ing the whole of religion: it must naturally incline him to take it only by bits and shreds. On the one hand, it contracts the mind: for how can a soul that harbours and cherishes all the phantoms which a party-spirit produces, how can such a soul study and meditate as religion requires? On the other hand, a partyspirit depraves the heart, and eradicates the desire of knowing religion. A man animated with the spirit of party, directs all his attention to such propositions of religion as seem to favour his erroneous opinions, and irregular passions, and diverts it from all that oppose them; his system includes only what strengthens his party, it is exclusive of every thing that weakens or opposes it.

This is the first cause of the malady. The remedy is easily discovered. Let us divest ourselves of a party-spirit. Let us never determine an opinion, by its agreement or disagreement with what our masters, our parents, or our teachers have inculcated, but by its conformity or contrariety to the doctrine of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Let us never receive or reject a maxim because it favours or opposes our passions, but as it agrees with, or opposes the laws of that tribunal, the basis of which are justice and truth. Let us be fully convinced that our chief study should be, to know what God determines, and to make his commands the only rules of our knowledge and practice.

2. The second cause of the evil we would remove is, The choice of teachers. In general, we have three sorts of teachers. The first are catechists, who teach our children the principles of religion. The second are ministers. The third prepare the minds of young people for the ministry itself.

The carelessness that prevails in the choice of the first sort of teachers cannot be sufficiently lamented. The care of instructing our children is committed to people more fit for disciples than masters, and the meanest talents are thought more than sufficient to teach the first principles of religion. The narrowest and dullest genius is not ashamed to profess himself a divine and a catechist. And yet what capacity does it not require to lay the first foundations of the edifice of salvation! What address to take the different forms necessary to inuate into minds of catechumens, and to conciliate their attention and love! What dexterity to proportion instruction to the different ages and characters of learners! How much knowledge, and how many accomplishments are necessary to discern what is fundamental to a youth of fifteen years of age! What one child of superior talents cannot be ignorant of without danger, and what another of inferior talents may remain innocently unacquainted with! Heads of families, this article concerns you in a particular manner. What account can ye render to God of the children with whom he has intrusted you, if, while ye take 10 much pains, and are at so much expense to teach them the liberal arts, and to acquaint them with human sciences, ye discover so uch negligence in teaching them the knowledge of salvation? Not only in a future state

ought ye to fear the punishment of so criminal a conduct; ye will be punished in this present world. Children ignorant of religion will but little understand their duty to their parents. They will become the cross, as they will be the shame and infamy of your life. They will shake off your yoke as soon as they have passed their childhood; they will abandon you to the weakness, infirmities, and disquietudes of old age, when you arrive at that distasteful period of life, which can be rendered agreeable only by the care, the tenderness, and assiduity of a well-bred son. Let us unite all our endeavours, my dear brethren, to remove this evil. Let us honour an employment which nothing but the licentiousness of the age could have rendered contemptible. Let us consider that, as one of the most important trusts of the state, one of the most respectable posts of society, which is appointed to seminate religious principles in our children, to inspire them with piety, to guard them against the snares that they will meet with in the world, and, by these means, to render them dutiful in childhood, faithful in conjugal life, tender parents, good citizens, and able magistrates.

The pastors of our churches are our second class of teachers. I know that all our sufficiency is of God, 2 Cor. iii. 5. that though Paul may plant, and Apollos water, God only giveth the increase that holy men, considering the end of the ministry, have exclaimed, Who is sufficient for these things? 1 Cor. iii. 6. Yet the ordinary means which God uses for the conversion of sinners, are the ministry of the word, and the qualifications of ministers, for faith cometh by hearing, Rom. x. 17. Now this word, my brethren, is not preached with equal power by all; and, though the foundation which each lays be the same, it is too true that some build upon this foundation the gold and precious stones of a solid and holy doctrine, while others build with the wood, hay, and stubble, 1 Cor. iii. 12. of their own errors, the productions of a confused imagination, and a mistaken eloquence. And as the word is not preached with the same power, so it is not attended with the same success.

But when the word proceeds from the mouth of a man whom God has sealed, and enriched with extraordinary talents; when it proceeds from a man, who has the tongue of the learned and the wisdom of the wise, as the Scripture speaks, Isa. 1. 4. When it proceeds from a Boanerges, a son of thunder, from a Moses, mighty in words and in deeds, Mark iii. 17. Acts vii. 22, who maintains the dignity of his doctrine by the purity of his morals, and by the power of his good example, then the word is heard with attention; from the ear it passes to the mind, from the mind to the heart, from the heart to the life; it penetrates, it inflames, it transports. It becomes a hammer breaking the hardest hearts, a two-edged sword, dividing the father from the son, the son from the father, dissolving all the bonds of flesh and blood, the connexions of nature, and the love of self.

What precaution, what circumspection, and, in some sort, what dread, ought to prevail in the choice of an office, which so greatly influ

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.

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 introduced, and, consequently, the great end, happiness, annihilated. In this case, the nature of things would remain what it was, obligation to duties would continue just the same, and there would be no change, except in the order of actions, and in the loss of that end, happiness, 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 morality is natural theology; but have mankind in general, in all ages and countries, sought rational happiness in worshipping the one Great Supreme? Whence, then, is idolatry, and whence that neglect of the Father of Universal nature, or what is worse, that direct opposition to him? Morality, we grant, hath always been, as it yet continues to be, beautifully depicted in academical theses; professors 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 she 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.

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 inability to account for it is another thing, and the 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.

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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, No man can do what thou doest, except God be with him.' This is a second class of motives. By attending to his doctrines we obtain a third set of powerful and irresistible motives to obedience. His example affords a fourth, for his life is made up of a set of actions, all manifestly just and proper, each by its beauty commending itself to every serious spectator.

This moral excellence, this conformity to Jesus Christ, is the only authentic evidence of the truth of our faith, as the apostle Paul teaches us 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

*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 Lond. Ed.

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, elven 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 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 baptism 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 ministers, 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 differing 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 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.

My exact notions of the Christian ministry are stated in the thirteenth sermon of this volume, entitled the different methods of preachers. Mr. 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.

First, there is in our author a wise choice of subjects, and no such thing as a sermon on a question of mere curiosity. There are in the twelve volumes one hundred and fortyfour sermons: but not one on a subject unimportant. 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, beautiful because in the service and livery of 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 instruction and animation as may serve their religious improvement.

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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 admittance 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 any sentiments at all on this, and no other subjects connected with it. Our author sets a fine example of a wise moderation. On the one hand, with a wisdom, that does him honour, he examines the subject, and with the 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 sur mounted, 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 sen. timents 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