(3 TRUE LIBERALITY. A SERMO N, PREACHED IN BOSTON ON THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR EDUCATING PIOUS YOUTH FOR THE Gospel Ministry. OCT. 23, 1816. BY SAMUEL WORCESTER, D.D. PASTOR OF A CHURCH IN SALEM. PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY. ANDOVER PRINTED BY FLAGG AND GOULD. SERMON. ISAIAH xxxii. 8. BUT THE LIBERAL DEVISETH LIBERAL THINGS; AND BY LIBERAL THINGS SHALL HE STAND. THE goodness of Jehovah is the glory of his throne, and the light of the universe. To be like him, and active in doing his will, are the true excellence and happiness of man. This exalted character and this blessed condition are strongly set forth in the text. The passage contains two propositions, which it may be useful, and suitable to the present occasion, distinctly to consider. I. The liberal deviseth liberal things. The first proposition may be understood, either as a definition, or as a prediction. In the connected section, two opposite characters are distinctively marked: viz. the vile person, called also the churl, or, as rendered by Lowth, the niggard; and the bountiful, the liberal, or, in the language of Lowth, the generous. "The vile person, says the prophet, shall no more be called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful." -The liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.-This, I say, may be understood as a definition; distinctly enunciating, that he, and he only, is truly liberal, who deviseth liberal things. |