punish us in proportion to our good or ill performance in it. Now, altho' the advantages which one man poffeffeth more than another, may in fome fenfe be called his property with respect to other men; yet, with refpect to God, they are, as I faid, only a truft; which will plainly appear from hence: If a man does not use thofe advantages to the good of the public, or the benefit of his neighbour, it is certain, he doth not deserve them, and confequently that God never intended them for a bleffing to him; and, on the other fide, whoever does employ his talents as he ought, will find by his own experience, that they were chiefly lent him for the fervice of others; for to the fervice of others he will cer→ tainly employ them. Thirdly, Ir we could all be brought to practise this duty of fubjecting ourselves to each other, it would very much contribute to the general happiness of mankind. For this would root out envy and malice from the heart of man; because you cannot envy your neighbour's ftrength, if he make use of it to defend your life, or carry your burden; you cannot envy his wisdom, if he gives you good counsel; nor his riches, if he fupplies you in your wants; nor his greatnefs, if he employs it to your protection. The miseries of life are not proper ly owing to the unequal diftribution of things; but God almighty, the great King of heaven, is treated like the kings of the earth, who, altho' perhaps in tending well themselves, have often moft abominable minifters and stewards; and thofe generally the vileft, to whom they intruft the most talents. But here is the difference, that the princes of this world fee by other mens eyes, but God fees all things; and therefore whenever he permits his bleffings to be dealt among those who are unworthy, we may certainly conclude, that he intends them only as a punishment to an evil world, as well as to the owners. It were well, if those would confider this, whofe riches ferve them only as a fpur to avarice, or as an inftrument to their lufts; whose wifdom is only of this world, to put falfe colours upon things, to call good evil, and evil good, against the conviction of their own confciences; and, lastly, who employ their power and favour in acts of oppreffion oppreffion or injuftice, in mifreprefenting perfons and things, or in countenancing the wicked to the ruin of the innocent. Fourthly, THE practice of this duty of being fubject to one another, would make us reft contented in the feveral stations of life wherein God hath thought fit to place us; because it would, in the beft and eafieft manner, bring us back as it were to that early state of the gospel, when Christans had all things in common. For if the poor found the rich difpofed to fupply their wants; if the ignorant found the wife ready to inftruct and direct them; or if the weak might always find protection from the mighty; they could none of them, with the least pretence of juftice, lament their own condition. FROM all that hath been hitherto faid, it appears, that great abilities of any fort, when they are employed as God directs, do but make the owners of them greater and more painful fervants to their neighbour, and the public. However, we are by no means to conclude from hence, that they are not really bleffings, when they are in the hands of good men. For, first, what can be a greater honour than to be chofen one of the stewards and difpenfers of God's bounty to mankind? What is there that can give a generous fpirit more pleasure and complacency of mind, than to confider, that he is an inftrument of doing much good? that great numbers owe to him, under God, their subfiftence, their fafety, their health, and the good conduct of their lives? The wickedeft man upon earth takes a pleasure in doing good to thofe he loves; and therefore, furely, a good Christian, who obeys our Saviour's command of loving all men, cannot but take delight in doing good even to his enemies. God, who gives all things to all men, can receive nothing from any; and thofe among men who do the most good, and receive the feweft returns, do moft refemble their Creator: for which reafon St Paul delivers it as a faying of our Saviour, that it is more blefed to give than to receive. By this rule, what muft become of thofe things which the world values as the greatest bleffings, riches, power, and the like, when our Saviour plainly determines, that the best way to make them bleffings, is to part with them? them? Therefore, altho' the advantages which one man hath over another, may be called bleffings, yet they are by no means fo in the sense the world ufually underftands. Thus, for example, great riches are no bleffing in themfelves; because the poor man, with the common neceffaries of life, enjoys more health, and has fewer cares, without them. How then do they become bleflings? No otherwife, than by being employed in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, rewarding worthy men, and, in short, doing acts of charity and generofity. Thus likewife power is no bleffing in itfelf, because private men bear lefs envy, and trouble, and anguish without it. But when it is employed to protect the innocent, to relieve the oppreffed, and to punish the oppreffor, then it becomes a great bleffing. And fo, laftly, even great wisdom is, in the opinion of Solomon, not a bleffing in itself: for in much wisdom is much forrow; and men of common understandings, if they ferve God, and mind their callings, make fewer miftakes in the conduct of life, than those who have better heads. And yet wisdom is a mighty bleffing, when it is applied to good purpofes, to inftruct the ignorant, to be a faithful counsellor either in public or private, to be a director to youth, and to many other ends needlefs here to mention. To conclude; God fent us into the world to obey his commands, by doing as much good as our abilities will reach, and as little evil as our many infirmities will permit. Some he hath only trufted with one talent, fome with five, and fome with ten. No man is without his talent: and he that is faithful or negligent in a little, fhall be rewarded or punished, as well as he that hath been fo in a great deal. CONSIDER What hath been faid, &c.. This fermon is upon mutual fubjection, and that duty which is owing from one man to another. A clearer ftyle, or a difcourfe more properly adapted to a public audience, can scarce be framed. Every paragraph is fimple, nervous, and intelligible. The threads of each argument are closely connected, and logically purfued. But in places where the Dean has the least opportunity to introduce political maxims, or to dart an arrow at the conduct of princes, he never fails to indulge himself in his ufual manner of thinking as will appear from the following quotations. “A "wife man," fays Dr. Swift," who does not a fift with his counfels, a great man with his protection, a rich man with his bounty and charity, and a poor man with his labour, are perfect "nufances in a commonwealth. Neither is any condition of "life more honourable in the fight of God than another; other"wife he would be a refpecter of perfons, which he affures us he " is not for he hath propofed the fame falvation to all men, "and hath only placed them in different ways or stations to work "it out. Princes are born with no more advantages of strength or wifdom than other men; and, by an unhappy education, are ufually more defective in both, than thousands of their fubjects," p. 266. Again, in the fame ftrain," The best prince "is, in the opinion of wife men, only the greatest servant of the "nation; not only a fervant to the public in general, but in "fome fort to every man in it," p. 268. But the most extraordinary paffage is a covert ftroke at the highest order of his brethren the clergy. It runs thus, "The miseries of life are not properly owing to the unequal diftribution of things; but God almighty, the great King of heaven, is treated like the kings "of the earth; who, altho' perhaps intending well themselves, "have often most abominable minifters and stewards, and those generally the vileft, to whom they intruft the most talents," p. 270. Dark as it is, this paragraph requires no explanation. The author's natural turn of mind breaks forth upon all occafions, and the politician frequently outweighs the divine. If the dictates of fuch a spirit were capable of forcing their way from the pulpit, what a glorious, what a confiftent figure, must Swift have made in the roftrum at Rome, or in one of the portico's at Athens? Orrery. SERMON III. On the TESTIMONY of CONSCIENCE. 2 COR. i. 12. part of it.. -For our rejoicing is this, the teftimony of our confcience. TH HERE is no word more frequently in the mouths of men, than that of confcience; and the meaning of it is in fome measure generally understood. However, because it is likewife a word extremely abufed by many people, who apply other meanings to it, which God al mighty mighty never intended; I fhall explain it to you in the cleareft manner I am able. The word confcience properly fignifies that knowledge which a man hath within himfelf, of his own thoughts and actions. And becaufe, if a man judgeth fairly of his own actions, by comparing them with the law of God, his mind will either approve or condemn him, according as he hath done good or evil; therefore this knowledge or con. fcience may properly be called both an accufer and a judge. So that whenever our confcience accufeth us, we are certainly guilty: but we are not always innocent, when it doth not accufe us; for very often thro' the hardness of our hearts, or the fondness and favour we bear to ourselves, or thro' ignorance or neglect, we do not fuffer our confcience to take any cognifance of feveral fins we commit. There is another office likewife belonging to confcience, which is that of being our director and guide; and the wrong ufe of this hath been the occafion of more evils under the fun, than almoft all other caufes put together. For as confcience is nothing else but the knowledge we have of what we are thinking and doing; fo it can guide us no farther than that knowledge reacheth; and therefore God hath placed confcience in us to be our director only in those actions which Scripture and reafon plainly tell us to be good or evil. But in cafes too difficult or doubtful for us to comprehend or determine, there confcience is not concerned; because it cannot advife in what it doth not understand, nor decide where it is itself in doubt: but, by God's great mercy, thofe difficult points are never of abfolute necefity to our falvation. There is likewife another evil, that men often fay, a thing is against their confcience, when really it is not. For inftance, afk any of those who differ from the worship established, why they do not come to church? they will fay, they dislike the ceremonies, the prayers, the habits, and the like; and therefore it goes against their confcience. But they are mistaken; their teacher hath put those words into their mouth; for a man's conscience can go no higher than his knowledge; and therefore till he has thoroughly examined by Scripture, and the praEtice of the antient church, whether thofe points are blameable |
