in maintaining, as a general principle to which, before they actually arise, it is by no means necessary to suppose exceptions, that whatever is established has, at least, a prima facie claim to our support and reverence, and that the citizens of a Christian nation will be ordinarily slow to alter their ancient laws and form of government, remembering the prophet Jeremiah's reproof of those who forsake their old ways for new; the blessing which the same prophet pronounced on the Rechabites for an adherence to the customs of their forefathers, and the emphatic caution of the prophet Solomon, "My son, fear thou the Lord and the king; and meddle not with them that are given to change.

"

Yet one observation more, and I have done. If the Rechabites were thus blessed for the reverence which they showed to the institutions of a mortal lawgiver; if to the customs and forms of human origin, to the dictates of earthly wisdom, or to the accidental results of time and circumstance; if to these so much of sanctity belongs, how much holier the obligation, how much greater the blessedness of a sincere and hearty obedience to those rules of conduct which have been given by God Himself, those words of life and salvation which at the first began to be spoken by His Son, the Holy Ghost through all the prophets bearing witness thereto from the beginning? This was the primary use

' Prov. xxiv, 21.

which God Himself made of the customs of the Rechabites, this the especial and immediate end for which He urged their example on the Jews; and I should ill discharge the duty of my profession if I suffered you to depart from this holy place without earnestly and faithfully entreating you to lay to your consciences, that in this respect also it may well become you to adhere to the institutions of your ancestors, and to follow their piety towards God as well as their allegiance towards the king, and their reverence for the laws of their country. In this most loyal county, and to an audience whose hereditary recollections, whose hereditary influence, whose ancient and honest prejudices are all on the side of the laws, I may have, perhaps, exposed myself to the charge of giving needless counsel, when I have pleaded the cause of ancient institutions. But let those who partake in this honest zeal for the continuance of our paternal inheritance of freedom and security, remember that, unless the laws of God are reverenced, those of man cannot long preserve their weight, and that it is in vain for the higher ranks to expect reverence from those beneath them, if their own conduct displays a habitual disregard of the duties of religion. It is a strange and aweful responsibility which, in the complicated machine of society, belongs to those men who are placed (as every magistrate is placed, and as is the case with every man of landed property and hereditary influence) in the situation of chiefs among their people, and as points of imitation

1

and attention to a large surrounding circle. It is from their households, that the neighbouring village takes its tone; it is from their apparent reverence for God, from the attention bestowed by them on the duties of their station and the welfare of those beneath them, that their servants, their tenantry, and the poor are chiefly guided to an opinion, favourable or otherwise, of the laws under which they live, and the authorities which they are called on to reverence; and, if such men desire the perpetuity of the English constitution, it behoves them to recollect that they are its best supporters who sedulously perform the part (a very distinguished and important part) which that constitution assigns them.

But why should I thus confine myself to secular and temporary motives in enforcing that line of conduct which a more aweful consideration renders necessary ? The institutions of man, the best and wisest institutions, must at length fade away beneath the breath of time, or be crushed by the hand of violence. The dying prayer of Sarpi was but a fruitless and presumptuous aspiration, and the fall of our own beloved country, as of his wealthy Venice, must one day prove the vanity of the patriot's "Esto perpetua.”

But the hour must come, and to many of us is fast approaching, when even the fate of our country will be a secondary consideration to us all, and when the rank which each has held in it will be of infinitely little importance, except so far as each

may be enabled to render with gladness an account of his own conduct before that tribunal of which the occasion on which we are now assembled, is a dim and imperfect shadow.

Let it not, for God's sake, for our soul's sake, and as our everlasting happiness is dear to us, let it not be said in that day that we have been zealous for the commandments of men, and have omitted the weightier considerations of a more pure and holy Lawgiver. Let us not leave occasion to the Judge of Heaven and earth to complain that the idle customs of society, the indifferent regulations of human polity, have obtained from us that respect which we did not afford to the holy laws, the reasonable service of our Maker, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. "The statutes of Omri are kept, the words of Jonadab the son of Rechab are performed, notwithstanding I, saith the Lord, have spoken unto you but ye hearkened not unto me1!"

May He who hath framed us, forgive our former provocations; and that we may hereafter find delight in His word; and render obedience to His commandments, may He govern and guide our hearts with the sanctifying graces of His Holy Spirit, through the merits of that blessed Son, who was Himself, as man, the perfect pattern of obedience and holiness!

'Micah vi. 16. Jerem. xxxv. 14.

SERMON XV.

ON THE SHIPWRECK OF ST. PAUL.

[Preached at Lincoln's Inn, 1822, and at Madras, 12th March,

1826.]

Acts xxvii. 23, 24.

There stood by me this night, the Angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, saying, Fear not Paul, thou must be brought before Cæsar, and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.

THESE words are taken from one of the most remarkable passages in the life of the Apostle of the Gentiles, of which the incidents are as interesting as the doctrine which depends on them is important. A vessel bound from Crete to Italy in the stormy season of the year, and crowded with soldiers and passengers to the number of two hundred and seventy-six persons, had been tossed for many days on the bosom of a tempestuous sea, without the guidance of sun or stars, without tackling to direct her course, and almost a helpless wreck on the water. "All hope that we should be saved," we are told by one who was himself a passenger, "all hope that we should be saved was then taken away'." But there was on board that ship an aged and a holy man, a prisoner carried in chains to Rome, whither he had appealed for judgement

1 Ver. 20.