spirit and discipline make a Christian :" implying, that none could be real Christians, without the help of Christian discipline. But if this be so, is it any wonder that we find so few Christians; for where is Christian discipline.? In what part of England (to go no farther) is Christian discipline added to Christian doctrine? Now whatever doctrine is preached, where there is not discipline, it cannot have its full effect upon the hearers.

8. To bring the matter closer still. Is not Scriptural Christianity preached and generally known among the people called Methodists? Impartial persons allow it is. And have they not Christian discipline too, in all the branches of it, regularly and constantly exercised? Let those who think any essential part of it is wanting, point it out, and it shall not be wanting long. Why then are not these altogether Christians, who have both Christian doctrine and Christian discipline? Why is not the spiritual health of the people called Methodists recovered? Why is not all that "mind in us which was in Christ Jesus?" Why have we not learned of him, our very first lesson, to be meek and lowly of heart? To say with him, in all circumstances of life; "Not as I will, but as thou wilt! I come not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me." Why are not we "crucified to the world, and the world crucified to us? Dead to the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life?" Why do not all of us live "the life that is bid with Christ in God?" O why do not we, that have all possible helps, "walk as Christ also walked ?" Hath he not left us an example that we might tread in his steps? But do we regard either his example or precept? To instance only in one point. Who regards those solemn words; "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth?" Of the three rules which are laid down on this head, in the sermon on The Mammon of Unrighteousness, you may find many that observe the first rule; namely, "Gain all you can.” You may find a few that observe the second; "Save all you can:" but how many have you found that observe the third rule; "Give all you can ?" Have you reason to believe, that five hundred of these are to be found among fifty thousand Methodists? And yet nothing can be more plain, than that all who observe the first two rules without the third, will be twofold more the children of hell than ever they were before.

9. O that God would enable me once more, before I go hence, and am no more seen, to lift up my voice like a trumpet to those who gain and save all they can, but do not give all they can. Ye are the men, some of the chief men, who continually grieve the Holy Spirit of God, and in a great measure stop his gracious influence from descending on our assemblies. Many of your brethren, beloved of God, have not food to eat; they have not raiment to put on; they have not a place where to lay their heads. And why are they thus distressed? Because you impiously, unjustly, and cruelly detain from them what your Master and theirs lodges in your hands, on purpose to supply their wants! See that poor member of Christ, pinched with hunger, shivering with cold, half naked! Mean time

you have plenty of this world's goods, of meat, drink, and apparel. In the name of God, what are you doing? Do you neither fear God, nor regard man? Why do you not deal your bread to the hungry, and cover the naked with a garment? Have you laid out in your own costly apparel what would have answered both these intentions? Did God command you so to do? Does he commend you for so doing? Did he intrust you with his (not your) goods for this end? And does he now say, "Servant of God, well done?" You well know he does not. This idle expense has no approbation, either from God or your own conscience. But you say, You can afford it!" O be ashamed to take such miserable nonsense inte your mouths. Never more utter such stupid cant, such palpable absurdity! Can any steward afford to be an arrant knave? To waste his Lord's goods? Can any servant afford to lay out his Master's money, any otherwise than his Master appoints him? So far from it, that whoever does this, ought to be excluded from a Christian society.

10. "But is it possible to supply all the poor in our society with the necessaries of life!" It was possible once to do this, in a larger society than this. In the first Church at Jerusalem, there was not any among them that lacked, but distribution was made to every one, according as he had need." And we have full proof that it may be so still. It is so among the people called Quakers. Yea, and among the Moravians so called. And why should it not be so with us? "Because they are ten times richer than we." Perhaps fifty times. And yet we are able enough, if we be equally willing, to do this.

A gentleman (a Methodist) told me some years since, "I shall leave forty thousand pounds among my children." Now suppose he had left them but twenty thousand, and given the other twenty thousand to God and the poor, would God have said to him, "Thou fool?" And this would have set all the society far above want.

11. But I will not talk of giving to God, or leaving half your fortune. You might think this to be too high a price for heaven. I will come to lower terms. Are there not a few among you that could give a hundred pounds, perhaps some that could give a thousand, and yet leave your children as much as would help them to work out their own salvation? With two thousand pounds, and not much less, we could supply the present wants of all our poor, and put them in a way of supplying their own wants for some time to come. Now suppose this could be done, are we clear before God, while it is not done? Is not the neglect of it one cause why so many are still sick and weak among you? And that both in soul and in body? That they still grieve the Holy Spirit, by preferring the fashions of the world to the commands of God? And, I many times doubt, whether we preachers are not in some measure partakers of their sin. I am in doubt whether it is not a kind of partiality. I doubt, whether it is not a great sin to keep them in our society. May it not hurt their souls, by encouraging them to persevere, in walking contrary to the Bible? And may it not, in some measure, intercept

the salutary influences of the blessed Spirit upon the whole community?

12. I am distressed.

I know not what to do. I see what I might have done once. I might have said peremptorily and expressly, "Here I am: I and my Bible. I will not, I dare not vary from this book, either in great things or small. I have no power to dispense with one jot or tittle of what is contained therein. I am determined to be a Bible-Christian, not almost, but altogether. Who will meet me on this ground? Join me on this, or not at all." With regard to dress in particular I might have been as firm (and I now see it would have been far better) as either the people called Quakers, or the Moravian Brethren :-I might have said, " This is our manner of dress, which we know is both scriptural and rational. If you join with us, you are to dress as we do: but you need not join us unless you please." But alas! the time is now past. And what I

can do now, I cannot tell.

13. But to return to the main question. Why has Christianity done so little good, even among us? Among the Methodists? Among them that hear and receive the whole Christian doctrine, and that have Christian discipline added thereto, in the most essential parts of it? Plainly, because we have forgot, or at least not duly attended to, those solemn words of our Lord; "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.' It was the remark of a holy man several years ago, "Never was there before a people in the Christian Church, who had so much of the power of God among them, with so little self-denial." Indeed' the work of God does go on, and in a surprising manner, notwithstanding this capital defect; but it cannot go on in the same degree, as it otherwise would: neither can the word of God have its full. effect, unless the hearers of it " deny themselves, and take up their cross daily."

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14. It would be easy to show, in how many respects the Methodists, in general, are deplorably wanting in the practice of Christian self-denial: from which indeed they have been continually frighted by the silly outcries of the Antinomians. To instance only in one: While we were at Oxford, the rule of every Methodist was, (unless in case of sickness) to fast every Wednesday and Friday in the year, in imitation of the Primitive Church, for which we had the highest reverence. Now this practice of the Primitive Church is universally allowed. "Who does not know," says Epiphanius, an ancient writer," that the fasts of the fourth and sixth days of the week (Wednesday and Friday) are observed by the Christians throughout the whole world? So they were by the Methodists for several years; by them all, without any exception. But afterwards, some in London carried this to excess, and fasted so as to impair their health. It was not long before others made this a pretence for not fasting at And I fear there are now thousands of Methodists, so called both in England and Ireland, who, following the same bad example, have entirely left off fasting: who are so far from fasting twice in

all.

the week, (as all the stricter Pharisees did,) that they do not fast twice in the month. Yea, are there not some of you who do not fast one day from the beginning of the year to the end? But what excuse can there be for this? I do not say for those that call themselves members of the Church of England; but for any who profess to believe the Scripture to be the word of God? Since, according to this, the man that never fasts, is no more in the way to heaven, than the man that never prays.

15. But can any one deny that the members of the Church of Scotland fast constantly? Particularly on their sacramental occasions? In some parishes they return only once a year; but in others, suppose in large cities, they occur twice, or even thrice a year. Now it is well known there is always a fast-day in the week preceding the administration of the Lord's supper. But occasionally looking into a book of accounts in one of their vestries, I observed, "So much set down, for the dinners of the Ministers, on the fastday!" And I am informed there is the same article in them all. And is there any doubt, but the people fast just as their Ministers do? But what a farce is this! What a miserable burlesque upon a plain Christian duty! O that the General Assembly would have regard to the honour of their nation! Let them roll away from it this shameful reproach, by either enforcing the duty, or removing that article from their books. Let it never appear there any more! Let it vanish away for ever.

16. But why is self-denial in general so little practised at present among the Methodists? Why is so exceedingly little of it to be found even in the oldest and largest societies? The more I observe and consider things, the more clearly it appears, what is the cause of this in London, in Bristol, in Birmingham, in Manchester, in Leeds, in Dublin, in Cork. The Methodists grow more and more selfindulgent, because they grow rich. Although many of them are still deplorably poor, ("Tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askelon!") yet many others, in the space of twenty, thirty, or forty years, are twenty, thirty, yea, a hundred times richer than they were when they first entered the Society. And it is an observation which admits of few exceptions, that nine in ten of these, decreased in grace, in the same proportion as they increased in wealth. Indeed, according to the natural tendency of riches, we cannot expect it to be otherwise.

17. But how astonishing a thing is this! How can we understand it? Does it not seem, (and yet this cannot be,) that Christianity, true, scriptural Christianity, has a tendency, in process of time, to undermine and destroy itself? For, wherever true Christianity spreads, it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches. And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity. Now if there be no way to prevent this, Christianity is inconsistent with itself, and of consequence cannot stand, cannot

continue long among any people: since, wherever it generally prevails, it saps its own foundation.

18. But is there no way to prevent this? To continue Christianity among a people? Allowing that diligence and frugality must produce riches, is there no means to hinder riches from destroying the religion of those that possess them? I can see only one possible way: find out another who can? Do you gain all you can, and save all you can? Then you must in the nature of things grow rich. Then if you have any desire to escape the damnation of hell, give all you can; otherwise I can have no more hope of your salvation, than for that of Judas Iscariot.

19. I call God to record upon my soul, that I advise no more than I practise. Ldo, blessed be God, gain, and save, and give all I can. And so, I trust in God, I shall do, while the breath of God is in my nostrils. But what then? I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus, my Lord! Still,

"I give up every plea beside,

Lord, I am damn'd! but thou hast died!"

DUBLIN, July 2, 1789.

SERMON CXIX.

ON KNOWING CHRIST AFTER THE FLESH.

66

Henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we did know CHRIST after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more." -2 CORINTHIANS V. 16.

1. I HAVE long desired to see something clearly and intelligibly written on these words. This is doubtless a point of no small importance; it enters deeply into the nature of religion: and yet what treatise have we in the English language, which is written upon it? Possibly there may be such; but none of them has come to my notice, no, not so much as as a single sermon.

2. This is here introduced by the Apostle in a very solemn manner. The words literally translated run thus: He died for all, that they who live,-all who live upon the earth, might not henceforth,from the moment they knew him, live unto themselves,-seek their own honour, or profit, or pleasure, but unto him,-in righteousness and true holiness. ver. 15. So that we from this time,—we that know