NEW SERMONS ΤΟ ASSES. BY THE AUTHOR OF "SERMONS TO ASSES." "And the dirt came out."-JUDGES, iii. 22. A NEW EDITION. London: PRINTED BY AND FOR W. HONE, 67, OLD BAILEY, 1818. J TO THE PETITIONERS AGAINST THE DISSENTERS' BILL. KNOW no persons to whom SERMONS TO ASSES can, with more propriety, be dedicated, than to you. Like Issachar, you are ready to couch down under every burden, and submit to the meanest slavery. Your submission to a burden of unmeaning articles, to you may appear reasonable; for you have an undoubted right to be slaves, if you please:-but it is even beneath the character of Asses to desire to enslave others. Could you not have been satisfied with your own burdens, and suffered the Dissenters to be freed from their's. Your petition savours rank of misanthropy; and your practice is like that of prostitutes, who, after they have parted with their own virtue, are the most zealous in seducing others. You assume the name of Protestant Dissenters, but I should rather suspect you to be infidels, who had given up revelation as a sacrifice to human compositions. If the Scriptures are not sufficient for directing the faith and duty of Christians, you are right; but, provided they are "profitable for all things, to make believers perfect," your petition is not only against the bill of Protestant Dissenters, but against the supre macy of Jesus Christ our Lord, and the perfection of Divine revelation. Through all the varnish of outward piety and zeal for religion, the dirt of your Deism will come out. Though these Sermons may perhaps do you no good, they are intended for your edification, and are left to your serious consideration. THE AUTHOR. NEW SERMONS TO ASSES. SERMON I. JUDGES, iii. 22. And the dirt came out. MORE dirt still! Will we never be cleansed from nastiness? Truly it has but an ill appearance, when matters are thus carried on in the land of Moab. While there are so many secret committees scratching dirt together, and washing none of it away, it is not to be supposed that Moab will be clear of filthiness, or Kerioth* purged from her impurity. Moral dirt and nastiness in Moab was like her national debt,—it was long in becoming less. For want of economy, the people were oppressed, and the king was poor. Every thing was taxed, from the souls of the subjects to their very skins. As soon as ever a soul happened to enter a body, and the body became visible, they were catched hold of by state priests, who set a price upon their heads, and taxed them directly. This argued that there was little economy in the nation, when they were not able to pay the officers of the state, without making a valuation of soul, body, and spirit, over all the land. It was no wonder that aged persons were brought in to help to pay the reckoning, when poor little strangers, who had never been partakers of the benefit of the police of the country, were laid under contribution. The landed interest of Moab appears to have been very low, and the country very poor; for they were obliged, when they had money to raise, to tax the sun, moon, and stars, house and shop windows, and sky-lights. In this land of oppression, nothing was free from taxing, except whores and bawdy-houses. These were kept clear for the benefit of the C-t, and the service of M- -rs of State. Eglon, though he was fat in person, was always poor in purse; for though his revenues were The Metropolis of Moab.-Ames, ii. 2. |