SERMON II.

1 THESSALONIANS V. 23.

The very God of peace fanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole fpirit and foul and body be preferved blameless, unto the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift.

T has been justly remarked by two writers

of distinguished eminence', that the eloquence of St. Paul bears a ftriking resemblance to that of Demofthenes, the greatest of all the antient orators. I think, however, that though they both agree in fublimity of fentiment and energy of expreffion;-though

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' alike rise from earth to heaven, in all they the refiftless majesty of unbounded imagination; yet, where the tender paffions are con

▪ Vide Smith's Longinus. Blackw. Sacred Claffics, Vol. I. pag. 299.

Vide Blackw. pag. 301.

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cerned,

cerned, where the heart is to be touched, as well as the understanding convinced, the Christian orator has infinitely the advantage over the Athenian. There is a strain of melting affection, there is a flow of winning and pathetic earnestnefs, which runs through all his writings, which it is impoffible to read without the most lively emotions of tendernefs and fenfibility. It would be needless, it would be endless, to give all the examples of this. Let any man only read his farewel addrefs to the Ephesian elders, and if it has not the fame effect upon him, which it had upon St. Paul's audience, who all wept fore and fell upon his neck and kiffed him, he must have a heart incapable of the finer feelings of nature, a ftranger to the amiable ebullitions of human fenfibility.

There is fomething no lefs folemn and affecting in this prayer of St. Paul for the Theffalonians, contained in the text; expreffive both of his own love and affection for them, and also of that great earnestness and fincerity, with which he laboured to promote the falvation of fouls.

And

And the devout fervency, with which he offers it up to heaven, will appear in a still more forcible and amiable light, if we confider the peculiar circumftances of the Thef falonians, to whom he writes.

Theffalonica, or, as it is now called, Salonica, was at that time the capital of Macedon. The greater part of its inhabitants were not only heathen idolaters, but also men of diffolute and abandoned lives; the reft were Jews, exceedingly jealous of the traditions and fuperftitions of their fathers. It might naturally therefore be concluded, that both would be very averfe to a religion, which struck at all the wickedness of the one, and all the fuperftitious rites and ceremonies of the other. Accordingly we find ', that St. Paul had not preached the Gospel there more than three weeks, before a tumult was raised against him, and compelled him to fly to Berea. It was no wonder therefore he should express the most tender concern for the infant colony of Chriftians he had left behind him. He knew they were as sheep without a fhepherd, in the midst of ravenous wolves, who would not fail to

distress them by every art of barbarity and perfecution; and therefore they ftood in need of every advantage, both of celeftial aid and human confolation, to guard them from apoftacy, and to keep them blameless to the com, ing of their great Lord and Master, Jefus Chrift. He therefore lifts up his hands and voice to heaven in their favour, with all the fervency of a parent, anxious for the welfare of a beloved child, expofed to the attacks of an enraged and unrelenting enemy: “ the ઠંડ very God of peace fanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole fpirit, and foul and body be preserved blameless, unto the "coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift."

But it is not in this light only, that these words deferve our attention and admiration they contain alfo a defcription of every Chriftian's moral duty, highly deferving our most ferious confideration. For though we may not be able to reach the ftandard of perfection laid down by St. Paul, yet it will become us never to lofe fight of it, but rather, on all occafions, to remember, that it is our duty to endeavour at least, "that our whole fpi

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"rit and foul and body may be preserved "blameless to the coming of Christ."

When St. Paul here fpeaks of spirit and foul and body, it seems pretty clear, that he fpeaks the language of the antient philofophers, who diftinguished between spirit and foul, and therefore represented man as a threefold compofition. By fpirit they understood that principle of knowledge and reason, thạt noble intellectual faculty, which distinguisheth man from brutes, by which we are capable. of reflecting, judging, reafoning and determining; that celestial emanation of divinity, which makes us bear the image of God, who is a spirit. By foul they understood that animal principle of life and motion, which is in fome fort common to man with brutes, and which is the fountain of all our fenfual appetites and inclinations,

However, without entering into the propriety of this diftiction, it is fufficiently clear, that St. Paul means by these words, the whole and entire man, with all his faculties and operations. The first rule there↑ Vide Le Clerc, Whitby, &c. C 4

fore