which not only corrupted the divine religion of Jesus (obnoxious to
some taint from the impure touch of human reason, because _divine_),
but envenomed the hearts of its professors, against each other, by
infusing into them a bitter spirit of altercation and dispute.
In these several ways, then, and from these causes, has our holy
religion been abused. The _lusts_ of men have turned the Gospel of
peace itself into an instrument of _war_: a misadventure, which could
not have taken place, had Christians but recollected and practised one
single precept of their master—_Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls_[61].
But the perversity of man could not be brought to learn this salutary
lesson; and so has fulfilled that memorable saying of our Lord, who,
foreseeing what abuses would hereafter be made of his charitable
system, declared of himself—_I came not to send peace, but a
sword_[62]. This prediction, at least, the enemies of our faith are
ready enough to tell us, has been amply verified, in the event. It has
been so: it was therefore inspired, because it was to be fulfilled.
But let them remember, withall, that not the genius of the Gospel, but
man’s incorrigible passions, acting in defiance of it, have given to
this prophecy its entire completion.
I come now to represent to you,
II. In the second place, how the _lusts_ of men have perverted CIVIL
JUSTICE, as well as Religion, into an instrument of contention and hate.
The object of all civil, or municipal laws, is the conservation of
private peace, in the equal protection they afford to the property
and persons of men. Yet, how often have they been employed to other
purposes, _by those, who administer the Laws_; and _by those, for whose
sake they are administered_!
1. In reading the history of mankind, one cannot but observe, with
indignation, how frequently the magistrate himself has turned the Law,
by which he governs, into an engine of oppression: sometimes, directing
it against the liberties of the state; and sometimes, against the
private rights of individuals. It were a small matter, perhaps, if he
only took advantage of a _severe_ law, or drew over an _ambiguous_ one,
to countenance his iniquitous purposes. But how oft has he embittered
the mildest, or tortured the plainest laws, by malignant glosses and
strained interpretations! gratifying, in both ways, his revenge, his
avarice, or his ambition; yet still in the forms of Law, and under the
mantle, as it were of public justice!
Such abuses there _have_ been in most states, and, it may be, in our
own. God forbid, that, standing in this place, I should _accept the
persons of men, or give flattering titles unto any_[63]. But truth
obliges me to say, that there is, now, no colour for these complaints.
The administration of justice, on the part of the _Magistrate_, is so
pure, as to be the glory of the age, in which we live. The abuses all
arise from another quarter; and the contentious spirit is kept alive
and propagated by the lusts of private men. And what renders their
iniquity without excuse, is, that the very equity of those forms, in
which our laws are administered, is made the occasion of introducing
all these corruptions.
2. To come to a _detail_ on this subject, might be thought improper.
Let me paint to you, then, in very _general_ terms, the disorders that
spring from this perversion of Law; and, to do it with advantage, let
me employ the expressive words of an ancient Pagan writer.
The Roman governors of provinces, it is well known, had their times
for the more solemn administration of civil justice. Suppose, then,
one of these governors to have fixed his residence in the capital of
an Asiatic province, to have appointed a day for this solemnity, and,
with his Lictors, and other ensigns of authority about him, to be now
seated in the forum, or public place of the city; and consider, if the
following representation of an indifferent by-stander be not natural
and instructive.
“See,” says the eloquent writer[64], whose words I only translate, “see
that vast and mixt multitude assembled together before you. You ask,
what has occasioned this mighty concourse of people. Are they met to
sacrifice to their country Gods, and to communicate with each other
in the sacred offices of their religion? Are they going to offer the
Lydian first-fruits to the Ascræan Jupiter? or, are they assembled
in such numbers to celebrate the rites of Bacchus, with the usual
festivity? Alas, no. Neither pious gratitude, nor festal joy, inspires
them. _One_ fierce unfriendly passion _only_ prevails; whose epidemic
rage has stirred up all Asia, and, as returning with redoubled force on
this stated anniversary, has driven these frantic crowds to the forum;
where they are going to engage in law-suits with each other, before the
Judges. An infinite number of causes, like so many confluent streams,
rush together, in one common tide, to the same tribunal. The passions
of the contending parties are all on fire; and the end of this curious
conflict is, the ruin of themselves and others. What fevers, what
calentures, what adust temperament of the body, or overflow of its
vicious humours, is to be compared to this plague of the distempered
mind? Were you to interrogate each cause (in the manner you examine a
witness) as it appears before this tribunal, and ask, WHENCE IT CAME?
the answer would be, an obstinate and self-willed spirit produced
_this_; a bitter rage of contention, _that_; and a lust of revenge and
injustice, _another_.”
It is not to be doubted, that this rage of the contending parties
was inflamed, in those times, by mercenary agents and venal orators;
by men, who employed every fetch of cunning, and every artifice of
chicane, to perplex the clearest laws, to retard the decision of
the plainest cases, and to elude the sentence of the ablest judges.
Without some such management as this, the passions of the litigants
could not have been kept up in such heat and fury, but must gradually
have cooled, and died away of themselves. Add this, then, to the other
features, so well delineated, and you will have the picture of _ancient
litigation_ complete.
And what think we, now, of this picture? Is there truth and nature in
it? Are we at all concerned in this representation; and do we discover
any resemblance to it in what is passing elsewhere, I mean in modern
times, and even in Christian societies? If we do, let us acknowledge
with honesty, but indeed with double shame, that, like the Pagans of
old, we have the art to pervert the best things to the worst purposes;
and that the _lusts_ of men are still predominant over the wisest and
most beneficent institutions of civil justice.
Indeed, as to ourselves, the mild and equitable spirit of our laws
might be enough, one would think, to inspire another temper: but
when we further consider the divine spirit of the Gospel, by which
we pretend to be governed, and the end of which is _charity_, our
prodigious abuse of _both_ must needs cover us with confusion.
The instruction, then, from what has been said, is this: That, since,
as St. James observes, all our _wars and fightings_ with each other
proceed only from our _lusts_, and since _these_ have even prevailed
to that degree as to corrupt the two best gifts, which God, in his
mercy, ever bestowed on mankind, that is, to make _Religion_ and _Law_
subservient to our bitter animosities; since all this, I say, has been
made appear in the preceding comment on the sacred text, it becomes
us, severally, to consider what our part has been in the disordered
scene, now set before us: what care we have taken to check those unruly
passions, which are so apt, by indulgence, to tyrannize over us; and,
if this care has been less than it ought to have been, what may be
the consequence of our neglect. We should, in a word, _take heed, how
we bite and devour one another_; not only, as the Apostle admonishes,
_that we be not consumed one of another_; but lest, in the end, we
incur the chastisement of that LAW, we have so industriously perverted,
and the still sorer chastisement of that RELIGION, we have so impiously
abused.
SERMON VIII.
PREACHED APRIL 29, 1770.
1 TIM. i. 5.
_The end of the Commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of
a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned._
The Apostle, in the preceding verse, had warned Timothy against
_giving heed to fables and endless genealogies_: by FABLES, meaning
certain Jewish fictions and traditions applied to the explication
of theological questions, and not unlike the tales of the pagan
mythologists, contrived by them to cover the monstrous stories of their
Gods; and, by GENEALOGIES, the derivation of Angelic and Spiritual
natures[65], according to a fantastic system, invented by the Oriental
philosophers, and thence adopted by some of the Grecian Sects. These
_fables and genealogies_ (by which the Jewish and Pagan converts to
Christianity had much adulterated the faith of the Gospel) the Apostle
sets himself to expose and reprobate, as producing nothing but curious
and fruitless disputations; being indeed, as he calls them, _endless_,
or interminable[66]; because, having no foundation in the revealed word
of God, they were drawn out, varied, and multiplied at pleasure by
those, who delighted in such fanatical visions.
Then follows the text.—_The end of the Commandment, is_ CHARITY:
_out of a_ PURE HEART: _and of a_ GOOD CONSCIENCE; _and of_ FAITH
UNFEIGNED—As if the Apostle had said, “I have cautioned you against
this pernicious folly: but, if ye must needs deal in the way of
Mythology and Genealogy, I will tell you how ye may employ your
ingenuity to more advantage. Take Christian _Charity_, for your theme:
_mythologize_ that capital Grace of your profession; or, deduce the
_parentage_ of it, according to the steps, which I will point out
to you. For it springs immediately out of _a pure heart_; which,
itself, is derived from _a good conscience_; as that, again, is the
genuine offspring or emanation of _faith unfeigned_. In this way,
ye may gratify your mythologic or genealogical vein, innocently and
usefully[67]; for ye may learn yourselves, and teach others, how to
acquire and perfect that character, which is the great object of your
religion, and _the end of the Commandment_.”
Let us, then, if you please, attend to this genealogical deduction of
the learned Apostle; and see, if the descent of Christian charity be
not truly and properly investigated by him.
I. CHARITY, says he, is _out of a pure heart_: that is, it proceeds
from a heart, free from the habits of sin, and unpolluted by corrupt
affections.
To see with what propriety, the Apostle makes a pure heart the
_parent_ of charity, we are to reflect, that this benevolent temper,
which inclines us to wish and do well to others, is the proper growth
and produce, indeed, of the human mind, but of the human mind in
its native and original integrity. To provide effectually for the
maintenance of the social virtues, it hath pleased God to implant
in man, not only the power of reason, which enables him to see the
connexion between his own happiness and that of others, but also
certain instincts and propensities, which make him _feel_ it, and,
without reflexion, incline him to take part in foreign interests. For,
among the other wonders of our make, this is _one_, that we are so
formed as, whether we will or no, _to rejoice with them that rejoice,
and weep with them that weep_[68]. But now this sympathetic tenderness,
which nature hath put into our hearts for the concerns of each other,
may be much impaired by habitual neglect, or selfish gratifications.
If, instead of listening to those calls of nature, which, on the
entrance into life, are incessantly, but gently, urging us to acts of
generosity, we turn a deaf ear to them, and, charmed by the suggestions
of self-love, yield up ourselves to the dominion of the grosser
appetite, it cannot be but that the love of others, however natural to
us, must decline, and become, at length, a feeble motive to action;
or, which amounts to the same thing, be constantly overpowered by the
undue prevalence of other principles. Thus we may see, how ambition,
avarice, sensuality, or any other of the more selfish passions, tends
directly, by indulgence, to obstruct the growth of _charity_; and how
favourable an uncorrupt mind is to the production and maturity of this
divine virtue.
But, further, the impurities of the heart do not only hinder the
exertions of _benevolence_; they have even a worse effect, they cause
us to pervert and misapply it. It is not, perhaps, so easy a matter,
as some imagine, to divest ourselves of all attachment to the interest
of our fellow-creatures. But, by a long misuse of our faculties, we
may come in time to mistake the objects of _true_ interest; and so
be carried, by the motives of benevolence itself, to do irreparable
mischief to those we would most befriend and oblige. This seems to
be the case of those most abandoned of all sinners, who take pains
to corrupt others, and not only do wicked things themselves, _but
have pleasure in those who do them_[69]. All that can be said for
these unhappy victims of their own lusts, is, that their _perverted
benevolence_ prompts them to encourage others in that course of life,
from which, if it were rightly exercised, they would endeavour, with
all their power, to divert them.
So necessary it is, that charity should be out of _a pure heart_! It is
polluted in its very birth, unless it proceed from an honest mind: it
is spurious and illegitimate, if it be not so descended.
II. The next step in this line of moral ancestry, is a GOOD CONSCIENCE:
which phrase is not to be taken here in the negative sense, and as
equivalent only to a _pure heart_; but as expressing a further, a
_positive_ degree of goodness. For so we find it explained elsewhere;
_having_, says St. Peter, a GOOD CONSCIENCE, _that whereas they
speak evil of you, as_ EVIL DOERS, _they may be ashamed that falsely
accuse your_ GOOD CONVERSATION _in Christ Jesus: for it is better,
if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for_ WELL DOING, _than for
evil doing_[70]. Whence, by _a good conscience_, we are authorized
to understand a mind, _conscious to itself of beneficent actions_.
And thus the Apostle’s intention will be, to insinuate to us, that,
to be free from _depraved affections_, we must be actively virtuous;
and that we must be _zealous_ in good works, if we would attain to
that _purity_ of heart, which is proper to beget the genuine virtue of
Christian charity.
For, we may conceive of the matter, thus. A _good conscience_, or a
mind enured to right action, is most likely, and best enabled, to shake
off all corrupt partialities; and, as being intent on the strenuous
exercise of its duty, in particular instances, to acquire, in the
end, that tone of virtue, which strengthens, at once, and refines the
affections, till they expand themselves into an universal good-will.
Thus we see that, without this moral discipline, we should scarce
possess, or not long retain, a _pure heart_; and that the heart, _if
pure_, would yet be inert and sluggish, and unapt to entertain that
prompt and ready benevolence, which true charity implies.
So that an active practical virtue, as serving both to purify and
invigorate the kind affections, has deservedly a place given to it in
this lineal descent of Christian love. But,
III. The Apostle rises higher yet in this genealogical scale of
charity, and acquaints us that a _good conscience_, or a course of
active positive virtue, is not properly and lawfully descended, unless
it proceed from a FAITH UNFEIGNED, that is, a sincere undissembled
belief of the Christian religion.
And the reason is plain. For there is no dependance on virtuous
practice; we cannot expect that it should either be steady, or lasting,
unless the principle, from which it flows, be something nobler and more
efficacious, than considerations taken from the beauty, propriety,
and usefulness of virtue itself. Our active powers have need to be
sustained and strengthened by energies of a higher kind, than those
which mere philosophy supplies. We shall neither be able to bear up
against the difficulties of a good life, nor to stand out against the
temptations, which an evil world is always ready to throw in our way,
but by placing a firm trust on the promises of God, and by keeping our
minds fixed on the glorious hopes and assurances of the Gospel. And
_experience_ may satisfy us, that practical virtue has no stability or
consistency, without these supports.
Besides, considering a _good conscience_, or a moral practical conduct,
with an eye to its influence on a _pure heart_, till it issue in
complete _charity_, we cannot but see how the Christian faith is
calculated to direct its progress, and secure the great end proposed.
For the whole system of our divine religion, which hath its foundation
in _grace_; its _precepts_, which breathe nothing but love and amity;
its _doctrines_, which only present to us, under different views,
the transcendent goodness of God in the great work of redemption;
its _history_, which records the most engaging instances of active
benevolence; all this cannot but exceedingly inspirit our affections,
and carry them out in a vigorous and uniform prosecution of the
subordinate _means_, which are to produce that last perfection of our
nature, a pure and permanent love of mankind. For at every step we
cannot but see the _end of the commandment_, so perpetually held out
to us, and derive a fresh inducement from _faith_, to accomplish and
obtain it.
Indeed, to produce this effect, our _faith_, as the Apostle adds, must
be UNFEIGNED: that is, it must be nourished and intimately rooted in
the heart; we must not only yield a general assent to the sacred truths
of our religion, we must embrace them with earnestness and zeal, we
must rely upon them with an unshaken confidence and resolution. But
all this will be no difficulty to those who derive their _faith_
from its proper source, that is, who make a diligent study of the
holy scriptures: where _only_ we learn what the _true_ faith (which
will ever be most friendly to virtue) is; and whence we shall _best_
derive those motives and considerations, which are proper to excite and
fortify this principle in us.
And thus, that Charity, which a _pure mind_ gives the liberty of
exerting, and which a _good conscience_ manifests and at the same time
improves, will, further, be so sublimed and perfected by the influence
of divine _faith_, as will render it the sovereign guide of life, and
the pride and ornament of humanity.
Or, to place the descent of Charity, in its true and natural order, it
must spring, first, from an _unfeigned faith_ in the Gospel of Jesus:
that faith must then produce, and shew itself in, a _good conscience_:
and that conscience must be thoroughly purged from all selfish and
disorderly _affections_: whence, lastly, the celestial offspring
of _Charity_ has its birth, and comes forth in all the purity and
integrity of its nature.
FROM THIS lineage of Christian Charity, thus deduced, many instructive
lessons may be drawn. We may learn to distinguish the true and
genuine, from pretended Charity: we have, hence, the surest way of
discerning the spirits of other men, and of trying our own: we may
correct some popular mistakes concerning the virtue of charity; and
shall best comprehend the force and significancy of the several
commendations, which the inspired writers, in many places, and in very
general terms, bestow upon it.
Let me conclude this discourse with an instance of such instruction,
respecting each of those heads, which the order of the text hath
afforded the opportunity of considering.
And, _first_, from the necessity of a PURE HEART, we are instructed
what to think of the benevolence of those men, who, though enslaved to
their own selfish passions, are seldom the most backward to make large
pretences to this virtue. But, be their pretences what they will, we
know with certainty, that, if the heart be impure, its charity must be
defective. It must, of course, be weak and partial; confined in its
views, and languid in its operations; in a word, a faint and powerless
quality, and not that generous, diffusive, universal principle, which
alone deserves the exalted name of _Charity_.
We conclude, also, on the same grounds, that the hatred of vice is no
breach of Christian charity. This charity is required to flow from a
_pure heart_. But there is not in nature a stronger antipathy, than
between _purity_, and _impurity_. So that we might as well expect light
and darkness, heat and cold, to associate, as spotless virtue not to
take offence at its opposite. I know, indeed, that the hatred due to
the vices of men, is too easily transferred to their persons. But that
charity, which is lineally descended from _faith_, will see to make a
difference between them; and while it feels a quick resentment against
_sin_, will conceive, nay will, by that very resentment, demonstrate, a
tender concern for _sinners_, for whom Christ died.
_Secondly_, from the rank, which a GOOD CONSCIENCE holds in this family
of love, we are admonished to avoid the mistake of those, who are
inclined to rest in negative virtue, as the _end of the commandment_;
and who account their charity full and complete, when it keeps them
only from intending, or doing mischief to others. The Apostle, on the
contrary, gives us to understand, that its descent is irregular, if
it be not allied to active positive virtue; such as takes a pleasure
in kind offices, is zealous to promote the welfare of others, and is
fertile in _good works_. And this conclusion is the more necessary to
be inforced upon us, since, in a world like this, where vice is sure to
be active enough, the interests of society will not permit that Charity
should be idle.
Lastly, from the lineal descent of Charity from FAITH, we must needs
infer, that infidelity is not a matter of that indifference to social
life, which many careless persons suppose it to be. It is the glory of
our faith, that it terminates in charity. Every article of our creed is
a fresh incitement to good works: in so much that, he who understands
his religion most perfectly, and is most firmly persuaded of it, can
scarce fail of approving himself the best man, as well as the best
_Christian_. And this, again, is a consideration, which should affect
all those who profess to have any concern for the interests of society
and moral virtue.
Thus it appears, how instructive the doctrine of the text is, and how
usefully, as well as elegantly, the Apostle sets before us, in this
short genealogical table, the proper ancestry of Charity: in which
_Faith_, as the ultimate progenitor, begets an _active virtue_; and
that, impregnating the _heart_ with pure affections, produces at
length this divine offspring of _Christian love_.
If we had found this mythological fiction in Xenophon or Plato, we
should have much admired the instruction conveyed in it. Let it not
abate our reverence for this moral lesson, that it comes from an
Apostle of Jesus, and, if not dressed out in the charms of human
eloquence, has all the authority of truth and divine inspiration to
recommend it to us.
SERMON IX.
PREACHED NOVEMBER 9, 1766.
ROM. xii. 10.
—_In honour preferring one another._
It is much to the honour of the inspired writers, because it shews
them to be no enthusiasts, that, with all their zeal for the revealed
doctrines of the Gospel, they never forget or overlook the common
duties of _humanity_; those duties, which Reason itself, a prior
Revelation, had made known to the wiser part of mankind.
Nay, which is more remarkable, they sometimes condescend to enforce
what are called the _lesser moralities_[71]; that is, those inferiour
duties, which, not being of absolute necessity to the support of human
society, are frequently overlooked by other moralists, and yet, as
contributing very much to the comfortable enjoyment of it, are of
_real_ moment, and deserve a suitable regard.
The text is an instance of this sort—_in honour preferring one
another_—the NATURE, and GROUND, and right APPLICATION, of which duty,
it is my present purpose to explain.