption, as is too sadly attested by the
disgusting narratives of some Romish le
gends, and the no less disgusting licen
tiousness of libertine reformers6. Idolatry
has indeed been ever attended with impu
rity ; and when the Israelites were charged
with adultery, on account of their worship
ping of images, there is no doubt that,
though the language be figurative as ap
plied to idolatry, the crime was in the
transgressors attended with a literal in
fringement of the rules of chastity. And
what can be more natural ? What is idola
try, but an attempt to subject the spiritual
essence of the Godhead, not only to the
infirmities of humanity, but to all the pas-
e Mede's Paraphrase on St. Peter's Prophecy, p. ii.
c. 2. and Sleidan's Commentaries, book xi. Spencer de
Legibus Hebraeorum, lib. ii. c. 3.

SERMON II. 53
sions and the vices to which we feel our
selves obnoxious? Having once degraded
our Creator from his throne in heaven, and
brought Him to a level with our senses,
we have little difficulty in supposing, that
his pleasures must be the same as ours,
and that He must delight in what we find
agreeable to ourselves; till at last our ideas
of Him are sunk in the lowest Carnality and
the most debasing superstition.
Such and so great is the importance,
that men should be impressed with just,
pure, and elevated notions of God. With
out this, it is in vain to expect that purity
of Religion can be preserved ; and it will
be one infallible mark, whereby to judge
of the moral tendency of any religious
system, to ascertain what are the notions
which it inculcates respecting the Divine
Nature. In this every pretended revela
tion has failed, the obscurity or grossness
of its communications betraying plainly
the source from which they were derived ;
and showing, by the deformity of the copy,
that the prototype, was man in all his sin
and infirmity: and it is in this, that the
E 3

54 SERMON II.
true Revelation is preeminently excellent
and divine. The God, who has indeed
been "pleased to reveal the knowledge of
Himself from heaven, and to provide for
the transmission of that knowledge in writ
ten documents of undoubted authenticity,
is essentially a holy God, and He is perfect
in holiness; this is his name, and, if I may
so speak, this is his character. By holi
ness f is meant peculiarly a separation from
f See Parkhurst and Cocceius. Vitringa in Isaiam vi.
3. has some excellent observations on this subject.
How great a blessing it is to be thus clearly and accu
rately informed upon this important point will easily
appear to any unprejudiced mind. That the opinions of
heathen philosophers were vague and uncertain respect
ing God and religion, we have the acknowledgment of
perhaps the most extensively learned man amongst them ;
for he had the advantage of the labours of all those who
had gone before him, and he had made use of them.
But what was the result ? Who can tell, at this day,
what was that man's real opinion ? He confesses, that
upon this subject the best informed disagreed more
than upon any other whatever; that it was a most diffi
cult and obscure question, and afforded a good argu
ment in favour of the academic maxim of withholding
assent from uncertain things. The very being of God
is stated as matter of doubt, though there are some very
forcible arguments, in the most beautiful language, in
support df that position ; and Cicero himself seems so

SERMON II. 55
every thing that can in any way defile ; and
perfect holiness is a perfect freedom from
far to have made up his mind. But when the speakers
in that interesting dialogue (De Natura Deorum) come
to the point of qu.ales Dii sint, they are confessedly in
volved in an impenetrable obscurity and irretrievable
confusion. Their forms, their institutions, their mode
of living, are points clearly beyond the decision of the
philosophers; and it is matter of doubt to them, whether
their gods interfere in human affairs at all or not. And
these points are clearly undecided, after all the investi
gation bestowed upon them by the most able inquirers
of that time. True, there are. some splendid sentences.
" Quid enim potest esse," says one, " tarn apertum
" tamque perspicuum, cum caelum suspeximus, coele-
" stiaque contemplati sumus, quam esse aliquod numen
" praestantissimae mentis, quo haec regantur ?" To a
Christian soul these words convey a clear and sublime
idea of the Supreme Being, whom he knows and serves;
and they do so, because he knows Him from other
sources; but the person who spoke those words had
no such distinct meaning when he uttered them. For
what does he say afterwards ? " Cum talem esse deum
" certa notione animi praesentiamus, primum ut sit
" animans, deinde ut in omni natura nihil eo sit prae-
" stantius, ad hanc praesensionem notionemque no-
" stram nihil video quod potius accommodem, quam
" ut primum hunc ipsum mundum, quo nihil fieri ex-
" cellentius potest, animantem et deum judicem !" And
are these the precious instructions which are to set
aside the divine oracles ? Elegant they are, and . that
they were not correct was the misfortune rather than
the fault of those who delivered them ; but the man,
E 4

56 SERMON II.
any the least possible mixture of what is in
any degree impure. Thus the word " holy,"
who can prefer them to the inestimable revelations of
divine truth, has in fact no sincere regard for that reve
lation, and knows not the value of sound instruction in
religion. An eloquent Father, who had diligently studied and
understood the writings of the Roman philosopher, at
least as well as any of his modern admirers, and was as
sensible of the charms of his language and the acuteness
of his mind, was led by that study to a very different
view of this subject. He saw plainly, that however
able this great author might be as to the discovery of
error in the opinions of others, he had no certain truth
on which his own mind could rest with satisfaction.
" Quid prodest," says he, " ad vulgus et ad homines
" imperitos hoc modo concionari, cum videamus etiam
" doctos et prudentes viros, cum religionum intelligant
" vanitatem, nihilo minus tamen in iis ipsis, quae dam-
" nant, colendis, nescio qua pravitate perstare ? Intel-
" ligebat Cicero falsa esse, quae homines adorarent :
" nam cum multa dixisset quae ad eversionem religio-
" nam valerent, ait tamen non esse ilia vulgo disputanda,
" ne susceptas publice religiones disputatio talis exstin-
" guat. Quid de eo facies, qui cum errare se sentiat,
" ultro se ipse in lapides impingat?  Quid igitur pro-
" fuit vidisse te veritatem quam nee defensurus esses
"nee secuturus?  Impugnatae sunt igitur a pruden-
"tioribus falsae religiones, quia sentiebant esse falsas;
"sed non est inducta vera, quia qualis aut ubi esset,
" ignorabant. Itaque sic habuerunt, tanquam nulla
" esset omnino, quia veram non poterant invenire : et
" co modo inciderunt in errorem multo majorem, quam

SERMON II. 57
as applied to men, signifies their being set
apart and consecrated to the service of
" ill! qui falsam tenebant. Nam isti fragilium cultores,
" quamvis sint inepti, quia ccelestia constituant in rebus
" corruptibilibus atque terrenis, aliquid tamen sapientiae
" retinent ; et habere veniam possunt, quia summum ho-
" minis officium etsi non reipsa tamen proposito tetient ;
" siquidem hominum atque mutorum vel solum vel certe
" maximum in religione discrimen est. Hi verd quanto
" fuerunt sapientiores, quod intellexerunt falsae religio-
" nis errorem, tanto facti sunt stultiores quod esse ali-
" quam veram non putayerunt.
" Summa rei liaec est : imperiti et insipientes falsas
" religiones pro veris habent, quia neque veram sciunt
" neque falsam intelligunt ; prudentiores autem, quia
" veram nesciunt, aut in iis, quas falsas esse intelli-
" gunt, perseverant, ut aliquid tenere videantur ; aut
" omnino nihil colunt, ne incidant in errorem ; cum
" idipsum maximi sit erroris, vitam pecudum sub figura
" hominis imitari. Falsum quidem intelligere est qui-
" dem sapientiae, sed humanas, ultra hunc gradum pro-
" cedi ab homine non potest. Itaque multi philoso-
" phorum religiones, ut docui, sustulerunt; verum au-
" tern scire divinae est sapientiae : homo autem per se
" ipsum pervenire ad hanc scientiam non potest, nisi
" doceatur a Deo. Ita philosophi, quod summum fuit
" humanae sapientiae adsecuti sunt, ut intelligerent quid
" non sit ; illud adsequi nequiverunt, ut dicerent quid
" sit. Nota Ciceronis vox est,.Utinam tam facile vera
" invenire possem, quam falsa convincere." Lact. De
Origine Erroris.
I shall not pursue this subject further; but I cannot
help contrasting the different views and sensations of

58 SERMON II.
God ; and though in this case it often has
no more than a relative meaning, yet that
arises, not from the intention of Him for
whose service they are separated, but from
the infirmity of man, who fails in properly
fulfilling that intention. When men are
separated to the service of the Almighty,
that very separation implies and requires a
renunciation of every thing that can offend
the purity of Him before whom they then
more immediately stand. I mention this
now merely to state the idea of holiness as
a freedom from whatever can pollute, a
separation from every thing impure. Such
is our imperfection, that we cannot unfold
our conceptions of the attributes of God
Lucretius and St. Paul upon this momentous question.
The former exclaims,
O miseras hominum menteis ! O pectora cceca !
Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis
Degitur hoc aevi, quodcunque est ! — ¦ —
and there he stops in despair. The latter, as to him
self, has nearly the same expression of misery, but
checked and corrected by a feeling of support and com
fort, which gave him the most animating assurance of
hope : TaAaiVcopoj eyw avSpunto;' tij jj.s putrirai ex tou <rai-
paras tou ba.va.rou toutou ; Eu^apiffTcu too &ico 8ia 'IijcroO X.pi-
o-tou tou Kvplou i)fwjv. Rom. vii. 24, 25.

SERMON II. 59
without the use of terms, which can be ex
plained only by their bearing on human
institutions. The holiness of God, and the
holiness of man, even when real, are in
deed at an infinite distance from each other;
but it is only by considering the latter, and
opening the signification of the term by
which it is expressed, that we come to have
a clear idea of the former. Thus we learn,
that as holiness implies the separation of
man from every thing .unclean to the ser
vice of his Creator, it must in the Creator
himself import an absolute freedom from
the least shadow of impurity. And in this
sense we may truly say, that holiness is the
perfection of God ; for as it signifies a total
exclusion of every thing that can defile,
and as every aberration from rectitude does
defile, so it must necessarily comprehend
in its idea every moral perfection that the
mind of man can possibly conceive. Jus
tice, benevolence, and truth, are essentially
included in the holiness of God, because
iniquity and oppression and falsehood de
file as much as carnality itself. It is a fre
quent accusation of the cruelty and injus-

60 SERMON II.
tice of the Israelites, that " the land was
" defiled with bloody" the blood of inno
cent victims unjustly shed by violence and
oppression. When therefore holiness is
put alone as the distinguishing perfection
of the Almighty, it must not be conceived
as implying spiritual purity alone, but as
comprehending all the moral attributes of
the Deity; and when in the text we are
commanded to be holy, because God is
holy, we are not to suppose that we can
at all answer the end of this precept, if we
attempt to separate truth and righteous
ness from piety and purity. God there
fore, who is perfect in holiness, is perfect
also in justice, truth, and goodness ; and it
is then we have correct ideas of his nature,
when we conceive all his moral perfections
to be equally essential and coexisting in
the same infinite force, and the same inde
fectible splendour.
It will become us therefore to consider
with deep attention, how clearly and inva
riably this character of holiness is ascribed
s Ps. cvi. 38, 39. Is. lix. 3. Sam. iv. 14. Ez. ix. 9.
Numb. xxxv. 33.

SERMON II. 61
to Almighty God in the Scriptures of truth,
and how strongly the moral tendency of
the Divine Revelation therein contained is
enforced and illustrated by this circum
stance. Without this, we shall neither un
derstand ourselves, nor can we properly re
present to others, the God whom we adore,
or the Religion which we profess.
The numerous texts both of the Old and
New Testament, in which the holiness of
God is asserted, will readily occur to the
minds of those who now hear me, and it
must be unnecessary to specify or produce
them. The Scripture does indeed in such
, unequivocal terms represent the Almighty
as " the righteous Lord, who loveth right-
" eousness and hateth iniquity h;" who
" hath respect to the humble and meek,
" but resisteth the proud and contentious',"
and whom none can be permitted to be
hold but " the pure in heart k," that its de
lineation of the Divine attributes must at
once be admitted as in the highest degree
just and moral. Nor ought it to be dis-
h Psalm xi. 5 — 7- ' Psalm cxxxviii. 6. Prov. iii. 34.
James iv. 6. k Matth. v. 8.

62 SERMON II.
missed without reflection; it should be
traced to its consequences, and suffered to
produce its adequate effect upon our opin
ions as to other points ' of religious belief
and practice. For as it is most certain,
that such as our opinion of God is, such
will be, not only our regard for his service,
but the complexion and character of that
service, it is of the last importance that the
idea of God's holiness should be well and
deeply impressed upon our minds. And
it can be so impressed only by considering
carefully and attentively that explanation
of this great subject which is presented to
us through the whole body of Scripture. ,
I say the whole, because that alone can
give us any adequate idea of God's moral
character as displayed in the government
of mankind. Of that government, which
has for its object the state of man in this
world and the next, the Scripture may be
considered as the history ; a history, as far
as we are concerned to know it, complete,
if taken together, and completely illustrat
ing the Divine economy of providence and
grace, but if contemplated in parts, liable

SERMON II. 63
undoubtedly to the errors and misconcep
tions of all partial views. But looking at
the whole of the Divine proceedings, from
the first creation of man to his final admis
sion to the New Jerusalem, we shall see
clearly, that our Almighty and Omniscient
Maker has exhibited throughout in the
brightest colours the portraiture of his own
righteousness, has acted from beginning to
end, as we would say, upon moral prin
ciples, and stamped every transaction with
the impress of his unfailing integrity.
" When the morning stars sang together,
" and the sons of God shouted for joy1,"
because a new world had sprung up at the
command of the Almighty, they had reason
to exult and to< praise its all-wise Creator.
His new creation was fair and lovely ; for
it was formed in righteousness and inno
cence ; and as yet no taint of sin had in
fected its purity, or embittered its happi
ness. All was unmixed joy, because all
was unmixed goodness. Upon every thing
in creation was written " Holiness to the
" Lordm," and upon every thing He be-
1 Job xxxviii. 7- m Exod. xxviii. 36.

64 SERMON II.
stowed the fulness of his Divine blessing.
And the blessing was bestowed upon the
creature because it was good. The good
ness indeed was derived from the same
source as the blessing, and therefore it is
no doubt true, that in thus rendering his
own creatures happy, the Almighty reward
ed in them his own gifts of grace and good
ness. But He who gave both, decreed that
they should always go together; and, in
conformity to his own essential holiness
and ineffable happiness, decreed that de
rived happiness should be attached also to
derived holiness. And this He declared,
before that derived holiness had been im
paired by sin, announcing to man in the
very first communication of his Will, that
the loss of his integrity would be attended
with the loss also of the blessings which he
enjoyed. The promises and the threaten-
ings, the rewards and the punishments of
God, were from the beginning thus clearly
annexed to innocence and guilt respective
ly : while his favour was confined exclu
sively to the former, his displeasure was as
plainly denounced against the latter. And

SERMON II. 65
when, by the unhappy fall of our first pa
rents, guilt did contaminate a world which
the voice of its Omniscient Creator had
before pronounced perfectly " good"," the
change which had been threatened imme
diately followed. Its Almighty Governor
could not withhold the punishment, which
his infinite justice necessarily awarded to
the guilty. The world had become wick
ed; and it was requisite to show, that the
unavoidable consequence of wickedness
was misery. The honour of God's attri
butes required this vindication of their es
sential rectitude; his righteousness and ho
liness demanded to be cleared from the
imputation of favouring the introduction
of sin into the world. And they were vin
dicated before men and angels. The agents
in this unhappy transgression of Divine
law were put under a curse proportioned
to their several degrees of guilt, and ba
nished from the presence of God, who is
the only source of good, natural and moral.
The whole creation was made subject to
"vanity0" on their account; no longer
n Gen. i. 31. ° Rom. viii. 20.

66 SERMON II.
preserved in its original integrity, no longer
constant in its motions or productions, no
longer wearing the same uniform appear
ance of peace and harmony, but obnoxious
to decay, and perpetually fluctuating ; de
ceiving the hopes of man with delusive pro
mises of enjoyment, and alarming his fears
with portentous threatenings of ruin and
devastation ; and affording to the wisest of
human preachers, who had tried and ex
amined the best of its proffered advantages,
cause to exclaim at last, that all was " va-
" nity and vexation of spirit p," unsound
and hollow, unstable and uncertain.
But, if God on the very first departure
from virtue took care thus to vindicate his
own attributes, He has taken no less care
to manifest that vindication, and to support
it, in the whole of his transactions with
mankind, through all their generations from
Adam to the present day. In profane his
tory indeed this is not so distinctly seen;
because, though the interference of Divine
Providence was often displayed in a very
remarkable manner, yet the compilers of
P Eccles. i. 14.

SERMON II. 67
t»
that history, being mere uninspired men,
and ignorant besides of true theology, could
not interpret the providential bearing of
the events which they recorded; and there
fore the particular instances of God's ha
tred of vice and regard for virtue are not
always brought so clearly under our notice.
And yet, whoever shall read, with a mind
properly disposed and duly prepared by
moral tuition, even this account of the rise
and progress, the decline and fall of the
various empires, which one after another
have exercised dominion on the earth, will
see and acknowledge, that they rose by
virtue, and fell by vice ; thus affording a
plain attestation, that there is a God who
ruleth in the heavens, and that that God is
just. This appears plain even on a super
ficial view of the records of mankind, as
exhibited by the ordinary historians of hu
man affairs. Nor will it lessen the weight
of this testimony to God's moral govern
ment, and the manifest interference which
it implies in favour of moral rectitude, to
say, that the success and failure of these
nations was rather the natural result of
f 2

68 SERMON II.
their virtue and vice respectively, than any
reward or punishment assigned by the judg
ment of God. For allowing this in a cer
tain degree, yet must it be acknowledged
by all who own any providential superin-
tendance, that it was the ordinance of God
which originally appointed this natural con
nection between virtue and prosperity on
the one hand, and vice and adversity on
the other. It should ever be remembered,
that both natural and moral good take their
rise from the same source, and therefore it
was to be expected that they should flow
in one united stream. But however true it
is, that virtue is generally attended with
ultimate success, and vice for the most part
involved in ruin and destruction, still it is
evident, that in this world it is not always
and invariably so, which it would be, if the
one necessarily resulted from the other.
Originally, no doubt, this connection was
certain and infallible, and the immutable
justice of the Divine intention will at last
be made apparent to the universe ; but the
truth is, sin has brought difficulty and con
fusion into every thing that concerns the

SERMON II. 69
present state of man. When human virtue
ceased to be perfect and steady, human
happiness became broken and inconstant.
It is this, that by its own real fluctuations
has introduced seeming inequalities into
the proceedings of Divine Providence. God
might fairly address the whole race of men
as He once addressed the house of Israel ;
" Are not my ways equal? are not your
" ways unequalp?" Surely it must be con
fessed, that the ways of man, even when
he endeavours to order them aright, are
most evidently " unequal," and therefore
he should neither be surprised nor offend
ed, if, being thus unsteady in his integrity,
he is rewarded with a success that partakes
of his own defectibility. Rather should he
bless God for his mercy, in thus conde
scending to notice a being so little worthy
of his regard, and who had so justly merit
ed his displeasure ! The imperfection and
unsteadiness of human virtue must be frank
ly acknowledged by the stoutest advocate
for the excellency of our nature ; and it
must be clear, that imperfect and unsteady
P Ezek. xviii. 29.
F 3

70 SERMON II.
virtue can claim no precise reward from a
God, who is Himself perfectly and uni^
formly just : a point this, which should, I
think, be considered more than it is. In
discussing the dispensations of Providence q,
authors sometimes appear to argue, as if
men were perfectly virtuous or entirely vi
cious, and therefore that God is bound to
reward the one, and punish the other, ac
cording to the strict measure of merit and
demerit. Alas ! if the Almighty had pro
ceeded in this way, and weighed the claims
of nations and individuals in the balance of
the heavenly sanctuary, no flesh could have
lived before Him, much less could any
man or society of men have claimed a re
ward for their merits. If God had reward
ed only that virtue to which a reward was
due, He could have found no object of his
bounty among the sons of men. In con
descending to extend his care over the de
scendants of a fallen creature, and to en
courage their feeble endeavours at a con-
i Sherlock on Providence, who has with great clear
ness vindicated the justice and holiness of God's go
vernment of the world.

SERMON II. 71
formity to his Will, by bestowing upon
them some marks of his approbation, thei
Omnipotent Creator exercised a mercy
and a forbearance to which the creatures
themselves were no way entitled. The
source of that forbearance we must seek
elsewhere: but impartial reason will tell
us, that if an almighty and all-righteous
God is pleased to bestow any token of his
favour upon the imperfect virtue of those,
who have otherwise incurred his displea
sure by transgression, it must proceed from
his mercy, not their right, from his com
passion, not their merit. And yet that He
was just, he showed clearly, by giving, in
general, success to virtue, and crushing,
sooner or later, the attempts of vice; though
He still reserved to Himself the right of
marking the imperfection of human inte
grity, by stamping its reward with the same
unsteadiness and imbecility.
But it is in the pages of Divine truth
that the holiness and righteousness of God
are seen in their own unclouded splendor,
and free from that obscurity, which more
or less attends all the reasonings of men
f 4

72 SERMON II.
on the ways of their Almighty Creator.
There we have the history of his proceed
ings given by Himself, and He has fre
quently condescended to assign the reasons
upon which those proceedings were found
ed ; and in both is contained the most sa
tisfactory and undeniable demonstration of
his righteousness. We have already had
occasion to remark, how this was exempli
fied in the original happiness of the world,
and its subsequent misery. It is equally
visible, as the stream of the sacred history
descends. In that first awful crime, which
followed the corruption of our nature, and
so strongly attested it by the barbarous shed
ding of a brother's blood, God showed at
once, and in a manner which ought to have
conveyed the knowledge of his justice to
every subsequent generation, that cruelty
and malice and envy should find no favour
with Him. The cry of murdered inno
cence was heard in the court of heaven,
and its call for vengeance received instant
attention ; the wretched perpetrator of so
foul a crime was marked with a brand of
eternal infamy, and banished from the pre-

SERMON II. 73
sence of his Maker. The death which he
had deserved was indeed delayed, that by
the sight of one upon whom the wrath of
heaven had so visibly rested, the repetition
of this dreadful offence might, if possible,
be for ever prevented among the sons of
men. But visible and awful as this visitation
was, and known as it must have been to
the descendants of this wretched object of
Divine indignation, it yet failed of its effect;
it failed to correct the innate depravity of
the human heart, or to stop the torrent of
iniquity which flowed from that polluted
source. As men multiplied upon earth,
iniquity abounded more and more ; the in
crease of the one kept pace with the in
crease of the other. And could a right
eous God bear with it, or did He bear with
it? Not only the Scripture of truth, but
the scattered remnants of tradition among
the heathen, and the face of visible nature
at the present day, assure us, that He did
not; that the world, which He himself had
made, and blessed because it was good,
He cursed and destroyed because it was

74 SERMON II.
wicked. But as He was just in this de
struction of the wicked, so He was no less
just in the preservation of a remnant, who
were not unworthy of his favour. Amidst
the general wreck of every thing that was
good in man, He found one individual who
had held fast his integrity, who at least
might be considered as comparatively right
eous, and to whom the mercy of God
might be extended without impeachment
of his justice. Him therefore He preserv
ed, and with him He again made a cove
nant, and to him He again gave a law, by
which, if it might be, his posterity might
be taught the true line of their duty, and
might avoid those crimes of barbarous cru
elty, and those foul stains of abominable
carnality, which had brought upon their
ancestors a punishment so awfully destruc
tive. But even this failed. Human cor
ruption broke through every restraint, and
triumphed in contempt of the Divine mer
cy, and in defiance of Divine justice. A-
gain iniquity increased with the increase of
mankind ; and again it became necessary,
that a check should be given to the spread-

SERMON II. 75
ing evil by some peculiar demonstration of
the Divine displeasure. The confusion of
tongues at the building of Babel, and the
dispersion and disunion which followed ;
the call of Abraham, which seemed to im
ply at least a temporary rejection of the
rest of mankind ; the destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah by the immediate interpo
sition of heaven, and no less the saving of
Lot, because he was righteous, by so re
markable a distinction of his case from the
mass of those who deserved to perish ; the
deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt,
with their subsequent government and dis
cipline in the land of Canaan and in Baby
lon ; and still more clearly, the whole scheme
of the Gospel in all its parts and in all its
bearings; exhibit throughout our Almighty
Maker as governing his creatures on the
plainest principles of moral righteousness ;
indicating his own holiness by the clearest
expressions of his hatred to sin ; and be
stowing upon the imperfect virtue of men
those marks of his approbation, which
might assure them, that the only way to
please Him and to secure his favour was

76 SERMON II.
by a sincere obedience to his Law, and by
the cultivation of that virtue which his Law
was intended to teach and to enforce.
Such then are the strong lines, in which
Almighty God has written the character of
his own holiness in the Scripture of truth.
If I have succeeded at all in giving a just
view of this subject, it will appear of the
last importance, that it should be correct
ly understood. To know God is the first
thing in Religion ; and to know Him aright
we must conceive of Him as He is. But
not only is this necessary to a speculative
knowledge of the Deity, it is essential to a
due performance of his worship, and of all
the duties which are required at our hands.
As we think of God, so likewise shall we
think of his service, and of the necessity of
our serving Him at all. Human ingenuity
is quick enough in discovering any defect
in the foundations of Religion, however
slow it may be in comprehending its doc
trines, or admitting its precepts. It is ever
on the watch for an excuse for its own er
rors, or some countenance to its corrupt
propensities. If therefore God be so re-

SERMON II. 77
presented, as to afford any the least pre
tence for supposing, that He may be satis
fied with a service less pure or less punctu
ally performed than He has himself de
clared in his word ; if any thing of human
weakness or human caprice be attributed
to Him ; if it be imagined, that while to
some He is so merciful as to overlook their
worst transgressions, to others He is so
cruel as to punish their slightest failings
with eternal damnation ; whoever has im
bibed any of these sentiments will undoubt
edly make use of them to quiet his con
science in the commission of sin, and ex
cuse to himself the neglect of his duty.
How it can happen, that with so much
clear and positive information to the con
trary, any notions of this kind should be
entertained among Christians, may well be
matter of astonishment and regret. Chris
tians are, in strict propriety, the children
of light, and it shines around them with
meridian splendor; but we know, that the
light may shine in a dark place, and that
the darkness will not comprehend it. We
do not err for want of the means of know-

78 SERMON II.
ledge, certainly; but what then? The greater
our means are, the greater is the sin of our
error. And that we do err is beyond ques
tion. We profess to serve a Holy God,
and yet we hope to please Him without
holiness. The Revelation which He has
made of his Will, and in which He has
stamped in visible characters the impress
of his own integrity, is yet so far misunder
stood and misrepresented, as to become to
many, not what its Divine Author intend
ed it, an instrument of making them better,
but a mean of lulling the conscience asleep,
of healing its wounds slightly, and speaking
peace to the sinner, when there is no solid
ground of peace to his mind. Though the
Almighty has declared in express terms,
that He is a God of righteousness, purity,
and holiness; though in all his dealings
with mankind He has, by his promises and
threatenings, by his rewards and punish
ments, shown the most unequivocal hatred
of vice, and the most sincere regard for vir
tue; yet are there those who will not see,
that his Revelation is designed for the mo
ral improvement of man, but draw from it

SERMON II. 79
excuses for their sin, and apologies for their
iniquity. But surely, under whatever dis
guise this error may be concealed, it can
arise from nothing but a love of sin, che
rished and indulged in the heart. The cha
racter of Divine Revelation is too strongly
marked to admit of any but a wilful per
version of its truths in support of criminal
conduct. It has some things which possi
bly we cannot understand ; but it has no
thing, which an honest man can mistake
as showing any favour to vice. The God,
whom it reveals, is revealed as infinitely ho
ly, just, and true ; and the Religion, which
it teaches, partakes of the same holiness, is
invested with the same mantle of justice and
the same robe of purity. Coming from the
fountain of goodness, and professing to lead
men thither, it must, in reason, and it does,
in fact, carry with it no small portion of
the goodness from which it emanated, and
has in all its provisions a direct tendency
to plant and to cherish a love of real virtue
in those who duly receive and faithfully
obey its instructions.

SERMON III.

Gen. i. 27.
So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created He him.
WE have already seen how absolutely
necessary it is, in order to form correct
ideas of Religion, that we should have
proper notions of that Supreme Being to
whom religious service is due : it is in the
next place of great importance to under
stand the nature of man% by whom that
a Since writing this Discourse, I have had an oppor
tunity of consulting the learned Bishop Bull's Treatise
on the State of Man before the Fall. The reader will
of course find there much valuable matter, with the opin
ions of the ancient Fathers, laboriously collected; but
I cannot help thinking that the excellent author has
admitted some distinctions suited rather to our present
than our original condition. Where all was from God,
and not yet impaired by man's sin, it seems difficult to
understand the difference between natural and superna
tural.

82 SERMON III.
service is to be paid ; to know, with as
much precision as can be attained, what
are his propensities and capacities, what
are his relations, what the end of his be
ing, and how he is fitted to answer that
end. For as the , duty of every creature
must be suited to the capacities and pro
pensities with which it has been really en
dowed by its Maker, so those capacities
being known will materially assist us in as
certaining the duty. And to comprehend
this in any satisfactory degree, it is requi
site that we should be informed of his ori
gin. For that only is the true nature of
man, as of every other being, with which
he was originally invested by the hand of
Him, who bestowed his existence upon
him. If in any thing that nature has been
corrupted or depraved; if it has been in
any degree weakened in its powers, or dark
ened in its perceptions, if its propensities
have been perverted, or its affections de
based, the change thus unhappily pro
duced, though it unfits man for the per
formance of his duty, can by no means be
allowed to contract the extent of that duty,

SERMON III. 83
or diminish the obligation to its discharge.
The duty which God imposed, because He
had given man powers commensurate to
its performance, cannot be lessened merely
because man has by his own fault lost those
powers. And therefore all reasoning from
capacities so weakened, and propensities
so perverted, will infallibly lead into error,
or stop short of the truth. For the true
measure of man's duty being that which is
commensurate to his real nature, and his
real nature being that alone with which he
was impressed at his original creation, any
delineation of his duty, which is formed
from a view of his impaired powers and
debased affections, must come far short of
a just representation of what he is required
to do, that he may answer the end of his
being. And hence we may see clearly the
reason6 why some modern writers on ethics,
b Conybeare's Defence of Revealed Religion, p. 248,
&c. where the learned Bishop shows the defectiveness
and obscurity of the scheme of moral duties which he is
considering. But I must take leave to observe, that,
defective and obscure as it may be, it clearly discovers
the source from which all that is valuable in it was de
rived. For it lays a clear foundation of morals in reli-
G 2

84 SERMON III.
who have been willing to set aside the au
thority of Scripture, and to deduce the rule
gion; a thing which none of the philosophers, much
less the common herd of mankind, were able to do be
fore the promulgation of Christianity. That is most
true, which the learned Calmet has remarked in his
preface to the Book of Wisdom, that " in the writings
" of the heathen philosophers it has but little concern
" or connection with religion and the practice of real
" virtue." " Plato," says Lactantius, " multa de uno
" Deo locutus est, a quo ait constitutum esse mundum,
" sed nihil de religione." And how did it happen, that
this author did that, and represented it as so easy to be
done, which that prince of philosophers could not do ?
Common sense and common honesty, and a very small
share of modesty, would have compelled him to own,
that he owed his better success in the delineation of
man's duty to the better instructions he had received.
He had been catechised in the Christian religion, how
ever much he might affect to despise it, and there he
had learnt that piety was the basis of morals ; there he
had learnt to make that threefold division of human
duty which the Apostle had plainly explained to the
disciples of Christ, but which no mere master of philo
sophy had ever presumed to attempt. It was only when
>j %<*pif rou Oeou i\ o-cot^ioj ewe/pavy 7racriv uv&punroi(, that
the o-co<pgo'vco; xa) Sixulcog xai £Uo~sj3a>s $<r<uix.ev h r£ vuv alaivi
was clearly established as the rule of human life. Now
that it is revealed, it is no doubt level to the compre
hension of the meanest understanding amongst us ; but
we may safely say, that the highest would never have
discovered it : because, in fact, after the knowledge of
the true God was lost, and with it the knowledge of

SERMON III. 85
and obligation of morals from reason alone,
have yet had better success in their at-
man's duty as obedience to a divine law, moral duty
and religion never were again united till their union
was revealed in the Gospel. - And this is a point of
great importance, not merely to prove the value and
necessity of revelation to those who are disposed to re
ject it, but to teach an useful lesson also to those who
really have an esteem for that revelation, and who are
inclined to represent themselves as the only persons
who have a proper regard for its truths. Such a feeling
is, I fear^ in full operation at this particular time. The
plain declarations of the Gospel, though upon the most
important points of religion and morals, seem to be con
sidered as beggarly elements ; the great improvement
which it has wrought in the world by the establishment
of a pure worship, by improving the laws and institu
tions of society, and by providing for the stated and
public instruction of all orders of men in the Christian
Church, is looked upon as nothing ; it is looked upon
as nothing, that the ignorance and impurity and bar
barity of idol service has been exchanged for a clear
knowledge of God, and of the worship by which He can
be most acceptably and suitably served. The Gospel is
considered as something beyond all this ; something
that addresses itself almost exclusively to the feelings,
and of which sober information is scarcely reckoned any
part at all. " Hence," as the late Bishop Randolph
judiciously remarked, " has it been asserted, that the
" Gospel was first preached on a certain day in a parish,
"where to his own certain knowledge every duty of a
" Minister of the Gospel had been regularly performed
" by a diligent conscientious Clergyman long before."
G 3

86 SERMON III.
tempts than their heathen predecessors.
The Scriptures, which they have so pre-
But that conscientious diligence in duty was nothing, as
it did not satisfy a certain craving for enthusiastic novel
ty ; and it was no proof that the Gospel had been before
introduced into that parish, that God was purely wor
shipped, that pute morals were taught, and that the
supports and comforts of religion were largely and regu
larly administered. And yet it was undeniable, that
this change was owing to the Gospel; and had the ad
vantage been novel, it would have been acknowledged,
but having been long enjoyed, it ceased to excite re
gard, and obtained not the gratitude it deserved. But
this error is nourished and promoted by another cause.
In the writings of the Apostles and first teachers of
Christianity, glorious things are said of the change
which was wrought in the world by the promulgation
of Gospel truth. The knowledge diffused by the Gos
pel is light, the ignorance of heathenism is darkness,
and those who turned from Paganism to the profession
of Christianity, are said to pass from darkness to light.
The effects produced by the rites and institutions of the
Gospel are described as powerfully operating upon the
minds and affections of those who were admitted to
them, and effecting an immediate and visible distinction
between believers and unbelievers. The Church of
God, in which they were placed by these means, is re
presented as a society of elect and sanctified beings,
and contrasted strongly with the world of sinners, in
which all who did not profess Christianity were in
cluded. And at that time the contrast was striking.
On the one side were the worshippers of heathen idols,
immersed in all the pollution of that impure service,

SERMON III. 87
sumptuously endeavoured to depreciate,
have supplied them with all the advantages
they possess. And this they have done,
not merely by presenting them with a more
perfect scheme of duty ready drawn up to
their hands, but by informing them what
was the true original constitution of man.
ignorant of the true God, and involved in all the wick
edness which that ignorance cherished ; on the other
were the disciples of Jesus, taught clearly every branch
of their duty, and supplied with the most powerful mo
tives to the discharge of it : and it was scarcely possible
to speak in terms too strong of the marked distinction
between them. But to argue from this, that the same
distinction is to be looked for between the members of
the same Church ; to talk of one part of that Church as
involved in darkness and sin, and the other as alone en
joying the benefit of Gospel light, is to abuse the lan
guage of the Apostles, and apply it to a state of things
to which they themselves never intended to apply it.
If any error has crept in, it ought no doubt to be ex
posed and corrected ; but it should never be said, that
baptized persons, who have been admitted into the
Church of Christ by the way which He himself has pre
scribed, are not Christians, nor that his Gospel is not
preached, where its truths are publicly delivered in his
own words, where a belief in it is at least professed,
and where its institutions are regularly observed. Such
conduct is neither decent nor just, and it is extremely
ungrateful, as setting little value upon all the good that
Christianity has done in the world.
G 4

88 SERMON III.
Understanding this, and being taught in
fallibly the relation in which mankind stand
to their Creator, they were enabled to com
pile from the principles with which they
were thus supplied such a system of moral
instruction, as might appear to be the pro
duct of their own unassisted reason. Per
verse and ungrateful men, who could thus
abuse the light of Revelation, and make
the gift of God subservient to their own
vanity ! The ancient philosophers proceed
ed upon wiser and honester principles;
and if from the deficiency of their religious
knowledge they failed in their delineations
of human duty, they were free from the
crime of perverting or corrupting the ora
cles of God. Looking at mankind as they
appeared to them in their condition at that
time, and combining the few principles of
moral instruction, which they had derived
from their predecessors, with their own ex
perience of what conduced to the happi
ness and improvement of their species,
considered either as individuals or as united
in society, and examining those springs and
motives of action, which by consulting their

SERMON III. 89
own breasts they found most powerfully to
influence the human heart and affections,
they framed with much acuteness and much
labour some tolerable scheme of useful dis
cipline, by which the passions of men might
be restrained, their reason improved, their
happiness advanced, and the peace of so
ciety secured. And in so doing they have
deserved for ever the gratitude of posterity.
They did what they could c to make men

c It is of great importance, that the real use and va
lue of ancient classical learning should be correctly un
derstood. As an elementary study, under proper direc
tion, it is excellent. It teaches the true method of writ
ing and speaking with perspicuity, elegance, and force ;
it enlarges the intellectual faculties, by exercising them
freely upon subjects deeply interesting to the human
mind; it abounds in noble sentiments, and shows us,
by precept and example, that the best part of mankind
have always been on the side of virtue. But if, beyond
this, we take the teachers of heathen philosophy as our
masters in religion and morals, and permit their sub
tlety and their eloquence in any degree to diminish our
regard for the plain but profound enunciations of holy
writ, and to make us less attentive to that way of sal
vation which it has revealed, and which is to be found
in it alone, we are clearly guilty of the most egregious
folly, by preferring the uncertain speculations of men to
the infallible oracles of God; speculations which are

90 SERMON III.
wiser and better ; and to this day, those
who read their works with minds properly
disposed, will become wiser and better by
the perusal. Not that they contain any
thing which we can now want to direct
us in our duty, but that the reading of
them is an useful exercise of our reason,
and tends in a peculiar manner to unfold
the faculties of our minds ; and those who
are best exercised in the moral discussions
which they contain, and have most nearly
examined the historical facts upon which
they are founded, will be best prepared to
understand those results of the highest rea
son which the Scripture lays before us : I
call them the results of reason, because
they appear so to us; though it must be
confessed, that the expression does not ex
actly suit the nature of the Divine com
munications. The Scripture delivers the
most important truths in the plainest terms,
and most frequently in the concisest form.
And that it does so is one great proof of
its authenticity. The distinction between
only therefore valuable, because in some instances' they
harmonize with those oracles.

SERMON III. 91
s
divine and human knowledge ought to be
marked and confessed. The excellence of
man in the best use of his reason would be
degradation to the Deity, God does not
reason ; He, from whom every thing pro
ceeds, knows every thing without investi
gation and without an effort. And what
He thus knows, He declares with author
ity; He does not prove it to be true; it
is therefore true, because He has announced
it. Whatever He declares, bears on its
very face the stamp of divinity and of truth.
And it is impossible not to observe this
distinguishing characteristic in all- the dis
courses of our blessed Redeemer. He
never appears' to reason on the highest
truths which He utters ; the conception of
them never seems to cost Him the sem
blance of an effort ; his mind sees intuitive
ly the most exalted mysteries of heaven, and
the deepest recesses of the earth. And He
speaks of them accordingly, with the calm
ness of one to whom they were familiar,
and of whom it might be said in our lan
guage, that they rather presented them
selves to his mind than that He sought

92 SERMON III.
after them. That this was indeed a mark
of Divinity will perhaps appear with yet
greater probability, if we consider, that even
the Apostles, though inspired, and infalli
bly assured of the truth of what they deli
vered, do not deliver it in the same way;
they reasoned and argued, and did not
think themselves entitled to neglect the or
dinary method of producing conviction in
the minds of their hearers. St. Paul is
acknowledged, and deservedly,' to be the
most acute and profound of reasoners ; but
what was his excellency, even as an in
spired Apostle, was below the dignity of
his Master. But though it thus pleased
God and his Son, and it became Them, to
declare the truth in short and clear revela
tions of their Willd, yet if man will inquire
into the reasons of that truth, and analyse
its parts, he can do so only by the most la
borious exertions of his mind ; and unless
his mind be previously and duly disciplined,
d Quae quidem tradita sunt breviter ac nude; nee
enim decebat aliter ut cum Deus ad hominem loquere-
tur, argumentis adsereret suas voces. De falsa Sapi-
entia.

SERMON III. 93
he will be in imminent danger of falling
into error, of wresting to his destruction
what was intended for his salvation. Even
if men were content to receive the merciful
admonitions and kind directions of Al
mighty Wisdom, as they ought, without
question or cavil ; if they would obey them
without reluctance, and rest in them with
out dispute, it would still be necessary to
call upon them to exercise their reason,
that they might be prepared to compre
hend the principles of revealed truth ; and
to appreciate duly the value of the instruc
tion thus graciously communicated. But
the restlessness of human nature has never
suffered it so to be; and therefore even
Apostles were obliged to enter into much
subtlety of argument, and to require of
their disciples, that they should always ~be
ready to "give a reason of the hope that
" is in" them. We must therefore ever be
content to defend our holy Religion after
the manner of men, and after the manner
of men must we endeavour to understand
it. The plainest dictates of Divine truth
are, as I said, the results of the highest

94 SERMON III.
reason ; and to comprehend and make use
of them, it is necessary that our reason
should be improved, as far as it can be, by
all the means with which Divine provi
dence and grace have supplied us.
With regard then to what is intended to
form the main feature of this Discourse,
the original nature and constitution of man,
nothing can be plainer, nothing can be
more simple, and in that plainness and
simplicity nothing can be more dignified,
than the manner in which the matter of
fact, contained in my text, is stated;
" God created man in his own image, in
" the image of God created He him." Yet
plain and simple as it appears when thus
revealed, it is what the mere reason of man
could never have discovered. The origin
assigned by some to the human race is too
absurd to be confuted6; though it may
e The Epicurean account is no more than this : —
Crescebant uteri terrae radicibus apti.
But the learned author of the Intellectual System gives
the following report of the opinion of Aristotle himself.
" Aristotle in his book of the Generation of Animals
" writeth thus: Hsp) T»j? twv av&pai7ruiv xa) TerpuiroSw yeve-
" osuif, u7roAa/Soi T15 av, stitep kyivovro hots y^ysvii;, luo-itzp

SERMON III. 95
serve one useful purpose of teaching us
humility, by showing us the degradation
" <t>uo~i Tivsf, 800 rpoirwv yiveo~8at rbv 'erepov' % yap u>; <rxu>kt)-
" xos 0-vvio-Tapi.evou to irpmrov, tj i£ cawv. If men and four-
" footed animals were ever generated out of the earth,
" as some affirm, it may be probably conceived to have
" been one of these two ways, either that they were
" produced as worms out -of putrefaction, or else formed
" in certain eggs, growing out of the earth. And then
" after a while he concludes again ; Emsp ijv t); agxq 1%
" yevso~E<as Train to!; £10015, suXoyov SueTv toutuiv slvai ty\v Ite-
" gov that if there were any beginning of the genera-
" tion of all animals, it is reasonable to think it to have
" been one of these two forementioned ways. It is
" well known, that Aristotle, though a Theist, else-
" where asserteth the world's eternity, according to
" which hypothesis of his, there was never any first
" male nor female, in any kind of animals; a thing ut-
" terly repugnant to our human faculties, that are never
" able to frame any conception of such an infinity of
" number and time, and of a successive generation from
" eternity. But here Aristotle himself seems staggering
" or sceptical about it : if men were ever generated out
" of the earth; and, if there were any beginning of the
" generation of animals. As he doth also in his Topics
"propound it for an instance of a thing disputable;
" Horspov 0 xoo-pos citfoo; >j ou, whether the world were
" eternal or no ? He ranking it amongst those %ep\ wv
" \iyov fj.rj exopiev ovroov peyukwv, those great things for
" which we can give no certain reason, one way nor
" other. Now, saith he, if the world had a beginning,
" and if men were once yrjyevsTf, or auro^floi/ej, earth-
" born, then must they have been, in all probability,

96 SERMON III.
to which our uninformed intellect may be
reduced. And if others reasoned better by
considering man as a creature, yet were
they completely at a loss as to the truth of
his original formation ; how or when he
was made, with what capacities endowed,
or for what end, were questions on which
their discussions, whatever ability they
might display, could lead to no satisfactory
conclusion. Nor could it be otherwise.
When they lost the tradition of their ori
gin, or at least when it became so con-

" generated as worms out of putrefaction, or else out
" of eggs; he supposing, it seems, those eggs grown out
" of the earth. But the generality of Atheists in Ari-
" stotle's time, as well as Theists, denying this eternity
" of the Mundane System, as not so agreeable with
" their hypothesis, because so constant and invariable
" an order in the world from eternity hath not such an
" appearance or semblance of chance, nor can be easily
" supposed to have been without the providence of a
" Perfect Mind presiding over it, and senior to it (as
" Aristotle conceived) in nature though not in time;
"they therefore in all probability concluded likewise,
" men at first to have been generated one of these two
" ways, either out of putrefaction or from eggs, and
" this by the fortuitous motion of matter, without the
" providence or direction of any Deity." lntell. Syst.
p. 688.

SERMON III. 97
fused as to afford no certain light, they
could only consider man as he then was,
and reason from the view thus afforded
them as to the source from which he came,
and the constitution with which he was
first endowed. And when they did begin
to analyze our common nature, what a
mass of irreconcileable contradictions must
they have found it! When they reflected
upon the higher powers of the mind, and
its wonderful capacity of meditation and
discourse ; when they observed the work
ings of conscience, approving what was
right, even in defiance of the will and affec
tions, and correcting the aberrations of the
heart, even in the midst of prosperity and
enjoyment, they were ready to conclude,
that a being possessed of such noble quali
ties of mind was himself the god of this
lower world. But on the other hand, when
they saw this same being a slave to the
basest passions, breaking through the re
straints which his own internal monitor
would have imposed upon him, wallowing
in every carnal indulgence with more than
brutal greediness, not only giving the reins
H

98 SERMON III.
to his appetites beyond the bounds of mo
deration, but making his reason the pander
of those very appetites it was appointed to
control, by the discovery of means to sti
mulate the overcharged powers of the body,
it was scarcely possible for them not to
place him below the meanest of the brute
creation. It was not therefore to be won
dered atf, that under such circumstances
f The excellent Pascal, in demonstrating the supe
riority of the Christian religion from the satisfactory so
lution it gives to all the contrarieties of human nature,
has stated this point with great force. " Shall it be,"
says he, " the religion of those philosophers, who pro-
" posed no other good but what they would have us
" find in our own persons ? Is this the true and sove-
" reign good ? Or have these men discovered the reme-
" dy of our evils ? Was it a proper method for the cure
" of man's presumption thus to equal him with God ?
" On the other hand, have those succeeded better in
" restraining our earthly desires, who would bring us
" down to the level of beasts, and present us with sen-
" sual gratifications for our real and universal happiness ?
" ' Lift up your eyes to God,' said those of the former
" tribe, ' behold him who has stamped you with his
" image, and has made you for his worship. You have
" not only a capacity of being like him, but wisdom, if
" you follow its directions, will even render you his
" peers.' While those of the latter herd cried with no
" less earnestness, ' Cast down your eyes to the ground,
" base worms of the earth as you are ; and look on the

SERMON III. 99
they should have found it difficult to come
to any conclusion at all; that their best
reasoning should have ended in vague con
jecture ; and that while some raised him to
heaven on account of the faculties of his
soul, others confined him entirely to the
earth, whence alone the greater part of
mankind seemed to derive their highest
gratification. One short sentence of Divine
truth has dispelled all this darkness, and
at once cleared a way for overcoming all
the difficulties, and reconciling all the ap
parent contradictions in which the subject
has been involved. We are not now left
to reason upwards from man to his Maker,
" beasts, your goodly partners and fellows.' What then
" is to be the fate of man ? Shall he be equal to God ? or
" shall he not be superior to the beasts ? How frightful,
" how shocking a distance this ! What shall we be
" then ? What religion shall instruct us to correct at
" once our pride and our concupiscence ? What reli-
" gion shall disclose to us our happiness and our duty ;
" together with the infirmities, which stop us in so de-
" sired a course, the proper help of those infirmities,
" and the means of obtaining this help ? Let us hear
" what answer we receive upon the whole inquiry from
" the wisdom of God, speaking to us in the Christian
" Religion." Pascal's Thoughts, p. 34, 35. See also
p. 38, 43, 44, 45.
H 2

100 SERMON III.
and trace his origin and his duty through
all the mass of corruption in which the
ruins of his nature were buried ; but hav
ing been told in plain terms how he was
made, and what was his primary constitu
tion, we are enabled to see clearly with
what perfect justice such a creature may
be required to perform what his Creator
has enjoined him. Knowing his origin,
we know his relations, his capacities, and
the duties which must necessarily result
from them. Not that we are left to collect
this by the exertions of our own reason,
even with the help of the information thus
conveyed to us. Thank God, our duty is
plainly detailed to us in the Scriptures,
and great is the cause we have to rejoice
that it is so. Man in his present state has
so great a disinclination to the performance
of his duty, that he is little to be trusted in
drawing its details, even when furnished
with the knowledge necessary for the task.
The still defective schemes5 of those who,
g Conybeare as above. Dialogue on the Strength
and Weakness of Human Reason. Dr. John Ellis's ex
cellent Treatise on the Knowledge of Divine Things.

SERMON III. 101
with all their acknowledged advantages,
have made the attempt, in order to demon
strate the sufficiency of human reason for
the conduct of human life, prove with evi
dence enough how inadequate are the abi
lities of men to the accomplishment of this
important work. Still the knowledge of
man's original frame and constitution sup
plies us with a clear view of the end for
which he was designed, and consequently
of his obligation to perform all that, what
ever it might be, which was requisite to
the attainment of that end. And not only
so, but this knowledge teaches us likewise
that he was endued with powers commen
surate to his duties. But this important
information we derive with certainty11 from
that Revelation alone, which God himself
has been pleased to make and to preserve
in the sacred writings of the inspired teach
ers of the human race ; and if that inform
ation tends directly to prove, that man was
formed for the undeviating pursuit of what
is just and good, it tends also in the same
h Lactantius treats largely and ably of this in his
book, De Origine Erroris.
H 3

102 SERMON III.
degree to demonstrate, that the Revela
tion, in which it is contained, is most clear
ly and decidedly moral in its form and de
sign. The original constitution and situ
ation of man is therefore, viewed in this
light, a point of great importance in the
consideration of human duty. For we must
always keep in mind, that whatever was
the nature of man as he came at first from
the hands of his Maker, and whatever duty
he was by that nature intended and en
abled to perform, the extent and obligation
of that duty cannot be diminished by any
effects, which, under a change of circum
stances, may appear not so entirely to co
incide with the faculties or dispositions of
the human mind. Undoubtedly at first,
and in the intention of their benevolent
Creator, the duty and the well-being of all
his creatures were most intimately united ;
and whenever they discharged what by
their nature they were bound to perform,
they promoted at the same time the im
mediate happiness of that nature. But a
change in their nature would necessarily
produce a change in this adaptation. If

SERMON III. 103
*
indeed the change were for the better, and
made by their Creator himself, as the range
of their duty would be enlarged, so the
sphere of their enjoyment would be ex
tended in proportion ; but if it were for the
worse, and wrought by their own weakness
or wickedness, though their duty would
continue the same, as being imposed by
Him who gave them their existence, and
originally adapted their duty to the mode
of that existence, it might on such a change
prove the source of uneasiness and diffi
culty. The nature being deteriorated, and
the duty still continuing in its primitive
excellence, they would no longer coincide
exactly with each other; and while the per
formance would require greater exertion,
its beneficial effects would not be so imme
diately apparent, and might upon occasion
seem contrary to the immediate interest of
the individual. Possibly this point may not
have been so much considered as it ought
to be. It does not follow, that because
we at present find some duties difficult, and
attended with inconvenience either to our
interest or inclination, that therefore we
H 4

104 SERMON III.
are not under a natural obligation to per
form them. When God Almighty imposed
the duty, He imposed it upon a nature
which He himself had so formed, as to be
both capable of what He enjoined, and as
sured of finding its happiness directly ad
vanced by the performance. For the na
ture which God gave man was a perfect
nature ; and if it was perfect, it was neces
sarily possessed of all those capacities which
were required to attain the end of its crea
tion. And thus we come to see the im
portance of ascertaining in what this per
fection of man consisted, and how closely
the knowledge of his real nature is con
nected with the knowledge of his duty.
What that nature is, can only be learnt
from examining the contents of my text.
We are there told, that " God made man
" in his own image." Now to be made
" in the image of God" will be understood
at once as implying some resemblance to
Him, the being in some sense or degree
like Him. But in what this resemblance
consisted has been made an object of in
quiry, and some slight differences of opin-

SERMON III. 105
ion have obtained respecting it; or rather
indeed learned and ingenious men, view
ing this, like many other subjects, in every
possible way, have indulged themselves in
assigning any point of resemblance, which
appeared to have some plausibility of in
terpretation. These it would be of little
advantage to examine. The main point
is clear. When we have correct notions
of God himself, we cannot easily mistake
as to what we are principally to under
stand, when man is said to be made in his
image, and to be like Him. Holy Scrip
ture informs us, that God is a Spirit, that
He is perfect in goodness, and that amongst
his attributes his justice and his wisdom
are eminently conspicuous. From this it
follows, that any resemblance to God must
be spiritual. Whatever excellence the body
of man might have been originally endow
ed with, whatever of beauty or strength he
might possess, it was not with respect to
these he was said to be made in the image
of the Almighty. They were no doubt the
gift of his Maker, and his strength might
in some sense be supposed to shadow out in

106 SERMON III.
the lord of this lower world that incontrol-
lable Power, which held, and had a right to
hold, all things in obedience to its com
mand. But in this, other animals, possess
ing a still larger share of natural strength,
though not invested with dominion, might
seem to surpass their delegated Master.
It was the spirit within, that gave him his
decided superiority ; it was because the
Father of spirits had breathed into his nos
trils the breath of life, and made him a
living soul, that he, rather than they, was
said to be made in the Divine image. This
must be acknowledged. Without entering
into any critical disquisition of terms, it is
obvious to remark, that if by the expres
sions, " breathing the breath of life, and
" man's becoming a living soul," be meant
no more than his being endowed with a
principle of animal existence, every animal
that breathed was as much a living soul as
man ; and we must conclude, that though
we are told with great solemnity and pre
cision, how the Almighty himself commu
nicated the principle of life to his last and
chief work, yet no more is intended by this,

SERMON III. 107
than when the earth and the sea are com
manded to produce every living thing ac
cording to its kind. It is impossible to ac
cede to an interpretation so cold and de
fective. When we consider the simplicity
and conciseness of the sacred narrative ;
when it appears evident, upon the very face
of the history, that no more has been said
than is absolutely necessary for giving the
information intended, it is not to be con
ceived, that so particular a mark of dis
tinction described in such precise terms
should have no particular meaning. It is
against the very form and character of sa
cred writ. Fair and just reasoning would
induce us rather to conclude, that as the
account of God's bestowing a soul upon
man was thought worthy of a particular
detail, that detail was designed to show,
that the soul of man was of a very different
nature from the animal life of brutes, that
it was derived from a higher source, endow
ed with different and higher faculties, and
intended to answer higher and nobler ends.
It was, when " God breathed into man the
" breath of life, and he became a living

108 SERMON III.
" soul," that he received the impress of
his Maker's image, the image of that Su
preme Being, who, as He had himself no
thing material, could not by any thing ma
terial be resembled. Man, as formed from
the dust of the earth, was a mere lump of
figured clay ; and though the erectness of
that figure might seem to give him some
external advantages over the beasts that
surrounded him, yet this advantage did
not alter his nature, he still continued a
being entirely material, and could not rise
above the earth from which he was taken.
But when He, who cannot be conceived of
aright, unless He is acknowledged to be a
Pure Spirit, is said to breathe upon man,
and upon that breathing man became a
living soul, it is impossible not to see, that
whatever was then conveyed was also pure
spirit, and in its original purity carried
with it the image of its Maker. In truth,
it does not appear how this part of the sa
cred, history can be considered as adequate
ly understood or duly appreciated, unless
it be admitted to convey to man the know
ledge of his real nature as consisting of an

SERMON III. 10.9
immortal soul, breathed by God himself
into a body which his infinite wisdom had
prepared for it, and in which it was intend
ed to exercise the noble faculties with which
it was endowed. When we reflect upon
the many subtle questions connected with
this subject, it will appear surely a point of
sufficient importance to be noticed in the
account of the creation. It was certainly
most useful for man to be informed of the
origin of this frame of things of which he
finds himself a part, and to know precisely
whence this curious body, in which he ex
ists, was derived. But if this was useful, if
it was useful for him to be told, that God
Almighty formed his body out of the dust
of the earth, surely it must be confessed,
that it was of the last importance that he
should not be ignorant what kind of a
creature he was; whether, like the brutes
around him, he had only an animal life, or
whether there was within him any higher
principle of existence, any nobler and purer
and more spiritual essence, to mark him as
a being of a higher class. But unless in
this particular account, the history of the

110 SERMON III.
creation does not precisely inform us, that
man has a soul as well as a body. Though
when he is said to have been made in the
image of God, we must necessarily sup
pose, that the image intended was spi
ritual, yet this only makes it more proba
ble, that somewhere in the narrative of his
origin he would be informed, as well of the
descent of his spiritual part from heaven,
as that his material part was taken from
earth. And that he was told it here, no
considerate person can, I think, permit
himself to doubt. The immortality of the
soul, as necessarily resulting from its spi
ritual nature, was, with whatever alloy of
error, and whatever uncertainty of opinion,
very generally maintained in the world';
and no more rational source can be assign
ed for such a general reception of this great
truth, than that it was handed down among
those traditionary notices which descended
to heathens as well as Jews from the com
mon father of the human race, and which,
as far as they were true, rested on the
same basis of primeval revelation as the
' Cudworth's Intell. Syst. p. 20, 21, &c.

SERMON III. Ill
more accurate detail of the inspired histo
rian. But the image of God thus stamped
upon the soul of man must be considered
as not merely making him a spiritual be
ing. We have seen, that the perfection of
God is holiness, and that amongst his mo
ral and communicable attributes his wis
dom and righteousness are always displayed
in Scripture with peculiar care and effect.
No being therefore can be like Him, who
is not in some degree holy as He is, and
endued also with a portion of his wisdom
and justice. God is indeed essentially holy,
and infinitely wise and just ; and therefore
the holiness and wisdom and justice of every
creature must be for ever infinitely below
those attributes of the Divine nature ; but
man could not with any accuracy have
been said to be like God, unless he had in
his original constitution a portion of that
holiness and justice. And not only so;
but he would not have been a perfect be
ing, unless he had been so far a partaker
of them as was necessary for his rank and
place in the creation. Man therefore by

112 SERMON III.
being made in the image of God, was made,
not only a spiritual, but a moral being; and
as he was endowed with all that perfection
which his situation required, he was so far
morally perfect as to be capable of under
standing and performing all those duties,
which either the obligation arising from his
nature, or the immediate command of his
Creator, might impose upon him. The very
attributes of God therefore, and the asser
tion that man was made like God, con
vince us at once, that the being, whose
formation is thus described, must, in his
original constitution, and in the intention
of his Maker, be possessed of an enlarged
capacity, and great goodness of disposition;
that he must have on his mind such im
pressions of rectitude, and such perceptions
of duty, as were ready to exert themselves
in act whenever opportunities of action
should occur. It would seem that thus
much is necessarily implied in the image
of God. It is strange to observe how some
commentators seem afraid of investing our
first parent, as he came from the hands of
the All-wise and All-powerful source of

SERMON III. 113
every moral and intellectual capacity, with
a common portion of reason and under
standing1'; almost denying him the use of
speech, though we are so expressly told,
that the Almighty freely conversed with
his creature, and freely imparted to him
all the knowledge of which he stood in
need. Let us beware how we pervert the
oracles of God by our own vain conjec
tures, or detract from their truth by a de
nial of any part of their plain communica
tions. Open infidelity is scarcely worse than
the vanity which tempts men, not merely
to bring down divine truth to the level of
their own understanding, but to make it
square with their own systems. This has
always been, and always will be, a fruitful
source of error, and can only be guarded
against effectually by taking the Scripture
itself for our guide in its clear and obvious
meaning. And in this instance that mean
ing appears obvious enough. The moral
attributes of God are clearly those of which
k See the learned Dr. Jonathan Edwards's Preserva
tion against Socinianism, in which this subject is most
ably illustrated. I

114 SERMON III.
such a creature as man is most capable of
partaking, and which are in themselves
most evidently communicable; and as he
is said to be made in the image of God, it
is essential to his very make and constitu
tion, that he should be an intellectual arid
a moral being.
But if the moral character of man, and
the intention of his Creator to employ him
in moral acts and duties, be thus evident
from the very history of his origin, it is no
less evident from the situation in which he
was placed, and the task which was assign
ed him, at his first entrance on life. His
immediate employment was to " dress the
" garden," which the Almighty had not
disdained to plant for him ; to pay an at
tentive regard to her, who had been formed
to assist him in all the work he might have
to perform ; and to exercise that superin
tendence over the inferior creatures, which
is plainly implied in the dominion assigned
him. The performance of these duties re
quired, not care and anxiety indeed, (for
while every creature retained its original
perfection, it moved with unerring recti-

SERMON III. 115
tude,) but diligence and attention ; such
as might teach man, that he was from the
first intended to be an industrious creature,
and not a mere indolent consumer of the
fruits, which had been prepared for his sub
sistence. To " dress the garden" plainly
implies so much ; and it is certainly no di
minution of the Divine goodness or wis
dom, that the earth was endued with such
a vigorous fertility as to require the hand
of man to restrain the luxuriance, and to
correct the wanderings, of a too abun
dant produce. No doubt the Almighty
could, and the Omniscient knew how to
have suited the produce to the precise
wants of his creatures ; but as He willed it
to be otherwise, so, as far as we can see,
we must acknowledge that his Will coin
cided with his Wisdom. As He intended
man to be an industrious creature, and as
He knew that employment would be con
ducive to his happiness, He so arranged
his circumstances as to supply him with an
occupation, which might engage his atten
tion and call for his exertion, and form an
elegant relaxation for his mind. But this
i 2

116 SERMON III.
was not all he had to do. In the partner
of his duties and enjoyments, he had an ob
ject whereon to bestow his social affections,
and so to exercise himself in the cultivation
of those affections, as to be prepared for
the time, when the promised increase of his
race would call for a very enlarged practice
of his social duties. To the various crea
tures below him, he had in charge to be
have as a gracious lord and master; and he
was expressly fitted for this dominion by an
acquaintance with their various natures and
propensities. The whole terrestrial system,
animate and inanimate, at that time con
fined within bounds comparatively narrow,
lay before him, in which he might trace
and adore the footsteps of his Maker. But
he was not left to trace them alone, per
fect as he was. His Creator was his In
structor, and taught him as well the nature
of his situation as the duties which belong
ed to it. That He conversed with him, we
know; and can we doubt, that He, who
made him such as he was, and made him
for wise ends, informed him what those ends
were, and how best he might answer them ?

SERMON III. 117
It is in religion alone that a doubt so un
reasonable would be admitted. The whole
account of God's placing man in Paradise
clearly implies, in the fairest construction
of its terms, that He taught him what he
was to do there. In one instance this is
necessarily acknowledged, since we are told
in so many words, that God gave man a
law for the trial of his obedience. But it
is made a question, whether this law was
moral or positive, as I conceive with little
necessity. That there is a distinction be
tween moral and positive duties, considered
in themselves, will readily be granted ; but
it should be observed at the same time,
that the principle of obedience is moral,
even when the matter of the duty is posi
tive. For what is that principle ? Is it not
submission to the command of one, who
has an acknowledged right to our service ?
And if that principle be not founded in
moral obligation, it is in vain to inquire
for the basis of human duty. Then is order
and government, however pure and how
ever correct, an unnatural restraint upon
human liberty, and the command of God
1 3

118 SERMON III.
himself might be neglected or transgressed
without remorse, could his power be con
trolled or his knowledge evaded. But the
moral nature and tendency of this com
mand may be evinced from its very matter.
The fruit, which was prohibited, was not
without its allurements and attractions. It
was fair to the sight, and inviting to the
palate, and powerfully excited curiosity
by its promise of enlarging the bounds of
knowledge, and opening wider scenes of
contemplation to the understanding. It
acted therefore as a test of obedience, not
merely as the subject of a divine prohibi
tion, but as proving whether man could rer
strain within the prescribed limits those
appetites of mind and body, to the undue
indulgence of which it afforded a tempta
tion. Now in what can the moral perfec
tion of man be supposed to consist, if not
in this, that all his appetites and passions
be kept under proper subjection, and re
strained by the dictates of reason within
the known line of his duty? What is tem
perance, but the due regulation of appetite,
in respect to the quantity and quality of

SERMON III. 119
food? What is the best guard of conti
nence, but turning away the eye, that it
may not behold vanity ? Vanity, which is
seducing because it is fair, and therefore
vain, because it is deceitful and destruc
tive! When God Almighty therefore order
ed man to abstain from eating of the Tree
of Knowledge, He imposed upon him the
moral duty of keeping his appetites and
passions in due order ; and forbade him to
indulge either his eye or his palate beyond
what the necessities of nature required, or
its real enjoyments permitted. But this
prohibition had respect to the regulation
of his mind, no less than his body. God
had condescended to teach him every thing
which it was necessary for him to know-
He knew his Almighty Maker, and the
duty which he owed Him ; he knew him
self, and his ability to perform that duty;
and knowing this, he knew every thing
that could possibly contribute to his hap
piness. There was indeed a dark and
gloomy sphere, the knowledge of which his
Creator did not impart to him, and with
which it was not intended that he should
i 4

120 SERMON III.
ever become acquainted. What then was
the duty, the moral duty of man in such
circumstances ? To acquiesce, doubtless,
in the will of Him, who best knew what
was most conducive to his real happiness
and real improvement. Be it granted,
that he felt within himself an appetite of
knowledge, which, when excited by an ob
ject sufficiently alluring, became a danger
ous curiosity. To preserve the moral health
of his mind, it was certainly requisite, that
he should prevent this desire of knowledge,
which was given him for improvement,
from either becoming so immoderate in
degree, as to involve him in distracting dif
ficulties, or by fixing upon improper ob
jects, to withdraw him from the contempla
tion of that to which his nature was suited,
and by attending to which he would be
come indeed wiser and better.
It must then surely be confessed, that
the whole arrangement of man's situation
in Paradise, and the particular prohibition
which was laid upon him there, had an im
mediate tendency to preserve unimpaired
the moral perfection with which he was

SERMON III. 121
originally endowed, and in which the ex
cellence of his nature consisted. For in
this he was like God his Creator; and he
could hope to retain that likeness only so
long as he did not lose the integrity of his
mind, or pollute the purity of his body.
The perfection of man was his resemblance
to God in goodness ; and to retain that re
semblance in its primitive vigour was at
once his highest duty and his nearest in
terest. But it is impossible to close this
part of our subject without observing, what
has not been sufficiently observed, that the
first of moral duties is obedience to the
plain command of Almighty God. For if
moral duty be that to which we are bound
by the nature of the relations in which we
stand to the various objects around us, no
thing can be clearer, than that the relation
in which we stand to our Creator de
mands from us the most implicit reliance
on his word, and the most perfect submis
sion to his Will. To the work of his hands
He has assuredly the right of assigning
what portion He pleases ; and it must be
acknowledged, that He knows best what

122 SERMON III.
will best suit a creature, all whose endow
ments and capacities are derived from
Himself. When therefore He forbade man
to taste of the Tree of Knowledge, He laid
him under a moral obligation of obeying
the will of his Creator ; an obligation,
which he could not deny or transgress,
without infringing the relation in which he
stood to Him, from whom his 'very being
was derived. And not only so ; but his
belief or disbelief of God's word was in
volved in his obedience or disobedience to
his command. For He who knew all the
recesses of the human heart, and under
stood even the nature of that evil from
which He was essentially free, had said ex
pressly, that the transgression of his com
mand would be followed by wretchedness
and death. A regard to the Divine vera
city therefore, and respect for that truth
which can never be separated from the Di
vine nature, imperiously called upon man
to believe the warning he had received,
and in that belief never to have risked the
loss of his innocence and happiness, by
carelessly neglecting or presumptuously

SERMON III. 123
contemning the word of his God. And it
will for ever call upon him in the same
manner. In vain will he boast, that he
was made in the image of the Almighty, if,
by distrusting or disregarding the admoni
tions of his Maker, he shows that his mind
is alienated from divine truth, and no longer
retains the impress of divine goodness.

SERMON IV.

Isaiah lix. 2.
But your iniquities have separated between you
and your God, arid your sins have hid his face
from you, that He will not hear.
AV HAT is here asserted by Isaiah of the
Israelites in particular, is true of the whole
race of mankind ; the cause of that sepa
ration which took place between God and
his creatures was in each case the same;
and wherever it continues, it continues for
no other reason. To this the whole con
text of Revelation bears witness. When
the frame of this world was finished, and
all its inhabitants placed in their respective
situations, the eye of its Creator rested on it
with satisfaction, and his voice pronounced
it good ; for as his benevolence had first
moved Him to give his creatures being, so
the same benevolence prompted Him to
make that being a source of happiness and

126 SERMON IV.
enjoyment. This was proof sufficient of
his good-will towards them ; and as there
could be in him " no variableness, neither
" shadow of turning"," as " his gifts have
" ever been without repentanceb" on his
part, the cause, for which his favour was
withdrawn, must be sought, not in Him,
but in the creatures themselves. God,
whom our Liturgy represents as " hating
" nothing that He has madec," and of
whom an infallible authority assures us,
that He " has no pleasure in the death d"
or misery of any individual of our species,
neither restrained the current of his boun
ty, nor poured upon man the vial of his
wrath, from any indisposition to his welfare;
Far otherwise : He made him to be happy,
and He wished him to be happy. That
garden, called emphatically the garden of
delight6, in which He placed him, and
which He had condescendingly planted fdr
his use, was designed by his Almighty
a James i. 17'. Bishop Bull has explained this text
with great felicity and elegance. See Harmon. Apost:
p. 501, &c.
b Rom. xi. 29. c Collect in Commination Service.
d Ezek. xviii. 23—32. e See Parkhurst in nj\

SERMON IV. 127
Father to afford him every comfort which
his soul could desire, and left in fact no
reasonable desire unsatisfied. But, not
withstanding this clear manifestation of the
Divine Will, notwithstanding all the ca
pacity of happiness with which man was
endowed, and all the provision which was
made for supplying that capacity with
proper materials to work upon in the am
plest manner, a change, we know, did
take place, and man was condemned to
misery by the same Almighty Creator,
who formed him at first, and formed him
for happiness. The cause of this change
is assigned by Revelation in the plainest
and most intelligible terms ; and in assign
ing that cause, it is consistent with itself
from beginning to end. And well would
it be for the peace and the virtue of man,
if he could rest contented with this plain
declaration of the truth ; and, instead of
employing himself in forming schemes and
systems of subtle but perverse ingenuity,
consider, with the attention it deserves, the
important moral lesson which that truth
is calculated to teach him. But the cu-

128 SERMON IV.
riosity which was so fatal to our first pa
rents, still operates with unabated violence
in many of their descendants, and it is
unhappily aided in its efforts by an auda
city and a presumption, which could have
place only in minds that have lost in a
great degree a proper sense of the Divine
Majesty. Thus men, in searching for the
reason which induced the Almighty to
change his measures towards their race,
have dared to scrutinize the councils of the
Most High, and to trace out those awful
footsteps, which He himself has declared
to be inscrutable B. But human pride can
not bear that there should be any thing
above its reach, and, what is worse, it can
not bear that the blame of its unhappiness
should be laid upon itself. It must not
only undertake to elucidate the whole coun
sel of God, and bring all his designs and
actions to the level of its own capacity, but
in doing so, it has not scrupled to make as
sertions which bring into question the con
sistency of his attributes. Assuming the
Omniscience and Omnipotence of God as
s Psalm lxxvii. 19.

SERMON IV. 129
the basis of their reasoning, they have
dared to limit his proceedings within such
narrow bounds as their own minds could
reach. All his designs must coincide with
their plan; and whatever their arguments
may have appeared to evince, that the Al
mighty must necessarily have decreed. But
it requires surely no great measure of hu
mility to acknowledge, that what We know
only in part, we should be careful not to
decide upon with presumption. " Known
" unto God," certainly, " are all his works
" from the beginning11," and all his inten
tions are ever present to his mind, with all
the means necessary for carrying them into
effect ; nor can there ever be any incom
patibility between one part of the Divine
economy and another. But though all
God's works and intentions are thus known
to Himself, it does not follow that they are
known to man; nor can they be known
any further than it has pleased God to re
veal them. All the reasonings of man re
specting them therefore must be conti
nually liable to error, because he is only
h Acts xv. 18.
K

130 SERMON IV.
acquainted with them in part ; and when
from that part he forms a system, to which
the whole must be reduced, he is guilty,
surely, of a most audacious invasion of
God's peculiar province. As far as the
express declarations of Scripture lead us,
so far, no doubt, we may safely go in the
doctrine of the Divine decrees ; but the
first step we take on this ground beyond
those declarations is one of inextricable dif
ficulty, and in which our ultimate failure is
inevitable. But it is not a step of difficulty
only, it is one of danger also ; as it will al
most unavoidably lead us into the sin of
offending the Majesty of our Creator, by
defacing the purity of his word. We shall
run the risk of charging Him with designs
which he abhors, and, by attributing to Him
actions unbecoming his justice, incur the
guilt of dishonouring his name and nature.
Thus in the point which we are now consi
dering, the change of God's proceedings
towards our first parents. Men of daring
minds' have reasoned upon it, till they
' The reader will find an account of the Supralapsa-
rian and Sublapsarian schemes, with the articles of the

SERMON IV. 131
have nearly removed the cause from them
selves to their Maker; and by deducing all
latter as settled at the Synod of Dort, in Heylyn's Quin-
quarticular History, p. 522, &c. 591, and 614. See also
Nichols. Defens. Eccl. Angl. But it will be useful for
him to weigh well the opinion of the learned Bishop
Sanderson upon these endeavours to pry into the mys
teries of God's decrees ; an opinion the more valuable,
because he had himself at one time been induced to
think well of the Sublapsarian method. " In 1625 a
" Parliament being called, wherein I was chosen one of
" the Clerks of the Convocation for the diocese of Lin-
" coin, during the continuance of that Parliament
" (which was about four months, as I remember) there
" was some expectation that those Arminian points,
" the only questions almost in agitation at that time,
" should have been debated by the Clergy in that Con-
" vocation : which occasioned me, as it did sundry
" others, being then at some leisure, to endeavour by
" study and conference to inform myself as thoroughly
" and exactly in the state of those controversies as I
" could have opportunity, and as my wit would serve
" me for it. In order whereunto, I made it my first
" business to take a survey of the several different opin-
" ions concerning the ordering of God's decrees, as to
" the salvation or damnation of men ; not as they are
" supposed to be really in Mente Divina, (for all his de-
" crees are eternal, and therefore coeternal, and so no
" priority or posteriority among them,) but quoad no-
" strum intelligendi modum, because we cannot conceive
" or speak of the things of God but in a way suitable
"to our own finite condition and understanding: even
" as God himself hath been pleased to reveal himself to
K 2

132 SERMON IV.
things from his absolute and irreversible
decree, have at once destroyed every moral
" us in the holy Scriptures by the like suitable con-
" descensions and accommodations. Which opinions,
" the better to represent their differences to the eye,
" uno quasi intuitu, for their more easy conveying to the
" understanding by that means, and the avoiding of
" confusion and tedious discoursings, I reduced into
" five schemes or tables, much after the manner as I
"had used in pedigrees, (a thing which I think you
" know I have very much fancied, as to me of all others
" the most delightful recreation,) of which schemes
" some special friends, to whom I showed them, desired
"copies  Having all these schemes before my eyes
" at once, so as I might with ease compare them one
" with another, and having considered of the conve-
" niences and inconveniences of each, as well as I couldj
" I soon discovered a necessity of quitting the Sublap-»
" sarian way, of which I had a better liking before, as
" well as the Supralapsarian, which I could never fan-
" cy." Dr. Hammond's Pacific Discourse, p. 10, 11.
To this it will be useful to add his opinion of Dr.
Twisse's hypothesis, as it is, I believe, still in much
esteem with many, and in particular with the more rigid
maintainers of predestination amongst my own coun
trymen. " Not many years after, to wit, A. D. 1632.
" out cometh Dr. Twisse's Vindicise Gratiae, a large
" volume, purposely writ against Arminius. And then,
" notwithstanding my former resolution, I must needs
" be meddling again. The respect I had for his person
" and great learning, and the long acquaintance 1 had
" with him at Oxford, drew me to the reading of that
" whole book. But from the reading of it (for I read

SERMON IV. 133
motive to obedience, and annihilated the
moral guilt of transgression. The plain
" it through to a syllable) I went away with many and
" great dissatisfactions. Sundry things in that book I
" took notice of, which brought me into a greater dis-
" like of his opinion than 1 had before. But especially
" these three : first, that he bottometh very much of his
" discourse upon a very erroneous principle, which yet
" he seemeth to be so deeply in love with, that he hath
" repeated it (I verily believe) some hundreds of times
" in that work ; to wit, this, (that whatsoever is first in
" the intention, is last in execution, et e converso.)
" Which is an error of that magnitude, that I cannot
" but wonder how a person of such acuteness and sub-
" tlety of wit could possibly be deceived with it. All
" logicians know, there is no such universal maxim as
" he buildeth upon. The true maxim is but this : Finis
" qui primus est in intentione, est ultimus in executione.
" In the order of final causes, and the means used for
" that end, the rule holdeth perpetually : but in other
" things it holdeth not at all, or but by chance, or not
" as a rule and necessarily. Secondly, that foreseeing
" such consequences would naturally and necessarily
" follow from his opinion, as would offend the ear of a
" sober Christian at the very first sound, he would yet
"^rather choose, not only to admit the said harsh conse-
" quences, but professedly endeavour also to maintain
" them, and plead hard for them in large digressions,
" than to recede in the least point from that opinion
"which he had undertaken to defend. Thirdly, that
" seeing, out of the sharpness of his wit, a necessity of
" forsaking the ordinary Sublapsarian way, and the Su-
" pralapsarian too, as it had diversely been declared by
R 3

134 SERMON IV-
and simple and instructive account of
Scripture gives us a very different view of
the matter; and one which will impress
us with higher ideas of God's righteous
ness, and with juster notions of our own
condition, with a deeper sense of the hei-
nousness of sin, and a conviction, that the
connection between happiness and virtue
was never violated from any cause but the

" all that had gone before him, (for the shunning of
" those rocks, which either of those ways must unavoid-
" ably cast him upon,) he was forced to seek out an
" untrodden path, and to frame out of his own brain a
" new way, like a spider's web wrought out of her own
" bowels, hoping by that device to salve all absurdities
" that could be objected; to wit, by making the glory
" of God, as it is indeed the chiefest, so the only end of
" all other his decrees, and then making all those other
" decrees to be but one entire coordinate medium con-
" ducing to that one end, and so the whole subordinate
" to it, but not any one part thereof subordinate to any
" other of the same. Dr. Twisse should have done well
" to have been more sparing in imputing the studium
" partium to others, wherewith his own eyes, though of
" eminent perspicacity, were so strangely blindfolded,
" that he could not discern how this his new device,
" and his old dearly beloved principle, like the Cadmean
" Sparti, do mutually destroy the one the other." Dr.
Pierce's Letter to Isaac Walton, prefixed to his Life of
Bishop Sanderson.

SERMON IV. 135
transgression of the law of God. In this
account we hear nothing of any Divine de
cree; we have no hint, nor the most dis
tant intimation, that the fall of a poor de
luded being was necessary to the manifes
tation of God's glory; but every part of
the narration tends directly and in the
clearest manner to assure us of this im
portant truth, that the only reason of God's
withdrawing his favour from his creatures
was the commission of sin on their part.
In all that passed between man and his
Creator previous to his transgression, there
was nothing to be seen but unmixed bene
volence and the most liberal bounty, a con
stant attention to his wants, and, to speak
after the manner of men, an anxious de
sire to promote and to secure his real hap
piness. It was no vacillation of purpose,
much Jess was it any insincerity of design k,
k The learned Dr. Hammond, in his Sermon on
Ezek. xviii. 31. sets himself vigorously to oppose this
error, at once dishonourable to God and injurious to
man. " Amongst all other prejudices and misconceits
" that our fancy can entertain of God, I conceive not
" any so frequent or injurious to his attributes, as to
" imagine him to deal double with mankind in his
K 4

136 SERMON IV.
which stopped the flow of the Divine boun
ty. God ever was and ever will be the
" word ; seriously to will one thing, and to make show
" of another ; to deliver himself in one phrase, and re-
" serve himself in another. It were an unnecessary
" officious undertaking to go about to be God's adyo-
" cate, to apologize for him, to vindicate his actions, or,
" in Job's phrase, to accept the person of God. Our
" proceedings will be more Christian, if we take for a
" ground or principle, that scorns to be beholden to an
" artist for proof, that every word of God is an argu-
" ment of his will, every action an interpreter of his
" word. So that howsoever he reveals himself, either in
" his Scripture or his works, so certainly he wisheth
" and intends to us in his secret counsels. Every pro-
" testation of his love, every indignation at our stub-
" bornness, every mercy conferred on us, and that not
" insidiously, but with an intent to do us good, are but
" ways and methods to express his will ; are but rays
" and emissions and gleams of that eternal love which
" he exhibits to the world." Again, a little further on
in the same discourse, he assures us, that " there is no
" one conceit that engages us so deep to continue in
" sin, that keeps us from repentance, and hinders any
" seasonable reformation of our wicked lives, as a per-
" suasion, that God's will is the cause of all events.
" Though we are not so blasphemous as to venture to
" define God the author of sin, yet we are generally in-
" clined for a fancy, that because all things depend on
" God's decree, whatsoever we have done, could not be
" otherwise ; all our care could not have cut off one sin
" from the catalogue. And so being resolved, that
" when we thus sinned, we could not choose, we can

SERMON IV. 137
same, and all his promises to man are yea
and amen ; but though God is thus immu
tably good, man was not endued with the
same vmalterable character of integrity. If
he changed therefore, he could hot expect
that God should treat him as before. The
very immutability of the Divine nature
made that impossible. Had the Almighty
continued to man after his sin the same
kind and degree of favour as He had shown
him while he preserved his integrity, it
might have been argued that God's regard
for integrity was not immutable. The real
nature of God's immutability is sometimes
misunderstood and misrepresented. It does
not consist in this1, that whatever God has
once promised, He must of necessity fulfil,
however altered the circumstances of the
case may be, but in a firm adherence to
his promises, supposing the circumstances
" scarce tell how to repent for such necessary fatal
" misdemeanors ; the same excuses which we have for
" having sinned formerly, we have for continuing stillj
" and so are generally better prepared for apologies than
" reformation." Sixth Sermon, p. 80 — 87-
1 Archbishop Sharp's Sermon on the Profitableness
of Prayer.

138 SERMON IV.
continue such as his promise contemplated.
It is argued by some, because we are told
in Scripture, that " the gifts of God are
" without repentance," therefore when
they have been once given, they can never
be withdrawn. The absurdity of this rea
soning is palpable enough, and experience
perpetually disproves it. There is no gift
of God which is not capable of being abus
ed, and which has not actually been abused,
and upon that abuse recalled. In the gifts
of fortune and of health, this is seen every
day ; and there is certainly nothing in Scrip
ture to prevent our saying, that the same
holds true of the gifts of grace. All " God's
" gifts are," doubtless, " without repent-
" ance," as far as His own gracious will
and divine benevolence are concerned ; and
the text is thus a full assurance, that they
will never be withdrawn from any unstea
diness in His kind intentions towards us.
Of this we may be certain ; and therefore
we may rely with perfect security on the
promise thus made us of divine support
and protection. But this promise, though
it assures us of the immutable good will of

SERMON IV. 139
God to those who have been once the ob
jects of his favour, does by no means se
cure them against a change in themselves :
it does not secure them against the effects
of their own presumption or carelessness
or folly; and should that presumption or
folly lead them to abuse the gifts of God,
either by neglect or transgression of His
commands, they must not plead the im
mutability of the Divine nature in bar of
the forfeiture to which they have subjected
themselves. This is clearly and express
ively exemplified in the address of God to
old Eli m, and in the proceedings respect
ing his family. On this occasion the Al
mighty acknowledges a change in his pro
ceedings, and assigns the reason of that
change. " The Lord God of Israel saith,
" I said indeed that thy house, and the
" house of thy fathers, should walk before
" me for ever : but now the Lord saith,
" Be it far from me ; for them that honour
" me I will honour, and they that despise
" me shall be lightly esteemed." The real
immutable purpose of God is contained in
m 1 Sam. ii. 30.

140 SERMON IV.
the last words, that He would bestow his
regard upon those who faithfully served
and obeyed Him: and therefore all his
promises are to be understood with this
implied condition, that the objects of his
favour continue such, as to make the be
stowing his bounty upon them not incon
sistent with His unalterable resolution, to
maintain a discernible difference " between
" him that serveth God and him that serv-
" eth him notn." It would have been in
vain for Eli to have pleaded, and he was,
with all his faults, too good a man to have
pleaded, that God had promised an eternal
priesthood to his father's house : for though
He had so promised, and his promises were
always inviolably observed, yet the fulfil
ment was not to be expected, unless the
circumstances remained the same as when
the promise was made. It was therefore
no capriciousness on the part of the Al
mighty, no change of purpose in Him,
which induced Him to withdraw his favour
from Eli's house ; but because the sons of
Eli were sons of Belial, and because it was
" Malachi iii. 18.

SERMON IV. 141
impossible, and totally incompatible with
the Divine justice, that the sons of Belial
should continue priests of the Most High
God. An awful consideration this, my re
verend brethren, but founded on the un-
moveable basis of eternal truth ! But if it
be peculiarly awful to us, as exemplified in
this instance, it applies to all With undi
minished force, when it is considered, how
clearly the same truth was promulgated in
God's method of proceeding with the fa
ther of the human race. To him the Al
mighty appeared as a gracious Creator,
bestowing upon his mind and body the
choicest of his gifts, and supplying him in
the most ample manner with all that he
could want, or ought to have desired. And
nothing of all the happiness he enjoyed
was bestowed upon him grudgingly, but
with that free bounty which assures the re
ceiver, that his benefactor wishes him to
enjoy and retain what he has. Free how
ever as this bounty was, and entire as was
the good will of Him from whom it flow
ed, it was held by a condition ; a condition
so indispensable, that its infringement was

142 SERMON IV.
necessarily to be followed by the forfeiture
of all that had been granted. The grant
was liberal and graciously designed ; but it
was declared beforehand, that a positive
penalty would be inflicted on transgres
sion. And the declaration was calculated to
teach, not only Adam himself, but all his
descendants for ever, that the gifts of God
are bestowed upon the condition of their
not being abused ; and that the withdraw
ing them, on their being abused, is no proof
of variableness on God's part, but results
necessarily from that regard to justice and
integrity which is essential to the Divine
nature. When therefore in any particular
instance they are withdrawn, the cause
should be sought, not in God, but man ; for
though the withdrawing them be the act of
the Almighty, yet the reason of that act is
always grounded upon some delinquency
in the creature. Thus the sin of man was
the sole cause of his misery ; the sole cause
of his being driven from the enjoyment of
unmixed good, and what compelled his
benevolent Creator to hide His face from
him. And is it possible to conceive any

SERMON IV. 143
thing better calculated to impress the hearts
of all men with an utter detestation of every
kind and degree of sin, than this short his
tory of its ruinous effects, in the very out
set of Divine Revelation ? This plain nar
rative, perplexed by no sophistical difficul
ties, is surely entitled to our most attentive
consideration. For when we reflect, what
was the state of things before this root of
bitterness was introduced among them;
when we view the peace and happiness and
blessed harmony of every thing in heaven
and earth, and see the Almighty himself
smiling in benevolence upon the pure en
joyments of his creatures ; and yet that all
this was changed at once into gloom and
wretchedness the moment sin was com
mitted; it is impossible not to discern the
detestable depravity and insufferable pollu
tion of what could thus defile and deface
the works of an All-wise and Omnipotent
Creator. It is stamped at once as odious
in the sight of God, and ruinous to man.
And it must surely be acknowledged, that
the Revelation, which thus commences with
a detail of the sad effects of sin, in destroy-

144 SERMON IV.
ing the fair fabric of human happiness, does
lay a strong basis of moral instruction, by
showing, in an instance calculated to in
terest the whole race of man, that the com
mission of sin cannot consist with his well-
being. It originally deprived the creature
of his Maker's favour, and it must for ever
continue to be offensive to that essential
righteousness, which belongs to the immut
able nature of God. Like him, who un
happily improved upon his father's wick
edness by imbruing his hands in a brother's
blood, it bears upon its front an eternal
mark of infamy, that all the descendants of
the first transgressor might, if they would,
avoid what had been so fatal to him. And
the mark is this, that it was the sole cause
of all the misery and corruption that ever
did or does torment and pollute the world.
If we ask, what introduced pain and suffer
ing and death into a system of things which
had a good God for its Author, the Scrip
ture tells us, it was sin. It does not per
plex us with metaphysical subtleties, or
presumptuous inquiries into the Divine de
crees ; it lays before us a plain matter of

SERMON IV. 145
fact ; and in that fact gives us the clearest
proof, which the* plainest understanding, if
honest, may comprehend and appreciate,
that man was made wretched by trans
gression ; and that to this we owe all the
doubts and difficulties, the external alarms
and inward fears, by which we are distract
ed, and all the more immediate evils of
poverty, disease, and want, whereby we
are constantly assailed. But not only are
those tormenting disorders, by which our
bodies are frequently excruciated, to be
referred to sin as their cause; death and
dissolution have no other origin. The pe
nalty, which God threatened before trans
gression, He did not denounce till it had
been fully incurred. The Apostle is ex
press, that " by sin death entered into the
" world0;" and if so, it is fair to conclude,
that had sin never appeared, death would ne
ver have had any power to disunite the soul
and body of man. How great an evil death
was, when thus first introduced, and how
much it broke in upon and disorganized
the natural constitution of our being, may
° Rom. v. 12.
L

146 SERMON IV.
yet be collected from the repugnance, with
which every mind, not entirely lost to the
better feelings and better hopes of that
nature, entertains the idea of dissolution.
Those better feelings working within us
show, that death had no hold on man's
original frame, and made no part of God's
original purpose in regard to him. Of this
lamentable depravation of the human sys
tem it may be said with truth, as our Sa
viour said upon another occasion, " An
" enemy hath done thisp." It was indeed
the work of an enemy. The Almighty him
self had called myriads of creatures into a
happy existence, and well deserved to be
considered and adored as their best friend
and benefactor ; but sin, which is in every
sense the opposite of the Divine purity,
sought to annihilate the creation of God,
and reduce to nothing the beings whom
He had endowed, not with life and sensa
tion only, but with the nobler faculties of
reason and understanding. And as far as
the Almighty Creator permitted this poi
son to operate, it did introduce into his
P Matth. xiii. 28.

SERMON IV. 147
works that which was most directly con
trary to his purpose. Where He made, sin
destroyed ; where He had bestowed health
and vigour, sin brought sickness and imbe
cility; where God had conferred life, sin
deprived the creature of the precious gift,
and involved him in all the horror of appa
rent destruction.
Nor does it by any means make death
less an evil, that some men, of depraved
minds and correspondent conduct, affect
to consider it as an advantage, and endea
vour to persuade themselves and others,
that it is indeed an eternal destruction of
soul and body. For why do they affect so
to consider it, and why do they endeavour
so to persuade men? Because they know
what their wickedness has deserved, and
they feel alarmed by those anticipations of
future punishment, which their minds, being
originally made for immortality, most na
turally and .readily entertain. Were there
no fear of hell, and no conscience to tell
the abandoned sinner how he has deserved
that hell, abandoned as he is, he would
yet abhor annihilation. But " yielding his
l 2

148 SERMON IV.
" members as instruments of unrightebus-
" ness unto sin q," and plainly told by the
word of God, that no impenitent sinner
can go to heaven, he would gladly labour
for a conviction, that either the only place
to which he can go has no existence, or
that he himself will not exist to go thither.
Yet let this sinner have but one ray of
hope, that he may possibly escape the pu
nishment which he fears, and that, although
life should be extended beyond the grave,
it may not necessarily be extended in mi
sery, and death will again appear to him,
as it is, an evil, and his soul will grasp with
fervor the prospect of continued existence.
But though it should be otherwise, though,
in such as these, the voice of nature should
be stifled by the overwhelming burden of
their transgressions, what right have they
to be heard upon a question of this kind,
whose sentiments are the result, not of na
tural feeling, but of a superinduced habit
of vice? It is their wisdom, no doubt, to
choose annihilation rather than eternal tor
ment. Let the better and larger part of
i Rom. vi. 13.

SERMON IV. 149
mankind be heard ; let the feelings of those
be consulted, as a fair specimen of what is
really natural to the human heart in its
wishes on this subject, whose minds are
most free from the bias of evil affections
and bad habits, and who can look with
least dread upon the opening of a scene,
which, when once opened, shall never have
a close. They will tell you, without hesi
tation, that, as the love of life is natural to
man, so the hope of the soul's surviving a
temporary dissolution of the body is con
solatory to their hearts, and their best sup
port under all the varied calamities of a
life, too full of misery to be the final abode
of such as endeavour to serve a good God.
That it is a world of misery, though still
abounding in proofs of its Maker's benefi
cence, common experience too clearly de
monstrates; it is demonstrated even by the
fleeting nature of the good it contains, and
above all, by that fatal inroad upon man's
original destination, which compels him,
when he has just learned to live, to relin
quish the scene in which the lessons of his
experience and wisdom would be, to ap-
l 3

150 SERMON IV.
pearance, most usefully practised. But
death has obtained an uncontrollable do
minion over the sons of men ; and this do
minion the Scripture attributes to sin, and
sin alone : it never intimates, in the most
remote degree, that there was any other
cause for disturbing the harmony of God's
works, or any other inducement for the
Almighty to change his measures towards
the creature whom He had so distinguish
ed by his bounty. That Apostle, whose
authority has been used with an unwar
rantable freedom in prying into the mys
tery of the Divine decrees, is clear and ex
plicit in asserting, that the misery of man
has been caused by his sin alone ; his plain
and unequivocal declarations are, that
" death entered into the world by sin,"
and that "the wages of sin is death r."
His high and ennobling ideas of the Divine
justice would not allow him for a moment
to suppose, or to give any countenance to
the supposition, that when man lost his
happiness, he incurred that loss by any
thing but his own misconduct. In this
r Rom. vi. 23.

SERMON IV. 151
view his expression is very remarkable ; he
calls " death the wages of sin." Wages
are that which has been deserved ; to which
there is in fact a claim by contract, and
for which adequate" work has been done.
And when he puts man's unhappy fall upon
this footing ; when he asserts broadly, that
death, and all the various ills which harass
our race from their cradle to their grave,
are what man has merited by his own act,
it is impossible to conceive, how he could
express in stronger terms, that human de
pravity was the sole cause of human mi
sery. Still those, who presumptuously endea
vour to " be wise above what is written,"
are not satisfied. They read, that our Sa
viour Jesus was " the Lamb slain from the
" foundation of the world s," and that his
faithful servants were " chosen in Him be-
" fore the foundation of the world*;" and
upon their own interpretation of these pas
sages they proceed to construct a system,
a great part of which rests upon nothing
but their own gratuitous assumption. Be
s Rev. xiii. 8. ' Eph. i. 4.
L 4

152 SERMON IV.
it, that the Omniscient, foreseeing the fall
of his creature, did provide a remedy for
that fall even before it had taken place:
what then ? Because His mercy was prompt
to devise means by which the total destruc
tion of man might be prevented, is it just
or reasonable or decent to conclude, that
any part of that destruction was owing to
His decree? No such decree appears in
Scripture ; and we may therefore fairly
aver, that it has existed only in the ima
ginations of those, who, upon so awful a
subject, have too much indulged their own
fancied infallibility. The ground upon
which so audacious a charge was made
ought surely to have been, not only firm,
but prominently conspicuous ; which in
this instance is far from being the case.
Their argument rests upon this, that what
ever God foresees, He must therefore have
decreed : and why so ? Because the under
standing of these men cannot reconcile the
foresight with the contingency of future
events. Where will human arrogance stop?
If these men cannot understand and re
concile all the apparent difficulties of the

SERMON IV. 153
Divine proceedings, does it follow, that the
Almighty himself cannot? Or is it too hu
miliating to acknowledge, that the " judg-
" ments" even of the Omniscient are, ac
cording to the declarations of his word,
" unsearchable, and his ways past finding
" out"?" As to all mere difficulties, in re
conciling one part of those "judgments"
with another, this answer ought in every
case to be sufficient; that where we see
but a part of God's proceedings, it does
not become us to deside dogmatically upon
the whole. Receiving each separately with
a full assurance of faith, as God has been
pleased to reveal it, we should rely upon
His wisdom and justice, that at last every
thing will appear consistent, and perfectly
consonant to the purest benevolence and
the most exact' equity. But is there, in
truth, any weight in the observation itself?
Is there that difficulty in conceiving the
foreknowledge of future events to be con
sistent with their contingency? This sub
ject requires certainly to be treated with
the greatest caution and prudence ; but I
u Rom. xiv. 33.

154 SERMON IV.
cannot help thinking, that it is capable of
a fair illustration from the ordinary trans
actions of life. Let us suppose a person
placed in such circumstances as set before
him two objects for his choice, but do not
compel him to choose either : in this case
it will be allowed that he is under a neces
sity, either of choosing the one or the
other, or of rejecting both. Now it does
not appear, what possible constraint it
would put upon his freedom to suppose,
that a superior Being might know assured
ly, whether, if he chose at all, he would
choose the one object or the other, or whe
ther he would reject them both. Nor would
the difficulty appear to be in any degree
increased, if, supposing this Being to be the
Supreme Ruler and Governor of the world,
we should further conceive Him, in the
certain foreknowledge of this person's
choice or rejection, to provide that neither
the one nor the other should interfere with
the course of his providence or the bounty
of his grace. Are not men, who have the
care of others, obliged to act thus fre
quently, though they can only proceed on

SERMON IV. 155
such probabilities as their minds are capa
ble of attaining? Fathers and guardians,
making provision for those under their
charge, endeavour, according to the shrewd
est conjectures they are able to form of
their future conduct, so to secure their
welfare as best to guard them against mis
carriage, and against utter ruin in case they
should miscarry ; but was it ever supposed,
that their doing so affected the free-will of
their wards or children ? And even if they
could have certainly foreseen what the con
duct of their wards would be, and as cer
tainly have made provision in conformity
with that foreknowledge, what greater re
straint would this increase of knowledge
have laid upon the freedom of those, with
respect to Whose conduct, or the effects of
whose conduct, it was exercised? In this
instance it will be granted, perhaps, that it
would lay no such restraint ; but if not in
this, there seems to be no sufficient reason
to say, that it would in any other what
ever. Let us view in the same light the
case before us. There can be no doubt,
that God Almighty did, before He made

156 SJ3RMON IV.
man, or placed him in Paradise, know, as
suredly x, that, being placed there, he would
* A very clear view of Divine Praescience is to be
found, I think, in Dr. Hammond's Three Letters on
that subject. " Whatsoever," says he, " is seen, or
" (which is all one in an infinite Deity) foreseen by
" God, is thereby supposed to have, in that science of
" his, an objective being : if it were not, or did not
" come to pass, it should have no such objective being;
" if it have, it is thereby evidenced to be seen by him,
" who was, is, and is to come, and so, being infinite, is
" equally present to all, and equally sees and knows all
" from eternity. What therefore you conclude, as it is
" most agreeable to this, so it is most true, that God
" knows all things as they are ; such as come to pass
" contingently, he knows to come contingently ; and
" from thence I undeniably conclude, therefore they are
" contingent  For it is evident, by the prophecies
" of Judas, &c. that God long before foresees sins, which
" are as certainly contingent, and not decreed or de-
" creeable by God. If therefore any that write against
" the Remonstrants go about to retort their arguments,
" and conclude from their acknowledgments of God's
" Praescience what is charged on their adversaries doc-
" trine of predetermination, I conceive it is but a boast,
t< that hath not the least force in it, predetermination hav-
" ing a visible influence and causality on the object, but
" eternal vision or praevision being so far from imposing
" necessity on the thing to be, that it supposes it to be
" already from the free choice of the agent, and that
" being of it is, in order of nature, before its being seen.
" God's seeing or foreseeing hath no more operation or
" causality of any kind on the object, than my seeing

SERMON IV. 157
transgress the command of his Maker, and
in consequence of that transgression incur
" your letter hath caused your letter. You wrote free-
" lyj and now I see it ; and that being supposed, it
" is infallibly certain that you have written, and that
" you cannot not have written. And just so it is in
" respect of God. Only I am finite, and so is my
" sight ; I see few things, and those only which are
" present; bui, God being infinite sees all ab infinito,
" that are never so long hence future." Letter I. p. 99.
The second and third are taken up in answering objec
tions, but so as powerfully to illustrate the general sub
ject. The foresight of Adam's fall, and the consequent
appointment of a remedy for that fall, are thus satisfac
torily commented upon. " Let us instance once for all
" in Adam : it is certain he fell, and in him all his pos-
" terity : did not God foresee or know this, till the
" effect told it him ? Then how was Christ given in de-
" creto divino, before the creation of the world ? I hope
" you will not say, he was not so given, when the
" Scripture is in many places so express for it,  and
" when God's decrees are ab eterno, and so especially
" this, the foundation of all the rest, of those that con-
" cern our salvation. For if he decreed Christ before
" the creation, then he foresaw there would be need of
" him ; if so, then he foresaw Adam's fall ; and then
" why may he hot have foreseen all other men's sins,
" all contingent future events, of which he is no more
" the author, and of which there is no more necessity
" that the free agents should act them, than there was
" that Adam should sin before he was created. I pray
" consider this, and it will do your whole business."
Letter III. p. 137, &c. To this I shall only add what

" I

ii

« 11

158 SERMON IV.
the threatened penalty. This is undeni
able. Man being placed in the garden of
the excellent author has quoted with so much effect
from Origen's Philocalia. " For the chapter in Ori-
gen's Philocalia it cannot be but you must have noted
in it, the weight that he lays on the prediction of Ju-
das's treason, the general resolution, that 'ixao-rov tS>v
eo-oj^ivmv %po itoWou oiSsv 6 ©eoj yevqo~6fi.evQv, every thing
" that is future, God sees it will come to pass, and yet
ou irpoyvovi iruvrtov a-trw; wposyvawrftevwi', the foreknower
is not the cause of all that are foreknown, citing from
" Susanna 42, 43. that God is xpuirTwv yvaxrrjjj, 6 siSwj ra
" iravTx ?rglv yBveo-etas avT&v, the knower of secrets, that
" knows all things before they are : then he proposes
" the question, Ilaij irgoyvaxrTou ovtog l£ aloovog tou ©sou irep)
" rail/ up' ixao-rou wpaTreo-Qai v&/xi2Jonxivcoi', to l<p' ijfuv (rtu^s-
" Tat, how God from all eternity foreknowing those
" things that are thought to be done by every man, our
" free-will may be retained. Which he treats against
" the heathen, that say God's foreknowledge takes away
" all praise and dispraise, &c. ; and maintain it just as
" you do, as you will see, if you compare your and their
" arguing. Now to these his answer is, that God from
" the beginning of the creation of the world, nothing
" being without a cause, AirmopeisTat tw vm exao-rov tuiv
" ho-opevwv bpmv, by the progress of his mind through all
" things that are future, sees them, that if this be, that
" will follow, &c. and so pexP1 t£'Xows irpayparaiv, pro-
" ceeding to the end of things, he knows what shall be.
" Which he doth express to show, that he sees the de
pendence of all things, not from his own will, who by
knowing them, as it follows, causes them not, but in
" a concatenation of human acts and choices ; as when

(C

SERMON IV. 159
Eden, and forbidden to eat of a particular
fruit, was under a necessity of obeying or
disobeying the Divine command; one or
other he must do; for however free his
choice might be between the two, he could
not do both. Which he would ultimately
do was, we grant, known to his Creator
from the first, though not to himself; but
why such knowledge in the Creator should
have any influence upon the choice of the
creature, there does not appear any assign
able reason. Not to know the issue of the
trial, to which man was put, would have

" by temerity one walks inconsiderately, and meeting
" with a slippery place falls, which he. that sees is no
" way the cause of his fall, saith he, adding, that God
" foreseeing b-nolog sorai exu&tbg, how qualified every one
" will be, sees also the causes that he will be so ; mean-
" while his foreseeing is not the cause of their being
" what they are, but though strange, saith he, yet it is
" true, to lo-ofievov amov tou toi&vIs elval rijv nep) aurou
" irgoyvuxriv, the thing future is the cause that such a
" foreknowledge is had of it ; for it doth not, because
" it was foreknown, come to pass, but because, e/wAAe
" eo~i<r6ui, it was to come to pass, it was known."
P. 144, &c. This seems plain and unexceptionable ; and
I cannot help thinking, that any unprejudiced person
would receive much satisfaction from a careful perusal
of these Letters.

160 SERMON IV.
been indeed a diminution of God's Omni
science, but to know it does not seem in
any manner or degree to have trenched
upon man's original liberty. The state
ment is plain and simple. God Almighty
knew what man would do, though he was
left perfectly free to do as he pleased. And
what difficulty is there in conceiving this ?
in conceiving, that He, who is Supreme in
Wisdom and in Power, should see before
hand, what any one of his creatures will do
under any circumstances whatever? Nor
does it in any way increase that difficulty
to be informed, that our Merciful Father,
thus foreseeing the fall of his unhappy
creature, provided even before his fall the
means of saving him ; that there was an
expiation provided for sin, even before the
sin itself was committed. All this displays
in the brightest manner the goodness and
the wisdom of God, but it does not in the
least abridge that liberty with which our
first parent was endowed; it makes him
not in any degree less a free agent, and
consequently in no degree less responsible
for his actions. It exhibits to us in co-

SERMON IV. 161
lours, that ought to excite our highest love
and gratitude and veneration, the watchful
benevolence, and, if I may so say, the an
xious good-will of our heavenly Father, in
all the care He took to prevent the ill
effects of our miscarriage ; but it rests the
blame of that miscarriage, and all its dread
ful consequences, upon the unconstrained
commission of sin by Adam and "Eve, and
the choice which they freely made of disre
garding the prohibition they had received.
But there is another point y connected
y The monstrous error here alluded to is of long
standing in the world. Dr. Hammond thus exposes it.
" It was a fancy of the Stoics, mentioned by Plutarch,
" wep) itoaiTa. xuTopQouv rbv currfiov, that a wise man could
" do nothing amiss, that all that he did was wise and
" virtuous. And they that will have men saved and
" damned by a Stoical necessity, nowadays, may bor-
" row this fancy of the Stoics also ; but Homer, saith
" he, and Euripides, long since exploded it. I am sure
" St. Paul will fairly give any man leave, that takes
" himself to be in a good estate now, to fear a bad be-
" fore he die  The Valentinian having resolved
" himself to be isviu^aTixog, spiritual, confessed indeed
" that other men must get some store of faith and works
" to help them to heaven, kaurbv 8e /a>j Mo-Sat 8i« to tpua-ei
" ¦nviufi.aTixov elmi, Irenaeus ; but they had no need of ei-
" ther, because of their natural spiritualness ; that which
" is spiritual cannot part with its spiritual hypostasis,
M

162 SERMON IV.
with this subject, which, though in some
respects it may appear more properly to
" whatever it do or suffer, no more than gold by a sink
" can lose its lustre ; or the sun-beams be defamed by
" the dunghill they shine on. They commit all manner
" of impurity, saith he, and yet they are o-ireppuTa. ex Ao-
" yijj, seeds of the election, the seeds, indeed, deep set
" in the earth, that take root downward, but never bear
" fruit upward ; they never spring at all, except it be
" towards hell, nor sprout any branch or stalk of works,
" unless it be of darkness. These, forsooth, have grace,
" i&io'jmjTov, as their proper possessions, all others but
" to use ; and so it seemed, for they of all others made
" no use of it. There was another like fancy in the
" same Irenaeus, of Marcus and his followers, that by
" the omoKuTguio-tg, a form of baptizing that they had,
" they were become .kopaTa tw xpiry, invisible to the
" judge ; then, if ever they were apprehended, it were
" but calling to the mother of heaven, and she would
" send the helmet in Homer, that they should presently
" vanish out of their hands. Thus have men been be-
" fooled by the Devil to believe, that their sacred per-
" sons could excuse the foulest acts, and, as it was said
" of Cato, even make crimes innocent ; thus have some
" gotten the art of sinning securely, nay, religiously.
"  But I hope all these fancies have nothing to do,
" but to fill up the catalogues in Irenaeus and Epipha-
" nius  pray God, there be no evidence of them
" scattered here and there among hasty, ignorant, over-
" weening Christians." Sermon viii. p. 125, &c. The
good man's charity seems to have got the better of his
well-grounded suspicions; a later writer saw cause to
warn his readers in strong terms against what was too

SERMON IV. 163
belong to the doctrine of Election, which
shall be considered hereafter, yet, as it re
lates to the nature of sin, and would seem

acceptable to flesh and blood, not to have a great effect
upon morals. " If at any time," says he, "thou hearest
" men teach, that all the sins of God's children are
" mere infirmities, venial sins, or that God beholdeth
" no sin in the justified, but looketh upon them always
" as he looketh upon his Son, in whose face he behold-
" eth them as persons all fair and pure ; or that God is
" the mover and provoker of men to their sins, and so
" the true author of them ; or that all men's actions,
" good and bad, are predetermined, so as they cannot
" do more good than they do, nor commit fewer sins
" than they do ; or that God will rouse him when he
" falleth into a sleep of sin, and if he belong to his
" election, drive him home again into a good way, will
"he, nill he, and make him repent; if, I say, thou
" hearest any deliver these doctrines, and with great
" confidence too, as main evangelical truths, and such
" as must be preached for the comfort of God's chil-
" dren, " Haec tu, Romane, caveto,
" thou, whoever thou art, that wouldst live godly in
" Christ Jesus, avoid them. For they are auToxara-
" xptra, dogmata, opinions that carry their condemna-
" tion in their forehead. A man will easily, if he be not
" forestalled with prejudice, at the first sight of them,
" perceive whence they come, and whither they go, and
" what they tend to, even to the setting open a wide
" sluice to all manner of sin and profaneness." Hoard's
Soul's Misery.
M 2

164 SERMON IV.
to render it less odious in the sight of God,
and less destructive to man than it really
is, cannot be overlooked in this place : it
would indeed, could it be maintained, ef
fectually destroy that moral bearing of Di
vine Revelation for which we are contend
ing. The point is this. It has been as
serted, that sin is not so displeasing to God
in some persons as in others ; by which it
would appear, that it is not sin which the
Almighty hates, but the persons by whom it
is committed : for while some fall under his
heaviest displeasure for their wickedness,
others, though guilty of the same wicked
ness, find no diminution of his favour.
This is a doctrine so broadly immoral, so
derogatory to God's justice, and holding
out such bold encouragement to transgres
sion, that one is at a loss to conceive, how
any man possessed of common sense could
maintain an opinion so palpably pernicious
in its consequences : and yet it has been
asserted, that David was as much in the
favour of God, when he murdered Uri
ah and committed adultery with his wife,
as when he best preserved his integrity.

SERMON IV. 165
Thank God, this is not Scripture! The
matter is there represented in a very dif
ferent light. The message of the Prophet
to the offending King was any thing rather
than an assurance of Divine favour. True,
he was on his confession, and the contri
tion implied in that confession, reprieved
from the death to which as an adulterer
the Law would have condemned him ; but
he was told expressly, that for this sin
" the sword should never depart from his
" house2," and the subsequent history is
one unhappy detail of the incest, rebellion,
and murder, in which his wretched family
were involved, and to which he had given
too much encouragement by his own fla
grant example. The sin of David was not
unpunished; it was not unmarked by the
wrath and vengeance of a Most Just God,
whom he had highly and grievously offend
ed. He was indeed spared that extreme
and irremediable misery which his crime in
itself deserved; he was not cut off in his
sin, and doomed to irreversible damnation :
and if we examine the circumstances of his
z 2 Sam. xii. 9.
M 3

166 SERMON IV.
case, we may perhaps collect, with great
probability, the reasons which made him a
fit object of the Divine mercy, even when
he had become obnoxious to the Divine
justice. The sin of David was not a pre
sumptuous sin ; it was not committed in a
cool defiance of the authority, or a medi
tated contempt of the Law of God. He
fell indeed, and he foully fell, in the hour
of temptation ; but he did not seek that
temptation, he did not previously contrive
the means of illicit enjoyment, or endea
vour to stifle the rising qualms of con
science by the adoption of Atheistic prin
ciples; he forgot his duty, but he did not
deny that he was under an obligation to
perform it. And this is a point of great
importance. He, who sins deliberately,
who seeks occasions of unlawful indulg
ence, even when they do not offer them
selves, who urges his passions beyond even
their natural violence by artificial excite
ments, and makes it his study to justify all
this, by destroying in his own mind or in
others those principles of religion and mo
rality, which can alone check and correct

SERMON IV. 167
the unruly propensities of our nature : he,
who does this, though not guilty of murder
or adultery, is yet in the crimes he does
commit, a bolder transgressor of God's
Law, and a more flagrant contemner of his
authority, than David in the darkest mo
ment of his deepest guilt. For this man
destroys the very basis of all duty to God,
all order in society, and all personal re
straint. He, who pushes a stone from the
upper part of a building, does indeed de
face its beauty, and endanger himself and
his neighbour; but he, who insidiously
saps the foundation, while he pretends per
haps to admire the edifice itself, takes the
most effectual means of burying the whole
in ruin, and rendering its reerection hope
less. And this should teach us to treat
with less regard those pretensions to good
morals, which have been made by some
modern professors of Atheistic opinions.
Such pretensions are in general hollow and
false ; but even where they are supported
by some external regard to decency, they
deserve little respect, and can by no means
be admitted in alleviation of the crime of
m 4

168 SERMON IV.
eradicating the very principles of virtue.
He, who teaches immorality, will never
want willing hearers; and it is too much
to expect, that when a man has by his
writing or speaking done all in his power
to remove every restraint from the com
mission of sin in others, he should be al
lowed any thing like a claim to moral cha
racter in himself. It must no doubt be
granted, that King David was in the com
mission of his enormous crimes a high
transgressor of the most sacred duties of
morality ; but guilty as he was, compared
to him who preaches unrighteousness, and
yet shelters his baseness under a deep veil
of hypocrisy, or defies reproof by a shame
less profession of infidelity, right reason
must acknowledge, that he was a fit and
becoming object of the Divine mercy. The
mercy, that was extended to David there
fore, is no encouragement to sin. He was
a sinner, but not a hardened sinner. If
he was eminent in crime, he was also no
less eminent in contrition. The tears which
he shed, the groans which he uttered, the
unqualified acknowledgment which he made

SERMON IV. 169
of his own criminality, show, that he was
far from seeking to justify his conduct, or
hide from himself or others its shocking
turpitude and depravity. And let it be
observed, that the remission of the most
awful part of the punishment was not an
nounced to him, till he had made that ac
knowledgment. Till he made it, his mind
indeed bore witness to the truth of that
assertion in Scripture, that " the wicked
" are like the troubled seaa." This he
himself tells us ; for he describes with a pe
culiar pathos, in more than one of his pe
nitential exercises, the deep anguish and
excruciating torment which he felt, while
he " kept" an obstinate " silence b" on the
subject of his guilt. But even when he
had confessed his guilt, though his own
mind regained its wonted tranquillity, yet
the Almighty took care that His treatment
of David should be to no man an apology
for transgression. He vindicated in the
clearest manner the purity of His own at
tributes, and gave an eminent proof of his
eternal detestation of sin, and of the con-
a Isaiah lvii. 20. b Psalm xxxii. 3, 4, 5.

170 SERMON IV.
sequences which are for ever annexed to it
by the order of his providence. The un
happy King was punished, severely and
signally, by the rebellion of his darling son,
by the general profligacy of his children,
and by those various miseries which a pro
fligate and wicked family must necessarily
cause to a father, who has any spark of a
father's tenderness remaining in his heart :
and how must those miseries have been
aggravated by the reflection, that his own
example had contributed to cherish the
wickedness which occasioned them ?
The doctrine of our text then stands clear
of all exception. Iniquity alone has caused
the separation between man and his Maker:
nothing else did, and nothing else could
have made God regard his creature with
any thing but unmixed love and benevo
lence. The history of our fall makes this
clear ; and in making this clear, it proves
most plainly, that the revelation contained
in our Scriptures was intended to impress
men with a conviction, that sin ever was
and ever will be odious in the sight of
God ; that He will in every instance visit

SERMON IV. 171
it, sooner or later, with those marks of his
displeasure, which its own depraved nature
and its opposition to his will deserve ; and
that, as it originally compelled Him to de
prive man of his favour, so it will be for
ever attended with the same effect, and in
evitably bring down upon the impenitent
sinner the wrath and indignation of hea
ven.

SERMON V.

IIeb. xii. 14.
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord.
THIS is one of those plain texts of Scrip
ture, which, if they were better considered
and hetter obeyed, would do more for the
improvement and happiness of society than
all the controversial subtleties, which have
ever employed the pens of polemics. Peace
and holiness united, would alter, not the
appearance only, but the real condition,
both of individuals and communities ; they
would at once put an end to disorder and
confusion, by restraining or eradicating
those "lusts which war in men's members3,"
and which experience, no less than the au
thority of God's word, assures us are the
a James iv. 1.

174 SERMON V.
original source of all the " wars and fight-
" ings" among them. But important as
the cultivation of peace always is, (and it
never was more important than in these
days of ours,) it does not fall in with my
present purpose to press this part of the
subject upon your consideration ; it is the
latter branch of the text, to which I beg to
draw your attention, as another proof of
the Moral Tendency of Divine Revelation,
contained in the explicit assertion, that
" without holiness no man shall see the
" Lord." And how direct a proof it is,
cannot but be allowed upon an impartial
examination of the matter.
We have already seen, that man was
originally holy ; that as such he was put in
possession of undisturbed happiness; and
that he lost that happiness solely by the
commission of sin, the transgression of his
Maker's law. It comes therefore naturally
to be inquired, in the next place, whether
there is any hope of a restoration to that
happiness; and if there be, upon what con
ditions and by what means it may be at
tained. And upon the first view of the

SERMON V. 175
subject, taken in connection with what has
been alreadv stated, it would seem in the
highest degree probable, that as man lost
his happiness in consequence of losing his
holiness, he could have no well-grounded
hope of being restored to the one, unless
he were first restored to the other. The Al
mighty did from the beginning annex the
loss of happiness to the loss of holiness, and
by so doing seemed to establish so necessary
and indissoluble an union between them,
that no descendant of Adam could ever
expect to be happy without being holy.
If he looked back to his own origin, he
would see, that while his forefather conti
nued innocent, he continued in the enjoy
ment of the Divine favour; but the mo
ment he permitted himself to be seduced
from his obedience, he was involved in
wretchedness and misery. Seeing then that
pain and suffering had entered the world
by sin, and that sin was the sole cause of
their introduction, it would be natural to
conclude, that before the effect could be
removed, it would be necessary to remove
the cause ; and that while the dominion of

176 SERMON V.
sin continued, it would be in vain to ex
pect that pain and suffering should cease
to afflict the sons of men. Affliction
through life, in various shapes and various
degrees, and at last the closing of that life
itself in death, were the appointed lot of
humanity from the time when it depraved
that holy image of God in which it was
formed ; and unless some means were de
vised to restore that image, there could
appear surely little hope of regaining the
happiness, which was therefore lost* because
that image had been depraved. Thus it
would be natural to reason, supposing we
had no further information upon the sub
ject than what we have already consider
ed ; the history of man's creation and fall
being calculated to impress upon our minds,
in a very forcible manner, that holiness
and happiness are inseparably connected;
that the loss of the former must inevitably
be attended with the loss of the latter;
and that, if we would again be happy, we
must first endeavour to be holy. But thanks
be to God, we are not left to our own rea
soning upon this important point ! It is

SERMON V. 177
agreed by all, who admit the authority of
the Revelation contained in the Old and
New Testament, that they develope the
plan and the means of man's restoration to
unalloyed and uninterrupted happiness.
Respecting that plan, and those means,
there are indeed many and weighty dis
putes ; but no one, calling himself a Chris
tian, will deny, that the end of that great
scheme, which the Scriptures unfold, is the
salvation of man ; his salvation from that
penalty of death and damnation to which
he was made subject on account of sin,
and his restitution to the hope of a blessed
immortality by his reinstatement in the
Divine favour. But it will surely be well
worth our while to inquire, whether the
scheme thus unfolded holds out the hope
of such a reinstatement, independent of a
restoration to holiness, or whether it does
not insist upon this restoration as necessary
in the first place, before that hope can be
reasonably entertained. For it cannot be
denied, that to a plain understanding the
determination of this question, one way or
other, would appear to affect very mate-

178 SERMON V.
rially the moral character of the Revelation
itself, and either much to lessen or greatly
to enhance its moral bearing on the con
duct of those who receive it. If in this in
quiry it should be seen, that the scheme of
man's restoration to God's favour, as it is
laid before us by the authorized expound
ers of the Divine Will, requires no purifica
tion of his mind, and no amendment of his
manners ; if it holds out a prospect of his
attaining to a happiness beyond what he
originally enjoyed in Paradise, without his
having that holy image renewed in his soul,
by which he was distinguished when first
placed in that garden of delight; if it re
presents the face of God as turned to him
in mercy, without any demand of better
obedience on his part; the inconsistency
of such a mode of proceeding, with all that
had gone before in the intercourse between
man and his Maker, could not but be
strongly felt. God had banished his crea
ture from Paradise, and from his own im
mediate presence, because he had sinned :
and could it be supposed possible, that He,
whose attribute is Immutability, could again

SERMON V. 179
receive this creature to his favour, while
he continued in the very sin for which He
had at first banished him from his pre
sence ? It is necessary, no doubt, in argu
ing from the Divine attributes, to proceed
with the utmost caution and reserve, not
merely because our notions of right and
wrong, of just and unjust, are not com
mensurate to the Divine proceedings, but
because, as was before observed, we see
only a part of those proceedings, and can
not therefore judge accurately of their bear
ing upon the whole. But where God him
self has been pleased to reveal his Will ex
plicitly, and not only to state what mea
sures He has adopted, but the reason of
those measures, there we may with greater
assurance affirm, what is or is not consist
ent with the essential character of the Dei
ty. Thus, when we are told that God de
prived man of his happiness in the enjoy
ment of his favour on account of his trans
gression, we may infer, without much dan
ger of error, that he cannot be restored to
that favour while he persists in the very
course by which he originally forfeited it.
N 2

180 SERMON V.
This consequence appears to follow so ne
cessarily from the consideration of God's
unchangeable nature, and the very idea of
consistency and truth, that it cannot be
denied without an evident contradiction to
the plainest principles of sober reasoning.
If man was unfit for Paradise, because he
sinned, he must have continued unfit for it
as long as he continued to sin ; and there
fore it became absolutely necessary, that,
before he could hope for a restoration to
his lost happiness, he should obtain a re
storation of his lost holiness. In what way
this was to be accomplished, or how little
able he was to accomplish it himself, are
not now in question ; we are only inquiring
whether it was not indispensably necessary,
for the very vindication of the Divine at
tributes, that it should be done. That it
was, our reason, when fairly consulted,
cannot deny; for if sin was a sufficient
cause for excluding man from Paradise,
when placed there by the munificence of
his Creator, it must be for ever a just
ground for his exclusion when he had been
thrust out of it by the justice of his of-

SERMON V- 181
fended God. Man was placed in Paradise
holy ; he was turned out when he sinned ;
and he cannot be readmitted, till he be
some way or other made holy again. And
to this the plain declarations of holy Writ
bear testimony in the fullest and clearest
manner. The text is peculiarly explicit :
" No man shall see the Lord without holi-
" ness." Such is the express proposition
which the words contain; and it is impos
sible to have a more direct proof of any
point, than is afforded by this simple and
straightforward assertion to the truth for
which we are contending. It will readily
be allowed, that to " see the Lord," means
to be admitted to a participation of that
eternal bliss and glory, which our Lord
Jesus Christ now enjoys at the right hand
of his Father, and a share in which He has
promised to bestow upon his faithful fol
lowers. It is that beatific vision, in the en
joyment of which the soul is filled with all
the happiness of which it is capable. Thus
it is said, that " the pure in heart shall see
" Godb," meaning, that they shall partake
» Matth. v. 8.
N 3

182 SERMON V
of those heavenly " pleasures which are at
" His right hand for evermore0." And
the propriety of this mode of expression is
evident. God is the fountain of all good
whatever; and therefore the nearer any
creature is permitted to approach Him,
the higher must be its enjoyment of what
is really conducive to its well-being. To
be driven from his presence is misery ; to
be admitted to it is supreme felicity; and
as to know God is the perfection of know
ledge, so to see Him is the summit of en
joyment. But if so, then the text is a plain
assertion, on the authority of the Holy Spi
rit, that this happiness is not to be attained
by any one who has not first attained the
holiness which it clearly requires. " With-
" out holiness no man shall see the Lord;"
and as every man lost that holiness by the
corruption contracted by his forefather,
and still more by his own transgression of
the Divine Law, it follows necessarily, that
there must be a restoration to holiness be
fore there can be a restoration to happi
ness. For the text is express, that holiness
c Rom. xvi. 11.

SERMON V. 183
must be attained; that there can be no ad
mission into heaven without it; and that to
hope for such admission, without this in
dispensable qualification, would be the
grossest self-deceit.
But this important truth, important in
every respect, not in itself only, and its im
mediate consequences, but in its influence
upon the entire cast and character of man,
does not rest upon any single text, how
ever explicit, nor even upon an accumula
tion of texts, nor upon the inferences de
duced from them ; it forms rather the great
leading idea which runs through the whole
of Revelation, upon which the plan itself
is made to turn, and to which all its pro
positions and declarations directly tend, as
to their ultimate object. It appears in that
first gracious announcement, by which the
Almighty, remembering mercy in the midst
of his just wrath d, declared to man, that
he should- yet get the better of his adver
sary, and obtain in his turn a triumph over
him. The triumph of Satan over Adam
consisted in this, that he had seduced him
d Psalm lxxviii. 38, 39.
N 4

184 SERMON V.
from the service of his Maker, and made
him wretched by making him sinful. The
promised victory, which should rescue him
from the power of the deceiver, implied
clearly, that the mischief, which he had
occasioned, should in some way or other
be repaired ; and as that mischief consisted
primarily in destroying man's original holi
ness, and that Divine image in which he
was created, it could not be effectually re
paired, unless by the restoration of that
image. The first work of the Devil, as con
nected with our race, was drawing them
into sin ; and as long as they continued
sinful, so long did his work continue to
prosper; nor does there appear any way, by
which his success could be disputed, or his
defeat be manifested, but by reinstating man
in that condition of purity and innocence
from which he had seduced him by per
suading him to sin. The promise there
fore, that this success should not continue,
and that the time would come when the
defeat of our adversary should be made
evident, would not seem to be fulfilled,
unless the pollution which he had intro-

SERMON V. 185
duced into our nature by sin were purified,
and the image of God restored in the soul
of man. If the triumph of the Devil con
sisted in the destruction of human happi
ness by the introduction of sin, his defeat
must necessarily require the renewing of
that happiness by the removal of sin, and
the reproduction of the holiness which it
had polluted. And thus it would appear,
that the very first intimation of mercy,
which conveyed to our forefather a hope
of pardon for his guilt, conveyed at the
same time an intimation no less clear, that
the corruption which had been infused into
him should be purified, and the holiness
he had lost should be restored. Pardon to
the transgressor, without a removal of the
cause whence his transgression proceeded,
would leave to him, who is the adversary
of God and man, more than half his tri
umph ; it would leave him the horrid satis
faction of knowing that the poison, which
he had conveyed into the human mind,
had not been expelled, but was still in full
force ; while the mercy, which had rescued
man from punishment without cleansing

186 SERMON V.
him from guilt, would seem to insinuate,
that God could behold iniquity" without
abhorrence. That alone would be a com
plete triumph, that alone would answer
the promise, that the " serpent's headf"
should be " bruised," which should demo
lish his whole work, by not only pardoning
the object of his treachery, and reinstating
him in happiness, but by expelling that
venom which had contaminated his soul,
and the renewing of its original upright
ness and integrity. But if this view of the
subject be correct, if it be proper to say,
that the promised triumph over the author
of our sin and misery would be incomplete,
unless both the sin and the misery were
removed, then it is evident, that the Di
vine Revelation, whose authority we admit,
does in its very outset inculcate the neces
sity of our moral renovation; it lays this
with the very first basis of human salva
tion, and makes the same promise, which
gives us a hope of deliverance from punish
ment, the assurance also of our being de
livered from the power and the guilt of sin.
e Hab. i. 13. f Gen. iii. 15.

SERMON V. 187
Thus deeply is the principle of man's re
storation to integrity rooted in our holy
religion ; thus early was it intimated, that
before he could again " see that Lord,"
from whose presence he was banished, he
must regain the holiness he had lost.
But this principle is not confined to the
commencement of Revelation ; it is uni
formly kept in view, and uninterruptedly
maintained, throughout the whole scheme
of our religion. In the Law and in the
Gospel it is prominently conspicuous ; and
even before the direct promulgation of ei
ther, the example of those holy men, who
are said to have been peculiarly acceptable
to Almighty God, proves clearly, that it
was their integrity which made them ac
ceptable. Thus it was in the case of E-
noch, a case remarkable for this, that he ,
was received to the enjoyment of heavenly
bliss, without paying that penalty to which
the sons of Adam became subject on his
transgression. But if it be asked, why he
escaped it, we are directed by the word of
truth to answer, on account of his holiness;
he " walked with God," and therefore " God

188 SERMON V.
" took him s." That the phrase of " walk-
" ing with God," means leading a life of
peculiar integrity and holiness, requires no
proof; it is understood at once as imply
ing some preeminent excellence of charac
ter. To " walk with God" must signify
either to be admitted to a more familiar
intercourse with Him, or to be conformed
in an especial manner to his Will ; and in
either case it will convey to us the idea of
a more than ordinary sanctity. He who
is admitted into God's more immediate
presence, cannot but be supposed in a
high degree holy. But that the latter is
the real meaning of the phrase appears
from this, that it is a description of his
manner of living while in this world; the
mode of expression evidently conveying
this sense, that he walked with God here,
and therefore God took him to Himself in
heaven. He was a pattern of purity, de
votion, and* righteousness ; and it was in
tended to exhibit him as such, and to show
by his example how acceptable these graces
were to the Almighty. It is thus that St.
s Gen. v. 22, 24. See Patrick in loc.

SERMON V. 189
Paul interprets this passage, when he says,
that Enoch had an assurance of his having
pleased God'1; that assurance being no
thing else but this testimony to the uniform
piety of his life. It is in the same phrase
that the Almighty himself condescended to
speak, when He said to Abraham, " Walk
" before me, and be thou perfect1;" inti
mating, that he would then be " perfect,"
when he lived as in the immediate presence
of God, and with an undeviating regard to
his Will.
The example of Enoch then is calcu
lated to impress us, in a very forcible man
ner, with the excellence and value of a
holy life, to teach us what manner of per
sons they are, upon whom the especial fa
vour of God can be expected to descend.
For this holy man was exempt from the
common lot of humanity ; that death, which
reigned in general without control, was not
allowed to visit him with its agonies or
terrors. And why ? Because he had walk
ed with God; because he had ever lived
under a sense of the Divine presence ; be-
h Heb. xi. 5. 5 Gen. xvii. ].

190 SERMON V.
cause he had ever conformed himself to
the Divine Will, and never allowed his
passions to rebel against the Law of his
God ; therefore God took him. He took
him to himself; and thus gave the world a
lesson, which the plainest understanding
might comprehend, that, if they wished to
recover that original glory and happiness
which Adam lost, they must seek it by
earnest endeavours after the recovery of
that integrity and holiness, to which the
delights of Paradise were annexed, and
to which alone they were adapted. But
though this example of antediluvian virtue
is so remarkable in itself, and in its reward,
as to deserve to be thus prominently pro
duced and contemplated, this important
question by no means depends upon the
force of any individual example whatever.
The necessity of holiness in all, who would
approach God, or hope for his favour, is a
principle which pervades, as I have already
said, the whole, both of the Law and the
Gospel. It will be proper to consider each
separately and distinctly.
The Law then does most clearly, in all

SERMON V. 191
its declarations and by all its provisions,
insist upon this, that they who wish to
draw near to God, must be careful to
cleanse and to purify themselves from every
thing that is in any degree polluted ; it pro
ceeds throughout upon the principle, that
nothing unholy can be permitted to appear
before God. This principle is exemplified
in the very first interview, if I may so
speak, between the Almighty and the per
son to whom He was about to give a com
mission as his delegated messenger to his
people. " Put off thy shoes from off thy
" feet; for the place whereon thou stand-
" est is holy ground V was an address
intended, doubtless, to impress upon the
mind of Moses, as it was well calculated to
do, the pure and immaculate nature of
that Great Being, who was not only holy
in himself, but required an answerable ho
liness in all who were admitted to his pre
sence. The principle thus established, in
the first intimation of his appointment to
the future Legislator, was steadily and uni
formly maintained. When the people of
k Exod. iii. 5.

192 SERMON V.
Israel were pronounced to be " a peculiar
" treasure1" to God, they were at the same
time denominated " an holy nation ;" they
could not be the one without being the
other ; they could not be " peculiar" to
God, and belong more nearly to Him than
the other nations of the earth, unless they
were sanctified, and distinguished above
others for the purity of their morals and
the ardour of their piety. The Law of God
could not even be received by any but holy
men. When it was now about to be deli
vered, and Mount Sinai was to be enve
loped in that overpowering splendor, which
was no less pure than it was awful, the
people are charged to keep at a due dis
tance, lest their uncleanness should offend
that Holy Being who condescended to ad
dress them ; the priests were commanded
to sanctify themselves with peculiar care,
as they were the appointed intercessors for
their people ; and Moses and Aaron alone
were thought worthy to come up unto the
Lord, because they alone were invested
with the holiness indispensably required in
1 Exod. xix. 5, 6.

SERMON V. 193
those who were to stand before the Al
mighty. In Aaron, indeed, as the head of
the priesthood, this necessity was exempli
fied in a very striking manner. He was
set apart, or consecrated to his office by a
most solemn and imposing ceremony, cal
culated to inspire awful sentiments of the
preparation requisite to appear before the
Deity with acceptance ; to teach man, that
being a Holy God, He could be served
only by holy persons. To this was direct
ed all the care bestowed upon his different
vestments, but above all upon that pro
minent part of them, which, on "a plate of
" pure gold," bore this remarkable inscrip
tion, " Holiness to the Lord"1." This
plate, thus inscribed, was to be " always"
upon Aaron's " forehead," when he pre
sented the hallowed gifts of the children of
Israel, that by this emblem of holiness
their iniquity might be covered, and they
themselves might " be accepted before the
" Lord." But the sanctity thus required
to render the service of the Tabernacle ac
ceptable, was not confined to the persons
"> Exbd. xxviii. 36—38.
o

194 SERMON V.
of those who officiated ; it was extended
also to the time and place in which that
service was to be performed. The Sab
bath was a holy day, the Tabernacle was a
holy house, and all the vessels and instru
ments employed were invested with the
same sacred character. If it be said, as no
doubt it may, that all this was merely ty
pical and relative, the assertion to a cer
tain extent cannot be denied. It cannot
be denied, that all these things were not
really and inherently holy, some of them
not being capable of that spiritual purity
which seems to be required, and others
falling miserably short of it. But though
the holiness required in this legal service
was thus typical and relative, as well from
the defectiveness of the Law itself, as from
the infirmity of the subjects to whom it
was addressed, yet even in this defective
condition, it showed the necessity of a real
holiness to all who would approach God
in a manner really acceptable. When it
was required, that every thing, which was
consecrated to God's service, should be in
vested with a holy character, it was inti-

SERMON V. 195
mated clearly, that holiness, in the sense in
which it was capable of it, was necessary
to every creature before it could presume
to appear before its immaculate Creator;
and though by its nature it might not ad
mit of true spiritual holiness, yet as far as
it could be made holy, it was necessary
that it should. This lesson was taught even
by the meanest vessel, which was conse
crated to a holy use. And if the priests
themselves did not learn that lesson ; if
they contented themselves with an external
sanctity, and rested in the mere letter of
their Law without improving it to that spi
ritual sense, of which it was capable; if,
serving in an earthly tabernacle, and look
ing only to the visible glory it contained,
they extended not their views to that hea
venly abode, where alone the real presence
of God was to be enjoyed ; it must be said,
without reserve, that they misunderstood
and misused those numerous emblematic
purifications which were enjoined them.
Strictly speaking, the Law in itself perfect
ed nothing"; it was temporary in its na-
" Heb. vii. 19.
O 2

196 SERMON V
ture, and therefore defective in its opera
tion". It was founded on temporal hopes
° See J. Smith's Select Discourses. Bull. Harm.
Apost. D. P. c. x. sect. 8. It would go a great way to
wards settling many important points of controversy,
and removing the very causes from which they arise, if
the real nature of the Mosaic dispensation were duly
examined and thoroughly understood. That it was in
tended only ad interim, as an intermediate and tempo
rary institution, the Apostle very clearly intimates ; and
if so, there seems little difficulty in allowing, that it was
founded per se on temporary sanctions. But it does
not follow, because in that dispensation temporal success
was made the reward of virtue, and temporal adversity
the punishment of vice, and because an earthly Canaan
was held out as the land of promise, that therefore
those, who lived under it, knew nothing of any other
rewards or punishments, or did not carry their views to a
higher scene of things. Nothing is clearer than that
the great truths of religion had been originally commu
nicated to the fathers of the human race. The excel
lent Chrysostom takes notice of this ; and remarks it as
a sign of God's peculiar regard for the eminent charac
ters of the first ages of the world. Ka) yap, says he,
rca Ntoe xai tco 'Afigaapi xa) toI; eyyo'voi; rolg exelvou xa) tw
'^Z3  °" 8m» ygappaTcov foekeygTO, a\\' aM; 8i' eaurou,
xa&apav eugltrxtov auTwv tJjv havotav. It was not therefore
necessary to the Mosaic dispensation, strictly so called,
and as it related to the Jewish polity, that it should in
culcate expressly all the general principles of religion,
which, having been previously promulgated, might have
been sufficiently known; but noticing them only inci
dentally and obscurely, that it should address itself to

SERMON V. 197
and supported by temporal sanctions ; not
that the holy men, who lived under the
the establishment of such a community as might answer
the end which it immediately had in view. But though
Moses was not the minister of the Gospel, it does not
follow that he was ignorant of its leading truths, or
that he abstained from occasionally intimating those
truths in his writings. To say, that it made no part of
his plan as the Lawgiver of the Jews, is one thing, and
to say that it is nowhere to be found in his writings, is
another. When therefore an ingenious and learned
writer asserted, that the doctrine of a future state made
no part of the Law of Moses, the assertion need not
have alarmed the best friend of revelation ; it was capa
ble of a sound interpretation by a proper distinction of
terms. But when in support of his hypothesis he deem
ed it necessary to alter the received arrangement of the
sacred writings, and urged that hypothesis as an argu
ment against the early date assigned to the Book of
Job, he forgot, surely, that God had freely conversed
with man previous to the Divine Legation of Moses,
This case, when fairly stated, proves quite the contrary
to what the learned author wished to establish. For a
due regard to the revealed history of man would induce
us to conclude, that the earlier any author wrote before
the promulgation of Christianity, the clearer would be
his ideas of religious truth; as far, I mean, as unin
spired knowledge could carry him. And it should al
ways be remembered, in considering this question, that
the promise, the evangelical promise of salvation through
Christ, had been made expressly to Abraham four hun
dred and thirty years before the giving of the Law. If
therefore any descendant of his was ignorant of it, or
O 3

198 SERMON V.
Mosaic dispensation, were ignorant of a
future life, or uninfluenced by its prospects,
but that the Law of Moses, considered by
itself, did not and was not intended to
" bring life and immortality to light p." It
was added, as the Apostle informs us, be
cause of transgressions, as a proper mode
of discipline to restrain in some degree the
corruption of men, till the time came for
the full display of divine truth. It was not
therefore to be wondered at, if in some of
its ordinances it rather obscurely and figu
ratively intimated the " holiness, without
" which no man shall see the Lord," than
expressly and plainly insisted upon it. In
fact, as the learned Dr. Hammond has
well remarked q, " the Law had a twofold
did not believe it, it was not for want of revealed in
struction respecting it.
p 2 Tim. i. 10.
1 Practical Catechism, p. 8, 9. Thus also the learn
ed Mede, with his usual force and perspicuity. " For
" the better understanding of this, we must know what
" a covenant is, and what are the kinds thereof. A cove-
« nant is, as it were, a bargain between God and man,
" wherein God promises some spiritual good to us, so we
" perform some duty unto him, if not, tlien to incur ever-
" lasting punishment. This covenant is of two sorts;

(<

SERMON V. 199
aspect ; on one side it represented to its
" observers that original law and first cove-
" the one is called the Covenant of Works, the other
" the Covenant of Grace. The Covenant of Works is,
" wherein God on his part makes us a promise of eter-
" nal life, if we on our part shall perform exact obe-
" dience unto his Law; otherwise to be everlastingly
" condemned, if we fail. The Covenant of Grace or of
" the Gospel is, wherein God on his part promises us
" sinners Christ to be our Saviour and Redeemer, if we
" on our part shall believe on him with a lively and
" obedient faith ; otherwise to be condemned. The
cr Covenant of Works God made with man at his crea-
" tion, when he was able to have kept the conditions he
" required ; but he through his disobedience broke it,
" and so became liable to death both corporal and spi-
" ritual. And though the Covenant of Grace then took
"place  yet was the former Covenant of Works still
" in force, until Christ, who was promised, should come
" in the flesh. And therefore was this covenant re-
" newed under Moses with the Israelites, when* the
" Law was given, in Horeb, as Moses says, Deut. v. 2.
" The Lord made a covenant with us in Horeb. For all
" the time, under the Law, the open and apparent cove-
" nant was the Covenant of Works, to make them the
" more to see their own misery and condemnation, and
" so to long after Christ, who was yet, to come, and at
" whose coming this obligation should be quite can-
" celled: yet, nevertheless, with this open covenant there
" was a secret and hidden covenant, which was the Co-
" venant of Grace; that they might not be altogether
" without the means of salvation whilst Christ yet tarT
" ried. This truth is plain, Galat. iii. 17, &c where
O 4

200 SERMON V.
" nant which God made with Adam in Pa-
" radise, and which demanded unsinning
" obedience; and on the other it carried the
" mind forward to that second covenant of
" mercy, in which, as the terms of acceptance
" would be less rigid, so the means of fulfil-
" ling them would be more ample and more
" efficient." But viewed in either light, it
still taught the same lesson of God's hatred
of sin and love of integrity. In its moral
precepts, rightly understood, it deserved
clearly the character given it by St. Paul of
" holy, just, and goodr;" and if from the
" the Apostle affirms, that the Covenant of Grace in
" Christ was four hundred and thirty years afore the Law
" was given, and that therefore the Law could not disannul
" z£,'or make it of none effect; but that the Law (so he
" calls the Covenant of Works) was only added to it be-
" cause of transgressions, until the blessed seed should
" come, ver. 19. and that it might be a schoolmaster to
" bring us unto Christ, ver. 24. For in the moral Law
" of God, under whose curse they stood bound, they
" might as in a glass see their sin, their guilt, their
" want of righteousness ; and in their ceremonies and
" sacrifices they might again, as in shadows of heavenly
" things, behold the means of their reconciliation,
" through his blood who was to be slain and offered to
" God for them." Disc. XLV. Works, p. 251.
r Rom. vii. 12.

SERMON V. 201
weakness of man it failed to make him like
itself, it must yet have impressed him with
a sense, that the God, who gave so good a
Law, and insisted upon its being obeyed,
was himself good, and could take delight
in nothing but what was just. And even
in its typical institutions, it was designed
evidently to carry the mind beyond itself,
and to impress it with higher and purer
ideas. All its ablutions, and all its sacri
fices; all its sacramental rites, and all the
care which it prescribed before any sacred
work should be entered upon, proceeded
upon this plain principle, that God could
not be approached without preparation ;
and that the preparation required was in
tended to remove what was displeasing to
Him, and to supply what was approved in
his sight. However these rites may be con
ceived to be merely ceremonial, and how
ever confined in their effect, still they were
calculated to instruct those who used them
in this truth, that the God whom they ap
proached was a Holy God, and required
holiness of some kind or other in those
who presumed to draw near to Him. Their

202 SERMON V.
notions of that holiness might be gross and
carnal, but some notion they must have
had, that the Being, who commanded them
so carefully to cleanse themselves before
they appeared in his presence, was in his
nature essentially and peculiarly pure, that
He hated sin and delighted in goodness.
Every thing they heard and saw tended to
inspire them with this idea. His people
were a holy people; his priesthood was a
holy priesthood, set apart for his service
by much and solemn preparation ; his house
was a holy house, and even in that house,
though the whole of it was holy, yet the
part which was honoured by the more im
mediate display of the Divine glory was
distinguished by a correspondent increase
of sanctity. In every step which men took
towards God, they were called upon to pu
rify themselves, and the nearer any one
was permitted to approach to Him, the
greater was the necessity of his being
cleansed from sin, and the greater was the
holiness with which it was necessary he
should be invested. All this might no doubt
be suffered to pass away without effect;

SERMON V. 203
but it cannot be denied, that one clear
principle is distinctly marked throughout,
that the holiness of God's nature is dis
played in a striking manner, and that the
lesson is again and again inculcated, that
no man can come to Him acceptably with
out in some degree participating in his ho
liness. But if this be evident in the Law, which,
being temporary in its very nature, was
not " able to make the comers thereunto
" perfect3," it is pressed upon us with ten
fold force by that holy Gospel, which com
pleted the revelation of God's will to man.
Under this dispensation, the necessity of
holiness to acceptance with God is set be
fore men in the fullest and clearest man
ner : it commences with a demand, that all
who would receive it should duly and dili
gently prepare themselves, and its con
summation is declared to be the perfection
of holiness *.
The commencement of the Gospel, in
our present view of the subject, must be
s Heb. x. l. •
t 2 Cor. vii. 1. 1 Tim. i. 5. Tit. ii. 14.

204 SERMON V.
dated from the first appearance of John
the Baptist, as the authorized forerunner
of our Saviour : for though from our Lord's
own declaration, that " the least in the
" kingdom of heaven was greater than
" John"," we may conclude justly, that
John himself was not in that kingdom, yet
will it assist us materially to understand
the nature of the Christian dispensation,
and the important ends it was intended to
answer, if we can first thoroughly compre
hend the kind of preparation which was
necessary for admission into it. John was
expressly the preacher of that preparation.
And what was it ? What was its nature,
what its object, and what its effect ? The
preaching of the Baptist was in few and
simple terms ; he called upon men to re
pent, to perform a duty which in its nature
required a change of mind and purpose,
which had for its object to turn man from
the pursuit of sin, and the only genuine
effect of which was amendment of life and
manners. And he called them to perform
this duty, because " the kingdom of hea-
" Matth. xi. 11.

SERMON V. 205
" ven was at hand";" intimating plainly
enough, that if they would enter into it,
and hope to participate in its advantages,
they must previously repent. But the Bap
tist's call to repentance, as a duty neces
sary before admission into the kingdom of
heaven, showed clearly what kind of a
kingdom it was intended to be. Repent
ance did in its nature imply the renuncia
tion of sin; and as this renunciation was
to be made previous to men's entering into
the announced kingdom, as sin was thus
peremptorily required to be deposited at
the very entrance into the Church of Christ,
it was a plain declaration, that the design
of Him, who was about to found that
church and kingdom, was to exclude from
it all sin and wickedness. That such was
his design, men might judge with sufficient
assurance from the message which pre
ceded his approach ; for it is thus that they
judge of each other's intentions in their
worldly undertakings. If, when men in
vite their followers to join them, they de
mand any specific preparation, we can
x Matth. iii. 2. Luke iii. 16, 17-

206 SERMON V.
form, without much risk of error, an ade
quate idea of their ultimate purposes. It
is by the proper application of the same
principles of common sense, that we shall
most accurately judge of the truths of Re
ligion also. It is not by the use of reason,
but by the indulgence of self-conceit, that
the human mind falls into error. Reason
is the lamp of God in the soul of man ;
and though this, like all the gifts bestowed
upon men, may be abused, yet we can no
more judge without the exercise of our rea
son, than we can see without opening our
eyes. The fair deductions of reason are
equally important, and can no more be
deviated from with impunity, in matters of
religion, than in the affairs of common life.
And thus must we come to a correct deci
sion on the case before us. When we ga
ther from all the previous arrangements,
that the intention of our Lord was to ex
clude sin from his kingdom, we are by no
means at liberty to neglect this mode of
arriving at the truth, or to lessen the weight
of argument which it affords; in other
things we should acknowledge its validity,

SERMON V. 207
and we are bound to acknowledge it here.
Let it be impartially considered, and its
force cannot but be allowed. God Al
mighty sent his Messenger before his Son
to prepare men for being received into his
kingdom : and how did he prepare them ?
Did he call upon them to get wealth or
power, or even learning itself, as a qualifi
cation for being admitted ? No : he called
upon them to do nothing but to quit their
sins; in every other respect he left them
as he found them, whether rich or poor,
whether learned or unlearned, whether high
or low : they might come in all points as
they were, except that they must not bring
their sins with them : these were decidedly
inadmissible ; and whatever men might be,
yet if they did not renounce their sins, into
the kingdom of heaven they could not
come. And is it possible to conceive any
method better calculated to impress men
with a deep sense of the holy nature of
that kingdom, than this of declaring, that
no sin, and no man adhering to sin, could
be received into it? Extreme inattention
could alone be insensible to the weight of

208 SERMON V-
this argument, and hypocrisy alone could
elude it. Sin and holiness are directly op
posed to each other, and where sin was ex
pelled, there it must follow of course, that
holiness and integrity would be paramount.
And here it is impossible not to remark
the unity and consistency of all the Divine
proceedings. We have before seen, that
man lost Paradise by falling into sin ; and
now that a dispensation was clearly an
nounced, by which a way was to be made
for his return to the happiness he had lost,
the very first step, which is taken for his
restitution, is to inform him, that he must
renounce sin before he can have any hope
of being reinstated in the Divine favour.
The introduction of sin was the introduc
tion of misery ; and unless that sin was re
moved, the misery must still continue to
be felt. However merciful God was, how
ever inclined to pity and relieve his fallen
and unhappy creature, still his own essen
tial nature continued the same, and his
hatred of sin could neither be changed nor
diminished. Man was banished from his
presence because he sinned ; and while he

SERMON V. 209
adhered to sin, he could hot be readmitted
into his presence. The Divine counsel
continued immutable in this, that no ini
quity could be admitted into his kingdom ;
and though a way was now about to be
opened, by which sinful man might regain
his Maker's favour, yet even before that
way was fully revealed, it was clearly and
expressly and decidedly declared, that it
would be incompatible with a perseverance
in any kind of transgression. But that not
a shadow of doubt might remain on this
subject, that no one should have the least
pretence for making the mercy of the Gos
pel an excuse for his wickedness, the Au
thor of that Gospel, and the Founder of
that kingdom of which the Baptist had an
nounced the approach only, commenced
his own preaching precisely in the same
way. His call was to repentance ; and He
did not hesitate to say, that to make that
call was one great end of his coming into
the world z. This was the first step in his
system of Religion : till this was taken, no
advance whatever could be made. He,
z Matth. ix. 13.
P

210 SERMON V.
who came to deliver man from the fatal
effects of his sin, made it his first care to
deliver him from the sin itself. The first
Adam brought it into the world3; the se
cond began his great work of restoration
by absolutely forbidding its intrusion into
his kingdom. And as He did himself, so
He ordered his disciples to do. The twelve
Apostles, on their first mission, " went out,
" and preached that men should repent b."
St. Peter, when asked what they should do
who wished to be saved, exhorted them to
" repent0." St. Paul, immediately on his
conversion, was " not disobedient to the
" heavenly vision ;" and the proof that
he was not disobedient was this, that he
" showed" to all whom he addressed, " that
" they should repent and turn to God, and
" do works meet for repentance*1." Thus
fully and expressly does our Lord insist by
Himself, by his forerunner, and by his A-
postles, upon the necessity, that all, who
would come to Him for salvation, should
first renounce sin, should turn from dark-
a Rom. v. 12. t> Mark vi. 12. c Acts ii. 38.
d Acts xxvi. 18, 19, 20.

SERMON V. 211
ness and from the power of Satan, under
which they and their forefathers had fallen
by transgression, to the service of God and
obedience to his laws. Should it appear to
any person, that I insist too much upon so
plain a proposition as the necessity of re
pentance, I beg to observe, that were this
one point clearly and duly enforced, it
would strike at the root of many errors
and misconceptions, as to the doctrines of
the Gospel, and more particularly as to the
manner of .stating and explaining them.
For if a renunciation of sin be necessary,
even before our profession of Christianity ;
if it be required as an indispensable quali
fication, even at the very threshold of the
Christian temple ; and if, till we get rid of
this incumbrance, we are not even admis
sible into the list of Christ's soldiers and
servants, then certainly no doctrine can be
true, and no interpretation can be correct,
which does in any degree or any manner
encourage a continuance in sin, or make
the conscience easy while it does continue
in it. Since we are plainly told to leave
our sins behind us at our entrance into the
p 2

212 SERMON V.
Christian Church, any attempt to make the
faith taught in that Church consistent with
an adherence to sin, must be a most gross
misrepresentation of the truth, and a most
criminal abuse of Divine instruction.
Clear however and important as this is,
the necessity of holiness to final acceptance
with God does by no means rest upon it.
Repentance being laid as the foundation,
the superstructure of Christian virtue is
then to be commenced. Our Lord him
self declares expressly, that his Law was
more spiritual, more holy, and more ex
tended, than even the most precise 'expla
nations of duty which had been delivered
before"; it required greater purity, and
searched deeper into the thoughts of men,
and took a larger range in its injunctions.
When the Psalmist tells us, that " the Law
" of the Lord is perfect, converting the
" soul;" and that " the commandment of
" the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyesf;"
he speaks by a kind of anticipation of that
e Matth. v. 20.
f Psalm xix. 8. and Bishop Sherlock's elegant Com
ment.

SERMON V. 213
sanctifying of the Spirit, which the Gospel
would command and produce in all its
faithful professors, and which it did pro
duce in himself, and in " all them that
" looked for redemption in Jerusalem s."
The Revelation made by Christ, being the
consummation of all previous intimations
of the Divine Will, was also the fulness of
truth and the perfection of morals. In this
sense and with this view the Author of our
Religion declares, that no empty profes
sions of attachment to his person h, no com
plimentary addresses, no hypocritical at
tempts to substitute words for actions, would
be acceptable to Him, or entitle those who
used them to a share in the salvation which
He announced. He demanded of all his
followers, sincere uniform obedience in
thought, word, and deed to the Will of his
Father: He demanded of them, that they
should do that Will ; not that they should
know it merely, not that they should ad
mire it, not that they should praise it ; but
that they should do it; that it should be
the rule of their actions, and the guide of
s Luke ii. 38.< h Matth. vii. 21.
P 3

214 SERMON V.
their lives ; that whatever it forbids them,
from that they should refrain; whatever it
enjoins them, that they should perform.
And this not externally, but internally ; not
only in the outward act, but in the inward
intention. The Will of God revealed in
the Gospel is designed to regulate the af
fections, to correct the temper, to keep
the passions within due bounds, and direct
them to proper objects, and to give its pro
fessors " a clean heart and a right spirit."
It is thus that it is to be done. For St.
Paul tells us, that " the Will of God is our
" sanctification," and that " we should
" possess these vessels of ours in honour;"
because we are " called to holiness5." The
Apostle indeed in this place confines his at
tention to one particular instance of duty,
but the " sanctification," which he informs
us is the express " will of God," and the
" holiness," to which he says we are " call-
" ed," are to be understood certainly as
extending to all the affections of the soul,
and as requiring in them all a due order and
purity. But it would be unpardonable not
' 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4—7.

SERMON V. 215
to remark the force of the Apostle's ex
pression, we are "called to holiness:" in
modern language we should express the
same idea by saying, that holiness was our
profession. It is thus we say, that divinity
is the profession of a clergyman, that me
dicine is the profession of a physician, and
that arms are the profession of a soldier :
and it is readily understood and allowed,
that whatever is a man's profession, to that
he is bound to devote his time and atten
tion, and in that it is expected he has made
a proficiency. And precisely in this sense
does the Scripture represent holiness to be
the profession of a Christian; not merely
that his profession is a holy profession, but
that the very object and essence of the
profession itself is holiness. To this Christ
ians are called, this is their business, this
they are to cultivate continually, this is the
mark to which all their endeavours should
be directed. Sin they renounced at their
very entrance on this profession ; and hav
ing renounced sin, they were prepared to
commence the practice of holiness : so well
is the business of our moral improvement
p 4

216 SF.RMON V.
arranged, so clearly is the intention of the
Gospel to secure that improvement set be
fore us, if we would but attend to its plain
intimations ! And not only by plain inti
mations and the clearest inferences is this
improvement required from us, but by ex
press and positive injunctions. Our Lord
bids us "be perfect k." His great Apo
stle made it his own practice, by the use of
suitable means1, to purify continually the
remaining corruptions of his nature, and
" forgetting the things behind, to reach
" forth unto those before"1;" and his earn
est advice to his followers is, that they
should " cleanse themselves from all filthi-
" ness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holi-
" ness in the fear of the Lord n." St. Peter
leaves this as his last injunction, " Grow in
" grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord
" and Saviour Jesus Christ0." All these
expressions clearly imply, that it is a Christ
ian's duty to endeavour after improvement
in those virtues which the Gospel requires
of him ; that he ought diligently to prac-
k Matt. v. 48. i 1 Cor. ix. 26, 27. m Philip.
iii. 13. " 2 Cor. vii. 1. ° 2 Peter iii. 18.

SERMON V. 217
tise them, and make it his object to fix in
his mind such habits as are most conform
able to piety and goodness. It is by such
conduct alone that man is taught to hope
for the attainment of that happiness which
the Gospel sets before him. As he lost
Paradise by sin, so he is plainly told, that
he can only recover it by holiness p. And
that beloved disciple, to whom was reveal
ed the various fortunes of the Christian
Church, and who had a view of that final
consummation of all things, which should
place one part of mankind in the glory of
the New Jerusalem, and consign the other
to the lake of fire and brimstone^ has been
commissioned so to instruct us respecting
our ultimate destination, as to make it im
possible for any man to expect future hap
piness without present holiness. His de
scription of the New Jerusalem, and of
those who shall be admitted into it, is pre
cise and perspicuous. He declares expli
citly, that " there shall in no wise enter
" into it any thing that defileth, neither
" whatsoever worketh abomination, or
i> Matth. xxv. 46.

218 SERMON V.
" maketh a lie q :" nothing unclean, no
thing contrary to the purity and the truth
of God. Those alone who have paid a due
attention to the injunctions of the Gospel,
those alone who have obeyed the Will of
God, by seeking to fulfil it in the sanctifi
cation of their souls and bodies, shall be
allowed to pass the barriers of this holy
city. " Blessed," says the inspired Apo
stle, (and he knew the mind of his be
loved Master,) " blessed are they that do
" his commandments, that they may have
" right to the Tree of Life, and may enter
" in through the gates '." And thus we see,
with a clearness that can admit of no doubt
or cavil, that when the gates of that happy
abode, which were shut against our first
parent on account of his transgression, were
again to be thrown open, it was especially
provided, that they should be opened upon
the same principle upon which they were
shut, a regard to moral truth and virtue,
hatred to sin, and love to goodness. The
attributes of God are ever the same ; He
is ever holy, just, and good; and as his
i Rev. xxi. 27. r Rev. xxii. 14.

SERMON V. 219
displeasure is excited against sin alone, so
his favour can only be extended to such as
have renounced iniquity, and have honestly
endeavoured, to the utmost of their power,
to cultivate the righteousness and integrity
which alone He loves.
There is however a question, which it
would be improper altogether to overlook
on this occasion, and the decision of which
is indeed of great importance. It is this :
Is the holiness, for which we have been
contending, and which has been proved to
be so necessary to our acceptance with
God, an inherent or an imputed holiness ?
If it be the latter, its being insisted upon
so much in the holy Scriptures will not
prove the moral tendency of the Revelation
they contain. But that it is a real inhe
rent holiness, infused into the soul, and is
suing out in substantial virtue, is clear
from this, that it is capable of improve
ment by exercise and practice, and that it
is said to consist in the conformity of our
thoughts, words, and actions to the Will of
God. For this plainly implies such an in
ternal quality of the mind, as not only af-

220 SERMON V.
fects the character, but regulates the life,
and gives the tone to our feelings and af
fections. It is the kingdom of God within
us. The doctrine of imputed righteous
ness is supported certainly by great names,
and has been adopted by good men ; and
as it was understood by them may perhaps
be capable of a sense not inconsistent with
sound morality. But it is capable also of
an interpretation pernicious in itself, and
most dangerous in its tendency. In the
sense in which it is really to be found in
Scripture, it means precisely that justifica
tion by which Almighty God is pleased,
for Christ's sake, to account one, who was
a sinner, a righteous man on his repent
ance. But when it is said, that the right
eousness of Christ is wholly imputed to us,
an assertion is made, for which as there is
no ground5 in the word of God, so is it ap-
s On this subject the learned Grabe, in his Annota
tions on Bishop Bull's Harm. Apost. has the follow
ing excellent observations. " Si id velint," says he,
" Deum justitiam Christi imputare fidelibus in remis-
" sionem peccatorum, ita ut praeterita crimina et prae-
" sentia delicta quasi pro non factis habeantur, dicunt,
" quod S. Scripturae congruum, et a ratione non est

SERMON V. 221
parently inconsistent with the whole scheme
of our redemption, inconsistent with the
" alienum :  ast si justitiam Christi a fidelibus ita
" apprehendi, ac a Deo ipsis ita imputari contendant, ut
" propria eorum justitia formaliter fiat, ac ex ea justi a
" Deo pronuntientur, turn istud asserunt, quod sanse ra-
" tioni  repugnat, et in S. Scriptura nuspiam doce-
" tur." Annot. in D. prior, cap. iii. p. 416. But the
Bishop himself, in his Examen Censurse, p. 557- has
largely and satisfactorily illustrated this important ques
tion. " De justitia Christi nobis imputata primo in
tf loco agendum est. Atque primum de phrasi ipsa,
" qua justitia Christi nobis imputari dicitur, inquiren-
" dum. 1. Certum est, locutionem illam in Scripturis
" nusquam occurrere. 2. iEque manifestum est, ipsam
" in plerisque iisque nobilissimis Ecclesiarum Reforma-
" tarum Confessionibus omnino desiderari. De impu-
" tatione justitia Christi ne ygii quidem reperias, vel
" in nostra Confessione, vel in Augustana, Argenti-
" nensi, Wirtenbergica, Bohemica, Belgica, &c. Qui
" igitur in alterutra harum Ecclesiarum vivit, is vi sub-
" scriptionis suae non tenetur istiusmodi locutionem
" amplecti ; sed liberum ei est disquirere, quatenus
'f phrasis ilia Scripturis et rectas rationi congruat aut
" disconveniat. 3. Observandum est, phrasin illam pes-
" sime congruere cum locutione Scriptures notissima,
" qua fides dicitur homini in justitiam imputari, Rom.
" iv. 3, 5, 6, 22, 23, 24. Nam locutio ilia sensu alio
" accipi non potest, quam hoc, quod Deus in Evangelio
" fidem nostram (nempe Si' ayamjs evegyov/Aevyv, ut Pau-
" lus ipse se explicat) pro justitia nostra reputat, et
" proemio remunerandam censet. Non itaque justitia
" Christi, sed fides nostra, nobis imputatur in justitiam.

222 SERMON V.
very sacrifice Christ himself made for sin
upon the cross, and with the sanctifying
" Quare? An propter rei ipsius dignitatem? Absit: sed
" propter solam Jesu Christi satisfactionem meritoriam,
" qua e Deo impetravit, ut sub hac conditione justitiae
" ac salutis fieremus participes. Itaque juxta Scriptu-
" ras justitia Christi proprie id non est (N. B.) quod
" imputatur, sed id propter quod imputatur nobis fides
" nostra in justitiam. 4. Denique apprime notandum,
" (quod dudum observavit vir doctissimus,) phrasin, qua
" Christi justitia nobis imputari dicitur, si rigide acci-
" piatur, consistere non posse cum ilia, quae propriam
" et genuinam Ecclesiarum Reformatarum sententiam
" exprimit, qua nempe justitia nobis imputari dicitur
" propter Christi meritum et obedientiam. Nam si
" utrumque in vigore velimus verum esse, necesse est
" dicamus justitiam Christi nobis imputari propter justi--
" tiam Christi; quae locutio manifestam in se habet axu-
" pokoyiav. Sed de phrasi satis ; de re ipsa jam videbi-
" mus. " Catholica doctrina est, fidem, pcenitentiam, spem,'
" dilectionem, caeterasque virtutes et bona opera nostra,
" nequaquam per se aut merito suo ad id valere ut quis
" justificetur, hoc est, a peccatis suis prius commissis
" absolvatur, a Deo tanquam Justus tractetur, ipsique
" ad salutem vitamque eeternam gratus acceptusque ha-
"beatur; sed illud totum unice deberi meritorias Jesu
" Christi satisfaction!, utpote qua sola gratiosum foedus
" (quod Evangelium vocatur) impetratum ac sancitum
" fuerit, juxta quod sub aequissimis illis conditionibus,
" justificationis ac salutis participes fieri possimus. Ita
" Ecclesia nostra, Art. 11. Justi coram Deo reputamitr,
" non propter opera aut merita nostra, sed tantum propter

SERMON V. 223
influence of the blessed Spirit. For if the
righteousness of Christ be so imputed to
" merita Domini ac Salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi, &c. Ita
" confessiones omnes a nobis paulo ante commemoratae.
" Neque aliud voluerunt confessiones (quae paucissi-
" mae sunt) in quibus phrasis ilia, justitia Christi no-
" bis imputatur, xara kej-iv reperitur. Audi Gallicanae
" Confessionis verba, Art. 18. * Credimus totam justi-
" tiam nostram positam esse in peccatorum nostrorum
" remissione, quae sit etiam, ut testatur David, unica
" nostra felicitas. Itaque caeteras omnes rationes, qui-
" bus homines existimant se coram Deo posse justificari,
" plane repudiamus ; omnique virtutum et meritorum
" opinione abjecta, in sola Jesu Christi obedientia pror-
" sus acquiescimus ; quae quidem nobis imputatur, turn
" ut tegantur omnia nostra peccata, turn etiam ut gra-
" tiam coram Deo nanciscamur.' Ubi eatenus tantum
"justitiam Christi nobis imputari dicunt, ut propter
" ipsam nos peccatorum remissionem consequamur,
" Deoque ad salutem grati et accepti habeamur  Sed
" palam est, te lociitione ilia, qua Christi justitiam no-
" bis imputari dicis, longe aliud voluisse. Quippe sta-
" tuis, justitiam Christi ita nobis imputari, ut revera
" nostra fiat, nosque ipsam in Christo praestitisse a Deo
" censeamur; unde fit, Ut ex ilia justitia ipsi perfecte
" justi, hoc est, ab omni peccati non modo poena sed et
" culpa, immunes proprie denominari possimus." He
then proceeds to show, in the most convincing manner,
the many ill consequences that necessarily follow from
this doctrine, and how inconsistent it is with some of
the plainest and most important positions of Christian
truth. I shall only add a short but forcible sentence;
quoted by Dr. Grabe, from a writer whom he frequently

224 SERMON V.
us ; if his perfect and unsinning obedience
be so made ours, as to enable us to stand
before the tribunal of God, clothed in the
panoply of his perfection, then is it difficult
to conceive what need there could have
been for any sacrifice at all. His obedi
ence was perfect, and certainly required no
atonement for any defect, much less for
any transgression ; and if that obedience
be completely ours, then we are as little in
need of any propitiation to reconcile us to
the Almighty. And again, with regard to
the sanctification of the Spirit : how can
he, who is already perfect, receive any ad
dition, much less any correction, even from
the Holy One himself? The idea of per
fection certainly excludes both the one and
the other. But the righteousness described
and required of us in Scripture admits of
both, and we are commanded to labour
for both ; and therefore we may fairly con-

commends, Gul. Forbes; in considerationibus padficis et
modestis de Justificatione. " Per Christi justitiam nobis
" sic imputatam verissima Dei aestimatione aeque justi
" censemur et sumus quam ipse Christus ; quod Chri-
" stianae aures vix ferre possunt."

SERMON V. 225
elude, that as it is not absolutely perfect, it
is not the righteousness of the immaculate
Jesus imputed to us, but a righteousness,
such as we are capable of, wrought in us
by the good Spirit of grace, improved by
our own earnest endeavours to cooperate
with his holy inspirations, but accepted,
because still defective, through the sole
merits and intercession of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ.

Q

SERMON VI.

Ephes. iv. 8 — 12.
When he ascended up on high, He led captivity
captive, and gave gifts unto men  For
the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ.
THE Moral Tendency of Divine Revela
tion having been proved from the holiness
which it represents as essential to God,
from the original perfection of man, from
the loss of happiness through sin, and from
the necessity of his restoration to right
eousness before he can be restored to hap
piness, it remains to be seen, whether it has
provided any means for attaining the ob
ject, upon which it appears so largely to
insist. And that it has done so in the
most ample manner will be evident from
an inspection of the particular instances,
Q 2

228 * SERMON VI.
in which its care in this respect is conspi
cuous. The means provided by Revelation for
the moral improvement of man, may be
considered as fairly arranging themselves
under the following heads : religious and
moral instruction in words; external em
blematic signs, which, if understood at all,
must be understood as shadowing out and
requiring internal purity ; direct moral dis
cipline ; and, above all, the sanctifying in
fluences of God's Holy Spirit. All these
are expressly supplied by the Revelation
which we receive as Divine ; and whatever
their success or failure may be in eradicat
ing vice or producing virtue, the Revela
tion, which provides them, must be ac
knowledged to have for its design the com
plete destruction of the former, and the
effectual support of the latter.
With regard then to the first mean of
moral improvement, we have this character
of it given us by St. Paul, to enable us to
judge of its intent and efficacy : " All
" Scripture," says he, "is given by inspi-
" ration of God, and is profitable for doc-

SERMON VI. 229
" trine, for reproof, for correction, for in^
" struction in righteousness : that the man
" of God may he perfect, thoroughly fur-
" nished unto all good works"." And that
this character is to be extended to the Old
Testament as well as the New, is clear
from this, that the Apostle commands Ti
mothy to " continue" in those " things"
which he had " learned," not only from
himself, as his evangelical instructor, but in
those also which he had imbibed from the
holy Scriptures, in which he had been con
versant from his childhood b. But the only
Scriptures in which Timothy could have
been conversant from his childhood, were
the. Scriptures of the Old Testament, no
other writings being then extant under that
character; and consequently it was for his
early proficiency in them, that he was
commended by St. Paul. To them there
fore must belong that property of useful
instruction, which all Scripture is here de
clared to possess, and of them it must be
confessed, that they have the power of
" correcting" what is wrong, and enforc-
a 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17- b 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15.
Q 3

230 SERMON VI.
ing what is right. And not only to the
Law as delivered by Moses, and the au
thoritative instructions of the Prophets,
who succeeded him, must this character be
extended, but to all those previous intima
tions of God's Will, by which, though not
written at the time, the Almighty was
pleased to instruct the earlier inhabitants
of the world in their duty to Himself.
These, when recorded by the inspired pen
men, become parts of that Scripture, which
is described as so profitable for the im
provement of man, and must be considered
as equally the objects of the Apostle's re
commendation as the Law or the Prophets
precisely so called. Thus all the injunc
tions of God to Adam, all the denuncia
tions against antediluvian wickedness, and
all the encouragements to antediluvian vir
tue, all the promises and precepts deliver
ed to Noah, and the covenant into which
the Almighty graciously entered with this
his chosen servant, must be received as so
many Divine lessons, prepared for our use,
and designed for our improvement, by the
express appointment of our Maker. Every

SERMON VI, 231
command and every example, whether be
fore the Law or under the Law, must be
viewed in the same light; and forming, with
what followed in the yet clearer enuncia
tions of the Gospel, one consistent and
complete system of heavenly wisdom for
the benefit of man. And what a treasure
of wisdom it is, when viewed in this its
own comprehensive light, will be confessed
by every one who has studied it with at
tention ; and it will be confessed also, that
it is a powerful instrument of making men
at once wiser and better. He, who has
read the holy Scripture with due care,
may even now be truly said to have been
" taught of God c," to have been instruct
ed in his duty, religious and moral, by
Him, whose Law is the rule of rectitude,
and who best knows, both what it is fitting
for us to do, and what is our ability to do
it. I make use of the expression, religious
and moral duty, because it is one which
has generally obtained; though it does not
seem either quite correct in itself, or alto
gether unproductive of ill effects'5. For
c Isa. liv. 13. d Conybeare's Defence, p. 59, &c,
Q 4

232 SERMON VI.
undoubtedly the first and highest moral
obligation to man is that by which he is
bound to serve and obey his Maker; this
is his most important moral relation, the
source and foundation indeed of all the
other relations by which he finds himself
bound. Whatever may be supposed as the
basis of moral duty, by those who would
attempt to form a system of ethics inde
pendent of Religion; however it may be
founded upon the fitness of things, and their
relation to each other ; still the relation of
man to that Almighty God, from whom
his being was derived, must precede every
other in time and in dignity, and it must
ever be most fit, that to Him the first duty
should be paid. The distinction therefore
which has been admitted in terms between
Religion and Morality, does not rest upon
this, that the nature of man's obligation to
observe the one is different from his obli
gation to observe the other; both rest upon
the same eternal basis of immutable truth.
But the distinction has obtained on ac
count of the difference of objects to which
the duty is referred by this difference of

SERMON VI. 233
expression, religious duty having God for
its object, and moral duty being confined
to the performance of what we owe to our
fellow-creatures and ourselves. And this
difference of expression has arisen, I con
ceive, from adopting, somewhat more than
Christians ought to have done, the ideas
and the language of heathen moralists.
With them, unhappily, religion and morals
had little to do with each other. Ignorant
as they were of the true origin of things,
ignorant as they were of the unity and spi
rituality of the Godhead, and of that Om
niscient superintendence which He con
stantly exercises over the affairs and ac
tions of men, thev could not found their
morals on their religion ; and therefore it
was excusable in them to consider these
two sets of duties as no less distinct in the
source of their obligation, than in the ob
jects to whom they were addressed. But
in those, to whom the oracles of Divine
truth have been communicated, it is not so
becoming to make this separation even in
appearance. To them the best source of
sound morals is pure religion ; and though,

234 SERMON VI.
for the sake of a more clear consideration
of each part of so important a subject, it
may be allowable to introduce such dis
tinctions, yet it should never be forgotten
by any one, who knows the origin of man,
and whence he derived his being, that reli
gion is no less deeply bound upon him by
the very constitution of his nature, than
the duties which are more commonly call
ed moral. The true distinction of human
duty, and under which it can be most con
veniently and properly discussed, is that
which the Apostle has authoritatively laid
down as the complete rule of human life.
Godliness, righteousness, and sobriety, com
prise the sum and substance of what man
is required to do in order to please God,
to satisfy his fellow-creatures, and in the
best possible manner to secure his own
health of body and peace of mind. But
when the Apostle thus enumerates the parts
of our duty, he does not intimate any dif
ference as to the source or degree of our
obligation to perform them. He rests the
whole, as his Divine Master did before
him, upon the declared Will of God, that

SERMON VI. 235
Will demanding at once, and with equal
strictness, piety, justice, and temperance.
And this surely is the only true source, the
only certain foundation, of all human duty
and all moral obligation. God, who made
man, knew best what he was made for;
and therefore whatever his Creator im
posed upon him as duty, that, we may be
satisfied, he as a creature was best fitted to
perform. This seems sufficiently evident :
but did it want confirmation, it would be
found abundantly in an examination of
that Divine Word, in which the Will of
God has been announced. That Word is
throughout clear and precise in delineating
and enforcing the duty of man. The re
presentation which it makes of the state of
man after the fall is such indeed as to
show, that the unhappy effects of the cor
ruption introduced by sin spread rapidly
and widely over the world ; but it is such
also as to indicate plainly, that they, who
thus opposed the Will of God, and trans
gressed his precepts, knew, or might have
known, the impropriety of their conduct.
God had not left them " without a wit-

236 SERMON VI.
" nesse" to testify what conduct He re
quired at their hands. When Cain slew
his brother, he knew well that he was trans
gressing the law of God. When Lamech
dared to give an example of polygamy, he
could not be ignorant that " from the be-
" ginning it was not sof." When it is
said, that " Enoch walked with God," we
are assured by the Apostle, that he was
acquainted with both the faith and practice
which were necessary to please his heaven
ly Father. Thus also, as we descend in
the history of mankind, we find many holy
men in the line of Seth ; and the blameless
integrity of Noah is conspicuously display
ed. He was a preacher of righteousness,
and it is most probable that there were
others before him : but certainly he, who
had been a preacher of righteousness be
fore the flood, would not fail, after so sig
nal an instance of the Divine vengeance on
transgression, to enforce and inculcate the
same righteousness, when he was the sole
and absolute monarch of the world. If the
descendants of Noah were not righteous, it
e Acts xix. 17. f Matth. xix. 8.

SERMON VI. 237
was not for want of knowledge, nor for
want of Divine Revelation. Their father
and their king was the commissioned he
rald of heaven ; and they must have known,
not only what they were required to do,
and from what they were required to re
frain, but the reward also which would be
conferred upon obedience, and the punish
ment by Which transgression would be vi
sited. When we are told by St. Paul, that
because Enoch pleased God he must have
had faith, we are, I presume, entitled to
conclude, that when Noah is called a
preacher of righteousness, he was informed
of the sanction, by which that righteous
ness would be best secured and enforced.
It is, I think, impossible to conceive, that
Noah was ignorant of the great leading
doctrines, which teach man to consider this
life as a passage to another. When we re
collect, that God established his covenant
with him, and that however limited that
covenant might be, it must yet be under
stood to embrace that gracious promise
which gave man the first hope of ultimate
ly Obtaining the victory over his enemy,

238 SERMON VI.
and which hope was now necessarily con
fined to his descendants, it seems in the
highest degree probable, that some intima
tion, however obscure, of the redemption
to be wrought in the fulness of time must
have been communicated to this second
father of the human race. And this it is
necessary to observe, because, if this view
of the subject be correct, it will account
naturally and satisfactorily for all those
remnants of religion and righteousness,
with all those apparent anticipations of a
more perfect revelation, which lie scattered
in the compositions of those who lived un
der the Law, and through the whole mass
of the heathen mythology. This will be a
reason, why, though in the letter of the
Mosaic dispensation the sanction of future
rewards and punishments be not expressly
provided, yet in that very Law there were
clear intimations of a future and eternal ex
istence.. These intimations, as well as the
rules of a more perfect morality, were an
tecedent to that Law, which, coming in as
a temporary measure, was in itself ground
ed upon temporary views and principles.

SERMON VI. 239
Preceding generations had been supplied
with information of a purer and more spi
ritual nature, but they had lost it through
corruption. This must be granted : for
even in the days of Abraham, and in the
land of Canaan, where the manners of the
inhabitants became afterwards so abomi
nable, there was a regard had to the sacred
rite of wedlock, over the history of which
a Christian of the present day must blush
with shame, and almost weep with sorrow.
And this instance of regard for virtue was
exhibited four hundred and thirty years
prior to that awful promulgation of the Di
vine Will on Mount Sinai. Upon what
then could it be founded, but upon that
knowledge of right and wrong, which Noah
was enabled to hand down in his instruc
tions to his posterity. It was when this in
struction began to fail and lose its effect,
and there was a rapid degeneracy spreading
over the face of the globe, that the Al
mighty again made a public declaration of
his Will, and took measures to secure its
more permanent establishment in the world.
The Ten Commandments were delivered

240 SERMON VI.
with a solemnity calculated to inspire the
whole human race with awe. In them,
properly understood, were contained the
principles of human duty in all its branch
es ; but as those principles were expressed
in few words, they became capable of ex
pansion or contraction, according to the
mind and disposition of him, who was call
ed upon to observe them. Interpreted
largely and liberally, they restrained every
unworthy passion, and enjoined the best
morals from the best motives ; but consi
dered merely in the letter, they would seem
to respect only the outward actions of men,
or to restrain those appetites alone, which
lead to injustice and oppression. And ac
cordingly we findj that many who lived
under that Law contented theinselves with
a bare submission to its direct command,
while others, of better and more enlarged
minds, acknowledged the necessity of in
ward purity and rectitude of mind*. It
must be confessed, indeed, that the Jewish
Law permitted many things which were
inconsistent, not only with the purer prin-
s Psalm xli. 10.

SERMON VI. 241
ciples afterwards promulgated in the Gos
pel, but with the earlier institutions of hu
man society. Polygamy, concubinage, and
divorce, were allowed to the Israelites,
though our Saviour tells us plainly, that
such allowance was contrary to God's Will,
and Lamech appears to have been the first
who transgressed the original institution of
marriage. Still, though the Jewish Law
was thus imperfect, in condescension to the
hardness of their hearts to whom it was
given, yet illustrated as it was, by the
preaching of the Prophets, and by the ordi
nances which accompanied it, as well as by
the previous instructions which had been
imparted to the world, it served in an ad
mirable manner to keep alive in men a due
sense of religion, and a regard to moral
equity and justice. We indeed, by the light
of the Gospel, see its imperfection ; but
its value before that happy period, when
" the glory of Israel and the light of the
" Gentiles" appeared, we do not perhaps
so justly appreciate. And yet the Law and
the Prophets are by no means a dead letter
to us, even as means of moral instruction.
R

242 SERMON VI.
Our Saviour took care, and it was neces
sary that he should take care, to inform
his followers, that He came not to destroy
either h: not to destroy, that is, to dissolve
or diminish any moral obligation, which
they could fairly be understood to impose,
but to support their authority, by fulfilling
in his own person their injunctions and
predictions, as far as they concerned Him
self, and laying his disciples under a strict
charge to observe them, in that more libe
ral and enlarged sense in which He had
expounded them. The word fulfil is cer
tainly capable of a double meaning, either
implying that our Saviour would Himself
fulfil the Law by his obedience to all it re
quired, or that He would, by his fuller in
structions, supply its deficiencies. And the
difficulty in assigning its precise significa
tion, in the place we are examining, arises
from the consideration, that in either sense
the assertion is true. But there is this to
h Matth. v. 17. Grot, de Jure B. et P. lib. i. cap. ii.
vi. 3. Hammond's Pract. Cat. p. 118, &c. Bull's Harm.
Apost. p. 424. Collier's S. Interpret, vol. i. p. 231. and
vol. ii. p. 32.

SERMON VI. 243
be observed in favour of the latter inter
pretation, that it accords better with what
goes before. The former part of the asser
tion is, that Christ did not come to destroy
or dissolve the Law or the Prophets : but
if He so fulfilled them as to relieve his fol
lowers from any submission to their com
mands, though He did not destroy them
as to himself, yet as to them, He certainly
put an end to their authority. But that
this was not his intention is clear from the
strong terms, in which He afterwards re
probates the man, who should dare to in
culcate any thing like a disregard to the
Law, and from the pure and spiritual in
terpretation which He proceeds to give of
all its moral precepts. Our Lord knew
well, " for He knew what was in man',"
how eagerly those, who were sensible of
their guilt, would embrace his proffers of
mercy, while many would yet be far from
willing to forsake the sins by which that
guilt had been contracted. He therefore
took care to be explicit on this head ; and
while, according to his gracious office, He
i John ii. 25.
R 2

244 SERMON VI.
preached " liberty to the captives, and the
" opening of the prison to them that were
" bound k," He declared, in the plainest
terms, that He loosened no tie of duty, and
gave no licence to transgress the Law of
God. So far from that, He told his dis
ciples, at the very time that He was ex
plaining to them the nature of his king
dom, that " unless their righteousness ex-
" ceeded the righteousness of the Scribes
*' and Pharisees, into that kingdom they
" could not enter1." But if the righteous
ness of the disciples was to exceed the
righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees,
it was undoubtedly to do so by a better
and purer observance of the Law. The
Scribes and Pharisees, however blameable
in their morals, were yet well acquainted
with the holy Scriptures, and professed an
implicit deference to their contents; they
sat in Moses's seat, and were the author
ized teachers of the people. They were
therefore qualified in an eminent degree to
expound the precepts of their Law; and
though they erred in many of their inter-
k Isaiah lxi. 1. 1 Matth. v. 20.

SERMON VI. 245
pretations, yet in insisting upon the obli
gation to observe the Law itself, as a rule
of duty, they were sufficiently rigid. On
this account they had, amongst their coun
trymen, a high character of sanctity and
integrity. This character indeed, when
subjected to the deep scrutiny of our Sa
viour's Omniscience, could not stand the
test ; yet to those, who did not see its se
cret defects, it was a standard of exemplary
obedience. When therefore our Lord told
his disciples, that their " righteousness"
must exceed that of the Scribes and Phari
sees, He gave them clearly to understand,
that He was so far from letting them loose
to the indulgence of any vicious propen
sity, as to require them to surpass in the
practice of true virtue the exactest pattern
which their country afforded. The Phari
sees were, no doubt, in many ways deserv
ing of censure for their hypocrisy and de
ceit ; but the command of Christ was this,
that even in that part of their character, in
which they were really praiseworthy, and
in that very righteousness for which they
had more credit than they deserved, his
R 3

246 SERMON VI.
followers were bound to surpass them. If
the Pharisees made a show only of observ
ing the precepts of the holy Law they had
received, the disciples of Jesus were to ob
serve and obey them in sincerity and truth.
And here it is impossible not to remark the
difference between our Saviour's preach
ing, and that of some who would now be
deemed the most zealous advocates of his
Gospel. These latter tell their followers,
that they must cast away the burden of
their righteousness before they can effec
tually believe to salvation. Alas ! it is a
burden, which most of the sons of Adam
may carry with ease. But whatever it be,
our Divine Master no where requires his
followers to part with any thing that is
really good in themselves. He requires
them to cast away their vices, but their vir
tues they may safely keep. It is so far
from his wish in any degree to lessen or
obscure these, that He delivers the most
express orders, and the most useful direc
tions, for their improvement. He confirms
the authority of the Law, and both enlarges
and purifies its interpretation. And in do-

SERMON VI. 247
ing so, as He gives the clearest proof of his
desire, that all who profess his faith should
be distinguished by the excellence of their
moral conduct, so He takes from them
every pretence for a vicious life on the plea
of ignorance. Whatever obscurity might
have clouded the earlier revelations of Di
vine truth, and however the Divine wis
dom thought it right to condescend for a
time to the failings of men, yet since the
light of the Gospel has dispelled the shade
of intellectual night, and the Son of God
has declared, that the liberty, formerly al
lowed, can no longer be permitted, it must
be acknowledged without reserve, that
there can now be no doubt with respect
either to the obligation or extent of duty.
The precepts which enjoin it, and the in
structions which describe it, when atten
tively examined by men of unprejudiced
minds, are too authoritative for contradic
tion, and too plain for subterfuge. To
worship God in sincerity and in truth, to
do justice to our fellow-creatures, and
treat them with the same kindness as we
should think it reasonable to expect for our-
R 4

248 SERMON VI.
selves, and to keep our passions and affec
tions in that due order which constitutes
sobriety of conduct, these things are so
palpably prominent, so conspicuously dis
played in the Scriptures, that he who does
not see them must be wilfully and obsti
nately blind. No man, who is able to read
his Bible, can say, that his duty to God
and man is not plainly and explicitly taught
him. Nor is it only taught him : it is
bound upon him by the most awful sanc
tions. His fears are awakened by the most
alarming menaces, his hopes are excited
by the most alluring promises of which his
nature is capable. Throughout the whole
of Revelation, the wrath of God is clearly
denounced against sin, and his favour as
signed as the reward of obedience: and
though it may not always be so plain un
der the Mosaic dispensation, whether those
threats and promises do in the letter reach
to the rewards and punishments of a future
life, or are to be confined to those of the
present, yet, as it is evident that a know
ledge of that future life was prior to the
Law of Moses, and many under it enter-

SERMON VI. 249
tained better hopes than any which an
earthly Canaan could afford ; it is not pos
sible to conceive, but that those threats
and promises must have been all along un
derstood as referring to a prospect far be
yond the bounds of this terrestrial sphere.
But however that be, to us every thing is
plainly revealed. We are told, in terms
which cannot be mistaken, and the force
of which cannot be lessened by any diffi
culties arising from other considerations,
that God has appointed"1 a day in which
He will judge the world ; that the persons
to be judged are all the men and women
who have ever lived from the creation of
Adam, to that last hour when the trumpet
of the Archangel shall call the dead from
their graves n ; and that what these persons
shall be judged for is, the general tenor
and particular circumstances of their con
duct during their abode upon earth". Our
Saviour tells us, that this judgment will
apply, not to actions alone, but to words p
and thoughts also, and that according as
m Acts xvii. 31 . n Rom. xiv. 10—12. ° 2 Cor.
v. 10. P Matth. xii. 33, 34—37- Heb. iv. 12.

250 SERMON VI.
each man's life shall appear upon this last
examination, so will his final doom be fixed
for ever. " The wicked shall go into ever-
" lasting punishment, and the just into life
" eternal ;" this is the sentence which each
sort of men, respectively, is to look for, on
the word of Him who will judge them :
and he, who will diminish the force of this
unequivocal declaration, by any attempt
at metaphysical subtlety, may, by the same
subtlety, blot out of the Book of God eve
ry precept and every sanction it contains.
But not only do the clear precepts and
explicit sanctions of Revelation promote
the moral improvement of man ; this prin
ciple is so interwoven in its design, that its
very external institutions are all directed
to the same important object q. Under the
*i Spencer De Leg. Prolegomena. Conybeare's Def.
p. 199. Butler's Analogy, p. 215, &c. Writers, who
would set aside Revealed Religion as unnecessary, have
sometimes indulged themselves in scoffing at its rites
and ceremonies, as mere outward observances, of little
value and little efficacy ; with what small pretensions to
truth or just reasoning, any man of impartial reflection
may easily see. But it is more deplorable, to observe
some of the friends of Revelation uniting with its ene
mies in an attempt to lower the character of its ordi-

SERMON VI. 251
Law and under the Gospel this direction is
conspicuous. The first institution of this kind under
the Law was Circumcision. That this out
ward rite implied, and was intended to
teach, the necessity of inward purity, seems
clear from the allusion which was made to it
by Moses himself. " Circumcise therefore,"
says he, " the foreskin of your heart, and
" be no more stiffheckedr." Now, unless
the Israelites had been previously inform
ed, that circumcision had a moral tenden
cy, unless they had been taught, that it
implied and required an improvement of
the mind, they could scarcely have com
prehended what Moses meant by com
manding them to " circumcise their heart."
If the action was purely external, and the
rite itself had no further signification, it
would have been difficult for them to con
ceive in what sense their Leader used the

nances; and that they should not see, that to lower
those ordinances, which derive all their value from Re
velation, tends directly to the dishonour of that Reve
lation, and to the diminution of its credit and utility.
1 Deut. x. 16.

252 SERMON VI.
expression ; but supposing them to have
already learned, that the outward ceremo
ny was symbolical of an inward effect upon
the soul, that the act, which purified the
body, was intended also to represent and
to enjoin the purity of the heart, they
would have readily comprehended what
Moses required, when he commanded the
heart to be " circumcised." They would
have referred to the mind what in the let
ter seemed to apply to the body alone; and
from the external rite, would have learnt
to cut off those impure and rebel passions,
which so continually excited them to trans
gress the Law of God. But if this allusion
seems not clear enough to warrant the mo
ral import and bearing of this rite, another
expression, in the same book, will put it
beyond a doubt. It is there said, that " the
" Lord their God would circumcise their
" heart, and the heart of their seed s." But
how, and for what purpose ? By so purify
ing and correcting their minds, as to make
them " love the Lord their God with all
" their heart and with all their soul." This
s Deut. xxx. 6.

SERMON VI. 253
evidently was a spiritual effect, produced
in a spiritual manner upon a spiritual sub
ject. Why then was the act, by which this
moral purification was effected, called the
circumcision of the heart ? Surely no bet
ter and no other reason can be assigned,
than that the outward rite, to which this
term was immediately applied, was under
stood to be of a symbolical nature; and
therefore, though circumcision denoted in
the letter an external act, yet as that ex
ternal act was understood to imply a cor
respondent effect upon the' mind, the latter
was as properly called circumcision as the
former. And this figurative language was
so well understood, and appears so gene
rally to have obtained, that it has happen
ed in this instance, as in many others, that
the metaphorical expression has sometimes
set aside that which was more proper and
peculiar. Thus when Moses pleaded his
being unqualified, for want of eloquence,
to deliver the children of Israel, he said,
he was of " uncircumcised lips*;" and thus
also when Jeremy would call upon those
' Exod. vi. 12—30.

254 SERMON VI.
of a later day to cast off their sins by re
pentance, he tells them to " circumcise
" themselves to the Lordu." In both these
examples, though they differ in the precise
object to which it is applied, yet the use of
the term for something beyond its obvious
meaning is evident. But it could not have
thus passed into common use as a figura
tive expression, if it had not been previ
ously and generally understood, that the
rite from which it was derived had, and
was intended to have, a moral signification
and a moral efficacy, in correcting the pas
sions and improving the affections of those
for whom it was ordained.
The moral nature and tendency of the
first initiatory rite under the Law being
thus established, that of all those which
follow will probably be admitted without
dispute. The principle being recognized
at the very commencement of the system,
will readily be acknowledged to pervade
and give a character to the whole. All
the washings and all the purifications en
joined by the Law, must thus be under-
u Jerem. iv. 4.

SERMON VI. 255
stood as having a further and a better
meaning than the mere cleansing of the
body. The distinction of clean and un
clean meats, though we cannot now assign
the reason of each particular prohibition,
and the exclusion from society of those who
were afflicted with the loathsome disease of
the leprosy, may on this principle be fairly
considered as means of more effectually
recommending mental purity. Thus also,
when it is forbidden to wear " a garment
" mingled of linen and woollen x," and to
" plough with an ox and an ass together y,"
a clear intimation appears to be given of
the value of simplicity, consistency, and
order. But above all, the numerous sacri
fices by which approach was to be made to
the throne of the Almighty, and by which
alone remission was to be obtained for their
various transgressions, were calculated to
impress them deeply with a sense of God's
utter abhorrence of all iniquity. The great
yearly expiation, by which the High Priest
made an atonement for himself and for all
the people, and even for the holy sanctu-
* Deut. xix. 19. y Deut. xxii. 10.

256 SERMON VI,
ary, must have excited in every well-dis
posed mind the most awful ideas of the
Supreme Being. For how great must be
the purity, how sacred the majesty, how
ineffable the holiness of Him, before whom
things the most venerable amongst men
could not be accepted without an atone
ment? But if the emblematical institutions of
Religion, under the Law, thus tended to
the moral improvement of those who ob
served them, their spiritual signification and
efficacy is, under the Gospel, striking and
conspicuous. The Gospel does indeed in
a peculiar manner teach man to worship
God " in spirit and in truth2." Its ex
ternal ordinances are few and simple, but
they are on that account worthy of the
greater attention, and deserve the more
profound regard. Strictly speaking, and
considered separately from that public wor
ship and profession which under some form
or other is common to all religions, they
are but two ; though there is one more, of
so high antiquity, and, when properly ad-
z John iv. 23.

SERMON VI. 257
ministered of such peculiar force and effi
cacy, that no man, who has any regard for
primitive Christianity, can do less than give
it a place among the best institutions of
the best ages of the Church. Yet it will
be considered perhaps with more propriety
under the next head of our inquiry. But
the two rites of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper are of themselves sufficient to set
in the strongest light the tendency of the
Gospel to promote by its symbols the mo
ral improvement of its professors. At pre
sent3 we consider them only as rites, the
observance of which tends directly to im
press men with the importance and neces
sity of purity and virtue. The first repre
sents, in a very lively manner, the inward
purification of the mind. It is a rite in
deed of great simplicity, requiring only the
washing of water, either by sprinkling or
immersion. But it is a washing : and it is ill
understood, if it be not allowed to imply
an answerable cleansing of the soul. He
a Having in another place endeavoured to shew the
spiritual efficacy of Baptism, that view of the subject is
here purposely omitted.

258 SERMON VI.
surely must have a mean opinion of the
Christian Religion, who can think that the
Author of that Religion, insisting as He
did upon real substantial virtue, in contra
diction to a mere formal compliance with
external regulations, would establish any
rite that was entirely void of spiritual ap
plication. The washing was external, in
condescension to the infirmities of those
for whose use it was intended ; but the"- real
value of the ceremony, as a part of Chris
tian Religion, is felt in the truth;, with which
it represents the washing of the soul from
the foulness of sin, and the lesson which it
inculcates on the necessity of inward pu7
rity. St. Peter tells us plainly, that it is
not the outward act, in which the essence
of the rite consists. " It is not," says he,
" the putting away the filth of the flesh,
" but the answer of a good conscience that
" saves usb;" that answer, by which, when
the candidate for Baptism was brought to
the font, he renounced his sins, and made
a solemn promise of future obedience. It
was then of the essence of this rite, and
b 1 Peter iii. 21.

SERMON VL 259
what gave; a saving force and effect to its
application, that he who received it should
enter into a firm engagement to " cease to
" do evil, and learn to do wellc." Having
been initiated into the Christian Religion
by this ceremony, he was considered as " a
" new creature*1." He had put off " the
" old man," whose character was that of a
slave to " deceitful lusts," and by putting
on the " new man" had devoted himself
to that " righteousness and holiness," by
which the new creature of the Gospel was
to be distinguished. It is impossible there
fore not to see and allow, that this rite of
our Religion has an immediate tendency to
promote the moral improvement of man.
In the other holy symbol of our faith this
tendency will be yet more evident* as its
direct design is to make the man in Christ
perfect, and unite him to his Saviour by a
holy bond of peace and charity. For what
is it? what is its forth, and what is its ob
ject? It is a commemoration Of the death
of Christ ; that death, by which He made
c Isaiah i. 16, 17-
d 2 Cor. v. 17. Galat. vi. 15. Rom. vi. throughout.
S 2

260 SERMON VI.
atonement for sin, and suffered in his own
person the penalty which sin had incurred.
And is it possible to conceive any thing
better calculated to excite an abhorrence
of that sin, in every mind that has the least
particle of generosity, than to contemplate
an affecting representation of those suffer
ings, of which sin alone was the source and
the cause? If, when we approach the sa
cred table, on which bread is to be broken
and wine poured out, we ask why this is
done? the answer is, that it is in remem
brance of the Son of God, whose body was
torn upon the cross, and his blood spilled
upon the ground. If we inquire further,
why and how it could be necessary that
the Son of God should be subjected to so
much ignominy and suffering? the answer
must again be, that the sins of men had so
far offended their righteous and Almighty
Creator, that nothing less than the blood
of his own Son, nothing less than the sacri
fice of his precious life, could make satis
faction to the Divine Justice for the trans
gression of the Divine Law. And can there
be a man, with any thing of the feelings of

SERMON VI. 261
a man, whose conscience will not be awak
ened by such a representation as this ? If
there be in him any moral sense at all, any
capacity of distinguishing between right
and wrong, and of judging correctly what
is the duty and what the happiness of a be
ing constituted as he finds himself to be,
he cannot but be roused by such a scene
to consider seriously his own condition.
It was not possible, that the Almighty
Himself could mark his detestation of sin
more strongly than by the sacrifice of his
Son. And can any man think himself at
liberty to continue in that, against which
Almighty God has thus awfully declared
his anger ? Is it to be supposed, that any
one can be permitted to do that wilfully
and obstinately, which excited the wrath
of God " against his shepherd, and against
" the man that was his fellow e?" We are
not now considering the effect of Christ's
death in the pardon procured for the sin
ner ; that is a distinct question : but the
proof, which it affords, of God's hatred to
sin, and the lesson which it gives us of his
5 Zach. xiii. J.
S 3

262 SERMON VI.
determination not to suffer the transgres
sion of his Law to go unpunished. And
in this view the commemoration of that
death must be allowed surely to teach that
lesson most expressly. Even while the pe
nitent sinner rejoices in the consolation,
which the remembrance of Christ's sacri
fice affords him, he cannot but be sensible
that the sin, which caused that sacrifice,
must be stamped with the hatred of God,
in proportion to the costliness of the sacri
fice itself.
But further: he, who is admitted to the
table at which these sacred symbols are
administered, is admitted to an union f with
Christ and with God. And what ought to
be the character of him who is admitted to
this union? what should be his preparation
for it, and what his deportment after it?
He has surely but to consider the lioly na
ture of that union, to be convinced, that
before he can presume to hope for it, he
must, to the best qf his power, and by
f The reality of this union I now take for granted,
having on another occasion endeavoured1 to prove it at
large.

SERMON VI. 263
every means in his power, purify himself
"from all filthiness of flesh and spirit g,"
and endeavour to attain all those pious,
devout, and sanctified dispositions, which
may best fit him to receive so great a be-
nefitj and supply him with the " marriage
"garment required by God in holy Scrip-
" tureh." And when he has been admit
ted to so high an honour, when he has
been made " one with Christ, and Christ
" with him*," he can doubtless be at little
loss to ascertain what conduct it. becomes
him to pursue. Being united with Christ,
the Will c-f Christ should be his; and as
that Will is clearly delivered in the inspired
volume, which He enabled his faithful ser
vants to compose and transmit to posterity,
it must be his clear duty to conform to
every precept it contains, to comply with
all its injunctions, and to pay a willing and
ready obedience to all its positive ordi
nances. But all those precepts, all those
injunctions, and all those ordinances, either
enforce the discharge of our moral duty in
s 2 Cor. vii. 1. h Exhort, to Comm. "Third
Exhort. S 4

264 SERMON VI.
direct terms, or are proposed as means and
helps for its better performance; and there
fore the rite, which so plainly binds us to
observe them, must be acknowledged to
have an immediate efficacy in furthering
the moral improvement of all who are per
mitted to partake of it.
We come now in the third place to con
sider the moral discipline which Revelation
has established in the world, and which
may be clearly seen to pervade the whole
system of Divine government, which Re
velation has opened to our view. This sys
tem commenced when our first parents
were expelled from Paradise, to earn their
bread by the sweat of their brow, and to
be subjected to all the distress and cala
mity which sin had introduced ; being ne
cessary to check the progress of vice, and
designed doubtless in a great degree to
correct its ill effects. Natural evil is cer
tainly not understood as it ought to be,
unless it is considered both as the punish
ment and correction of moral depravity.
Experience may teach us that it is s6, and
the Psalmist assures us that he found it so:

SERMON VI. 265
" Before I was afflicted," says he, " I went
" astray, but now have I kept thy word k."
The natural evil, which he suffered, had a
happy effect in checking the moral evil, by
which he had been led astray from truth
and righteousness. And that it had this
corrective tendency1, not only in its effect,
but in the design of God, he seems to ac
knowledge, when he says, that " it was
" good for him to be afflicted;" it was a
proof of the Divine goodness towards him,
that he had been called by these means
from his wanderings in the paths of vice.
When therefore we are told in the records
of Revelation, that in the earlier ages of
the world Almighty God visited his crea
tures with severe marks of his displeasure,
and ordained indeed throughout the uni-
k Psalm cxix. 67.
1 The real nature and vast importance of this disci
pline will not be understood, unless it is traced to its
origin in the condition of man, and the method, which
God has been pleased to adopt in cherishing his virtues
and eradicating his vices, during his state of probation
on earth. Particular means and particular instances of
discipline are founded upon this. See Butler's Anal.
p. 132, 140.

266 SERMON VI.
verse, that wickedness should almost inva
riably be attended with its appropriate pe
nalty of suffering, we should look upon the
whole of this as intended by the great
Creator and Governor of the world to cor
rect, if it might be, the mischiefs which sin
had introduced into his works. When they
came from his Almighty hands, they were
all pronounced good, naturally and mor-
rally good ; but when they ceased to be
good in the latter sense, sound discipline
required that their natural goodness should
cease also. It was necessary, that those
who infringed the moral integrity of the
creation, should be made to feel the wick
edness and the folly of their conduct, by
the consequences of pain and distress with
which it was accompanied, and should be
restrained in their career of vice, by seeing
that the further they advanced in depravi
ty, the further they would advance in mi
sery. But though this discipline ought
thus to be considered as pervading the
whole system of nature, and though the in
stances of Divine vengeance upon sin, re
corded in Scripture before the exodus of

SERMON VI. 267
the Israelites, are clear exemplifications of
that system, yet at present our attention
must be confined to that which was esta
blished under the Law, and which subsists,
or ought to subsist, under the Gospel.
The .nature of that discipline which was
established under the Law, and to enforce
which was the object of so many of its in-
stitntions, is thus set before us by Moses.
" Thou shalt remember," says he, " all
" the way which the Lord thy God led
" thee these forty years in the wilderness,
" to humble thee, and to prove thee 
" and He humbled thee and suffered thee
lt- to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
" which thou knewest not, neither did thy
<? fathers know; that He might make thee
«' know, that man doth not live by bread
(i only, but by every word that proceed-
N eth out of the mouth of the Lord"1."
T^at there was a moral discipline here is
obvjous : the means of effecting it were af
fliction and suffering, relieved by the mira
culous interposition of heaven : and the
object was to teach them, first, a due sense
m Deut. viii. 2, 3.

268 SERMON VI.
of their dependence upon God's provi
dence ; and next, a due observance of his
laws. It had been begun indeed, as we
have seen, in much earlier times; those who
were called to an especial share of God's
favour being called also to undergo an
especial share of that discipline which might
best render them worthy of it. Abraham,
the friend of the Almighty, was exercised
with peculiar trials ; and from the time of
his being called to that high honour, led a
wandering and unsettled life. The Patri
archs, his successors in the Divine bless
ing, were his successors also in the disci
pline to which he had been subjected.
Moses himself, who was admitted to a
nearer approach to the Almighty than any
other of the sons of men, and who, as the
type of the Messiah, occupies a peculiar
place in the records of Scripture, was tried
and exercised, both as a preparation for his
high office, and during his continuance in
it. And the principle, which was thus ex
emplified in his own life, and that of the
Patriarchs his predecessors, was transferred
into the body of his Law. The assignment

SERMON VI. 269
of natural evil as corrective of moral obli
quity, could only be the immediate ordi
nance of Him who had the powers of na
ture at his disposal, and by Him alone
could such a system be administered. But
as He willed that some part of his power
and authority should be exercised by those,
whom He appointed to rule over his peo
ple, so he willed likewise, that in the pu
nishment of vice and encouragement of
virtue they should adopt some means cor
respondent to those, with which He Him
self administered the affairs of the world.
Civil and ecclesiastical government is clear
ly intended to supply to mankind, in some
degree, by the substitution of human in
struments, that necessary control of bad
men, and protection of the good, which the
Almighty does not think right to provide
for by the immediate exertion of his own
power. In both cases the governor is " the
" minister of God for the punishment of
" evil doers, and for the praise of them
" that do well n." Even under that part
of the Jewish economy, which has been
n 1 Peter ii. 14. Rom. xiii. 4, 5, 6.

270 SERMON VI.
most properly called a Theocracy, God
did not govern without an authorized re
presentative. There was always an eccle
siastical ruler in the person of the High
Priest, who, in the absence of any civil
appointment, possessed and exercised both
branches of the supreme power. Gene
rally, but at considerable intervals, the
temporal branch was placed in the hands
of a judge, appointed either for life or for
the accomplishment of some particular pur
pose. But in whatever way the govern
ment was dispensed, certain it is, that a
moral discipline was established ; that there
were laws promulgated for the regulation
of manners, and powers conferred for the
enforcing of obedience. And that these
laws were of a moral nature is too appa^-
rent to be disputed'. For though many of
them to us now may seem to command or
forbid what is of little importance, yet in
the then state of the WOrld it is easy to
conceive, that there might have been v«ry
good reasons for their enactment. The
great object at that time was to preserve
among men a true sense of Religion, to

SERMON VI. 271
prevent them from running into idolatrous
superstitions, and to keep them firm in the
belief of One God, and of his superintend
ing providence. We have already proved,
that the first moral duty of man, as a cre
ated being, is to conform his actions to the
Will of his Creator. When therefore all
the world were madly giving themselves up
to the basest superstitions, and in a blind
admiration of the meanest creatures for
getting the God that made them, it must
have been the first object of a wise disci
pline to restrain those, who were placed
under it, from following so corrupt an ex
ample, from being carried away by the
overwhelming, current of a wide-wasting
flood of corruption. This, if well consi
dered, would, I presume, enable us to judge
better of some parts of the Jewish dispen
sation. To preserve principles should be
the prime object with him, who wishes to
preserve sound morals; and as the being
of God, with an acknowledgment of his
attributes, is the very source and basis of
integrity, it was in the highest degree ne
cessary that this point should be secured

272 SERMON VI.
with the greatest care and attention. We
should not therefore be surprised, if in
some lesser instances the Divine goodness
condescended to the infirmity of those over
whom its superintendence was exercised ;
if, as our Saviour tells us, some things
were permitted " for the hardness of their
" hearts0," which to us, enlightened by
the Gospel, appear inconsistent with good
morals, and which the Author of that Gos
pel pronounced to be against the original
constitution of human society. God was
pleased to treat his creatures according to
their weakness ; not to exact of them that
which was precisely best, but the best of
which their circumstances would admit.
While the main point of preserving the
knowledge of God among men was secured,
and they were restrained from paying that
honour to heathen vanities which was due
to Him alone, some indulgence was grants
ed them in matters of practice. It is on
this principle that some characters stand
prominent in Scripture, who are yet by no
means free from imputations on their mo-
° Mark x. 5.

SERMON VI. 273
rals. David himself was called the man
after God's own heart; not that he was
without faults, far from it ; but because he
had ever adhered steadily to that first prin
ciple of loyalty to the King of heaven, on
which all morals and all religion are ulti
mately founded. And his example proves
the value of this principle ; a message from
his God recalled him at once from the er
ror of his ways. Others, his successors,
who cast off all regard for true religion,
sunk deeper and deeper into vice, till they
were lost in irretrievable wickedness. Even
his son Solomon, distinguished as he was
by the Divine favour, was so far corrupted
by his fall into idolatry, as to make it at
this day a question whether he ever re
turned to a better mind. If therefore the
laws of the Jewish polity, both in Church
and State, and the sanctions by which
they were supported, were framed with the
view of preserving in the world a regard
for the one true God, as the sole object of
their worship and obedience, it must be
acknowledged, that it was an object wor
thy of their care. It was the point about

274 SERMON VI.
which there was then the greatest danger
of error ; and it was that point, respecting
which an error would be attended with the
most fatal consequences. While this was
preserved entire, other deviations might be
corrected as circumstances would best al
low ; but if this was impaired or corrupted,
the very source of religion was polluted,
and nothing could be looked for but a
hopeless degeneracy. But though the dis
cipline established in the Jewish Church
was thus directed mainly to the preserva
tion of the first principles of religion, yet
was it by no means confined to this one
point. It provided carefully for the ob
servance of many important particular du
ties. The Decalogue itself, even in its lite
ral acceptation, secured effectually the main
points of piety, of justice, and sobriety :
and whoever will read with attention the
instances p, in which the Israelites were re
quired to exert themselves actively for the
benefit, and to abstain religiously from the
injury, of their neighbours, will possibly ,
see cause to blush at the deficiency of
s Exod. xxi. xxii. xxiii.

SERMON VI. 275
Christian practice, when compared with a
rule, the defects of which Christians have
undoubtedly the means of detecting.
The superior light of the Gospel will
however have been bestowed upon men to
little purpose, if its only effect should be
to teach them to observe the defects of a
preceding dispensation. If we have more
and better light, we are required assuredly
to live by a better and more accurate rule.
And nothing can be clearer in point of
fact, than that the discipline originally esta
blished and intended to be kept up in the
Christian Church, was every way answer
able to the improved rule of religion and
morals with which it was supplied. The
purity of the Gospel code has been ac
knowledged by those who had little regard
for the Gospel itself; and the purity of its
discipline was designed to preserve the due
administration of the laws it had promul
gated. Whatever may have been the dis
putes about it, and whatever may be in
the present day the difficulty of exercising
itq, there is no point in the Gospel plainer
i This, I am aware, is tender ground, and I therefore
T 2

276 SERMON VI.
than this, that a discipline was established
in that society, which is called the Church
tread it lightly. But no true lover of Christ's Church
can do less than lament deeply and unfeignedly the
palpable ill effects which have resulted from its want of
discipline. Many causes have been assigned for the
divisions and distractions in which we are involved; but
speaking from observation as a Parish-Priest, I should
say, that to no one are they so much owing, as to a re
laxation of the bonds which unite men in ecclesiastical
society. Our people, being at liberty to leave the
Church or frequent it, at their own discretion or ca
price, do not feel any tie of communion sufficiently
strong between themselves and their pastors ; by leav
ing us they seem to lose nothing, as they can resume
their station at their own pleasure. It may be said,
that the evil is irremediable. Perhaps it is, but it need
not be made worse. At all events, those who have any
power to prevent its increase, would do well to consider
the following passage in Eusebius, on an occasion, of a
similar nature. No'/nov ex-n'e\vne\ (Licinius) haxekeu6p.*vov,
p)8aju.i] f«)8«/iajj aAAijAoif emxoivcovelv tou; eitiaxmoug, /xij 8'
£7ri8))f*.eiv auTcav efcelval tji/i t>j tou ireXag IxxA)ja-|'a- pj8s ye o~uv-
o'Souj i) fioukag xa) Sja<rxe\J/Eij nep) tcov XvaiTeXcbv iroieTtrSar to
8" >ji/ apa ngotfao-ig Tijf xad" ryuaiv Imjgsi'af 5) yag wagafiahov-
Tag tov vo'pov 'exprp xmofiakXeo-Qai Ti^copla' j; irei8apyo9vTa; tu>
•napayyeh.ii.aT 1, irapakuetv exx\rjo-lag tjeo-poug' aXXuig yap ou 80-
vajov to. peyaha tu>v <rxeju,ju.ara;v 5j 81a owo'Scw xaTppddxraoSai.
De Vita Const, lib. i. cap. 51. It does indeed frequently
happen, that the wickedness of the world leaves con
scientious men but a choiee of difficulties in the dis
charge of their duty ; yet the difficulty of a duty can
never be admitted as an excuse for its neglect ; other-

SERMON VI. 277
of Christ. That society was never intend
ed to consist of a number of scattered
members, professing indeed a certain com
mon set of opinions, but united by no ex
ternal bond, and subject to no common
government. It was in every respect a so
ciety regularly constituted, having a regu-
wise the primitive Christians were little to be admired
for the firmness with which they endured sufferings, ra
ther than renounce their faith, or defile the purity of the
Gospel. Discretion is, no doubt, an excellent thing, and
forbearance is a necessary duty ; but the soundest dis
cretion, and the most enduring forbearance, cannot re
quire nor admit any sacrifice of principle. If however
neither past error can be retrieved, nor the progress of a
debilitating system be prevented, the matter must be
referred to Him who knows what is best, and will in
his own good time provide it. In the mean time it will
become the friends of truth to arm themselves with
that faith and patience which will be their best support,
should the Almighty, according to the idea of an an
cient Father, excite against his own servants the vio
lence of their adversaries, " ut devotionem ac fidem
" suorum vel probet vel corroboret, donee pressures ver-
" beribus diffluentem corrigat disciplinam." See Dr.
Marshall's Penitential Discipline, and Cave's Primitive
Christianity. Those, who have not the means of pro
curing, or the leisure for perusing, works of larger and
deeper research, will find a correct and impressive view
of the discipline of better times in the excellent Nel
son's Treatise on the Fasts of the Church of England.
T 3

278 SERMON VI.
lar external form, by which members were
to be admitted ; binding them, when ad
mitted, to the performance of certain ex
ternal duties, and placing the whole under
the control and management of those, to
whom the charge was committed in a given
way by the Founder of the society Him
self. If this be not clear, there is nothing
clear in the Bible. The promises of the
Gospel are all made to members of a so
ciety, and not to men in their individual
capacity. Into this society those alone are
to be admitted, who are willing to make
certain stipulations, and to profess certain
tenets ; and those are to be excluded, who
either refuse at first to make such stipula
tions, or depart from the stipulations they
have made. Our Saviour's directions on
this head are plain and precise. One great
object of his endeavours, for the reforma
tion of mankind, was to unite them toge
ther in mutual love and good will ; and in
order the better to attain this object, he
commanded, that if any disagreement
should arise between the members of his
society, which they could not settle in a

SERMON VI, 279
private manner, they should apply to the
Church for a final determination'. But
unless the Church was a visible society,
they could not have known where to ap
ply, and unless it had authority to decide
upon the questions brought before it, they
would have applied in vain. The applica
tion however was not intended to be in vain ;
for he, whose authority cannot be disputed;
said! expressly, that the party which would
not be concluded by the authority of the
Church, should be excluded from its pale,
and no longer suffered to enjoy its privi
leges. The authority, thus directed to be
exercised in a particular instance, we know,
was exercised in others. St. Paul possess
ed and exerted the power of arranging the
order of public worship in the Church of
Corinth ; and by the same power he com
manded that the incestuous person should
be excommunicated for his crime, and re
admitted on his repentance5. And this
exercise of authority pervaded the whole
system of Christian communion. The mem
bers of the Church were subject to the su-
r Matth. xviii. 15—20. s 1 Cor. v— x. xi.
T 4

280 SERMON VI.
perintendence and inspection of the Go
vernors of the Church : their duties were
enjoined them, and they were required to
perform them, not only as accountable to
God at the last day, but as liable also to
the censure of those who were appointed
to " watch over their souls*," and to see
that the care of those souls was not neg
lected. The great Apostle of the Gentiles
is very precise in his orders to this effect,
not only directing his people what they
should do themselves, but with whom they
should be on terms of intimacy : he writes
to them, and he writes to them as one who
expected to be obeyed, that they should
not " company with fornicators, drunk-
" ards, railers, or extortioners." Nor was
it intended, that the authority thus plainly
exercised by this great Apostle should be
considered as residing in him personally,
or terminating on his removal. His direc
tions to Timothy and Titus are decisive
proofs to the contrary. But particularly
at his affecting interview with the Elders
of Ephesus, he himself declares, that this
' Heb. xiii. 17.

SERMON VI. 281
power and its due exercise were necessary
to the preservation of the Christian com
munity in faith and virtue. " Take heed,"
says he, " to yourselves, and to all the
" flock over which the Holy Ghost hath
"made you overseers, to feed the Church
" of God  For I know this, that after
" my departing shall grievous wolves come
" among you ; . . . . also of your own selves
" shall men arise, speaking perverse things,
"to draw away disciples after them. There-
" fore watch u." They were required then
by this charge, which St. Paul left as his
last legacy among them, to take care of,
and to keep a vigilant eye over, ail the
members of that part of the Church which
was entrusted to their hands : they were
to feed them as shepherds do their flocks,
guarding them from the attacks of wolves,
and keeping them within those inclosures,
in which they would be most secure ; they
were to watch continually, according to the
pattern the Apostle himself had set them,
and they were to leave no means unem
ployed to prevent their people from falling
" Acts xx. 28—31.

282 SERMON VL
into any corruptions in practice, or any
perversions of the faith. All this surely
implies, as much care, so a competent au
thority to make that care effectual ; and
the whole was clearly designed to render
those, who embraced the doctrine of the
Gospel, as eminent for the purity of their
morals as for the soundness of their reli
gious principles, and the accuracy of their
religious knowledge.
There remains yet to be considered, the
best and most powerful mean of correcting
the aberrations of our hearts, and restrain
ing the violence of our passions ; but it is
happily as plain as it is important, and has
indeed unavoidably entered into the whole
of our previous inquiry. In the last pas
sage of Scripture, which has been the sub
ject of our reflections, we are told, that
" overseers were set over the Christian
" Church by the Holy Ghost;" implying
evidently, as indeed is clear from other
places, that the Church was in some pecuf
liar manner put under the personal super
intendence of the Spirit of God. Our Lord
said explicitly, that when .He left the world,

SERMON VI. 283
the Holy Ghost, as the Comforter or Ad
vocate of his people, should supply his
place31. The ways and degrees in which
it has pleased Him to exercise this his gra
cious office, are represented as various.
One, we have seen, was the appointment
of proper persons to take the external ma
nagement of the society. Another very emi
nent exertion of his power was the mental
illumination, by which the first preachers
of the Gospel were enabled, in a miracu
lous manner, to understand and to com
municate the great mysteries of faith, and
that " demonstration of the Spirit y," by
which their authority was supernaturally
attested and supported. Each of these di
rectly tended to the improvement of man
kind. But that holy Being, who first gave
life to the world, has condescended to la
bour still more immediately for the resto
ration of his rational creatures ; and by
shedding his gracious influence on their
hearts, to support their infirmities, to keep
* John xvi. 7 — 15. See Archbishop Sharpe's Three
admirable Discourses on the Advocation of the Spirit.
y 1 Cor. ii. 4.

284 SERMON VI.
them back from sin, and to incite them to
virtue. That such an operation is ascribed
to the Spirit of God in the Gospel, is as
clear as words can make it. We have seen
'that even under the Law it was more than
intimated, and was, no doubt, frequently ob
tained. The circumcision of the heart could
be effected by Him alone, to whose eye
the heart was open, and whose influence
could penetrate its deepest recesses. But
the Gospel is emphatically, in its promul
gation and its effects, the work of the Spi
rit of God. It is our Lord's unqualified
declaration, that to all, who would askz,
his Father would grant this most precious
gift of his grace. St. Paul tells us, that
Christians " live by the Spirit"," and that
because they do so, they should also " walk
" by the Spirit:" and still mo.re unequivo
cally, if possible, that the fruits of the Spi
rit are all the virtues by which the human
mind can be adorned, or human society
made happy. They alone- are the " sons
".of God," who are " led by the Spirit of
" Godb." Led by him: how? By that
<= Luke xi. 13. * Gal. ii. 20. and v. 25. b Rom. viii. 14.

SERMON VI. 285
powerful, but silent influence, by which
He effectually works upon their souls, and
enables them to " perfect holiness in the
" fear" and the love of God.
The means then which Revelation has
supplied for the attainment of moral inte
grity are ample, and in addition to the
other points we have considered, may be
allowed perhaps to prove, in the most sa
tisfactory manner, that the direct tendency
of that Revelation is to make mankind bet
ter, to encourage virtue, and to suppress
vice, and that in fact all its provisions and
all its institutions are plainly designed to
advance and secure this great object. When
we are told expressly, as in the text we are
told, that our blessed Saviour " gave gifts
" unto men," not to make them easy in
their sins, or to puff them up with a vain
conceit, or to amuse them with false hopes;
but " for the edifying of the body of Christ,"
and that all the members of that body,
" speaking the truth in love, might grow
" up unto Him in all things" that are " ho-
" nest, just, and pure"," it certainly catt
ed Philip, iv. 8.

286 SERMON VI.
not be consistent with that truth, or agree
able to the intentions of its Author, that it
should ever be made a cloak to hide the
deformity of sin > or to speak peace to those,
of whom God himself has emphatically as
sured us, that, while they continue " wick-
" ed," they can have " no peace d" and no
hope.
d Isaiah Ivii. 21.

SERMON VII.

Heb. xi. 1.
Now faith is the substance 'of -things, hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
CLEARLY as we may seem to have
proved, from a view of the leading features
of Revelation, that its tendency is to im
prove the moral condition of mankind,
there are however some doctrines of the
Gospel, which, as they have been occa
sionally taught and represented, would ap
pear to be not altogether consistent with
the position we have been endeavouring to
establish. I propose, in the two remaining
Discourses, to consider the two most pro
minent of these, and to examine whether,
as they are laid down in the Scripture it
self, they do in any degree diminish the
obligation or lessen the importance of mo-

288 SERMON VII.
ral duty. The first is the doctrine of sal
vation by Faith alone; the second, that of
Election to eternal life; points these of the
last importance certainly, but which, I have
persuaded myself, are so far from having
an unfavourable aspect upon sound morals,.
that they are the surest principles upon
which a firm superstructure of sound mo
rals can be raised.
Let us consider then, in the first place,
the important doctrine of salvation by
Faith. It ought undoubtedly to be confessed at
once, and confessed with the utmost humi
lity and gratitude, that the only hope,
which the sons and daughters of Adam can
have of salvation,, is founded on the sole
merits of Jesus Christ. And this being ac
knowledged as the basis of our reasoning
on this subject will show us plainly, how
faith becomes that qualification of the mind
to which the business of salvation is main
ly attributed. It might indeed be remark
ed, and the remark would appear to be of
weight, if followed up to its due conse
quences, that to be "justified by faith,"

SERMON VII. 289
and to be ultimately " saved by faith," are
not expressions of precisely the same mean
ing. In general "justification" in Scrip
ture stands for that acceptance of a guilty
person before God, by which on the re
mission of his sins he is accounted as right
eous, as if in fact those sins had never
been committed, and as if the person him
self had invariably obeyed the Law of God.
But this remission is constantly represented
to have taken place at the first profession
of the Christian faith by a convert, and
on his first admission into the Christian
Church by Baptism a: and consequently
the justification, which is equivalent to, or
coincident with, this remission, must ap
pear to have been granted at the same
time. This is the light in which it is viewed
in the Articles and Homilies of our Church,
which speak of works following justifica
tion as being both acceptable to God and
necessary to our final salvation b ; and con
sequently justification itself is considered
a See Barrow on Justification.
b Art. XI. and XII. and Horn, on Salvation.
U

290 SERMON VII.
as something distinct from and antecedent
to final salvation. But further: even the
word " saved" itself does not always mean
to be admitted to eternal happiness. As to
be "justified" stands for being acquitted
from previous guilt, so to be " saved"
stands for being rescued from the present
power and influence of those sins, in which
while men continue, they are considered
sunk in hopeless perdition c. In both cases
reference is made apparently more to the
past condition of men, than to the certainty
of their future prospects. The "justified"
of Scripture are they whose past sins have
been forgiven; the "saved" of Scripture
are generally they, who having been res
cued from the ruinous course of life they
were pursuing, are placed in a better and
a safer way, freed from their former errors,
and delivered from their former dangers.
What may be the ultimate result, may
possibly rest upon other considerations,
and mainly upon their conduct under the
c Vide Parkhurst in ciXju et <r«)£oju.svo». Cebetis Tabula,
et Cicero de asotis, De Fin. ii. 7, 8.

SERMON VII. 291
more favourable circumstances in which
they have been thus mercifully and gra
ciously placed.
But to wave this, which yet seems en
titled to great attention, and taking salva
tion by faith alone in the sense of ultimate
and final admission into heaven at the day
of judgment, it will not be difficult to see
how this should be, and to demonstrate its
consistency with the undiminished force of
moral obligation under the Gospel. The
basis of human Salvation is the oblation of
that Lamb, who was " slain from the foun-
" dation of the world d;" the satisfaction
made by Jesus Christ in our nature to the
offended justice of his Father, by which
through the shedding of his most precious
" blood He obtained eternal redemption
" for use." This is our protection against
the punishment we have deserved, this is
our assurance of regaining the happiness
our first parents had forfeited f. But the
dRev. xiii. 8. e Heb. ix. 12.
f Dr. Edwards's Preservative, second part ; and Gro-
tius de Satisfactione, so often recommended and quoted
by him.
U 2

292 SERMON VII.
question will be, how we are to get an in
terest in the protection and assurance thus
obtained for us by another person ? It will
be readily confessed, that this must de
pend upon the will of that person himself,
and that it must rest with him to say, how
and in what way and on what terms, if any,
an interest may be acquired in the benefits
he has procured. But one thing is certain,
that the very first step towards the appli
cation of this benefit to us, as far as it de
pends on any act of ours, must be our be
lieving it : for till we believe it, it cannot
in truth with respect to us be said to have
any existence. It would appear then in
reason most probable, that if it were pro
posed to confer this benefit upon men on
any conditions, the first of them would be,
that they should give credit to the proposal
itself. Till they did this, it would be im
possible that it should have any effect,
either on their understanding or their af
fections. The advantage to be obtained is
not one of immediate possession, but to be
hoped for hereafter; and the means, by
which it is to be obtained, are such as

SERMON VII. 293
derive their efficacy from the character
and authority of Him who supplies them ;
and His character and authority are to be
admitted upon such evidence as they are
capable of. The Gospel then* when it
proposes to us the attainment of eternal
happiness as the free gift of God in Christ,
does very naturally require that we should
in the first place believe what it asserts,
and faith becomes almost of course the
first principle by which we take an interest
in its contents. It is indeed, and must be,
the first principle by which we take any
interest in religion at all. Religion com
prehends the homage and the duty which
we owe to an invisible God, and the bless
ings and benefits which we hope for from
Him. When therefore we "believe that
" He is, and that He is a rewarder of them
" that seek hims," this is purely an act of
faith, and such an act as is most properly
represented by the Apostle to be the very
foundation of all religious feeling and ser
vice. He defines it with great accuracy in
the text, and then tells us, that it is by
g Heb. xi. 6.
U 3

294 SERMON VII.
this faith " we understand the worlds were
" framed by the word of God." For it " is
" the evidence of things not seen." Faith
and sight are in Scripture strongly con
trasted h. What our sight informs us of, we
know by our own experience ; what we re
ceive by faith, we believe upon the testi
mony of another. Religion establishes an
intercourse between man and his Maker, be
tween a being enveloped in flesh and blood,
and a pure Spirit, of whose mode of exist
ence he cannot form the remotest concep
tion. And what can be a more necessary
basis of such an intercourse than that man
should be prepared, not only to believe
that the Being, whom he cannot see,
exists, but to admit also the truth of every
declaration He may make, and the pro
priety of every order He may give ? Un
less this basis be laid, the intercourse be
tween them cannot proceed a step fur
ther; unless man rests with implicit confi
dence on the veracity of his Creator, he
can have no communion with Him what
ever. No threatening would excite terror,
h 2 Cor. v. 7.

SERMON VII. 295
no promise would inspire hope, no precept
would secure obedience, unless faith was
established as the basis of an undoubting
reliance on the word of God. Want of
faith must at once separate the creature
from the Creator, because it is the want of
that without which there can be no con
necting link between them. Atheism is the
destruction of Religion, because it is the
destruction of that faith upon which Reli
gion is built. " No man hath seen God at
" any time1;" and if he believes his exist
ence, he must believe it upon such evi
dence as, however ample and sufficient in
itself, is yet to be embraced by faith. The
folly of those, who will believe nothing but
what they have themselves seen, is indeed
clear enough ; for their sentiments are at
variance with the very nature and constitu
tion of man, who is obliged to act perpe
tually in all the affairs of life upon what he
believes to be true, though he has never
had any sensible experience of it : but this
folly is inconsistent with the very being of
religion. Here a man must act upon the
I John i. 18.
U 4

296 SERMON VII.
principle of faith, or he cannot act at all.
It is according to the depth or shallowness
with which this principle is fixed in the
mind, that a man's character is religious
or profane. If the being and attributes of
God be embraced with so firm a belief as
to be in a manner present to the soul ; if a
deep conviction be produced in the heart,
not only that God is, but that He is wise,
good, and powerful, and that He exerts
that wisdom and goodness and power in
regulating the affairs of men, in protecting
the innocent and punishing the guilty, and
in bestowing upon all many proofs of his
benevolence and bounty ; if a man be so
impressed with a persuasion, that God
rules in all the kingdoms of the earth, as to
seek support in distress from a reliance on
His providence, and to be restrained in
prosperity by a fear of His displeasure, that
man feels within himself, and manifests to
others by his conduct, that he is under
the influence of a principle, which as it
places God always before him , so it binds
him to, consider the will of God in all his
designs and actions. But if by a more en-

SERMON VII. 297
larged information and a better understand
ing, both of God's government and of his
own destination, he looks beyond the pre
sent life, and perceives, that though his
body must be consigned to corruption, yet
that his soul survives, and that both shall,
at some future time, partake of eternal
happiness or misery, according as their.
conduct has been in this period of their
existence, it cannot be but that the belief
of so concerning a truth must have a cor
respondent effect upon his sentiments and
practice. It is nearly self-evident, that
where such a belief is sincere, and taken
up upon consideration, and brought fre
quently before the mind by meditation, it
must have a practical efficacy. The only
thing that throws a doubt upon it is this,
that as professed atheists have ever been
few in number, so those who profess a be
lief in religion have always been a large
majority of mankind. If then it were true,
that faith is so powerful a principle of good
conduct, it might have been expected, that
since the greater part of men have ever pro
fessed some religious principles, the moral

298 SERMON VII.
state of the world would have been better
in all ages than impartial history has been
able to represent it. The complaint is an
old one, and whether new or old, it were
devoutly to be wished that it could be
proved to be false. But it must be grant
ed, that through all the several forms of
religion which have obtained among men,
the conduct of their followers has generally
been a discredit to the principles they pro
fessed. Even the mythology of heathen
ism, gross as it was, taught some lessons of
integrity which its disciples failed to prac
tise k; and, as far as it was corrupt, it
owed that corruption to the degeneracy
of those through whose hands it passed.
But what does this prove? that faith is
an inefficient principle of conduct? No :
but that faith, like every other principle,
can only act in proportion as its influence
is admitted. If it be admitted in its own
genuine strength and force, its effects will
be proportionably powerful and permanent;
but if it be admitted partially and with re
serve, its influence will be partial, weak,
k De Fin. lib. iv. 5.

SERMON VII. 299
and fluctuating. The inequality then,
which has been observed, and which can
not be denied, though it must be deeply
lamented, between the professions and the
practice of those who call themselves friends
of religion, does not in any degree prove
the inefficacy of faith as a principle of good
morals; but it proves, that men admit the
principle of religious belief into their minds
partially, and with reserve. It might be
supposed indeed, and they who have wish
ed to found an argument against religion
on the misconduct of its followers, have
generally chosen to suppose it, that when
men profess any particular system of reli
gion, they embrace entirely all the prin
ciples it contains; but every man, who
knows any thing of human nature, knows
that the very reverse is the case. The dif
ferent degrees and different manners, in
which the truths of religion are admitted
into the mind, are varied beyond calcula
tion, according to the different tempers and
complexions of men. Faith in too many
instances is made to take its hue from the
soul which receives it, instead of giving to

300 SERMON VII.
that soul its own colour. With many, even
among ourselves, in the sunshine of Gospel
light, the belief of that Gospel amounts to
no more than this, that they do not disbe
lieve it : as to having any one of its truths
firmly fixed in the mind, upon a due con
sideration of its weight and importance,
that is a degree of regard, which they have
not yet paid to a religion, on which they
would appear to place all their hopes. But
what effect can be expected from such a
reception of religion as this ? Not to disbe
lieve a truth, and to believe it, are surely
two very different things; and though it
should be granted, that the former possess
ed little power to influence the heart and
affections, it would not follow that the lat
ter was equally inefficient. In such in
stances it has in fact not been tried; of
positive faith there has in truth been none ;
and consequently whatever may be the in
consistency between their conduct and the
religion they profess, that inconsistency
must be charged upon the hardness of their
hearts, in which faith in fairness cannot be
said to have entered at all. But even when

SERMON VII. 301
it has been admitted, it is often admitted
partially. The mind of man has many se
cret recesses, many complicated folds, many
turnings and windings, in all of which some
errors have been harboured, and some cor
ruptions have been cherished. Faith, if
received into a mind wholly surrendered to
its operation, will induce a willingness to
correct all these errors, and to discard all
these corruptions. But experience tells us,
that it is often otherwise. It must not ad
vance beyond certain limits. So far it shall
come, and no farther. It shall be allowed
perhaps to inspire one with a bigotted zeal
for some one truth, or what he conceives
to be truth ; it shall restrain in another
some one corrupt propensity, which is not
indeed the ruling passion of his soul ; and
it shall excite a third to some exertion (the
least disagreeable to the bent of his mind)
in favour of his own peculiar notions : but
it shall not rule without control in all the
secret recesses of the heart ; it shall not ex
plore its windings, or expose the deceitful
complication of its folds. And because it
is not allowed to do its office with effect,

302 SERMON VII.
must the fault be charged upon its want of
power and efficacy? In such a charge there
would be as little reason as justice. It is
not the principle that is weak, but a cor
rupt heart, that will not submit to its ope
ration. But there is another source of the appa
rent inefficiency of faith, and one, which,
as it applies peculiarly to the faith of the
Gospel, it well becomes us to examine with
attention. It has been generally admitted,
that a true faith in the Gospel will neces
sarily produce integrity of life, as necessa
rily as "a good tree" produces " good
"fruit1;" and it must be acknowledged,
that this is the clear doctrine of our Arti-
clesand Homilies. If this be true, it is an
other pregnant proof, how directly Divine
Revelation tends in all its parts to promote
good morals. And when properly explain
ed, nothing is more easily demonstrated
than the truth of this proposition. A true
faith will assuredly produce a good life.
But what is a true faith ? The very epithet
" true" shows, that faith may be of differ-
1 Matth. vii. 17.

SERMON VII. 303
ent kinds, and that what may be affirmed
correctly of one kind, may not be properly
applicable to another. Though then it be
right to say, that a true faith will always
show itself in its effects upon the moral
conduct of man, yet it is possible for one
who appears to have some kind of faith to
continue in the practice of many things
that are wrong. Nor can it be denied,
that this doctrine, well founded as it is in
itself, has been so represented as to pro
duce the very worst effects. Because a
true faith must be productive of sound mo
rals, therefore it has been commonly taught,
that faith, however qualified, will be at
tended with the same good effects. It has
not been sufficiently considered, that a true
faith cannot exist without a competent
knowledge of the articles which it ought to
embrace, nor yet without a competent ac
quaintance with the rule of life. If faith
be understood to signify a hearty concur
rence in all revealed truth, nothing is more
certain, than that it will, where genuine,
purify the affections and rectify the morals ;
but if it be put by itself for belief only, in-

304 SERMON VII.
dependent of knowledge, it ought cautious
ly to be observed, in what sense it is that
faith is necessarily productive of a good
life. An error on this point may be at
tended with the most lamentable conse
quences, and it is attended with such con
sequences every day. Ignorant men are
told by men nearly as ignorant as them
selves, that faith must necessarily bring
forth the fruit of holy living ; and when
they have once persuaded themselves that
they have this faith, they are satisfied that
their lives must be good, because they are
possessed of the faith from which a good
life is said necessarily to spring. But, un
happily, they are not taught in what the
real efficacy of faith, taken by itself, con
sists, nor yet the necessity of knowledge to
direct the operations of their faith. Hav
ing faith, they are supposed to have every
thing ; whereas, in fact, they have not the
materials upon which a. true faith can be
built. Their feelings are .excited, but their
ignorance is not removed. The method
of proceeding ought to be quite the re
verse ; their ignorance should be removed,

SERMON VII. 305
before their feelings are addressed at all.
Faith and knowledge have each its sepa
rate use and efficacy in the business of reli
gion. They may indeed either be consi
dered as united, or viewed distinctly in
their several aptitudes and capacities. The
ancient writers, and the Fathers of our own
Church, always joined them together, in
tending invariably, when they speak of the
power and efficacy of a true faith, such a
faith as was duly grounded upon a know
ledge, not only of the articles to be believ
ed, but of the duties to be performed m.
And with this correct view of the subject
before them, they had ever a proper regard
for the Law of God as the rule of life, and
took pains that it should be duly opened
and explained to the people. Hence their
anxiety to provide sound elementary in
struction both in faith and morals. And it
is from a different and erroneous view,
that those elementary instructions, which
the pious care of our learned ancestors has
bequeathed to us, have with many high
m Mede's Discourses, 25, and 26. Hammond's Prac
tical Catechism. Bull's Harmon. Apost. Barrow's Ser
mons, and Patrick's Parable of the Pilgrim.
X

306 SERMON VII.
pretenders to faith in the present day fallen
into discredit and disuse; that we see so
many crude attempts to set aside that ex
cellent compendium, which men of real at
tainments value in proportion to the at
tainments they possess. It is therefore pos
sibly the best way, under existing circum
stances, and to counteract the bearing of
existing errors, to consider these two prin
ciples separately; and assigning each its
own weight and importance, to discern pre
cisely their respective influences on the
question before us.
It is clear then, that in order of time a
certain degree of knowledge must precede
any degree of faith. Thus no man could
be expected to believe the existence of
God, unless he were first informed that
God exists, nor to place any reliance on
His attributes of power, or wisdom, or
goodness, unless he had first learned that
those attributes belonged to Him. Faith
in the Gospel presupposes certainly a know
ledge of the Gospel. Our Lord himself
clearly and kindly admits this, in his reply
to the blind man n, whom He had restored
? John ix. 35, 36, 37.

SERMON VII. 307
to sight. When He had asked this man,
whether he " believed on the Son of God,"
and had received an answer which implied
his willingness to believe, but at the same
time confessed his ignorance as to the ob
ject on whom his belief should be placed,
He acknowledged the reasonableness of
this excuse for not believing, by removing
the ignorance which occasioned it. His
not knowing the Son of God was a suffi
cient apology for his not believing on Him ;
it was then only belief became a duty, be
cause then only it became possible, when
he was informed who the Son of God was,
But the knowledge, which is necessary be
fore our belief can be that true faith which
will produce a good life, must reach be
yond the mere articles to be believed; it
must bring us acquainted with the rule of
duty, and teach us not the credenda alone,
but the agenda likewise of our religion.
For faith, however sincere, is not the rule
of life; and before it can produce its ade
quate effect upon any man's morals, even
when it has been honestly admitted into
his mind, he must have been previously in-
X 2

308 SERMON VII.
structed, as well in what he is to practise, as
in the opinions he should entertain. And
here it is that the great error has been
committed. Because faith united to know
ledge has been confessed, and justly, an in
fallible source of pure morals, faith without
knowledge has been supposed capable of
producing the same effect. And the mis
take has arisen from this, that the real ope
ration of faith in the moral improvement
of man has not been properly discrimi
nated. What then is that operation, and
wherein consists the real power of faith in
this important business ? When the under
standing has been duly enlightened, both
as to the objects of belief and matters of
practice, it is the office of faith to excite
the will and the affections to embrace what
js proposed to them, and to obey what is
enjoined them. Faith, though not itself
the rule of life and manners, is yet the
most powerful motive from which obedi
ence to that rule can proceed. Know
ledge, though it informs us accurately what
we are to do, and lays before us the rea
sons why we should do it, is yet but a weak

SERMON VII. 309
motive to action. Thus it may tell us, that
a life of profligacy and debauchery is dis
pleasing to Almighty God, and that He
will punish with eternal damnation all who
continue in it; but if there be not some
other principle to infuse a spirit into this
information, and give it a hold upon our
affections, no adequate effect will follow.
But when by faith we really embrace this
great truth as interesting to ourselves;
when we do indeed believe, that God is a
righteous Judge, and will execute venge
ance upon the transgressors of his laws,
then are our minds supplied with a motive
sufficiently strong to excite our fears, and
by those fears to withdraw our affections
from evil. Faith places us, in a manner, in
the presence of the Almighty, and being
truly " the evidence of things not seen,"
brings them with so lively a representation
before our mind's eye, that we feel them
with an impression little short of that,
which immediately strikes upon our senses.
And thus we see with what truth and pro
priety the fruit of good living is attributed
to faith. Even in this view, considered
X 3

310 SERMON VII.
only as the motive of obedience, it will rea
dily be acknowledged the leading principle
of virtuous conduct; and as men constantly
attribute their actions to that which formed
the motive whence they proceeded, faith
being in effect the sole motive of a good
life, is entitled to be considered as its sole
parent and cause. But in stating this great
doctrine, it is necessary to be particularly
on our guard against the introduction or
encouragement of error. Rightly under
stood, it is not only true in itself, but of
great efficacy and power to make men bet
ter in every respect; to increase their piety
towards God, to make them more abun
dant in benevolence towards their fellow-
creatures, and more guarded in every per
sonal indulgence : but it is liable also in
ignorant and undisciplined minds to great
abuse, to become, instead of the motive to
obedience, the deadly soporific, whereby
the conscience is lulled into a fatal secu
rity. And because it is so, because many
who pretend to more than ordinary faith
are found to possess less than ordinary mo
rality, the value of the principle itself is

SERMON VII. 311
depreciated, and that, from which alone
true morality can proceed, is reviled, as be
ing in its result unfavourable to real inte
grity of manners. But why so? Not be
cause it is in itself, or in any consequences
fairly deduced from it, contrary to sound
morals, but because in one respect ignorant
men mistake it, and in another, perverse
men misrepresent it. Faith, justly stated,
is the surest basis of the fear and the love
of God, and of unfeigned good will to
man. Still it may be objected, that though
faith, considered in this general view, may
be proved not only not unfavourable to
virtue, but directly productive of it, the
main difficulty is by no means solved. The
faith of the Gospel is of a very different
nature, and has a different object from that
which we have been describing, and does
in very express terms exclude the coopera
tion of morality in the business of salva
tion. To this I might answer, in the words
of the blind man in St. John, when ques
tioned by the Pharisees respecting his mi
raculous cure, " Why, herein is a marvel-
X 4

312 SERMON VII.
" lous thing," that it is agreed by the most
zealous advocates of faith that it is neces
sarily productive of a good life, and yet
that this necessary produce of faith should
be considered as a matter of little import
ance by some of those advocates them
selves. But let us reflect a little. Is it in
deed true, that the faith of the Gospel is in
its nature and object different from that
which we have been describing, and on
which religion itself is ultimately founded.
The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews
appears to have thought otherwise. In the
text he gives us a definition of faith, and
in the following verses he reckons up many
instances in which that faith was exempli
fied; Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham.
In all these the faith which is so much ex
tolled was a powerful motive to obedience.
In Abel it showed itself in a conformity to
the ordinances of God ; in Enoch it sprang
up in that pious walking, which qualified
him so eminently for exemption from the
common lot of humanity ; in Noah it sub
dued all doubts which could have arisen as
to the probability of an universal deluge,

SERMON VII. 313
and induced him to prepare for a danger,
of which no symptom appeared ; and in
Abraham it produced such a ready submis
sion to the will of his heavenly Father, as
to make it at this day a question, whether
we should most admire the faith which
gave rise to the obedience, or the obedi
ence which resulted from the faith. What
a pity it is, that the wit or the folly, the
piety or the perverseness of man, should
ever have been employed in separating two
things, to the union of which Almighty
God has vouchsafed his most decided ap
probation, by calling him his friend, in
whom they were most intimately joined.
And that this faith, thus productive and
thus operative on the life and manners of
those who possessed it, was indeed of the
same nature as the faith of the Gospel, ap
pears from the observation with which the
Apostle concludes his catalogue of these
ancient worthies ; " and these all having
" obtained a good report through faith, re-
" ceived not the promise,  that they
" without us should not be made perfect."
In this observation the sacred writer plainly

314 SERMON VII.
includes himself and the other followers of
Christ under the same description as the
ancient professors whom he had been enu
merating ; and of whom he had indeed said
before, that they " confessed themselves
" strangers and pilgrims on the earth," that
they " sought a better country," and that
" God was not ashamed to be called their
" God." The faith of these eminent men
was then of the same nature as the faith
now required of Christians ; and when we
read of them, that their faith produced a
ready compliance with the Will, and a
prompt obedience to the commands of
God, we may conclude without fear of er
ror, that our faith, to be genuine, must
produce the same compliance, and be dis
tinguished by the same obedience.
But yet the objection is not answered.
St. Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles,
seems so decidedly to determine, that Chris
tians are saved by faith without works1",
that it seems difficult after all to find any
place for good morals, or any need of them,
in the business of salvation : and if so, the
m Galat. ii. 16.

SERMON VII. 315
moral tendency of Revelation must be given
up at last, in defiance of all the evidence
to the contrary that its own records con
tain. Let us however bring this matter
also to the test of a fair examination. Is
it probable, that St. Paul, than whom no
writer in the whole Bible is more earnest
in the reprobation of vice, or more ani
mated in the recommendation of virtue,
should so state any doctrine as to discou
rage integrity of life, or be inconsistent with
moral obligation ? It would appear not.
He tells us expressly, that it was part of his
commission, as an Apostle, to " open men's
" eyes, and to turn them from Satan to
" God," and to " show them the necessity
" of doing works meet for repentance11."
He insists frequently and forcibly upon the
appointment of Christ as " Judge of the
" world," who will at the last day assign
every man his portion according to the
" deeds done in the body0:" he says plain
ly, that "tribulation and anguish will be
" upon every soul of man that doeth evil,
" but glory, honour, and peace to every
n Acts xxvi. 18 — 20. ° Acts xvii. 31.2 Cor. v. 10.

316 SERMON VII.
" man that worketh goodp;" and he warns
his hearers affectionately not to deceive
themselves with any false hopes q, that sin
can ever escape the vengeance of God.
" Knowing the terror r" of the Lord, he
says, that he endeavours to persuade men
to avoid its effects, by forsaking those ini
quities and impurities, against which it is
clearly denounced. He tells us of himself,
that so far from living in an easy security,
satisfied that his faith would save him with
out care or exertion, he was anxious and
watchful, guarding with much solicitude
against being hurried away by the impetu
osity of passion, and using all the means
which appeared best adapted to keep his
soul and body in that state of temperance
and sobriety8, which in his opinion the
Gospel peremptorily required. Yet he does
say, " that a man is justified by faith with-
" out the deeds of the Law1." Certainly:
but of what Law does he speak, and what
was the drift of his argument? Nothing
can be plainer to those, who will read his
P Rom. ii. 9, 10. i 1 Cor. vi. 9. Galat. vi. 7.
' 2 Cor. v. 11. * 1 Cor. ix. 27. « Rom. iii. 28.

SERMON VII. 317
Epistles to the Romans and Galatians with
attention, (and to be understood they must
be read with great attention,) than that
the Law, against the efficacy and sufficiency
of which the Apostle there argues, is the
Law of Moses, considered, not as a rule of
life capable of being attached to any dis
pensation, but as a complete method of
salvation in itself. As a rule of life he
grants, that it was " holy, just, and goodu,"
and so far from encouraging sin, that it
was by it alone man was enabled to distin
guish between right and wrong. But how
ever good it was as a rule of life, as a me
thod of salvation it was wholly inefficient,
not so much by its own defect, as by the
infirmity of man, who could not fulfil its
injunctions. It taught him what was right,
but it did not enable him to perform it; it
shewed him the perniciousness of sin, but
it did not restrain the passions by which he
was enticed to commit it. It was like a
beacon -light to an exhausted traveller,
pointing with great accuracy to the road
he should pursue, but affording him no as-
u Rom. vii. 12.

318 SERMON VII.
sistance whereby the strength he had lost
might be recovered, or its want supplied.
By such a Law therefore it was impossible
that any man should be justified ; it was
unavoidable that he must be condemned :
for as the Law demanded obedience, and
obedience was not in his power, on the
terms of such a Law he could not but
perish. The comparison then that is insti
tuted by the Apostle is not between the
Law as requiring obedience, and Faith as
setting men free from obedience, but be
tween the Law as a method of salvation
independent of a Redeemer, and Faith as
a method of salvation through a Redeemer.
And what difficulty is there in this ? what
difficulty is there in seeing and acknow
ledging that " by the deeds of the Law"
thus considered, no man could be saved or
justified ? For the demand of the Law was
unsinning obedience, and " every one" was
declared " cursed, that continued not in
" all things which were written in the book
" of the Law to do them x." But as no
man did continue in them, it was an in-
x Galat. iii. 10.

SERMON VII. 319
evitable consequence, that by them no man
could be justified : no man could be justi
fied by a Law which required obedience,
when he neither did nor could perform that
obedience. But then how does this prove,
that the faith of Christ as preached in the
Gospel does not require sound morals?
Because we are become " dead to the Law
" by the body of Christ V' and He hath
set us "free from that yoke of bondage2."
What then ? Is it from observing the Law
as a rule of life, or from trusting in it as a
method of salvation, that Christ hath set
us free? From the latter surely, and not
from the former. The question debated
between the Judaizers and St. Paul was
this, whether they would be saved by the
Law or by Christ ; not whether they would
be saved with or without holiness. The
contrast was between the Law and the
Gospel, considered as independent of each
other ; and nothing can be more fallacious
or unfounded, than the argument which
has been attempted to be drawn from St.
Paul's reasoning against the Law in this re-
y Rom. vii. 4,5,6. z Galat. v. 1.

320 SERMON VII.
spect, to the exclusion of holiness and in
tegrity as necessary conditions of the Evan
gelical Covenant. The Apostle himself
never proceeds upon such an idea ; he
never uses any thing that looks like such
an argument from one end of his writings
to the other : he never opposes the faith of
Christ to the obedience of Christ : he never
opposes the belief of the Gospel to the
works which that Gospel plainly and pe
remptorily enjoins. If he sets us free from
one law, he is careful to place us immedi
ately under another ; knowing well, for no
man knew our nature better, that human
passion needed little encouragement in its
career of licentiousness, and could be re
strained only by a bond, the breach of
which would incur the displeasure of Al
mighty God. He announces therefore the
" Law of faith3 "and " the Law of Christ""
as binding upon Christians ; and when he
tells them, that they are " made free from
" the law of sin and death," he tells them
also, that their pardon was obtained, not
without law, but through that " Law of the
a Rom. iii. 27. 1> Galat. vi. 2.

SERMON VII. 321
" spirit of life," under which they came as
disciples of " Jesus Christ." And for what
does he say that they came under that
Law? That "the righteousness of the
" Law," that very righteousness j which the
Law could not produce before, because it
" was weak in the flesh," might now be
fulfilled in them. How ? By their profess
ing a faith which required no righteousness
and no obedience ? No : but by their
" walking" themselves, "not after the flesh,
"but after the spirit0." Will it then be
said, that " the Law of the spirit of life" is
less binding, or that it enjoins less purity
or integrity of manners, than "the law. of
" sin and death?" Will it be said, that he,
who asserts our being delivered from the
one in order to be placed under the other,
intended in any degree to lessen our sense
of moral obligation, or to enfeeble our en
deavours after moral improvement? If it
be, it cannot be considered otherwise than
as a foul aspersion upon the brightest star
that ever illumined the Christian Church.
No man can abuse his authority to traduce
c Rom. viii. 1, 2, 3, 4.
Y

322 SERMON VII.
the Christian faith as unfriendly to recti
tude of morals, unless he does it wilfully
and perversely. He has guarded his argu
ment against misconception in every pos
sible way : he has asserted the necessity of
real holiness in mind and manners in the
clearest and most forcible terms : he has
told us again and again, that when he talks
of our being freed from the Law, he does
not mean being freed from obligation to
obedience, but from inevitable and neces
sary condemnation ; he does not mean that
we should cease to serve God, but " that
" we should serve in newness of spirit, and
" not in the oldness of the letterd;" " in
" newness of spirit," that is, with renovated
minds, with sanctified hearts, and a vigour
of performance proportioned to the in
creased knowledge and power with which
we have been endowed. If, after this, he is
still held up as the abettor of licentious
ness, if his words are misrepresented as
weakening the sanctions of law, and making
it less necessary for the Christian Minister
to call men to repentance and obedience,
d Rom. vii. 6.

SERMON VII. 323
and to prove that the Christian faith itself is
the most powerful motive to that obedi
ence, it is in vain for any man to hope by
guarding his expressions to prevent their
misapplication and abuse. His warning
voice however cannot be urged in vain
upon the attentive and unprejudiced hear
er : and when he entreats us earnestly and
affectionately to " let no man deceive us
" with vain words'," as if sin could ever
be committed with impunity under any
dispensation, we cannot do less than ac
knowledge, that if we ever are so deceived,
it is not for want of being admonished
against the arts of the deceiver; it is not
that we are not put upon our guard ; but
that we choose to attend to a misrepresent
ation of the Apostle's doctrine, rather than
to his own express declaration.
It was impossible, in considering our pre
sent subject, not to advert to and examine
the discussion, into which the Apostle had
occasion to enter with the Judaizing Chris
tians of his day, and which has been so
much perverted to the injury of the Chris-
<= Eph. v. 6.
Y 2

324 SERMON VII.
tian Church ; though I fear, that I have in
so doing transgressed in some degree the
plain rule of Christian preaching set down
by the same great Apostle in his Epistle to
Titus. He there tells this primitive Bishop,
whom he does not disdain to call his part
ner, that he should avoid " strivings about
" the Law as unprofitable and vain ;" and
should bend his chief endeavours to render
the converts to Christianity conspicuous
for purity, piety, soberness, and integrity.
" These things" he desires him to " affirm
" constantly, that they which have believed
"in God might be careful to maintain good
" works ;" and for this reason, because
" these things are good and profitable
" unto menf." I trust however that our
inquiry has not trenched greatly upon the
spirit of this direction : it is a direction
certainly, which not only warrants, but re
quires the Christian Minister to pay much
of his attention to the practical duties of
his religion, and the obligation under which
the professors of that religion lie to per
form them. So far should they be from
f Titus iii. 8, 9.

SERMON VII. 325
considering the Christian faith hostile to
works of righteousness and integrity, and
what is commonly called morality, that the
faith itself should be considered and repre
sented as adding greatly, both to the obli
gation of obedience, and the vigour with
which it is to be discharged, as at once
binding it on the conscience, and exciting
the mind to observe it. For who were they,
who were to be exhorted to a careful per
formance of good works ? Not such as
knew nothing and cared nothing about the
faith of Christ, and trusted for salvation to
their own exertions ; but ^ they who had
il believed in God ;" they who had ' been
converted to Christianity, and were already
possessed of the faith, about which we are
inquiring: they were required, because they
had that faith, to shew in their lives and
manners its purifying effect and sanctifyT
ing influence. Their faith was to be a nior
tive to their obedience ; because they be
lieved, therefore they were to be called
upon for the performance of good works,
And indeed how could it be otherwise?
Divesting ourselves as much as possible of
y 3

326 SERMON VII.
controversial feeling, and looking at the
Gospel of Christ as a divine scheme for the
salvation of man, nothing surely can be
more excellently contrived to deter him
from sin, and incite him to virtue, to en
courage and to enable him for the dis
charge of all those duties, in the perform-*
ance of which both his perfection and his
happiness consist. The eternal Son of God
did indeed graciously condescend to unite
himself with the debased and enfeebled
and lost race of Adam, that being capable
of suffering in that nature which had in
curred the wrath of God by sin, He might
by his suffering make an atonement for the
transgressions of his brethren. And it is
most assuredly by the merit of this atone
ment, that the gate of mercy has been
thrown open to mankind, that there is any
hope of acceptance with God, and any re
fuge from his indignation. Of this hope
we become partakers by faith, and believ
ing in sincerity the revelation, which Jesus
Christ has made of the way of salvation,
we attain by that way a prospect of life and
immortality. Jesus Christ is emphatically

SERMON VII. 327
our Saviour : and as " there is none other
" name given unto man whereby he may
" be saved e," so by believing on that name
an assurance of being saved is afforded
him. But let the consequences of this be
well weighed. We believe on Christ as
our Saviour. And if we do so, can we
with any decency refuse to receive Him in
any other character in which He is repre
sented, either in the prophecies which fore^
told his coming, or the histories which have
recorded his actions? Surely not: if we
pretend to rely upon Christ for salvation,
we must surrender ourselves to Him with
out reserve. The more free his salvation
is, the less we have been able to contribute
to it ourselves, the more are we bound to
follow his will in preference to our own,
and to attend to Him in whatever way He
may require our attention. Now nothing
can be clearer than that the character of
Christ as our Saviour is not understood,
unless he be distinctly recognized in his
three offices, as our Priest, our Prophet,
and our King. Too frequently, and by
s Acts iv. 12.
Y 4

328 SERMON VII.
those who would seem to preach the Chris
tian faith most correctly, the salvation
wrought by Christ is attributed to his
priesthood only, and the attention confined
exclusively to the sacrifice He offered on
our behalf. God forbid, that the value of
that sacrifice should ever be diminished or
obscured : but he who hopes to be bene-
fited by what Christ did as a Priest, must
undoubtedly receive his instructions as a
Prophet, and obey his laws as a King. We
rely upon the merits of Christ's passion for
remission of our sins, and final acceptance
with God. Granted. And shall we, who
look for so inestimable a benefit from his
sufferings, neglect what He has taught, and
transgress what He has commanded ? What
would this be in common life, in the inter
course of man with man, but base delusion
and hypocrisy : and shall it be called sanc
tity in religion ? Common sense forbids it :
and it must never be forgotten, that com-i
mon sense enters as much into the deter
minations of religion, as into the every day
business of the world. The rules of its de
cision are precisely the same in this case as

SERMON VII. 329
in the ordinary transactions of life; and
what would be deceitful in a bargain with
men, is deceitful in a covenant with God.
When therefore- we look to Christ for the
pardon of our sins, with what face can we
do so, unless we are willing to receive and
to obey all that He has revealed, and all
that He has commanded ? If we really
believe in Jesus Christ, we must surely- be
lieve in Him as the word of God presents
Him to us ; we must receive Him entirely
as He is there delineated ; and we cannot
hope to be benefited by one part of his
character, unless we pay equal respect to
every other. We cannot be allowed to
pick and choose here, as it may suit our
fancies or our purposes. Many and de
plorable are the errors which have arisen
from attempts of this kind ; but they are at
tempts to which the Scripture gives no
countenance. Christ is there described in
his three important offices; and as He is
there described, so must we receive Him.
It is in his whole character that He is the
adequate object of our faith. We must
not, with the Socinian, accept him as a

330 SERMON VII.
Teacher only, however high we may es
teem Him in that respect: we must not,
with the mad enthusiasts of former days,
withdraw our obedience from human au
thority, under pretence of paying exclusive
homage to the Majesty of Jesus : nor yet
can we be permitted, with those who pro
fess a better creed, to make the Gospel
which he preached consist only of one ar
ticle, though that one article be indeed the
very basis of our hopes. If we would be
lieve in Christ without fraud, we must re*.
ceive the whole Gospel which He preached.
But what is the whole Gospel? Does it
consist of promises only ? Does it contain
nothing but a declaration, that God for
Christ's sake will pardon our sins ? If so,
we may no doubt confine our belief to this
point alone. But that it is not so, every
man, who will read the Gospel with his
eyes open, cannot but perceive and ac
knowledge. The Gospel abounds in moral
instructions and moral declarations. It con
tains the most awful denunciations against
sin, and the most animating encourage
ments to virtue. Almost every page of it

SERMON Vll. 331
presents us with some precept of our Sa^
viour's, that very Saviour on whom we pro
fess to rely; enjoining us to cultivate piety,
justice, and sobriety ; or some menace,
threatening the worst of punishments to
such as should transgress the laws of God.
Are these precepts and these threatenings,
thus interwoven into the very body of the
Gospel, uttered by Jesus Christ himself,
and most solemnly sanctioned by his au
thority, no part of the Gospel? Is it no
part of the Gospel, and is it no point of
belief required by that Gospel, that there
will at the last day be a general resurrec
tion both of the just and unjust; that Je
sus Christ has been expressly appointed by
Almighty God to judge the whole race of
men at that day, and that He will assign
them their several portions according to
their behaviour in this life ? Is this re
vealed, or not ? And if it be revealed, was
it recorded, -that it should be believed or
not? "Jesus Christ," we are told, " brought
" life and immortality to light thrpugh the
<' Gospel11:" and if life and immortality
h 2 Tim. i. 10.

332 SERMON VII.
were brought to light through the Gos
pel, they must surely be prominent parts
of that Gospel ; and, in believing the Gos
pel, we must be called upon especially to
believe these parts of it. But a belief of a
judgment to come, in which every man's
portion will be assigned according to his
works, and of an immortality which will
make that portion eternal, cannot be un
attended with some powerful effects upon
the life and manners of those who sincerely
embrace it : it must operate strongly in re
straining the commission of evil, and incit
ing to the practice of virtue.
Thus then, I trust, it appears, that the
doctrine of Faith, properly understood, is
so far from being unfavourable to sound
morals, that it will be found the most effi
cacious principle upon which sound morals
can be inculcated. But then it must be
properly understood. The Gospel is a noble
system of great and important truths ; and
in order to comprehend it, all those truths
must be. considered. And not only so:
there are many things necessary to be
known previous to our entering upon the

SERMON VII. 333
Gospel itself. This all men, who have re
flected upon the subject, readily admit.
The being of God, his providential govern
ment of the world, the obligation of man
to obey His laws; these are all truths
which the Gospel, strictly taken, supposes
to be already known from preceding reve
lations ; at least our Saviour himself, who
was sent more expressly to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, proceeds upon the
supposition of their being known and ac
knowledged as direct sources of duty.
When He preached his Gospel, He preach
ed it certainly as an improvement of moral
knowledge, and as a more perfect deline
ation of duty to God and man ; but not as
in any degree relaxing the bonds of any
previous moral obligation. And to make
his intention in this respect clear, the mode
of preaching adopted by him, who was
especially commissioned to carry the Gos
pel among such as had lost the knowledge
of the true God, is admirably calculated.
He could not preach Christ, the Son of
God, to those who did not know God him
self: he could not offer remission of sins

334 SERMON VII.
to men who were not yet convinced that
they had any sins to be remitted. He be
gan then with instructing them in the first
principles of all religion ; with teaching
them to know that Almighty Being ', who
made and governs the universe, and to
whom all their obedience was due. He
bent his first endeavours to turn the igno
rant heathens from the vain idols they had
hitherto served, to that living God, from
whom as they derived all they had, so to
Him they ought to have directed all their
worship and service. Being thus instructed,
they would be prepared for the mercies of
the Gospel ; they would see that the life
they had hitherto led was directly in viola
tion of their duty to their Creator, and that
it became them well to repent in dust and
ashes ; and they would receive with thank
ful hearts those glad tidings, which assured
them, that though they had sinned, they
had " an Advocate with the Father," who
would effectually plead their cause, and
obtain their pardon. But they would not
'Acts xiv.15. xvii. 22. xxvi. 18. The speech at Athens
deserves to be thoroughly studied.

SERMON VII. 335
so far mistake this pardon as to think, that
because it secured them from the punish
ment of their past transgressions, it set them
more at liberty to disregard the obligations
of duty in their future conduct. Their pre
vious instruction would prevent this error.
Having been taught, that, by their former
idolatry and immorality, they had robbed
God of his honour, and transgressed his
laws, they could not think, that the Gos
pel, which laid its foundation in explaining
their duty to the Almighty, and calling
upon them to repent of their siris, could
intend in any manner to weaken their ob
ligation to that duty, or make it safer for
them to follow their sins. How differently
do many preach the Gospel at present !
Looking only at one point in that Divine
Revelation, and considering the rest as of
little use and importance, and requiring no
preparation of previous knowledge in their
hearers, they tell them at once, to "be-
" lieve in Jesus Christ and they shall be
" saved k." And they tell them a great
and interesting truth : but those, who hear
k Acts xvi. 31.

336 SERMON VII.
it, are not always qualified to understand
it. They have not yet been long enough
the disciples of the Baptist, to make them
fit for the Mightier Teacher, who suc
ceeded him : they have not yet sufficiently
understood the nature of repentance, to be
capable of receiving with safety the par
don of their sins : they have not sat long
enough in the lower form of moral dis
cipline, before they are pressed on to the
higher mysteries of evangelical truth. It is
astonishing to think, that when Almighty
God judged it necessary to send an au
thorized messenger before the face of his
Son, to prepare his way, and to declare
that the preparation required was to con
sist in repentance, any man can so far
mistake the nature of the Gospel as to
imagine, that the remission it promises can
in any case be applied without repentance.
But this is not the only fault that has been
committed. The faith itself is not ex
plained; the character of Christ is not
opened : even his own precepts, his own
laws, his own threatenings are not made a
part of his own Gospel. Faith confined to

SERMON VII. 337
one article of the Christian creed is made
the whole of religion ; and those, who dare
to urge the injunctions of the Gospel, and
the commandments and the laws of God,
are condemned as the enemies of God and
of Christ, defamers of the Gospel, and
teachers of a morality with which the
power and the purity of faith cannot con
sist. The unkindness of this reflection we
cannot but lament, but its justice we can
never allow. Its absurdity is indeed palpa
ble enough. None certainly have a greater
regard for the faith of the Gospel, and
none show that regard in a more becoming
manner, than they -who press upon their
hearers with an earnestness, answerable to
their own conviction, the necessity of
" adorning that faith by denying all un-
" godliness and worldly lusts, and living
" soberly, righteously, and godly1" in this
our pilgrimage upon earth. Laying their
foundation deep in the first principles of
all religion, in the knowledge of God and
his attributes, and the moral obligations
thence arising, and applying the gracious
¦1 Titus ii. 10, 11,12.

338 SERMON VII.
consolations of faith to calm and encou
rage the awakened conscience, they take
the best method to build up the man of
God, and prepare him by the practice of
virtue here for the enjoyment of happiness
hereafter. But still it will be asked, is not this to
set up our own righteousness, to claim
heaven as the reward of our own merit,
and to reject the justification procured for
us by the atonement of Jesus Christ?
There is not surely a more deplorable in
stance, or a more prominent proof, of the
corruption of our. common nature, than
this accusation, which is brought by one
set of Christ's ministers against another.
That true faith will effectually bring forth
the fruit of good living is our common te
net. But because one part of us think it
necessary to insist largely upon moral obli
gation, and upon the distinction, which
the Gospel itself assures us will at the last
day be made between the righteous and
the wicked, between " him that serveth
" God and him that serveth Him not,"
we are condemned by another set of men

SERMON VII. 339
as destroying the faith, and erecting a
system of salvation independent of Jesus
Christ. But let us mark their inconsistencv
in this accusation. They would be offend
ed, and many of them, I firmly believe,
would be justly offended, if we said, that
they did" not observe the rules of integrity
prescribed by the Gospel in discharging
their duties to God and man. But with them
this attention to duty is the necessary fruit
of faith, the sign whereby it is seen that
they have that faith, the proper expression
of their gratitude to God for having distin
guished them by so excellent a gift. And
why should it not be so with us? why
should not our endeavours, if honest and
sincere, to obey the precepts of the Gos
pel, be blessed with as consolatory a hope
of acceptance at the throne of Grace, and
be as well thought of in the Church of
Christ ? No : in us it is formality, external
decency, heathen morality, and little better
than a deistical rejection of our Saviour.
Is this "charity?" Is this that heavenly
virtue, placed by St. Paul above faith and
hope, which " envieth not, vaunteth not
z 2

340 SERMON VII.
" itself, is not puffed up;" which "bean-
". eth all things and believeth all things"1;'/
and therefore would be very unlikely to
discredit the assertion of those, who, while
they insist upon the necessity of obedience
tp the precepts of Christ, insist upon it as
a part of His Gospel, and as the offspring
of that very faith, for the maintenance of
which we are all equally concerned. Let
us beware, lest that come upon us, which
St. Paul threatened to the Galatians; "If
" ye bite and devour one another, take
"heed that ye be not consumed one of
" another"." There are enemies enow
about us, ready to take advantage of our
miscarriages, enemies to the faith, and
enemies to the morality of the Gospel;
some, who hate the first, because they will
not submit to the latter; and others who
deny the latter, because they would make
the former a cloak for their sins. Against
both we must preach the necessity of true
faith and pure morals : we must show how
these two parts of the Gospel are neces
sarily united ; and in order to show it ef-
m 1 Cor. xiii. n Gal. v. 15.

SERMON VII. 341
fectually, the subject must be fully con
sidered and thoroughly explained. The
Gospel must not be confined to a single
point, but every point must be brought
forward, placed in its proper light, and as
signed its due importance. The mind must
be gradually opened to receive it, must un
derstand its own various relations, and be
taught to feel its own wants and weak
nesses. It will then be prepared to receive
the Gospel in its perfection and integrity,
and to appreciate the value of Faith ac
cording to its own just weight, as a prin
ciple at once assuring us of pardon for our
former transgressions, and exciting us ef
fectually to make earnest and vigorous en
deavours after future obedience.

Z 3

SERMON VIII.

2 Timothy ii. 19.
Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them
that are his, and, Let every one that nameth
the name of Christ depart from iniquity .
THERE yet remains one point of great
importance, which may appear not alto-*
gether consistent with the view we have
taken of the bearing and tendency of Re
velation, and that is the doctrine of Elec
tion- To the consideration of this doctrine
I approach certainly with much diffidence,
and with an unfeigned desire of submitting
whatever I may say upon it to the superior
judgment and better information of those
before whom I speak. It should seem inr
deed, that every man ought to come to the
examination of this subject with a mind
z 4

344 SERMON VIII.
entirely free from any prejudice, on one
side or the other. For what is the very
matter of this question ? It is not a point
of human duty, either to the Creator, or
those who are partakers with us of the same
dependence upon his Will ; but it is an act
of the Almighty himself, a determination
of his unerring wisdom, respecting which
we are called upon to deliberate. It surely
becomes us then to deliberate with eautipn,
with temper, and with moderation; and
with a full purpose not to transgress the
bounds of Christian charity,
For in regard to this subject it must be
confessed at once, that we can know no
thing but what it' has pleased "God to re-
Veal in his Word ; and we shall be in dan
ger, by indulging even in the best exercise
of our reason, of falling into some degree
of error. Not that the clear deductions of
reason can ever lead to error, where the
subject is completely before it; but be
cause in this case, where the inquiry relates
to an act of God's infallible wisdom and
sovereign Will,' our reason cannot be in
possession of all the circumstances upon

SERMON VilL 345
which that act proceeds. Our recourse
therefore, in order to come to a satisfac
tory conclusion upon this point, must be,
I Conceive, exclusively to the declarations
of God's holy Word. There, by a patient
investigation, we must endeavour to dis
cover the intent and purpose of our hea
venly Father ; and whatever on such an in
vestigation that purpose shall appear to be,
to that we must assuredly adhere. In the
following discourse if is proposed to consi
der, whether there be really such a doc
trine as that of Election in the Scripture
itself; if there be, what representation is
there made of its character and tendency ;
and lastly, what effect that character may
have, either to encourage or discounte
nance sound morals and pure religion. "'
First then, is the doctrine of Election in
Scripture or not ? The doctrine of Election
may be understood in two ways; either as
the 'choosing but of mankind some indi
viduals or communities for the enjoyment
of peculiar advantages temporal or spiritual
in this world,' or the selecting some indi
viduals as partakers of eternal happiness in

346 SERMON VIII.
the next. With regard to Election in the
first sense, there will be little difficulty in
allowing, that many instances of it occur
in the historical records of holy Writ. The
Jewish nation in general were chosen as
God's peculiar people, distinguished by
peculiar marks of his favour, endowed with
a superior knowledge of his Will, invested
with superior privileges, and placed under
the more immediate protection of the com
mon Father of mankind. And this favour
they enjoyed, because they were the elect
people of God, " the children of Jacob,
" his chosen ones3," called indeed the
" children of God himself, who were an
" holy people to Him, and whom He had
" chosen above all the nations that were
" upon the earth b." Nothing certainly
can be more evident, than that the Israel
ites became God's people by his freely
choosing them as such. It was the uncon
strained favour of the Almighty which se
parated them from the rest of the descend
ants of Adam, and formed them into that
remarkable community which had the high
a 1 Chron. xvi. 13. *> Deut. xiv. 1,2.

SERMON VIII. 347
honour of being called peculiarly His. A-
braham was selected when he was in the
midst of an idolatrous people, and most
probably an idolater himself, but evidently
in such circumstances, as without this Di
vine interference, would have involved his
posterity in an irretrievable ignorance of
the true God. The only effectual check to
the rapid degeneracy, which was corrupt
ing and debasing the whole race of man,
was that act of free mercy on the part of
our> compassionate Creator, whereby He
determined to rescue one family at least
from the state of sin and wretchedness into
which the rest were rapidly falling, and into
which they, if left to themselves, must also
have inevitably fallen. But that they were
not left. to themselves was no act of theirs;
it was the merciful hand of God, unthought
of and uncalled for, which raised them up
from their unhappy condition, while their
brethren around them were in comparison
passed by, unheeded and unassisted. A-
round the fathers of this favoured tribe
the Omnipotent was pleased to throw a
shield of defence which no danger could

348 SERMON VIII.
penetrate, and to command all, among
whom they came, that they should " do
" his prophets no harm," nor presume to
" touch his anointed0." He exercised them
indeed by many and various trials, but He
still conducted them in safety, till He
placed them in that holy land, which his
sovereign Will had marked out so long be
fore as their destined habitation a. And
here He maintained them for ' many re
volving years as his own people, honoured
with the more immediate symbols of his
Divine presence, and objects in an especial
and extraordinary manner of his peculiar
care and providence. Though subjected
like their neighbours to the vicissitudes
of adversity and prosperity, they were yet
preserved as " the people of God:" nei
ther tyrannical oppression, nor deceitful
circumvention, nor the cruellest persecu
tion, could effect their destruction. Com
paratively weak and few in number, they
still existed, and existed as " the chosen"
of the Almighty, in defiance of those over
whelming revolutions, which had overturn-
c 1 Chron. xvi. 22. << Deut. xxxii. 8, 9, 10.

SERMON VIII. 349
ed the mightiest empires, and scarcely left
the record of their names among men.
But when the fulness of time came, this
nation, so long favoured, was in a manner
discarded by the same unfettered decision
of Divine wisdom, which had first called it
to a state of such remarkable distinction :
"the kingdom of God was taken from
" them, and given to another people6," and
that people became thus the Elect of the
Almighty. This will be readily acknow-,
ledged. Christians are frequently distin
guished by this title in the writings of the
New Testament. Our Saviour tells his dis
ciples plainly, that He " chose themf;" and
St. Paul is very express, that God had
" chosen those," who from the Gentiles
were "called unto the adoption of chil-
" drens." And in truth, it is evident from
the circumstances in which those Gentiles
were at the time, that it must have been
so; and as evident from the mode in which
the Gospel was propagated among them,
that so it was. Of all the nations in the
world at that time, except the Jews, the
<= Matth. xxi. 43. f John xv. 16—19. s Eph. i. 4, 5.

350 SERMON VIII.
prophetic description of Isaiah was per
fectly correct, that God " was found of
" them that sought Him not ;" and that
the sole means by which they knew any
thing of Him was, that He sent his mes
sengers to say, " Behold me, behold me,"
unto such, as till then, " were not called
" by his nameh." In conformity with this
idea, the Apostles generally address their
Epistles to the Elect, meaning thereby be
yond a doubt all those, who whether sin
cerely or otherwise, whether with persever
ing integrity or vacillating infirmity, had
made an open profession of the Christian
Faith, and been admitted into the Christian
Church. On the rejection of the Israel
ites these became the chosen ones of God,
and the Church in which they were col
lected, as one united community, was his
peculiar kingdom. The establishment of
this kingdom amongst men, and the calling
of any particular nations or individuals into
it, was entirely the act of Almighty God,
under the direction of his wisdom, and ac
cording to the determination of his Will '.
h Isaiah lxv. 1. ' Acts ii. 39.

SERMON VIII. 351
All Divine Revelation is the free gift of
God, and He has therefore a right to be
stow it when and where, in what degree
and in what manner, may seem to Him
best. What man has from himself, in his
present state of imbecility and corruption,
is a continual tendency to degenerate ; and
if at any time that tendency is retarded by
the communication of better knowledge,
and the infusion of a better spirit, it is his
duty to receive both as the unmerited boun
ty of his heavenly Father. When therefore
the Patriarchs of the Jewish nation were
called from the degradation of idolatry,
and when the Gentiles had first the glad
tidings of the Gospel imparted to them, in
either case the proceeding emanated en
tirely from the free grace of Almighty God.
Had He left them to themselves, they would
never have inquired for Him ; and there
fore that they ever knew Him, and knew
how to serve Him acceptably, resulted from
His goodness, not theirs ; from His com
passionate regard for them, not their love
and veneration for Him. In bestowing these
his gifts and blessings therefore, God pro-

352 SERMON VIII.
ceeded, as He had an undoubted right to
do, in the way which to Himself appeared
best ; selecting freely, though according to
his wisdom, such objects as He thought
proper to distinguish by marks of his espe
cial favour. Those, who came into the
Christian Church, did not come till they
were called ; and those only were called
whom the Omniscient thought proper to
call. Of this we have one or two remark
able instances. St. Paul was on one occa
sion " forbidden to preach in Asia; and
" when he assayed to go into Bithynia, the
" Spirit suffered him notk." But he had
an especial direction to go and " preach in
" Macedonia ;" his heavenly Master judg
ing it best, that his labours should then be
bestowed upon that particular portion of
the globe. The Macedonians were thus
elected at that time in preference to the
Asians and Bithynians, for wise reasons no
doubt ; but still they were elected, accord
ing to the predetermination of Him, who
had a right certainly to distribute his own
gifts as He pleased. It may perhaps not
k Acts xvi. 6—10.

SERMON VIII. 353
be impossible, in the course of our inquiry,
to obtain some insight into the reasons of
this election : at present I only remark,
that they were preferred, and preferred by
the express order of the Holy Ghost. And
this is a point which ought to be consider
ed. Christianity is at this day confined to
a small portion of the world. While some
enjoy the splendor of that meridian light
which the Gospel diffuses, others are in
volved in impenetrable darkness. And what
reason can be assigned, why we of this na
tion, for instance, should be so highly fa
voured as we are in the preaching of God's
pure word, while others are wholly igno
rant of its blessed contents, but that it has
pleased God to impart it to us? When we
look back to the state of our ancestors, ei
ther in one part of the island or the other,
we see nothing but the most barbarous
idolatry ; and from that idolatry nothing
has rescued us their descendants, but the
communication of better knowledge by the
diffusion of Gospel light among us. It is
not surely because we are better than our
fathers, or that we could by our own inge-
a a

354 SERMON VIII.
nuity have detected their errors, that we
possess a more perfect knowledge of God,
and purer ideas of his service, than they :
had we been left to ourselves, we should
undoubtedly have been immersed in the
same ignorance, and disgraced by the same
barbarity of manners. That we are Christ's
therefore, and thus amongst God's elect,
in that sense of the word which we are
now considering, is owing entirely to our
being called out of our state of degeneracy
by those, who were first commissioned to
instruct us. Almighty God chose us as
objects of his bounty and benevolence. It
is the effect of that choice, that we have
amongst us a Christian Church, and that
by means of the light derived from this
lamp of Divine truth our minds are en
larged, our affections purified, our manners
amended, our laws ameliorated, and the
whole system of our social intercourse con
ducted upon purer and better principles.
Nothing of all this has been brought about
by our own unassisted exertions. It was
the goodness of God, that sent his appoint
ed servants to sow amongst us the seed of

SERMON VIII. 355
that heavenly knowledge, which is now in
deed so common as to be little esteemed,
but which would never have been acquired
had it not been bestowed : and it is the
harvest, which has arisen from that seed,
to which the most enlightened among us
are indebted for their intellectual eminence,
and to which the country itself is indebted
for every thing it can boast of, in rational
piety and moral integrity.
But it may be said, that all this is little
to the purpose. It may be readily acknow
ledged, that there is an Election of some
nations rather than others to the external
privileges and advantages of the Gospel,
and even to that superiority of attainments
which usually attends those external privi
leges : but the real point of inquiry does
not hinge upon this. An Election of some,
whether nations or individuals, rather than
others, to the use of better means of im
provement in this world may be granted,
and yet it will not follow, that there is any
Election of individuals to eternal happi
ness in the world to come. Certainly not.
But still, it is not only expedient, but ne-
a a 2

356 SERMON VIII.
cessary, that this Election of nations and
individuals should be remarked, for two
reasons : first, because this is clearly the
account which the Scripture gives us of the
Divine proceedings; secondly, that we may
not forget from what source we have de
rived the advantages we enjoy. These ob
servations will teach us, that there is a
sense in which the doctrine of Election is
a Scripture doctrine; that it is consistent
with the Divine wisdom and goodness to
choose when and where the blessings of
Revelation shall be communicated ; that
as the Jews were" formerly, so Christians
are now, the Elect people of God, and that
they owe this distinction to the free grace
of Him who called them. Those therefore
who admit this truth, will be careful not to
overrate the powers of their own minds,
even while they exercise themselves with
diligence and industry in the due improve
ment of the talents they have received;
they will arrogate nothing to themselves,
as if they either had or could have merited
the preeminence they enjoy ; they will have
no difficulty in acknowledging, that they

SERMON VIII. 357
have derived it from God's free, undeserved
bounty, and that as they obtained it, so
they are entitled to it only as the elect
people of God, upon whom it has been his
good pleasure to bestow it. And acknow
ledging this, they will be better prepared
to inquire, with temper and impartiality,
whether there be not a yet more peculiar
sense in which the doctrine of Election is
to be received ; whether in fact, as nations
and individuals owe the advantages they
possess of superior knowledge and more
abundant assistance to their being elected
to such advantages, individuals do not in
like manner owe the salvation of their souls
to the free and unmerited Election of God.
This part of the question, it must be con
fessed, is at once important and difficult;
important, as it so nearly touches our eter
nal interests; and difficult, because it has
been the subject of so much irreconpileable
contention. But perhaps it will be found,
that the difficulty has arisen less from the
doctrine itself, than from the manner in
which it has been treated. By many, the
two senses of Election have been confound-
a a 3

358 SERMON VIII.
ed ; and passages of Scripture, which be
long exclusively to that sense in which all
Christians are said to. be God's Elect, have
been adduced to prove the truth of the
doctrine as applied to the eternal condition
of individuals. Thus it is, that St. Paul
has been supposed so great an advocate for
this point of faith. Possibly this Apostle
may have some few observations, which
seem to apply immediately to personal E-
lection, but the general drift of his argu
ment, when closely examined, will be found
to lie in quite a different direction. That
argument will never be understood, unless
it be considered with a strict regard to the
occasion which gave rise to it. All writ
ings indeed, to be understood, require to
be so considered, but the writings of St.
Paul demand this kind of attention in a
peculiar manner. As far as they relate to
doctrinal difficulties, they almost invariably
turn upon some point in controversy be
tween himself and his countrymen, respect
ing the permanence and necessity of their
Law as the only acceptable method of sal
vation, and upon their own claim to be

SERMON VIII. 359
exclusively the Elect people of God. It is
this latter point that he is stating, when he
enters so much at large in several of his
Epistles, particularly in those to the Ro
mans, the Galatians, and the Ephesians,
upon the question of God's Election. And
he states it thus. The Jews maintained,
that God Almighty was in a peculiar sense
the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob ;
and that as they were the direct descend
ants of those Patriarchs, He was conse
quently their God, and they his people, in
the same peculiar manner, and that this
peculiar relation between Him and them
was to continue unimpaired for ever. This
appears clearly to be the claim put in on
their part ; and the Apostle answers it, by
the following plain observations. It is grant
ed, that God Almighty was peculiarly the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and
that the Jews, as their descendants, were
God's peculiar people : but how did it hap
pen to be so ? Was it not by the free choice
which Almighty God made of those Pa
triarchs, and of their descendants after
them? Was not this choice quite uncon-
a a 4

360 SERMON VIII.
strained? Might not the Almighty, had
He so pleased, have chosen any other fa
mily out of the mass of mankind ? When
He called Abraham from amongst his idol
atrous countrymen, was it not an act of his
sovereign Will ? Had the Patriarch any
right to this distinction? When the bless
ing of the Covenant was given to Jacob in
preference to his elder brother, was it not
so given because the Omniscient Creator of
the universe, according to his own all-wise
purpose, judged it best that it should be so
given? It was a free gift, and therefore
surely to be bestowed according to the un
restrained will of the Giver. The Election
of the Jews therefore to be God's peculiar
people was clearly owing to the good plea^
sure of Him, who had so chosen them;
they had no right, no claim to this distinc
tion ; it flowed entirely from the unmerited
bounty, the unconstrained beneficence of
their heavenly Father. What then ? Be
cause God had once freely chosen them to
be his people, had He forfeited the right,
either of rejecting them again, or of be
stowing his favour upon any other nation ?

SERMON VIII. 361
Could He be kind to none else, because He
had been kind to them ? And had He, by
his gracious condescension and liberal boun
ty to the Jews, given them a right to inter
fere with his proceedings, when he chose to
show the same condescension and the same
bounty to others ? Certainly not : though
such is the nature of man, that he is ever
ready to construe the possession of any
blessing, how freely soever it was bestowed
at first, not only into something of an ex
clusive claim, but into a proof also that he
has something of merit whereby he has de
served it. And thus the Jews argued;
they had been God's Elect, and therefore
they had for ever a right to be exclusively
considered as his Elect. But the Apostle
shows them, that the argument lay com
pletely the other way ; it proved precisely
the reverse of what they supposed. Hav
ing demonstrated in the clearest manner,
that Almighty God did at first choose the
Israelites out of his own free will, and that
as the Sovereign Lord of the universe He
had a right to bestow his favours where
He pleased, and to choose to himself what

362 SERMON VIII.
people He pleased, he proves plainly, that
the very argument, which the Jews ad
duced to support their exclusive claim, was
most directly against any exclusive claims
whatever. For surely, if God Almighty had
freely chosen the Jews, without any claim
on their part to be so chosen, it was per
fectly competent for the same Supreme
Authority to choose any other people, at
any time and in any manner He pleased.
It was the free grace of the Giver that ex
tended the Divine bounty to them, and the
same free grace might certainly extend the
same bounty to others. The Jews were an
example, that those who had no right to
God's goodness, might yet be partakers of
that goodness ; and St. Paul endeavours to
convince them, that they should have been
taught, by the liberality of their heavenly
Father to themselves, to see the probability
of the same liberality being ultimately ex
tended to others their fellow- creatures ; at
least they should have been taught to ac
knowledge, that He had a right thus to ex
tend his liberality, whenever his wisdom
might judge it expedient. He had been

SERMON VIII. 363
kind and gracious to them when they little
deserved his grace and kindness, and there
fore He might assuredly be as kind and
gracious to others, though they had no
merit to deserve it. What then is the ob
ject of the Apostle's argument ? The ex
tension clearly of the Divine mercy to the
Gentiles as well as the Jews. He is argu
ing, and with that force which is so pecu
liar to him, against the narrow, partial, and
contracted view, which the majority of his
countrymen had taken of the Divine pro
ceedings. He maintains indeed, what every
rational Christian must maintain in the
fullest extent, the right of Almighty God
to bestow his blessings when and how and
upon whom He pleased, because no hu
man being whatever had any claim to his
bounty; but he makes use of this right,
not to contract the limits of Divine boun
ty, but to enlarge them ; not to confine the
issues of Divine goodness within the nar
row circle of his own tribe or country, but
to extend it as far as the wisdom of God
might see fit that it should reach. It is for
the enlargement of God's Election there-

364 SERMON VIII.
fore that the Apostle is arguing; and if
this view of his reasoning be correct, as I
am persuaded it is, he who has been usu
ally cited as the great advocate for a re
striction of the Divine blessings, will be
found to plead powerfully for that enlarge
ment. And would to God, that Christians
in this and the preceding ages had imbibed
something of the same enlarged spirit !
Then we should use this precious doctrine
of Election, not to condemn, but to com
fort each other ; not to contract, but to ex
pand the bounds of the Divine mercy; not
to bolster up our pride, by exclusive claims
to the bounty and protection of the Al
mighty, but in humility to confess, that as
we have ourselves no right to that bounty,
and yet hope for it, so it may possibly be
extended to many, who, though externally
less favoured, may be perhaps ultimately
not less entitled to it than we : then would
our minds be enlarged and not narrowed
by reading, that " God hath concluded all
" in unbelief, that He might have mercy
" upon all1." So far indeed is St. Paul
1 Rom. xi. 32.

SERMON VIII. 365
from affording any support to that self-
flattering conceit, which would confine the
free grace of an all-bounteous Benefactor
to one small corner of the world, or one
little party in the countless multitudes of
the human race, that there is no idea which
he seems more to detest, than the notion
of setting bounds to the goodness of God.
He is an advocate certainly for God's right
to bestow that bounty as He pleases, but
he opposes strongly every attempt on the
part of man to arrest its current, or to set
up any exclusive claim to its blessings.
Still, though the doctrine of Election is
thus clearly inculcated and largely illus
trated by the Apostle, it may be doubted,
whether his view of the subject took in the
Election of individuals to eternal happiness:
it seems to be confined in a great degree to
a consideration of the Divine proceedings
with respect to a communication of the
me"ans of salvation, rather than of salvation
itself. And if so, what has been observed
will refer only to Election in the first sense.
But there are some passages certainly which
seem to go further. In the first sense we

366 SERMON VIII.
have seen, that all the Jews were the elect
people of God ; and that all Christians, all
members of Christ's Church, are his elect
people now. But it is plain that our Sa
viour himself makes a distinction between
the members of his Church; and shows,
that all who are equal partakers of its ex
ternal privileges, will not be equal partakers
of those ultimate advantages, for the attain
ment of which that Church was established.
In one remarkable instance, and on one
remarkable occasion, He is very explicit in
declaring a difference between an election
to the outward advantages of the Gospel,
and an Election to its final blessings. Judas
Iscariot was equally an Apostle with the
other eleven ; our Lord had chosen him.
Yet he was a bad man, and Jesus Christ
knew that he would continue a bad man.
" Have I not chosen you twelve," says he
in one place, "and one of you is a devil m?"
And in another, " I speak not of you all :' I
" know whom I have chosen : but that the
" Scripture might be fulfilled, He that eat-
" eth bread with me hath lifted up his
m John vi. 70.

SERMON VIII, 367
" heel against me"." The word "chosen"
in these two passages seems to be used in
two different senses : in the first it refers to
the office of an Apostle ; in the second, to
the attainment of ultimate happiness in the
kingdom of the Messiah. And it is very
remarkable, and deserves our most serious
attention, that our Saviour, in this latter
instance, assigns the reason why Judas Is-
cariot was chosen to be an Apostle. There
was a deed to be done, which none but a
very bad man would do; a deed, which
while it was a cause of unutterable woe to
the perpetrator, was yet necessary to the
redemption and salvation of mankind. For
the perpetration of this deed Judas was un
happily fitted by the corruption of his own
heart ; and he was chosen an Apostle, that
by betraying his Master the Scripture might
be fulfilled, which foretold that He should
be ^betrayed. But our Lord thinks it ne
cessary to vindicate his own Omniscience
by declaring, that though He chose such a
man, He was not for a moment imposed
upon by his hypocrisy : He knew what he
n John xiii. 18.

368 SERMON VIII.
Was, and He knew what he would do. And
the same knowledge, it must be granted,
that He has of all who ever have belonged
to his Church, or who ever will belong to
it. He " knows his sheep0" in all quarters
of the world ; He knows whom He has
chosen. When St. Paul was dispirited by
the opposition of his countrymen at Co
rinth, the Lord by a vision exhorted him
not to be " afraid, but to speak, and not
" hold his peace, because He had much
" people in that cityp." Of the people
thus said to be His by our Lord himself, it
is impossible to conceive, but they were of
the number of those sheep, whom He knew
to be ready to hear his voice, to become
his faithful followers, and truly to believe,
and steadily to obey his word. But of
these, as of others, that must no doubt be
true, which our Saviour says of his first
disciples, " Ye have not chosen me, but I
" have chosen youq." The commence
ment of that union into which, believers
are admitted with their Saviour, is founded
in his call, not in their independent endea-
0 John x. 14. P Acts xviii. 9, 10. q John xv. 16.

SERMON VIII. 369
vours. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost ; but in order that it might
be saved, it was necessary that He should
first seek it. And on this account He so
repeatedly tells us, that " no man can come
" unto Him, except God draw him r ;" that
they that " are of God hear God's words8;"
that He " hath chosen his disciples out of
" the world';" that they " are given him
" of his Father, and that of those who were
" so given Him, it was his Father's good
" pleasure that none should be lost, but be
" raised up again at the last day u." To
the eye of our Redeemer not only was
the whole scheme of redemption open,
but all the objects also, to whom that
scheme would be ultimately beneficial, were
known. When therefore our Saviour speaks
of his " Elect people x," and of those " for
" whom the kingdom of heaven was pre-
" pared y ;" when He makes a distinction
between " the good seed which was sown
" by himself, and the tares which were
rJohnvi. 44. s John viii. 47. ' John xv. 19.
u John vi. 37—39. xvii. 6. x Matt. xxiv. 24. Luke
xviii. 7. y Matt. xxv. 34.
Bb

370 SERMON VIII.
"sown by his enemy2;" and when he
draws a line of separation between " the
" children of light and the children of the
" world11;" He must be understood, I con
ceive, to intimate, that the final result of
the plan of redemption was all before God,
and that in consequence every thing was
arranged so as best to carry that plan into
effect. Nothing could happen which was
not provided for; nothing could happen
which would not ultimately further the
purpose of Almighty God. And on ex
amination it will appear, that all the Apo
stles deliver themselves in accordance with
this idea. We have already seen, that the
general argument of St. Paul has been mis
stated, as if he designed to narrow the li
mits of God's mercy : and yet there are a
few passages which seem to go clearly to
the establishment of the doctrine of per
sonal Election. Two of these are remark
able. In the first he enters a caveat a-
gainst being misunderstood in speaking of
the rejection of his countrymen. Never
did the love of country and of countrymen
z Matt. xiii. 27, 28. a Luke xvi. 8.

SERMON VIII. 371
burn with a purer flame than in the bosom
of St. Paul. For their sakes he would
himself have been content to have lost the
high station which he held in the Church
of Christ. And though he was compelled
to admit, that they had been generally re
jected, and upon their rejection the Gen
tiles had come in, yet he maintains that
" blindness had happened to them in part"
only, and that there was still " a remnant
" according to the election of grace b." To
support this, he adduces a very observable
instance from the earlier history of his na
tion. In that general apostasy of the king
dom of Israel, when Elias, an eminent pro
phet of God, complained, that he was left
alone of all his true servants, God tells him,
that whatever might appear to him, He
had yet reserved to himself " seven thou-
" sand men c," even in the seemingly uni
versal corruption of the times. These were
his Elect ; these were they, over whom his
protecting arm had been thrown in a pecu
liar manner, and to whom had been vouch
safed the peculiar graces of his Holy Spirit.
b Rom. xi. 5—25. c 1 Kings xviii. 19.
b b 2

372 SERMON VIII.
This must be granted; for nothing less
could have preserved them from over
whelming oppression ; and from a corrup
tion that the prophet thought was univer
sal. And from this exception to the great
apostasy at that time, the Apostle takes
occasion to illustrate the state of his coun
trymen in his own days. Though the Jews
did very generally reject the Messiah, yet
there were a few, who gave the world a
pattern of faith and obedience worthy the
long race of pious ancestors from whom
they were descended. But these were they
whom God foreknew, the " remnant ac-
" cording to Election," whom, amidst all
the calamities and all the vices of the na
tion, it pleased Him to save, by the espe
cial protection of his providence, and the
especial direction of his grace.
Another passage in which the Apostle
seems clearly to intimate, that the eye of
God rests with peculiar attention upon
those who shall finally be admitted to the
mansions of eternal happiness, is that of
which my text forms a part. St. Paul is
giving Timothy directions to shun as much

SERMON VIII. 373
as possible all unprofitable disputation : and
in order to shew how easy it was to be led
into error by indulging in a captious and
cavilling spirit, he instances Hymenseus and
Philetus. These men had persuaded them
selves, that what was delivered by the preach
ers of the Gospel, as to the resurrection,
did not refer to a state of eternal existence
after this life, but to some change wrought
in believers here : and in consequence of
this opinion, had, it is probable, not only
fallen into a damnable heresy, but into
great impurity of manners. But, says the
Apostle at the close of this account, " the
" Lord knoweth them that are his;" and,
"In a great house there are not only ves-
" sels of gold and silver, but also of wood
" and earth ; and some to honour, and
" some to dishonour." Which we cannot,
I conceive, fairly understand in any other
than the following sense : that though Hy-
menseus and Philetus had been admitted
into the Church of Christ, and so seemed
to be of the number of God's elect people,
yet the all-seeing eye of the Omniscient
distinguished clearly between them and
b b 3

374 SERMON VIII.
the sincere disciples of his Son ; He knew
they were not his, and He knew precisely
who were his, though mixed up in external
communion with such men as these.
The doctrine then of God's Election,
not only of communities to the outward
privileges of the Gospel, but of individuals
to a final participation of everlasting hap
piness, seems to be plainly intimated in
these different passages of Scripture. It is
perhaps rather intimated than directly as
serted ; (for the proofs usually adduced in
its support out of the writings of St. Paul
have in truth little to do with the question;)
and the reason may be, that as it relates to
an act of God's Sovereign authority, and
not to a branch of human duty, a mere in
timation was sufficient to elucidate that au
thority. What it is absolutely necessary
for us to believe or to do in order to our
salvation is absolutely and plainly com
manded ; but the indisputable right of the
Almighty to dispose of his creatures as to
Him might seem best, could bear to be ob
scurely expressed without a risk of being
diminished. Still the intimations of this

SERMON VIII. 375
doctrine, particularly in the declarations of
our Saviour himself, are so strong and
striking, as to leave no room to doubt, that
if any individual of the human race be
saved, he will owe his salvation to the free
grace of God, electing him to a happiness
to which his best qualifications are not ade
quate, and bestowing upon him a gift to
which his best services do not entitle him.
In the second place we are to inquire
what representation is made in Scripture
of the character and tendency of this doc
trine. And upon a due examination it
will appear most evident, that this cha
racter and tendency is clearly and dis
tinctly moral ; it will appear, that the Elec
tion of God is in every instance parallel to
moral duty, and coincident with moral in
tegrity. For who are they, who in Scrip
ture are represented as being elected ? Are
they not those who are most eminently
distinguished for religion and virtue ? Are
they not those, upon whom the most up
right Judge among men, had he the be
stowing of eternal happiness, would most
assuredly confer it? Such are the men,
b b 4

376 SERMON VIII.
whom the Scripture represents as being
distinguished by the divine favour : the
meek and unoffending Abel, the pious
Enoch; the upright Noah, the faithful A-
braham. These men were certainly elected
to enjoy a very eminent share of the divine
beneficence, but they were as certainly
adorned with a virtue far superior to those
who were not so distinguished. Though
they did not merit the free grace which
was bestowed upon them, yet the record of
their actions shows, that they were men of
different feelings, different views, and dif
ferent inclinations from those amongst
whom they lived. The sacrifice of Abel
was a sacrifice of faith ; while his brother's
offering was that of one, who owed grati
tude indeed, but did not need pardon.
The life of Enoch was devoted to the ser
vice of God with a steadiness of resolution,
that all the seductions of antediluvian de
bauchery could not shake. Noah certainly
owed his preservation from death to his
" having found favour in the sight of
" God ;" but the promptitude with which
he received the divine communications,

SERMON VIII. 377
and acted upon them, showed, that he had
upon his mind a deep sense of the power
of his Maker, his indefectible truth, and
all-perfect justice. The same must be ac
knowledged of him, who was the father of
the faithful. Had the divine mercy not
interfered, he would in all human proba
bility have sunk into the idolatry which
had nearly overspread the world ; his pos
terity certainly shewed by their subsequent
conduct, that they would have been the
willing slaves of the most degrading super
stition. But when he was called, his ready
faith, and no less ready obedience, proved
what manner of man he was. In the se
verest trials he never shrunk from his duty,
though by his timidity on one or two oc
casions it is apparent, that his obedience
could not always have been without an ef
fort. Again, in that general corruption in the
kingdom of Israel, who are they, who were
distinguished by God's particular care and
protection ? Who are they, whom He says
He had " reserved" to himself? Not those

378 SERMON VIII.
who had yielded to the prevailing wrcked?-
ness of the times, but those, who, unknown
to the world, but seen and marked by
their heavenly Father, had kept themselves
untainted by the corruption around them.
It was to them, who continued true to
their God, that the peculiar care of God's
providence was extended. But let us come
to the declarations of our Saviour himself.
Who are they, whom He pronounces to
be the Elect of his Father ? Those who
obeyed his call to repentance, who believed
in Him, not only as the Saviour, but as the
authorized Teacher of the world, and were
ready to show their love to Him by keeping
His commandments : such are they, whom
He pronounces Elect. No man who
takes his idea of Election from the deli
neation of it by Jesus Christ, will ever
judge it to be consistent with wickedness;
he will never conceive it possible, that an
impenitent sinner can have reason to hope
for acceptance as an elected saint. The
Pharisees, who claimed a peculiar relation
to God, as the descendants of Abraham,

SERMON VIII. 379
were pronounced by our Lord " the chil-
" dren of thedevild:" why? Because they
were hypocrites and liars. The "branches,"
which " the husbandman takes away,"
are unfruitful branches; those, which are
" purged" that they " may bring forth
" more fruit6," are such as have brought
forth some already. Of whom does He
say, that they shall " see God?" Who
ever they are, surely they are the Elect.
But they are " the pure in heart f," men
whose honest integrity of principle exerts
itself in a life of righteousness and piety.
They who are highest in God's favour, are
highest also in moral character.
But against this it will be said, that in
some instances surely notorious sinners
have been apparently preferred to those,
who were recommended by at least great
external decency of conduct : it was said
by our Saviour himself, that " publicans
" and sinners would go into the kingdom
" of heaven before the Scribes and Pha-
" risees8." But had the reason why he
(1 John viii. 44. e, John xv. 2. f Matt. v. 8.
s Matt. xxi. 31.

380 SERMON VIII.
said so been observed, this instance would
hardly have been adduced to support the
notion, that immorality was any recom
mendation to the favour of God. The
publicans and sinners were therefore ac
cepted, because they repented, when a call
to repentance was given them : the Pha
risees were therefore rejected, because they
did not on the same call repent of their
hypocrisy- Yet will it be urged that there
is one example at least which: will be al
lowed to hold out some hope even to the
greatest of sinners, that they may yet be
numbered among God's Elect children.
St. Paul, it must be acknowledged, was a
" chosen vessel11," and an eminent " pat-
" tern1" of the free mercy of the Almighty
to the worst of men. He was so : but in
stating the case of St. Paul, two great mis
takes have been committed. First, be
cause St. Paul is said to be an elect vessel
to carry the name and faith of Jesus Christ
to the Gentiles, it is taken for granted,
that he was elected to eternal happiness.
I have myself no doubt that he was, but
h Acts ix. 15. ' 1 Tim. i. 16.

SERMON VIII. 381
the Scripture no where says so ; it speaks
only of his election as an Apostle. He
himself never speaks of his election : on
the contrary, to the very moment almost
of his being " offered," he speaks of him
self as only striving after that which he had
not yet attained ; and as using every means
in his power, that neither the machinations
of the Devil, nor the violence of his own
passions, might draw him aside from the
path of rectitude, and deprive him. at last
of a share in the happiness of heaven. But
there is another very material mistake as to
the character of St. Paul. It has been re
presented as that of " the chief of sinners,"
and it has been supposed that this repre
sentation has been made on St. Paul's own
authority. That St. Paul has ever called
himself "the chief of sinners k" is very
questionable: it is rather to be under
stood that he was the first of sinners, in
whom Jesus Christ chose to show a pre
eminent pattern of his amazing forbearance
and mercy. For it is very observable, that
k lTim. i. 15. See Ostervald's Causes of the Present
Corruption of Christians, P. i. p. 160.

382 SERMON VIII.
in all other places where St. Paul has occa
sion to speak of his conduct before his con
version to Christianity, he insists with great
boldness upon his integrity; that he had
lived in all good conscience before God;
and that his manner of life from his youth
was such as he had no reason to be a-
shamed of. He had been indeed a " blas-
" phemer and a persecutor;" and it was
natural, that when by the grace of God
he came to see his errors, he should feel
acutely the enormity of his crime: but
even at the very time when he is acknow
ledging that crime, and magnifying the
mercy of Christ in forgiving him, he is far
from saying that the crime itself was any
recommendation to the mercy. The view
he takes of his own case is very different.
He says he obtained mercy certainly, and
no man had a higher feeling of gratitude
for that mercy than he; and he censures
severely his own obstinacy in persevering
to oppose what he now saw to be the
truth : but he does not accuse himself of
sins which he knew he had not committed,
nor does he intimate that his being a sin-

SERMON VIII. 383
ner wa"s the cause of his obtaining mercy.
What he asserts is, that because he did
what he did in ignorance, not from cruel
or hypocritical motives, but from a sincere
though mistaken zeal for God's honour,
therefore he obtained mercy. The Apo
stle's honesty arid integrity then, so far
from being an obstacle to his call to Chris
tianity, was that which made him a fit ob
ject of the Divine favour. Without that fa
vour he would indeed have been lost eter
nally. His honesty, however unimpeached,
would not have saved him, had he conti
nued to persecute the faithful servants of
God : but the honesty of his heart and the
integrity of his life were so acceptable to
Him who searcheth the heart, that He
would not let that man perish for want of
better light, who, He knew, wanted no
thing but light, to serve Him with an up
right mind. The example of St. Paul then
is so far from being against the coincidence
of election and morality, that it greatly
confirms and illustrates it.
Another very remarkable instance to the
same purpose is that of Cornelius the Cen-

384 SERMON VIII.
turion. The piety and integrity and the
charity of this man are recorded in so pro
minent a manner, as to afford no room for
dispute. His prayers and his alms had
come up and been accepted before the
throne of God. And on account of these,
for so the word of truth is pleased to say1,
an express revelation was made to this
good man of the way, in which he should
be informed, how effectually to secure the
salvation of his soul.
Examples indeed of this kind might be
produced in great numbers ; but it is suffi
cient for the illustration of the subject to
have dwelt upon the few which have been
mentioned; all concurring to assure us,
that the best recommendation to the fa
vour of God is piety and integrity of life ;
and that those alone are likely to be num
bered among his Elect, who, either by con
trition for past faults, or by a diligent care
to avoid faults, show, that they have a due
sense of moral obligation, and a deep feel
ing of the obedience they owe to their
Creator. But did we want any further con-
1 Acts x. 4.

SERMON VIII. 385
firmation, we should find it in the plain de
claration of the text. We are there told of
a " Seal," which belongs to that " founda-
" tion of God," upon which all hopes
of salvation must be built. That Seal
has two inscriptions ; one asserting God's
knowledge and observance of those whom
He has pleased to denominate " his;" the
other clearly indicating the character that
must distinguish all, who would cherish a
well-grounded hope that they are of that
number. And what is that character?
That they should " depart from iniquity ;"
that they should renounce every thing evil
in principle and practice, and consequent
ly, that they should devote themselves to
the service of Christ in godliness and vir
tue. I say consequently, because the active
mind of man will necessarily be occupied
either well or ill ; because it would be ab
surd to suppose, that the Apostle was
recommending that wretched indolence
which is the parent of every thing that is
bad; and because our Lord has expressly
declared, that "every tree that bringeth
" not forth good fruit shall be cut down
c c

386 SERMON VIII.
" and cast into the firem." When there
fore the Seal of God's Elect is said to haye
this inscription, " Let every one that nam-
" eth the name of Christ depart from ini-
" quity," the meaning is, that he should
not only " cease to do evil, but learn to dp
" well ;" that he should not only abstain
from vice, but practise virtue.
The coincidence then of God's Election
and moral integrity of conduct is, I con
ceive, conspicuous and decided; and no
man has the least shadow of ground tp
suppose himself an object of the former,
who does not in his life prove himself un
der the influence of the latter. " The foun-
*f dation of God" indeed " standeth sure;"
no violence can shake it, no fraud can un
dermine it ; and upon this foundation the
faithful Christian may build a steadfast
hope of acceptance with his Maker; but
not unless it has the right seal, nor unless
that seal has both its inscriptions. As it
would be extreme folly to rest our claim to
heaven upon a presumptuous estimate of
our own merit, so will it little better avaij
m Matt. vii. 19.

SERMON VIII. 387
us in a feigned humility to rely upon a fan
cied election of our persons. Election and
obedience are indissolubly united by the
will and word of God ; and he who endea
vours to " put them asunder," endeavours
to do that which will inevitably terminate
in his own destruction. Whatever raptures
of devotion a man may be favoured with,
whatever feelings he may experience, how
ever ardent his zeal, and however strong
his faith, still if he have not this mark, if
he do not " depart from iniquity," he is
not one of God's Elect. He has not built
upon the " right foundation ;" the basis of
his house is not " the rock of ages"," but
" the sand" upon the sea-shore ; and when
" storms" arise against it, and its stability
is to be tried, it will be swept away like the
chaff before the wind °. He alone can hope
to stand without dismay before the tribu
nal which must assign him his portion for
eternity, who acknowledging that he has
no reliance upon any thing but the free
mercy of God in Christ, yet makes it his
endeavour to show that he has not received
» Is. xxvi 4. margin. ° Matt, viu 26.
CC 2

388 SERMON VIII.
the grace of the Gospel in vain, by follow
ing its directions, obeying its precepts, and
conforming himself in truth and sincerity
to all its holy ordinances.
The way then is now clear for taking
into consideration the last point which was
proposed, the effect namely, which the
character of this doctrine given in Scrip
ture may have either in discountenancing
or encouraging sound morals and pure
religion. That it cannot discountenance
them must be evident at once, because we
have seen that our Saviour invariably
unites God's Election with departure from
evil and conversion to holiness. Indeed
were we allowed to reason upon this sub
ject, we might naturally conclude from the
attributes of God himself, that all, whom
He elected, must be endued with piety
and virtue ; that a God perfectly good and
holy could choose for the objects of his
peculiar favour those alone, who had some
portion at least of that righteousness, which
was essential to Him. But as it is unneces
sary, so it is not altogether safe, to build
any thing on our reasoning with respect to

SERMON VIII. 389
this question. When, however, the Scrip
ture is so express, that " without holiness
" no man shall see the Lord;" and when
it is said in direct terms, that " nothing un-
" clean shall enter into the New Jerusa-
" lem," it is impossible to admit that any
doctrine delivered in Scripture can have
the most distant tendency to encourage
any but the purest morals. Be it, that the
Elect alone shall ultimately be partakers
of the Divine mercy. What then ? When
we are told by Him, who is ordained to as
sign every man his portion at the last day,
that the "righteous" only shall have a
share in the happiness of heaven p, is it not
clear^ that the righteous and the elect must
be the same persons, and that none can be
elect, who are not also righteous? When
again we are informed by him who " was
" caught up into the third heaven q," that
" no fornicator or adulterer, no thief or
" drunkard, no reviler or extortioner"
shall inherit the kingdom of God, but they
alone who are "washed, and sanctified,
" and justified," not only " in the name of
p Matt. xxv. 46. ¦» 2 Cor. xii. 4,
c C 3

390 SERMON VIII.
" the Lord Jesus," but " by the Spirit of
" Godr," we must be blind, if we do not
see, and worse than blind if we do not
acknowledge, that a clean heart and pure
hands, upright intentions and correspond
ent actions, are indispensable to those,
who look to being accepted by their hea
venly Father. If no fornicator and no
drunkard, if no reviler and no extortioner
can be admitted into heaven, it is clear
that neither fornicator nor drunkard, nor
reviler nor extortioner, can be among the
Elect of God.
Yet it must be confessed that this doc
trine has been abused to the support of
opinions and practices at once detestable
before God and most destructive to man.
And what doctrine of the Gospel has not
been abused ? Even its purity and spiritu
ality have been wickedly wrested to coun
tenance the vilest carnality; and its very
charity has been converted into an engine
of robbing the honest of their property, to
feed the rapacity of the ruffian. Human
corruption can pollute the very sanctuary
r iCor. vi. 9, 10, 11.

SERMON VIII. 391
of the Almighty. While " to the pure all
" things are pure," and tend to make
them yet more pure ; to " them that are
" defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure,
" but even their mind and conscience is
" defiled9;" and Where the mind and coii-
science are defiled, they will defile every
thing with which they come in contact.
Even that faith itself upon which all our
hopes depend; that precious "faith" by
which alone " the just" themselves "shall
" live*," even that has been abused, riot
only to the dishonour of God's Law, but
in defiance of the authority of that very
Saviour, on whom it affects to be placed.
Nothing therefore of this kind should dis
turb us, nor should it be any prejudice
against a Scripture doctrine that it has
been mistated and misrepresented. No
doctrine of Scripture can really be at va
riance with the moral law of God, as He
has himself revealed it ; though the specu
lations of men, both in regard to this lavV it
self, and to the other truths of Revelation;
may often be altogether irrecohcileable.
s Titus i. 15. ' Rom. 1. 17-
C C 4

392 SERMON VIII.
And thus it has happened in the present
case. The Election of God runs parallel
with obedience to his Law; but the elec
tion of man has deviated widely from that
line. It has introduced into this subject
the most unhappy errors, and the most
perplexing intricacies. But the principal
of them, and the causes possibly whence
others may have arisen, will be compre
hended, I presume, in the consideration of
the three following mistakes :
Election has been represented, first,
as being irrespective ; secondly, as being
known to the individuals elected, previous
to and independent of their obedience to
the precepts of the Gospel; and thirdly,
as affording ground to suppose, that grace
once conferred will never be withdrawn,
That irrespective Election, that is, Elec
tion without regard to the differences of
moral character amongst men, is not the
doctrine of Scripture, has appeared, I
should hope, from the instances already
produced. From observing those indivi
duals, who in this world seemed most
largely to have shared the favour of God,

SERMON VIII. 393
and who on that account may be supposed
most likely to have been received into his
mercy in heaven, we may collect with as
surance, that the Almighty, in selecting
the objects of his particular regard, had re
spect to their moral character, to the ho
nesty and integrity of their hearts. If they
were distinguished by the peculiar favour
of God, they were clearly better qualified
than others to be so distinguished. Nor
does this in any manner or degree diminish
the freedom of God's grace, or put a con
straint upon his proceedings. All, it is
confessed, were unworthy of his benevo
lence; all had incurred his displeasure,
and were obnoxious to punishment for
their sins. None therefore had any right
to his favour, none had any claim to his
regard; and if that favour were bestowed
upon any, it would be bestowed by the
free bounty of God. But though all were
unworthy, it does not follow that all were
equally unworthy; though all were ob
noxious to punishment, it does not follow,
that the guilt of all was the same either in
or degree. And yet further: even

394 SERMON VIII.
where the guilt was equal, and even in
cases where one man had committed
crimes of a deeper dye and a more atro
cious character than another, yet the dis
position might be better in one than an
other; the more guilty might be sooner
and more deeply touched with a sense of
his criminality, than the one who had
sinned less perhaps, but had never repent
ed of his sin. The circumstances of men
likewise are so incalculably various, that in
all their bearings they can be known only
to the eye of the Omniscient. Thus the
same sins are not always attended with the
same guilt in different men ; for they may
have been committed under such very dif
ferent circumstances, as to render one a
fit object of rigid justice, and the other of
grace and mercy. Even in our confined
view the seducer and the seduced are in
volved in very different degrees of guilt,
though both partakers of the same actual
crime. But to God all the varieties of cha
racter, all the advantages and disadvan
tages of education, all the difficulties of
situation, and all the trials to which men

SERMON VIII. 395
have been respectively exposed, are com
pletely known, and justly and mercifully
weighed. Of the great body of men, thus
wholly undeserving of his goodness, He
chooses certainly those whom He thinks
proper; but He always thinks proper to
choose those who, under all circumstances,
are the fittest objects of his choice. It
might be presumed indeed, that a holy and
wise God would do so ; and were men as
humble as they ought to be, it would be
a sufficient proof of the rectitude of the
choice, that Almighty God had made it.
That rectitude we shall, one day, no doubt,
see clearly ; and even now, as far as we do
see, it is plainly discernible. Good cha
racter is neither an obstacle to the favour
of our Maker, nor is it overlooked in the
bestowing of that favour. Of this, I think,
we have an opportunity of judging in two
very remarkable instances ; I mean, Judas
Iscariot and St. Peter. Both sinned griev
ously ; they renounced their Saviour after
all the kindness He had shown them, and
all the instructions He had given them.
But while one was left to perish in his ini-

396 SERMON VIII.
quity, the other was saved by the gracious
extension of the Divine mercy on his be
half. Had that mercy not been extended,
there is no doubt that Peter must have pe
rished as well as Judas. Our Saviour tells
us, that Satan had desired to have all the
Apostles to " sift them like wheat," and
that their preservation was owing to his
intercession*. That intercession alone, it
must surely be acknowledged, rescued Pe
ter from sharing in the perdition of Isca-
riot; but it must be acknowledged also,
that there is in the characters of the two
men, as delineated in Scripture, a plain
and striking difference. The character of
Iscariot was that of a close designing hy
pocrite ; one, who steadily kept his eye on
his own interest, and pursued it, without
either regard to the means by which his
object was to be obtained, or any feeling
of compunction for the injustice of which
he might be guilty ; one, who never suffer
ed his passions to get the better of that
self-command which was necessary for the
accomplishment of his purpose, except per-
4 Luke xxii. 31, 32,

SERMON VIII. 397
haps once, when he lost an opportunity of
converting to his own use a sum of money,
which the piety of Mary had expended on
the person of her Redeemer. How differ
ent from this was the character of St. Pe
ter ! Perfectly honest and straight-forward,
free from even the appearance of guile,
warmly attached to his Master, and re
quiring rather to be checked than encou
raged in his zeal for his service, he devoted
himself to that service without reserve, with
an entire purpose of steadfastly adhering
to it, and without any self-interested views
of avarice or ambition. But the warmth
of his temper betrayed him into indiscre
tion and difficulty ; and though his pur
pose was honest, yet while he at one time
pursued it with too much heat, he was lia
ble, from the very constitution of his na
ture, to fall into an equal depression at an
other. But the great point of contrast be
tween these two men is this ; that though
both sinned, and sinned deeply, yet the
one sinned coolly and deliberately, and
from the influence of a temptation despi
cably small ; the other fell through weak-

398 SERMON VIII.
ness, and from the fear of a great and im
minent danger. The one was a hypocrite,
decidedly hardened in vice; the other was
honest though weak, upright in his pur
pose, though unstable in its execution.
Here then was surely a great moral differ
ence of character ; and though it was un
doubtedly not such as could claim even a
discharge from punishment at God's hand,
yet we see, in point of fact, that the Elec
tion did light upon the person whose cha
racter was best upon the whole. Though
it was an unmerited, it was not an irre
spective Election ; and, I believe, it will be
found, upon a due examination of every
other instance as well as this, that the doc
trine of irrespective Election has no founda
tion in the word of God, that it is an inven
tion of man, not a revelation from heaven.
Another source of error on this subject
has been the notion, that the individuals
elected may know their election previous
to and independent of their obedience to
the precepts of the Gospel. How this great
error came first to be entertained it is dif
ficult to say, but most decidedly there is

SERMON VIII. 399
no ground for it in Scripture. There is,
no doubt, in that Scripture frequent men
tion of the Elect, of the children of God,
of the heirs of salvation ; and it is said
plainly, that God knows them ; but it is
nowhere said, that they are known to man.
We live in this world by faith and hope,
not by knowledge; but if we know pre
cisely beforehand what our condition in the
next world will be, then we live by know
ledge, and not by faith. Faith and hope
may certainly be sometimes weaker, and
sometimes stronger, and. they may be con
stantly weaker or stronger in some than
others ; and according to the state of our
faith and hope, our anticipations of future
happiness may be either more or less live
ly : but an actual knowledge of our future
lot is inconsistent with the very nature of
our present condition. And in point of
fact, it does not appear that any one of
those, of whom we have the best reason to
think that they are now in heaven, was as
sured of his Election before his actual ad
mission into the abode of just men made
perfect. Even St. Paul, whose example

400 SERMON VIII.
and whose doctrine are so often quoted in
support of this opinion, never speaks of
himself as sure of his final acceptance, till
he could say at the same time, that his dis
solution was at hand. Before that, he al
ways represents himself as anxious about
his salvation, as labouring to secure it, as
watchful lest the wiles of Satan should rob
him of his reward. But supposing in this
single instance it could be made out, which
it cannot, that St. Paul knew himself to be
elected to everlasting life, what would this
be to us ? Would it follow, that because
St. Paul, who was the authorized messen
ger to bear the name of Christ to the Gen
tiles, who was empowered to prove and
support his commission by the most stu
pendous miracles, who was guided by the
Holy Spirit into all necessary truth, and
was carried "up to the third heaven, and
" there heard unutterable things;" would
it follow, that because such a man was fa
voured with an assurance of salvation, to
support him in all his labours, his suffer
ings, and his difficulties, therefore every
ordinary Christian was to expect the same

SERMON VIII. 401
thing? Not surely in any thing like fairness
of reasoning. But after all, what does the
declaration of the Appstle amount to, when
he was about to leave the world, and look
ed to the crown of righteousness that was
prepared for him? Does he rest his as
surance of this crown on his Election ? No :
but looking back upon his exertions in the
cause of the Gospel, upon the fight he had
fought, upon the course he had finished,
and upon the faith he had kept, he exults,
as any good man in his circumstances
might exult, at the prospect of that re
ward, " which the righteous Judge would
" give him at the day of retribution,. . . .
" and not to him only, but to all who love
" His appearing"." What is there here,
upon which any man can build a presump
tuous assurance of his own final accept
ance ? Nothing. When he has fought the
good fight with St. Paul, when he has fi
nished his course, and at the end of that
course can say that he has kept the faith,
then indeed his hope may rise into exulta
tion, like St. Paul's, and the Spirit of God
» 2 Tim. iv, 6, 7, 8.
Dd

402 * SERMON VIII.
will approve it ; but his eternal portion
must remain to be assigned by that Judge
whom the Almighty has appointed.
There is yet another misconception on
this subject, upon which a brief examina
tion must be bestowed. An opinion has
been grounded upon this doctrine, that
grace once given will never be withdrawn,
and where Faith has once existed, it can
never fail. This opinion is directly contrary
to the plain declarations and plain examples
of Scripture. True it is, that the faith of
the Elect will never fail, and that the grace
given to them will ultimately prevail. But
who are the Elect ? We have seen ahead}',
that however they may be known to God,
they are not known to man, and that it is
inconsistent with the very condition of man
here to know his own election. Though
therefore the faith of the Elect will not fail,
yet as no man can know certainly of him
self whether he be elect or not, no man
can know certainly whether his faith may
not fail x. And it is to such a state as this
that all the exhortations and admonitions,
*¦ See Launcelot Ridley on Ephesians.

SERMON VIII. 403
all the promises and threatenings of the
Gospel are addressed ; that is, to the real
condition of man in this world, a condition,
in which no one can hope to stand firm
in faith or obedience, without care, atten
tion, and diligence. Ezekiel tells us plain
ly, of a " righteous man," who, forsaking
his righteousness and dying in iniquity,
perished in that iniquity y. Our Saviour
says, that some, in whom the good seed
had been sown, suffered it to be caught
away by the devil, some lost it by the fear
of persecution, some permitted it to be
choked by the cares and the deceitfulness
of riches; while they alone retained it, who
cherished it so as to bring forth abundant
fruit2. Yet it was the same seed in all,
and sown by the same hand. But St. Paul
is most express on this subject, exhorting
the Christians of his day to take " example"
by the Jews, and not to fall by the same
pattern "of unbelief a:" and warning them
earnestly, that "if after they were made
" partakers of the Holy Ghost, and had
y Ezekiel xviii. 24. z Mark iv. 14—20.
a Heb. iv. 11.
D(J2

404 SERMON VIII.
" tasted the good word of God, and the
" powers of the world to come, they should
" fall away, it was impossible to renew
" them again by repentance V That they
might fall away was therefore, in the Apo
stle's mind, not an impossible thing; it was
a danger against which he thought fit to
warn them, and therefore it was a danger
to which he thought them exposed.
These errors being thus removed from
the doctrine under consideration, the doc
trine itself will be found to have nothing in
it that can in any degree have an unfa
vourable effect upon morals and religion;
rather, as it is represented in Scripture, it
will be seen to tend directly to their sup
port and encouragement. It is to this pur
pose that our Lord himself and his Apo
stles apply it. St. Paul tells us to " work
" out our salvation with fear and trembling,"
for this reason, because " God works in us
" to will and to do of his good pleasure':"
that is, because God by his Spirit puts
into our hearts good designs, and gives us
strength to execute them, therefore we
b Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. c Philip, ii. 12, 13.

SERMON VIII. 405
should exert ourselves with a correspond
ent energy on our part, lest this Divine fa
vour should have been bestowed upon us
in vain. St. Peter exhorts us to " make our
" calling and election sured;" that is, be
cause we are called and elected, therefore
we should be careful so to improve this fore
taste of the Divine mercy, so to make use of
this talent committed to our charge, as not
finally to lose that glory and happiness, to
which it was intended to lead. St. Peter
here uses the words " calling and election,"
in the same sense, for that vocation by
which those he was addressing became
Christians, and his object was to prevail
upon them by diligence in the practice of
virtue, to take care that this external elec
tion might not fail of being ratified by the
decision of Christ. But the use to be made
of this doctrine, as an encouragement to
pure religion and sound morals, is best il
lustrated by our Saviour himself. The hu
man mind is ever curious to pry into the
secrets of futurity, and from this infirmity
the first disciples were not exempt. They
d 2 Peter i. 10.
r> d 3

406 SERMON VIII.
therefore asked their Master, what was the
number of those who should be saved.
That He knew they were convinced; for
they had often heard Him talk in a way,
which made it evident that eternity was
open to his view. But what was his an
swer? Not such as to gratify their curio
sity; not such as to give even themselves
an assurance that they were in the num
ber; but an earnest and awakening ex
hortation, that no care, no pains, no in
dustry should be wanting on their part, to
do what was required of them. " Strive"
says He, " to enter in at the strait gate :
" for many, I say unto you, shall seek to
" enter in, but shall not be ableV His
answer is at once a reproof to their curio
sity, and an awful admonition against se
curity. They had heard Him frequently
talk of the Elect, and who so likely to be
those Elect as they; and perhaps in this
question some little expectation might lurk
of a gratifying assurance in their favour.
But their Lord thought fit to give their
minds another bent, and, instead of a cer-
e Luke xiii. 23, 24.

SERMON VIII. 407
tain promise of personal safety, which might
cherish their indolence, to command them,
and in them all who should believe by their
means, to remember, that the only way to
obtain a share in the blessings of the Gos
pel, the only way to make their calling and
election, as inheritors of the kingdom of
heaven, sure, was to be eminently diligent,
and honestly punctual in the performance
of their duty.

B d 4

APPENDIX TO SERM. VIII.

WlTH regard to the important doctrine of
God's Election, I know nothing, in a small com
pass, better calculated to teach the young stu
dent both to think and speak with a becoming
modesty and with all attainable accuracy upon
this delicate subject, than the opinion delivered
by the learned Bishop Andrews on the Lambeth
Articles, and his " Censura Censuree D. Barreti
" de certitudine salutis." I have therefore re
printed both these Tracts, together with a short
account of the origin of those Articles, from a
copy annexed to a Defence of the Articles of the
Church of England by Dr. John Ellis, formerly
Rector of Dolgelly, in the county of Merioneth.
An account of Barret and the proceedings against
him will be found in Heylin's Quinquarticular
History, p. iii. c. 20. p. 6l8. If the young stu
dent will take the trouble of carefully comparing
the Lambeth Articles with our XVI. and XVII.
he will be impressed, I think, with a strong sense
of the difference between the soberness of truth
and the presumption of error"; and will attain

410 APPENDIX TO SERMON VIII.
perhaps a more correct idea of the genuine pur
port of the last controverted article, than he can
receive from the laboured expositions of decided
partisans on either side.

ARTICULI LAMBETHANI:
ID EST,
I. Articuhrum Lambethce exhibitorum Historia.
II. Articuli de Prcedestinatione, et anneods capitibus a
D. Whitakero Lambethce propositi.
III. Iidem prout ab Episcopis Theologisque concepti et
admissi.
IV. Lanceloti Andrews tou iravu Wintoniensis Episcopi,
de Synodo oblatis Articulis judidum ; una cum ejusdem
Censura Censures D. Barreti, de Certitudine Salutis.

Articulorum Lambethse exhibitorum Historia.
IN Academia Cantabrigiensi illustria sunt duo munera
Theologica ; alterum vocatur Regium, Henricum VIII.
autorem praeferens : alterum a Margareta, matre Hen-
rici VII. institutum, ab ejus nomine appellatur.
Accidit, ut eodem tempore Theologiam docerent, in
Regio Whitakerus, et in D. Margaretae, Petrus Baro.
Whitakerus, vir rarse eruditionis (ac proinde magnum
allaturus momentum, quocunque se tulisset) diu in Pa-
trum lectione versatus, tandem, seu quia affinitate de-
lapsus erat a in familiam Genevensibus magistris addic-
tiorem, sive alia quacunque de causa, totum se istis par-
tibus dedit.
Atque inter alias sententias quae Calvini et Bezte au-
thoritate maxime nituntur, urgere coepit dogma abso-
lutce Prcedestinationis ; tale scil. quod majorem hominum
partem a Christi redemptione et gratia sufficienti ex in-
tentione Dei et Christi penitus excludit. Et quasi pa-
rum cruda esset haec sententia, si in massce corruptee
consideratione consisteret, ipse ad massam incorruptam
a Prima ejus uxor fuit D. Culverwelli filia, mercatoris Burdigalensis,
sed Augli et Londinensis. Secunda fuit D. Feuneri relicta, illius Feu-
ncri qui tam atrociter debacchatus est in Statum Ecclesiasticum Angli-
canum et professione Ministerii propterea abiit.

412 Articuhrum Lambethce
voluit assurgere, Augustinum culpans hoc nomine, quod
dixisset; Praidestinationis caussam quceri et non inveniri:
reprobationis vero caussam quceri et inveniri. Reproba-
tionem vero hanc factam in massa nondum corrupta di-
cebat Whitakerus non esse pure negativam, sed affirma-
tionem includere. Hoc enim esse decretum et volun-
tatem Dei, quo homines tam multi in exitium ruant
aeternum. At Petrus Baro, forsan et ante re perpensa, certe istis
Whitakeri paradoocis incitatus ut in omne hoc argu-
mentum diligentius inquireret, inter opiniones diversis-
simas, nullam putavit esse probabiliorem ea, quam in
Germania Melanchthon, in Dania Hemmingius, in
Frisia Snecahus defenderunt: scil. fidd prcesdentiam
ordine statuit priorem Prcedestinatione, quomodo sen-
sisse ac docuisse Patres veteres ante Augustinum, ip-
sumque adeo Augustinum priusquam cum Pelagio con
tendere!., testes faciebat ipsos Patres et Bezam id ipsum
confitentem. Prcedestinationis controversiam sequebantur alias duae
(si tamen duae dicendae sint, cum altera alteram post se
necessario trahat) 1. de amissione gratice ; 2. de certitu-
dine ac securitate salutis. Amitti interdum fidem et gra-
tiam justificantem statuebat Baro, negante Whitakero.
Certitiidinem ponebat spd ille, hie fidei, et absolutam non
conditionatam. Aperuit autem hanc suam sententiam Baro turn prae-
cipue, cum Jonam Prophetam interpretaretur.
Cum Professorum disputatio (ut fit) juventutem diu
in partes traxisset, Whitakerus tandem Londinum pro-
fectus, Whitgiftum Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem ad
it : monet concuti Pelagiano dogmate Academiam, et
ni mature obviam eatur, apertum dissidium, nee prae-
sentius ullum remedium, quam ut Theses 9. quas ipse
conceperat, Antistitum aliquot judicio comprobatae Can-
tabrigiam mitterentur.
Ita autem erant conscriptae Theses, ut prudentiam
viri facile agnosceres verborum tenore exquisito, qui
posset etiam a non mediocriter dissidentibus, pacis stu
dio approbari, ab ipso autem facillime postea ad suae
sententia? confirmationem traheretur. Fit conventus

exhibitomm Historia. 413
Antistitum, et Theologorum haud magno numero,
mense Novembri An. Dom. 1595. et cum in tam per-
plexo argumento non eadem omnibus placerent, dis-
putatur aliquandiu. Ultimo forte die aberant unus et
alter, qui a Whitakeri sententia longissime dissidebant :
ita praevaluere alii. Et Whitgiftus, princeps ejus con-
ventus, etsi Whitakeri dogmata minime probabat, facili
tate tamen et metu discordiae, cum suam probare aliis
non posset, factus est ipse alienee sententia? accessio.
Non tamen eisdem verbis probatae Whitakeri asser-
tiones, quibus ipse proposuit, sed ita mutata? voces quae-
dam et phrases, ut dissidentis ab ipso judicii magna ves
tigia appareant.
Transmissaj Cantabrigiam hae Theses ; et Whitakerus
victorem se ferens, parta facile sine adversario palma,
intimum Reginae Consiliis et autoritatis in Regno pri-
mariae virumb, cui et in Academiam peculiars comper
tebat inspectio, convenit, atque ei, quid in Conventu
gestum sit, narrat, ipsasque Theses, ita ut ab Episcopis
probatae erant, ostendit.
At magnus ille vir (qua erat prudentia) facile intelli-
gens, periculosas esse definitiones in controversiis adeo
decertatis, vehementer factum hoc omne improbavit;
dixitque effecturum ut ejus autores consilii sui pceni-
teret. Nee fefellit promissi fidem. Reginam quippe
convenit, ac gravi oratione demonstrat ; in his quae ad
statum religionis pertinent, per Angliae leges neminem
posse nisi ex autoritate Reginae, et quidem accedente
Parliamenti consensu, quicquam decernere: neque id
frustra institutum. Magnum enim esse in animos hu-
manos regnum Religionis, et facillime eo obtentu in
partes iri et factiones. At nunc paucos Theologos ausos
decreta facere de gravissimis qusestionibus, super quibus
multis jam a seculis inter eruditissima ingenia conveniri
nunquam potuerit. Neque obscurum quo tenderent
qui hoc impetrassent : nam eos ita existimare atque do-
cere, Quicquid gereretur rerum humanarum, bonum id.ma-
lumve esset, id omne constringi lege immutabilis decretij
ipsis quoque hominum voluntatibus hanc impositam neces-
sitatem, ut alitei- quam vellent homines velle non possent.
<• D. Burl. Acad. Cant. Cancel!.

4 1 4 Articu lorum Lambethce
Quae si vera (inquit) sunt, Domina Augustissima, frus-
tra ego aliique fideles majestatis iwffi.ministri, quid in re
quaque opus sit facto, quid ex usu futurum sit et Regni
et tuo, suspensa diu consilia versamus, cum de his quae
eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio.
Regina et ipsa commota, Archiepiscopum acciri jubet et
(ut erat citra majestatis dispendium festiva) magnas
(inquit) te opes congerere audio (Whitgifte) et vis me,
ut opinor, divitem facere. Ille quid sibi vellet sermo
tam inopinatus non satis intelligens, opes (inquit) sunt
non nimis -magnae, sed tamen quantaecunque sunt (Do
mina) tuas crede. Tu vero (inquit Regina) officiose te
loqui existimas, at ego quod offers jam meum esse Regni
legibus contendo, incidisti enim in c Prcemunire. Turn
de assertionibus Lambethanis disserere incipit. Archi-
episcopus jam tandem videns quo Regina tenderet, non
hanc (ait) suam Collegarumque mentem fuisse, ut quic
quam sine publica authoritate decernerent, aut soli Ca-
nones facerent, sed pacis consilium a se Professoribus
datum, ne privata certamina in malum publicum erum-
perent. Aderant Reginae Consiliarii qui Whitgiftum
urgent acriter ; in ipso Conventu peccatum, quod incon-
sulta Regina indictus esset, et paci rectius consuli po-
tuisse, si judicium sibi integrum servassent Antistites.
Et quorsum missas Cantabrigiam Assertiones Episco-
porum, nisi ut Canonis quandam praeferrent speciem.
Adeone molestum semel convenire Reginam de negotio
tot per dies disceptato ? Deinde ad quaestionem de Fato
prolabuntur, et dogma (ut ipsis videbatur) bonis mori
bus, reique publica adversum graviter exagitant. Exitus
hie fuit, ut facti inconsulti veniam precaretur Archiepis-
copus, ac promitteret Cantabrigiam se scripturum, ut
premerentur Lambethanae Assertiones, ne qua in pub-
licam notitiam emanarent. Quod et praestitit. Sed
multo post (ut videtur) repertum inter Whitakeri sche-
das, aut alibi, exemplum effecit, ut autoribus invitis hoc
opus prorumperet.
c Est Prcemunire lex Anglise vetus, a Richardo, ut creditor, secundo
sancita, qua; vetat ecclesiasticos homines plus sibi authoritatis arrogare,
quam regni moribus ipsis debcatur; hac addita poena, ut qui contra
faxit carceri mancipetur, quamdiu principi placeat ; bona flsco addi-
cantur.

exhibitorum Historia. 415
Post factas has Assertiones Baro et in professione et
in sententia mansit; Whitakerus vita ereptus est paucis
post Lambethanum Conventum diebus. Baro deinde
elapso triennii spatio (nam vetere institute in illius le-
ctura triennalis est professio) professione abiit, et in
privata se studia recondidit.
Post illos duos, inter quos contentio orta erat, pro
fessor Regius factus est eruditissimus vir Joannes Overal.
Is hanc secutus est dicendi rationem, quae statuit Gra
tiam suffidentem offerri singulis hominibus, et Christum
pro singidis mortuum : in omni bono priores esse gratia^
partes, postenores liberi arbitrii a gratia informata ; sed
gratiam operari modis ineocplicabilibus, non tamen ad actus
singulos naturalem in modum determinando : gratiam vero
justificantem^ cum peccatis capitalibus ante actum pomi-
tentiam non consistere.
Ad Prozdestinationis difficilem admodum controver-
siam quod attinet, ita sibi temperabat, ut nee priorem,
nee posteriorem Augustini sententiam damnaret; quip
pe quas^judicaret ipse non admodum hostiliter inter se
dissidere; praesertim cum ipse Augustinus post ortum
cum Pelagio certamen scripserit, eadem se tunc credere
quaeolim credidisset, cum Manichasos oppugnaret, neque
tam sententiam se nunc mutasse, quam loquendi genus.
Quid postea regnante illustriss. Jacobo anno 1603. in
Hamptoniensi Curia actum sit, edito ea de re D. Bar-
lovii libello, palam est. Namque ibi D. Reynoldus et
qui cum ipso contra Episcopos constitere, inter csetera
quae ad puritatem Ecclesiae Anglicanae pertinere vehe-
menter existimabant, et illud postularunt, ut Assertiones
Lambethanae Confessioni insererentur. Minime vero
hoc impetrarunt, judicante Rege, ejusmodi definitioni-
bus parum ad pacem profici.

Articuli de Praedestinatione et annexis capitibus
a D Whitakero Lambethae propositi.
I. Deus ab aeterno praedestinavit quosdam ad vitam, et
quosdam ad mortem reprobavit.

416 Artiadi a D. Whitakero Lambetha propositi.
II. Caussa efficiens praedestinationis non est praevisio
fidei, aut perse verantiae, aut bonorum operum, aut ul-
lius rei quae in.sit personis praedestinatis, sed sola, ab-
soluta et simplex voluntas Dei.
III. Praedestinatorum prsefinitus et certus est numerus,
qui nee augeri nee minui potest.
IV. Qui non sunt praedestinati ad salutem, necessario
propter peccata condemnabuntur.
V. Vera, viva et justificans fides, et spiritus Dei sancti-
ficans non exstinguitur, non excidit, non evanescit in
iis qui semel ejus participes fuerunt, aut totaliter aut
finaliter.
VI. Homo vere fidelis, id est, fide justificante praeditus,
certus est certitudine fidei, de remissione peccatorum
suorum et salute sempiterna sua per Christum.
VII. Gratia sufficiens ad salutem non tribuitur, non
communicatur, non conceditur universis hominibus,
qua servari possint, si velint.
VIII. Nemo potest venire ad Christum nisi datum ei
fuerit, et nisi Pater eum traxerit : et omnes homines
non trahuntur a Patre ut veniant ad Filium.
IX. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscu-
jusque hominis servari.
Hce omnes propositiones aut aperte positce sunt in libro
Articidorum, et semper in Ecclesia nostra approbate fue
runt ; aut ex Articulis necessaria consecutione dedud pos-
sunt.

Articuli Lambethce propositi Articuli Lambethoz propositi
prout a CI. V. D. Whita- prout ab Episcopis reli-
kero in ipsius autographo quisque Theohgis concepti
concepti, Episcopis aliis- sunt, et de sensu, quo ad-
que Theohgis Lambethce missisunt.
proponebantur. I. I.
Deus ab atemo prcedesti- Admissus est hie Articu-
navit quosdam ad vitam, et lus totidem verbis. Nam si
quosdam ad mortem repro- per primum (quosdam) in-
bavit. telligantur credentes ; per
secundum (quosdam) incre-

Articuli quo sensu a Theohgis admissi. 4 1 7
duli, lis hie non intenditur : sed est verissimus Arli-
culus. II. II.
Caussa efUdens prcedesti- Caussa movens aut effi-
nationis non est praevisio fi- ciens praedestinationis ad
dd, aut perseverantice, aut vitam non est praevisio fidei
bonorum operum, aut ullius aut perseverantiae, aut bo-
rei quce insit personis prce- norum operuin, aut alius
destinatis, sed sola et abso- rei, quae insit personis prae-
luta et simplex voluntas Dd. destinatis ; sed sola volun
tas beneplaciti Dm. Addi-
tur in hoc secundo Articulo a Lambethanis 1° Movens.
2° Ad vitam, 3° mutatur {sola, absoluta et simplex volun
tas Dei] in [sola voluntas beneplaciti Dd ;] idque non sine
justa ratione. Caussa enim movens praedestinationis ad
vitam, non est fides, sed meritum Christi, cum Deus ser-
vandis salutem destinavit non propter fidem, sed propter
Christum. Moventis vocabulum proprie merito conve
nit : meritum autem est in obedientia Christi, non in
fide nostra. Additur [ad vitam,] quia licet praedesti
nationis ad mortem caussa sit prcevisio infidelitatis et im-
pcenitentiae, adeoque alicujus rei qua? insit personis
praedestinatis ad mortem ; tamen nulla est caussa prae
destinationis ad vitam, nisi sola voluntas benepladti Dd.
Juxta illud Augustini ; Pradestinationis caussa quceritur
et non invenitur ; reprobationis vero caussa quceritur et in-
venitur; [absoluta et simplex voluntas Dei] majus quid-
dam dicit, quam sola voluntas benepladti. Nam et con
ditionals voluntas est benepladti, et vult Deus nos recte
facere, si nos velimus ejus gratiae non deesse ; et pla-
cuit Deo servare singulos homines, si credereht.
III. Ill-
Prcedestinatorum prafi- In hoc Articulo nihil mu-
nitus et certus est numerus, tatur : verissimus enim est
qui nee augeri nee minui si de praescientia Dei intel-
potest. ligatur quae nunquam falll-
tur. Non enim plures vel
pauctores servantur quam Deus praesciverit.
Qui non sunt prcedeStinati In hoc Articulo nihil mu-
ad salutem, necessario pro- tatur : verissimus enim est;
E e

418 Articuli quo sensu
pter peccata condemnabun- quia statuit Deus non re-
tur. mittere peccata nisi creden-
tibus. Quod si ita, hanc
Thesim et priorem interpreteris, ut et peccata et damna-
tionem necessitate quadam ex ipsa praedestinatione de-
ducas atque ex ea fluere existimes, aperte Augustino,
Prospero, Fulgentio &c. contradicis, et cum Manichaeis,
Deumpeccati autorem necesse estfadas.
V. V.
Vera, viva etjustificansf- Vera, viva et justificans fi
des et Spiritus Dei sanctjfi- des et Spiritus Dei sanctifi-
cans non exstinguitur, non cans non exstinguitur, non
exddit, non evanesdt, in iis excidit,nonevanescit,inete-
qui semel ejus participes ctis aut totaliter, aut finali-
fuerunt, aut totaliter aut i\- ter. In autographo Whita-
naliter. keri verba erant : [in iis qui
semel ejus par tidpesfueruni]
pro quibus a Lambethanis substitutasunt [in electis] sensu
plane alio et ad mentem Augustini ; cum ilia in auto
grapho sint ad mentem Calvini. Augustinus enim opi-
natus est, Veram fidem quce per dilectionem operatur, per
quam contingit adoptio, justificatio et sanctificatio, posse
et intercidi et amitti : fidem vero esse commune donum
electis et reprobis, sed perseverantiam electis propriam.
Calvinus autem, Veram et justificantem fidem solis sal-
vandis et electis contingere. Et CI. V. D. Overal defen-
dit et in Academia et in Conventu HamptoniensijWii/t-
catum, si incidat in graviora peccata, antequam pceniten-
tiam agat, in statu esse damnationis: ibique contraria
sententia quae statuit, justificatum, etiamsi in peccata
graviora incidat, justificatum tamen manere, a Regia Ma-
jestate damnata est : ita in hoc articulo nihil minus
quam Whitakeri sententia probata est.
VI. VI.
Homo verefidelis, id est, Homo vere fidelis, id est,
fide justificante prceditus, fide justificante praeditus,
certus est, certitudine fidei, certus est plerophoria fidd
de remissione peccatorum de remissione peccatorum
suorum et salute sempiterna suorum et salute sempiter-
sua per Christum. na sua per Christum. Ni
hil hie mutatur, nisi quod

a Theohgis admissi. 419
pro [certitudine] substituitur vox Grceca [pkrophoria.]
Quidam autem ex theologis voluerunt, pro fidei pk
rophoria, reponi spd plerophoriam : verum eorum absen
tia cum transigeretur negotium, effecit ut maneret vox
fidd quam scripserat Whitakerus. Voce autem plero-
phorice usi sunt, quia non designat plenam et absolutam
certitudinem, quail's est sdentice vel prindpiorum fidd,
(cum fides sit talium rerum, quarum non est evidentia
vel certa scientia) sed minorem quendam certitudinis
gradum, quippe cum etiam in judidariis etforensibus pro-
bationibus usurpetur.
Verissimus est hie articulus, si de certitudine prasen-
tii status intelligatur; aut etiam futuri, sed conditionata.
Credit enim fidelis se credere, et credit credentem serva-
tum iri; credit etiam perseveraturum se; sed non una
omnino et eadem certitudine: quia certitudo haec partim
nititur Dei promissionibus, qui nos tentari ultra vires
non patitur; partim pii propositi sinceritate, qua pro
tempore futuro nos Deo obedientiam praestituros sancte
in nos recipimus.
Alioqui si hie sensus affingitur assertioni ; hominem
certitudine eadem, qua Christum credit mortuum et esse
mundi Salvatorem, credere debere, se esse servandum,
sive Electum, repugnaret haec assertio Confessioni Regis
Edvardi, in qua legitur; Decretum praedestinationis in-
cognitum est : et Augustino ; Pradestinatio apud nos,
dum in prcesentis vita periculis versamur, incerta est. De
Civit. Dei, lib. ii. cap. 1 2. et alibi ; Justi, licet de sua
perseverantia pramio certi sint, tamen de ipsa perseveran-
tia reperiunlur incerti.
VII. VII.
Gratia sufficiens ad salu- Gratia salutaris non tri-
tem non tribuitur, non com- buitur, non communicatur,
municatur, non conceditur non conceditur universis
universis hominibus, qua ser- hominibus, qua servari pos-
vari possint, si velint. sint, si velint. Pro [gra
tia suffidenti ad salutem]
quod erat in Whitakeri autographo, substituerunt Lam-
bethani [gratiam salutarem] ut plane appareat loqui eos
de ea gratia, quae est actu ultimo salutaris sive actu effi-
cax, seu quae per se (non addita nova gratia) salutem
e e 2

420 Articuli quo sensu a Theohgis admissi.
operatur. Haec quidem non conceditur, sed ne offertur
universis, cum sint plurimi (utpote Pagani &c.) quibus
Evangelium nee interna nee externa voce praedicetur.
Ergo ilia verba [qua servari posdnt d velint] intelligenda
sunt de potentia proxima et immediata. Nam si de po-
tentia remotiore intellexissent, frustra induxissent vocem
gratia -suffidentis, quae suffidens appellari solet, non
quod sit efficax, vel per se actu operetur salutem, sed
quod sufficiens sit ad salutem ducere, modo homo non
ponat obicem. Et haec Augustini et Prosperi fuit sen
tentia, qui gratiam saltern parciorem, occultioremque om
nibus datam aiunt, et talem quidem quae ad remedium
sufficeret. Unde Fulgentius ; Quod non adjuvantur qui-
dam a gratia Dd, in ipsis caussa est, non a Deo.
VIII. VIII.
Nemo potest venire ad In hoc Articulo nihil
Christum nisi datum d fue- mutatum : non omnes tra-
rit, et nisi Pater eum traxe- huntur tractu ultimo. Sed
rit : et omnes homines non qui negat omnes trahi tra-
trahuntur a Patre ut veni- ctu remotiore tollit opitula-
ant ad Filium. lationem illam generalem,
sive commune auxilium quo
omnium hominum corda pulsari dicit Prosper. Tractum
autem Theologi Lambethani non intellexerunt (cum
Whitakero) determinationem physicam irresistihilem: sed
divinam operationem (prout communiter in conversione
hominis operatur) quae naturam voluntatis liberam non
tollit, sed ad bonum spirituale idoneam primo facit, de-
inde et ipsam bonam facit.
IX. IX.
Non est podtum in arbi- In hoc quoque nihil mu-
trio aut potestate uniuscu- tatum : verissimum enim
jusque hominis servari. est, salutem nostram esse
primario non in nobis, sed
a gratia praveniente, exdtante, concomitante, et subse-,
quente in omni opere bono ; secundaria ab arbitrio et vo-
luntate hominis consentiente atque acceptante. Nulla
potestas est arbitrii ad bonum spirituale, nisi gratia non
modo tollat impedimenta, sed et vires suppeditet. Non
est ergo positum in arbitrio primitus et potissimum; imo
nulh modo in arbitiio est positum, ut homo quilibet quo-

Episc. Wintoniensis de Articulis Judidum. 421
libet momento ad salutem possit pervenire. At vero
esse aliquam aliquando in arbitrio potestatem gratia sub-
ordinatam et gratia consentientem, nemo inficias iverit,
qui Augustinum audiverit: Dum tempus est, (inquit)
dum in nostra potestate est opera bonafacere : et alibi, de
pcenis inferni loquens; Majus est (inquit) quod timere
debes, et in potestate habes ne eveniat tibi.

Reverendissimi rov nam doctissimique Patris Lan
celoti Wintoniensis (qui ipse ejusdem pars ma
gna fuit) de Synodo oblatis a D. Whitakero
Articulis Judicium.
Quatuor priores Articuli de Prsedestinatione sunt et
Reprobatione : quarum ilia ab Apostolo dicitur T12 fi&Qog !
haec a Propheta, Abyssus multa. Rom. xi. 33. Psal.
xxxvi. 6.
Ego certe (ingenue fateor) sequutus sum Augustini
consilium : mysteria haec quae aperire non possum, clau-
sa miratus sum, et proinde, per hos 16 annos, ex quo
Presbyter sum factus, me neque publice neque privatim
vel disputasse de eis, vel pro Concione tractasse. Etiam
nunc quoque malle de eis audire, quam dicere. Et qui
dem cum lubricus locus sit, et habeat utrinque pericu-
losa pradpitia, ciimque loci Paulini (unde fere eruitur)
inter htrvorp-ei ilia (de quibus Petrus) semper sint habiti :
cumque nee multi in Clero sint, qui ea dextre^ expedire,
et perpauci in populo qui idonei illius auditores esse
possint; suaderem, si fieri possit, ut indiceretur utrin
que silentium ; nee ita passim et a-ude proponerentur a
quibusque ut assolet. Certe multo magis expedire ar-
bitror, ut doceatur populus noster salutem suam quae-
rere in manifestis vitae sanctae et fideliter institute (quod
et Petrus suadet) quam in occultis consjlii divini : cujus
curiosa nimis inspectio vertigines et scotomata generare
potest et solet ; aedificationem certe in angustis ingeniis
vix solet. Sed tamen rogatus sententiam meam de his
Articulis, idque a Dominatione Tua cui non parere Re-
ligio fuit, sic paucis respondeo. e e 3

422 Episc. Wintoniensis
Ad 1 . quo asseritur Pradestinatio.
Esse apud Deum in aeterna ilia sua (sive prcesdentia
dicere libeat, sive) sdentia, qua videt quae non sunt tan-
quam ea quse sunt, pradestinatos quosdam, quosdam re-
probos, extra controversiam esse arbitror. Scripturae ver
ba sunt, irgo xaTafioXys xoVju-oo, id est, ab aeterno scilicet
elegisse Deum nos; et cum elegisset praedestinasse,
Eph. i. 4, 5. Elegisse autem ex tou xotrpou, de mundo,
Joan. xv. 19. Quare non omnes in mundo elegisse, sed
quosdam, alioqui enim Electio non foret. Quos vero
non elegit et eligendo approbavit (ut electionis natura
fert) reprobasse. Et Scriptura verbis utitur airtlikiv, re-
jidendi, Rom. xi. 2. awoSoxi^a^siv, reprobandi, Heb. xii. 15.
Tantum ne utrobique par ratio videatur, et eadem
praedestinandi ratio, eadem reprobandi; si hoc plene
non constet, cuperem addi; Aliter pradestinatos ilhs,
nempe per Christum, Eph. i. 5. Aliter hos reprobatos,
nempe propter peccatum.
Ad 2. quo Pradestinationis Caussa explicatur.
Verissimum Dei per Prophetam verbum est: Tan-
tummodo in me auxilium tuum: id est, nee a quoquam
auxilium nisi a me, nee a me quicquam nisi auxilium :
verissimum et Apostoli; Quis discernit? id est, a Deo
solo habere nos quo a reliquis discernimur.
Sed tamen de particula ilia [sola voluntas benepladti]
quaeri potest,
Primo includatne Christum, an secludat : id est, sitne
actus praedestinandi actus absolutus, an relatus?
Quod ad me, existimo relatum esse: nee ullam esse
Dei eutioxlav h avbgwiroig, id est, voluntatem, qua bene-
placitum sit ei in hominibus, nisi in filio in quo euloxyo-e,
nee vel ante vel sine intuitu Christi praedestinari quen-
quam. Sed (ut habent sacra? Scripturae) Christum pri
mo itpoeyvcoo-fji.evov prasdtum, 1 Pet. i. 2. deinde in eo nos,
Rom. viii. 29. Christum primo bgto-QevTa pradestinatum,
Rom. i. 4. deinde per eum nos, Eph, i. 5. Non autem
priore loco nos, (uti nonnullis videtur) posteriore ilium, et
propter nos. Neque enim praedestinari posse nos e\g ulo-
$eo-lav, ad adoptionemfiliorum, nisi in filio naturali; neque
praedestinari nos posse, ut conformes simus imagini filii,
nisi filius primo statuatur, cujus imagini conformemur.

de Articulis judidum. 423
Quare et huic quoque Articulo cuperem addi beneplad-
tum Dd in Christo.
Deinde quaeri potest secundo ; includatne prascien-
tiam Dei voluntas haec sola benepladti, an excludat ?
Ego certe nullo modo existimo divellenda haec, nempe
prcesdre et pradestinare, sed (quod Apostoli faciunt)
conjungenda. Neque hie vero audeo praecipitare sen
tentiam meam, aut damnare Patres, qui fere omnes se
cundum pravisam fidem, et eligi et praedestinari nos as-
serunt. Id quod vel Beza ipse fatetur in xi. ad Rom. 2.
edit. 2a. Patres hie nulh modo uudiendi, qui ad pravi-
sionem hoc referunt. In quo tamen (ut mihi videri so-
let) potius de serie et ordine, quo utitur Deus in actu
praedestinandi, loquuntur, quam de caussa praedestina
tionis. Quam seriem alii aliter, ad suum quisque cap-
tum, solent texere: Patres in ea mihi sententia videntur
fuisse; Electionem nullam fore nisi ita texatur; Deum
primo diligere Christum, dein nos in Christo ; quod Apo-
stolus dicit; Gratificare nos in dilecto; (Eph. i. 6.) 2°
gratificatos sic, gratia donare etfide. 3° sic donatos atque
ita a reliquis discretos eligere. 4° Electos pradestinare.
Certe Electionis hoc natura postulat, quae nulla omni-
no existente differentia inter eum qui eligitur et eum
qui rejicitur, nee esse nee cogitari potest : sic GLcume-
nius ex Graecorum sententia, p. 323. ~EA-kwv xara 'exXoyijv,
eSet^ev OTt xa) foeQepov aXXyXuiv : ouSsi? yag ex\eyerat hegov
aw erepou el ftij Ti aurou haX\ao-o-ot. Sic AugUStinus ad
Simpl. i. 2. Non tamen Electio pracedit justificationem
(scil. praevisam,) sed Electionem justificatio. Nemo enim
eligitur nisi jam distans ab illo qui rejicitur : unde quod di
ctum est, Quia elegit nos Deus ante mundi constitutionem,
non video quomodo sit dicendum nisi prasdentia.
Neque secus Scholastici : Thorn. Prima Q. 23. Art.
4. Pradestinatio prasupponit Electionem, et Electio dile-
ctionem. Nempe primo fecit eligendos, dein elegit,
dilexit ut daret; elegit quae dedit. Nee alia mihi mens
videtur reverendissiini Eboracensis ; sic enim ille. Quid
in Jacobo dilexit Deus ab aterno, cum nihil boni fedsset ?
certe quod suum, quod ipse erat illi daturus.
Certe Apostolus ipse non veretur in negotio hoc
conjungere Miav %p$e<nv et Mewav xagiv; atque hoc irpo
E e 4

424 Episc. Wintoniensis
Xpovtov aluivioov ; cum sc. SoflsTcra ilia %ap\g non nisi in pra-
sdentia esse potuit, cum aterno scilicet proposito Dei, ip
sam quoque gratiam quam se daturum praevidit ante
tempora secularia.
Neque incommodum inde ullum, (ut mihi videtur)
si Deus ut coronat in nobis dona sua, sic eligat in nobis
dona sua; nempe quae primo diligendo dedit, quo post
sic data eligeret. Atque ita cum dilectio, quae est actus
gratia, qua Deus discernit, tum Electio, quae est actus
judidi, qua sic discretos seligit, utraque conservantur.
Atque hoc modo manebit Electio.
Recentiorum enim series ilia omnem plane Electionem
tollit ; qua Deus ponitur homines nee in ulla massa ex-
istentes, nee ullo modo per sua dona discretos, primo
actu et eo absoluto, dmul et semel, hos quidem addicere
saluti, illos vero perditioni sempitemse : post quam ad-
dictionem, quis Electioni locus esse possit non intelligo,
aut quomodo ilia ipsa addictio Electio dici possit.
Sed haec tota quaestio (uti dixi) de ordine potius est,
quo procedit Deus ad captum nostrum, qui ex parte
cognoscimus, quam de caussq quoad actum ipsum, qui
unus est in Deo et dmplidssimus ; vel si de caussa, non
de primi actus caussa intelligi debet, sed de caussa quoad
integrum effectum (ut loquuntur) in pradestinando.
Quaeritur sit ne actus integralis (conceptu nostro) ex
variis actibus constans, an primus ille solus f Et si plures
et varii, quis ordo, quae series actuum?
Praedestinatio qua sine praescientia non potest esse, non
est nisi bonorum operum. Aug. de Praedest. Sanctorum
cap. 10. Electi sunt ante mundi constitutionem, ea pra-
destinatione in qua Deus sua futura facta prasdvit. Idem
ibid. cap. ij.
An quisquam dicere audebit Deum non prascisse, quibus
esset daturus ut crederent ? De bono perseverantia 1 4.
Ista igitur sua dona quibuscunque Deus donat, procuU
dubio donaturum se esse prasdvit, et in sua prasdentw,
praparavit, cap. 17-
Si nulh est pradestinatio quam defendimus, non prasci-
untur a Deo ; prasciuntur autem, fol. 23.
Hac igitur (dona) qua posdt a Domino, et semper ex
quo esse ccepit Ecclesia posdt, ista Deus vocatis suis da-

de Articulis Judicium. 425
turum se esse prasdvit, ut in ipsa pradestinatione jam de-
derit. ib. Ad 3. de Numero certo.
Sunt ipsa Augustini verba initio cap. 3. de Cor. et
gra. Eorum qui pradestmati sunt, ita certus est numerus,
ut nee addatur iis quisquam, nee minuatur.
Et Ambrosius die voc. lib. ii. cap. ult. De plemtudine
membrorum corporis Christi prasdeniia Dd, qua falli non
potest, nihil prodidit ; et nulh detrimento minui potest sum-
ma pracognita atque in Christo ante secula aterna prae-
lecta: certisdmum enim est, sdentiam divinam certissimam
esse, nee falli posse : novisse autem D&minum qui sunt
ejus.
Ad 4.
Qui non est inventus scriptus in libro vita (i. e. praede-
stinatus) missus est in locum ignis, Apoc. xx. ver. ult. id
est, damnatus est. Damnatus autem proculdubio pro
pter peccata sua. Quis enim hoc negabit?
Atque id necessario (si sic loqui placeat ;) sed necesd-
tate ex hypothesi, non absoluta. Id est (ut Articulus ipse
se exiplicat,) propter peccata, ideoque quia peccarunt.
Non autem ideo quia non sunt praedestinati.
Quanquam ego (quod et Patres et Scholastici sedulo
faciunt) terminis his [necesdtatis] et [necessario] absti-
nendum censerem ; et pro iis [certoj vel [sine dubio]
substituenda : vitandas enim, quoad ejus fieri potest,
xatvo<fa>viag. Ad 5. de Amissione Fidd et Spiritus.
Certe nemo unquam dixerit (credo) Fidem in Electis
finaliter exddere. Ilia vero non excidit. Sed quod non
excidat hoc habere existimo a natura subjecti sui, non
sua; ex privilegio persona, non rd. Atque hoc propter
Apostatas, quibus vitio dari non debet, quod excidant a
fide quae vera et viva nunquam fuit.
An vero Spiritus Sanctus ad tempus auferri aut ex-
tingid possit, existimo quaeri adhuc posse; fateor haerere
me. De Fide.
Tu stas fide, noli altum sapere, sed time: aUoquin ex-
cideris et tu; quomodo non irrisorium praceptumrs\ non
possit excidere ?

426 .Episc. Wintoniensis
1 . Cavete ne err ore abducti excidatis propria firmitate, &c.
2. Videte ne quis defidat a gratia Dei. Excidistis
gratia, qui in lege. Gal. v. 4.
3. Spiritum Sanctum tuum ne auferas a me. Psal. Ii. 13.
4. Spiritum nolite extinguere ; quomodo non irrisoria
praeceptiones et orationes hae si nullo modo exddere a
firmitate fidei, aut deficere a gratia possimus, si nullo
modo Spiritus auferri aut extingui posset ? -
Etsi non sum nescius et hoc ipsum [Non posse amitti
totaliter] exponi posse sic, ut in totum prorsus vel penitus
amitti nequeat etsi tota amittatur ; id est, ita amitti, ut
non sit locus revertendi unde exciderunt.
Ad 6. de Certitudine Salutis.
Existimo qua certitudine certus quis est, se vere fde-
lem esse, aut se fide justificante prasditum, eadem certum
esse de salute sua per Christum. Puto autem earn "po
tius esse ir\rjpo<poplav spd: (de qua ad Heb. vi. 11.) quam
fidd: et (si una voce exprimendum sit) Trevolfya-iv potius
quam ttio-tiv. Non enim edndem certitudinem haberi
posse de eis enuntiatis, quae conditionem in se continent,
quam nos praestare oportet ut verae sint, ut [qui credit
invocat] vel, [si credos invoces,] quam de iis quae non
sunt conditionata, sed mere categorica, ut [Deus est om-
nipotens] sed minorem; quae tamen non haesitet, sed as-
sensum suum ad alteram partem contradictionis deter
mined Ad 7- de Colhtione Gratia.
Gratiam salutarem non existimo conferri omnibus;
sed offerri tamen omnibus, hoc ipso quod prcevice quae-
dam ad earn dispodtiones non solum offerantur, sed etiam
conferantur omnibus; quibus illi nisi deessent, ipsa quo-
que salutaris gratia illis conferretur. Tribui, communi-
cari, concedi, si rehtiva voces sunt, et acceptwnem im-
plicent, verum est : sed si relationem non includant, sed
ex parte Dei offerri ; vel Deum paratum esse vel praesto
ut concedat ac communicet; sic (existimo) omnibus
tribui. Offerri itaque et praesto esse Deum ut conferatur; per
homines autem ipsos stare, quod oblata non conferatur.
Non enim gratiam nobis, sed nos illi deesse.
August, de Gen. contra Manich. I. 3. Istud lumen

de Articulis Judidum. 427
non irrationabilium animalium ocuhs pasdt ; sed pura
corda eorum qui Deo credunt, et ab amore visibilium rerum
et temporalium, se ad ejus pracepta servanda convertunt.
Quod omnes homines possunt si velint, quia Mud lumen
omnium hominum, &c. Ad 8.
Vere dicitur, Neminem venire ad Filium, nid trahatur :
et omnes non trahi ut veniant ad Filium, id est, ita trahi
ut veniant : sed et illud addendum : quod vel non tra-
hantur omnes, vel non dc trahantur, causam esse dissolu-
tam ipsorum hominum voluntatem, non absolutam volun-
tatem Dd. Ad 9.
Non est positum aut in libero arbitrw cujusquam, nisi
per Filium liberato; aut in potestate ullius, nisi data illi
desuper, servari.
Materia hujus litis futura est, quisque ut affectus est,
utque animum habet, voculam aliquam pertrahet ad
opinionem suam ; si desit, supplebit de sensu suo. Ego,
quod ab initio suasi, etiamnum suadeo, fidele utrinque
silentium. Atque haec de Prcedestinatione et Reprobatione. Sed ita
tamen, ut sententiam et hac in re et de ipsis Articulis me-
que ipsum per omnia Gr. Pr. Censum submissum velim.

Censura Censurae D. Barreti de Certitudine Sa
lutis.
Neminem tanta firmitate suffultum, &c. ut de salute sua
debeat esse securus. Ita D. Barret : Jubetur retractare
sic ; fide justificatos &c. debere de salute sua certos esse
et securos. 1. Certos non debuit addi : non enim negaverat ille,
nee quisquam (credo) sani cerebri. Sane retractare non
debuit quod non asseruit, nee verbum interponi cujus in
Articulo nulla mentio.
2. Securum esse debere quemquam de salute ramus
commode dictum. Certe verba ilia condonatoris cen-
suram effugere poterant : leviter enim immutata, verba
sunt Leonis, sic enim ille; (dicente namque Paulo:

428 Censura Censurce
Qui stat, videat ne cadat :) nemo est tanta firmitate suf-
fultus ut de stabilitate sua debeat esse securus. Ser. 5. de
Quadr. Sane parcendum fuerat, si non illi, saltern
Leoni. 1. Sententiam vero cur minus probem faciunt haec:
locus in Censura citatus nihil ad rem. Nempe debere
justificatos securos esse. Locus est, .Rom. v. 1. Fide jus-
tficati pacem habemus erga Deum : certe : pacato igitur
animo licet esse nobis, at non securo; quippe nee pax
ipsa secura est. Nam et nobis prima cura incumbit,
pax haec ut vera sit : Multi enim sanant contritionemfiliee
mece dicentes, pax, pax, et non est pax, didt Deus, Jer. vi.
14. et Ezek. xiii. 10. Deinde si vera sit, secunda cura
incumbit, ne per violatas a nobis conditiones pacis, au-
feratur a nobis denuo, Deo ipso dicente, (Jer. xvi. 15.)
Abstuli pacem meam a populo isto, nempe misericordiam
meam, &c.
Atque ut securis nobis esse non licet, quia pacem ha
bemus ; ita neque quia stamus in gratia, sive per fidem.
Stanti enim in gratia curandum quod dicit Apostolus,
Heb. xii. 15. Videte ne quis vestrum defidat a gratia
Dd.
Stanti autem per fidem, curandum quod idem dicit,
Rom. xi. 20. Tu fide, sive per fidem stas : noli altum
sapere, sed time. Et quod alibi, 1 Cor. x. 16. Qui stare
se putat, videat ne cadat. Quae verba Apostoli ab Au-
gustino et Bernardo usurpantur contra securitatem.
Aug. de bono persever. cap. 8. Bern. Ser. 1 . de Septuages.
2. Sacrse literae nusquam securitatem suadent, quin
potius earn vocem malam in partem accipiunt: quasi
enim ab ea abstinendum sit, notantur ab Apostolo, qui
earn usurpant ; Cum dicent homines, pax et securitas, su-
perveniet iis repentinus interitus, 1 Thes. v. 3. Quare
tanquam mali ominis declinandam censeo.
3. Neque vocis ratio magis favet. Securus enim ex-
cludit curam et non haesitationem tantum. Revera enim
cures opponitur securitas. Atqui jubemur a Spiritu
Sancto omnem curam subinferre; et cupere se dicit
Apostolus (Heb. vi. 11.) ut uniisquisque nostrum ean-
dem solicitudinem ad finem usque ostendat.
4. Rei vero ipsi (nempe securitati) repugnare videtur

D. Barreti. 429
conditio tum vitae Christianas, quae militia est; tum
vitae humanae, quae tentatio est super terram : quarum
neutra securitatem fert, quin perpetuam potius curam et
solicitudinem, tum orandi, ne in tentationem indu-
camur, tum considerandi nos ipsos ne et nos tentemur :
idque etiam iis qui spirituales sunt, Gal. vi. 1.
5. Perpetuae ilia? Christi et Apostolorum voces, vigi-
late, attendite, cavete, tentate vos, probate vos, &c. excu-
tiendae securitati sunt omnes, non ingeherandae. Quid
enim aliud sonant voces hae, quam ne sitis securi ? Nee
voces modo, sed etiam sententiae. Paulus : Cum timore
et tremore operamini salutem vestram, 2 Phil. 14. Petrus;
In timore incolatus vestri tempore conversamini, 1 Pet. i.
17. Joannes; Tene quod habes,ne alius aedpiat coronam
tuam, Apoc. iii. 20. Quae omnes id agunt ut cum fide
retineatur et timor, ne certitudo degeneret in securitatem.
Certe D. Petrus cum jubet, Satagite ut certam red-
datis Electionem vestram, ut nos eniti vult ad certitudi-
nem, ita statuere videtur satagere quemque rerum sua-
rum ut eo tandem perveniat : quasi is summus sit gradus
in vita hac, et satis sit, imo praeclare nobiscum actum
sit, si eo aspirare liceat.
7. Neque vero quoad certitudinis gradum plane ae-
quandus videtur praesentis vitae status cum statu futurae,
sed distinctio aliqua retinenda, cum ultra securitatem
nihil sit. Quare sit hoc ipsum [securitate frui] peculiare
iis qui defuncti jam sunt, et emvixiov illud Apostoli can-
tarunt ;~ Absorpta est mors in victoriam. Nos vero hie
in terris militantes, contenti certitudine, cedamus gradu
hoc sum mo securitatis, et relinquamus eum Ecclesiae in
ccelis triumphanti, quae sola secura est.
8. Male autem semper successit iis qui ita se certos
autumabant ut etiam securi fuerint; Davidi suum non
movebor, Psal. xxx. 6. Petro suum etsi omnes, non ego.
Melius multo iis, qui ita certi ut tamen solidti. Jobo :
Scio quod Redemptor mens vivit, &c. cap. xix. 25. Et,
Hcec mihi spes reposita est in dnu meo : et, tamen verebar
.omnia opera mea, c. ix. 28. Paulo; Certus sum quod ne
que mors, &c. Rom. viii. 38. Et, Tamen castigo corpus
meum, ne quo modo cum aliis prcedicavero, ipse reprobus
effidar, 1 Cor. ix. 27.

430 Censura Censures
9. Tametsi quod affertur de carnali et spirituali securi
tate, frigidum plane sit, cum pari ratione, et de prae-
sumptione, et de superbia loqui liceat ; nempe per xaTa-
XpWv abusive scilicet; tamen etiamsi sic mollire liceat,
etiam atque etiam videndum est, quid seculi nostri et
populi indoles postulet istade re doceri; et an expediat,
his praesertim moribus atque his temporibus, frigescenti
hominum curae atque conatui bene operandi, per istius-
modi Theses frigidam suffundere, et quasi certitudo pa-
rum sit, securitatem inculcare : cum (ut recte Gregorius)
Securitas sit mater negligentice ; cumque non solum ex
trepidatione nimia (ut in Caino) sed saepe etiam (ut in
Saulo) ex nimia spe desperatio.
10. Ultimo, a recepto in Ecclesia Ioquendi genere,
non censeo recedendum ; qui fere (cum Leone supra ci
tato) sentiunt; Non posse nos nee debere de salute se-
curos esse.
Augustinus, Concil. x. c. 32. Et nemo securus esse
debet, in ista vita, quce tota tentatw nominatur, ut qui
fieri potuerit ex deteriore melior, non fiat etiam ex meliore
deterior. De bono persev. c. 8. Deus autem melius judicavit
miscere quosdam non perseveraturos certo numero sancto
rum suorum, ut quibus non expedit in hujus vitce tentatione
securitas, non possint esse securi.
Ibid. c. 22. Quoniam de vita csterna, quam filiis pro-
missionis promidt non mendax Deus ante tempora csterna,
nemo potest esse securus, nisi cum consummata fuerit ista
vita, quce tentatio est super terram ; sed faciei nos perse-
verare in se usque in ejus vitce finem, cui quotidie dicimus;
ne nos inferos in tentationem. Sic concionari docet Au
gustinus. Ep. 12. ad Prob. Unde mirum, videri potest, cum sis
secundum hoc seculum, nobilis, dives, tanta families mater,
et ideo licet vidua, non tamen desohta, quomodo occupa-
verit cor tuum prcsdpueque vendicaverit orandi cura. Nisi
quia prudenter intelligis, quod in hoc mundo et in hac vita
nulla anima possit esse secura. Et paulo post ; Nam et-
d sibi quisque, nemo alteri notus est ; tamen nee sibi quis-
que ita notus est, ut sit de sua crastina conversatione se
curus.

D. Barreh. 431
Chrysostomus, in verba: Si quomodo apprehendam:
dwci me in ipsum credidisse et potentiam resurrectionis
ejus, et consortem passwnum ejus factum esse, et conform-
atum morti ejus, veruntamen post ista omnia nondum se
curus sum. Et paulo post Horn. 7- in Ep. ad Philip.
Si ergo qui tanta passus est, si qui persecutionem tulit, si
qui mortificationem habebat nondum securus fuit, quid di-
cemus nos f
Ambrosius in Psal. 37- Nisi forte sic intelligamus ;
quod etd innocens quisque sit, tamen securus esse non pos
sit, cui sunt adversus gravissimos hostes quotidiana certa-
mina. Hilarius in Psal. 137. Nullum diem Justus quisque dne
metu transigit : neque anxia semper erga se fides securi
tempoiis otium redpit ; scit enim omnes dies insidiarum
sibi plenos, &c.
Gregorius Epist. 186. ad Gregoriam. Inuiilem rem
postulasti, quia secura de peccatis fieri non debes, nisi cum
jam in die vitce luce ultimo plangere eadem peccata minime
valebis. Bernardus Epist. 107- ad Thom. Beverl : De qua ta
men percepta jam suimet ex parte notitia, interim glorietur
quidem in spe, nondum tamen in securitate. Bernardo
enim securitas in excessu est, et opponitur timori in de-
fectu. Vide Ser. in Cantic. 11.
Fideles de Praedestinatione perseverantiaque sua in-
certos esse per omnem vitam, probat Augustinus.
In de corrupt, et gratia, cap. 13. initio fere.
Contra Articulos sibifalso impodtos Artie. 12.
In Epistola 107.
In de bono perseverantice cap. 13. haud longe ab initio.
In de dvitate Dd, lib. 11. c. 12.

Published by the same Author.
I. Three Sermons on the Efficacy of the Christian Sa
craments.
II. Eight Discourses in Welsh on the Liturgy.
III. A Sermon preached at an Ordination held by the
Right Reverend William Lord Bishop of Bangor,
A. D. 1800.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIB

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