principle must rest? Will you tell him of the temporal advantages of virtue? He may reply to you that he believes in the general propriety and usefulness of laws of morality, but if you show him no law-giver, who has a right to obedience, who will reward him if he prefer virtue to interest, and punish him if he purchase pleasure at the expense of probity, you clearly make virtue a question of mere worldly profit and loss; and if the balance in any case appears to him to be on the side of indulgence, on your own principles you are completely answered. But you would then, perhaps, change your ground, and discourse to him on the beauty of virtue, and its conformity to our nature. But if "Make him hear Of rectitude and fitness, moral truth How lovely, and the moral sense how sure, Directed to the first and only fair." you cannot show that virtue is lovely, and true, and fit, because God has made it so, and connected it in another world with all that is fair and harmonious and happy, can you expect with these fine names to silence the impatient voice of appetite, subdue the wild struggles of desire, and charm the deaf serpent of passion, though you charm ever so wisely? Has man then been found so reasonable, his affections so obedient, his moral sensibility so exquisitely alive, that in the moment of fearful temptation you may expect him to listen to the gentle whispers of unsanctioned moral sentiment? You might as well go to the sea shore, when the tempest has lashed the ocean into foam, and expect by the harmonious pleasings of a lute to lull its surges to repose. It is then the result of our inquiries, that morals are inseparably united with religion; that they can rest securely on no other basis; and that however virtue may owe her panegyrics to reason, she must derive her authority from religion. Consider then, for a moment, some of the motives to goodness of a sincere follower of Christ. He has every motive, in its fullest strength, which may act on the man of the world; and he has others also of an infinitely higher and weightier character. He regards the laws of virtue as flowing from the will of a supreme Legislator, who is able to make, and who will make, his laws respected; he considers that he is ever under the inspection of His all-searching eye; that though he may elude the observation of man, he cannot, though he should ascend into heaven, or make his bed in hell, avoid the presence of Him, who can make the darkness of night to be light around him. All his motives to virtue, and dissuasives from vice, are dilated to unspeakable magnitude, by considering that the consequences of his actions extend beyond the present life. There is unfolded in the gospel of Christ a view of futurity, which, to him who does it justice, must annihilate the influence of every attraction to sin. He who believes that in another world he shall behold the triumph of suffering virtue, and the abasement of successful vice, may, while such a belief is present to his mind, be assaulted by temptation in vain. Say not in opposition to this, that these motives are proved by experience to be sometimes inefficacious. They are so—and that they are so is the strongest proof of their necessity. If the virtue of him, who sees in God his creator and benefactor, the origin of all virtue's laws; who sees in Christ his redeemer and judge, who lived to illustrate, and died to enforce them; who sees in eternity the scene of his happiness or despair, accordingly as he observes or violates them; if the virtue of such a man is not safe from temptation; if it be possible to sin in the face of such motives as these, how totally insecure must he be, on whom they have never operated? The improvement which we ought to make of these views, my friends, is to impress on our hearts the importance of a religious principle, not merely to illuminate the path of our duty, but to give strength to our steps in pursuing it. What then is the influence, which the ideas of God, and a future life have on our conduct? Are they as present to our thoughts as they ought to be? Do we habitually refer our actions to God's will? And is the recollection of their consequences in a future life ever present to check every tendency to sin, and animate every impulse to virtue? Surely it is be yond measure presumptuous for any man to refuse the light and aid of the religion of Christ, in this world of danger, temptation, and frailty. With all his supports, the best man finds the path of virtue difficult, God knows, and perilous enough. Without them, every spot on which we tread is insecure, and every step we advance we are menaced by destruction. As then you value the peace and hopes which virtue can give in this world; as you regard the favour of God, as you value his mercies, and hope for final acceptance with him, seek to impress on your hearts the eternal truth, that religion and morality are bound together in indissoluble bonds. Let us then put on the whole armour of God, that we may be able to stand in the evil day. Then we may meet the enemies of our salvation, and fight the good fight of faith unshaken, unseduced, unterrified. And when at last the struggle is over with us, Heaven will open wide her ever during gates to receive us, and we shall be welcomed to the joy of our Lord. SERMON IV. GOVERNMENT OF THE THOUGHTS. PSALM CXXXIX. 23, 24. wicked Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. any WHATEVER theory may be formed to account for the progress of the gospel, it will at least be admitted that it owes none of its success to flattering the passions, or coinciding with the vicious propensities, of mankind. The requisitions of the gospel every where display the most high and austere and unaccommodating purity. In the systems of most of the ancient moralists, even when there was no intention of making any compromise with the vicious inclinations of the human heart, the utmost that was proposed was to regulate the actions of mankind. But the Master whom we serve, exercises a sublimer and more extensive jurisdiction over his followers. His empire is universal. It controuls every faculty of our minds, and is to be felt in the |