it be presented to you, decked with pompous ornaments, or simple and neglected, provided that its celestial traits are still to be recognised, it preserves the same rights over your heart. And, indeed, is any portion of its sanctity lost by passing through less brilliant and less copious channels? Did the holy word of the Lord lose any thing of its dignity, whether he formerly gave it out from a bush, mean and despicable to the sight, or from a cloud of glory; — whether he gave out his oracles in the midst of the desert, and in a tabernacle covered with the skins of animals, or in the temple of Solomon, the most magnificent which hath ever been raised up to the glory of his name? And did the faith of Israel make any distinction, when it was the same Lord who every where spake?
Nevertheless, how few among all those who listen to us, who do not constitute themselves judges and censurers of the holy word! They come here merely for the purpose of deciding on the merit of those who announce it, of drawing foolish comparisons, of pronouncing on the difference of the lights and of the instructions; they think it an honour the being difficult to please; they pass without attention over the most striking truths, and which might be of the most essential benefit to all; and the only fruit reaped by them from a Christian discourse is confined to the miserable pride of having, better than any other, remarked its defects. This is so truly the case, that we may with justice apply to the greatest part of our hearers what Joseph, become the preserver of Egypt, said, through pure artifice, to his brethren: — It is not to seek food that you are come here; it is as spies, to see the nakedness of the land. It is not to nourish yourselves with the bread of the word, or to seek assistance and efficacious remedies for your evils, that you come to listen to us; it is in order to find out cause for applying some vain censures, and to show your skill in remarking our defects; which defects are perhaps a terrible punishment upon you of the Lord, who, in consequence of your crimes, refuseth more accomplished labourers in his vineyard, who would have been enabled to recall you to repentance.
But candidly, my brethren, however weak our language may be, do we not always say enough to overthrow you, to dissipate your errors, and to make you inwardly confess irregularities which you are unable to justify to yourselves? Are such sublime talents required to tell you that fornicators, extortioners, and men without mercy, shall never enter the kingdom of God; that unless you become penitent, you shall perish; and that it matters little to become master of the whole world, if you thereby lose your soul? Is it not, in fact, that very simplicity which constitutes the whole force, and gives such energy to these divine truths? And ought they to be less alarming to the criminal souls, though in the mouth of the most obscure individual of the ministry?
And besides, granting that it were here permitted us to recommend ourselves, as the apostle formerly said to ungrateful believers, more attentive to censure the simplicity of his appearance and of his language, and, as he says himself, his contemptible figure in
