"love them that hate us; to bless them that curse and to do good to them that despitefully

us;

<< use us."

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Christian wisdom is without partiality; it is not calculated for this or that nation or people, but the whole race of mankind: not so the philosophical schemes, which were narrow and confined, adapted to their peculiar towns, governments, or sects; but, "in every nation, he that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”

Lastly, It is without hypocrisy; it appears to be what it really is; it is all of a piece. By the doctrines of the Gospel, we are so far from being allowed to publish to the world those virtues we have not, that we are commanded to hide even from ourselves those we really have, and not to let our right hand know what our left hand does; unlike several branches of the Heathen wisdom, which pretended to teach insensibility and indifference, magnanimity and contempt of life, while, at the same time, in other parts, it belied its own doctrines.

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I come now, in the last place, to show that the great examples of wisdom and virtue, among the Grecian sages, were produced by personal merit, and not influenced by the doctrine of any particular sect; whereas, in Christianity, it is quite the contrary.

The two virtues most celebrated by ancient moralists, were, Fortitude and Temperance, as relating to the government of man in his private capacity, to which their schemes were generally addressed and confined; and the two instances wherein those virtues arrived at the greatest height, were Socrates and Cato. But neither those, nor any other virtues possessed by VOL. X. these

L

these two, were at all owing to any lessons or doctrines of a sect. For Socrates himself was of none at all and although Cato was called a stoick, it was more from a resemblance of manners in his worst qualities, than that he avowed himself one of their disciples. The same may be affirmed of many other great men of antiquity. Whence I infer, that those who were renowned for virtue among them, were more obliged to the good natural dispositions of their own minds, than to the doctrines of any sect they pretended to follow.

On the other side, as the examples of fortitude and patience among the primitive Christians, have been infinitely greater and more numerous, so they were altogether the product of their principles and doctrine; and were such as the same persons, without those aids, would never have arrived to. Of this truth most of the apostles, with many thousand martyrs, are a cloud of witnesses beyond exception. Having therefore spoken so largely upon the former heads, I shall dwell no longer upon this.

And, if it should here be objected, Why does not Christianity still produce the same effects? it is easy to answer, First, That although the number of pretended Christians be great, yet that of true believers, in proportion to the other, was never so small; and it is a true lively faith alone, that, by the assistance of God's grace, can influence our practice.

Secondly, We may answer, that Christianity itself has very much suffered, by being blended up with Gentile philosophy. The Platonick system, first taken into religion, was thought to have given matter for some early heresies in the church. When disputes began to arise, the peripatetick forms were introduced

by

by Scotus, as best fitted for controversy. And, however this may now have become necessary, it was surely the author of a litigious vein, which has since occasioned very pernicious consequences, stopped the progress of Christianity, and been a great promoter of vice, verifying that sentence given by St. James, and mentioned before, "Where envying and strife is, "there is confusion, and every evil work." This was the fatal stop to the Grecians, in their progress both of arts and arms; their wise men were divided under several sects, and their governments under several commonwealths, all in opposition to each other; which engaged them in eternal quarrels among themselves, while they should have been armed against the common enemy. And I wish we had no other

examples, from the like causes, less foreign or ancient than that. Diogenes said, Socrates was a madman; the disciples of Zeno and Epicurus, nay of Plato and Aristotle, were engaged in fierce disputes about the most insignificant trifles. And if this be the present language and practice among us Christians, no wonder that Christianity does not still produce the same effects which it did at first, when it was received and embraced in its utmost purity and perfection: for such a wisdom as this cannot " descend from above;" but must be "earthly, sensual, devilish; full of con“fusion and every evil work;" whereas "the wisdom "from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, "and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good "fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." This is the true heavenly wisdom, which Christianity only can boast of, and which the greatest of the Heathen wise men could never arrive at.

Now to God the Father, &c.

DOING GOOD:

A

SERMON,

ON THE

OCCASION OF WOOD'S PROJECT *.

WRITTEN IN 1724.

GALATIANS vi, 10.

As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all

men.

NATURE directs every one of us, and God permits us, to consult our own private good, before the private good of any other person whatsoever. We are indeed, commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves, but not as well as ourselves. The love we have for ourselves, is to be the pattern of that love we ought to have toward our neighbour; but, as the copy doth not equal the original, so my neighbour cannot think it hard, if I prefer myself, who am the original, before him, who is only the copy. Thus,

* "I never," said the dean in a jocular conversation, " preached "but twice in my life and then they were not sermons, but pamphlets." Being asked on what subject; he replied, "They "were against Wood's halfpence." Pilkington, vol. 1, p. 56.

if

if any matter equally concern the life, the reputation, the profit of my neighbour, and my own; the law of nature, which is the law of God, obligeth me to take care of myself first, and afterward of him. And this I need not be at much pains in persuading you to; for the want of self-love, with regard to things of this world, is not among the faults of mankind. But then, on the other side, if, by a small hurt and loss to myself, I can procure a great good to my neighbour, in that case his interest is to be preferred. For example, if I can be sure of saving his life, without great danger to my own: if I can preserve him from being undone, without ruining myself; or recover his reputation, without blasting mine; all this I am obliged to do: and, if I sincerely perform it, I do then obey the command of God, in loving my neighbour as myself.

But, beside this love we owe to every man in his particular capacity under the title of our neighbour, there is yet a duty of a more large extensive nature incumbent on us; which is, our love to our neighbour in his publick capacity, as he is a member of that great body the commonwealth, under the same government with ourselves; and this is usually called love of the publick, and is a duty to which we are more strictly obliged than even that of loving ourselves; because therein ourselves are also contained, as well as all our neighbours in one great body. This love of the publick, or of the commonwealth, or love of our country, was in ancient times properly known by the name of virtue, because it was the greatest of all virtues, and was supposed to contain all virtues in it and many great examples of this virtue are left to us on record, scarcely to be believed, or