SERMON II. ON PUBLICLY DENOUNCING CURSES UPON SINNERS. BY SAMUEL CLARKE, D. D. SAMUEL CLARKE, born at Norwich, in the year 1675, died Rector of St. James's, Westminster, 1729.] SERMON II. DEUT. xxvii. 26. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen. THE proper design and use of all public or private seasons of humiliation is, to recollect and examine carefully the state of our lives; to confess our past sins, with a just sense of our own unworthiness in committing them; humbly to ask pardon of God, for the breaches of his law we have been guilty of; to imprint upon our minds a deep sense of the reasonableness and obligation of our duty; to acknowledge the justice and righteousness of God's indignation, denounced against impenitent sinners; and to form within ourselves strong and solemn resolutions of better obedience for the future. To this end it is, that the law of God is held forth unto us, recommended with all the blessings, and fenced in with all the curses, that are written in his book. To this end it is, that the prophets in the Old Testament, and the apostles in the New, represent unto us in such sublime expressions, the happiness of obedience; and on the other hand, set forth, in such moving and affectionate descriptions, the wrath of God, expressly revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. To this end it is, that our Saviour has appointed his ministers to continue, even unto the end of the world, persuading men to repentance, both by the love of God, and by the terrors of the Lord; which, as it is at all times their perpetual duty, so more especially, at such seasons as are thought proper to be set apart for fasting and humiliation. The proper and Christian observation of which times, does not consist in superstitious distinctions of meats, for which there is no foundation either in the law of God or in the nature of things; but it consists in such general abstinence, as every serious person finds, by his own experience, best to promote the performance of his whole Christian duty. In which matter, because the temper and constitution, and other accidental circumstances of every particular person, are different from others; therefore no general rules can be given for all persons; but every one for himself must in particular, with the prudence and sobriety of a Christian, determine the measure and degrees of that abstinence, which the law of God has not determined, and the laws or customs of men have in reason no power to determine. But some things there are very proper for all persons, and wherein the whole church may join without distinction. Such are confessions of sin, public acknowledgments of the righteousness of God's laws, and solemn deprecations of his judgments; which acts of devotion, as they are always proper, so it has wisely been iudged that the performing them with greater solemnity, at certain periods or seasons set apart for public humiliation, may be very advantageous and helpful towards the keeping up a public spirit of religion in a nation. And there was the more reason so to judge, because God himself, when he brought the children of Israel over Jordan, was pleased by an express command, to appoint the blessings and curses of the law to be read in a solemn manner to the whole body of the people; and that the people, at the repeating of each curse, should, by way of acknowledgment of the righteousness and reasonableness of God's judgment denounced against impenitent sinners, distinctly and solemnly say, Amen. Of this we have a large account, in this twenty-seventh chapter of Deuteronomy; in which, from the fifteenth verse to the end, is set down a distinct denunciation of the curse or wrath of God, against several particular instances of great wickedness; and it concludes, or sums up all, with that more general denunciation in the words of the text: 'Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law' to do them; and all the people shall say, Amen.' In discoursing upon which words, because they have sometimes, by weak persons, been so misunderstood, as if by joining with or repeating this curse, men were in danger of being led into some degree of uncharitable censure, or to express any hard wish, against such persons as they know to be guilty, or whom they see live in the practice of any of those crimes to which the curse is here annexed; I shall therefore endeavour to show, first, That the repeating the curse in this and the like texts, is not expressing any uncharitable wish, or desiring that any evil should befal the persons against whom it is denounced; but only an acknowledgment of the |