adaptation and proportion will be effected by a series of natural causes, which God himself has appointed for moral purposes; still the difference between the Christian and the philosopher is little more than circumstantial-still virtue will have, as, according to our clear and unalterable conceptions of fitness, it ought to have, the advantage over vice -still God is the author of unmixed and unceasing happiness to those who seek to please him-still all the intelligible, and nearly all the credible, ends of divine justice will be substantially answered, and all our conceptions of divine wisdom and mercy, as cooperating with justice, will be verified-still good and evil are set before us, and still our future wellbeing must depend on our present choice.

Let us then hold fast the Christian faith without wavering; let us acknowledge the weighty obligations we have to the Gospel, for the clear, connected, and comprehensive views which it exhibits of the Deity, as our maker, preserver, and judge. Let us remember with gratitude, that even the humblest believer may now obtain fuller and more satisfactory knowledge than many of the wisest heathens were able to acquire upon these interesting topics. But let us, at the same time, recollect, that speculations, however sound in their principles, however exact in their process, and however important in their results, are insufficient to fill up the measure of our duty, if they terminate solely in our inward persuasion, or in outward profession, or in transient though ardent feeling, or in mere orthodoxy, be it real or imaginary. By the faith which the Author

of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and all the other Sacred Writers inculcate, you are to understand, not a confidence in the vast and haughty pretensions of dogmatism, nor in the blind dictates of prejudice, nor in the tumultuous reveries of fanaticism, but a distinct and steady conviction of your reason. And on such a conviction alone, accompanied by works, all the rewards mentioned in the chapter of the text were bestowed. Faith, as I before told you, was an active, and therefore a meritorious principle in those patriarchs and other worthies, whose example the secred writer has described so luminously and recommended so earnestly. It was active, and therefore meritorious, in the Apostles, who sacrificed the comforts and conveniences of life, and who endured voluntarily stripes and chains, and the most aggravated torments of death in defence of the hallowed truths, committed to their charge. It was active, and therefore meritorious, in the first converts, who either shook off the incumbrances of Jewish ceremonies and traditions, for the sake of adhering to the weightier matters of the law, enforced by a crucified Redeemer, or who abandoned the corruptions of heathenism, polytheism, and licentiousness, and, encouraged by their Christian teachers, were anxious to make the utmost proficiency in temperance, righteousness, and all other preparatory qualifications for a judgment to come. Meritorious it will be also in yourselves, if to a rational, habitual, and devout spirit of faith, you add the firmness inspired by well-grounded hope, and all the amiable of Christian charity-if you bring every proud

graces

thought, every unruly appetite, every unsocial affection, and every criminal habit, into captivity to the obedience due to Christ-if, at all times and in all respects, you employ all your powers to walk worthily of the high name by which you are called, and to adorn by your lives, as well as to magnify by your praises, that doctrine which has been delivered to us in the Gospel of your Saviour, and through him, for the sake of mankind, graciously revealed by your Father and your God.

SERMON XV.*

ON AVOIDING THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL.

1 THESS. V. 22, 23.

Abstain from all appearance of evil, and the very God of all peace sanctify you wholly.

WITHOUT adopting indiscriminately the opinions of some philosophers, who resolve all the fundamental principles of virtue into the doctrine of sympathy, and who apply their favourite system to the most familiar as well as the most arduous offices of morality, we are led by experience, as well as instructed by religion, to keep steadily in view the judgment that is passed upon our actions by our fellow-creatures. Various, no doubt, are the means, which our Creator has employed for preserving us from wrong, and encouraging us to right. In respect to ourselves, he has united the impulses of our feelings, the researches of our reason, and the guidance of our conscience. In reference to others, he has given additional vigour to our exertions by inspiring us

* June 1815.

with the love of reputation and the dread of infamy. In the breasts of other men he has created a tribunal, the decisions of which anticipate, and in some degree resemble the sentence, that will be passed on all moral agents at the last day; and as that sentence is founded upon a common, and most active sense of moral rectitude, there is a visible propriety in making it the object of serious and stedfast attention. Doubtless it is not always possible for us to penetrate the secret and complex motives of human actions, or to determine accurately the value of those circumstances, which in particular cases enhance merit or extenuate guilt. Hence arises a necessity of general rules for deciding upon the character of mankind, for connecting appearances with realities, and for inferring the merits and demerits of moral agents from the external marks, which are stamped upon their conduct. This principle is acknowledged by our Lord himself, when he refers to the outward action of men as evidences of their inward propensities. For, having stated that "a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit," he lays down this plain rule-that "by their fruits we shall know them."

Much of the beauty, and much of the utility, which belong to virtue depend upon the aspect which it bears in the estimation of mankind, and upon the influence by which it operates as an example to terrify the vicious and to encourage the well disposed. It may therefore be considered as a proof not only of a misguided understanding, but of a perverse and callous spirit to throw off all regard