mW''**"^^:' <6C ^^L^g^ B.Picarl dr-hn Engraved }j\' Dm-aiicL "jiipi'r. isAM^^a sA^iXinr/, I'dlili.s-hrd In- I) A. l',on-uiisU.in rrinicl oii.X ,1. Sop' 182V: SERMONS THE REV. JAMES SAURTN, LAT£ FASTOR OF THE FRENCH CHURCH AT THE HAOCE. ifrom the iFratcft, BY THE REV. ROBT ROBINSON, REV. HENRY HUNTER, D.D.; ANU REV. JOSEPH SUTCLIFFE, A.M. A JXBVr EDZTZOXr, VrXTH ADDZTIOITAI. szmxxoxTS : REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE REV. SAM?^ BURDER, A.M. Late of Clare Hall, Cambridge ; Lecturer of the United Parishes of Christ Churchy J^ewgate Street, and St. Leonard, Foster Lane, London. varnn a likeness of the author, and a general index. PRIMTED FROM THE LAST LOJVDOJ^ EDITIOJ^. PZIZNCETON, N. J. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED, BY D. A. BORRENSTEIN ; FOR SALE BY G. & C. CARVILL, JOHN P. HAVEN, NEW YORK; A. FINLEY. E. LITTELL, PHILADELrniA ; and RICHARDSON & LORD, BOSTON. 1827. ^/erT ^^ iV^^^eJ^^^^r^-^^^. PREFACES TO THE LAST ENGLISH EDITION. Translations of works written in foreign languages possess a valufi beyond the subjects discussed in them : in this respect, the congeniality of sentiment which pervades, may assimilate them to our own productions. But they are particularly useful to convince us, that mental cultivation and energy are not confined to any country, but are the gifts of God, im- partially bestowed upon nations widely separated as to situation. Nor are these circumstances without their special influence, since we find the works of learned men characterized by peculiarities, which strongly distinguish them from each other. The transfusion of these into the languages of other countries, gives them a circulation which contributes equally to the instruction and pleasure of mankind in general. Of this advantage the Sermons of M. Saurin are pre-eminently de- serving. Nor has it been conferred on them in vain. They have been most favourably received in this country, as the sale of several Editions demonstrates. As many of them as have made eight volumes, have, for some time, been before the public. The first live were translated by the Rev. R. Robinson. The sixth by the Rev. Dr. H. Huxteu ; and the last two by the Rev. J. Sutcliffe. In the present Edition they are compressed into Six Volumes, the last of which contains three additional Sermons, now first printed in English ; one on Regeneration, translated by the Rev. J. Sutcliffe ; and two others by M. A. BuRDER. Of the manner in which they are rendered, the near relationship of the translator forbids me to speak, otherwise than to ex- press a confident hope, that they will not be found unworthy of being as- sociated with those which precede them. iv PREFACE TO THE LAST ENGLISH EDITION. -, . V ^ X^ . . \ \- *>>% • ^ - ' ^^ Thts Ediliofl has .been careiully corrected by the Rev. J. Sutcliffe, previously to the work beijqg-put-to the press, through w^hich it has been my province to guide and correct it. To those who value the great doc- trincs^gf C|irist(anity^ these volumes cannot but prove highly acceptable : nor can they fail of making a due impression on the mind, by the for- cible and eloquent manner in which they exhibit truth and holiness. SAMUEL BURDER. Brixlable Lodge. Mdytlale, Jan. 1, 1824. MEMOIRS mttotmntion in Jftnntt; THE LIFE OF THE REV. JAMES SAURIN. T- HE celebrated Mr. Saurin, author of the following; sermons, was a French refugee, who, with thousands of his countrymen, took shelter in Holland from the persecutions of France. The lives, and even the sermons, of the refu- gees lire so closely connected with the history of the rieformation in France, that, we presume, a short sketch of the state of reliijion in that kingdom till t'le banishment of the Protestants by Lewis XIV. will not be disagreeable to some of the younger part of our readers. Gaul, which is now called France, in the tim'> of Jesus Christ, was a province of the Ro- man empire, and some of the apostles planted Christianity in it in the first centuries, while Christianity continued a rational religion, it spread and supported itself without the help, an! against the persecutions, of the Roman ■emperors. Numbers were converted from pa- ganism, several Christian soc eties were form- e 1, and many eminent m^n, having spent their lives in preaching and writing for the advance- ment of the gospel, sealed their doctrine with their blood. In the fifth century Clovis T., a pagan king of Franc°, fell in love with Clotilda, a Chris- tian princess of the house of Burgundy, who ai:r9el to many him only on condition ofhis becoming a <^hri«tian, to which he consented. [A. I). 491.] The king, however, delayed the performance of this condition till five years after hi? marriage; when, being engaged in a desperate battle, and having reason to fear the total defeat of his army, he lifted up his eyes to h°aven, and put up this prayer, Goi of Qitf.fn ClnlUda ! Grant me the rictorj/, and I vow to bf baptised, and thfnc (forth to ivorship no other God but thee! He obtained the victo- ry, anl at hi= return, was baptized at llheims [Dec. 25. 496.] His sister, and more than three thousand of his subjec-.ts followed his exam- ple, and Christianity became the professed re- ligion of Franc:?, Conversion implies the cool exercise of rea- son, and whenever passion takes the place, and does the oifice of reason, conversion is nothing but a name. Baptism did not was!i away the sins of Clovis ; before it ha was vile, after it he was infamous, [)rictising all kinds of treach- ery and cruelty. The court, the armv. and the common people, who were pagan when the king was pagan, and Christian when he was Christian, continued the same in their morals after their conversion as before. When the Christian church, therefire, opened her doors, and delivered up her keys to these new cou- B verts, she gained nothing in comparison of what sh€ lost. She increased the number, the rich- es, the pomp, and the power, of her famdy : but she resigned the exerci=e of reason, the suf- ficiency of scripture, the purity of worship, tho grand simpl city of innocence, truth, and vir- tue, and became a creature of the state. A virgin before ; she became a prostitute now. Such Christians, in a long succes'^ion, con- verted C iristianity into something worse than paganism. They elevated the Christian church into a temporal kingdom, and they degraded temporal kingdoms into fi^fs of the church. They founded dominion in grace, and they ex- plained grace to be a love of dominion. And by these means they completed that general apostacy, known by the name of Popery^ which St. Paul had tbretold, 1 Tim. iv. 1. and which rendered the reformation of the sixteenth cen- tury essential to the interests of all mankind. The state of religion at that time [A U. 1.515.] was truly deplorable. Kcclesiastical gorern- ment, instead of that evangelical simplicity, and fraternal freedom, whicii .lesus Christ and his apostles had taught, was become a spiritual do- mination under the form of a temporal empire. A'l innumerable multitude of dignities, title?, rights, honors, privileges,and pre-eminences be- longed to it, and were all dependent on a sove- reign priest, who, being an absolute monarch, required every thought to be in subjection to him. The chief ministers of religion were ac- tually become temporal princes, and the high- priest, being absolute sovereign of the ecclesi- astical state, had his court and liis council, hi« ambassadors to negociate, and his armies to murder his flock. The clergy had acquired immense wealth, and, as their chief study wa« either to collect and to augment their revenues, or to prevent the alienation of their estates, they had constituted niunberless spiritual cor- porations, with powers, rights, statutes, privi- leges, and olRcers. The functions of the min- istry were generally neglected, and, of conse- quence, gross ignorance prevailed. All ranks of men were extremely tlepraved in their mo- rals, and the Po[)e's penitentiary had published the price of every crime, as it was rated in tho tax-book of the Uoman chancery. Marriages, which reason and scripture allov/ed, the Pope prohibited, and, for money, dispensed with tho=e which both forbade. Church-benefices were sold to children, and to laymen, who then let then to under tenants, none of whom per- formed the iluty, for whicli the profits were paid ; but all having obtaiaod Ihcrn by siuio'.-iy, MEMOIRS OF THE spent their lives in fleecing the flock to repay themselves. Tlie power of the pontiff was so great that he assumed, anJ. what was more as- tonishing;, was sn i'cred to exercise a supremacy OV'T many Ifiiv^doms. When monarchs g;rati- fi'vi his wrll, he ()ut on a triple crown, ascnii- C'l a throne, snfforeil them to call liim Hoh- ne.i9. an I to kiss his feet. When they disoblig- ed him. he suspended all re!ii;:;ious worship in their dominions ; published fdse and al)usive libels, called bulls, which operated as laws, to injure their persons; disjhars^ed tlieir subjects from obedience ; and jj^ave their crowns to any ■who would usurp them. He claimed an infal- libility of knowledge, and an omnipotence of strength; and he forbade the world to examine his claim. He was addressed by titles of blas- phemy, and, thouer- sion to the people, and conciliated them to the new preachers. Beza, who had fled to Geneva, [1548jcame backward and forward into P'rance, and was achiefpromoterol the work. His La- tin Testament, which he first published in thii reign, [1556] was much read, greatly admired, and contributed to the spread of the cause. The New Testament was the Goliah's sword of the clerical reformers, there vas none like it. Francis IF. succeeded his lather Henry. [1559] He was only in the sixteenth year of his age, extremely weak both in body and mind, and therefore incapable of governing the kingdom by himself In this reign began those civil wars, which raged in France for almost forty years. They have been charged on false zeal lor religion : but this charge is a calumny, for the crown of France was the prize for which the generals fought. It was that which inspi- red them with hopes and fears, productive of devotions or persecutions, as either of them opened access to the throne. The interests of religion, indeed, fell in with these views, and so the parties were blended together in war. The family of Charles the Great, which had reigned in !<"' ranee for 236 years, either became extinct, or was deprived of its inheritance, at the death of Lewis the Lazy. [987.] Him, Hugii Capet had succeeded, and had transmit- ted the crown to his own jioslerity, which, in this reign, subsisted in two principal branches, in that of V'alois, which was in possession of the throne, and in that of Bourbon, the next heir to the. throne of France, and then in pos- session of Beam. 1 he latter had been driven out of the kingdom of Navarre: but they re- tained the title, and were sometimes at Beam, and sometimes at the court of France. The house of Guise, Dukes ot Lorrain, a very rich and powerful family, to whose niece, Mary Queen of Scots, the young king was married, pretended to make out their descent from Ciiarles the great, and were competitors, when the times served, with the reigning family for the throne, and, at other times, with the Bour- bon fimi'y, for the apparent heirship to it. With these views they directed their family alliances, perfected t! emselves in military skill, and intrigued at court lor the administration of affairs. These three houses formed three yar- ties. The house of Guise (the chiefs of which were five brethren at this time) headed one ; the king of Na\arre, the princes of the blood, and the great officers of the cruwn, the other; the Queen mother, who managed the interest! of the reigning family, extrcised her policy on both, to keep either from becoming too strong ; while the leeble child on the throne was alter- nately a prey to them all. Protestantism had obtained numerous con- verts in the last reign. Several princes of lli» blood, some chief otiieers of the orowi>, and XII MEMOIRS or THE many principal families, had embraced it, and its partisans were so numerous, both in Paris and in all the provinces, that each leader of the court parties deliberated on the policy of strengthening his jiarty, by openly espousing- Ihe reformation, by endeavouring- to free the protestants from penal laws, and hy obtaining' a free toleration lor them. At length, the house of Bourbon declared for Protestantism. and,of consequence, the Gu-ses were inspired ■with zeal for the support of the ancient reli- gion, and took the Roman Cathol.cs under their protection. The king of Navarre, and the prince of Conde, were the heads of the first : I'Ut the Duke of Guise had the address to obtain the chief mamigemeiit of affairs, and the protestants were persecuted with insatiable fury all the time of this reign- Had religion tlien no share in thesecommo- tio?is.^ Certainly it had, with many of the princes, and with mnltitndes of the soldiers: but they were a motley mixture; one iought for his coronet, another for his land, a third for liberty of conscience, and a fourth for pay. Courage was a joinlstock, and they were mu- tual sharers of gain or loss, praise or blame. It was religion to secure the lives and proper- ties of no!-ie families, and thougli the common people had no lordships, yet they had the more valuable rights of conscience, and for them they fought". We mistake, if we imagine that the French have never ufiderstcod the nature o! civil and religious liberty; they have well uiulprsliiod it, though they have not ! een able to obtain it. Huuin cuinxie would have been as exjiressive a motto as any that the protest- anl generals could have borne. The persecution of the protestants was very severe at this time. Counsellor Du Bouru', a geitleman ■ f enunent quality, and great merit, ■n'as burnt lor heresy, and the court was inclin- ed, not only to rid France of protestantism, but Scotland also, and sent La Brosse with three thousand men, to assist the queen of Scot- land in that pious design. Thiswas frustrated by the intervention of queen Elizabeth oi Eng- land. The pei-secution becoming every day more intolerable, and the knig being quite in- sccessible to the remonstrances of his peojde, the protestants held several consultations, and took the opinions ot their ministers, as well as those of their noble partisans, on the question, whetlier it were lawlul to take up arms in their own defence, and to make Vv'ay for a h-ee access to the king to present their petitions? It was unanimously resolved, that it was law- ful, and it was agreed, that a certain number of men should be chosen, who should go on a fixed day under the direction of Lewis prince of Conde, present their petition lo the king, and seize the Duke of Guise, and the cardinal cf Lcrrain, his brother, in order to have them tried before the states. This affair v.'as discov- ered to the Duke by a false brother, the design was defeated, and twelve hundred were be- headed. Guise pretended to have suppressed a rebellion that was designed to end in the de- throning of the king, and by this manreuvre, lie procnre 1 the general lieutenancy of the kingdom, and thv glorious title of Cciisarator of his country. He pleased the puerile kin* by placing a few gaudy horse-guards round his palace, and he infatuated the poor child to think himself and his kingdom rich and hap- py, while his protestant subjects lay bleeding through all his realm. The infiiiite va\ue of an able statesman, in such important crises as these, might here be exem|>bfied in the conduct of ■ icha'l de Ij'llospital. who was at this time [156U] pro- moled to flie chancel-lordship: but our limits will not allow an enlargement. He was the mo't consummate polit.cian that France ever employed. He had the wisdom of governing without the folly of discovering it, and all his actions were guided by that cool moderation wliich always aceomj'aines a superior know- led:,'e of mankind. Fie was a concealed protest- ant of the most liberal sentiments, an entire friend to religious liberty, and it was his wise management that saved France. It was his fixed opinion, that fiike tolkration was- sound policy. We must not wonder that rigid papists deemed him an atheist, while zealous, but mistaking protestants, pictured him carry- ing a torch behind him, to guide others but not himself. The more a man resembles God, the more will his conduct be censured by igno- rance, partiality and pride ! The FJukeof Guise, in order to please and strengthen his party, endeavoured to establish an inquisition in France. The chancellor, be- ing willing to parry a thrust which be could not entirely avoid, was forced to agree [Vlay 1560] to a severer edict than he could have w shed, t J defeat the design. By this edi^t, the cognizance o! the crime of heresy was taken from the secular judges, and given to the bish- ops alone. The Calvinists complained of this, because it put them into the hands of their enemies, and although their Lordships con- demned and burnt so many heretics, that their courts were justly called chambrts ardtnles,* yet the zealous catholics thought them less el- igible than an inquisition after the manner of Spain. Soon after the making of this edict, [Aug, 150O] many families having been ruined by it. Admiral Coligny presented a petition to the king, in the names of all the protestants of France, humbly praying that they might be allowed the free exercise of their religion. The king referred the matter to the parlia- ment, who were to consult about it w.th the lords of the council. A warm debate en- sued, and the catholics carried it against the protestants by three voices. It was resolved, that people shoukl be obliged, either to con- form to the old established church, or to quit the kingdom, with permission to sell their es- tates. The protestants argued, that in a ] oint of such importance, it would be unreascmable, on account of three voices, to inflame all France with animosity and war : that the method of banishment was impossible to be executed ; and that the obliging of those, who continued in P'rance, to submit to the Romish religion, against their consciences, was an absurd at- * JjUiiiiii;r couii^ — lire olhces. REFORMATION IN FRANCE. XJII tempt, and equal to an impossibilit)'. The chancellor, and the protestant Lords, used ev- ery effort to procure a toleration, wnile the catholic party urged the necessity of unifor- mity in relii^ion. At leny^th two of the bish- ops owned the necessity of reforming, pleaded sirenuou-ly lor moderate mpa-^urHy, and propo- sed the deciding of these ort of the hierar- chy, and th-eading the consequences of allow- ing a nation to reform itself, was alarmed at this intelligence, and instantly sent a nuncio in- to France. His instruction- were to prevent, if possible, the calbng of a national council, and to promise the rfafsemt'ling of the general council of Trent. The protestants had been too oflen dupes to such artifices as these, and, being tuUy convinced of the futility of general co.uncils, they refused to submit to the coun- cil of Trent now for several good reasons. The pope, they said, who assembled the council, was to be judge in his own cause : the coun- cil would be chiefly composed of Italian bish- ops, who were vassals of the pi>|)P, as a secular prince, and sworn to him as a bishop a)id head of the church: the legates would pack a ma- jority, and bribe the poor bishops to vote : each article would be first settled at Home, and then proposed by the legates to the coun- cil : the Km|)eror, by advice of the late coun- cil of Constance, ha. I given a sate conduct to John Huss, and to Jerome of Prague; however, when they appeared in the council, and propo- sed their doubts, the council condemned them to be burnt. The piotestants had reason on their side, when they rejected this method of reforming, for the art of procuring a majority of votes is the soul of this system of church government This art consists in the ingenu- ity of finding out, and in the dexterity of ad- dressing each man's weak sicie, his pride or his ignorance, his envy, his gravity, or his ava- rice : and the possessing of this is the perfec- tion of a Legate of Rome. During these disputes, the king died without issue, [Dec. 5, 1 >eO] and h;s brother Charles IX. who was in the eleventh year of his age, succeeded him. [Dec. 13.] The states met at the time pro[>osed. The chancellor opened the session by an unanswerable speech on the ill policy of persecution, he represented the mis- erics of the protestants, and proposed an abate- ment of their sufferings, till their complaints could be heard in a national council. The Prince ofConde and the King of Navarre were the heads of the protestant party, the Guises were the heads of their opponents, and the queen mother, Catharine de Aledicis, who had obtained the regency till the king's majority, and who began to dread the power of the Gui- ses, leaned to the protestants, which was a grand event in thair favour. After repeated meetings, and var.ous warm debates, it was agreed, as one side would not submit to a gene- ral council, nor the other to a national assem- bly, that a conftrtnce should be held .it Poissy, between both parties [July l.')6 1] and an e.lict was made, thai no pcrso is should molest the prole-taiits, t'lat the impri-o'ieil should be re- leased, and the exdescalleil home. [Aug. 1,>G| .] The conference at Pois.-y was held, in the presence of the king, the princes ol the blood, the nobility, cardinals, prelates, and grandees of both parties. On the popish side, six cardi- nals, four bishops, and several tlignified clergy- men, airl on the protestant aliout twelve of the most lamous reformed ministers, mana- ged the dispute. Beza, who spoke well, knew the world, and hail a ready wit, and a deal of learning, displayed all his powers in fa- vour of the relorRiation. The papists reason- ed where they could, and where they could not thpy railed. The conference ended [Sept. 29] where must public disputes have ended, that is, where they b gan ; lot great men never enter these lists, without a previous determination not to submit to the disgrace of a public de- feat. At the close of the last reiirn, the rum of pro- testantism seemetl inevitable : but now the re- formation turned like a tide, overspread every place, and seemed to roll away all opposition, and, in all probability, had it not been li.r one sad event, it would now have subverted pope- ry in this kingdom. The king of Navarre^ who was now lieutenant general of France, had hitherto been a zealous pmtestant, he had taken incredible pains to su|)port the reforma- tion, and had assured the Danish ambassador that, in a year's time, he would cause the true gospel to be preached throughout Fiance. The Guises caballed with the pope and the king of Spain, and they offered to invest the king of iSavarre with the kingdom of Sardi- nia, and to restore to him that part of the kinc^- dom of Navarre, which lay in Spain, on condi- tion of his renouncing protestantism. The lure was tempting, and the king deserted, and even persecuted the piotestants. Pro.videiice is never at a loss for means to effect its desio-nc The queen of iNavarre, daughter of the last queen, who had hitherto preferred a dance to a sermon, was shocked at the king's conduct, and instantly became a zealous iroteslant her- self. She met with some unkind treatment, but nothing could shake her resolution ; Hud /, said she, the kingdoms in my hand. I irnuld throw them into the sea, rulhtr than defile my conscunce by going to mass. This courageous profession saved her a deal of trouble and dis- pute ! The protestants began nov/ to appear more publicly than before. The queen of Navarre caused Beza ojjenly to solemnize a marriage in a noble larnily, after the Geneva manner. This, which was consu^imated near the court, emboldened the ministers, and they preached at the countess de Senignan's, guarded by tlie marshal's provosts. The no! iliiy thought that the common people had as good a right to hear the gospel as themselves, and caused the re- formed clergy to preach without the walls of Paris. Their auditors v.-cre thirty or forty thousand pcorle, divided into three companies. XIV MEMOIRS OF THE the women in the middle surrounded by men on foot, and the latter by men on horseback ; and during the sermon, the governor of Paris . placed *ol liers to guard the avenue?, and to prevent disturbances. The morlili/ of this w^nrship cannot be disputed, lor if God be worshipped in sjiirit and ui trnth. the | lace is indiilerent. The expediency of it may be doubtr>d : "liut, in a persecution ot forty years, the French prolestants had learnt that their political masters did not consider how rational, but how formiLlable they were. The Guisps, and their associates, being quite dispirited, retired to the r estates and the queen rodent, by the chancellor's advice, grant- ed an el ct 10 eimlile the protestants to preach in all pjirts ot the k ngdom, excspt in Pa 'is. and in other walled cities. The parliaments of France had then the power of refusing to register royal edicts, an.l the chancellor had oc^ casion for all his address, to prevail over tlie scruples an 1 ill humour of the parliament to procure the registering ot this. He begged leave to say, that the question before them was one ol' those which had its difficulties, on what- ever side it was viewed ; that in the present ca«e one of two things must be chosen, ei- ther to put all the adherents of the new reli- gion to the sword ; or to banish them entirely, allowing them to dispose of their eflects ; that the first point could not be execut d, since that parly was too strong both in leaders and partisans; and though it could be dojie, yet as it was staining the king's youth with the bloo i of so many of his subjects, perhaps when he came of age he would demand it at the hands of his governors ; with regard to the se- cond point, it was as little feasible, and could it be effected, it would be raising as many des- perate enemies as exiles: that to enforce con- foiinity against conscience, as matters stood now, was to lead the people to atheism. The edict at last was passed, [Jan. 1562.] but the house registered it with this clause, inconsjd- irutiun of I lie present Juncture of the limes: but not approving of the new religion in any manner, and till the king shall otherwise ap- point. So hard sat toleration on the minds of papists. A minority was a period favourable to the viev/s of the Guises, and this edict was a hap- py occasion of a pretence for commencing hos- tilities. The Duke, instigated by his mother, went to Vassi, a tov/n adjacent to one of his lordships, and, some of his retinue picking a quarrel with some prolestants, who were hearing a sermon in a barn, ha interested him- self in it, wounJeti two hundred, and left sixty dead on the spot. This was the first protest- ant hlool that was shed in civil war. [Mar. 1, 1562.] The news of this afTair flew like lightning, and, while the Duke v/as marching to Paris with a thoii'and horse, the city, anil the pro- vinces rose in arms. The chancellor was ex- tremely alflicled to see both sides preparing for war. and endeavoured to dissuade them from it. The constable told him, it did not belong to mm of the long robe, to give their judgment XDilk relation to war. To which he answersd, that though he did not bear arms, he knew when they ought to be used. After this, they excluded him from the councils of war. The queen-regent, alarmed at the Duke's approach to Pari^. threw hersdfii to the hands of the Prot<-stiints. and ord( re d Conde to take up arms. [.Auu. 156-2] War began, and bar- barities and i-rue!t:e^ were praclistd on both sider. The Duke of Guise was assassinated, the king of iSavarre was kilbd at a sifge, fif- ty thousand prolestants were slain, and. alter a year had been spent in thes-e contusions, a peace was concluded. [A. D 1563.] AH that the prolestants obtained was an edict which excluded the exercise of their religion frora cilifs, and restrained it to their own lamilies. Peace did not continue long, lor the proles- tants, having received intelligence, that the Pope, the house of Ausir.a, and the house e>f Guise, had conspired their ruin, and fearing that the king, and the court, were inclined to crush them, as their rights were every day in- fringed by new edicts, took up arms asain in their own defence. [.A. D. 1567.] The city of Rochelle declared lor them, and it served them for an asylum lor sixty years. They were assisted by Queen F.lizabflh of England, and by the German princes, and they obtain- ed, at the conclusion olthis second war, [.A. D« I56t>] the revocation of ail penal eilicis, the exercise of their religion in their families, and the grant of six cities lor their security. The 1 ope. the king oi Spain, and the Gui- ses, finding that they could not (ire^'ail while the wise chancellor retained his ii.fluence, formed a cabal against him, and got him re- moved. [June, 1568.] He resigned very rea- dily, and retired to a country seat, where he sp nt the remainder of his days. A strange confusion followed in the direction of affairs; one edict allowed liberty, another forbade it, and it w'as plain to the jirotestants that their situation was very delicate and dangerous. The articles of the last peace bad never been performed, and the papists every w here in'^ult- cd their liberties, so that in three months time, two thousand Hugonots were murdered, and the murderers went unpuii. shed. War broke out again. [\. D. 1568.] Queen Elizabeth assisted the prolestants with money, the Count Palatine helped them with men, the Queen of Na\arre parted with herrings and j< wels to support them, and, the Prince of Conde being slain, she declared her son, prince Hen- ry, the head and protector of the proK slant cause, and caused medals to be struck with these words: a safe peace, a complete victory, a glorious dnith. Her rnaje.-ty did every thing in her | ower for the advancement of the cause of religious liberty.aiul she used tosay,lhal lib- erty of conscience ought to be preferred befort honours, digiiilus, and I fe itsilf. She cai-sed the Nt wTeslament, the calcclni-m. and tlje lit- urgy of Geneva,lo be tiHii.-lated,and printed at ilochelle. She abolishcii [lopery. and establish- ed protestantism in her own dimimons. In her leisure hours, she expressed her zeal by work- in" tapestries with her ov/n hands, in which she represented the monuments of that liberty, which she procured by shalang off the yoke of REFORMATION IN FRANCE. XV the Pope. One suit consisted of twelve pieces. On each piece was represented some scrip- ture history of delirerance ; Israel coming- out of Ei^ypt, Joseph's release from prison, or soniethnig- of the like kind. On the lop of each piece %vere these words, uhcre Ike spi- rit is fherf is librrli/, and in Ihe corriers of each were broken chains, fetters, and gibliols. One piece represented a con<:;re2:ation at Mas^, and a fox, in a iriar's liabit, olficiatin^ as a priest, ^rinninsf horribly and saying;, the Lord be with i/nii. The pieces wore fashionable patterns, and dexterously directed the needles of the ladies to help forward the reformation. After mmy ne;;(itiations a peace was con- cludeil, [1570] and the free exercise of religion was allowed in all but walled cities, two cities in every province were assigned to the pro- testants ; they were to be admitted -into all universities, schools, hospitals, public offices, royal, seigniorial, and corporate, and to render the peace ofeverlasting durat oti, a match was proposed between Henry of Navarre, and the sister of King ' harles. These articles were ac- cepted, the match was agr°ed to, everv man's sword wa« put up in it^s sheath, and ihe queen of Xavarre, her son. King Henry, the princes of the blood, and the principal proteslants, went to Pans to celebrate the marriage [Aug. 15. 1,57-'.] A few days after the marriage, the A l- miral, who was one of the principal protest- ant leaders, was assa sinated. [Aug. "JS ] This alarmed the king of Navarre, and the prince of Conde, but ths king and his mother promisingto punish thf assassin, th.iy wcr^ quiet. The next Sunday. [A:ig. 9, "24] being Si. Bartholomew's da}', when the bells rang for morning prayers, the Duke of Guise, brother of the last, appear- ed with a great number of soldiprs and cit zens, and began to murder the Hugonots; the wretched Charles appeared at the windows of his palace, an 1 endeavoured to shoot those who fled, crying to their pursuers, Ki/l them, kill Ikeni The massacre continued seven days, sev- en hundred houses were pillaged; five thousand people perished in Paris; neither age, nor sex, nor even women with child were spared; one butcher boasted to the king that he had hewn down a hundred and fifty in one nighf. The rage ran from Paris to the provinces, where twenty five thousand more were cruelly slain ; the queen of Navarre was poisoned ; and, dui-- ing the mas-acre, the king olfered the kin" of Navarre, and the young prince of Coile, son of tne lat= prince, if they would not if-nounce Hugonotism, either death, mass, or bast He : for he said he would not have one left to reproach him. This bloo ly affair does not lie between Charles IX., his mother Catharine of Medicis, and the Duke of Guise; for the church of Rome, and the court of Spain, by exhibiting public rejoirings on the occasion, have adopted it fur their own, or, at least, have claimed a share. Would any one after this propose passive obe- dience and nonresistance to French protestanls.' Or can we wonder, that, abhorring a church, who offered to embrace them with hands reek- ing with the blood of their brethren, they put on their armour ajjain, and commenced a fourth civil war.' The lale'massacre raised up also another party, called Politiciavs, who propo- sed to banish the family of Guise from France, to remove the queen mother, and the Italians, from the government, and fo restore peace to the nation. This faction was headed by Mont- morenci, who had an eye to the crown. Dur- ing these troul'les, the king died, in the twen- ty-fifth year of his age. [1674.] Charles had a lively little genius, he comj osed a 1 ook on hunting, and valued himself on his skill in phy- siognomy. He thouglit courage consisted in swearing and taunting at his courtiers His diversions were hunting, music, women, and wine. His court was a common sewer of lux- ury and impiety, and, while his favourites were fleecing his people, he employed liimself in the making of rhymes. The part which he acted in the Bartholoinean tragedy, the worst crime that was ever perjietrated in any Christian country, will mark his reign with infa my, to the end ot' time. Henry HI who succeeded his brother Charles, wa« first desDJsed, and then hated, by all his subjects. He was so proud that he set rails round his table, and ajtecte I the pomp of an eastern king: and so mean that he olten walk- ed in procession with a be-garly Irotlierhood, with a string of beads in his hand, and a whip at his girlie. He was so crelulous that he took the sacamsnl with the Duke of Guise, and with the cardinal of Dorrain, his brother; and so treacherous, that he caused the a«as- smation of them both. He boasted ofbein-a chief adviser of the late massacre, and the pro- testants abhorred him for it. The papists ha- ted him for his adherence to the Hu'onot house of Bourbon, and for the edicts which he sometim?s granted in favour of the protest- atits. though his only aim was to weaken the Guises. 'J'he ladies held him in execration (or his unnatural practices: and the duiche«s of Montpensier talked of clipping his hair, and o. making him a monk. His heavy taxes, which were consumed by his favourites, excit- ed the populace against him, and, while his kingdom was covering with carnage and drench- ing in blood, he was training lap-dogs to tum- ble, and parrots to prate. In this reign was formed the famous league, I lo7b] which reduced France to the most mise- rable condition that could be. The chief pro- moter of it was the duke of Guise Thepre- tence was the preservation of the Catholic reli- gion. The chief articles were three. " The de- fence of th° Catholic religion. The establish- ment ot Henry 111. on the throne. The main- taining of the liberty of the kingdom, and the as- sembling of the states." Those who entered iiw to the league promised to obey such a general as should be chosen for the defence of it, and the whole was confirmed by oath. The weak Henry subscribed it at first in hopes ofsubdu- ing the Hugonots; the queen mother, the Gui- ses, the pope, the king of Spain, many of the clerg}', and multitudes of the people became leaguers. When Henry perceived that Guise was aiming by this league to dethrone him, he favoured the protestants, and they obtained an edict tor the freo exercise of their religion ; XVI MEMOIRS or THE [1576] but edicts were vain tiling's against the power of the league, and three civil wars ra- ged in this rei2;ii. Guise's preteiuleil zeal for the Romish reli- gion allured the cler2:y, and France was filled with seditious hooks and sermotis. The preach- ers of the league were the most furious of ali sermon monj^ers. They preached up the ex- cellency of the established church, the necessi- ty of uniformity, tlie horror of Husconotism. the merit of killin,? the tyrant on the throne, (for so they called the king) the genealogy of the house of Guise, and every thing else that could inflame the madness of party ra^e. It is not enougli to say that these a'andoned cler- gjmon disgrac-'d their olfice ; truth obliges us to add, they were protected, and preferred to dignities in the church, both in France and S()a n. The nearerthe Guisesapproachedtothecrown the more were they inflamed at the sight of it. They obli:j;ed the king to forbid the exercise of the protestant religion. They endeavoured to exclude the king of N.-varre, who was now the next heir to tlie throne, from the succession. They began to act so haughtily that Henry caused the Duke and the cardinal to be assas- sinated. [I5illl.] The next year he himself was assassinated by a friar. [1589.] Religion flou- rishes where nothing else can grow, and the reformation spread more and more in this reign. The exiles at Geneva filled France with a new trimslation of the Bible, with hooks, letters, cateciiisms, hymns, and preachers, and the people, contrasting the religion of Christ with the religion of Home, entertained a most seri- ous aversion for the latter. In the last king ended the family of Valois, and the next heir was Henry IV. of the house of Bourbon, king of Navarre. His majesty had been educated a protestant, and had been the protector of the party, and the j)rote'tants had reason to expect much from him on his ascending the throne of France : but he had many difficulties to surmount, for could the men who would not bear a Hugonot subject, bear a Ilugonot king.' Some of the old fac- tion disputed his title, and all insisted on a christian king. Henry had for him, on the one side, almost all the nobility, the whole court of the late king, all protestant states, and prirces, and the old Hugonot troops; on the other, he had against him, the common people, most of the great cities, all the parliaments except two, the greatest part of tlie clergy, the pope, the king ol Spain, and most catholic states. Four years his majesty deliberated, negotiated, and fought, but could not gain Paris. At length, the league set up a king of the house of Guise, and Henry found that the throne was inaccessible to all but papists ; he therefore renounced heresy before Dr. Benoit, a moderate papist, and professed his conversion to popery. Paris opened its gates, the po])e sent an absolution, and Henry became a riiost clirislKin king. [159-1] Every man may re- joice that his virtue is not put to the trial of refusing a crown ! When his majesty got to his palace in Paris, he thought proper to conciliate hii new friends by showing them particular esteem, and play- ed at cards the first evening with a lady of the house of Guise, the most violent leaguer in all the party. His old servants, who had shed rivers of blood to bring the house of Bourbon to the throne, thought themselves neglected. While the prolestants weie slight- ed, and while those, who had fo'lowed the league, were disengasing themselves from it on advantageous conditions, one of the king's old friends said, " We do not envy your kill- ing the fatted calf for the prodi"al son, pro- vided you do not sacrifice the obedient son to make the better entertainment for the prodi- gal. 1 dread tho«e bargains, in which things are given up, and nothing got but mere words; the words of those who hitherto have had no words at all." By ascending the throne of France. Henry had risen to the highest de2:ree of wretched- ness. He had offered violence to his con- science by embracing popery; he had stirred up a general discontent among the French protestants; the queen of I'ngland, and the protestant states, re|)roached him bitterly; the league refused to acknowledge him till the pope had absolveu him in form ; the king of Spain caballed for the crown ; several cities held out against him ; many of the clergy thought him an hypocrite, and refused to in- sert his name in the public prayers of the church ; the lawyers published libels against him; the Jesuits threatened to assassinate him, and actually attempted to do it. In this deli- cate and difficult situation, though his majesty manifested the frailty of humanity by renounc- ing protestantism, yet he e iricated himself and his subjects from the fatal labyrinths in which they were all involved, so that he de- servedly acquired from his enemies the epi- thet Great, though his friends durst not give him that of Good. The king had been so well acquainted with the protestants, that he perfectly knew their principles, and, could he have acted as he would, he would have instantly granted them all that they wanted. 1 heir enemies had falsely said, that th^y were enemies to govern- ment: but the king knew better ; and he also knew that the claims of his family would have been long ago buried in oblivion, had not the protestants supported them Marshal Biron had been one chief instrument of bringing him to the throne. The Marshal was not a good Hugonot, nor did he profess to be a pa- pist: but he espoused the protestant party, for he was a man of great sense, and he hated violence in religion; and there were many more of the same cast. Parties, however, ran so high that precipitancy would have lost all, and Henry was obliged to proceed by slow and cautious steps. The deputies of the reformed churches, soon waited on his majesty to congratulate him, and to pray for liberty. The king allowed them to hold a general assembly, and ofl'ered them some slight satisfaction : but the hardy veteran Hugonots, who had spent their days in the field, and who knew also that persons, who were of approved fidelity, might venture REFORMATION IN FRANCE. XVll to give the king their advice without angering him, took the liberty of reminding him that they would not be paid in compliments for so many signal services. Their ancestors and they had supported his right to the crown, along with their own right to liberty of con- science, and as Providence had granted the one, they expected that the other would not be denied. The king felt the force of these remonstrances, and ventured to allow them to hold provincial assemblies ; after a while, to convene a national synod, and, as soon as he could, he granted them the famous Edict of Nantz. [1398.] The Edict of Nantz, which was called per- petual and irrevocable, and which contained ninety-two articles, besides fifty-six secret arti- cles, granted to the Protestants liberty of con- science, and the free exercise of religion ; ma- ny churches in all parts of France, and judges of their own persuasion ; a free access to all places of honour and dignity ; great sums of money to pay off their troops ; a hundred pla- ces as pledgesof their future security, and cer- tain funds to maintain both their preachers and their garrisons. The king did not send this edict to be registered in parliament, till the pope's legate was gone out of the king- dom, so that it did not go there till the next year. Some of the old party in the house boggled at it very much, and particularly be- cause the Hugonots were hereby qualified for offices, and places of trust ; but his majesty sent for some of the chiefs to his closet, made them a most pathetic speech on the occasion, and, with some difficulty, brought them to a compliance. It is easy to conceive that the king might be very pathetic on this occasion, for he had seen and suffered enough to make any man so. The meanest Hugonot sol- dier could not avoid the pathos, if he related his campaigns. But it is very credible, that it was not the pathos of his majesty's language, but the power in his hand, that aflected these intolerant souls. No nation ever made a more noble struggle, for recovering liberty of conscience out of the rapacious hands of the Papal priesthood than the French. And one may venture to defy the most sanguine friend to intolerance to prove, that a free toleration hath, in any coun- try, at any period, produced such calamities in society as those which persecution produced in France. After a million of brave men had been destroyed, after nine civd wars, after four pitched battles, after the besieging of se- veral hundred places, after more than three hundred engagements, after poisoning, burn- ing, assassinating, massacreing, murdering in every form, France is forced to submit to what her wise Chancellor de L'Hospital had at first proposed, a frek tolkratioiv. Most of the zealous leaguers voted for it, be- cause iliey had found by experience, they said, that violent proceedings in matters of religion prove more destructive than edifying: A noble testimony from enemies' moutlis ! France now began to taste tlie sweets of peace, the king employed himself in making his subjects hfinpv. and the far greater part of C his subjects, endeavoured to render him so. Thff Protestants applied themselves to the care of their churches, and, as they had at this time a great many able ministers, they flourisheil, and increased the remaining part of this reign. The doctrine of their church- es was Calvinism, and their discipline was Presbyterian, after the Geneva plan. Their churches were supplied by able pastors ; their universities were adorned with learned and pious professors, such as Casaubon, Daille, and others, whose praises are in all the re- formed churches ; their provincial, and nation- al synods were regularly convened, and their people were well governed. Much paini were taken with the king to alienate his mind from his Protestant subjects : but no motives could influence him. He knew the worth of the men, and he protected them till his death. This great prince was hated by the Popish clergv for his lenity, and was stabbed in his coach by the execrable Ravillac, whose name inspires one with horror and pain. [May 14, 1610.] Lewis XIII. was not quite nine years of age, when he succeeded his father Henry, The first act of the queen mother, who had the regency during the king's minority, was the confirmation of the edict of Nantz. Lewis confirmed it again at his majority, promising to observe it inviolably. [1614.] Tlie Protes- tants deserved a confirmation of their privileges at his hands ; for they had taken no part in the civil wars and disturbances which had troubled his minority. They had been earnestly so- licited to intermeddle with government : tut they had wisely avoided it. Lewis was a weak ambitious man ; he was jealous of his power to excess, though he did not know wherein it consisted. He was so void of prudence, that he could not help ex- alting his flatterers into favourites, and his fa- vourites into excessive power. He was so timorous that his favourites became the objects of his hatred, the moment after he had elevat- ed them to authority : and he was so callous that he never lamented a favourite's death er downfall. By a solemn act of devotion, at- tended, with all the force of pictures, masses, processions, and festivals, he consecrated his person, his dominions, his crown and his sub- jects to the Virgin Mary, desiring her to de- fend his kingdom, and to inspire him with grace to lead a holy life. [1638.] The Popish clergy adored him for thus sanctifying their superstitions by his example, and he, in return, lent them his power to punish his Protestant subjects, whom he hated. His panegyrist* call him Lewis the Just : but they ought to acknowledge that his majesty did nothing to merit the title, till he found himself dying. Lewis's prime minister was an artful, en- terprising clergyman, who, before his eleva- tion, was a country bishop, and, after it, was known by the title of Cardinal de F>,ichlieu : but the most proper title for his eminence is that, which some historians give him, of the Jupiter Maciator of France. He was a man of great ability: but of no merit. Had his virtue been a? great as his cnpacity, he ought XVlll MEMOIRS OF THE not to have been iiitrnsteil with government, because all Cardinals take an oath to* the Pope, and although an oath does not bind a bad man, yet as the taking of it gives hin^ credit, so the breach of it ruiiis all his pros- pects among those with ■whom he hath taken it. The Jesuits, who had been banished from France, for attempting the life of Henry iV. [1594.] had been recalled, and restored to their houses, [1604.] and one of their society, un- der pretence ofbeing responsible, as a hostage, for the whole fraternity, was allowed to attend the king. The Jesuits, by this mean, gained the greatest honour and power, and, as they excelled in learning, address, and intrigue, they knew how to obtain the king's ear, and how to improve his credulity to their own ad- vantage. This dangerous society was first formed [1534.] by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish deserter, who, being frightened out of the army by a ■wound, took it into his head to go on pilgrim- age, and to form a religious society for the sup- port of the Catholic faith. The Popes, who knew how to avail themselves of enthusiasm in church government, directed this grand spring of human action to secular purposes, and, by canonizing the founder, and arranging the order, elevated the society in a few years, to' a height that astonished all Europe. It was one opinion of this society, that the authority of kings is inferior to that of the people, and tliat they may be punished by the people in certain cases. It was another maxim with them, that sovereign princes have received from the hand of God a sword to punish he- retics. The Jesuits did not invent these doc- trines ; but they drew such consequences from them as were most prejudicial to the public tranquility; for, from the conjunction of these two principles, they concluded that an hereti- cal prince ought to be deposed, and that here- sy ought to be extirpated by fire and sword, in case it could not be extirpated otherwise. In conformity to the first of these principles, two kings of France had been murdered suc- cessively, under pretext that they were fou- tors of heretics. The parliament in this reign [1615.] condemned this as a pernicious tenet, and declared that the authority of monarchs was dependant only on God. But the last principle, that related to the extirpation of heresy, as it flattered the court and the clergy, came into vogue. Jus divinum was the teit of sound orthodoxy; and this reasoning be- came popular argumentation. Princes may put heretics to death ; therefore they ought to put thtm to death. Richlieu, who had wriggled himself into power, by publisliing a scandalous libel on the protestants of France, advised the king to es- tablish his authority, by extirpating the intes- tine evils of the kingdom. He assured his majesty that the Hugonots had the power of doing him mischief, and that it was a princi- ple with them, that kings might be deposed by the people. The Protestants replied to his invectives, and exposed the absurdity of his vcaconing. llichlieu reasoned thus. John Knox, the Scotch reformer, did not bclier* the divine authority of kings. Calvin held a correspondence with Knox, therefore Calvin did not believe it. The French reformed cliurch derived its doctrine from Calvin's church of Geneva, therefore the first Hugo- nots did not believe it. The first Plugonots did not believe it, therefore the present Hugonots do not believe it. No man, who valued the reputation of a man of sense, would have scaled the walls of preferment with such a ridiculous ladder as this I The king, intoxicated with despotic princi- ples, followed the fatal advice of his minister^ and began with his patrimonial province of Bcarn, where he caused the Catholic religion to be established. [1620.] The Hugonots broke out into violence, at this attack on their liberties, whence the king took an opportu- nity to recover several places from them, and at last made peace with them on condition of their demolishing all their fortifications except those of Montauban and Piochelle. Arnoux, the Jesuit, who was a creature of Richlieu's, was at that time, confessor of Lewis the Just. The politic Richlieu invariably pursued his design of rendering his master absolute. By one art he subdued the nobility, by another the parliaments, and, as civil and religious liberty live and die together, he had engines of all sorts to extirpate heresy. He pretended to have formed the design of re-uniting the ivfo cluirches of Protestants and Caiholics. He drew off from the Protestant party the dukes ol' Sully, Bouillon, Lesdeguieres, Ro- han, and many of the first quality : for he had tlie world, and its glory to go to market with- al ; and he had to do with a race of men, who were very different from their ancestors. Most of them had either died for their pro- fession, or fled out of the kingdom, and seve- ral of them had submitted to practise mean trades, in foreign countries, for their support : But these v.'ere endeavouring to serve God and mammon ; and his eminence was a fit casuist for such consciences. The Protestants had resolved, in a general assembly, to die rather tlian to submit to the loss of their liberties : but their king was weak, their prime minister was wicked, their cleri- cal enemies were powerful and implacable, and they were obliged to bear those infractions of edicts, which their oppressors made every day. At length Richlieu determined to put a period to their hopes, by the taking of Rochelle. The city was besieged both by sea and land, and the eflbvts of the besieged were at last overcome by famine, they had lived Avithout bread for thirteen weeks, and, of eighteen thoupand citizens there were not above five thousand left. [1G25.] The strength of the Protestants was broken by this stroke. Mon- tauban agreed now to demolish its Avorks, and Xhcjast king confirmed anew the perpetual and irrevocalile edict of Nantz, as far as it concern- ed a free exercise of religion. The Cardinal, not content witli temporal pov.'cr, had still another claim on the Protes- tants, of a spiritual kind. Cautionary town* REFORMATION IN FRANCE XIX must be given up to that, and conscience to this. He suffered the edict to be infringed every day, and hs was determined not to stop till he had established a uniformity in the church, without the obtaining of which, he thought, that something was wanting to his master's power. The Protestants did all that prudence could suggest. They sent the fa- mous Amyraut to court to complain to the king of the infraction of their edicts. [1631.] Mr. Amyraut was a proper person to go on this business. He had an extreme attachment to the doctrine of passive obedience. This rendered him agreeable to the court : and he had declared for no obedience in matters of conscience, and this made him dear to the Pro- testants. The synod ordered him not to make his speech to the king kneeling, as the deputies of the former synod had done : but to procure the restoring of the privilege, which they for- merly enjoyed, of speaking to the king, stand- ing as the other ecclesiastics of the kingdom "were allowed to do. The cardinal strove, for a whole fortnight, to make Amyraut sub- mit to this tacit acknowledgment of the cleri- cal character in the Popish clergy, and of the want of it in the reformed ministers. But Amyraut persisted in his clami, and was in- troduced to the king as the sj'nod had desired. The whole court was charmed with the depu- ty's talents and deportment. Richlieu had many conferences with him, and, if negotia- tion could have accommodated the dispute be- tween arbitrary power and upright consciences, it would have been settled now. He was treated with the utmost politeness, and dis- missed. If he had not the pleasure of reflect- ing that he had obtained the liberty of his party, he had, however, the peace that ariseth from the consciousness of having used a pro- per mean to obtain it. The same mean was tried, some time after, by the inimitable Du Bosc, whom his countrymen call a per- fect ORATOR, but alas I he was eloquent in vain. The affairs of the Protestants waxed every day worse and worse. They saw the clouds gathering, and they dreaded the weight of the storm: but they knew not whither to flee. Some fled to England, but no peace was there. Laud, the tyrant of the English church, had a Richlieu's heart without his head; he perse- cuted them, and, in conjunction with Wren, and other such churchmen, drove them back to the infinite damage of the manufactures of the kingdom. [1634.] It must affect every lib- eral eye to see such professors as Amyraut, Cappel, and De La Place, such ministers as Mestrezat and Blondel, who would have been an honour to any community, driven to the sad alternative of flying their country, or of violating their consciences. But their time was not yet fully come. Cardinal Richlieu's hoary head went down to the grave, [1042.] without tlie tears of his master, and with the hatred of all France. The king soon followed him, [1643.] complain- ing, m the words of Job, vu/ suul is itcan/ of my lije. The Protestants had increased greatly in Bumberi in this reign, though they had lost their power : for they were now computed to exceed two millions. So true is it, that violent measures in religion weaken the church that employs them. Lewis XIV. was only in the fifth year of his age at the demise of his lather. The queen- mother was appointed sole regent during hig minority, and Cardinal Mazarine, a creature of Richlieu's, was her prime minister. [1643.] The edict of Nantz was confiimed by the re- gent, and again by the king at his majority^ [1652.] But it was always the cool determina- tion of the minister to follow thelateCardinal'i plan, and to revoke it as soon as he could, and he strongly impressed the mind of the king^ with the expediency of it. Lewis, who was a perfect tool to the Jesuits, followed the advice of Mazarine, of his confes- sors, and of the clergy about him, and as soon as he took the management of afi'airs into hi« own hands, he made a firm resolution to de* stroy the Protestants. [1661.] He tried to weaken them by buying off their great men, and he had but too much success. Some, in- deed, were superior to this state trick; and it was a noble answer which the Mai-qnis de BoLigy gave, wiien he was offered a marshal's stafl', and any government that he might make choice of, provided he would ttu-n Papistr. "Could I be prevailed on, said he, to betray my God, for a marshal of France's stafl', I might betray my king for a thing of much less con- sequence: but I will do neither of them, but rejoice to find that my services are acceptable, and that the religion which I profess, is the on- ly obstacle to my rewar(i." Was his majesty so little versed in the kn.owledge of mankind, as not to know that saleable virtue is seldom worth buying.' The king used another art as mean as the former. He exhorted the bishops to take care, that the points in controversy betwixt the Catholics and Calvinists should |be much insisted on by the clergy, in their sermons, es- pecially in those places that were mostly inha- bited by the lattei', and that a good number of missionaries should be sent among them, to convert them to the religion of their ancestors. It should seem, at first view, that the exercise of his majesty's power in this way would be formidable to the Protestants, for, as the king had the nomination of eighteen archbishops, a hundred an.d nine bishops, and seven hun- dred and fifty abbots, and as these dignitaries governed the ini'erior clergy, it is easy to see that all tlie Popish clergy of France were crea- tuics of the court, and several of them v/ere men of good learning. But the Protestants had no fears on this head. They were excellent scliolars, masters of the controversy, hearty in the service, and the mortifications, to which they had been long accustomed, had taught them that temperate coolness, Avhich is so es- sential in the investigating and supporting of truth. They published, therefore, unanswer- able arguments for their non-conformity. The famous Mr. Claude, pastor of the church at Charenton, near Paris, wrote a defence of the reformation, whicli all the clergy in France could not anjwT. The bishops, hewaver, sm- XX MEMOIRS or THE swcred the Protestants all at once, by procu- ring an edict which forbade them to print. The king, in prosecution of his design, ex- cluded the Calvinists from his household, and from all other employments of honour and profit; he ordered all the courts of justice, erect- ed by virtue of the edict of Nantz, to be abol- ished, and, in lieu of them, made several lavrs in favour of the Catholic religion, which debar- red from all liberty of abjuring the Catholic doctrine, and restrained those Protestants, who had embraced it, from returning to their for- mer opinions, under severe punishments. He ordered soldiers to be quartei'ed in their hou- ses till they changed their religion. He shut up their churches, and forbade the ministerial function to their clergy, and, where his com- mands were not readily obeyed, he levelled their churches with tlie ground. At last he revoked the edict of Nantz, and banisliedtliem from the kingdom. [Oct. 22, 1685.] "A thousand dreadful blows,"' says Mr. Sau- rin, "were struck at our afflicted churches, be- fore that which destroyed them : for our ene- mies, if I may use such an expression, not con- tent with seeing our ruin, endeavoured to taste it. One while, edicts were published against those, who, foreseeing the calamities that threatened our churches, and not having power to prevent them, desired only the sad consolation of not being spectators of their ru- in. [Aug. 1669.] Another while, against those, ■who, through their weakness, had denied their religion, and who not being able to bear the remorse of their consciences, desired to return to their first profession. [May, 1679.] One •while, our pastors were forbidden to exercise their discipline on those of their flocks, who had abjured the truth. [June, 1680.] Another while, children of seven years of age were al- lowed to embrace doctrines, which, the church of Rome says, are not level to the capacities of adults. [June 1681.] Now a college was sup- pressed, andthenachurchshutup. [Jan. 1683.] Sometimes we were forbidden to convert infi- dels; and sometimes to confirm those in the truth, whom we had instructed from their in- fancy, and our pastors were forbidden to exer- cise their pastoral ofTice any longer in one place than three years. [July IGlJ.l.] Some- times the printing of our books was prohibited, and sometimes those wliich we had printed were taken away. [Sept. 1685.] One while, we were not suflTered to jireach in a church, and another while, we were punished for preach- ing on its ruins, and atlength we were forbidden to worship God in public at all. [Oct. 1685.] Now we were banislied, then we were forbid- den to quit tlie kingdom on pain of death. [1689.] Ilerc we saw the glorious rewards of those who betrayed their religion; and there W'e belield those who had tlie courage to con- fess it, a haling to a dungeon, a scaffold, or a galley. Here, we saw our persecutors draw- ing on a sledge the dead bodies of those who had expired on the rack. There, we beheld a false friar tormenting a dying man, who was terrified, on tlie one hand, with the fear of hell if he sliould apostatize, and, on the other, with the fcnr of leavinq," his cjiildren without bread if he should continue in the faith : yon- der, they were tearing children from their pa» rents, while the tender parents were shedding more tears for the loss of their souls, than for that of their bodies, or lives." It is impossible to meet with parallel instan- ces of cruelty among the heathens in their per- secutions of the primitive christians. The bloody butchers, w^ho were sent to them un- der the name of Dragoons, invented a thou- sand torments to tire their patience, and to force an abjuration from them. "They cast some," says Mr. Claude, "into large fires and took them out when they were half i-oasted. They hanged others with large ropes under their arm-pits, and plunged them several times into wells, till they ])romised to renounce their religion. They tied them like criminals on the rack, and poured wine with a funnel into their mouths, till, being intoxicated, they declared that they consented to tui'n Catholics. These cruel proceedings made eight hundred thou- sand persons quit the kingdom. If the same actions may proceed from difler- ent principles, it must always be a hazardous, and often an unjust, attempt, to assign the true motives of men's conduct. But public actions fall under public notice, and they deserve cen- sure, or commendation, according to the obvi- ous good or evil, which they produce in socie- ty. The art of governing requires a superior genius, and a superior genius hides, like a lofty mountain, its summit in the clouds. In some cases, a want of capacity, and, in others, a fund of selfishness, would prevent a subject'.s com- prehension of his prince's projects, and, consc/- quently, his approbation of the prince's mea- sures; and, for these reasons, the cabinets of princes should be the least accessible, and their hearts the most impenetrable parts of their do- minions : but when the prince would reduce his projects to practice, and cause his imagina- tions to become rules of action to his subjects, he ought to give a reason for his conduct, and if his conduct be rational, he will do so, for as all lav/ is founded in reason, so reason is its best support. In such a case, the nature of the thing, as well as the respect tliat is due to the rank of tlie prince, would require ustobe either mute or modest, on the motive; and the same reasons would require us to consider the rea- sonableness, or unreasonableness, of the law, for if it be not reason, it ought not to be law; and nothing can prevent our feeling the good or ill effects of the whole action. To disfranchise, and to banish, to imprison, and to execute, some members of society, are paitial evils : but they are also sometimes gen- eral benefits, and the excision of a part may be essential to the preservation of the whole. The inflicting of these punishments on the French Protestants, might possibly be essential to tlie safety of the whole nation. Or, perhaps his majesty might think it essential to monarchy; perhaps the clergy might think it essential to orthodoxy ; perhaps the financiers, and the king's mistresses, might think it essential to the making of their fortunes ; but we have noth- ing to do with these private views, the ques- tions are, "Was it essential to the general safely REFORMATION IN FRANCE. XXI and happiness of the kingdom ? Was it agree- able to the unalterable dictates of right rea- son ? Was it consistent with the sound, ap- proved maxims of civil policy ? In these views, we venture to say, that tlie repeal of the edict of Nantz, which had been the security of the Protestants, was an action irrational and irre- ligious, inhuman and ungrateful, perfidious, impolitic, and weak. II respect to religion, and right reason, were to compose a just title for the perpetrator of such a crime, it might call him, a most inhiimcm tyrant : certainly it would not call him, a most Ckristicm kinfi. It was an irrational act, for there was no fit- ness between the punishment and the sup- posed crime. The crime was a mental error : but penal laws have no internal operation on the mind. It was irreligious^ for religion ends where persecution begins. An action may be- gin in religion : but when it proceeds to injure a person, it ceaseth to be religion, it is only a denomination, and a method of acting. It was inhuman, for it caused the most savage cruel- ties. It was as ungrateful in the house of Bourbon to murder their old supporters, as it was magnanimous in the Protestants, under their severest persecutions, to tell their mur- derer, that they thought that blood well em- ployed, which had been spilt in supporting the just claim of the house of Bourbon to the throne. It was, to the last degree, perfidious, for the edict of Nantz had been given by Hen- ry IV. for a perpetual, and irrevocable decree ; it had been confirmed by tlie succeeding prin- ces, and Lewis XIV. himself had assigned in the declaration the loyalty of the i'rotestants, as a reason of the confirmation. My subjects of the pretended reformed religion, says he, have given me unciuesiionable proofs of their affection and loyally. It had been sworn to by the governors and lieutenants general of the provinces, by the courts of parliament, and by all the officers of the courts of justice. What national perjury ! Is it enough to say, as this perjured monarch did. My grandfather Henry IV. loved you, and ivas obliged to you. My fa- ttier, Lewis XIII. feared you, and wanted your assistance. But I neither love you, nor fear you, and do not want your services. The ill policy of it is confessed on all sides. Where is the policy of banishing eight hundred thou- sand people, who declare that a free exercise of religion ought not to injure any man's civil rights, and, on this principle, support the king's claim to the crown, as long as lie executes the duty of the office? Where is tlie policy of do- ing this in order to secure a set of men, who openly avow these propositions, tlie Pope is superior to all law : It is right to kill that prince, whom the Pope excommunicates : If a prince become anArian, the people ought to de- pose him ? Where is the policy of banishing men, whose doctrines have kept in the king- dom, during the space of two hundred and fit- ty years, the sum of two hundred and fifty mil- lions of livres, which, at a. moderate calcula- tion, would otherwise have gone to Rome for indulgences, and annates, and otlier such trash ? Who was the politician, the Count d' Avaux, who, while he wps ambassador in Hol- land, from 1685 to IGHS, offered to prove that the refugees had carried out of France more than twenty millious of properly, and advised the king to recall it, by recalling its owners.' or the king, who refused to avail himself of this advice? AVho was the politician, the in- tolerant Lewis, who drove his Protestant sol- diers and sailors out of his service? or the be- nevolent prince of Orange, wlio in one year, raised three regiments of I-'rench refugee sol- diers, commanded by their own oflicers, and manned thiee vessels, at the same time, with refugee sailors, to serve the Dutch, while France wanted men to equip her fleets ? The Protestants, having been for .«ome time, exclu- ded from all offices, and not being suffered to enjoy any civil or military emjiloyments, had applied themselves cither to tlie mnnulactures, or to the imjiroviiig of their money in trade. Was it policy to banisli a Mons. A incent, who employed more than five liimdred workmen .•" Was it policy on the side of that prince, who demolished manufactories? or on the side of those who set them up, by receiving the i-efu- gee manufacturers into their kingdoms? Had England derived no more advantage from its hospitality to the refugees tlian the silk manu- facture, it would liave amply repaid the nation. The memorials of the intendants of tlie provin- ces were full of such complaints. [1G9C.] The intendant of Piouen said that the refugees had carried away the manufacture of hats. The intendant of Poitiers said that they Iiad taken the manufacture of druggets. In some provin- ces the commerce was diminished several mil- lions of livres in a year, and in some ball' the revenue was sunk. \Vas it policy in the king to provoke the Protestant states, and princes, Avho had always been his faithful allies against the house of Austria, and, at the same time, to supply them v/ifheiglithunthed thousand new subjects? After all, it was a wewA- and /oo/- ish step, for the Protestants were not extirpa- ted. There remained almost as many in the kingdom as were driven out of it, and, even at this day, though now and then a preacher hath been hanged, and now and then a family murdered, yet the oiiulent pi'ovince of Langue- doc is full of Protestants, the Lutherans have the university of Alsace, neither art nor cruel- t)' can rid the kingdom of them ; and some of the greatest ornaments of France, now plead for a FREE TOI.ERATIOW. The refugees charge tlieir banishment on the clergy of France, and they give very good proof of their assertion, nor do they mistake, when they affirm that their sufferings are a part of the religion of Rome ; for Pope Inno- cent XI. highly approved of tliis persecution. He wrote a brief to the king, in which he as- sured him that what he had done against the heretics of his kingdom would be immortalized by the eulogies of tlie Catholic church. He delivered a discourse in the consistory, in which he said, lite most Christian king^s seal and PIETY, did wonderfully appear in extirpa- ting heresy, and in rlrnring his irluile king- dom of if in a very few months. [March 18, I6ii9.] He ordered Te Deum to be sung, i» give thanks (o God for this return of tlie he- XXll MEMOIRS OF THE retics into the pale of the cluirch, wliich was accordingly done with great pomp. [Ap. 28.] If this persecution wore clerical policy, it was bad, and, if it were the religion of the French clergy, it was worse. In eitlier case the church procured great evil to the state. Lewis XIV. was on the pinnacle of glory at the conclusion of the peace of r^imeguen. [1679.] His do- minion was, as it were, established over all Europe, and was become an inevitable preju- dice to neighbouring nations ; but, here he be- *an to extirpate heresy, and here he began to fall, nor has the nation ever recovered its gran- deur since. Protestant powers opened their arms to these Tenerable exiles. Abbadie, Ancillon, and others fled to Berlin. Bainage, Claude, Du Bosc, and many more, found refuge in Holland. The famous Dr. Allix, with numbers of his lirethren, came to England. A great many fa- milies went to Geneva, among which v/as that of Saurin. IVIr. Saurin, the father of our author, was an eminent Protestant lawyer at Nismes, who, after the repeal of the edict of Nantz, retired to Geneva. [16fi5.] He was considered at Geneva a^ tlie oracle of the French language, the nature and licauty of wljich he thoroughly understood. He had four sons, whom he trained up in learning, and who were all so re- markably eloquent, that eloquence was said to be hereditary in the family. The Reverend Lewis Saurin, one of the sons, was afterwards pastor of a French church in London. Saurin, the father, died at Geneva. James, the author of the following sermons, was born at Nismes, [1677.] and went with his father into exile, to Geneva, where he profited very much in learn- in». In the seventeenth year of his age, [1694.] Saurin quitted his studies to go into the army, and made a campaign as cadet in lord Gallo- way's company. Tlie next year, [169.5.] his captain gave him a pair of colours in his regi- ment, which then served in Piedmont : but the year after, [1696.] the duke of Savoy, under whom Saurin served, having made his peace with France, Saurin quitted the profession of arms, for which he was never designed, and re- turned to Geneva to study. Geneva was, at that time, the residence of some of the best scholars in Europe, who Avere in the highest estimation in the republic of let- ters. Pictet, Lewis Tronchin, and Philip ?*Ies- trezat, were professors of divinity there, Al- phonso Turetin was professor of sacred history, and Chouet, who was afterward taken from his professorship, and ailmitted into the govern- ment of the repul)lic, was professor of natural philosophy. The other departments were filled with men epually eminent in their several pro- fessions. Some of them were natives of Ge- neva, others were exile? from Italy and France, several of them were of noble families, and all of them were m^n of eminent piety. Under these great masters, Saurin became a student, and particularly applied himself to divinity, as he now began to think of devoting himself to the ministry. [ 160(1. | To dedicate one's self to the ministry in a wealthy nourishing cliurch, where rich benefices are every day becoming vacant, requires very little virtue, and some- times only a strong propensity to rice : but to choose to be a minister, in such a poor,banished, persecuted church, as that of the French Pro- testants, argues a noble contempt of the world, and a supreme love to God, and to the souls of men. These are the best testimonials, how- ever, of a young minister, whose profession is not to enrich, but to 'save himself, and them who hear him.' 1. Tim. iv. 16. After Mr. Saurin had finished his studies, [1700.] he visited Holland, and England. In the first he made a very short stay : but in the last he staid almost five years, and preached with great acceptance among his fellow exiles in London. Of his person an idea may be for- med by the annexed copperplate,* which is said to be a great likeness, and tor which I am in- debted to my ingenious friend, Mr. Thomas HoUoway, as I am to his amiable brother, Mr, John HoUoway, for several anecdotes of Sau- rin. His dress was that of the French clergy, the gown and cassock. His address was per- fectly genteel, a happy compound of the affa- ble and the grave, at an equal distance from rusticity and foppery. His voice was strong, clear, and harmonious, and he never lost the management of it. His style was pure, unaf- fected, and eloquent, sometimes plain, and sometimes flowery : but never improper as it was always adapted to the audience for whose sake he spoke. An Italian acquaintance of mine, who often heard him at the Hague, tells me, that in the introductions of his sermons, he used to deliver himself in a tone, modest and low ; in the body of the sermon, which was adapted to the understanding, he was plain, clear, and argumentative, pausing at the close of each period, that he might discover, by the countenances and motions of his hearers, wheth- er they were convinced by his reasoning; in his addresses to the wicked, (and it is a folly to preach as if there were none in our assemblies, Mr. Saurin knew mankind too well) he was of- ten sonorous, but oftener a weeping suppliant at their feet. In the one, he sustained the au- thoritative dignity of his office, in the other he expressed his master's, and his own benevo- lence to bad men, ' praying them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God.' 2. Cor. v. 20. In general, adds my friend, his preaching re- sembled a plentiful shower of dew, softly and imperceptibly insinuating itself into the minds of his numerous hearers, as dew into the pores of plants, till the whole church was dissolved, and all in tears under his sermons. His doc- trine was that of the French Protestants, which at that time was moderate Calvinism. He approved of the discipline of his own churches, which was Presbyterian. He was an admira- ble scholar, and which were his highest enco- miums, he had an unconquerable aversion to sin, a supreme love to God, and to the souls of men, and a holy unblemished life. Certainly * The engraving accompanying this volume is an exact fac-simile from the one in the Lon- don edition, alluded to in the teit. REFORMATION IN FRANCE. XXIII he had some faults : biit, as I never heard of any, I can publish none. During his stay in England, he married a Miss Catherine Boyton, by whom he had a son, [1703.] named Philip, who survived him ; but whether he had any more children 1 know not. Two years after his marriage, [1705.] he returned to Holland, where he had a mind to settle : but the pastoral offices being all full, and meeting witli no prospect of a settlement, though his preaching was received with uni- versal applause, he was preparing to return to England, when a chaplainship to some of the nobility at the Hague, with a stipend, was of- fered to him. This situation exactly suited his wishes, and he accepted the place. [1705.] The Hague, it is said, is the finest village in Europe. It is the residence of the States Ge- neral, of ambassadors, and envoys from other courts, of a great number of nobility and gen- try, and of a multitude of French refugees. The princes of Orange have a spacious palace here, and tlie chapel of the palace was given to the refugees for a place of public worship, and, it being too small to contain them, it was enlarged by above half. The French church called him to be one of their pastors. He ac- cepted the call, and continued in his office till his death. He was constantly attended by a very crowded and brilliant audience, was heard with the utmost attention and pleasure, and, what few ministers can say, the effects of his ministerial labours were seen in the holy lives of great numbers of his people. When the prmcess of Wales, afterward Queen Caroline, passed through Holland, in her way to England,Mr.Saurin had the honour of paying his respects to that illustrious lady. Her royal highness was pleased to single him out from the rest of the clergy, who were pre- sent, and to say to him. Do not imagine that, being dazzled icith the glory which this rerolu- tion seems lo promise me, I have lost sight of that God from u-hom it proceeds. He hath been pleased to distinguish it unth so many ex- traordinarj/ marks, that I cannot mistake his divine hand ; and as I consider this long train of favours as immediately coming from him, to Him alone I consecrate them. It is not aston- ishing, if Saurin speaks of this condescension with rapture. They are the kind and Chris- tian acts of the governors of a free people, and not the haughty airs of a French tyrant, insult- ing his slaves, that attach and inflame the hearts of mankind. The history of this illus- trious Christian queen is not written in blood, and therefore it is always read with tears of grateful joy. Her royal higliness was so well satisfied of Mr. Saurin's merit, that soon after her arrival in England, she ordered Dr. Boulter, who was preceptor to prince Frederic, the father of his present majesty, to write to Saurin, to draw up a treatise on the education of princes. Saurin immediately obeyed the order and pre- fixed a dedication to the young princes. The book was never printed : but, as it obtained the approbation of the princess of Wales, who was an incomparable judge, we may conclude that it was excellent in its kind. This was follow- ed by a handsome present from the princessjto the author. His most considerable work wa» entitled Discourses historical, critical and mo- ral, on the most memorable events of the Old and JS'ew Testament. This work was undertaken by the desire of a Dutch merchant, who ex- pended an immense sum in the engraving a multitude of copper plates, which adorn the work. It consists of six folio volumes. Mr. Saurin died before the third was finished : but Mr. Roques finished the third, and added a fourth on the OldTestament: and Mr. de Beau- sobre subjoined two on the New Testament. The whole is replete with very extensive learn- ing, and well worth the carelul perusal of stu- dents in divinity. The first of these was trans- lated into English by Chamberlayne, soon after its first publication in French. His Dissertatioji on the expediency of some- times disguising the truth, raised a furious cla- mour against our author : he does not decide the question : but he seems to take the affirmative. This produced a paper war, and his antago- nists unjustly censured his morals. The mild- ness of his disposition rendered him a desirable opponent, for though he was sure to conquer, yet he subdued his adversary so handsomely, that the captive was the better for his defeat. But others did not controvert Avith so much temper. Some wrote against him, others for him. At length the synod decided the dispute in his favor. He published a small, but valuable piece on The state of Christianity in France. It treats of many important points of religion, in controversy between the Cathohcs and Protest-- ants. There are twelve volumes of his sermon?. Some are dedicated to his Majesty George II. and the king was pleased to allow him a hand- some pension. Some to her majesty Queers Caroline, while she was princess of Wales, One to Count Wassanaer, a Dutch nobleman. Two were dedicated to his Majesty, after his decease, by his son. Professor Dumont, and Mr. Husson, to whom Mr. Saurin left his manu- scripts, published the rest, and one volume is dedicated to the Countess Dowager of Albe- marle. The English seem therefore, to have' a right to the labours of this great man. Mr. Saurin died at the Hague, on Dec. 30th, 1730, most sincerely regretted by all his ac- quaintances, as well as by his church, who lost in him a truly primitive Christian minis- ter, who spent his life, in watching over his flock, as one who knew that he must give an account. In regard to this translation, it was first un- dertaken by the desire of a small circle of pri- vate friends, for our mutual edification. If I have suffered my private opinion to be prevail ed over by others, to print this translation, it is not because I think myself able to give lan- guage to Saurin : but because I humbly hope that the sentiments of the author may be con- veyed to the reader, by this translation. His sentiments, I think, are, in general, those of the holy Scrir>ture, and his manner of treating Ihem well adapted to impress them on the heart. I liave endeavoured not to disguise hi? XXIV MEMOIRS, &«. meuniiig, though I havo not been able to adopt his S'tyle, lor which delect, though I print them by private subscription, for the use of my friends, on v/hose candour I depend, yet 1 do not offer to publish them to the world, for the lan- guage of Mr. Saurin. I should have been glad to have pleased every subsci'iber, by inserting those seinions, which were most agreeable to liim, liad I known Avhich they were : but as this was impossible, I have followed my own judgment, or perhaps exposed my want of it. The first volume aims to secure tlie doctrine of R God, against the attacks of atheists. In the •econd, we mean to plead for the holy Scrip- tures against Deists. In the third, we intend to take those sermons, which treat of the doc- trines of Christ lanili/, as we humbly conceiye that the NewTestament is something more than a system of moral philosophy. And the last volume, we dedicate to vioral subjects, because we think Christianity a holy religion, produc- tive of moral obedience in all its true disciples. May the God of all grace bless the reading of them to the weakening of the dominion of sin, and to the advancement of the kiugdom of our blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Ch^j'erlon ) ^ ROBINSON Mprii loth, 17/0. i SERHONS HISV. JAMES SAUHZN, TRANSLATED BY THE REV. ROBERT ROBINSON. PREFACE, BY TBS REV. ROBERT ROBZNSOXf. 1- HAT spirit of inquiry which produced the Reformation, operated in France, as in other countries, and gave being to an endless variety of different sentiments of rehgion. All the reformers, however, agreed in one grand article, that is, in substituting the au- thority of the holy Scriptures in the place of the infallibihty of the Bishop of Rome. The elevation of an obscure book, (for such to the shame of Popery the Bible had been,) to the dignity of a supreme judge, whose de- cisions were final, and from whicn there lay no appeal, naturally excited the attention of some who were capable, and of many who thought themselves so, to examine the authenticity of so extraordinary a book. At the Reformation, the infallibility of the Pope was the popular inquiry ; and, after it, the infallibility of Jesus Christ came under consideration. Curiosity and conscience concurred to search, and seve- ral circumstances justified the inquiry. Many spurious books had been propagated in the world : the Jewish nation, and the Ro- mish church, paid as much regard to tradition as to the holy Scriptures : Protestants derived different, and even contrary doctrines, from the same Scriptures ; the authenticity of some books of both Testaments had never been uni- versally acknowledged, and the points in liti- gation were of the last importance. These considerations excited the industry of a multi- tude of critics. One examined the chronolo- gy of the Bible, another the geography of it, a third its natural philosophy, a fourth its his- tory ; one tried its purity by the rules of grammar, another measured its style by the laws of rhetoric ; and a most severe scrutiny the book underwent, Nothing came to pass in this inquiry but what might have been expected. Some de- fended the book by solid, and some by silly ar- guments ; while others reprobated it, as void of any rational proof at all. There are pre- requisites essential to the investigation of truth, and it is hardly credible, that, all who emamined, or who pretended to examine the di- vinity ofthe Christian canon, possessed them. No sooner had Charles IX. published the first edict of pacification in France, in 15G2, than there appeared at Lyons along with mady other sects, a party who called them- selves Deists. The edict provided that no person should be prosecuted on account of matters of conscience, and this sect claimed* the benefit of it. Deists differ so much from one another, that it is hard to define the term Deism, and to say precisely what the word stands for. Dr. Samuel Clarke takes the denomination in the most extensive signification, and distinguish-- es Deists m\.o four classes. ' The first class believe the existence of a Supreme Being, who made the world, but who does not at all concern himself in th& management of it ' The second consists pf those who believe^ ^ not only the being, but also the providence of God with respect to the natural world ; but who, not allowing any difference between mor- al good and evil, deny that God takes any no- tice ofthe morally good or evil actions of men ;. these things depending, as they imao-ine, on the arbitrary constitution of human laws. ' The third sort, having right apprehensions concerning the natural attributes of God, nd his all-governing Providence, and some notion of his moral perfections a.\so, yet beinof prejudiced against the notion of the immor- tality of the human soul, believe that mea perish entirely at death, and that one genera- tion shall perpetually succeed another, with- out any future restoration, or renovation of things. ' The fourth consists of those who believe the existence of a Supreme Being, together with his providence in the government ofthe world, as also the obligations of natural reli- gion : but SO far only as these things are dis- coverable by the light of nature alone, with- out believing any divine revelation. These last are the only true Deists !' The rise of the Deists, along with that of other sects and parties among the reformed churches seemed to confirm one argument of the Roman Catholics against the Reformation. When the Reformers had pleaded for the suf- ficiency of revelation, and for the private right of judging of its meaning, the divines of the church of^Rome had always replied, that una- nimity in the faith is the test of the true church of Christ ; that the church of Rome had always enjoyed such a unity : that the allowance of liberty of conscience would pro- duce innumerable opinions ; that people of tiie same sentiments would associate for the support and propagation of their pretended faith : and that, consequently, religious parties would counteract one another, to the entire subversion of Christianity itself Hence they inferred the absurdity of that principle on which Protestan*.'"'m stood, and the absolute necessity of a living infallible judge of reli- gious truths. The event above-mentioned seemed to confirm this reasoning. When these ideas entered the mind of a man of fruitful genius in the chuxcih of Rome; XXVI REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. they operated in the most eccentric manner imaginable. A popular orator, or, who did ten times more mischief, a court-chaplain, would collect a few real improprieties among Protestants, subjoin a thousand more irregu- larities of his own invention, mere creatures of his superstitious fancy, paint them in colours the most frightful, exhibit them to pubhc view under images the most tragical, ascribe them all to that horrid monster— the right of private judgment, and by these means to endeavour to establish the old system, that destroyed men's lives, on the ruins of that new one, which benevolently proposed to save them. The weaker protestants were intimidated by this vile bombast ; and the wiser, who had been educated Papists, that is to say, whose tender minds had been perverted with a bad philosophy, and a worse divinity, were hard pressed with this idle argument. The famous Peter Viret, who was pastor of the reformed church at Lyons, at this first appearance of the Deists, not only wrote against them ; but, we are sorry to say, he did more, he joined with the archbishop's vicar in persecuting them. What a motley figure ! The voice of Jacob, and the hands of Esau ! Some of the more candid Protestants con- tented themselves with making two observa- tions, which they thought were sufficient to answer the objections of Rome on this article. First, they said, It is not true that there are no religious controversies in the church of Rome ; there are two hundred and thirty- beven contrarieties of doctrine among the Ro- mish divines Secondly, if it were true, the ijuiet of the members of that church would Hot prove their unity in the faith. A negative ilnanimity, that is, a freedom from religious differences, may proceed from ignorance, neg- ligence, or fear : the two first resemble the quiet of night, where all are asleep : or the stillness of a church-yard, where all are dead ; and the last the taciturnity of a slave under a tyrant's rod. These observations were not impertinent, for although none of our disputes are managed without humbling Biarks of human infirmity, yet, on a cool bal- ance of accounts, it will appear, that the mor- al good produced by liberty of conscience is far greater than the moral evil suffered. Pee- vish tempers, and puerile mistakes mix with free inquiry ; but without inquiry fair and free we should have no religion at all. Had the Protestants done only that with the writings of Moses and Paul, which they did with the writings of Homer and Tacitus, had they fetched them out of dusty holes in libra- ries, exposed them to public view, and left them to shift for tliemselve3,tlieirauthenticitv, we presumCjWould have sinned with inimitable lustre ; for fewer objections have lain against the book, than against the methods that have been used to enforce it. But that fatal notion of uniformity, this absurd dogma, unity in the faith is the test of a true church, misled those worthy men, and they adopted the spirit of persecution, that child of tlie "mother of abominations," Rev. xvii. 5, whom folly had produced, and whom cruelty had hitherto maintained. In .order to vie with the church of Rome yn point oJ'unifl'T.-.nnty, nndtocxc^-'l it- in point of truth, the reformers extracted, what they supposed, the sense of Scripture ; not on plain; obvious, essential truths ; but on doctrines ex- tremely perplexed and difficult ; these extracts they called Confessions of Faith ; these they signed ; and all who refused to sign them they disovimed, and persecuted out of their communities. Having done these things not according to the pattern showed by theii* divine Master, ia his plain and peaceful sermon on the Mount of Olives, Heb. viii. 5, but according to the arcana imperii of " the woman who sitteth on seven mountains and who reigneth over the kings of the earth," Rev. xvii. 9, Id, they boasted of enjoying as good a uniformity as that of which the Catholic church vaunted. If they, who first prosecuted these unrighte- ous measures in the Protestant churches, could have foreseen the dismal consequences of them, surely they must have lain in sackcloth and ashes, to lament their anti-christiah zeal, which, by importing eXotics from Rome, hj planting them in reformed churches, and by flittering the magistracy into the dirty work, of cultivating them, spoiled the growth of rea- son and religion, and cherished, imder theit deleterious shade, nothing but that unprofita- ble weed, implicit faith. Let a dispassionate spectator cast his ey& on the Christian world, and, when he has seen the rigoroUs measures that have beerl used to establish, as it is called, the faith of the Re- formers, let him turn his eye to the church of Rome on the one hand, and to sectaries on the other, and attend to the consequences of these measures among both. Catholics laugh at Protestant arguments against the infallibility of the Bishop of Rome. See, say they, mu- tant clypeus, the reformed have destroyed one Pope to create a hundred. Calvin is infalli- ble at Geneva, Luther in Germany, in Eng- land Cranmer, and in Scotland Knox ! How wise the doctrine of infallibility ! how just and necessary the practice of the Inquisition ', The pretended Protestants have tried in vain to govern churches without severity ; they themselves, who have exclaimed the most vi- olently against it, have been obliged to adopt it. Sectaries, on the other hand, avail them- selves of these practices, and not distinguish- ing between Christianity itself and the pro- fessors of it, charge that on the laws of our prince, which is chargeable only on the inad- vertency of his subjects. Other times, other manners ! Whether the reproaches of the Papists, tiie increase of learn- ing, piety, and experience, or whatever else have meliorated the reformed churches, the French Protestants rarely persecute; and when they do, it is plain, they do that as a body in a synod, which not one of them would dare to avow as a private divine. Dangerous dis- tinction ! Should an Upright man vote for u measure which he would blush to enforce i Should he not endeavour to abrogate canons, which, for the soul of him he has not impiety ^enough to execute.' Shall Protestants renounce that merchandise of Rome, which consists of odours, and ointments, and chariots, and pur- ple, and silli, and sairlct, and continue that more scandalous traffic which consists of '•sjaves uiid sou's 'A'nv^n':'' Rev. .will. ISvlTV REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. XXVll •' If a counsel, or a work, be of God, ye can- not ovei throw it," Acts v. 3;{, 39, is one of the surest axioms iti the world ; and if there be such a thins; in the world as dignity, that is, propriety of character, it must be in that Christian, who, disdaining; every carnal wea- pon, maintains the truth of his religion by placid reasoning, and by a holy life. Other influence is unscriptural, and unnatural too. We may admire the genius of a Ue'st, avail ourselves of Ills learning, and laraant his abu?e of both: bat we may not touch his person, his property, his liberty, his charact'5r, his peace. " To his own Matter he standetii or fallnth." Roai. xiv. 4. We beg leave to subjoin three observations in regard to deism. Deists are not so nume- rous a? some have imagined. Real Christians have occasioned violent prejudices against Christianity. Very lew Daisls have taken up the argument on its true grounds ; and they, who have, could not support it. Deists are not so nunifrous as some, have tm- agined. Mons. de Voltaire has thought pro- per to inform his countrymen, in his Additions to his Gcntral Hisinri/, that ' Deism, wJiich Cliarles II. seemed openly to [jrof^-ss, became the reigning religion' in England: thi't 'the sect is become very numerous:' and that 'a num'ier of eminent writers have made open profession of lieism.' How this agreeable French writer came to know this, who can tell, if, as he affirms a httlc lower, ' Deists allow a diversity of opinions in other:=, and seldom discover their own ;' and, if Deists have only a private form of worship, each worshipping God in his own house, and assisting without scruple at all public cercnionies.' Surely Mons. Vo'.taire mistook, he meant to describe a hypocrite, atid not a Deist. If a Deist be one who, having examined t'le religion of nature, and the religion of .Scrip- ture, gives the preference to the I'ormer, and rejects the latter, it may be affirmed, I think, that the num'jsr of Deists is very small. In a comparative viev/, the number is too incon- siderable to be mentioned. The rank of a Herbert, the wit of a Shaftesbury, the style of a Bolingbtoke, the scurrilous buffoonery of a Wonlston, along with the wisdom and piety of the Lockes, and Lelands, and Lardners, who have o[]po3ed them, have given a name to deism; but the number of its professors is trifling, and of no account. If Mons. de Vol- taire meant to relate an historical fact, he ought to have enumerated the vumcrous pro- fessors of Christianity, ami the ernintnt writers in defence of it, and then the numerous pro- fessors of deism would have diminished and disappeared. If he meant to give a sanction to deism on account of its numerous defenders, he is a fresh example of that weakness, to which great philosophers are sometimes sub- ject, the weakness of saciificing a sound logic to a silly prejudice. Two sorts of people are fond of multiplying Deists; liigots, and Deists lliemselves. De- ists take the liberty of associating with them- selves Confucius, Zoroajlcr, Socrates, and all the ancient philosophers. They first suppose that these philosophers would have rejected revelation, had it been proposed to them, and then they speak of them as if they had actu- ally rejected it. But, if the gospel be not a system ol absurdity, adajited to credulity, the probability is greater that they would have re- ceived, than that they would have rejected it; and if, as Lord Bolingliroke says, 'il must be admitted, that Plato insinuates, in many places, the want, or the necessity of a divine revelation, to discover the external service God requires, and the expiation for sin, and to give stronger assurances of the rewards and punishments that await men in another world;' it becomes highly probable, that Plato would have embraced the Christian revelation; atid were the testimony of Jesus Christ admissible, it is absolutely certain, that, "• il' the mighty works, which were done in Judea, had been done among the heathens, many heathens would have repented of Paganism in sackcloth and ashes," Matt. xi. 21, &c. To the army of philosophers they add all those Christians, who do not understand, or who do not prac- tise, the dictates of Christianity. With thia hypothetical reasoning they attack Christian- it}', and boast of tuimbers, while all their vo- taries are so feii\ that a child may write them. Bigots, wlio make Scripture, and their sense of It, the same thing, practise the same pious fraud, and turn over all those to the deistical party, who do not allow their doctrines. Hence the popular notion of the multiplicity of Deists. From the charge of deism first, the populace ought to be freed. Too many of them live without any religion. The religion of nature is as unknown to them as the religion of Scrip- ture. When they think of religion, their er- ror is credulity, and their spiritual guides soon find, that the believing of too much, and not the believing of too little, is their mistake. They are wicked: but they are not Deists; for the term dfisiu surely stands for admitting the religion of nature, as well as for the re- nouncing of revelation. But of both, in gene- ral, they are alike ignorant. They, vho renounce popular doctrines, are not therefore Deists The learned and pious Dr. Bekker, one of the pastors at Amster- dam, renounced the popular opinion of the power of the devil, and published a book against it in 1G91. He seemed to doubt also of the eternity of hell-torments. He was re- puted a Deist, and the consistory, the classes, and the svnods, proceeded against him, sus- pended him first from the communion, and deposed him at last from the office of a minis- ter. Yet Dr. Bekker was a fast friend of re- velation, and all his crime lay in expounding some literal passages of revelation allegorical- ly. Not the book : but the received meaning of it, he denied. The Deists ought not to claim them, who affirin, that it is not the properly of the trut/is of revelation to square uith philowphy. Mons. Voltaire takes Pomponatius for a Deist. Pomponatius denied the natural immortality of the soul ; he affirmed, that it could not be proved by principles of philosophy : but he XXVIU REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. believed, anJ maintained the immortality of the soul on the testimony of revelation. This learned Italian philofoplier was persecuted by the monks ; his bnok, it is said, was burnt liy the Venetians; and the modern Deists have adopted him ; yet Pomponalius was a believer of revelation, anil, by believnig ths immortality ©f the soul on the testimony of S':riplure, he discovered the most profound veneration for it, a deference exactly similar to that .which trinitarians pay to its testimony concerning the nature of God. What Po;nponatius affirmed of the immor- tality of the soul, Bayle affirmed of all Hit mysteries of the gospel ; but we do not allow that Bayle was therefore a Deist. Thus he writes: ' If one of the apostles, St. Paul for instance, Avhen among the Athenians, had be- eought the Areopagus to permit him to enter the li-ts against all philosophers ; had he offered to maintain a disputation upon the three persons, wIki are but one Gol; and if, before he began the disputation, he had ac- knowledged the truth of the rales laid down by Aristotle in his logic, whetlier, with regard to the terms of opposition, or the character- istics of the premises of a demonstrative syl- logism, &c. : lastly, if, after these prelimina- ries were well settled, he had answered, that our reason i? too weak to ascend to the know- ledge of the mysteries in opposition to which objections were proposed to him ; in such a case, he would have suffered as much shame, as It is possible for a defeated opponent to meet with. The Athenian philosophers must have gained a complete victory ; for he would have been judged and condemned agreeably to the maxims, the truth of which he had acknowledged before. But had the philoso- phers em|)loyed those maxims in attacking him, after he had informed them of the foun- dation of his faith, he might have opposed the following barrier to them ; that his doctrines were not within the cognizance of reason ; that they had been revealed by heaven ; and that mankind must believe them, though they eould not compreliend them. The disputa- tion, in order for its being carried on in a re- gular manner, must not have turned up(m the following question, whether these doctrines were repugnant to the rules of logic and me- taphysics : but on the question, whether they had been revealed by heaven. It would have been impossible for St. Paul to have been defeated, except it could have been prov- ed to him. tliat God did not require those things to be believed.'* This reasoning iloes not appear to favour deism ; it seems to place the mysteries of Christianity on their true base. Neither are those to be reputed Deists, who doubts or dtni/., the inspiration of some books which are usualbj accounted sacred. Lu- ther denied the inspiration of the F.pistle to St. James; Grotius that of the Song of Solomon; and Dionysius, Bishop of Alexan- dria, denied that the Apocalypse was written * Gen. Diet. vol. x. Illustration upon the Manichcc!. by the Apoitle John ; yet no one ef these was a Deist. Nor ought the Deist to claim those learned critics, who allow that the Scriptures have un- dergone the fate of all other books, and who therefore expose and amend the errors ot copyists, expunge interpolations, restore mu- tilated passages, and deal with the writings of St. Paul as they do with the writings of Thucydides. The chronology, the geogra- phy, the history, the learning of the Bible, (if the expression be not improper) must ne- cessarily submit to a critical investigation, ami upright critics have self-evident rules of trial. The most severe piece of (;ritici?m on revela- tion is at the same time one of the most ex- cellent defences oi it. One single rule, hfA it been thought worthy ot that attention which it merits, would have spared the wri- ting of many a folio, and have freed some Christians from many a religious reverie.* Yet the author of this piece of criticism, the great IjO Clerc, has been, by some of his big- otted countrymen, accounted a Deist. Finally, we caimot resign those btightest ornaments of the Christian church, whose sense and grace will not allow them to be (iogroati- cal, and uho h(silate about some doctrines grn- erally received by their otrn communitiis. The celehrated Phibp Melancifon has been taxed with scepticism: but far be the imputation fiom him! ' He was one of the wisest and best men of his age' says a certain historian ; ' he was of a sweet, peaceful disposition, had a great deal of wit, had read much, and hi* knowledge was very extensive, 'i'he combi- nation of such qualities, natural and acquired, is ordinarily a foundation for diffidence. Me- lancthon was by no means free from doubts, and there were abundance of subjects, upon which he durst not pronounce this is so, and it cannot be otlurwise. He lived among a sect of people, who to him appeared passion- ate, and too eager to mix the arts of human policy, and the autliority of the secular arm, with the affairs of the church. His tender conscience made him afraid that this m^ght bo a mark of reprobation. Although he drew up the .^ugsburgh Confession, yet he hated disputes in religion, and when his mother ask- ed him how she should conduct her belief amidst so many controversies. Continue, an- swered he, to believe and pray as you have hitherto done, and let these wars ol controver- sy give you no manner of trouble.' This is the Melancthon who was suspected of de- ism ! Several more classes might be nd. in ipsisfonlibus nullam emphusin habrnt. — Ars. Crit. lorn. i. p. 2. s. i. c. 4. This rule of in- terpretation, which regards the idiom of a hiiiguage, deserves more attention, it should seem, than hath been usually paid to it. REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. XXIX eaasa of revelation has little to fear from the learning, less from the morality, and nothing from the number of its opponents. When some atheists appeared in the Jew- ish church, anil attacked the knowledge and worship of God, the people of God were in- timidated : but, the royal I'salmist justly ob- serves, '• They were in great fear, wliere no fear was," Psal. liii. 5. Similar events have pro luced similar fears in the Christian church, and to these honest, but ignorant fears, we ascribe the much o:reHtcr part ot those pious frauds with which Christians have disgraced the cause of God. Most of the fatliers, most of *he church of Rome, and some Protestant churches, have treated Christianity like an old crazy palace, which requires props or sup- porters on every side ; and they have mani- fested groat injudiciousness in the choice of supporters. The gospel stands like a stately, stunly oak, defying the attack of every storm : but they, who hail pitched their tent beneath it's shade, heard a rustlinjr among the leaves, trembled for the fate of the tree, and, *o secure it, surrounded it wUh a plantation of oziers. To this ignorant timidity, and not to the base tricks of knavery, the sordid arts of a sorry avarice, or the barbarous pleasure of shedding human blood, we charitalily attribute the greatest absurdities in Ihe Christian church. Tliese absurdities, however, have produced very bad effects, and they oblige us to ov/n, that real Chrisliunshave occasioned violent pre- judices against Christianily. Some Christians have endeavoured to sup- port the cause of Clirislianity by spurious books ; some by juggling tricks, called mi- racles ; some by the impositiDn of supersti- tious ceremonies ; some by the propagation of absurd doctrines; some have pretended to ex- plain it by a wretched philosophy ; others have exposed it to derision under pretence of adornin;< it with allegory; some havp pleaded for it hy fines, and fires, and swords ; others have incorporated it with civil interests ; most Viavo laid down filse canons of interpretation, and have resembled that syn ,d which con- demned the aforementioned Dr. Bekker, be- cause he 'had explained the holy Scriptures so as to make them contrary to the Catechism, and particularly to //le Articles of Faitk which he had himself subscribed.' Above all, the loose lives of the professors of Christianity, and particularly of some of the ministers of it, have " covered the daughter of Sion with a cloud, and have cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel." Lam. ii. 1. Involve Christianity in all these thick mists, surround it with all these phenomena, call a •weak eye, or a wicked heart, to contemplate it, and, without a spirit of prophecy, the dis- covery may be foretold ; the observer will be- come a reasoner .... a philosopher . . . a DlilST. These are tlie topics, and not the gospel it- self, which most Deists have attacked : but if •we agree to exonerate Christianity of all these incumbrances; what have Deists to answer.' Very few of them have taken up the argu- ment on its true grounds, a7id they who hare could not support it. When a Frenchman undertakes to attack Christianity, the disputes of his countrymen afford him an ample supply ; he bf)rrows arms of every party of Christians, he conquers Popery with Protestant weapons, opposes the virions of quietism with the subtleties of Jan- senism, the mysteries of Jansenius with the laws of good sense; and, having defeated ab- surdity, he vainly imagines he has obtained a victory over Christianity. English Deists have taken the same method, and as our coun- try has the same excesses, they have an am- ple field of glory before them. Christianity has nothing to do with the errors of St. Austin, or the dreams of Madam Bourignon ; but it is founded on a few facts, the evidence of which can never be disproved. The know- ledge of these is a preservative against De- ism. To establish these facts was the original de- sign of Mens. Saurin in the following sermons, as it is mine in endeavouring to translate them. Those who are acquainted with his sermons, well know, that there are in the twelvo volumes many more on the same topics : but, as it was impossible to put them all into ona volume, I have been obliged to make the best- choice in my power, and have arranged them in the following order : — The tirst sermon contains a set of rules es- sentially necessary to the investigating oUruth^ and a lew reasons to enforce tiie practice of them. The second proposes an examina- tion of the truths of Chrisltumly, and settles rules of disputation peculiar to this controver- sy. The /af/i- follow in the succeeding ser- mons, the birth, the ministry, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, &:c- Four of the last dis- courses expose iiijidelilj/ and recommend Chris- tiaiiily; and the last of all is an exhortation to him who is supposed to have (ound the gospel of Christ, to hold it fast, as a system ot" truth, and to avoid those snares, into whicli Christians are liable to be drawn. iViay our readers " have these things always in remembrance; for we have not followed cunningly devised fables," 2 Pet. i. 15. &cc^ but a sure word rf prophecy, history and pre- cept, which liolfi mtn of God spake, as thei/ were moved by the Ho:y Ghost. ^ Three times have I taken pen in hand to account to my subscribers in a preface for my choice of the sermons that compose this volume. But one thought hath as often confused me at the outset, and obliged me to lay it aside. I am struck with an idea of the different de- grees of labour necessary to two men, one of whom should conceive the project of disunit- ing Christians, and the other that of cement- ing them together in mutual love. The first need not trouble himself with study, examina- tion, and argument ; he would not be obliged either to divest himself of his own preposses- sions, or to expose those of others ; he need not sit whole nights and days either to exam- * Here commences Mr. Robinson's preface to the third volume of the first edition. x-xx REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. ine his own theses, or impartially to weigh those of his opponents : let him only take popular prejuilices, cover them with the sacrecl style of Scripture, or conceal them un- der the impenetiable jargon ol' the schools ; let him animate Ihem with parly spirit, call it religious zeal, and denounce juilgment on all who do not believe the whole to be essential to salvation ; and the work will be done. Such a man, I think, resembles a light- heeled enemy, tripping over a spacious field, and scattering, a? he goes, the seeds of an end- less number of weeds : while the man, who adopts a contrary plan, must be forced, like the patient prying weeder, to stoop and toil, step by step, day after day, feeling many a pain, and fetching many a sigh, to pull the noxious produce up. According to my first proposal, this volume ought to consist of sermons on Ihc ductnms of Clirisliariit//. My intimate friends, who first encouraged, and subscribed for this translation, thoroughly understood me : but I might have foreseen, that their partiality would procure oiher purchasers, unacquainted with my no- tions of men and things, and who probably might expect to find each his own system of r-ligion in a volume of sermons on the doc- trines of our common Lord. I am necessita- ted therefore to explain myself, and to be- speak a candid attentioti, while 1 endeavour to do so. Very early in life I was prepossessed in fa- vour of the following positions: — Christianity is a religion of divine original — a religion of di /ine original must needs be a perfect rpli- gion. and answer all the ends, lor which it was revealed, without human additions. — The Christian religion has undergone consitierable alterations since the times ot Jesus Christ and his apostles, and yet, Jesus Cliriat was then ac- counted the Jinislier, as well as the aulhor of Jiiiih, ?Ieb. xii. 2. The doctrines of revelation, as they lie in the inspiied writings, difl'er very much from the same doctrines, as they lie in creeds of human composition. — The moral precepts, the positive institutes, and the reli- gious afl'ections. which constitute the devotion of most modern Christians, form a melancholy contrast to those, which arc described by the guides, whom they profess to follow The light of nature, and that of revelation ; the op- erations of right reason, the spirit of the first, and the influence of tJie Holy Giio-t, the soul of the last: both proceeding from the same uniform Supreme Being, cannot be supposed to be destructive of each other, or, even m the least degree, to clash together- The finest idea, that can be formed of the Supreme Be- ing, is that of an infinite intelligence always in harmony with itself: and. accordingly, the best way of proving the truth of revelation is that of showing the analogy of the plan of re- demption to that of creation and providence. Simijlicity and majesty characterize I oth na- ture and Scripture : sim))licity reduces those benefits, which are essential to the real happi- ness of man, to the size of all mankind ; majes- ty makes a rich provision for the employment find super-added felicity of a few superior ge- niuses, who first improve themselve*, and then felicitate their inferior brethren by simplifying their own ideas, by refining and elevating those of their fellow-creatures, by so establishing a social intercourse, consolitlating fraternal love, and along with it all the recijirocal ties, that unite mankind. Men's ideas of objects essen- tia! to their happiness are neither so dissimilar, nor so numerous, as inattentive spectators are apt to suppose. \"ariety of sentiment, which is tht life of society, cannot be dastructive of real religion. Mere mental errors, if they be not entirely innocent in the account of the Su- preme Governor of mankind, cannot be, how- ever, objec;ts of blame and punishment among men. Christianity could never be intended to destroy the natural rights, or even to di- minish the natural j^rivileges of mankind. Tliat religion, which alltiws the just claims, and secures the social happiness of all mankijid, must needs be a better religion than that, which provides for only a part at the expense of the rest. God is more glorified by the good actions of his creatures, expressive of homage to him, and productive of universal, social good, than he is by uncertain conjectures, or even accurate notion?, which originate in self- possession and terminate in social disunion. How clear soever all these maxims may be, a certain degree of ambition or avar ce, igno- rance or malice, presumption or dilFideiice, or any other irregular passion, will render a man blind to the clearest demonstration, and insen- sible to the most rational and affecting persua- sion. 'I hese positions, mere opinions and pre- possessions Ijelore examinalion, became de- monstrative truths after a course of diligent search ; and these general principles have op- erated in the choice of the sermons, wliich compose this volume of the principal doctrines of Christianity. But, previous to all inquiries concerning the doctrines of Christianity, it is absolutely ne- cessary to eslabli.-h that of CHUISTIAJf LIBER- TY ; tor, say what we will, if this prelim- inary doctrine of right be disallowed, volunta- ry piety is the dream of an enthusiast ; the oracles of God in the Christian v.orld, like those of the Sybils in pagan Rome, are sounds convertible to senatorial sense; and the whole Christian mission, from the first prophet down to the la^t minister, is one long muster-roll of statesmen's tools, a disgrace to their species, a contradiction to their profession, a dishonour to their God ! Christian liberty in Italy, is liberty to be a. Roman Catholic, that is, liberty to believe what the bishop of Rome affirms to be true, and liberty to pprf(jrm what he commands to be done. Chri^tian liberty in some relormed churches is liberty to renounce what the refor- mers renounced, to believe what they alfirmed, and to practice what they required. But w© whohare not so learned Christ, define Christian liberty otiierwise : and if we be asked, What is Christian liberty ? we answer, It is liberty to be a Christian. One part of Christianity consists of propositions to be believed. Lib- el ty to be a Christian believer is liberty to ex- amine these propositions, to form a judgment REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. XXXI of them, and to come to a self-determination, according; to our own best abilities. Another part of Christianity consists of duties to be performed. Liberty to be a practical Chris- tian is liberty to perform these duties, either as they resjard GoJ, our neighbour, or our- selves. Liberty to be a Christian, implies lib- erty not to be a Christian, as liberty to exam- ine a proposition implies liberty to reject the arjjuments brouglit to support it, if they a|)- pear inconclusive, as well as liberty to admit them, if they appear demonstrative. To pre- tend to examine Christianity, before we have established our ri,ght to do so, is to pretend to cultivate an estate, before we have made out our title to it. The object of Christian liberty, that, with •which a man, who would examine Christiani- ty, ha? to do, is a system of Christian doctrine : but, having eslalilished the doctrine of right, belore we proceeil to exercise this right by ex- amining the religion proposed to mankind by Jesus Ciirist, it is absolutely necessary to in- quire what we ought, on sound principles of just and fair reasoning, to expect to find in it. I know f():ne trutlis without revelation, I have a full demonstration in nature, that there is one Go 1 — that it is impossible tliere should be more than one — that he is an intelligent sp rit — and that he is a wise and bountiful Be- ing. Should any religion, which pretends to be divine, affir.ii that there is a plurality of gods; God is not an intelligent Spirit — God is an un- wise and an unkind b(Mng — I should have a right to reject this |iretended revelation. In- deed, should a revealed reliirion allow my de- monstrations, and afterwards explain them in a manner quite subversive of my former expli- cations of th^m : f.houl I it affirm, God is, as you say, a wise and bountiful being : hut he displays his wisdom and goodness not in gov- erning his intelligent creatures as you have imagined ; sucli a moral government, I will prove to you, would show a defect of wisdom and goodness ; but he disphiys the supreme perfection of both, by providing for such and such interests, and by bestowing such and such benefits, as have either escaped your notice, or were beyond your comprehension. In this case I ought not to reject revelation, for, al- though I can demonstrate without inspiration the wisdom and goodness of GoJ, yet I cannot pretend by the light of nature to know all the directions, and to ascertain all the limits of these perfections. Lay (^hristirfnity before me who will, I ex- pect to find three things in it, which I call anal- ogy, proportion, and perfection. Each of these articles opens a wide fisld of not incuri- ous speculation, and each fully ex[)lained and applied would serve to guide r.ny man in his choice of a religion, yea in his choice of a i)arty amon;; the various divisions of Ciiristians : but alas ! we are not employed now-a-days in examining and choosing religious principles for ourselves, but in subscribing, and defending those of our ancestors ! A few hints then shall serve. By analogy I mean resemblance, and, when I say revealed religion must bring along with itan analogical evidence, 1 mean, it must re- semble the just dictates of nature. The rea- son is plain. The same Supreme Being is the author of both. ^J'he God of nature has form- ed man for observing objects, comparing them together, laying down principles, inferring con. sequences, reasoning and self-determining ; he has notonly empowered all mankind to exer<"ise these abilities, but has even constrained them by a necessity of nature to do so; he has not only rendered it impossible for men to excel without this exercise, but he has even rendered it impossible for them to exist safely in society without it. In a word, the God of nature has made man in his own image, a self-determining being,and,to say nothing of the nature of virtue, he has rendered free consent essential to every man's felicity and peace. With his own con- sent, subjection makes him happy; without it, dominion over the universe would make hira miserable. The religion of nature, (I mean by this ex- pression, here, the objects, which display the nature of the Deity, and thereby discover the obligations ol mankind) is in perfect harmony with the natural constitution of man. All nat- ural objects offer evidence to all : but force it on none. A man may examine it, and he may not examine it ; he may admit it, and he may reject it : and, if his rejection of the evidence of natural religion be not expressed in ieniures, if we owe much respect to men. we owe more to truth, to incontrovertible, unchangeable truth. A second character of a divine revelation, is proportion. By proportion I mean, relative fitness, and, when I alfirm a divine revelation must bring along with it proportional evi- dence, I mean to say, it must appear to be ex- actly fitted to those intelligent creatures, for ■whose benefit it is intended. In the former article we required a similarity between the requisitions of God and the faculties of men : in this we require an exact quantity of requi- sition commensurate with those faculties. The former regards the nature of a revelation ; this has for its object the limits of it. Were it pos- sible lor God, having Ibrmed a man only for Walking, by a messenger from heaven to re- quire him to fly, the doctrine of analogy would be vio'ated by this requisition; and were he to determine a prodigious space, through which he required him to pass in a given time, were he to describe an immense distance, and to en- join him to move through it with a degree of 7«locity impossible to him, the doctrine of pro- E portion would be violated ; and the God of revelation would in both cases be made con- tradictory to the God of nature. The Christian revelation, we presume, an- swers all our just expectations on these arti- cles ; for all the truths revealed by it are anal- ogous to the nature of things, and every article in it bears an exact proportion to the abilities of all those, for whose benefit it is given. Our Saviour treats of the doctrine of proportion, in the parable of the talents, and supposes the Lord to apportion the number of talents, when he bestows them, and the rewards and punish- ments, which he distributes for the use, and abuse of them, to the several ability of each servant, iVlatt. xxv. 14. St. Paul depicts the primitive church in all the beauty of this pro- portional economy ; the same God workeih all diversities of operations in all differences of ad- ministrations, dividing, to (very man severally as he mil, I Cor xii. 5, 6. 11. This economy, he says, assimilates the Christian church to the human body, and gives to the one as to the other strength, symmetry, and beauty, evident- ly proving\hat the author of creation is the author of redemption, h-aming both by one uni- form rule of analogy and proportion. Full of these just notions, we examine that description of revelation, which human creeds exhibit, and we perceive at once, they are all destitute of proportional evidence. They all consist of multifarious propositions, each of which is considered as essential to the whole, and the belief of all essential to an enjoyment of the benefits of Christianity, yea to those of civil society, in this life, and to a participation of eternal life in the wnild to come In this case the iVeegiftsofGod to all are monopolized by a few, and sold out to the many at a price, far greater than nine-tenths of them can pay, and at a price, which the remaining part ought not to pay, because the donor has not empowered these salesmen to exa<;t any price, because by his original griint all are made joint proprie- tors, and because the payment would be at once a renunciation of their right to hold by the original grant, and of their lord's preroga- tive to bestow. What can a declaimer mean, when he re- peats a number of propositions, and declares the belief of them all essential to the salvation of man? or what could he reply to one, who should ask him, which man do you mean, the man in the stall? Is it Sir Isaac Newton : or the man in the aisle ? It is Tom Long, the carrier. God almighty, thte creator of both, has formed these two men with difi"erent or- gans of body, and different faculties of mind; he has given them different advantages and dif- ferent opportunities of improving them, he has placed them in different relations, and empow- ered the one to teach what the other, depend on his belief what will, is not capable of learn- ing. Ten thousand Tom Longs go to make up one Newtonian soul. Is it credible, the God who made these two men, who thorough- ly knows them, who is the common parent, tlie just governor, and the kind benefactor of both, should require of men so different, equal belief and practice? Were such a thiny sup- XXXIV REV. R. ROBINSONS PREFACE. posable, how unequal and disproportional, how inadequate and unlike himself must such a Deity be ! To grasp the terraqueous globe with a human hand, to make a tulip-cup con- tain the ocean, to gather all the light of the universe into one human eye, to hide the sun in a snuff-box, are the mighty projects of chil- dren's fancies. Is it possible, requisitions sim- ilar to these should proceed from the only wise God ! There is, we have reason to believe, a cer- tain portion of spirit, if I may be allowed to speak so, that constitutes a human soul ; there are infinitely different degrees of capability imparted by the Creator to the souls of man- kind ; and there is a certain ratio by necessity of nature, between each degree of intelligence and a given number of ideas, as there is be- tween a cup capable of containing a given quantity, and a quantity of matter capable of being contained in it. In certain cases it might serve my interest could the palm of my hand contain a hogshead : but in gen- eral my interest is better served by an inabili- ty to contain so much. We apply these cer- tain principles to revelation, and we say, God hath given in the Christian religion an infinite multitude of ideas ; as in nature he hath created an infinite multitude of objects. These ob- jects are diversified without end, they are of various sizes, colours, and shapes, and they are capable of innumerable motions, productive of multifarious effects, and all placed in various degrees of perspicuity ; objects of thought in the Christian religion are exactly similar; there is no end of their variety; God and all his per- fections, man and all his operations, the being and employment of superior holy spirits, the existence and dispositions of fallen spir- its, the creation and government of the whole world of matter, and that of spirit, the influen- ces of Gbd and the obligations of men, the dis- solution of the universe, a resurrection, a judg- ment, a heaven, and a hell, all these, placed in various degrees of perspicuity, are exhibited in religion to the contemplation of intelligent creatures. The creatures, who are required to contemplate these objects, have various de- grees of contemplative ability; and their du- ty, and consequently their virtue, which is no- thing else but a performance of duty, consists in applying all their ability to understand as many of these objects, that is, to form as many ideas of them, as are apportioned to their own degree. So many objects they are capable of seeing, so many objects it is their duty to see. So much of each object they are capable of comprehending, so much of each object it is their duty to comprehend. So many "emotions they are capable of exercising, so many emo- tions it is their duty to exercise. So many acts of devotion they can perform, so many Almighty God will reward them for perform- ing, or punish them for neglecting. This I call the doctrine of religious proportion. This I have a right to expect to find in a divine re- vchition, and this I find in the most splendid maniiei in Christianity, as it lies in the Bible, as it was in the first churches, and as it is in some modern communities. I wish I could »xohange the word some for all. This doctrine of proportion would unroost every human creed in the world, at least it would annihilate the imposition of any. In- stead of making one creed for a whole nation, which, by the way, provides for only one na- tion, and consigns over the rest of the world to the destroyer of mankind ; instead of doing so, there should be as many creeds as crea- tures ; and instead of affirming, the belief of three hundred propositions is essential to the felicity of every man in both worlds, we ought to affirm, the belief of half a proposition is es- sential to the salvation of JVIary, and the belief of a whole one to that of John, the belief of six propositions, or, more properly the examina- tion of six propositions, is essential to the sal- vation of the reverend Edward, and the exam- ination of sixty to that of the right reverend Richard ; for, if I can prove, one has sixty de- grees of capacity, another six, and another one, I can easily prove, it would be unjust to re- quire the same exercises of all ; and a cham- pion ascribing such injustice to God would be no formidable adversary for the pompousness of his challenge, or the caparisons of his horse ; his very sword could not conquer, though it might affright from tlie field. The world and revelation, both the work of the same God, are both constructed on the same principles ; and were the book of scrip- ture like that of nature laid open to universal inspection, were all ideas of temporal re- wards and punishments removed from the stu- dy of it, that would come to pass in the moral World, which has actually happened in the world of human science, each capacity would find its own object, and take its own quantum. Newtons will find stars without penalties. Mil- tons will be poets, and Lardners Christians without rewards. Calvins will contemplate the decrees of God, and Baxters will try to assort them with the spontaneous volitions of men ; all, like the celestial bodies, will roll on in the quiet majesty of simple propoition, each in his proper sphere shining to the glory of God the Creator. But alas I lie have not so learned Christ ! Were this docti'ine of proportion allow- ed, three consequences would follow. First, Subscription to human creeds, with all their appendages, both penal and pompous, would roll back into the turbulent ocean, the 6'ea I mean, from whence they came ; the Bible would remain a placid emanation of wisdom from God ; and the belief of it a sufficient test of the obedience of his people. Secondly, Christians would be freed from the inhuman necessity of execrating one another, and by placing Christianity in believing in Christ, and not in believing in one another, they would rid revelation of those hitolerable abuscs,which are fountains of sorrow to Christians, and sour- ces of arguments to infidels. Thirdly, Oppor- tunity would be given to believers in Christ to exercise those dispositions, which the pre- sent disproportional division of this common benefit obliges them to suj)press, or conceal. O cruel theolosry, that makes it a crime to do what 1 have neither a right nor n power to leave undone! I caW prrfectiam []\ndi ncccstary character REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. XXXY of a Divine revelation. Ecery production of an intelligent being bears the characters of the int€lligence that produced it,/or as the man is, 10 is his strength, Judg. viii. 21. A weak ge- nius produces a work imperfect and weak like itself. A wise, good being, produces a work wise and good, and, if his power be equ.il to his wisdom and goodness, his work will resem- ble himself, and such a degree of wisdom, ani- mated by an equal degree of goodness, and as- sisted by an equal degree of power, will pro- duce a work equally wise, equally beneficial, equally effectual. The same degrees of good- ness and power accompanied with only half the degree of wisdom, will produce a work as re- markable for a deficiency of skill as for a re- dundancy of efficiency and benevolence. Thus the flexibility of the hand may be known by the writing ; the power of penetrating, and combining in the mind of the physician, may be known by the feelings of the patient, who has taken his prescription : and, by parity of rea- son, the uniform perfections of an invisible God may be known by the uniform perfection of his productions. 1 perceive, I must not launch into this wide ocean of the doctrine of perfection, and I will confine myself to three characters of imperfec- tion, which may serve to explain my meaning. Proposing to obtain a great end without the use of proper means — the employing of great means to obtain no valuable end — and the de- stroying of the end by the use of the means employed to obtain it, are three characters of imperfection rarely found in frail intelligent agents ; and certainly they can never be attri- buted to the Great Supreme. A violation of the doctrine of analogy would argue God an unjust being ; and a violation of thut of propor- tion would prove him an unkind being ; and a violation of this of perfection would argue him a being void of wisdom. Were we to suppose him capable of proposing plans impossible to be executed, and then punishing his creatures for not executing them, we should attribute to the best of beings the most odious dispositions of the nK)st infamous of mankind. Heaven forbid the thought ! The first character of imperfection is propos- ing to obtain a great end without the use of proper means. To propose a noble end argues a fund of goodness : but not to propose pro- per means to obtain it argues a defect of wis- dom. Christianity proposes the noble end of assimilating man to God I and it employs pro- per means of obtaining this end. God is an in- telligent being, happy in a perfection of wisdom; the gospel assimilates the felicity of human in- telligences to that of the Deity by communica- ting the ideas of God on certain articles to men. God is a bountiful being, happy in a pei fection of goodness; the gospel assimilates the felicity of man to that of God by communicating cer- tain benevolent dispositions to its disciples simi- lar to the communicative excellencies of God. God is an operative being, happy in the dis- play of exterior works beneficial to his crea- tures ; the gospel felicitates man by directmg and enabling him to perform certain works beneficent to his iellow-creaturc:. God con- descends to propose this noble end, of assimila- ting man to himself, to the nature of mankind, and not to certain distinctions foreign from the nature of man, and appendant on exterior cir- cumstances. The boy, who feeds the farmer's meanest animals, the sailor, who spends his days on the ocean, the miner, who, secluded from the light of the day, and the society of his fellow-creatures, spends his life in a sub- terraneous cavern, as well as the renowned heroes of mankind, are all included in this con- descending, benevolent design of God. The gospel proposes to assimilate all to God : but it proposes such an assimilation, or, I may say, such a degree of moral excellence, as the na- ture of each can bear, and it directs to means so proper to obtain this end, and renders these directions so extremely plain, that the perfec- tion of the designer shines with the utmost glory. I have sometimes imagined a Pagan ship's crew in a vessel under sail in the wide ocean ; I have supposed not one soul aboard ever to have heard one word of Christianity ; I have imagined a bird dropping a New Testament written in the language of the mariners on the upper deck ; I have imaghied a fund of une- ducated, vmsophisticated good sense in this company, and I have required of this little world answers to two questions ; first., what end does this book propose .■' the answer is, this book " was written, that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing we might have life through his name," John xx. 31. I ask secondly, what means does this book authorize a foremast man, who believes, to employ to the rest of the crew to induce them to believe, that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing, they also with the foremast man, may have eternal felicity through his name .-' I dare not answer this question : but I dare venture to guess, should this foremast man conceal the book from any of the crew, he would be unlike the God, who gave it to all ; or should he oblige the cabin-boy to admit his explication of the book, he would be unlike the God, who requires the boy to explain it to himself; and should he require the captain to enforce his explica- tion by penalties, the captain ought to reprove his folly for counteracting the end of the book, the felicity of all the mariners ; for turning a message of peace into an engine of faction ; for employing means inadequate to the end ; and so for erasing that character of perfection, which the heavenly donor gave it. A second character of imperfection is the employing of great means to obtain no vahia- ble end. Whatever end the author of Chris- tianity had in view, it is beyond a doubt, he hath employed great means to effect it. To use the language of a prophet, he hath "shaken the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land," Hag. ii. 6, 7. When the de- sire of all nations came, universal nature felt his approach, and preternatural displays of wisdom, power, and goodness, have ever at- tended his steps. The most valuable endf were answered by his coming. Convictioi followed his preaching; and truths, till then XXXVl REV. n. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. ihut up in the eounselj of God, were actu- ally put into the possession of finite minds. A general manumission followed his meritori- ous death, and the earth resounded with the praises of a ?piritual deliverer, who had set the sons ol honda;i-e free. The laws of his empire wore piiMished, and all his subjects Wi3re happy in oheyini^ them. " In his days the righteous flourished," and on his plan, 'abundance of peace would have continued as lonij as the moon endured,' P-. Ixxii. 7. Plenty of instruction, liberty to examine it, and peace in obeying it, these were ends worthy of the great means used to obtain them. Let us for a moment suppose a subversion of the seventy-second psalm, from wlience I have borrowed these ideas ; let us imagine ' the kings of Tarshish and of the isles bring- ing presents,' not to express tlieir homage to Christ : but to purchase that dominioi't over the consciences of mankind, which belongs to Jesus Christ ; let us suppose the boundless wisdom of the gospel, and the innumerable ideas of inspired men concerning it, shrivelled up into the narrow compass of one human creed; let us suppose liberty of thought taken away ; and the peace of the world interrupt- ed by the introduction and support of bold uiurpations, dry ceremonies, cant phrases, and puerile inventions ; in this supposed case, the history of great means remains, the worthy ends to be answered by them are taken away, and they, who should thus deprive mankind of the end of the sacred code would charge themselves with the necessary obligation of accounting for this character of imperfection. Ye prophet-, and apostles I ye ambassadors of Christ ! " How do ye say, we are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us ? Lo ! certainly in vain made he it, the pen of the scribes is in vain !" Jer. viii. 8. Precaiious wisdom that must not be questioned ! useless books, which must not be examined 1 vain legislation, that either cannot be obeyed, or ruins him who obeys it. All the ends, that can be obtained by hu- man modifications of divine revelation, can never compensate for the loss of that di nity, which the perfection of the system, as God gave it. acquires to him ; nor can it indemni- fy man for the loss of that sponlatiiety, which J! the essence of every effort, that merits the name of human, and without which virtue it- self is nothing but a name. Must we destroy the man to make the Christian ! What is there in a scholastic honour, what in an eccle- siastical emolument, what in an archiepiscopal throne, to indemnify for these losses ! Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom for men, not to empower them to enjoy these momentary dis- tinctions ; these are far inferior to the noble ends of his coming: the honour of God and the jrospel at large ; the disinterested exercise of mental abilities, assimdating the free-born goul to its benevolent God ; a copartnership with Christ in promoting the universal felicity of all mankind ; these, these are ends of reli- gion worthy of tha blood of Jesus, and de- serving the sacrifice of whatever is called great among men. Thirdly, The destruction of (he end by the use of the means employed to obtain it, is a'-other character of imperfection. St. li;'.;! falls Chriftianity unity, F-ph. iv. 3, &c. lie denoaiinates it the unity of the Spirit, on account of its author, oliject, and end. God the Supreme Spirit, is the author of it, the sjiirits, or souls of men are the (>hject, and the s()irituality of human souls, that is, tlie perfec- tion of wliich finite spirits are capable, is the end of it. The gospel proposes the reunion of men divided by sin, first to God. and then lo one another, and, in order lo effect it, re- veals a religion, which teaches one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, one rule of faith, one object of hope, 1 Tim. ii, 5. and, lest we should imagine this revelation to admit of no variet}', we are told, Grace is giren to every one according lo the proportional measui e of the gift f)/"Christianity, Kach believer is therefore exhorted to spealt the truth in lore, to ivalk with all loirliness, meekness and long suffering, and to forbear another in love. Here is a character of per- fection, for these means employed to unite mankind are productive of union, the end of the means. Should men take up the gospel in this sim- plicity ; and, accommodating it to their own imaginary superior wisdom, or to their own secular purposes; should they explain this union so as to suit their designs, and employ means to protiuce it ; and should they denom- inate their system Christianity, it would cer- tainly be, in spite of its name, a Christianity marked with the imperfection of its authors; for in the Christian religion, in the thing it- self, and not in its appellation, shines the glo- rious character of perfection. The Christian religion unites mankind. By what common bond does it propose to do so? By love. This is a bond of perf ctness, a most perfect bond. This is praclicaHe, and pro- ductive of every desirable end, and the mora we study human nature, the more fully shall we be convinced, that we cannot imagine any religion to do more, nor need we desire more, for tliis answers every end of being religious. Had Jesus Christ formed his church on a sen- timental plan, he must have employed many means, which he has not employed, and he must have omitted many directions, which he has given. One of his means of uniting man- kind is contained in this direction. Search the scriptures, and call no man your master upon earth ; that is to say, exercise your very difter- ent abilities, assisted by very different degrees of aid, in periodsof very different duration, and form your own notions of the doctrines con- tained in tlie scriptures. Is not this injunction destructive of a sentimental union ? liace ten thousand spectators in several circles around a statue erected on a spacious plain, bid some look at it through magnifying glasses, others through common spectacles, some with keen naked eyes, others with weak diseased cyea, each on a point of each circle different from REV. R. ROBINSON'S PREFACE. XXXVll that where another stands, and all receiving the picture of the object in the eye by differ- ent reflections and refractions of the rays of light, and say, will not a command to look des- troy the idea of sentimental union ; and, if the establishment of an exact union of sentiment be the end, will not looking, the mean ap- pointed to obtain it, actually destroy it, and would not such a projector of uniformity mark his system with imperfection ? Had Jesus Christ formed his Church on the plan of a ceremonial union, or on that of a professional union, it is easy to see, the same reasoning might be applied, the laws of such a legislator would counteract and destroy one another, and a system so unconnected would discover the imperfection of its author, and provide for the ruin of itself. These principles being allowed, we proceed to examine the doctrines of Christianity, as they are presented to an inquisitive man, en- tirely at liberty to choose his religion, by our different churches in their several creeds. The church of Rome lays before me the decisions of the council of Trent ; the Lutheran church the confession of Augsburg : one nation gives me one account of Christianity, another a different account of it, a third contradicts the other two, and no two creeds agree. The difference of these systems obliges me to al- low, they could not all proceed from any one person, and much less could they all proceed from such a person, as all Christians affirm Jesus Christ to be. I am driven, then, to ex- amine his account of his own religion contain- ed in the allowed standard book, to which they all appeal, and here I find, or think I find, a right of reduction, that removes all those sus- picions, which variety in human creeds had excited in my mind concerning the truth of Christianity. The doctrines of Christianity, I presume to guess, according to the usual sense of the phrase, are divisible into two classes. The first contains the principal truths, the pure genuine theology of Jesus Christ, essential to the system, and in which all Christians in our various communities agree. I'he other class consists of those less important propositions, which are meant to serve as explications of the principal truths. The first is the matter of our holy religion, the last is our conception of the manner of its operation. In the first we all agree, in the last our benevolent religion, constructed by principles of analogy, propor- tion, and perfection, both enjoins and empow- ers us to agree to dill'er. The nrst is the light of the world, the last our sentiments on its nature, or our distribution of its effects. In general each church calls its own creed a system of Christianity, a body of Christian doctrine, and perhaps not improperly : but then each divine ought to distinguish that part of his system, which is pure revelation, and so stands confessedly the doctrine of Jesus Christ, from that other part, which is human explication, and so maybe either true or false, clear or obscure, presumptive or demonstra- tive, according to the abilities of the explainer, F who compiled the creed. Without this dis- tinction, we may incorporate all our opinions with the infallible revelations of Heaven, we may imagine each article of our belief essen- tial to Christianity itself, we may subjoin a human codicil to a djivine testament, and at- tribute equal authenticity to both, we may account a proposition confirmed by a synodical seal as fully authenticated as a truth confirmed by an apostolical miracle, and so we may bring ourselves to rank a conscientious disciple of Christ, who denies the necessity of episco- pal ordination, with a brazen disciple of the devil, who denies the truth of revelation, and pretends to doubt the being of a God. But here, I feel again the force of that ob- servation, with which this preface begins. How few, comparatively, will allow, that such a reduction of a laige system to a very small number of clear, indisputable, essential first principles, will serve the cause of Christianity! How many v.rill pretend to think such a reduc- tion dangerous to thirty-five out of thirty-nine articles of faith ! How many will confound a denial of the essentiality (so to speak) of a proposition, with a denial of the truth of it ! How many will go further still, and execrate the latitudinarian, who presumes in this man- ner to subvert Christianity itself! I rejoice in prospect of that " day, when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to his gospel," Rom. ii. 16, when we shall stand not at the tribunal of human prejudices and passions, but at the just bar of a clement God. Here, were I only concerned, I would rest, and my answer to all complainants should be a respectful silence before- their oracles of reason and religion : but alas ! I have nine children, and my ambition is (if it be not an unpardonable presumption to compare insects with angels,) my ambition is to engage them to treat a spirit of intolerance, as Hamilcar taught Hannibal to treat the old Roman spirit of universal dominion. The enthusiastic Carthaginian parent going to offer a sacrifice to Jupiter for the success of an intended war, took with him his little son Hannibal, then only nine years of age, and eager to accompany his fatlier, led him to the altar, made him lay his little hand on the sacrifice, and swear that he would never be in friendship with the Romans. We may sanctify this thought by transferring it to other objects, and while we sing in the church glory to God in the highest, vow per- petual peace with all mankind, and reject all weapons except those which are spiritual, we may, we must declare war against a spirit of intolerance from generation to generation. Thus Moses wrote " a memorial in a book, re- hearsed it in the ears of Joshua, built an altar, called the name of it Jehovah my banner, and said. The Lord hath sworn, that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation," Exod. xvii. 14 — 16. We are neither going to contra?t human creeds with one another, nor with the Bible ; we are not going to affirm or deny any propo- sitions contained in them ; we only design to prove, that all consist of human explications XXXVlll REV. R, ROBINSON'S PREFACE. as well as divine revelation, and consequently that all arc not of equal importance, nor ought any to be imposed upon the disciples of Christ, either by those who are not disciples of the Son of God, or by those who are. The sub- ject is delicate and difficult, not through any intricacy in itself, but through a certain infeli- city of the times. An error on the one side may be fatal to revelation, by alluring us to sacrifice the pure doctrines of religion to a blind benevolence ; and on the other an error may be fatal to religion itself by inducing us to make it a patron of intolerance. We re- peat it again, a system of Christian doctrine is the object of Christian liberty ; the articles, which compose a human system of Christian doctrine, are divisible into the two classes of doctrines and explications: the first we attri- bute to Christ, and call Christian doctrines, the last to some of his disciples, and these we call Awman explications; the first are true, the last may be so ; the first execrate intolerance, the last cannot be supported without the spirit of it. I will endeavour to explain my meaning by an example : Every believer of revelation allows the aothenticity of this passage of holy Scripture, •* God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but hare everlasting life," John iii. 16. If we cast this intopropo- sitional form, it will afibrd as many propo- sitions as it contains ideas. Each idea clearly contained in the text I call an idea of Jesus Christ, a Christian sentiment, a truth of reve- lation, in a word, a Christian doctrine. Each of these ideas of the text, in forming itself into a proposition, will naturally associate with itself a few other ideas of the expletive kind, these I call secondary ideas, in distinction from the first, which I call primary ; or, in plainer etyle, ideas clearly of the text I name Chris- tian doctrines, or doctrines of Christ, and all the rest I call human explications of these doc- trines ; they may be Christian, they may not ; for I am not sure, that the next idea, which always follows a first in my mind, was the next idea to the first in the mind of Jesus Christ ; the first is certainly his, he declares it, the se- cond might be his ; but as he is silent, I can eay nothing certain ; where he stops, ray infal- libility ends, and my uncertain reason begins. The following propositions are evidently in the text, and consequently they are Christian doctrines emanating from the author of Chris- tianity, and pausing to be examined before the intelligent powers of his creatures. — There is an everlasting life, a future state of eternal happiness — the mediation of the only begotten Son of God is necessary to men's enjoyment of eternal happiness — believing in Christ is es- sential to a participation of eternal felicity — €ve«y believer in Christ shall have everlasting life — unbelievers shall perish — all the blessings of Christianity originate in God, display his love, and are given to the world. These, rue- thinks, we may venture to call primary ideas of Christianity, genuine truths of revelation : but each doctrine will give occasion to many question*, and although different expositors will agree in the matter of each proposition, they will conjecture very difierently concern- ing the manner of its operation. One disciple of Christ, whom we call Rich- ard, having read this text, having exercised his thoughts on the meaning of it, and having arranged them in the prepositional form now mentioned, if he would convince another dis- ciple, whom we name Robert, of the truth of any one of his propositions, would be oblig- ed to unfold his own train of thinking, which consists of an associated concatenation of ideas, some of which are primary ideas of Jesus Christ, and others secondary notions of his own ; additions, perhaps, of his wisdom, per- haps of his folly, perhaps of both : but all, however, intended to explicate his notion of the text, and to facilitate the evidence of his notion to his brother. Robert admits the proposition, but not exactly in Richard's sense. In this case, we assort ideas, we take what both allow to be the original ideas of our common Lord, and we reckon thus ; here are nine ideas in this proposition, numbers one, three, six, nine, genuine, : primary ideas of Christ; numbers two, four, five, secondary ideas of Richard ; numbers seven, eight, se- condary ideas of Robert ; the first constitutes a divine doctrine, the last a human explica- tion; the first forms one divine object, the last two human notions of its mode of existence, manner of operation, or something similar : but, be each what it may, it is human expli- cation, and neither synod nor senate can make it more. No divine will dispute the truth of this proposition, God gave Jesus Christ to believ- ers; for it is demonstrably in the text. To this, therefore, Beza and Zanchy, Melancthon and Luther, Calvin and Arminius, Baxter and Crisp, agree, all allowing it a Christian doctrine : but each associating with the idea of gift other ideas of time, place, relation, condition, and so on, explains the doctrine so as to contain all his own additional ideas. One class of expositors take the idea of time, and by it explain the proposition. God and believers, says one, are to be considered contemplatively before the creation in the light of Creator and creatures, abstracted from all moral considerations whatever ; then God united Christ to his church in the pure mass of creatureship, without the contemplation of Adam's fall. Another affirms, God gave a Saviour to men in design before the exist- ence of creatures : but in full contemplation, however, of the misery induced by the fall. A third says, God gave Christ to believers, not in purpose before the fall : but in promise immediately after it. A fourth adds, God gives Christ to believers on their believi^ig, by putting them in possession of the benefits of Christianity. In all these systems, the ideas of God, Christ, believers, and gift remain, the pure genuine ideas of the text ; and the association of l take the liberty of pointing out the causes of this malady, we shall also prescribe the remedy, whether our most humble remonstrances regard the people, the pastors, or even the sovereign, whose noblest office, as Avell as most sacred and inviolable du- ty, it is to watch for the support of the truth, and the government of the church. 1. The first cause that we have assigned is a parly-spirit. This is a disposition that can- not be easily defined, and it would be difficult to include in a definition of it even its genus and species : it is a monstrous composition of all bad genuses and of all bad species ; it is a hydra that reproduces while it seems to de- stroy itself, and which, when one head hath been cut off, instantly produces a thousand more. Sometimes it is superstition, which inclines us to deify certain idols, and, after ha- ving formed, to prostrate first before them. Sometimes it is ignorance which prevents our perceiviag the importance of some revealed truths, or the dreadful consequences of some prejudices that we had embraced in childhood. Sometimes it is arrogance, which rashly main- tains whetever it has once advanced, advan- ced perhaps inconsiderately, but which will afterwards be resolutely defended till death, for no other reason but because it has been once asserted, and because it is too mortifying to yield, and say, / atn wrong, I tvas mislaken. Sometimes it is a spirit of malice and barbari- t)', which abhors, exclaims against, persecutes, and would even exterminate, all who dare contradict its oracular propositions. Oftcner still it is the union of all these vices 'together. A party-spirit is that disposition which enve- noms so many hearts, separates so many fami- lies, divides so many societies, which has pro- duced so many excommunications, thundered out so many anathemas, drawn up so many ca- nons, assembled so many coimcils, and has been so often on the point of subverting the great work of the reformation, the noblest op- position that was ever formed against it. This spirit, which we have faintly described, must naturally incapacitate a man for consider- Ser. I.] CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 51 in* the whole of religion : it must naturally incline him to take it only by bits and shreds. On the one hand, it contracts the mind : for how can a soul that harbours and cherishes all the phantoms which a party-spirit produces, how can such a soul study and meditate as re- ligion requires ? On the other hand, a party- spirit depraves the heart, and eradicates the desire of knowing religion. A man animated "with the spirit of party, directs all his atten- tion to such propositions of religion as seem to favour his erroneous opinions, and irregular passions, and diverts it from all that oppose them ; his system includes only what strength- ens his party, it is exclusive of every thing that weakens or opposes it. This is the first cause of the malady. The remedy is easily discovered. Let us divest ourselves of a party-spirit. Let us never de- termine an opinion, by its agreement or disa- greement with what our mastei-s, our parents, or our teachers have inculcated, but by its con- formity or contrariety to the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Let us never receive or reject a maxim because it favours or oppo- ses our passions, but as it agrees with, or op- poses the laws of that tribunal, the basis of which are justice and truth. Let us be fully convinced that our chief study should be, to know what God determines, and to make his commands the only rules of our knowledge and practice. 2. The second cause of the evil we would remove is, The choice of teachers. In general, we have three sorts of teachers. The first are catechists, who teach our children the princi- ples of religion. The second are ministers. The third prepare the minds of young people for the ministry itself. The carelessness that prevails in the choice of the first sort of teachers cannot be sufficient- ly lamented. The care of instructing our children is committed to people more fit for disciples than masters, and the meanest talents arc thought more than sufficient to teach the first principles of religion. The narrowest and dullest genius is not ashamed to profess him- self a divine and a catechist. And yet what capacity does it not require to lay the first foundations of the edifice of salvation ! What address to take the different forms necessary to insinuate into minds of catechumens, and to conciliate their attention and love I What dex- terity to proportion instruction to the different ages and characters of learners ! How much knowledge, and how many accomplishments are necessary to discern what is fundamental to a youth of fifteen years of age ! What one child of superior talents cannot be ignorant of without danger, and what another of inferior talents may remain innocently unacquainted with 1 Heads of families, this article concerns you in a particular manner. What account can ye render to God of the cluldren with whom he has intrusted you, if, while ye take so much pains, and are at so much expense to teach them the liberal arts, and to acquaint them with human sciences, ye discover so much negligence in teaching them the know- ledge of salvation ? Not only in a future state ought ye to fear the punishment of so criminal a conduct ; ye will be punished in this present world. Children ignorant of religion will but little understand their duty to their parents. They will become the cross, as they will be the shame and infamy of your life. They will shake off" your yoke as soon as they have passed their childhood ; they will abandon you to the weakness, infii-mities, and disquietudes of old age, when you arrive at that distasteful period of life, which can be rendered agreeable only by the care, the tenderness, and assiduity of a well-bred son. Let us unite all our endea- vours, my dear brethren, to remove this evil. Let us honour an employment which nothing but the licentiousness of the age could have rendered contemptible. Let us consider that, as one of the most important trusts of the state, one of the most respectable posts of society, which is appointed to seminate religious prin- ciples in our children, to inspire them with pi- ety, to guard them against the snares that they will meet with in the world, and, by these means, to render them dutiful in childhood, faithful in conjugal life, tender parents, good citizens, and able magistrates. The pastors of our churches are our second class of teachers. I know that all our suffi- ciency is of God, 2 Cor. iii. 5. that though Paul may plant, and ApoUos water, God only givetk the increase : that holy men, considering the end of the ministry, have exclaimed. Who is sufficient for these thi7igs ? 1 Cor. iii. 6. Yet the ordinary means which God uses for the con- version of sinners, are the ministry of the word, and the qualifications of ministers, for faith cometh by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Now this word, my brethren, is not preached with equal power by all; and, though the fowidation which each lays be the same, it is too true that some build upon this foundation the gold and 'precious stones of a solid and holy doctrine, while others build with the wood, hay, and stubble, 1 Cor. iii. 12. of their own errors, the productions of a confused imagination, and a mistaken eloquence. And as the word is not preached with the same power, so it is not at- tended with the same success. But when the word proceeds from the mouth of a man whom G od has sealed, and en- riched with extraordinary talents ; when it proceeds from a man, who has the tongue of the learned and the wisdom of the wise, as the Scripture speaks, Isa. 1. 4. When it proceeds from a Boanerges, a son of thunder, from a Moses, mighty in words and in deeds, Mark iii. 17. Acts vii. 22, who maintains the dignity of his doctrine by the purity of his morals, and by the power of his good example, then the word is heard with attention ; from the ear it passes to the mind, from the mind to the heart, from the heart to the life ; it penetrates, it inflames, it transports. It becomes a hammer breaking the hardest hearts, a two-edged sivord, dividing the father from the son, the son from the fa- ther, dissolving all the bonds of flesh and blood, the connexions of nature, and the love of self. What precaution, what circumspection, and, in some sort, what dread, ought to prevail in the choice of an office, which so gi'eatly influ- 52 THE PERFECTION OP [Ser. L ences the salvation of those among whom it is exercised ! There needs only the bad system of a pastor to produce and preserve thousands of false notions of religion in the people's minds : notions, which fifty years' labour of a more wise and sensible ministry will scarcely be able to eradicate. There needs only a pas- tor sold to sordid interest to put up, in some sort, salvation to sale, and to regulate places in paradise according to the diligence or negli- gence with which the people gratify the ava- rice of him who distributes them. There needs only a pastor fretted with envy and jealousy against his brethren to poison their ministry by himself, or by his emissaries. Yea sometimes, there needs only the want of some less essential talents in a minister to give ad- vantage to the enemies of religion, and to de- prive the truths which he preaches of that pro- found respect which is their due : a respect that even enemies could not withhold, if the gospel were properly preached, and its truths exhibited in their true point of view. It would be unreasonable, perhaps, to de- velope this article now. How many of our people would felicitate themselves if we were to furnish them with pretences for imputing their unfruitfulness to those who cultivate them ! But, if this article must not be de- veloped, what grave remonstrances, what pressing exhortations, what fervent prayers, should it occasion ! Let the heads of families consider the heinousness of their conduct in presuming to offer impure victims to the Lord, end in consecrating those children to the holy ministry, in whom they cannot but discover dispositions that render them unworthy of it. May ecclesiastical bodies never assemble for the election of pastors, without making pro- found reflections on the importance of the ser- vice in which they are engaged, and the great- ness of the trust which the sovereign commits to them ! May they never ordain without re- collecting, that, to a certain degree, they will be responsible for all the sad consequences of a faithless or a fruitless ministry ! May they always prostrate themselves on these occa- sions before God, as the apostles in the same case did, and pray, ' Lord, show whom thou hast chosen,' Acts i. 24. May our rulers and magistrates be aflected with the worth of those souls whom the pastors instruct ; and may they unite all their piety, all their pity, and all their power, to procure holy men, who may adorn so eminent, so venerable a post ! What has been said on the choice of pastors still more particularly regards the election of tutoi-s, who are employed to form pastors them- selves. Universities are public springs, whence rivulets flow into all the church. Place at the head of those bodies sound philosoplicrs,.good divines, wise casuists, and they will become seminaries of pastors after God's heart, who will form the minds, and regulate the morals, of the ])eople, gently bowing them to the yoke of religion. On the contrary, place men of another cliaractcr at the head of our universi- ties, and they will simuI out impoisoned minis- ters, who will fliffuse through the whole church the fatal venom which tliemselves have imbibed. 3. The third cause which we have assigned, of the infancy and novitiate of most Christians in religious knowledge, is the multitude of their secular affairs. Far be it from us to aim at inspiring you with superstitious maxims. We do not mean that they Avho fill eminent posts in society should give that time to devo- tion which the good of the community re- quires. We allow, that in some critical con- junctures, the time appointed for devotion must be yielded to business. There are some urgent occasions when it is more necessary to fight than to pray : there are times of impor- tant business in which the closet must be sa- crificed to the cares of life, and second causes must be attended to, even when one would wish to be occupied only about the first. Yet, after all, the duty that we recommend is indis- pensable. Amidst the most turbulent solici- tudes of life, a Christian desirous of being saved, will devote some time to his salvation. Some part of the day he will redeem from the World and society, to meditate on eternity. This was the practice of those eminent saints, whose lives are proposed as patterns to us. The histories of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and David, are well known, and ye recollect those parts of their lives to which we refer, without our detaining you in a repetition now. The last cause of the incapacity of so many Christians for seeing the whole of religion in its connexion and harmony : the last cause of their taking it only by bits and shreds, is their love of sensual pleasure. We do not speak here of those gross pleasures at which heathens would have blushed, and which are incompatible with Christianity. We attack pleasures more refined, maxims for which rea- sonable persons become sometimes apologists : persons who on more accounts than one, are worthy of being proposed as examples : per- sons who would seem to be ' the salt of the earth,' the flower of society, and whom wo cannot justly accuse of not loving religion. How rational, how religious soever they ap- pear in other cases, they make no scruple of passing a great part of their time in gaming, in public diversions, in a round of worldly amusements ; in pleasures, which not only ap- pear harmless, but, in some sort, suitable to their rank, and which seem criminal only to those who think it their duty not to float on the surface of religion, but to examine the whole that it requires of men, on whom God hath bestowed tlie inestimable favour of re- vealing it. We may presume, that if we show people of this sort, that this way of life is one of the principal obstacles to their progress in religion, and prevents their knowing all its beauties, and relishing all its delights, we shall not speak without success. In order to this, pardon me if I conjure you to hear this article, not only witli attention, but with that impar- tiality which alone can enable you to know whether we utter our own speculations, or preacli the gospel of Jcsns Christ. JlecoUcct here tliat general notion of religion which we SElt. I.] CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 63 have laid down : tt contains truths of specu- lation, and truths of practice. Such sensual pleasures as we have just now mentioned, form invincible obstacles to tlie knowledge of both. I. To the knowledge of speculative truths. How is it possible for a man to obtain a com- plete system of the doctrines of tiie gospel while lie is a slave to sensual pleasures ! 1 . To obtain a complete system of the doc- trines of the gospel there must be a certain habit of thinking and meditating. In vain ye turn over whole volumes, in vain ye attend methodical sermons, in vain ye parade with bodies of divinity, ye can never comprehend the connexion of religious truths unless ye acquire a habit of arranging ideas, of laying down principles, of deducing consequences, in short of forming systems yourselves. This habit cannot be acquired witJiout exercise, it is unattainable without serious attention, and profound application. But how can peo- ple devoted to pleasure acquire such a habit .'' Sensual pleasure is an inexhaustible source of dissipation : it dissipates in preparing, it dissipates in studying, it dissipates after the etudy is at an end. 2. To counterbalance the difficulty of me- ditation and study, there must be a relish for it. Those who make study a duty, or a trade, seldom make any great progress in know- ledge : at least a prodigious difference has always been observed between the proficien- cy of those who study by inclination, and those who study by necessity. But nothing is more capable of disgusting us with the epiritual pleasures of study and meditation than the love of sensual pleasures. We will not intrude into the closets of these persons. But is there not a prodigious difference be- tween their application to study and their attention to pleasure .' The one is a violence ofFeied to themselves, the other a voluptuous- ness after which they sigh. The one is an in- tolerable burden, eagerly shaken off as soon as the time appointed expires : the other is a delicious gratification, from whicli it is pain- ful to part, when nature exhausted can sup- port it no longer, or troublesome duty de- mands a cessation. In the one, hours and moments are counted, and the happiest period is that which terminates the pursuit : but in the other, time glides awa}'^ imperceptibly, and people wish for the power of prolonging the course of the day, and the duration of life. 3. To acquire a complete knowledge of re- ligious truths, it is not enougli to study them in the closet, in retirement and silence ; we must converse with others who study tliem too. But the love of sensual pleasure indis- poses us for such conversations. Slaves to sensual pleasures have but little taste for those delicious societies, whose mutual bond is utility, in whicli impartial inquirers pro- pose their doubts, raise their objections, com- municate their discoveries, and reciprocally assist each other's edification : for, deprive those who love sensual pleasures, of ganiiiif and diversions, conversation instantly lan- guishes, and converse is at an end. But, secondly, if the love of sensual plea- H sure raise such great obstacles to the know- ledge of speculative truths, it raises incom- parably greater still to the truths of practice. There are some Scripture maxims which are never thought of by tlie persons in question, except it be to enervate and destroy tliem ; at least, they make no part of their system of morality. In your system of morality, what becomes of this Scripture ma.xim, ' evil communica- tions corrupt good manners .'' 1 Cor. xv. 33. Nothing forms connexions more intimate, and at tlie same time more extravagant, than an immoderate love of pleasure. Men who dif- fer in manners, age, rehgion, birth, principles, educations, are all united by this bond. The passionate and the moderate, the generous and the avaricious, the young and the old, agree to exercise a mutual condescension and patience towards each other, because the same spirit actuates, and tlie same necessi- ties haunt them ; and because the love of pleasure, which animates them all, can only be gratified by the concurrence of each indi- vidual. In your system of morality, what becomes of those maxims of Scripture, which say that we must ' confess Jesus Christ before men,' that ' whosoever shall be ashamed of him be- fore men, of liiin will he be ashamed when he Cometh in the glory of his Father .-" Matt. X. 32. Mark viii. 38. A man who is engaged in the monstrous assembly which the love of pleasure forms, mast hear religion disputed, the morality of the gospel attacked, good manners subverted, the name of God blas- phemed : and he must hear all these without daring to discover the sentiments of his heart, because, as I just now observed, patience and compliance animate that body to which he is attached by such necessary and intimate ties. In your system of morality, what becomes of those Scripture maxims, which threaten those with the greatest punishments who in- jure others ? The love of sensual pleasure causes offences of the most odious kind ; I mean, it betrays your partners in pleasure into vice. Ye game without avarice ; but do ye not excite avarice in tiie minds of those who play with you .' Ye do not injure your families ; but do ye not occasion other men to injure theirs f Ye are guilty of no fraud ; but do ye not tempt others to be fraudulent f What becomes in your moral system of tliose maxims of Scripture that require us to contribute to the the excision of ' all wicked doers from the city of the Lord,' Psal. ci. 8. to discountenance those wiio commit a crime as well as to renounce it ourselves .' The love of sensual pleasure makes us countenance people of tlie most irregular conduct, whose snares are the most dangerous, whose exam- ples are the most fatal, whose conversations are the most j)ernicious to our children and to our families, to civil society and to the church of God. In your system of morality, what becomes of those maxims of Scripture which expostu- late witli us, when the Lord chnstiseth us, to ' be afflicted and mourn, to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God ; to enter into our chambers, and shut the doors about us, ta 54 THE PERFECTION OF CHRISTIAN KNOWLEIXJE. [Ser. L hido onrsclvcs until the Indignation be over- East ; to examine ourselves before the decree ring forth ; to prepare ourselves to meet our God, to hear the rod, and who hath appoint- ed it,' James iv. 9. 1 Pet. v. 6. Isa. xxvi. 20. Zeph. ii. ], 2. Amos iv. 12. Mieah vi. 9. to mourn in sackcloth and ashes ; and while we feel present miseries, to remember those that are past, tremble for tliose that are yet to come, and endeavour by extraordinary efforts to avert the anger of heaven .' The love of sensual pleasure turns away people's atten- tion from all these maxims, and represents those who preach them as wild visionaries, or dry declaimers. The people of whom we speak, these pious people, these people who love their salvation, these people who pretend to the glory of being proposed for examples, can in times of the deepest distress, when the church is bathed in tears, while the arm of God is crushing our brethren and our allies, Avhen the same terrible arm is lifted over us, when we are threatened with extreme mise- ries, when the scourges of God are at our gates, when there needs only the arrival of one ship, the blowing of one wind, the waft- ing of one blast, to convey pestilence and plague into our country ; these people can . . . . O God ! ' open their eyes that they may see !' 2 Kings vi. 17. In your system of morality, what becomes of Scripture exhortations to ' redeem the time, to know the time of our visitation, to do all that our hands find to do, because there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither we go t' The love of pleasure inclines mortals, who may die in a few days, people who perhaps have only a few days to bid their last adieus, to embrace their families, to settle their tempo- ral affairs, to examine the neglected parts of religion, to re-establish the injured reputation of a neighbour, in a word, to prepare them- selves to appear before that terrible tribunal to which death cites them : the love of sen- sual pleasure inclines these poor creatures, who have so short a time to live, and so great a task to perform ; the love of sensual plea- sure inclines these people to waste a consider- able part of this fleeting life in amusements, that obliterate both the shortness of life, and the necessity of death. How often have we seen old age as greedy of pleasure as youth ! how often have we seen people bowing under the weight of age, how often have we seen them, even when their trembling hands could scarcely hold the cards, or the dice, make their feeble efforts to game ; and, when their decayed eyes were incapable of distinguishing the spots, assist nature by art, their natural sight with artifi- cial glasses, and thus consecrate the remains, those precious remains, of life to gaming, which God had granted for repentance ! All these causes of the infancy and noviti- ate of Christians in regard to religion, unite in one, which in finishing this discourse, we cannot but lament, nor can. we lament it too much. We do not understand our own reli- gion : we are, most of us, incapable of jier- ceiving the admirable order, the beautiful aymmetry, of its component parts. Why.' It is because wo have so little zeal for our sal- vation ; it is because we form such languid desires to be saved. Indeed I know, that, except some unnatu- ral creatures, except some monsters, to whom this discourse is not addressed, every body professes to desire to be saved, yea, to prefer salvation to whatever is most pompous m the universe, and most pleasant in this life. But, when the attainment of it in God's way is in question, in the only way that agrees with the holiness of his nature to direct, and with our happiness to obey, what a number of peo- ple do we meet with, whose desires vanish ? I desire to be saved, says each to himself ; I desire to be saved, but not by such a religion as the gospel prescribes, such as Jesus Christ preached, such as the apostles and ministers of the gospel preach after him ; but I desire to be saved by such a religion as I have con- ceived, such a one as gratifies my passions and caprices. I desire to be saved, but it is on condition, that, while I obey some of the precepts of Jesus Christ, he will dispense with my obedience of others. I desire to be saved : but not on condition of my correcting my prejudices, and submitting them to the precepts of Jesus Clirist ; but on condition that the precepts of Jesus Christ should yield to my prejudices. I desire to be saved : but on condition of retaining my prepossessions, the system that I have arranged, the way of life that I pursue, and intend to pursue till I die. To desire salvation in this manner is too common a disposition among Christians. But to desire salvation in saying to God, with a sincere desire of obeying his voice, ' Lord, what v/ilt thou have me to do .'' Acts ix. 6. ; Lord, what wilt thou have me to believe .' Lord, what wilt thou have me to love .' Lord, what inclinations wilt thou have me to op- pose, to mortify, to sacrifice .'' To be willing to be saved in receiving, without exception, all the practical truths, which compose an essential part of that religion which God has given us : Ah ! my brethren, how rare is this disposition among Christians ! Without this disposition, however, (and let us not be ingenious to deceive ourselves,) without this disposition there is no salvation. It implies a contradiction to say that God will save us in an}' other way : for as it is contradictory to say that he will give to an equal number the qualities of an unequal number, or to bodies the properties of spirits, or to spirits the properties of bodies ; so also is it a contradiction to say, that vice shall reap the rewards of virtue, that the highway to hell is the path to paradise. So that notliing remains in concluding this discourse but to ask you, what are your in- tentions .' What designs have ye formed .' What projects do ye resolve to pursue .' What are your aims .'' Have ye any thing more precious than your souls .'' Can ye conceive a nobler hope than that of being saved ? Can ye propose a more advantageous end than your own salvation ? Can ye persuade your- selves that there is a greater felicity than tho fruition of God .' Will ye destroy yourselves ? Do ye renounce those delightful hopes that are set before you in the gospel .' And shall Seb. II.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 65 all the fruit of our ministry be to accuse and confound you before God ? Young man, thou mayest live fifty or sixty years : but at the expiration of those fifty or sixty years, time finishes and eternity begins. People of mature age, your race is partly run ; ten, fifteen, or twenty years more, through the dissipations and employments inseparable from your lives, will vanish with an incon- ceivable rapidity ; and then, time finishes and eternity begins with you. And ye old peo- ple, a few years, a few months, a few days more, and behold your race is at an end ; be- hold your time finishes and your eternity be- gins. And can we resist tliis idea ? Alas ! what hearts ! what Christians ! what a church ! Grant, Almighty God, that our prayers may supply the defect of our exhortations ; may we derive from thy bosom of infinite mercies what we despair of obtaining from the insensibility of our hearers ! O thou Au- thor of religion, thou divine Spirit, from whom alone could proceed tliis beautiful system which thou hast condescended to reveal to us, impress it in all its parts on our minds. Pluck up every plant which thy good hand hath not planted. Triumph over all the obstacles that our sins oppose to thine empire. Shut the gulfs of hell. Open the gates of heaven. Save us, even in spite of ourselves. Amen. To the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, dominion and power, for ever. Amen. SERMON II. THE ETERNITY OF GOD. Proac-bcd In tlie Frejich Church at Rotterdam, on the first Lord's Day of the Year 1734. 2 Pet. iii. 6, Beloved, be not ignorant of this one things that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. We could not meditate on the words which you have heard, my brethren, without recol- lecting that miraculous cloud wliich conduct- ed the Israelites tlirough the desert. It was all luminous on one side, and all opake on the other.* The Jews say that it was the throne, or the triumphal chariot, of tliat Angel who marched at the head of the camp of Israel ; of that Angel whom they call the Prince of the world, the Schckinah, the presc7ice of the divine Majesty, the Deity itself. It is not needful to examine tliis opinion. I do not know whether the pillar of a cloud were a throne of God, but it was a beautiiul symbol of the Deity. What is the Deity in regard to us .' If it bo the most radiant of all light, it is at the same time the most covered with dark- ness. Let the greatest philosophers, let tlie most extraordinary geniuses, elevate their me- ditations, and take the loftiest fliglits of which they are capable, in order to penetrate into the nature of the divine essence, the stronger efforts they make to understand this fearful subject, the more will they be absorbed in it : theniglier tliey approach the rays of this sun, the more will they be dazzled with its lustre. But yet, let the feeblest and most confined genius seek instructions, in meditating on the divine grandeurs, to direct his faith, to regu- late his conduct, and to sweeten the miseries that embitter, this valley of tears ; he shall happily experience what the prophet did : * does he look to him ? he shall be lightened,' Ps. xxxiv. 5. God presents himself to your eyes to-day, * See Uabbi Menacliemin Parasch. Beschalec. Exod. xiv. 19. fol. 63. edit, de Vcniee 5283. S. as he once presented himself to the Israelites in that marvellous phenomenon. Light on one side, darkness on the otlier. ' A thousand years are with the Lord as one day, and one day as a thousand years.' Let the greatest philosopliers, let those extraordinary beings in whose formation God seems to have united an angelic intelligence to a human body, let them preach in our stead, let them fully ex- plain tlie words of my te.xt. From what abysses of existence does tlie perfect Being derive that duration, which alike overspreads the present,, the future, and the past .' how conceive a continuation of existence without conceiving a successicm of time .' how con- ceive a succession of time, without conceiv- ing that he who is subject to it acquires what he had not before .' how atllrm that he who acquires what he had not before, considers 'a thousand years as one day, and one day as a thousand years V So many questions, so many abysses, obscurities, darknesses, for poor mortals. But if ye confine yourselves to a conviction of the truth of the words of my text ; particu- larly, if yc desire to consider them in regard to the influence whicli they ought to have on your conduct, ye will behold light issuing from every part, nor is there any one in this assembly who may not approach it with con- fidence. This has encouraged us to turn our attention to a subject, whicli at first sight, seems more likely to confound than to edify us. St. Peter aims to rouse the piety of Chris- tians by the idea of that great day wherein the world must be reduced to ashes ; when the new heavens and a new earth shall appear to the children of God. Libertines regarded 56 THE ETERNITY OF GOD. [SZR. II. that day as a diiroera. ' Where (said they) is the proniieo of tho Lord's coming : for since the fathers fell asleep, all tilings continue as they were from the beginning ol the creation V 2 Pet. iii. 4. &c. Tlie words of my text are an answer to this objection ; an idea which we will presently explain, but which ye must; at least in a vague maimer, retain all along, if ye mean to follow us in this discourse, in which we would wish to include all the dif- ferent views of the apostle. In order to which three things are necessary. I. We will examine our text in itself, and endeavour to establish this proposition, That one (lay is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thovsnnd yrurs as one day. II. We will prove what we have advanced ; that is, that St. Peter's design in these words was to answer the objections of libertines against the doctrine of the conflagration of the world ; and we will show you that they completely answer the purpose. III. We will draw from this doctrine, secu- red against the objections of libertines, such motives to piety as the apostle presents us with. In considering these words in this point of light, we will apply them to your present cir- cumstances. I'he renewal of the year, pro- perly understood, is only tlie anniversary of the vanity of our life, and thence the calls to detach yourselves from the world. And what can be more proper to produce such a detachment than this reflection, that not only the years which we must pass on earth are consuming, but also that the years of the world's subsistence are already consumed in part, and that the time approaches, in which it must be delivered to the flames, and redu- ced to ashes ? Let us first consider the words of our text in themselves, and let us prove this proposi- tion, ' one day is witJi the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.' The notion which I have of God is my prin- ciple : the words of my text are the conse- quence. If I establish the principle, the con- sequence will be incontestable. 1. Etcr/iity. — 2. Perfect knoulcdge, and, in some sort, the sight and presence of all that has been, of all that is, and of all that shall be. — 3. Supreme happiness : are three ideas which form my notion of the Deity : this is my principle. ' A thousand years' tlien ' are as one daj', and one day as a thousand years with the Lord:' this is my consequence. Let us prove the truth of the principle, by justifying the notion which we form of the Deity. L God is an eternal being. This is not a chimera of my mind ; it is a truth accompanied with all the evidence of which a proposition is capable, I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least you seem to hear me. These are facts, the certainty of which all the philosophers in the world can never destroy. I am not able to new-mould myself, nor can I help the per- ception of truths, the knowledge of which (if I may be allowed to say so) is as essential to me as my own existence. It does not depend on me not to regard Pyrrho and Academus, those famous defenders of doubt and uncer- tainty, as fools who extinguished tiie light of common aeiise, or rather as impostors, wlio prononnced propositions with their months, the falsity of which it was impossible their minds should not perceive. I repeat it again, the most subtle objections of all the philoso- phers in the world united, can never diminish in me that impression which the perception of my own existence makes on my mind, nor hinder my evidence of the truth of these pro- positions ; I exist, I speak, you hear me, at least (for with the people wliom I oppose, one must weigh each expression, and, in some sort, each syllable) at least I have the same impressions as if there were beings before my eyes who heard me.* If I am sure of my own existence, I am no less sure that I am not the author of it my- self, and that I derive it from a superior Be- ing. Were I altogether ignorant of the his- tory of the world ; if I had never heard that I was only ' of yesterday,' as the Psalmist speaks, Psal. xc. 4 ; if I knew not that my pa- rents, who were born like me, are dead ; were I not assured that I should soon die ; if I knew nothing of all this, yet I should not doubt whether I owed my existence to a su- perior Being. I can never convince myself that a creature so feeble as I am, a creature whose least desires meet with insurmounta- ble obstacles, a creature who cannot add ' one cubit to his stature,' Matt. v. 27, a creature who cannot prolong his own life one single instant, one who is forced to yield, willing or ■unwilling, to a greater power which cries to him, ' Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return,' Gen. iii. 19; I can never convince mj'self that such a creature existed from all eternity, much less that he owes his existence only to himself, and to the eminence of his own perfections. It is then sure that I exist : it is also certain that I am not the author of my own existence. This certainty is all I ask, I ask only these two propositions, I exist, I am not the author of my own existence, to convince me that there is an eternal Being. Yes, though a revelation emanating from the bosom of Omni- science had never given me this idea of the Divinity ; though Moses had never pronoun- ced this oracle, ' before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed tho earth and the world, even from everlasting thou art God,' Psalm xc. 2 ; though the four and twenty elders, who surround tLe throne of God, had never rendered homage to his eternity, or, prostratmg before him, inces- santly cried, ' We give thee thanks, Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come. Rev. xi. 17 ; though the eternal Being had never said of himself, ' I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,' Rev. i. 8 ; yea, though the eternal Being had never convinced me of his grandeur, by the works of his hands, if I had been all alone in the nature of beings, I should have been forced to admit an eternal Being. And this proposition, 'There is an eternal Being,' naturally flows from those, I exist, and I am not the author of my own ex- istence, for if I be not the author of my own CKistencc, I owe it to another Being. That Being to whom I owe my existence, derives * Des Cartes reasoned in the same manner, and made Kgo eo^o, erga sum, I think, thcrf/ore, J am, the first axiom of his system. J. !^. S«R. II.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 57 his from himself, or like me, owes it to ano« ther. If he exist of himself, behold the eter- nal Being whom I have been seeking ; if lie derive his existence from another, I reason about him as about the former. Thus I ascend, thus I am constrained to ascend, till I arrive at that Being who exists of himself, and who has always so existed. Let such of you, my brethren, as cannot follow this reasoning', blame only themselves. Let not such people say, These are abstruse and metaphysical reflections, which should never be brought into these assemblies. It is not fair that the incapacity of a small num- ber, an incapacity caused by their voluntary attachment to sensible things, and (so to speak) by their criminal interment in matter ; it is not right that this should retard the edi- fication of a whole people, and prevent the proposing of the first principles of natural religion. Eternity enters then into the idea of the creative Being ; and this is what wo proposed to prove. 2. ' Omniscience, intimate acquaintance, and, in a manner, the presence of all that is, of all that has been, of all that shall be,' is the second idea which we form of the Deity. The more we meditate on the essence and Belf-existence of the eternal Being, the more are we convinced that omniscience necessa- rily belongs to eternity : so that to have proved that God possesses the first of these attributes, is to have proved that he possess- es the second. But, as I am certain, that a great number of my hearers would charge those reflections with obscurity, of which they are ignorant only through their own inatten- tion, I will not undertake to prove, by a chain of propositions, that the eternal Being knows all things : tliat, as author of all, he knows the nature of all ; that, knowing the nature of all, he knows what must result from all. It will be better to give you this sub- ject ready digested in our Holy Scriptures, than to oblige you to collect it by your own meditation. Recall then on this article these expressions of the sacred writers: ' O Lord, thou knowest all things,' John xxi. 17. — ' The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it .' I the Lord search the heart and try the reins,' Jer. xvii. 9, 10. — Known unto him are all his works from the beginning,' Acts xv. 18. — The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, Heb. iv. 12, &c. Some interpreters think, that by the icurd of God, we must understand here, not the gos- pel of Jesus Christ, as the phrase is gener- ally understood, but his person. If this be St. Paul's idea, he uses, methinks, the same metaphysical reasoning which we have pro- posed : that is, that he who created all, knows all. Observe how this reasoning is followed and developed in the apostle's words. The Word of God, or, as it is in the Greek, the Logos, the Word of God is quick and power- ful; that is to say, that as Jesus Christ, as God, has a fund of life and existence, he has also freely and effectually communicated life and existence to others. In this sense it is elsewhere said, that 'by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principal- ities, or powers,' Col. i. 16. And in St. John's Gospel, ' In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,' John i. 1. 3. But this Word, quick and powerful, who has given being to all, perfectly knows all ; sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ; neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' Omniscience, inti- mate knowledge, and, as I said before, the presence of all that is, of all that was, of all that shall be, are as essential to God as eter- nity. This also, we hope, is sufl[iciently proved. 3. Supreme felicity is the third idea which we have formed of God ; it flows immediate- ly from the two first. Every intelhgent be- ing is capable of happiness, nor can he re- gard happiness with indifference ; he is in- clined by his very nature to render himself happy. He cannot love misery as misery; he never suffers a present misery but in hopes of a future pleasure ; or else he sup- ports a misery because it appears to him more tolerable than the means proposed to deliver him. Even those who have wilfully plunged themselves into the gulfs of hell, in a fit of black melancholy, would not have taken that dreadful step, had they not revolved this me- lancholy imagination in their distracted minds, that the assurance of being plunged into hell is less tolerable than hell itself. It implies a contradiction, that an intelligent being, capable of being happy or miserable, should be indiff'erent to his own happiness or misery. If any thing be wanting to the fe- licity of God, the defect must not be attri- buted to his will, the cause must be souo-ht in his weakness, that is, in his want of power. But who can conceive that a Being who existed from all eternity, who gave existence to all things, and who knows all things, has only a finite and limited power .'' I am well aware of the difficulty of following the at- tributes of the Deity, and that, in the great- est part of our reasonings on this grand sub- ject, we suppose what ought to be proved. But as far as we are capable of penetrating this profound subject, we have grounds for reasoning in this manner : God has given being to all things, and he saw what must result from them ; it depended then entirely on him to form the plan of the world or not to form it ; to be alone or to impart exist- ence : it depended on him to form the plan of such a world as we see, or to form ano- ther plan. He has followed, in the choice which he has made, that which was most 58 THE ETERNITY OF GOD. [Seb. II. E roper for his own glory. If, to these fee- le speculations, we join the infallible testi- mony of revelation, we shall find a perfect agreement with our ideas on this article ; that the Creator is the happy God by excel- lence, 1 Tim. i. 41,* and that because he is eternal and omniscient, he must for those very reasons be infinitely happy. This arti- cle also is sufficiently proved. These three ideas of the Deity are three sources of proofs, in favour of St. Peter's proposition in the words of my text, ' a thou- sand years before the Lord are as one day, and one day as a thousand years.' God is an eternal Being. 'Then ' a thousand years with him are as one day, and one day as a thousand years ;' that is to say, ' a thou- sand years and one day' are such inconsider- able measures of duration, that, whatever disproportion they have to each other, they appear to have none when compared with the duration of eternity. There is a great difference between one drop of water and twenty tliousand baths which were contained in that famous vessel in Solomon's temple, wliich, on account of its matter and capacity, was called the sea of brass, 1 Chron. xviii. 8 ; but this vessel itself, in comparison of the sea, properly so called, was so small, that when we compare all it could contain, with the sea, the twenty thousand baths, that is, one hundred and sixty thousand pounds weight, appear only as a drop of wa- ter. The extreme difference between tliat quantity of water and a little drop vanishes when compared with the ocean. One drop of water with the sea is as twenty thousand baths, and twenty thousand baths are as one drop of water. There is a great difference between the light of a taper and tliat of a flambeau; but expose both to the light of the sun, and their difference will be imper- ceptible. The light of a little taper before the sun is as the light of a flambeau, and the light of a flambeau as that of a little taper. In like manner, eternal duration is so great an object, that it causes every thing to dis- appear that can be compared with it. A thousand years are no more before this than one day, nor one day than a thousand years; and these two terms, so unequal in them- selves, seem to have a perfect equality when compared with eternity. We, minute crea- tures, we consider a day, an hour, a quarter of an hour, as a very little space in the course of our lives ; we lose witliout scru- ple a day, an hour, a quarter of an hour : but we are very much to blame ; for this day, this hour, this quarter of an hour, should we even live a whole age, would be a con- siderable portion of our life. But, if we at- tend to the little probability of our living a whole age; if we reflect that this little space of time, of which we are so profuse, is the only space we can call our own ; if we seri- ously think that one quarter of an hour, that one hour, that one day, is perhaps the only * 1 Tim. i. 11. bicnheurtiiz dieu, (Uaxa^/ic ©sic. ;fX*KUg^toc, quasi /uiyet. ^duguv, id est, mullum ct valde gaudcns .- bealus J)eus, que sibi siifficicns crat ad bcati- hulinem. Vide Nov. Teat. GriEC. cum notis, Lon- dlni, 17G8. time given us to prepare our accounts, and to decide our eternal destiny ; we should have reason to acknowledge, that it was madness i to lose tlie least part of so short a life. But God revolves (if I may venture to say so) in the immense space of eternity. Heap millions of ages upon millions of ages, add new millions to new millions, all this is no- thing in comparison of the duration of the eternal Being. In this sense, ' a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a thou- sand years.' 2. God knows all. Then, ' a thousand years are with him as one day, and one day as a thousand years ;' because he sees no more in a thousand years than in one day; be- cause he sees as much in one day as he can see in a thousand years. Ignorance and un- certainty are the principal causes that make us think a short space of time a long dura- tion ; especially, when our ignorance and un- certainty respect things which we ardently desire to know : ' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,' Prov. xiii. 12, is a saying of the wise man. The very time in which we are in suspense about an apprehended evil, is in- supportable to us. It seems to us, while we expect a fatal sentence, that we are every moment suffering its execution. God knows all. He sees all that was, all that is, all that ever will be. The moment which he assigned for the formation of thia universe, is as present to his mind as that which he has determined for its destruction. He knows the success of the various plans which at present exercise the speculations of the greatest geniuses, and which occasion an infinite number of different opinions among politicians. He knows to what lengths that tyrant, who is the scourge of the whole earth, shall carry his rage. He knows how long that empire shall maintain its dignity, which at present subsists with so much glory. He knows during what space Antichrist shall yet oppose the dominion of the king Mes- siah ; and when the king Messiah shall make him lick the dust. He knows when the air shall resound with that comfortable exclama- tion, ' Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit I' Rev. xviii. 2. 3. In fine, God is supremely happy. Then, ' a tliousand years with him are as one day, and one day as a thousand years.' In the en- joyment of perfect happiness, the duration of time is im])erceptible. Placed, as we are, my dearest brethren, in this valley of mise- ries, tasting only imperfect and embittered pleasures, it is very difficult for us to con- ceive the impression whicli felicity makes on an intelligence supremely happy. If the en- joyment of some small good makes us con- ceive, to a certain degree, a state in which ages appear moments, the miseries insepara- rablc from our lives presently replunge us in- to a state in which moments appear ages ; in which sorrows of the body, and sorrows of the mind, frequently less tolerable than those of the body, so powerfully apply our minds to each indivisible space of time spent in pain, that we think our sufferings liave been long, when wc have scarcely begun to suffer. But Ser. II.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 69 God is always happy, and always supremely happy; he always enjoys that perfect felicity, which makes a thousand years, ten thousand milhons of years, vanish with an inconceiva- ble rapidity. It would be unhappy not to en- joy this kind of felicity more than ten or twelve millions of years, because the impres- sion which that felicity would make on tiie soul would be so powerful and lively, that it would render him who enjoyed it insensible to time; time would expire, and he would hardly perceive that he had enjoyed any thing, even when he had possessed happiness as long as I have supposed. God would be unhappy (allow me this expression) if his felicity were not eternal. But this is one of the subjects which must intimidate a preacher through the difficulty he meets with in furnishing matter. We must have ideas beyond human. We must have terms which mankind have not yet invented. We ourselves must have participated the felicity of God ; we must Bpeak to men who also had partaken of it ; and afterwards, we must have agreed toge- ther on a new language to express each idea excited by the happiness, of which we had made so blessed an experience. Represent to yourselves a Being, or rather think, think, my dear hearers, on the difficulty of repre- senting a Being, who, having in the prodi- gious capacity of his intelligence all possible plans of this universe, has preferred that which appeared to him the wisest, the best, the most conformable to the holiness of his attributes ; represent a Being who has exe- cuted this plan, a Being who has created in this vast extent which our imagination fan- cies, in that which our whole mind, more capable still of conceiving grand objects than our imagination alone, or our senses admire ; represent to yourselves a Being who has cre- ated whatever is most capable of contribut- ing to perfect felicity ; represent a Being who loves, and who is beloved by objects worthy of his love ; a Being who knows how to repress the madness of those who rebel against his empire ; a Being who shares his felicity with spirits, whom he esteems, and by whom he is esteemed above all things ; a Being who has the pleasure of rendering the objects of his esteem happy, and wlio acknowledge that all their happiness comes from him ; spirits who continually praise the author of their felicity, and who, casting their crowns at his feet, incessantly cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts ; the whole earth is full of thy glory,' Tsa. vi. 3 : repre- sent to yourselves a Being who is approved by intelligences skilful in virtues, in gran- deurs, in objects worthy of praise ; a Being who loves only order, and who has power to maintain it ; a Being who is at the summit of felicity, and who knows that he shall be so for ever. O ages ! O millions of ages ! O thousands of millions of ages ! O duration, the longest that can be imagined by an in- telligence composed (if I may speak so) of all intelligences, how short must ye appear to so happy a JBeing ! There is no time with him ; there is no measure of time. One thou- sand years, ten thousand years, one quarter of an hour, one instant, is almost the same. ' A thousand years are with him as one day, and one day.as a thousand years.' We have considered our text in itself; we will now show tlie end of the apostle in proposing it, and that it was very proper to answer that end. This is our second part. St. Peter, as we said before, St. Peter meant to refute the odious objections of somo profane persons of his own time, who pre- tended to make the doctrine of a universal judgment doubtful, and who said, in order to obscure its truth, or enervate its evidence, ' Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things remain as they were .'' 2 Pet. iii. 4. I am aware that this comment is disputed, and some have thought that the destruction of Jerusalem was the subject of this whole chapter, and not the end of the world ; but, however averse we are to the decisive tone, we will venture to demonstrate that the apostle had far greater objects in view than the fatal ca- tastrophes of the Jewish nation. This I think clearly appears, 1. By the nature of the objection which libertines made. 'Where is the promise of his coming, for since the fathers fell asleep all things remain as they were .=" These liber- tines did not mean that from the beginning of the world the commonwealth of Israel had suffered no considerable alteration ; they did not mean from that false principle to draw tliis false consequence, that Jerusalem would always remain as it then was. How could they be such novices in the history of their nation, as not to know the sad vicissitudes, the banishments and the plunderings, which the Jews had undergone ? They meant, that though some particular changes had happened in some parts of the world, "the generahty of creatures had always remained in the same state ; thence they pretended to conclude that they would always remain so. This appears further by the manner in which the apostle answers them in the verses preceding the text. He alleges against them the example of the deluge. ' This,' says he, ' they are willingly ignorant of, that tke world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished,' vcr. 5, C. To this he adds, ' the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the things that are therein shall be burnt up,' ver. 10. On which we reason thus : The world that was formerly destroyed with water, is the same which shall be destroyed by fire ; but the world that wa» destroyed with water, was not the Jewish nation only : St. Peter then predicts a de- struction more general than that of the Jews. 3. This appears further by this considera- tion. The people to whom St. Peter wrote did not live in Judea, but were dispersed through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These people could have but little to do with the destruction of Jerusalem. Whether Jesus Christ terminated the dura- tion of that city suddenly or slowly, was a question that regarded tlicm indirectly only ; but the day of which St. Peter sjieaks, inter- oo THE ETERNITY OF GOD. [Ser. n. ests an Christians, and St. Peter exliorts all Christians to prepare for it, as being person- ally concerned in it. 4. Add a fourth consideration, taken from what follows our text, ver. 15, 16. ' Even as our beloved brother Paul also speaks of these things, in which are some things hard to be tinderstood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, wrest unto their own destruction.' What are these things hard to he understood ? Many interpreters, ancient and modern, have thought that the doctrine of justification was intended ; a doctrine established by St Paul, and wrested by many to their own destruc- tion, as from thence they concluded that good works were useless. But, I think, it is more probable that St. Peter designs some parts of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, where the apostle had spoken as if the day of judg- ment was very nigh, 1 Thess. iv. 13, &c. and in V. 1. &.C. and from which many concluded, that it would immediately appear, and the mistake caused a general subversion of so- ciety. Since then, St. Paul had spoken of the day of judgment, and St. Peter speaks of the same things, it follows, that St. Peter de- signed to establish the truth of a general judgment, against those infidels who had en- deavoured to subvert it. But how is what the apostle says, ' one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day ;' how is such a proposition proper to refute the odious objec- tion of infidels, who said, ' Where is the pro- mise of his coming .'' If a man who possesses great riches, promise a small sum to an indi- gent person, if he defer the fulfilment of his promise, in vain ye endeavour to e.xculpate him by saying, the promiser is so opulent that a small sum with him is as great riches, and great riches are as a small sura. In like manner, to say that ' a thousand years with God are as one day, and one day as a thousand years,' is tha't to answer the objection .' The question is not what the time of delay is to the eternal Being ; the question is, what that time is to poor mortals, who are confined to the earth, loaded with miseries, and to whom one day is as a thousand years, and not a thousand years as one day. This difficulty is solved by the connexion ©four text with the following verses: 'Be- loved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand 3'ears, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to •usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' This answer is conclusive, as ye will more fully perceive by the following paraphrase. The delay of the day of judgment may be consid- ered either in relation to men who must be judged, or to God himself who will judge them. If ye consider it in regard to men who must be judged, they have no room to complain that God defers this important pe- riod ; on the contrary, they ought to consider the pretended slackness of which they com- plain, as an effect of the adorable love of their judge, who invites them to conversion. The manner in which God ordinarily takes men out of this life, is much more proper to In- cline them to conversion than the terrible retinue of his coming to judgment. How ter- rible will his appearance be ! What eye will not be dazzled .'' Whose conscience will not be alarmed .' Here blow the trumpets, the dreadful sounds of which proclaim the ap- proach of the Judge of this universe. There, the heavens, which once opened to receive the Son of God, open again that he may re- turn to the earth, to execute his threateninga on rebellious men. Here, earth and sea re- store the bodies which they have devoured. There, those thousand thousands, those ten thousand times ten thousa/id, who are contin- ually before God, Dan. vii. 10, offer their min- istry to him, and are the witnesses, admirers, and executors of his judgment. Here, open the eternal books, in which so many unright- eous thoughts, so many unprofitable words, so many criminal actions, have been register- ed. There, sentences are preparing, desti- nies determining, final decrees just pronounc- ing. Who then could have presence of mind enough to recur to genuine repentance, even supposing there were yet time for repent- ance .'' Men then have no reason to complain that the day of judgment is not yet come, ' The Lord is patient towards all men, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' If ye consider the pretended delay of judg- ment in regard to God, as ye have considered it in regard to men, ye will readily acknow- ledge, that what appears delay to you, does not appear so to him. Why .' Because ' a thousand years are with him as one day, and one day as a thousand years ;' because thia long term that offends you is but as an instant to the perfect Being. It seems to me that this reasoning is con- clusive. This shall suffice for the present. Let us conclude, and let us employ the few moments which remain, to infer from the doctrine of the general conflagration, secured against the objections of libertines, such mo- tives to piety as the apostle intended we should draw from them. ' Beloved, be not ig- norant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack con- cerning his promise, as some 'men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat ; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up.' This is the doctrine that the apostle establishes. * Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God ?' This is the consequence which he deduces ; the justness of which in- ference will appear by five descriptions, which the general conflagration traces before your eyes : 1. A description of the power of out Judge. 2. A description of the horrors of vice. 3. A description of the vanity of the Ser. II.] THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 61 present world. 4. A description of the beau- ties of tlie world to come. 5. A description of the excellence of piety. This is the third part, and the conclusion of this discourse. 1. The destruction of the universe affords us a picture of the power of our Judge. How powerful, my brethren, is this Judge ! ' Who can resist his will .-" Rom. ix. 19. Once there was no sea, no earth, no firmament ; one frightful night covered the whole face of the universe. He said (Gen. i. 3), and all these beings appeared : now we behold a sea, an earth, and a firmament. He will say, and the sea shall be dry, and the earth shall be con- sumed, the stars shall disappear, the firma- ment shall be found no more. Such is the God whom the sinner attacks. A God ' who taketh up the isles as a very little thing,' Isa. xl. 15. A God who ' removeth the mountains and overturneth them in his anger, who sha- keth the earth out of her place, and the pil- lars thereof tremble. A God, who command- eth the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars ; who doth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number,' Job ix. 5— -7. 10. This, sinner, is the God whom thou attackest. But doth the idea of a God so powerful never excite terror in thy rebel- lious soul .' * Do we provoke the Lord to jeal- ousy .'' 1 Cor. X. 22 : are we stronger than he ? — ' Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered ? — Can any resist my power .'" Job. ix. 4. ' Who would set the thorns and briars against me in battle ? I would go through them, I would burn them together. O let them make peace with me, and they shall make peace with me,' Isa. xxvii. 4, 5. 2. The conflagration of the universe affords us a picture of the horrors of vice. Behold how far God carries his resentment against sin. It is not enough to condemn to eternal flames, and to confine in chains of darkness, those who have fled from his justice. It is not enough to pour out his wrath upon those who have committed the crime, he detests even the instruments of the crime ; he de- signs that all things that have served sin shall bear the marks of his anger. If, under the law, a man had defiled himself with a beast, he must die with the brutal object of his passion. Lev. xx. 15, IG. Thus God not content to punish the avaricious with un- quenchable fire, will destroy even objects of avarice, and dissolve the gold and silver with which the miser committed idolatry. Not content to punish the ambitious, he will destroy even the instruments of ambition, and overturn those thrones and palaces which have caused it. Not content to punish the voluptuous, he will destroy even objects of voluptuousness, and consume the heavens, the earth, and the elements, which have af- forded matter for concupiscence. Heavens, earth, elements, are ye guilty .' But if ye be treated with so nmch rigour for having been the unconscious instruments of tlic crime, what must the condition of the criminal be .' 3. In tjie burning of the universe we find a representation of the vanity of the j)resent world. What is this world which fiiscinates our eyes ? It is a funeral pile tliat already begins to burn, and will soon be entirely con- sumed ; it is a world which must end, and all that must end is far inferior to an immortal soul. The thought of death is already a pow- erful motive to us to place our affections on another world ; for what is death .'' it is to every individual what, one day, the final ruin will be to the generality of mankind ; it is the destruction of the heavens, which jxiss awaij with a great noise ; it is the dissolution of elements ; it is the entire conflagration of the world, and of the works which are there- in. Yet vanity has invented refuges against this storm. The hope of an imaginary im- mortality has been able to support some men against the fear of a real death. The idea of existing in the minds of those who exist after them, has, in some sort, comforted them un- der the miserable thought of being no more. Hence pompous buildings, and stately edifices; hence rich monuments, and superb mausole- ums ; hence proud inscriptions and vain-glo- rious titles, inscribed on marble and brass. But behold the dissolution of all those bonds. The destruction of the world deprives us of our imaginary being, as death deprives us of our real existence. Ye will not only be short- ly stretched in your tombs, and cease to use the houses, and fields, and palaces, which ye inhabit ; but these houses, these palaces, these fields, will be consumed, and the memory of all that is fastened to the world will vanish with the world. Since, tiien, this is the con- dition of all sensible things, since all these sensible things must perish ; immortal man, infinite spirit, eternal soul, dost thou fasten thyself to vanity and instability ? Dost thou not seek for a good more suitable to thy na- ture and duration .' ' Seeing all these things must be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness ?' 4. The conflagration of the universe fur- nishes a description of the world to come. Ye often hear us declaim on the nothingness of earthly things ; we frequently diminish the worth of all that is great and glorious ; we frequentl}' cry with Solomon, ' Vanity of va- nities, all is vanity ,' vanity in pleasures, va- nity in grandeurs, vanitj'^ in riches, vanity in sciences, vanit)^ in all. But yet, my brethren, how substantial would this vanity be, how amiable would this nothingness appear, if by a happy assemblage of all tiiat the world has of the beautiful, we could acquire the reality of a life, of which it is easy to form to one's self the idea! Could I extract the choicest dignities and fortunes ; could I inhabit the most temperate clime, and the most pleasant country ; could I choose the most benevolent hearts, and the wisest minds ; could I take the most happy temper, and the most sublime genius ; could I cultivate the sciences, and make the fine arts flourish ; could I collect and unite all that could please tlie passions, and banish all that could give pain : — a life formed on this plan, how likely to please us ! How is it that God, wlio has resolved to ren- der us one day happy, does not allow us to continue in this world, and content himself with uniting all these happy circumstances in our favoui .'' ' It is good to be here,' Matt, xvii. 4. O that he would allow us here 62 THE ETERNITY OF GOD. [Ser. II. to build our tabernacles. Ah! my brethren, a life formed on this plan might indeed an- swer the ideas of happiness which feeble and finite geniuses form, but such a plan cannot even approach the designs of an infinite God. A life formed on this plan might indeed ex- haust a terrestrial love, but it could never reach the love of an infinite God. No, all the charms of this society, of this fortune, and of this life ; no, all the softness of these climates, and of tliese countries ; no, all the benevolence of tliese hearts, and all the friendship of these minds ; no, all the happi- ness of this temper, and all the sublimity of this genius ; no, all the secrets of the sciences, and all the discoveries of the fine arts ; all the attractions of these societies, and all the plea- sures of the passions, have nothing, I do not Bay which exhausts the love of God in Jesus Christ, I do not say which answers, 1 ven- ture to say which approaches it. To accom- plish this love, there must be another world ; there must be new heavens and a new earth ; there must be objects far more grand. Finally, the destruction of the universe dis- plays the excellence of piety. O that I could represent the believer amidst fires, flames, winds, tempests, the confusion of all nature, content, peaceable, unalterable ! O that I could represent the heavens passing away, the elements dissolving with fervent heat, the earth and the things which are in it burn- ing up, and the believer, that man, that in- considerable man, little by his nature, but great by the privileges with which piety en- dows him, without suspicion, rising fearless above all the catastrophes of the universe, and surviving its ruins ! O that I could de- scribe the believer, while all the ' tribes of the earth mourn and smite their breasts,' Matt. xxiv. 30. ; while the wicked shall be * as if they were giving up the ghost,' Luke xxi. 26. ; while their despair exhales in these dreadful bowlings, ' Mountains fall on us, hills cover us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the face of the Lamb !' Rev. vi. 16. O that I could describe the believer assured, triumphant, founded on the rock of ages, ' hasting unto the coming of the day of God,' 2 Pet. iii. 12, as our apostle expresses it ; aiming with transports of joy which we cannot express, (O may we one day experi- ence these transports I) aiming to approach the presence of Jesus Christ, as his tenderest friend and deliverer, literally proving the truth of this promise, ' when thou passest through the waters they shall not overflow thee, when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt,' Isa. xliii. 2. O that I could represent him crying, ' Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly,' Rev. xxii. 20. ; come, receive a creature once defiled with sin ; sometimes even rebellious, yet always having at the bottom of his heart principles of love to thee ; but now ravished with transports of joy, because he is entering an economy, in which he shall be always submissive, and al- ways faithful. What shall I say to you, my dear brethren, to incline you to piety, if all these grand mo- tives be without success ? If the words of my text, if the voice of an apostle — what do I say, the voice of an apostle .' — ' if the sun darkened, if the moon changed into blood, if the stars fallen from heaven, if the powers of heaven shaken, if the heavens passing away with a great noise, if the elements dis- solving with fervent heat, if the earth con- sumed with all that is therein,' if the univer- sal destruction of nature and elements be in- capable of loosening and detaching you from the present world .-' It is said, that some days before the de- struction of Jerusalem, a voice was heard proceeding from the holy place, and crying, ' Let us go hence, let us go hence.'* My bre- thren, such a voice addresses you. We ground our exhortations to-day, not on the destruction of one people only ; we preach (if I may be allowed to say so) in the sight of the ruins of this whole universe : yes, from the centre of the trembling world and crash- ing elements, a voice sounds. Let us go hence ; let us quit the world ; give our hopes more solid bases than enkindled worlds, which will shortly be burnt up. And then, pass away heavens with a great noise, consume ele- ments, burn earth with all thy works, perish universe, perish nature, our felicity is above all such catastrophes, we cleave to the God of ages, to God who is the source of existence and duration, to God before whom ' a thou- sand years are as one day, and one day as a thousand years.' ' O Lord, of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the hea- vens are the work of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment ; as a ves- ture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee,' Ps. cii. 26, &c. God grant we may experience these great promises ! To him be honqur and glory. Amen. * Josephus de Bell. Jud. lib. vi. cap. 31. SElli^ION III. THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD.'. Psalm cxxxix. 7 — 12. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall IJlcefrom thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there : if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- most parts of the sea : even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shcdl hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day : , the darkness and the light are both alike to thee. C/OULD I have one wish, to answer my pro- posed end of preaching to-day with efficacy, Christians, it should be to show you God in this assembly. Moses had such an advantage, no man, therefore, ever spoke with greater success. He gave the law to the people in God the legislator's presence. He could say. This law which I give you proceeds from God ; here is his throne, there is his light- ning, yonder is his thunder. Accordingly, never were a people more struck with a legis- lator's voice. Moses had hardly begun to speak, but at least for that moment, all hearts were united, and all Sinai echoed with one voice, crying, ' All that thou hast spoken we will do,' Exod. xix. 8. But in vain are our sermons drawn from the sacred sources ; in vain do we say to you, * Thus saith the Lord :' ye see only a man ; ye hear only a mortal voice in this pulpit ; God hath put his ' treasure into earthen ves- sels,' 2 Cor. iv. 7. ; and our auditors, estimat- ing the treasure by the meanness of the ves- sel, instead of supporting the meanness of the vessel for the sake of the treasure, hear us without respect, and generally, derive no ad- vantage from the ministry. But were God present in this assembly, could we show you the Deity amongst you, authorizing our voice by his approbation and presence, and examining with what disposi- tions ye hear his word, which of you, which of you, my brethren, could resist so eminent and so noble a motive .' Christians, this idea is not destitute of re- ality : God is every where ; lie is in this church. Veils of flesh and blood prevent your sight of him ; these must fall, and ye must open the eyes of your spirits, if ye would see a God who is a spirit, John iv. 24. Hear our prophet ; hear his magnificent description of the immensity and omnipresence of God. * Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whi- ther shall I flee from thy presence ? If I as- scend up into heaven, "thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea : even tliere shall thy hand lend me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Sure!}'- the darkness shall cover me ; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee ; but the night shineth as the day : the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.' In a text less abundant in riclies, we might make some remarks on the terms Spirit and jjrescnce ; but we will content ourselves at present with indicating what ideas we affix to them, by observing, that by the Spirit and presence of God, we understand God himself. I know, some divines discover great myste- ries in these terms, and tell us that there are some passages in Scripture where the word presence means the second person in the most holy Trinity, and where the term Spirit is certainly to be understood of the third. But as there are some passages where these terms have not this signification, it is beyond all doubt, that this, which we are explaining, it precisely of the latter kind. But however, it any dispute our comment, we shall leave them to dispute it ; for it would be unjust to consume that time which is dedicated to the edification of a whole congregation, in refut- ing a particular opinion. The other expres- sions in our text, heaiicn, hell ; the icings of the morning, a figurative expression denoting the rapidity of the light in communicating it- self from one end of the world to the other ; these expressions, I say, need no comment. The presence of God, the Spirit of God, sig- nify then the divine essence : and tliis as- semblage of ideas, ' whither shall I go from thy Spirit '' whither shall I flee from thy pre- sence V means, that God is immense, and that he is present in every place. But wherein consists this immensity and omnipresence .-" If ever a question required developing, this certainly does ; not only be- cause it presents to the mind an abstract sub- ject, which does not fall under the observa- tion of the seii.tes, but because many who have treated this matter, (pardon an opinion which does not proceed From a desire of op- posing any individual, but only from a love to the truth,) many who have handled the sub- ject, have contributed more to perplex than to explain it. We may observe in general, that unless we be wholly unacquainted with the history of the sciences, it is impossible not to acknowledge, thnt all questions about the nature of spirits, all that are any way re- 64 THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. [Ser. III. lated to metaphysics, were very little under- stood before the time of tliat celebrated phi- losopher, whom God seems to have bestowed on the world to purify reason, as he had some time before raised up others to purify religion.* What heaps of crude and indigested no- tions do we find among the schofilinen of the immensity of God ! One said that God was a point, indivisible indeed, but a point, how- ever, that had tlie peculiar property of occu- pying every part of the universe. Another, that God was the place of all beings, the im- mense extent in wliich his power had placed them. Another, that his essence was really in heaven, but yet, repIctircJy, as they ex- press it, in every part of the universe. In short, this truth has been obscured by the grossest ignorance. Whatever aversion we nave to the decisive tone, we will venture to affirm, that people who talked in this manner of God, had no ideas themselves of what they advanced. Do not be afraid of our conducting you into these wild mazes ; do not imagine that we will busy ourselves in exposing all these no- tions for the sake of labouring to refute them. We will content ourselves with giving you some light into the omnipresence of God : I. By removing those false ideas, which at first seem to present themselves to the ima- gination ; II. By assigning the true. I. Let us remove the false ideas, which at first present themselves to the imagination ; as if, when we say that God is present in any place, we mean that lie is actually contained there ; as if, when we say that God is in every place, we mean to assign to him a real and proper extension. Neither of tliese is design- ed ; and to remove these ideas, my brethren, two reflections are sufficient. God is a Spirit. A spirit cannot be in a place, at least in the manner in which we con- ceive of place. 1. God is a Spirit. What relation can ye find between wisdom, power, mercy, and all the other attributes which enter into your notion of the Divinity, and the nature of bodies .' Pulverize matter, give it all the different forms of which it is susceptible, elevate it to its highest degree of attainment, make it vast, and immense ; moderate, or small ; luminous, or obscure; opake, or transparent ; there will never result any thing but figures, and never will ye be able, by all these combinations, or divisions, to produce one single sentiment, one single thought, like that of the meanest and most contracted of all mankind. If matter then cannot be tlie subject of one single ope- ration of the soul of a mechanic, how should it be the subject of those attributes which make the essence of God himself.'' But perhaps God, who is spiritual in one part of his essence, may be corporeal in nno- thci part, like man, who, although he hath a spiritual soul, is yet united to a portion of matter .' No ; for however admirable in man * The philosopher intended by Mr. S. I suppose, is h)3 countryman Ves Cartes, born in I59U. Vie de Desc. par Daillet. that union'of spiritual and sensible may be, and those laws which unite his soul to his body, nothing more fully marks his weakness and dependence, and consequently nothing can less agree with the divine essence. Is it not a mark of the dependence of an immortal and intelligent soul, to be enveloped in a lit- tle flesh and blood, which, according to their different notions, determine his joy or sorrow, his happiness or misery .' Is it not a mark of the weakness of our spirits to have the power of acting only on that little matter to which we are united, and to have no power over more .-* Who can imagine that God hath such limits .' He hath no body ; he is united to none ; yet he is united to all. That celebra- ted philosopher, shall I call him ? or atheist,* who said, that the assemblage ot all existence constituted the divine essence, who would have us consider all corporeal beings as the body of the Divinity, published a great ex- travagance, if he meant that the divine es- sence consisted of this assemblage. But there is a very just sense in which it may be said, that the whole universe is the body of the Deity. In effect, as I call this portion of matter my body, which I move, act, and direct as I please, so God actuates by his will every part of the universe : he obscures the sun, he calms the winds, he commands the sea. But this very notion excludes all corporiety from God, and proves that God is a spirit. If God sometimes represents himself with feet, with hands, with eyes, he means, in these portraits, rather to give us emblems of his attributes, than images (properly speaking) of any parts which he possesseth. Therefore, when he attributes these to himself, he gives them so vast an extent, that we easily perceive, they are not to be grossly understood. Has he hands ^ they are hands which ' weigh the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance, which measure the waters in the hollow of his hand, and mete out the heavens with a span,' Isa. xl. 12. Has he eyes .'' they are eyes that penetrate the most unmeasurable distances. Has he feet .' they are feet which reach from heaven to earth, for the ' heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool,' Isa. Ixvi. 1. Has he a voice .' it is as ' the sound of many waters, breaking the cedars of Lebanon, mak- ing mount Sirion skip like a unicorn, and the hinds to calve,' Ps. xxix. 3. 5, 6. 9 This reminds me of a beautiful passage in Plato. He says that the gods, particularly tlie chief good, the ineffable beauty, as he calls him, cannot be conceived of but by the understanding only, and by quitting sensible objects ; that in order to contemplate the di- vinity, terrestrial ideas must be surmounted ; that the eyes cannot see him ; that the ears cannot hear him. A thought which Julian the apostate, a great admirer of that philoso- pher, so nobly expresses in his satire on the Cesars. Thus every thing serves to establish our first principle, tjiat God is a Spirit. 2. But to prove that God is a Spirit, and to prove that he occupies no place, at least as * Mr. S. means, I sliould suppose, Spinoza: whose system of atheism, says a sensible writer, is more gross, and,tlierefore, less dangerous, than others \ hi» poison carrying its antidote with it. ser. m.] THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 65 our imagination conceives, is, in our opinion, to establish the same thesis. I linow how difficult it is to make this con- sequence intelligible and clear, not only to those who have never been accustomed to meditation, and who are therefore more excu- sable for having confused ideas ; but even to such as, having cultivated the sciences, are most intent on refining their ideas. I freely acknowledge, that after we have used our ut- most efforts to rise above sense and matter, it will be extremely difficult to conceive the existence of a spirit, without conceiving it in a certain place. Yet, I think, whatever dif- ficulty there may be in the system of those who maintain that an immaterial being can- not be in a place, properly so called, there are greater difficulties still in the opposite opinion : for what is immaterial hath no parts ; what hath no parts hath no form ; what hath no form hath no extension ; what hath no exten- sion can have no situation in place, properly so called. For what is it to be in place .'' is it not to fill space .'' is it not to be adjusted with surrounding bodies ? how adjust with sur- rounding bodies without parts ? how consist of parts without being corporeal.'' But if ye ascribe a real and proper extension to a spirit, every thought of that spirit would be a sepa- rate portion of that extension, as ever part of the body is a separate portion of the whole body ; every operation of spirit would be a modification of that extension, as every ope- ration of body is a modification of body ; and, were this the case, there would be no absurdity in saying-, that a thought is round, or square, or cubic, which is nothing less than the confounding of spirit with matter. Thus the idea which our imagi- nation forms of the omnipresence of God, when it represents the essence of the Supreme Being filling infinite spaces, as we are lodged in our houses, is a false idea that ought to be carefully avoided. II. What notions then must we form of the immensity of God ; in what sense do we con- ceive that the infinite Spirit is every where present .'' My brethren, the bounds of our knowledge are so strait, our sphere is so con- tracted,we have such imperfect ideas of spirits, even of our own spirits, and for a much strong- er reason, of the Father of spirits, that no gen- ius in the world, however exalted ye may suppose him, after his great8stefforts"of med- itation, can say to you, Thus far extend the attributes of God ; behold a complete idea of his immensity and omnipresence. Yet, by the help of sound reason, above all, by the aid of revelation, we may give you, if not com- plete, at least distinct, ideas of the subject : it is possible, if not to indicate all the senses in which God is immense, at least to point out some ; it is possible, if not to show you all the truth, at least to discover it in part. Let us not conceive the omnipresence of God as a particular attribute (if I may ven- ture to say so) of the Deity, as goodness or wisdom, but as the extent or infinity of many others. The omnipresence of God is that universal property by which he communicates himself to all, diffuses himself through all, is the great director of all, or, to confine ourselves to more distinct ideas still, the infinite Spirit is present in every place. 1. By a boundless knowledge. 2. By a general influence. 3. By a universal direction. God is every where, because he seeth all, because he 2??^MC7ice- stroy the city and the sanctuary,' Dan. ix. 25, 26. And consequently, we have a right to affirm that God knows all the thoughts of the mind, and all the sentiments of tlie heart, as well as that he knows all the motions of matter. Perhaps ye wish, my brethren, that our speculations were carried further ; perhaps ye would have us disentangle the subject from all its difficulties ; perhaps ye wish we could make you comprehend, in a clear and distinct manner, how it is possible that such immense objects can be always present to the Supreme Intelligence .' but what mortal mouth can express such sublime truths, or what capaci- ty is able to conceive them ! On this article, we are obliged with our prophet to exclaim, ' Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, it is high : I cannot attain unto it !' ver. G. In general, we conceive that the sphere of di- vine knowledge is not contracted by any of the limits that confine the spirits of mankind. The human spirit is united to a portion of matter. Man can perform no operation with- out the agitation of his brain, without the motion of his animal spirits, without the help of his senses. But the brain wearies, the spirits dissipate, the senses are blunted, and the minutest alteration of body clogs the most penetrating and active genius. But God, as Ser. Ill] THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 67 •we have represented him, thinks, understands, meditates, without brain, without spirits, without any need of senses ; not participat- ing their nature, he never participates their alteration, and thus hath intelligence imme- diately from the treasure of intelligence it- self. The spirit of man owes its existence to a superior Spirit, to a foreign cause, to a Be- ing who gives him only such ideas as he thinks proper, and who hath been pleased to conceal numberless mysteries from him. But opposite use of this independence. T^'ie-cne says to himself, Since I am the ar- ■{ij ,r of my own conduct, and the Supreme li&ing, on whom I depend, has engaged to re- ♦ It is granted by the Rabbins, that the Hebrew words which have distinct imports were differently pronounced by the people ; as Sheul, which signifies botb Seut aud the grave. J. S. quire no account of my actions, I will consult no other rule of conduct than my own inter- est. Whenever it may be my interest to de- ny a trust reposed in me, I will do it without reluctance. Whenever my interest may re- quire the destruction of my tenderest and most faithful friend, I myself will become his executioner, and will stab liim. Thus reasons one of them. The other, on the contrary, says, I am free indeed, I am responsible only to myself for my conduct, but, however, I will prescribe to myself some rules of action, which I will in- violably pursue. I will never betray a trust reposed in me, but I will, with the utmost fidelity discharge it, whatever interest I may have to do otherwise. I will carefully pre- serve the life of my friend, who discovers so much fidelity and love to me, whatever inter- est I may have in his destruction. We ask those of our hearers who are the least ac- quainted with meditations of tliis kind, whe- ther they can prevail with themselves not to make an essential diiFerence between those two members of the supposed society ? We ask, whether ye can help feeling a horror at the first, and a veneration for the last of these men .'' Now this conduct, or the principles of this conduct, for which we cannot help feeling veneration and respect, although the whole passes in a world, and in a society to which we have no relation, and to which we never can have any, these are the principles, I say, to which he is devoted, whom our Scriptures call holy : these principles are what we call virtue, rectitude, order, or, as the text expresses it, holiness. ' Ye shall be holy : for I the Lord your God am holy.' Let us proceed a little farther in our medi- tation, and let us make a supposition of an- other kind. Ye have all some idea of God. Ye have at least this notion of him, that he is supremely independent, and that none can punish or reward him for the use he makes of his independence. Suppose, as well as ye can without blasphemy, that he should lavish his favours on the faithless depository, whom we just now mentioned, and should withliold them from the other : that he should heap benefits upon him who would stab his tender- est and most faithful friend, and expose the other to indigence and misery. Suppose, on the contrary, that God should liberally be- stow his favours on the faithful depository, and refuse them to the other. I ask those of my hearers who are the least acquainted with a meditation of this kind, whether they can help making an essential diflTerence between these two uses of independence .' Can yo help feeling more veneration and respect for the Supreme Being in the latter case than in the former? Now, my brethren, I repeat it acrain, the laws according to which the Su- preme Being acts, are the laws to which the person is appointed, or set apart, who in the holy Scriptures is denominated holy. Con- formity to these laws is what we call virtue^ rectitude, order, or as the text expresses it, holiness. In this manner, it seems to me, that the weakest Christian (if he avail him- self of such helps as are offered to him) may form an adequate idea of holiness. However, it is no lesa certain that the ablest Sbb. VI] THE HOLINESS OF GOD. 89 philosophers, and the most consummate di- vines, find it difficult to speak with precision on this subject, and to answer all the ques- tions that have arisen about it. Perhaps its perspicuity may be one principal cause of this difficulty : for it is a rule, of which we inform those to whom we teach the art of reasoning justly, that when an idea is brought to a cer- tain degree of evidence and simplicity, every thing that is added to elucidate, serves only to obscure and perplex it. Has not one part of our difficulties about the nature of right and wrong arisen from the breach of this rule ? From what we have heard, in my opinion, we may infer, that all mankind have a clear and distinct idea of holiness, even though they have no terms to express their ideas of it with justness and precision. It seems to me that every mechanic is able to decide the following questions, although they have oc- casioned so many disputes in schools. On what is the difference between a just and an unjust action founded ; on interest only .' or on the will of the Supreme Being only, who hath prescribed such or such a law ? For, since we cannot help execrating a man who violates certain laws, though the violation does not at all affect our interest, it is plain, we cannot help acknowledging, when we re- flect on our own ideas, that the difference be- tween a just and an unjust action is not found- ed on interest only. And since we cannot help venerating the Supreme Being more when he follows certain laws than when he violates them, it is plain we cannot help ac- knowledging that there is a justice indepen- dent of the supreme law which has prescrib- ed it. Should any one require me to give him a clear notion oi i\\is justice, this order, ox holi- ness, which is neither founded on the inter- est of him who obeys it, nor on the authority of the Supreme Being who commands it, this should be my answer. By justice I understand that fitness, har- mony, or proportion, which ought to be be- tween the conduct of an intelligent being, and the circumstances in which he is placed, and the relations that he bears to other be- ings. For example, there is a relation be- tween a benefactor who bestows, and an indi- gent person who receives, a benefit ; from this relation results a proportion, a harmony, or a fitness between benefit and gratitude, which makes gratitude a virtue. On the con- trary, between benefit and ingratitude there is a disproportion, a dissonance, or an incon- fruity, which makes ingratitude injustice. n like manner, between one man, who is un- der oppression, and another who has the power of terminating the oppression by pun- ishing the oppressor, there is a certain rela- tion from which results a proportion, a har- mony, or a fitness in relieving the oppressed, which makes the relief an act of generosity and justice. All mankind have a general notion of this proportion, harmony, or fitness. If they are sometimes dubious about their duty, if they sometimes hesitate about the conduct that justice requires of them on certain occasions, »t n not because they doubt whether every action ought to have that which I call propot' tion, harmony, or fitness ; but it is because, in some intricate cases, they do not clearly perceive the relation of a particular action to their general notion of justice. Every man has an idea of equality and inequality of numbers. Every man knows at once to which of these two ideas some plain and sim- ple numbers belong. Every body perceivea at once a relation between the number three, and the idea of inequality : and every body perceives instantly a relation between the number two and the idea of equality. But should I propose a very complex number to the most expert arithmetician, and ask him to which of the two classes this number be- longs, he would require some time to consid- er, before he could return his answer : not because he had not very clear ideas of equa- lity and inequality, but because he could not at first sight perceive whether the number proposed were equal or unequal. The arith- metician, whom I have supposed, must study to find out the relation: as soon as he dis- covers it he will readily answer, and teU me whether the number proposed be equal or un- equal. Apply this example to the subject in hand. All mankind, according to our reasoning have a general notion of a fitness, that ought to be between the conduct of an intelligent being and the circumstances in which he is placed, and the relations that he bears to other beings. Always when a man perceives that a particu- lar action has ^such a fitness, or has it not, he will declare without hesitation that the action is just or unjust. If he hesitate in some cases, it is because he does not perceive the relation of the action in question to this fitness. It belongs to casuists to solve dif- ficulties of this kind. I perceive at once a relation between him who receives a benefit, and him who confers it ; and from this rela- tion I conclude, that there is a fitness between gratitude and the circumstances of the receiv- er : therefore I declare without hesitating, that gratitude is a virtue, and that ingrati- tude IS a vice. But should I be asked whether it were a virtue or a vice to kill a tyrant, I might hesitate : because I might not at first perceive what relation there is between the killing of a tyrant, and the fitness that ought to subsist between the conduct of a subject and his relation to a tyrant. Should any one still urge me to give him clearer ideas of that which I call the propor- tion, the harmony, or the fitness of an action, I would freely own that I could not answer his inquiry. But, at the same time, I would declare that my inability did not arise from the obscurity of my subject, but from the all- sufficiency of its evidence. I would recur to the maxim just now mentioned, that when a subject is placed in a certain degree of evi- dence and simplicity, every thing that is add- ed to elucidate, serves only to darken and to perplex it. Should my inquirer still reply that he had no idea of that which I call the proportion, the harmony, or the fitness of an action, I should consider him as a being of a species different from mine, and I should not think of conversing with him. There are some com- 90 THE HOLINESS OF GOD. [See. VI. mon ideas, some maxims that are taken for granted, even by the most opposite parties : and when those maxims are disputed, and those ideas not admitted, there is an end of conversing and reasoning. ' This is a general notion of holiness. But the holiness that is attributed to God, and prescribed to men, in the text, cannot belong in the same sense, and in every respect, to such different beings. We are going to exa- mine then, in the second place, in what sense it agrees to God, and in what sense it agrees to man. II. What has been said of holiness in ge- neral, will serve to explain in what sense God is holy, and in what sense men ought to be holy. The general principle of holiness is common to God and man. The general prin- ciple of holiness, as has been already shown, is a perfect proportion, harmony, or fitness, between the conduct of an intelligent being and his relations to other beings. The holi- ness of God is that perfect harmony, propor- tion, or fitness, that subsists between his con- duct (if I may be allowed to speak thus of God) and his relations to other beings. The holiness of man consists in the same. But as the circumstances and relations of God differ from those of men, the holiness of God and the holiness of men are of different kinds. Audit is the difference of these relations that we must distinguish, if we would give a pro- per answer to the questions in hand : In what sense, and in what respects, is holiness as- cribed to God ? In what sense, and in what respects, is holiness prescribed to men .' The first question, that is, What relations has God with other Ibeings, is a question so extensive, and so difficult, that all human in- telligence united in one mind, could not re- turn a sufficient answer. We have been ac- customed to consider our earth as the princi- pal part of the universe, and ourselves as the most considerable beings in nature. Yet our earth is only an atom in the unbounded space, in which it is placed : and we are only a very inconsiderable number in comparison of the infinite multitude and the endless variety of creatures which the Great Supreme has made. There is an infinite number of angels, sera- phims, cherubims, thrones, dominions, pow- ers, and other intelligences, of which we have no ideas, and for which we have no names. God has relations to all these beings ; and on the nature of those relations depends the na- ture of that order, justice, or holiness, which he inviolably maintains in respect to them. But let us not lose ourselves in these immense objects. Let us only fix our meditation on God's relations to men, and we shall form sufficient ideas of his holiness. What relation does God bear to us .' God has called us into existence ; and there are between us the relations of Creator and crea- ture. But what harmony do we think there ought to be between the conduct of God to us, and the relation that he bears to us of a Creator to creatures ? Harmony, or fitness, seems to require that God, having brought creatures into existence, should provide for their support, and, having given them certain faculties, sliould require an account of the use that is made of them. This is the first idea that we form of the holinesg of God. It does not appear to us fit, or agreeable to order that God, after having created intelligent be- ings, should abandon them to themselves, and not regard either their condition or their con- duct. On this principle we ground the doc- trine of Providence, and reject the extrava- gant system of the Epicurians. What relation does God bear to us ? God has given us a revelation. He has proposed some principles to us. Between God and U3 there are the relations of tutor and pupil. But what fitness do we think there ought to be between the conduct of God and the rela- tion of a tutor to a pupil, that subsists between him and us .'' It is fit, I think, that a revelation proceeding from God should be conformable to his own ideas ; and on this principle we ground the doctrine of the truth, or, as the schools call it, the veracity of God, and main- tain with St. Paul, even independently of the authority of St. Paul, that ' it is impossible for God to fie,' Heb. vi. 18. What relation does God bear to us .' God has made a covenant with us : to certain con- ditions in that covenant he has annexed cer- tain promises. Between God and us there subsist the relations of two contracting par- ties. What fitness do we think, there ought to be between the conduct of God and that relation of an ally, which he bears to us .'' We think that there is a harmony, or a fitness, in his fulfilling the articles of the covenant, and on this principle we ground our expecta- tion of the accomplishment of his promises, and believe that ' all the promises of God are yea, and amen,' 2 Cor. i. 20. What relation subsists between God and us .'' God has given us certain laws. Between God and us there are the relations of a law- giver and subjects. What harmony, do we think, there ought to be between the conduct of God and the relation of a legislator to a sub- ject ! We think, harmony requires that the laws prescribed to us should be proportional to our ability ; that nothing should be required of us beyond our natural power, or the super- natural assistances that he affords : and on this principle we reject a cruel system of divinity, more likely to tarnish than to display the glory of the Supreme Being : on this principle we say with St. James, ' If any of you lack vris- dom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not,' Jam. i. 12. on this principle we say with St. Paul, that ' .as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law : and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law,* Rom. ii. 12. Follow this train of reasoning, my brethren, reflect on the other relations that God bears to mankind ; examine, as far as ye are capable of examining, the harmony that subsists between the conduct of God and those relations ; and the farther ye proceed in meditations of this kind, the more just and the more enlarged will be your ideas of the holi- ness of God. But perhaps some may accuse me of taking that for granted which remains to be proved, and of grounding my whole system of the ho- liness of God on a disputed principle, the truth of which I have not 3'ot demonstrated : that is, that there docs subsist such a perfect har- See. VI.] THE HOLINESS OF GOD. 91 harmony or fitness between the conduct of Godland his relations to men. Perhaps I may be asked for the proofs of this principle, the ground of my whole system ; for if the principle be doubtful, the whole system is hy- pothetical, and if it be false the system falls of itself. I answer, my brethren, that we have as strong and demonstrative evidence of the holiness of God as it is possible for finite crea- tures to have of the attributes of an infinite Being. We may derive sound notions of the conduct of God from three different sources, each of which will prove that a perfect har- mony subsists between the conduct of God and his relations to us, and all together will fully convince us that God possesses in the most eminent degree such a holiness as we have described. 1. We shall be fully convinced that God possesses this holiness if we regulate our ideas of his conduct by our notion of his nature. Let me beg leave to remark, to those who have been accustomed to argue, that I do not mean here an imaginary notion of God, like that which some divines and some philoso- phers have laid down as the ground of their arguments. They begin by supposing a per- fect being : then they examine what agrees with a perfect being : and that they attribute to God. This is their argument : ' Holiness is an attribute of a perfect being : God is a perfect being ; therefore holiness is an attri- bute of God.' We do not at present use this method. I suppose myself suddenly placed in this world, surrounded with a variety of crea- tures. I do not suppose that there is a holy Supreme Being : but I inquire whether there be one ; and in this manner I obtain a full de- monstration. My knowledge of creatures produces the notion of a Creator. My notion of a Creator is complex, and includes in it the sdeas of a grand, infinite, almighty Being. But the notion of a Being, who is grand, infi- nite, and almighty, includes in it, I think, the idea of a holy Being. At least, I cannot per- ceive, in this Being, any of the principles that tempt men to violate the laws of order. Men sometimes transgress.the laws of order through ignorance : but the grand, the mighty, the in- finite Being thoroughly understands the har- mony that ought to subsist between the laws of order and the most difficult and most compli- cated action. Men sometimes violate the laws of order because the solicitations of their sen- ses prevail over the rational deliberations of their minds : but the great, the powerful, the infinite Being is not subject to a revolution of animal spirits, an irregular motion of blood, or an inundation of bodily humours. Men sometimes violate the laws of order because they are seduced by a present and sensible interest : but this principle of a violation of the laws of order can have no place in God. The great, the mighty, the infinite Being can have no interest in deceiving such contempt- ible creatures as we. If then we judge of the conduct of God by the idea that we are obli- ged to form of his nature, we shall be convin- ced of his perfect holiness. 2. We may be convinced of the holiness of God by the testimony that God himself has given of his attributes. The testimony that God has given of himself is the moat credible testimony that we can obtain. And how does he represent himself in the Holy Scriptures ? He describes himself every where as a holy Being, and as a pattern of holiness to us. He describes himself surrounded with happy spirits, who perpetually cry, ' Holy, holy, holy. Lord of hosts.' 3. God will appear supremely holy to you if ye judge by his works. Behold the works of nature, they proclaim the perfect holiness of God. Consult that work of nature, your own heart : that heart, all corrupt as it is, yet retains some faint traces of the holiness of God , who created it ; so that in spite of its natural depravity, it still does homage to virtue : it resembles a palace, which, having been at first built with magnificence and art, has been miserably plundered and destroyed, but which yet retains, amidst all its ruins, some vestiges of its ancient grandeur. Behold society, that work of Providence publishes the supreme ho- liness of God. God has so formed society that it is happy or miserable in the same pro- portion as it practises, or neglects virtue. Above all, behold the work of religion. What say the precepts, the precedents, the penaltiea of religion .'' More especially, what says the grand mystery of religion, that mystery which is the scope, the substance, the end of all the other mysteries of religion, I mean the mys- tery of the cross ? Does it not declare that God is supremely holy ? We have seen then in what respects holi- ness belongs to God, and by pursuing the same principles, we may discover in what res- pects it belongs to men. Consider the cir- cumstances in which men are placed, and what relation they bear to other beings : con- sider what harmony there ought to be between the conduct of men and their relations : and ye will form a just notion of the holiness that men are commanded to practise. There is the relation of a subject to his prince, and the subject's submission is the harmony of that relation : in this respect it is the holiness of a man to submit to his prince. There is the relation of a child to his parent, and there is a harmony between the conduct and the rela- tion of the child when he loves and obeys his parent : Love and obedience to the parent constitute the holiness of the child. The principal relation of man is that which he bears to God. Man stands in the relation of a creature to God, who is his Creator ; and the conduct of a creature is in harmony with his relation when the will of his Creator is the rule of his actitjns: the revealed will of God then must regulate the will of man. Order requires us to submit ourselves to him of whom we have received all that we enjoy : all our enjoyments come from God ; from him we derive ' life, motion, and existence,' Acts xvii. 28. It is imposible then to resist his will without violating the laws of order. Our future prospects, as well as our present enjoy- ments, proceed from God: our own interest demands then, that we should submit to his will, in order to a participation of future fa- vours, which are the objects of our present hopes. We have seen then in what respects holi- ness belongs to God, and in what respects it belongs to men. But although holiness does .92 THE HOLINESS OF GOD. CSbb. VI, fiot belong, in the same Bense, and in every respect, to beings so different as God and man, yet the holiness of God ought to be both a reason and a rule for the holiness of man. ' Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.' This is our third part, and ■with this we shall conclude the discourse. ni. The^ holiness of God, we say, is both a rule and a reason for the holiness of man. The words of the text include both these ideas, and will bear either sense. They may be rendered, ' Be ye holy as I am holy :' and, according to this translation, the holiness of God is a rule or a model of ours. Or, they may be rendered, ' Ye shall be holy, because I am holy:' and, according to this, the holi- ness of God is a reason or a motive of our holiness. It is not necessary now to inquire which of these two interpretations is the best. Let us unite both. Let us make the holiness of God the pattern of our holiness : and let us also make it the motive of ours. 1. Let us make the holiness of God the model of ours. ' The holiness of God is com- plete in its parts.' He has all virtues, or ra- ther he has one virtue that includes all others : that is, the love of order. He is equally just in his laws, true in his language, his promises are faithful, and his thoughts are right. Let this holiness be our pattern, * Be ye holy as God is holy.' Let us not con- fine ourselves to one single virtue. Let us incorporate them all into our system. Let us have an assortment of Christian graces. Let us be, if I may express myself so, com- plete Christians. Let us ' add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to know- ledge temperance, and to temperance pa- tience, and to patience godliness, and to godli- ness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity,' 2 Pet. i. 5 — 7. 2. The holiness of God is infinite in itself. Nothing can confine its activity. Let this be our model, as far as a finite creature can imitate an infinite Being. Let us not rest in a narrow sphere of virtue, but let us carry every virtue to its most eminent degree of at- tainment. Let us every day make some new progress. Let us reckon all that we have done nothing, while there remains any thing more to' do. Let each of us say with St. Paul, '1 count not myself to have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark,' Phil. iii. 13. 3. The holiness of God is pure in its mo- tives. He fears nothing, he hopes for nothing; yet he is holy. He knows, he loves, he pur- sues holiness. This is the whole system of his morality. Let this be our pattern. We do not mean to exclude the grand motives of hope and fear, which religion has sanctified, and which have such a mighty influence over beings capable of happiness or misery. But yet, let not our inclinations to virtue necessa- rily depend on a display of the horrors of hell, or the happiness of heaven. Disinterestedness of virtue is the character of true magnanim- ity, and Christian heroism. Let us esteem it a pleasure to obey the laws of order. Let us account it a plca.sure to be generous, benefi- cent, and communicative. Let us ' lend,' agreeably to the maxim of Jesus Christ, ' hoping for nothing again,' Luke vi. 35 ; and, in imitation of his example, let us ' lay down our lives for the brethren,' 1 John iii. 16. 4. The holiness of God is uniform in its ac- tion. No appearance deceives him, no temp- tation shakes him, nothing dazzles or diverts him. Let this be our example. Let us not be every day changing our religion and mo- rality. Let not our ideas depend on the mo- tion of our animal spirits, the circulation of our blood, or the irregular course of the hu- mours of our bodies. Let us not be Chris- tians at church only, on our solemn festivals alone, or at the approach of death. Let our conduct be uniform and firm, and let us say, with the prophet, even in our greatest trials, ' Yet God is good to Israel,' Ps. Lxiii. 1. However it be, I will endeavour to be as humble on the pinnacle of grandeur, as if Providence had placed me in the lowest and meanest post. I will be as moderate, when all the objects of my wishes are within my reach, as if I could not afford to procure them. I will be as ready to acquiesce in the supreme will of God, if he conduct mo through various adversities, and through ' the valley of the shadow of death,' as if he led me through prosperities, and filled me with delights. Thus the holiness of God must be the model of ours : ' Be ye holy as I am holy.' But the holiness of God must also be the reason or motive of ours ; and we must be holy because God is holy : ' Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.' We groan under the disorders of our na- ture, we lament the loss of that blessed but short state of innocence, in which the first man was created, and which we wish to re- cover : ' We must be holy then, for the Lord our God is holy.' The beauty and blessed- ness of man in his primitive state consisted in his immediate creation by the hand of God, and in the bearing of his Creator's image, which was impressed, in a most lively man- ner, upon his mind. Sin has defaced that image, and our happiness consists in its res- toration : that is, in our being ' renewed after the image of him who created us,' Col. iii. 10. We wish to enjoy the favour of God : wo must be holy then, ' because the Lord our God is holy.' They are ' our iniquities that have separated between us and our God :' Isa. lix. 2. And it is holiness that must con- ciliate a communion which our sins have in- terrupted. We tremble to see all nature at war with us, and wish to be reconciled to all the exte- rior objects that conspire to torment us ; we must be holy then, ' because the Lord our God is holy.' Sin is a hateful object to a holy God. Sin has armed every creature against man. Sin has thrown all nature into confusion. Sin, by disconcerting the mind, has destroyed the body. It is sin that has brought death into the world, and ' sin is the sting of death.' We wish to be reconciled to ourselves, and to possess that inward peace and tranquillity, without which no exterior objects can make Ser. VI] THE HOLINESS OF GOD. 93 us happy : we must be holy then, * because the Lord our God is holy.' We have rei'iavk- ed, iu this discourse, that God, v.-ho is an in- dependent Bein^, loves virtue for its own sake, independent of the rewards that accom- pany and follow it. Nevertheless, it is very certain that the felicity of God is inseparable from his holiness. God is tiu: Itnpyij (Jod, because he is llic holy God. God, in the con- templation of his own excellencies, has an in- exhaustible source of telicity. Were it possi- ble for God not to be supremely holy, it would be possible for God not to be supreme- ly happy. Yes, God, all glorious and su- preme as he is, would be miserable, if he were subject, like unholy spirits, to the turbulent commotions of envy or hatred, treachery or deceit. From such passions would arise odious vapours, which would gather into thick clouds, and, by obscuring his glory, im- pair ills felicity. Even lieaven would afford but Imperfect j)leasure, if those internal furies could there kindle tlieir unhallowed flames. The same reasoning holds good on earth ; for, it implies a contradiction, to aflirm that we can be happy, while the operations of our minds clash with one another : and it is equal- ly absurd, to suppose that the almighty God can terminate the fatal war, tiie tragical field of which is the human heart, without the re-establisluuent of the dominion of ho- liness. We desire to experience the most close and tender comnmnion with God, next Lord's day, in receiving the holy sacrament: Let us be holy then, 'because the Lord our God is holy.' This august ceremony may be consid- ered in several points of view : and one of them deserves a peculiar attention. The ta- ble of the Lord's Supper has been compared, by some, to that which was formerly set, by the command of God, in the holy place : I mean, the table of ' show-bread,' or ' bread of the presence,' Ex. xxv. 30. God command- ed Moses to set twelve loaves upon the table, to change them every sabbath, and to give those that were taken away to the priests, who were to eat them in ' the holy place,' Lev. xxiv. G, &c. What was the end of these ceremonial institutions .' The tal)erna- cle at first was considered as the tent, and the temjjle afterward as the palace of the Deity, who dwelt among the Israelites. In the palace of God, it was natural to expect a table for the use of him and his attendants. This was one of the most glorious privileges that tlie Israelites enjoyed, and one of the most aug.ust symbols of the presence of God among them. God and all the people of Is- rael, in the persons of their ministers, were accounted to eat the same bread. The hea- thens, stricken with the beauty of these ideas, incorporated them into their theology. They adopted the thought, and set in their temples tables consecrated to their gods. The prophet IsaiaJi reproaches the Jews with for- saking the Lord, forgetting his holy moun- tain and preparing a tabic for the host of hea- ven, Isa. Ixv. 2. And Ezekiel reckons among the virtues of a just man, that he had ' not eaten upon the mountains,' Ez. xviii. (3. It was upon tables of this kind that idolaters sometimes ate the remainder of those victims which they had sacrificed to their gods. This they called eativg with gods ; and Homer introduces Alcinous saying, ' The gods visit us, when we sacrifice hecatombs, and sit down with us at the same table.' This is one of the most beautiful notions, under which we can consider the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. There we eat with God. God sits down with us at the same table, and, so causes us to experience the meaning of this promise, ' Behold, I stand at the door, and knock ; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me,' Rev. iii. 20. But what do such close con- nexions with a holy God require of us .' They require us to be holy. They cry to us, as the voice cried to Moses from the midst of the burning bush, ' Draw not nigh hither ; put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground," Ex. iii. .^. God is supremely holy: God supremely loves order. Order requires you to leave ven- geance to God, to pardon your bitterest and most professed enemies ;. and. what is more dilficult still, order requires you to pardon your most subtle and secret foes. Would ye approach the table of a holy God gnawn with a spirit of animosity, hatred, or ven- geance ? God is supremely holy: God supremely loves order. Order requires you to dedicate a part of those blessings to charity, with which Providence has intrusted you ; to retrench the superfluities of your tables, in order to enable you to assist the starving and dying poor. Would ye approach the table of a holy God with hearts hardened with indifference to that poor man whom God has commanded you to love as yourselves. God is supremely holy : God supremely loves order. Order requires you to be affect- ed with the tokens of divine love. All are displayed at the Lord's table. There the bloody history of your Redeemer's sufferings is again exhibited "to view. There the blood, that Christ the victim shed for your crimes, flows afi-esh. There God recounts all the mysteries of the cross. Would ye approach that table cold and languishing ? Would yc approach that table witliout returning to Jesus Christ love for love, and tenderness for ten- derness .'' Would ye approach that table void of every sentiment and emotion, which the venerable symbols of the love of God nmst needs produce in every honest heart .'' Ah I my brethren, were ye to approach the table of Jesus Christ without these dispositions, ye would come, not like St. John, or St. Peter, but like Judas. This would not be to receive an earnest of salvation, but to ' eat and drink your own damnation,' 1 Cor. xi. 2!>. This would not be to receive the body of Jesus Cln-ist : this would be to surrender yourselves to Satan. I can hardly allow myself to entertain such melancholy thoughts. Come to the table of Jesus Christ, and enter into a closer com- munion with a holy God. Come and devote yourselves entirely to the service of a holy^ God. Come and "arrange the operations of your minds by the perfections of a holy God. Come and diminish the grief that ye feel, be- cause, in spite of all your endeavours to be 94 THE COMPASSION OF GOD. [Ser. VII ' holy as God is liol}-,' ye are so far inferior to his glorious example. But, at the same time, come and receive fresh assurances, that ye are formed for a more perfect period of holiness. Come and receive the promises of God, who will assure you, that ye shall ont day ' see him as he is, and be like him,' 1 John iii. 2. May God ij;rant us this blessing ! To him be honour and glory for ever. Amen^ SERMON Vll. THE COMPASSION OF GOD. Psalm ciii. 13. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord piticlh them that fear hira. A MONG many frivolous excuses,which man- kind have invented to exculpate their barren- ness under a gospel-ministry, there is one that deserves respect. Why, say they, do ye ad- dress men as if they were destitute of the sen- timents of humanity ? Why do ye treat Chris- tians like slaves .' Why do ye perpetually urge, in your preaching, motives of wrath, veniTeance, ' the worm that never dies, the fire that is never quenched .'"' Isa. Ixvi. 24. Motives of this kind fill the heart with rebel- lion instead of conciliating it by love. Man- kind have afundof sensibility and tenderness. Let the tender motives Ihat our legislator has diffused tliroughout our Bibles, be pressed upon us ; and then every sermon would pro- duce some conversions, and your complaints of Christians would cease with the causes that produce them. I call this excuse frivolous : for how little must we know of human nature, to suppose men so very sensible to the attractives of re- lifrion ! Where is the minister of the gospel, who has not displayed the charms of religion a thousand, and a thousand times, and dis- played them in vain .'' Some souls must bo terrified, some sinners must be ' saved by fear, and pulled out of the fire,' Jude 23. There are some hearts that are sensible to only one object in religion, that is, hell ; and, if any %vay remain to prevent their actual destruc- tion hereafter, it is to overwhelm their souls with the present fear of it : ' knowing there- fore the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.' Yet, however frivolous this pretext may ap- pear, there is a something in it that merits respect. I am pleased to see those men, who have not been asiiamed to say, that the Lords yoke is intolerable, driven to abjure so odious a system : 1 love to hear them acknowledge, that religion is supported by motives fitted to ingenuous minds ; and that the God from whom it proceeds, has discovered so nmch benevolence and love in tiie gift., that it is impossible not to be aflected with it, if we be capable of feeling. I cannot tell, my brelliren, whether among these Christians, whom the holiness of this day has assembled in this snrrcd place, there be many, who have availed themselves of the frivolous pretence just now mentioned ; and who have sometimes wickedly detern)ined to despise eternal torments, under an extrava- gant pretence that the ministers of the gospel too often preach, and too dismally describe them. But, without requiring your answer to so mortifying a question, without en- deavouring to make you contradict yourselves, we invite you to behold those attractives to- day, to which ye boast of being so very sen- sible. Come and see ihe supreme Legislator, to whom we would devote your services ; be- hold him, not as an avenging God, not as a consuming God, not,' shaking the earth, and overturning the mountains' in his anger. Job ix. 4. 5 : not ' thundering in the heavens, shooting out lightnings, dr giving his voice in hailstones and coals oi fire,' Ps. xviii. 13, 14; but putting on such tender emotions for you as 3'e feel for your children. In this light the prophet places him in Ihe text, and in this light we are going to place him in this dis- course. O ye marble hearts ! so often insensible to the terrors of our ministry ; may God compel you to-day to feel its attracting promises ! O ye marble hearts I against whicJi the edge of the sword of the Ahniglity's avenging just ice has been so often blunted ; the Lord grant that ye may be this day dissolved by the en- ergy of his love I Amen. ' Like as a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear him.' Be- fore we attempt to explain the text, we must premise one remark, which is generilly grant- ed, when it is proposed in a vague manner, and almost as generally denied in its conse- quences ; that is, that the most complete no- tion which we can form of a divine attribute, is to suppose it in perfect harmony with eve- ry other divine attribute. The most lovely idea that we can form of the Deity, and which, at the same time, is the most solid ground of our faith in his word, and of our confidence in the performance of his promises, is that which represents him ae a uniform Being, whose attributes harmonize, and who is always consistent with himself. There is no greater character of imperfection in any intelligent being than the want of this harmony : when one of his attributes opposes another of his attributes ; when the same at- tribute opposes itself ; when his wisdom is not supported by his power j or when his power is not directed by his wisdom. *ER. VII.] THE COMPASSION OF GOD. 95 This character of imperfection, essential to all creatures, is the ground of tiiose prohibi- tions that we meet with in the Holy Scrip- tures, in regard to the objects of our trust. * Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth, in that very day his thoughts perish,' Psalm cxlvi. 3, 4. ' Cursed be the man that trust- eth in man, and maketli flesh his arm,' Jer. xvii. o. Why .'' Because it is not safe to confide in man, unless he have such a har- mony of attributes, as we liave just now de- scribed ; and because no man has such a har- mony. His power may assist you, but, unless he have wisdom to direct his power, tlie very means that he would use to make you happy, would make you miserable. Even his power would not harmonize witli itself in regard to you, if it were sufficient to supply your wants to-day, but not to-morrow. That man, that prince, that mortal, to whom thou givest the superb titles of Potentate, Monarch, Arbiter of peace, and Arbiter of war ; that mortal, wilt) is alive to-day, will die to-morrow ; the breath that animates him will evaporate, he will ' return to his earth,' and all his kind re- gards for thee will vanish with iiim. But the perfections of God are in perfect harmony. This truth shall guide us tlirough this discourse, and shall arrange its parts : and this is the likeliest way that we can think of, to preserve the dignity of our sub- ject, to avoid ;ts numerous difficulties, to pre- clude such fatal inferences as our weak and wicked passions have been too well accustom- ed to draw from the subject, and to verify the prophet's proposition in its noblest meaning, *■ Like as a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear him.' Would ye form a just notion of the goodness of God, (for the original term that our trans- lators have rendered pity, is equivocal, and is usc'l in this vague sense in the Holy Scrip- tures.) Would ye form a just notion of the goodness of God ? Then, conceive a per- fection that is always in harmony with, I. The spirituality of his essence. II. The inconceivableness of his nature. III. Tlie holiness of his designs. IV. The independence of his principles. V. The immutability of his will. VI. The efiicacy of his power. But, above all. VII. With the veracity of his word. I. The goodness of God must agree with the splrilualitij of his essence. Compassion, among men, is that mechanical emotion which is produced in them by the sight of distressed objects. I allow that the wisdom of the Creator is very much displayed in uniting us together in such a manner. Ideas of fitness seldom make much impression on tlie bulk of mankind ; it was necessaiy, there- fore, to make sensibility supply the want of reflection, and, by a counter-bIo\v, with wliich the miseries of a neighbour strike our feel- ings, to produce a disposition in us to relieve him. Nature produces but few monsters who regale themselves on the sufferings of the wretched. Here or there has been a Phala- lis, who has delighted his ears with the shrieks of a fellow-creature burning in a brazen bull : and some, whose minds were filled with ideas of a religion more barbarous and inhuman than that of the Bacchanalians, have been pleased with tormenting those victims which they sacrificed, not to God the Father of man- kind, but to him who is their murderer : but none, except people of these kinds, have been able to eradicate those emotions of pity with which a wise and compassionate God has formed them. But this sensibility degenerates into foil}', when it is not supported by ideas of order, and when mechanical emotions prevail over the rational dictates of the mind. It is a weakness, it is not a love worthy of an intel- ligent being, that inclines a tender mother to pull back tlie arm of him who is about to per- form a violent, but a salutary operation on the child whom she loves. It is a weakness, it is not a love worthy of an intelligent be- ing, that inclines a magistrate to pardon a criminal, whose preservation will be an inju- ry to society, and the sparing of whose life will occasion a thousand ti-agical deaths. This kind of weakness, that confounds a mechanical sensation with a rational and in- telligent love, is the source of many of our misapprehensions about the manner in which God loves us, and in which we imagine he ought to love us. We cannot conceive tlie consistency of God's love in making us wise in a school of adversity, in exposing us to the vicissitudes and misfortunes of life, and in frequently abandoning his children to pains and regrets. It seems strange to us, that he should not be affected at hearing the groans of the damned, whose torments can only be assuaged by uttering blasphemies against him. Renounce these puerile ideas, and en- teitain more just notions of the Supreme Be- ing. He has no body ; he has no organs that can be shaken by the violence done to the or- gans of a malefactor ; he has no fibres that can be stretched tp form a unison with the fibres of your bodies, and which must be agi- tated by their motions. Love, in God, is in an intelligence, who sees what is, and who loves what may justly be accounted lovely ; who judges by tiie nature of things, and not by sensations, of which he is gloriously in- capable : his love is in perfect harmony with the spirituality of his essence. II. Our ideas of the goodness of God must agree with our notions of the inconceivable- ness of his nature. I oppose this reflection to the difficulties that have always been urg- ed against the goodness of God. There are two sorts of these objections ; one tends to liuiit the goodness of God, the other to carry it beyond its just bounds. If God be supremely good, say some, how is it conceivable that he should suffer sin to enter the world, and with sin, all the evils that necessarily follow it ? This is one diffi- culty wbicii tends to carry the goodness of God beyond its just extent. Is it conceivable, say others, that the great God, that God, who, according to the pro- phet, ' weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance,' Isa xl. 12 ; that God, w^ho, ' measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span,' ver. 23 ; that God, who ' sitteth upon the 06 THE COMPASSION OF GOD. [Sek. vii; earth, and considcreth the inhabitants there- of as grasshoi);)ors :' ie it conceivable, tliat he should have such a love for those mean in- sects as the gospel represents ; a love that in- clined him to give his own Son. and to ex- pose hiin to the most ignominious of all pun- ish.nents, to save them .' This is an objec- tion of the second class, which tends to limit the goodness of God. One answer may serve to obviate both these kinds of objections. Tiie love of God is in perfect harmony with the inconceivable- ness of liis nature. All his perfections are inconceivable, v/e can only follow them to a certain point, beyond which it is impossible to discover their effects. ' Canst thou by search- ing tind out God .■" Job xi. 7. Canst thou by searching find out his eter- nity .' Explain an eternal duration : teach us to comprehend an extent of existence so great, tliat when we have added age to age, one million of years to aiiother million of years, if 1 may venture to speak so, when we nave heaped ages upon ages, millions of ages upon milhons of ages, we have not added one day, one hour, one instant to tlie duration of God, with whom ' a thousand years are as one day, and one day as a tliousand years.' Canst thou by searching find out his know- ledge ? Explain to us the wisdom of an In- telligence, wlio comprehended plans of all possible worlds ; who compared them alltoge- ther ; who chose tlie best, not only in prefer- ence to tiie bad, but to the less good ; who knew all that could result from the various modifications of matter, not only of the mat- ter which composes our earth, but of tjie im- mense matter that composes all bodies, which are either in motion or at rest in the immen- sity of space, which lie be3'ond the reach of our senses, or the stretch of our imaginations, and of which, therefore, we can form no idea. Explain to us the wisdom of a God, who knew all that could result from the vari- ous modifications of spirits, not only of those human spirits which have subsisted hitherto, or of those which will subsist hereafter in this world, but of the thousands, of the ' ten thousand times ten thousands that stand be- fore him,' Dan vii. 10. Canst thou by searching find out his pow- er ? Explain to us that self-efficient power, which commands a tiling to be, and it is ; which commands it not to be, and it ceases to exist. The extent of God's mercy is no less im- possible to find out than the extent of his other attributes. We are as incapable of de- termining concerning this, as concerning any of h:s other perfections, that it must needs extend hither, but not thither : that it ouo-ht to have prevented sin, but not to have given Jesus Christ to die for the salvation of sin- ners. Our notion of the goodness of God should agree with the inconceivableness of his nature, and, provided we have good proofs of what we believe, we ought not to stao-ger at the objections which an insufficient, or ra- ther an insolent reason, has the audacity to oppose to it. III. Our notion of the goodness of G d should agree with the holiness of his drsifrns I mean, that it would imply a contradiction to suppose that a Being who is supremely holy, should have a close communion of love with unholy creatures, considered as unholy and unconverted. By this principle we ex- clude the dreadful consequences, that weak- ness and wickedness have been used to infer from the doctrine under our consideration. We oppose this principle t:> the execrable reasoning of those libertines, who say, (and, alas ! how many people, who adopt this waj of reasoning, mix v/ith the saints, and pretend to be saints themselves '.) ' Let us continue in sin that grace may abound." Rom. vi. 1. With the sanie principle the prophet guards the text. ' Like as a father pitietli his rhildren, so doth the L-rd pity,' whom - Them, v. ho estab- lish their crimes on the mere} of God .' God forbid I ' So doth the Lord pity them that fear hnn.' This truth is so conformable to right reason, so often repeated in the Holy Scrip- tures, arxl so frequently enforced in thi'^ pul- pit, that none but tliose who wilfully deceive themselves can mistake the matter ; and for these reasons we dismiss this article. IV. The love of God