Perhaps thy breast with anguish too may burn. Mournful In one short moment is unthinking mortal reflection. Dash'd from the summit of all earthly joys, Down to the lowest abyss of despair! Anguith. Pleafure. Delight. Favor'd with Plenty, let thy hand extend LXXXII. A SERMON. (1) Teaching. THE end of preaching is two fold: To instruct mankind in the several truths contained in scripture; and, To persuade them to live agreably to the laws of the Christian religion. It is, therefore, my present purpose, my brethren, to endeavour, with the Divine assistance, to promote your spiritual and temporal happiness, by desiring your attention to what shall be spoken to you from the following passage of the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to Titus, the second chapter, and eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth verses. "The grace of GoD, which bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness, and world'y lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world, looking for the blessed hope, and glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ." We may represent to ourselves the great Apostle of the Gentiles, speaking as follows: for it is, I think, probable, he meant what follows : (1) I did not know where to find a fingle Sermon containing a fufficient variety of fpecies of matter, for exercifing, generally, the talents of a preacher. The reader will perceive, that this difcourfe is compofed with a direct view to expreffion or delivery. And who The favour of God, to which we owe all that we enjoy, or hope for, particularly our deliverance from Heathen ignorance and immorality, and the prospect of future rescue from the tyranny of Satan, (1) and from death; (2) this divine goodness is, in the Christian revelation, gloriously displayed before mankind; the new religion being established upon the unquestionable evidence of miracles, prediction, and its own internal character, and that of its divine Author, and of its propagators, who are ready to lay down their Courage. lives in attestation of the truth of his resurrection from the dead; (3) of the reality of which they are sure beyond the possibility of mistake, and cannot be suspected of a design to deceive others, having no worldly temptation to propagate, but much to conceal, or deny the fact. "And this heavenly religion giveth full satisfaction to the anxious and inquisitive mind, upon the most interesting subjects; where the light of nature, and the sagacity of philosophers had left men in great uncertainty, as, Wherein the chief good of man consisteth; Who is the only object of worship, and how he is to be acceptably worshipped; Of the other orders of beings, inferior to the one indivisible and unoriginated Supreme, but superior to us; and how we are concerned with them; How evil, and particularly death, came into God's world: Of the future redress of the disorderly state, in which this world is at present: The will of God, or duty of man, fixed by laws authoritatively promulgated :-What will be the effect of repentance and reformation: How, and when the good, and the wicked are to ever has confidered the ftrain of the popular addreffes of the Prophets and Apofiles, and of the Fathers, and beft French preachers, (to fay nothing of the orations of Demofthenes, Cicero, and the reft) will not, I hope, be offended at a vivacity of remonftrance, and defeription, unusual in our English fermons, which are, otherwife, the best. (1) Acts xxvi. 18. (2) Heb. ii. 14, 15. (3) Acts i, s. receive their respective retributions of reward and punishment; The possibility of rising from the dead demonstrated by actual resurrections, especially that of Christ himself: That the whole human species is to be raised from the dead, in bodies, and that the belief of the heathen nations in Elysian fields, and of Tartarus, as well as of transmigration of some souls into other bodies, without end, and of the re-union of others to the Deity, are fables and fictions; and that all mankind are to be judged at one time, and that it is to be done by Christ: That the retribution for the virtuous is glory, honour, and immortality; and for the obdurately wicked, final destruction from the presence of God, and the glory of his power; both sentences irreversible. "And the new religion inculcates, in the most powerful manner, the necessity of forsaking Averfion. the impious superstitions, and vicious abominations, allowed, or not reformed, by the heathen religions, as the worship of deified men, and of innumerable imaginary gods and goddesses, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal; with rites, absurd, obscene and cruel; the promiscuous, excessive and unnatural indulgence of fleshly lust; the arbitrary violation of the matrimonial union by causeless separation; the horrid practices of exposing children of self-murder; or inflicting arbitrary Teaching. revenge, and the like. (1) And this blessed relig ion doth also prohibit, in general, the indulgence of every wicked disposition (for its authority reacheth to the heart) and every wicked practice; all malice, hatred, envy, injustice, selfishness, pride, covetousness, intemperance, lasciviousness, anger, revenge, backbiting, lying, craft, uncharitable seal, impiety, prophane swearing, blasphemy, obscenity, idleness, sedition, rebellion, and neglect of public and private religion. The Christian law forbiddeth all unwarrantable pursuit of (1) Rom. i. the three great objects of the desires of wicked and wordly men, viz. riches, power, and pleasure; and it requireth the faithful and unreserved performance of our whole threefold duty. "First, That which respecteth ourselves, the due regulation of every passion, appetite, and inclination of our nature; and a proper attention to, and careful cultivation of, all our powers, bodily and mental, so that the wise ends of the beneficent Giver of them, may best be answered, and the least disappointed; therefore no one can justly pretend to be a sincere proseyte to the new religion, who does not study to be humble, meek, forgiving, pure in heart, sincere, diligent in improving his knowledge and virtue, couragenus in the cause of truth, temperate, frugal, industrious, decent, cautious, fearful of offending, penitent for his weaknesses, heavenly-minded, and richly furnished with every grace and virtue, flourishing, and growing, and rising to higher and higher degrees of perfection continually. 66 The second head of duty, required by the new religion, is, That which respecteth our fellowcreatures, viz. The conscientious observance of justice, negative and positive, as to the interests of the body, the soul, the reputation, and the worldly estate of our neighbour; and over and above mere justice, a generous disposition to shew kindness on every proper occasion, and in every prudent manner, to all within our reach; and the discharge of every relative duty according to our respective situations of governors, subjects, countrymen, parents, children, husbands, wives, masters, servants, and the rest. "The third head of duty, required by the new religion, is, That which respecteth our Creator, viz. Thinking and speaking, and acting, in the Veneration, constant fear, and sense of the universal presence of Almighty God; with love and gratitude to him for all his goodness to us, especially for his last Joy. Horror. Fear. and best gift, the Christian religion; worshipping Him in spirit and truth, both publickly and pri vately; obedience to all his laws; acceptance, upon due examination, of the blessed religion of his Son, and aaherance to it in spite of the terrors of persecution, with an unreserved submission to its heavenly precepts, (1) sincerely repenting of, and thoroughly reforming all our faults; with gratitude to our illustrious Deliverer from Satan, sin, and death, and observance of his institution for commemorating his sufferings and death. "And this heavenly religion teacheth us to expect the future glorious appearance of its divine Author, to restore this ruined world, to put an end to the tyranny of Satan, (2) to abolish death, and to judge the whole human race, both those who shall then be alive, and also all who have lived in all parts of the earth, from the creation of man, who shall universally be restored to life, by the same power which first gave them life; and to reward them according to their respective characters, to fix the penitent and virtuous, in a state of safety and everlasting happiness, and condemn the obdurate to utter destruction." This is, in part, the vast and weighty sense of the passage of scripture, from which I have chosen to speak to you at this time. And what is there, my Christian brethren, of consequence to us, with regard either to our peace of mind here, or our happiness hereafter, that is not virtually comprehended in this short passage of three verses? What various matter for consideration is here suggested? To think of the state we are at present in, and of the task prescribed us, of which you have heard only the principal heads, which task if we do not labour to perform, with the fidelity which becomes those, who know that the (1) The gofpels, and particularly that by St. Matthew, in the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of which, we have the peculiar laws of christianity fummed up, probably were not at this time written. (2) Revelations xxi. |