where, upon St. Paul's coming to Rome, SERM. we are told, that the Jews, who inha- XI. bited there, defired to hear his thoughts of Christianity, and what he had to offer in defence of it; for, fay they, as concerning this fect, or herefy, we know that every where it is spoken against. I shall mention but one text more, and that is 1 Cor. xi. 19. for there must also be herefies among you, that they who are approved may be made manifeft. The evident defign of which is, that, confidering the various tempers of men, their different views, paffions, prejudices, their selfishness, ambition, vanity, and the like, it was natural to expect, that they would divide into parties about religion, as well as about politics, and the civil affairs of life; and that the providence of God wifely permitted this for the trial of their integrity, and to distinguish the indolent, careless, and infincere, from the real friends of truth, perfons of an honest, inquifitive, and ingenuous temper.

Now, according to this account, the general notion of an heretic is no more than this, viz. one that fets up to be the head, or chooses to join himself to a particular

SERM. particular religious fect: I fay, who makes XI. this the matter of his choice, becaufe it

is implied in the original fignification of the word; and befides, nothing can be supposed to have any concern with religion, but what is a voluntary action. An heretic therefore, in a bad fense, must be one, who knowingly espouses a falfe doctrine, is infincere in his profession, and afferts and defends what he is convinced is contrary to Christianity, and, consequently one, who maintains and supports the interest of a faction, to ferve some base designs. This will appear, beyond difpute, when we have considered the text, and compared it with the general tenour of the New Teftament.

According to St. Paul's account in the text, an heretic is not only fubverted, or turn'd afide from the true faith; he not only entertains wrong fentiments of Christianity; but finneth, i. e. doth this wilfully, and with an ill intention. Such as have merely an erroneous judgment can't be here meant, because errors of the understanding, confider'd in themfelves, are not criminal, but naturally arife from the weakness and fallibility of human

human reason: They are, in most cases, SE RM. involuntary, in many unavoidable. And, XI. therefore, as all moral evil depends upon the error and obliquity of the will, the perfons, described by the apostle as finners, must be wilful corrupters and oppofers of the Chriftian religion; fuch whofe minds are perverted by irregular difpofitions and appetites; and who have refolved to facrifice truth and virtue to the gratification of their fenfual defires. And that this is the real cafe appears farther from hence, that the crime spoken of in the text is of fuch a nature, as required not inftruction, but admonition; from hence, I fay, it evidently follows, that the fault lay in the will, and not in the understanding. For every one knows, that the only way to rectify a mistaken judgment is by the use of reafon and argument, by expofing the falfe grounds on which it is formed, removing prejudices, and representing matters in a clear and proper light; and that to advise a man, in an authoritative way, and without informing his understanding better, to alter his apprehenfion and judgment of things, and expect to

make

SERM. make a convert of him merely by telling XI. him he is in the wrong, be it with ever fo folemn, imperious, and magisterial an air, is to the last degree abfurd and ridiculous. But he may, very rationally, be admonished, or reproved, with relation to those errors that depend entirely upon the will, and are owing to a free choice, because, in every fuch cafe, he must know himself to be out of the way, and has all the neceffary means of a reformation in his own power. St. Paul, therefore, exprefly mentions this circumstance, which renders that of an heretic a compleatly bad character, viz. that he is condemn'd of himself, or acts against the fense of his own mind, and the dictates of his reason and confcience. He is one that makes religion a cloak for his immoralities, and efpoufes and propagates what he knows to be falfe, to promote the ends of his ambition, covetousness, or fenfual pleasure; who, indeed, thinks it his intereft to retain the name of a Chriftian, and, in that circumftance only, differs from a thorough and wilful apoftate from Christianity, but which incurs the greater guilt may, perhaps, be

hard

hard to determine; for as the one rejects SERM. the Christian religion altogether, the other XI. out of choice corrupts it, and opposes its true doctrines, even while he pretends to believe and reverence its authority: Such as thefe, I fay, perfons of fuch vile and difhoneft principles, and of fo flagitious a character, are the heretics condemned by St. Paul; and, therefore, to fix it as a term of reproach on any, in whom there does not appear hatred of the truth, a fenfual mind, and a profligate confcience, must be unchriftian and fcandalous.

20.

And if we examine other paffages of the New Teftament, we shall find that they all concur in giving us the fame idea of herefy: 'Tis represented as a work of the flesh, be- Gal. v. cause it has its foundation in the corrupt inclinations of human nature. 'Tis reckon'd amongst the moft heinous and execrable vices, fuch as adultery, idolatry, hatred, va- Ibid. riance, feditions, murders. And heretics are conftantly describ'd as men of no probity or honour, ftrangers to all the principles of virtue, and embracing fuch opinions only as were calculated for the gratification of irregular appetites, and advancing selfish and worldly views. Thus St. Paul writes to Ti

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