SERMON I.

The Nature and Condition of TRUTH.

JOHN xviii. 38.

Pilate faith unto him, What is TRUTH? and when he had faid this, he went out again.

I.

HE bleffed Jefus was had before SER M. Pilate as a criminal of State: and the Governor began to queftion him upon that footing. But when he found the kingdom, which this supposed Criminal was accused of claiming, was one merely fpiritual, or, in Pilate's conception, a kingdom only in idea, he confidered Je-. fus as no proper fubject of his animadverfion. And fo far he acted as became his public character.

But his incuriofity or indifference, when TRUTH was offered to be laid before him as a private man, and by one who, he knew, had the repute of exercising every spiritual power neceffary to inforce it, fhews him in a light much less excufable. The negligent air of his infulting question will hardly admit of an apology. "You tell me, fays he, of Truth: a word in the mouth of every Sectary, who all agree to give that name to their own opinions. While Truth, if indeed we allow its existence, ftill wanders at large, and unacknowledged. Nor does it feem worth while to realize and fix her abode : for thofe things which Nature intended for general ufe, are plain and obvious, and within the reach of every man."

Sentiments like these characterised the ruler of an Afiatic province, who had heard fo much of Truth in the fchools of philosophy, and to fo little purpose. Pilate, therefore, finding a Jewish Sage talk of bearing witness to the truth, the pretended office of the Grecian Sophifts, concluded him to be one of their mimic Followers. For it was now become fashionable

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fashionable amongst the learned Jews to SER M. inlift themselves into one or other of those fchools. Thus the famous Philo was an outrageous Platonift: and Jefus calling himself a KING, this, and what was generally known of the purity and severity of his morals, probably made Pilate confider him as one of the STOICAL WISE MEN, who alone was free, happy, and a King.

Liber, honoratus, pulcher, Rex denique Regum.

Now, as on the one hand, the character of the greek philofophy, which was abftracted and fequeftered from civil bufinefs, made Pilate conclude, that the miniftry of Jefus had nothing dangerous or alarming; fo on the other, its endless enquiries and quarrels about TRUTH, and which of the Sects had it in keeping, made men of the world, and especially those whose practice declined the test of any moral fyftem whatsoever, willing to be perfuaded, and ready to conclude, that this boafted Truth, which pretended to regulate and direct human conduct, was indeed no better than a fanciful and shifting vifion.

SERM.

I..

This, I prefume, was the light in which Pilate confidered the Saviour of the world. Had he fufpected Jefus for the founder of a public Religion, to be erected on the deftruction of the established worship of the Empire, the jealoufies of the roman Court, fince the change of the Conftitution, had doubtlefs made this fervile minifter of power very attentive and officious to fupprefs it in its birth.

So

But a Religion, whofe object was the TRUTH, was at this time fo unknown a thing, that a pagan Magiftrate could have no conception of it, but as of a new fect of philofophy. All the Religions then in credit had for their object, instead of Truth, public utility; and for their means, inftead of Creeds and formulas of faith, only pompous rites and ceremonies. that if this corrupt Politician did, indeed, regard the doctrine of Jefus as a new Religion, it was fuch a one as fome modern Statefmen have been faid to form of it; a fort of divine philofophy in the mind; from which, it is true, the governments and politics of this world have little to apprehend. For it was not till Paul reafoned

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reafoned of righteoufnefs, temperance,
judgment to come, that Felix trembled.
had the Gospel, at this time, been re-
presented to Pilate on its practical fide, it
is probable that he, as any other States-
man, had been in the fame condition.
But Such can hear talk of the TRUTHS
of God unmoved and unimproved, who
tremble at his judgments, and anticipate
the terrors of his vengeance.

But if the ill usage of Truth by the Philofophers could fo difguft the Politician of old, as to make him indifferent to an acquaintance of this importance, What, muft we think, will be her treatment amongst modern Statesmen, whofe views are neither more pure nor more generous; and whose penetration, perhaps, does not go much beyond the busy men of antiquity; when they fee her fo freely handled by those amongst us, who call themselves her Minifters, and profefs to confecrate her to the service of Religion? Amongst such, I mean amongst the active, no less than amongst the idle part of the fashionable world, Pilate's queftion is become prover bial, when they would infinuate that TRUTH, B 3

like

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