promote the turn and bias of opinion to which we as they were ordained by the divine Founder of already perceive too strong a tendency and incli- our religion, or by his inspired messengers, and nation. Without this circumspection, we may be ordained with a view of their continuing in force found to have imitated the folly of the architect through future generations, are entitled to be acwho placed his buttress on the wrong side. The counted parts of Christianity itself. In this situamore the column pressed, the more firm was its tion of religion, and of men's thoughts with reconstruction; and the deeper its foundation, the spect of it, he makes a bad choice of his subject, more certainly it hastened the ruin of the fabric. who discourses upon the futility of rites and ordiI do not mean that we should, upon any emer-nances, upon their insignificancy when taken by gency, advance what is not true; but that, out of themselves, or even who insists too frequently, many truths, we should select those, the consider- and in terms too strong, upon their inferiority to ation of which seems best suited to rectify the dis- moral precepts. We are rather called upon to positions of thought, that were previously declin- sustain the authority of those institutions which ing into error or extravagancy. For this model proceed from Christ or his apostles, and the reaof preaching we may allege the highest of all sonableness and credit of those which claim no possible authorities, the example of our blessed higher original than public appointment. We Saviour himself. He always had in view the pos- are called upon to contend with respect to the ture of mind of the persons whom he addressed. first, that they cannot be omitted with safety any He did not entertain the Pharisees with invectives more than other duties; that the will of God once against the open impiety of their Sadducean rivals; ascertained, is the immediate foundation of every nor, on the other hand, did he sooth the Saddu-duty; that, when this will is known, it makes cee's ear with descriptions of Pharisaical pomp little difference to us what is the subject of it, and folly. In the presence of the Pharisee he still less by what denomination the precept is callpreached against hypocrisy: to the Sadducees heed, under what class or division the duty is arproved the resurrection of the dead. In like manner, of that known enmity which subsisted between the Jews and Samaritans, this faithful Teacher took no undue advantage, to make friends or proselytes of either. Upon the Jews he inculcated a more comprehensive benevolence: with the Samaritan he defended the orthodoxy of the

Jewish creed.

ranged. If it be commanded, and we have sufficient reason to believe that it is so, it matters nothing whether the obligation be moral or natural, or positive or instituted. He who places before him the will of God as the rule of his life, will not refine, or even dwell much, upon these distinctions. The ordinances of Christianity, it is true, are all of them significant. Their meaning and even their use, is not obscure. But were it otherwise; was the design of any positive institution inexplicable; did it appear to have been pro

But I apprehend that I shall render my advice more intelligible, by exemplifying it in two or three instances, drawn from what appears to be the predominant disposition and religious charac-posed only as an exercise of obedience; it was not ter of this country, and of the present times.

the Deity's government of his creation, and submissive to his will however signified.

for us to hesitate in our compliance. Even to inIn many former ages of religion, the strong quire, with too much curiosity and impatience, propensity of men's minds was to overvalue posi- into the cause and reason of a religious command, tive duties; which temper, when carried to excess, is no evidence of an humble and submissive dispo not only multiplied unauthorized rites and observ-sition; of a disposition, I mean, humble under ances, not only laid an unwarrantable stress upon those which were prescribed; but, what was worst of all, led men to expect, that, by a punctual at- It may be seasonable also to maintain, what tention to the ordinances of religion, they could I am convinced is true, that the principle of compound for a relaxation of its weighty and dif- general utility, which upholds moral obligation ficult duties of personal purity and relative justice. itself, may, in various instances, be applied to This was the depraved state of religion amongst evince the duty of attending upon positive instituthe Jews when our Saviour appeared; and it was tions; in other words, that the difference between the degeneracy, against which some of the most natural and positive duties is often more in the forcible of his admonitions, and the severest of his name than in the thing. The precepts of natural reproofs, were directed. Yet, notwithstanding justice are therefore only binding upon the conthat Christ's own preaching, as well as the plan science, because the observation of them is necesand spirit of his religion, were as adverse as pos- sary or conducive to the prosperity and happiness sible to the exalting or overvaluing of positive in- of social life. If there be, as there certainly are, stitutions, the error which had corrupted the old religious institutions which contribute greatly to dispensation, revived under the new; and revived form and support impressions upon the mind, that with double force, insomuch as to transform Chris-render men better members of civilized communitianity into a service more prolix and burdensome than the Jewish, and to ascribe an efficacy to certain religious performances, which, in a great measure, superseded the obligations of substantial virtue. That age, however, with us, is long since past. I fear there is room to apprehend that we are falling into mistakes of a contrary kind. Sadducees are more common amongst us than Pharisees. We seem disposed, not only to cast off the decent offices, which the temperate piety of our church hath enjoined, as aids of devotion, calls to repentance, or instruments of improvement, but to contemn and neglect, under the name of forms and ceremonies, even those rites, which, forasmuch

ty; if these institutions can only be preserved in their reputation and influence by the general respect which is paid to them; there is the same reason to each of us for bearing our part in these observances, that there is for discharging the most acknowledged duties of natural religion. When I say, "the reason is the same," I mean that it is the same in kind. The degree of strength and cogency which this reason possesses in any particular case, must always depend upon the value and importance of the particular duty; which admits of great variety. But moral and positive duties do not in this respect differ more than moral duties differ from one another, So that

when men accustom themselves to look upon positive duties as universally and necessarily inferior to moral ones, as of a subordinate species, as placed upon a different foundation, or deduced from a different original; and consequently to regard them as unworthy of being made a part of their plan of life, or of entering into their sense of obligation, they appear to be egregiously misled by names. It is our business, not to aid, but to correct, the deception. Still nevertheless, is it as true as ever it was, that "except we exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven;" that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath;" that "the weightier matters of the law are faith, justice, and mercy;" but to insist strenuously, and, as some do, almost exclusively, upon these points at present, tends to diminish the respect for religious ordinances, which is already too little; and whilst it guards against dangers that have ceased to exist, ments those which are really formidable.

the Deity's character which the light and order of nature afford, as to the rule and measure of our duty, yet to disregard, and affect to overlook, the declarations of his pleasure which Christianity communicates. It is impossible to distinguish be tween the authority of natural and revealed religion. We are bound to receive the precepts of revelation for the same reason that we comply with the dictates of nature. He who despises a command which proceeds from his Maker, no matter by what means, or through what medium, instead of advancing, as he pretends to do, the dominion of reason, and the authority of natural religion, disobeys the first injunction of both. Although it be true what the apostle affirms-that, "when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, they are a law unto themselves;" that is, they will be accepted together with those who are instructed in the law and obey it: yet is this truth not appliaug-cable to such, as, having a law, contemn it, and, with the means of access to the word of God, keep themselves at a voluntary distance from it. This temper, whilst it continues, makes it necessary for us to assert the superiority of a religious principle above every other by which human conduct can be regulated: more especially above that fashionable system, which recommends virtue only as a true and refined policy, which policy in effect is, and in the end commonly proves itself to be, nothing else than a more exquisite cunning, which by a specious behaviour in the easy and visible concerns of life, collects a fund of reputation, in order either to cherish more securely concealed vices, or to reserve itself for some great stroke of selfishness, perfidy, and desertion, in a pressing conjuncture of fortunes. Nor less justly may we superinduce the guidance of Christianity to the direction of sentiment; which depends so much upon constitution, upon early impressions, upon habit and imitation, that unless it be compared with, and adjusted by, some safer rule, it can in no wise be trusted. Least of all ought we to yield the authority of religion to the law of honour, a law (if it deserve that name,) which, beside its continual mutability, is at best but a system of manners suited to the intercourse and accommodation of higher life; and which consequently neglects every duty, and permits every vice, that has no relation to these purposes. Amongst the rules which contend with religion for the government of life, the law of the land also has not a few, who think it very sufficient to act up to its direction, and to keep within the limits which it prescribes: and this sort of character is common in our congregations. We are not to omit, therefore, to apprise those who make the statutes of the realm the standard of their duty, that they propose to themselves a measure of conduct totally inadequate to the purpose. The boundaries which nature has assigned to human authority and control, the partial ends to which every legislator is obliged to confine his views, prevent human laws, even were they, what they never are, as perfect as they might be made, from becoming competent rules of life to any one who advances his hopes to the attainment of God Almighty's favour. In contradistinction, then, to these several systems which divide a great portion of mankind amongst them, we preach "faith which worketh by love," that principle of action and restraint which is found in a Christian alone. It possesses

Again: Upon the first reformation from Popery, a method very much prevailed in the seceding churches, of resolving the whole of religion into faith; good works, as they were called, or the practice of virtue, holding not only a secondary but even distant place in value and esteem, being represented, indeed, as possessing no share or efficacy in the attainment of human salvation. This doctrine we have seen revived in our own times, and carried to still greater lengths. And it is a theory, or rather perhaps a language, which required, whilst it lasted, very serious animadversion; not only because it disposed men to rest in an unproductive faith, without endeavours to render themselves useful by exertion and activity; not only because it was naturally capable of being converted to the encouragement of licentiousness; but because it misrepresented Christianity as a moral institution, by making it place little stress upon the distinction of virtue and vice, and by making it require the practice of external duties, if it require them at all, only as casual, neglected, and almost unthought of consequences, of that faith which it extolled, instead of directing men's attention to them, as to those things which alone compose an unquestionable and effective obedience to the divine will. So long as this turn of mind prevailed, we could not be too industrious in bringing together and exhibiting to our hearers those many and positive declarations of Scripture, which enforce, and insist upon, practical religion; .which divide mankind into those who do good, and those who do evil; which hold out to the one, favour and happiness, to the other, repulse and condemnation. The danger, however, from this quarter, is nearly overpast. We are, on the contrary, setting up a kind of philosophical morality, detached from religion, and independent of its influence, which may be cultivated, it is said, as well without Christianity as with it; and which, if cultivated, renders religion and religious institutions superfluous. A mode of thought so contrary to truth, and so derogatory from the value of revelation, cannot escape the vigilance of a Christian ministry. We are entitled to ask upon what foundation this morality rests. If it refer to the divine will, (and, without that, where will it find its sanctions, or how support its authority?) there cannot be a conduct of the understanding more irrational, than to appeal to those intimations of

qualities to which none of them can make preten- | courses are recommended by any occasional prosions. It operates where they fail; is present priety. The more, therefore, of these proprieties upon all occasions, firm upon the greatest; pure we contrive to weave into our preaching, the betas under the inspection of a vigilant omniscience; ter. One which is very obvious, and which should innocent where guilt could not be discovered; never be neglected, is that of making our sermons just, exact, and upright, without a witness to as suitable as we can to the service of the day. its proceedings; uniform amidst the caprices of On the principal fasts and festivals of the church, fashion, unchanged by the vicissitudes of popular the subjects which they are designed to commemoopinion; often applauded, not seldom misunder-rate, ought invariably to be made the subjects of stood, it holds on its straight and equal course, our discourses. Indeed, the best sermon, if it do through "good report and evil report," through not treat of the argument which the congregation encouragement and neglect, approbation and dis- come prepared to hear, is received with coldness, grace. If the philosopher or the politician can and with a sense of disappointment. This respect point out to us any influence but that of Christi- to the order of public worship almost every one anity which has these properties, I had almost pays. But the adaptation, I apprehend, may be said which does not want them all, we will carried much farther. Whenever any thing like listen with reverence to his instruction. But un-a unity of subject is pursued throughout the coltil this be done, we may be permitted to resist lect, the epistle, and gospel of the day, that subject every plan which would place virtue upon any is with great advantage revived in the pulpit. It other foundation, or seek final happiness through is perhaps to be wished that this unity had been any other medium, than faith in Jesus Christ. more consulted in the compilation of this part of At least whilst an inclination to these rival sys- the liturgy than it has been. When from the tems remains, no good end, I am apt to think, is want of it a subject is not distinctly presented to attained by decrying faith under any form, by us, there may, however, be some portion of the stating the competition between faith and good service more striking than the rest, some instructworks, or by pointing out, with too much anxiety, ive parable, some interesting narration, some coneven the abuses and extravagances into which the cise but forcible precept, some pregnant sentence, doctrine of salvation by faith alone has sometimes which may be recalled to the hearer's attention been carried. The truth is, that, in the two sub-with peculiar effect. I think it no contemptible jects which I have considered, we are in such haste to fly from enthusiasm and superstition, that we are approaching towards an insensibility to all religious influence. I certainly do not mean to advise you to endeavour to bring men back to enthusiasm and superstition, but to retard, if you can, their progress towards an opposite and a worse extreme; and both in these, and in all other instances, to regulate the choice of your subjects, by the particular bias and tendency of opinion which you perceive already to prevail amongst your hearers, and by a consideration, not of the truth only of what you deliver, which, however, must always be an indispensable condition, but of its effects, and those not the effects which it would produce upon sound, enlightened, and impartial judgments, but what are likely to take place in the weak and pre-occupied understandings with

which we have to do.

advantage if we even draw our text from the epistle or gospel, or the psalms or lessons. Our congregation will be more likely to retain what they hear from us, when it, in any manner, falls in with what they have been reading in their prayerbooks, or when they are afterwards reminded of it by reading the psalms and lessons at home. But there is another species of accommodation of more importance, and that is the choice of such disquisitions, as may either meet the difficulties or assist the reflections, which are suggested by the portions of Scripture that are delivered from the reading-desk. Thus, whilst the wars of Joshua and the Judges are related in the course of the lessons which occupy some of the first Sundays after Trinity, it will be very seasonable to explain the reasons upon which that dispensation was founded, the moral and beneficial purposes which are declared to have been designed, and which were Having thus considered the rule as it applies to probably accomplished, by its execution; because the argument of our discourses, in which its prin- such an explanation will obviate the doubts concipal importance consists, I proceed to illustrate cerning either the divine goodness or the credibiits use as it relates to another object-the means lity of the narrative which may arise in the mind of exciting attention. The transition from local of a hearer, who is not instructed to regard the to occasional sermons is so easy, and the reason transaction as a method of inflicting an exemplary, for both is so much the same, that what I have just, and necessary punishment. In like manner, further to add will include the one as well as the whilst the history of the delivery of the law from other. And though nothing more be proposed in mount Sinai, or rather the recapitulation of that the few directions which I am about to offer, than history by Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, is to move and awaken the attention of our audience, carried on in the Sunday lessons which are read yet is this a purpose of no inconsiderable magni- between Easter and Whitsunday, we shall be tude. We have great reason to complain of list- well engaged in discourses upon the commandlessness in our congregations. Whether this be ments which stand at the head of that institution, their fault or ours, the fault of neither or of both, in showing from the history their high original it is much to be desired that it could by any means and authority, and in explaining their reasonablebe removed. Our sermons are in general more ness, application, and extent. Whilst the history informing, as well as more correct and chastised of Joseph is successively presented to the congreboth in matter and composition, than those of any gation during the Sundays in Lent, we shall be denomination of dissenting teachers. I wish it very negligent of the opportunity, if we do not were in our power to render them as impressive take occasion to point out to our hearers, those as some of theirs seem to be. Now I think we observations upon the benevolent but secret direcmay observe that we are heard with somewhat tion, the wise though circuitous measures, of Promore than ordinary advertency, whenever our dis-vidence, of which this beautiful passage of Scrip

heaven hath exercised for them. If the year has been favourable, we rejoice with them in the plen

ture supplies a train of apposite examples. There are, I doubt not, other series of subjects dictated by the service as edifying as these; but these Ity which fills their granaries, covers their tables, propose as illustrations of the rule.

and feeds their families. If otherwise, or less so, we have still to remark, how through all the husbandman's disappointments, through the dangers and inclemencies of precarious seasons, a competent proportion of the fruits of the earth is conducted to its destined purpose. We may observe also to the repining farmer, that the value, if not the existence, of his own occupation, depends upon the very uncertainty of which he complains. It is found to be almost universally true, that the partition of the profits between the owner and the occupier of the soil, is in favour of the latter, in proportion to the risk which he incurs by the disadvantage of the climate. This is a very just reflection, and particularly intelligible to a rural audience. We may add, when the occasion requires it, that scarcity itself hath its use. By acting as a stimulus to new exertions and to farther improvements, it often produces, through a temporary distress, a permanent benefit.

Lastly; sudden, violent, or untimely deaths, or death accompanied by any circumstances of surprise or singularity, usually leave an impression upon a whole neighbourhood. A Christian teacher is wanting in attention to opportunities who does not avail himself of this impression. The uncertainty of life requires no proof. But the power and influence which this consideration shall obtain over the decisions of the mind, will depend

Next to the service of the church, the season of the year may be made to suggest useful and appropriate topics of meditation. The beginning of a new year has belonging to it a train of very solemn reflections. In the devotional pieces of the late Dr. Johnson, this occasion was never passed by. We may learn from these writings the proper use to be made of it; and by the example of that excellent person, how much a pious mind is wont to be affected by this memorial of the lapse of life. There are also certain proprieties which correspond with the different parts of the year. For example, the wisdom of God in the work of the creation is a theme which ought to be reserved for the return of the spring, when nature renews, as it were, her activity; when every animal is cheerful and busy, and seems to feel the influence of its Maker's kindness; when our senses and spirits, the objects and enjoyments that surround us, accord and harmonize with those sentiments of delight and gratitude, which this subject, above all others, is calculated to inspire. There is no devotion so genuine as that which flows from these meditations, because it is unforced and selfexcited. There is no frame of mind more desirable, and, consequently, no preaching more useful, than that which leads the thought to this exercise. It is laying a foundation for Christianity itself. If it be not to sow the seed, it is at least to pre-greatly upon the circumstances under which it is pare the soil. The evidence of revelation arrives with much greater ease at an understanding, which is already possessed by the persuasion, that an unseen intelligence framed and conducts the universe; and which is accustomed to refer the order and operations of nature to the agency of a supreme will. The influence also of religion is almost always in proportion to the degree and strength of this conviction. It is, moreover, a species of instruction of which our hearers are more capable than we may at first sight suppose. It is not necessary to be a philosopher, or to be skilled in the names and distinctions of natural history, in order to perceive marks of contrivance and design in the creation. It is only to turn our observation to them. Now, beside that this requires neither more ability nor leisure than every man can command, there are many things in the life of a country parishioner which will dispose his thoughts to the employment. In his fields, amidst his flocks, in the progress of vegetation, the structure, faculties, and manners, of domestic animals, he has constant occasion to remark proofs of intention and of consummate wisdom. The minister of a country parish is never, therefore, better engaged, than when he is assisting this turn of contemplation. Nor will he ever do it with so much effect, as when the appearance and face of external nature conspire with the sentiments which he wishes to excite.

presented to the imagination. Discourses upon the subject come with tenfold force, when they are directed to a heart already touched by some near, recent, and affecting example of human mor tality. I do not lament that funeral sermons are discontinued amongst us. They generally contained so much of unseasonable and oftentimes undeserved panegyric, that the hearers came away from them, rather with remarks in their mouths upon what was said of the deceased, than with any internal reflections upon the solemnity which they had left, or how nearly it related to their own condition. But by decent allusions in the stated course of our preaching to events of this sort, or by, what is better, such a well-timed choice of our subject, as may lead our audience to make the allusion for themselves, it is possible, I think, to retain much of the good effect of funeral discourses, without their adulation, and without exciting vain curiosity.

If other occurrences have arisen within our neighbourhood, which serve to exemplify the progress and fate of vice, the solid advantages and ultimate success of virtue, the providential discovery of guilt or protection of innocence, the folly of avarice, the disappointments of ambition, the vanity of worldly schemes, the fallaciousness of human foresight; in a word, which may remind us, "what shadows we are, and what shadows we pursue," and thereby induce us to collect our Again: if we would enlarge upon the various views and endeavours to one point, the attainment bounty of Providence, in furnishing a regular sup- of final salvation; such occurrences may be made ply for animal, and especially for human subsist- to introduce topics of serious and useful meditaence, not by one, but by numerous and diversified tion. I have heard popular preachers amongst the species of food and clothing, we shall be best heard methodists avail themselves of these occasions in the time and amidst the occupations of harvest, with very powerful effect. It must be acknowwhen our hearers are reaping the effects of those ledged that they frequently transgress the limits contrivances for their support, and of that care for of decorum and propriety, and that these transtheir preservation, which their Father which is ingressions wound the modesty of a cultivated ear.