sensible of this, the writers on the side of | suppose, that sometimes men would embrace infidelity spare no pains in ransacking his- it, not for any affection borne to itself, but as tory for facts of this kind, which are con- the means of acquiring wealth and power; tinually presented to the reader with every which, when so acquired, would be often circumstance of aggravation, either in the misemployed, and religion become the object. form of virulent invective, or the more of those evil passions, which it should-and, dangerous one of sly and pointed irony, a if properly received, would have mortified method practiced but too successfully by a and subdued. This is human nature-these late celebrated wit on the continent, and are the offences which, in the present state in the prosecution of which the historian of a fallen world, must needs come-there is of the Roman empire, among ourselves, has no preventing them. But let us not argue condescended, alas, (the more is the pity!) from abuse against use. Let us scour off the to play a second part to him. rust, but preserve the metal. Religion came pure from the hands of God, but was adulterated in passing through those of men. Το God, therefore, be the glory, to man the shame. To those who may be in danger of seduction by this very fallacious, though, at first sight, specious argument, we have a few things to offer; and this is the proper opportunity for offering them. In the first place, then, we must earnestly exhort them, as they love the truth, and their own eternal salvation, to make the just and necessary distinction between the religion, and the persons professing that religion. Does the Gospel teach any lessons of the kind we have been considering? Does it direct subjects to blow up their governors into the air, because of some supposed errors in their religious opinions Certainly not. If those disciples were reproved, as strangers to its spirit, who desired to revenge an indignity shown to the person of their Saviour, by fetching down fire from above, as little can disciples now be justified by it, in seeking, on any pretence, to stir up fire from beneath. Was Christianity at first propagated, or did it direct itself ever after to be propagated, by doing violence to any man? You know the contrary; you know, that all its precepts point quite another way. There is no need to weary you with citations; a moment's reflection is sufficient to convince and satisfy any person on this head. Let not Christianity, therefore, suffer in your opinion through the vices and villanies of those who disgrace it; but endeavor, yourselves, to adorn it in all things; and be astonished, if you please, as an honest heathen historian professes himself to have been, that wickedness and cruelty should mark the actions of men, whose religion throughout inculcates only righteousness and mercy. To lessen, however, in some measure, this astonishment, suffer us to remind you, in the second place, that nothing, after all, is more common, than for a good thing to be abused by bad men; and then the better the thing abused, the worse and the more abominable is the abuse of it. When Christianity, by the favor of the converted emperors; opened the way to wealth and power, it is natural to Lastly, and above all-When you find yourselves disposed to listen to the voice of the seducer, and to think unfavorably of Christianity on occount of the ill lives and base actions of those who profess it, or, indeed, on any other account, always be upon your guard, and suspect yourselves: examine diligently whether, through the corruption of your own hearts and lives, you do not seek occasion against religion, and wish to escape from the holiness of its precepts, the rigor of its discipline, and the terror of its judgments, by denying its authenticity. We often see men so ready to reject the strongest reasons for it, and take up with the weakest against it, that it seems difficult to account for their conduct on any other principle. This may suffice for the argument formed by unbelievers to the disadvantage of the Gospel, upon the transaction of the day, and others of a similar nature. Respecting those of the Romish persuasion, some thing must be said. But it shall be said, not in the spirit of animosity and invective, but in that of Christian charity. We envy them not the indulgence they lave lately experienced, and which they would probably have experienced sooner, had government deemed it consistent with the welfare and safety of the state. It is to be hoped, they have at length perceived their error, in endeavoring to propagate religion by sanguinary methods; and to win proselytes by fire and sword, by racks and gibbets. Were the union ever so desirable, the proposed method of effecting it would spoil all; it can make no man affect the church that adopts it; it tends, on the contrary, to inspire into him an aversion from all that is called Christianity; and has given great occasion, as we have seen, to the enemies of the Lord, to blaspheme. There is no natural connection between the Gospel of peace, and the sword or the bayonet. A saying, indeed, of a zealot in former times they fall: for the day seems evidently approaching, when "the kings of the earth," as they are styled, or the princes of the Romish communion, shall, by some mighty effort, emancipate themselves from the bondage in which they are holden, and destroy the power which they have so long contributed to support: unless that power will ingenuously purify itself from its corruptions, and begin a new era of primitive Christianity. The church of Rome should have done this honestly and effectually, when its corruptions were first pointed out. It had then retained those branches, which, in default of such conduct, were broken off. Nor can there be― indeed there ought not to be-any other method devised or thought of, to graft them in again. has been reported, that "unarmed missionaries make few converts." Yet were the apostles of our ever-blessed Redeemer such missionaries, and they converted the world at a time when the wit and the wisdom, and the fashion and the power of it, were all in arms against them. To be converted to any opinion or system, a man must be first well persuaded of the truth of such opinion or system. But gunpowder is no instrument of persuasion. The tongue and the pen are intended for that purpose; and even by these the purpose is always most successfully effected when they are employed with gentleness. Man, as has been well observed, like every other animal, is best tamed and managed by good usage he does not love to be bullied and beaten into truth itself. If you are in possession of it, state it with every possible ad- When a church really stands in need of reVantage. Let her appear in her native charms, formation, it should always, in prudence as that the world may admire and adore: let well as duty, reform itself, to prevent the humility and meekness, faith and patience, task from being undertaken by others, who, attend upon her; and in her mouth be ever- though they may entertain a very laudable more the law of kindness. When your wri- abhorrence of idols, may not, perhaps, scrutings shall be thus new modelled, let your ple, if a tempting opportunity should offer, to lives and actions be in perfect unison with commit sacril ge: who, under cover of rethem; let your behavior engage the beholder forming abuses, may at length reform away to a consideration of your doctrine, and your Christianity itself; and, either through ignordoctrine reflect lustre on your behavior. Then ance or malice, may " root up the wheat with may we hope you will reform what in very the tares." deed ought long since, to have been reformed As to ourselves-We celebrate on this day in your communion, and render it such as we a twofold deliverance from the tyranny of can conscientiously accede to; such as be- Rome, vouchsafed at different and distant pecomes the simplicity and purity of the Gos-riods. Let us not give occasion to our adverpel of Christ our Saviour. Or if this cannot saries in that quarter to say, as they somebe, we may at least live upon a foot of peace and security together (Judah no more troubling Ephraim, and Ephraim no more vexing Judah,) without apprehension of plots, anathemas, and crusades. Indeed, their day seems to be pretty well over, since we have lived to see the sovereign Pontiff, instead of launching the thunderbolts of the Vatican at the devoted head of a reforming emperor, taking a long and painful journey to supplicate, and returning as he came-A spectacle entirely new! When a disposition appears in the rulers of any kingdom to abolish absurd and superstitious usages, the court of Rome has nothing now left for it, but with all possible expedition to issue an edict, most graciously empowering them so to do. Thus are the mighty fallen! And still lower must times have had the effrontery to say, that Protestantism naturally leads the way to Socinianism, and Materialism, and, in short, to every thing that is opprobrious. Let us not be forward to believe, what some are so very forward to tell us, that the doctrines of the ever-blessed Trinity in Unity, of the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour, and that " full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, by him made for the sins of men," proceeded from the papal chair, and constitute a part of the grand apostasy. In one word, let our studies, and our writings, our lives and our conversation, join in making a plain and unequivocal declaration to the whole world that, though we cease to be papists, we continue to be CHRISTIANS. 276 DISCOURSE LII. THE PURIFICATION OF THE MIND BY TROUBLES AND TRIALS. JOB, XXIII. 10. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. THE afflictions of life, though often grievous enough in themselves, become much more so by that state of doubt and perplexity into which the mind of the sufferer is brought by them. He is at loss to conceive why so much wretchedness is his portion, and what the design of Providence can be in sending it. He is tempted to despair, as thinking God has forsaken him; or to impiety, as imagining there can be no God who governs the world in wisdom and righteousness. Whenever we find ourselves led to such conclusions as these, we may be sure there is some error in the principles upon which we set out. We are in the dark with regard to some point, the knowledge of which would bring all right, and restore peace and comfort to our fluttering and disordered spirits. trials and temptations necessarily suppose troubles and afflictions, without which they cannot be made-let but these few plain considerations take place in the mind, and, at the brightness before them, clouds and darkness shall disperse, doubts and difficulties shall vanish away; and the poor desponding sufferer, who was lately accustomed, like the possessed man in the Gospel, to wander wild among the tombs, his imagination haunted with thoughts of death and desolation, may now be seen in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and listening to words like these: "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him; for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." 1 need not take up your time in proving at large, that this life is a state of trial. It appears sufficiently from the nature of man; from the declarations of God: from the history of his people in every age; and, above In the case before us, a wrong notion of human life is at the bottom of those desponding and murmuring thoughts which arise in our hearts on finding ourselves encompassed and oppressed by a larger share than ordinary of its cares and troubles. We look not forward as we ought to do; we confine our views to the state of things in this present world; we regard it as final, and then won-all, from the life and death of our Saviour der why our condition should be worse than that of our neighbors, when we think our selves much better than they, and perhaps we really are so. When the matter is thus stated, difficulties will certainly thicken upon us apace; and, indeed, I know not how we shall ever be able to see our way through them. But let us only reflect for a moment, that this life is no more than a preparation for another; that we come into it in a fallen and corrupted nature; that we are to be purified, during our short continuance in it, to qualify us for perfect happiness and endless glory in the presence of God; that such purification must be effected by trials and temptations; and that Christ. We are all fully persuaded of this most important truth; but it may be of use to show how this persuasion, if reduced to practice, may become a source of patience and consolation, enabling us to support, with dignity and ease, the several inconveniences and tribulations which are permitted to befall us here below. In general, we sink under temptation, because we do not sufficiently accustom ourselves to expect, and are, therefore, unprepared to encounter it. But were this idea (which is undoubtedly the true idea of our state) firmly impressed upon our minds, and always ready at hand, we should then stand armed for the fight, and by divine assistance be enabled to overcome. In this war, as in | of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. They wandered in deserts and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth." Poor, miserable, foolish creatures, below contempt! would the men of fashion perhaps exclaim. But what says the apostle, in the most wonderful parenthesis that ever was penned—“ Of whom the world was not WOP.THY." Of the temptations or trials to which we are subject, some proceed from without, and others from within. The world endeavors, at one time to seduce, at another to terrify us from the performance of our duty. In the arts of seduction it is skilful. Whatever may be a man's turn or temper, there are objects fitted to lay hold of it. There is When the first Christians, in compliance honor for the ambitious, wealth for the selfish, with the strict injunctions of their God and and pleasure for the gay. Unsuspicious of Saviour, refused to defile themselves with the mischief, we are apt to close with proposals equally senseless and impious idolatry of their of this kind immediately, without consider- heathen neighbors, and all the other abomiing the terms on which they are offered, or nations which composed its train, the alterthe consequences which may follow. Not native was, to expire in the most horrid torso the Son of God, our great pattern and ex-tures that evil men, instigated by evil spirits, ample. In the day of his temptation, "the could devise for the purpose. This was their kingdoms of the world," with their glories day of trial; and, fiery as it was, they "susand their delights, were set before him. But tained the burthen and heat of it," without he knew that it was the day of temptation, complaining. The cross, as they well knew, the hour of trial, on which all depended; he led to a crown: they took it up, and "bore weighed the condition annexed: "If thou it after Jesus." wilt worship me all shall be thine ;" he called to mind what was written, and discomfited the tempter at once: "Get thee behind me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Thus, of old time, to the mind of the patriarch Joseph, when beset by a formidable temptation, the proper thought occurred: "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" And the offers of the king of Moab to Balaam, were, at first, rejected, with this noble declaration: "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more." Balaam found his integrity put to the test, and the question was, whether he should serve God or Mammon. When the world cannot seduce, it will persecute. The example of him who standeth, is a reproof to those who are fallen, and who are determined to rise no more. So saying, or so doing, thou reproachest us; and that we will not bear: say as we say, and do as we do, or expect our utmost vengeance; we will sell you to the Ismaelites, or deliver you up to the Romans. In the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, some persons are mentioned of this decided inflexible disposition, "who through faith wrought righteousness," and never could be prevailed upon to change eitheir their principles, or their practices. And now behold their situation-"They had trial Our trials (for ever blessed be God!) are not so severe; but, still, trials we have. If any man form a resolution, steadily, through life, to profess the doctrines and practice the duties of his religion, let not that man imagine, because the world is now called Christian, that he shall experience no opposition from it. They whose minds and affections are wholly given up to ambition, avarice, intemperance, and impurity, whatever they may style themselves or be styled by others, are idolaters; they do, in effect, still worship the deities of ancient Greece and Rome; and from them the true disciples of Christ will still suffer persecution; will be loaded with opprobrious names; will be driven from society, as not caring to run to the same excess of riot and libertinism; and will be prevented from making their way, as they might otherwise fairly and honorably do, in life. It is said to be almost impossible, at this time, for a young man of rank to succeed, unless he first enter his name, and commence a member of certain societies instituted for the purpose of gaming. At this shrine he may sacrifice his time, his rest, his estate, his temper, his conscience, the peace of his mind, and the health of his body. Costly oblations, and bitter pangs! It may be questioned, whether the sufferings of a primitive martyr would not constitute the more eligible lot of the two. The agonies could not be more acute, and they would be sooner over. | There is another source of trouble and un easiness from without, though of a less important kind. It is that produced by the cross tempers, untoward dispositions, and other failings of those about us. These we sometimes, in a peevish hour, think to be more than human nature can bear. But the truth is, that our own tempers are not yet what they should be, and what these trials are intended to make them. It is forgotten that we ourselves have ill humors, and we are of fended if our friends do not readily excuse and forgive them; yet we cannot excuse and forgive those of others. This is unreasonable and unjust; it is an inequality and roughness which time and experience, by God's grace, must level and smooth; and we have reason to be thankful, if we are placed in a situation which may contribute to effect so good and necessary a work. The fine observation made by a great critic upon the behavior of our first parents after their transgression, as described by Milton, well deserves to be remembered by us all: "Discord begins in mutual frality, and ought to cease in mutual forbearance." > * Thus much for the trials brought upon us by the world from without. There are others which have their origin from within, from the frame and constitution either of body or mind. To have all relish for the pleasures of life taken from us at once; to be cast on the bed of sickness, and to be there confined for days, weeks, months-perhaps for years; this is a trial which, at a distance, wears a most tremendous aspect; and would cause the heart of the stoutest man to sink, who, in the midst of health and vigor, should receive undoubted intelligence, that it was soon to be his portion. But let not any person alarm and terrify himself with thoughts of this kind; for, besides that it is folly to anticipate evil, and suffer before the time; He who sends trials, sends strength to support his servants under them. It is wonderful to see how soon the temper is altered and conforms itself to its situation; how the mighty are bowed down, and the haughty are humbled; with what meekness and patience a long series of weakness and pain is borne, till the sufferer "comes forth as gold," a vessel purified and polished, and every way fitted "for the master's use," with this inscription upon it, "It is good for me that I have been afflicted." Another temptation is that from melancholy, or dejection of spirits, as we commonly style it; when the spirit, which sustains a man's other infirmities, is broken, and need Johnson's Life of Milton, p. 164, edit. Hawkins. eth itself to be sustained; when favorite studies and pursuits please no longer; when the whole creation seems changed, and appearswe know not why-dull and dreary; when the mind is ready to give up every thing, and sink into listlessness and despondency. He who finds himself in this situation, has no time to lose. When'a skilful physician has been consulted that it may be known how far the body is concerned, the mind is to be roused and goaded into action. Constant employment must be found for it, lest its powers be turned inward, to fret, and wear, and prey upon itself. In the use of these means, let prayer be continually offered to Him who can bring light out of darkness, and make the sorrowful heart to sing for joy; with patience and resignation let the sufferer trust in the Lord, and stay himself upon his God. The time would fail me to enumerate all the different temptations which arise in our minds. They are as many, and as various, as our different passions and propensities, each of which will, at times, strive for the mastery, and all of which are to be kept, with a strong and steady hand, in due subordination and obedience. The subject shall be left upon your minds with the following admonition of a pious French writer Include yourself within the compass of your own heart. If it be not large, it is deep; and you will there find exercise enough. You will never be able to sound it; it cannot be known but by him who tries the thoughts and the reins. But dive into the subject as deep as you can. Examine yourself; and the knowledge of that which passes there will be of more use to you than the knowledge of all that passes in the world. Concern not yourself with the wars and quarrels of public or private persons. Take cognizance of those contests which are between the flesh and the spirit; betwixt the law of the members and that of the understanding. Appease those differences. Teach the flesh to be in subjection. Replace reason on her throne, and give her piety for her counsellor. Tame your passions, and bring them under bondage. Put your little state in good order; govern wisely and holily that numerous people contained in your small dominions; that multitude of thoughts, opinions, and affections, which are in your heart, till all rebellion be subdued, and the kingdom of heaven established within. you.* * Jurieu's Method of Christian Devotion, Part III chap. iii. |