SERMON III. 2 Cor. iii.-Part of the 17th verse. WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS, THERE IS THE liberty of the Gospel dispensation, in contra distinction to the burthensome ritual of the Jewish worship, is that to which St. Paul immediately points in this passage. Yet it is the peculiar excellency of the inspired writings, that they abound more than any other with general truths; and that too in places directed to a partial purpose. This excellency however, great as it is, has been frequently over-looked, and more frequently misapplied. For, divest these kind of aphorisms of their context, and the sectarist is ever more ready to make them speak the sense of his own creed, than the general dictates of Christianity. Thus, in the text before us, the Quietist, taking the Spirit of the Lord to mean that preternatural impulse, which he believes has a sensible operation within his own bosom, fancies himself freed by it from every bond of moral obligation. In like manner the Fanatic, in the last century, actuated by the same enthusiastic principle, imagined himself set at liberty from all the ties of civil obligation. The one turning the grace of the Lord into lasciviousness, the other into licentiousness. But to leave these forced constructions under that load of absurdity, which Enthusiasm only can digest, we shall find that if, by the Spirit of the Lord, we understand the influence of true Religion; and by Liberty, the advantages of Civil Freedom, the text will convey to us a most important general truth, which will naturally be explained under the two following propositions : I. That, in any civil establishment where the liberty and property of individuals are best secured, the people cannot enjoy that happiness which results from their liberty, unless they be a religious as well as free people. II. That a land of liberty is the only one favourable to the true cultivation of this religious principle. By the former of these we prove that, "Where the spirit of the Lord is there only is Liberty:" by the latter, that, where Liberty is, there ought to be found the spirit of the Lord. I. It has been said, "That there is a nation on the globe, the very fundamental object of whose constitution is political freedom :* I need not intimate to this audience where the nation is to be found, they will instinctively perceive, and feel a happy glow from the perception, that it is not far from every one of them. They will therefore readily allow, that, if the British constitution cannot provide for the happiness of individuals without the aid of Religion, no other in the world can. With reference therefore to the Liberty of Great-Britain, may I have leave to pursue my argument? It will, I hope, receive additional force from employing this medium, it will bring the truth home to our own business and bosoms, and become the more convincing, in proportion as it is the more interesting and engaging. "Political Liberty" is justly defined, " to consist in that tranquillity of mind which results from a consciousness of self-security. In order to produce which, it is necessary that the mode of government be such, that no single citizen in it can stand in dread of another.”† This is peculiarly the case of our happy establishment, in which this self-security is so perfect, that public credit rests on no other basis than the stability of private property. Where therefore there can be no oppression, one should imagine there can be no distress: and in fact, politically speaking, there can be none; that is, none that can arise from the constitution itself. If there be * L'Esprit des Loix, Liv. xi. chap. 5th. any, it must spring from another cause; à cause, which, alas, it is not very difficult to investigate; it must arise from the baneful influence of private vices; and till these be proved not only public but private benefits, (to the latter of which Infidelity has not yet ventured to extend her mock demonstration) we may safely rest our cause on the good old Stoical doctrine, that " every degree of vice induces a proportionable degree of slavery." A doctrine which has received additional force and vigor from the Gospel itself. It would be endless to quote the particular passages; and indeed where vice is considered in the extreme, so as to occasion a total dissoluteness of manners, the shameful servitude that attends it, is too apparent to need a proof from that high authority. Let us rather examine into its effects when it is countenanced by fashion, reckoned among the refinements of civil life, and when it puts on so plausible an appearance as, in many instances, to pass, with the young and unwary, for an innocent, if not a laudable, amusement. Let us first take the case of Gaming, which, while pursued at proper intervals, and restrained to moderate sums, may perhaps, in persons of fortune, be amongst the most harmless of their pleasures. But how seldom is it kept within these limits; how soon does it become a habit? and when it is such, is even Avarice itself a more rigorous, a more tyrannical master? Ask any man, |