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SERMON I

Upon Humane Nature.

RO M. xii. 4, S.

For as we have many Members in one Body, and all Members have not the fame Office: So we being many are one Body in Chrift, and every one Members one of another.

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HE Epiftles in the New Serm. I. Teftament have all of them a particular Reference to the Condition and Usages of the Chriftian World at the Time they were written. Therefore as they cannot be thoroughly understood, unless that Condition and thofe Ufages are known and attended to:

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Serm. I. fo further, though they be known, yet if they be difcontinued or changed; Exhortations, Precepts, and Illuftrations of things, which refer to fuch Circumstances now ceafed or altered, cannot at this Time be urged in that Manner, and with that Force which they were to the Primitive Chriftians. Thus the Text now before us, in its first Intent and Defign, relates to the decent Management of those extraordinary Gifts which were then in the Church *, but which are now totally ceafed. And even as to the Allufion that we are one Body in Chrift, though what the Apostle here intends is equally true of Chriftians in all Circumftances, and the Confideration of it is plainly ftill an additional Motive over and above moral Confiderations, to the Discharge of the feveral Duties and Offices of a Chriftian: Yet it is manifeft this Allufion must have appeared with much greater Force to those, who by the many Difficulties they went through for the fake of their Religion, were led to keep always in View the Relation they stood in to their Saviour, who had undergone the fame; to those, who from the Idola

* 1 Cor. xii.

tries

tries of all around them, and their ill Treat-Serm. I ment, were taught to confider themfelves as not of the World in which they lived, but as a distinct Society of themselves, with Laws, and Ends, and Principles of Life and Action, quite contrary to thofe which the World profefs'd themselves at that Time influenced by. Hence the Relation of a Christian was by them confidered as nearer than that of Affinity and Blood, and they almost literally esteemed themselves as Members one of another. It cannot indeed poffibly be denied, that our being God's Creatures, and Virtue being the natural Law we are born under, and the whole Conftitution of Man being plainly adapted to it, are prior Obligations to Piety and Virtue, than the Confideration that God fent his Son into the World to fave it, and the Motives which arise from the peculiar Relation of Christians, as Members one of another under Chrift our Head. Yet its manifeft, that though all this be allowed, as it exprefly is by the inspired Writers; yet Christians at the Time of the Revelation, and immediately after, could not but infift moftly upon Confiderations of this latter Kind.

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Serm. I.

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Thefe Obfervations fhow the original particular Reference of the Text, and the culiar Force with which the Thing intended by the Allufion in it must have been felt by the primitive Chriftian World. They likewife afford a Reason for treating it at this Time in a more general Way.

The Relation which the feveral Parts or Members of the natural Body have to each other and to thewhole Body,is here compared to the Relation which each particular Person in Society has to other particular Persons, and to the whole Society; and the latter is intended to be illuftrated by the former. And if there be a Likeness between thefe two Relations, the Confequence is obvious: that the latter fhows us it is our Duty to do good to others, as the former fhows us that we are to take Care of our own private Intereft. But as there is scarce any Ground for a Comparifon between Society and the mere material Body, this without the Mind being a dead unactive Thing; much less can the Comparifon be carried to any length. And fince the Apoftle fpeaks of the feveral Members as having distinct Offices, which implies the Mind; It cannot be thought an unallow

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able Liberty, instead of the Body and its Serm. I. Members, to fubftitute the whole Nature of Man, and all the variety of internal Principles which belong to it. And then the Comparison will be between the Nature of Man as respecting Self, and tending to private Good, his own Prefervation and Happinefs; and the Nature of Man as having respect to Society, and tending to promote publick Good, the Happiness of that Society. These Ends do indeed perfectly coincide; and to aim at publick and private Good are fo far from being inconfiftent, that they mutually promote each other: Yet in the following Discourse they must be confidered as entirely diftinct; otherwife the Nature of Man, as tending to one or the other, cannot be compared. There can no Comparison be made, without confidering the Things compared as diftinct and different.

From this Review and Comparison of the Nature of Man as respecting Self, and as refpecting Society, it will plainly appcar, that there are as real and the fame kind of Indications in Humane Nature, that we were made for Society and to do good to our Fellow-creatures, as that we were intended to

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