THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 .ovw\ 
 
 W- 
 
 J
 
 FOUR DISCOURSES, 
 
 ETC.
 
 a t o o n & e 9 f b f b u * 
 
 " He being dead, yet gpeaketh." HEB. xi, 4. 
 
 FOUR DISCOURSES, 
 
 WRITTEN BETWEEN THE TEARS 1749 AND 1756, 
 
 THE REV. GEORGE WATSON, M.A., 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD; 
 THE TUTOR AND FRIEND OF BISHOP HORNE J 
 
 RESCUED FROM OBSCURITY 
 
 JOHN MATHEW GUTCH, 
 
 A LAY MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 JOHN HENRY AND JAMES PARKER, OXFORD, 
 AND 377 STRAND, LONDON.
 
 T. RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LONDON.
 
 THESE SERMONS 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 TO 
 
 THE REV. F. G. PLUMPTRE, D.D., 
 
 MASTER OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, 
 OF WHICH COLLEGE 
 
 THE REV. GEORGE WATSON, M.A., 
 
 WAS A FELLOW, 
 AS A THANKFUL TRIBUTE 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 ASSISTANCE AND ENCOURAGEMENT 
 WHICH THE EDITOR HAS RECEIVED 
 
 FROM HIM 
 
 ,v 
 
 IN BRINGING THIS VOLUME 
 BEFORE THE PUBLIC. 
 
 1179164
 
 PEEFACE BY THE EDITOR 
 
 DISCOVERY OF MR. WATSON'S DISCOURSES, 
 
 REASONS FOR THEIR REPUBLICATION. 
 
 THROUGH the mercy of God I have arrived at that 
 age which is not usually allotted to man. At this 
 near approach to the close of life, I have observed 
 with regret angry discussions and divisions spring- 
 ing up among the members of the Church to which 
 I belong, upon its doctrines and discipline. At the 
 same time I am rejoiced to see, there are among the 
 more moderate members of that Church many of its 
 ministers inculcating and inviting a closer union 
 between themselves and the laity, as a means of 
 mitigating such unbecoming controversies, and ex- 
 pressing their deep regret at the introduction of 
 those innovations which are so nearly allied to 
 Romish practices, and causing so much schism 
 among Christians. That these efforts to make this 

 
 Vlll PREFACE 
 
 union closer between the Clergy and Laity are pro- 
 ducing their good fruits, may be seen in the libera- 
 lity of the latter in the building and endowment of 
 new district Churches, in the restoration and repair 
 of old ones, and in the erection of parsonage houses 
 and schools. In many parishes the Laity also are 
 more assiduously than ever rendering assistance to 
 the Clergy, by overlooking the schools, and aiding 
 them in visiting and reading to their poor and 
 afflicted brethren. 
 
 As my advanced age and other occurrences in life 
 have prevented me from participating so largely as 
 I could have wished in these good works, I hope I 
 have found another method by which I may confer 
 some good upon the Christian community, I mean 
 the republication of these Discourses. They have 
 been highly eulogized by more competent judges 
 than myself. One of them is entitled "A Season- 
 able Admonition to the Church of England," and, if 
 it was applicable at the time it was preached before 
 the members of the Oxford University, it must 
 be considered more particularly so at the present 
 juncture. 
 
 I will now give an account of the way in which 
 the transcripts of these Discourses accidentally fell 
 into my hands. I had been reading in the month
 
 BY THE EDITOR. IX 
 
 of November last the Eev. William Jones's Lectures 
 upon the Figurative Language of Scripture ; in con- 
 sequence of which, I sent the following inquiry to 
 that valuable source for information upon literary 
 subjects, the Notes and Queries : 
 
 " JONES, OF NAYLAND, AND THE REV. GEORGE WATSON. 
 When men of such high reputation as the Eev. William 
 Jones, of Nayland, speak in terms of commendation of any 
 publication, we are naturally anxious to become acquainted 
 with its contents. In the second lecture of Mr. Jones upon 
 the Figurative Language of Scripture are the following 
 remarks upon the outward form of worship, in which Chris- 
 tians are in the habit of turning to the East : 
 
 " ' Here I would observe/ he says, ' that the figures of the 
 Scripture necessarily introduce something figurative into 
 our worship, of which I could give several instances. The 
 primitive Christians signified their relation to the true 
 light, and expressed a religious regard to it, by the outward 
 form of worshipping with their faces towards the east ; be- 
 cause there the light arose out of darkness, and there the 
 day of true knowledge arose, like the sun, upon such as lay 
 buried in ignorance. To this day our Churches, especially 
 that part which is appropriated to the most solemn act of 
 Christian worship, is placed towards the east ; our dead are 
 buried with their faces to the east ; and when we repeat 
 the articles of our faith, we have a custom of turning our- 
 selves to the east. The primitive Christians called their 
 baptism their illumination ; to denote which a light was 
 put into the hands of the person after baptism, and they 
 were admitted to hear the lectures of the catechists of the 
 church, under the name of the illuminated. The festival of 
 Christ's baptism was celebrated in the month of January 
 with the ceremony of a number of lighted torches. When
 
 X PREFACE 
 
 the converts repeated the confession of faith at their baptism, 
 they turned themselves to the east, and to the west when 
 they renounced the powers of darkness. In the modern 
 Church of Rome this ceremony of worshipping to the east 
 has been abused, and turned into an act of adoration to the 
 altar ; on account of which some Christians, who have heard 
 of the abuse of this ceremony without knowing the use of 
 it, have rejected that as an act of superstition, which has 
 an edifying sense, and was practised in the days of the 
 Apostles, before any superstition had infected the Church/ 
 
 " To this extract Mr. Jones subjoined the following 
 note : 
 
 " ' An excellent sermon, which ought never to be for- 
 gotten, and which I carried through the press when I was 
 an undergraduate at Oxford, was published on ' Christ the 
 Light of the World/ from a verse of the nineteenth Psalm, 
 by my admired, beloved, and lamented friend, the late Rev. 
 George Watson, once a Fellow of University College, to 
 whose early instructions and example I have been indebted 
 in most of the labours of my life. Many extraordinary 
 men have I seen ; but for taste for classical literature and 
 all works of genius ; for a deep knowledge of the inspired 
 writings ; for readiness of speech and sweetness of elocu- 
 tion ; for devout affection towards God ; for charitable 
 goodness of heart, and elegance of manners, I never met 
 with any one that exceeded him/ 
 
 " After this perhaps too long preface, I would inquire if 
 any reader of N. & Q. or any bookseller could furnish the 
 above sermon of Mr. Watson at a stated price, to be ad- 
 dressed as below. It would be conferring a great boon in 
 the declining years of an octogenarian. 
 
 " J. M. GUTCH." 
 " Worcester." 
 
 In answer to my inquiry, I did not receive any
 
 BY THE EDITOR. XI 
 
 printed copy of the Discourse, but a gentleman who 
 is intimately acquainted with the invaluable and 
 scarce works in the British Museum informed me, 
 there was a sermon of Mr. Watson's there, " cata- 
 logued in a very out of the way collection," and 
 that if I wished, he would transcribe it at a stipu- 
 lated price. I did not for a moment hesitate to 
 accede to his proposal. This was the sermon en- 
 titled " Christ the Light of the World." In a sub- 
 sequent letter the same gentleman informed me, 
 that he had discovered two more printed sermons 
 by Mr. Watson in the British Museum, one entitled 
 " A Seasonable Admonition to the Church of Eng- 
 land, May 29th, 1751 ;" the other upon " The Doc- 
 trine of the ever Blessed Trinity." Since this com- 
 munication, I have discovered in the Bodleian 
 Library the fourth sermon, which has been called 
 by Bishop Home " The prevailing Intercessor." 
 
 While the first sermon was being transcribed, 
 the following article from the pen of my friend 
 J. H. Markland, D.C.L., of Bath, appeared in the 
 Notes and Queries : 
 
 "WATSON, HORNE, AND JONES. (2nd S. viii, 396.) 
 It would be satisfactory if Mr. Gutch's Query should draw 
 forth any sermon written by the Rev. George Watson. I 
 never yet met with one, nor can I find mention of his name 
 and works in any catalogue which I have consulted. Their
 
 Xll PREFACE 
 
 scarcity will presently be accounted for. The sermon, of 
 which Mr. Jones speaks in Mr. Gutch's extract, is thus 
 alluded to by Bishop Home, in his Commentary on the 
 Nineteenth Psalm : 
 
 " ' If the reader shall have received any pleasure from 
 perusing the comment on the foregoing Psalm, he stands 
 indebted to a Discourse entitled '.Christ the Light of the 
 World/ published in the year 1750, by the late Eev. Mr. 
 George Watson (of University College), for many years the 
 dear companion and kind director of the author's studies ; 
 in attending to whose agreeable and instructive conversa- 
 tion he has often passed whole days together, and shall 
 always have reason to number them among the best spent 
 days of his life ; whose death he can never think of without 
 lamenting it afresh, and to whose memory he embraces, 
 with pleasure, this opportunity to pay the tribute of a 
 grateful heart/ Bishop Home's Works, voL ii, p. 119. 
 
 " The same prelate has appended the following note to 
 his own striking and beautiful sermon, 'The Prevailing 
 Intercessor :' 
 
 " ' The plan and substance of the foregoing Discourse are 
 taken from one published some years ago, by my late 
 learned and valuable friend the Eev. Mr. Watson. But it 
 always seemed to me that he had much abated the force 
 and energy which the composition would otherwise have 
 possessed, by introducing a secondary and subordinate sub- 
 ject. I was therefore tempted to work up his admirable 
 materials afresh.' Works, vol. iv, p. 370. 
 
 " An interesting sketch of Mr. Watson's character, with a 
 high tribute to his talents, will be found in Jones's Life of 
 Bishop Home. The latter, as we have seen, was Mr. W.'s 
 pupil, and was so delighted with his tutor that he remained 
 an entire vacation in Oxford in order that he might prose- 
 cute his studies under one who is described as ' so complete
 
 BY THE EDITOR. Xlll 
 
 a scholar, as great a divine, as good a man, and as polite 
 a gentleman, as the present age can boast of." 
 
 " Jones states that Mr. Watson never published any large 
 work, and will be known to posterity only by some occa- 
 sional pieces which he printed in his lifetime. He notices 
 a sermon preached before the University of Oxford, on the 
 29th May, 'A Seasonable Admonition to the Church of 
 England/ and a fourth sermon ' On the Divine Appearance 
 in Gen. xviii.' 1 'This last sermon/ Jones adds, 'was furi- 
 ously shot at by the bushfighters of that time in the 
 Monthly Review.' To this attack Mr. Watson returned a 
 reply, so able, in Jones's opinion, that if he wished to con- 
 trast Mr. Watson with his reviewers, he would put the 
 letter into any reader's hand, of which he supposes 'no 
 copies are now to be found, but in the possession of some 
 of his surviving friends' Dr. Delany made honourable 
 mention of this reply in the third volume of his work, 
 Revelation examined with Candour. From the foregoing 
 remarks it is probable that Mr. Watson may have printed 
 his sermons and other works solely as gifts to his friends, 
 and which may account for their rarity. 2 
 
 " He probably induced both his young friends, Jones 3 and 
 Home, to adopt the opinions of Mr. Hutchinson. 
 
 1 "The Burning of Sodom and Gomorrah Abraham's 
 Intercession." Mr. Jones has here mistaken the title of the 
 sermon, which should have been " Aaron's Intercession and 
 Koran's Rebellion considered," by Bishop Home, not Mr. 
 Watson. 
 
 8 Since writing this article I have seen the title page to 
 the first sermon, and as publishers are named the surmise 
 is erroneous. 
 
 3 Bishop Horsley, speaking of Mr. Jones says of him : 
 " That he was a man of quick penetration, extensive learn- 
 ing, and the soundest piety ; and he had, beyond any other 
 man he ever knew, the talent of writing upon the deepest 
 subjects to the plainest understanding."
 
 XIV PREFACE 
 
 " No men could have been less inclined than Hutchinson's 
 friends to constitute themselves a party, ' that bad thing in 
 itself / and though they were spoken of with contempt and 
 acrimony, they could have replied with Hooker, 'to your 
 railing we say nothing, to your reasons we say what fol- 
 lows/ etc., etc. 
 
 " We must not take leave of Bishop Home without ad- 
 verting to one of the most exquisite works in our language, 
 his Commentary on the Psalms. He had drunk deeply of 
 that 'celestial fountain/ as the book of Psalms has been 
 well called, and he tells us that whilst pursuing his daily 
 task, ' food and rest were not preferred before it/ The 
 result was the production of a work, prized by both the 
 young and the old, described as ' a book of elegant and 
 pathetic devotion/ but which deserves the far higher epithet 
 of evangelical. 
 
 "Walpole, in 1753, speaks of the Hutchinsonian system 
 as ' a delightful fantastic one/ and somewhat rashly con- 
 cludes that it has superseded Methodism, quite decayed in 
 Oxford, its cradle ! ' One seldom hears anything about it, 
 in town/ he adds ; and certainly the subject was not likely 
 to engage Walpole's attention beyond that of furnishing 
 matter of ridicule for his pen. 
 
 " Hutchinson's own writings were given to the world in 
 1749 1765, in thirteen octavo volumes. Their slumber 
 for years on book-shelves must have been deep and undis- 
 turbed. A short but masterly notice of the author will be 
 found in Whitaker's Richmondshire, i, 364. 
 
 "J. H. MAKKLAND." 
 
 Mr. Jones, it is well known, was not only the inti- 
 mate friend of Mr. Watson, but also of Dr. Home, 
 and when he was elevated to the see of Norwich, 
 he became of one of his chaplains, and, after the
 
 BY THE EDITOR. XV 
 
 bishop's death, wrote that delightful volume of 
 biography, containing an account of his studies, his 
 opinions upon religious topics and controversies, 
 and his private mode of life. On perusing this 
 volume, I find the following further references to 
 Mr. Watson, which I cannot refrain from extracting. 
 After some remarks upon the Hutchinsonian con- 
 troversy which was then raging, and upon which 
 Mr. Jones, and Mr. Home, then fellow of Magdalen 
 College, were frequently engaged, and " which kept 
 them sometimes walking to and fro in the quadrangle 
 till past midnight/' Mr. Jones informs us, that 
 
 " In the same college with us there lived a very extra- 
 ordinary person. He was a classical scholar of the first rate 
 from a public school, remarkable for an unusual degree of 
 taste and judgment in poetry and oratory ; his person was 
 elegant and striking, and his countenance expressed at 
 once both the gentleness of his temper, and the quickness 
 of his understanding. His manner and address were those 
 of a perfect gentleman ; his common talk, though easy and 
 fluent, had the correctness of studied composition ; his 
 benevolence was so great that all the beggars of Oxford 
 knew the way to his chamber door ; upon the whole, his 
 character was so spotless, and his conduct so exemplary, 
 that, mild and gentle as he was in his carriage towards 
 them, no young man dared to be rude in his company, By 
 many of the first people in the University he was known 
 and admired, and it being my fortune to live in the same 
 staircase with him, he was very kind and attentive to me, 
 though I was much his junior ; he often allowed me the 
 pleasure of his conversation, and sometimes gave me the
 
 XVI PREFACE 
 
 benefit of his advice, of which I knew the meaning to be so 
 good, that I always heard it with respect, and followed it 
 as well as I could. This gentleman was a Hebrew scholar, 
 and a favourer of Mr. Hutchinson's philosophy, but had 
 kept it to himself, in the spirit of Nicodemus, and when I 
 asked him the reason of it afterwards, and complained of 
 the reserve with which he had so long treated me, ' Why/ 
 said he, ' these things are in no repute, the world does not 
 receive them, and you being a young man who must keep 
 what friends you have, and make your fortune in the world, 
 I thought it better to let you go on in your own way, than 
 bring you into that embarrassment which might be pro- 
 ductive of more harm than good, and embitter the future 
 course of your life ; besides it is far from being clear to me 
 how you would receive them, and then I might have lost 
 your friendship/ It was now too late for such a remon- 
 strance to have any effect, I therefore, on the contrary, pre- 
 vailed upon him to become my master in Hebrew, which I 
 was very desirous to learn, and in this he acquitted himself 
 with so much skill and kind attention, writing out for me 
 with his own hand such grammatical rules and directions 
 as he judged necessary, that in a very short time I could 
 go on without any guide/' 
 
 " To this gentleman, whose name was Watson, I recom- 
 mended Mr. Home, at my departure from Oxford, and 
 they were so well pleased with each other, that Mr. Home, 
 instead of going home to his friends in the vacation, stayed 
 for the advantage of following his studies at Oxford under 
 the direction of his new teacher ; and in the autumn of 
 1749, he began a series of letters to his father, which fill 
 above thirty pages in large quarto, very closely written, 
 from the whole tenor of which it is pleasant to see how 
 entire a friendship and confidence there was between a grave 
 and learned father and a son not yet twenty years of age." 
 
 Having first apologized to his father for not visit-
 
 BY THE EDITOR. XV11 
 
 ing him in vacation, Mr. Home gives an account 
 of his teacher : 
 
 " I am obliged for the happiness I have enjoyed of late 
 to a gentleman of this society, and shall always bless God 
 that his providence ever brought me acquainted with him. 
 He is fellow of our house, and though but six and twenty, 
 as complete a scholar in the whole circle of learning, as 
 great a divine, as good a man, and as polite a gentleman as 
 the present age can boast of." 
 
 These words of Mr. Home I introduce with pecu- 
 liar satisfaction, because they afford so strong a 
 concurring testimony to the truth of what I have 
 already ventured to say of Mr. Watson. His sermon 
 on the nineteenth Psalm, which he preached before 
 the University, and afterwards left the printing of it 
 to his care, so delighted Mr. Home (as it appears 
 from letters to his father), " that it probably raised 
 in his mind the first desire of undertaking that Com- 
 mentary on the whole Boole of Psalms, ivhich he 
 afterwards brought to such perfection" pp. 251, 
 2&, 1st Edition, 1795. 
 
 There are other allusions to Mr. Watson in Mr. 
 Jones's Life of the Bishop, hut after extracting the 
 foregoing high eulogiums upon his talents and cha- 
 racter, it would be superfluous to assign any other 
 reason for my undertaking the republication of the 
 Four Sermons, transcripts of which I have been so 
 
 b
 
 XV111 PREFACE 
 
 fortunate to obtain. The remarkable difficulty in 
 meeting with any of his publications has been sug- 
 gested by Mr. Markland. But if none- of them had 
 been brought to light, the suggestion made by Mr. 
 Jones, and perhaps with reason, that it was Mr. 
 Watson's conversation and writings which induced 
 the bishop to compose his valuable and popular 
 Commentary upon the Psalms, is a result which 
 must rejoice the heart of every inquirer into their 
 beauty and excellence. 
 
 It may be asked why a layman, professing little 
 knowledge of philology, should have undertaken 
 this reprint of discourses, in the notes to which are 
 so many references to the learned languages, Hebrew, 
 Greek, and Latin ? My first reason is, that the 
 transcripts I have received are so legibly and care- 
 fully written, that I think they may safely be com- 
 mitted to the press, and that I have been fortunate 
 in obtaining the revision of the proofs by a friend 
 fully competent to the task, so that I hope few 
 errata will be found. Secondly, I have for the last 
 two years been living in retirement, and prepar- 
 ing, by a more diligent study of my Bible, Bishop 
 Home's Commentary, and other religious works, for 
 that change from this world to another, which can- 
 not be far distant. Could I flatter myself that any
 
 BY THE EDITOR. 
 
 one would read these discourses with half the plea- 
 sure that I have done in reprinting them, he would 
 not lament the loss of his labour. To use Bishop 
 Home's words " The employment has detached 
 me from the bustle and hurry of life, the din of 
 politics, and the noise of folly." 
 
 The following are the subjects of the four Dis- 
 courses now submitted for republication : 
 
 1. Christ the Light of the World. 
 
 2. The Seasonable admonition to the Church of 
 England. 
 
 3. Aaron's Intercession and Korah's Kebellion 
 considered. 
 
 4. The Doctrine of the ever Blessed Trinity. 
 
 I may be allowed to remark that the character of 
 these Discourses is various. That they were written 
 by a man of quick penetration, of extensive learn- 
 ing, and the soundest piety. They are more argu- 
 mentative than declamatory. The opinions of the 
 writer are verified by numerous texts of Scripture, 
 showing his intimate acquaintance with the whole 
 of the Sacred Writings ; in style, energy, and classic 
 elegance, they all rank amongst the best composi- 
 tions ; animated with the sublimest strains of devo- 
 tion, and expressing the justest notions of God's
 
 XX PEEPACE 
 
 providence and attributes. When the whole of 
 them are so excellent it may be invidious to speak 
 of one in preference to another, but I cannot refrain 
 from recommending to special notice the fourth, in 
 which the author has so ably vindicated the doc- 
 trine of the ever-blessed Trinity, which may in 
 truth be called a masterpiece of sound learning and 
 close reasoning. 
 
 Of Mr. Watson's parentage, and the public or 
 private school in which he was educated before he 
 entered at University College, I regret that I 
 have been unable hitherto to obtain any account. 
 Dr. Hessey, the head master of Merchant Taylors' 
 School, has informed me he cannot find his name 
 in the registry. Upon inquiry of Dr. Kynaston, 
 the head master of St. Paul's, he has not given 
 me any reply. 
 
 The following extracts, from the Registers of the 
 College, have been kindly sent me by the present 
 master, Dr. Plumptre. The entry in the book upon 
 his admission is as follows : 
 
 " Ego Georgius Watson, films unicus Humphredi Watson, 
 Armigeri de Lond., lubens subscribe sub tutamine Magistri 
 Nelson, annos natus sedecim, Martii 14, 1739-40." 
 
 He was elected to a scholarship on the Bennet 
 Foundation December 13th, 1744, and to a fellow-
 
 BY THE EDITOR. XXI 
 
 ship on the same Foundation October 27th, 1747, 
 which he resigned March 20th, 1754. Dr. Plumptre 
 adds, that he could not find in University College 
 Library any copies of works written by him, except 
 two of Mr. Watson's sermons, on " Christ the Light 
 of the World," and "Aaron's Intercession," which 
 have since been found bound up in a volume of 
 Miscellaneous Sermons in the Library attached to 
 the Master's Lodgings in University College, and 
 that he has no means of ascertaining what was his 
 position in life after he left college. 
 
 By the above entry it appears that his father 
 resided in London, and being designated Armiger, 
 he must have been of some position in society. 
 
 Having endeavoured to discover what were the 
 pursuits in life of Mr. Watson after he resigned his 
 fellowship and left the university, and where he 
 might subsequently have officiated as a minister of 
 the gospel, the only information I have obtained 
 was the following communication to the Notes and 
 Queries, while this preface was preparing. 
 
 " REV. GEORGE WATSON (2 nd S. viii, 396 ; ix, 281, 355). 
 I have only during the last few days been able to look 
 over N. & Q. for the last four months. 
 
 " I have in my possession a MS. Sermon, given me by 
 my father some years ago, and upon which, on his autho- 
 rity, I marked the name of Rev. George Watson as the
 
 XX11 PREFACE 
 
 author. I have every reason to believe in the correctness 
 of this statement, as the subject of Mr. Gutch's inquiry was 
 an intimate friend of my great-grandfather, the Eev. Ben- 
 jamin Eudge. Had I time, I think I should find in my 
 father's correspondence some particulars of Mr. Watson. 
 Perhaps a search amongst the records of Winchester School 
 might give some information. 
 
 " The text of the sermon referred to is James iv, 6, and 
 at the end are reference to Eccles. vii, 8, Proverbs iii, 34, as 
 if the sermon was to do duty for each of the three texts. 
 
 " The sermon has evidently been used by others besides 
 its author. 
 
 " Whether my father had many of Mr. Watson's sermons 
 I cannot say ; if so, they were gradually destroyed. I have, 
 however, fragments of two, which from a comparison of 
 handwriting are, I think, by Mr. Watson, rather than by 
 Mr. Rudge. One was intended for a sermon on Isaiah Ixiii, 
 1. The subject of the other is the Eesurrection. 
 
 "F. B. EELTON." 
 
 " Dacre Park, Lee." 
 
 On putting myself in communication with Mr. 
 Helton, he has informed me, his avocations are 
 such, that lie cannot spare time to search into his 
 father's papers ; but he has kindly sent me the 
 manuscript sermon which lie supposes to be in the 
 handwriting of Mr. Watson, though interpolated by 
 Mr. Rudge. The sermon is composed very much in 
 the style in which Mr. Watson expounded the 
 Scriptures, but I think lie had adapted it to a dif- 
 ferent class of persons than those whom he ad- 
 dressed in the university pulpit. As I had printed
 
 BY THE EDITOK. XX111 
 
 the four sermons of which I had obtained tran- 
 scripts before I received Mr. Relton's manuscript, 
 I have not thought it necessary to add it to them. 
 The fragments of the other two manuscript sermons 
 are compiled far more elaborately, and would, if 
 entire, have been a valuable addition to the present 
 series of Mr. Watson's sermons. 
 
 I cannot help again regretting Mr. Relton's in- 
 ability to search his father's letters ; although I am 
 now pretty well satisfied that the remaining days of 
 Mr. Watson's life must have been devoid of public 
 interest. His remarks upon men and passing events 
 must of course have been interesting, had such ap- 
 peared in his letters, but his quiet college life may 
 have presented few events, and his later days 
 may have been passed in study and retirement. 
 
 That invaluable repertory for names and dates, 
 the Index to the Gentleman's Magazine, has been 
 searched, but no mention of the Reverend George 
 Watson has been found. 
 
 In conclusion ; I must record how much I am 
 indebted to my friend Mr. Markland for the assist- 
 ance which he has rendered me during the repub- 
 lication of these sermons. I have found him my 
 energetic ally. He has afforded me his mature 
 advice, he has written several letters for informa-
 
 XXIV PREFACE BY THE EDITOR, 
 
 tion in relation to Mr. Watson, and obtained many 
 of those names which dignify the list of subscribers. 
 Though he had not read the sermons himself, yet he 
 felt so well satisfied with the testimony borne to 
 their merits by Home and Jones, that if I hesi- 
 tated, he encouraged if I doubted, he decided. 
 He will therefore be pleased to accept my grateful 
 thanks for the services which he has rendered 
 me. 
 
 With these explanations I do not hesitate to 
 commit these discourses to the judgment and criti- 
 cism of a discerning public. 
 
 JOHN MATHEW GUTCH. 
 
 Barbourne, Worcester, Nov. 1860.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 SERMON 
 
 ST. PETER'S, 
 
 ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28TH, 1749. 
 
 GEORGE WATSON, M.A., 
 
 FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY COLLEOE. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY RKQUEST. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AT THK THEATRE FOR SACKVILLE PARKER, AND SOLD BY M. 
 COOPER, AT THE GLOBE IN PATER-NOSTER ROW, LONDON.
 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 j. PUENELL, 
 
 Vice-Can. Oxon. 
 
 Dec. 23, 1749.
 
 VICE-CHANCELLOR 
 
 AND 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 
 
 PARTICULARLY THE 
 
 MASTER AND FELLOWS 
 
 THIS DISCOURSE 
 
 WITH ALL GRATITUDE AND RESPECT, 
 
 HUMBLY INSCRIBED 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE design of this discourse is to recommend the 
 study of the sacred scriptures to persons of true 
 taste and genius, as books intended for our delight, 
 as well as instruction. I have long observed with 
 concern, that these holy pages seem to have lost 
 much of that reverence with which they used to be 
 received among Christians : this, I fear, is in a great 
 measure owing to the common method of expound- 
 ing them ; whereby, little or no regard being had 
 to their spiritual intention, that particular, in which 
 they most excel all other writings whatever, be- 
 comes every day less known, and they are shame- 
 fully reduced to the low standard of human com- 
 positions. I have for this reason, in the following 
 exposition of the xixth psalm, chiefly insisted upon 
 the prophetical sense, taking no other notice all 
 along of the literal and obvious one, than is abso- 
 lutely requisite to the right understanding of the 
 spiritual. It may perhaps be expected, that I should 
 make some apology here for troubling the reader with 
 so many quotations : I hope it will be esteemed a suf-
 
 11 PREFACE. 
 
 cient one, if I say I did not add them out of ostenta- 
 tion ; but because I thought what I had to offer would 
 not only find a considerable support in the sanction 
 of great and approved authorities, but be also on that 
 account less liable to exception, at least stand free 
 from all imputation of singularity and novelty. I 
 am sensible I am very far from having done justice 
 to my subject; but hope this rude and imperfect 
 essay, if it should meet with a favourable reception, 
 will be a means of engaging others, who are better 
 qualified, to dedicate the great abilities God has 
 graciously bestowed upon them, to a work so highly 
 laudable and beneficial at all times, so particularly 
 necessary in those wherein we live : that so the 
 Christian world may be bettered by their labours, 
 and men grow more and more enamoured of these 
 holy books, whose peculiar character it is, that in 
 them, and them alone, is contained that " excellency 
 of knowledge," for which every one, who has with 
 the Apostle experienced the blessedness of it, will, 
 like him, I am certain, " count all things but loss."
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 A SERMON. 
 
 PSALM xix, 4, 5, 6. 
 
 In tliem hath he set a tabernacle for tJie sun, which is as a 
 bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong 
 man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the 
 heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it, ami there is nothing 
 hid from the heat tliereof. 
 
 THE sun here spoken of, in the full and prophetical 
 sense of the expression, is, I think, Christ, and the 
 psalm from which the text is taken a glorious and 
 animated description of his rising and the blessed 
 effects of it. He is here, as in other places of holy 
 writ, represented to our senses under the image of 
 the material sun, doing in the spiritual or moral 
 world what that does in the natural. This will, I 
 hope, fully*appear in the ensuing discourse, in which 
 I shall 
 
 i. Lay before you at large my reasons for this 
 exposition. 
 
 ii. Shew the propriety of Christ's being thus re- 
 presented to us. 
 
 in. Give a short paraphrase, and comment where 
 
 B 2
 
 4 SERMON I. 
 
 I think it necessary, upon the whole psalm ; that the 
 sense in which I understand it, together with the 
 connection and beauty of this divine composition, 
 may be seen at one view. And 
 
 iv. Conclude with an exhortation, to encourage 
 you to do all that in you lies for the preservation 
 and support of the great and comfortable truth, 
 which it is the design of this discourse to establish. 
 I am 
 
 1. To lay before you at large my reasons for this 
 exposition. And here I shall begin with observing 
 that Christ is the chief or principal subject of the 
 psalms in general. " The sacred psalter/' says an 
 able Latin paraphrast in his preface to it, "is a 
 divine and admirable instrument of the Holy Spirit, 
 variously expounded by different hands, scarce yet 
 understood, sometimes corrupted by hereticks ; 
 which contains in it as many mysteries as it does 
 words, whose roots are not fixed in earth but 
 heaven, since Christ is there, who is the substance 
 and scope of it." 1 And, indeed, it can be looked 
 upon as nothing less than a rich storehouse of 
 
 Christian knowledge. Upon whatever occasion any 
 
 : * 
 
 1 " Psalterium sacrosanctum est divinum et admirabile 
 spiritfts sancti organuin, varie a diversis interpretatum, 
 vixdum intellectum, nonnunquam ab haereticis corruptum, 
 cui tot sunt mysteria quot verba. Cujus radices non in 
 terra, sed in ccelo fixse sunt, cum ibidem sit CHRISTUS, qui 
 ipsius materia est et intentio." Kayner. Snoygoudani, Med. 
 Paraphr. in Psalm. Lugd., 1542.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 5 
 
 of these divine hymns were composed, the in- 
 spired author uses that only as a channel to con- 
 vey some great and important truth concerning the 
 latter times ; the literal sense is only a clothing 
 to the spiritual ; the various wonders and mighty 
 deliverances therein recorded, the sufferings and 
 actions therein described, being all typical of far 
 greater wonders to be accomplished, mightier deli- 
 verances to be wrought, infinitely superior suffer- 
 ings to be sustained, infinitely superior actions to 
 be performed even the wonderful scheme of man's 
 redemption, his deliverance from death and hell, 
 the sufferings and actions of the Son of God : to 
 him every page relates, has its full completion in 
 him. It is impossible to give examples of this at 
 present, that of itself affording sufficient matter 
 for a whole discourse of this kind ; but every 
 reader's own observation, when he has this key 
 given to him, may collect more than enough for his 
 conviction. 
 
 2. S. Paul has taken the natural images in the 
 4th verse of this psalm, and applied them spiritu- 
 ally, to the manifestation of the light of life by the 
 preaching* of his apostles. The place is in the x. 
 chapter of his epistle to the Romans, and the ap- 
 plication as express as possible. He is speaking of 
 those Jews who had not obeyed the gospel " But I 
 say," argues the Apostle, "have they not heard ? Yes 
 verily." Then immediately follows the quotation 
 from this psalm "Their sound went out into all the
 
 SERMON I. 
 
 earth, and their words unto the ends of the world" 1 
 As if he had said, they must have heard, as the 
 Apostles were commanded not to turn unto the 
 gentiles, till they had published their glad tidings 
 throughout Judea ; but the knowledge of him is 
 now become universal, all flesh has seen the glory 
 of the Lord ; the light divine, like that in the 
 heavens, has visited the whole world, as the prophet 
 David 2 foretold in the xixth psalm. If such then 
 was the Prophet's meaning, as is evident from the 
 Apostle's application, if the heavens thus declare 
 the glory of God, and this is the great lesson they 
 are incessantly teaching ; what other language do 
 they speak, than that their Lord is the represen- 
 tative of ours, the bright ruler in the natural world 
 of the more glorious one in the spiritual, their sun 
 of the Sun of Righteousness f 
 
 1 The Apostle cannot be supposed to have made use of 
 this scripture in a sense of accommodation only, because 
 he cites it among other texts, which he produces merely as 
 prophecies. 
 
 2 " Cujus (Christi) et prsedicatores Apostolis (it should 
 be Apostoli) in Psalmis David ostenduntur In imiversa, 
 inquit, terra exiit sonus eorum, et usque ad terminos 
 terrse verba eorum." Tertull. Adv. Jud., c. 7. Edit. Lut. 
 Paris. 1 675. He says in another place that when our Lord 
 sent his Apostles out to preach, this scripture was fulfilled 
 " Siquidem et Apostolos mittens ad prsedicandum uni- 
 versis nationibus, in omnem terrain exire sonum eorum 
 et in terminos terra) voces eorum, psalmum adimplendo, 
 prtccipit." Id. Adv. Marcion., lib. iv, ad fin. See also Just. 
 Martyr, p. GO, edit. Loud. 1722.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 7 
 
 3. The title of this psalm directs us to apply it 
 to him. The title is " For the Conqueror," not 
 " chief Musician," the word here used having no such 
 sense any where in scripture, but signifying only 
 conqueror, or conquest j 1 and accordingly Pagni- 
 nus 2 has so translated it. " A psalm for David," as 
 the Chaldee Paraphrast, 3 the LXX, 4 and Pagninus, 5 
 have rightly rendered it, not " of David," 6 the par- 
 ticle 7 prefixed to the word David manifestly making 
 it the dative case : so that the whole title together 
 is " For the Conqueror, a psalm for David" for 
 him of whom it is said in the book of Revelations, 
 that he went out conquering and to conquer 8 the 
 true David, the beloved Son of God. 
 
 2 Victori. 
 4 T Aa/3/S. 5 Davidi. 
 
 6 If this had been the sense of the inspired writer, the 
 word David would, I am persuaded, have been put in 
 regimen, as it is every where else as in the soul of David, 
 men of David, enemies of David, words of David, etc. 
 And as this construction seems to depend on the word 
 translated A Psalm being placed before ledavid, I would 
 farther observe here, that it is often put after as in Ps. 
 xxiv, Ixviii, ci, cix, ex, cxxxix, etc. And we frequently 
 meet with ledavid without it ; sometimes joined with other 
 words, as in Ps. xiv, xviii, Ixx, etc. ; and sometimes by 
 itself, as in Ps. xxv, xxvi, xxvii, xxviii, xxxiv, xxxv, etc. 
 To suppose "V)ft*D, a psalm, to be understood in the two 
 last-mentioned instances, and to admit it into the trans- 
 lation upon no better grounds than conjecture, is, I humbly 
 think, a liberty that ought not to be taken with the 
 sacred text. 
 
 7 Trf?- fi Rev. vi, 2.
 
 8 SERMON 1. 
 
 4. If Christ is not the sun or light here spoken 
 of, the former and latter part of this psalm seem 
 not to have so exact a connection, 1 if any, with one 
 another : for immediately upon this fine descrip- 
 tion of the light, and its extensive and beneficial 
 progress, we read " The law of the Lord is perfect, 
 converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is 
 sure, making wise the simple," &c., where the trans- 
 ition does not appear to be easy and natural. But 
 if we carry on our thoughts, as all who wouM 
 understand the scriptures must, from natural to 
 spiritual objects, taking our ideas of the latter from 
 the former, and understand this of the true light, 
 
 1 There can be no just parallel, I think, drawn between 
 the sun and the law ; since even after it went forth out of 
 Zion (a complete and perfect dispensation, with all its 
 types realized, and its prophecies accomplished) it never 
 had any light of its own, shone only with the lustre it 
 received from Christ, who is the fountain of light in the 
 spiritual world, the father of all the lesser lights that have 
 ever appeared, which are so called in holy writ for no 
 other reason but because they either represented, or di- 
 rected men to Him : and if, as is here supposed, it is in 
 this sense alone that the law is ever said to enlighten, 
 namely as it is the means of leading us to the true and 
 only source of divine light and perfection then is Christ, 
 properly speaking, the light it conveys ; and the com- 
 parison in this place should be made, not between the 
 material sun, and the law, which, by images taken from 
 him, directs men to the spiritual, but between the two 
 principals, the material sun and the Sun of Righteousness 
 himself.
 
 CHJRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 9 
 
 as S. John emphatically styles him, the person the 
 material light represents then all is beautiful and 
 consistent, one thought pursued throughout the 
 whole, the design of this divine composition ex- 
 actly regular, and the piece, as one may be certain 
 every work is of which God is the author, finished 
 and perfect to the last degree. 
 
 5. This of the sun or light is, above all others, 
 the title by which he was always distinguished. Thus, 
 as Justin Martyr observes, " the Holy Spirit styles 
 him the ' Glory of the Lord.'" 1 Balaam calls him 
 " The star that was to come out of Jacob/' 2 David 3 
 says of him " That he should rise as the light of the 
 morning, even a morning without clouds." 4 Isaiah 
 is very particular " Arise, shine, for thy light is 
 
 1 'H rt9 Kal 86^a Kvpiov VTTO Tlvev paras ayiov 
 icaXeirai, irore Be ao<j)ia } TTOTG 8e ayyeXos, Trore Se Oeo9, 
 TroTe 8e Kvpios, Kal \6yos. Dialog, cum Tryph., p. 266, edit. 
 Loud. I need not multiply authorities in defence of a 
 point so generally allowed : as a very remarkable one, 
 however, at present occurs to me, I will set it down. Ps. 
 Ixxxv (one of the proper psalms for Christmas Day;, ver. 1 0. 
 That glory may dwell in our land. This the learned 
 paraphrast above cited expounds in the following manner, 
 " Ut inhabitet CHEISTUS, qui est GLORIA Patris." Synog., 
 p. 279. 
 
 a Numb, xxiv, 17. 3 2 Sam. xxiii, 4. 
 
 4 WfcW mr Ipl Tl^l The Prophet must unques- 
 tionably, I think, be supposed to speak of his rising, as it 
 can with no propriety be said, that the natural sun should 
 arise as the light of the morning, which is the literal 
 translation of the Hebrew.
 
 10 SERMON I. 
 
 come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee : 
 for behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross 
 darkness the people ; but the Lord shall arise upon 
 thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and the 
 gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the 
 brightness of thy rising." 1 And again " The sun 
 shall be no more thy light by day, neither for 
 brightness shall the moon give light unto thee, but 
 the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and 
 thy God thy glory," 2 etc. And Malachi foretells his 
 coming in these remarkable words " But upon you 
 that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness 
 arise with healing in his wings." 3 Zecharias, after 
 this, styles him " The day-spring from on high" 4 
 Simeon alluding to the prophecies which thus de- 
 scribed him, " A light to lighten the gentiles, and 
 the glory of his people Israel" 5 S. John " The 
 light that shined in darkness," that of which the 
 Baptist was sent to bear witness, " The true light, 
 which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world." 6 And, to mention no more, he expressly 
 affirms it of himself " I am the light of the world ; 
 he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but 
 shall have the light of life." 7 
 
 6. For the farther confirmation of this opinion, 
 we may observe, that the characters to which the 
 sun is here compared are two of our blessed Lord's 
 
 1 Isaiah lx, 3. 2 Ib. 19. 3 Mai. iv, 2. 
 
 4 Luke i, 78. 5 Ib. ii, 32. John i, 5, 7, 9. 7 Ib. viii, 12.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 11 
 
 peculiar titles We will consider each of them sepa- 
 rately. And 
 
 First, he is the bridegroom. He was all along 
 promised to the Church under this title : his love to 
 it, and mystical union with it, are throughout the 
 sacred writings, especially in the Canticles, described 
 by the most tender images, taken from the love and 
 union between husband and wife. He calls himself 
 by this name in his answer to John's disciples 
 " And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the 
 bride-chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is 
 with them 1 But the days will come, when the 
 bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and 
 then shall they fast." 1 To mention but two places 
 more, he is again thus described in the triumphant 
 song of the great multitude, recorded in the xixth 
 chapter of the Eevelations, who said " Alleluia, for 
 the Lord God omnipotent reigneth : let us be glad, 
 and rejoice, and give honour to him, for the mar- 
 riage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made 
 herself ready." 2 And in the next chapter but one, the 
 beloved disciple tells us, " I John saw the holy city, 
 new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of 
 heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her hus- 
 band." 3 
 
 Secondly, he is the strong man. He is fre- 
 quently in the prophetical writings spoken of under 
 this title. This is the word in the Ixxxixth psalm, 
 
 1 Mattk ix, 15. * Ib. (5, 7. 3 llev. xxi, 2.
 
 12 SERMON I. 
 
 where we read, " Then thou spakest in vision to 
 thy holy one, 1 and saidst, I have laid help upon one 
 that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the 
 people ; I have found David, my servant, with my 
 holy oil have I anointed him/' 2 Now that the person 
 here spoken of is not to be confined to the type, or 
 earthly David, but carried on to, and understood 
 of that David, of whom it was foretold 3 many 
 years after the son of Jesse was dead, that God 
 would raise him up to be their king and shepherd 
 no Christian, I presume, will be inclined to dis- 
 pute. And if he is the David here mentioned, 
 so by consequence, the holy one, the chosen, the 
 anointed, all eminently his titles then is he also 
 Ge Ben, or the mighty one, and this one of his 
 titles. 
 
 Again, he is thus styled in another remarkable 
 prophecy concerning his sufferings " Awake, 
 sword, against my shepherd, and against the man 
 that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts," 4 etc., 
 where the word in the original for man is that 
 before-mentioned, Ge Ben, or the strong man. Now 
 it cannot be questioned who we are to understand 
 by "my shepherd," "the great shepherd of the sheep," 5 
 
 1 It should be " merciful one," *]YDrP, " misericordi 
 tuo." Pagn. 
 
 2 Ver. 19, etc. 
 
 3 Jeremiah xxx, 9 ; Hos. iii, 5 ; Ezek. xxxiv, 23, 24 ; 
 xxxvii, 24, 25, etc. 
 
 4 Zech. xiii, 7. 5 Heb. xiii, 20.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 13 
 
 or " my fellow" (in the orig., my united one) 1 , the 
 person who was to be taken into, and united with 
 the Godhead : if there was any doubt, the Evangelist's 
 application of the latter part of the verse, when the 
 prophecy was accomplished, is sufficient to remove it 
 " Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scat- 
 tered." 2 And if the other titles in this prophecy are 
 his, then is this of Ge BeR, or the strong man, also one. 
 Again, to him only can the famous prophecy in 
 Jeremiah, when rightly translated, in any sense 
 belong ; and that also speaks of him under this 
 title " The Lord hath created a new thing in the 
 earth, a woman shall compass a man" 3 it ought to 
 be rendered A woman shall enclose the strong 
 man, or Ge BCR i. e., shall of herself enclose him, 
 without any human concurrence. Thus a very ex- 
 cellent and learned divine interprets it, adding by 
 way of comment In this new creation, the "Lord 
 encloseth not Zakor, Ish, or Adam, not ma-sculus 
 only, but Geber, vir fortis, the valiant or strong 
 man, the grand heroick of the world." 4 And again 
 a little after, where he is shewing the near analogy 
 there is between these words of the prophet, and 
 those spoken by the Angel to the blessed Virgin 
 " For he shall be great, and shall be called the Son 
 of the Most Highest ;" 5 " Is not this," says he, " as 
 
 1 TVDp- 2 ZecL xiii, 7 ; Matt, xxvi, 31 ; Mark xiv, 27. 
 3 Jer. YXYI, 22. 4 Dr. Jackson, vol. ii, p. 404. 
 
 5 Luke i, 32.
 
 14 SERMON I. 
 
 much as Geber f' 1 And in another discourse of his 
 he expressly says of him, that he is " Geberel, the 
 strength of God." 2 
 
 7. Lastly, most of the ancient fathers, 3 and best 
 interpreters, 4 that I have consulted, apply this psalm 
 to him. The learned paraphrast before-mentioned, 
 who collected his paraphrase from Jerom, Augustin, 
 and others, and expounds this psalm for the most 
 part in the manner I do, expressly asserts in his 
 argument to it, that " It treats of the Incarnation of 
 Christ, and the praise of the new law. 5 And Me- 
 lanchthon the reformer, one of the greatest men of 
 his age, affirms the same more fully "To what end," 
 says he, " was this preaching ordained 1 To shew 
 forth Christ, the Son of God. For him is placed a 
 tabernacle in the Church, as for the sun in the 
 heaven : here Christ is manifested, is the fountain of 
 light here, as the sun is the fountain of bodily light." 6 
 
 1 Dr. Jackson, p. 410. 2 Ib. p. 425. 
 
 3 See S. Jerom, Augustin, etc. Expositionem Pair. 
 Grcvc. in Psalm, per Corderium, vol. i, p. 361. Edit. 
 Antverp, 1653. 
 
 4 Jac. Tirinus in his Comment. Lugd. 1664, says : "Alle- 
 gorice haec applica Christo incarnato. See also Hammond 
 on this Ps., p. 112. 
 
 5 "Agens de Christi incarnatione, et novee legis com- 
 mendatione." Synog., p. 58. 
 
 6 " Et hsec praedicatio ad quid instituta est ? Ad Chris- 
 tum, Filium Dei, monstrandum. Huic ponitur tentorium 
 in ecclesia, ut soli in coelo : hie Christus patefit, hie est 
 fons lucis, ut sol fons est corporalis lucis." Argument. 
 Ps. xix, vol. ii, p. 568. Edit. Wittebergh. 1562.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 15 
 
 To which I may add the united sense of many pious 
 and orthodox divines, the compilers of our most 
 excellent liturgy, who undoubtedly would not have 
 appointed it, as they have, for one of the proper 
 psalms upon Christmas day, if they had not thought 
 that, in its full and spiritual sense, it referred to our 
 blessed Lord's incarnation. 
 
 To sum up the evidence then by which this inter- 
 pretation is supported Christ is the chief or princi- 
 pal subject, the main scope or end of the psalms in 
 general ; S. Paul applies the fourth verse of this 
 psalm in a spiritual sense, to the manifestation of 
 him by the preaching of his Apostles ; the title of it 
 directs us to apply it to him ; the connection of the 
 one part with the other seems to require us to do so ; 
 he is eminently styled the sun or light in the pro- 
 phetical and evangelical writings, and in express 
 terms says so of himself; the characters of the bride- 
 groom and strong man are two of his peculiar titles ; 
 and lastly, most of the ancient fathers and best in- 
 terpreters, that I have consulted, agree with me in 
 the application of it to him. These then are the 
 reasons I promised to lay before you : what regard 
 is to be paid to these arguments, when thrown toge- 
 ther and duly considered, I must leave every one to 
 determine for himself; and having thus endeavoured 
 to prove that Christ is the light here spoken of, and 
 that he is represented to us under the image of the 
 material light, I shall now proceed 
 
 ii. In the second place, to shew the propriety of 
 his being thus represented.
 
 16 SERMON I. 
 
 And this, as has been already observed, consists 
 in his doing in the spiritual world what the light 
 does in the natural : we must therefore briefly in- 
 quire what the light does there and apply it spiritu- 
 ally as we go along. Light then is appointed to be 
 the author and supporter of animal and vegetable 
 life : this is evident from numberless experiments, 
 from common observation, and from scripture ; 
 where we read of " The precious fruits brought forth 
 by the sun, and the precious things put forth by 
 the moon." 1 And is not the operation of the light 
 divine in the moral world equally discernible in its 
 effects ? Upon him our spiritual life, our growth in 
 grace, our fruitfulness in good works, our final at- 
 tainment of perfection wholly depend. Does the 
 natural light in spring-time call forth dead and 
 rotten seeds to the birth, cause naked roots and 
 branches to sprout out afresh, and enliven and renew 
 the face of the earth \ So shall it also be in the 
 morning of the resurrection : "For the hour is coming, 
 in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his 
 voice and come forth." 2 Our Lord himself has 3 
 pointed out this analogy to us, and his Apostle S. 
 Paul circumstantially explained it in the xvth chap, 
 of his 1st epistle to the Corinthians "But some 
 man will say, How are the dead raised up, and with 
 what bodies do they come ? Thou fool, that which 
 thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that 
 
 1 Deut. xxxiii, 14. 2 John v, 28. 3 Matth. xii, 25.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 17 
 
 which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body which 
 shall be, but bare grain, it may chance, of wheat, or 
 some other grain ; but God giveth it a body as it 
 hath pleased him/' 1 So will it be with our bodies : 
 they must die before they can be quickened, be sown 
 in corruption ere they can be raised in incorruption, 
 shall be sown bare natural bodies, be raised spiritual 
 ones : and as the material light is the cause of this 
 resurrection in the natural world, so shall the light 
 divine be in the spiritual. There are many other 
 properties and effects, in which the visible sun re- 
 sembles the Sun of Eighteousness : Leigh has 
 reckoned up some of them in a note of his upon a 
 passage in the Kevelations, where the woman, i.e., 
 the Church, is represented as clothed with the sun ; 
 his words are pretty remarkable " Cloathed with 
 the sun, that is, Christ," says he ; " he resembleth it 
 in its properties and effects. First, properties 
 1. In unity, there is but one sun in the world, and 
 but one Sun of Righteousness in the Church. 2. 
 Light. 3. Purity. 4. Power and sufficiency. Se- 
 condly, effects 1. Illuminates. 2. Directs. 3. Re- 
 fresheth; the righteousness of Christ is imputed to 
 the Church." 2 For most of which assertions he cites 
 authorities from scripture. 
 
 Such good grounds then had the primitive fathers 
 for using this image so often when they speak of 
 God, as might be shewn by abundance of quota- 
 
 1 Matth. xii, 35, etc. ~ Pag., 595. Edit. Lond. 1650. 
 
 C
 
 18 SERMON I. 
 
 tions : of which kind is the following one from S. 
 Greg. Nazianzen " What the sun is with regard to 
 sensible things," says he, "that God is with regard 
 to the intellectual ; the one enlightens the visible 
 world, the other the invisible." 1 So reasonable was 
 their custom of worshipping eastward : " Because 
 there the light first ariseth out of darkness, and the 
 day of true knowledge arose, like the sun, upon such 
 as lay buried in ignorance ; 2 and because God is 
 styled, and is the true light ;" 3 as S. Clemens of Alex- 
 andria, and S. Athanasius, teach us to answer those 
 who ask the cause of it : and lastly, so just, as well 
 as beautiful, is the epithet Tertullian gives to the 
 rising light, when he calls it " the type or represen- 
 tative of Christ ' orientem Christi figuram.'" 4 
 Having thus shewn, that he is in scripture thus 
 
 1 'O Trep yap ecrri rot? aladrjTols r/Tuo?, TOVTO rot? VOIJTOI*; 
 (i)eo9 6 fjiev ye Be TOV opco/jievov (jxarl^ei icocrfjiov, 6 Be TOV dopa- 
 Tov.Orat. Paris, edit. 1609. Vol. i, p. 374. 
 
 2 'E?ret Be yeveffXlov r/ /^epa? elfcatv r] avard\,rj, tca/ceWev 
 TO <&><? av^erai e/c CTKOTOIS \dptyav TO irpwrov. 'AXXa 
 Kal Tot? ev dyvoia Ka\i,vBovfj,evoi,$ dvereC\.e <yv(i)<Tea><} 
 a\,i)deias rjfAepa, Kara \6<yev TOV tf\iov 7T/3o<? TTJV eaiOivov 
 dva,To\r)v al ev^ctl. Paris edit., 1 629, p. 724. 
 
 3 e/ Ort, OVK o>9 ev dvaro\al<s Trepiypa^o/jLevov TOV eov, 
 tcctTa dva,TO\d<; Trpocr/cvvovfiev, aXX' eTreiBrj 6 0eo? ^>w? 
 dXrjdivov ecTTt Te Kai ovofj^d^eTai TOVTO^apw Tr/ao? TO 
 
 KTICTTOV d<f)Op(t)VT<;, OVK dVTOV XXa TOV TTOltJTrjV aVTOV 
 
 TrpocncvvovfAev 7r' ov \afj,7rpoTepov cno^eiov ra TWV 
 TrdvTvv a-TOf)(io)v Kal T&V alwvwv, eoi/ yepaipovTes. 
 S. Athanasius, ita respondendum Gentibus docet. Qucest. 
 ad Antioch. 37a. Paris, 1627. 
 
 4 Advers. Valentin., c. S.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 19 
 
 styled, and that with the greatest propriety, and so 
 removed all reasonable objections to this interpreta- 
 tion of the psalm, I shall now proceed 
 
 in. To give a short paraphrase and comment upon 
 it ; that the sense in which I understand it, together 
 with the connection and beauty of this divine com- 
 position, may be seen at one view. 
 
 But here, as I purpose to give the prophetical 
 sense, and it therefore falls not in with my design 
 to mention any other end that might be intended 
 by this description, besides that of leading us to, 
 and explaining spiritual things by natural ; it may 
 be proper, before I proceed, just to observe, that I 
 mean not to exclude their opinion of this psalm who 
 consider it as describing the workmanship of the 
 heavens, and thereby displaying the glory of the 
 Maker : I am far from excluding this sense ; how- 
 ever, the plan of this discourse will not here permit 
 me to insist upon it, that, I think, the use I make 
 of it greatly heightens and improves it; since our 
 ideas of the infinite wisdom, power, and goodness of 
 God must be considerably enlarged and exalted if 
 we look upon this magnificent theatre, not only as 
 wonderfully framed and fitted to carry on all its 
 various operations for the benefit of man, without 
 the least disorder or confusion ; but, besides this, to 
 instruct him also in the highest kind of knowledge, 
 by giving him a sensible representation of what he 
 could not otherwise apprehend. Having premised 
 this, I return to the paraphrase. 
 
 c 2
 
 20 SERMON I. 
 
 " The heavens declare the glory 1 of God, and the 
 firmament" (or expansion) 2 " sheweth his handy 
 work." The heavens point him out to us, who is 
 styled the glory of God ; wherever they extend 
 they shew the great work he was to do. " Day unto 
 day 3 uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth" 
 (or revealeth) 4 " knowledge." They do this continu- 
 ally ; day after day, night after night, do they pro- 
 claim it : for as their light never ceases its operation, 
 but shineth forth in the night-time in the moon and 
 stars, so even then do they teach this knowledge, 
 and therefore never cease to teach it. " There is 
 neither speech nor language, their voice is not 
 heard." 5 They have no tongues, no articulate sounds, 
 
 3 J^l\ There is a peculiar beauty and exactness in this 
 expression: it signifies to emit, or send out, as a spring 
 does its water, than which there could not be a more proper 
 one used for the issuing forth of light from the sun, the 
 means by which this knowledge is here said to be conveyed. 
 We meet with this allusion frequently in the heathen 
 writers 
 
 " A'lyXas 7ro\v$epKea Trasyav." Dionys. Hymnogr. 
 " ITora/iol Se credev Trvpo? dfiftporov 
 Ti/crovcriv aTrepa rbv dfMepav." Id. 
 " Largus item liquidi fons luminis, setherius sol, 
 
 Inrigat assiduk ccelum candore recenti," etc. Lucret., 
 lib. v, 282. 
 
 " Nam licet hinc mundi patefactum totius unum 
 Largifluum fontem scatere, atque erumpere flumen 
 Ex omni mundo - ". Id. ib., 592. 
 
 4 PTJJT- 5 See Job xxv, 3.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 21 
 
 as men have, to do this, but still they do it, and to 
 persons taught by revelation to apply it, in a most 
 intelligible manner too, a manner well known to the 
 ancient world, by picture or representation. " Their 
 line is gone out through all the earth, and their 
 words 1 to the end of the world." The instruction 
 they disperse abroad is general and unconfined, 
 they teach it to all alike without distinction ; resem- 
 bling herein the blessed Apostles, whose commission 
 was afterwards the same as theirs, to make known 
 to all nations the Sun of Righteousness. 
 
 Hitherto the prophet has only told us what is the 
 subject of their instructive lesson: in the next place 
 he shews more particularly the manner in which 
 they convey it. " In them hath he set a tabernacle 
 for the sun." They do it then by the sun that is 
 placed in them, the lively type or image of the Sun 
 of Righteousness, for whom a tabernacle was also 
 prepared, i.e., his human nature, in the which it 
 pleased him to dwell in the fulness of time; whose 
 amazing progress, and mighty effects in his spiritual 
 kingdom, from the beginning to the end of it, the 
 prophet next goes on to describe by images bor- 
 rowed from his material representative, adding 
 withal such marks of distinction, as sufficiently de- 
 termine to whom the description properly belongs. 
 
 1 QrV /fo the verb 77ft (whence ^7, words) is used 
 for expressing the meaning by signs. It has this sense, 
 
 i 
 
 Prov. vi, 13. J73*O //ID. speaking with his foot.
 
 22 SERMON 1. 
 
 " Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his cham- 
 ber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race." As 
 the light of the sun goes out in the morning with 
 inconceivable activity, new and youthful itself, and 
 communicating life and gaiety to all things round 
 it, like a bridegroom in the marriage garment from 
 his chamber to his nuptials ; so shall the light divine, 
 the promised bridegroom, 1 visit his Church, clad 
 himself, and cloathing her with that robe of righteous- 
 ness, 2 which is styled in holy scripture the "marriage 
 garment ;" and the joy also his presence shall ad- 
 minister shall, like the benefits of it, be universal. 
 And as that is always ready to run its heavenly 
 race, daily issuing forth with renewed vigour, like 
 an invincible champion still fresh to labour ; so like- 
 wise shall he 3 rejoice to run his glorious race; shall 
 excel in strength, and his works shall be great and 
 marvellous : he shall triumph over the powers of 
 
 1 "Teneo meum Christum etiam in nomine sponsi, de 
 quo psalmus Ipse tanquam sponsus egrediens de thalamo 
 suo, et a summo cceli profectio ejus, et reversio ejus ad sum- 
 mum usque ejus." Tertull., Adv. Marc-ion., lib. iv, c. ii. 
 
 2 " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be 
 joyful in my God, for he hath cloathed me with the gar- 
 ments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of 
 righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with orna- 
 ments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels." 
 Isaiah Ixi, 10. 
 
 3 Ov^l r\tv l^ypov ft><? <yi<ya$ Spafjielv avrov, Trepl KpiaTov 
 \e\ey /JLevrjv ^pa(f)rji> 6/We>9 fiefjuprjcrdos j/ow. Just. Martyr. 
 Dial, p. 287, edit Lond.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 23 
 
 darkness, shed abroad on all sides his bright beams 
 upon his Church, be her deliverer, her protector, 
 and support, able in every respect to accomplish for 
 her the mighty task he has undertaken. All which 
 is already in some degree, but shall hereafter be 
 most gloriously fulfilled in the person and actions of 
 our blessed Lord : " For the kingdom of heaven" 
 (the gospel-state at his coming) "was like unto a 
 certain king which made a marriage for his son" 1 
 but the marriage of the Lamb with the Church 
 triumphant is still to come, and his wife is to be 
 glorified " She shall be arrayed in fine linen, clean 
 and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of 
 saints." 2 The " strong man armed" has already been 
 overcome and cast out, and therefore it is evident 
 " that a stronger than he is come upon him" 3 but 
 he shall hereafter be " cast into the lake of fire and 
 brimstone, and shall be tormented day and night, 
 for ever and ever." 4 For our Lord " must reign till 
 he hath put all enemies under his feet." 5 " His 
 going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his 
 circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid 
 from the heat thereof." His enlivening rays, like 
 those of the sun, shall take their circuit round the 
 earth, go forth out of Judea into all parts of the habit- 
 able world, and there is no corner of it so remote as 
 to be without the reach of their healing influence. 
 
 1 Matth. xxii, 2. - Rev. xix, 7, 8. 3 Luke xi, 21. 
 4 Rev. xx, 10. 5 1 Cor. xv, 25.
 
 24 SERMON I. 
 
 Accordingly the event fully verified the prediction : 
 " The Lord gave the word, great was the company 
 of those that published it." 1 The Apostles went out 
 with an unlimited commission to "teach all nations :" 
 and however many then obeyed not the truth, as 
 many now would not if it was preached to them, 
 because many to whom it is preached do not; or 
 may have since, through their own fault, like the 
 descendants of Adam and Noah, deprived themselves 
 and their posterity of the knowledge of it ; yet did 
 the Apostles faithfully execute their commission 
 before the destruction of Jerusalem : of which we 
 have infallible proof in the express declaration of 
 their blessed master, who told them, " This gospel 
 of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, 2 
 for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the 
 end come." 3 The Prophet therefore having thus 
 foretold the mission of the Apostles, and the success 
 of their ministry, proceeds in the next place to 
 describe their doctrine ; so that what follows is a fine 
 encomium upon the gospel, written with all the sim- 
 plicity peculiar to the sacred language, and in a 
 strain far surpassing the utmost efforts of human 
 eloquence. 
 
 " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the 
 soul." Changing the whole frame and its sinful af- 
 
 1 Psalm Ixviii, 11. 
 
 2 See Colos. i, 6-23, where S. Paul affirms this prophecy 
 to have been accomplished. 
 
 3 Matth. xxiv, 14.
 
 CHEIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 25 
 
 fections from bad to good, " from dead works to 
 serve the living God." 1 " The testimony of the Lord 
 is sure, making wise the simple." Giving wisdom to 
 babes only, persons of docible childlike dispositions. 
 " The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the 
 heart ; the commandment of the Lord is pure, en- 
 lightening the eyes." Communicating sight in a 
 spiritual sense, opening the eyes of the understand- 
 ing, 2 benighted and lost in error and superstition. 
 " The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever ; 
 the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
 altogether ; more to be desired are they than gold, 
 yea than much fine gold." More than all the trea- 
 sures upon earth. " Sweeter also than honey or the 
 honeycomb." Sweeter to the soul of the pious be- 
 liever than the sweetest thing we know of is to the 
 taste. 3 All this, indeed, wants little or no explana- 
 tion, it being almost impossible not to discern the 
 genuine spirit of Christianity in these expressions, 
 the only true religion 4 that ever was in the world 
 since the fall, by the distinguishing characteristic 
 marks here set upon it. The next verse is differently 
 interpreted, and the words " thy servant" thought 
 by some to be applicable to any true believer what- 
 ever : but the Prophet rather seems to be here speak- 
 
 1 Heb. ix, 1 4. 2 See Ephes. i, 1 8. 3 See Prov. xxiv, 1 3, 1 4. 
 
 4 The patriarchial religion, and that republished after- 
 wards in writing, with some few additions, by Moses, being 
 one and the same, the former part only of the same merciful 
 dispensation.
 
 26 SERMON I. 
 
 ing of himself " Moreover by them is thy servant 
 warned, 1 and in keeping of them there is great re- 
 ward." The several parts of this perfect law, here- 
 after to be published to the whole race of mankind, 
 have been all along my great instructors, the only 
 source of all the knowledge to which thy servant 
 has attained ; and I am fully assured, that the 
 blessed fruit of them, when they are duly observed, 
 and have their proper effect, is exceeding glorious, 
 even eternal life. Nor will these expressions be 
 thought too strong for the Prophet to use, if we 
 consider, that " The Old Testament is not contrary 
 to the New, for both in the Old and New Testament 
 everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ," etc., 
 which are the words of our 7th Article ; and what 
 our Church has, upon very good grounds, as I could 
 easily shew would the time permit me, farther as- 
 serted in her Homilies concerning pious believers 
 both before and under the law " Although they 
 were not named Christian men, yet was it a Chris- 
 tian faith that they had, for they looked for all the 
 benefits of God the Father through the merits of 
 Jesus Christ, as we now do : this difference is be- 
 tween them and us, they looked when Christ should 
 come, and we be in the time when he is come ; 
 therefore saith S. Augustin, the time indeed is al- 
 tered and changed, but not the faith : for we have 
 
 1 Taught, and that in the clearest and most perspicuous 
 manner, as the word IHIJ i n the O1 'ig- implies. Illustratur 
 Pagn.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 27 
 
 both one faith in one Christ." 1 The Prophet then 
 puts up a petition for himself, that this divine law 
 he has been describing may always have its perfect 
 work in him; and ends it, and the psalm, with a 
 particular and emphatical address to the person, 
 whom I suppose to have been all along the subject 
 of his praise. " Let the words of my mouth, and the 
 meditation of my heart, be alway acceptable in thy 
 sight, Lord, my strength and my redeemer." 
 
 Thus have I given you my sentiments of this 
 noble composition ; which, I hope, now appears to be 
 perfectly regular, and finely conducted, as complete 
 in the design and management of it, as it is in every 
 other respect. And here let me ask, " What are all 
 the celebrated productions of Grecian or Roman wit, 
 when put into the balance with such compositions as 
 these T The best of those, upon trial, will be found 
 greatly wanting : the disproportion between them, 
 like the distance between their authors, is infinite; 
 and they will always stand distinguished, those by 
 the alloy of human frailty that runs through every 
 part of them, these by their absolute, divine purity : 
 " For the words of the Lord are pure words" they 
 alone are so " as silver tried in a furnace of earth, 
 purified seven times" 2 i.e., to consummate perfec- 
 tion. Indeed to say the sacred writings far surpass 
 human, is saying little of writings dictated by God 
 
 1 Horn, upon Faith, 2nd pt., p. 23. Oxford edit. 
 
 2 Psalm xi, 6.
 
 28 SERMON 1. 
 
 himself; nor should I have mentioned it, but for the 
 conclusion I intended to draw from it ; which is, 
 that if the superiority is so apparently theirs, so 
 undoubtedly ought to be the preference : this is 
 generally allowed them when we speak of them, but, 
 in fact, I fear, seldom given ; most books being read 
 more than the bible, because they are supposed to 
 furnish better entertainment. But surely the ex- 
 quisite and finished beauty of this simple psalm is 
 more than sufficient to remove so groundless a pre- 
 judice : What a pity is it to see creatures designed 
 for immortality, wasting so much of their time, 
 especially the most vigorous and best part of it, in 
 the pursuit of such knowledge as cannot satisfy, 
 which produces only a short-lived, imaginary plea- 
 sure, and, by always disappointing our expectation, 
 but increaseth sorrow; 1 while the sacred repositories 
 of all true knowledge, 2 which alone are able to make 
 us wise unto salvation, 3 engage but a small share of 
 their attention ; though the subjects they treat of 
 are the most interesting, the sublimest that can be 
 conceived, the instruction they contain full and satis- 
 factory, the composition and style of them masterly 
 beyond all comparison, and the pleasure the reading 
 of them affords rational, pure, and lasting, such as 
 nothing but the joy they are intended to lead us to 
 can excel ! 
 
 iv. To conclude, the doctrine arising from the 
 
 1 Eccles. i, 18. 3 See Coloss. xi, 3. 3 2 Tim. iii, 15.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 29 
 
 whole is, that " Christ is the light of the world ;" the 
 necessary consequence of which must be, that all 
 who follow not him walk in darkness : all other 
 schemes of religion are nothing else but so many 
 delusions, thrown out upon every favourable occa- 
 sion by our spiritual adversary, to deprive us again 
 of a blessed immortality, as he did at first, by turn- 
 ing us aside from the only way by which we can 
 arrive at it. And the policy of the deceiver has 
 been but too successful in every age of the world : 
 for wherever his inventions have prevailed, or do now 
 prevail, there always in proportion have abounded, 
 and still abound, ignorance, " confusion, and every 
 evil work." 1 Let a serious reflection then upon the 
 misery of those from whom the light of the gospel 
 is hid, make us truly sensible of our happy condi- 
 tion; let us, with hearts full of gratitude, be ever 
 ready to acknowledge the great mercy that has been 
 vouchsafed us ; and continually " give thanks unto 
 the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers 
 of the inheritance of the saints in light : who hath 
 delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath 
 translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in 
 whom we have redemption through his blood, even the 
 forgiveness of sins." 2 But let us not stop here ; let us, 
 who believe this great and comfortable truth, do all 
 that we are able for the preservation and support of 
 it. Let those, therefore, who are entrusted with the 
 
 1 Jam. iii, 16. 2 Coloss. i, 12, etc.
 
 30 SEKMON I. 
 
 education of youth, take care before all things to lay 
 open to them the inexhaustible treasures of heavenly 
 wisdom, to read over with them and expound the 
 sacred oracles ; that by these means the faith, sown 
 early in their hearts, may increase with their years, 
 and by the time they are called out into the world, 
 be able to stand firm against every blast of opposi- 
 tion. And let all who are sent to these learned socie- 
 ties for instruction, those especially who enjoy the 
 liberality of their founders and benefactors, use them 
 to that pious end for which they were instituted and 
 endowed ; always remembering, that it has ever been 
 the distinguished honour of this place, to have "con- 
 tended earnestly for the faith, which was once deli- 
 vered to the saints." 1 They have now a happy 
 opportunity, in this their retirement and freedom 
 from worldly cares and business, to lay in such a 
 store of divine knowledge, as will be a never failing 
 source of joy and consolation, a sure guide and 
 security to them through the whole course of their 
 lives, and of infinite benefit to themselves and others. 
 Let them study then to make daily improvements 
 in this blessed knowledge, which they will carry 
 with them beyond the grave, and whatever situation 
 they shall hereafter be placed in, do their utmost to 
 communicate and to promote it. But let those who 
 are to be set apart for this labour of love, whose 
 proper and more immediate office it will be to for- 
 
 1 Jude 3.
 
 CHRIST THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. 31 
 
 ward the salvation of men, be particularly careful to 
 employ this season to the best advantage. The pre- 
 sent time, days "of rebuke and blasphemy!" 1 call 
 for the utmost industry and application in the Chris- 
 tian ministry : let them now therefore make a wise 
 and early provision for the warfare in which they are 
 to engage ; attentively read, and frequently meditate 
 upon the sacred pages they are to explain; let those 
 who have abilities apply themselves to the languages 
 in which they are written, consider the relation of 
 each part to the whole, the spiritual intention, as 
 well as literal sense of every passage, the full force 
 and weight of every expression; constantly implor- 
 ing the direction of the Holy Spirit who dictated 
 them, without whose assistance they can never be 
 thoroughly understood. And when they are com- 
 missioned to preach the word, let them do it with 
 sincerity, with becoming resolution, and unwearied 
 diligence ; "Be instant in season, and out of season," 2 
 as ready to guide the ignorant and unstable, as the 
 enemies of the cross are to mislead them, as indus- 
 trious to save men's souls, as they are to destroy 
 them: this is a most charitable and glorious work; 
 it is to enlarge our blessed master's kingdom, to be 
 " labourers together with God." 3 And the reward is 
 as glorious as the work itself ; for " they that be 
 wise" (or "teachers," as it is in the marginal reading) 
 "shall shine forth as the brightness of the firmament, 
 
 1 2 Kings xix, 3. -' 2 Tim. iv, 2. 3 1 Cor. iii, 9.
 
 32 SERMON I. 
 
 and they that turn many to righteousness, as the 
 stars for ever and ever." 1 Finally, my brethren, let 
 us all, whatever our station or profession may be, be 
 careful to " add to" our " faith virtue," 2 to shew forth 
 the excellency of our religion by the holiness of our 
 lives : this will be the best recommendation of it to 
 others, and without this it will not profit ourselves 
 Our " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; 
 if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk 
 in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth : but if we 
 walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fel- 
 lowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
 Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 3 In a word 
 then, let us " walk as children of light," 4 making 
 daily preparation, by acquiring still more refined and 
 heavenly dispositions, for that perfect state of bliss 
 which is to be our portion hereafter ; for to those 
 who so walk in the Jerusalem that is below, shall it 
 be given to walk for ever in the " light" of the "Lord 
 God," 5 and of the " Lamb," 5 in the light of Jerusalem 
 that is above. 
 
 To which blessed place God, of his infinite mercy, 
 bring us all, through the merits and intercession of 
 Jesus Christ; to whom, with the Father, and the 
 Holy Spirit, the adorable and eternal Trinity, be 
 glory in the Church throughout all ages, world with- 
 out end. Amen. 
 
 1 Dan. xii, 3. 2 2 Pet. i, 5. 3 1 Ep. John i, 5. 
 4 Ephes v, 8. 5 Kev. xxi, 23 ; xxii, 5.
 
 SEASONABLE ADMONITION 
 TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 ST. MARY'S, 
 
 ON THE TWENTY-NINTH OF MAY, 1751. 
 
 " And what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." MARK xiii, 37. 
 " Watch ye, stand fast in the faith."! Con. xvi, IS. 
 
 " Behold, I come quickly : hold that fast, which thou hast, that no man take thy crown." 
 Our Lord to the Church in Philadelphia. REV. iii, 11. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE THEATRE FOR SACKV1LLE PARKER, AND 
 E. -WITHERS, AT THE SEVEN STARS, NEAR TE>fPLE BAR. 
 
 MPCCLV. 
 
 D
 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 OEO. HITDDESFORD, 
 
 Vice-Can. Oxon. 
 Mar. 12,1755.
 
 PKEFACE 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 My beloved brethren, The following discourse, not 
 having been published at the time it was preached, 
 was not afterwards intended for the press ; but the 
 reasons, which then induced me to choose the subject, 
 here considered, for the day's meditation, and to 
 consider it in the manner I have done, are now 
 become much stronger motives to the publication of 
 my sentiments ; inattention and indifference to the 
 things of God increasing more and more throughout 
 the land, and infidelity thence taking occasion daily 
 to insinuate its mortal venom into the very vitals of 
 Christianity ! And shall the love of Christ, in the 
 hearts of his ministers, be less active to save his 
 people, than the malice of Satan in the hearts of his 
 enemies, so evidently is to destroy them 1 God 
 forbid ! No it is our duty to speak, even though 
 we are not heard ; to. proclaim the glad tidings of 
 peace, though men will remain at enmity with God ; 
 to call off their grovelling attention from earthly 
 to spiritual pursuits, though they should still prefer 
 
 D 2
 
 36 PREFACE. 
 
 earth to heaven, transitory vanities to eternal glory; 
 to shew them the way, and the truth, and the life, 
 even the Lord Jesus Christ, who, and who only, is all 
 these, 1 though they should perversely wander on still 
 in the wilderness of their own way, through all the 
 mazes of error, into an endless death. And in a 
 time of spiritual famine and distress, we should do 
 this with the more assiduity ; it is a constant labor 
 of love, but eminently so at such a season ; he that 
 sees another's danger, and warns him not of it, 
 cannot possibly love him. Now all, that is here 
 proposed to you, my brethren, flows from this 
 principle entirely, from the love of Christ, and the 
 love of you, for his sake. If I loved not him, I 
 should not be zealous for his glory I should hold 
 my peace ; if I loved not you, I should not be 
 zealous for your salvation I could then see you 
 perish with indifference. Wherefore, I beseech you, 
 bear with me who love you, and suffer while it is to 
 day, the word of exhortation. You cannot but be 
 sensible surely, upon reflection, that the generality 
 of you are very far from God ; chiefly, if not wholly, 
 intent upon the pleasures and interests of this 
 world ; regardless of the things beyond it, which 
 are only seen with the eye of faith ; almost entirely 
 unacquainted with the evidence of God's word ; and 
 having little or no experience of the effects of his 
 religion. Hence it is, that the things designed for 
 
 1 John xiv, 6.
 
 PREFACE. 37 
 
 your knowledge, are so dark and difficult to be 
 understood; you want that spiritual discernment, 
 without which, the Apostle tells you, you cannot see 
 them. 1 Hence the great truths of our most holy 
 faith : 1. The personality in the godhead. 2. 
 The grace superadded to the blessed sacraments. 
 3. The spiritual sense of the bible. 4. Justification 
 in Christ alone, by faith only, without any works 
 that we can do towards it, &c. Hence likewise all 
 the divine institutions thereof: Those, 1. Of holy 
 matrimony. 2. Of episcopacy. 3. Of an order of 
 persons separated to officiate, under their authority, 
 in holy things. 4. Of Ecclesiastical censures and 
 wholesome discipline, to restrain destructive heresies, 
 carnal schisms, and ungodliness, (for take away the 
 government and discipline of a church, and her 
 doctrines and devotion will soon follow after) these, 
 I say, and in a word, all divine things whatever, are 
 generally esteemed subjects of doubtful disputation, 
 if not totally disbelieved : though in the instances 
 above mentioned, it is demonstrable from holy scrip- 
 ture (the only guide in spiritual matters, which 
 are not objects of sense), that, 1. There are three, 
 that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, 
 and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one ; 2 that, 
 thus saith the Lord, " cursed (is) the man, that trust- 
 teth in man"; 3 (but we trust in Christ), 4 and that 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii, 14. 2 1 John v. 7. 3 Jer. xvii, 5. 
 
 4 Matth. xii, 21 ; Ephes. i, 12, 13.
 
 38 PREFACE. 
 
 none (no man) can by any means redeem (his) 
 brother, or give to God a ransom for him ; l (but we 
 are redeemed by Christ, 2 and he is our ransom). 3 
 Wherefore our Lord Christ must be very God, 
 as well as very man, else were our religion a self 
 contradiction, and our worship idolatry ; that a 
 spiritual creation is as much a work of Almighty 
 power, as a natural one, and the Holy Spirit, in the 
 work of our sanctification, creates a clean heart, and 
 renews a right spirit within us. 4 That, 2. "Except a 
 man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God ;" 5 and, " Except ye 
 eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, 
 ye have no life in you" " Whoso eateth my flesh 
 and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life" " He that 
 eateth of this bread shall live for ever." 6 The 
 external cleansing of the laver cannot wash away 
 sin; nor the perishable substance of the bread and 
 wine keep the body from decay, much less preserve 
 that and the soul unto everlasting life : only the 
 eternal spirit, accompanying the outward rite with 
 almighty power, can, by moving upon the face of the 
 waters, in this new or spiritual creation, and applying 
 the body and blood of Christ to the souls of believers, 
 Purge the conscience from dead works to serve the 
 
 1 Ps. xlix, 7. 2 Coloss. i, 14 ; Heb. ix, 12 ; Eev. v, 9. 
 
 3 Job xxxiii, 24 ; Hosea xiii, 14 ; Matthew xx, 28 ; 
 
 1 Tim. ii, 6. 4 Ps. li, 10, 11 ; civ, 30 ; Tit. iii, 5. 
 
 5 John, iii, 5. 6 John vi, 53, 54, 58.
 
 PREFACE. 39 
 
 living God," 1 or support that life in man which is not 
 sustained by bread. 2 Nay, that what we call sacra- 
 ments must be visible signs of invisible things, or 
 they must cease to be sacraments, for " a sacrament 
 is an outward or visible sign of an inward and 
 spiritual grace" yea, and " ' a means' too whereby 
 we receive the same". That, 3. The holy scriptures, 
 unless spiritually interpreted, are like the mere 
 elements in the sacraments, a dead and killing 
 letter, 3 as unable to give life to the devout reader, 
 as those elements are to do the same to the faithful 
 receiver. And that, 4. The Apostle saith "Knowing 
 that a man is not justified by the works of the law, 
 but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have 
 believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified 
 by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the 
 law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be 
 justified". 4 For that would make us, in part, 
 our own Saviours and justifiers, whereas Christ hath 
 suffered in our stead, and done and merited for us 
 sinners, what we could not do or merit for ourselves ; 
 wherefore high reason is there, that it should be, as 
 the divine scriptures affirm, " Not of him that willeth, 
 nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth 
 mercy". 5 After we are justified, we may, and ought 
 to work indeed under sanctifying grace ; but yet, no 
 work that proceedeth of grace lays claim to any merit 
 
 1 Heb. ix, 14. 2 Deut. viii, 3 ; Matth. iv, 4. 3 2 Cor. iii, 6. 
 4 Gal. ii, 16. 5 Rom. ix, 16.
 
 40 PREFACE. 
 
 of its own, any reward as of debt, but humbly seeks 
 acceptance through his merits, by whose divine 
 power it was wrought. 
 
 That with regard to the other point, the divine in- 
 stitutions above spoken of, 1. The Lord God brought 
 the first woman in Paradise, unto the man in person, 1 
 and still joins man and wife by divinely-delegated 
 power, which is therefore as much his act and deed, as 
 if he did it in person. 2 That, 2. The divinely-inspired 
 Apostles, who were themselves appointed by Christ, ap- 
 pointed bishops for their successors; and that no man 
 takeththe honour of this office, either of the high priest- 
 hood, or episcopacy (which is the same) no not the 
 Man Christ himself, without being " called of God," 3 
 i. e., appointed by the power, and in the method of 
 his divine institution, who accordingly called (or so 
 appointed) the first-born under the patriarchal state, 
 the family of Aaron under the law, and the Apo- 
 stles, and their duly consecrated successors under the 
 gospel : Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, for taking it 
 to themselves, went down alive into the pit. 4 That, 
 3. With regard to the priesthood, Moses, having fre- 
 quently recorded God's appointment of the first- 
 born, to officiate in the then -united character of the 
 high priesthood, and the priesthood, relates the 
 re-institution of these holy offices, when separated, 
 in the most circumstantial manner possible that 
 
 1 Gen. ii, 22. 2 Matth. xix, 6. 3 Hebr. v, 4, 5. 
 4 Numb, xvi, 3, 5, 32, 33, 40.
 
 PREFACE. 41 
 
 having first, by divine direction, consecrated Aaron 
 himself, he then immediately, by the same divine 
 commission, consecrated the sons of Aaron, the 
 priests, i.e., as the original words for consecrated 
 signify, he perfected or fully-impowered them (there- 
 fore they had no power of themselves) to minister 
 in holy things, in the sight, i. e., under the episcopacy, 
 inspection, or authority of Aaron their father." 1 And 
 that St. Paul expressly declares, for our purpose, 
 that he left one of the bishops, he had appointed, in 
 Crete, to ordain elders or presbyters (i.e. priests) in 
 every city, " Even," says the Apostle, " as I had ap- 
 pointed thee." 2 Heaping up to themselves teachers, 
 is a mark set by the same Apostle upon such as 
 " will not endure sound doctrine," but follow " after 
 their own lusts having itching ears ;" 3 and is one 
 of the highest crimes a man can be guilty of against 
 the spirit of unity. And 4. Lastly, with regard to 
 discipline, that our Lord saith " Whoever shall 
 neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as 
 an heathen man and a publican" (i.e., cut off by 
 excommunication from all the privileges of the 
 gospel) adding very remarkably, in the words im- 
 mediately following, his own divine ratification of 
 all duly-inflicted acts of discipline " Verily I say 
 unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall 
 be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose 
 on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." 4 To which 
 
 1 Exod. xxix ; Levit. viii ; Numb, iii, 3, 4. 2 2 Tit. i, 5. 
 a 2 Tim. iv, 3. 4 Matth. xviii, 17, 18.
 
 42 PREFACE. 
 
 divinely-instituted authority the Apostle doubtless 
 refers in his direction both to Timothy and Titus : 
 " Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also 
 may fear ;" 1 " these things speak, and exhort, and 
 rebuke with all authority let no man despise tla.ee" 2 
 Though all these, and others that might be men- 
 tioned (as might be more fully shewn) are, I say, 
 so clear beyond all contradiction yet, how few, 
 called Christians, are at all acquainted with them ; 
 how many (I trust, in ignorance) dispute, or perhaps 
 entirely disbelieve them \ And how openly are 
 they, with the pen and tongue, yea, and with what 
 impunity, blasphemed 1 And yet, they are funda- 
 mental articles of the Christian religion. Though 
 we hear so little of them, wherever we go, and 
 with whomsoever we converse, they are the 
 things we were born to know ; they are the only 
 things, the knowledge of which will profit us ; 
 the only knowledge that we shall carry beyond 
 the grave; the only wisdom that leads to heaven. 
 Thus far gone out of the way, and dead to the 
 spiritual things of the city that is above, you rest 
 satisfied with earthly things, and mere external 
 observances ; as if faith which worketh by love, 3 
 and hope, the anchor of the soul, 4 as if spiritual 
 persons, things, and operations were mere matters of 
 opinion, no way essential to salvation ; as if to follow 
 Israel in her unbelief, was the path to that rest, which 
 
 1 1 Tim. v, 20. a Tit. ii, 15. 3 Gal. v, 6. 4 Heb. vi, 19.
 
 PREFACE. 43 
 
 she fell short of because of unbelief, 1 or taking hold 
 of the law (which you cannot perform) without the 
 end thereof (which is and ever was Christ), 2 was the 
 way now to the privileges of the gospel. And yet, 
 we profess, as all true Christians must profess, yea, 
 and what is more, must experience, that we are 
 risen with Christ, 3 (risen from the death of sin to the 
 new life of righteousness in him,) 4 and that, in 
 consequence of this our spiritual resurrection (the 
 pledge or earnest of our bodily resurrection), we set 
 our affections on things above, and not (as we used 
 to do) on things on the earth. 5 - And he that does so 
 is indeed a Christian. But are the generality of you 
 in this state \ Ask your own hearts the question, 
 and let me intreat you to improve the testimony 
 they shall give you to your soul's health. Beloved, 
 if our heart (tried by God's word) condemn us not, 
 then have we confidence towards God. 6 Otherwise, 
 make haste to escape ; you know not the extreme 
 danger of an hour's delay ; " For in such an hour as 
 you think not, the Son of Man cometh": 7 not only to 
 judge the world, but to execute vengeance, in the 
 mean season, upon all apostate churches, as he said 
 "I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove 
 thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent." 8 
 How much longer space his divine forbearance will 
 allow us for repentance or how soon we, whom he 
 
 1 Heb. iii, 19. 2 Kom. x, 4 ; Heb. xiii, 8. 3 Coloss. iii, 1. 
 4 Rom. vi, the whole chapter. 5 Coloss. iii, 2. 
 
 6 1 John iii, 21. ~ Mattli. xxiv, 4-4-. 8 Eev. ii, 5.
 
 44 PREFACE. 
 
 yet graciously refers to the churches he has already 
 destroyed for an example, may, by his just judge- 
 ment, become ourselves a sad example to others I 
 dare not to take upon me to conjecture ; but sure I 
 am, the signs of the times, compared with the 
 histories of those that are past, afford abundant mat- 
 ter for the most melancholy reflection. The follow- 
 ing sheets, I may hope, if read with attention and 
 without prejudice, w r ill, by the blessing of God, 
 awaken some out of the dangerous slumber that is 
 fallen upon them, which so shuts up their inward 
 senses against all spiritual discernment, and habitually 
 deadens their affections to the things of God. As 
 the arguments, here offered, were of use to myself, I 
 may reasonably hope they will be of some benefit to 
 others ; and therefore no imperfection of mine, in 
 the execution of my design, could prevail with me to 
 withhold it any longer from them. What is wanting 
 in the writer, will be fully made up by accompanying 
 grace to him that reads it with sincerity. And I 
 most earnestly beseech our Lord Jesus Christ, who is 
 the power of God, and the wisdom of God, 1 to make 
 this humble attempt of one of the meanest of his 
 servants, as well as its author, what, without his 
 divine blessing upon them, neither can be of them- 
 selves effectual instruments in his hand for the 
 enlargement of his kingdom, i.e., for the further 
 display of his glory, and the salvation of his people. 
 
 GEORGE WATSOK. 
 1 1 Cor. i, 24.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 A SERMON. 
 
 ST. JUDE 5. 
 
 / will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew 
 this, haw that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land 
 of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. 
 
 THE design of this awakening admonition, as indeed 
 of the whole epistle where it occurs, was to put the 
 Christian Churches upon their guard in a time of 
 manifest danger, and thereby prevent the ruinous 
 consequences of a general apostasy. The days, fore- 
 told by our Lord and his apostles, were now accom- 
 plished ; the mystery of iniquity, they spake of, had 
 begun to take effect ; there were certain men crept 
 in unawares (the Greek word is -rrapeia-eSva-av, had 
 entered in a by-way, made themselves teachers, 
 without a regular divinely-instituted appointment), 
 whose tenets were directly opposite to the saving 
 doctrines they had received ; and therefore, what- 
 ever they might pretend, calculated only to intro- 
 duce anarchy and confusion, to rob the Church of 
 its peace both here and hereafter. A case of so
 
 46 SERMON II. 
 
 desperate a nature required a timely interposition, 
 and a more powerful one there could not have been 
 than this of our Apostle. What he hath written 
 upon this occasion is full of divine energy ; the senti- 
 ments have in them all the depth and majesty that 
 is peculiar to the divine writings ; and the expres- 
 sions, with which they are clothed, are the inimitable 
 language of the Spirit of God. The argument, he 
 here uses for the establishment of the faithful, is 
 of all others the most awful and affecting ; it in- 
 volves in it the whole stupendous scheme of God's 
 immutable councils, with respect to all whom he 
 created to be partakers of his glory ; of mercy to all, 
 who would, upon trial, accept of it, and of judge- 
 ment, without mercy, to all who, in their state of 
 probation, would finally reject it ; in a word, the 
 vast and comprehensive plan, which God saw to be 
 good, and therefore decreed before all time, and the 
 invariable method of his administration in time, to 
 execute and accomplish it. The part of it we are 
 now to consider, is that which relates to his Church, 
 here exemplified in the miraculous deliverance of 
 his people out of Egypt, and the judgements that 
 afterwards befell them for their incorrigible impeni- 
 tence. This argument is much insisted upon by the 
 Apostles ; they frequently repeat it, they recom- 
 mend it with earnestness ; believers, even in those 
 earlier and better times, not being so attentive to 
 the works of God in his dealings with Israel, as was 
 necessary for their own welfare and security. This
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 47 
 
 is implied by our Apostle in the former member of 
 the text "I will therefore" (says he) " put you in 
 remembrance, though ye once knew this." The fact 
 itself they cannot well be supposed to have forgot- 
 ten ; the bible was the chief and almost only study 
 of Christians in those days ; they were sensible of 
 its incomparable excellence, and most thankfully 
 and devoutly gave the preference where it is due. 
 The Apostle's meaning therefore must be, that they 
 had (undesignedly, I question not) neglected to make 
 the proper use of the above-mentioned history ; con- 
 sidered it indeed as an infallible relation of great 
 and glorious transactions, wherein the almighty 
 power and loving kindness of Jehovah were most 
 marvellously displayed, and for which his name was 
 to be praised throughout all succeeding generations ; 
 but they did not reflect, how nearly they were con- 
 cerned in it ; they applied it not to themselves ; and 
 therefore wanted, in the circumstances they then 
 were, the most effectual restraint that could be laid 
 upon them, the best means to prevent their falling 
 after the same example of unbelief. Of this appli- 
 cation then the Apostle reminds them, and his 
 words are of the same import with those of St. 
 Paul to the Corinthians " Now all these things 
 happened unto them for ensamples" (Gr. TVTTOI, 
 types), " and they are written for our admoni- 
 tion, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 
 And then follows the application to that Church, 
 in as express terms as possible " Wherefore, let
 
 48 SERMON II. 
 
 him, that thinketh he standeth, take heed, lest he 
 fall." 1 
 
 The Apostle's words then, compared with those of 
 St. Paul, contain this great and important truth, to 
 which it is the duty of all, for whose instruction it 
 was written, to give a serious and frequent attention; 
 namely, that God's proceedings with the Israelites, 
 with regard to national visitations, are a type or 
 figure of his proceedings with his Church in all ages, 
 to the end of the world. For the full and clear illus- 
 tration of which point, I shall in the following dis- 
 course, 
 
 i. Enquire into the grounds and reasons of the 
 truth here asserted. 
 
 n. Prove the general assertion by an induction of 
 particulars ; in which an opportunity will be given 
 me of insisting more especially upon God's mercies 
 to this Church and nation, as vouchsafed upon this 
 day. 
 
 in. Offer some short reflections upon the whole 
 to your consideration; wherein it will appear, what 
 qualifications are requisite on our part for the reli- 
 gious celebration of this day's solemnity. I am 
 
 I. To enquire into the grounds or reasons of the 
 truth here asserted. And those undoubtedly are, 
 
 1. That the scheme of God's government (as has 
 been observed) is an universal, not partial one ; and 
 
 2. The deliverance, here referred to, the greatest 
 
 1 1 Cor. x, 11, 12.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 49 
 
 temporal deliverance that ever was wrought for the 
 Church. With regard to the first, the scheme of the 
 divine administration, it must be universal, because 
 it is founded and proceeds upon the plan of redemp- 
 tion, concerning which the prophet declares, that 
 " The Lord (is) good to all, and his tender mercies 
 (are) over all his works"; 1 and the Apostles, that 
 "Jesus Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and 
 not for ours only, but also (for the sins) of the whole 
 world"; 2 " That God is no respecter of persons, but 
 in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh 
 righteousness, is accepted with him." 3 The terms of 
 acceptance then are open to all, and if all are not 
 partakers of the inestimable benefit that was in- 
 tended for all, it is not to be imputed to any defect 
 in the means of salvation, any partiality in God, 
 but to an obstinate and final resistance of every 
 overture of grace, or an apostacy from the faith, 
 after we have been enlightened. The terms of ac- 
 ceptance you have just now heard " He that fear- 
 eth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted." 
 From which words I hope to convince you, that the 
 divine author of our salvation, the inexhaustible 
 fountain of all mercy and love, has never yet finally 
 deserted, and never will desert any individual man, 
 or society of men, that have not first deserted him 
 finally and impenitently. Now, by the "fear of God" 
 (when all the passages where the word occurs are 
 
 1 Ps. cxlv, 9. 2 1 John ii, 2. 3 Acts x, 34, 3o. 
 
 E
 
 50 SERMON II. 
 
 compared together) is plainly signified an awful 
 sense of his immutable justice, as the sure aven- 
 ger of unexpiated sin : it has evidently this signi- 
 fication in those words of our Saviour, " But I will 
 forewarn you whom you shall fear : fear him, which, 
 after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell, 
 yea, I say unto you, fear him." 1 Whoever has this 
 fear in himself will, with joy and thankfulness of 
 heart, " lay hold of the hope that is set before him ;" 
 and the same principle will preserve him, that retains 
 it, stedfast in this hope, till the love of God be made 
 perfect in him, and " perfect love casteth out fear." 
 Thus is the well-grounded fear of God essentially 
 connected with an humble desire of his mercy, and 
 therefore " His mercy is on them that fear him from 
 generation to generation." 2 We are next to consider, 
 what it is to work righteousness. And here it must 
 be remembered, that the sacred scriptures positively 
 declare that no son of fallen Adam hath any righteous- 
 ness of his own, and what righteousness then can he 
 work of himself \ "All our righteousnesses are as 
 filthy rags ;" 3 and it is written, " There is none 
 righteous, no not one." 4 The righteousness therefore 
 here spoken of must be the Redeemer's righteous- 
 ness, who is the end of the law for righteousness to 
 every one that believeth ; i.e., who has fulfilled the 
 all-perfect law of God for us, as well as paid the 
 satisfaction for our transgression of it ; neither of 
 
 1 Luke xii, 5. 2 Luke i, 50. 
 
 3 Isaiah Ixiv, 6. 4 Eom. iii, 10.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 51 
 
 which we sinners could do for ourselves; and now by 
 his Holy Spirit enables our faith in him to put forth 
 those acceptable fruits of righteousness in grace, 
 which, by reason of sin, we never more could have 
 produced by nature. But from his divine inex- 
 haustible store all man's righteousness is derived ; 
 and it is called " our righteousness" in holy scripture, 
 because it is first imputed and then given to us, not 
 because it is our own, as of ourselves, for it is the 
 gift of God in Christ : only we are free, whether we 
 will accept of it, or trust to our own, and upon our 
 choice our salvation depends. 
 
 By faith then it is, and by faith only, that man can 
 work righteousness as it is witnessed of the saints 
 of old by faith they wrought righteousness 1 Who- 
 soever will accept of righteousness upon these terms, 
 may work righteousness again, and every son of 
 Adam, that does so accept of it, is accepted with 
 God No soul, that ever applied through Christ for 
 it, was ever rejected. From the terms of our accept- 
 ance then, thus explained by the obvious sense of 
 the words in holy writ, there necessarily arises the 
 following inference, namely, that God, having de- 
 termined to save fallen man by Jesus Christ, con- 
 siders the whole race of Adam in this relation. 
 Jehovah (says Isaiah) is well pleased for his righteous- 
 ness sake; 2 i.e., his wrath is appeased, and therefore 
 by his good-will restored to mankind for the sake of 
 
 1 Heb. xi, 33. 2 Isaiah xlii,21. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 SERMON II. 
 
 Christ's righteousness. As many therefore, as seek 
 by faith for justification in Christ, come under the 
 terms and receive the benefit. If the whole race of 
 Adam would have done so, as he did, the whole race 
 would have been accepted ; a man cannot exclude 
 himself, but by voluntarily disqualifying himself; 
 and according to their own future choice fore-known 
 of God, before the foundation of the world, 1 God 
 hath regulated his proceedings with men from the 
 beginning, and will do so to the end. To shew this 
 in the manner it ought to be done, it would be 
 necessary to transcribe a complete history of the 
 true religion, and the false, in all its branches, from 
 the fall to these our days ; but I am obliged to con- 
 fine myself to a few instances, which will, I hope, be 
 sufficient. Abel, then, we read, was accepted, and 
 Cain rejected. But St. Paul informs us that Abel 
 was a believer ; 2 he offered by faith. And St. Jude, 
 that Cain was an apostate ; for speaking of the 
 apostate hereticks of his time, whom he styles, twice 
 dead, i. e., not only born, as all originally are, in a 
 state of everlasting death, but now likewise cut off 
 by their apostacy from the life which is in Christ, he 
 says, "they have gone in the way of Cain." 3 Again; 
 God hated Esau, and loved Jacob. But Esau, St. 
 Paul declares, was an infidel and profane person, who 
 
 1 " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate" 
 to what ? It follows " to be conformed to the image of 
 his Son," etc. Rom. viii, 29. 
 
 2 Heb.xi, 4. 3 Jude 11.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 53 
 
 for one morsel of meat (to satisfy a little temporal 
 want) sold his birthright ; J and therewith not only the 
 kingdom and the priesthood, which were annexed to 
 it, but all his hopes, and for all he knew to the con- 
 trary, those of mankind too, in the Messiah : he 
 afterwards married into an heathen family. 2 But 
 Jacob is enrolled amongst the illustrious worthies, 
 who obtained a good report through faith ; 3 and 
 being heir of the faith of Abraham, he became also 
 heir of the promise. Again ; to Pharaoh the scrip- 
 ture saith, " even for this same purpose I have raised 
 thee up" (i. e., to the throne, not to life) " that I might 
 shew my power in thee," etc., and the same scripture 
 saith, that "his heart was hardened." 4 But the same 
 scripture saith, likewise, he hardened his own heart ; 5 
 in further evidence of which, let us hear him speak 
 of himself "Who is Jehovah," says he, "that I should 
 obey his voice 1 ?" His insolence was incorrigible, 
 his pride above all conviction. A long series of most 
 astonishing and acknowledged miracles could not 
 humble him ; he pressed on to destruction, with one 
 of the greatest before his eyes ; a fitter example of 
 divine justice cannot well, I think, be conceived ! 
 
 Thus it is with individuals then, but it may be 
 asked, is it so also with societies "? as if societies did 
 not consist of individuals, and the whole could be 
 deprived of God's favour, while the part enjoy it, or 
 
 1 Heb. xii, 16. - Gen. xxvi, 34 3 Heb. xi, 21. 
 
 4 Exod. ix, 16-35. Compare with Romans ix, 17, 18. 
 
 5 Exod. ix, 34.
 
 54 SERMON II. 
 
 the whole enjoy it, when the parts have forfeited it! 
 Here let me repeat, that all God's mercies to indi- 
 viduals, since the fall, have been bestowed through 
 the alone merits and intercession of Christ : at what- 
 ever time they are finally withdrawn, whether from 
 individuals or communities, which they never are 
 till there is no room for amendment, then, and not 
 till then, individuals are appointed to everlasting 
 destruction, and communities to temporal ; exclusion 
 from the presence of God becomes necessary in the 
 one case, and excision in the other. To confirm this 
 likewise briefly by an example. That the Lord loved 
 Israel and hated Canaan, will readily be allowed. 
 Now if it shall appear, that his dealings with them 
 were as impartial, as with the above-mentioned in- 
 dividuals, the conclusion will be the same here as 
 there. The Israelites were the descendants of the 
 father of the faithful, they professed the true religion 
 in an idolatrous world, and retained it, as a nation, 
 when the Canaanites had rejected it. God, foreseeing 
 this, promised Abram to put his seed in possession 
 of the land of Canaan, and fulfilled his promise at 
 the time appointed. But here, behold the long- 
 suffering of God in the wide interval between the 
 promise and its completion, with the merciful reason 
 he himself has assigned for it ! " But in the fourth 
 generation" (not before) "they shall come hither again, 
 for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full". 1 
 
 1 Gen. xv, 16.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 55 
 
 What tender love is here shewn to a sinful people ! 
 What more could have been done for Israel ! When 
 their day of vengeance approached, he delivered 
 Israel out of Egypt ; but he suffered Israel to abuse 
 his mercy, no more than the Amorites. As the 
 apostacy of the former was not yet general, so neither 
 was their destruction ; but by various visitations he 
 cut them off which believed not ; the generation 
 that saw his miracles in Egypt fell in their passage 
 through the wilderness, all but Joshua and Caleb, 
 who were eminent for their faith ; and how he dealt 
 with their posterity, after their settlement, we shall 
 soon have occasion to mention. I will only add here 
 the declarations of Moses, very apposite to the present 
 purpose, and which the event proved to be pro- 
 phetical " And it shall be, if thou do at all forget 
 the Lord thy God, and walk after other gods, and 
 serve them and worship them ; I testify against you 
 this day, that ye shall surely perish ; as the nations, 
 which the Lord destroyeth before your face, so shall 
 ye perish." 1 And in another place he says, that " if 
 they would not observe to do all the words of the 
 law, God would bring upon them all the diseases of 
 
 Egypt-" 2 
 
 The impartiality of God's dealings with mankind 
 being thus established, Israel will appear to be the 
 fittest pattern that could be given to succeeding 
 generations, because 2dly, their deliverance was 
 
 1 Dent, viii, 19. 2 Deut. xxviii, 58.
 
 56 SERMON II. 
 
 the greatest temporal deliverance that ever was 
 wrought for the Church. The circumstances of time 
 and place, as well as the typical respect this great 
 event was to have to man's spiritual deliverance, re- 
 quired an extraordinary exertion of divine power 
 "Marvellous things therefore God did for them in 
 the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan." 1 "He 
 brought them forth out of Egypt, with a mighty 
 hand, and with an out-stretched arm, and with great 
 terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders." 2 
 Now the meritorious cause of his mercies being the 
 same to all, if, notwithstanding such a salvation, so 
 mightily conducted, so gloriously accomplished, he 
 afterward destroyed them that believed not, the 
 Church, in all future ages, would herein best discern 
 the immutability of his proceedings. That they 
 have been invariably the same with the Church in 
 future ages, is the general assertion I am to prove. 
 
 ii. By an induction of particulars ; in which an 
 opportunity will be given me of insisting more 
 especially upon God's mercies to this Church and 
 nation, vouchsafed as upon this day. And I. God 
 did unto the Israelites, after their settlement in 
 Canaan, as he had done unto their forefathers. To 
 pass over here their divers visitations, which were 
 sent in mercy to them, as to other nations, to call 
 them to repentance, their many less remarkable 
 captivities under the Judges, and the greater ones 
 
 1 Ps. Ixxviii, 12. 2 Deut. xxvi, 8.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 57 
 
 of the Ten Tribes, after their revolt from the house 
 of David, let us consider only the famous captivity 
 of Judah and their final dispersion. The former of 
 these, together with the cause of it, you have re- 
 corded by the inspired historian, at the conclusion 
 of the Books of Chronicles " Moreover," says he, 
 " all the chief of the priests, and the people, trans- 
 gressed very much, after all the abominations of the 
 heathen, and polluted the House of the Lord, which 
 he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the Lord God 
 of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, 
 rising betimes and sending, because he had com- 
 passion on his people and on his dwelling-place : 
 but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised 
 his words, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath 
 of the Lord arose against his people, till there was 
 no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the 
 king of the Chaldees." 1 This is too plain to need 
 any comment. But the promises of God, not yet 
 fulfilled, required Judah's restoration ; and their 
 affliction had so humbled them, as to make them 
 again proper objects of his mercy " By the rivers 
 of Babylon there they sat down, yea, they wept 
 when they remembered Zion." 2 Thus they came 
 once more under the terms of acceptance. Moses 
 had expressly said, that if they would return at any 
 time unto the Lord their God, he would return, and 
 gather them from all the nations whither he had 
 
 1 2 Clirou. xxxvi, 1 4. 2 Ps. cxxxvii, 1 .
 
 58 SERMON II. 
 
 scattered them " The Lord therefore was favourable 
 to his land, and brought back the captivity of Jacob." 1 
 But they again rebelled against the Lord their God, 
 again resisted the Holy Ghost, as their fathers had 
 done, who " killed the prophets, and stoned them 
 that were sent unto them." 2 So they were again 
 given up to a judicial blindness, which led them at 
 length to fill up the measure of their fathers by 
 crucifying the prince of life, and persecuting Christi- 
 anity. 3 Since which his imprecated blood has laid 
 heavy upon them ; he brought the Koman abomina- 
 tion of desolation into his holy place, and, by a most 
 unparalleled destruction, overthrew their city and 
 temple, dispersing the remnant to the four winds of 
 heaven. In this deplorable state have they now 
 continued near 1700 years, and shall continue so, 
 till they acknowledge him whom they crucified 
 They shall see him no more till they shall say, 
 " Blessed (is) he that cometh in the name of the 
 Lord;" 4 i. e., till they shall acknowledge him for their 
 Messiah ; those who did believe in him at his 
 coming having acknowledged him by this title. 5 
 "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, 
 until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled;" 6 i.e., 
 according to St. Paul's interpretation, " until the 
 fulness of the Gentiles be come in." 7 Observe here, 
 the Jews were rejected, because they rejected the 
 
 1 Ps. Ixxxv, 1. 8 Matth. xxiii, 37. 3 1 Thess. ii, 15, 16. 
 4 Matth. xxiii, 39, 5 Matth. xxi, 9. 
 
 6 Luke xxi, 24. 7 Kom. xi, 25.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 59 
 
 Messiah ; he was preached to the Gentiles, because 
 the Gentiles were ready to receive him : but when 
 the Gentiles shall likewise reject him, and his people 
 be willing to receive him, the Gentiles shall be re- 
 jected, and he shall return to his people. Well 
 might he expostulate with them by the mouth of 
 his holy prophet, "0 house of Israel, are not my 
 ways equal, are not your ways unequal I" 1 
 
 2ndly. God has done unto the Christian Churches 
 as he did unto the Jewish. This is too copious a 
 subject to have a particular consideration now ; but 
 a general account of the Eastern Churches, the seven 
 especially named in the Revelations, with the total 
 subversion of the empire itself, will, 'tis presumed, 
 be as fuU an evidence as will here be expected. 
 And the more so, as the things, recorded of those 
 seven Churches, comprehend in them every possible 
 state, in which any Church can be ; and were there- 
 fore recorded, that they might be a standing lesson 
 to all Churches, in the ages to come, an invariable 
 standard of our Lord's dealings with all, even to the 
 end of the world. Now the fate of all these has 
 long been determined ; the predictions of our Lord 
 concerning them have had an end ; and that decisive 
 one sent to the Church in Ephesus been fulfilled in 
 all "Remember, therefore," said he to her, "from 
 whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first 
 works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and 
 
 1 Ezek. xviii, 29.
 
 60 SERMON II. 
 
 will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except 
 thou repent." 1 The time of their visitation then 
 being past and allowed, we have only to inquire 
 into the occasion of it, whether they likewise despised 
 the long-suffering of God, and perished because of 
 unbelief. It is plain from the Epistles, written by 
 our Lord's direction, to the angels or bishops of these 
 Churches, and therein to the Churches themselves, 
 that most of them were even then declining towards 
 apostasy. " He that hath an ear, let him hear what 
 the spirit there saith to the Churches." The Church 
 in Ephesus, he saith, "had left her first love;" 2 the 
 Church in Pergamus had them that " held the doc- 
 trine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling- 
 block before the children of Israel, to eat things 
 sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication ;" 
 and of the Nicholaitans, " which thing" (saith our 
 Lord) " I hate." 3 The Church in Thyatira " suffered 
 that woman Jezebel" (some abominable heresy so 
 styled from King Ahab's idolatrous queen) " to teach 
 and seduce the servants of Christ, to commit forni- 
 cation;" they who had this doctrine are said to 
 have "known the depths of Satan." 4 The Church 
 in " Sardis lived, but was spiritually dead ; the things 
 which remained in her were ready to die ; her works 
 were not found perfect before God ; she had but a 
 few names" (in her) "which had not defiled their 
 garments" 5 i.e., returned to their former pollutions 
 
 1 Rev. ii, 5. 2 Ibid. 4. 3 Ibid. 14, 15. 
 
 4 Ibid. 20, 24. 5 Ibid, iii, 1, 2, 4.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 61 
 
 after their regeneration. Lastly, the Church of the 
 " Laodiceans was lukewarm, neither cold nor hot, in- 
 different to the truth, and therefore nigh unto re- 
 jection. She said she was rich" (i.e., spiritually so) 
 " and increased with goods, and had need of nothing ; 
 and knew not that she was almost reduced to her 
 natural state again was wretched, and miserable, 
 and poor, and blind, and naked." 1 Such was the 
 state of five of the seven Churches as early as in 
 Domitian's reign ; 2 and a very cursory perusal of 
 the ecclesiastical historians will satisfy us, that they 
 and the rest were not in a better way, after the con- 
 version of the Eoman empire. They were divided 
 and torn asunder by innumerable heresies ; and, to 
 mention but one (under which all the rest may 
 perhaps be finally reduced), 3 the impious doctrines 
 
 1 Kev. iii, 15-17. 2 A.D. 95. 
 
 3 For he that denies the divinity of Christ, denies all the 
 merit and benefits of what he has done, or suffered, or can 
 do for us of his perfect obedience, sufferings, atonement, 
 death, resurrection, and intercession. And he that denies 
 the divinity of the Holy Spirit, denies the application of all 
 that merit and those benefits to be redeemed the inspira- 
 tion, authority, and spirituality of his holy word his divine 
 presence in the blessed sacraments his operation upon the 
 souls of believers and their spiritual union under one 
 head : and so, in a word denies the whole of the covenant 
 of grace, or restoration of lost mankind, by Jesus Christ 
 all the wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and 
 redemption, that God the Father hath given us, in and 
 through God the Son, by God the Holy Ghost. So fruitful 
 a parent of sin and sorrow, so plainly destructive of all the 
 faith, hope, and love, that the mercy of our redeeming God
 
 62 SERMON II. 
 
 of Arius (of which the second Christian emperor 
 
 has shed abroad in the heart of fallen man, is the abomin- 
 able, however fashionable, doctrine of Unitarianism ! The 
 Anti-Trinitarians will, I hope, take this matter seriously 
 into consideration ; and as they do not openly as yet, that 
 I have heard, profess themselves to be Mahometans, it may 
 be a useful hint to inform them here, that this their favour- 
 ite opinion is the very essence of the Koran (the joint work, 
 as well as the language in which it is written, i.e., the 
 modern Arabic, of an apostate Jew or Jews, and an excom- 
 municated Nestorian monk), where they will read, amongst 
 innumerable other instances of the same kind, the two follow- 
 ing very remarkable ones " Surely God will not pardon the 
 giving him an equal, but will pardon any other sin, except 
 that, to whom he pleaseth ; and whoso giveth a companion 
 unto God, hath devised a great wickedness." Chap, iv, called 
 "the Chapter of Women." And again in the same chapter 
 " Believe therefore in God and his Apostles, and say not, 
 there are three Gods (meaning three Persons, for the Chris- 
 tians deny three Gods, as well as the Mahometans) forbear 
 this ; it shall be better for you. God is but one God (mean- 
 ing but one Person in the Godhead, as it follows) far be it 
 from him, that he should have a Son/' Sale's Translation, 
 page 67, 81. To which I only beg leave to add, as a Chris- 
 tian, that then we have no eternal life for the divine 
 scriptures declare, " This life is in his Son." 1 John v, 11. 
 And again more largely and emphatically, by a truly inspired 
 messenger, St. John the Baptist " He that believeth on 
 the Son hath everlasting life ; and he that believeth not the 
 Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on 
 him/' John iii, 36. And let the Unitarian Deist remove 
 it how he can, yea rather, let him apply for pardon in time 
 through the divine merits of the God-man ; and I pray the 
 God of all mercy to the penitent, that his sin may be for- 
 given him, and his prayer find acceptance in the day of his 
 trouble !
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 63 
 
 Constantius, and all the Gothic emperors afterwards 
 were favourers) spread over the empire in a few 
 years, were always its great reproach, and in the end 
 its destruction : This was " denying the only Lord 
 God and our Lord Jesus Christ," 1 denying his 
 divinity. Wherefore it pleased God at length to 
 visit it for such repeated provocations. At a time 
 when the emperor Heraclius (who was himself an 
 heretic) was engaged in disputes, and by these means 
 inattentive to the affairs of government, he suffered 
 that vile imposter Mahomet to rise : had the emperor 
 and his council been employed in the defence of the 
 faith, it is likely, he either would not have risen, or 
 the event have been different ; but as j.t was, he and 
 his successors extended their conquests with amazing 
 rapidity ; the sins of the empire made their victories 
 easy ; as the measure of them was not yet full, they 
 indeed were to scourge it but in part ; the final 
 overthrow of it, with the reduction of Constantinople, 
 was reserved for another Mahomet, 2 a fatal name 
 indeed to Christianity ! whose kingdom has been 
 ever since the abomination of desolation to Christen- 
 dom, ns the Eoman power was to Judea ; and hangs 
 now, like a heavy cloud, over the western empire, 
 designed perhaps to break upon it too, when its in- 
 fidelity is completed for the throne of Mahomet 
 is not supported for no end, and we have some 
 reason to fear it is supported for this. 
 
 1 Jude 4 2 Mahomet II, emperor of the Turks.
 
 64 SERMON II. 
 
 Such awakening truths as these will surely lead 
 us to reflect in what situation we ourselves stand 
 towards God. The Churches, whose desolation you 
 have heard, were once more flourishing than ours ; 
 they were fair primitive Churches ; but like the 
 numberless other glorious Churches in Asia and 
 Africa, they are no more ; their infidelity has long 
 since turned them into a dark spiritual wilderness. 
 Because they deserted their God, the Lord that 
 bought them, he that had so loved them, forsook 
 them : till they finally deserted him and his spiritual 
 things, he forsook them not, but invited them with 
 every overture of his mercy, and visited them with 
 every chastisement of his love. But though space 
 was given them to repent, they repented not. Where- 
 fore their glory departed from them, as he had de- 
 parted from Israel before, for the same reason ; and 
 left them too a dry, parched, barren desert, as he 
 found them no longer blessed with his all-cheering 
 influences, and thence devoid of faith and all its 
 amiable fruits but dry, parched, and barren, ex- 
 posed to wrath unexpiated only, unenlightened with 
 the light of life, and unrefreshed with the dew of 
 heaven ! And as if the nature of their offence was 
 intended to be set forth in the kind of their punish- 
 ment, their desolation was wrought by the sword of 
 a people, 1 whose religion is professed Unitarianism, 
 and whose very hopes here, and supposed enjoyments 
 
 1 The Mahometans.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 65 
 
 hereafter, are as openly professed sensuality. Now 
 great and manifold have been his mercies to this 
 Church and nation ; and there cannot be a fitter 
 time to consider what effect they have had, than now 
 we are met together to return public thanks for one 
 of the greatest. Such the deliverance he vouchsafed 
 us as upon this day ought to be esteemed, and such 
 it will be esteemed by all, who will give attention 
 to the troubles and miseries from which we were 
 delivered. God was pleased, for the transgressions 
 of our fathers, to permit a lawless, headstrong, en- 
 thusiastical faction to grow up in the heart of this 
 kingdom, till it became at length too powerful to be 
 subdued, even by force. The character of these mal- 
 contents very nearly resembles that of the abomin- 
 able hereticks described by our Apostle, and St. 
 Peter, in his second epistle. They did not indeed 
 deny the Lord Jesus with their lips ; they were too 
 artful to do this ; that blessed name was hardly 
 ever out of their mouths ; but by their works they 
 denied him, and we are commanded to judge of 
 them by their fruits. Some other parts of the cha- 
 racter answer exactly in terms they were " Mur- 
 murers, complainers, walking after their own lusts;" 1 
 "presumptuous, self-willed ;" 2 "while they promised 
 liberty, they themselves were the servants of cor- 
 ruption ;" 3 they " despised dominion, and were not 
 afraid to speak evil of dignities." 4 Thus qualified 
 
 i Jude 16. 2 2 Pet. ii, 10. 3 Ibib. 19. ' Jude 8. 
 
 F
 
 66 SERMON II. 
 
 for any desperate undertaking, they set forward 
 upon their intended reformation in Church and 
 State ; which, as indisputably appears from the 
 treaties of Uxbridge and Newport, was not to rectify 
 any abuses that might have crept into either, but 
 utterly to abolish the then present form of govern- 
 ment in both, and set up, in the stead of it, a general 
 plan of independency, wherein their enthusiasm and 
 ambition might safely riot at the expense of the 
 public, without the least check or controul from any 
 lawful authority. Eeformation, however right and 
 necessary in itself, under proper restrictions, has in 
 all ages been the plea made use of by designing 
 men, to recommend dangerous innovations ; and 
 whether the lately proposed emendations of our 
 most excellent Liturgy did not proceed from the 
 same spirit, now more gentle and candid, because it 
 is not opposed, may, if the scheme should hereafter 
 be revived, deserve your consideration. But at the 
 time we are speaking of, this spirit was more daring. 
 It petitioned for redress of grievances at the head of 
 an army, and esteemed every thing a grievance that 
 stood in the way of its favourite project. We can- 
 not better finish the character of these men, than 
 by shewing the manifest contrast there is, between 
 what they pretended to be, and what they really 
 were. As servants of the meek and merciful Jesus, 
 they were high-minded and implacable ; as his ser- 
 
 1 2 Pet. ii, 10.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 67 
 
 vants, who " went about doing good," whithersoever 
 they went, they spread devastation, exercising all 
 kinds of rapine and violence ; as He came to save 
 men's lives, they thought it their duty to destroy 
 them ; as his subjects by whom kings reign, they 
 were for extirpating monarchy, and blasphemously 
 pleaded his commission so to do. But the event 
 bore undeniable testimony to their principles i 1 not- 
 withstanding all possible endeavours for a recon- 
 ciliation, and more than legal concessions on the 
 part of the crown, they proceeded to the most un- 
 heard of and execrable parricide, the public execu- 
 tion of one of the best men that ever sat on a throne, 
 to the almost utter " desolation of two of these 
 kingdoms, and the exceeding defacing and deform- 
 ing the third." 2 Now, when both Church and State 
 were thus deeply wounded, and there appeared but 
 little hopes of the recovery of either, God was pleased 
 
 1 The faithful Christian is the only faithful -subject. The 
 murder of kings, however justified upon the pretended 
 principles of natural religion, ever has been, and ever must 
 be, held abominable upon Christian principles. As in this 
 one instance, among many, wherein the pretended prin- 
 ciples of natural religion are expressly contrary to divine 
 revelation, and therefore can never be a foundation for it to 
 stand upon, I could not help taking notice of it, upon this 
 occasion. Christian princes may herein see, which of their 
 subjects are the loyalists, the Christians or the Deists, upon 
 the allegiance of which, they may in all cases most securely 
 depend. He, who is a traitor to Christ, cannot be faithful 
 to his king. 
 
 a Lord Clarendon's Hist, of the Rebellion. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 SERMON II. 
 
 in a most extraordinary manner to heal all these 
 wounds by his great mercy vouchsafed to us as upon 
 this day, " by restoring to us and his own just and 
 undoubted rights, our then most gracious sovereign 
 lord, king Charles II, thereby restoring also unto 
 us the public and free profession of his true religion 
 and worship, with our former peace and prosperity." 1 
 When we consider the remarkable steps by which 
 this our deliverance was brought about, the unani- 
 mity of this at other times divided people to pro- 
 mote it, the seeming insufficiency of the means, and 
 yet the amazing and almost incredible expedition 
 with which the end was accomplished, we cannot 
 but discern, and ought therefore to acknowledge, that 
 " It was not our own arm that saved us, but his 
 right-hand, and his arm, and the light of his coun- 
 tenance, because he had a favour unto us." 2 Such 
 was the deliverance for which we are here met toge- 
 ther to praise him ; and now will be the proper time 
 to enquire 'whether we have preserved a just and 
 grateful sense of his mercies ; for to apply to our- 
 selves the emphatical words of Ezra, when he saw 
 his people, just delivered from the Babylonish cap- 
 tivity, returning to their former abominations 
 " After all that is come upon us" (said he) " for our 
 evil deeds and for our great trespass, seeing that 
 thou our God hast punished us less than our iniqui- 
 
 1 Second Collect in the service appointed for the day. 
 3 Ps. xliv, 3.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 69 
 
 ties deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as 
 this ; should we again break thy commandments, 
 and join in affinity with the people of these abomi- 
 nations, wouldst not thou be angry with us, till thou 
 hadst consumed us, so that there should be no rem- 
 nant or escaping V 1 And here it must be acknow- 
 ledged, that the impression, made by the divine good- 
 ness upon the hearts of this people, was not so last- 
 ing as might reasonably have been expected. Being 
 now again at ease, and in the full enjoyment of all 
 kind of prosperity, like Jeshurun of old, "They waxed 
 fat and kicked, they waxed fat, they grew thick, 
 they were covered with fatness then they forsook 
 God which made them, and lightly esteemed the 
 rock of their salvation/' 2 Through a just abhorrence 
 of fanatical hypocrisy, they ran headlong (as men 
 are too apt to do) into the opposite extreme; as the 
 enthusiastical party had " turned religion into rebel- 
 lion," the succeeding politicians seem too much to 
 have excluded it ; and thereby very fatally gave 
 encouragement to that diabolical scheme of natural 
 Independency, 3 which affects the title of Deism, 
 (though one inspired writer expressly declares, that 
 
 1 Ez. ix, 13, 14 2 Moses's Song, Dent, xxxii, 15. 
 
 3 Independency, arising out of pride and self-sufficiency, 
 was the devil's crime ; and the principles and practices, 
 which threw him down from heaven, can never carry man 
 to heaven : let all therefore, that hope to see the glory, from 
 which he fell, beware of such principles and practices : the 
 self-justifiers of the present age have great need of this 
 caution.
 
 70 SERMON 11. 
 
 " Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the 
 Father;" 1 and another, that they who are without 
 Christ are without God, dOeol 2 ), which, as it falls in 
 with the appetites of corrupt nature, and therefore 
 cannot fail to recommend itself to men of lively 
 parts and unmortified tempers, has ever since been 
 gaining strength, and (as has been lately observed 
 by an honest and able defender 3 of the " faith once 
 delivered to the saints") "committed strange havock 
 in this our clean and well-dressed vineyard, threat- 
 ening not only the fences, but the very roots and 
 productions of it." 
 
 It is time then for the watchmen to warn the 
 people of their danger, and use the day of grace for 
 their salvation and their own. What I have farther 
 to offer upon this subject, I will now, 
 
 in. Lastly, collect into a few short reflections 
 upon the whole, wherein it will appear, what quali- 
 fications are requisite on our part, for the religious 
 celebration of this day's solemnity. 
 
 The impartiality of God's proceedings with man- 
 kind leaves impenitent infidelity, wherever it is 
 found, no hope to escape ; and the Apostle's argu- 
 ment, drawn from his dealings with Israel, now 
 verified by sad experience, comes down to these our 
 
 1 1 John ii, 23. * Eph. ii, 12. 
 
 3 The truly learned and worthy Dr. Hodges, provost of 
 Oriel College in Oxford, in his Elihu, or an Inquiry into 
 the Principal Scope and Design of the Book of Job. 
 Page 34. Quarto edition.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 71 
 
 times with redoubled force. " Because of unbelief" 
 (says he) " they were broken off, and thou standest 
 by faith ; be not high-minded, but fear ; for if God 
 spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he 
 spare not thee. Behold therefore the goodness and 
 severity of God, on them which fell, severity, but 
 towards thee goodness, if thou continue in his good- 
 nessotherwise thou also shalt be cut off." 1 He has 
 long called us to repentance by his usual methods, 
 and if, now his judgments are amongst us, we will 
 not learn righteousness, our final visitation must be 
 in vengeance : God forbid, that it should be so ! and 
 let it be our sincere endeavour, as far as we are 
 able, to prevent it. This every one may do in some 
 degree, by thinking upon his ways, by considering 
 whether he hath contributed to obscure the light of 
 the gospel in these kingdoms ; and if he hath, to 
 intreat God, while it is to-day, for his part of the trans- 
 gression. But if his conscience condemn him not in 
 this respect, he will yet do much by perseverance. 
 Let him provoke the indifference of others by his 
 zeal for the glory of God ; let him publicly confess 
 his master before men, " Esteeming the reproach of 
 Christ greater riches than all the treasures of" the 
 Egypt of " this world ;" let him hold the doctrines 
 of our most holy faith pure and uncorrupt; and if 
 the primitive discipline is not restored by authority, 
 "which our Church acknowledges is much to be 
 
 1 Rom. xi, 20, etc.
 
 72 SERMON II. 
 
 wished," and, as the Lord has invested her with full 
 power to maintain it, will most undoubtedly be re- 
 quired of her let him revive it, as he shall have 
 opportunity, by exercising it upon himself, and in 
 the family, or other society, over which God hath 
 placed, or shall place him. 
 
 But all this, and much more, will be required of 
 the shepherds, in the present exigence. Let us, ac- 
 cording to the solemn charge we have received 
 " Before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall 
 judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and 
 his kingdom, preach the word, be instant in season 
 and out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all 
 long-suffering and doctrine ; watch in all things, 
 endure afflictions, do the work of evangelists, make 
 full proof of our ministry." 1 Let us take example 
 from the shepherds, as our flocks are commanded to 
 do from the people of Israel : that we may not 
 share in their punishment, let us have no share in 
 their guilt, which the Lord thus layeth to their 
 charge by the mouth of his prophet " Son of man, 
 prophecy against the shepherds of Israel, prophecy, 
 and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God unto 
 the shepherds Wo be to the shepherds of Israel 
 that do feed themselves ; ye eat the fat, and ye 
 cloath you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed, 
 but ye feed not the flock the diseased have ye not 
 strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was 
 
 1 2 Tim. iv, 1, 2, 5.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 73 
 
 sick, neither have ye brought again tnat which was 
 driven away, neither have ye sought that which was 
 lost but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled 
 them : and they were scattered because there was 
 no shepherd, and they became meat to all the beasts 
 of the field, when they were scattered/' 1 Our duty 
 particularly in warning the people of their danger, 
 and, for our comfort, our full discharge too, when we 
 have done our duty in this respect, are clearly set 
 forth. by the same prophet, in the preceding chapter, 
 under a very exact and beautiful allusion, that of a 
 watchman, set to give a city the alarm upon the 
 approach of an enemy : " So thou, son of man" 
 (saith the Lord) "I have set thee a watchman to the 
 house of Israel therefore thou shalt hear the word 
 at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I 
 say unto the wicked, wicked man, thou shalt 
 surely die, if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked 
 from his way, that wicked man shall die in his ini- 
 quity, but his blood will I require at thine hand : 
 nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way, to 
 turn from it, if he do not turn from his way, he 
 shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy 
 soul/' 2 
 
 Lastly, our chief dependence (under God) must 
 be upon places of education, and may the divine 
 Spirit engrave it in the memories of all who are 
 intrusted with it in this place ! More than ordinary 
 
 1 Ezek. xxxiv, 1, etc. >z Ezek. xxxiii, 7, etc.
 
 74 SEKMON II. 
 
 care should now be taken with the rising generation, 
 to warn their hearts betimes with a deep and grate- 
 ful sense of God's mercies, and enrich their under- 
 standings with the all-sufficient knowledge of his 
 word ; that the teachers, who go out from us, at 
 least, may be both faithful and able stewards of his 
 manifold grace. If the fountains themselves be 
 corrupted, the streams, they send out to water the 
 land, will be so of course, and the plants thereof will 
 generally thrive or perish, according as they are 
 watered. 
 
 To conclude. Let us all then, in our several sta- 
 tions, and each of us according to his ability, strive 
 to recover what is diminished of the dignity of the 
 Church of England. Without such sentiments, such 
 resolutions as these, I know not how we can cele- 
 brate this day as we ought to do. We may rejoice 
 upon it indeed, without these qualifications, but we 
 cannot, without them, keep it holy ; we may observe 
 it as a festival, but we cannot as a religious one : 
 for how shall we praise God for blessings, which we 
 neglect and despise 1 How pray for their continu- 
 ance, when we will do nothing to perpetuate them 1 
 But with the above qualifications, we may approach 
 the throne of grace, and humbly hope for success in 
 our labours : at least, if the sins of the many should 
 wax so strong, as to render our best endeavours with 
 regard to the public welfare ineffectual, be entitled 
 ourselves to God's mercies in Christ, both here and 
 hereafter.
 
 A SEASONABLE ADMONITION. 75 
 
 Now to God the Father, who was pleased to ac- 
 cept of a satisfaction for our sins ; to God the Son, 
 who was pleased to make that satisfaction with his 
 own blood to God the Father; and to God the Holy 
 Ghost, who is pleased to sanctify all that are ac- 
 cepted of God the Father in God the Son ; to the 
 most righteous, merciful and loving, eternal and 
 adorable Trinity in Unity, be glory in the Church 
 militant and triumphant, on earth and in heaven, 
 for ever. Amen !
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION 
 
 AND 
 
 KORAH'S REBELLION CONSIDERED. 
 
 A 
 
 SERMON 
 
 PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; 
 
 NOW PRINTED. 
 
 WITH WHAT THE AUTHOR JUDGED SOME SEASONABLE 
 ADDITIONS; 
 
 HUMBLY RECOMMENDED, AT THIS TIME OF VISITATION, 
 TO THE ATTENTION OF THE PUBLIC; 
 
 GEO. WATSON, 
 
 PRESBYTER OF THE CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 
 
 OXFORD: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE THEATRE FOR SACK. PARKER, AND R. CLEMENTS, IN 
 OXFORD ; AND E. WITHERS, AT THE SEVEN STARS, NEAR 
 TEMPLE BAR, LONDON.
 
 Imprimatur, 
 
 OEO. HUDDESFORD, 
 
 Vice-Can. Oxon. 
 Feb. 25, 1756.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 No true member of the Church of England, and loyal 
 subject of the king, will find any difficulty of assent 
 to the following sheets. Objections must come from 
 the opposite quarter; and from such as believe the 
 Holy Scriptures, I am aware of but two: 1, that the 
 evidence here produced being brought from a trans- 
 action under the law, may not be conclusive under 
 the Gospel dispensation; and 2, that the argument 
 bears too hard upon the dissenters in its conse- 
 quences; or, as I have heard it more invidiously 
 expressed, that " I send all the dissenters to Hell." 
 To the first objection an answer is occasionally given 
 in the course of the sermon; but as what is there 
 remarked may have greater weight in this place, 
 where I am writing professedly upon the subject, 
 and prepare the way for a more favourable reception 
 of the kind of evidence used in the sermon, I shall 
 here collect it, with some few additions, into one 
 point of view ; and it is briefly as follows. St. Paul, 
 in his Epistle to the Romans, affirms that "whatso- 
 ever things were written aforetime, were written for
 
 80 PREFACE. 
 
 our learning," 1 where the Apostle's assertion is 
 general, evidently involving in it all the Scriptures 
 of the Old Testament. But what can we learn from 
 them, unless they are applicable to all times, and we 
 in particular apply them to our own times and to 
 ourselves, in order to avoid whatever is displeasing 
 to God, and to do his blessed will, as he hath com- 
 manded us ? Thus applied, they are so many stand- 
 ing lessons of divine instruction, as they were de- 
 signed ; and such examples of what hath been of old, 
 with God's own determination in every case, besides 
 their typical use in prefiguring Christ to us, and the 
 spiritual things of his heavenly kingdom, often work 
 more powerfully upon the heart, to reduce it to obe- 
 dience, than the most forcible precept. But though 
 this general evidence were sufficient for our purpose, 
 and we might safely rest the matter upon it, we 
 shall do well to observe further the particular appli- 
 cations of this sort by our blessed Saviour and his 
 apostles. "As it was in the days of Noe," saith our 
 Lord, " so shall it be also in the days of the Son of 
 Man : they did eat, they drank, they married wives, 
 they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe 
 entered into the ark, and the flood came and de- 
 stroyed them all." 2 And again, in the verse follow- 
 ing : " Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, 
 they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, 
 they planted, they builded; but the same day that 
 
 1 Rom. xv, 4. 2 Luke xvii, 26, 27.
 
 PREFACE. 81 
 
 Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone 
 from Heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus 
 shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is 
 revealed." 1 And again, in the next verse but one, 
 where he is warning his disciples not to return back, 
 after their spiritual deliverance, to their former 
 worldly-mindedness, but eminently at the time of 
 Jerusalem's desolation, much more towards the de- 
 struction of the world, he saith, " Eemember Lot's 
 wife." 2 In like manner saith his Apostle St. James, 
 in his exhortation to the saints of God to endure the 
 fiery trial of their faith : " Take, my brethren, the 
 Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, 3 
 for an example of suffering, affliction, and of pati- 
 ence"; 4 adding for their encouragement, "Ye have 
 heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end 
 of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of ten- 
 der mercy." 5 So St. Peter, in his second Epistle, 
 charges the infidelity of the last days with respect 
 to Christ's second coming, and the dissolution of the 
 heavens and earth by fire, according to his divine 
 revelation, upon men's wilful ignorance of his judg- 
 ment of old, executed by an universal deluge of 
 water : " For this," saith he, " they are willingly igno- 
 rant of, that by the word of God the heavens were 
 
 1 Luke xvii, 28, 29, 30. 3 Ibid, v. 32. 
 
 3 See a glorious catalogue of them in the eleventh chap- 
 ter of the epistle to the Hebrews, and read on to the end of 
 the Apostle's inference, in the following chapter. 
 
 4 James v, 10. 5 Ibid. 11. 
 
 G
 
 82 PREFACE. 
 
 of old, and the earth standing out of the water ; and 
 in the water, whereby the world that then was, being 
 overflowed with water, perished/' 1 St. Paul, in his 
 Epistle to the Corinthians, hath taught us to make 
 the same use of the Old Testament. " Now these 
 things" (the things that befel the carnal Israel, from 
 their deliverance out of Egypt to their overthrow in 
 the wilderness, and other scriptures carry it on to 
 their final desolation, all these things), the Apostle 
 saith, were our examples, " to the intent we should 
 not lust after evil things, as they also lusted," etc. 2 
 The reader will be pleased to read the chapter from 
 the first to the fourteenth verse. Lastly, St. Jude 
 has, amongst other instances, applied the very his- 
 tory now before us to some rebellious and heretical 
 separatists in the apostolical age; thereby authoriz- 
 ing, I think, the future application of it to men of 
 like sentiments or manners in every succeeding age 
 of the Church, even to the end of the world. " Wo 
 unto them," saith the Apostle, " for they have gone 
 in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error 
 of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsay- 
 ing of Core." 3 I cannot see any evasion of this 
 authority, unless perhaps it should be artfully urged 
 that St. Jude, as an inspired writer, could not err in 
 his application; whereas we who have no such infal- 
 lible direction, may incur the charge of presumption 
 in doing the like? That we have no such extraordi- 
 
 1 2 Peter iii, 5, 6. 2 1 Cor. x, 6, etc. 3 Jude 11.
 
 PREFACE. 83 
 
 nary gifts now, amongst which the discerning of 
 spirits was one, 1 1 shall most readily allow ; but that 
 we cannot, therefore, form a certain judgment of 
 men from their words and works, I am bound to 
 deny, first, because my blessed Master hath com- 
 manded me to do it, saying, " Wherefore, by their 
 fruits ye shall know them"; 2 and secondly, because 
 it is evident that, upon the contrary supposition, we 
 could neither apply many histories of the Old Testa- 
 ment, or prophecies of the New, to one end for which 
 they were designed. To judge of the thoughts of 
 men's hearts is one thing; to judge of their overt 
 acts, compared with God's written Word, is another. 
 How far our modern Dissenters resemble those here- 
 ticks condemned by St. Jude, the impartial, "will, 
 upon comparison, determine for himself. I shall 
 only assist his enquiry with suggesting one material 
 part of the character of the latter, as drawn by the 
 inspired pen of the aforementioned Apostle, that 
 they despised dominion, and spake evil of dignities ; 3 
 from the full meaning of which divine text, as we 
 ought not to exclude the civil power, so neither can 
 any one, without open violence to the context, ex- 
 clude the ecclesiastical. 
 
 And here I might reasonably take my leave, 
 without answering the second objection at all ; since, 
 if the former difficulty is obviated, the latter can be 
 of no force no man being answerable for the conse- 
 
 1 1 Cor. xii, 10. * Matth. vii, 20. 3 Jude 8. 
 
 G 2
 
 84 PREFACE. 
 
 quences of a scripture rightly applied or interpreted : 
 they, whom it concerns, are to look to tha,t. But as 
 I would willingly be all things to all men, in the 
 Apostle's sense, for their satisfaction I shall do my 
 endeavour to give it in the present case to all that 
 are disposed to receive it ; that no supposed uncha- 
 ritable zeal on my part may afford occasion to such 
 as seek occasion, to draw away any one ignorant 
 and unstable soul, or keep back, if already drawn 
 away, any one returning soul, from God's undoubted 
 institutions. With this view I now proceed there- 
 fore to the second objection above-mentioned, which 
 was, that the argument bears too hard upon the 
 Dissenters in its consequences, or, as I have heard it 
 more invidiously expressed, that "I send all the 
 dissenters to hell." My answer to which shall begin 
 with an appeal to what I have written. Can any 
 man read the following discourse, and say this ? or 
 will he not rather acknowledge it to be the very 
 reverse of my intention ? If warning a sinner from 
 the error of his way be the sending of him to hell, 
 what, let me ask it in God's name, is brotherly love 1 ? 
 Whether all our Dissenters have not departed from 
 the institutions of God (and I would the. same might 
 not now be said of most of them with respect to 
 doctrine in some point or other), must be determined 
 by the divine Scriptures, the only rule of faith and 
 obedience ; but if they have, then have they dan- 
 gerously erred, in setting up their wisdom against 
 the wisdom of God, and the calling upon them to
 
 PREFACE. 85 
 
 return by a timely repentance, especially in this dis- 
 tracted state of the Church, is the duty of every 
 faithful watchman, and a most charitable work. 
 Whatever men may think now of this matter, 
 through long custom and indifference, this was the 
 opinion of holy and devout men, whose spirits are 
 now, I trust, with God, in the primitive and every 
 succeeding age of the Christian Church. One in 
 particular has expressed what I wished to say on 
 the subject in so clear and unexceptionable a man- 
 ner, that the reader will be better pleased to read 
 what remains of my apology in his most judicious 
 words. After having assigned prudential reasons 
 (if human prudence were our guide in such matters) 
 why the episcopal form of government, if it were 
 not a divine and unalterable institution, should, for 
 the sake of uniformity, have been long since abo- 
 lished, he proceeds thus : 
 
 " But if the apostolical or episcopal form was 
 ordained by Christ, for the perpetual and unalter- 
 able polity of his Church, as all Christianity in all 
 ages believed for fifteen hundred years ; then let all 
 the clergy write for it, as their worthy author hath 
 done, expecting the protection of their great Lord 
 here, and their reward from him hereafter, w r hen 
 they must give an account of this stewardship, and 
 the authority he hath committed to them, for the 
 government of his people. It is their duty to teach 
 their flocks this fundamental doctrine of Church- 
 government, and those which depend upon it, let
 
 86 PREFACE. 
 
 the consequences of them fall upon what persons or 
 Churches soever; and therefore let them teach them, 
 without fearing to be reproached as high-flyers and 
 men of rigid principles who had no charity, but are 
 for damning all but themselves. These are slanders 
 and persecutions, which those who will preach the 
 truths and commandments of God, must be content 
 to bear from those who cannot endure sound prin- 
 ciples, because they make themselves obnoxious to 
 the consequences of them ; and then say, that they 
 who preach them preach damnation to the greatest 
 part of mankind, and to Christians as good as them- 
 selves. But I would ask those who are wont to 
 talk after this loose manner, if I must not preach up 
 the being and providence of God, because Atheists 
 and Epicureans, who now are no small number, in- 
 volve themselves in the consequences of a doctrine, 
 which concludes them all under damning unbelief ? 
 Must I not assert the authority of the scripture, and 
 the certainty of revealed religion, because it falls 
 heavy upon the vast number of deists and sceptics 
 among us, and puts them all in a state of damna- 
 tion ? Must I not preach up the union of the divine 
 and human nature in the person of Christ, because 
 the consequences of it are severe upon so many 
 Arians, Socinians, and other Unitarians? Or, not to 
 mention the moral doctrines of Christianity, must I 
 not preach up the perpetual institution of the Lord's 
 day, or of baptism, and the Lord's supper, because 
 so many neglect, or despise, and reject the use of
 
 PREFACE. 87 
 
 them, to their own destruction'? In like manner let 
 me ask these men, if the clergy must not preach up 
 the episcopal form of Church-government as a per- 
 petual ordinance of Christ, and the necessity of an 
 episcopal mission and ministry, without respect to per- 
 sons or Churches, be they never so many, which have 
 rejected the divine institution, and still wilfully con- 
 tinue in the want of it, and thereby involve them- 
 selves in consequences which too many learned and 
 worthy men, under the pretence of charity, have too 
 much endeavoured to palliate, and soften, or evade 
 for them ; whereas it is much greater and truer 
 charity to let those consequences fall in their full 
 weight upon them, that they may see their error, 
 and the danger of it by those consequences, and be 
 thereupon effectually moved to reunite themselves 
 to the Catholic Church, from whose doctrines they 
 have departed in everything that relates to it as a 
 society of Christ's framing, 1 and thereby brought 
 
 1 Ignorance or disregard of this essential part of the con- 
 stitution of a Church is, and ever has been, one grand cause 
 of dissension. And as this mistake seems universally to 
 obtain amongst Dissenters of all kinds, it will be of use to 
 some readers, to add a short note upon what this judicious 
 author has observed. A Church, then, is not only a num- 
 ber of people agreeing in the same articles of faith (although 
 such unity of belief be an essential constituent of a Church), 
 but it is also a society holding one visible communion 
 under the same divinely-instituted government or, as this 
 worthy author expresses it, it is a society of Christ's 
 framing. Opposite altars are like opposite thrones ; dif- 
 ferent governments cannot make one society ; a Church, as
 
 88 PREFACE. 
 
 their call and mission into question, giving as good 
 and learned men as any are in the world occasion to 
 doubt of their mission, whether it is valid or no ; and 
 by consequence, whether their ministers are God's 
 ministers and messengers, such ministers as the arch- 
 bishop (viz., Cranmer) speaks of in his sermon (on 
 the power of the keys, which the reader will find at 
 
 well as a kingdom, divided against itself, must in the end 
 be dissolved. St. Augustine has entered into this matter 
 with his usual discernment. In one place, speaking to the 
 Donatists, he says "Ye are with us in baptism, in the 
 creed, in all the other holy rites of our Lord's institution. 
 But in the spirit of unity and bond of peace, finally, in the 
 Catholic Church itself, ye are not with us." Epist. xciii, p. 
 230, sect. 46. Edit. Benedict. And again, in another place, 
 " In many things they were with me. Both of us held 
 baptism ; in that they were with me. We kept the feasts 
 of the martyrs ; herein they were with me. We were con- 
 stant at the anniversary of Easter ; herein they were with 
 me. But they were not altogether with me. In schism 
 they were not with me, in heresy they were not with me. 
 In many things they were with me, in some few things 
 they were not with me. But by reason of the few things 
 in which they are not with me, the many things in which 
 they are with me do not profit them." Enarratio in Ps. liv, 
 torn, iv, p. 512. " Therefore/' as the holy apostolic bishop 
 and blessed martyr Ignatius exhorteth the Church in Phila- 
 delphia, " earnestly endeavour to partake of the same eucha- 
 rist. For (there is) one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ and 
 one cup for the uniting of his blood. One altar, as (there 
 is) one bishop (saith he) with the presbytery (i.e., the^ priests) 
 and deacons, my fellow servants ; that whatsoever ye do, 
 ye may do it accordingly to (the institution of) God." 
 Sect. iv.
 
 PREFACE. 89 
 
 the twenty-fifth page of his excellent preface), who 
 have the true sacerdotal mission and authority from 
 God, to minister his word and sacraments to the 
 people in Christ's place, and the acts of whose 
 ministry are as valid, as if Christ himself should 
 minister unto them ; as being made so by the same 
 consecration, orders and unction, by which bishops 
 and priests were made at the beginning, and are to 
 be made God's ministers by his appointment, unto 
 the end of the world \ It grieves me always, when 
 I consider to what difficulty the ministers of the 
 Presbyterian Churches abroad have been put, to 
 answer the questions about their mission ; and what 
 shifts and evasions their defenders among us have 
 also been put to in their attempts to defend it. And 
 therefore I must say it again, the greatest and truest 
 charity to the reformed Churches, and the whole 
 reformation, is to exhort them to take the same 
 mission that we have retained, as the only true and 
 indisputable mission of the holy Catholic Church. 
 I think the nature of Christian charity obliges us, 
 upon Catholic principles, to write them up to our 
 Church, and not, as the manner of some hath been, 
 to write our Church down to them : and whoever 
 would w r rite such a parsenesis (i.e., exhortation), to 
 them in the common language and Christian spirit of 
 meekness, I think he would do a most charitable 
 work, for which, if they did not think themselves 
 obliged to him, God would certainly reward him, 
 and all good men would praise him for ever. What
 
 90 PREFACE. 
 
 I have said here I call God to witness, I speak not 
 out of ill-will, but out of pure love and good- will, 
 for the foreign reformed Protestants, for whose pre- 
 servation, if I can judge of myself, I could lay down 
 my life ; and of whom I say with my whole heart, 
 as St. Paul said to king Agrippa, I would to God, 
 for his Church's sake, that they were not only almost 
 but altogether as we of the Church of England are." 
 
 Thus far this great and useful light of the Church 
 of England, Dr. Geo. Hickes, 1 in the forty-eighth and 
 following pages of his preface to the divine right of 
 episcopacy asserted, which together with the excellent 
 book to which it is prefixed, I most earnestly recom- 
 mend to the attentive perusal of the pious believer, 
 as containing the best information I have met with 
 for general use, in this important enquiry wherein 
 is proved by an induction of particulars faithfully 
 collected from the word of God, and writings of the 
 primitive fathers, that episcopacy is of divine and 
 apostolical institution, and that it was the govern- 
 ment of the Christian Church during the three first 
 ages of it, and was designed to be perpetual in it to 
 the end of the world with an account of the distinc- 
 tion of the three orders of bishop, priest, and deacon, 
 to reconcile the dissenting parties to that form of 
 Church-government. 
 
 I have only now to add a brief exhortation to those 
 into whose hands these sheets may come, that laying 
 
 1 Vide editor's note at the end of this preface.
 
 PREFACE. 91 
 
 aside every prejudice of their own, and giving no 
 heed to the specious suggestions of men of latitu- 
 dinarian principles, they will, with due reference and 
 humility of soul, take their instruction from God ; 
 since to be wise above what is written, whether it be 
 in matters of doctrine or institution, is to throw up 
 the reins to inordinate affection, and multiply error 
 without end. I intreat them to consider well the 
 consequences this has already produced how far 
 their plea of prejudice of education, which is the 
 being led by authority, will be admitted in a country 
 where the holy scriptures are, or may be, in every 
 man's hand and whether anything they have heard 
 or may hear, can be esteemed a safe counterbalance 
 to the infallible direction of Almighty God, and the 
 universal practice of his Church, grounded thereupon, 
 for the space of fifteen hundred years. These reflec- 
 tions, duly weighed, with the careful reading of the 
 book and preface above recommended, will, I trust, 
 be sufficient for the conviction of every sincere well- 
 meaning dissenter : and I most devoutly beseech 
 our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, 1 
 to hasten the return of such, as wander thus unwit- 
 tingly, into the fold of his Church. From the rest, 
 whom the God of this world hath blinded, who 
 view every object placed before them through the 
 medium of present gratification, I have no other 
 treatment to expect than better writers and much 
 
 1 Heb. xiii, 20.
 
 92 PREFACE. 
 
 better men have experienced before me : bearing in 
 mind my Saviour's words : "The disciple is not above 
 (his) "master, nor the servant above his Lord : it is 
 enough for the disciple that he be as his Master, 
 and the servant as his Lord," 1 who, though it was 
 testified of him before he came, "grace is poured 
 into thy lips," 2 and who accordingly when he came, 
 " spake as never man spake" 3 yea, " who loved as 
 never man loved," and obeyed as never man obeyed, 
 (such is the base ingratitude of this sinful world !) 
 was only nailed to the cross for it. 
 
 1 Matth. x, 24, 25. 2 Ps. xlv, 2. 3 John vii, 46. 
 
 [Dr. George Hickes was made a prebendary of Worcester 
 in 1680, and in August, 1683, was promoted to the deanery. 
 At the revolution in 1688 he refused to take the oaths of 
 allegiance, and fell under suspension in 1689, and was de- 
 posed the following February of his preferment, against 
 which he protested, and affixed his claim on the great en- 
 trance into the choir. Expecting on this account the resent- 
 ment of the government, he privately withdrew to London, 
 where he concealed himself for many years, until Lord 
 Somers, then Chancellor, procured an act of council by 
 which the Attorney-General was ordered to cause a non 
 prosequi to stay proceedings against him. He afterwards 
 went to France with the list of deprived clergy, to confer 
 with King James about the matter, and returned to Eng- 
 land in February, 1694, and on the eve of St. Matthias he 
 was consecrated suffragan bishop of Thetford. Being thus 
 spiritually a bishop, he exercised his duties by ordaining 
 priests and deacons, but he became so obnoxious to the 
 government that his personal safety was often greatly en- 
 dangered. He was frequently under the necessity of keep-
 
 PREFACE. 93 
 
 ing himself closely concealed and going in disguise, and it 
 is related by the continuator of the life of Dr. Kettlewell, 
 that once meeting Dr. Hickes, he was surprised at observ- 
 ing him in a military dress and passing for a captain or a 
 major. He died in 1715. He was a man of unusual learn- 
 ing, well versed in the northern languages. In 1705 he 
 published one of the most extraordinary Herculean labours 
 ever attempted, entitled " Linguarum vett. Septentriona- 
 lium Thesaurus grammatico - criticus et archseologicus." 
 Oxon., 1703-5. Fol. 3 vols. With a splendid portrait of 
 the Doctor. On his becoming Dean of Worcester he com- 
 menced a long and endearing friendship with Dr. Hopkins, a 
 prebendary, whose life the dean afterwards prefixed to a 
 volume of Dr. Hopkins' sermons. It is a piece of biography 
 not so well known as it deserves, in which the dean states 
 the obligations he was under to the worthy prebendary, in 
 bringing about many reforms of abuses which they found 
 existing in the chapter.] NOTE BY EDITOR
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION 
 
 AND 
 
 KORAH'S REBELLION CONSIDERED. 
 A SERMON. 
 
 NUMBERS xvi, 47, 48. 
 
 And Aaron tooik as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst 
 of the congregation, and behold the plngiie was begun, among 
 the people ; and he put on incense, and made an atonement for 
 Hie people and he stood between the dead and the living, and 
 the plague was stayed. 
 
 THESE words contain a most awful and interesting 
 description. All the circumstances of it are so 
 striking, so full of terror on the one hand, and of con- 
 solation on the other the colouring so strong the 
 distress so exquisite and the deliverance so extra- 
 ordinary, so unexpected, so unmerited that the bare 
 recital of it cannot but sensibly affect you, and move 
 every compassionate heart that has any feeling for 
 others. Much more will it, when you consider the 
 design of the history, how nearly yourselves are con- 
 cerned in it. For we have divine authority to affirm 
 that " the things which happened to Israel of old," 
 under that figurative dispensation, " happened unto 
 them for examples to us, the Christian Church in the
 
 96 SERMON HI. 
 
 latter days ; and that they are written for our admo- 
 nition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 
 Yea, that all things, "whatsoever were written afore- 
 time, in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, were 
 written for our learning and were written for this 
 end, that we, through patience and comfort of the 
 Scriptures, might have hope." 2 The scripture before 
 us therefore was written for this end ; and if it shall 
 now raise or confirm this hope in any that are here 
 present, it shall have accomplished in every such 
 person, the end for which it was written. I shall 
 endeavour, by the blessing of God, to place it in such 
 a point of view, as to produce this blessed effect in 
 the hearts of many that hear me. I shall for this 
 purpose, 
 
 I. Lay before you the historical relation, the 
 occasion of Aaron's interposition, and the consequence 
 of it. 
 
 ii. Show the merciful design, in recording it, 
 what it was intended to represent. 
 
 HI. The farther instruction that arises from the 
 history thus illustrated and explained. I am 
 
 i. To lay before you the historical relation, the 
 occasion of Aaron's interposition, and the consequence 
 of it. 
 
 The occasion was this : Korah, Dathan and 
 Abiram, with certain others they had seduced, had 
 rebelled against Moses and Aaron, presumptuously 
 
 1 1 Cor. x, 11. 2 Rom. xv, 4.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 97 
 
 claiming to themselves, and intruding into those 
 high and separated offices, which no man could take 
 upon himself without God's appointment, and had 
 received their punishment, a punishment as extraor- 
 dinary as the offence ! For the Lord made a new 
 thing, as his servant Moses had foretold, "and it came 
 to pass, as he had made an end of speaking, &c., 
 that the ground clave asunder that was under them, 
 and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them 
 up, and their houses and all the men that (appertained) 
 unto Korah, and all their goods, they and all that 
 (appertained) to them, went down alive into the pit, 
 and the earth closed upon them, and they perished 
 from among the congregation. And there came out 
 a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred 
 and fifty men that offered incense." 1 So miraculous 
 a manifestation of God's displeasure would, one should 
 have thought, have silenced the multitude, and 
 terrified the most hardened of them into obedience. 
 They fled indeed " at the cry of them that suffered, 
 for they said lest the earth swallow us up also." 2 But 
 as soon as the danger was over, they discovered the 
 real sentiments of their corrupted hearts. All rever- 
 ence laid aside, they go in a tumultuous and insolent 
 manner to their leaders, requiring at their hands the 
 blood of Korah and his followers. " On the morrow 
 all the congregation of the children of Israel mur- 
 mured against Moses and against Aaron, saying, ye 
 
 1 Numbers xvi, 30, 31, 32, 33-35. 2 Verse 3-t. 
 
 H
 
 98 SERMON III. 
 
 have killed the children of the Lord." 1 Thus, by 
 standing up for these offenders, they shewed a secret 
 approbation of their offence, and being partakers of 
 their offence, they justly became also partakers of 
 their destruction. The divine wrath therefore went 
 out against them. " Get you up, said the Lord to 
 Moses and Aaron, from among this congregation, that 
 I may consume them in a moment." 2 A most dreadful 
 pestilence ensued : and then it was, that Aaron did, 
 as it is recorded of him in the text " took a censor 
 with fire from off the altar, and put on incense as 
 Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the con- 
 gregation, and made an atonement for the people." 3 
 He exposed himself for their sake to the irresistible 
 displeasure of his God, which had already swept 
 away such numbers of them stood in the mid way 
 between the wrath and them, between the dead and 
 the living an action so full of faith and love, as to 
 deserve the admiration of all ages ; unexampled, 
 except in the cases of Moses and David, who 
 offered themselves in like circumstances to save 
 their people ; and never but once exceeded, I mean 
 by that great mediation, of which all these were 
 types as they well knew who interposed, or they 
 would never have dared to interpose ! 
 
 The consequence of this interposition was, that 
 the plague was stayed. It stopped where Aaron 
 
 1 Numbers xvi, 41. 2 Numbers xvi, 45. 
 
 3 Numbers xvi, 47.
 
 AARON S INTERCESSION, ETC. 99 
 
 stood ; before him all were consumed, all behind 
 him were saved he " stood between the dead and 
 the living." But was it for Aaron's sake, that God 
 spared the remnant of his people 1 ? Had he any 
 merit of his own, any superfluous righteousness that 
 might be imputed to them ? So far from it, that, 
 however comparatively holy and faithful he was, yet 
 was he a descendant of that Adam, of whose chil- 
 dren it was testified, that " there is none that doeth 
 good, no not one." 1 He, and every high priest, 
 taken from among men, were necessarily heirs of 
 the universal corruption, had their infirmities, as the 
 Apostle argues, and were obliged to offer up sacri- 
 fice for their own sins, as well as those of the peo- 
 ple. 2 Aaron therefore of himself could make no 
 atonement for them ; and without an atonement, 
 the justice of God could not let them escape. To 
 account for this wonderful deliverance then, we must 
 carry on our thoughts farther, to some higher atone- 
 ment, to a greater than Aaron, as we shall do by con- 
 sidering, as was proposed, 
 
 n. The merciful design in recording this history, 
 what it was intended to represent. 
 
 And St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, has 
 determined this point beyond all contradiction. He 
 tells us, that the " law had a shadow of good things 
 to come," of which Christ and his heavenly things 
 
 1 Ps. liii, 1, 3 ; compare Rom. iii, 12. 
 ~ Heb. v, 1 ; vii, 27. 
 
 H '2
 
 100 SERMON III. 
 
 were the body ; J that Aaron and every high priest 
 were his representatives, who is our gracious inter- 
 cessor and high priest for ever ; 2 the holy of holies, 
 and all Aaron did there before the cherubim of 
 glory upon the mercy-seat, types or figures of heaven 
 itself, and what our Lord did and does there in the 
 presence of God for us ; 3 and the blood he there 
 offered once a year, emblematical of his blood, who 
 offered himself once for all. 4 Taking it therefore for 
 granted, since the Holy Ghost expressly affirms it, 
 that Aaron represented our Lord at all times, I shall 
 pass on to the true application of the history before 
 us, and lay open the spiritual intention of it; whereby 
 it will appear that this thing, as well as all others 
 recorded of God's people, " happened unto them for 
 an ensample, and is written," (is now left upon record 
 in the bible), " for our admonition, upon whom the 
 ends of the world/' the latter days, those of the 
 Messiah, " are come." 5 
 
 We have here then described to us, under the 
 most affecting images, the miserable and lost state 
 of man after the fall; the terrible execution of divine 
 justice on the one hand, and the gracious interposi- 
 tion of our Eedeemer on the other, with the effects 
 of both. We and all mankind are rebels by nature 
 in Adam all sinned 6 all broke their allegiance to 
 
 1 Ch. x, 1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 23, 24 See also Coloss. ii, 17. 
 
 2 Hebr. ix, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, etc. 3 Hebr. ix, 7, 2i. 
 4 Hebr. ix, 9, 12, 26*. 5 1 Cor. x, 11. 
 
 6 Rom. v, 12, 19.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 101 
 
 their Creator and Sovereign, and went over to his 
 and their enemy. Forfeiture of life and inheritance 
 necessarily followed the transgression in Adam all 
 died 1 died from God, from his spirit and glory, as 
 well as became mortal in their bodies, were sub- 
 jected to the sentence of tfre spiritual and eternal, as 
 well as natural death ; i. e., our spirits were deprived 
 by sin of all communication with God in this life, 2 
 as they, and our souls and bodies were to be of his 
 glorious presence 3 in outer darkness 4 for ever 5 
 being all doomed to be cast finally into the lake of 
 fire, 6 which the Holy Ghost by St. John emphati- 
 cally styles the " second death :" 7 in which complete 
 sense of the word death therefore, as it respects the 
 present, separate, and after state of the spirit, soul, 
 and body, " death passed upon all men, for that all 
 have sinned." 8 The unquenchable fire of divine 
 wrath being thus kindled up against us, justice must 
 ever after have taken place, without mercy, all have 
 been involved in the common ruin, without distinc- 
 tion, without hope. But this Avas not the end for 
 which the blessed Trinity created man. For God 
 made not death he created man to be immortal, 
 and made him to be an image of his own eternity 
 through envy of the devil came death into the 
 world, and " still, as at first, they" alone " that do 
 
 1 Rom. v, 12, 14, 15, 17, 21 ; 1 Cor. xv, 22. 
 
 2 Ephes. iv, 18. 3 Mattli. x, 28 ; 2 Tlicss. i, 9. 
 4 Matth. xxii, 13. 5 Rev. xiv, 11. 
 
 Rev. xx, 14. ' Ibid. 14. 8 Rom. v, 12.
 
 102 SERMON III. 
 
 hold of his side do find it." 1 For the covenant of 
 works being broken by transgression, the covenant 
 of grace, or Christianity, now immediately suc- 
 ceeded the gracious remedy provided against sin 
 and death, when they should be introduced into the 
 works of God, the blessed, means of eternal recon- 
 ciliation, foreordained of the Persons in the Deity 
 before the foundation of the world, that the sinner, 
 who had no righteousness of his own to plead in 
 arrest of God's righteous judgment, might, upon the 
 new terms of this act of grace, again find acceptance 
 and life through the divine satisfaction and imputed 
 righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In pursu- 
 ance of which divine council, he, the second Person, 
 the true Aaron, our everlasting high priest and re- 
 presentative, ran into the midst of God's people ; as 
 is indeed expressed in his title of mediator, which 
 signifies a person who interposes between two parties 
 at variance, to the end that he may reconcile them. 
 Being made flesh in the fulness of time, he met the 
 burning wrath in our stead, 2 and by virtue of his 
 unchangeable purpose so to do, turned it aside from 
 all believers, as well before he came as afterwards. 
 In the particular of his sufferings indeed Aaron 
 could not represent him; this the sacrifices, as far 
 as was possible, were designed to represent; their 
 blood was shed instead of the sinner's blood, the fire 
 
 1 Author of the book of Wisdom i, 13 ; ii, 23, 24-. 
 
 2 Lam. i, 1 2 ; Isaiah liii, 5, 6.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 103 
 
 consumed them instead of the offerer. But as Aaron 
 with the offered incense made a typical atonement 
 for the people, so did He a real by his merits, which 
 that incense represented. 1 He stood, and stands 
 now, between the dead and the living those who, 
 by opposing his method of saving them, will die in 
 their sins, and those who, believing in him, though 
 they were dead, yet shall live, who, living and be- 
 lieving in him, shall never die. 2 " And the plague 
 is stayed." He paid the ransom for all mankind that 
 will accept of it. Over such as do, the second death 
 shall have no power. The fiery sword of offended 
 justice cannot reach them ; he was pierced through 
 with it in their stead. " There is therefore now," as 
 saith the Apostle, " no condemnation to them which 
 are in Christ Jesus," 3 who utterly renouncing the 
 filthy rags of their own sinful righteousness, 4 as all 
 the righteousness fallen man can work, even under 
 grace, must be, because he that works it is a sinner 
 every thing they can do towards their own justi- 
 fication, towards the payment of that infinite debt 
 they have contracted, and are still contracting 
 humbly sue for his divine righteousness, who has 
 paid it for them to the uttermost, the only merito- 
 rious and availing righteousness, the righteousness 
 that is by faith ; 5 who thus divesting themselves of 
 their own merit, plead his only for acceptance 
 
 1 Rev. viii, 3. ~ John viii, 24. 3 Eom. viii, J . 4 Isaiah Ixiv, 6. 
 5 See Rom. iii, 10, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26.
 
 104 SERMON III. 
 
 acknowledge their spiritual nakedness, and seek his 
 covering and protection. Such indeed as despise 
 the riches of his mercy, and oppose him in the way 
 of his salvation, rebel against the inward operations 
 of his Holy Spirit, or the outward appointments of 
 his word and sacraments. Such shall undoubtedly 
 perish " in the gainsaying of Core," which are the 
 words of the Apostle St. Jude ; J and being spoken 
 of the opposers in his days, with reference to the 
 transaction before us, add a peculiar force and even 
 inspired testimony to our application of this history ; 
 shewing it to be set forth as a " lesson of instruction 
 for the sons of Korah," a standing monument of the 
 wrath of God against every such audacious rebel, every 
 antichristian blaspheming gainsayer, to the end of 
 the world. To such "there remaineth no more sacri- 
 fice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of 
 judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour 
 the adversaries." 2 Such, having rejected the terms 
 of grace and forgiveness, excluded themselves from 
 all the benefits of Christ's mediation, must bear the 
 whole weight of God's displeasure themselves; where 
 there is no substitute, the soul that sinneth it must 
 die; a dreadful consideration this; it is a fearful 
 thing to fall into the hands of the living God, " for 
 our God is a consuming fire." 3 The possibility of 
 this, much more the certainty of it, is surely enough 
 
 1 Rom. iii, 11. 2 Hebr. x, 26, 27. 
 
 '' Ibid, xii, 19, from Dent, iv, 24.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 105 
 
 to determine eveiy serious person to " fly for refuge, 
 to lay hold upon the hope" (that is) ** set before us." 1 
 
 By this time you must all have observed, that 
 something more was intended by the words I have 
 been endeavouring to explain to you, than a bare 
 relation of what the high priest of Israel did upon 
 this extraordinary occasion, for the people of that 
 nation only ; and from what has been said you may 
 easily collect the reason that Aaron's interposition 
 on their behalf was so effectual. For if Aaron re- 
 presented Christ in these circumstances, and the 
 atonement he made for the remnant of Israel the 
 great atonement our Lord was to make for the Israel 
 of God, the true Church in all ages past and to come, 
 then God had undoubtedly respect to that great 
 atonement, and for his sake who was to make it, 
 pardoned those for whom it was to be made. Thus 
 is the whole transaction placed in its true light; the 
 use we are to make of it set forth; and this Scrip- 
 ture shewn to be in particular, what St. Paul affirms 
 of all Scripture in general, " profitable for instruction 
 in righteousness," 2 that is, the righteousness of Christ, 
 imputed to us, or the doctrine of justification by his 
 merits only. 
 
 You have now heard the particulars of this affect- 
 ing history, with the end for which this thing hap- 
 pened to Israel, and is since recorded in holy writ; 
 which was, to declare to them and us the only possi- 
 
 1 Heb. vi, 18. -'2 Tim. iii, 1(5.
 
 106 SERMON III. 
 
 ble way of salvation, the inevitable ruin of all oppo- 
 sition to the truth and ordinances of Christ, and the 
 sure deliverance that would always accompany his 
 divine mediation. May grace be given to every one 
 of you to consider the history in this light ! that 
 they, who see no redemption out of him, may re- 
 ceive this additional evidence of their hope; and 
 they who do not as yet see it, may intreat him to 
 open the blinded eyes of their understanding, 1 that 
 they also, seeing it ere it is too late, may obtain the 
 benefits of his atonement, a,nd find a shelter therein 
 from the storm that is one day to be poured out 
 upon the world. The farther instruction I proposed, 
 
 in. To collect from the history, thus illustrated 
 and explained, is partly deducible from the history 
 itself, and partly from the spiritual exposition of it. 
 
 1. From the history itself we learn, 1. The neces- 
 sity there is of an outward consecration to the priest- 
 hood, and that in the way of God's institution ; 2. 
 The subordination He himself has appointed amongst 
 the persons so consecrated ; and 3. The great duty 
 of universal obedience to all lawful authority. Our 
 numerous schismatics would do well to attend to the 
 history in these points of view. It is a powerful 
 argument to persuade such persons to lay aside their 
 unreasonable prejudices, and what, I fear, is a more 
 general obstacle, their less excusable worldly inter- 
 ests, since whoever hopes to make a part of the 
 
 1 2 Cor. iv, 4; Ephes. iv, 18.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 107 
 
 Church in heaven must maintain the unity, which 
 cannot be maintained without maintaining the go- 
 vernment of it upon earth : Korah, Dathan, and 
 Abiram, for breaking in upon these, perished from 
 among the congregation. 
 
 Those who, with the Deists, oppose all divine 
 institutions whatever, and that of ordination in par- 
 ticular, will here see the high sin and danger of 
 assuming the sacred office without it ; which is to 
 throw down boundaries set up by God himself, and 
 lay open what he has inclosed. Such will remember 
 the fire that came out from the presence of the Lord, 
 and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that 
 offered incense. Pretences of equal or even superior 
 holiness, we learn, will not be admitted. This was 
 the plea of Korah and his associates, (ye take) "too 
 much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, 
 every one of them, and the Lord is among them ; 
 wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the con- 
 gregation of the Lord V 1 But this was false for the 
 Lord was against them, and shewed the most dreadful 
 signs of his displeasure. His wrath waxed more than 
 ordinarily hot against these self-commissioned holy 
 ones, however qualified in their own conceit to 
 approach him. And the case would have been the 
 same, if they had been as holy as they pretended to 
 be. For there is a sanctity of office as well as of 
 life, an outward separation of particular persons for 
 
 1 Numbers xvi. 3.
 
 108 SERMON III. 
 
 the ministration in holy things, as well as an inward 
 one of all believers from the corruption of this evil 
 world ; and whoever confounds this separation, or 
 holiness of office, with the personal holiness of sanc- 
 tification, in order to set aside the divine institution, 
 is, according to God's own determination in this 
 history, a sinner against his own soul. Want of 
 personal holiness in our governors is at their peril, 
 and a heavy account it will be, as disobedience and 
 usurpation of their office is at our's. 
 
 2. They, who allow of no subordination in the 
 ministry, will observe, that the grand conspirator 
 was a Levite, whose office represented that of the 
 deacons under the gospel dispensation. For such to 
 disturb the peace within the sanctuary, through their 
 avarice or ambition, is as ungodly, as for those who 
 are not ordained thereunto to press into it from 
 without. Such, 'tis to be hoped, will lend an ear to 
 Moses, the inspired servant of God, who said unto 
 Korah, &c. : "Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi, 
 (seemeth it but) a small thing unto you, that the 
 God of Israel hath separated you from the congrega- 
 tion of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do the 
 service of the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand 
 before the congregation to minister unto them ? And 
 he hath brought thee near to him, and "all thy brethren, 
 the sons of Levi, with thee, and seek ye the priest- 
 hood also V' 1 That was not their appointment. But 
 
 Numbers xvi, 8, 9, 10.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 109 
 
 the rebellious Levite would brook no reproof ; and as 
 he still persisted in his demand, " the ground clave 
 asunder that was under him, and he went down alive 
 into the pit." 1 
 
 If it should be doubted, as many upon their prin- 
 ciples must doubt, who assume what is peculiar to 
 the episcopal office, appointing others to the work of 
 the ministry, sending them out un-ordained, or, which 
 is the same, ordained as they speak, by themselves, 
 if such should doubt, whether the priest might not 
 have done what the Levite perished for attempting, 
 they will find a satisfactory answer, I should hope, 
 in considering, that though every priest, duly conse- 
 crated, was a type of Christ, and all equally em- 
 powered under due regulation to preach the word of 
 God, and administer his sacraments, yet the high 
 priest had some peculiar offices, into which no man 
 was to intrude ; which, besides the typical respect 
 they had to Christ himself, were undoubtedly a figure 2 
 
 1 Numbers xvi, 38. 
 
 2 The apostolical father St. Clement, manifestly in allu- 
 sion to this, speaketh in the following manner of the Chris- 
 tian ministry. " For to the high-priest his proper services 
 are committed, and to the priests their proper place is ap- 
 pointed, and upon the Levites lays the charge of their 
 proper ministries ; the lay man is limited by laical precepts 
 (i.e., such as properly concern the lay man.) Let every one 
 of you, brethren, give thanks to God in his proper order, 
 living with a good conscience, and through a becoming re- 
 verence, not transgressing the prescribed rule of his minis- 
 try." 1 Epist. to the Corinthians, sect, xl, which, with the 
 rest, particularly the six immediately following sections of
 
 110 SERMON III. 
 
 of the subordination after instituted in the Christian 
 Church, which was episcopal from the beginning; 
 and that Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, the 
 priests, for transgressing a divine institution, for 
 offering strange fire before the Lord, which he com- 
 manded not, actually died the same death with the 
 two hundred and fifty rebels in this history. "There 
 went out a fire from the Lord, and devoured them, 
 and they died before the Lord." 1 Their contempt 
 and violation of divine ordinances was, we see, a 
 capital offence. Rebellion in an officer is doubly 
 sinful, and God forbid the officers of the great king 
 should upon any pretence encourage it ! No let 
 the stars of the earthly sanctuary be examples to all 
 the rest, be particularly careful to keep that order 
 they are to influence others to maintain. They will 
 then shine most for his glory, who hath appointed 
 their courses with unerring wisdom, and most for 
 the benefit of his Church, which is best served in the 
 
 this ancient and most valuable epistle, I could wish the 
 serious reader would attentively peruse, as a plain and irre- 
 fragable testimony of what is here aserted, of the highest 
 merely-human authority as coming from one, who not 
 only conversed with, and was appointed a bishop by the 
 apostles themselves, but whose name is moreover expressly 
 declared to be " in the book of life." Philip, iv, 3. The 
 English reader may read this, and the other genuine epistles 
 of the apostolical fathers, S. Polycarp, S. Ignatius (whom I 
 would particularly recommend on the subject of episcopacy), 
 etc., in Archbishop Wake's Translation. 
 1 Levit. x, 1 , 2.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. Ill 
 
 way He that loveth her best hath appointed. His 
 Angels, that preserved their allegiance, now surround 
 the throne of his glory ; but the angels which kept 
 not their first estate, but left their own habitations, 
 he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, 
 unto the judgment of the great day. 1 Even so his 
 faithful ministers on earth, who abide in his ordi- 
 nances, as well as truth, shall shine as the brightness 
 of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever, 2 
 however differing, as they do in the material firma- 
 ment, in the degrees of their glory ; but for such 
 disorderly ones as quit their station, the wandering 
 stars, mentioned by the apostle, for such w r e know 
 is reserved an end suitable to their lawless motions 
 here, even the blackness of darkness out of the 
 glorious system of the new creation, for ever. 3 
 
 3. Indeed, the material heavens are continually 
 teaching us the great lesson of obedience; and let 
 every star in the spiritual firmament so do his father's 
 will upon earth, reflect the light he receives, not as 
 he thinks right, but as the sun of righteousness has 
 directed. Obedience, growing out of faith, is one of 
 the fairest fruits of regeneration, as it shows the 
 stubborn soil of the natural ground to be broken and 
 subdued by the spirit, the heart and its inordinate 
 lusts to be brought in subjection to the law of God. 
 Eebellion ever riseth up out of the bitter root of cor- 
 ruption. To despise dominion and speak evil of 
 
 1 Jude 5, (i. a Dan. xii, 3. 3 Jude ">, 13.
 
 112 SERMON III. 
 
 dignities 1 was a mark of false teachers in the days of 
 the apostles ; as to be traitors, heady and high- 
 minded, is of the perilous times in the last days, 2 
 which I the rather mention, as some, who insist most 
 upon the inward experience of their sanctification, 
 (however such experience, a joy in the Holy Ghost, 
 when accompanied with the other evidences of sanc- 
 tification, ought to be insisted upon,) do, at the same 
 time, if we may judge of them by their fruits, shew 
 a most unsanctified spirit, by setting themselves up 
 and teaching others to rebel against their spiritual 
 governors. But, my brethren, be not you carried 
 about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of 
 men, the cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in 
 wait to deceive. 8 No man speaking by the spirit of 
 God, can contradict what the spirit hath written ; no 
 one faithfully executing a divine commission, trans- 
 gress a divine institution, which is, to set aside the 
 same authority in one respect that he allows in 
 another. You have an infallible rule to direct your 
 judgment as well as practice in such cases. Now I 
 beseech you, brethren, says the apostle, mark them 
 which cause divisions and offences contrary to the 
 doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them ; for 
 they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 but their own belly, and by good words and fair 
 speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple. 4 And 
 
 1 Jude 8. 2 2 Tim. iii, 1. 3 Ephes. iv, 14. 
 
 4 Rom. xvi, 17, 18.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 113 
 
 lest such as are led away into schism, should esteem 
 it a matter of indifference, or that this comprehensive 
 history contains no instruction for them, they will 
 recollect the destroying pestilence, as well as devour- 
 ing pit, and consuming fire; that beside them that died 
 about the matter of Korah, there died in the plague 
 of people who justified the fact, fourteen thousand 
 and seven hundred. 1 Wherefore as St. Augustin 
 most excellently adviseth, seeing " the Church in this 
 world consisteth of chaff and wheat, let no one try to 
 drive out all the chaff until the time of winnowing. 
 Let no one leave the threshing-floor before the time, 
 lest, while peradventure he will not bear with sinners, 
 being found without the threshing-floor, he should 
 be picked up by the birds ere he can return into the 
 barn." 2 
 
 Lastly. As Korah, &c., rebelled against Moses, the 
 vice-roy of God, as well as against Aaron his high- 
 priest, against neither of whom it was lawful even so 
 much as to speak evil, 3 the factious and levelling 
 spirits in civil governments may here read their con- 
 demnation : what our Lord, his holy prophets, and 
 apostles taught by word and example, that the pit, 
 fire, and pestilence in this history do most awfully 
 proclaim. Let every soul be subject to the higher 
 powers; 4 whether it be to the king as supreme (to 
 whom, therefore, every inferior magistrate, as being 
 
 1 Numb, xvi, 49. 2 St. Aug. in Ps. xxv. 
 
 3 Exod. xxii, 28 ; Acts xxiii, o. 4 Rom. xiii, 1. 
 
 1
 
 114 SERMON 111. 
 
 one of his people, must needs be subject, the same 
 subordination being here discernible among the civil 
 powers, as was above observed among the ecclesias- 
 tical for the two hundred-and-fifty rebels, whom the 
 fire consumed, are styled princes of the assembly 1 ), 
 or unto governors (rulers of provinces, &c., but in- 
 clusively to all other duly-appointed magistrates and 
 officers) that are sent by him (that have their com- 
 mission from the king), for the punishment of evil- 
 doers, and for the praise of them that do well. 2 The 
 reason is, there is no power but of God, the powers 
 that be, the rulers established for the time being, are 
 ordained of him. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth 
 the power, resisteth the ordinance of God : herein 
 lies the sin of resistance then, it is God whom such 
 independents resist. Korah, &c., were gathered 
 against Jehovah, saith Moses, 3 whosoever resisteth, 
 resisteth the ordinance of God, saith St. Paul ; and 
 the end of such resistance is that invisible pit, and 
 unquenchable fire, of which the pit and fire in this 
 history were only figurative representations for so 
 it follows and they that resist shall receive to 
 themselves damnation. 4 This is a strange doctrine 
 to bring to the ears of a licentious people ; but it is 
 the doctrine of the bible universally, and of this 
 history in particular ; and if the hearts of any pro- 
 fessing Christianity are not yet prepared to admit it, 
 
 1 Numb, xvi, 2. 2 1 Pet. ii, 13, 14. 
 
 3 Numb, xvi, 11. 4 Rom. xiii, 2.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 115 
 
 they must pray for grace and lowliness of spirit,, for 
 those are the requisite preparations. But whether 
 they admit it or not, we should show our obedience 
 in preaching it, that we handle not the word of God 
 deceitfully, and that our gospel be not hindered, to 
 which we should give occasion indeed, if, by con- 
 founding our spiritual freedom with civil licentious- 
 ness, we should use (our) liberty for a cloke of 
 maliciousness, and not as the servants of God. 1 A 
 rebellious Christian is a most flagrant contradiction 
 what ? Christ, the author of rebellion ? No away 
 with it from the garden of the church into his king- 
 dom to the world, who raised the first rebellion and 
 heresy in heaven, and shall inspire the last upon 
 earth. The primitive saints, whose example is of 
 the highest authority next to those of our Lord, his 
 holy prophets and apostles, who were so eminent for 
 sanctity in every respect, were of all men the most 
 obedient. They submitted themselves to their 
 appointed governors, even as to him who appointed 
 them, were obedient to those that had the spiritual 
 rule over them, unto the severest discipline ; were 
 obedient to the civil power, unto the loss of all 
 things, were obedient even unto death. 
 
 ii. From the spiritual exposition of the history we 
 infer, what the holy scriptures throughout expressly 
 declare, that God does require a satisfaction for sin. 
 This the enemies of the cross oppose, upon what 
 
 1 I Pet. ii, 1 6. 
 
 I 2
 
 116 SERMON III. 
 
 principle is hard to say, except that, upon which the 
 apostate angels opposed it, at the first revelation of 
 it in heaven, pride, or self-sufficiency, 1 which despe- 
 rately prefers everlasting ruin to salvation by the 
 merits of another, even though the Saviour be God 
 himself. 2 For that God is just, and that to require 
 a satisfaction for sin is justice, that otherwise he 
 
 1 1 Tim. iii, 6. 
 
 2 The reader will find incontestable proofs of our Lord's 
 divinity in the following scriptures : Gen. i, 1 (compared 
 with John i, 3, 10; Col. i, 16 ; and Heb. i, 2, 3, 8, 10, etc.; 
 iii, 4) ; xxvi, 3, 22 ; xvii, 1. Exod. iii, 4, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 
 etc. ; xix, 17, 18, 19, 20, etc. Ps. Ixxx, 1, 3, 4, etc. ; Ixxxii, 
 8. (Compare John v, 22) ; Isaiah ix, 6 ; xxv, 9 ; Mai. iii, 2. 
 (Compare Luke i, 76) ; Matth. xxviii, 1 9 ; Luke i, 78 ; 
 John ii, 24, 25 ; iii, 31 ; v, 17 ; viii, 16, 19, 58 ; x, 30, 33 ; 
 1 Epist. v, 7, 20 ; Acts vii, 59 ; Eom. iv, 17 ; viii, 11 ; ix, 5 ; 
 Ephes. v, 27 ; Coloss. ii, 9 ; 2 Cor. xiii, 14 ; 1 Tim. vi, 14, 
 15, 16. (Compare Revelations xvii, 14; xix, 16, 17); 
 Titus ii, 10, 13 ; Hebrews i, 8 from Ps. xlv, 6 ; Rev. i, 8, 
 18 ; iv, 8, 9, 10, 11. (Compare Isaiah vi, 3) ; xi, 15. (Com- 
 pare v, 17), and, not to multiply instances here without 
 number, in every place where the divine incommunicable 
 name Jehovah which is generally rendered Lord, and 
 printed in capitals in English bibles the divine attributes, 
 all-sufficient, all-wise, all-mighty, etc. the divine covenant, 
 or relative titles, divine acts and offices, as God (QTP& 
 in the plural number), Son, Lord, light, glory, etc., creator, 
 upholder of all things, redeemer, intercessor, and judge, etc., 
 are ascribed to him ; as one or more of them are on all his 
 appearances before and under the law, as well as at and 
 after his manifestation in the flesh, i. e., in a word, from the 
 first chapter of the book of Genesis to the last of the Reve- 
 lations.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 117 
 
 were not just, they cannot rationally deny. But 
 notwithstanding the self destroying opposition of 
 these sinful men, the truth stands as unshaken as 
 its everlasting Author ; it was said, and it is written, 
 " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely 
 die." 1 Which, with regard to its effect on our first 
 parents, as a gracious provision had been made for 
 the restoration of fallen man, and God, when he said 
 this, knew they would thankfully accept of it, is to 
 be understood of the spiritual and natural death only, 
 the one to be reversed by a spiritual change, or resur- 
 rection to a new life of righteousness here the other 
 by a glorious change wrought at the resurrection of 
 the body from the grave. But with regard to those 
 of Adam's posterity, who would not, as he did, accept 
 of the gracious terms that should be proposed to 
 them, the original sentence stands in full force, as if 
 it never had been reversed ; the word death still 
 includes in it to them the eternal death likewise 
 everlasting exclusion from the presence of the Lord, 
 and from the glory of his power : for this death, 
 which is the final wages of unexpiated sin, is put in 
 opposition by the Apostle to that "eternal life, which 
 is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord'' 2 
 so must evidently be eternal as the life to which it 
 is opposed. This penalty then was denounced, has 
 been incurred, and must therefore be inflicted ; nor 
 less so, because God is merciful as well as just, for 
 
 1 Gen. ii, 1 7. 3 Bom. vi, 23.
 
 118 SERMON III. 
 
 until his justice is satisfied, we neither are nor can 
 be proper objects of his mercy. Unless then there 
 has been some interposition on our behalf, our case 
 is desperate ; and yet, who can interpose 1 By man 
 came sin by man therefore must come the satis- 
 faction ; and whoever is accepted as our representa- 
 tive, must not only be without sin, work all right- 
 eousness in our stead, and sustain the vengeance due 
 to the sins of the whole race of mankind but must 
 have infinite merit also, to make that righteousness and 
 those sufferings effectual, since without such infinite 
 merit neither can be accepted or imputed, accepted 
 of God the Father, or imputed to us : if Aaron had 
 interposed without his incense, his interposition had 
 been in vain. And who then is sufficient for these 
 things "? If any mere man now was as righteous as 
 Adam was created, his righteousness could only save 
 himself, he would not have the least jot or tittle more 
 than the Judge of the world would require of him. 
 But the scriptures have, on the contrary, concluded 
 all men under sin, saying " All have sinned, and 
 come short of the glory of God f l and again another 
 scripture saith " None," no mere man, " can by any 
 means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom 
 for him ;" assigning withal the reason for the re- 
 demption of their soul is precious, of too great price for 
 any man to pay, and it ceaseth for ever, 2 he should 
 never be able to pay it. As yet then we can find no 
 
 1 Eom. iii, 23. 8 Ps. xlix, 7.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 119 
 
 satisfaction for sin. For that a righteous man, if any 
 mere man now was so, should have sufficient righteous- 
 ness to make another righteous or, that a sinner, as 
 every mere man is, should have any righteousness 
 for another when he has none for himself, or, that 
 he, who has no righteousness to fulfd the law, should 
 have merit to atone for the transgressions of it, 
 all this is absurd, contradictory, irreconcileable, and 
 impossible. Whence I infer, that the interposition 
 of Christ alone is sufficient for the accomplishment 
 of this merciful work. And his interposition is in- 
 deed every way sufficient. Our Lord Jesus Christ is 
 both God and man, 1 the second person of the eternal 
 Godhead, "of the same substance with the Father," 
 as well as " very man, of the substance of his 
 mother ;" by which union of the divine and human 
 natures in one person, the righteousness he wrought 
 as man was the righteousness of God, 2 and the suf- 
 ferings he sustained as man were the sufferings of 
 God for though God cannot suffer, yet he that 
 suffered was God. This is the substance of our faith 
 in this point, and the ground of everlasting consola- 
 
 1 Gen. xviii, 1, 13, 14, 17, etc. ; xxxii, 24, 30 ; Exod. xv, 
 3 ; Josh, v, 13, 14, 15 ; 2 Sam. xxiii, 4 ; Ps. xix, 4, 5 ; xlv, 
 6, 7 ; Isaiah vii, 14. (Compare Matth. i, 23) ; ix, 6 ; Micah 
 v, 2 ; Zech. xiii, 7 ; Matth. xxii, 44, 45. (Compare Rev. xxii, 
 16) ; John i, 1, 3, 4, 14 ; iii, 13 ; 1 Epist. iv, 3 ; 1 Tim. 
 iii, Hi. 
 
 2 " This is his name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah 
 our Righteousness." Jer. xxiii, 6.
 
 120 SERMON III. 
 
 tion. For here we shall soon find every qualifica- 
 tion required. Is the party offended the most 
 righteous God \ So is the party who undertakes 
 the mediation, equal in all respects to the Father, as 
 touching his Godhead. 1 Was the offence infinitely 
 sinful, because committed against the most high 
 God 1 The most high God made the satisfaction, 2 
 which was therefore infinitely meritorious. Was it 
 committed in human nature I In the same nature 
 was it satisfied " God was manifest in the flesh, to 
 destroy the works of the devil." 3 As man, he did 
 no sin 4 " Therefore as by the offence of one (the 
 first Adam) judgement came upon all men to con- 
 demnation, even so by the righteousness of one (the 
 second Adam) the free gift came upon all men, unto 
 justification of life; for as by one man's disobedience 
 many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one 
 (imputed to them) shall many be made righteous." 5 
 " He bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 6 
 Though he did no sin himself, he took upon him the 
 sins of the whole world ; though he was not a sinner 
 by actual transgression in the least degree, yet was 
 he by imputation in the highest : so that God 
 punished not the innocent for the guilty, as men 
 ignorant of scripture vainly dream ; no the Father 
 found our sins upon him, who of his infinite love had 
 taken them from us, and from the surety now be- 
 
 1 John x, 30. * 1 John iii, 16. s 1 John iii, 8. 
 
 4 1 Pet. ii, 22. 5 Rom. v, 17, 18, If). 
 
 6 1 Pet. ii, 24;, from Isaiah' liii, 5.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 121 
 
 come the debtor, most righteously demanded the 
 debt. This the scriptures everywhere affirm. The 
 scape-goat " bare all the iniquities of the children of 
 Israel ;" 1 and upon its great anti-type Jehovah " laid 
 the iniquities of us all." 2 In the vision of Zechariah 
 the high priest Joshua (or Jesus, i.e., the Saviour) 
 the son of Josedech (which is, being interpreted, the 
 son of the essence, the justifier) is represented to the 
 Prophet as clothed with the filthy garments of our 
 sins ; and, upon the removal of the filthy garments 
 from him, Jehovah said unto him, " Behold, I have 
 caused thine iniquity to pass from thee," 3 etc. 
 Whence it is plain, that he was invested with our 
 iniquity, and that the iniquity he was so invested 
 with became his. So likewise in the New Testament 
 it is written " God made him (to be) sin for us, 
 who knew no sin, that we might be made the righ- 
 teousness of God in him." 4 He, who knew no sin of 
 his own, became a sinner by investiture with our 
 sins ; he was made a sinner in the same sense that 
 we were made righteous ; he a sinner by imputation, 
 as we are righteous by imputation; he a sinner by 
 our imputed sins, as we are righteous by his im- 
 puted righteousness. We have redemption thereof 
 through his blood, " and by his stripes we are 
 healed." 5 For as he who paid this satisfaction was 
 God as well as man, the satisfaction was on that 
 
 1 Levit. xvi, 21, 22. a Isaiah liii, C. 3 Zech. iii, 3, -t. 
 4 2 Cor. v, 21. 5 1 Pet. ii, 24.
 
 122 SERMON TIL 
 
 account full and complete, proportionable to the sins 
 of the whole world, and infinite as the justice that 
 required it. Thus, upon the Christian plan, is the 
 most righteous God reconciled to miserable sinners ; 
 and the deist, it is to be hoped, will take this matter 
 into serious consideration upon what other terms 
 the justice and truth of God can admit of the exer- 
 cise of his mercy. If none shall appear, as I am 
 confident there will not, he will surely be prevailed 
 upon to seek that blessed kingdom of his grace, 
 where " he is JUST, and yet the JUSTIFIER of him 
 which believeth in Jesus ;" " where mercy and truth 
 are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed 
 each other." 
 
 And now to conclude with an application of the 
 great and leading subject of this discourse. The way 
 to profit by an example is to make the case our 
 own ; and whether we make this or not, it will most 
 undoubtedly be so one day, when what is recorded 
 of Israel for our use shall be fulfilled in us as well 
 as them, when all the particulars of this history, 
 how awful soever, shall have a much more awful 
 accomplishment, such as neither I can describe to 
 you, nor you fully conceive. When, instead of the 
 earthly pit opening its mouth to swallow up Korah 
 and his company, the infernal pit of everlasting 
 destruction shall disclose its bottomless depth, to 
 receive alive into it the great adversary, and all that 
 have taken part with him against God, every rebel 
 against Christ and the Christian covenant, from the
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 123 
 
 beginning of time. When, instead of the fire from 
 the presence of the Lord, to consume the two hun- 
 dred and fifty that offered incense, " Behold the day 
 cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the 
 proud, yea and all that do wickedly, shall be as 
 stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them 
 up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
 neither root nor branch." 1 When, instead of the 
 pestilence to destroy fourteen thousand only of his 
 murmuring people, the inexhaustible floods of Al- 
 mighty vengeance, heaped up for ages, shall be 
 poured out, to drown in irresistible perdition the 
 innumerable armies of blasphemers, who, in the mad- 
 ness of diabolical pride, and conceited ignorance of 
 fleshly wisdom, dared to charge the All-wise with 
 folly, the Almighty with weakness, disliking his dis- 
 pensations, and disputing his government. Then 
 (the heavens melting all around, the fiery gulph 
 rolling beneath, and the earth upon which you stand 
 sinking down in flames in the midst) then will be 
 known the infinite value of Christ's mediation. If 
 any think to shelter themselves in that day behind the 
 strange incense of their own merit, they have seen 
 the event already, they have placed themselves 
 among the dead. But if any such now hear me, 
 let me intreat them to consider well the end of this 
 history, which was recorded in mercy to them, as 
 well as to confirm the hope of the people of God, to 
 
 1 Mai. iv, 1 .
 
 124 SERMON III. 
 
 bring them to the same blessed state the others are 
 possessed of. It is a warning from heaven to flee 
 from the wrath to come. As none but those, whom 
 Aaron protected, escaped the visitation in this his- 
 tory, so none but those whom our great High Priest 
 shall protect, will be able to stand in that day. His 
 all-prevailing merit will be the only plea of the jus- 
 tified, and by his righteousness they will be saved : 
 as he himself declares in that divine book, which was 
 written, as all the visitations in it were sent and 
 recorded, to establish this fundamental doctrine of 
 justification by the righteousness of Christ to with- 
 draw man, as he says, from his purpose (Hebrew, 
 from working, from working out his own justification), 
 and to hide pride from man (whence the thought of 
 working out his own justification proceeds) in 
 which divine book, written for this great end, the 
 Eedeemer himself expressly declares that, if in the 
 hour of extreme distress, upon which the sinner's 
 acceptance or rejection in the day of final visitation 
 depends, if (then) there be a messenger with him, 
 the great messenger or angel of the covenant, 1 an 
 interpreter, or mediator, 2 one among a thousand, the 
 great captain of our salvation, 3 " to shew unto man 
 His uprightness, then he is gracious to him, and 
 saith, " Deliver him from going down to the pit, for 
 I have found a ransom." 4 And will any refuse to 
 
 1 Mai. in, 1. 2 1 Tim. ii, 5. 3 Josh, v, 14, 15. 
 
 4 Job. xxxiii, 22, 23, 24.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 125 
 
 accept of this ransom, and venture their everlasting 
 condition upon an uncertainty \ Or do they hope to 
 make their choice then, when " the plague is begun 
 among the people T When he, who, in the day of 
 grace, long-suffering, and trial, indeed, would not 
 break the humble reed that was bruised, or quench 
 the lighted flax if it did but smoke, shall come, 
 to send forth judgement unto victory, and to be 
 avenged of his enemies 1 Is this the time for his 
 enemies to submit for rebels to claim the benefit of 
 an act of grace ? The term limited by the act will 
 be expired, the application be too late "Because I 
 have called," says the judge, "and ye refused, I have 
 stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; but 
 ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would 
 none of my reproof ; I also will laugh at your cala- 
 mity, I will mock when your fear cometh, when 
 your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruc- 
 tion cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and 
 anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call 
 upon me, but I will not answer, they shall seek me 
 early, but they shall not find me ; for that they 
 hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the 
 Lord." 1 What remains then but that they come in 
 now, while the act of grace affords a protection 1 
 " Behold now is the accepted time, now is the day 
 of salvation." 2 The great High Priest stands ready 
 to receive their prayer, and his golden censer hath 
 
 1 Prov. i, 22. 2 2 Cor. vi, 2.
 
 126 SERMON III. 
 
 much incense 1 the store of his divine merit is as 
 inexhaustible as their provocations have been in- 
 numerable ; and whenever any of these children of 
 pride, who once rested upon the merit of their own 
 sinful performances, convinced of the unprofitable- 
 ness of their best services, and seeing no deliverance 
 in anything they can do for themselves no not in 
 this world, or that which is to come, but only in 
 God reconciled shall so humble themselves under 
 a sense of their natural corruption, as to stand afar 
 off, in acknowledgment of their unworthiness, instead 
 of drawing near, as they were wont, to demand 
 what they are no way intitled to and shall learn to 
 say with the publican in the gospel " God, be mer- 
 ciful to me a sinner ;" 2 or with the upright, yet not 
 so justified, till he became also the penitent Job 
 " I abhor (myself) and repent in dust and. ashes" 3 
 they have a gracious assurance in the divine book 
 before cited, which was intended as an antidote to 
 deism to the end of the world, that their petition, 
 preferred in the bitterness of a sincerely-afflicted 
 heart, shall be heard, that they shall be rescued from 
 everlasting death, and their redemption end in glorifi- 
 cation; for so it follows in the place above referred to 
 in the book of Job, " He looketh upon men, and if any 
 say, I have sinned, etc., he will deliver his soul from 
 going into the pit, and his life shall see the light." 4 
 
 1 Rev. viii, 3. 8 Luke xviii, 13. 
 
 3 Job xlii, 6. 4 Job xxxiii, 27, 28.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 127 
 
 To the redeemed of the Lord this history is a sure 
 earnest of their deliverance ; and being an additional 
 evidence of their hope, affords fresh matter for their 
 practice. Such as were the sentiments of the sur- 
 viving Israelites in the dreadful hour of visitation, 
 such now and ever will their's be of their divine 
 benefactor. And what consolation and refreshment 
 of soul, what gratitude and thankfulness must there 
 have been in Israel, which felt the virtue of the 
 atoning censer on the very brink of destruction ; a 
 faint, however expressive image of the holy exulta- 
 tion of the Israel of God, when the same divine 
 merits shall be interposed on their behalf at the 
 revelation of God's righteous judgement, the most 
 awful and tremendous scene the eyes of angels or 
 men ever beheld ! when he, who delivered them from 
 the corruptions of a sinful world, shall deliver them 
 from the ruins of a burning one ; and having, by the 
 all-subduing efficacy of his mighty working, changed 
 misery and death into life and glory, 1 shall place 
 them in a blessed security in the highest heavens, 
 beyond the reach of evil for ever. Let them rejoice 
 then in this glorious hope, hope of deliverance in the 
 day of God, and, in faith thereof, now begin the song 
 they are to take up through the endless day of eter- 
 nity. Let the Church militant here below learn to 
 sing of the Church triumphant above; and upon all 
 among you, who have this faith and hope in the 
 
 1 Phil, iii, 21.
 
 128 SERMON III. 
 
 Eedeemer of ages, I now solemnly call to join the 
 heavenly chorus of angels and " spirits of just men 
 made perfect," who sung a new song, as he that 
 heard it testifieth, in a language no uninspired 
 tongue ever attained unto, saying (and let us join our 
 grateful voices with their's), saying, " Thou wast slain, 
 and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; 
 and hast made us unto our God kings and priests ; 
 and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and 
 I heard the voice of many angels round about the 
 throne, and the beasts, and the elders ; and the num- 
 ber of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, 
 and thousands of thousands ; saying with a loud 
 voice" (and let us never cease to proclaim it, as they 
 do) " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive 
 power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and 
 honour, and glory, and blessing. And every crea- 
 ture which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under 
 the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that 
 are in them, heard I saying" (and it is therefore our 
 bounden duty to say it) " Blessing, and honour, and 
 glory, and power, (be) unto him that sitteth upon 
 the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and 
 ever." 1 
 
 Now to God the Father, who justified us, 2 God 
 the Son, who is our righteousness, 3 and God the 
 
 1 Eev. v, 9, etc. 2 Eom. iii, 26. 
 
 3 Jerem. xxiii, 6 ; 1 Cor. i, 30.
 
 AARON'S INTERCESSION, ETC. 129 
 
 Holy Spirit, who is the sanctifier of all that are justi- 
 fied 1 the God of infinite love and mercy, who keep- 
 eth his promise for ever the God of peace, order, 
 and union, who maketh men to be of one mind in 
 the house of his Church, 2 the ever blessed and eter- 
 nal Trinity be ascribed all the glory of his saints' 
 attainments here, while they are labouring in hope, 
 and of what they shall be, when crowned hereafter 
 in the fulness of joy, for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 1 Rom. xv, 16. 
 
 2 Rom. xv, 5, 6 ; Phil, ii, 2 ; Acts ii, 1, 4, 32. 
 
 K
 
 THE DOCTRINE 
 
 EVER-BLESSED TRINITY 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
 EIGHTEENTH CHAPTER OF GENESIS. 
 
 GEORGE WATSON, M.A. 
 
 " Observe here then attentively, attentively ohserve, that they which appeared unto him 
 (Abraham) were three, and that, after having been said to subsist each with a consistence 
 (meaning a distinct personality) of his own, they are comprehended into one by a word 
 (expressive) of sameness of substance, and for this reason purposely discourse in the manner 
 above-related (i.e., as three and yet as one)." S. CYRIL. ALEX. CONTB. JULIAN., lib. i, p. 20, 
 vol. vi. Edit. I.utet. 1638. 
 
 " Some three months after this, the three Persons in the Trinity dine with Abraham, 
 and foretell the birth of Isaac again."--DR. L.IOHTFOOT, vol. i, p. 13. 
 
 " The three Persons in the Trinity, in the shape of three men, appear to Abraham, and 
 nth him." PAGE Cl)5. 
 
 dine 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR E. WITHERS, AT THE SEVEN STARS, BETWEEN THE TEMPLE 
 
 GATES IN FLEET STREET, AND s. PARKER AND R. CLEMENTS, IN OXFORD. 
 M.DCC.LVI. 
 
 K 2
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 As the subject of the following sheets has not, I fear, 
 been considered by the generality of readers, it may 
 be advisable, before we proceed, in order to awaken 
 the attention of some, remove the prejudices of others, 
 and satisfy every doubt and scruple of the well-dis- 
 posed humble mind, to open the way for what is to 
 follow by a few plain passages of holy Scripture, 
 where the divinity of the person or persons in ap- 
 pearances of this kind is expressly ascertained and 
 determined. Let me only first observe, as the person 
 or persons in such appearances are frequently styled 
 ANGELS as well as men, and, particularly, as the 
 Apostle, in the thirteenth chapter to the Hebrews, 1 
 as well as Moses, calls the three men who appeared 
 to Abraham by this title, that the word for angel 
 in the original Hebrew, and the word angel itself 
 in the Greek, whence we have borrowed it, is well 
 known to be a name of office, and not of nature, 2 
 
 1 Verse 2. 
 
 2 " Dictus est quidem magni consilii angelus, id est, nun- 
 tius, officii, non naturce vocabulo. Magnum enim cogitatum 
 patris, super hominis scilicet restitutione, annuntiaturus
 
 134 PEEFACE. 
 
 signifying any agent or messenger, any person or 
 thing delegated, sent, or executing a part in any 
 plan or design ; for which reason it is applied in 
 holy Scripture to the heavens, the delegated rulers or 
 agents in the natural world. 1 To the spritual and 
 divine agents in the oeconomy of grace. To God 
 the Father, 2 as co-operating with the other divine 
 persons in the stupendous work of our salvation; 
 however, in the order of the reconomy he cannot be 
 sent by them as they are by him ; though such 
 sending on his part, and being sent on theirs, in as 
 much as the terms are purely oeconomical, i. e. relative 
 to the covenant-acts and offices of each, imply no sub- 
 ordination or inferiority of nature, as men ignorant of 
 the Christian covenant blasphemously affirm. To our 
 blessed Lord, who is styled the angel, 3 the messenger, 
 angel, or ambassador (for which the Hebrew word is 
 
 seculo erat. He (Christ) is called the angel of the great 
 covenant, that is, the messenger, a name of office, not of 
 nature ; because he was to be sent to declare to the world 
 the great plan of the Father, to wit, concerning the restora- 
 tion of man." Tertull. de earn. Christ., c. 14. 
 
 1 Psalm ciii, 20, 21 ; civ, 4 ; cxlviii, 2 ; in their primary 
 or literal sense, understood of the natural creation. 
 
 2 Gen. xviii, 1, 2 ; Heb. xiii, 2. 
 
 3 In the following and other places, besides those referred 
 to here and in the sermon Gen. xxii, 11, 12, 15, 16; 
 xxiv, 7 ; Exod. xiv, 19, 24, 26 ; Numb, xxii, 22, 35 (com- 
 pare verse 38); Judges ii, 1 ; 1 Chron. xxi, 15, 16, 17; 
 Job xxxiii, 23 ; Daniel vi, 22 ; Zechariah iii, i, 3 ; xii, 8 ; 
 Luke i, 11, 19, 26 ; ii, 9 ; John v, 4; Acts xii, 7 ; Rev. 
 x, 1.
 
 PREFACE. 135 
 
 the same) of the covenant j 1 the angel of the pre- 
 sence, 2 or intercessor ; the archangel, 3 or prince of 
 angels. To the Holy Spirit, 4 the sanctifier and com- 
 forter, his coadjutor in the covenant of grace, 5 and to 
 the prophets and apostles of our Lord, 6 his evange- 
 lists, bishops, 7 etc., the ambassadors 8 in his spiritual 
 kingdom, the gracious subject of whose blessed 
 ministry is emphatically styled evay>ye\iov, evange- 
 lium, the glad tidings or joyful message as well as 
 to the good and bad spirits, or agents, commonly un- 
 derstood by the expression. 
 
 1 Mai. iii, 1. 
 
 2 Isaiah Ixiii, 9 (compare Heb. ix, 24, and Eev. viii, 3) ; 
 Zech. i, 12. 
 
 3 Jude 9 (compare Zech. iii, 2, where Jehovah is ex- 
 pressly affirmed to speak the words St. Jude here ascribeth 
 to Michael the archangel " Jehovah said, Jehovah rebuke 
 thee" one of the innumerable demonstrations in the book 
 of God of a personality in the divine nature) ; Dan. x, 21, and 
 Eev. xii, 7, 19 ; 1 Thess. iv, 16 (compare John v, 28). 
 
 4 Gen. xix, 1, and as I judge with all humility, in Dan. 
 x, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21 (compared with Luke 
 xxii, 43, and Ephes. iii, 1 6). 
 
 5 Psalm civ, 30, in the spiritual sense ; Prov. i, 23 ; 
 Ezek xxxvi, 27 ; Dan. x, 21 ; John xv, 26 ; xvi, 14 ; Acts 
 i, 2 ; Kom. viii, 9, 10, 11. 
 
 6 Hag. i, 13 ; Mai. iii, I ; Gal. iv, 4 ; Eev. xxii, 6 (com- 
 pare v. 9) ; Psalm civ, 4, in the SPIRITUAL sense of it, under- 
 stood of the spiritual creation (compare Heb. i, where the 
 PROPHETS in the first verse are styled ANGELS in the 4th, 
 7th, and 14). 
 
 2 Tim. iv, 5 ; Eev. i, 20 ; ii, 1, 8, 12, 18 ; iii, 1, 7, 14. 
 8 2 Chron. xxxvi, 15, 16 ; Mai. ii, 7 ; 2 Cor. v, 20 ; Ephes. 
 iv, 11; vi, 20.
 
 136 PEEFACE. 
 
 No just exception therefore can lie against the ap- 
 plication of the word angel, thus explained, to any 
 assumed appearances of the deity, since the divine 
 persons, in these their ceconomical acts and gracious 
 manifestations of themselves, are undoubtedly so 
 styled in holy writ ; and the context will always de- 
 termine with the nicest exactness, when the person 
 or persons in such appearances are only created an- 
 gels or messengers (such, for instance, as the multi- 
 tude of the heavenly host, which appeared with the 
 angel at our Lord's nativity) or properly divine 
 persons as well as the appearance they assume. That 
 the context doth always decide this, whether the 
 person or persons that appear are styled angels or 
 men (angels from their office, as performing their 
 parts in the great osconomy of redemption, or men, 
 from the form in which they manifested themselves 
 to the bodily eyes of those that beheld them) will be 
 clear, beyond all reasonable controversy, from the 
 following plain passages in holy writ, cited, as was 
 proposed, to prove the divinity of the persons in 
 such appearances. And the 
 
 First, I shall mention is Gen. xvi, 1 3, where Hagar, 
 Sarah's handmaid, affirmeth the angel of the LORD 
 (whom the inspired historian himself likewise in this 
 chapter calleth the angel of the LORD and Jehovah) 1 
 who found her by the fountain of water in the wil- 
 derness, to be GOD. For so we read : "And she 
 
 1 Verse 7, 13.
 
 PREFACE. 137 
 
 called the name of Jehovah, that spake unto her (i. e. 
 him, who was styled the angel of the LORD in the 7th 
 verse) Thou God seest me." 1 
 
 2ndly. Melchizedec, who met Abraham returning 
 from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him, 
 bringing forth the sacred Christian symbols of bread 
 and wine (Gen. xiv, Heb. vii) was the same divine 
 appearance, exhibited in the united characters of 
 king and high priest. First, being by interpretation 
 king of righteousness, and after that also king of 
 Salem, which is not meant here of any city so called, 
 being purposely interpreted to shew it is not so 
 meant, but is king of peace ; which, with the other 
 high titles and essential properties that follow, are 
 absolutely incommunicable without father, without 
 mother, though a man in appearance, yet not of the 
 generation of men without descent or genealogy, 
 of no stock or family on the earth, having neither 
 beginning of days nor end of life, being very Jehovah 
 himself, co-eternal with the Father, but made like 
 unto the Son of God, the form, lineaments, etc. he 
 assumed being made exactly to resemble the body 
 prepared him 2 in the days of his flesh, even that holy 
 thing, which was afterwards begotten of the Holy 
 Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary. 3 This Melchi- 
 zedec, of whom such things are spoken, described 
 under characters applicable to no mere man that ever 
 came into the world ; after whose order (Gr. Kara 
 
 1 Gen. xvi, 13. ~ Heb. x, 5. 3 Luke i, 35.
 
 138 PREFACE. 
 
 ragiv, according to whose institution, and exact simi- 
 litude, 1 as he was before his incarnation exhibited to 
 Adam, Noah, Abraham, etc.) our great high-priest 
 accordingly arose in the flesh in the fulness of time ; 
 unto whom so exhibited even the patriarch Abraham 
 himself, who had the promises, and who was there- 
 fore the greatest man upon earth, gave the tenth 2 of 
 the spoils, thereby attributing to him all the glory 
 of his victory ; who blessed Abraham, blessed him 
 that had the promises, and without all contradic- 
 tion the lesser is blessed of the better ; to whom 
 Levi paid tithes in the loins of his father Abra- 
 ham ; of whom, in contradistinction to the mor- 
 tality of the legal priests, it is witnessed (and a testi- 
 mony of essential divinity it is) that " HE LTVETH." 
 " This Melchizedec, saith the apostle, ABIDETH A 
 PRIEST CONTINUALLY." For take away the apposition, 
 or parenthesis, from the words " king of Salem," in 
 the first verse, to " Son of God," in the second, the 
 grammar of the sentence apparently is " this Mel- 
 chizedec abideth a priest continually ; " i. e., because 
 he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood 
 (Gr. cnrapaSarov lepwavvqv a priesthood that passeth 
 not from one to another) ; and how there could ever 
 be two priests of this kind, how an everlasting high- 
 priest could have a successor, is a contradiction no 
 gloss or commentary upon earth will ever be able to 
 
 1 Heb. vii, 15. 
 
 2 See Gen. xxviii, 22, where the patriarch Jacob voweth 
 the same unto God.
 
 PREFACE. 139 
 
 reconcile. And therefore I conclude, this appearance 
 to Abraham, and the after-appearance of the Son of 
 God, in the flesh, to the children of Abraham, was 
 the one true priest of the most high God, the one 
 Mediator between God and man, JESUS CHRIST, the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. 1 
 
 To which this will be a proper place to add, 
 Srdly. That Elihu, whose sudden appearance is in- 
 troduced to determine the case Job and his three 
 disputing friends were not able to bring to an issue, 
 and thereby the great end and design of that holy 
 book against the deist and disputer of this world in 
 all ages, though manifested in the shape and cha- 
 racter of a young man, could be no other than the 
 Son of God ; being first Elihu, which is, by inter- 
 pretation, my God himself, and then, the only-be- 
 gotten of the Father, Son of Barachel, which is Son 
 of the blessed God ; in whose awful presence Job 
 and his three friends, so ready to answer before, 
 opened not their mouths, they were amazed, they 
 answered no more, they left off speaking ; 2 who ex- 
 pressly styleth the Holy Ghost by the oeconomical 
 title of his father saying, " The spirit of God hath 
 made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given 
 me life ;" 3 plainly assuming to himself in the next 
 verse but one, the mediatorial office and character : 
 " Behold, I (am) according to thy wish, in God's 
 
 1 Heb. xiii, 8. ~ Job xxxii, 1 5. 
 
 3 Job xxxiii, 4.
 
 140 PREFACE. 
 
 stead, I also am formed out of the clay. Behold, my 
 terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my 
 hand be heavy upon thee," 1 the power of re-in- 
 stating man in original righteousness " Speak, for I 
 desire to justify thee," 2 and the attribute of infinite 
 wisdom " He that is perfect in knowledge (is) with 
 thee ;" 3 who evidently taketh up and pursueth at the 
 beginning of the thirty-eighth chapter, in the charac- 
 ter of Jehovah out of the whirlwind, the great and 
 glorious argument for the abasement of human pride, 
 viz., the consideration of God's stupendous wisdom 
 and power displayed in the visible creation, which 
 he had entered upon, for the same purpose, towards 
 the end of the thirty-sixth chapter in the charac- 
 ter of Elihu ; and of whom Job himself finally tes- 
 tifieth, that he was the person whose frequent ap- 
 pearances had been handed down by tradition, as the 
 inspired writer of the history doth, that the words 
 supposed to contain this testimony were addressed to 
 Jehovah himself for so we read in the forty-second 
 chapter, in the account of Job's penitential confession, 
 " Then Job answered Jehovah, and said," etc., " I 
 have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but 
 now mine eye seeth thee ;" 4 which words, taken to- 
 gether, being an express declaration that Job then 
 saw Jehovah, and Jehovah himself dwelling in the 
 light which no man can approach unto, " whom no 
 man hath seen or can see/' 5 must be understood of 
 
 1 Job. xxxiii, 6. 2 Job ver. 32. 3 Ibid, xxxvi, 4. 
 
 4 Ibid. ver. 1, 6. 5 1 Tim. vi, 16.
 
 PREFACE. 141 
 
 some visible exhibition of Jehovah, as he was used 
 to manifest himself in those days and of whom, of 
 all the parties present, can we possibly understand 
 this, but of Elihu \ In which case we have this 
 farther evidence, if more be necessary, of his divinity, 
 that Job's penitential confession is made to him, with 
 the additional acknowledgement of his divine attri- 
 butes " I know that thou canst do every(thing) and 
 (that) no thought can be witholden from thee." 1 
 
 4thly. The angels of God, which met Jacob on his 
 way from Padan-aram, as you find it recorded in the 
 thirty-second chapter of Genesis, whatever glorious 
 retinue might, as at Sinai, 2 accompany them, were 
 undoubtedly, I think, a divine appearance. For, 
 first, the patriarch gives the place a name in memory 
 of this heavenly vision, an honour he would hardly 
 have paid to mere created angels, but which it was 
 the patriarchal custom, in gratitude for mercies re- 
 ceived, and for prophetic purposes, to pay to God 
 himself, as, to mention no more, the patriarch Jacob 
 did at Beth-el and Peni-el. 3 Secondly, consider the 
 name itself he gave the place, viz,, Mahanaim, i.e., 
 ' hosts ' or ' camps/ " Because," said he, " this is God's 
 host," or encampment ; 4 and we read in the thirty- 
 fourth Psalm, "The angel of the LORD encampeth 
 round about them that fear him," (or, that I may not 
 seem to take advantage of the translation, as the 
 
 1 Tim. xlii, 2. 2 Ps. Ixviii, 1 7. 
 
 3 Gen. xxviii, 1 9 ; and xxxii, 30. 4 Verse 2.
 
 1 42 PREFACE. 
 
 word is different in the Hebrew, causeth them to be 
 surrounded, or encompassed, that fear him, by way 
 of protection, which conies to the same) "and de- 
 livereth them." 1 Thirdly, the prophet Elisha, who 
 was himself visibly surrounded with one of those 
 heavenly encampments, as we read, 2 Kings vi, 1 7, 
 has, in his exhortation to his desponding servant, 
 given us the spiritual design or intention of them, 
 thereby leaving us the best comment upon what 
 Jacob intended by Mahanaim, viz., that such visible 
 exhibitions of divine protection, agreeable to the mi- 
 raculous dispensation of those times, were figures of 
 the invisible support then and at all times vouch- 
 safed to the servants of God. " He answered, fear 
 not ; for they that (be) with us," meaning the horses 
 and chariots of fire round about him, which his ser- 
 vants' eyes were opened to behold, " are more than 
 they that (be) with them." 2 The full sense of which 
 is expressed by St. John in that sweet and comfort- 
 able assurance " Ye are of GOD, little children, and 
 have overcome them, because greater is he that is in 
 you, than he that is in the world." 3 From all which, 
 laid together, and duly weighed, as this divine sup- 
 port is the office of the Holy Comforter in the ceco- 
 nomy of grace, we may reasonably infer the mani- 
 festation of two of the divine persons on this occasion 
 to the patriarch Jacob ; who, with their attending 
 hosts, visibly encamped round about him, in type and 
 
 1 Gen. xxviii, 7. 2 Verse 16. 3 1 St. John iv, 4
 
 PREFACE. 143 
 
 figure then, as they still invisibly encamp about and 
 protect every believer on his way to Heaven. 
 
 5thly. Again ; the man who wrestled with the pa- 
 triarch Jacob, as you find it recorded in the same 
 chapter, is expressly styled GOD by himself and the 
 patriarch, and by the prophet Hosea both GOD and 
 the ANGEL. He telleth the patriarch, who had power 
 with him, that he had power with GoD. 1 The patri- 
 arch saith to him, " I will not let thee go, except 
 thou bless me;" and we read, "he blessed him there," 2 
 which no one but GOD could do in his own name, 
 The patriarch calleth the name of the place Peni-el. 
 "For," saith he, "I have seen God face to face." 3 
 And the prophet Hosea, speaking of the patriarch 
 Jacob concerning this wonderful transaction, ex- 
 pressly declareth of him " By his strength he had 
 power with God, yea he had power over the angel, 
 and prevailed ; he wept and made supplication unto 
 him, he found him in Beth-el, and there he spake 
 with us, even Jehovah, God of hosts, Jehovah is his 
 memorial." 4 
 
 Gthly. The same holy patriarch, in his blessing of 
 the two sons of Joseph, related Gen. xlviii, 15, calleth 
 the GOD of his fathers the ANGEL which redeemed 
 him, saying, as it is there written : "And he blessed 
 Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers 
 Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God, which fed me 
 
 1 Gen. xxxii, 28. Verse 26, 29. ' Verse 30. 
 
 4 Hos. xii, 3.
 
 144 PREFACE. 
 
 all my life loDg unto this day the angel which re- 
 deemed me from all evil bless the lads." 1 
 
 7thly. The angel who appeared unto Moses in a 
 flame of fire out of the midst of the bush, Exod. iii, 
 2, Acts vii, 30-5, is over and over again declared to 
 be JEHOVAH and GOD. " For the angel of the Lord 
 appeared to him," 2 " and when Jehovah saw that he 
 turned aside to see, God called unto him ;" 3 " more- 
 over he said I (am) the God of thy fathers, the God 
 of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob 
 and Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look 
 upon God. 4 The angel of the LORD therefore in this 
 appearance was Jehovah and God ; and so, let me add 
 here, was the Man that appeared to Joshua, when he 
 was by Jericho, 5 the captain, or prince, of the host 
 of Jehovah, as he is styled in this scripture, 6 or, as 
 by the prophet Daniel, "Michael their prince." 7 For 
 Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did wor- 
 ship ; and he addressed Joshua in the very same 
 words that the angel of the Lord spake to Moses 
 from the bush, " Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for 
 the place whereon thou standest is holy and Joshua 
 did so." 8 
 
 Sthly. That the appearance on the mount, at the 
 giving of the law, was divine, cannot be questioned. 
 For Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because 
 
 1 Hoseaxii, 15, 16. 2 . Exod. iii, 2. 3 Verse 4. 
 
 4 Verse 6. 5 Josh, v, 13. c Josh, v, 15. 
 
 7 Dan. x,21;xii,l. * Verse 15 (compare Exodus iii, 5).
 
 PREFACE. 145 
 
 Jehovah descended upon it in fire, in all the terror 
 of the divine majesty, such as he is and ever will be 
 to every unjustified transgressor of the law, in the 
 known outward emblem or figure of divine wrath, 
 which is in itself inconceivable, "and the smoke 
 thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the 
 whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice 
 of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and 
 louder" (which shall again be heard " with the voice 
 of the archangel/' 1 when he cometh in like manner 
 to judge the transgressors of his law) " Moses spake, 
 and God answered him by a voice." 2 " Whose voice 
 then shook the earth ; but now he hath promised, 
 saying, yet once more I shake not the earth only, but 
 also heaven." 3 " From whose face, at his next coming, 
 the earth and the heaven shall flee away, and there 
 shall be found no place for them." 4 And yet this awful 
 and tremendous appearance, whose voice, speaking 
 out of the midst of the fire, Israel could not endure, 5 
 before whom Moses himself, though appointed a 
 representative of Christ, a typical mediator and 
 intercessor between Jehovah and his Church, 6 "so 
 terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceed- 
 ingly fear and quake," 7 this Almighty Creator and 
 Judge of the world, I say, who is styled JEHOVAH 
 and GOD in this scripture, and in Psalm Ixviii, 
 
 1 Thess. iv, 16. 2 Exod. xix, 18, 19. 3 Htb. xii, 2(>. 
 4 Revelations xx, 11. & Deuteronomy v, 25. 
 
 " Deut. v, 5 ; Gal. iii, 19. ' Heb. xii, 21. 
 
 L
 
 146 PREFACE. 
 
 God, IAH (he that is) and the God of Israel, is by his 
 holy martyr St. Stephen, under immediate inspira- 
 tion, called by his ceconomical title of the Angel, 
 where, speaking of Moses, he expressly saith " This 
 is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with 
 the angel that spake to him in the mount Sina," etc., 
 " who received the lively oracles, to give unto us." 1 
 
 9thly. That the angel, who appeared to Gideon, 
 mentioned in the sixth chapter of the book of Judges, 
 and the angel, who appeared in like manner to Ma- 
 noah, the father of Sampson, mentioned in the thir- 
 teenth chapter, was not only the same, but the same 
 also with the above-described appearances, will be 
 evident from a comparison of the two chapters, and 
 the many undoubted proofs given of his divinity in 
 both. It will be sufficient for my purpose however, 
 after what is said already, just to take notice, that 
 he is styled in both places, as above, the angel of the 
 Lord, and the angel of God ; that, upon his appear- 
 ance to Gideon, he saith, " Jehovah (is) with thee, 
 thou mighty man of valour ;" 2 and upon Gideon's 
 affectionate remonstrance, as if Jehovah had for- 
 saken his people and delivered them into the hands 
 of their enemies, it is said, Jehovah " looked upon 
 him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt 
 save Israel from the hand of the Midianites, have I 
 not sent thee \ Surely, I will be with thee ;" 3 that 
 he answereth Manoah's enquiry about his name by 
 
 1 Acts vii, 38. Judg. vi, 12. a Ver. 14, 16.
 
 PREFACE. 147 
 
 declaring it to be " secret," or " wonderful," 1 one 
 of the express titles of Christ in the prophet 
 Isaiah ; 2 in a word, that both Gideon and Manoah 
 sacrifice to him, Gideon a kid and unleavened cakes, 
 Manoah a kid with a meat-offering, and that he ac- 
 cepteth of their sacrifices, expressly commanding the 
 latter, who did not know him at first to be the angel 
 of the Lord, to offer his sacrifice to him as Jehovah ; 3 
 and lastly, that, upon his being known to both to 
 be the angel of the Lord by his miraculous accept- 
 ance of their offerings, Gideon said, "Alas, Lord 
 God, for because I have seen the angel of the Lord 
 face to face " 4 " And Jehovah said unto him, Peace 
 (be) unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die ;" 5 " and 
 Manoah said unto his wife," which explaineth what 
 Gideon said, " We shall surely die, because we have 
 seen God." 6 
 
 The reader will be pleased to observe, that in all 
 the above passages of holy writ, either the divine 
 names, Jehovah or God, or some divine title or attri- 
 bute, are mentioned ; some miracle of divine power 
 wrought ; or some promise, requiring the exertion of 
 such divine power for the accomplishment thereof, 
 given ; some act of religious adoration accepted ; a 
 sameness of form, lineaments, etc., in the appear- 
 ance ; or, in a word, some well-known token, some 
 manifestation of the divine presence displayed, 
 
 1 Judg. xiii, 18. '- Isa. ix, 6. 3 Judg. xiii, 16. 
 
 4 See Gen. xxxii, 30. 5 Judg. vi, 22, 23. c xiii, 22, 
 
 L 2
 
 148 PREFACE. 
 
 whereby the persons, honoured with such appear- 
 ances, might distinguish them from all other appear- 
 ances whatever ; as is evident, not only in the case 
 of the holy patriarchs, prophets, high-priest, etc., but 
 even in those of Abimelech 1 and Nebuchadnezzar, 
 who were heathen princes, the latter of whom ex- 
 pressly declareth, of himself, without any particular 
 information at the time "And the form of the fourth 
 is like the Son of God ;" 2 whom the king, very re- 
 markably for our purpose, at the 28th verse, calleth 
 the Angel of God " (Then) Nebuchadnezzar spake 
 and said, Blessed (be) the God of Shadrach," etc., 
 " who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants 
 that trusted in him." 
 
 If it should be doubted, whether the instances 
 above given are conclusive in the present case, in as 
 much as the appearances therein recorded are all to 
 be referred to the second person, whom the primitive 
 fathers generally suppose to have appeared on such 
 occasions, I shall beg leave to remark, in hopes of 
 throwing some additional light on what those holy 
 men have left us upon this subject, that, though it 
 'was generally the second person only that appeared, 
 it was not always ; as is, I think, sufficiently evident 
 from the two instances produced in the following 
 discourse. Generally speaking indeed it was, and 
 for these obvious reasons, because he was to be one 
 day incarnate, and by his incarnation become, as the 
 
 1 Gen. xx, 3, 4. 2 Dan. iii, 25.
 
 PREFACE. 149 
 
 prophet testifieth of him, the angel, or messenger of 
 the covenant ; but then the reader will always bear 
 in mind, as it is of the utmost consequence he should, 
 that whenever Jehovah or God (DTPN* plural) is 
 said to appear, the undivided power and glory of 
 the co-eternal Trinity was always present, however, 
 in their infinite wisdom, one or more of the persons 
 might be manifested under a visible form, as the 
 oeconomical appropriation of offices or design of each 
 particular manifestation required. 
 
 Innumerable instances more might be added from 
 the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament ; 
 but the few I have already set down, with the above 
 hints for laying the several proofs in scripture toge- 
 ther, will be a clue to direct any further enquiries 
 the reader may choose to make for himself. Of what 
 I have written, as well as of the following discourse, 
 I have only to say, that I thought it might be of 
 some little service to the public at this time ; and 
 hope it will be received as my humble mite thrown 
 into the treasury of God (to be succeeded by others 
 as I shall see occasion and God shall give me ability) 
 
 <_? / / 
 
 towards the support of those orthodox Creeds, and 
 that most admirable Liturgy which, upheld against 
 the secret underminings of the present age by the 
 same Almighty Hand that rescued them from the 
 open violence of the last, have preserved this beau- 
 tiful garden of the Church of England from being 
 turned into a common ; and by which, together 
 with her truly apostolical form of government by
 
 150 PREFACE. 
 
 bishops (no honours or privileges conferred upon the 
 episcopacy by the secular power, how unhappy a 
 temptation soever they may have been to worldly- 
 minded men to usurp a civil authority that doth not 
 belong to the church, or betray the spiritual one that 
 doth, in the least taking away aught from the divine 
 institution and office itself, which descends by con- 
 secration, a circumstance some men, it is to be hoped, 
 have not duly considered) by which orthodox Creeds 
 I say, most admirable Liturgy, and truly apostolical 
 form of Government, whatever improvement she 
 might derive from a due exertion of ancient, how- 
 ever now neglected, rights and discipline, and from 
 a restoration of primitive simplicity, increase of faith, 
 and heavenly-mindedness, she is notwithstanding 
 undoubtedly the purest church this day upon earth ; 
 in her articles and institutions, the glory of all the 
 churches, daily condemning her unworthy sons from 
 the words of their own mouths, and with the united 
 melody of many faithful hearts yet remaining within 
 her, giving glory to God her Saviour, the King of 
 Glory and of saints, in these last levelling times of 
 anti-christian confusion.
 
 THE DOCTRINE 
 
 OP THE 
 
 EVER-BLESSED TRINITY. 
 A SERMON. 
 
 GENESIS xvm, 1, 2. 
 
 And the Lord appeared unto Mm in the plains (Heb., among the 
 oaks) of Hamre, as he sat in the tent door, in the heat of the 
 day. And he lift up his eyes, and looked, and lo three men 
 stood l)y him. 
 
 THE learned and pious compilers of our most ex- 
 cellent liturgy having appointed this chapter of 
 Genesis one of the proper lessons for Trinity Sunday, 
 this alone, I should think, would be sufficient to ex- 
 cite our curiosity, and lead us to a diligent enquiry 
 into the reasons for which they appointed it ; espe- 
 cially as it is our duty at all times to search the holy 
 scriptures in general for evidence of this great and 
 fundamental doctrine, upon which all our hope of 
 salvation and future glory dependeth. And if ever 
 there was a time, when the absolute necessity of a 
 firm belief of this doctrine should, with more than 
 ordinary zeal and industry, be pressed home to the 
 hearts of the people, it is the age wherein we live ;
 
 152 SERMON IV. 
 
 when not only every little forward vainly-philoso- 
 phising declaimer, without the least knowledge of 
 his bible, thinks himself qualified to dispute the 
 faith, upon which the church has stood from the 
 beginning, and to blaspheme the adorable name in 
 which he was baptized, (which, whatever he may 
 think of it, is to renounce the faith) but when even 
 a guardian and overseer 1 of the flock of Christ him- 
 self, whose high office it is to ordain others to preach 
 the gospel of salvation, i. e., the long and earnestly- 
 expected incarnation of the second person in the ever- 
 blessed Trinity the revelation of the great and 
 
 1 The miserably-deluded, still persisting, and, to the great 
 scandal of the Christian Church and hierarchy, yet unex- 
 communicated author of the Essay on Spirit ;* to which I 
 cannot pass by this opportunity of recommending a most 
 complete and admirable answer by my truly-learned friend, 
 and beloved fellow-labourer in the gospel, Mr. William 
 Jones, late of University College in Oxford, printed for E. 
 Withers at the Seven Stars, next the Inner Temple Gate in 
 Fleet Street ; and S. Parker, at Oxford, 1753 ; which not 
 only calleth for the commendation and thanks of every 
 orthodox believer, but whose worthy author (if a private 
 person may with due deference give his judgment in this 
 respect) deserveth some honourable testimony of approba- 
 tion from the governors of that Church, of the fundamental 
 article whereof, besides the other valuable learning con- 
 tained in it, it is so seasonable and judicious a defence. 
 
 * This essay is ascribed to Robert Clayton (bishop of Clogher); 
 for further particulars see Darling's Cyclopaedia Bibliographica, 
 tit. Clayton, columns 694-5, and Jones (of Nay land), col. 1683. 
 EUITOK.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 153 
 
 glorious mystery of God manifest in the flesh when 
 one, so stationed by divine consecration for this" and 
 the government of God's church, dareth openly to 
 deny the whole of that gospel he sendeth out his 
 clergy to proclaim ; and so, of course, the justifica- 
 tion of sinners through the all-prevailing merits of 
 God the Son, and the sanctification of man's fallen 
 nature by the power of God the Holy Ghost as 
 every one evidently does, and must do, who denieth 
 the divinity of either. It shall be my endeavour 
 therefore in the following discourse, as it ought to be 
 at all times, and eminently at such a time, of every 
 Christian pastor, to guard you against the dangerous 
 influence of such abominable heresy ; and with this 
 view, I will now attempt to shew you, in the plainest 
 manner I am able, the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity, 
 three co-eternal persons and one undivided essence, 
 are clearly revealed to us in this chapter of Genesis. 
 That God often appeared to holy men under the 
 patriarchal and Jewish dispensations, and that he 
 appeared at such times as a man, or men, to remind 
 them of his promised manifestation in the flesh in the 
 fulness of time, must be evident to all who read and 
 believe the sacred history, wherein many of these 
 appearances are circumstantially recorded. That 
 the person, or persons, so appearing were truly and 
 essentially God, may in the several places where 
 they occur be abundantly demonstrated. We will 
 now proceed to consider the arguments for this in 
 the chapter before us ; and the
 
 154 SERMON IV. 
 
 i. First point I shall endeavour to prove by them 
 is, that the vision here vouchsafed to Abraham was 
 of God Himself. And 
 
 1. This is expressly asserted in the beginning of 
 the chapter, in the words of the text. They inform 
 us, as you have heard, that the Lord appeared unto 
 him. The word here translated Lord is in the 
 original, Jehovah ; which, as it signifieth " He that 
 is, that he hath life and all possible perfection in 
 himself, and deriveth them not from another," is a 
 name that cannot without blasphemy be communi- 
 cated to a creature, the high and distinguishing name 
 of the " Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and 
 is to come." 1 This being the allowed interpretation 
 of the name Jehovah, and this interpretation mani- 
 festly determining it to be the incommunicable pro- 
 perty of God, it is as plain as words can make it, 
 that God appeared unto Abraham, for the text saith, 
 " Jehovah appeared unto him." 
 
 2. Again ; another proof of his divinity who ap- 
 peared may be drawn from the holy patriarch's 
 behaviour upon the occasion, who immediately, with- 
 out hesitation, payeth divine honours to him. For 
 so we read in the 6th and 7th verses, which are a 
 plain description of a sacrifice. "And Abraham 
 hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, make 
 ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead (it) 
 and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran 
 
 1 Rev. iv, 8.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 155 
 
 unto the herd, and fetched a calf tender and good, 
 and gave (it) unto a young man, and he hasted to 
 dress it/' The Hebrew says " to sacrifice it," as 
 the word here translated " to dress it" signifieth, 
 and is rendered by all the translators in abundance 
 of places. 1 Now sacrifice was the highest act of 
 religious worship, instituted as a memorial of that 
 one all-sufficient sacrifice, which was to be offered 
 up in the fulness of time for the sins of the world ; 
 and would Abraham, do ye think, sacrifice to any 
 mere men or angels 1 Would the father of the faith- 
 ful, in whose seed (i. e., Christ) all the nations of the 
 earth were to be blessed, whose faith shineth so con- 
 spicuous throughout the whole history of his life, 
 pay adoration to a false object 1 This is too great 
 an absurdity to be credited ; and yet, great as it is, 
 it will unavoidably follow, unless we suppose this 
 appearance to be Him, to whom alone worship is 
 
 > pro sacrificare, offerre, etc., to sacri- 
 fice, to offer, etc. Marius. See Exod. xxix, 36, 39, 41. So the 
 heathens use the word in Greek and Latin. The reason of 
 this sense of the word so prevailing in all languages was 
 undoubtedly traditional ; and if the opinion that this feast 
 was sacrificial, i. e., a meat-offering, needeth any further 
 confirmation, it will receive a great one from a very striking 
 circumstance that is added in the next chapter, to a feast of 
 the same kind made by Lot for two of these three men, or 
 angels. " And he made them a feast, and baked unleavened 
 bread/' etc. See this circumstance in the law concerning 
 the meat-offering, Levit. vi, 1 6, and for the reason or inten- 
 tion of it, 1 Cor. v, 8.
 
 156 SERMON IV. 
 
 due. But it may be said Abraham was mistaken, 
 as St. John undoubtedly was, when he went to 
 worship the angel, as he telleth us in his revelation 
 he did ; as the Apostle mistook the glorious mes- 
 senger he saw for his blessed master, so might the 
 patriarch the three men that appeared to him for 
 divine persons, when they really were not so. The 
 argument then will come to this either Abraham 
 was mistaken, or the persons he saw were divine ; 
 for he certainly supposed them to be so, or he would 
 never have sacrificed to them. But the text, you 
 will recollect, affirmeth that the Lord, or Jehovah, 
 appeared to him. If therefore he believed what the 
 text positively affirmeth (as his actions declare he 
 did), then he was not mistaken when he supposed 
 this appearance to be Jehovah, then it is evident 
 this appearance was Jehovah ; which was the thing 
 to be proved. 
 
 3. Again ; another argument to prove that it was 
 God himself who appeared to Abraham, is, that he 
 who appeareth hath divine attributes ascribed to 
 him ; and first, that he is all-knowing the very 
 thoughts of the heart, and most secret actions of the 
 mind, are here represented as laying open to his 
 sight. For upon his promise of a son to the patriarch, 
 when he and Sarah his wife were old, and she past 
 child-bearing, it is written, that " Sarah heard it in 
 the tent door, which was behind him, and that she 
 laughed within herself;" to which is subjoined: 
 " And Jehovah said unto Abraham, wherefore did
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 157 
 
 Sarah laugh ? Then Sarah denied, saying, I laughed 
 not (for she was afraid). And he (that is, Jehovah) 
 said, Nay but thou didst laugh." 1 What complicated 
 evidence is here of the point under consideration ? 
 He that saith this is styled Jehovah ; and Sarah 
 laughed within herself. This laughter of Sarah's 
 first appeareth to have been mixed with some degree 
 of human doubt through astonishment ; but after- 
 wards we find her heart, upon reflection, filled with 
 the same holy joy Abraham's had been before 2 at so 
 high and, through her means, unexpected a blessing 
 to herself and all the world insomuch that this 
 great representative of the Christian Church most 
 thankfully and devoutly declareth in faith, upon the 
 accomplishment of the promise, " God hath made 
 me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with 
 me." 3 For which reason also the promised seed that 
 was born of her was called Isaac, which word signi- 
 fieth laughter, as a lively pledge of the promised 
 seed, that was to be born in the fulness of time ; at 
 whose birth the angel emphatically said " Behold 
 I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall 
 be to all people" 4 When all that heard and believed 
 did indeed partake of Sarah's joy, and, as she here 
 foretold, " laughed with her." But to proceed with 
 the argument before us " Sarah laughed within 
 herself" Now if she had even smiled outwardly, 
 
 1 Gen. xviii, 10, 12, 13, 15. 2 Chap, xvii, 17. 
 
 3 Chap, xxi, 6. 4 Luke ii, 1 0.
 
 158 SERMON IV. 
 
 he that spake could not have seen her, unless he was 
 God, for the Scripture saith, " she was behind him." 
 But this was not the case ; for she laughed within 
 herself. Yet though she was behind him, and laughed 
 within herself, he saw her ; though she denied it, 
 he convicted her ; and who could do this without 
 discerning the thoughts of the heart ? And who 
 discerneth the thoughts of the heart but God alone I 1 
 When our Lord at once knew Nathanael, without 
 being informed who he was, described to him the 
 inward frame and disposition of his soul, and told 
 him he had seen him when Nathanael was certain 
 no man was present, Nathanael immediately acknow- 
 ledged him to be the Messiah, i.e., God as well as 
 man, from the demonstration he had given of his 
 divinity. 2 Let us imitate the faith of this Israelite 
 indeed, and believe God to be in these three men 
 who appeared unto Abraham ; for divine omnipre- 
 sence and knowledge are as conspicuous in the 
 words here spoken to Sarah, as in those which the 
 Saviour of the world there spoke to Nathanael. But 
 omniscience is not the only attribute here ascribed 
 to the divine speaker ; he himself in direct terms 
 likewise asserteth 
 
 4. His Omnipotence. " And Jehovah said unto 
 Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, shall 
 I, of a surety, bear a son which am old \ Is any- 
 thing too hard for Jehovah ? At the time appointed 
 
 1 1 Kings viii, 3.9. 2 John i, 47-9.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 159 
 
 will I return unto thec, according to the time of life 
 and Sarah shall have a son." 1 Doth he not here call 
 himself Jehovah ? Doth he not declare all things 
 are possible to him ? Doth he not assure Abraham 
 that he would do the miracle, which we know came 
 to pass 1 Give a due attention to the words, and 
 you will want no further comment upon them 
 " Is anything too hard for Jehovah ? At the time 
 appointed will I return unto thee, and Sarah shall 
 have a son." It will add weight however to the 
 argument just to mention in this place, that when 
 the promise was accomplished, as we read in the 
 twenty-first chapter it was, it is there recorded in 
 these remarkable words " Jehovah visited Sarah, as 
 He had said, and Jehovah did unto Sarah, as He 
 had spoken." 2 Now compare these two texts toge- 
 ther, and see what will be the inference. " And 
 Jehovah said, Is anything too hard for Jehovah \ 
 At the time appointed will I return unto thee, and 
 Sarah shall have a son." " And Jehovah visited 
 Sarah, as he had said, and Jehovah did unto Sarah, 
 as he had spoken." The plain inference from which 
 is, that if Jehovah visited Sarah, as he had said, then 
 he who said he would return was Jehovah ; and if 
 he said, likewise, nothing was too hard for him to 
 effect, then did he in plain terms affirm himself to 
 be Almighty. I will only observe farther, that the 
 time appointed, at which Jehovah saith in the 
 
 1 Gen. xviii, 13, 14. 2 Verse 1.
 
 160 SERMON IV. 
 
 eighteenth chapter, " I will return unto thee," is in 
 the twenty-first chapter called " the set time of 
 which God had spoken to him/' 1 
 
 I have now, I hope, sufficiently proved that the 
 persons who appeared to Abraham were divine 
 they have the divine incommunicable name, divine 
 honours, and divine attributes ; they are Jehovah 
 they are worshipped by him who is styled the friend 
 of God 2 they are all-knowing they are almighty. 
 Their divinity therefore being unquestionable, we 
 must now proceed to shew their personality, that as 
 we have seen there was one Jehovah in this ap- 
 pearance, we may also as clearly discern that they 
 were 
 
 n. Three divine persons. Now the 
 
 1. First argument I shall bring to prove this will 
 be the words of the text, which are indeed as deter- 
 minate and conclusive as possible. " Jehovah," it is 
 said, " appeared unto Abraham, and lo ! three men 
 stood by him." Were not these three men the " ap- 
 pearance"^ And were they not then Jehovah \ But 
 to be a little more particular ; how did Jehovah 
 appear 1 for the Scripture saith, " no man hath seen 
 God at any time." 3 Why, it is said, " Abraham lift 
 up his eyes and looked, and lo ! three men stood by 
 him." These three men then were Jehovah ; the 
 appearance was human, but Jehovah was in the 
 appearance ; and the persons in the appearance were 
 
 1 Gen. xxi, 2. 2 James ii, 23. 8 John i, 18.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 161 
 
 three, because the persons in Jehovah are three. A 
 Trinity in Unity therefore is here set forth in the 
 plainest manner to all capacities ; and the words 
 speak the same intelligible language, as those of the 
 beloved disciple : " There are THREE which bear 
 record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the 
 Holy Ghost, and these THREE are one." 1 But 
 
 2. Abraham knew this, understood the great 
 mystery (or spiritual truth) represented by this ap- 
 pearance, as is evident from the form of his address. 
 For he " lift up his eyes, and looked, and lo ! three 
 men stood by him ; and when he saw (them) he ran 
 to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself 
 toward the ground, and said, My LORD, if now I 
 have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I 
 pray thee, from thy servant." 2 Here, you see, though 
 there were three men, he addresseth them in the 
 singular number ; though he beheld three men stand- 
 ing before him, he calleth the three " my Lord ;" he 
 saith not, my Lords, in the plural number, but my 
 Lord, in the singular; he plainly therefore knew the 
 undivided essence of Jehovah to be in the three men 
 who stood before him (for, besides the absurdity of 
 creature-worship, he never would have addressed the 
 three men, as men, with this singular appellation), 
 that though it was in each of them, it was neverthe- 
 less undivided ; that with respect to their divine 
 nature they were one and the same. But as he 
 
 1 I John v, 7. 2 Genesis xviii, 2, 3. 
 
 M
 
 162 SERMON IV. 
 
 knew the persons that were in the three men to be 
 one Jehovah, so did he of course acknowledge in 
 Jehovah three co-essential persons; for unless he 
 had believed a divine person to have been in each, 
 he would not have worshipped the three men as he 
 did : the divine and eternal, not created and assumed 
 nature, he undoubtedly worshipped, and by paying 
 such divine honour to the three (the three divine 
 persons in the three men, as above described) evi- 
 dently acknowledged in the divine nature three 
 co-eternal co-equal persons. He said my Lord 
 indeed, in the singular number, but he said it to 
 THEM, and the remaining part of his invocation is as 
 remarkably in the plural, of which I shall have occa- 
 sion to speak more particularly below. To show 
 the personality then in Jehovah that he was three 
 and yet one, three and one in different respects- 
 three persons and one essence, and at the same 
 time to show the divine persons in their covenant- 
 offices, that each sustained a part in the oaconomy 
 of redemption, was manifestly the design of God's 
 condescension in this appearance ; this the reason of 
 his appearing in the manner he did upon this occa- 
 sion, in three men, not in one, as the second person 
 always did, when his incarnation was the only thing 
 to be exhibited. Thus having proved before from 
 Abraham's actions, that he knew the men he saw to 
 be God, I have now proved from his own words, 
 that he knew there was a Trinity of persons in the 
 Godhead ; for which I shall subjoin one more autho-
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 163 
 
 rity, amongst many, taken notice of by Zanchius, in 
 his book " Concerning the three Elohim, the eternal 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one and the same 
 Jehovah." " I pass over," saith he, " what I also have 
 touched upon in the twentieth chapter, where Abra- 
 ham, speaking to king Abimelech of HIM who had 
 called him out of his own land, saith, And when the 
 Elohim (THEY) caused me to wander from my 
 father's house, etc., for he joineth Elohim with a 
 verb plural, T^nn, THEY caused me to wander ; and 
 when Moses calleth Jehovah, Abraham calleth 
 Elohim. Did not Abraham therefore KNOW, that 
 JEHOVAH was a PLURALITY of ELOHIM V 1 
 
 3. The third and last argument I shall propose, is 
 the frequent and promiscuous use of the singular 
 and plural numbers, in the inspired writer's account 
 of these three men and the patriarch. I will briefly 
 collect the passages together, and they will be a 
 striking evidence to you. " Jehovah appeared unto 
 Abraham, and lo ! three men stood by him, and 
 when he saw (them) he ran to meet them." 2 The 
 
 1 " Taceo hie, quod supra etiam attigi ex cap. 20, ubi 
 Abraham de EO, qui se de sua terra evocaverat, loquens ad 
 regem Abimelechum, ait, quumque errare fecerunt me 
 Elohim a domo patris mei, etc. Nam Elohim cum verbo 
 plurali, iyni> errare fecerunt, conjungit. Et quern Moses 
 vocaverat Jehovam, Abraham vocat Elohim. An non igitur 
 Abrahamus novit, Jehovam Plures esse Elohim ?" Hieron. 
 Zanchii de tribus Elohim, seterno Patre, Filio, et Spiritu 
 Sancto, uno eodem que Jehova. Lib. ii, cap. 2. 
 
 2 Genesis xviii, 1, 2. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 SERMON IV. 
 
 inspired historian here speaketh both in the singular 
 and plural number. " Jehovah," saith he, " appeared 
 unto Abraham, and lo ! three men stood by him, 
 etc., and he ran to meet them." Then followeth 
 Abraham's address to them, the first part of which 
 is in the singular number " And said (he said unto 
 them), My Lord, if I have now found favour in thy 
 sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant." 1 
 Here he speaketh all along in the singular number, 
 i.e., he addresseth them as one ; but on a sudden, in 
 his invocation of them to partake of the sacrifice, he 
 changeth the number in the very same speech, as 
 followeth " Let a little water, I pray you, be 
 fetched, and wash your feet (the word your is 
 plural, not singular), and rest yourselves under the 
 tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and com- 
 fort ye your hearts ; after that ye shall pass on, for 
 therefore are ye come to your servant." 2 All this 
 plainly in the plural number, as the former part of 
 the address was in the singular. 2. The inspired 
 historian likewise expresseth himself in the plural 
 number, and as suddenly changeth it into the singu- 
 lar " And they said, so do as thou hast said. And 
 Abraham, etc., took butter and milk, and the calf 
 which he had dressed, and set (it) before them, and 
 they did eat. And they said unto him, Where is 
 Sarah thy wife T 3 All this is in the plural num- 
 ber ; what followeth is in the singular. " And he 
 
 1 Gen. xviii, 3. 2 Ver. 4, 5. 3 Ver. 5, 8, 9.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 165 
 
 said, I will certainly return unto thee And Jehovah 
 said, wherefore did Sarah laugh 1 At the time ap- 
 pointed will I return unto thee, etc. Then Sarah 
 denied, saying, I laughed not; and he said, nay but 
 thou didst laugh." 1 This variation in the numbers 
 can, I think, be no way accounted for or reconciled, 
 without supposing the three who appeared to be 
 one in some other respect three persons and one 
 Jehovah ; and I hope enough has been said to prove 
 they were so. 
 
 The use the Apostle hath made of this Scripture, 
 to enforce the great duty of Christian hospitality 
 " Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby 
 some have entertained angels unawares" 2 will, to 
 such as consider the allowed signification of the 
 word angel, as above given, that it is, as Tertullian 
 justly observeth, a name of office, not of nature, be 
 no reasonable objection to the above account of this 
 appearance. Eather, on the contrary, the Apostle's 
 argument will derive a peculiar force and emphasis 
 from supposing the angels he referreth to in this 
 passage to be the divine persons themselves gra- 
 ciously condescending thus to visit the holy fathers 
 of our faith, to foreshew, in figure, that they would 
 one day visit and redeem their people deigning to 
 be visibly present at the sacred rites they them- 
 selves had appointed, as well as to declare they 
 appointed them, as to signify their acceptance of 
 
 1 Gen. xviii, 10, 13-15. 2 Heb. xiii, 2.
 
 166 SERMON IV. 
 
 the one great sacrifice, of whose oblation in the 
 latter days of the world they ordained these as 
 memorials humbling themselves even to come 
 down from heaven and converse with men, in evi- 
 dence of the communication between heaven and 
 earth being opened again by the then prevailing 
 virtue of his after-sufferings, who was to cloud the 
 insupportable terror of the divine majesty under a 
 veil of flesh, and by a most stupendous humiliation 
 indeed come and proclaim peace to a sinful world ; 
 from the traditional revelation and expectation of 
 which, till he came, all the fabulous appearances of 
 the heathen deities, however mixed with after- 
 abominations, were derived and lastly, suffering 
 themselves to be detained on their way by the 
 devout entreaties of these their servants, to shew 
 their ear would ever be open to sincere and fervent 
 prayer, offered in faith ; that they would come and 
 dwell by their spirit in every believing heart, that 
 should be found fruitful in good works, of which the 
 particular enjoined by the Apostle in this Scripture 
 is a high and eminent instance ; as if he had said 
 " Remember to be continually doing such kind 
 offices of Christian love, inasmuch as some have, by 
 so doing, entertained even the divine persons them- 
 selves, in their (Economical characters ;" manifested, 
 as they were wont to be in those days, under such 
 appearances as have been described, to assure the 
 faithful of those times, as well as those that were to 
 come after, that they would always be spiritually
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 167 
 
 present, as I have said, with their Church, dwell in 
 every heart, that should be continually prepared 
 through faith working by love for their reception. 
 
 And if this exposition of the above Scripture be 
 admitted, the only remaining objection I can think 
 of to what has been said is the account generally 
 given of this appearance, not only by later exposi- 
 tors, but by most, though not by all of the holy 
 fathers themselves, viz., that one of the persons here 
 spoken of was Jehovah, or God the Son, the other 
 two mere angels, his attendants only ; so that when 
 one person is addressed or speaketh, the divine 
 WORD himself is meant when the three, the divine 
 WORD and his attendant angels : from which opinion, 
 supported by such high authorities, I should with 
 great diffidence have receded, especially as the 
 Scripture, in the way they understand it, clearly 
 establisheth the divinity of Christ, but that the con- 
 text evidently requireth a different interpretation. 
 For after Jehovah is said to appear, and the manner 
 of his appearance is described, which is, in three 
 men " Jehovah appeared unto him, and he lift up 
 his eyes and looked, and lo ! three men stood by 
 him" there is no mark of inferiority or subordi- 
 nation observable throughout the whole chapter. On 
 the contrary, Abraham runneth to meet them, and 
 equally addresseth the three with the singular 
 appellation of my Lord ; Sarah prepareth three 
 measures of meal, one, as it should seem, for each 
 person ; they are equally invoked to partake of the
 
 168 SERMON IV. 
 
 sacrifice, and equally accept of the invitation ; which 
 even if the feast had not been sacrificial, as it was, 
 no ministering spirit in heaven would have at- 
 tempted ; much more, as it was sacrificial, would 
 two of the three in this appearance have cor- 
 rected the patriarch's mistake with some such rever- 
 ential language as the following " See (thou do it) 
 not (to us) for we are thy fellow-servants worship 
 God ;' divine honours are due only to one in this 
 appearance, who created us as well as thee," etc. 
 Besides, that Abraham did not address one of them 
 only, who appeared more eminent than the other 
 two, is plain from the behaviour of Lot in the fol- 
 lowing chapter ; who (after one of the persons here 
 expressly styled Jehovah, which had stayed behind 
 in order to reveal his divine counsel to Abraham, 
 and accept his typical intercession thereupon, as a 
 figure of Christ's, and therefore could not be the 
 second person, 2 as hath been generally supposed, 
 had left communing with him, and was gone to his 
 place) addresseth himself in the same manner to the 
 other two, which are there styled angels " And 
 two of the angels (so it is in the Hebrew 3 ) came 
 
 1 Rev. xxii, 9. 
 
 2 The learned Dr. Lightfoot hath been beforehand with 
 me in this remark " The Son and the Holy Ghost/' saith 
 he, " go down to Sodom, but the first Person stayeth with 
 Abraham, and condescendeth to his prayer, as long as he 
 asketh." Vol. i, p. 13. 
 
 3 D*W?fin *JB> as DWEOPl *)&> Numb, vii, 3, is two 
 of the princes, and so rendered by our translators.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 169 
 
 to Sodom at even (i.e., two of those which had ap- 
 peared unto Abraham 1 so here the three are styled 
 angels), and Lot rose up to meet them, and he 
 bowed himself with his face towards the ground, 
 and he said, Behold now my Lord ;" 2 for so it is 
 again in the original, and would have been so in our 
 translation, if the translators had been consistent 
 with themselves, and rendered ^"1X, not my Lords, 
 but my Lord, as they have rightly done in the pre- 
 ceding chapter. To which may be subjoined the 
 like variations of the singular and plural numbers, 
 as in the chapter above, as may be seen by com- 
 parison ; but very remarkably from the twelfth to 
 the twenty-fifth verse, where we read, " That the 
 men said unto Lot, we will destroy this place, 
 because the cry of them is waxen great before 
 Jehovah, and Jehovah hath sent us to destroy it 
 then the angels hastened Lot and while he lin- 
 gered, the men laid hold upon his hand, etc. And 
 it came to pass, when they had brought them forth 
 abroad, that he said, escape for thy life haste thec, 
 escape thither (to Zoar), for I cannot do anything 
 till thou be come thither. Then Jehovah rained 
 upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
 from Jehovah out of heaven. Above you sec, Lot 
 
 1 " The Son and the Holy Ghost," saith Dr. Lightfoot, 
 " come into Sodom to destroy it, and now they are called 
 angels, because they were sent by the Father." Vol. i, p. 
 695. See also p. i of the preface to this sermon. 
 
 2 Gen. xix, 1, 2.
 
 170 SERMON IV. 
 
 called the two angels or men "my Lord ;" here, they 
 say, "We will destroy this place Jehovah hath 
 sent us to destroy it;" and yet a little after, " I can- 
 not do anything till thou be come thither. Then 
 Jehovah rained," etc. The two therefore, however 
 distinct in personality and offices, were of one 
 nature, the two angels were Jehovah, as well as the 
 person that sent them ; which proves a Trinity of 
 persons in the divine nature to a demonstration, 
 each of whom is by plain deduction styled in this 
 Scripture Jehovah, but two apparently and past all 
 contradiction in the twenty-fourth verse " Jehovah 
 rained upon Sodom, etc.," Jehovah from Jehovah, 
 i.e., the second person, in his ceconomical or cove- 
 nant-office, as judge of the world, from the first. 
 
 I will only add a short inference from what has 
 been said, and then, the leading and principal cir- 
 cumstance of the history being thus laid open at 
 large, briefly shew the use we should make of this 
 and the other circumstances thereof, in the practical 
 application of them to ourselves. The inference is 
 this if the patriarch Abraham believed (as he most 
 certainly did) the doctrine of the ever-blessed 
 Trinity, then was the doctrine of the ever-blessed 
 Trinity an article of faith in the days of Abraham. 
 Indeed, if there was any occasion, and this is a 
 proper place for such an inquiry, I could easily 
 prove this doctrine to have been revealed to our 
 first parents before the fall, 1 and that their hope and 
 
 1 The usual word for God, DTlt^ is incontestably
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 171 
 
 comfort, after their transgression, as well as those of 
 all their children since, immediately depended, and 
 must always depend, upon the truth and certainty 
 of it ; so that it was then, and ever will be neces- 
 sary, that all believers should be acquainted with it. 
 in. And now to proceed to the other circum- 
 stances of the history, and the practical application 
 of the whole to ourselves, without which we should 
 omit the great end for which this and every Scrip- 
 ture history was recorded. For very narrow and 
 unworthy conceptions must he have of the manifold 
 wisdom of God, as contrary to the plain declaration 
 of the Scriptures of the New Testament, as deroga- 
 tory from the spirit of prophecy in the Old, who can 
 think the foregoing, or any other patriarchal his- 
 tory, was designed to terminate in the patriarch 
 himself. This is the case with human histories 
 indeed, but by no means with the divine. " Known 
 unto God are all his works from the beginning of 
 the world" 1 and in all the works of God from the 
 beginning of the world all the children of God are 
 
 plural, denoting a plurality of persons in the divine nature, 
 whom other Scriptures determine to be three. If Eve had 
 not understood the word, the tempter would scarce have 
 used it ; and unless they had both referred it to the divine 
 persons, on whom Eve was dependent as their creature, I 
 cannot see the force of the temptation " Ye shall be as 
 Gods" the Heb. is as Q^n/K> *> grammatically like more 
 divine persons than one, whatever be the radical idea of 
 the word, which is not before me now. 
 1 Acts xv, 18.
 
 172 SERMON IV. 
 
 interested. The lives, actions, etc., of the holy 
 patriarchs, besides their respect to Christ and his 
 spiritual kingdom, are so many lively figures of the 
 spiritual state of every particular Christian, who is a 
 stranger and a sojourner, in this world, as all his 
 fathers were. 1 They had the same faith in the 
 things not seen, the same hope in the world to 
 come ; and the same love, springing out of both, 
 was their perfection as well as ours. The things 
 recorded of them were therefore ensamples to us ; 
 and of those here recorded of Abraham and Sarah, 
 doubtless for our imitation and encouragement, the 
 following particulars seem most to deserve our at- 
 tention. 
 
 1. No sooner did Jehovah appear unto Abraham, 
 than he ran to meet him. The appearance, I sup- 
 pose, was a glorious one, miraculously supported in 
 the air, not close-by, but, as the word may well be 
 understood to signify, at some little distance above 
 or over the place' where Abraham was sitting; which 
 I only mention to obviate any exception that may 
 'be taken at the patriarch's running to meet him. 
 But why did he run to meet him ? If thine own 
 heart cannot answer, ask the devout soul and it 
 shall tell thee. Though Jehovah was so nigh unto 
 him, he ran to meet him. Oh ! a sense of the 
 divine presence is a wonderful incitement to devo- 
 tion. And by what outward act could Abraham so 
 
 1 Ps. xxxix, 12; Heb. xi, 13; 1 Pet. ii, 11.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 173 
 
 well express the inward affection of his soul ? As 
 his low prostration of the body on the dust shewed 
 his humility in the sight of God, so did the running 
 of his feet to meet him the very fervent desire of 
 his filial love, his exceeding earnestness to converse 
 with God, and run the way of his commandments. 1 
 Jehovah appeared he lifted up his eyes, and looked 
 and saw and ran to meet him. And oh ! that 
 we, like the father of the faithful, whenever God is 
 pleased to visit us with his grace, would, without a 
 moment's hesitation, run to meet him in the way of 
 his ordinances ! Would make haste, and delay not 
 the time to entertain God in our hearts ! that our 
 affections, like Abraham's, would ever obey the very 
 first touch of the divine attraction ! that we could 
 every one of us address him at such times in his 
 own inimitable language " Draw me, we will run 
 after thee !" 2 
 
 2. Abraham not only ran to meet God, but pre- 
 pared with the same alacrity for his reception. He 
 hastened back into the tent bade Sarah make 
 ready quickly three measures of fine meal for the 
 sacred cakes he himself ran to the herd for the 
 sacrifice and his young man hasted to dress it. 
 How expressive all this of the active spirit of true 
 Christian faith ! Let us be careful to improve every 
 circumstance to the blessed purposes for which it 
 was written. As holy Sarah, at her lord's command, 
 
 1 Ps. cxix, 32. d Song of Solomon, i, 4.
 
 174 SERMON IV. 
 
 made the sacrificial cakes ready quickly, so let the 
 Church, at her Lord's command, have ever in readi- 
 ness the bread of life. As Sarah cheerfully obeyed 
 Abraham in this matter with all dutiful subjection, 
 in like manner let the Church be subject to Christ, 
 her head, in all things ; taking all her instruction 
 from the blessed word both in points of doctrine 
 and institution, not wise in her own conceit, but 
 opening her ear to heavenly wisdom, doing her 
 Lord's will, not her own, even as he " came down 
 from heaven, not to do (his) own will, but the will 
 of him that sent (him)." 1 " Hearken, daughter, 
 and consider, and incline thine ear, forget also thine 
 own people, and thy father's house ; so shall the 
 king have pleasure in thy beauty, for he (is) thy 
 Lord, and worship thou him." 2 As the young man 
 hasted to dress the sacrifice, let the Levites or 
 deacons, the Lord's ministers, shew the same dili- 
 gence, in due subordination assisting their superiors, 
 not with eye-service, but from the heart ; that they 
 who have appointed them to this ministry may 
 rejoice with them in their pious labours, and they 
 themselves, when the chief Shepherd shall appear, 
 receive the blessed reward of them. As Abraham 
 hastened into his tent, to direct the immediate pre- 
 paration of the holy cakes ran to the herd to fetch 
 the sacrifice for his divine guests and, as soon as 
 the whole was ready, devoutly set it before them 
 
 1 John vi, 38. 2 Ps. xlv, 10, 11.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 175 
 
 so let the bishops and priests, called to be inter- 
 cessors on earth (who stand in Christ's stead, by his 
 appointment, here between Jehovah and his people), 
 be continually mindful to set before him, for his 
 remembrance, the consecrated signs of his body and 
 blood, the sweet and most comfortable memorials of 
 his meritorious sufferings and our heavenly support, 
 his pledges to us and our claim from him of life 
 everlasting; that so, whenever he shall be pleased 
 to visit us, he may, together with the observance of 
 his other holy ordinances, find us thus doing ; and 
 being therefore (for this reason) come to us his 
 servants, as he did of old to his servant Abraham, 
 detained by our fervent devotion and sincere obe- 
 dience, may not pass away from us, but, according 
 to his most true promise, fulfilled in all believers by 
 the oeconomical office of the Holy Comforter after 
 his departure, may come and dwell with us in the 
 tent or tabernacle of his Church in grace, till he 
 taketh us up into his glory as he said : " If a man 
 love me, he will keep my words ; and my Father 
 will love him, and we will come unto him, and make 
 our abode with him." 1 And again, after his ascen- 
 sion : " Behold I stand at the door, and knock : if 
 any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will 
 come in to him and sup with him, and he with 
 me." 2 
 
 3. Consider Abraham's sacrifice it was the best 
 
 1 John xiv, 23. a Rev. iii, 20.
 
 176 SERMON IV. 
 
 of the kind the calf he ran to the herd to fetch 
 was tender and good ; in which the patriarch not 
 only punctually observed the traditional law, which 
 suffered not the immaculate Son of God to be repre- 
 sented by a creature in any respect imperfect, but 
 moreover, as I doubt not from overflowing grati- 
 tude, worshipped God with the best of everything, 
 of things appointed, that he had. In both particu- 
 lars let us imitate him, in his faith and in his love. 
 Let us believe and trust in the spotless innocence 
 and perfect oblation of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and 
 let every spiritual sacrifice and gift we offer through 
 his merits be the most excellent we have. Let us 
 dedicate to God and his glory the first and best of 
 our faculties. Let our early and most unforced 
 meditation, when solitude shall incline the heart to 
 thoughtfulness, be of him ; with him let us employ 
 the first hour of every day, especially where the 
 blessed opportunity is afforded us, in his more im- 
 mediate presence, in his holy temple ; and let our 
 hearts at every such time dwell on the riches of his 
 mercy. On him, and the treasure laid up in heaven 
 for us, let us fix our first and best love ; and, above 
 all, employ the best season of life in his word and 
 in his service " Eemember now thy creators," 1 the 
 persons who have created thee out of nothing, and 
 have since, if thou art a Christian, created thy soul 
 again, as they will thy body at the resurrection of 
 
 , plural.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 177 
 
 the dead, after the image of Christ, remember these 
 divine persons in the day of thy youth. 
 
 4. Faithful Sarah first doubted, alterwards be- 
 lieved, and obtained the promise. The Church mili- 
 tant, like its emblem in the material heavens, hath 
 its waxes and wanings, and there is no believer on 
 the earth but hath experienced both. For our 
 encouragement under occasional infirmities this cir- 
 cumstance of Sarah therefore seemeth to be writ- 
 ten ; and it containeth large matter for consola- 
 tion, though not the least for presumption. Sarah's 
 doubts were not of the infidel kind no, she was 
 sincere in the faith ; but the suddenness and great- 
 ness of the promise overpowered her faith, till the 
 consideration of God's almighty power (is anything 
 too hard for Jehovah ?) re-established it. Thus it 
 may happen to the best of Christians, only let us 
 guard against wilful ignorance ; and then a true and 
 genuine faith in God will be consistent with our 
 infirmities. Let us be careful, after every such sur- 
 prise, to follow Sarah in her faith, that so we may 
 be found of that happy number who were to partake 
 of her joy ; that finally apprehending all the pro- 
 mises of God in Christ, and stedfastly believing the 
 things we have " not seen, we may rejoice here with 
 joy unspeakable and full of glory," 1 and hereafter be 
 received up into that glory, to sec all we have be- 
 
 1 1 Tot. i, 8. 
 
 N
 
 178 SERMON IV. 
 
 lieved here " For blessed (are) they that have not 
 seen and (yet) have believed." 1 
 
 5. Lastly, Abraham when he received the promise 
 was celebrating the ordinances of God ; and shall 
 any that name the name of Christ, now the promise 
 is accomplished, presume to neglect and despise 
 them ? " Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is 
 given," 2 even " the promised seed" 3 of whose incar- 
 nation the birth of Isaac was only a figure, the 
 shadow of whose day Abraham saw, 4 and in the 
 brightness of whose day we live. 5 And shall any 
 called by his holy name, I repeat it through astonish- 
 ment, as well as for enforcement, shall any, called 
 Christians, contemn the institutions of God, under 
 pretence of a more spiritual and refined mode of 
 worship ? Was the Church of Christ, from the pro- 
 mise to Adam, ever without external emblems or 
 sacraments I Abraham, the friend of God, received 
 not God out of the way of his ordinances : let us 
 herein discern the only acceptable way of gaining 
 the friendship of God. The outward ordinances of 
 God's appointment are of the same importance now as 
 then. The mere ordinances indeed, without the spirit 
 of religion, will not profit to salvation ; but no more 
 will faith of itself without the use of the appointed 
 means, the rejection of which, in any respect, is as 
 
 1 John xx, 29. 2 Is. ix, 6. 
 
 3 Gen. iii, 1 5 ; xxii, 1 7, 1 8 ; Ps. Ixxxix, 4 ; Gal. iii, 1 G. 
 
 4 John viii, 56. :> 1 John ii, 8.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 179 
 
 profane as it is unreasonable. This did not Abra- 
 ham he had faith, and sacrificed. His faith in 
 Christ superseded not the necessity of showing his 
 death till he came in the flesh ; nor will our's that 
 of showing the same till he come in his glory " For 
 as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye 
 do shew the Lord's death till he come." 1 
 
 To conclude, and I mention it last that it may 
 leave a deep impression upon your minds, follow 
 Abraham then in his faith, that ye may be " the 
 children of the promise." 2 " Abraham," saith the 
 Apostle to the Galatians, " believed God, and it was 
 imputed to him for righteousness. Know ye there- 
 fore, and they which are of faith, the same are the 
 children of Abraham. For the Scripture, foreseeing 
 that God would justify the heathen through faith, 
 preached before (i.e., before the law) the gospel to 
 Abraham, (saying) in thy seed (which is Christ) 
 shall all the gentiles be blessed so then they which 
 be of the faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." 3 
 " Our forefather Abraham therefore" (we may say 
 with St. Cyril) "was not ignorant, that the maker 
 of heaven and earth and all that is therein, who 
 had power over all things, was worshipped in a 
 Holy Trinity ; nor were those that sprang from 
 him, viz., Isaac and Jacob, of a different opinion : 
 but treading in the steps of their father's virtue, 
 
 1 1 Cor. xi, 2(5. -' Rom. ix, 8. > Gal. iii, 9.
 
 180 SERMON IV. 
 
 became likewise zealous assertors of his faith." 1 And 
 oh! that the present age followed them, as they did 
 their father Abraham ; did not under the clear light 
 of the gospel-day they so much desired to see, to 
 the disgrace of many once noble and illustrious 
 families amongst us basely degenerate from both ! 
 But do you, my brethren, by prayer and diligent 
 reading of God's holy word, endeavour all of you 
 after his faith, that ye may be blessed with him. 
 He believed the doctrine I am enforcing in the full- 
 est manner : whoever believeth it not, is no spiritual 
 son of Abraham, hath no title to grace here, or to 
 glory hereafter. Let no man therefore beguile you 
 pf your everlasting inheritance, the only foundation 
 of which is faith in the ever-blessed Trinity in 
 Unity. For if there be not three persons in the 
 Godhead, there is no Eedeemer ; who then hath 
 fulfilled the law for you, and paid the atonement for 
 your sins, since he who was able to do this must be 
 God as well as man, and if this is not done ye are 
 yet in your sins \ If there be not three persons in 
 the Godhead there is no Holy Spirit; who can then 
 ** create in you a clean heart, and renew a right spirit 
 within you/' since a spiritual creation is as much a 
 work of divine incommunicable power as a natural 
 one \ Who then shall sanctify and support you, 
 who conduct you on your way \ Whence you may 
 observe, this doctrine of the holy Trinity is not an 
 
 1 St. Cyril. Alex, contr. Julian. Lib. i, p. 21.
 
 THE DOCTRINE OP THE TRINITY. 181 
 
 article of mere speculation, as some, that have no 
 interest in it, assert. No it is the very basis and 
 essence, you see, of the Christian religion, insepara- 
 bly interwoven and indissolubly connected with 
 every doctrine and precept of it ; which (taking in 
 the patriarchal and legal dispensations of it) is, ex- 
 clusive of all other religions in the world, the reli- 
 gion of the Trinity, being wholly made up of the 
 several parts each divine person undertook, and 
 either hath already fulfilled, or will most assuredly 
 fulfil, for the restoration of man ; and which, with- 
 out this leading doctrine of a co-equal co-eternal 
 personalty in the divine nature, upon the truth and 
 certainty of which the Christian covenant and exe- 
 cution thereof by consequence depend, whatever 
 encomiums may be bestowed on its moral duties, 
 when abstracted from this their only root and 
 foundation, (all, I fear, intended, like the kiss Judas 
 gave their author, to spoil them of their life) must, 
 like every after scheme of diabolic and human con- 
 trivance that beareth the name of religion, leave the 
 polluted offspring of fallen Adam still weltering in 
 their blood 1 rebels, under the original attainder- 
 insolvent debtors, in the infernal prison sinners, in 
 the hand of a just God, unransomed and unforgiven 
 hard-hearted, impenitent, unchanged, bewildered, 
 comfortless, and accursed. But if you believe this 
 doctrine with a sincere heart, keeping his command- 
 
 1 Ezek. xvi, 6.
 
 182 SERMON IV. 
 
 ments who hath loved you, you may look up with 
 confidence to the persons who have covenanted 
 to save you, " who will never leave you nor forsake 
 you," 1 but will accomplish your salvation. Let the 
 blind infidel, the man of this world, who walketh on 
 in spiritual darkness, " loving that darkness still 
 rather than light, because his deeds are evil," 2 let 
 such, lost as they 'are to God and dead to every 
 thing that is good, reject, to their own destruction, 
 this adorable doctrine blaspheme the holy truths 
 they cannot in that state apprehend 3 and despise 
 the hope and joy an unconverted heart never felt 
 or can experience ; but let it be your glory, my 
 brethren, always, as it will ever be your happiness, 
 publicly to confess before men and angels, the ever- 
 blessed Trinity in Unity the God of all believers 
 since the world began the God of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob the God of Israel, and our God, the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Unto whom be glory in the Church by Christ 
 Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. 
 Amen. 
 
 1 Josh, i, 5 ; Heb. xiii, 5. 2 John iii, 19. 
 
 3 1 Cor. ii, xiv.
 
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