Part 6

It were an ample field, this, should I undertake to follow the ecclesiastical historian in all the abuses, which he so largely displays. But my design is to _open the fountains_; to point, only, to the _general causes_, from which those abuses have flowed. And the chief of these _causes_ will not be overlooked, if we consider that Christianity has been corrupted by _superstition_, by _policy_, and by _sophistry_: for, in each of these ways, the _lusts_. of men have found free scope for their activity; and have produced all those endless discords and animosities, which have dishonoured the Christian world.

1. SUPERSTITION began very early to make cruel inroads into the religion of Jesus: _first_, by debasing its free spirit with the servility of Jewish observances; next, in adulterating its simple genius by the pomp of pagan ceremonies; and, afterwards, through a long course of dark and barbarous ages, in disfiguring its _reasonable service_[58] by every whimsy, which a gloomy or disturbed imagination could suggest.

The _lusts_ of men gave birth to these several perversions. The obstinate _pride_ of the Jewish Christian was flattered in retaining the abrogated ritual of the Law: the pagan proselyte gratified his _vanity_, and love of splendor in religious ministrations, by dressing out Christianity in all the paint and pageantry of his ancient worship: and the miserable monk soothed his _fears_, or indulged his _spite_, in busying himself with I know not what uncommanded and frivolous expiations, or in torturing others with the rigours of a fruitless penance.

From these rank passions, sprung up _wars_ in abundance among Christians. The Apostles themselves could not prevent their followers from _fighting_ with each other, in the cause of _circumcision_. The superstition of _days_[59], and of _images_[60], grew so fierce, that the whole Christian world was, at different times, thrown into convulsions by it. And the dreams of monkery excited every where the most implacable feuds; which had, commonly, no higher object, than the credit of their several _Rules_, or the honour of their _Patron-saints_.

2. When superstition had thus set the world on fire, a godless POLICY struck in, to encrease the combustion.

The Christian religion, which had TRUTH for its object, could not but require an assent from its professors to the doctrines, it revealed; and, having GOD for its author, it, of course, exacted a compliance with the few ritual observances, which he saw fit to ordain. But the wantonness, or weakness, of the human mind, introducing a different interpretation of those _doctrines_, and a different ministration of those _rites_, the policy of princes would not condescend to tolerate such unavoidable differences, but would inforce a rigid uniformity both of sentiment and ceremony, as most conducive, in their ideas, to the quiet and stability of their government.

Again: the honour of prelates and churches seemed to be concerned in all questions concerning place and jurisdiction; and, when these questions arose, was to be maintained by every artifice, which an interested and secular wisdom could contrive.

The _lust_ of dominion, was plainly at the bottom of these infernal machinations; and the fruit, it produced, was the most bloody and unrelenting wars, massacres, and persecutions; with which the annals of mankind are polluted and disgraced. But,

3. To work up these two pests of humanity, _superstition_, and _intolerance_, to all the fury, of which they are capable, unblessed SCIENCE and perverted REASON lent their aid.

For, the pride of knowledge begot innumerable portentous heresies: which not only corrupted the divine religion of Jesus (obnoxious to some taint from the impure touch of human reason, because _divine_), but envenomed the hearts of its professors, against each other, by infusing into them a bitter spirit of altercation and dispute.

In these several ways, then, and from these causes, has our holy religion been abused. The _lusts_ of men have turned the Gospel of peace itself into an instrument of _war_: a misadventure, which could not have taken place, had Christians but recollected and practised one single precept of their master—_Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls_[61].

But the perversity of man could not be brought to learn this salutary lesson; and so has fulfilled that memorable saying of our Lord, who, foreseeing what abuses would hereafter be made of his charitable system, declared of himself—_I came not to send peace, but a sword_[62]. This prediction, at least, the enemies of our faith are ready enough to tell us, has been amply verified, in the event. It has been so: it was therefore inspired, because it was to be fulfilled. But let them remember, withall, that not the genius of the Gospel, but man’s incorrigible passions, acting in defiance of it, have given to this prophecy its entire completion.

I come now to represent to you,

II. In the second place, how the _lusts_ of men have perverted CIVIL JUSTICE, as well as Religion, into an instrument of contention and hate.

The object of all civil, or municipal laws, is the conservation of private peace, in the equal protection they afford to the property and persons of men. Yet, how often have they been employed to other purposes, _by those, who administer the Laws_; and _by those, for whose sake they are administered_!

1. In reading the history of mankind, one cannot but observe, with indignation, how frequently the magistrate himself has turned the Law, by which he governs, into an engine of oppression: sometimes, directing it against the liberties of the state; and sometimes, against the private rights of individuals. It were a small matter, perhaps, if he only took advantage of a _severe_ law, or drew over an _ambiguous_ one, to countenance his iniquitous purposes. But how oft has he embittered the mildest, or tortured the plainest laws, by malignant glosses and strained interpretations! gratifying, in both ways, his revenge, his avarice, or his ambition; yet still in the forms of Law, and under the mantle, as it were of public justice!

Such abuses there _have_ been in most states, and, it may be, in our own. God forbid, that, standing in this place, I should _accept the persons of men, or give flattering titles unto any_[63]. But truth obliges me to say, that there is, now, no colour for these complaints. The administration of justice, on the part of the _Magistrate_, is so pure, as to be the glory of the age, in which we live. The abuses all arise from another quarter; and the contentious spirit is kept alive and propagated by the lusts of private men. And what renders their iniquity without excuse, is, that the very equity of those forms, in which our laws are administered, is made the occasion of introducing all these corruptions.

2. To come to a _detail_ on this subject, might be thought improper. Let me paint to you, then, in very _general_ terms, the disorders that spring from this perversion of Law; and, to do it with advantage, let me employ the expressive words of an ancient Pagan writer.

The Roman governors of provinces, it is well known, had their times for the more solemn administration of civil justice. Suppose, then, one of these governors to have fixed his residence in the capital of an Asiatic province, to have appointed a day for this solemnity, and, with his Lictors, and other ensigns of authority about him, to be now seated in the forum, or public place of the city; and consider, if the following representation of an indifferent by-stander be not natural and instructive.

“See,” says the eloquent writer[64], whose words I only translate, “see that vast and mixt multitude assembled together before you. You ask, what has occasioned this mighty concourse of people. Are they met to sacrifice to their country Gods, and to communicate with each other in the sacred offices of their religion? Are they going to offer the Lydian first-fruits to the Ascræan Jupiter? or, are they assembled in such numbers to celebrate the rites of Bacchus, with the usual festivity? Alas, no. Neither pious gratitude, nor festal joy, inspires them. _One_ fierce unfriendly passion _only_ prevails; whose epidemic rage has stirred up all Asia, and, as returning with redoubled force on this stated anniversary, has driven these frantic crowds to the forum; where they are going to engage in law-suits with each other, before the Judges. An infinite number of causes, like so many confluent streams, rush together, in one common tide, to the same tribunal. The passions of the contending parties are all on fire; and the end of this curious conflict is, the ruin of themselves and others. What fevers, what calentures, what adust temperament of the body, or overflow of its vicious humours, is to be compared to this plague of the distempered mind? Were you to interrogate each cause (in the manner you examine a witness) as it appears before this tribunal, and ask, WHENCE IT CAME? the answer would be, an obstinate and self-willed spirit produced _this_; a bitter rage of contention, _that_; and a lust of revenge and injustice, _another_.”

It is not to be doubted, that this rage of the contending parties was inflamed, in those times, by mercenary agents and venal orators; by men, who employed every fetch of cunning, and every artifice of chicane, to perplex the clearest laws, to retard the decision of the plainest cases, and to elude the sentence of the ablest judges. Without some such management as this, the passions of the litigants could not have been kept up in such heat and fury, but must gradually have cooled, and died away of themselves. Add this, then, to the other features, so well delineated, and you will have the picture of _ancient litigation_ complete.

And what think we, now, of this picture? Is there truth and nature in it? Are we at all concerned in this representation; and do we discover any resemblance to it in what is passing elsewhere, I mean in modern times, and even in Christian societies? If we do, let us acknowledge with honesty, but indeed with double shame, that, like the Pagans of old, we have the art to pervert the best things to the worst purposes; and that the _lusts_ of men are still predominant over the wisest and most beneficent institutions of civil justice.

Indeed, as to ourselves, the mild and equitable spirit of our laws might be enough, one would think, to inspire another temper: but when we further consider the divine spirit of the Gospel, by which we pretend to be governed, and the end of which is _charity_, our prodigious abuse of _both_ must needs cover us with confusion.

The instruction, then, from what has been said, is this: That, since, as St. James observes, all our _wars and fightings_ with each other proceed only from our _lusts_, and since _these_ have even prevailed to that degree as to corrupt the two best gifts, which God, in his mercy, ever bestowed on mankind, that is, to make _Religion_ and _Law_ subservient to our bitter animosities; since all this, I say, has been made appear in the preceding comment on the sacred text, it becomes us, severally, to consider what our part has been in the disordered scene, now set before us: what care we have taken to check those unruly passions, which are so apt, by indulgence, to tyrannize over us; and, if this care has been less than it ought to have been, what may be the consequence of our neglect. We should, in a word, _take heed, how we bite and devour one another_; not only, as the Apostle admonishes, _that we be not consumed one of another_; but lest, in the end, we incur the chastisement of that LAW, we have so industriously perverted, and the still sorer chastisement of that RELIGION, we have so impiously abused.

SERMON VIII.

PREACHED APRIL 29, 1770.

1 TIM. i. 5.

_The end of the Commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned._

The Apostle, in the preceding verse, had warned Timothy against _giving heed to fables and endless genealogies_: by FABLES, meaning certain Jewish fictions and traditions applied to the explication of theological questions, and not unlike the tales of the pagan mythologists, contrived by them to cover the monstrous stories of their Gods; and, by GENEALOGIES, the derivation of Angelic and Spiritual natures[65], according to a fantastic system, invented by the Oriental philosophers, and thence adopted by some of the Grecian Sects. These _fables and genealogies_ (by which the Jewish and Pagan converts to Christianity had much adulterated the faith of the Gospel) the Apostle sets himself to expose and reprobate, as producing nothing but curious and fruitless disputations; being indeed, as he calls them, _endless_, or interminable[66]; because, having no foundation in the revealed word of God, they were drawn out, varied, and multiplied at pleasure by those, who delighted in such fanatical visions.

Then follows the text.—_The end of the Commandment, is_ CHARITY: _out of a_ PURE HEART: _and of a_ GOOD CONSCIENCE; _and of_ FAITH UNFEIGNED—As if the Apostle had said, “I have cautioned you against this pernicious folly: but, if ye must needs deal in the way of Mythology and Genealogy, I will tell you how ye may employ your ingenuity to more advantage. Take Christian _Charity_, for your theme: _mythologize_ that capital Grace of your profession; or, deduce the _parentage_ of it, according to the steps, which I will point out to you. For it springs immediately out of _a pure heart_; which, itself, is derived from _a good conscience_; as that, again, is the genuine offspring or emanation of _faith unfeigned_. In this way, ye may gratify your mythologic or genealogical vein, innocently and usefully[67]; for ye may learn yourselves, and teach others, how to acquire and perfect that character, which is the great object of your religion, and _the end of the Commandment_.”

Let us, then, if you please, attend to this genealogical deduction of the learned Apostle; and see, if the descent of Christian charity be not truly and properly investigated by him.

I. CHARITY, says he, is _out of a pure heart_: that is, it proceeds from a heart, free from the habits of sin, and unpolluted by corrupt affections.

To see with what propriety, the Apostle makes a pure heart the _parent_ of charity, we are to reflect, that this benevolent temper, which inclines us to wish and do well to others, is the proper growth and produce, indeed, of the human mind, but of the human mind in its native and original integrity. To provide effectually for the maintenance of the social virtues, it hath pleased God to implant in man, not only the power of reason, which enables him to see the connexion between his own happiness and that of others, but also certain instincts and propensities, which make him _feel_ it, and, without reflexion, incline him to take part in foreign interests. For, among the other wonders of our make, this is _one_, that we are so formed as, whether we will or no, _to rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep_[68]. But now this sympathetic tenderness, which nature hath put into our hearts for the concerns of each other, may be much impaired by habitual neglect, or selfish gratifications. If, instead of listening to those calls of nature, which, on the entrance into life, are incessantly, but gently, urging us to acts of generosity, we turn a deaf ear to them, and, charmed by the suggestions of self-love, yield up ourselves to the dominion of the grosser appetite, it cannot be but that the love of others, however natural to us, must decline, and become, at length, a feeble motive to action; or, which amounts to the same thing, be constantly overpowered by the undue prevalence of other principles. Thus we may see, how ambition, avarice, sensuality, or any other of the more selfish passions, tends directly, by indulgence, to obstruct the growth of _charity_; and how favourable an uncorrupt mind is to the production and maturity of this divine virtue.

But, further, the impurities of the heart do not only hinder the exertions of _benevolence_; they have even a worse effect, they cause us to pervert and misapply it. It is not, perhaps, so easy a matter, as some imagine, to divest ourselves of all attachment to the interest of our fellow-creatures. But, by a long misuse of our faculties, we may come in time to mistake the objects of _true_ interest; and so be carried, by the motives of benevolence itself, to do irreparable mischief to those we would most befriend and oblige. This seems to be the case of those most abandoned of all sinners, who take pains to corrupt others, and not only do wicked things themselves, _but have pleasure in those who do them_[69]. All that can be said for these unhappy victims of their own lusts, is, that their _perverted benevolence_ prompts them to encourage others in that course of life, from which, if it were rightly exercised, they would endeavour, with all their power, to divert them.

So necessary it is, that charity should be out of _a pure heart_! It is polluted in its very birth, unless it proceed from an honest mind: it is spurious and illegitimate, if it be not so descended.

II. The next step in this line of moral ancestry, is a GOOD CONSCIENCE: which phrase is not to be taken here in the negative sense, and as equivalent only to a _pure heart_; but as expressing a further, a _positive_ degree of goodness. For so we find it explained elsewhere; _having_, says St. Peter, a GOOD CONSCIENCE, _that whereas they speak evil of you, as_ EVIL DOERS, _they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your_ GOOD CONVERSATION _in Christ Jesus: for it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for_ WELL DOING, _than for evil doing_[70]. Whence, by _a good conscience_, we are authorized to understand a mind, _conscious to itself of beneficent actions_. And thus the Apostle’s intention will be, to insinuate to us, that, to be free from _depraved affections_, we must be actively virtuous; and that we must be _zealous_ in good works, if we would attain to that _purity_ of heart, which is proper to beget the genuine virtue of Christian charity.

For, we may conceive of the matter, thus. A _good conscience_, or a mind enured to right action, is most likely, and best enabled, to shake off all corrupt partialities; and, as being intent on the strenuous exercise of its duty, in particular instances, to acquire, in the end, that tone of virtue, which strengthens, at once, and refines the affections, till they expand themselves into an universal good-will. Thus we see that, without this moral discipline, we should scarce possess, or not long retain, a _pure heart_; and that the heart, _if pure_, would yet be inert and sluggish, and unapt to entertain that prompt and ready benevolence, which true charity implies.

So that an active practical virtue, as serving both to purify and invigorate the kind affections, has deservedly a place given to it in this lineal descent of Christian love. But,

III. The Apostle rises higher yet in this genealogical scale of charity, and acquaints us that a _good conscience_, or a course of active positive virtue, is not properly and lawfully descended, unless it proceed from a FAITH UNFEIGNED, that is, a sincere undissembled belief of the Christian religion.

And the reason is plain. For there is no dependance on virtuous practice; we cannot expect that it should either be steady, or lasting, unless the principle, from which it flows, be something nobler and more efficacious, than considerations taken from the beauty, propriety, and usefulness of virtue itself. Our active powers have need to be sustained and strengthened by energies of a higher kind, than those which mere philosophy supplies. We shall neither be able to bear up against the difficulties of a good life, nor to stand out against the temptations, which an evil world is always ready to throw in our way, but by placing a firm trust on the promises of God, and by keeping our minds fixed on the glorious hopes and assurances of the Gospel. And _experience_ may satisfy us, that practical virtue has no stability or consistency, without these supports.

Besides, considering a _good conscience_, or a moral practical conduct, with an eye to its influence on a _pure heart_, till it issue in complete _charity_, we cannot but see how the Christian faith is calculated to direct its progress, and secure the great end proposed. For the whole system of our divine religion, which hath its foundation in _grace_; its _precepts_, which breathe nothing but love and amity; its _doctrines_, which only present to us, under different views, the transcendent goodness of God in the great work of redemption; its _history_, which records the most engaging instances of active benevolence; all this cannot but exceedingly inspirit our affections, and carry them out in a vigorous and uniform prosecution of the subordinate _means_, which are to produce that last perfection of our nature, a pure and permanent love of mankind. For at every step we cannot but see the _end of the commandment_, so perpetually held out to us, and derive a fresh inducement from _faith_, to accomplish and obtain it.

Indeed, to produce this effect, our _faith_, as the Apostle adds, must be UNFEIGNED: that is, it must be nourished and intimately rooted in the heart; we must not only yield a general assent to the sacred truths of our religion, we must embrace them with earnestness and zeal, we must rely upon them with an unshaken confidence and resolution. But all this will be no difficulty to those who derive their _faith_ from its proper source, that is, who make a diligent study of the holy scriptures: where _only_ we learn what the _true_ faith (which will ever be most friendly to virtue) is; and whence we shall _best_ derive those motives and considerations, which are proper to excite and fortify this principle in us.

And thus, that Charity, which a _pure mind_ gives the liberty of exerting, and which a _good conscience_ manifests and at the same time improves, will, further, be so sublimed and perfected by the influence of divine _faith_, as will render it the sovereign guide of life, and the pride and ornament of humanity.

Or, to place the descent of Charity, in its true and natural order, it must spring, first, from an _unfeigned faith_ in the Gospel of Jesus: that faith must then produce, and shew itself in, a _good conscience_: and that conscience must be thoroughly purged from all selfish and disorderly _affections_: whence, lastly, the celestial offspring of _Charity_ has its birth, and comes forth in all the purity and integrity of its nature.

FROM THIS lineage of Christian Charity, thus deduced, many instructive lessons may be drawn. We may learn to distinguish the true and genuine, from pretended Charity: we have, hence, the surest way of discerning the spirits of other men, and of trying our own: we may correct some popular mistakes concerning the virtue of charity; and shall best comprehend the force and significancy of the several commendations, which the inspired writers, in many places, and in very general terms, bestow upon it.

Let me conclude this discourse with an instance of such instruction, respecting each of those heads, which the order of the text hath afforded the opportunity of considering.