ereatures, as the prophet considered, and we must too those who have not attained so much as this first or preliminary degree in THE KINGDOM OF INTRINSIC WORTH? "Therefore I said, Surely these are poor, (says the prophet,) they are foolish: for they know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God." (Jer. v. 4.) Of all who honour All men not one would honour one of this purse-proud, ignorant sort in the slightest or most outward degree, if he knew it.

One might be allowed perhaps to regret, that the practice of external honour should ever have become so much a matter of course as it seems, and liable to be so unduly paid through the imperious law of courtesy: yet being a regular tribute to superior worth, the same should not be withheld from that because it is often paid to no worth at all. "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR:" (Rom xiii. 7 :) says St. Paul; not meaning, I presume, to have even this poor, insignificant custom or tribute of external honour, which we call Politeness, omitted.

-

~2, No more should we omit when due a much superior if less obvious way that there is of honouring worth than by any outward token of respect; namely by the inward sort of honour before mentioned: of which there are several degrees; the lowest being that of esteem, respect and approbation; the next, admiration and reverence; the highest, awe, veneration and worship. In the lowest of these degrees, as well as outwardly, we may honour all men, and ought to honour every man if we have no particular reason to the contrary, as a part of the abstract person or creature, mankind. For consider, what that kind is; the first beyond comparison of all that are produced on this earthly stage, the highest being under Heaven, and one that the Lord of Heaven and earth still deigns to visit; having only "made him lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and worship." (Ps. viii. 4, 5.). It

may be painful to find that every man does not deserve to be honoured in the same degree as All men; but the fact is too obvious to be doubted or denied. One should be happy to honour every man in his place if possible, as one honours him in the abstract; but how can we honour those who do not honour their own species, nor even the God that made them?

It would be a good rule, to honour every man in the same degree or proportion in which he honours God and his neighbour, if one could but know it; but there is so much of that principle which we call hypocrisy towards God, and sycophantism towards mankind in the world, that it seems very difficult if not impossible, to know with practical accuracy who may do either, and who not. The Psalmist owns it to have been an hasty declaration when, being in sore trouble, he said, “All men are liars;" (Ps. cxvi. 10;) and let us hope, for the credit of humanity, that so it was: the instances of falsehood and malice that one meets with in the world are so trying and frequent, that they may provoke one sometimes almost to declaim against all men: but every one must know, that all men cannot deserve it. In the same way, let us hope, that the unfavourable sentence of the prophet Isaiah concerning every one in a certain class may also be explained; where he says, "The Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows for every one is an hypocrite and an evil doer, and every mouth speaketh folly." (Isai. ix. 17.) At any rate, let us not be hasty even in forming an unfavourable conclusion in our short time against any one. morrow, the Lord will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him whom he hath chosen will he cause to come near unto him." (Num. xvi. 5.) And in the meantime it may be erring on the right side, if it be an error, to honour all men both externally and internally; as the apostle may be thought to require, since he makes no distinction;

"To

without scrutinizing too precisely the title of every man to be honoured in either way. For, as the same apostle observes at the conclusion of a very searching statement, (Rom. i.,) it is the height of folly and arrogance for one man to judge another in respect of faults to which his own may bear some resemblance. "Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, (says he,) whoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing, that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds?" (Ib. ii. 1-7.)

But, as the apostle and others with him may seem to contradict themselves by concluding all men under sin in one place; while in another they shall seem to require that all be honoured, and to condemn individual censures, it may be well to explain the peculiar principle of Christianity in honouring all men before alluded to: which is, by considering mankind in their origin as well as abstract. She looks upon man as the offspring of heaven originally, and the highest being still under heaven, as I before observed; acknowledging at the same time a greater and more general degradation of this high born species through the entering of sin into the world thereby, than any other beings have experienced; except one that was created higher, and fell lower. She makes no particular account of any human birth or outward condition; but regards all men without distinction in this simple light, namely, as high born originally, though sadly fallen,-consequently, as worth saving, and honourable in their generation, though they be otherwise in their new position.

VOL. II.

H

Thus, by looking deeper into principles than any other system, whether moral or religious, ever could, and also on the same objects with more interest, Christianity or the system of Christ, compared with any other, is able, not only to honour all men more highly, but to feel a greater concern for the exaltation of the species, and above all, to Do more towards that great end or object by its own inherent truth, and by the Spirit with which it is qualified from above, "by the word of truth, and by the power of God." So we need not wonder to hear its ministers exult in the recoveries that have been made by this heavenly system from the wreck of the old world, as they do sometimes, and St. John for one, where he says, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." (John I. v. 19, 20.) So here are two several elements in which the offspring of God upon earth is liable to be cradled or imbedded,—one, an element that becomes it, which is Christ; the other, an element that does not become it, which is the element of the world, a mass of wickedness, very unfit for the offspring of Heaven, what he can never be reconciled to, and will not; as St. John also observes, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not: but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." (Ib. 18.)

It may be that many do lie rolling and steeping as it were in wickedness until they be thoroughly saturated with it but that is not all men. All men do not lie rolling and sleeping in wickedness: all men are not past feeling, nor past recovery, it is hoped: all men have not "given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness;" (Eph. iv. 19;) as the Cynic supposes, and some, no doubt, would be glad to have it. For then were all men lost without redemption,

-yes, all as soon as one; then it might well be said, "Man will not abide in honour: seeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perish." (Ps. xlix. 12.) But, at the same time, where were the Seths, the Noahs, the Abrahams, the Jobs, the Daniels, and thousands beside whose names have never been celebrated as they deserved? Or, where were that righteous ONE, by whom they all shine with a borrowed or reflected light? Only the number of his true disciples were a great deduction from the abstract formed of all men; and, at the same time, a great improvement to the same,-not, indeed, by being deducted from, but by being included in, it: how much more that RIGHTEOUS ONE! For in this manner, and by him originally, not only the character of all men is saved, so far that we may honour them; but their existence likewise in some measure, agreeably to the saying of the prophet, which is quoted by St. Paul to the Romans, (Rom. ix. 29,) and I think, I must also have quoted before, "Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." (Isai. i. 9.) These pristine remains are an honour to human nature; and it is mainly for their sake, whoever they may be, that all men should be honoured.

But that is more than all men are capable of doing: for when we are required to honour all men, these two conditions must necessarily be supposed; 1, that all men are not to be despised, which is what I have been endeavouring to prove; 2, that some are capable of paying this common tribute to all men; which is

3, The forementioned Qualification, to be now considered: and one, I am sorry to say, that is not so common as it may be imagined, or not in the way I could wish. For there being, as I have shewn, two several ways of honouring men,—outwardly with the knee or the lips, and inwardly with the heart and mind, it is the latter that