SERMON VI.

THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE MESSENGERS OF THE GOSPEL.

MATT. X. ver. 16.

BEHOLD I SEND YOU FORTH AS SHEEP IN THE MIDST OF WOLVES: BE YE THEREFORE WISE AS SERPENTS, AND HARMLESS AS DOVES.

SUCH

UCH was the direction given by our blessed Lord to his disciples, when he sent them out to preach the glad tidings of the Gospel.

The CHARACTER of the Christian Mission is denoted in these words, Behold, I send you forth as sheep-And the CONDITION of an unbelieving World in the following, I send you in the midst of Wolves. Though the Faith was to be propagated only by the mild measures of persuasion, yet even this would provoke the wolfish disposition of the powers of darkness, to put in ure all the iniquitous contrivance of fraud and violence for its suppression.

Their provident Master, therefore, in the concluding words of my text, delivers them a rule for the innocence and prudence of their own conduct. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as coves. A direction

A direction equally respecting their PRIVATE and their PUBLIC Character. Whereby, the first might correspond with the dignity of their office; and the other, with the objects of their care. So that, as men, the HUMAN virtues; as missionaries, the sOCIAL are recommended to their practice: and both, under the familiar images of the serpent's wisdom, and the innocence of the dove.

What these human virtues are, the allusion in the figurative EXPRESSION will discover: What the social, must be determined by the occasion of the PRECEPT. Be ye therefore (says the blessed Jesus) wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. A direction, conveyed in two proverbial sayings, whose import the Disciples perfectly understood.

The first alludes to a vulgar superstition of the ancient world, which gave credit to certain artists, who pretended to the power of rendering serpents innoxious by the force of charms, and incantations. The men who traded in this imposture, in order to hide their frequent miscarriages, made the people believe that some of these serpents had gotten a trick as good as their own; which was to shut their ears to their inchantments. This counterplot was as readily believed, as the other's magic power, in an age, when every thing was well received, which excited the hearer's admiration. Hence the proverb of the deaf adder that stoppeth her ears; which refuseth to hearthe voice of the charmer, charm he never so sweetly: by which, Moralists would infer the wisdom and safety of abstaining from unlawful pleasures.

The

The second, of being harmless as dovés, alludes to as ancient and as fanciful an error of the Naturalists, that the dove is without a gall; or, at least, bears it not within *.

The whole of this monition therefore, to the disciples in their private character, implies, That they should learn to abstain from all unlawful, unmanly and intemperate pleasures; and to suppress in themselves all the sentiments of rage, anger, and revenge. The serpent's wisdom being directed against the CONCUPISCIBLE passions, as the dove's innocence is against the IRASCIBLE: and both together make one general precept for the subjection of our brutal nature to the rational: in which consists the exercise of the human virtues.

Could any thing be more harmless than this method of propagating religion? Could any thing be more holy than the manners of its propagators? What regard to the rights of men, to the Laws of society, was enjoined to the Offerers of the Gospel! What neglect of the interests of flesh and blood was required of the Receivers of it! TRUTH was the lasting foundation on which Jesus erected his Church: and VIRTUE the living principle which was to actuate its members.

Indeed the purity of his intentions and the rectitude of his measures are so evident from the evangelic history of his life and death, that the

"Ανδρα μὴ ἔχοντα χολὴν αὐτοφυῶς, ἀλλ ̓ ἀφ' ἑτέρα δεχόμενον γράφοντες [Αἰγύπλιοι περιτερὰν ζωγραφᾶσιν, ἔχεσαν τὰ ὀπίσθια ὀρθά. ἐν ἐκείνοις γὰρ τὴν χολὴν ἔχει. Horapollinis Hierogl. 1. ii. c. 48.

most

most stubborn infidel is ready to clear him of fraudulent imposture, and to centre all his suspicions in a well-meaning ENTHUSIASM.

This is the last miserable refuge of obstinate impiety. And the order of the discourse, which now brings us to consider the precept of the text, as it respects the messengers of Jesus in their PUBLIC CAPACITY, will enable us to expose it in all its nakedness.

Be ye THEREFORE wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. Wherefore? because they were sent forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; that is, unarmed and defenceless amidst the powers of the Prince of this world. The virtues, recommended to them under their public capacity, were, we see, objective to these powers; and therefore, of the social kind; and consisted in prudence and justice; as the other, recommended to them in their private capacity, and objective to themselves, were of the human; and consisted in temperance and forbearance. And here let me observe, in honour of God's word (which should be the principal end of all discourses from this place), the mutual connexion and reciprocal influence, which the two parts have on one another. The human virtues were to recommend their MISSION; and the social, to recommend their PERSONS. But to proceed.

If Jesus had been an Enthusiast, there was no time when the fanatic spirit would so forcibly have broken out as at this juncture; the critical juncture of sending his disciples abroad to convert the world. An Enthusiast, possessed with the high glory of propagating and establishing a new religion, to arise

and

and be denominated from himself, would have his spiritual passions kindled and inflamed to their ut-, most bearing, at that important moment of commencing his enterprise.

But the words of Jesus upon this occasion bespeak their Author to be perfectly cool, and collected within himself. Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Let us reflect upon them with attention. Though I am not altogether of opinion with those who consider the premonition (to which the words of my text allude) so frequently repeated by Jesus to his followers, of the various persecution that awaited the profession of his Gospel, as the clearest evidence of his prophetic spirit: because I think a common observer of the state and genius of the then prevailing superstitions might easily foresee what would be the early fate of a Religion supported by no other powers than those of Reason and Grace, when it openly opposed its truth and purity to a world sunk deep in error and corruption. Yet so far must aiways be confessed, that this serious attention to the event would not have made part of the Character of a heated and inflamed Enthusiast. When we find, therefore, the Founder of our holy religion calmly attentive to the reception his Doctrine was likely to meet with from the People, and provident of the treatment his Servants were sure to receive from the Magistrate, we must needs conclude that he then possessed himself in that dignity of repose, under a comprehensive view of his scheme, which VOL. IX.

K

became