Imatges de pàgina
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SERMON IV.

The Subject continued.

HEB. xiii. 15. 16. 17.

By him therefore let us offer the facrifice of praife to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.

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to do good, and to communicate, forget not; for with fuch facrifices God is well pleafed. Obey them that have the rule over you, and fubmit yourselves.

III.

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T remains now, in the third place, that

we inquire, What regard is due to them who minifter in the facred office.

But I am aware, that they who would be thought more wife than the rest of mankind, will reckon it great weakness, or great arrogance, to undertake the defence of a fet of men who are now every where spoken against. The world is fo ftrangely changed within this laft age, that that character which has ever been held facred and venerable, is at last be'come the object of hatred and fcorn. The priests are reprefented as a nuifance to fociety, fpiritual tyrants, lording it over the confciences of men, and actuated by nothing but pride, and luft of power; and hence prieftVOL. III. craft,

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craft, pricftly pride and power, and fuch elegant terms of reproach, are thought sufficient anfwers to the most folid reasons in defence of religion. Nay, they have again and again been brought upon the very stage, and employed to furnish out the most ludicrous fcenes in our dramatic entertainments.

No doubt there have been bad and weak men in the priesthood, as well as among other orders; and it is a pity the vices of fuch hould not be punished with exemplary feverity. But is it just, for the faults of particular perfons, to throw contempt upon the whole, and even upon the office itfelf? Is magiftracy contemptible, becaufe there have been wicked and foolish magiftrates? But I am not to contend for their power, nor even to infift upon that obedience which the apoftle in the text enjoins. All I defign is, to fhow, that this order, as it is both venerable in itself, and abfolutely neceffary in fociety, deferves honour and refpect.

And here again I own, it does not become us, either in prudence or duty, to feek honour from men but as public worship neceffarily fuppofes fome to regulate and prefide in it; and if thefe are defpifed, worship cannot be honoured, nor have any good effect upon the worshippers; for thefe reafons, if we would refcue the one from contempt, we must refcue the other alfo; for they are every way infeparable.

If we allow public worship to be reasonable

in itself, and neceffary for the good of focie ty, (as I have endeavoured to prove it to be), we ought likewise to allow, that there must be an order of men intrufted with the direc tion and management of it. The former as neceffarily infers the latter, as an action does an agent; and we may as well fuppofe, that government and the laws can be maintained without magiftrates, as that public worship can be performed without priefts. This therefore being felf-evident, we fhall not further infist upon it.

Now, as their chief business is, to offer up the fpiritual facrifice of praife and prayer for the people, and in their name, thus prefenting, as it were, their addreffes to Almighty God, one should think, that this employment, of all others, is the fartheft from being in itfelf contemptible. I will not mention the honourable names which upon this account have been given them, becaufe the world is not now difpofed to allow them titles of refpect; only I may be allowed to infinuate, that if thofe who ferve in a prince's household, and about his perfon, derive honour from their station, and are defpifed by none who have a regard for their master; they who are employed in facred things ought to be confidered, by all who have a due reverence for the Supreme Being, as more immediately belonging to him. And it cannot well be conceived how they fhould be defpifed by any, unless by fuch as have a fecret averfion to the work in which

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they are employed, or to him whom they ferve.

And if we confider them as neceffary for the good of fociety, (and furely they are as neceffary as public worship itself), that should oblige us to treat them with honour and efteem. If they are appointed to inftruct men in their duty to God and to one another, and if it is neceffary they should be fo inftructed, will not this end be wholly defeated if they are once rendered contemptible? The best things faid, the wifest admonitions given, by one whom we defpife, will not be much regarded: it is the opinion and esteem we have of the person, that gives weight to advice; and the generality, at leaft, will scarce hear with patience what they are taught by him whom they contemn. If, therefore, they who ferve at the altar are vile in our eyes, the altar itself will foon become despicable. But there is too much ground to fufpect, that the spite which is fhewn against the facred character, arifes from a contempt of the office; and that priests are hated, because public worship is first difliked.

As to their enflaving the confciences of men, it is not denied, that fome of them have attempted it, that they have fhamefully corrupted the Chriftian revelation, and erected a temporal and tyrannical dominion upon spiritual pretences. But as thefe kingdoms are happily and entirely delivered from that yoke of bondage, and no authority is claimed over the confcience, it is altogether unfair to charge

the

the crimes of a particular party upon those who abhor them, and upon all occafions have declared and exerted themselves against them. And is not every perfon amongst us provided with a divine standard, according to which he is allowed to measure their conduct? and is any deference required to their deeds, but in as far as they agree with that unerring rule? Judges are every where interpreters of the laws; and to their interpretations we must fubmit. But no fuch power is pretended to by the interpreters of the facred oracles: they appeal to every man's reafon, and leave his confcience to determine him. There cannot, therefore, be a charge more groundless, than that of enflaving mens confciences; nor can there be a more unjust inference, than that, because the Romish priests perverted religion to ferve the purposes of their ambition, therefore all priests ought to be detefted. Would not this be the fame thing as to declare against all government, becaufe fome governments have been tyrannical?

But as those who fhow the greatest zeal in reviling the Chriftian priesthood, pretend to be great admirers of the customs and conftitutions of the ancients, we shall willingly join iffue with them upon this question: for it is an undeniable fact, that in almoft all ancient governments, public religion and a public fpirit, irreligion and selfishness, a reverence for things facred and liberty, a contempt of things facred and flavery, went hand in hand.

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