SERMON XIII.

Preached in the Parish-Church of St. Mary, Lambeth, Nov. 5, 1758.

JOHN xvi. 2, 3.

They shall put you out of the Synagogues: yea, the Time cometh, that whofoever killeth you, will think, that he doth God Service. And thefe Things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

HE various Evils of human Life are, all of

THE

them, juft Matter of serious and melancholy Confideration: but each in its due Proportion and Degree. Such of them, as flow of Neceffity from that Order of Things, which Providence established in Confequence of Man's original Tranfgreffion, are undoubtedly very heavy and afflicting: Labour, Pain, Sickness, Death; whether befalling Us, or our Friends. But a great Alleviation of them is, that God inflicts them on us, not Man; and ufes them to ferve excellent Purposes, of teaching us Refignation to Himfelf, and Compaffion to each other; of weaning us from this World, and exciting in our Hearts earnest Defires of a better.

Z 3

better.

So that thefe Calamities, being a wholesome, though rough, Exercise of our Virtue and Piety, may be confidered, in this View, with Comfort enough. But fuch as proceed from our own mutual Injuries, though even these work together for Good to them that love God, are a Ground for much deeper Concern for here is Guilt, as well as Suffering: Mankind not only multiplying present Torments, very needlefsly, one to another, but treafuring up future and eternal ones to themselves: defeating, as far as Creatures are able, the gracious Defigns of the Creator of all; and turning his World into the very contrary of what he intended it fhould be.

Well might one have hoped, that our natural Principles of Humanity, at least of Religion, would have fo far reftrained us, that Evils of this Kind, if they exifted at all, should not be frequent, or extreme. But early and general Experience hath too fully confuted fuch Imaginations. However, when Revelation came in to the Aid of Reafon, giving fo much clearer Notice of our Duty, and stronger Motives to it; one fhould firmly have expect→ ed, that the Voice of God, fpeaking expressly from Heaven, muft have produced a general and a lafting Reformation. But, instead of this, a new Gloom arifes from hence, to make our View ftill more difcouraging. We fee revealed Religion, as well as natural, profeff

Rom. viii. 28.

edly

edly fcorned by many, and ferioufly regarded by very few. Yet, though it hath but little Influence, were all that Influence good, there would ftill be fome Joy. But to have the very Light, which is in us, become Darkness*; and what was calculated, beyond all Things, to make us good and happy, perverted to make us wicked and miferable, this completes the Sorrow.

Yet fo it is: the Gold itself is become dim; the most fine Gold changed. The Piety of the patriarchal Ages degenerated very early into pernicious Idolatries, full of Rites impure and barbarous. And no fooner almoft were the Jews reformed effectually from the Worfhip of falfe Gods, than their Zeal for the true one became, by Degrees, fo blind and fierce, that the Condition of many of them might feem not to be extremely altered for the better. Towards the Heathen, and one another, indeed their Bitterness might usually defend itself by the Plea of antecedent Provocation : but their Treatment of Chriftianity, when it appeared, was void of all Excufe. That perfectly benevolent Doctrine, recommended to them by every Inftance of unmixed Goodness attending its Delivery, if it had not Charms enough to attract their Love, had furely nothing to excite their Hatred. Yet fuch was the Turn of this perverfe Nation, that even their own Meffiah, the Hope of Ifrael, con

* Matth. vi. 23.

† Lam. iv. 1.

24

Acts xxviii. 20.

tradicting

tradicting their favourite Scheme, of devoutly indulging their Lufts, and piously tyrannizing over the rest of the World; they crucified Him, and purfued his Followers, with that inhuman Bigotry, which, in the Words of the Text, he foretold they would.

Nor did this wicked Spirit actuate Them alone but the Heathens alfo, who had borne, for the most Part, very patiently, with the infinite Variety of one anothers Gods; who had long borne with the Jewish Religion, as oppofite to all their own, as could be; yet perfecuted the Chriftians with a most barbarous Rage, for three hundred Years: till at length, triumphing over Cruelty with mere Patience and Innocence, it gradually became the established Belief of the Roman Empire.

And then, at leaft, would a compaffionate Spectator of the Courfe of this World, tired out with the Sins and Miseries of it, have furely thought, the Time must be come now, to lift up his Head*, and rejoice in the happy Change. For who could poffibly imagine, that the Profeffors of fo merciful a Religion, especially after experiencing fo long the Evil of Perfecution themfelves, would ever be brought to exercise it on their own Brethren. But how then fhould the Scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? The Wisdom of God forefaw + Matth. xxvi. 54.

Luke xxi. 28,

and

and foretold, what could not but feem to the first Disciples very incredible in itself, that, by quick Degrees, their Succeffors would bring into the Chriftian Church almost all the Corruptions, which they had heard their Master condemn in the Jewish: human Additions to the Law of God; human Traditions, that made it of no Effect*; dishonest Zeal to gain Profelytes; implacable Refentment against all, who differed from them.

Too foon, and too wide, did these Offences spread among the profeffed Followers of Christ: and would God any Part of them were quite innocent, that ever had the Power of being guilty. But unfpeakably the deepest Root did this Evil take in the See of Rome: which begun furprizingly early to verify of itself one Part of our Saviour's Words, by putting out of the Synagogue, excommunicating, or at least attempting to excommunicate, without Cause, the Churches of Afia, in the Controversy of Eafter and employed afterwards, at some Times the Dignity of the Imperial Seat, at others the Reverence of a principal apoftolick Foundation, to obtain continually fresh Acceffions of Power; till at length a Bishop of that See in the seventh Century + affumed the Title, which his almoft immediate Predeceffor had declared to be a Mark of Antichrift; that of the Univerfal Paftor of Chrift's

Matth. xv. 6. Mark vii. 13. Gregory the First.

t Boniface the Third.

Church.