obedient to the heavenly will! And do thou, O Lord, we beseech thee, take from us all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word; that so being ready both in body and soul, we may cheerfully accomplish those things that thou wouldest have done, through Jesus Christ our Lord. To whom, &c.

SERMON XIII.

MATT. X. 28.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

IT is taken for granted in these words, that there are two principal parts in the constitution of human nature, upon the account of which every man sustains a relation to two different states or societies. And the same reason which obliges him to provide for the happiness of the noblest part, and to fix his attention chiefly on that state which is of the greatest importance and the most lasting duration, will engage him likewise to shew some regard to the inferior part in him, and to that society which is relative to it, in the degree and proportion which they may appear to deserve. It must not therefore be imagined, that our Saviour, by forbidding his disciples to fear them which kill the body, intended to teach them an absolute contempt of the terrors of this world. It is plain from the preceding verses, that the case he had in view, and was preparing them for, was that of persecution. He was sending them forth as sheep in the midst of wolves, and therefore tells them what treatment they should expect to meet with, not only from the hatred and ill offices of private persons, but from kings and governors. Upon this occasion he reminds them (and

of that fundamental principle of all religion, that we are to fear and obey God rather than men. When the commands of God and the magistrate are really inconsistent, it cannot admit of a moment's debate which of them are to be preferred. The terrors of this world are not worthy to be mentioned, in comparison with the terrors of the next; and they who can only kill the body can have no pretensions to our obedience, when it would expose us to the displeasure of him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

But, excepting the cases of this extraordinary kind, it is well known that the Christian religion is far from teaching men to disobey the commands of the civil power, or to despise the sanctions that enforce them. On the contrary, it expressly enjoins us, if we do evil, to be afraid; it threatens us in that case with the sword, which the magistrate beareth not in vain; and commands us to be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. Here, we see, the terrors of the Lord are so far from being represented as contrary to those of the magistrate, that they are called in to aid and support them. We are to submit to the civil power out of considerations of conscience, and duty towards God, and for fear of his punishments, as well as for fear of that wrath which the magistrate is appointed to execute here, and of those pains which he can inflict in this world. Upon this view of the matter then, I might go on to represent the harmony and agreement of civil and religious enforcements; that generally, and in common cases, they conspire to promote the same ends, and both tend a Rom. xiii. 4, 5.

to secure and advance the peace and welfare, the prosperity and happiness of mankind. When things go on in this proper course and order, there is no inconsistency in fearing them who are the dispensers of temporal punishments, and him too from whom they ultimately derive their power, and to whom vengeance originally belongs. Nay, we cannot in such cases fear the latter as we ought, without fearing the former too, without paying them that degree of regard and reverence, to which the laws of God, as well as the laws of the state, have entitled them..

But though I might from hence take occasion to offer some considerations on the subject of civil sanctions, and to inculcate a necessary and prudent regard to them; yet, since this might appear as rather foreign to my profession, and impertinent in the presence of those before whom I have the honour now to stand b; since our Saviour, in the passage before us, has in a manner called off our attention from these, and fixed it on the sanctions of a higher order; and since these latter have, of late years at least, been principally liable to exceptions; for these reasons I shall endeavour, in what follows, to assert and vindicate the sanctions of the gospel: But rather fear him, which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

It falls not within the compass of my design to inquire, how men came into a state of such degeneracy, as to need the terrors either of this world or the other, to want any motives of this sort to restrain them within the bounds of their duty. It is sufficient for my purpose, that we find it so in fact. We

b Preached at the assizes held at Oxford by Mr. Justice For

see from experience, that the dictates of pure reason, that the wisest rules of life, when they are but rules, not backed by any penalties, avail but little; that men are led by their passions to transgress them on numberless occasions, and that therefore there plainly wants a balance on that side of their nature, which may be able to preserve them in some tolerable order (not merely by arguments offered to their reason, but) by applications to their passions. These are rewards and punishments; and since those contained in the gospel have been excepted to, on the account both of their strength and weakness, represented by some as having too much influence, and by others as having even none at all, I shall endeavour to shew,

First, That the sanctions of the gospel are admirably calculated to enforce obedience; and,

Secondly, That they are of such a nature, and their influence of such a kind, as not to destroy the virtue of it. From which particulars I shall, in the

Third place, draw a few conclusions.

I. With regard to our first particular, it has been asserted, that spiritual motives, weak in themselves, are too remote from view, to have any considerable effects; that the fear of divine displeasure is not so prevailing, as the terror of human punishments; that religion seems to have had but little influence for the advantage or good economy of human affairs-has very little served the interests of civil society, since its terrors have not restrained the wicked, nor its mercies prevailed in the cause of virtue; and that, in short, take away human laws and the courts of justice, men would so little fear the day of judgment,