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tented in the feveral flations of life wherein God hath thought fit to place us; because it would, in the best and easiest manner, bring us back, as it were, to that early state of the gospel, when Chriftians had all things in common. For, if the poor found the rich difpofed to supply 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 leaft 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, firft, what can be a greater honour, than to be chofen one of the ftewards 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 subsistence, 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 Chriftian, who obeys our Saviour's command, of loving all men, cannot but take delight

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in doing good, even to his enemies. God, who gives all things to all men, can receive nothing from any; and those among men who do the moft good, and receive the fewest returns, do moft refemble their Creator; for which reafon, St. Paul delivers it as a faying of our Saviour, that it is more bleffed 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? Therefore, although the advantages which one man hath over another, may be called bleffings, yet they are by no means fo, in the fenfe the world ufually understands. Thus, for example, great riches are no bleffing in themselves; because the poor man, with the common neceffaries of life, enjoys more health, and has fewer cares, without them. How then do they become bleffings? 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 itself, 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 blessing in itfelf; for, in much wisdom is much forrow; and

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men of common understandings, if they ferve God, and mind their callings, make fewer mistakes in the conduct of life, than those who have Better heads. And yet, wisdom is a mighty bleffing, when it is applied to good purposes, 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.

Confider what hath been faid, &c.

This fermon is upon mutual fubjection, and that duty which is owing from one man to another. A clearer style, or a difcourfe more properly adapted to a public audience, can scarce be framed. Every paragraph is simple, nervous, and intelligible. The threads of each argument are clofely connected, and logically pursued. But in places where the Dean has the least op portunity 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 quotation : "A wife man," fays Dr. Swift, "who does not "affift 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 nuifances in a commonwealth. Neither is any condition of life more honourable, in the fight of

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"God than another; otherwife, he would be a refpecter of per"fons, which, he affures us, he is not: for he hath proposed the “fame falvation to all men, and hath only placed them in dif"ferent ways or stations to work it out. Princes are born with no more advantages of strength or wisdom than other men; "and, by an unhappy education, are usually more defective in both, than thousands of their fubjects," p. 146. Again, in the fame ftrain, "The best prince is, in the opinion of wife 66 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. 149. But the most extraordinary passage, is a co- ← vert stroke at the highest order of his brethren the clergy. It runs thus : "The miferies 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, although, perhaps, intending well themselves, have often "moft abominable minifters and stewards, and those generally "the vileft, to whom they entrust the most talents," p. 153Dark 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 consistent figure must Swift have made in the roftrum at Rome, or in one of the porticos at Athens? Orrery.

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SERMON III.

ON THE TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE.

THE

2 COR. i. 12. part of it.

For our rejoicing is this, the teftimony of our confcience.

HERE is no word more frequently in the mouths of men, than that of confcience; and the meaning of it is, in fome measure, ge

VOL. II.

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nerally understood. However, because it is likewife a word extremely abufed by many people, who apply other meanings to it, which God Almighty never intended; I shall explain it to you in the cleareft manner I am able. The word confcience, properly fignifies that knowledge which a man hath within himself, of his own thoughts and actions. And because, 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 confcience, 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, through the hardness of our hearts, or the fondness and favour we bear to ourfelves, or through 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 use of this hath been the occafion of more evils under the fun, than almost 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 further than that knowledge reacheth; and therefore, God hath placed confcience in us, to be our director only in thofe actions which fcripture and reafon plainly tell us to be good or evil. But, in cafes

too

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