I. The glory of his miniftry would be an inevitable occafion of idolatry to us, and God himself would be chargeable with the error of thofe, who worship him. II. The Spirit of his miniftry would become a dreadful fnare to our innocence. I. The glory of his miniftry. 1. An illustrious perfon was expected by all mankind. 2. Promised by the prophets. 3. When Chrift appeared, his birth, life, miracles, &c. were all grand, glorious, and unheard-of, and all correfponded with prophecy.

II. The fpirit of his ministry. 1. He preached and practifed holinefs, as even they, who deny his divinity, own. 2. The world received numberlefs advantages in confequence of his coming. 3. He foretold many events fince fulfilled. If then we own the truth of the bible we must own his divinity." It is only difguifing this masterly defence of Chrift's divinity to fpeak of it as the bounds prefcribed me permit. I tranfcribe fuch keletons with regret; nor would I attempt to abridge fuch fermons at all, unless I entertained hopes of ftirring up in fuch as have not feen them a defire to perufe them. I allow, fo little makes a God in this

greater

fallen church of Rome, that arguments for Chrift's divi-. nity come in general with an ill grace from a papift's pen: but this fermon is an exception. This fermon and one of Mr. Saurin's on the fame fubject have anfwered my enquiries concerning Christ's divinity more fatisfactorily than all I ever read befide': perhaps because they are short and plain. Maff. Serm. Avent. pour la circoncifion.

(8) You may make fuppofitions in morality. The following example from Heb. xi. 1. Faith is the evidence of things not feen, in a fermon of a Profeffor of Divinity at Geneva, is of this kind. "The word exynos fignifies an argument, or a proof, which when good may be faid to render a matter evident, to give it demonftration. Perfuafion of the truth of a fact is analogous to fight, Abraham thus Saw Chrift's day. Hence comes the efficacy of Chriftian faith. Suppose 1. Ye faw the fufferings of bell, when fin attacks you, would ye dare to yield to temptation for the fake of pleasure? 2. Suppofe ye were admitted for a little while to the felicity of heaven, would ye part with it for temporal gain? 3. Suppofe God, with all the magnificent enfigns

of

of his glory vifible to you, would ye venture to offend him? 4. Suppose the day of judgment come, and your felves on trial, fhould ye have any inclination to fin? 5. Suppose yourfelves dying, would ye wish to ftupify yourselves by finning? Now faith prefents all thefe objects to those, who believe the gofpel, with as much vivacity, as if they were prefent and vifible; faith therefore prevents fin." The preacher proceeds to fhew that faith alfo produceth bolinefs. The above example regards the rule of fuppofition, we do not propofe it as a pattern of regular arrangement. Sermons par Antoine Leger a Geneve, tom. i. S. 1.

When fuppofitions are made grounds of moral action, they ought not only to be true in themselves: but they should be made to appear to be applicable to the action enforced. There is a great deal of duplicity in the frequent management of this article. For example. In the year 1685 the papal clergy in France, finding themfelves neither able to defeat the proteftant clergy, nor even to make a tolerable excufe for the abuses in their own religion, drew up in a gene-, ral affembly a complaint

ΤΟ

THE KING against the calumnies, with which the

XXII.

pretended reformed loaded them in their books and fermons." This curious complaint, figned by fixty-five prelates and their creatures, they prefented to the king. To this they fubjoined a confeffion of faith, containing the doctrine of their church, according to the council of Trent. In a left hand column ftands each article of their faith, and in the oppofite right hand column quotations from proteftant writers, charging them with heterodoxy. The first calumniating author quoted is Profeffor Whitaker of Cambridge, in England. The fecond is Downam bishop of Derry, in Ireland. The laft is Beza of Geneva. Ye holy jugglers! could your master fuppofe, think ye, all moft chriftian as he was, could he fuppofe, that his peaceable proteftant fubjects at Paris were to be blamed for English, Irish, and all other foreign calumniators? The very editions quoted were not printed in France: but at London, Geneva, &c. - - Ah! we understand you, Delenda eft Carthago! Voyez Pleinte de L'Affemb. Gen. du Clerg. de France.

(9) Make fuppofitions to anfwer moral ends. Thus Mr. Saurin on Peter's first sermon to the Jews, Acts ii. When they heard these things they

were

avere pricked in the heart, and faid-Men and brethren what fhall we do? You cannot call to mind S. Peter's fermon without envying the primitive Chriftians the precious advantage of hearing this preacher, and without faying to yourfelves, how would fuch exhortations have penetrated our hearts ?

but, my brethren, will you allow me to ask you one queftion? Should you like to hear these apoftolick men ? Would you attend their fermons? And, to fay all in one word, do you with S. Peter was now in this pulpit? Paufe a little before you anfwer this question. Compare the taste of this auditory with the genius of fuch a preacher, your timorous delicacy with that noble liberty which made him fpeak fo powerfully against the vices of his own times. For our who think we parts we, know you very well, we are convinced, that no preacher would be lefs agreeable to you than S. Peter-of all the difcourfes that can be addrefied to you, there would perhaps be none lefs favour

to

ably received than fuch as should be formed upon the plan of this, which this apoftle preached at Jerufalem.

One wants in every fermon to discover fome new truth, and, under pretence of fatisfying the laudable defire of improving in knowledge, feeks to be diverted where he ought to be cenfured. Another wishes, we would please him, and would have us adorn our difcourfes, not in order to gain a more easy accefs to his heart, not to enable us by an innocent artifice to make use of his love of pleasure to destroy the love of inordinate pleasure itfelf: but to flatter a kind of frivoloufnefs, which people love to have indulged till a devotional exercife is finished, when they may plunge into more fenfual joys. Almost all desire to be amufed, and lulled afleep; and if nobody is fo grofs as to fay, Flatter my evil habits, ftupify my confcience, praise my crimes, there is almost no one who does not with it in effect. A principle of I know not what refined fecurity makes us defire to be

cen

cenfured to a certain degree, fo that the receiving of a light emotion may make us prefume that we have practifed the duties of repentance, and yield us an affurance, which we could not poffibly have obtained by hearing encomiums on our vices. We would have the wound touched, but not probed. We like the application of emollients, but cannot bear to have the fire and the knife go to the bottom of the wound.

one

vague and fuperficial manner, that you must be virtuous? Would they have nifhed their fermons by pathetically exhorting you not to form the leaft doubt concerning your falvation? Ah, my brethren! methinks I hear these holy men animated with the fame spirit which made them fay with fo much boldness to the murderers of Chrift, you have taken this holy Jefus and with wicked bands have crucified and flain him, methinks I hear S. Peter, &c. &c. Saurin fer. pour la pentecote, tom. v.

Ah how little would the apostles have preached in your taste! figure to your felves thofe holy men afcending this pulpit, after having walked in your publick places, after having known your domeftick fecrets, after having feen through the coverings of certain criminal actions, after having been informed of certain mylleries, which I dare not even name, and of certain fplendid crimes committed in the face of the fun. Do you imagine, that, knowing all thefe, thefe holy men would have ftudied to gratify your taste for preaching, and have fubmitted to thofe laws, which you choose to impofe on your preachers? Would they, think ye, have gratified your curiofity by curious dif quifitions? Would they, think ye, have conjured you not to defpair? Do ye think they would have been content to have told you

in a

My apology for fuch long extracts from Monfieur Saurin is perhaps weak enough; it is my fondness for that writer, of him methinks I can fay as one of Socrates, na yas το μεμνήσθαι Σωκράτους, και

UTOV λegovτa, kal ακουοντα εμοιγε α: ΠΑΝTON HAIETON (Plato in Phædone.) and Tully will excufe me (in orat. pro Archia poeta.) fi ipfi hæc neque attingere, neque fenfu noftro guftare poffemus, tamen ea mirari deberemus, etiam cum in aliis videremus.

(1) Guard against objections. There is as much reafon for giving this advice to preachers as there is for faying to an architect going to build, Guard against winds and ftorms; you build in fummer and retire; but your build

ing

ing muft ftand abroad all winter. It would be folly to fuppofe, that any, religious truth, how demonftrable foever, could ftand in this world free from objections. All truths touch fomebody's intereft, and touch the fecular intereft of half mankind, and you touch their bone and their flesh, and, were you a God, they would curfe you to your face. Perhaps no fubject is of greater importance to truth in the christian church than that of BENEFICES, and perhaps no proteftant has written a better book on beneficiary matters, than that published by Fra Paoli Sarpi, who lived and died in the communion of the church of Rome, the moft monied and the moft corrupt of all. All communities allow the truths contained in it in theory; indeed who can deny them? but in practice Ay, in practice, father Paul! we have a great many - very weighty- objections -- which require a

Remark

miniftry of the word, and left fecular affairs to fecular men; but now the chief prelates of the church, quite other fort of men, attend the government of temporal things, and leave the office of preaching and teaching the word of God, and the doctrine of the gospel to friars and cheap inferior priefs." Upon my confcience, father Paul! I cannot fee the evidence, or the utility of your reafoning.

Hear me, my friend! Yours is an interleaved edition of Fra Paoli on beneficiary matters, and, as you are a patron of the arts as well as a chriftian clergyman, your connoiffeur left eye beguiles your clerical right eye, and fixes both on the beautiful copper-plate on the oppofite page. That copper-plate is worth three thousand guineas annually at the bank of England. Ah! father Paul! beneficiary matters are divifible into two parts-there are beneficial bank bills as well as beneficiary demonftrations! Seriously, I mean to remind young minifters-that, in guarding their doctrines against objections, they fhould ftudy men as well as books, and confider what it will coft fome people to allow their demonstrations.

A preacher may excite objections against his doctrine by an injudicious way of

pro