HOMILIES

ON THE

SERMON ON THE MOUNT.

BY THE

REV. JAMES TWEED, M.A.,

FORMERLY OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

OTHE

OXFORD and LONDON:

JAMES PARKER AND CO.

1867.

100. g. 190.

PREFACE.

THE author of the following discourses, by prefixing to them the somewhat antiquated name of Homilies, intends to convey the notion of their simplicity and familiarity, and of their adaptation to popular use, and, at the same time, to intimate the plan upon which they are composed, which is that observed by the ancient Fathers in those of their works which bear the same title.

The ancient Homily differed from the modern sermon in this, that it was a discourse, not upon a single text, which merely served as a motto to it, but upon a larger portion of Scripture, a paragraph complete in itself. The meaning of the successive passages was explained when necessary, the doctrines or precepts contained in them brought prominently forward, the lessons, moral and religious, to be learnt from them, pressed upon the attention; and exposition was followed by exhortation; that whilst the understanding was enlightened by the knowledge of divine truth, the will might be moved to obedience.

This, surely, was a profitable mode of instruction, and it had the advantage of being popular. Now, to aim at popularity for its own sake is contemptible, and, in a Christian, something worse; but to be popular in order to be useful to the many is both a laudable and a desirable object. It is not, however, meant that the preacher should be popular, but his teaching; and this is effected by the Homily, which meets that fondness of the people for the words of Scripture itself, which may be called a spiritual instinct, and which is surely to be indulged. At the same time, the hearer is not left to interpret the Scriptures for himself. He receives an interpretation with them, and the instruction to be derived from them is plainly drawn out for him.

This method, the author conceives, may be advantageously pursued in the present day. The Epistles and Gospels of our Church are admirable subjects for Homilies of this sort. Of the former it may be said that they require such an exposition, especially those selected from the Epistle to the Galatians, which can hardly be understood from the bare text, and without such an accompaniment are but a dead letter.

The good effects attributed to "the foolishness

of preaching" shew it to be one of the most important of the means of grace, and prove both the sin and the danger of neglecting it. To nothing, perhaps, is the increase of dissent in particular places more to be imputed than to this neglect. When "the hungry sheep look up and are not fed," it is no wonder if they are tempted to stray from the fold. By every feeling of attachment, therefore, to the Church of which we are ministers, we are urged to "take heed to the doctrine." And if the demand for Scriptural preaching cannot be more satisfactorily answered than by the revival of Homilies upon portions of Scripture, to approximate in this way to the practice of the primitive Church is a safer method and a sounder policy than to revive antiquated ceremonies which were never essential, and are now alien from our manners, and, as experience has unhappily proved, offensive to the people whom we ought to conciliate. "The faith once delivered to the saints" we are still bound to communicate, and at no time can it be withheld and the Church not suffer loss; but external forms and observances may be expected to be accommodated to the wishes, and even the prejudices, of the age.

Progression in every thing seems the demand