power to the good of society, to the defence, of thy country, to the prosperity of trade, to the advantage of the public? or, didst thou direct them only to thine own private interest, to the establishment of thy fortune, to the elevation of thy family, to that insatiable avidity of glory, which gnawed and devoured thee? Ah! ny brethren! if we enter very seriously into these reflections, we shall not be so much struck, as we usually are, with the diversity of men's conditions in this life; we shall not aspire very eagerly after the highest ranks in this world. The rich and poor meet together, the Lord is the maker of them all; that is to say, he has made them equal in their nature, in their privileges, equal in their destination, and equal, as we have proved, in ther last end.

The inferences that we intend to draw from what we have said, are not inferences of sedition an anarchy. We do not mean to disturb the order of society; nor, by affirming that all men have an essential equality, to reprobate that subordination, without which society would be nothing but confusion, and the men, who compose it, a lawless banditti. We affirm, that the subject and the prince, the master and the servant, are truly and properly equal: but far be it from us to infer, that therefore the subject should withdraw his submission from his prince, or the servant diminish his obedience to his master. On the contrary, subjects and servants would renounce all that is glorious in their conditions, if they entertained such wild ideas in their minds. That, which equals them to the superiors, whom Providence has set over them, is the belief of their being capable, as well as their superiors, of answering the end that God proposed in creating mankind. They would counteract this end, were they to refuse to discharge those duties of their condition to which Providence calls them.

conclusions of these kinds, and let them be the application of this discourse.

Derive from our subject conclusions of moderation. Labour, for it is allowable, and the morality of the gospel does not condemn it, labour to render your name illustrious, to augment your fortune, to establish your reputation, to contribute to the pleasure of your life; but labour no more than becomes you. Let efforts of this kind never make you lose sight of the great end of life. Remember, as riches, grandeur and reputation, are not the supreme good, so obscurity, meanness, and indigence, are not the supreme evil. Let the care of avoiding the supreme evil, and the desire of obtaining the supreme good, be always the most ardent of our wishes, and let others yield to that of arriving at the chief good.

Derive from our doctrine conclusions of acquiescence in the laws of Providence. If it please Providence to put an essential difference between you and the great men of the earth, let it be your holy ambition to excel in it. You cannot murmur without being guilty of reproaching God, because he has made you what you are; because he formed you men and not angels, archangels or seraphim. Had he annexed essential privileges to the highest ranks, submission would always be your lot, and you ought always to adore, and to submit to that intelligence, which governs the world: but this is not your case. God gives to the great men of the earth an exterior, transient, superficial glory; but he has made you share with them a glory real, solid, and permanent. What difficulty can a wise man find by acquiescing in this law of Providence?

Derive from the truths you have heard conclusions of vigilance. Instead of ingeniously flattering yourself with the vain glory of being elevated above your neighbour; or of suffering your mind to sink under the puerile mortification of being inferior to him; Nor would we derive from the truths which incessantly inquire what is the virtue of your we have affirmed, fanatical inferences. We station, the duty of your rank, and use your endeavoured before to preclude all occasion utmost industry to fill it worthily. You are for reproach on this article, yet perhaps we a magistrate, the virtue of your station, the nay not escape it; for how often does an un- duty of your rank, is to employ yourself friendly auditor, in order to enjoy the plea- wholly to serve your fellow-subjects in inferior sure of decrying a disgustful truth, affect to stations, to prefer the public good before your forget the corrective, with which the preach- own private interest, to sacrifice yourself for er sweetens it? we repeat it, therefore, once the advantage of that state, the reins of more; we do not pretend to affirm, that the which you hold. Practise this virtue, fulfil conditions of all men are absolutely equal, by these engagements, put off self-interest, and affirming that in some senses all mankind are devote yourself wholly to a people, who inon a level. We do not say, that the man, trust you with their properties, their liberties, whom society agrees to contemn, is as happy and their lives. You are a subject, the duty as the man, whom society unites to revere. of your rank, the virtue of your station, is We do not say, that the man, who has no submission, and you should obey not only where to hide his head, is as happy as he through fear of punishment, but through a who is commodiously accommodated. We wise regard for order. Practise this virtue, do not say, that a man who is destitute of all fulfil this engagement, make it your glory to the necessaries of life, is as happy as the man, submit, and in the authority of princes respect whose fortune is sufficient to procure him all the power of God, whose ministers and rethe conveniences of it. No, my brethren! we presentatives they are. You are a rich man, have no more design to deduce inferences of the virtue of your station, the duty of your fanaticism from the doctrine of the text, than condition, is beneficence, generosity, magnawe have to infer maxims of anarchy and rebel-nimity. Practise these virtues, discharge lion. But we infer just conclusions conformable these duties. Let your heart be always moved to the precious gift of reason, that the Creator with the necessities of the wretched, and has bestowed on us, and to the incomparably more precious gift of religion with which he has enriched us. Derive then, my brethren,

your ears open to their complaints. Never omit an opportunity of doing good, and be in society a general resource, a universal refuge.

From the truths which you have heard, de- | tal souls, will shine in all its splendour. Let rive motives of zeal and fervour. It is mor- us, my brethren, sigh after this period, let tifying, I own, in some respects, when one us make it the object of our most constant feels certain emotions of dignity and eleva- and ardent prayers. God grant we may all tion, to sink in society. It is mortifying to beg have a right to pray for it! God grant our bread of one who is a man like ourselves. It text may be one day verified in a new sense. is mortifying to be trodden under foot by our May all who compose this assembly, masters equals, and to say all in a word, to be in and servants, rich and poor, may we all, my stations very unequal among our equals. But dear hearers having acknowledged ourselves this economy will quickly vanish. The equal in essence, in privileges, in destinafashion of this world will presently pass tion, in last end, may we all alike participate away, and we shall soon enter that blessed the same glory. God grant it for his mer state, in which all distinctions will be abolish-cy sake. Amen. ed, and in which all that is noble in immor

SERMON XXX.

THE WORTH OF THE SOUL.

MATTHEW xvi. 26.

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

My brethren, before we enforce the truths which Jesus Christ included in the words of the text, we will endeavour to fix the meaning of it. This depends on the term soul, which is used in this passage, and which is one of the most equivocal words in Scripture; for it is taken in different, and even in contrary senses, so that sometimes it signifies a 'dead body,' Lev. xxi. 1. We will not divert your attention now by reciting the long list of explications that may be given to the term: but we will content ourselves with remarking, that it can be taken only in two senses in the text.

Soul may be taken for life; and in this sense the term is used by St. Matthew, who says, 'They are dead who sought the young child's soul,' chap. ii. 20. Soul, may be taken for that spiritual part of us, which we call the soul by excellence; and in this sense it is used by our Lord, who says, '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,' chap. x. 28.

If we take the word in the first sense, for life, we put into the mouth of Jesus Christ a proposition verified by experience; that is, that men consider life as the greatest of all temporal blessings, and that they part with every thing to preserve it. This rule has its exceptions: but the exceptions confirm the rule. Sometimes, indeed, a disgust with the world, a principle of religion, a point of honour, will incline men to sacrifice their lives: but these particular cases cannot prevent our saying in the general, What shall a man give in exchange for his life?"

If we take the word for that part of man, which we call the soul by excellence, Jesus Christ intended to point out to us, not what men usually do (for alas! it happens too of

ten, that men sacrifice their souls to the meanest and most sordid interest), but what they always ought to do. He meant to teach us, that the soul is the noblest part of us, and that nothing is too great to be given for its ransom.

Both these interpretations are probable, and each has its partisans, and its proofs. But although we would not condemn the first, we prefer the last, not only because it is the most noble meaning, and opens the most extensive field of meditation: but because it seems to us the most conforma. ble to our Saviour's design in speaking the words.

Judge by what precedes our text. 'What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Jesus Christ spoke thus to fortify his disciples against the temptations, to which their profession of the gospel was about to expose them If by the word soul we understand the life, we shall be obliged to go a great way about to give any reasonable sense to the words. On the contrary, if we take the word for the spirit, the meaning of the whole is clear and easy. Now it seems to me beyond a doubt, that Jesus Christ, by the manner in which he has connected the text with the preceding verse. used the term soul in the latter sense.

Judge of our comment also by what fol lows. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For,' adds, our Lord immediately after, the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.' What connexion have these words with our text, if we take the word soul for life? What connexion is there between this proposition, Man has nothing more valuable than life, and this, For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his

Father, with his angels? Whereas if we adopt our sense of the term, the connexion instantly appears.

We will then retain this explication. By the soul we understand here the spirit of man; and, this word being thus explained, the meaning of Jesus Christ in the whole passage is understood in part, and one remark will be sufficient to explain it wholly. We must attend to the true meaning of the phrase, lose his soul,' which immediately precedes the text, and which we shall often use to explain the text itself. To lose the soul' does not signify to be deprived of this part of one's self; for, however great this punishment might be, it is the chief object of a wicked man's wishes; but to lose the soul' is to lose those real blessings, and to sustain those real evils, which a soul is capaple of enjoying and of suffering. When, therefore, Jesus Christ says in the words that precede the text, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' and in the text, What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' he exhibits one truth under different faces, so that our reflections will naturally be turned sometimes to the one, and sometimes to the other of these propositions. He points out, I say, two truths, which being united, signify, that as the conquest of the universe would not be an object of value sufficient to engage us to sacrince our souls, so if we had lost them, no price could be too great to be paid for the recovery of them. Let us here fix our attention; and let us examine what constitutes the dignity of the soul. Let us inquire, 1. The excellence of its nature; II. The infinity of its duration ; III. The price of its redemption; three articles which will divide this discourse.

I. Nothing can be given in exchange for our souls. We prove this proposition by the excellence of its nature. What is the soul? There have been great absurdities, in the answers given to this question. In former ages of darkness, when most of the studies that were pursued for the cultivation of the mind served to render it unfruitful; when people thought they had arrived at the highest degree of knowledge, if they had filled their memories with pompous terms and superb nonsense; in those times, I say it was thought, the question might be fully and satisfactorily answered, and clear and complete ideas given of the nature of the soul. But in latter times, when philosophy being cleansed from the impurities that infected the schools, equivocal terms were rejected, and only clear and distinct ideas admitted, and thus literary investigations reduced to real and solid use; in these days, I say, philosophers, and philosophers of great name, have been afraid to answer this question, and we have affirmed that the narrow limits which confine our researches, disable us from acquiring any other than obscure notions of the human soul, and that all which we can propose to elucidate the nature of it, serves rather to discover what it is not, than what it is. But if the decisions of the former savour of presumption, does not the timid reservedness of the litter seem a blameable modesty? If

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we be incapable of giving such sufficient answers to the question as would fully satisfy a genius earnest in inquiring, and eager for demonstration, may we not be able to give clear and high ideas of our souls, and so to verify these sententious words of the Sa viour of the world, What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'

Indeed we do clearly and distinctly know three properties of the soul; and every one of us knows by his own experience, that it is capable of knowing, willing, and feeling. The first of these properties is intelligence, the second volition, the third sensation, or, more properly, the acutest sensibility. I am coming now to the design of my text, and here I hope to prove, at least to the intelligent part of my hearers, by the nature of the soul, that the loss of it is the greatest of all losses, and that nothing is too valuable to be given for its recovery.

Intelligence is the first property of the soul, and the first idea that we ought to form of it, to know its nature. The perfection of this property consists in having clear and distinct ideas, extensive and certain knowledge. To lose the soul,' in this respect, is to sink into total ignorance. This loss is irreparable, and he who should have lost his soul in this sense, could give nothing too great for its recovery. Knowledge and happiness are inseparable in intelligent beings, and, it is clear, a soul deprived of intelli gence cannot enjoy perfect felicity. Few men, I know, can be persuaded to admit this truth, and there are, I must allow, great restrictions to be made on this article, while we are in the present state.

1. In our present state, 'every degree of knowledge, that the mind acquires, costs the body much. A man, who would make a progress in science, must retire, meditate, and in some sense, involve himself in himself. Now, meditation exhausts the animal spirits; close attention tires the brain; the collecting of the soul into itself often injures the health, and sometimes puts a period to life.

In our present state, our knowledge is confined within narrow bounds.' Questions the most worthy of our curiosity, and the most proper to animate and inflame us, are unanswerable; for the objects lie beyond our reach. From all our efforts to eclaircise such questions we sometimes derive only mortifying reflections on the weakness of our capacities, and the narrow limits of our knowledge.

3. In this present state, sciences are inca pable of demonstration, and consist, in regard to us, of little more than probabilities and appearances. A man, whose genius is a little exact, is obliged in multitudes of cases to doubt, and to suspend his judgment; and his pleasure of investigating a point is almost always interrupted by the too wellgrounded fear of taking a shadow for a substance, a phantom for a reality.

4 In this world, most of those sciences, in the study of which we spend the best part of life, are improperly called sciences; they have indeed some distant relation to our wants in this present state: but they have no reference at all to our real dignity.