is at your service. It was preached at Charenton in France by PIERRE-THOMINES DUBOSC, the minister of the Protestant Church at Caen. It appears that the Protestants, when the sermon was delivered, had sunk into a state of lukewarmness, which afterwards proved their ruin. It was the design of the preacher to rouse them out of that deplorable state. The author's talents, as a preacher, must have been very respectable. He was deputed to remonstrate with Lewis the XIVth, on a declaration against the Calvinists; and the King was so forcibly struck with his eloquence, that he exclaimed, "I have been hearing the finest speaker in my kingdom." DUBosc died in 1692, in the 70th year of his age. I am, dear Sir, your's affectionately, Hammersmith, Dec. 19, 1820.

JOHN REYNOLDS.

THE CENSURE OF THE LUKEWARM;

A SERMON ON REV. iii. 15, "I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert either cold or hot.”

MY DEAR BRETHREN,

Moral philosophy boasts of nothing so much as of mediocrity. It makes the form and the essence of virtue to consist in it; as it is said to be no other thing than a just and reasonable medium between two vicious extremes. For example: liberality preserves a medium between prodigality, which lavishes riches with an indiscreet profusion, and avarice, which hoards them up with a shameful parsimony: Courage, between an audacious temerity, and a sneaking and cowardly fear: Patience, between a stupid insensibility, and an irritable effeminacy. On these accounts, moral philosophy lavishes wonderful praises on this excellent and amiable mediocrity. It designates it as the rule of excellencythe way of the wise and happy-the sure path-the direct line, from which we cannot swerve to either side, without falling down a steep precipice-the true temperature of the mind, which holds the passions in a perfect equilibrium. On this subject, the example of the Emperor Titus may be produced; who, having reigned between his father Vespasian and his brother Domitian, had neither the avaricious disposition of the former, who found his greatest happiness in the most sordid gain, nor the expensive prodigality of the latter, who rained the whole empire, in order to furnish himself with the means of his prodigious debaucheries: so that, had there been no other reason, this prince would have merited the title which was given him, when he was called, "the delight of the human race." Thus virtue ought to be the love and delight of the whole world; because, being placed between two opposite vices, she preserves her innocence and her beauty,

unsullied, between the two contagious deformities with which she is besieged.

But whatever may be said in favour of this so highly-extolled mediocrity, it is certain that, if in moral philosophy it is a virtue, in Christianity it is frequently a vice; because the qualities which characterize a believer are virtues, the perfection of which is found only in their eminence and intensity. Humility cannot descend too low, nor love ascend too high; since the one ought to abase a man to nothing, and the other to elevate him to GOD, who is the BEING of all beings. Repentance ought to be extreme in its lamentation and sorrow,-faith in its obedience,-hope in its certainty,-zeal in its ardency;-and the measure of the love of GOD is, that of being without measure, because its object is infinite, and hath no limits. In these virtues mediocrity is criminal, and moderation abominable. We see the evident proof of this in our text, in which the eternal Son of GOD, addressing himself to the Christians of Laodicea, through their pastor, complains that they were "neither cold nor hot" in his service, but in a medium, in a state of lukewarmness. And this mediocrity so highly displeased him, that he wished them to go altogether to the other extreme, rather than remain in a mediocrity so blameable; threatening, if they persisted in it, to exclude them from his blessed communion, by a dreadful ejection which should eternally destroy them. "I know thy works," said he, "that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert either cold or hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."

The short preface which appears at the head of our text, "I know thy works," is common to all the epistles that JESUS CHRIST sent to the seven churches of Asia Minor; and there is nothing in them which obliges us to enter into the particular consideration of them at present. We shall, therefore, without dwelling upon them, immediately proceed to the wonderful discourse which follows them; in which we may observe three distinct parts: A censure—a wish-and a threat. The censure is contained in these terms, "Thou art neither cold nor hot." The wish is expressed in these, "I would thou wert either cold or hot." The threatening is denounced in the following manner: "So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." But of these three parts, I shall only treat at this time on the first.

In order that we may investigate, minutely, this important subject, I shall inquire, first, Who are the cold? secondly, Who are the hot? and, thirdly, Who are the lukewarm, of whom the LORD JESUS speaks?

VOL. XLIV. APRIL, 1821.

FIRST PART.

You will naturally conclude, my Brethren, that this subject is but too well adapted to these miserable times in which we have the unhappiness to meet together: For it is with inexpressible sorrow that we see so few righteous men in the world, who weep night and day before the LORD. We see that there is now scarcely any thing but lukewarmness, or rather a most dreadful coldness, among men. We observe little religious zeal in any part of the world. The very name of it appears to have become ridiculous. Men take pleasure in scoffing at it, as an oldfashioned thing, which is not adapted to the sprightliness of the present day. We may say, without fear of mistaking, that we live in the time of those scoffers, whose coming was predicted by St. PETER, as one of the maledictions which were to be reserved for the last days. We are in those awful times, in which the SoN of GOD has foretold that "iniquity shall abound, and the love of many shall wax cold." On the contrary, the Church began with fire! with that fire of heaven, which fell on the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost. We have, since that period, seen this celestial fire extinguished by the waters of an irreligious deluge, which have covered the whole earth; and these waters have at length been congealed, and hardened into the frost of profaneness and atheism, which have produced increasing coldness in the souls of an almost infinite number of persons. It is to remedy so great an evil, as much as possible, that we have chosen the subject with which we are about to occupy your attention. GOD grant, my Brethren, that our preaching, at this time, may be as a live coal taken from the altar; so that by it not only our lips may be purified, like those of the Prophet, but your hearts set on fire, your lukewarmness c consumed, your zeal rekindled, and all of us rendered ardent in love to GOD, and love to all mankind!

There are three classes of men in the world. The first are those who know not GoD.. The second are they who know him, without serving him. The third are they who know him, and serve him with all their heart. These are the three kinds of persons that JESUS CHRIST intends to designate, in this place, by the cold, the lukewarm, and the hot.

The cold, according to our LORD's meaning, are those who abide in their natural state of criminal insensibility; who do not profit by any illumination of the SPIRIT, so as to experience the salutory warmth of grace; whom the SUN of RIGHTEOUSNESS does not warm, with any good or lasting effect; all those, finally, who know not the only true GoD, nor JESUS CHRIST whom he hath sent. Such are Infidels and Atheists, the number of whom, alas! is but too great at the present day. The men

whom I call atheists are not they who do not believe that there is a GOD; for I maintain that there are not any such men in the world. It is true, that many endeavour to be such, and do all in their power to arrive at that pitch of impiety. But they do it in vain. Never shall they attain unto it! They have vainly struggled against their own conscience, to eradicate that sentiment of the DIVINITY, which is common to man. They will never be able to accomplish their purpose. There will always be seasons in which GoD will trouble their consciences, in spite of the impiety and blasphemies of their tongues. Never will they find themselves in any great or unforeseen danger, but they will abjure their error, and utter an acknowledgment of GOD, which will give the lie to their pretended atheism. Never shall the thunder burst from the cloud, with that horrible report which makes all nature tremble, nor the bolt fall at their feet, but they shall lift up their hands to heaven, to make an honourable acknowledg ment to the SOVEREIGN who presides over it, and launches the bolts whenever he pleases. And there are almost numberless times and seasons, in which the most abandoned and wicked of mankind are constrained to acknowledge the justice of Gon against themselves, and to fear him, by a secret and inevitable movement which they pretend to deny. But I call those atheists who, notwith-tanding the reproaches and stings of conscience, which they endeavour to stifle to the utmost of their power, have the impu dence and audacity to deny the existence of a GOD-to speak and act as though they did not believe a word on the subject-to outrage even his power and his providence,-and to combat the immortality of the soul, although the soul, which they wish to be mortal, that it may be exempt from that eternity of punishment which they feel they have merited, convinces them of its immortality, even by arguments which they make use of to contest it. To doubt the immortality of the soul is an indubitable proof that it is immortal, since that doubt can only take place in a spiritual, and consequently an incorruptible nature. Neither the horse nor the ox have ever doubted the immortality of their souls; because they are incapable of making this reflection. This idea is ce tainly above the capacity of a creature which is brutish and purely animal.

These are the worst class of cold ones which our LORD condemos. For when a man has once acquired the horrible temerity which constitutes such an atheist, he has no longer any reverence of GOD-he fixes no bounds to his impiety-he scoffs at all religion-he speaks of heaven only a sa dream-of hell only as a chimera and a visionary phantom-of virtue only as a state of weakness and stupidity. Ah! my brethren, there are but too many men, at the present day, of this prodigious sect; and this horrid coldness has so seized on their souls, that, as there is always one of the *2 G 2*

poles on which the sun does not shine, and which, on account of the distance of this luminary, is covered with thick and impenetrable ice, under which nature is, as it were, dead and buried, so I question whether it may not be truly said, that the half of mankind profess not to acknowledge GOD, and thus depriving themselves of that adorable light, are found plunged into the ice of a shocking irreligion, which freezes to death all the sentimentsof piety in the hearts of men of this description. Men stupid and ignorant, as well as wicked and vicious! For, in my opinion, it is the last degree of stupidity not to acknowledge a first Cause, that is to say a GOD. And if there be a GoD, it necessarily follows that there is a true religion; and if there be a true religion, the undeniable consequence is, that there ought to be piety towards GOD; and if there be piety, it infallibly follows that the soul is immortal. And the man that does not see the necessity and the connexion of these fundamental truths, however intelligent he may appear in other things, is an ignoramus, who either has not strength of mind to discern spiritual things, or who does not take pains to meditate on them as he ought, or who is so intoxicated with carnal lusts and earthly vanities, that his mind is altogether occupied with the things of the flesh and of the world, so that, measuring all things by the standard of his gross imagination, he persuades himself that there is nothing in the universebut what is material and sensible. But let us now leave these miserable wretches in the ice of their impiety; an ice, which shall one day be melted in everlasting flames, where they shall repent, but too late, that they were not of the number of the hot ones of whom the Son of GOD speaks in this place, whose holy fervour would have preserved them from that infernal fire, in which they shall receive the wages due to their crimes.

SECOND PART.

The hot, whom our SAVIOUR opposes to the cold, are they who, knowing God, serve him, not only with sincerity and with out ostentation, but with zeal; who burn with the fire of his love; who are inflamed with the most ardent affection for his glory; who prefer the interests of his truth to their richestheir honour-and even to life itself;-and who, having nothing in the world more dear to them, are ready at all times to shed their last drop of blood in defence of his cause. This disposition JESUS CHRIST designates by the word "hot." And this term demonstrates the manner in which the blessed ardour they feel is formed in them. For as water becometh hot by the agency of fire, which, communicating heat to it, causes that quick and ardent motion which makes it to bubble up, and elevates it, in some sense, above itself; so the fervour of devout and zealous persons is caused by a fire which heats them; which, insinuating itself into