view the sublime scene of our redemption, would carry me too far. On this head I shail only observe, that, though they are not pressed with the difficulty, which Sincerus mentions, since the merit of our Saviour's obedience in the flesh must be manifest to them; yet they lose the consideration of that kind and degree of merit, which is most adapted to exalt our Saviour's character, on which, as it should seem, the idea of atonement may be most safely rested, and on which, if I mistake not, the sacred writers have taught us to rest it. I have, moreover, long thought, that the following words of our Saviour, as recorded by St. John, words very applicable to the subject of the present communication, are alone sufficient to overturn the Socinian or Unitarian creed :-"I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go to the Father." John xvi. 28. It is at least certain, that the disciples of our Saviour understood these words in a sense which is inconsistent with the truth of the creed referred to; and our Saviour did not seem to think, that their comment stood in need of any correction. It ought to be added, in justice to Mr. Balguy, that he has not omitted the consideration of that ground of our Saviour's merit, to which I have more particularly directed the attention of your correspondent, though he has not dwelt exclusively upon it. This will evidently appear from the following passage of his Essay:-" By submitting to take our nature upon him, even under the greatest discouragements and disadvantages; in the lowest form, and the most unwelcome condition; by humbling himself still lower, and patiently enduring the greatest hardships, indignities, and distresses; by indefatigably seeking and promoting, from first to last, the glory of God and the benefit of mankind; but more especially by becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; our Redeemer was unquestionably most meritorious. To perfect innocence he joined the most extensive benevolence, and the most exalted virtue; and thereby became entitled to the highest honour, and most distinguished reward." Rempstone, May 10, 1806. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, EXTRACTS. A Sermon preached at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, on Ash Wednesday, 1779. By ROBERT LOWTH, D. D. late Lord Bishop of London. [The scarceness of this Sermon, and its suitableness to the present state of the country, are our motives for giving it an entire place in the present Number.] LUKE xiii. 1, 2, 3. There were present at that season some, that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sa crifices. And Jesus answering said unto them; Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Gali leans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. TH HIS tragical event was related to Jesus as he was who relate it seem to have been possessed with the opini on, that this terrible destruction was a manifest instance of Divine Judgment executed upon these Galileans for their enormous wickedness: which probably they were the more ready to entertain, as the Jews of Jerusalem generally despised and hated the Galileans, malevolence being apt to have a great influence in such conclusions: and they seem to relate it to him, out of an ill-natured curiosity of hearing his remarks upon it, and in expecta tion of having their sentiments confirmed by him; supposing, that he would enlarge upon the crimes of those mi serable men, and display the justice and the terror of God's vengeance exemplified in their destruction. Instead of this, our Saviour, who took every opportunity of instruct ing and admonishing his hearers, corrects their uncha ritable and mistaken notions, and warns them, instead of being busied in judging others, to judge themselves, and reflect upon their own sins; their own sins in-particular, and the accumulated guilt of their nation; and to make the proper use of the chastisements, which God inflicted upon upon others, while he spared them no less deserving punishment, as an argument for amendment and reforma tion, that they might avert God's wrath by repentance, Suppose ye, that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, nay but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Let us consider some of the reasons, upon which we may presume this determination of our blessed Saviour to be founded; that we are not warranted to infer from great and signal calamities any great and uncommon wickedness in the sufferers. It is not to be denied, that God hath sometimes, and upon extraordinary occasions, punished notorious offenders in such a remarkable manner, as left little room to doubt, that their destruction was his immediate work: but examples of this sort, taken from the history of the Israelites, which abounds with them, are not to be applied to the present purpose, nor do they properly belong to this question. Beside his universal character of Creator and Lord, God bore to them a peculiar relation by the particular covenant which he had entered into with them. He had chosen them as his own nation, his peculiar people, his temporal subjects: he became their King and Governor he resided among them visibly: he ruled them in person, in their public and national capacity, according to the law which he had given them; which, being enforced by the sanctions of temporal life and death, could not in all cases be put in execution, but by the infliction of temporal judgments from the hand of God their Supreme Governor. However, even under this extraordinary dispensation, in respect of privatepersons, the interposition of the hand of God was not commonly observable; and though national prosperity and adversity was always proportionable to national obedience and disobedience to God's laws; yet Solomon remarked in his time, of the general course of Providence respecting individuals, "that all things came alike to all; that there was one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; and that no man knew either love or hatred," whether he himself, or any other person, was in the favour or under the displeasure of God," by all that was before him *." In regard also to the common course of things under Eccles. ix. 1, 2. God's God's universal providence, consider, I beseech you, the state of past or of present times: have those, who have been most remarkably successful, who have had the greatest share of power and riches and other advantages, been as remarkably conspicuous for their piety and virtue? Is the exact observance of all the rules of morality, and all the duties of religion, a sure and infallible method of rising and prospering in the world, or even of avoiding want, and distress, and misery? So far from it, that the afflictions of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked, have been matter of complaint and offence in every age, and have tempted weak minds to doubt of a superintending Providence. General experience therefore teaches us, that as remarkable success in the world is no proof of superior virtue, so great misfortunes are no argu ment of uncommon guilt. Further, this supposition of temporal judgments, frequently executed upon private persons, is not agreeable to the known plan of Providence, nor even consistent with it. If the good things of this life were proposed to us as the proper rewards of virtue; and want, pain, and misery, were threatened as the just punishments of vice; then might we affirm, that the eminently wretched were thus visited in consequence of some great and enormous crime. But this is not the case: onr life here is a state of probation, and this world only a passage to eternity; and God places us here to try us, and to exercise us; to give us the opportunity and the means of preparing ourselves for an endless life, and of obtaining in it a state of happiness, and escaping a state of misery, infinitely exceeding all the pleasures and pains of this world. Wealth, greatness, honours, pleasures, are so far from being proposed as the rewards of righteousness, that they are represented as temptations and spares the most dangerous. to virtue and the distresses and afflictions of this life are so far from being described, as marks of God's dipleasure, and signs of wrath in all cases, that we are bid to look upon them as matter of joy, and as in the end conducive to our greatest happiness. Our blessed Saviour pronounceth "Woe to the rich and the luxurious; to the poor, to the hungry, to the afflicted, to the persecuted, blessing." We are directed to have respect in all our actions to the rewards and punishments of another life; and in this life to to look upon those things only as really good or evil, which promote or hinder the work of our eternal salvation. Besides, were these the proper rewards of virtue and punishments of vice, how could they be applied and adininistered consistently with the present order and constitution of things established by the will of God? We are here all of us knit together in the bands of society; no man stands single and alone; our fortunes and interests, our happinesses and miseries, are linked together; and what greatly concerns one must in some degree affect a multitude. It often happens, that the prosperity, the welfare, the subsistence, of many depend upon one: if this one be a proper object of the wrath of God, shall the whole innocent family, shall his blameless wife and children, shall his relations and dependants, however just and pious, be involved in his ruin, and share the punishment of his guilt? Or shall the right-aiming thunderbolts, when they go abroad, pick and sort out the righteous from among the wicked, and set the latter apart for destruction? Shall the earthquake, commissioned to swallow up some high-viced city, have particular orders to spare the dwellings of the ten righteous that are in it? Shall the destroying angel be commanded to pass over the door of the good man; nor the pestilence be suffered to breathe upon him, nor famine, nor fire, nor sword to assail him, while a thousand fall beside him, and ten thousand at his right hand? This, you may say, is possible with God. True: but it is not agreeable to the established course of Providence. God acts ordinarily by natural causes, and not by miracles. Our Saviour has stated this case in the most clear and convincing manner, and has told us, how all these, things will be finally adjusted, and the proper separation made with unerring rectitude, in his excellent parable of the tares. sowed good seed in his field: but when the wheat sprung up, there appeared tares among it and the servants of the householder said unto him, Wilt thou, that we go and gather up the tares? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let them both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn *." *Matt, xiii. 24-80. "A man Lastly, |
