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point of our probation, whether we will in SER M. fuch darkness of understanding, and fo VII. many temptations from without, and from our own infirmities, make religion and vir tue our chief bufinefs; and labour above all things to maintain our integrity, or keep confciences void of offence. Every man who thus employs himself will find indeed, that his labour is not in vain; that he has fufficient encouragement to hold on his righteous way, and his work carries its own reward along with it, in the growing vigour of fpirit and rational fatisfaction which accompanies it; but at the fame time he will find full employment for all the best capacities of his foul, and that the working out his falvation, and making his calling and election fure, requires all diligence with the utmoft care and circumfpection.

The fcripture reprefentations of a religious life are very inftructive to this purpofe, for the precepts of the gofpel and the examples which are propos'd to our imitation, fhew, that we must run and strive, and fight, having violent oppofition to struggle with, and many difficulties to make our way through. We wrestle with flesh and blood, with flesh which warreth against the

fpirit,

SERM. fpirit, and is the fource and occafion of the VII. most dangerous and enfnaring temptations?

but it is not only flesh and blood, but princi palities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and Spiritual wickedness in high places. The whole force of hell is

arm'd against a confcience void of offence, and all its deepest contrivances aim at the destruction of integrity. But, farther, this is a work wherein perfection is not to be at tained while we are in this world, but it is the genuine temper of every fincere person to be still making progrefs in it, and vigo rously aiming at perfection. St. Paul gives us a very lively defcription of his own true character, and explains that exereife of his which is mention'd in the text, Phil. iii. 12 &c. Not as tho' I had already attain'd, either were already perfect, but I follow after, that I may apprehend that for which alfo I am ap prehended of, Chrift Fefus. Brethren, I count not myfelf to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Chrift Fefus. I propofed lastly, ayaw anb at

+ To

To confider the reasonableness and ne-SERM. ceffity of our exercifing ourselves therein to VII. have alwaysboa confcience void of offence. But, this I hope, fufficiently appears from what has been already faid; indeed it is obvious to any one who will attend to it, and to deny it, is, in effect, to deny any fuch thing as moral obligations on the human mind. For the foundation of all virtue, is the sense which every man feels in his own heart of the difference between right and wrong, or good and evil; the foundation of religion is an inward perfuafion of the difference between what God requires and what he forbids us to do. To act virtuously, therefore, is to act according to that sense and approbation of our own minds; to act viciously, is to act in oppofition to it. To act religiously, is to conform our practice to what we believe to be the will of God; to act irreligiously, is directly the contrary. What, then, is virtue and religion, but to have a confcience void of offence? And what is it to exercise ourselves herein, but to make virtue and religion ftill our study, and ftill endeavour to practise it, from a conviction that we are alin danger of coming fhort of it thro' weakness

ways

1

OT 4

SERM. weakness and temptation, and that we are VII. in our present state imperfect.

7

The conduct of many, even christians, is quite otherwise; they follow every appetite, every inclination they find in their nature, or propenfity they have contracted by custom and habit, without regard to conscience, or without examining whether it be agreeable to it or difagreeable. And tho' it is not in their power altogether to filence that monitor within themselves, yet the severity of its rebukes is known to abate by a customary trefpaffing against it; nay, it becomes numm'd and infenfible, as it were, according to the apostle's expreffion, feared with an hot iron. Studied amusements, and the pleasures of fin, divert its admonitions. Befides, methods are invented whereby finners deceive themselves, reconciling their finful courses, obftinately perfifted in, to the hope of acceptance with God; equivalents are put in the place of religious integrity and obedience to the moral precepts of God: great diligence in fulfilling one commandment muft anfwer for defects in another; and, particularly, great strictness in observing some pofitive inftitutions, compenfates for moral impurity, oppreffion, fraud, or unmercifulness.

Thus

Thus the ancient Jews, in the days of the SER M. prophets Isaab and Jeremiah, were guilty of VII. heinous wickednefs, or perverting judgment, grinding the faces of the poor, nay, their hands were full of blood, and yet they had great confidence in the temple of the Lord, and their religious refpect to the new moons, fabbaths, or other folemnities. And fo, in our Saviour's time, the Pharifees were a perverse and untoward generation, who appear'd righteous before men, but within were full of hypocrify and iniquity; they in the mean time trusted in a negative righteousness and some external performances. I am not an extortioner, nor an adulterer, nor like this publican, was the religion of the Pharifee and the foundation of his hope, with the addition of mere outward obfervances; I faft twice in the week, and pay tythes of all 1 poffefs. This is not to have a confcience void of offence, but to fubftitute fomething elfe instead of it. In like manner, fome christians deceive themselves, imagining that a zeal for the purity of their profeffion, diligence in attending the pofitive appointments of the gospel, ineffectual purposes of a future amendment, or a prefumptuous reliance

* Luke xviii, II, 12,

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