5 XV. feverest hardships, confidering that it is SER M. 3dly, THE Third Particular obfervable Z SERM. things. Reason, and the Nature of things, XV. and the general Ufage of all language, fhoweth, that in these and all other the like expreffions, the phrase, in every thing, and in all things, muft neceffarily be understood to mean only, in all things juft, in all things lawful, in all things that are honeft and fit to be done. In Human Writings, thefe ge neral manners of expreffion, arifing from the known and vulgar ufe of Language, are never misunderstood; And therefore to misunderstand them in the Sacred Books only, is mere Perversenefs. The Gospel neither inlarges nor diminishes any Superiour's Power; it neither adds to, nor takes from any Inferiour's Right. In Thefe Cafes, it only confirms and explains the Obligations of Nature; and inforces the Practice of the respective Duties, with ftronger and more powerful Motives. As therefore in all other Writings, fo in Scripture like, wife; the true, the natural, and evident Meaning of fuch Phrases as these, in all things, in every thing, and the like; is not what the word, all, fuggefts in its fingle Signification; but what the vulgar fense of it is, in fuch expreffions and fen tences, tences. When we are are taught that the SER M. Commands of God, or the Laws of Truth XV. and Right, are to be obeyed in all things; the nature of the Thing, not the force of the fingle words, fhows, that the Obedience is to be univerfal and without exception. In other cafes, where the very fame words are used; (as, in the Text, Servants obey your Mafters in all things;) the nature of the thing There likewife no less plainly fhows, that this obedience in all things is to be limited, by its confiftency with the Commands of any Superiour Mafter either on Earth or in Heaven. In All language, the fignification of every word neceffarily depends upon the other words with which it is connected: And where no Controverfy is concerned, Prejudice interpofes, 'tis always underftood, and cannot but be understood to be fo, by all Understandings, and by all Capacities equally, from the Highest to the Meanest, When the Scripture mentions The Everlasting God, 'tis not the force of the word Everlasting, but the application of it to the First Cause and Author of all things, that makes it denote a true and Z 2 abfolute SERM.abfolute Eternity: XV. For when the fame Scripture mentions the everlasting Mountains, 'tis understood by all men both of the greatest and of the fmallest Understandings, that it there fignifies only fuch a Duration, as is proper to the Subject of which it is fpoken. These things are, in their own Nature, exceedingly evident And yet where Party, or Intereft, or Controverfy is concerned, 'tis wonderful to what a degree men have fometimes, even in fo plain a cafe, impofed upon the ignorant, and upon the learned too. I fhall mention but One Inftance, and leave Others to be judged of by the fame proportion. In the queftion about Tranfubftantiation, the Writers of the Church of Rome allege with great confidence,, that the natural, the literal, the first and obvious fenfe of the words, This is my Body, is plainly in favour of Their fide of the Question. And yet in reality, the very contrary to This, is evidently true. For the natural, the literal, the first and obvious fenfe of the phrafe, is not that which arifes from the fignification of the word Body fingly, but That which arifes 2 from XV. from its natural fignification in fuch anSER M expreffion, wherein commemorative Bread is affirmed to be the Body of Him who is commemorated thereby. When a Picture is spoken of, as being the perfon it represents; the natural, the literal, the first and obvious sense of the expreffion, is not that 'tis really, but that 'tis reprefentatively, That perfon. When our Lord fays, I am the true Vine; the question is not what the word, Vine, naturally fignifies in other cafes; but what it There moft naturally and obviously fignifies, when a Teacher calls Himself a Vine, and his Followers its Branches. When Wisdom declares concerning herself, Eccluf. xxiv. 21. They that eat me, shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me, fhall yet be thirsty; the natural and obvious, nay, the literal fignification of the whole Sentence, arifes from what the terms, eat and drink, do Then moft naturally and obviously fignify, when a perfon is fpeaking, not concerning Food, but about imbibing and digesting a DoЄtrine. But to return from This Di greffion. |