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HYMN
FOR SERMON
XXIII.
CHRISTIAN
MORALITY;
viz,
GRAVITY, DECENCY,
&c.
LONG
METRE.
ARE we
not
sons
and heirs
of
God
?
Are
we
not bought
with
Jesus'
blood
?
Do
we
not hope
for
heavenly joys,
And shall
we
stoop to trifling toys
?
Can
laughter
feed
th'
immortal
mind?
Were
spirits
of
celestial
kind
Made for a
jest,
for
sport
and
play
To wear
out time, and
waste the day
?
Doth
vain discourse or
empty mirth
Well suit the honours of our birth
?
Shall
we
be
fond
of gay attire,
Which
children
love,
and
fools
admire
?
What if
we
wear
the richest vest,
Peacocks and
flies
are
better drest
:
This
flesh,
with
all its
gaudy
forms.
Must drop to dust
and feed the
worms.
Lord,
raise our hearts and
passions
higher
Touch our
vain souls with
sacred
fire;
Then with an elevated eye
We'll
pass
these glittering
trifles
by.
We'll
look on all
the toys below
With such disdain
as
angels do,
And wait the
call that
bids
us
rise
To pro
nis'd
mansions in
the
skies.
SERMON XXIV.
CHRISTIAN MORALITY,
viz.
JUSTICE,
&c.
PHILIP.
iv. 8.
Whatsoever things are
true--whatsoever things
are honest,
or
grave,
whatsoever
things are
just
think
on
these things.
0óa
sst
Sixata,
IN
many
parts of
the sacred writings,
there appears a
very
close
connexion
of
the subjects
which
are handled
;
a natural
order
is
observed,
and
a
beautiful transition
made' from one to the
other
:
But
this
is
not
to
be
ex-
pected
in
every text, nor
is
it
at
all
necessary,
that
it should
be
so.
When
St.
Paul enumerates
several virtues or
vices,
he
sometimes
heaps
them
together, and doth
not
design
any
regularity or
natural order
in placing them.
Our
commentators therefore
in
such
cases,
when they
are
once resolved to
find
these
beauties and connexions
where the holy
writer
did
not intend
them,
they often-
times
torture
and strain both their
own
invention,
and
the
words
of
scripture. Thus,
I
fear,
I
should do,
if
I
would
attempt
to
give
a
reason
why
the apostle
in
this
collection
of
virtues, named gravity
or
decency before