Page:The English humourists of the eighteenth century. A series of lectures, delivered in England, Scotland, and the United States of America (IA englishhumourist00thacrich).pdf/289

 easy chair, only fresh stuffed and more elegant than when in possession of the cynical old curate of Mendon, A passage or two from Sterne's "Sermons" may not be without interest here. Is not the following, levelled against the cruelties of the Church of Rome, stamped with the autograph of the author of the "Sentimental Journey?"— "To be convinced of this, go with me for a moment into the prisons of the Inquisition—behold religion with mercy and justice chained down under her feet,—there, sitting ghastly upon a black tribunal, propped up with racks, and instruments of torment.—Hark!—what a piteous groan!—See the melancholy wretch who uttered it, just brought forth to undergo the anguish of a mock-trial, and endure the utmost pain that a studied system of religious cruelty has been able to invent. Behold this helpless victim delivered up to his tormentors. His body so wasted with sorrow and long confinement, you'll see every nerve and muscle as it suffers.—Observe the last movement of that horrid engine.—What conyujsions it has thrown him into! Consider the nature of the posture in which he now lies stretched.— What exquisite torture he endures by it.—'Tis all nature can bear—Good ! see how it keeps his weary soul hanging upon his trembling lips, willing to take its leave, but not suffered to depart. Behold the unhappy wretch led back to his cell,—dragg'd out of it again to meet the flames—and the insults in his last agonics, which this principle—this principle, that there can be religion without morality—has prepared for him."—Sermon 27th. The next extract is preached on a text to be found in Judges xix. ver. 1, 2, 3, concerning a "certain Levite:"— "Such a one the Levite wanted to share his solitude and fill up that uncomfortable blank in the heart in such a situation; for, notwithstanding all we meet with in books, in many of which, no doubt, there are a good many handsome things said upon the secrets of retirement, &c. yet still, 'it is not good fur man to be alone:' nor can all which the cold-hearted pedant stuns our ears with upon the subject, ever give one answer of satisfaction to the mind; in the midst of the loudest vauntiags of philosophy, nature will have her yearnings for society and