SERMONS,

DELIVERED ON

VARIOUS OCCASIONS.

BY

LYMAN BEECHER, D. D.

TOR LIBRART

NEW-YORK

BOSTON:

JOHN P. JEWETT & COMPANY.

CLEVELAND, OHIO:

JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON.

1852.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, by

LYMAN BEECHER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

STEREOTYPED BY
HOBART & ROBBINS,

NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,
BOSTON.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.

THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE.

Delivered at Newark, N. J., October, 1808, during the session of the

Synod of New York and New Jersey,

SERMON II.

Page

5

THE REMEDY FOR DUELLING.

Delivered before the Presbytery of Long Island, at the opening of

their session, at Aquebogue, April 16, 1806,

SERMON III.

A REFORMATION OF MORALS PRACTICABLE AND INDISPENSABLE.

33

Delivered at New Haven, Conn., on the evening of October 27, 1812, .75

SERMON IV.

THE BUILDING OF WASTE PLACES.

Delivered at Wolcott, Conn., September 21, 1814, at the Installation

of the Rev. John Keyes to the pastoral care of the Church in that

place,.

114

SERMON V.

THE BIBLE A CODE OF LAWS.

Delivered in Park-street Church, Boston, September 3, 1817, at the

Ordination of Mr. Sereno Edwards Dwight as Pastor of that

Church; and of Messrs. Elisha P. Swift, Allen Graves, John Nich-

ols, Levi Parsons, and Daniel Buttrick, as Missionaries to the

Heathen,

.154

SERMON VI.

Pa

THE DESIGN, RIGHTS AND DUTIES, OF LOCAL CHURCHES.

Delivered at the Installation of the Rev. Elias Cornelius as Associate

Pastor of the Tabernacle Church, in Salem, Mass., July 21, 1819, . 2

SERMON VII.

THE FAITH ONCE DELIVERED TO THE SAINTS.

Delivered at Worcester, Mass., October 15, 1823, at the Ordination

of the Rev. Loammi Ives Hoadly to the pastoral office over the

Calvinistic Church and Society in that place,

RESOURCES OF THE ADVERSARY, AND MEANS OF THEIR

DESTRUCTION.

Delivered at New York, October 12, 1827, before the American Board

of Missions,

41

66

SERMON I.

THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD DESIRABLE.

Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven." MATTHEW 6: 10.

In this passage we are instructed to pray that the world may be governed, and not abandoned to the miseries of unrestrained sin; that God himself would govern, and not another; and that God would administer the government of the world, in all respects, according to his own pleasure. The passage is a formal surrender to God of power and dominion over the earth, as entire as his dominion is in heaven. The petition, therefore, "Thy will be done," contains the doctrine

THAT IT IS GREATLY TO BE DESIRED THAT GOD SHOULD GOVERN THE WORLD, AND DISPOSE OF MEN, IN ALL RESPECTS, ENTIRELY ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PLEASURE.

The truth of this doctrine is so manifest, that it would seem to rank itself in the number of self-evident propositions, incapable of proof clearer than its own light, had not experience taught that, of all truths, it is the most universally and bitterly controverted. Plain as it is, it has occasioned more argument than any other doctrine, and, by argument merely, has gained fewer proselytes; for, it is one of those controversies in which the heart decides wholly, and argument, strong or feeble, is alike ineffectual.

This consideration would present, in the threshold, a hope