glory, that this Faith hath now no longer its wonted hold on the lives and consciences of men.

V. And now this brings me still nearer to my Text. For the GOSPEL is that SPECIFIC SALT, which our blessed Master intimates should, in these latter days, lose its savour; and more than intimates, should find no succedaneum to supply its place.

Yet so insensible are we grown even to the need of any, that we hardly seek or inquire for relief; contrary to the foregoing cases, where we find men busied, however vainly, to supply the depraved state of their condition, by new inventions. And were it not for the humanity of certain wellbred Gentlemen, this crooked Generation would be in danger of forgetting that there was any such thing as A RULE OF RIGHT, which these new Instructors offer to us, as an equivalent for THE RULE OF FAITH.

But, not trusting to this, other phantoms, it is truc, have been raised up to season our insipidity. The MAN OF HONOUR stands forth to assure us, that a sense of Honour (from which sacred name he takes his title), and not of Religion, is the true polisher and refiner of human manners. And And yet we see, modern Honour hath no other connexion with Virtue than what FASHION hath chanced to make between them; and that Honour may thrive and do well (as the practice of fashionable men shews) amidst the breach of all God's Commandments and the King's.

The

4

The MAN OF SCIENCE, indeed, hath discovered a still more exquisite relief, in our distresses. He bids us procure, for ourselves, a TASTE; which, in the lucky absence of our Religion, will answer every thing. This, says he, is that true internal feeling, which Fanatics have so much mistaken; and only wants to be new touched by this Philosophy, to be indeed THE GOD WITHIN.

Though if we reflect, that TASTE is governed by the Imagination, just as HONOUR is regulated on the Fashion, we may find reason to complain that our Betters have here (as usual) only provided for themselves; and that TASTE and HONOUR, like the Quails and Manna in the wilderness, are too delicate a repast for the gross appetites of the People: and that, however solid a consolation this new seasoning of the decayed salt of Religion may afford the polite and the well-bred, where fashion and fancy supply the place of FAITH and HOPE, yet for us miserable sinners a more substantial Diet is to be provided.

To sum up all-From what hath been said you may collect, how desperate the condition of things must needs be, whenever the several stations of Society, and much more when Society itself, shall have lost their essential qualities, the SALT which constitutes their natures, and makes them to be what they are.

How near we are approaching to this fatal period, or how far removed from it, must be left to every man's serious reflection.

If we should be found to have fallen from that happy state in which the Creator first placed us, and to which our Redeemer restored us; the state in which nature put us, and Grace hath long supported us; what have we now to do, but, with all humility, to apply to the Author of our Salvation, that he would recall things to that Order, which, on his creation of them, he pronounced GOOD, and which, when run into confusion, he restored and harmonized, when the whole choir of Heaven sung -Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will towards men!

THE Subject of the following" Discourse" (we are told by Bishop HURD) " had been so embroiled by two eminent "Writers of opposite principles, that it became necessary to "take it out of their hands, and to guard the Publick from 66 being bewildered and misled, either by a Popish or Socinian "comment. In a moderate compass, he " [WARBURTON] “has "refuted the system of either party, and explained his "own notion of the Sacrament (which was also that of "the great Cudworth) in so clear a manner, that few men. "of sense and judgment will now question where the truth alies."- -See Life of the Author, prefixed to this Edition, Vol, i. p. 75.