Page images
PDF
EPUB

this world, nor the punishment of such sins overtake him in the world to come?

In the name of God, therefore, and in Christ's behalf, I conjure you, my hearers, to take heed unto yourselves. My heart would be wrung with anguish-my eyes would overflow with tears-my whole frame would shudder, if, looking around me, I were to see any young person, upon whom I should have reason to believe that these tremendous evils would fall, as they advance in years, and so fall that penury, that infamy, that disease, and premature death, should be their lot here, and that hereafter they should be excluded from the presence of virtuous parents, virtuous brethren, virtuous friends, virtuous neighbours, exalted unto Heaven, and condemned to suffer with wicked companions the tremendous torments of hell. Preserve, O my God! those, who now hear me, from such guilt and such woe. On the other hand, if, according to the lessons you can all of you learn from the Catechism, you love your neighbour as yourselves, honour and succour your father and your mother, obey the King, submit yourselves to your pastors, order yourselves lowly to your betters, are true and just in all your dealings, bear no malice in your hearts, keep your hands from picking and stealing, your tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering, and your bodies in temperance, soberness, and chastity, labour honestly to get your own living, and strive to do your duty in that state of life unto which it hath pleased God to call you-if, in addition to these virtues, you join those more important offices of piety, which

afford the surest guidance and the most powerful encouragements for the exercise of love to your neighbours-if you reverence your infinitely great, infinitely wise, infinitely holy, and infinitely merciful God-if you worship him-if you give him thanks -if you put your whole trust in him-if you honour his sacred word, and if, remembering his goodness to yourselves and your fellow-creatures, you love him with all your heart, with all your minds, with all your souls, and with all your strength, then, O my hearers! happy will you be in your several stations on this side of the grave, and then too, at the day of judgment, as your affectionate wellwisher, and your Christian teacher, I shall myself be most happy, while I hear this gracious sentence pronounced upon you by the righteous Judge of all mankind, "Come ye, blessed children of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning."

SERMON XII.*

ON THE HABIT OF JUDGING UNRIGHTEOUSLY.

ST. MATTHEW vii. 1.

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

OUR Saviour does not in these words interdict the magistrate from exercising the high duties of his office; for, guided by his personal wisdom, and supported by the use of his delegated authority, "Kings reign and princes decree righteousness." Neither does he require us to be careless or inactive, when crime stands before us without any uncertainty as to the fact, without any excuse from the motives, or any palliation from the circumstances. Silence in such a case would not only be painful to ourselves, but injurious to society. It would eventually encourage wickedness, by that kind of endurance which is often the result of apathy, and carries with it the appearance, and the effects too, of latent approbation. But, while our blessed Master leaves public justice and private reproof to their real and proper duties, he does forbid that harsh judgment which men are prone to pass upon their

* August 1813.

brethren without due consideration or honest intention, and which sometimes is a greater instance of depravity in those who pronounce it, than can be found in him upon whom it is pronounced. He, on whom your censures are thrown, may have been surprised into guilt by the dazzling temptation of profit to be obtained without effort and without hazárd, by the sudden sallies of anger, or by the momentary and violent impulse of concupiscence. But the spirit by which you are actuated makes you restless, and tends to make you criminal by day and by night, and through months and years-it is stirred up alike by real and imputed faults-it finds its prey alike in the ingenuity and the dulness, the learning and the ignorance, the excellences and the infirmities of mankind-it affords you no animal gratification, no worldly gain, nor any other advantage, than the infernal pleasure of inflicting pain without provocation and without remorse. then art thou that judgest another man's servant, when by his own master alone he should stand or fall? Why dost thou presume to condemn a fellow sinner, who art thyself to appear before this same awful tribunal at the last day, and who at this moment mayest, in the sight of God, be more inexcusable?

Who

There are few instances of precipitate and unfair construction upon human conduct more offensive, than those which Providence itself is supposed to confirm by some external calamity, or, as you call it, some terrible judgment. Do you then forget that our Saviour asked certain persons whe

-

ther those Galilæans whose blood Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices, or whether the eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, were sinners above all other sinners at Jerusalem? Their guilt was notorious-their sufferings were conspicuous. But what was the answer of Christ to the question just now stated? "I say unto you, nay." What was the caution subjoined to that answer? "Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish." Thus, in the text, what are you forbidden? To judge. What is the ground of that prohibition? That you be not yourselves judged, — that, having shewn no mercy to man, ye must expect none from God,that, having disregarded justice, or carried it to excess, you must look for a heavenly judge, who will be extreme to mark what is done amiss by yourselves. The prosperity or security granted to men often becomes an encouragement for them to defame their neighbours. When misfortune overtakes them, every accidental oversight, every involuntary omission, every momentary failing, is brought forward against them in fierce array. And do you forget, my brethren, that God sometimes permits his most faithful servants to be visited with temporal evils, that he may put their patience and humility to the trial, and bring them nearer to himself? Doubtless there are some sins which, with more or less probability, may be traced in their consequences, The heedless spendthrift, the inveterate drunkard, the daring and unprincipled robber, may respectively be overtaken by the entire loss of property, or the rapid decay of health, or the ignominious forfeiture

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »