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SERMON XIX.

2d EPISTLE to the CORINTHIANS I. VERSE V.

Our consolation aboundeth by Christ.

As we are now celebrating the Nativity of our blessed Saviour, and giving loose to those feelings of joy, which arise from such a stupendous instance of God's mercy, we can surely do nothing better, than to take some measure, and account of what that advantage is we have received; and to examine upon what grounds of reason our gratitude is indulged.

In laying before you, for this purpose, a short analysis of the genius, and nature of Christianity, I shall begin with its nega

tive excellencies, because these are what would first strike the mind of any reflecting man, who had remarked the glaring absurdities, and deficiencies of those religions, which rival christianity only in the number of their proselytes.

First, the genius of the gospel is to discourage the pomps, and ceremonies of worship, in which all spurious, and barbarous, religions are apt to indulge; it attaches no importance to outward trifles; the forms which it exacts are few, and instituted for the only purpose for which forms ought ever to be instituted, to awaken the attention to realities.

It is, perhaps, to the simplicity of the Christian faith, more than to any other cause, that Europe is indebted for its superiority over the rest of the world, for its industry, its science, and its comparative freedom. In the christian world, every year increases the boundaries of human knowledge, and multiplies the instruments of human happiness : Man seems to be making that progress which his Creator

intended he should make. In the Pagan world, this year is the same as the last, the same as centuries before it; a childish, and complex faith, interferes with every trifling arrangement of life; and so destroys all freedom of choice, and besets existence, with so many frivolous rules, that the originality of man is totally destroyed; and every branch, that he would push forth into the air with natural strength, and beauty, is bent into the forms of art. I only mean to offer these last observations, as a negative proof of the genuineness of Christianity, in as much as it shews the absence of a defect, for which all other widely-extended religions are remarkable, and certainly, in the minds of grave men, ought to excite veneration for the gospel.

The gospel is not a religion of fables, and mythology, calculated for the infantine simplicity of savages: It holds forth no bribe to the senses: and not only does not ask their aid, but limits their gratifications, within the narrowest limits of virtue. It is as far removed from austerity, as from sensuality, for one of these two is commonly a feature in all spurious religions;

either God is represented as bribing his votaries by bodily pleasures, or his votaries are enjoined to appease him by bodily pains; the Creator is cruel, or the creature voluptuous; these two features carry with them such strong marks of vulgar imposture, that a man of discretion may at once condemn, as spurious, every religion in which they are observable; the christian faith throws a veil over these scenes, and puts an end for ever to vain curiosity, by telling us that the eye has never seen such things as we shall hereafter see, that the ear has not heard them, nor has the heart thought them.

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The gospel has no enthusiasm; it pursues always the same calm tenor of language, and the same practical views in what it enjoins; nor does it ever in any way connect itself with questions of civil, and ecclesiasticalpolicy. These errors do not exist in the gospel, and they do exist in all other religions but the gospel; there is no other faith which is not degraded by its ceremonies, its fables, its sensuality, or its violence; the gospel only is rational, simple, correct, and mild.

The gospel contains a set of rules every one

of which appears eminently calculated to promote our happiness; among the foremost of these rules is poorness of spirit, by which is meant, a mind habitually void of offence, a favourable construction of men's motives, a connivance at little injuries and insults; moderation in resenting, and readiness in forgiving those of a more serious nature; a retiring, modest, and gentle disposition: Now it is plain, if such were the prevailing spirit among men, that the earth would be a far different scene from what it now is; to see what the magnitude of that good is which Christianity aims at conferring by this rule, it is necessary to remark the effects this rule produces where it is obeyed, the happiness which a gentle, and amiable man diffuses around him, the air of benevolence, and content visible in those who live within his influence, and who seem to be breathing a purer atmosphere, and living in some land of Goshen, unsmitten by the hail, and unvexed by the storm. The opposite character which the scriptures labour to correct, is the heroic character, the inordinate love of glory, and power; and no man can for a moment doubt which of these two characters he would wish to see

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