Thou art the man? If he speaks to any of you that are present, O do not stop your ears! Rather say with Zaccheus, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor: and if I have done any wrong to any man, I restore him fourfold!" He did not mean that he had done this in time past; but that he determined to do so for I charge thee before God, thou lover of money,

the time to come.

to go and do likewise!

9. I have a message from God unto thee, O rich man, whether thou wilt hear, or whether thou wilt forbear. Riches have increased with thee; at the peril of thy soul, "set not thine heart upon them." Be thankful to Him that gave thee such a talent, so much power of doing good. Yet dare not to rejoice over them, but with fear and trembling. Cave ne inhereas, says pious Kempis, ne capiaris et pereas. Beware thou cleave not unto them, lest thou be entangled and perish. Do not make them thy end; thy chief delight; thy happiness; thy God! See that thou expect not happiness in money, nor any thing that is purchaseable thereby; in gratifying either the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, or the pride of life.

:

10. But let us descend to particulars and see that each of you deal faithfully with his own soul. If any of you have now twice, thrice, or four times as much substance as when you first saw my face, faithfully examine yourselves, and see if you do not set your hearts, if not directly on money or riches themselves, yet on some of the things that are purchaseable thereby, which comes to the same thing. All those the Apostle John includes under that general name, the world and the desire of them, or to seek happiness in them, under that form, "the love of the world." This he divides into three branches, "The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life." Fairly examine yourselves with regard to these. And first, as to "the desire of the flesh." I believe this means the seeking of happiness in the things that gratify the senses. To instance in

one: do not you seek your happiness in enlarging the pleasure of tasting? To be more particular, do you not eat more plentifully or more delicately than you did ten or twenty years ago? Do not you use more drink, or drink of a more costly kind, than you did then? Do you sleep on as hard a bed as you did once, suppose your health will bear it? To touch on one point more; do you fast as often now you are rich, as you did when you was poor? Ought you not in all reason to do this, rather more often than more seldom? I am afraid, your own heart condemns you. You are not clear in this matter.

11. The second branch of the love of the world, "the desire of the eyes," is of a wider extent. We may understand thereby, the seeking our happiness in gratifying the imagination, (which is chiefly done by means of the eyes,) by grand, or new, or beautiful objects. If they may not all be reduced to one head: since neither grand nor beautiful objects are pleasing, when the novelty of them is gone. But are not the veriest trifles pleasing as long as they are new? Do not some of you on the score of novelty, seek no small part of your happiness in that trifle of trifles, dress? Do not you bestow more

money, or (which is the same) more time or pains upon it, than you did once? I doubt this is not done to please God. Then it pleases the Devil. If you laid aside your needless ornaments some years since, ruffles, necklaces, spider-caps, ugly, unbecoming bonnets, costly linen, expensive laces, have you not, in defiance of religion and reason, taken to them again?

12. Perhaps you say, "You can now afford the expense." This is the quintessence of nonsense. Who gave you this addition to your fortune? Or (to speak properly) lent it to you? To speak more properly still, Who lodged it for a time in your hands as his stewards? Informing you at the same time, for what purposes he intrusted you with it? And can you afford to waste your Lord's goods, for every part of which you are to give an account? Or to expend them in any other way than that which he hath expressly appointed? Away with this vile, diabolical cant! Let it never more come out of your lips. This affording to rob God, is the very cant of hell. Do not you know, that God intrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessaries for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless and indeed as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you defraud your Lord, by applying it to any other purpose? When he intrusted you with a little, did he not intrust you with it that you might lay out all that little in doing good? And when he intrusted you with more, did he not intrust you with that additional money that you might do so much the more good, as you had more ability? Had you any more right to waste a pound, a shilling, or a penny, than you had before? You have, therefore, no more right to gratify the desire of the flesh, or the desire of the eyes now, than when you was a beggar. O no! Do not make so poor a return to your beneficent Lord! Rather the more he intrusts you with, be so much the more careful to employ every mite as he hath appointed.

13. Ye angels of God, ye servants of his, that continually do his pleasure; our common Lord hath intrusted you also with talents, far more precious than gold and silver, that you may minister in your various offices to the heirs of salvation. Do not you employ every mite of what you have received, to the end for which it was given you? And hath he not directed us, to do his will on earth, as it is done by you in heaven? Brethren, what are we doing? Let us awake! Let us arise! Let us imitate those flaming ministers! Let us employ our whole soul, body, and substance, according to the will of our Lord. Let us render unto God the things that are God's, even all we are, and all we have!

14. Most of those, who when riches increase, set their hearts upon them, do it indirectly in some of the preceding instances. But there are others who do this more directly, being properly lovers of money; who love it for its own sake, not only for the sake of what it procures. But this vice is very rarely found in children or young persons; but only, or chiefly, in the old; in those that have the least need of money, and the least time to enjoy it. Might not this

induce one to think, in many cases, it is a penal evil? That it is a sin-punishing evil? That when a man has, for many years, hid his precious talent in the earth, God delivers him up to Satan, to punish him by the inordinate love of it? Then it is that he is more and more tormented by that auri sacra fames! That execrable hunger after gold, which can never be satisfied! No. It is most true, as the very heathen observes :- Crescit amor nummi, quantum ipsa pecunia crescit."-As money, so the love of money grows; it increases in the same proportion. As in a dropsy, the more you drink, the more you thirst; till that unquenchable thirst plunge you into the fire, which never shall be quenched.

15. But is there no way, you may ask, either to prevent or to cure this dire disease? There is one preventive of it, which is also a remedy for it and I believe there is no other under heaven. It is this. After you have gained (with the cautions above given) all you can, and saved all you can, wanting for nothing: spend not one pound, one shilling, or one penny, to gratify either the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, or the pride of life; or indeed, for any other end than to please and glorify God. Having avoided this rock on the right hand, beware of that on the left. Secondly, hoard nothing. Lay up no treasure on earth, but give all you can; that is, all you have. I defy all the men upon earth, yea, all the angels in heaven, to find any other way of extracting the poison from riches.

16. Let me add one word more. After having served you between sixty and seventy years; with dim eyes, shaking hands, and tottering feet, I give you one more advice before I sink into the dust. Mark those words of St. Paul, "Those that desire (or endeavour) to be rich, (that moment) fall into temptation," yea, a deep gulf of temptation, out of which nothing less than Almighty Power can deliver them. "They fall into a snare:" the word properly means a steel trap, which instantly crushes the animal taken to pieces!" and into divers foolish and hurtful desires, which plunge men into destruction and perdition." You, above all men, who now prosper in the world, never forget these awful words! How unspeakably slippery is your path! How dangerous every step! The Lord God enable you to see your danger, and make you deeply sensible of it. O may you "awake up after his likeness, and be satisfied with it!"

17. Permit me to come a little closer still. Perhaps I may not trouble you any more on this head. I am pained for you that are "rich in this world." Do you give all you can? You who receive five hundred pounds a year, and spend only two hundred, do you give three hundred back to God? If not, you certainly rob God of that three hundred. You that receive two hundred, and spend but one, do you give God the other hundred? If not, you rob him of just so much. "Nay, may I not do what I will with my own?" Here lies the ground of your mistake. It is not your own. It cannot be, unless you are Lord of heaven and earth. "However, I must provide for my children." Certainly. But how? By making them

rich? Then you will probably make them heathens, as some of you have done already. "What shall I do then?" Lord, speak to their hearts! Else the preacher speaks in vain. Leave them enough to live on, not in idleness and luxury, but by honest industry. And if you have not children, upon what scriptural or rational principle, can you leave a groat behind you more than will bury you? I pray consider, what are you the better for what you leave behind you? What does it signify; whether you leave behind you ten thousand pounds, or ten thousand shoes and boots? O! leave nothing behind you! Send all you have before you into a better world! Lend it, lend it all unto the Lord, and it shall be paid you again! Is there any danger that his truth should fail? It is fixed as the pillars of heaven. Haste, haste, my brethren, haste! lest you be called away, before you have settled what you have on this security! When this is done, you may boldly say, "Now I have nothing to do but to die! Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit! Come, Lord Jesus! Come quickly."

BRISTOL, Sept. 21, 1790.

SERMON CXXIX.

TRUE CHRISTIANITY DEFENDED.

(THE following Sermon was found in a mutilated manuscript among Mr. Wesley's papers. It is dated June 24, 1741. A Latin copy of the same discourse has also been discovered. Mr. Pawson, with great care, copied the former, and I have supplied the deficiencies out of the latter. On collating both sermons, I find several variations, and though not of any great importance, yet sufficient, in my judgment, to vindicate the propriety of translating and publishing the Latin one, not merely as a matter of curiosity, but of utility. The sermon, no doubt, was written with the design of being preached before the University of Oxford: but whether it ever were preached there, cannot be determined.*

A. CLARKE.]

"How is the faithful City become an Harlot !"-ISAIAH i. 21.

1. "WHEN I bring the sword upon a land, saith the Lord, if the watchman blow the trumpet, and warn the people; then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come,

It appears, I think, very probable, not to say certain, from Mr. Wesley's Journal, for that year, that he did preach this sermon at Oxford before the University. For he went thither on Wednesday, June 17, and on Thursday 18, observes, "Fadvised

and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand." Ezek. xxxiii. 2—6.

2. It cannot be doubted, but that word of the Lord has come unto every minister of Christ also. "So thou, O son of man, I

have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die: if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand."

3. Nor ought any man therefore to be counted our enemy because he telleth us the truth: the doing of which is indeed an instance of love to our neighbour, as well as of obedience to God. Otherwise few would undertake so thankless a task: for the return they will find, they know already. The Scripture must be fulfilled. "Me the world hateth," saith our Lord, "because I testify of it that the deeds thereof are evil.”

4. It is from a full, settled conviction, that I owe this labour of love to my brethren, and to my tender parent,* by whom I have been nourished for now more than twenty years, and from whom, under God, I have received those advantages, of which, I trust, I shall retain a grateful sense, till my spirit returns to God who gave it. It is, I say, from a full conviction, that love and gratitude, as well as that dispensation of the Gospel wherewith I am intrusted, require it of me, that even I have undertaken to speak on a needful, though unwelcome subject. I would indeed have wished that some more acceptable person would have done this. But should all hold their peace, the very stones would cry out, "How is the faithful city become an harlot !"

5. How faithful she was once to her Lord, to whom she had been betrothed as a chaste virgin, let not only the writings of her sons, which shall be had in honour throughout all generations, but also the blood of her martyrs speak; a stronger testimony of her faithfulness than could be given by words, even

with Mr. Gambold concerning the subject of my sermon before the University. But he seemed to think it of no moment: For,' said he, all here are so prejudiced against you, that they will mind nothing you say.' I know not that," replies Mr. Wesley, "However, I am to deliver my own soul, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear." A part of some of the following days he seems to have employed in writing. the sermon, and probably in translating it into Latin, and to have finished it on Wednesday 24, the day it is dated. On which day he says, "I read over and partly transcribed, Bishop Bull's Harmonica Apostolica. The position with which he sets out is this; That all good works, and not faith alone, are the necessarily previous condition of Justification,' or the forgiveness of our sins. But in the middle of the treatise he asserts, That faith alone is the condition of Justification; 'For faith,' says he, 'referred to Justification, means all inward and outward good works. In the latter end he affirms, 'That there are two justifications; and that only inward good works necessarily precede the former, but both_inward and outward the latter.'" The reader will find these sentiments of Bishop Bull stated more at large in the sermon. Mr. Wesley returned to London, on Saturday 27, but went back to Oxford on the 30th, and continued there about a fortnight, during which time he probably preached the sermon. J. BENSON

*The University of OXFORD.