darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me, he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness," chap. vii. 8. "In the day that my walls are to be built, in that day shall human decrees concerning conscience be far removed," ver. 11. On these general principles the sermons in this volume are selected, and on these the reader will at once perceive why it does not contain the whole system of any one subscriber, or the whole system of the author. Each contains primary truths, which all allow, and secondary explications, which some believe, which others doubt, and which some deny. I have not been able to form the volume wholly on this plan; but I have endeavoured to approach it as nearly as my materials would permit. The first sermon is introductory, and exhibits Jesus Christ on the throne in the Christian church, solely vested with legislative and executive power, prohibiting the exercise of either in cases of religion and conscience to all mankind. The twelve following sermons propose four objects to our contemplation, as Christianity represents them. The first is man, in his natural dignity, his providential appointment, and his moral inability. The second is Jesus Christ mediating between God and men, and opening, by what he did and suffered, our access to immortal felicity. The sermon on the dignity of our Lord, in this part, will be considered by some as a principal, essential doctrine, while others will account it Mr. Saurin's explication of a doctrine of ineffable dignity, which they allow, but which they explain in another manner. The third object proposed is the mode of participating the benefits of Christ's mediation, as faith, repentance, and so on. The fourth consists of motive objects of Christianity; so I venture to call the Christian doctrines of judgment, heaven, and hell, belief of which gives animation and energy to action. The last sermon is recapitulatory, and proves, that variety is compatible with uniformity, yea, that uniformity necessarily produces variety. When I call this volume, Sermons on the principal doctrines of Christianity, I mean to affirm, it contains a general view of the most obvious, and the least disputable articles of Christian theology, according to the notions of the French reformed churches. I have only to add my sincere prayers to the God of all grace, that he may enable us all to "put on this armour of God, that we may be able to withstand in this evil day, and having done all, to stand; for we wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places," Eph. vi. 11-13. May he grant, "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive," Eph. iv. 14, 15. "Speaking the truth in love, may we grow up into him in all things, who is the head, even Christ, to whom alone be dominion over conscience for ever and ever!" Amen. R. R. Chesterton, July 10, 1777. THIS volume* is a sketch of Christian mora Alluding to the 4th vol. of the London Edition; or, under the present arrangement, from the 53d sermon to the 69th, inclusive. [lity, such as the sermons of Mr. Saurin afford. Had the author drawn them up with a particular design of exhibiting a full view of the subject, he would have assorted and arrangea ideas, which now lie dispersed and intermixed However, we trust the arrangement will appear neither improper nor unedifying. There are two general opinions among divines concerning the origin of morality and religion. Some suppose, that all the knowledge which the world ever had of these subjects, was at first revealed, and hath been continued to this day by tradition. Others, on the contrary, think, that without revelation, men may, and actually do, by the mere exercise of their natural powers, discover the being of a God, and the consequent obligations of men. Both classes, however, affirin, that revelation gives force to moral duties, and so is essential to the practice of real virtue. This is not the place to enter into disputa tion; we will content ourselves with a few plain remarks on the nature and obligations of men, and on the moral influence of the gospel; and, for this purpose, we will divide the subject into three parts, and consider first, nature; secondly, obligation; and lastly, motive. 1. NATURE. There is hardly a word in the English language of more vague and indeterminate meaning than the word nature. In this place I mean by it the native state, properties, and peculiarities of men. If man be a creature consisting of soul and body; if each individual hath properties, powers, or faculties, peculiar to itseir; obligation to employ these to the ends for which they were intended by the Creator, must necessarily follow. Ancient philosophy, therefore, connected together the natural with the moral state of man, and reasoned from the one to the other. Without superior information by revelation from God, there is no other way of determining what men are, or what they are not expected to perform. It would be easy to lose ourselves in metaphysical speculations concerning the nature, the operations, and the duration of the soul; and it would be as easy to lose ourselves, in attempting precisely to determine, among an infinite number of feelings, ideas, perceptions, aversions, sensations, and passions, where the last power of body ends, and where the first operation of spirit begins. Perhaps we are to expect only a general knowledge of such subjects. That the happiness of both depends on a certain harmony between thought and action, is beyond a doubt; and that in a life made up of a course of thinking and acting, thinking ought to precede action is equally clear To act is to do something; and every intelligent creature ought to do whatever he does for a reason. In the nature of man, then, avoiding all perplexing refinements, and confining our views to plain and useful observation, there are three things considerable: happiness, the end of men's actions; notions, the means of obtaining the end; and reason, which discovers, selects, and enforces rules of uniting the means with the end. 2. OBLIGATION. We divide this article into two parts, obligation, and sense of obligation. We begin with the first. By exercising our reason to find out proper means cf obtaining happiness. Te collect a set of ideas concerning the duties of life, and putting these together, morality is natural theology; but have manwe call the collection morality. As this collec-kind in general, in all ages and countries, tion consists of a great variety of duties, or ac- sought rational happiness in worshipping the tions proper to obtain happiness, we find it con- one Great Supreme? Whence, then, is idolatry venient to divide them into several classes; and and whence that neglect of the Father of Unias each class contributes its share towards the versal nature, or what is worse, that direct production of the general end, happiness, we opposition to him? Morality, we grant, hath consider the whole in the light of obligation; for always been, as it yet continues to be, beautievery creature is obliged to seek its own hap- fully depicted in academical theses; professors piness, and it is natural to man to do so. of each branch of literature have successively contributed to colour and adorn the subject, and yet, in real life, neither the law of nature nor that of nations, nor that of private virtue, or public policy, hath been generally obeyed; but, on the contrary, by crimes of all descriptions, "the whole earth hath been filled with violence;" Gen. vi. 11. 13. Alas! what is the life of each individual but a succession of mistakes and sins? What the histories of families, nations, and great monarchies, but narrations of injustice and wo? Morality, lovely goddess, was a painting of exquisite art, placed in proper light in a public gallery, for the inspection and entertainment of connoisseurs; but he was cold, and her admirers unanimated: the objects that fired their passions had not her beauty, but they were alive. In one word, obligation to virtue is eternal and immutable; but sense of obligation is lost by sin. The condition of man in regard to the Supreme Being, his creator, is that of absolute dependence; and hence comes the first distribution of the duties of life into a class called natural theology: theology, because God is the object of our contemplation; and natural theology, because the duties to be done in regard to God, are such, and such only as are discoverable by our observing and exercising our reason on the works of nature. By considering ourselves, we find a second class of ideas, which make up what is called moral philosophy, or more properly moral theology: and in this we place the rules by which man conducts himself to become virtuous, in order to become happy. Extending our views a little further, and taking in proper notions of the various situations in life, to which men are subject, and the various connexions which we necessarily have in the world, we perceive a set of general principles Just and useful, and all necessary to the happiness of these situations and relations; and hence comes a third branch of morality, called general policy, or common prudence. The next exertion of thinking and reasoning regards nations, and to this belongs a large class of ideas,bility to account for it is another thing, and the all tending to public prosperity and felicity; national policy is, therefore, a fourth branch of morality, and it includes all the actions necessary to govern a state, so as to produce civil order and social happiness. To these, by extending our thoughts yet further, we proceed to add the law of nature, and the law of nations; both which go to make up the general doctrine of manners, which we call morality. If man aim at happiness, if he consult reason by what means to acquire it, if he be naturally impelled to perform such actions as are most likely to obtain that end, he will perceive that the reason of each duty is the obligation of it. As far, then, as man is governed by reason, so far doth he approve of the bond or obligation of performing the duties of life. 3. MOTIVE. We will not enter here on that difficult question, the origin of evil. We will not attempt to wade across that boundless ocean of difficulties, so full of shipwrecks. Evil is in the world, and the permission of it is certainly consistent with the attributes of God. Our ina fact is not affected by it. Experiment hath convinced us, that revelation, along with a thousand other proofs of its divinity, brings the irrefragable evidence of motive to obedience; a heavenly present, and every way suited to the condition of man! It would be endless to enumerate the motives to obedience, which deck the scriptures as the stars adorn the sky: each hath been an object of considerable magnitude to persons in some ages and situations: but there is one of infinite magnificence, which eclipses all the rest, called the sun of righteousness, I mean Jesus Christ. In him the meekness of Moses, and the patience of Job, the rectitude of the ten commandments, and the generosity of the gospel, are all united; and him we will now consider a moment in the light of motive to obedience. By considering the prophecies which preceded his advent, and by comparing his advent with those prophecies, we are impelled to allow the divinity of his mission. This is one motive, or one class of motives, to moral obedience. By observing the miracles which he wrought, we are obliged to exclaim with Nicodemus, Let us attend to sense of obligation. Should it appear on examination, and that it will appear on the slightest examination, is too evident, that the senses of the body irritate the passions of the heart, and that both conspiring together against the dominion of reason, become so powerful as to take the lead, reason will be perverted, the nature and fitness of things disordered, improprieties and calamities" No man can do what thou doest, except God introduced, and, consequently, the great end, be with him." This is a second class of motives. appiness, annihilated. In this case, the nature By attending to his doctrines, we obtain a third of things would remain what it was, obligation set of powerful and irresistible motives to obeto duties would continue just the same, and dience. His example affords a fourth, for his there would be no change, except in the order life is made up of a set of actions, all manifestof actions, and in the loss of that end, happi-ly just and proper, each by its beauty comness, which order would have produced. This speculation, if we advert to the real state of things, will become fact fully established in our judgment. True, the first branch of mending itself to every serious spectator. This moral excellence, this conformity te Jesus Christ, is the only authentic evidence of the truth of our faith, as the apostle Paul teach sus with the utmost clearness, in the thirteenth chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians. Faith and practice, in the Christian religion, are inseparably connected; for as there can be no true morality without faith in the doctrines of Christ, so there can be no true faith without Christian morality: and it is for this reason chiefly, that we should be diligent to distinguish the pure doctrines of revelation from human explications, because a belief of the former, produces a holy conformity to the example of Christ; while an improper attachment to the latter, leaves us where zeal for the traditions of the fathers left the Jews. We have treated of this at large in the preface to the third volume, and it is needless to enlarge here. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. Ir was not my intention, when I translated the first four volumes of Mr. Saurin's sermons, to add any more:* but, willing to contribute my mite towards the pleasure and edification of such as having read the four desired a fifth, I took an opportunity, and added this fifth volume to a second edition of the four first. There is no alteration worth mentioning in the four, except that the editor thinking the fourth too thin, I have given him a dissertation on the supposed madness of David at the court of Achish, translated from the French of Mr. Dumont, which he has added to increase the size of that volume, following, however, his own ideas in this, and not mine. Saurin's sermons, in the original, are twelve octavo volumes, eleven of which are miscellaneous, and one contains a regular train of sermons for Lent, and is the only set of sermons among the whole. The four English volumes are composed of a selection of sermons from the whole with a view to a kind of order, the first being intended to convey proper ideas of the true character of God, the second to establish revelation, and so on: but this volume is miscellaneous, and contains fourteen sermons on various subjects. For my part, almost all the sermons of our author are of equal value in my eye, and each seems to me to have a beauty peculiar to itself, and superior in its kind; but when I speak thus, I wish to be understood. It is not to be imagined, that a translator adopts all the sentiments of his author. To approve of a man's religious views in general is a reason sufficient to engage a person to translate, and it would be needless, if not arrogant, to enter a protest in a note against every word in which the author differed from the translator. In general, I think, Saurin is one of the first of modern preachers: and his sermons, the whole construction of them, worth the attention of any teacher of Christianity, who wishes to excel in his way: but there are many articles taken separately in which my ideas differ entirely from those of Mr. Saurin, both in doctrine, rites, discipline, and other circumstances. For example; our author speaks a language *This preface was originally prefixed to the fifth volume of these sermons; but as that is now incorporated with the fourth, it is inserted in this place.-Note of the last London Edition. concerning the rites of Christianity, which I do not profess to understand. All he says of infant baptism appears to me erroneous, for I think infant baptisin an innovation. When he speaks of the Lord's Supper and talks of a holy table, consecration, august symbols, and sublime mysteries of the sacrament, I confess, my approbation pauses, and I feel the exercise of my understanding suspended, or rather diverted from the preacher to what I suspect the sources of his mistakes. The Lord's Supper is a commemoration of the most important of all events to us, the death of Christ; but I know of no mystery in it, and the primitive church knew of none; mystery and transubstantiation rose together, and together should have expired. August symbols may seem bombast to us, but such epithets ought to pass with impunity among the gay and ever exuberant sons of France. Again, in regard to church discipline, our author sometimes addresses civil magistrates to suppress scandalous books of divinity, and exhorts them to protect the church, and to furnish it with sound and able pastors; but, when I translate such passages, I recollect Mr. Saurin was a Presbyterian, a friend to establishments with toleration however, and in his system of church discipline, the civil magistrate is to take order as some divines have sublimely expressed it. My ideas of the absolute freedom of the press, and the independent right of every Christian society to elect its own officers, and to judge for itself in every possible case of religion, oblige me in this subject also to differ from our author. Further, Mr. Saurin, in his addresses to min isters, speaks of them in a style much too high for my notions. I think all Christians are brethren, and that any man, who understands the Christian religion himself, may teach it to one other man, or to two other men, or to two hundred, or to two thousand, if they think proper to invite him to do so; and I suppose what they call ordination not necessary to the exercise of his abilities: much less do I think that there is a secret something, call it Holy Ghost, or what else you please, that passes from the hand of a clerical ordainer, to the whole essence of the ordained, conveying validity, power, indelible character, and so to speak, creation to his ministry. Mr. Saurin's colleagues are Levites holy to the Lord, ambassadors of the King of kings, administrators of the new covenant, who have written on their foreheads holiness to the Lord, and on their breasts the names of the children of Israel! In the writings of Moses all this is history: in the sermons of Mr. Saurin all this is oratory: in my creed all this is nonentity. It signifies so little to the world what such an obscure man as I believe and approve, that I never thought to remark any of these articles in translating and prefacing the four first volumes: but lest I should seem, while I am propagating truth, to countenance error, I thought it necessary to make this remark. Indeed, I have always flattered myself for dif fering from Saurin; for I took it for probable evidence that I had the virtue to think for myself, even in the presence of the man in the world the most likely to seduce me. Had I a human oracle in religion, perhaps Saurin | beautiful because in the service and livery of would be the man: but one is our master, even Christ. Notwithstanding these objections, I honour this man for his great abilities! much more for the holy use he made of them in teaching the Christian religion; and also for the seal, which it pleased God to set to his ministry; for he was, in the account of a great number of his brethren, a chosen vessel unto the Lord, filled with an excellent treasure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and his ministry was attended with abundant success. As I have been speaking of what I judge his defects, it is but fair to add a few words of what I account his excellencies. ers. My exact notions of the Christian ministry are stated in the thirteenth sermon of this volume, entitled the different methods of preachMr. Saurin, after the apostle Paul, divides Christian ministers into three classes. The first lay another foundation different from that which is laid. The second build on the right foundation, wood, hay, and stubble. The third build on the same foundation, gold, silver, and precious stones. I consider Mr. Saurin as one of the last class, and I think it would be very easy to exemplify from his own discourses the five excellencies, mentioned by him as descriptive of the men. truth. Mere essays of genius are for schools and under-graduates: they ought never to appear in the Christian pulpit; for sensible people do not attend sermons to have men's persons in admiration, but to receive such instruc tion and animation as may serve their reli gious improvement. Further, our author, to use again his own language, excelled in "weighing in just balances truth against error, probability against proof, conjecture against demonstration, and despised the miserable sophisms of those who defended truth with the arms of error." We have a fine example of this in the eleventh sermon, on the deep things of God, and there fidelity and modesty are blended in a manner extremely pleasing. The doctrine of the divine decrees hath been very much agitated. and into two extremes, each under some plausible pretence, divines have gone. Some have not only made up their own minds on the subject, in which they were right, but they have gone so far as to exact a conformity of opinion from others, and have made such conformity the price of their friendship, and, so to speak, a ticket for adımittance to the Lord's Supper, and church communion: in this they were wrong. Others struck with the glaring absurdity of the former, have gone to the opposite extreme, and thought it needless to form First, there is in our author a wise choice any sentiments at all on this, and no other subof subjects, and no such thing as a sermon on jects connected with it. Our author sets a a question of mere curiosity. There are in fine example of a wise moderation. On the the twelve volumes one hundred and forty-one hand, with a wisdom, that does him hofour sermons: but not one on a subject unim-nour, he examines the subject, and with the portant. I shall always esteem it a proof of a sound, prudent understanding in a teacher of religion, to make a proper choice of doctrine, text, arguments, and even images and style, adapted to the edification of his hearers. Where a man has lying before him a hundred subjects, ninety of which are indisputable, and the remaining ten extremely controverted and very obscure, what but a wayward genius can induce him nine times out of ten to choose the doubtful as the subjects of his ministry? Saurin excels, too, in the moral turn of his discourses. They are all practical, and, set out from what point he will, you may be sure he will make his way to the heart in order to regulate the actions of life. Sometimes he attacks the body of sin, as in his sermon on the passions, and at other times he attacks a single part of this body, as in his sermon on the despair of Judas; one while he inculcates a particular virtue, as in the discourse on the repentance of the unchaste woman, another time piety, benevolence, practical religion in general: but in all he endeavours to diminish the dominion of sin, and to extend the empire of virtue. Again, another character of his discourses is what he calls solidity, and which he distinguishes from the fallacious glare of mere wit and ingenuity. Not that his sermons are void of invention and acuteness: but it is easy to see his design is not to display his own genius, but to elucidate his subject; and when invention is subservient to argument, and holds light to a subject, it appears in character, fidelity of an upright soul openly declares in the face of the sun that he hath sentiments of his own, which are those of his own community, and he thinks those of the inspired writers. On the other hand, far from erecting himself, or even his synod, into a standard of orthodoxy, a tribunal to decide on the rights and privileges of other Christians, he opens his benevolent arms to admit them to communion, and, with a graceful modesty, to use his own language, puts his hand on his mouth, in regard to many difficulties that belong to his own system. I think this sermon may serve for a model of treating this subject, and many others of the Christian religion. There is a certain point, to which conviction must go, because evidence goes before it to lead the way, and up to this point we believe because we understand: but beyond this we have no faith, because we have no understanding, and can have no conviction, because we have no evidence. This point differs in different men according to the different strength of their mental powers, and as there is no such thing as a standard soul, by which all other souls ought to be estimated, so there can be no such thing as a human test in a Christian church, by which the opinions of other Christians ought to be valued. There is one insuperable difficulty, which can never be surmounted, in setting up human tests, that is, whose opinion shall the test be, yours or mine? and the only consistent church in the world on this article is the church of Rome. Were men as much inclined to unite, and to use gentle healing measures, as they are to divide, and to gratify an arbitrary censorious spirit, they would neither be so ridiculous as to pretend to have no fixed sentiments of their own in religion, nor so unjust as to make their own opinions a standard for all other men. There are in religion some great, principal, infallible truths, and there are various fallible inferences derived by different Christians: in the first all agree, in the last all should agree to differ. I think this, I repeat it again, a chief excellence in our author. He has sentiments of his own, but he holds them in a liberal generous manner, no way injurious to the rights of other men. In the sermon above mentioned, Saurin makes a fifth class of mean superficial builders without elevation and penetration, and against these he sets such as soar aloft in the exercise of the ministry, and in this also he himself excels. His thoughts on some subjects are lofty, and his language sublime. He is not afraid of considering religion in union with our feelings, nor does he hesitate to address hope and fear, and other passions of our minds with those great truths of the gospel, which are intended to allure, awake, arouse, and excite us to action. Terribly sometimes does he treat of future punishment, and generally under the awful image made use of in holy Scriptures: delightfully at other times does he speak of eternal happiness in the enjoyment of God. On both these subjects, on the perfections of God, and on the exercise of piety, particularly in the closet, he stretches and soars, not out of sight, beyond truth and the reason of things, but so high only as to elevate and animate his hearers. By the most exact rules of a wise and well-directed eloquence most of his sermons are composed: at first cool and gentle like a morning in May, as they proceed glowing with a pleasant warmth, and toward the close not so much inflaming as settling and incorporating the fire of the subject with the spirits of his hearers, so as to produce the brisk circulation of every virtue of which the heart of man is capable, and all which spend their force in the performance of the duties of life. Our author always treats his hearers like tational creatures, and excels in laying a ground of argument to convince the judgment before he offers to affect the passion; but what I admire most of all in him is his conscientious attachment to the connected sense of Scripture. The inspired book is that precisely, which ought to be explained in a Christian auditory, and above all, that part of it the New Testament, and the connected sense is that, which only deserves to be called the true and real sense of Scripture. By detached passages, as Saurin observes, any thing may be proved from Scripture, even that there is no God; and I question whether any one of our wretched customs has so much contributed to produce and cherish error as that of taking detached passages of Scripture for the whole doctrine of Scripture on any particular subject. An adept in this art will cull one verse from Obadiah, another from Jude, a third from Leviticus, and a fourth from Solomon's Song, and compile a fundamental doctrine to be received as the Inind of God by all good Christians under pain | of his displeasure. Were this a common man, and not a sublime genius under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and so beyond advice, 1 would presume to counsel him always to cap his medley of a sermon with a text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Do we then propose Saurin as a model for all preachers? By no means. But as we sup pose there are diversities of gifts for the edification of the church, each excellent in its kind, s we suppose Saurin a model in his own class There is in the writings of the apostle Pau) one of the finest allegories in the world to illustrate this subject. The Christian church is considered under the image of a human body, and of this body God is considered as the Spirit or soul: and the most refined morality is drawn from the fact. "The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee: nor again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. If one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it;" for it is the same God which worketh all diversities of gifts in all good men. It is highly probable, that what is affirmed of individuals may be true of collective bodies of men. One church may excel in literature, another in purity of doctrine, a third in simplicity of worship, a fourth in administration of ordinances, a fifth in sweetness of temper and disposition, and so on. It is not for us to investigate this subject now; let it suffice to observe that the French reformed church has excelled in a clear, convincing and animating way of composing and delivering Christian sermons. Never so warm as to forget reasoning, never so accurate as to onit energy, not always placid, not always rapid, never so moral as to be dry and insipid, never so evangelical and savoury as to spiritualize the Scriptures till the fat of a kidney is as good a body of divinity as the whole sermon of Jesus Christ on the mount. Different as my ideas of some subjects are from those of Mr. Šaurin, yet I wish we had a Saurin in every parish: yea, so entirely would I go into the doctrine of the apostle's allegory just now mentioned, that I would encourage even a builder of wood, hay and stubble," suppose he erected his absurdities on the foundation laid in Scripture, to destroy the works of the devil in any place where those words are practised. In a village made up of a stupid thing called a squire, a mercenary priest, a set of intoxicated farmers, and a train of idle, profligate, and miserable poor, and where the barbarous rhymes in their churchyard inform us that they are all either gone or going to heaven (and we have too many such parishes in remote parts of the kingdom,) would it not be infinitely better for society if an honest enthu siast could convert these people to piety and morality, though it were affected by spiritualizing all the flanks and kidneys, and bullocks and red cows, mentioned in Scripture? Any thing of religion is better than debauchery and blasphemy. Such a set of converts would grow in time up to majority, and when of age would look back on their first religious nourishment as men do on the amusements of their childhood: and among other reformations would cleanse public instruction from Jewish allegory, Pagan |