I have produced these few instances from a great many others to show
the imperfection of heathen philosophy, wherein I have confined
myself wholly to their morality.  And surely we may pronounce upon
it, in the words of St. James, that "This wisdom descended not from
above, but was earthly and sensual."  What if I had produced their
absurd notions about God and the soul?  It would then have completed
the character given it by that Apostle, and appeared to have been
devilish too.  But it is easy to observe from the nature of these
few particulars that their defects in morals were purely the
flagging and fainting of the mind for want of a support by
revelation from God.


I proceed, therefore, in the third place, to show the perfection of
Christian wisdom from above; and I shall endeavour to make it appear
from those proper characters and marks of it by the Apostle before
mentioned, in the third chapter, and 15th, 16th, and 17th verses.

The words run thus -

"This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual,
devilish.

"For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil
work.

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable,
gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality and without hypocrisy."

"The wisdom from above is first pure."  This purity of the mind and
spirit is peculiar to the Gospel.  Our Saviour says, "Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God."  A mind free from all
pollution of lusts shall have a daily vision of God, whereof
unrevealed religion can form no notion.  This is it that keeps us
unspotted from the world, and hereby many have been prevailed upon
to live in the practice of all purity, holiness, and righteousness,
far beyond the examples of the most celebrated philosophers.

It is "peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated."  The Christian
doctrine teacheth us all those dispositions that make us affable and
courteous, gentle and kind, without any morose leaven of pride or
vanity, which entered into the composition of most heathen schemes:
so we are taught to be meek and lowly.  Our Saviour's last legacy
was peace, and He commands us to forgive our offending brother unto
seventy times seven.  Christian wisdom is full of mercy and good
works, teaching the height of all moral virtues, of which the
heathens fell infinitely short.  Plato indeed (and it is worth
observing) has somewhere a dialogue, or part of one, about forgiving
our enemies, which was perhaps the highest strain ever reached by
man without Divine assistance; yet how little is that to what our
Saviour commands us, "To love them that hate us, to bless them that
curse us, and to do good to them that despitefully use us."

Christian wisdom is "without partiality;" it is not calculated for
this or that nation of people, but the whole race of mankind.  Not
so the philosophical schemes, which were narrow and confined,
adapted to their peculiar towns, governments, or sects; but "in
every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is
accepted with Him."

Lastly, It is "without hypocrisy;" it appears to be what it really
is; it is all of a piece.  By the doctrines of the Gospel we are so
far from being allowed to publish to the world those virtues we have
not, that we are commanded to hide even from ourselves those we
really have, and not to let our right hand know what our left hand
does, unlike several branches of the heathen wisdom, which pretended
to teach insensibility and indifference, magnanimity and contempt of
life, while at the same time, in other parts, it belied its own
doctrines.

I come now, in the last place, to show that the great examples of
wisdom and virtue among the Grecian sages were produced by personal
merit; and not influenced by the doctrine of any particular sect,
whereas in Christianity it is quite the contrary.

The two virtues most celebrated by ancient moralists were fortitude
and temperance, as relating to the government of man in his private
capacity, to which their schemes were generally addressed and
confined, and the two instances wherein those virtues arrived at the
greatest height were Socrates and Cato.  But neither these, nor any
other virtues possessed by these two, were at all owing to any
lessons or doctrines of a sect.  For Socrates himself was of none at
all; and although Cato was called a Stoic, it was more from a
resemblance of manners in his worst qualities, than that he avowed
himself one of their disciples.  The same may be affirmed of many
other great men of antiquity.  Whence I infer that those who were
renowned for virtue among them were more obliged to the good natural
dispositions of their own minds than to the doctrines of any sect
they pretended to follow.

On the other side, as the examples of fortitude and patience among
the primitive Christians have been infinitely greater, and more
numerous, so they were altogether the product of their principles
and doctrine, and were such as the same persons, without those aids,
would never have arrived to.  Of this truth most of the Apostles,
with many thousand martyrs, are a cloud of witnesses beyond
exception.  Having, therefore, spoken so largely upon the former
heads, I shall dwell no longer upon this.

And if it should here be objected, Why does not Christianity still
produce the same effects? it is easy to answer, first, that,
although the number of pretended Christians be great, yet that of
true believers, in proportion to the other, was never so small; and
it is a true lively faith alone that, by the assistance of God's
grace, can influence our practice.

Secondly, We may answer that Christianity itself has very much
suffered by being blended up with Gentile philosophy.  The Platonic
system, first taken into religion, was thought to have given matter
for some early heresies in the Church.  When disputes began to
arise, the Peripatetic forms were introduced by Scotus as best
fitted for controversy.  And however this may now have become
necessary, it was surely the author of a litigious vein, which has
since occasioned very pernicious consequences, stopped the progress
of Christianity, and been a great promoter of vice; verifying that
sentence given by St. James, and mentioned before, "Where envying
and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."  This was
the fatal stop to the Grecians in their progress both of arts and
arms; their wise men were divided under several sects, and their
governments under several commonwealths, all in opposition to each
other, which engaged them in eternal quarrels among themselves,
while they should have been armed against the common enemy.  And I
wish we had no other examples, from the like causes, less foreign or
ancient than that.  Diogenes said Socrates was a madman; the
disciples of Zeno and Epicurus, nay, of Plato and Aristotle, were
engaged in fierce disputes about the most insignificant trifles.
And if this be the present language and practice among us Christians
no wonder that Christianity does not still produce the same effects
which it did at first, when it was received and embraced in its
utmost purity and perfection; for such wisdom as this cannot
"descend from above," but must be "earthly, sensual, devilish, full
of confusion and every evil work," whereas, "the wisdom from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without
hypocrisy."  This is the true heavenly wisdom, which Christianity
only can boast of, and which the greatest of the heathen wise men
could never arrive at.

Now to God the Father, &c.



THREE PRAYERS USED BY THE DEAN FOR STELLA IN HER LAST SICKNESS, 1727



I.

Almighty and most gracious Lord God, extend, we beseech Thee, Thy
pity and compassion toward this Thy languishing servant; teach her
to place her hope and confidence entirely in Thee; give her a true
sense of the emptiness and vanity of all earthly things; make her
truly sensible of all the infirmities of her life past, and grant to
her such a true sincere repentance as is not to be repented of.
Preserve her, O Lord, in a sound mind and understanding during this
Thy visitation; keep her from both the sad extremes of presumption
and despair.  If Thou shalt please to restore her to her former
health, give her grace to be ever mindful of that mercy, and to keep
those good resolutions she now makes in her sickness, so that no
length of time nor prosperity may entice her to forget them.  Let no
thought of her misfortunes distract her mind, and prevent the means
toward her recovery, or disturb her in her preparations for a better
life.  We beseech thee also, O Lord, of Thy infinite goodness, to
remember the good actions of this Thy servant; that the naked she
hath clothed, the hungry she hath fed, the sick and the fatherless
whom she hath relieved, may be reckoned according to Thy gracious
promise, as if they had been done unto Thee.  Hearken, O Lord, to
the prayers offered up by the friends of this Thy servant in her
behalf, and especially those now made by us unto thee.  Give Thy
blessing to those endeavours used for her recovery; but take from
her all violent desire either of life or death, further than with
resignation to Thy holy will.  And now, O Lord, we implore Thy
gracious favour toward us here met together.  Grant that the sense
of this Thy servant's weakness may add strength to our faith; that
we, considering the infirmities of our nature and the uncertainty of
life, may by this example be drawn to repentance before it shall
please Thee to visit us in like manner.  Accept these prayers, we
beseech Thee, for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth, ever one
God, world without end.  Amen.


II.  Written October 17, 1727


Most merciful Father, accept our humblest prayers in behalf of this
Thy languishing servant; forgive the sins, the frailties, and
infirmities of her life past.  Accept the good deeds she hath done
in such a manner that, at whatever time Thou shalt please to call
her, she may be received into everlasting habitations.  Give her
grace to continue sincerely thankful to Thee for the many favours
Thou hast bestowed upon her, the ability and inclination and
practice to do good, and those virtues which have procured the
esteem and love of her friends and a most unspotted name in the
world.  O God, Thou dispensest Thy blessings and Thy punishments as
it becometh infinite justice and mercy; and since it was Thy
pleasure to afflict her with a long, constant, weakly state of
health, make her truly sensible that it was for very wise ends, and
was largely made up to her in other blessings more valuable and less
common.  Continue to her, O Lord, that firmness and constancy of
mind wherewith Thou hast most graciously endowed her, together with
that contempt of worldly things and vanities that she has shown in
the whole conduct of her life.  O All-powerful Being, the least
motion of whose will can create or destroy a world, pity us, the
mournful friends of Thy distressed servant, who sink under the
weight of her present condition, and the fear of losing the most
valuable of our friends.  Restore her to us, O Lord, if it be Thy
gracious will, or inspire us with constancy and resignation to
support ourselves under so heavy an affliction.  Restore her, O
Lord, for the sake of those poor who, by losing her, will be
desolate, and those sick who will not only want her bounty, but her
care and tending; or else, in Thy mercy, raise up some other in her
place with equal disposition and better abilities.  Lessen, O Lord,
we beseech Thee, her bodily pains, or give her a double strength of
mind to support them.  And if Thou wilt soon take her to Thyself,
turn our thoughts rather upon that felicity which we hope she shall
enjoy, than upon that unspeakable loss we shall endure.  Let her
memory be ever dear unto us, and the example of her many virtues, as
far as human infirmity will admit, our constant imitation.  Accept,
O Lord, these prayers, poured from the very bottom of our hearts, in
Thy mercy, and for the merits of our blessed Saviour.  Amen.


III.  Written November 6, 1727


O merciful Father, who never afflictest Thy children but for their
own good, and with justice, over which Thy mercy always prevaileth,
either to turn them to repentance, or to punish them in the present
life in order to reward them in a better; take pity, we beseech
Thee, upon this Thy poor afflicted servant, languishing so long and
so grievously under the weight of Thy hand.  Give her strength, O
Lord, to support her weakness, and patience to endure her pains
without repining at Thy correction.  Forgive every rash and
inconsiderate expression which her anguish may at any time force
from her tongue, while her heart continueth in an entire submission
to Thy will.  Suppress in her, O Lord, all eager desires of life,
and lessen her fears of death by inspiring into her an humble yet
assured hope of Thy mercy.  Give her a sincere repentance for all
her transgressions and omissions, and a firm resolution to pass the
remainder of her life in endeavouring to her utmost to observe all
Thy precepts.  We beseech Thee likewise to compose her thoughts, and
preserve to her the use of her memory and reason during the course
of her sickness.  Give her a true conception of the vanity, folly,
and insignificance of all human things, and strengthen her so as to
beget in her a sincere love of Thee in the midst of her sufferings.
Accept and impute all her good deeds, and forgive her all those
offences against Thee which she hath sincerely repented of or
through the frailty of memory hath forgot.  And now, O Lord, we turn
to Thee in behalf of ourselves and the rest of her sorrowful
friends.  Let not our grief afflict her mind, and thereby have an
ill effect on her present distemper.  Forgive the sorrow and
weakness of those among us who sink under the grief and terror of
losing so dear and useful a friend.  Accept and pardon our most
earnest prayers and wishes for her longer continuance in this evil
world, to do what Thou art pleased to call Thy service, and is only
her bounden duty, that she may be still a comfort to us and to all
others who will want the benefit of her conversation, her advice,
her good offices, or her charity.  And since Thou hast promised that
where two or three are gathered together in Thy name Thou wilt be in
the midst of them to grant their request, O gracious Lord, grant to
us who are here met in Thy name that those requests, which in the
utmost sincerity and earnestness of our hearts we have now made in
behalf of this Thy distressed servant and of ourselves, may
effectually be answered, through the merits of Jesus Christ our
Lord.  Amen.



Footnotes:

{1}  A clearer style, or a discourse more properly adapted to a
public audience, can scarce be framed.  Every paragraph is simple,
nervous, and intelligible.  The threads of each argument are closely
connected and logically pursued.--Orrery.