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of a king rejoiceth in his father's power and nificence, fo may you rejoice in those difplays of the divine Majefty, which scare a guilty world. How comfortable will the thoughts of a Saviour be, when you can fay, "My beloved is mine;" when by faith you can, like Thomas, " put your hand into his fide, and your finger into "the print of the nails, and fay unto him, My Lord, and my God!" With what joy will you read the holy Scriptures, as the charter of your future inheritance, and ponder that "ex"ceeding and eternal weight of glory," which you fhall one day poffefs? With what holy boldness may you approach the throne of grace, when you can addrefs God as your reconciled father in Jefus Chrift? How cheerfully may you endure affliction? How calmly may you leave this world?

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If then any of these comforts are dear to you; you would enjoy them in a found ftate, or would have a clear and lively impreffion of them, let me befeech you to comply with the Apoftle's exhortation, and to " prove your own works." So fhall ye have your rejoicing in yourfelves, and never be afhamed. Amen.

SERMON

SERMON XIV.

JAMES iv. 17.

Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is fin.

THE unfruitful lives of profeffing Christians is a very general and juft complaint. But few of thofe who retail this complaint, are heartily inclined to remove the cause of it. We are melancholy examples of that which we pretend to lament; and we ceafe not to strengthen the interefts of a party which we condemn. David, when he was treating with Araunah the Jebufite, for the purchase of his threshing floor, in order to rear an altar to God, refused to accept of it without a price, because he would not "offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord his God, "of that which coft him nothing." But, alas! our general conteft feems rather to be, who fball be moft penurious in his offering to God, and who fhall purchafe heaven with the eafieft fervice. Many have unhappily deceived themselves into an opinion, that nothing but positive acts of rebellion will fubject them to punishment. They place much confidence in what is called a harmlefs inoffenfive life, as if it were virtue enough not to be abandoned to vice. They feem to aim at nothing higher, than that of which the PhaQ 2

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rifee made his boaft, when he gave thanks to God that he was not as other 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 queftion is not, What vices have you forborne? but, What virtues you have 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 frangers 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 ftill you are finners; for, according to the Apoftle, not to do good is fin.

This text evidently contains the two following propofitions:

ft, That men fin, not only when they pofitively tranfgrefs the law of God; but alfo, when they do not fulfil the dutics which the law requires to the utmoft 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.

Thefe propofitions I will endeavour to illufirate and confirm, and will then conclude with a nent of the subject.

First, I begin with fhewing you, 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.

Were we to look upon God as an auftere and felfish Being, who employed his laws only as a fence about his own private interefts; then indeed, not to violate them might be confidered as fufficient to comply with their defign. The kings of this earth are forced to enclofe 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 fo 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 everlafting felicity. Judge then, whether a law which hath in view this kind and generous ob- ject, doth not challenge our moft 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

cafe,

cafe, 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 eafy 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 exprefs itself, will conftantly prompt us to the moft dutiful obfervance of his will.

Shew 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 " fpirit of adoption," which deviseth 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 fhew 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 respect 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 abftain from what the law of God prohibits, but also 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