X.

ROM. xii. 4.

FOR AS WE HAVE MANY MEMBERS IN ONE BODY, AND ALL MEMBERS HAVE NOT THE SAME OFFICE; SO WE BEING MANY, ARE ONE BODY IN CHRIST, AND EVERY ONE MEMBERS ONE OF ANOTHER.

THE

HE apoftle here compares a ftate of fociety to a human body. The general health of both confifts in the health of their refpective members. If each member performs its functions properly, the whole is found.

If we try this nation by the apostle's criterion, I fear we shall not find it in perfect health.

The first person we call upon is the gentleman of independent fortune. No man's ftation in the community is more honourable and useful:-you

have

have it in your power, in a great degree, to fet the fashion, if I may so speak, of religion in your neighbourhood. Your tenants-your labourers -and fervants-all look up to you. From your ftation therefore we expect not only a decorum of manners-but we expect to fee the poor relievedthe injured redreffed-order and regularity establifhed and a true fenfe of religion encouraged.

Inftead of this, what is your common behaviour? How often do you fleece the country to carry a purfe to the capital? There you confume it in various modes of extravagance. If you ferve your country in parliament, you have your party, not your opinion. The whole is a job: from hence you expect a return for the money spent on your election.

When the heats of fummer drive you for a few months into the country, it is happy, if you do not spread among your neighbours the diffipation and profligacy of the town.

Let us next call the merchant, together with the man of trade and bufinefs. You may be very ufe

ful members of the community: you are profitably employing numbers in procuring an honest livelihood:

hood: you are benefiting your country, by intro ducing foreign commodities, and difpofing of your own. You connect mankind in a bond of amity and civilization. And though you may not act immediately under these motives, yct while you are carrying on an honeft trade within proper bounds, you are worthy inftruments, for thefe purposes, in the hands of God.

But now what is the fact? Do you at all con fider yourselves as performing this moderate and useful part in society-or, is the amaffing of riches the grand purpose you have in view?-Let us fee what this leads to. There are only three channels in which wealth can flow. It must either flow into the cheft, and be hoarded-or it muft be confumed in exorbitant expence- or it must adminifter to our own moderate wants, and the neceffities of others. The grand ftream, it is to be feared, will flow in unneceffary expence. The bounds of moderation are foon exceeded; and the great inlets to corruption opened. When this is the cafe, the rich merchant not only corrupts himself, but his abounding wealth tends to corrupt all around him.

VOL. III.

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From

From the merchant, and man of business, let us turn to men of profeffion. Let the lawyer be called. You are the advocate of truth and juftice. It is your great part to oppose law to oppreffion to ftand up in defence of innocence 'overawed by opulence; in fhort, to be that refpectable character in a community, which endeavours ftrenuously to make law, without fear or favour, a barrier against wickednefs.-This is the noble light in which you ought to appear, when acting confcientioufly in that ftation in which you are placed. This would make you a most ufeful and refpectable member of fociety.

Let us now try you by your ufual conduct.-Is not your profeffion confidered merely as the means of obtaining wealth? Do you not take either fide as your fee directs? Do you never make yourself a ~ partner with guilt by defending it? There may be doubtful cafes; of thefe I fpeak not. I speak only of cafes in which guilt is palpable. Do you never then, I repeat, make yourself a party with guilt by defending it? You juftly confider, in your pleadings, the thief, and the receiver of ftolen goods, in the fame light. Are you then, who defend an injury, at all better than he who commits it? In

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my

my judgment you are worse. The knave is guilty of a fimple fraud. You are guilty of a fraud under the fanction of law. Befides, you act on a more determined principle: you have more knowledge, and lefs temptation.

Let us next call the phyfician. You have studied the human body, and the nature of such disorders, as afflict it; and you may often be an instrument, in the hands of Providence, to restore health, and prolong life. But are thefe the great ends to which you pay attention? Do you confider yourself in the light of an inftrument of God, administering to the health of mankind, and honestly and fairly difcharging your duty in that ftation? Or is the idea of a fee always uppermost in your mind? To continue it, do you never protract diforders? Do you never prefcribe unneceffary medicines to affift fuch of your profeffion as may afterwards affift you? Do you continue hanging about a fick-bed, when you have no hope of doing good without informing fome relation of the hopeless ftate of the cafe? If you do any of these things, confult your confcience on the occafion, and if it be not a hardened one, it will inform

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