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it will then occur to you that you should seek the true opinions of any sect from those only who are approved of, and reverenced by that sect; to whose authority that sect defer, and by whose arguments they consider their tenets to be properly defended. This may not suit your purpose if you are combating for victory; but it is your duty if you are combating for truth; it

us we are wrong; we will act in future if you wish to forbear and to forgive, upon better and wiser principles. This is what men do in laws, arts, and sciences; and happy for them would it be if they used the same modest docility in the highest of all concerns. But it is, I fear, more than experience will allow us to expect; and therefore the kindest and most charitable method is to allow religious sects silently to improve without reminding them of, and taunting them with, the improve-is the safe, honest, and splendid conment; without bringing them to the duct of him, who never writes nor humiliation of formal disavowal, or the speaks on religious subjects, but that still more pernicious practice of de- he may diffuse the real blessings of fending what they know to be inde- religion among his fellow-creatures, fensible. The triumphs which proceed and restrain the bitterness of controfrom the neglect of these principles are versy by the feelings of Christian charity not (what they pretend to be) the and forbearance. triumphs of religion, but the triumphs of personal vanity. The object is not to extinguish dangerous error with as little pain and degradation as possible to him who has fallen into the error: but the object is to exalt ourselves, and to depreciate our theological opponents, as much as possible, at any expense to God's service, and to the real interests of truth and religion.

Let us also ask ourselves, when we are sitting in severe judgment upon the faults, follies, and errors of other Christian sects, whether it be not barely possible that we have fallen into some mistakes and misrepresentations? Let us ask ourselves, honestly and fairly, whether we are wholly exempt from prejudice, from pride, from obstinate adhesion to what candour calls upon There is another practice not less us to alter, and to yield? Are there common than this, and equally un- no violent and mistaken members of charitable; and that is, to represent our own community, by whose conduct the opinions of the most violent and we should be loth to be guided,-by eager persons who can be met with, as whose tenets we should not choose our the common and received opinions of faith should be judged? Has time, that the whole sect. There are, in every improves all, found nothing in us to denomination of Christians, indivi- change for the better? Amid all the duals, by whose opinion or by whose manifold divisions of the Christian conduct the great body would very world, are we the only Christians who, reluctantly be judged. Some men without having anything to learn from aim at attracting notice by singu- the knowledge and civilisation of the larity; some are deficient in temper; last three centuries, have started up, some in learning; some push every without infancy, and without error, principle to the extreme; distort, into consummate wisdom and spotless overstate, pervert; fill every one to perfection? whom their cause is dear with concern that it should have been committed to such rash and intemperate advocates. If you wish to gain a victory over your antagonists, these are the men whose writings you should study, whose opinions you should dwell on, and should carefully bring forward to notice; but if you wish, as the elect of God, to put on kindness and humbleness, meekness, and long-suffering,

To listen to enemies as well as friends is a rule which not only increases sense in common life, but is highly favourable to the increase of religious candour. You find that you are not so free from faults as your friends suppose, nor so full of faults as your enemies suppose. You begin to think it not impossible that you may be as unjust to others as they are to you; and that the wisest and most Christian scheme is that of

mutual indulgence; that it is better to surely submit to some little softness put on, as the elect of God, kindness, and relaxation; honest difference of humbleness of mind, meekness, long-opinion cannot fall for such entire suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.

separation and complete antipathy; such zeal as this, if it be zeal, and not something worse, is not surely zeal according to discretion.

Some men cannot understand how they are to be zealous if they are candid in religious matters; how the energy, The arguments, then, which I have necessary for the one virtue, is com- adduced in support of the great principatible with the calmness which the ples of religious charity are, that vioother requires. But remember that lence upon such subjects is rarely or the Scriptures carefully distinguish be-ever found to be useful; but generally tween laudable zeal and indiscreet zeal; to produce effects opposite to those that the apostles and epistolary writers which are intended. I have observed knew they had as much to fear from that religious sects are not to be judged the over-excitement of some men, from the representations of their eneas from the supineness of others; and mies? but that they are to be heard in nothing have they laboured more for themselves, in the pleadings of than in preventing religion from arm- their best writers, not in the represening human passions, instead of allaying tations of those whose intemperate zeal them, and rendering those principles a is a misfortune to the sect to which source of mutual jealousy and hatred they belong. If you will study the which were intended for universal principles of your religious opponents, peace. I admit that indifference some- you will often find your contempt and times puts on the appearance of can- hatred lessened in proportion as you dour; but though there is a counterfeit, are better acquainted with what you desyet there is a reality; and the imitation pise. Many religious opinions, which proves the value of the original, be- are purely speculative, are without the cause men only attempt to multiply limits of human interference. In the the appearances of useful and impor- numerous sects of Christianity, intertant things. The object is to be at preting our religion in very opposite the same time pious to God and manners, all cannot be right. Imitate charitable to man; to render your own the forbearance and long-suffering of faith as pure and perfect as possible, God, who throws the mantle of his not only without hatred of those who mercy over all, and who will probably differ from you, but with a constant save, on the last day, the piously right recollection that it is possible, in and the piously wrong, seeking Jesus spite of thought and study, that you in humbleness of mind. Do not drive may have been mistaken,—that other religious sects to the disgrace (or to sects may be right,—and that a zeal in what they foolishly think the disgrace) his service, which God does not want, of formally disavowing tenets they is a very bad excuse for those bad once professed, but concede something passions which his sacred word con- to human weakness; and when the demns. tenet is virtually given up, treat it as if it were actually given up; and always consider it to be very possible that you yourself may have made mistakes, and fallen into erroneous opinions, as well as any other sect to which you are opposed. If you put on these dispositions, and this tenor of mind, you cannot be guilty of any religious fault, take what part you will in the religious disputes which appear to be coming on the world. If you choose to perpetuate the restrictions

Lastly, I would suggest that many differences between sects are of less importance than the furious zeal of many men would make them. Are the tenets of any sect of such a description that we believe they will be saved under the Christian faith? Do they fulfil the common duties of life? Do they respect property? Are they obedient to the laws? Do they speak the truth? If all these things be right, the violence of hostility may

upon your fellow-creatures, no one has Bishop Taylor in his "Holy Living

a right to call you bigoted; if you choose to do them away, no one has any right to call you lax and indifferent you have done your utmost to do right, and whether you err, or do not err, in your mode of interpreting the Christian religion, you show at least that you have caught its heavenly spirit, that you have put on, as the elect of God, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another.

I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the uses and abuses of this day; and, having stated the great mercy of God's interference, and the blessings this country has secured to itself in resisting the errors and follies, and superstitions of the Catholic Church, I have endeavoured that this just sense of our own superiority should not militate against the sacred principles of Christian charity. That charity which I ask of others, I ask also for myself. I am sure I am preaching before those who will think (whether they agree with me or not) that I have spoken conscientiously, and from good motives, and from honest feelings, on a very difficult subject,-not sought for by me, but devolving upon me in the course of duty;-in which I should have been heartily ashamed of myself (as you would have been ashamed of me), if I had thought only how to flatter and please, or thought of anything but what I hope I always do think of in the pulpit, that I am placed here by God to tell truth, and to do good.

I shall conclude my sermon (extended, I am afraid, already to an unreasonable length), by reciting to you a very short and beautiful apologue, taken from the Rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted by

and Dying." I have not now access to that book, but I quote it to you from memory, and should be made truly happy if you would quote it to others from memory also.

6

"As Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent, there came unto him a wayfaring man; and Abraham gave him water for his feet, and set bread before him. And Abraham said unto him, 'Let us now worship the Lord our God before we eat of this bread." And the wayfaring man said unto Abraham, I will not worship the Lord thy God, for thy God is not my God; but I will worship my God, even the God of my fathers.' But Abraham was exceeding wroth; and he rose up to put the wayfaring man forth from the door of his tent. And the voice of the Lord was heard in the tent,Abraham! Abraham! have I borne with this man for threescore and ten years, and canst not thou bear with him for one hour ?”*

*This beautiful Apologue is introduced by Bishop Taylor in the second edition of his Liberty of Prophesying. (See Bishop Heber's Life of Bishop Taylor, vol. viii. p. 232.)

Bishop Taylor says, "I end with a story story is almost word for word a translation which find in the Jew's Books." [The from the Persian poet, Saadi, in his poem of the Büstan; translated into Latin by George Gentius, a Jew, and published by him at Amsterdam in 1651. Taylor's first edition of the Liberty of Prophesying was previous to that date; his second edition was soon after it.]

the story) Abraham fetched him back Bishop Taylor adds, "Upon this (saith again, and gave him hospital entertainment and wise instruction." "Go thou," says Bishop Taylor, “and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham!" The original of Saadi ends with the reprimand of the Almighty. Gentius has added the subsequent sentence.

The Persian poet, Saadi, was born at Shiraz, A. H. 571 (A. D. 1193). He died at Shiraz, A. H. 691 (A. D. 1313), aged 120 years.

SERMON

ON THE

DUTIES OF

THE QUEEN.

[Preached at St. Paul's Cathedral.]

DANIEL, IV. 31.

O king, thy kingdom is departed from thee.

I Do not think I am getting out of the fair line of duty of a Minister of the Gospel, if, at the beginning of a new reign. I take a short review of the moral and religious state of the country; and point out what those topics are which deserve the most serious consideration of a wise and a Christian people.

The death of a King is always an awful lesson to mankind; and it produces a more solemn pause, and creates more profound reflection, than the best lessons of the best teachers.

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From the throne to the tombwealth, splendour, flattery, all gone! The look of favour-the voice of power, no more; the deserted palace the wretched monarch on his funeral bier the mourners ready- the dismal march of death prepared. Who are we, and what are we? and for what has God made us? and why are we doomed to this frail and unquiet existence ? Who does not feel all this? in whose heart does it not provoke appeal to, and dependence on God? before whose eyes does it not bring the folly and the nothingness of all things human?

But a good King must not go to his grave without that reverence from the

people which his virtues deserved. And I will state to you what those virtues were,e, state it to you honestly and fairly; for I should heartily despise myself, if from this chair of truth I could utter one word of panegyric of the great men of the earth, which I could not aver before the throne of God.

The late Monarch, whose loss we have to deplore, was sincere and honest in his political relations; he put his trust really where he put his trust ostensibly and did not attempt to undermine, by secret means, those to whom he trusted publicly the conduct of affairs; and I must beg to remind you that no vice and no virtue are indifferent in a Monarch: human beings are very imitative; there is a fashion in the higher qualities of our minds, as there is in the lesser considerations of life. It is by no means indifferent to the morals of the people at large, whether a tricking perfidious king is placed on the throne of these realms, or whether the sceptre is swayed by one of plain and manly character, walking ever in a straight line, on the firm ground of truth, under the searching eye of God.

The late King was of a sweet and Christian disposition: he did not treasure up little animosities, and indulge in vindictive feelings he had no ene.

:

mies but the enemies of the country; | God for a King who has derived his he did not make the memory of a quiet glory from the peace of his King a fountain of wrath; the feelings realm, and who has founded his own of the individual (where they required happiness upon the happiness of his any control) were in perfect subjec- people. tion to the just conception he had formed of his high duties; and every one near him found it was a government of principle, and not of temper; not of caprice, not of malice couching in high places, and watching an opportunity of springing on its victim.

But the world passes on, and a new order of things arises. Let us take a short view of those duties which devolve upon the young Queen whom Providence has placed over us- -what ideas she ought to form of her duties— and on what points she should endeavour to place the glories of her reign.

Our late Monarch had the good nature of Christianity: he loved the First and foremost, I think, the new happiness of all the individuals about Queen should bend her mind to the him, and never lost an opportunity of very serious consideration of educating promoting it; and where the heart is the people. Of the importance of this good, and the mind active, and the I think no reasonable doubt can exist; means ample, this makes a luminous it does not in its effects keep pace and beautiful life, which gladdens the with the exaggerated expectations of nations, and leads them, and turns its injudicious advocates; but it premen to the exercise of virtue, and the sents the best chance of national imgreat work of salvation. provement.

Reading and writing are mere increase of power. They may be turned, I admit, to a good or a bad purpose; but for several years of his life the child is in your hands, and you may give to that power what bias you please: thou shalt not kill-thou shalt not steal-thou shalt not bear false witness: by how many fables, by how much poetry, by how many beautiful aids of imagination, may not the fine morality of the Sacred Scriptures be engraven on the minds of the young? I believe the arm of the assassin may be often stayed by the lessons of his early life. When I see the village school, and the tattered scholars, and the aged master or mistress teaching the mechanical art of reading or writing, and thinking that they are teaching that alone, I feel that the aged instructor is protecting life, insuring property, fencing the altar, guarding the throne, giving space and liberty to all the fine powers of man, and lifting him up to his own place in the order of Creation.

We may honestly say of our late Sovereign that he loved his country, and was sensibly alive to its glory and its happiness. When he entered into his palaces he did not say, "All this is my birthright: I am entitled to it- it is my due-how can I gain more splendour? how can I increase all the pleasures of the senses?" but he looked upon it all as a memorial that he was to repay by example, by attention, and by watchfulness over the public interests, the affectionate and lavish expenditure of his subjects; and this was not a decision of reason, but a feeling which hurried him away. Whenever it was pointed out to him that England could be made more rich, or more happy, or rise higher in the scale of nations, or be better guided in the straight path of the Christian faith, on all such occasions he rose above himself; there was a warmth, and a truth, and an honesty, which it was impossible to mistake; the gates of his heart were flung open, and that heart throbbed and beat for the land which his ancestors had rescued from There are, I am sorry to say, many slavery, and governed with justice :— countries in Europe which have taken but he is gone and let fools praise the lead of England in the great busiconquerors, and say the great Napo- ness of education, and it is a thoroughleon pulled down this kingdom, and ly commendable and legitimate object destroyed that army; we will thank | of ambition in a Sovereign to overtake

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