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SERMO N.

JOHN VII. 46.

The officers answered, never man spake like

this Man.

THE HE Evangelist informs us, that when Jesus Christ began to preach, he said, Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The very first expressions which fell from his lips announced something peculiar in the character of his ministry; and the whole tenor of his subsequent preaching was in perfect harmony with this introduction. It was indeed nothing wonderful, that the language of God, uttered by God incarnate, for the salvation of the children of men, should be widely different from the effusions of mere human reason directed to mere earthly purposes. And so it is, that we may unfold the elaborate productions of ancient lore; we may trace the investigations of the subtlest sages, and fathom the wisdom of the most profound, and we shall find no

thing that bears any resemblance to the teaching of Christ-nay, we shall discover nothing so powerful in moral agency, nothing touching the soul so closely, as even that short sentence, with which He opened the mystery of his Revelation.

Yet the words sound very simple in our ears, and are quite familiar to our understandings. In what is it then, that they are thus distinguished from human wisdom? Where is it, that we detect the image and superscription of Christ? It is my purpose, my brethren, first to employ a few moments in answering this question, and then to proceed to a somewhat more general illustration of the truth contained in the text.

The first words, which were uttered by Christ, convey a double impression to the mind-first, the commandment, then the reason for it. Let us examine these two portions separately. Now, the simple precept of Repentance-the mere moral axiom that the man who has done wrong ought to feel sorrow and seek amendment had been already propounded in various forms by the teachers of Philosophy, and stands among the truths discoverable by man's penetration. It is not indeed that we observe it to have been a very favourite maxim among those professors; or to have been very warmly inculcated for the purification of the heart, or even for the bet

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ter conduct of the ordinary relations of life. Still it was written in their Books; it was hung up among the trophies of reason, in the Temples of their Gods-a thing to be gazed at, and admired, and neglected.

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Howbeit, the Moralist, who might recommend this duty would not fail to enforce the performance by certain reasons: he would dwell perhaps on the first principles of Society; on the dignity of human nature; on the innate qualities of the soul; and thus he would impress it on his hearers-by reasons drawn from Earth, and the things of Earth. And it is here, brethren, that the grand distinction lies to which I would invite your attention—the distinction in the motive for obedience. Repent, says the Philosopher, for the interests of your fellow-creatures and the excellence of your nature demand it. But Christ says, Repent-for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. In an instant, by a single expression, he calls us away from earth-he bids us forget our earthly motives and interests. All at once, he opens a new prospect of wonderful expanse and grandeur-he suggests a new motive of surpassing force and majesty—he reveals a new and irrevocable obligation-and shows us, how the moral bond which restrains and unites us here, is fastened by its first and holiest link to the throne of his heavenly Father.

I will endeavour to illustrate my meaning by the comparison of one or two remarkable maxims of the Philosophers with corresponding passages in the Sermons of Christ. And in selecting those which are most obvious, I shall not fear the charge of a superficial treatment of the subject, seeing that this is no occasion for profound or prolonged discussion. But I shall just remind you, that, as the polytheism of the Greeks and Romans, possessing in itself no system of Ethics, was contented to see by the subsidiary lights of Philosophy, when we thus confront these moral injunctions with the commandments of the Gospel, we are, in fact bringing under ob servation the only valuable portion of the Religion, which was superseded by Christianity.

Seneca, in his book concerning Anger (composed indeed some few years after the preaching of Christ, but yet a pure and favourable specimen of the system of heathen morality) writes as follows:-" Is any one angry with you? Retort upon him with benefits. A quarrel which one party declines presently falls to the ground. There can be no enmity without an enemy; or if there be any contest, he is the braver man who first retires, and he who seems to conquer is in fact conquered. Now here is an excellent precept, bearing a great show of Philanthropy, and recommended by sound human reason

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