fician of the foul, feek out the fick and difeas'd in mind; and offer health and falvation to the children of men, fuffering under a malady, the moft mortal and inveterate, the malady of fin.And what physician, in cases of distress and danger, stands upon the niceties of forms, or the exactness of punctilio? Why then do ye marvel and murmur that I, in the like extremities, act in the like manner? Go ye, and learn what that meaneth, which God delivered by his prophet of old, * I will have mercy, and not facrifice; I will have mercy, RATHER THAN facrifice: where the one or the other must be omitted, let MERCY, by all means, let the work of compaffion, beneficence and love, be preferred to SACRIFICE, to inftituted forms, and merely external ordinances; which, tho' neceffary in themselves, and highly useful, as ordained of God, and as means to an important end, must yet never destroy that end, but give place and preference to it : for of all things mercy, acts of humanity and benevolence, are moft pleafing to the God of love; and of all acts, as being the most humane and beneficent, the falvation of loft finners from deftruction and death. And this is the great work for which I came into the world, this is the great end I have in view to accomplish. I

• Hofea vi. 6.

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am

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am not come to call the righteous, but finners to repentance."

There is one remark, which, from a review of this apology of our Saviour to the Pharifees, naturally arifeth in the human mind; and the more naturally, as daily experience gives us unpleafing proof of it; which is, the much greater readinefs and willingness, (if I may fo fay) in the fovereign Lord of the world to pardon offences, and to blot out the remembrance of them from his book, than is but too commonly found amongst fellow-creatures. Great offences, and deep blots in life are frequently treasured up in the tables of human memory; and, however repentance and a thorough change of conduct may witness a renewed life and a pardoned state, we find men but too apt to recollect the old grievance, and too backward to forget and to cancel what God hath forgotten, and long fince freely forgiven.

The fenfe of our own frailty, the knowledge of the Almighty's ready pardon, and the confideration of the great end which brought the Sa viour into the world, fhould teach us another conduct; and infpire us with mutual forbearance, and that feeling compaffion, which above all things dignifies and diftinguishes human

nature.

+ See Dr. Whitby, and the other commentators for a full: explication of this paffage.

And

And furely a brighter example we cannot have before our eyes, than in that incarnate GOD, who hath fet us the pattern, and whom it is our duty, as it will be our happiness, to imitate.

f

Mov'd with tender pity towards the children. of men, he difrobed himself of his glory, and affum'd human nature in its lowest form Glory to God in the higheft, peace on earth, and good-will towards men, was the gladfome fong which the heavenly chorus echoed at his birth: Good will towards men influenced his whole life, and fhone beautifully displayed in his every action. When the children of affliction furrounded him, and he beheld the tears of diftrefs; his generous heart was moved at the call of compaffion he faw; he pitied; he relieved. None ever requested his aid, and found a repulfe: none ever implored his mercy, and were rejected in their fuit. He refused no company; he declined no fatigue, he fhrunk from no danger, whenever he might adminifter relief to the fouls or the bodies of men. Unwearied in love, he went about diffufing peace and bleffing and as he came into the world to fave finners; fo he left no means untried, no motives unurged, to call them to repentance and pardon and, at the end, after having done all to gain and restore a loft world, he crowned his mighty benevolence, by an act fuperior to all praife. He died for finners!

Of the excellence of a religion like this, whose end is fo eminently noble, whofe author is fo

great, and fo good, the only begotten and eternal Son of God, the perfect pattern of every laudable and heavenly affection;-of the excellence of fuch a religion, why need we fpeak? we must all feel it and to be happy, we must experience it. But who can help remarking, from the flightest view of it, the great importance of human fouls, and the high value which the God who made us is pleased to set upon his rational creatures? Rather than they fhall perish, his own Son fhall become one of them, fuffer for, ranfom, and redeem them. A thousand and a thousand pathetic calls and invitations fhall be given them: nay, and the ever bleffed Spirit itself shall be commissioned to awaken and inhabit, to comfort and to guide them. Even the holy angels are introduced as interested in their welfare; and heaven itself, with its fupreme inhabitant, reprefented, as partaking in the joy of fouls restored: There is jay in heaven, and before the angels of God, over one finner that repenteth; one fheep, that is found, one fon that is reftored to life. And can we conceive a higher notion of the value which the Father puts on the leaft of his reasonable creatures? His higheft angels have charge of them; his only begotten fon lives and dies to fave them: and himself, condefcends to fhare in the joy, with which the heavenly beings are filled on their recovery! Need I then fay, how amiable and

honour

honourable, nay, how neceffary it is, that we fhould labour to increase this celeftial joy, by an attention to our own, by a benevolent concern for the falvation of others?

I would just make one remark more on the excellence of the Chriftian religion; which is, that tho' it affords abundant confolation to the returning finner; yet it gives not the least countenance conceivable to fin itself. Our Saviour came, he tells us, as a physician to heal the fick; as a fhepherd to feek and to fave that which was loft; as an almighty redeemer to call finners to repentance, Repentance can alone admit to, or render us capable of his favour: while we continue in the practice of Vice, we have no room to hope for, we have no ground to expect, his pardon and grace. Of which would we partake, undiffembled contrition muft lead us to his throne, and a perfect reformation, in a renewed life, witness the fincerity of our minds and the reality of our profeffion. And they, be affured, who lead you to hope for pardon without penitence, and to depend on an enthusiastic faith without fruits, or a righteousness without works, (a doctrine we have heard but too lately enforced*) lead you to depend on that which hath

no

In a weak and obnoxious Sermon preached by the Rev Mr. Elliot, then Chaplain of St. George's Hofpital, intitled Encouragement for finners; or, Righteousness attainable without

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Works.