SERMON VII.

1 Cor. vii. 23.

YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE; BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN.

In the chapter preceding this, it is observable that the Apostle draws another conclusion from the same premises: "Ye are bought," says he, " with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God's." These two passages seem to have a reference to one another; I shall, therefore, have them both in my view in the following discourse. The former propositions, as I have said, are in both arguments the same, and, as addressed to the people of Corinth, allude, with propriety, to the custom common in that city, with the rest of Greece, of dealing.in slaves; connected, therefore, together, they will admit the following paraphrase: "God has purchased you with the precious blood of his Son; but the nature of the purchase, the price given, and the dignity of the purchaser are such, that you must not look upon yourselves as bought to serve and obey him in such a manner as might fulfil the duty you owe

to a human master. You must do more than this, you must glorify him; that is, you must improve your moral faculties, and advance them to as high a pitch as your nature is capable of reaching, in order to render yourselves fit servants of such a master, whose sole property you are, by a double title, not only by the right of creation, but redemption. This being the point of view in which you are to look upon yourselves with respect to your Maker, take heed that you do not depreciate yourselves by any mean servility to your fellow-creatures; but in your commerce with the world preserve that spirit of freedom and independence which is your birth-right as men, and which is not lessened but improved by your becoming Christians."

On a presumption that what I have here delivered is a just and consonant explication of the Apostle's meaning, which, according to his usual manner, he has expressed with a nervous conciseness, I hope it will appear from the sequel of this discourse, how incapable any man is of promoting the glory of God, who suffers himself to be drawn into a state of worldly dependence, and who either servilely submits to the unjust commands, or meanly adopts the fashionable vices, of those whom fortune only has made his superiors.

For the dependence which I would condemn, and which the Apostle certainly means, when he exhorts his

converts not to become the servants of men, is by no means that natural one which results from our mutual wants, and without which civil society could not subsist; nor yet that unnatural one which mankind have in all ages, from external causes, been obliged to submit to; but that which still more debases human nature, and is more abhorrent to it, which arises from an internal defect in individuals, and that of the worst kind, a defect not of the head but of the heart.

That the Apostle excludes that kind of dependence which arises from external causes in the present case, is clear from the verse immediately preceding the text. "Art thou called, being a servant, care not for it, but if thou may be made free, use it rather." As if he had said, Liberty is indeed such an inestimable blessing, that every man must of necessity prefer it to slavery; yet if thou hast the misfortune to be reduced to that condition, do not, now that thou art become a Christian, repine at thy lot, because it is one of the principal duties of Christianity to be resigned and patient, even in the most calamitous of situations. It is plain, therefore, that this kind of servitude, though an unnatural state, as many glorious defenders of the rights of mankind have irrefragably proved, is not that which the Apostle means; neither can it possibly be that natural state of mutual support and subordination, which is of the very essence of civil society, because, St. Paul, if he could exhort his

convert to be content in a state of absolute slavery, would surely never prompt him to break those easy, those useful bonds which connect him to an equal and equitable government. It is not to be doubted, therefore, but that he confines his meaning to that abject servility which self-interest produces in a bad heart, the offspring of which are all those dishonourable actions that degrade a man below humanity, and are consequently incompatible with that divine dispensation, which was meant to purify his nature, and make him capable even of glorifying his God.

Nevertheless, the man who is mean enough so far to degrade his own dignity, is usually cunning enough to produce passages of misapplied Scripture to justify that meanness; nay, even to change it to a virtue, and to pretend that what unenlightened Reason may deem a despicable blemish, Revealed Religion holds forth to our imitation as a Christian Grace. It is even to be feared that some pious persons have so far deceived themselves in this matter, as to believe that when they acted servilely they only acted humbly, and thought themselves intitled. to a beatitude for being poor in spirit, when in fact they were only mean in spirit, and void of honour. Certain it is, that the history of mankind affords us many lamentable instances of this defection from common honesty in the public actions of persons whose private conduct was irreproachable; a defect which I would rather impute to

self-deception than hypocrisy; and indeed in many cases the piety, and even severity of their lives, seems fully to justify that candid imputation.

As, therefore, many estimable characters in other respects have been found deficient in this, it may not be amiss, briefly, to ascertain what Christian Humility is, and how we may be so poor in spirit as to obtain the kingdom of heaven, without descending to that meanness of heart which is only calculated to procure the good things of the world.

If we examine this virtue as it existed not only in our blessed Saviour, but also in his Apostles, and I know of no fairer medium through which to view it, we shall find that its features were bold, open, and even intrepid; that no worldly compliance, no mean adulation, no venal prostitution ever entered into its composition. The lowest estimation of self, the humblest submission to the will of God, the most compassionate condescension to the wants and even weaknesses of mankind, were its engaging characteristics; but these ever accompanied with a supreme contempt of vice and the abettors of vice; a contempt not only inwardly felt, but publicly avowed. Against these they ventured to launch their just indignation, not only in the Synagogue, but even before the Sanhedrim yet were these men, like their divine Exemplar, meek and lowly of heart; they intimately felt