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SERMON XXXVII.

Penances.

I JOHN V. 3.

And his commandments are not grievous.

No, they are not grievous, my dear auditors,Amongst the many prejudices which, at one time or other, have been conceived against our holy religion, there is scarce any one which has done more dishonour to Christianity, or which has been more opposite to the spirit of the gospel, than this, in express contradiction to the words of the text, " That "the commandments of God are grievous;"-that the way which leads to life is not only ftrait-for that, our Saviour tells us,and that with much tribulation we shall feek it ;-but the Chriftians are bound to make the worst of it, and tread it barefoot upon thorns and briers,-if ever they expect to arrive happily at their journey's end;-and in course,

during this difaftrous pilgrimage, it is our duty fo to renounce the world, and abstract ourselves from it, as neither to interfere with its interefts, or taste any of the pleasures, or any of the enjoyments of this life.

H'S

Nor has this been confined merely to fpeculation, but has frequently been extended to practice,—as is plain, not only from the lives of many legendary faints and hermits,whofe chief commendation feems to have been, "That they fled unnaturally "from all commerce with their fellow-creatures, " and then mortified, and piously-half starved "themselves to death;"—but likewife from the many auftere and fantastic orders which we fee in the Romish Church, which have all owed their ori gin and establishment to the fame idle and extrava. gant opinion..

Nor is it to be doubted, but the affectation of fomething like it in our method ifts, when they def cant upon the neceflity of alienating themselves from the world, and felling all that they have,—is not to be ascribed to the fame mistaken enthusiastic principle, which would caft fo black a fhade upon religion, as if the kind Author of it had created us on purpose to go mourning, all cur lives long, in fackcloth and afhes, and fent us into the world as fo many fainterrants, in queft of adventures full of forrow and affliction.

Strange force of enthufiafm!-and yet not altogether unaccountable. For what opinion was there ever so odd, or action fo extravagant, which has not, at one time or other, been produced by ignorance,— conceit,-melancholy?-a mixture of devotion, with an ill concurrence of air and diet, operating together in the fame perfon.When the minds of men happen to be thus unfortunately prepared, whatever groundless doctrine rifes up, and fettles itself strongly

upon their fancies, has generally the ill luck to ba interpreted as an illumination from the Spirit of GOD; and whatever ftrange action they find in themselves a ftrong inclination to do,that impulfe is concluded to be a call from heaven; and confequently that they cannot err in executing it.

If this, or fome fuch account, was not to be admitted, how is it poffible to be conceived, that Chritianity which breathed out nothing but peace and comfort to mankind, which profeffedly took off the feverities of the Jewish law, and was given us, in the spirit of meckness, to ease our shoulders of a burden which was too heavy for us ;-that this religion, so kindly calculated for the eafe and tranquillity of man, which enjoys nothing but what is fuitable to his nature, fhould be fo misunderstood-or that it should ever be supposed, that he who is infinitely happy, could envy us our enjoyments;-or that a Being infinitely kind, would grudge a mournful paffenger a little reft and refreshment, to fupport his fpirits. through a weary pilgrimage; or that he fhould call him to an account hereafter, because, in his way, he had haftily fnatched at fome fugacious and innocent pleasures, till he was fuffered to take up his final repofe?This is no improbable account; and the many invitations we find in Scripture, to a grateful enjoyment of the bleffings and advantages of life, make it evident. The apoftle tells us in the text,That GOD's commandments are not grievous. He has pleasure in the profperity of his people, and wills not that they should turn tyrants and executioners upon their minds or bodies, and inflict pains and

penalties on them, to no end or purpose:—That he has propofed peace and plenty, joy and victory, as the encouragement and portion of his fervants; thereby instructing us, that our virtue is not neceffarily endangered by the fruition of outward things; but that temporal bleffings and advantages, instead of extinguishing, more naturally kindle our love and gratitude to GOD, before whom it is no way inconfiftent both to worship and rejoice.

If this was not fo, why, you will fay, does GoD feem to have made fuch provifion for our happiness? Why has he given us fo many powers and faculties for enjoyment, and adapted fo many objects to gratify and entertain them? Some of which he has created fo fair, with fuch wonderful beauty, and has formed them fo exquifitely for this end,—that they have power for a time, to charm away the sense of pain, -to cheer up the dejected heart under poverty and fickness, and make it go and remember its miferies no more. Can all this, you will fay, be reconciled to God's wisdom, which does nothing in vain ?— or can it be accounted for on any other fuppofition, but that the Author of our being, who has given us all things richly to enjoy, wills us a comfortable exiftence even here, and feems, moreover, so evidently to have ordered things, with a view to this, that the ways which lead to our future happinefs, when rightly understood, he has made to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace?

From this representation of things, we are led to this demonftrative truth, then-That GOD never in

tended to debar man of pleasures, under certain limitations.

Travellers, on a bufinefs of the laft and most important concern, may be allowed to please their eyes with the natural and artificial beauties of the country they are paffing through, without reproach of forgetting the main errand they were fent upon; and if they are not led out of their road by variety of prospects, edifices and ruins, would it not be a fenfelefs piece of severity to shut their eyes against fuch gratifications? For who has required fuch Service at their bands?

The humouring of certain appetites, where morality is not concerned, feems to be the means by which the Author of nature intended to sweeten this jourfhocks ney of life, and bear us up under the many and hard justlings, which we are fure to meet with in our way. And a man might, with as much reason, muffle up himself against funshine and fair weather, and at other times expofe himself naked to the inclemencies of cold and rain, as debar himself of the innocent delights of his nature, for affected referve and melancholy.

It is true, on the other hand, our paffions are fo apt to grow upon us by indulgence, and become exorbitant, if they are not kept under exact difcipline, that by way of caution and prevention, it were better, at certain times, to affect fome degree of needless referve, than hazard any ill confequences from the other extreme.

But when almoft the whole of religion is made to confist in the pious fooleries of penances and suffer

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