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to inextricable confusion. In the state, patriotism without subordination and subjection to law, will soon become wild and selfish. And thus even in the church of Christ, godliness itself, without proper attention to external form, may quickly be accompanied by irregularity and innovation. Perhaps the temper of the present day inclines us, in some cases, too much to neglect ecclesiastical discipline. Schisms and divisions are less carefully avoided than the Scripture directs them to be. Let us then, whilst we leave to our brethren of every confession the most entire liberty of conscience, honour and value our own sacred services, and our own wise and scriptural system of church polity. Let us be careful to worship the Lord according to them, in the beauty of holiness. Let us aim at obtaining a meek, solid, decent, cheerful, and permanent religion. Let us be grateful to God for our scriptural and truly devotional Liturgy; and in using its prayers, confessions, and thanksgivings, let us ever add the POWER of piety to these instructive FORms. Let us thus endeavour to obey the command of our Saviour, when speaking of the smaller observances of the law, compared with the weightier matters of it, These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone.

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SERMON X.

CHRISTIAN MEEKNESS AND FORGIVENESS.

COLOSSIANS iii. 12, 13.

Put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; if any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.

It is the peculiarity of the Christian faith that it not only forbids the commission of sin, but enjoins the actual practice of holiness. Other systems may have attempted to frighten men from vice, this alone teaches them to love obedience. Nor is it merely the public and more heroic virtues which it enforces, but the retired and lowly ones also, which were little regarded by the heathen moralists, much as the happiness of mankind depends upon them. Accordingly the Apostle Paul, after he had exhorted the Colossian converts in the verses preceding the text, to mortify those corrupt passions which were, so to speak, the members of the old man; proceeds in the words now read to direct them to cultivate the opposite graces. And in doing this, he proposes, after his usual manner, those peculiarly Christian motives

by which alone men can be effectually enabled to perform them. Hence in considering this subject, we must notice,

I. The Christian graces or virtues here enjoined by the Apostle.

II. The Christian motives by which he enforces them.

We begin by reviewing,

I. THE CHRISTIAN VIRTUES HERE ENJOINED BY THE APOSTLE.

These are in the whole seven-bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing of one another, and forgiving of one another. They may perhaps, however, be

reduced to three heads. Bowels of mercies and kindness may be classed under the more general term COMPASSION. Humbleness of mind, meekness, and long-suffering appear to be all parts or effects of LOWLINESS OF SPIRIT; whilst the forbearing of one another, and the forgiving of one another, may be considered under the topic of FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. The first class regards our duty to others who are in misery; the second is designed to lead us on to the proximate duties arising from the ordinary obligations and infirmities of life; the third carries us forward to a right conduct in respect to persons who are unjust and contumelious. These several graces are said to be PUT ON, because as garments cover and adorn the body, so do holy tempers adorn the soul. Thus in other passages of Scripture we are exhorted to be clothed with humility, and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; and in the verses which precede the text Christians are described as putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.

The Apostle begins with enjoining a TENDER COM PASSION for the miseries and wants of others. We are to put on BOWELS OF MERCIES, to cultivate that deep and real sympathy for the calamities of our fellow-creatures which kindles the whole soul, and opens and touches the very heart. The expression is common in the Holy Scriptures, and especially in the Old Testament. It denotes not only the act of relief, but the most tender, affection in affording it. The Apostle places this first, because it is from hence that all benevolent actions should flow. The sympathetic commiseration of Christian love is often of itself a greater support to the afflicted than a mere external gift. The objects of this virtue are those who have no helper, as the widow and the orphan; and in general the poor, the sick, and those who are overwhelmed with any sudden calamity. As often as such are placed in our way, like the wounded traveller in our Lord's parable, we are to have compassion on them, and go and bind up their wounds, pouring in oil and wine. Apathy and hardness of heart are least of all suitable to a Christian, who owes every thing himself to the compassion and mercy of God, and who is taught to be affected with the evils of those who partake of the same nature with him, since he may himself have need in turn of the like sympathy. We sin, not in having affections, but in using them amiss. He that hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? It is no sufficient discharge of this duty to give alms even with profusion: we must visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction, we must see for ourselves, as opportunity allows, the case of woe; we must weep with them that weep; we must have compassion one of another, and be

merciful, even as our Father which is in heaven is merciful.

The Apostle goes on in our text from the affection to the action-put on KINDNESS; for deeds of benevolence must ever be united with bowels of mercies. Real compassion does not display itself in the refinement of a fastidious ear, but in the emotions of a feeling heart. Words of pity without correspondent sympathy and actual relief, where we can afford it, are pretence and mockery. We are to love, not in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. The two together constitute the Christian's duty towards the afflicted-a heart prompt to feel, a hand kind to relieve.

The second class of virtues enjoined in the text, are those which arise from our ordinary obligations in life, and the numerous infirmities which attend them. They may be comprehended under LOWLINESS OF SPIRIT. The first is HUMILITY; for this is the parent of all good actions. Pride is the poison of the soul it hardens the heart; it is the cause of contention; it is the enemy of all the duties which we owe to others, and is directly opposed to that disposition which bears with their errors and weaknesses. God resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. The man who has truly repented of sin and received with deep self-abasement the ineffable gift of righteousness in Christ Jesus, will be prepared to walk humbly, first with his reconciled God, and then with all around him. Such a penitent has the seed and preparation of all other graces. He considers that if he has in himself any thing good, it proceeds not from his own power, but from the mercy of God; that this good is very little compared with what he ought to have, and what others have; that it has been misused in various ways, and is so mingled with sin and infirmity as itself to need the divine forgiveness. A

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