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"The kingdom founded by Jesus Christ not being of this world, the subjects of that kingdom, as such, should neither seek nor hope for terrestrial possessions; on the contrary, they should rather renounce their own inclinations, carry his cross, and follow the example of Christ." p. 4.

"The books of Holy Scripture are the genuine sources of the Divine written law. But it must be remarked, that we are not to look on the volumes of the Old Testament as such, though they may sometimes serve to interpret that which is contained in the New Testament. The reason of this is, that the Jewish laws, whether political or ceremonial, were entirely abrogated by the new law of Christ." p. 12.

"Every man is born with an inclination to persuade his fellow men of what he is himself deeply convinced. He frequently even thinks himself bound to act so by the duties of charity. On these grounds it is an inherent and just wish of the members of the Catholic church to propagate their religious principles. But faith is not a matter depending on cogent authority, nor has the church any right to constrain the opinions of men. Neither frauds, fallacious means, seductions, corruption, nor any other similar tricks are at all allowed in order to allure the people into the bosom of the church. Besides, it is plain, that such means are insufficient to cause a sincere conviction, nor can they produce any thing but mere external and hypocritical professions of belief, totally repugnant to the laws of morality as well as to the ends of the church. There remains, therefore, no other mode of propagating the Catholic faith but instruction, and that instruction conveyed at a proper time and in a proper place." page 132.

The Protestants in Austria possess considerable liberty; their children who frequent Catholic schools, are allowed to retire from the school when the Catholic catechism is heard! If they have schools of their own, they are under no obligation to contribute to the support of Catholic schools, nor to the reparation or maintenance of the Catholic churches. The Catholic clergy, on their part, are required to abstain from all insulting or satirical expression against those who profess another mode of worship. We recommend the careful perusal of this work to those of our readers who are able to purchase it; but we fear the price will be an obstacle to its general circulation.

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Hath caught from opening heaven its raAnd brought it hither from its highest fount: So have I sometimes seen a Christian bear

A brightness not of earth, but from above, Lighting his countenance with rays of love, As he descended from the mount of prayer. Benevolence, affection, holy peace,

Serene and humble trust, a soul at rest, A faith establish'd, and a tranquil breast, A confidence, a joy, which cannot cease; These, these have shed a glory pure and bright, As that which clad the prophet's face with light! JAMES EDMESTON.

AUGUSTUS CESAR was seated one day on his tribunal, judging the causes of those unfortunate Romans who had beeen arraigned for the offences of the times, that is, for having borne arms under Brutus and Cassius in defence of liberty: some of them he had already condemned, and there was little doubt what would become of the rest. When Mæcenas, whether by chance or design, dropped into the court, it was extremely crowded, and quite impossible to approach the tribunal. He therefore took his tablets, wrote a sentence in them, and desired it to be handed to the judge. Augustus opened them and read this short sentence," Surge jam tendem, carnilfex !" "Executioner! it is time to rise." Augustus was struck-instantly deserted the tribunal, and the arraigned were acquitted to a man. Such was the method which this minister employed to humanize his prince; and this adventure places the prince and minister in a very advantageous light. How few minions of a court would have the courage to shock their master for their own interests! and how few princes, inured to fawning and unmanly submission from their servants, would have borne it!

PUBLISHED BY COWIE AND STRANGE, PATERNOSTER ROW,
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A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL.

AS EVERY MAN HATH RECEIVED THE GIFT, SO MINISTER THE SAME ONE TO ANOTHER."

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1829.

[PRICE 3d.

A SERMON,

PREACHED AT ST. BRIDE'S, FLEET-STREET, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 15, 1829. BY THE REV. THOMAS DALE, A, M., PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON.

"Treasures of wickedness profit nothing but righteousness delivereth from death."—Prov. x. 2.

IN nothing is our common proneness to self-deception more conspicuously manifested, than in the erroneous estimate which we form respecting this world and the next. Of the one, we think as though it could never have an end; of the other, as though it could never have a beginning. The present life is that which is visible and palpable. We feel that it delights the eye-that it gratifies the taste, and that it affords scope for the immediate indulgence of every passion and inclination; while our destiny in a future state of existence, whether remote or near, is involved in obscurity and darkness, which we can only penetrate by the exercise of faith. We think of that which never has been, as though it never should be; and we think of that which is, as though it would never cease to be. Hence it is, that among the many thousands who are constantly passing through this world, such multitudes are busy in the acquisition of "treasures of wickedness which profit nothing;" while we find but here and there a few scattered individuals who are wise enough to prosecute that "righteousness which alone delivereth from death."

I shall First prove, that the treasures of wickedness profit nothing. And then proceed to explain Secondly, What is meant by righteousness, and in what sense it delivereth from death.

By the "treasures of wickedness," in the primary sense of the expression, there can be no doubt that Solomon alludes to that wealth which has been acquired by dubious, or unjustifiable methods, or which is applied to unhallowed or forbidden purposes. Without, however, offering any violence to the primary scope and meaning of the passage, we may ex

VOL. I.

tend our views, and interpret the phrase, to signify all wealth, however acquired, on the application and accumulation of which there is no reference to the command and the will of the Almighty. This interpretation is, doubtless, consistent with the spirit of the gospel, by which we are taught that there is less difference than men are usually disposed to think, between the negative and positive disobedience of an universal law; and that there is no general difference of demerit between the man that does evil, and the man that neglects to do good.

Of the latter description it should seem was the rich man in the parable. We are not told that he was voluptuous or cruel; or that he amassed treasures by unlawful pursuits but the vices which consigned him to the fiery torment were selfishness, and a total disregard to the wants and necessities of his fellow-men. It is with no charge of crime that Abraham replies to his request, to allow Lazarus to dip his finger in water, and cool his tongue. He only calls to his remembrance the opulence which he had abused, "Son, remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus' evil things: but now he is comforted and thou art tormented." Assuming, therefore, to understand the application of the phrase, "treasures of wickedness," as comprehending all wealth in the acquisition or expenditure of which religion has no influence. I am to prove, First-THAT THE TREASURES OF WICK

EDNESS PROFIT NOTHING.

This is an argument in which it must be acknowledged, that first appearances are decidedly against me. Take the present life only, and what enjoyment is there that the "treasures of wickednes

I

cannot purchase?" Is a man ambitious? they can elevate him to dignity! Is a man proud? they can sustain his fancied superiority! Is a man addicted to pleasure? they can introduce him to the haunts where he imagines he can obtain it. Is he disposed to lead a domestic life they will purchase friends, or, at least, the spurious counterfeit of friends, who will pass like current coin in the estimation of the world! In a word, what will they not do? They will not give health to the languid-ease to the tormented, nor life to the dead! Therefore, with all their fair appearances, they profit nothing. They bring with them no solid, substantial happiness; no joy upon which the soul can confidently repose itself. They bestow on the sinner who is living without God in the world, no refuge from the storm of turbulent passions which are ever rising in his conscience and his breast. They afford no relief in the hour of affliction, which comes when man is least prepared for it, and when it is least expected. No remedy for the bitter period in which man is made to possess “months of vanity, and when wearisome nights are appointed to him.” No support and succour in the hour of dissolution when the strong man is called to endure, as allmust, the agonies of death, and pay the penalty of that sin which brought death into the world, and all our woe. Riches may indeed provide something which appears like a sufficient covert, but let the storm come, and the floods arise, and the assumed barrier they oppose, will be overthrown in an instant. Then see how insufficient are the treasures of wickedness. Will they enable us to endure trials in adversity? If they would do this, still we must, with Solomon, look upon man as destined for eternal existence, and still we must see, with him, that there is an hour in which all must confess that riches are useless-that treasures profit nothing nothing in the sight of immortal man, much less in the sight of an eternal God. And if even in this life they profit nothing, how much less will they profit in the period of death? If they cannot even ward off the storms of sickness, and sorrow, what can they do for us at the judgment-seat of God? and at that tribunal where acquittal cannot be purchased? "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." We brought nothing into the world, and it is no less certain that

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we can carry nothing out of it. All the treasures of the universe will then appear even as nothing. We shall then be made sensible of the truth, though we are now so prone to forget it, that all earthly possessions are only a loan from God, that must be accounted for to him, and that by him we shall be punished for their misapplication. All those acquisitions which are now sufficient to produce a neglect of the commands of God, and an indifference to the necessity of prayer, will then appear in their true light, as a shadow, a delusive subterfuge. We shall then wonder how we could deceive ourselves, and still more, how we could think to deceive Him who is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Such will be the surprize of the sinner at last, unless the explicit doctrines of scripture can be brought to comfort with the sins of men, which is as impossible as that light should have fellowship with darkness, or the unconverted sinner enter into the rest, that remaineth for the people of God.

Why is it, then, that men are inattentive to such a declaration as this, while they know and will acknowledge it to be true? Why is it? Because they think that the bare acknowledgement is sufficient. Because they are content to do that in religion which they would not do in their temporal concerns. Because they are content to consider the authority as a mere matter of opinion, choosing to forget the things that really profit and to remember those that profit not the end.

But the first concern of men should be not to enjoy life but to escape death. For how is it possible to have the true enjoyment of earthly pleasures, while we know that the messenger of death may be at hand? that one day may behold us in the midst of our fellow creatures exciting admiration by our superiority or opulence, and the next may only behold us a naked human soul, stripped of all distinction, and trembling at the bar of the Almighty? Be assured that no man can enjoy life, but the man that is prepared for death. That we may be prepared for that fearful hour let us consider

Secondly. WHAT IS MEANT BY RIGHTROUSNESS; AND IN WHAT SENSE IT DELIVERETH FROM DEATH.

The righteousness which delivereth from death, is not our own righteousness, properly so called, for in the sense of a

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justifying righteousness" there is (we are assured in scripture) none righteous, no not one." It cannot be too frequently repeated, that our goodness, be it what it may in our own sight, extendeth not to God; and that, however uniform and implicit may be the obedience which is paid to all the precepts of the divine law, that obedience cannot be without spot and without blemish in the sight of Him who looketh upon the heart. The righteousness which alone can deliver from death is the righteousness of Christ, who having appeared, suffered, and died, in our nature, has entitled himself to those promises which are made in the law, and has thus invested man with a righteousness that he could not receive for himself. It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us." This righteousness, however, involves a righteousness of our own, which is in its nature a necessary fruit, and without which it cannot really exist. He that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."Christ found us in a state of corruption, entailed upon us by the original transgression of our first parents, and perpetuated by the perverse principle within us, which is constantly prompting us to revile and rebel against God. He found us consequently, liable to all the unutterable penalties comprised in that awful denunciation. “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." This sentence of condemnation, however, is abrogated through him. For Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." But though he has rescued us from the curse thus entailed, by a violated law, he has not released us from an obligation to obey it. "Think not (said he) that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets : 1 am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." And afterwards, when there were some persons found among the church who would have perverted the doctrines of free salvation by grace to the sanction of a continuance in sin, the apostle Paul desecrates, with holy zeal, any such inference-“ Do we then make void the law? God forbid ! yea, we establish the law." As, therefore, the righteousness adverted to by Solomon, in the case of the Jews, was first a ceremonial, and then a meritorious righteousness; the one consisting in an observance

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of all the ordinances of the law, and the other resulting from that observance, the same sacrifice, and the same righteousness was necessary for us also. First, there is an imputation to us of the perfect righteousness of Christ; and Secondly, there is an actual righteousness of our own; the first being the cause of our justification and the second its natural and necessary consequence.

But as example speaks more loudly and more effectually than precept, let us judge of the righteousness itself by the effect it produces. Let us ask the question, who is the righteous man, that shall be delivered from death? It is he who acknowledges himself to be a sinner, who is conscious that in many instances he has violated the divine law, and has incurred the penaltythat is attached to disobedience, and who, in the consciousness of that guilt has done what a man should do-has fled to the hope and the refuge set before him in the gospel. It is he who has found that there is no other way of obtaining salvation but by Christ, and who has taken refuge under the cross of Christ. It is the man that has realized the evidence that his soul is pardoned and emancipated in Christ, whose hope, joy, confidence, and trust are derived exclusively from the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God, which the gospel reveals to him, and which he both knows and feels to be suitable and sufficient. It is he who so perpetually under the teaching of the Holy Spirit that his life can be known and read of all men; that has rendered every external evidence of the genuineness of his faith, so that they who would speak evil of him cannot do so, without adding the guilt of falsehood to the baseness of slander. It is the man whose benevolence importunity cannot exhaust, whose faithfulness affliction cannot overcome. It is the man whose piety and practice evinces love to God; whose mercy and charity evinces love to But shall I proceed still farther? It is the man that sincerely and strenuously endeavours to realize all those graces that form this character, although he is, at the same time, conscious of many imperfections, many deficiencies. It is the man who has the testimony of his conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity, he daily labours to combine a holy life with a humble and a contrite heart.

man.

Such a righteousness it is that delivereth from death, not indeed in the literal I' 2

meaning of the phrase, since death is the punishment for sin, and must pass on all men, for that all have sinned; but it delivers from the pangs and horrors which constitute the bitterness of death. And such in this life are the pangs of sin, that it requires a great degree of this exercise of faith, long before the separation of the body and soul. Whatever measures man may possess of the treasures of wickedness, he will meet with abundant occurrences in his progress through the present life to convince him of their insignificancy, vanity, and nothingness. He will be called to endure much bodily suffering, which the treasures of wickedness cannot alleviate; much mental uneasiness that they cannot relieve; while the man who is counted righteous through Christ, and who has an actual righteousness of his own, can meet with no extremities in which religion will avail him nothing.

To disappointment religion opposes hope; to suffering it opposes patience; to the loss of earthly friends, the possession of a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, that Almighty Being who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" to the dark and chilly anticipations of the dreary abode of the grave, it opposes the hope, the confidence, and the assurances of a joyful and triumphant resurrection from it. But where the treasures of wickedness seem to profit, as in the delights and indulgences of this life, it is there that righteousness appears to be attended with no advantage. It is where the treasures of wickedness are found to be an evil, it is in the hour of calamity, disease, and death itself, that righteousness is proved to be the only lasting sustaining remedy. Righteousness not only delivers from death, but it introduces to a glorious immortality. This is the righteousness of Christ proved to be the pearl of great price, which is capable of enriching and sustaining the soul, when it is deprived of all beside.

Thus is it that we declare the truths of God, but with what feeling? If there were any thing of that holy zeal in our ministry which is often evinced in the chamber of sickness, and at the bed of death, we should not have to complain that we so often speak in vain. There is that in the near view of an eternal world which constrains attention, and the dying sinner hangs upon the words which would direct him to the Saviour, and which if

earlier excited might have spared all that remorse which is now so bitter, and which may be so unavailing. Yet the truth is always the same. The promises given to the righteous, and the woes denounced against the ungodly, will not be greater than they are now. There may be but little astonishment at the rolling thunder, but our anxiety will increase as the storm draws near, and what will be our terror when it shall burst upon our heads! And could we see death advancing, and there were an appeal made to our senses, we should become more gradually awakened to the supreme importance of religion. But it is because the approach is so silent and so gradual that we are so unwilling to be wise, and so consider our latter end. But as the storm is not less dangerous when it overspreads the clear unclouded sky, and bursts upon us in an instant, so is not death the less to be apprehended though we should not see the arrow till it is impelled from the string, and though we should not see the axe till it is laid to the root of the tree, which is cut down in an instant, and cast into the fire.

How far these solemn considerations will win their way to the hearts of any in this assembly; how far they will reach those that are proceeding onwards without any regard to their eternal interest, God only knows, but it will be well for us all to bear in mind that they can neither be spoken, nor heard, without increasing the weight of that responsibility which already devolves upon us all. Every opportunity which we have neglected or misapplied, will arise to be a dreadful testimony against us at the throne of God, unless the guilt of our neglect and the misapplication of our advantages be obliterated before that terrible day in the allatoning blood of a crucified Redeemer. But little did many of you think of this when you entered the house of God, as you did this morning, with light and cheerful hearts and as if you were coming to a scene of festivity and gaiety. here their hearts have been overflowing with worldly cares; while there they have been referring to past pleasures or to future enjoyments: while here their attention has been barren and unfruitful, barren and unfruitful because it has no effect upon their conduct, no influence upon their lives. And is this the pillow on which you think to recline in a dying hour? Is this the righteousness that delivereth from death? Why you might

While

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