In the numerous sects of Christianity, interpreting our religion in very opposite manners, all cannot be right. Imitate the forbearance and long-suffering of God, who throws the mantle of his mercy over all, and who will probably save, on the last day, the piously right and the piously wrong, seeking Jesus in humbleness of mind. Do not drive religious sects to the disgrace (or to what they foolishly think the disgrace) of formally disavowing tenets they once professed, but concede something to human weakness; and, when the tenet is virtually given up, treat it as if it were actually given up; and always consider it to be very possible that you yourself may have made mistakes, and fallen into erroneous opinions, as well as any other sect to which you are opposed. If you put on these dispositions, and this tenor of mind, you cannot be guilty of any religious fault, take what part you will in the religious disputes which appear to be coming on the world. If you choose to perpetuate the restrictions upon your fellow-creatures, no one has a right to call you bigoted; if you choose to do them away, no one has any right to call you lax and indifferent: you have done your utmost to do right, and whether you err, or do not err, in your mode of interpreting the Christian religion, you show at least that you have caught its heavenly spirit, — that you have put on, as the elect of God, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiv ing one another.

I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the uses and abuses of this day; and, having stated the great mercy of God's interference, and the blessings this country has secured to itself in resisting the errors, and follies, and superstitions of the Catholic Church, I have endeavoured that this just sense of our own superiority should not militate against the sacred principles of Christian charity. That charity which I ask of others, I ask also for myself. I am sure I am preaching before

those who will think (whether they agree with me or not) that I have spoken conscientiously, and from good motives, and from honest feelings, on a very difficult subject, not sought for by me, but devolving upon me in the course of duty;-in which I should have been heartily ashamed of myself (as you would have been ashamed of me), if I had thought only how to flatter and please, or thought of any thing but what I hope I always do think of in the pulpit,—that I am placed. here by God to tell truth, and to do good.

I shall conclude my sermon, (pushed, I am afraid, already to an unreasonable length,) by reciting to you a very short and beautiful apologue, taken from the Rabbinical writers. It is, I believe, quoted by Bishop Taylor in his "Holy Living and Dying." I have not now access to that book, but I quote it to you from memory; and should be made truly happy if you would quote it to others from memory also.

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

411

SERMON VIII.

ON KING CHARLES'S MARTYRDOM.

JUDGES, xvii. 6.

In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

THE nature of our service this day is to commemorate, with humility, and prayer, and fasting, the lamentable tragedy which has disgraced the annals of our history; and to deprecate the wrath of Almighty God, who scatters punishment and reward among the nations of the earth. The executors of this bloody deed are the more inexcusable, because, with proper discretion, and proper humanity, they might have gone down to posterity, not as merciless and lawless regicides, but as the wise and bold defenders of English liberty, and English rights; for I need not observe, that we are not here to defend the measures of this unhappy monarch, but to regret his violent and unlawful end: we are not here to condemn those who withstood his tyrannical and arbitrary measures, but those who had the folly not to see that the violence of his death would throw a glory over his name which his actions might not have deserved; and that the cause of freedom was disgraced, by this monstrous violation of law and justice.

But the death of the monarch (great as that crime. was) was not the only crime imputable to these men, for crimes are seldom single; but when once men have broken great rules, they think that they cannot

recede, and that their only safety is to advance in the same bad track, and to hide a bad crime by a worse. With the monarch, the Church was destroyed; and in those days, not only was there "no king in Israel," but there was no established temple of God. Every man prayed as he listed, and "did that which was right in his own eyes;" and here I cannot help remarking, that our excellent Church ought in fairness to derive some present security from its ancient misfortunes. Many foolish men, many bad men, and many conceited men, object to the Church of England, -think the wealth of the Church excessive, object to its doctrines, dislike its discipline, and would, if they could, put an end to its existence. To such men I would reply, All this has been already tried. The Church has been once destroyed; its revenues seized, its possessions pillaged, its members persecuted, its prelates banished and murdered, its pastors driven into exile, and doomed to poverty, over all the face of Europe. And what was the end of all this? Why, that after twenty years of this licentious exemption from all ecclesiastical rule, Englishmen came and rebuilt their ancient altars, brought back their ancient pastors, restored their prelates, whom death had spared, and reinstated the Church in all its ancient wealth and ancient splendour. And was this done by conquest? was it done by the co-operation of any great military power? No:- there was not a sword drawn by a spoiler of the Church; there was not a spear lifted up by the enemies of the house of God; there was not a word heard in defence of their blasphemy and sacrilege! Every where, and in one moment, the people rose up spontaneously to re-establish the ancient order of things, to recover the tranquillity, which they had formerly enjoyed under the Church, to regain that wise and temperate instruction they had received from the Church, and to replace before their eyes those models of piety, learning, and moderation, from which in days of yore they had learnt

their lesson of Christianity. And during the eclipse of the Church, and before its restoration, (mark that period, and let it be a lesson to all rash and inconsiderate reformers,) every tie was removed, every master silenced, every teacher mute! To instruct others it was not necessary to be instructed, -to make others think, it was not necessary to have thought; the desk was open, the pulpit was open, precedent was nothing, authority was nothing; "but every man did what was good in his own eyes."

The result you all know. Every lover of intellectual liberty is ashamed of that period; the world was inundated with the most disgusting nonsense, and the most blasphemous familiarity. The follies of these overturners of establishments have flung upon the cause of religion a degree of derision and ridicule from which it has been slowly recovering ever since. These are the histories which should be brought forward in these times, and urged as rigorously, as they may be I am sure honourably and wisely, upon the enemies of establishments. You are wearied of your established clergy: we are too common for you, and too quiet!-we move too much in a routine-there is not enough of energy and of enthusiasm! Why then look upon that melancholy shipwreck of the human understanding, when men were left to themselves! Look at the fifth-monarchy men, and the believers in a millennium, and all the insane creeds which were introduced by the murderers of their monarch, and tell me what security you have, if the Church were destroyed to-morrow, that the same scenes of nonsense and violence would not be acted over again upon the earth. I am sure they would be acted over again! Folly would lead on to folly, and violence would increase upon violence! The floods of fanaticism are towering on each side of us, as they did on the Israelites at the Red Sea! By the help of God this danger will pass away, and we shall land on a place of safety and of peace.