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ral contest seems rather to be, who shall be most penurious in his offerings to God, and who fhall purchase heaven with the easiest service. Many have unhappily deceived themselves into an opinion, that nothing but pofitive acts of rebellion will subject them to punishment. They place much confidence in what is called a harmless inoffensive life, as if it were virtue enough not to be abandoned to vice. They seem to aim at nothing higher, than that of which the Pharifee made his boast, when he thanks to God that he was not as other gave men, nor even as the humble publican. But, in the paffage which I have now read to you, the Apostle directs us to a much fafer teft of our conduct; a teft which leaves us no room for mistake. The question is not, What vices have you forborne ? but, What virtues have you practifed? You fay that you are not idolaters.-Well,-but do you reverence and love the true God? You are not adulterers ;—but do you ftudy temperance and fobriety in all things? You are not flanderers ;-but are you as tender of your neighbour's good name as of your own?

If

ye are strangers to thefe pofitive virtues, then all the advantage ye can pretend to is this; ye are finners of a lower order, than if ye had added pofitive tranfgreffions to your neglect of doing good: but still you are finners; for, according to the Apostle, not to do good is fin.

This text evidently contains the two following propofitions :

ift, That men fin, not only when they pofitively tranfgrefs the law of God; but alfo, when they do not fulfil the duties which the law requires to the utmost of their power. And,

2dly, That our guilt is more highly aggravated, when we neglect the duties which are known to us; or when we decline opportunities of doing good, though we know that it is our duty to embrace them.

These propofitions I will endeavour to illuftrate and confirm; and will then conclude with a practical improvement of the subject.

First, I begin with showing you that men fin, not only when they pofitively tranfgrefs the law of God; but also, when they H 2

do

do not fulfil the duties which the law requires, to the utmost of their power.

Were we to look upon God as an austere and selfish Being, who employed his laws only as a fence about his own private interests; then indeed, not to violate them might be confidered as fufficient to comply with their defign. The kings of this earth are forced to enclose their little allotment of honour, and to use their authority as a flaming fword, to ward off infults from their prerogatives. But it is not so with God. The Creator of heaven and of earth can have no dependence on the workmanship of his own hands. His prerogatives cannot fuffer, nor can his glory be impaired by the feeble and impotent attempts of his creatures. His laws therefore could never be intended for his own fecurity, but for our benefit. They are expreffions of his goodness, rather than of his fovereignty; and his great view in enacting them, feems to have been, to bind us by his authority to confult our prefent intereft, and to render ourselves capable of everlasting felicity. Judge then whether a law which hath in view this

kind and generous object, doth not challenge our most cordial acceptance and entire fubjection; and whether gratitude, as well as duty, fhould not prompt us to fulfil every part of it to the utmost of our power.

Indeed, if we confider God as a fevere taskmaster, as I am afraid too many of us do; in that case, whatever he enjoins, will appear to be an hardship or a burden. But if we view him in his true character, as a wife and good parent, who in every thing confults the real advantage of his children, then his yoke will appear to be easy indeed, and his burden to be light. The cords of love will draw us on to obedience; and gratitude, which is ever ingenious in finding out ways to express itself, will constantly prompt us to the most dutiful observance

of his will.

Show me the man whofe ingenuous mind, not only expects a future reward, but feels a prefent joy in the fervice of his God: and to that man I will addrefs the words of unfeigned falutation. I will fay to him, "Hail thou favoured of the Lord," thine is the true "6 fpirit of adoption," which de

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viseth liberal things; thine is that foul which is born from on high, and which doth not commit fin; thine is that love which fulfilleth the law, and which perfecteth the faints.

But show me the man whofe fervile foul is moved only by the fear of punishment, to yield a grudging and penurious, fervice to his Maker; and to that man I must be fparing of confolation. I must remind him, that it is the heart which God requires; that God hath refpect to the offering of a liberal giver; but that he hath no regard to the churl, or to his offering.

Thus far I might argue upon general principles, that we ought not only to abstain from what the law of God prohibits, but alfo to fulfil, to the utmost of our power, what the fpirit or intention of the law requires. But as I fpeak to Chriftians, I will now refort to an authority which they must acknowledge to be valid, and fufficient to decide the queftion.

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The propofition which I have laid down then, is not deduced by remote inference, neither does it depend upon a fingle testi

mony;

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