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SERMON VIII.

1 Cor. vi. 20.

YE ARE BOUGHT WITH A PRICE, THEREFORE GLORIFY GOD IN YOUR BODY, AND YOUR SPIRIT, WHICH ARE GOD'S.

In the foregoing discourse I connected this text with another in the same Epistle, in which the learned Apostle draws a different conclusion from the same premises; by a paraphrase of them, taken together, I endeavoured to shew the relation which each of the conclusions had with the other, and how they mutually resulted from those premises; but the limits usually assigned to discourses of this kind would not permit me to enlarge on the two precepts conveyed by these conclusions with equal latitude: I therefore chose to take the negative injunction of the Apostle first under consideration, though it stands last in the arrangement of the Epistle, and shall now discourse on the positive one. My reason for this was, that I considered the duty of glorifying God as a precept more peculiarly belonging to the Christian scheme of morals than the other; which, though founded (as we

have seen) on the greatest of all Christian principles, and receiving a superadded importance from that principle, is yet in itself a duty which mere morality was sufficient to inculcate, and which indeed it had done amongst the best sects of Gentile philosophers. Innumerable instances of this truth might easily be drawn from the writings of the Stoics in particular; the contempt in which they held the time-serving and dependent person was almost without bounds, yet I believe it would be difficult to find amongst their dogmas, one which prescribes the practice of virtue for the sake of glorifying God; indeed this practice led them necessarily from their principles only to glorify themselves, and this they did to so great an excess, that their boastings on this head frequently verge on impiety.*

Being therefore authorised, as I think I am, to call this doctrine in the text a divine one, and taught only by Revelation, I have thought proper to reserve it for a later consideration, as being a duty of the greatest importance, and from which almost all our other duties as Christians may be deduced; because the momentous consideration of our being purchased by so inestimable a price as the blood of Christ, ought not only to induce us to be above becoming the servants of men (in the sense I have already explained) but above becoming the servants of sin; or,

* See one instance of this from Seneca, quoted in a note to Sermon II. p. 22.

in other words, to be above the pollutions not only of the world, but of our own natural passions and vicious inclinations.

Indeed it is for this latter purpose that St. Paul, in this place, uses so cogent an argument; but it is observable that he uses a term here not analogous to the other. In that case he says negatively, be ye not the servants of men; but in this he does not say affirmatively, be ye the servants of God; he employs one of a much higher signification, he bids us glorify him. This seems to require an illustration; and I think the best method of giving it will be by a short comparative view of the difference there is between every degree of human servitude, and of that which relates to the service due from man to the Deity; for I conceive, from this essential difference, the -duty inculcated in the text arises, and that it was on this account St. Paul used the peculiar term in question.

First, Absolute servitude, amongst individuals, in a state of human society, is merely productive of benefit or advantage to the superior party. The slave reaps nothing from the alliance (if it may be so called) but mere subsistence; and even this subsistence may properly enough be considered as promoting the master's emolument, when we reflect that without it he would not be enabled to answer the end for which his master purchased him, and consequently would to him be a useless purchase.

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Secondly, Limited servitude admits of mutual advantages; for here the inferior is supposed to be hired, not bought, and consequently to earn the wages of his labour; in this case, therefore, each party receives mutual benefit, in a degree indeed that cannot be distinctly ascertained, yet, clearly from the nature of the contract, a benefit which is intended to be mutual.

These are evidently the facts in the two only supposeable cases we can put respecting individuals, and what is true in these cases, is also true in the two modes of civil government similar to them. The despotic form is solely calculated for the benefit of the tyrant; the milder and mixed monarchical one produces mutual advantages, as well to the subject as the sovereign; and even the aristocratic or republican modes of government, in which there is no distinct head, but where power and subjec tion frequently fluctuate, are yet intended in their origin, and are calculated in some degree (if not very ill executed) to promote the common welfare of the whole political body.

In this advantage either to one or both of the parties it is that the specific difference between the service of man to man, and of man to God seems to consist; for we have seen that there is no kind of human government where the benefit accrues solely to the subordinate part, or where those who are governed receive an advantage

exclusive of those who govern: Whereas, in that subordinate relation in which man stands towards his Maker, the benefit accrues entirely to himself, because it is certain that God cannot be benefited of any, even the best of his services; for though mere morality may inculcate the duty of our serving God to the utmost of our power, yet it is manifest, that by thus serving him we only promote the true interest of ourselves. It is clear, that by acting as under the inspection of an all-good Being, we take the surest means of avoiding such vices as have an immediate tendency to injure our own temporal happiness; that the farther we estrange ourselves from the practice of such virtues as natural reason teaches us can only be approved by such a master and inspector, the more we divest ourselves of that internal satisfaction which arises from a well-spent life and a peaceful conscience; and that the more we give the reins to any of our passions, the more we abridge our true liberty, and fall under the worst species of tyranny; in a word, it is clear that to lead a life of innocence is the only means of living a life of happiness.

But an objector, though he admits this to be true, will yet be ready to ask the following very obvious question : "If no service we can render the Deity can possibly "benefit him, how can any thing that we do glorify "him? Are we not as incapable of increasing his glory

as his happiness?" I am, on my own part, ready to

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