the Christian name, the justly famous and excellent Mr. Locke, to a friend, and ordered to be delivered to him after his decease: "May you live long and happy in the enjoyment of health, freedom, content, and all those blessings which Providence has bestowed upon you! I know you loved me living, and will preserve my memory now I am dead. All the use to be made of it is, that this life is a scene of vanity that soon passes away; and affords no solid satisfaction, but in the consciousness of doing well, and in the hopes of another life. This is what I can say, upon experience; and what you will find to be true, when you come to make up the account.", Unto God alone be glory for ever. August 2, 1778. SERMON SERMON XII. MARK Xii. 29. And Jesus answered him; The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord. Ir was well said by a good man, that it is much better to speak with God, than of God. Religious disputes and controversies are too apt to divert men from the practice of piety and benevolence, which are the end of all true religion. For it is much easier to talk about our Maker, than to do the things that he requires of us; and few are dispassionate enough to oppose another's opinions, without entertaining at the same time a dislike to his person. This disputatious spirit was the disease of the learned Jews in our Saviour's time. They spent their hours in their private studies most unprofitably, and their discourses also to the people people turned chiefly upon nice determinations which of the precepts of the law was to have the preference, instead of being careful to obey them all; whether their ceremonial law of outward services and ordinances, or the moral law of righteousness, justice, and benevolence, were to take place of each other? In which cases, they commonly decided against the plainest dictates of truth and goodness; as, for instance, when they countenanced persons in giving their substance to the service of the temple and use of the priests, although they thereby let their parents starve; for which unnatural conduct our Lord upbraids them in the severest terms. (Mark vii. 7-13.) The scribe, however, or doctor, to whom our Lord makes the reply which I have read to you, seems to have been of a better character than the generality of his profession, and to have made the inquiry, not in a captious way, but with a high opinion of the wisdom of Jesus, and a real desire of information. (ver. 28.) " And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him: Which is the first commandment of all?” Our Our Lord then being thus called upon to give his decision on so important a point, Which was the first commandment of all? sets himself to do it with great solemnity : "And Jesus answered him; The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength :--this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." The man was so struck with the wisdom and authority with which Jesus delivered himself, that he could not forbear declaring his high approbation of him; which showed a great degree of courage and integrity, when all the great, and all of his own order, were so bent against him. (ver. 32, 33.) "And the scribe said unto him: Well, Master! thou hast said the truth: for there is one God, and there is none other but He. And to love him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more VOL. I. than |